Effects of leaf area and rainfall intensity on stemflow amount through corn canopy

Stemflow is an important pathway for the movement of rainfall or sprinkler irrigation water through corn canopy to the ground. In order to systematically determine corn stemflow amount at different growth stages with different rainfall intensities, and establish simple, practical models to describe the relationships, this study used an indoor rainfall simulator and measured stemflow on corn plants with leaf area ranging from 150 to 7450 cm2/plant and rainfall intensity ranging from 0.22 to 4.33 mm/min. The results showed that the stemflow rate through corn plants ranged from 1 to 362 mL/(min?plant), and increased exponentially as corn leaf area and rainfall intensity increased. Furthermore, the ratio between stemflow amount and total rainfall varied from about 5 to 70%, depending at the growth stage, and increased exponentially as the leaf area index (LAI) of the corn canopy increased. In conclusion,, practical stemflow equations built in this study provide theoretical basis for soil erosion control and irrigation and fertilizer management for corn planted at high densities.