Abstract: In order to study the effect of planting density on the growth and yield of summer maize in Wuling mountain area,4 field density tests were carried out by setting 4 densities of 51 400 plants/hm; ²（normal density）,59 800 plants/hm; ²,65 500 plants/hm; ²,70 800 plants/hm; ². The results showed that the growth processes of different density were basically the same. The colony dry matter of lower density increased relative slowly in early stage and fast in later period, and the colony dry matter of higher density showed opposite trend. The final total biomass of each density had no significant difference. Density and yield showed a parabolic trend. The increase of sinks was beneficial to the transformation of population biomass into yield. The yield of three higher density treatments in the experiment were 8%~14% higher than the normal density. The yield with the density of 65 500 plants/hm; ² was the highest.

Key words: summer maize, planting density, growth and development, yield, Wuling mountain area