Table 1. N accumulation (g plant⁻¹) and distribution (%) in remaining tissues after leaf removal at three days after silking (3DAS) in 2012 and 2013 growing seasons. S₀ refers to control (no leaf removal); S₂, S₄ and S₆ refer to the removal of two, four or six leaves from top of a plant, respectively.

Years	Treatment	N accumulation in different plant organs at 4DAS (g plant−1)						N distribution in different plant organs at 4DAS (%)
		Ear leaf	Stem	Other leaves	Cob	Bract	Total	Ear leaf	Stem	Other leaves	Cob	Bract
2012	S0	0.15	0.81	1.27	0.20	0.27	2.77	5.11	37.38	40.58	7.99	8.95
	S2	0.10	0.72	1.22	0.21	0.22	2.41	4.15	29.88	50.62	8.71	6.64
	S4	0.13	0.85	0.83	0.18	0.24	2.13	5.86	42.34	32.88	8.11	10.81
	S6	0.12	0.88	0.77	0.19	0.25	2.05	5.85	47.80	27.80	6.34	12.20
	LSD 0.05	0.07	0.05	0.04	0.08	0.07	0.06	0.04	1.48	2.73	0.16	0.57
2013	S0	0.15	0.85	1.29	0.22	0.22	2.82	5.70	37.66	40.82	8.54	7.28
	S2	0.13	0.73	1.15	0.19	0.19	2.37	5.49	30.80	48.52	8.02	7.17
	S4	0.14	0.87	0.81	0.18	0.20	2.14	6.70	39.23	37.32	7.18	9.57
	S6	0.15	0.86	0.71	0.19	0.19	2.04	7.35	51.96	29.90	4.90	5.88
	LSD 0.05	0.06	0.03	0.09	0.09	0.06	0.07	0.16	1.69	2.86	0.34	0.37
ANOVA Year (Y) Leaf removal(L) Y × L		ns ns ns	ns * ns	*** *** ns	ns ns ns	ns * ns	* *** ns	* ** ns	ns *** **	ns ** **	* * ns	** * ns
Blocks		ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns

Note: 4DAS represents four days after silking. Data represents means ± SE (n = 3). LSD 0.05, least significant difference at 0.05. ns, Not significance; *Significant at the 0.05 probability level; **Significant at the 0.01 probability level; ***Significant at the 0.001 probability level.