Table 3. Effects of leaf removal on N remobilization in remaining tissues (g plant⁻¹) and the contribution of remobilized N to grain N 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 at three days after silking, respectively.

Years	Treatment	N remobilization in different plant organs (g plant−1)						Grain N at physiological maturity (g plant−1)	Proportion of remobilized N in grain N (%)
		Ear leaf	Stem	Other leaves	Cob	Bract	Total
2012	S0	0.05	0.16	0.47	0.11	0.03	0.80	1.56	51.28
	S2	0.06	0.30	0.43	0.13	0.13	1.05	1.80	58.33
	S4	0.05	0.17	0.21	0.11	0.15	0.68	0.98	69.39
	S6	0.05	0.22	0.17	0.08	0.18	0.70	0.83	84.34
	LSD 0.05	0.01	0.03	0.02	0.01	0.01	0.06	0.09	2.28
2013	S0	0.06	0.17	0.42	0.09	0.04	0.78	1.51	51.66
	S2	0.09	0.33	0.40	0.16	0.10	1.20	1.87	64.17
	S4	0.06	0.22	0.23	0.06	0.11	0.68	0.94	72.34
	S6	0.06	0.25	0.17	0.06	0.05	0.58	0.70	82.86
	LSD 0.05	0.02	0.04	0.05	0.02	0.04	0.04	0.11	3.09
ANOVA Year (Y) Leaf removal(L) Y × L		ns ns ns	ns ***,*	ns ***, *	ns ** ns	ns ** ns	ns ***,**	ns ***,**	ns *** ns
Blocks		ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns

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