In today’s climatic conditions, the yield-reducing effects of drought are increasingly being felt.Irrigation is the easiest and most effective way to eliminate the damage caused by drought. The production ofdrought-tolerant hybrids is a new trend that can easily affect the amount and quality of crops to be harvestedin a drought year. In the course of the research, we investigate the drought responses of five different hybrids,in three different water doses, in an environment closed from external precipitation in three replicates. Weset up our experiment at the Department of Irrigation and Land Improvement of the Hungarian University ofAgriculture and Life Sciences in Szarvas. The test was performed in pots. In addition to different water doses,the salt tolerance reactions of maize hybrids on saline soils were also investigated. The highest SPAD valueswere achieved with a water supply of SWS80%. Relative chlorophyll content results decreased by the end ofthe growing season, but the decrease was lowest with SWS80% water doses. The biomass weight of maizehybrids improved in all cases with increasing water supply (from 0.307±0.04 to 0,440±0.07) . The biomassweight of the drought-tolerant hybrids decreased the least under drought stress, while the decrease in biomassweight of the sensitive hybrids was much stronger during the experiment. The root mass of maize hybridsdecreased significantly due to drought stress (from 0.555±0.08 g to 0.328±0.06 g). The smallest decreasewas achieved by the roots of drought-tolerant hybrids. The maize hybrids were able to achieve the best LAIvalues at the SWS80% (good water supply) level. LAI values decreased by 19.5–21.7% due to drought stress.As a result of the drought stress, the decreased LAI values of the hybrids as well as the reduced root massresulted in smaller cob weight. A significant mean positive correlation was found between LAI values and cobweight values of maize hybrids atr=0.493. Hybrids showed more significant drought stress on saline soils,which worsened the yields achieved (from 11.2% to 18.7%). The production of maize hybrids under salineconditions was significantly decreased, but significant differences were found between the hybrids
