Abstract:Based on the crop eco-physiological development process and foundings of previous study on the climatic suitability, a simulation model of summer maize phenology was found. Firstly, the suitability functions such as temperature, precipitation and sunshine duration were established respectively. Then, by combining the above suitability function with summer maize data from 19 agrometeorological sites in Henan province, the affecting weight coefficients for temperature, precipitation and sunshine duration at different development stages were determined with path analysis. Finally, the combined suitability was calculated to predict the summer maize growth. Results showed that the model could predict various development stages (emergence, seven-leaf, jointing, tasseling, milk stage and maturation) quite well. The root mean square errors between the simulated and observed values of the building data were 1.5, 3.1, 3.4, 2.9, 4.0 and 4.5 days respectively. When the independent data was used to test the model, the root mean square errors ranged from 1.0-4.6 days.