Arab Universities Journal of Agricultural Sciences (Sep 2005)
CORRELATION AND PATH COFFICIENT ANALYSIS IN FOUR YELLOW MAIZE CROSSES UNDER TWO PLANTING DATES
Abstract
F1 and F2 seeds of four crosses were formed during 2001 and 2002 growing sea-sons. The F2 population’s plants were evaluated during 2003 growing season under the two planting dates (14th May and 29th June) to estimate the phenotypic correla-tion coefficients among eight plants characters and their contributions in the varia-tion of grain yield/ plant at the Agric. Res. Stat. of Fac. of Agric., Ain Shams Univ., Shalakan, Kalubia Governorate, Egypt. Results showed that grain yield/ plant under normal planting date correlated positively and significantly - in most cases - with each of ear diameter, ear length, number of kernels/ row, 100-kernel weight, number of rows/ ear, ear height, plant height and days to silking, while under late planting date, it correlated with each of number of kernels/ row, ear diameter, 100-kernel weight, ear length, number of rows/ ear, ear height and days to silking. Path coeffi-cient analysis estimates indicated that ear diameter; ear length and number of ker-nels/ row can be considered as the most important sources of plant grain yield varia-tion under normal planting date while, under late planting date they were number of kernels/ row, ear diameter, 100-kernel weight and ear length. It was concluded that each of ear diameter, ear length and ear length through its indirect effects via ear di-ameter are considered as the most important sources of plant grain yield variation.
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