Revista Brasileira de Milho e Sorgo (Dec 2005)
STABILITY AND PHENOTYPIC CHARACTERIZATION OF EXPERIMENTAL AND COMMERCIAL HYBRIDS MAIZE IN FOUR CROPPING SEASONS
Abstract
The performance of maize is highly influenced by environmentalvariations, what can result in a low yield average, and instability varying from region toregion, month to month, and year cropping to year cropping. These environmentaleffects can be different for each cultivar, characterizing the genotype x environment interaction, which needs to be evaluated to a more efficient recommendation of cultivars.This work was developed in the experimental farm at Universidade Estadual Paulista(UNESP) – Campus de Ilha Solteira, in Selvíria, Mato Grosso do Sul, in order to evaluatethe stability and adaptability of 20 experimental three-way - hybrid crosses and thecommercial hybrids XB 8010, DKB 333B, TORK and P 3041. The experiments wereinstalled in November/2000, December/2000, January/2001 and March/2001 in acompletely randomized blocks design with four replications. The evaluated traits were:plant height, ear height, percentage of erect plants, grain yield and percentage of burnedgrains. The most responsive hybrids to the most favorable crop season were HS 10 x L2,HS 32 x L2, HS 83 x L3 and TORK for the percentage of erect plants and HS 7 x L1, HS32 x L1, HS 83 x L1, TORK and P 3041 for grain yield. Under these improvedenvironments, an increase on the percentage of burned grains incidence was detected forthe hybrids HS 83 x L1, HS 7 x L1, HS 83 x L3, HS 10 x L3 and P 3041, although thisincrease was within commercially acceptable levels.
