COMPARING MODERN VARIETIES OF
WHITE MAIZE WITH LOCAL RACES: EAR CHARACTERS
Md. Jafar Ullah*,
M. M. Islam, Kaniz Fatima, M. S. Mahmud,
Jamilur Rahman and S. Akhter
*Corresponding author: jafarullahsau@gmail.com
Abstract
Two experiments
were carried out, one initiating in Feb 05 with three modern white maize
varieties (plough-01, plough-02 and Suvra) and the another with five local land
races (red, black, yellow, purple and white) under two consecutive sowing dates
(March 5 and 20) of 2015 at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural university in Bangladesh
to evaluate and compare cob characters. Across the trials the cob length, cob circumference, length
of the vacant ear tip, number of seed rows and seeds per cob respectively were
in the range of 8.66-20.11, 8.93-19.11, 2.6-8.26 cm, 8.0-16.2 and 132-486.
Plough 201 (20.11 cm) produced the longest while the later sown local ‘black’ produced
the shortest cobs (8.66 cm). Plough 201
had the highest number of seed per cob (486), while Suvra had the highest seed
rows (14) and the least number of seeds per cob (346). Across and among the
local landraces the early sown crops had higher values in all the parameters of
cob. The thickest cobs (14.56 cm circumference) were found in the early sown local
white while more number of seeds per cob was seen in the early sown local black
(259). Across the trials, the dry weights in cobs, seed, shell and husk ranged
in 12.77-68.96, 1.64-55.76, 4.34-8.65 and 3.2-6.86 g respectively. The highest weight
of cob was obtained with Suvra (68.96 g) and that of the seed in both
Plough-202 and Suvra (54.21 and 55.76 g respectively). However, Suvra had the
maximum shell and husk dry weight (6.8 and 6.4 g respectively). The dry weight per
cob of the local maize was in a range of 21.95 to 28.90 g. The early sown local
black and local purple had identical showing significantly higher cob dry
weights (38.6-39.51 g) than other local landraces.
Keywords: local landraces of
maize, modern maize, hybrid, nutrition, yield, vegetative growth
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