Razan Al Najjar*(1) Saoud Shehab(1) and Mohammad Ali Ali(1)
(1). Crops Research Administration, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research GCSAR, Damascus, Syria.
(*Corresponding author: Dr. Razan Al Najjar. E-Mail: razanhamoda2009@gmail.com).
Received: 25/01/2019 Accepted: 09/05/2019
Abstract
The study was carried out at Corn Research Department, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research (GCSAR), Damascus, Syria, during 2011 and 2012 seasons, to estimate the correlation, and path coefficients of some phenological, morphological and yield components traits i.e. days to silking (days), ear height (cm), ear length (cm), ear diameter(cm), number of rows per ear, number of grains per row, 100-kernels weight (g) and grain yield per plot (ton/ha). In this study, SH maize families were used, which were improved by half sib and full-sib selection by the National Program in Syria. The experiment was conducted using randomized completely block design (RCBD with three replications. The results showed a significant positive correlation between grain yield, and all the studied traits and the correlations in both selection methods of the traits were: r2=r (r2=0.82*،0.76*) for days to silking, while the correlation values for ear height, ear length and ear diameter were (r2=0.85*, and 0.79*) , (r2=0.67**, and 0.63**), (r2=0.86*, and 0.79*) respectively, but for number of grains per row it reached (0.73**, 0.68**) and for number of rows per ear it attained (r2=0.88*, and 0.82*), finally for 100 grain weight it reached (r2=0.85*, and 0.80*). According to that, those traits were considered selection criteria to improve grain yields in maize. The study of path analysis revealed that each of ear height, 100 grain weight and number of rows per ear were the most studied traits that contributed to grain yield, which gave the highest values of direct effects on yield status and the percentage of contribution to the total traits studied by the two selection methods were (89.08.77.11) % and thus they could be used as a selection criterion for improving grain yield of maize crop.
Key word: Correlation coefficient, Path coefficient, Grain yield components, Maize.
Full paper in Arabic: PDF