ARPN Journal of Agricultural and Biological Science HERITABILITY ESTIMATES FOR MATURITY AND MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS BASED ON TESTCROSS PROGENY PERFORMANCE OF MAIZE

ABSTRACT The research entitled "Heritability estimates for maturity and morphological traits based on testcross progeny performance of maize S 1 lines" was carried out with a view to identify and evaluate the best performing S 1 lines based on testcross progeny performance and to determine their potential as parents in production of a superior hybrid/variety adapted to the agro-climatic conditions of NWFP. The experiment was conducted in the spring and summer of 2007-08 at Research Farm of NWFP Agricultural University, Peshawar (AUP) and Cereal Crop Research Institute (CCRI), Nowshera. During the spring crop season (March-June) 42 S 1 lines derived from maize variety testcrosses of maize variety "Sarhad White" were crossed to a single cross tester WD 2 x 8 were produced in isolation. After discarding nine testcrosses for no or low seed set, 33 testcrosses along with three checks were evaluated using randomized complete block design with three replications at Research farm of AUP and at CCRI during summer crop season (July-October). Heritability estimates for all the traits were calculated. The statistically analysis revealed that testcrosses differed significantly for all the characters studied except days to 50% anthesis, days to 50% silking, and ASI. The Genotype x Location interaction was also significant for all the traits except for ear length. Mean values for days to 50% tasseling, anthesis and silking, anthesissilking interval (ASI), plant and ear height were 55.3, 58.2, 59.9, 1.69, 157.7 and 72.1, respectively. While analyzing the data we got some very interesting results. The TC-10 which was the highest yielding had the maximum value for ear height and had second highest value for plant height. The check WD3 x 6 had the lowest value for plant height and second lowest mean value for ear height