Selection for low ear moisture in corn, using a hand-held meter.
1992
Freppon J.T. | St Martin S.K. | Pratt R.C. | Henderlong P.R.
A rapid, effective method for identifying inbred lines of corn (Zea mays L.) that produce hybrids with a low grain-moisture content at harvest would be helpful to corn breeders. We evaluated use of a hand-held moisture meter to select for low ear-moisture content in 2 set of S1 plants that had similar pollination dates. A set of 30 lines, derived from plants classified as low-, medium-, and high-moisture 30 d after pollination, was identified. The Hoes were evaluated for moisture content in a randomized complete-block experiment. Test-crosses of the fines to two testers were evaluated for yield and harvest moisture at five locations in 1 yr. The moisture meter produced estimates of moisture content that correlated well in 2 yr (r2 = 0.85 and 0.82) with estimates obtained by the oven method. Lanes derived from ears selected for low moisture with the meter had lower moisture at harvest than lines from high-moisture ears. Hybrids of low-moisture lines were lower in harvest moisture than hybrids of high-moisture lines but were similar in grain yield. The moisture meter should enable corn breeders to select for low harvest moisture in segregating populations.
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