Heterosis in maize hybrids at farmer’s field in Dang district of Nepal

Abstract

This experiment was conducted at the farmer’s field at Bangaun, Dang, Nepal during summer season from 18th May to 21st September 2018 to estimate heterosis in maize hybrids. Seven maize hybrids were evaluated in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The results revealed that all the maize hybrids showed significant positive heterosis over mid parents and better parent for grain yield. High level of heterosis was found for grain yield followed by plant height. The hybrids RH10 and RML86/RML96 produced significantly the highest mid parent heterosis and heterobeltiosis for grain yield. The hybrids RH10 and RH6 produced higher positive heterosis over both check varieties (Rajkumar and Subarna) for grain yield. Hybrid RH10 produced the highest standard heterosis (39.39%) for grain yield over Rajkumar; followed by RH6 (38.45%) and RML86/RML (22.48%), respectively. Mid and better parent heterosis were significantly higher for yield and yield attributes viz., cob length, cob diameter, number of kernel rows per cob and number of kernels per row. The highest positive mid parent heterosis for grain yield was found in RML96/RML86 (466.91%) followed by RH10, RH8 and RH4. For the grain yield, the heterobeltiosis was found to be the highest in RH10 followed by RML96/RML96. These results suggested that maize hybrids RH10 and RML96/RML86 could be exploited for commercial cultivation and their parental lines could be used for hybrid seed production.