COMPARISON OF OPEN POLLINATED VARIETIES AND NEWLY DEVELOPED HYBRIDS FOR YIELD AND YIELD CONTRIBUTING TRAITS IN MAIZE

Eighteen hybrids and 13 open pollinated varieties of maize were evaluated at the National Agricultural Research Centre, Islamabad during kharif 2007. Significant differences were observed for days to 50% tasseling and silking, plant height, ear height, number of kernel rows per ear, number of grain per row, 100 grain weight, grain moisture and grain yield. The hybrids NT-6622 and NT- 6651 ranked top and second in grain yield by producing 7842 and 7759 kg ha -1 , respectively. Generally the hybrids produced more grain yield than the open polli- nated varieties. Days to 50% tasseling ranged from 47.33 (EV-1098) to 64 (NT- 6632) while for silking varied from 47.67 (EV-1098) to 63.33 (30-K-95). The variety Soan-3 (149 cm) was the shortest and hybrid 30-K-95 (202.3 cm) was the tallest amongst all the varieties and hybrids. Ear height ranged from 70.33 (Soan-3) to 107 cm (NT-6651) while number of kernel rows per ear varied from 12 (NT-6622, 30- K95, 2512 and 2514) to 18 (R-2207). The hybrid P-30-25 produced the maximum number of grains (51) Grast-8288 produced the lowest (29). One hundred grain weight ranged from 23g (EV-6098) to 39g (2512).