A Method for Selecting Female Parents of Grain Sorghum Hybrids1

Potential female parents of sorghum, Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench, hybrids are male sterilized before their combining abilities are determined. This procedure necessitates considerable time and effort before the lines can be tested for combining ability. It would be advantageous to identify the highest combining potential females before they are sterilized, thus reducing the number of lines to sterilize for final testing. Our study was organized to determine if the yields of three‐way‐cross hybrids could be used to predict the expected yields of single‐cross hybrids. Eighteen three‐way‐cross hybrids and 12 related singlecross hybrids were compared in each of 2 years. Single crosses were A‐lines ✕ R lines, and three way crosses were (A‐lines ✕ B‐lines) ✕ R‐lines. Analysis of variance indicated yield differences among hybrids and contrast analyses indicated lack of differences in most comparisons of single‐cross hybrids with three related three‐way‐cross hybrids. It was concluded that comparison of the performance of three‐way‐cross hybrids of the lines used would have effectively identified the best potential female parents of single‐cross hybrids.