Abstract
Information on the genetic and agronomic relationship among the crop characters is important for the breeding programs. This study aimed at determining the relationship among grain yield, popping expansion and other agronomic characters in 19 popcorn lines evaluated in replicated trials at two locations. Correlation analysis was carried out to determine the relationship between agronomic traits while multiple stepwise regression analyses was used to determine the contribution of other agronomic traits to grain yield. Results showed that plant and ear heights as well as cob length exhibited positive and significant association with grain yield. Popping volume showed negative and significant association (-0.45**) with grain yield while 100-grain mass had a negative and significant correlation (-0.37**) with popping volume. Stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that ear height, cob length, plant aspect and 100-grain mass contributed a total of 53.66 % to variation in grain yield, with ear height contributing the highest portion (22.51 %). Cluster analysis grouped popcorn lines into four different clusters, where ‘Small Pearl Shaped’ and ‘Popcorn 33-1-Y’ belonged to cluster II and IV, respectively, showing how divergent they are and possible utilization for hybrid formation. Improvement for popcorn should focus on identifying lines with acceptable level of popping volume and improved on their grain yield and yield attributes.
Highlights
Success in improvement of grain yield and popping quality of popcorn requires the understanding of the nature of relationships between component traits that determine yield and other quantitative characters
This unique feature of ‘Popcorn 2-S0’ for stem color suggests that this line is in a class of its own and this color uniqueness can serve as a distinguishing factor and as a morphological marker that differentiates it from other popcorn lines
The color of anther ranged from green to light green while some of the varieties had purple dots on their green anther, which is an indication that it can be used to distinguish their respective popcorn lines from others.‘Popcorn 4-Y’ is unique among others with respect to silk color, suggesting that this particular trait can be used as a morphological marker to identify this genotype during simple selection exercise, or to track the line when used in composite varietal development
Summary
Success in improvement of grain yield and popping quality of popcorn requires the understanding of the nature of relationships between component traits that determine yield and other quantitative characters. Correlation refers to the degree of measure of association between two characters or degree to which they vary among themselves (Mohanan, 2010). A positive correlation implies that improvement of one trait can lead to the improvement of the other trait through indirect selection while a negative correlation shows that improvement of one trait leads to the declination of another trait. This suggests that the knowledge of association of traits such as grain yield and/or popping expansion with other agronomic traits is very pertinent in putting together selection criteria or indices useful for popcorn (Zea mays L. everta) improvement
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