Ecological study of parental forms of simple sterile maize hybrids

The current paper has presented the results of 2020–2022 testing carried out with ten parental forms of maize hybrids in such three locations, differing in moisture availability and other growing conditions as FSBSI “All-Russian Research Institute of Maize” (Stavropolsky Krai), the Voronezh branch of the FSBSI ARRSI of Corn (the Voronezh Region) and the FSBSI Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy” (Rostov region). The purpose of the work was to study parental forms of new sterile simple maize hybrids in various soil and climatic zones, to identify promising ones for specific conditions, to identify correlations for optimizing the breeding process. In terms of moisture availability and temperature regime, weather conditions at the ARRI of Maize and the Voronezh branch were characterized as favorable, while at the ARC “Donskoy” they were unfavorable for the growth and development of maize plants. According to the results of a two-factor analysis-of-variance of grain yield, there was established that in the total variance at all points, the largest share of influence belongs to the interaction of the factors “genotype × conditions” (59.0 %, 70.4 %, 48.6 %, respectively). There were identified the parental forms ‘IK 4310-53 S’, ‘Avrora S’, ‘PG 11’, which formed the maximum grain productivity (5.97.4 t/ha) in the conditions of the soil and climatic zone of the Voronezh region; at the ARRI of Maize the maximum grain productivity was obtained from the parental forms ‘IK 4310-53 S’ (5.9 t/ha) and ‘PG 11’ (6.6 t/ha). In arid conditions of the ARC “Donskoy” there were identified the forms ‘SSK 53-277 M’, ‘IK 4310-53 S’, ‘PG 11’, promising for use here as parental forms. They were characterized with the smallest decrease in grain productivity (37.3–50.0 %), compared to moisture-supplied locations, with the highest absolute productivity values (3.0–3.7 t/ha). At all locations of the environmental testing, there was found a correlation between grain productivity and plant height (r = 0.72–0.88). Simple sterile hybrids with a high productivity rank, as a rule, had high ranks in height. Selection of parental forms according to plant height made it possible to select more productive forms.