RECIPROCAL CROSS EFFECTS ON AGRONOMIC TRAITS AND HETEROSIS IN SWEET AND WAXY CORN

Effect of reciprocal cross is salient information for hybrid testing. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the importance of reciprocal effects, attainable heterosis, and their relationship, emphasizing on agronomic traits, yields, and yield components of sweet-waxy corn F-1 hybrids.11 parental lines were used comprised of 3 super sweet and 8 waxy corns to generate 48 F-1 progenies using North Carolina II mating scheme. Parental lines, hybrids, and 3 check hybrid varieties were evaluated at the Vegetable Experimental Farm, Khon Kaen University, Thailand in the dry season (2017/2018). Reciprocal cross effect was existed for days to silking, plant height, husked ear length, unhusked yield, and husked yield. Almost all traits exposed quite a small contribution of reciprocal cross advantage, out of which both unhusked and husked yields possessed higher contribution (13.7% or 2.03 ton ha(-1) and 11.8% or 1.25 ton ha(-1), respectively). Reciprocal cross effects significantly impact heterosis (both mid-parent heterosis (MPH) and high-parent heterosis (HPH) for all traits observed as positively strong linear correlation coefficient were revealed. This investigation suggests corn breeders to include reciprocal crosses in their any mating design since it is imperative for high-yielding oriented breeding.