Cold tolerance of seed from inbred maize lines sown at various sowing dates in different years

Significant differences were observed in the cold tolerance of the eight experimental genotypes for all the parameters tested. The inbred lines HMV5332, F564 and HMV651 were found to have excellent cold tolerance, while the greatest sensitivity was exhibited by lines HMV5226, HMV5408 and HMV5328. Although these differences were significant, all the inbred lines examined had an acceptable level of cold tolerance. Seed dressing had a favourable effect on practically all the traits examined, while the year effect was significant for plant height and dry matter content. The sowing date treatment from which the seed originated only had a significant effect on shoot dry matter, but this was not important from the agronomic point of view.