Evaluación de progenies de maíz criollo (raza candela) obtenidas en selecciones realizadas en el Campus Experimental "La Teodomira"

Abstract

Maize (Zea mays L.) is a crop of global economic importance, due to its usefulness in human and animal nutrition, as well as being a source of a large number of industrial products. The present investigation consisted of evaluating creole maize progenies (candela race) obtained in selections made at the "La Teodomira" Experimental Campus. The research was carried out in the Santa Ana canton, Manabí province, at the La Teodomira Experimental Campus of the Technical University of Manabí. The following variables were evaluated in the study: lodging, plant height, number of leaves per plant, ear insertion height (m), days to male flowering, days to female flowering, ear characteristics (cm). These characteristics were analyzed under an experiment of row length 4.0 m, distance between rows 1.0 m, distance between plants 0.30 m, number of plants/site 2, distance between experimental units 2.0 m and total surface of the test 800 m. Creole maize Candela breed presents a wide variability in plant height. In the evaluations carried out at 30 das, it was verified that some progenies presented low plant height, with an average of 9 cm and 7,4 leaves (P2-F15), while the P3-F1 and P3-F2 progenies registered averages of the upper plant height (50,7 and 50,2 cm), with an average number of leaves of 7,6 and 8,6, respectively. Candela breed landrace maize shows high inter and intra variation in the 78 progenies evaluated, in relation to plant height and ear characteristics. Stratified maize selection is shown to be an effective technique in the selection of native corn plants with lower plant height and ear insertion, as well as better ear characteristics