Abstract:

To address the problem of low yield per unit area in spring sown maize caused by messy and miscellaneous maize varieties with poor adaptability in southern Xinjiang, and to screen suitable local high-yield and stress-resistant varieties, 20 common maize varieties were used as test materials to carry out the orthogonal experiment in Wensu County of Aksu. The emergence rate, agronomic traits, ear traits and yield components were measured, and the excellent varieties were screened by difference significance analysis. The results showed that the average emergence rate of the 20 tested corn varieties was 86.6%, among which four varieties, namely ‘Dongdan 1902’, ‘Nongkeda 18’, ‘Dongdan 509’ and ‘Denghai 550’, had the highest emergence rate, exceeding 92%. Most of the ear height coefficients were between 0.4 and 0.5, and no lodging occurred in all tested varieties. ‘Tianyu 912’ and ‘Heyu 157’ performed prominently in terms of ear traits, with ear lengths of 18.9 and 18.4 cm, ear diameters of 46.8 and 49.3 mm respectively, as well as shorter barren tips and the lowest barren tip rate. ‘Heyu 157’ and ‘MC877’ had the lowest number of barren stalks. Four varieties, including ‘Dedan 1403’, ‘Heyu 157’, ‘Tianyu 1885’ and ‘MC877’, had the highest grain number per ear; however, ‘Dedan 1403’ had a relatively low 1000-grain weight, thus its yield advantage was not significant. In contrast, ‘Heyu 157’, ‘Tianyu 1885’, ‘MC877’ and ‘Tianyu 912’ had higher 1000-grain weight and more effective plants in the population, leading to outstanding final yield performance. The analysis results indicate that four varieties, including ‘Heyu 157’, ‘MC877’, ‘Tianyu 912’ and ‘Tianyu 1885’, have shown relatively excellent overall performance and are more likely to achieve high yields in the region.

Key words: southern Xinjiang, spring sown maize, adaptability, high-yield varieties, ear traits, yield potential