Agricultural characteristics of inbreds, substituted lines and F1 hybrids in maize

The objective of this study was to develop substituted maize lines and to evaluate the obtained F-1 hybrids from crosses between parental lines and their substituted lines. Two elite inbreds and their substituted lines of dent maize were crossed to obtain four F-1 hybrids from direct and reciprocal crossings. The produced hybrids were evaluated for agronomic performance for two years; several yield components such as plant height, length of tassel, number of internodes and ear characteristics were measured. The progeny of hybrid crosses exhibited high heterotic expression of all agronomic traits, illustrating the concept of heterosis. It was corroborated that inbred/hybrid method can be applied to development the superior hybrid genotypes in maize.