evaluation of morphological traits, yield and yield components of corn (zea mays l.) hybrids in mashhad climate

in order to study morphological traits, yield and yield components of 34 hybrids of corn, an experiment was carried out based on of randomized complete block design with three replications under normal irrigation condition in khorasan razavi agricultural research and natural resources center, mashhad, iran on 2009. results of analysis of variance showed that there were significant differences between hybrids for all of traits. results of hybrid means comparison showed that ksc500 hybrid was better than others in yield trait. result of simple correlation between traits showed that ear diameter and kernel depth had the highest correlation with grain yield, respectively. in other to study relationship of traits in regression model with grain yield, path analysis showed that number of ear per plant had the highest direct and positive effect on grain yield. principle component analysis was performed for corn hybrids. seven components have been extracted, which describe 85% of traits variations. also factor analysis (with varimax rotation) was performed. cluster analysis with ward’s method, arranged hybrids into five different groups.