Andres Ramiro-Cordova and Jose A. Hernandez-Alatorre. INIFAP, Santos Degollado No. 1015 Altos, Colonia Cuauhtemoc, San Luis Potosi, Mexico
In Mexico, corn is mainly cultivated as staple food; it is consumed in different ways as dry grain, like tortillas. However, it is also consumed as fresh product named “elote” or fresh ear. In the Central part of San Luis Potosi State of Mexico, 9,630 hectares of fresh ear are planted per year with a mean yield of 11.8 ton/ha. Fresh ear production generated 97.4 millions pesos to local economy during the Spring-Summer season of 2002. This region has the advantage that harvested time of fresh ear coincides with the winter season of the highlands of Mexico, which is the principal market. The objective of this study was to identify corn genotypes with high fresh ear yielding. Nine corn hybrids, two open pollinated varieties, and three corn land varieties, were evaluated under irrigated conditions on two different crop seasons (Spring-Summer, and Summer-Autumn seasons of 1999, and 2000). Experimental design was complete block design with four replications, and plot was of four 0.85 m rows, 6.0 m length. Results indicate that planting on Spring-Summer season was better than doing on Summer-Autumn season. Commercial hybrids H-435, H-422, A-7573, and Costeño (open pollinated variety) were the best genotypes with fresh ear yield ranging from 20 to 27 ton/ha on Spring-Summer season, and from 20 to 24 ton/ha on Summer-Autumn season. Length of fresh ear mean of the evaluated genotypes was 23 cm on Spring-Summer season, and 20 cm on Summer-Autumn season. It was concluded that hybrids and improved varieties, due to their higher genetic homogeneity than the corn land varieties, produced in a single cut, from 91 to 96 % of the total fresh ear production; while the corn land varieties produced only from 75 to 80 % of the total fresh ear production.
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