Abstract:

Mechanical grain harvest of maize is the development direction of China’ maize industry. The purpose of the study is to explore the combining ability of different maize inbred lines and the influence on the mechanical grain harvest quality of the hybrid combinations. Seven American inbred lines were used as female parent, five ‘Xin 01A3’ improved lines were used as male parent, incomplete diallel cross was adopted, and 35 maize hybrid combinations were used as materials. After mechanical grain harvest, the yield and grain moisture content were measured, and the impurity rate, broken rate, and the shatter loss rate were calculated. The combining ability of yield was analyzed. The results showed that the general combining ability of ‘XL2’ was the highest. Among the five male inbred lines, the general combining ability of ‘Xin A389’ was the highest, and that of ‘Xin 69’ was the second. The special combining ability of ‘XL6× Xin 69’ was the highest, and that of ‘XL7× Xin 3764’ was the second. The correlation of each character was analyzed, and the results showed that there was a significantly positive correlation between the broken rate and the moisture content. Among the 35 hybrid combinations, compared with the adjacent control, the yield of 32 maize hybrid combinations increased by more than 5%, and the grain moisture content of all hybrid combinations was lower than 28.0%, suggesting that these hybrid combinations were suitable for mechanical grain harvest. In the future, the utilization of high combining inbred lines ‘XL2’, ‘XL5’, ‘Xin A389’ and ‘Xin 69’ should be enhanced.

Key words: Maize, Mechanical Grain Harvest, General Combining Ability, Special Combining Ability, Hybrid Combination