Genetic variability and effect of plant arrangement on corn

Abstract

One of the factors of great influence on the agronomic performance of corn plants is their population arrangement. In this respect, the objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of plant arrangement and genetic divergence in different corn genotypes. The study was conducted in the county of Mineiros-GO, Brazil. The soil is Quartzarenic Neosol (Entisol). The experimental design used was in random blocks in factorial 8x2, totaling 16 treatments corresponding to 8 corn genotypes (A8740, A8088, DKB290, DKB390, DKB177, P30F35, P30S31 and P3707) and 2 spacing between lines (0.45 m and 0.90 m), 4 repetitions. The soil preparation was done in the no-tillage system. At the end of the experiment, biometric and productivity variables were measured and analyzed using Softwares R and Genes. The analysis of variance revealed significance in the simple and main effects. Genetic divergence and the effect of plant arrangement on corn genotypes were observed, where the variables plant height, stem diameter and the thousand grain mass were the main characteristics that influenced yield. Among the analyzed genotypes, the growing of genetic material DKB390 is recommended in rows spaced at 0.45 or 0.90 m, as it has plants with ears of greater number of grains, thousand grain mass and yield, demonstrating its plasticity in adaptation to the proposed systems.