Development and Evaluation of Promising Popcorn Hybrids Developed from Local and Exotic Germplasm

Popcorn is considered as one of the oldest forms of field corn and mainly used as a snack food. In the time being, no local popcorn registered hybrids are available in Egypt and all country needs are imported hybrids. Therefore, there is a dire need to develop local popcorn hybrids. Using local and exotic germplasm, eighty-six promising yellow F1- hybrids were developed at Nubaria research station (30°54' N, 29°30' E) maize program, Field Crops Research Institute, ARC, Egypt. These hybrids were split into two groups (A and B); each one along with two exotic hybrid checks were evaluated under irrigation in 2019 at two environmentally different locations, one in north of Egypt and the other one in south of Egypt. Purpose of this investigation was to evaluate these promising hybrids for grain yield, number of days to mid-silk, plant height, resistance to late wilt disease and two quality traits i.e. popping volume and percentage of unpopped kernels. Randomized complete block design with 4 replications was used. All technical recommendations for maize production were applied. Highly significant differences were found among tested hybrids for all studied traits except number of wilted plants in trial A. Seven hybrids were selected, 5 from trial A and two from trial B. Hybrids # 11, 12, 17, 20 and 28 from trial A and 15, 33 from trial B. Results revealed that germplasm of Serbian origin was more beneficial to the national popcorn breeding program than other germplasm sources since most selected hybrids were of Serbian origin. Further evaluation of selected hybrids across multiple different locations is necessary before submission of selected hybrids to Variety Registration Committee.