Combining Ability Studies for Grain Yield and Its Component Traits in Sweet Corn (Zea mays var. saccharata)

Using 15 sweet corn inbreds, a line x tester design was made to perform combining ability analysis for yield and its contributing traits. For every character under study, the interaction between Line x Tester was highly significant, with the exception of days to 50% tasseling. For every attribute studied, the variation resulting from sca exceeded the variance resulting from gca. Which indicates the presence of non-additive gene action between the parents. As a result of their high per se performance combined with high gca effects for the majority of the yield and yield contributing traits, such as ear weight without husk, number of kernels per row, total soluble solids, 100 kernel weight, cob yield per plot and total sugar, the lines L6, L12 and testers T1, T2 were determined to be the best general combiners. The hybrid L3×T1, which had the highest per se performance and sca for cob yield per plot, 100 kernel weight and ear weight without husk, was determined to be the best hybrid out of the 36 hybrids examined.