A master’s thesis at the College of Agriculture examined the estimation of genetic parameters of maize genotypes and their susceptibility to corn stem borer infestation under potassium foliar application.
The study, presented by student Omar Kareem Hassoon, aimed to evaluate the performance of six maize genotypes for field and yield traits, determine the best concentration among three levels of potassium foliar application and its effect on some maize crop traits, estimate components of phenotypic variance and its parameters, broad-sense heritability, and expected genetic gain as a percentage, as well as study the susceptibility of maize genotypes and potassium spraying to stem borer infestation.
The study concluded that maize genotypes and potassium concentrations differed significantly in all studied traits. The GAMESON genotype and the 30 g/L concentration outperformed others. High values of phenotypic and genotypic variances, coefficients of variation, broad-sense heritability, and expected genetic gain were observed. Increasing potassium spraying at 30 g/L reduced the harmful effects on all studied traits related to stem borer infestation, which was clearly evident in the superiority of the GAMESON genotype.
