Determination of relationship between grain yield and yield components in hybrid dent corn varieties grown in Cukurova region

Grain yield values was varied from 1039-1321 kg Per decare. The lowest grain yield was found at variety of LG.60 (1039 kg). The highest grain yield was found at variety of P.3163(1321kg). Positive and highly significant correlation were observed between grain yield and days to tasselling (0.798**), days to silking (0.631**), the first ear height (0.630**), plant height (0.539**), number of leaf per plant (0.615**), dry matter weight of root per plant (0.567**), ear diameter (0.602**), number of kernel per ear row (0.549**), number of kernel per ear (0.616**), 1000 kernel weight (0.742**) and kernel weight of ear (0.739**) at 0.01 level. The correlation between grain yield and leaf angle (-0.473*) was also significant at 0.05 level, but negative. Path analysis was carried out that kernel weight per ear (32.1010 %) had the highest direct and positive effect on grain yield, followed by dry matter weight of root per plant (17.6805 %), cob ratio (16.1383 %), number of kernel per ear row (10.5966 %), number of kernel rows per ear (7.1383 %), plant height (6.5991 %) and days to silking (1.3294 %), respectively. Path analysis revealed that number of leaf per plant (28.4782 %) had the greatest negative direct effect on grain yield followed by 1000 kernel weight (20.7304 %), ear lenght (10.4683 %), number of kernel per ear (10.4154 %), plant stem size (8.7759 %), harvest index (6.6575 %), leaf angle (2.3269 %) and the first ear height (0.7962 %), respectively. Key Words : Maize, Cultivar, Coefficient of Correlation, Coefficient of Path, II