Ecological study of new early and middle-early maize hybrids

The current study was conducted in six research institutions of the Russian Federation, namely the ARRIM (Stavropol Territory), the Belgorod FARC (the Belgorod region), the BSPC “Otbor” (Kabardino-Balkarian Republic), the LLC “Semenovodstvo Kubani”, the NCG named after P.P. Lukyanenko (Krasnodar Territory), and the ARC “Donskoy” (the Rostov region). The study was conducted in 2022–2024, annually studying 13–15 hybrids, including standards. There have been developed new hybrids by interline hybridization. Field trials were laid out in accordance with the Methodological recommendations for conducting field trials with maize. The purpose was to study new early-maturing and middle-early maize hybrids in specific soil and climatic conditions to estimate the grain productivity potential and identify the areas suitable for their cultivation. The conducted study has allowed identifying a new early-ripening maize hybrid ‘Vityaz MV’ suitable for cultivation in various soil and climatic areas of Russia. The grain productivity of the hybrid exceeded the mean values of the standards, including the best domestic early-maturing maize hybrids ‘Ross 140 SV’, ‘Mashuk 168’, ‘Krasnodarsky 194 MV’ by 0.43–1.64 t/ha, and was not inferior in productivity to the best foreign standards. There has been identified a new early-maturing hybrid ‘Zernogradsky 181 MV’ with practical value for agricultural producers, but a selective approach is required for its use. The best results were obtained in the Rostov Region, Stavropol, and Krasnodar Territories. There were annually identified such early and middle-early hybrid combinations as ‘ZE 200 – 60-2’ (8.90 t/ha) in the Belgorod FARC in 2022; ‘ZE 170 – 60-3’ (8.72 t/ha) in the BSPC “Otbor” and ‘ZE 200 – 60-3’ (8.57 t/ha) in the NCG named after P.P. Lukyanenko in 2023.