Utilization of hybrid vigor in broomcorn, Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench

Abstract

The current commercial broomcorn (Sorghum bicolor (L,) Moench) production is based on open-pollinated cultivars. Having in mind the the success of F1 hybrids in the case of grain sorghum, the purpose of this study has been to estimate the hybrid vigor in broomcorn. Locally adapted broomcorn inbred lines were selected for hand crossing in order to obtain experimental F1 hybrids. Six cytoplasmic-genic male sterile lines were used as male parents and croseed with six pollinators using the line x tester model. The resulting 36 experimental F1 hybrids along with their parents were studied for plant height and its components as well as for weight and quality of panicle. Hybrid vigor was calculated and the best performing hybrids were identified. The line x tester analysis provided the estimation of gene effects for different quantitative traits. The correlation between the performances of parental lines as compared to their hybrids was also calculated. The results indicate that broomcorn demonstrate a positive hybrid vigor for most of the characters studied. Due to the prevailing additive gene effect for most of the characters studied the best performing hybrids were those involving superior parental lines.