Research Progress Report 327 February, 1968
1967 Hybrid Popcorn Performance Trials
R. B. Ashman and James Reed, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology

The purpose of these performance trials was to compare experimental hybrids with hybrids currently used in commercial production. Criteria for comparisons were yield, popping expansion, standing ability and maturity.

Trials were conducted in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Nebraska. The Indiana trials were conducted by the Indiana Agricultural Experiment Station on land provided by Tom Hite at Lagrange and by Princeton Farms at Princeton. Trials in other states were conducted cooperatively by the Indiana AES and the Agricultural Alumni Seed Improvement Association and were located at Ridgeway, Illinois; Marion, Ohio; and North Bend, Nebraska. Land for the Ridgeway and North Bend tests was provided by the Blevins Popcorn Company, Nashville, Tennessee; and for the Marion test by the Wyandot Popcorn Company, Marion, Ohio. In the cooperative trials the Agricultural Alumni Seed Improvement Association arranged for the land, planted the trials, and collected the field data at harvest; the Indiana AES ran the popping expansion tests and conducted the statistical analysis of all data. Grateful acknowledgment is made of the assistance and cooperation of the above individuals and organizations.

Hybrids included in the trials were Indiana AES experimental hybrids that appeared
promising in previous replicated trials or unreplicated observation plots, and hybrids submitted by other institutions and companies. Hybrids are identified as to source by the following letter prefixes: "P"--Indiana Agricultural Experiment Station, Lafayette, Indiana; "Iopop" or ’'Ia"--Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa; "A"--Ames Seed Farms, Ames, Iowa; "RB"— Chester Hybrids, Valparaiso, Indiana; "AP" or "EP"--Agricultural Alumni Seed Improvement Association, West Lafayette, Indiana; "Robust"--Crookham Company, Caldwell, Idaho. Hybrids without letter prefixes are Indiana AES experimental hybrids.

METHODS AND TRIAL CONDITIONS
Yield data are reported as pounds of ear corn per acre corrected to 13.5% moisture. No correction was made for missing plants, and percent stand is given for each hybrid as an indication of the confidence that can be placed in the yield data. Trials at Lafayette were machine harvested with an ear picker, and all other trials were hand harvested.

Popping expansion data were taken from all replications at Lafayette and from at least two replications at all other locations. Samples for expansion tests were derived from about 10 ears from each plot, and the expansion values are reported as cubic inches of popped corn per pound of raw corn.

PURDUE UNIVERSITY • Agricultural Experiment Station • Lafayette, Indiana