Research Progress Report 383
January 1971

1970 Hybrid Popcorn Performance Trials
R. B. Ashman
Department of Botany and Plant Pathology

Popcorn performance trials were located at Lafayette, Lagrange, and Evansville, Indiana; North Bend, Nebraska; and Marion,
Ohio. The Indiana trials were conducted by the Indiana Agricultural Experiment Station on land provided by Tom Hite at Lagrange and by Bill and Joe Schnur at Evansville. The trials in Nebraska and Ohio were conducted cooperatively by the Indiana AES and the Agricultural Alumni Seed Improvement Association. Land for the Nebraska test was provided by the Blevins Popcorn Co., Nashville, Tennessee, and for the Ohio test by the Wyandot Popcorn Co., 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 are identified as to source by the following letter prefixes: "P" -- Indiana Agricultural Experiment Station, Lafayette, In.; "Iopop" -- Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station, Ames, la.; "A” -- Ames Seed Farms, Ames, la; "RB" -- Chester Hybrids, Valparaiso, In.; "AP" or "EP" -- Agricultural Alumni Seed Improvement Association, West La-
fayette, In.; "Robust" -- Crookham Company, Caldwell, Id. 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 per cent moisture. The yields are not adjusted for missing plants, and per cent stand is given for each hybrid. Trials at Lafayette were machine-harvested with an ear picker, and all other trials were hand-harvested.
Samples for popping expansion tests consisted of 10-15 ears. Three samples were taken from each hybrid at Lagrange and Evansville, and two were taken at Lafayette; an expansion test was run on each sample, and the average for each hybrid is reported in the tables. One sample was taken from each hybrid at Marion and North Bend; two expansion tests were run on each sample, and the average for each hybrid is reported in the tables.
Stalk breakage and lodging notes were taken just before harvest and are given as per cent of plants broken below the ear or lodged 45 degrees or more from the vertical. Much early lodging occurred at North
PURDUE UNIVERSITY • Agricultural Experiment Station • Lafayette, Indiana