1961 HYBRID POPCORN PERFORMANCE TRIALS 1/
Research Progress Report 4 February, 1962
R. B. Ashman, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology 2/
The purpose of these performance trials is to compare new experimental popcorn hybrids with hybrids currently being used in commercial popcorn production. The criteria for comparisons are: yield, popping expansion, standing ability and maturity.
Popcorn hybrids were tested at six Indiana, Illinois and Ohio locations. Northern trials were located at Momence, Illinois, and Kimmell, Indiana; central trials were located at Marion, Ohio, and Lafayette, Indiana; southern trials were at Princeton, Indiana, and Ridgway, Illinois.
At Lafayette, where the most extensive testing was done, hybrids were grouped into late yellow, early yellow and white hybrids.
No similar classification was made at other locations. The experimental hybrids tested were selected from those that appeared promising in previous replicated trials or in unreplicated observation plots. Hybrids from the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa; Ames Seed Farms, Ames, Iowa; and Crookham Company, Caldwell, Idaho, were included in some of the tests.
The tests were conducted with the cooperation of the following growers and processors ;
American Maize Products	Momence trial
Roby, Indiana
Manley, Inc.	Kimmell trial
Kansas City, Missouri
Wyandot Popcorn Company	Marion trial
Marion, Ohio
Princeton Farms	Princeton trial
Princeton, Indiana
Blevins Popcorn Company	Ridgway trial
Ridgway, Illinois
Grateful acknowledgement is made to these companies and their associated growers We are also indebted to the following companies for generous grants-in-aid: Blevins Popcorn Company, Nashville, Tennessee; Wyandot Popcorn Company, Marion, Ohio; Prunty Seed and Grain Company, St. Louis, Missouri Parker Popcorn Company, Murray, Kentucky; and Smith Farms, Fostoria, Ohio.
Conditions of Tests
The trials were check planted with four kernels per hill; the plots were not thinned. At Lafayette the plot size was one by 20 hills; each hybrid was replicated four times; and the plots were mechanically harvested. At all other locations the plot size was one by 12 hills; each hybrid was replicated three times; and the plots were hand harvested.
Momence: The trial was planted May 16 on uniform land. Five hundred pounds of 16-8-8 were plowed down, and at planting time 30 pounds of nitrogen were placed in the row. The hill-row spacing was 38 inches. The plots were harvested October 27.
1/ Conducted cooperatively with the Field Crops Branch, Agricultural Research Service, USDA.~
2/ The author acknowledges the valuable assistance of Harold Zarse.
PURDUE UNIVERSITY • Agricultural Experiment Station • Lafayette, Indiana