1Horticulture Division, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, KAB-II Pusa Campus, New Delhi
2Department of Botany, Industrial Microbiology and Bioinformatics, Janta Vedic College, Baghpat, (U.P.)
3Directorate of Maize Research, Pusa Campus, New Delhi
4Division of Genetics, IARI, New Delhi
*Part of Ph. D. Thesis
Eval uation of 20 diverse genotypes of maize for baby corn purpose under two seasons revealed a wide range of variability for morphological and nutritional quality traits. These characteristics comprised cob length (8.30–10.60 cm), cob diameter (1.30–1.66 cm), cream colour (41.33–99.22%), ovule row arrangement (33.33–95.00 per cent), days to keeping quality at room temperature (2.00–4.67), protein content (1.75–3.76%), sugar content (4.75–10.98%), TSS (7.5–15.67°Brix) and mineral contents such as phosphorus (73.5–167.5 mg/100 g), potassium (282.4–552.6 mg/100 g), calcium (22.3–36.4 mg/100 g) and iron (0.6–1.3 mg/100 g). Two single cross hybrids HM 4 and HQPM 1 were found to possess high content of protein, sugar and T.S.S in both kharif and rabi seasons. Three genotypes (FQH 4567, Parkash and Pargati) were found to possess high phosphorus and potassium content. The genotype, HM 4 and BIO 9637, were found to have high content of phosphorus and calcium, whereas Vivek hybrid 17 had high potassium and iron and Comp R 2005-2 had high calcium and iron content. Considering overall quality characteristics, HM4and HQPM 1, were identified as elite cultivars specifically suitable for baby corn use.
