EVALUATION OF MAIZE CROPS FOR SUSTAINABLE FARMING

Abstract

Modern hybrid maize varieties dominated for several decades both in Slovenia and elsewhere in the world. The production is maintained only of few landrace populations, but some are maintained at Slovenian Gene Bank. Improvement of local varieties is possible by recurrent selection and may in the case of their specific characteristics deserve their cultivation for specific purposes. Presented experiments have been conducted to characterize selected old Slovenian accessions in two regions - in central Slovenia and in Bela Krajina. Yields of corn at both locations and both years were significantly depending on the genotype. 'Rdeča Bohinjka' and partially 'Rumena Bohinjka' and, similarly, the 'LJ 180' had a predominantly low yields but were also the earliest, while modern hybrid variety 'P 9074' and 'Ronaldinio KWS ' had the expected highest yield. Yield of 'P 9074' grown at the Laboratory field of the Biotechnical Faculty was almost twice higher than the second best accession 'Metliška Plut'. However it is this semi-flint accessions 'Metliška Plut' that proved very suitable at all four experiments and is recommended for further maintenance and varietal testing as it can serve as appropriate alternative in a less intensive production.