Interrelations of Characters and Multivariate Analysis in Corn

The objective of this work was to evaluate the agronomic performance of corn hybrids, the interrelations of the characters with the grain yield, and to genetically discriminate the corn hybrids by means of the dispersion analysis of the canonical variables. The experiment was conducted in the agricultural crop of 2013/2014, in an area belonging to the Federal University of Santa Maria, Campus of Frederico Westphalen, RS. The experimental design was a randomized block design, with four replications. The treatments were composed of seven maize hybrids with different genetic bases and maturation cycles. The LG 6304 modified simple hybrid has higher grain yield than the others. The characters plant height, spike insertion height and number of grains per row of spike have positive interrelations with grain yield of corn hybrids. Hybrids are not grouped according to the genetic basis and maturation cycle. The canonical variables explain 94.62% of the existing genetic variation, and allows the formation of five groups of maize hybrids.