M.ShekharagoudaR.Gurumurthy2016-07-202016-07-202005http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/69055An investigation was carried out to determine the effect of pollination methods on seed quality in open pollinated varieties of maize. It was observed that among pollination methods isolated half-sib nursery mating and reciprocal full-sib mating were significantly superior over other methods with respect to maintenance of genetic purity in maize open pollinated varieties. There was no significant effect on germination, field emergence, shoot length, root length, seedling dry weight, seedling vigour index, germination under cold test, electrical conductivity of seed leachate, seed yield and yield components viz., ear length, ear girth and 100-seed weight due to pollination methods in open pollinated varieties of maize. Pollination methods did not show any significant effect on germination, seedling vigour index and field emergence in open pollinated varieties of maize due to accelerated aging. However, irrespective of the pollination methods, accelerated aging showed significant effect on seed germination, shoot length, root length, seedling dry weight, seedling vigour index, electrical conductivity of seed leachate and field emergence. Significant reduction in seed quality parameters was observed with the increase in the period of accelerated aging. Seed subjected to accelerated aging maintained a minimum of 90 per cent germination upto eight days of aging then after it declined below the minimum seed certification standards for germination. The genetic variability parameters with respect to growth traits viz., plant height, ear height, maturity traits viz., days to 50% pollen shedding, 50% silking and 50% dry husk, seed yield, yield components and seed quality parameters did not show any significant variability in maize open pollinated varieties due to pollination methods.Seed Science & TechThesis