Base temperatures and degrees days development of 10 Mexican corn accessions

Abstract

The temperature variation of a place is a function of the elements and factors of the climate, which are altered to a greater or lesser extent by climate change, which is a challenge to determine the periods of thermal growth, optimum sowing for various crops by region. Based on the above, the objective of this study was to determine the base temperature (Tb) and the degree days development (GDD) of the sowing to flowering (male and female) for 10 accessions of corn that are protected in the Germplasm Bank of CIMMYT. The information was collected and analyzed (duration in days (t) of the periods of Sowing to Flowering and its respective average temperature) of different field experiments of the field stations (Agua Fria, Puebla and Tlaltizapan, Morelos) of the years 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013. Which was adjusted to a linear model by linear regression between the development rate (1/t) and the average temperature of the period. The GDD were estimated by accession with the ratio 1/α where α is the parameter of the regression and Tb. The results indicate that Tb varied from 7.1 to 13 °C for male flowering and 5.4 to 12.1 °C for female flowering with an accumulation of GDD between 880 and 1696 male flowering and 1115 to 1860 female flowering, which allows to characterize the accessions evaluated in order of highest to lowest precocity: Chis337, Yuca91, Vera617, Yuca158, Yuca47, Vera616, Vera64, Vera623, Snlp277, Hida275, confirming that knowing the agroclimatic requirements of crops allows selecting regions that favor growth , development, reduction of losses and increase yields as well as preserving the genetic variability of the species