Performance of Some Feed and Sweet Corn Varieties in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The performance of five corn cultivars including two hybrid feed corn, two hybrid sweet corn and one pureline sweet corn was observed in the spring growing season on an old cultivated soil in the Al-Hassa Oasis of Eastern Saudi Arabia. Intense heat, strong sunlight and low humidity prevailing in the middle of May caused slight injury to the newly emerged tassels and young leaves of Hawaiian Sugar but not to the other varieties. The optimum number of days to tasselling in Al-Hassa appeared to be in the range of 60 to 63 days from sowing. Leaf area indices of 3.5 to 4.1 and 4.8 to 4.9 might be adequate for achieving high yields for sweet corn and feed corn cultivars respectively. Hawaiian Sugar significantly outyielded other varieties in fresh stalks. In general, sweet corn produced fresh stalks of better quality than those of feed corn. Golden Cross Bantam gave a higher yield of fresh ears than the other two sweet corn varieties but the differences failed to reach a significant level. It appears, therefore, that Golden Cross Bantam is the most suitable variety of those tested for growing as a vegetable in the Al-Hassa Oasis. The dry grain yields of Tainan 5 and Tainan 11 both exceeded 8 tons per ha, showing that these two hybrid feed corn cultivars from Taiwan have great potential in the area. 本文係報告中華民國駐沙烏地阿拉伯王國農業技術團於民國64年春季比較兩個飼料用品種及三個甜玉米品種在沙烏地阿拉伯東部 Al-Hassa 綠洲之適應性試驗結果。甜玉米品種Hawaiian Sugar 較其他品種易受高溫強日照之為害。春作玉米在 Al-Hassa 地區最合適之抽穗日數約為60至63日，而有利於高產之葉面積指數甜玉米品種為3.5至4.1，飼料用品種4.8至4.9。 甜玉米品種之鮮莖產量以Hawaiian Sugar 最高，而其鮮穗產量則以Golden Cross Bantam 較高。由此可知 Golden Cross Bantam 為較適合於 Al-Hassa 地區栽培之甜玉米品種。飼料用玉米品種臺南5號與臺南11號之乾谷產量均超過每公頃8公噸水準，顯示此兩種雙雜交玉米在 Al-Hassa 地區均極具發展潛力。