Studies of genetic variability and correlation among morphological traits of maize (Zea mays L.) at seedling stage

The present investigations aimed to evaluate the genetic diversity and character association in twenty maize accessions at seedling stage. The experiment was laid out in completely randomized design and correlation analysis both at genotypic and phenotypic levels were practiced. Heritability estimates were used to determine the selection criteria under drought stress conditions. The higher magnitude of heritability and genetic advance were recorded for fresh shoot weight, fresh and dry biomass of seedlings. The significant genotypic and phenotypic correlations were found between root and shoot length, fresh and dry biomass of the seedlings. However, fresh shoot weight had positive association with fresh biomass of seedlings and dry root weight with dry biomass of seedlings. It was suggested that traits like fresh and dry biomass of seedling, root and shoot length may be used as selection criteriato obtain high yielding maize genotypes under normal and drought stress conditions.