TY - JOUR AU - Hepperly, Paul R. AU - Wessel-Beaver, Linda AU - Cardona-Castro, César PY - 1989/04/01 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Mycoflora and germination of maize seed JF - The Journal of Agriculture of the University of Puerto Rico JA - JAUPR VL - 73 IS - 2 SE - Articles DO - 10.46429/jaupr.v73i2.6411 UR - https://revistas.upr.edu/index.php/jaupr/article/view/6411 SP - 115-125 AB - <p>Six populations of hard endosperm opaque maize were evaluated with 2 local normal maize populations at Lajas and Isabela, Puerto Rico, from March to May 1983. Corn entries were either i) inoculated with pink mold at 7 to 10 days after anthesis, ii) sprayed with benomyl at the same date and 14 days thereafter, or iii) not treated. Insect damage, caused mostly by corn earworm (<em>Heliothis zea</em>), and visible mold were assayed on cobs before shelling. Shelled seeds were surface-disinfected and planted on potato dextrose agar for assay of germination and internally seed-borne mycoflora. At Lajas 6.3% of the cob area showed earworm damage, and 3.8 kernels/cob had visible mold. Natural infection with pink mold was high (53.8%), and seed germination was low (68.6%). At Isabela, 0.1% and 8.3 kernels/cob were damaged by earworm and molds, respectively. Seed germination was high (93.9%) at Isabela and incidence of internally seed-borne pink mold was low (17.2%). The dominant fungus at Isabela was <em>Cephalosporium acremonium</em> (32.8%). Seeds infected with this species were exceptionally vigorous and lacked root discoloration typical of seedlings infected by the other fungi. Ear-silk inoculations increased seed-borne pink mold infection by 25% at Lajas and over 100% in Isabela. Incidence of moldy kernels was also increased by inoculation. Ear-silk application of benomyl in field plants did not reduce seed-borne infections by fungi. The same treatment increased earworm damage. Percentage earworm damage over both sites was 4.4, 3.0, and 2.1% for the benomyl, nontreated, and pink mold inoculated treatments, respectively. Benomyl applied directly to corn seed controlled all major corn-seed molds except <em>Curvularia lunata</em>, a benomyl-tolerant species. Higher visible seed mold was found in modified opaque corn (cv. White H. E.) than in the other entries. A local flint corn (cv. Mayorbela) suffered the least damage from both visible mold and insects. Among the hard endosperm opaque populations, Amarillo Dentado QPM-2 showed the best visible seed quality.</p> ER -