| Abstrakt: |
Currently popular maize hybrids were compared with open-pollinated varieties grown in die Southeast prior to 1940 for susceptibility to preharvest aflatoxin contamination. Parallel planting were made of 4 hybrids and 8 varieties at 8 locations, most located in the Southeast, in both 1979 and 1980. The test ears, dried immediately after picking, were examined for insect damage (1980 only) and the ground, shelled kernels analyzed for aflatoxins. Aflatoxin incidence and levels were positively related to location and crop year, but not to genotype, except for one variety that was significantly more susceptible to aflatoxin contamination than the others. There was no correlation of aflatoxin occurrence with either drought stress or maximal temperature during the period between flowering and harvest, but insect damage did correlate to some extent with the severity of contamination in 1980 both in relation to genotype and to location, except for the one location (Florence, SC) at which the most severe contamination was encountered. The severity of contamination at this location could not be explained by any of the known or hypothetical factors that have been developed. |
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