The maturity rating of maize (Zea mays L.) grown in Galicia (Northwest
ern Spain) varies from FAO 200 to 600. Later germplasm has usually too
much moisture content in the kernel at normal harvesting time so seri
ous problems with storing could appear. Besides, farmers have tended t
o use earlier varieties in the last few years. All this imposes limita
tions on the amount of germplasm available to develop varieties adapte
d to this area. To study the possibility of adapting late, exotic mate
rial to the environment of the Atlantic coast of Galicia we carried ou
t six cycles of individual selection on two non-adapted populations of
maize (Purdue A and Purdue B). The criterion of selection was early s
ilking and the criterion of response was moisture content of kernel at
harvesting. The original populations and the populations obtained aft
er each cycle of selection were crossed to the hybrids CM105 x CM109 (
tester Reid) and H99 x H95 (tester Lancaster) and were evaluated in fo
ur environments to study the efficiency of the selection scheme. There
were significant reductions in days to silking (6.1 and 6.7 days from
cycle 0 to cycle 6 for Purdue A and Purdue B, respectively) and grain
moisture at harvesting (3.0 and 3.9% from cycle 0 to cycle 6 for Purd
ue A and Purdue B, respectively). There were also reductions in plant
height and yield in both populations. In general, the crosses 'populat
ion x Lancaster' were higher for yield than the crosses 'population x
Reid'. Yield of the population crosses by both testers decreased after
the six cycles of selection probably because of the earlier maturity
of the selected populations. Some inbreeding depression may also have
occurred.