Analysis of the heterosis of plant height at different
developmental stages
Unconditional heterosis
The analysis of unconditional heterosis of plant
height (Fig. 3-A) showed that the materials in the two
groups both had positively significant or extremely
significant mid-parent heterosis (HMP) and heterosis
over the better parent (HBP) at different developmental
stages. For example, HMP decreased gently at beginning
and then increased in the first group, but it increased
throughout the developmental stage in the second
group. HMP reached the maximal values of 17.00% and
21.28% at S7 in the first and second groups, respectively.
These indicate that HMP increased with the plant
development and reached the maximum at maturity.
For HBP, in the first group, it fluctuated slightly at the