FIELD PERFORMANCE, EAR CHARACTERISTICS, AND SENSORY EVALUATION OF WHITE SWEET CORN VARIETIES

Field performance, ear characteristics and sensory ratings were determined for `Even Sweeter,' `Fantasia', `Silver Queen', `Silverado', `Snow Belle', `Snow White', `Starshine', and `Treasure' sweet corn varieties. Yield ( P = 0.60), ears per hectare ( P = 0.77), and ear fill ( P = 0.22) were not significantly affected by variety, whereas ear set height ( P < 0.01), ear length ( P < 0.01) and diameter ( P < 0.01), tip cover ( P < 0.01), eye appeal ( P < 0.01), as well as sensory ratings of appearance ( P < 0.01), sweetness ( P < 0.01), and flavor ( P < 0.01) after cooking were. None of the selected varieties was rated unacceptable. However, because mean separation tests at the 5% and 10% levels did not provide clear groupings and because all attributes have to be considered together in variety evaluation, a global performance index (GPI) was developed by adding the ranks of each variety for each attribute. GPI ranged between 28 for `Treasure' and 59 for `Snow White' on a 10 (best) to 80 (worse) scale. `Treasure', `Silver Queen', and `Even Sweeter' were above average. These varieties may be considered best performers for white sweet corn production in central Alabama.