Reproductive Plasticity Strategies: Flex Ear Vs. Prolificacy.

The ability to maintain the relationship between yield and resource availability under different growing conditions (i.e., the reproductive plasticity) is a desirable trait for unpredictable environments. Reproductive plasticity could come from changes in ear size (ear flexibility) or in the number of ears per plant (prolificacy). The objective of this work was to evaluate yield and yield components for two Argentinean commercial hybrids with contrasting reproductive plasticity related strategies (i.e. flexed-ear) under different levels of resources availability per plant  (i.e., planting density: 2.5, 5.0 and 100 pl m^-2). The experiment was conducted under non limiting conditions at Balcarce, Argentina in 2012-2013 growing season. The results showed that the reproductive plasticity was higher for the prolific hybrid. These findings would be useful to understand yield differences among hybrids cultivated at low plant densities at marginal environments.