Abstract
The germination characteristics response for some selected maize hybrids and their parental inbred lines were observed and evaluated in an in vitro trial. The aim of the study was to determine the differences within the performance of some hybridization pathways. Single cross (SC), double cross (DC) and three-way cross (TC) hybrids and their parental inbred lines were studied. The results showed that the germination of maize seeds started after the third day and completely germinated on the seventh day after sowing. Hybrids SC (F 1 ), DC (F 1 ), and TC (F 1 ) showed excellent germination performance with a 100% germination rate on the fifth day and produced the highest shoot and root lengths with 7.9 cm, 7.6 cm, and 6.9 cm (shoot length) and 12.9 cm, 13.9 cm and 14.9 cm (root length), respectively. Thus, the results obtained clearly show that the hybrid seeds have higher germination rate (100%), and the seedlings were more vigorous compared to the parents.