Seven experiments of corn cultivar competition were carried out to quantify the experimental precision improvement by evaluating border plants at the ends of rows of corn trials. The experiments were conducted during 2000 and 2001 grown seasons at the experimental area of the Fitotecnia Department, Federal University of Santa Maria, RS, Brazil. Each cultivar was replicated three times in plots of two rows of 5.0m separated by 0.80m following a randomized complete block design. The 0.5m of the ends of the same plot rows was considered as border plants and was separated evaluated. Data on grain yield of plot and total yield including border plants were used to verify the statistical model presuppositions as well as the analysis of variance and Scott-Knott cluster analysis. The Tukey least significance difference (LSD) statistic was used as experimental precision indicator. The significance of the LSD statistic between two experiments was tested by the F test. All experiments followed the statistical model presuppositions. The inclusion of border plant data did not change experimental precision of corn cultivar's competition trials.
quality; precision; Zea mays; Scott-Knott
