Semi-dwarf maize and method

A method of converting a normal inbred line of maize plants to a semi-dwarf line including the steps of:

• growing a first generation maize plant from first generation seed which includes a dominant semi-dwarf height allele, growing a first generation of maize plants from seed of a normal inbred line;
• causing pollination of one such first generation plant with the other to produce second generation seed;
• growing a second generation of maize plant from the second generation seed;
• crossing the second generation of maize plants with the first generation normal inbred line maize plants to produce third generation seed;
• growing third generation maize plants from the third generation seeds;
• eliminating the normal height maize plants from the third generation plants;
• self-pollinating the remaining third generation plants to produce fourth generation seeds;
• isolating the fourth generation seeds from each plant as a set from the remaining third generation plants;
• growing fourth generation plants on a segregated basis from seed from each set of isolated fourth generation seed;
• self-pollinating the fourth generation plants in the isolated sets which are of semi-dwarf height to produce fifth generation seeds;
• collecting the fifth generation seed from the sets of isolated seed whose segregated fourth generation plants are all of semi-dwarf height;
• and thereafter cyclically growing additional generation of plants from the thus collected fifth generation seed, self-pollinating such plants to produce additional seed from which additional plant generations are grown and self-pollinated to produce additional seed, etc. on a cyclical basis a sufficient number of times to produce final semi-dwarf seed of satisfactory homozygosity.