2.3 Statistics
The analysis of variance in flowering dynamics (i.e., tasseling, shedding, silking, ASI), yield, KN/ear, and TKW were performed using SAS Statistics 9.4. The significant differences between different maize inbred lines were compared using the least significant difference test (LSD) at P < 0.05, 0.01, 0.001. Variance Partitioning Analysis (VPA) was conducted to calculate the relative contributions of sowing date, inbred line, and residual factors to yield parameters with R language lme4 package. Correlations between the daily maximum temperature (DMT), solar radiation (SR), rainfall (RF), flowering dynamics, KN/ear, TKW, and yield were performed with correlation plot of Originpro 2021.