Short communication. Assessing relationships between seed yield components in spring-sown field pea (Pisum sativum L.) cultivars in Bulgaria by correlation and path analysis

Abstract

An analysis was carried out during 2007-2009 on nine spring-sown Bulgarian and Ukrainian field pea cultivars. Strongest positive phenotypic correlations were observed between number of fertile nodes per plant and numbers of pods (r = 0.97) and number of seeds per plant (r = 0.97) and between number of seeds and pods per plant (r = 0.94); between seed weight per plant and number of seeds (r = 0.83) and fertile nodes per plant (r = 0.77). High genetic correlations were found between plant height and first pod height (r = 0.89), between number of pods per plant and seed weight per plant (r = 0.91) and number of seeds per plant (r = 0.96) and between seed weight per plant and number of branches per plant (r = 0.92) and number of fertile nodes per plant (r = 0.89). The strongest and direct positive effect on seed yield was found in branch length (17.70), 1000-seed weight (5.92) and number of seeds per pod (4.93). The highest positive indirect contribution was in branch length to number of seeds per pod (2214.8), number of fertile nodes per plant (1258.0) and number of seeds per plant (708.70). Based on the trait association and the path coefficients for seed yield and its components, it can be concluded that field pea breeders should pay attention to traits such as branch length, 1000-seed weight and number of seeds per pod when selecting high-yielding genotypes in field pea.