Stability Analysis of Sunflower Hybrids Through Non-Parametric Model

Abstract

An investigation was carried out at the experiment plots of the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding. Main Research Station. University of Agricultural Sciences. Hebbal, Bangalore, India, to assess the stability of fifteen newly developed sunflower hybrids along with four checks across four seasons using a non parametric stability model for simultaneous selection of high yielding and stable hybrids. Highly significant mean squares due to genotype × environment interaction suggested differential performance of hybrids across the four seasons for all the characters except plant height, stem diameter, head diameter and test weight. Hybrid 9 was found to be highly stable for five characters. viz., plant height, volume weight, oil content, oil yield and earliness. Apart from this hybrid, hybrids 4 and 11 were stable for three characters, viz., head diameter, seed yield and oil yield. Another hybrid, number 5, was also stable for seed and oil yields. © 2004, by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston. All rights reserved.