Estimation of character association and direct and indirect effects in pea (Pisum sativum L.)

Abstract

The associations of yield and its components offer important information in breeding plants. The study was carried out at Horticulture Research centre (HRC) of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, UP during 2016-17.The experimental material comprised of 20 table pea germplasm and laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications to determine the association of yield and its components. The association was analyzed by correlation coefficient, and further subjected by path coefficient analysis to estimate direct and indirect effects of each character on pod yield. Five competitive plants from each plot were randomly selected for recording observations for all the quantitative characters except days to 50 per cent flowering and days to maturity, which were recorded on plot basis. In present study a strong and positive association of seed yield per plant observed with Days to 50% flowering, Number of first fruiting node, Length of first fruiting node, Number of pods per plant and Number of seeds per pod at both genotypic and phenotypic level. Thus, these characters emerged as most vital component traits and associated positively with pod yield per plant. Path analysis revealed that number of pods per plant followed by length of first fruiting node and width of pod had positive direct effect on pod yield. The results of this study suggested that the these characters were important characters that should be taken into account as selection criteria in improving pod yield of the vegetable pea.