Assessment of heritability and identification of suitable hybrids for late sowing in sugar beet

Abstract

In order to assess short vegetation period of sugar beet hybrids, an experiment was carried out in 2009 in randomized complete block (RCB) design with 4 replications in Abdolrasoul Motahari Agricultural Research Station of Sugar Beet Seed Institute, Karaj, Iran. In this research, the heredity of the traits in test crosses of 18 half sib families accompanied by a short vegetation period check variety under late sowing condition (about late July) was evaluated. ANOVA results showed that hybrids populations 3, 9, and 16 had significant difference with other populations and also with check variety for most quantitative and qualitative traits. Testcross 3 was considered suitable for short growth period which was comparable with a commercial variety. For morphological traits (such as leaf number and crown height) and some impurity traits (such as sodium and extraction coefficient of sugar) broad sense heritability was high. For root yield, sugar yield, and white sugar yield it was about zero. Root yield had significant positive correlations with sugar yield, white sugar yield, root diameter, and crown height and had a significant negative correlation with sugar content.

Keywords

• breeding for short vegetation period
• heritability
• late sowing
• root yield
• water deficit