Yield components in beans, as addected by intercrossing and neutron irradiation

Abstract

With one or two cycles of recurrent hybridization, with or without neutron irradiation, improvements in selection for high yield and high yield components appear possible through a notable increase in variability and averages. Irradiation itself was not effective in this regard.

In all treatments, the number of pods per plant (X) constituted a good index of grain yield (W). In hybrids but not in the parents, W was significantly correlated with the number of seeds per pod (Y) and with seed weight (2); however, the correlation coefficients were very

low. The XY and XZ correlation coefficients were also highly significant and relatively low, with the XY coefficients showing a tendency to decrease with hybridization and with irradiation. Considering the high heterogeneity and the reduced magnitude of their correlation coefficients, Y and Z did not appear to be closely correlated.