Variability and character association for various floral characters in wheat [Triticum aestivum (L.) em Theil.]

Abstract

Wheat [Triticum aestivum (L.) Theil.] production in the north-west plains zone has reached to a saturation level and to break the yield barriers, new innovative approaches are needed for which development of wheat hybrids is one of the most promising techniques. In this regard, knowledge about the variability and character association between floral characters is crucial. An experiment was conducted with the objective of studying the extent of variability present in some wheat genotypes for various floral characters and correlation between these floral characters. For the study 92 CPAN (Coordinated Project Accession Number) genotypes of wheat were taken from the wheat germplasm maintained at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. These genotypes are basically exotic genotypes that are acclimatized to the Indian climate. These genotypes were sown in randomized block design with three replications for two consecutive years with plot size of double row of 3m length. The data were recorded for eight floral characters in following manner and analyzed to work out the variance [1], coefficients of variability [2], heritability in broad sense [3], genetic advance and correlation coefficients [4].