CORRELATION STUDIES IN HALF SIB FAMILIES OF THIRD CYCLE OF RECURRENT SELECTION IN SAFFLOWER (Carthamus tinctorius L.)

Abstract

The investigation was undertaken to study the association of various characters for half sib families to yield and yield
attributing traits with an aim to select genotypes for developing population in next generation. Sixty plants having sufficient seeds
were selected for evaluation and sown in augmented block design with AKS 207, Bhima, PBNS-12, A-1 and PKV Pink as checks.
Observations were recorded on days to 50 % flowering, days to maturity on plot basis and plant height (cm), number of primary
branches plant-1, number of capitula plant-1, number of seeds per capitulum, 100 seed weight (g), seed yield plant-1 (g) and oil
content (%) on plant basis. The correlation between days to 50% flowering and seed yield plant-1 was negative and significant
indicating breaking of linkages. It also indicated that unfavourable gene combination can be broken by recurrent selection
methods. In the study, in the safflower random mating population, seed yield plant-1 was significantly correlated with plant height
(0.422**), no. of primary branches plant-1 (0.585**), number of capitula plant-1 (0.523**) and number of seeds per capitulum
(0.27*). This indicated the importance of these traits while developing population for next generation.