IMPROVEMENT OF SOME SUNFLOWER TRAITS BY HONEYCOMB SELECTION

O. Janno, Francis

	IMPROVEMENT OF SOME SUNFLOWER TRAITS BY HONEYCOMB SELECTION
The Iraqi Journal of Agricultural Science
Article 1, Volume 39, Issue 5, 2008, Pages 13-28
Author
Francis O. Janno
Abstract
To investigate the effect of honeycomb selection in improving crop grain yield , field trials were undertaken for five seasons on the farm of Dept. of Field Crops, Coll. of Agric./Univ. of Baghdad during 2005-2007. The sunflower Akmar cv. was used. Seeds were planted in the first three seasons using honeycomb design of 1.3 m between furrows and 1.5 m between plants. Parameter used for selection was, head area. Desired plants were selected, tagged and selfed for three cycles. Seeds then taken, mixed, planted and hand cross-pollinated (panmixia). The resulted seeds were planted for yield trial along with original population. Plant leaf area of selected sunflowers increased from 0.78 to 1.15m² under planting population of 60,000 p/ha. This increase was reflected on head area that increased from 294 to 435 cm², growth rate from 2.87 to 3.38 g/plant/d, plant dry matter from 309 to 395g and seed/head from 1370 to 2118. This implies that system capacity constant (SCC) was significantly improved. This selected population yielded 6.92 t/ha compared to 4.41 t/ha of the original population when planted at 80,000 p/ha. Value of heritability for trait used was 45.3% for head area after 2 cycles of selection. It was clear that additive gene action has improved SCC of selected plants. It was recommended to use honeycomb method to develop cultivars of high vigour better than those developed by conventional selection.

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