HERITABILITY ESTIMATES AND CORRELATION STUDIES OF EARLY MATURITY AND OTHER AGRONOMIC TRAITS IN 2 CROSSES OF PEANUT (ARACHIS-HYPOGAEA L)

Knowledge of heritability and correlation among traits is important in determining the effectiveness of direct and indirect selection. The o bjective of this study was to determine the potential effectiveness of selection for early maturity, and seed size, in two peanut crosses (N C 7/Chico and 73-30/Chico) by estimating the heritability for each tra it and the correlations among the traits. Both narrow sense heritabili ty and broad sense heritability estimates were fairly high for seed we ight, maturity index, and pod length in both the crosses. Broad-sense heritability estimates were much greater than parent-offspring regress ions and were biased upward due to nonadditive genetic effects and gen otype x environment interaction. The results suggested that selection for early maturity, seed weight, and pod length could be practiced in, early segregating generations. Correlations of maturity with shelling percentage were positive and highly significant in both crosses but c orrelation between maturity and seed number was positive and significa nt in cross 1 (NC 7/Chico). Maturity was negatively correlated with po d length and seed weight in cross 2. The highest positive and signific ant correlation was found between pod length and seed weight.