VARIATION AND CORRELATION OF ECONOMIC CHARACTERS IN CHICK PEA IN NORTHERN KULUNDA

Abstract

Results are given from long-term field trials on studying the effect of hydrothermal conditions on variation and correlation between agronomic characters in chick pea (Cicer arietinum L.) under conditions of the steppe zone of Western Siberia (Bagan, Northern Kulunda). As a result of studying features of yield formation in Krasnokutskiy 123 cultivar of chick pea were revealed close direct correlations between moisture availability in July and the height of plants (r = 0.97), the height of lower beans (r = 0.90), the number of empty bean pods (r = 0.81). Excessive moistening adversely affected seed formation, because such a character as thousand-kernel weight inversely correlated with the hydrothermic coefficient of July (r = - 0.86). There were established stable positive correlations between the weight of seeds in the plant and the number of pods (r = 0.78-0.97) and the number of seeds (r = 0.95-0.98) with no reliable correlations with the height of plant. Economic characters of chick pea are characterized by significant variation across years, where the number of empty bean pods and the number of affected seeds are the most variable characters: variation coefficients were 105.7% and 98.4%, respectively. Breeding of chick pear under conditions of Western Siberia for increasing resistance to excessive moistening during the flowering stage in July will contribute to improved seed setting and large size of seeds.