RELATIONSHIPS AMONG GROWTH PATTERNS, YIELD COMPONENTS AND YIELD OF RAPESEED

Abstract

Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) cvs. Nugget, Oro, and Target were observed in the field on a single plant basis to evaluate the number of days to growth stages, rates of development, yield components, yield and their interrelationships on an intravarietal basis. Almost all of the significant correlations between yield components were positive. High correlations between vegetative yield and seed yield indicated that plant size was the major determinant of seed yield per plant. The partial correlations with seed yield (holding vegetative yield constant) indicated that the number of pods on the main raceme, and number of secondary and tertiary racemes are major contributors to yield. The negative correlations between earliness of growth stages and yield components indicated that growth characters associated with earlier maturity were associated with higher yield.