Broad sense heritability estimates were obtained for two plant densities (100 and 400 plants/m 2 ) and seven combinations of crossing for main culm height, main spike length, number of fertile spikelets in the main spike, number of fertile culms per plant, kernel number and weight of the main spike, average spike and of the whole plant, and 1000-kernel weight.
The differences in heritability estimates between different plant densities for main culm height were from 0.003 to 0.238, for main spike length from 0.011 to 0.193, for kernel weight of the main spike, average spike and of the whole plant from 0.012 to 0.421, for 1000-kernel weight from 0.018 to 0.469, for kernel number of the main spike, average spike and the whole plant from 0.009 to 0.405, for the number of fertile spikes 0.075 - 0.58 and for the number of spikelets from 0.052 to 0.221 depending on crossing combinations. Estimates for the traits in individual crossings indicate larger differences between densities, and in some combinations the estimate hardly changed at all.
The largest difference in estimates between plant densities was found for kernel number and weight per plant (0.311, 0.252), and the smallest for yield per average spike (0.067), and for the number of spikelets (0.073). The largest heritability estimate in both plant densities was obtained in the combination Ana x Balkan and Ana x Dukat, and the smallest value in both plant densities was obtained in the combination Ana x Sivka.

qantitative traits; heritability; seeding rates; wheat

Published by University of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagreb, CROATIA
Sponsored by Ministry Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia