THE NATURE OF SOME QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERS INHERITANCE IN BROAD BEAN (Vicia faba L).

Four varieties of broad bean (French, Syrian, Tewwtha and Babylon) were used in a complete diallel cross.Genotypes(parents and F1 hybrids) were sowing in college of agriculture and forestry fields at Hammam Al-Alil using randomized complete block design with three replications. The studied characters were plant height (cm), no. of days to heading and maturity, no. of branches per plant, leaf aera index , no. of stem nods ,no. of florets, pod setting ,pod length, no. of pods per plant, no of seeds per pod, 100 seed weight (gm) , seed yield (gm/ plant) and biological yield. The parents and F1’S were significantly different for all studied characters except heading date. General combining ability was significant for heading and maturity date, no. of branches , no. of node, leaf area index, pod length, no. of seeds per pod and seed yield, while specific combining ability was significant for all studied characters except no. of node , no. of florets and pod setting . Reciprocal effects exhibited significant differences for all characters except for heading date. A significant additive variance were found for all studied characters except 100 seed weight, while a significant dominance variance was detected for all characters except heading date, pod length, pod setting and no. of pods per plant . Broad sense heritability (H2) estimates were high for maturity date, leaf area index, no. of seeds per pod ,100 seed weight and seed yield, while narrow sense heritability (h2) estimates were low for all characters except maturity date, leaf area index, no. of pods ,pod length , no. of pods per plant and no. of seeds per pod.