Variability, heritability and association of some characters in upland cotton (gossypium hirsutum l.)

A field trial was conducted at the Gezira Research Farm, Wad Medani for two consecutive seasons (2003/04 and 2004/05) to study the variability, broad-sense heritability, genetic advance and associations with respect to seed cotton yield, some of its components and some fibre properties in fourteen cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) genotypes. The trial was arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replications. Significant differences were obtained among the fourteen genotypes for all studied characters; namely, plant height, number of boIls per plant, boIl weight, seed cotton yield per plant, seed index, lint index, seed cotton yield and lint yield. The genotype x season interaction was significant for all studied characters, except lint index, indicating that genotypes performance was different in the two seasons. Genotypic variability was more than the environmental variability for number of boils per plant, boIl weight, seed index, seed cotton yield and lint yield. Moderate and moderate to high heritability estimates coupled with high genetic advance were obtained for number of boIls per plant, boil weight, seed cotton yield per plant, seed index, seed cotton yield and lint yield indicating that selection for these characters could be effective. At both phenotypic and genotypic levels, seed cotton yield was positively and significantly correlated with number of boIls per plant, seed cotton yield per plant and lint yield. It was negatively and significantly correlated with boil weight and seed index and negatively and non-significantly correlated with plant height and lint index. The associations of seed cotton yield with 2.5% span length, micronaire value and fibre bundle strength were non-significant. Therefore, improvement of seed cotton yield can be made through selection for number of boils per plant and seed cotton yield per plant