Change of the flowering pattern as a formula of success in pea breeding aimed at increasing the early ripeness and the yielding capacity of peas

Relevance. Most of the pea varieties used in the production of canned vegetables have similar morphological structure of the stalk: shortened internodes, their limited number and location in the upper part of the stalk. The deficiency of such plant architectonics is the limitation of yielding capacity in relation to small number of yielding nodes, yielding capacity instability, and high degree of affliction by plant diseases. The production of pea varieties having an increased number of yielding nodes will allow changing the relation between the nonproductive and reproductive parts to the advantage of the latter.Methods. The pea varieties from the collection of bean cultures laboratories of the Federal Scientific Vegetable Center were used as the research varieties. The main method of work was intervarietal hybridization with subsequent single plant selection. In 2018-2019 the selected lines were seeded in a nursery with an area of 7 m2 . The forms with changed flowering pattern (Pervenets, Ranniy 28-11, Wenson) and the most yielding early and midseason varieties (Dakota, Ranniy Gribovsky 11, Voronezhsky Zelyony, Korsar, Orus, Viola, Zelyonaya Strela, Quartella) were used as parent components. The selection was performed on the basis of the following features: changed flowering pattern, the number of yielding nodes, the number of legumes on a node, as well as the length of a bean and the number of seeds in a legume. A finometer was used for the determination of the green pea hardness.Results. Sample 50-4-19 having a relatively low number of yielding nodes (6, 9) had the highest characteristics and was considerably superior to all the other samples by its yielding capacity during the first and the second harvesting periods (7.24 and 9.55 tons per hectare). The selection of the early forms with the changed flowering pattern and the shift of the attraction centre to the 2nd or to the 3rd node allow carrying out breeding aimed at increasing the early ripeness and the yielding capacity of peas.