Heritability of yield components in common vetch (Vicia sativa L.)

One of the most effective ways of crop improvement is by evaluating promising accessions in the target environments for yield and adaptation. In this study 150 accessions and two cultivars of common vetch ( Vicia sativa L.) collected from different agro-ecological regions and countries were studied to evaluate heritability and correlations among 13 agromorphological traits. Experiments were carried out in the Akdeniz University, Faculty of Agriculture experimental fields located at the Mediterranean coastal region of Turkey in 1997 - 2000. Seed yield strongly correlated with straw yield. A moderate positive correlation was observed between seed yield and number of seeds per plant, spring vigour, and number of pods per plant. Heritability for 1000-seed weight, number of podding nodes, harvest index and number of days to flowering were higher than other traits. Results in this study demonstrated that seed yield of common vetch could be improved by bulk selections based on number of days to flowering, harvest index, number of podding nodes and most importantly on 1000-seed weight traits by selecting the promising accessions.