RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN INITIAL SEED WEIGHT AND MATURE PLANT CHARACTERS IN SPRING WHEAT

Abstract

For each of the three spring wheat cultivars, Pembina, Thatcher, and Manitou, the weight of approximately 900 seeds from 30 randomly selected heads was recorded. These seeds were grown to maturity in the field and mature plant characters associated with yield were recorded. Simple and partial correlation coefficients as well as multiple regression formulae were calculated for all traits. The size of the individual seeds planted was shown to account for 2.5 to 4.5% of the observed variations in yield and other mature plant characters, including the number of heads produced per plant. Head number was the most important component of yield.