Stability analysis in safflower (Carthamus tinctorious L.)

The experiments were carried out at College of Agriculture, Indore in rabi season for consecutive three yearsviz., 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 with 28 genotypes of safflower. The observations were recorded on days to 50%flowering, days to maturity, plant height, branches/plant, capitula/plant, seeds/capitulum, hull content, 100-seedweight, seed yield/plant and harvest index. Analysis of variance revealed highly significant differences amonggenotypes for all the characters during all the three years. Non-significance of chi-square value suggested that theerror variances were homogenous for all the traits under study. Pooled analysis indicated that the genotypes andenvironments differed among themselves and the genotypes showed differential performance over varyingenvironments i.e., years/locations. The stability analysis as per the Eberhart and Russell model suggested theexistence variability in the experimental materials and all the three environments differed significantly amongthemselves. Genotype x Environment (linear) was significant for days to maturity, number of capitula/plant andharvest index suggesting that the predictable portion of G x E interaction was more pronounced for the expressionof these characters. The pooled deviation was significant for number of branches/plant, plant height, number ofseeds/capitulum, hull content, 100-seed weight, days to maturity, number of capitula/plant, seed yield/plant andharvest index indicating the predominance of unpredictable portion of G x E interaction for the expression of thesecharacters. Stable performance was exhibited by genotypes JSI-124 and JSI-135 for seed yield/plant and JSI 134for earliness in maturity.