A BREEDING STUDY TO DEVELOP EARLY MATURING SOYBEAN CROSSES SUITABLE FOR DOUBLE CROPPING

The present research was undertaken to evaluate of soybean hybrids environmental interaction and adaptability on Mediterranean region conditions. Seven advanced (F7) soybean cross breeding lines (KB-67, KS-39, KS-14, KS-12, KS-11, KS-10, KS-2) selected from the Kunitz x SS-201 and Kunitz x Bert crosses populations based on earliness and yield characteristics in the preliminary trials and three soybean varieties (Bravo, Nova and Arisoy) were tested in the trial in four replications in 2017 and 2018 according to the randomized blocks trial design. The analysis of variance revealed significant variations for all characters. According to research findings the yield of lines and varieties 2017 and 2018 varied from 1008.38-1567.13 kg ha-1 and 1018.94-1367.00 kg ha-1 respectively and KS-39 advanced soybean line had the highest grain yield in terms of two years’ average. The highest plant height (95.55 cm) was obtained from KS 11 and the lowest plant height (78.80 cm) from BRAVO variety. According to the two-year average data, KB-67 (129.62 pods per plant) and KS-39 (114.70 pods per plant) lines were the genotypes with the highest number of pods in the plant. The number of flowering days varied between 32.50 days and 36.75 days according to the two-year averages, and the KS-12 genotype was the earliest flowering genotype. The lines KS-10 (103.38) and KS-12 (103.50) came to the fore as the genotypes with the earliest maturation days. Among the lines tested in the experiment, KS-11 in terms of plant height, KS-14 in terms of first pod height, KS-14 in terms of 100-seed weight, and KS-39 in terms of the number of seeds per pod were the lines that showed the best performance.