Correlations for yield and specific gravity between potato tuberling and second year field generations

Abstract

Individual hills of one 50-hill plot from each of 24 randomly chosen tuberling families were harvested in 1988 and 1989. Within each 50-hill plot, five hills were selected based on horticultural characteristics, such as shape, size, smoothness, and freedom from defects to form the population selected for horticultural characteristics (HC). From the remaining 45 hills, the five highest specific gravity hills were selected to form the population selected for specific gravity (SG). The HC and SG populations from 1988 and 1989 were planted in a randomized complete block design with two replications of six hills in 1989 and 1990, respectively. There was a significant positive correlation for yield and for specific gravity between the tuberling generation and the second year field generation in both 1988–89 and 1989–90. There was no correlation between yield and specific gravity in the second year field generation in either the SG or HC populations for 1989 and 1990. In selecting within the second year field generation on the basis of horticultural characteristics, a clone from the HC population was 1.9 and 1.7 times more likely to be selected in 1989 and 1990, respectively, than a clone from the SG population.