Hill Plots for Preliminary Yield Evaluation of Doubled Haploids in a Barley Breeding Program1

Abstract

Fourteen dolbled haploids and six commercial cultivars of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) were grown at two locations in Ontario, Canada, in 1972 and 1973. The materials were planted in row and hill plots and were studied for grain yield, heading date, and plant height. The hill plots were seeded by three planting methods (jab planter, stove pipe, and hand hoe seeding) with three seeding rates (15, 25, and 35 seeds per hill) for each method. The combined analysis over locations and years showed that neither genotype ✕ planting method nor genotype ✕ seeding rate interactions were significant, indicating that genotypic responses in grain yield to different planting methods or seeding rates were similar. The coefficients of variation were relatively higher in the hill plots as compared to row plots but this was compensated for by the larger genotypic differences in the hill plots. Genetic variance among lines and heritability for grain yield were generally higher in hill plots. For both years, the genotypic correlation between row and hill plots, as well as the selection efficiency in hill plots. remained high, suggesting that selection of lines for conventional row planting through the hill plot technique would be efficient. Ten replications were found to be appropriate for testing barley in hill‐plot tests in Ontario.