Variation and Covariation in Agronomic and Malting Quality Characters in Barley. II. Interrelationships of Characters.1

Abstract

Correlations between all possible pairs of 8 agronomic and 9 malting quality traits were calculated from a population of 102 random lines of the F4 generation from an intervarietal malting barley cross. A strong positive correlation between head erectness and lodging should prove useful for selection purposes, since head erectness can be determined in th absence of differential lodging. Plump barley was negatively correlated with barley color and positively with malt extract. Extract was positively correlated with bushel weight and the wort N/malt N ratio. Beta amylase was positively associated with diastatic power and the beta/alpha ratio. Diastatic power and beta/alpha ratio were positively correlated. Alpha amylase was positively correlated with the wort N/malt N ratio. Alpha and beta amylases were not correlated, indicating that these two traits are independently inherited.Grain yield exhibited no really large correlations with any of the other traits, indicating that it should be possible to select for most quality traits without seriously reducing yield.Correlations among three malting quality and two agronomic traits were compared with published reports by other workers.