Twenty determinate cowpea accessions incorporating considerable phenotypic variability were grown in replicated single rows in a field experiment. Data for growth attributes was recorded at 27 days and around flowering at 49 days. Yield components and seed yield were measured at maturity. Exploratory regression analyses were used to relate seed yield to growth attributes and yiels components at a plot level to obtain information. which would suggest possible strategies in plant selection programs using single row plots. Within each line seed yield was related to total number of pods and to forage yield. Additional knowledge of other attributes did not provide further information about seed yield. In all but two lines yield per pod, harvest index and yield per geometric mean of total number of pods and forage yield, which we designate the geometric yield efficiency index, were independent of the size of plants in a plot and had low variability. Because of their low variability these quantities may be the useful indicators of seed yield of corpea when evaluated in small plots.
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