Correlation and causation studies in amaranthus (Amaranthus sp.)

Abstract

A correlation and causation study on 59 varieties of amaranthus belonging to pulling and the dual purpose types (grain types which can also be used for pulling)^ has been made. The three different facets of yield viz., plant weight, leaf weight and stem weight had similar type of association with morphological measurements. It was seen that while simultaneous selection for yield and leaf area is possible, characters like girth are strongly related with yield and a variety having high yield and thin stem cannot be evolved within the varieties under study. It was further seen that wide variability existed in the types indicating possibility for isolating promising selections. A plant type combining larger girth and larger height was a better ideotype among pulling types. Among the dual purpose types all characters influence yield only through girth, thus making a very high yielding variety thicker and consequently having a stem with mo'e fibre content. Tnis leads to the conclusion that higher yielding varieties are to be identified among the pulling types.