Relationships between Oil and Grain Yield with Morphologic Traits in Single Cross Hybrids of Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.)

Grain and oil yield in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) are quantitative traits, which are products of interactions between numbers of traits. Thus, evaluation of different traits and their relationships are important to the researcher. In this study, important agronomic traits and their relationships in sixteen single cross hybrids in a randomized complete block design experiment with three replications were investigated during 2009 at the Research Station of Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch. Result indicated that all of the morphological traits except ratio of kernel/achen, area of the flag leaf and hull weight per head were significant at 5% probability levels. Mean comparisons showed that hybrids including 8(CMS322×R2) and 13(CMS346×R56) possessed promising traits such as seed and oil yield, 100-seed weight, head diameter, stem diameter, total number of seeds per head, ratio of kernel/achen, day to flowering, the number and area of leaf to include in breeding programs. The result also showed that correlations between grain yield and with other traits such as growing period length¸ day to physiological maturity and stem diameter¸ head diameter¸ number of seeds per head and number of filled seeds per were head positive and significant at 5% probability levels.