ABSTRACT

Increase in the demand for watercraft in recent times has made farmers especially in urban areas, to go into its production in commercial scale and home gardening. Nevertheless, the production has hccn very low due to non-availability of characterized and improved planting materials. The similarity existing in the morphology of the land races presents a problem of choice and confines farmers to indiscriminate usc of l)0Or planting materials. Therefore, a field experiment was undertaken in 2002 at thc 'l'caching and Research farms of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Uniudike Nigeria, to characterize Talinum iriangulare land races and select F2 segregates for genetic improvement culture. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 4 replications. Each replication measuring 3.0 x 1.2 m contained z! rows with 10 stands each. Four land races obtained locally from different parts ol Abia State and Akwa Thom Stale were used and a total of 640 plants were riscd in a 12 x 12 rn field plot giving a plant population of 111,111 plants per hectare. The result showed that all the land races were cross compatible. Variance analysis indicated that phenotypie variability was significant at P>0.() 1 for final plant height, number of branches per plant, number of branches at flowering, clays to 50% flowering, number of leaves at flowering, number of leaves per plant, leal' area and shoots yield, except for basal clianicter and plant height at flowering. The resultant twelve F1 hybrids showed positive helerosis over both mid and better parents for number of branches per plant, while some were negative in other characters like final plant height, shoots yield and basal diameter. Selections based on final plant height, height at flowering, days to 50% flowering, basal diameter, number of branches per plant, leaf area, shoots yield would produce repeatable results because of their high heritability estimates. The result also showed that F2segregates formed from Ntokmfang-P1 , Ntc oka-P3 and Ikpo mfang-P4 parents would be useful in breeding for improved ilan1 height. number of branches, number of leaves and shoot yield.