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Research Article |

Characters Association Study of Tea (Camellia sinensis) Clones Using Morphological Markers in South West Ethiopia

In order to choose high yielding cultivars, it is crucial to understand the complex quantitative character of tea yield and how it is influenced by traits that are related to yield. On experimental plots installed in RCBD with three replications, the study was carried out during the 2017–2018 cropping season. Number of days between medium pruning and the first harvest, height to the first branch, stem diameter, leaf serration density, leaf width, leaf size, petiole length, leaf ratio, internode length, shoot length, number of shoots, canopy diameter, hundred shoot weights, and fresh leaf yield per tree are just a few of the morphological traits that were recorded. Leaf length, leaf width, the number of days between medium pruning and the first harvest, leaf size, and hundred-shoot weight all showed positive and significant correlations with tea yield. The results of a path coefficient analysis showed that leaf size (p=0.783) had a positive direct effect on the yield of fresh tea leaves, whereas leaf length, leaf width, height to the first branch, the number of days between medium pruning and the first harvest, and the weight of a hundred shoots had a negative direct effect. Leaf size had positive direct effects on fresh tea leaf yield per plant. The phenotypic correlation between fresh tea leaf yield per plant and leaf size was both positive and significant, supporting the claim that correlation explains true relationships and indicating the importance of these traits for direct selection to increase tea yield.

Association, Morphological Path, Correlation Coefficient, Tea

Mohammedsani Zakir, Lemi Beksisa, Melaku Addisu. (2023). Characters Association Study of Tea (Camellia sinensis) Clones Using Morphological Markers in South West Ethiopia. Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, 12(6), 180-185. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.aff.20231206.12

Copyright © 2023 Authors retain the copyright of this article.
This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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