Associations among rubber yield and secondary traits in juvenile rubber trees progeny

Early selection for yield in robusta coffee based on juvenile growth traits

“…to the findings in our study, Shaw and Hansen (1993) found that vegetative traits scored at the nursery stage could be used to improve yield in a strawberry breeding programme. Also, our findings concur with those of Souza et al (2017), who showed that rubber yield was significantly correlated with traits related to vigour which could therefore, be used for indirect selection to shorten the breeding cycle. Also, similar observations were made in cocoa (Padi et al, 2012) and kola (Akpertey et al, 2017), where varieties with poor juvenile phase growth rate were found to have poor yields.…”

“…Genotypes with high early seedling vigour are expected to establish faster, by maximising the use of available water, nutrients and solar energy. Souza et al (2017) found a significant correlation between tree vigour and yield, and posited that vigour could be used for indirect selection for yield in a rubber tree breeding programme. In cocoa, Lachenaud and Montagnon (2002) studied differences in vigour of individual trees in full-sib families and observed that high coefficient of variation in tree-to-tree bean yields were related to differences in tree vigour.…”