HONEY: A Microcomputer Program for Plant Selection and Analyses of the Honeycomb Designs

Abstract

Selection in honeycomb designs, as it has been applied until now, is time consuming, subject to errors, and very difficult to apply when selection pressure is strong. Thus, a QBASIC computer program called HONEY was developed for honeycomb plant selection and analyses. The user may enter and edit data using the program. The program prints the arrangement of entries for the honeycomb design. Using the moving circle of selection, it prints the coordinates (row number and position in the row) of the high yielding plants and their yield. The user may select the desired selection pressure from a table appearing on the screen. The program gives the rank of the means of entries, the number of replications, the standard deviation, and the coefficient of variation. Following the selection process, an analysis of variance table is printed. HONEY runs on IBM‐PCs and compatible machines with 80286 or higher CPU and 640K RAM, running the PC‐DOS or MS‐DOS operating system.

The effect of low plant density on response to selection for biomass production in switchgrass

“…A plant was selected (or not) based on of superiority or inferiority considering an 18-plant moving-ring average [(z/z)×100] given by a computer program (Batzios & Roupakias, 1997), where z is the yield of any plant andz is the mean yield of its 18 surrounding plants within the moving ring ( Figure 1). Border plants were evaluated with a lower selection pressure since the moving ring was incomplete.…”

Temporal and spatial variation of flowering among Pinus nigra Arn. clones under changing climatic conditions

“…The honeycomb selection methodology (Fasoulas, 1973(Fasoulas, , 1980(Fasoulas, , 1988Fasoula and Fasoula, 2000) and the honeycomb designs (Fasoulas, 1973(Fasoulas, , 1993Fasoulas and Fasoula, 1995;Batzios and Roupakias, 1997), are based on the hexagonal arrangement of the plots in the field and on the principle of the moving replicate (Fasoulas and Fasoula, 1995). The moving hexagonal replicate ensures that every entry occupies the center of a complete hexagon shaped replicate, while the number of different entries tested in the moving replicates can range from 3 to 243 (Fasoulas, 1973(Fasoulas, , 1988Fasoulas and Fasoula, 1995;Batzios and Roupakias, 1997). In this way, it was ensured that each ramet of a certain clone of the seed orchard occupied the center of a hexagonal moving replicate and was surrounded by the rest 59 different genotypes (ramets per clone), minimizing in this way the risk of selfing and its detrimental effect on the seed crop.…”

Gene Action and Plant Breeding

“…The first allocation allows reliable selection among entries, while the second allows reliable selection of superior plants within selected entries. Movingring conversion in percent of single-plant yields, being computerized (Batzios and Roupakias 1997), saves time, adds precision, and allows efficient selection within entries. 9.13 by the replicated-19 honeycomb design.…”