CORRELATIONS BETWEEN YIELD AND SEVERAL TRAITS IN A SET OF WINTER PEAS CULTIVARS

Pea (Pisum sativum L.) has long been an important component of the human diet, providing an excellent source of protein. Twenty four winter peas cultivars of different origins were tested, along with one spring cultivar, under conditions of South-eastern part of Romania, during 2017-2019 period. The objective of the study was to analyze correlations between yield and several plant traits, and to assess possibilities of combining high yield with suitable winter hardiness, earliness, protein content and thousand grains weight (TGW) in lines selected in the National Agricultural Research and Development Institute (NARDI) Fundulea breeding program from crosses between winter and spring cultivars. Statistical analysis showed that environment (years) was the most important driving factor for the studied agronomic traits. Nevertheless, differences among cultivars were significant when tested against the GxE interaction, for all traits, except winter hardiness, the latest maturing cultivars ( originated from USA) yielded less under studied conditions, but the correlation between vegetation period and yield was positive for European cultivars and Fundulea lines. Our results suggested that the most winter hardy cultivars had smaller grains. Yield and TGW had a highly significant negative correlation with protein content when the two American cultivars were included, but the correlation was not significant in the European cultivars and Fundulea lines. Some winter peas lines, derived from winter x spring crosses, combined high yield with good levels of winter hardiness, earliness TGW and protein content.