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Performance of Diallel Crosses and Second Generation Synthetics of Alfalfa Derived from Partly Inbred Parents. II. Earlines and Mortality¹

In an alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) breeding study conducted under conditions of high competition between plants, combining ability for earliness and mortality was evaluated from diallel crosses among selected parents, which had been partly inbred by selfing. The performance of first and second generation synthetics was also studied. For both earliness and mortality (percentage of blooming or dead plants, respectively), general combining ability (GCA) was considerably larger than specific combining ability (SCA) for all generations of parental inbreeding (S₀, S₁, S₂, S₃, and S₄). GCA and SCA increased with the level of inbreeding. Significant correlations were noted between earliness and yield, between mortality and yield and between earliness and persistence. At each level of parental inbreeding the single crosses with the greatest forage yield were also the earliest and the most persistent. Syn 2 generation synthetics had the same response pattern.

Key Words: Autotetraploid • Competition • Inbreeding • Medicago sativa L. • Selection • Winterhardiness • Persistence

² Director of plant breeding section, Istituto Sperimentale per le Colture Foraggere, Lodi, Italy.

Received for publication April 19, 1976.