Inheritance of Earliness, Yield and Yield Components in Dry Bean

This study was conducted in research facilities of Horticulture Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Egypt during the period from 2022 to 2023 to study the inheritance of some dry bean economic characters. Three dry bean cvs., viz, DB 435, Giza 6 and Nebraska were chosen to produce two crosses and their reciprocals. Straight crosses were DB 435 × Giza 6 and DB 435 × Nebraska. Seeds of P1, P2, F1, F1r and F2 populations of two crosses were cultivated on March 2, 2023 in a randomized complete block design. Results indicated that over-dominance or complete dominance were estimated for the high parent in all studied traits. Positive heterosis over the better parent was detected for most studied traits, implying the presence of additive gene action involving these traits. High or moderate broad-sense heritability was recorded for all traits, indicating that these characters could be used as suitable criteria for selection and improving dry bean in breeding programs except the trait number of seeds/pod which gave low heritability. Results indicated that selection for dry yield per plant trait could be substituted by number of pods/plant and average seed weight traits.