Inheritance of plant height and maturity in sorghum. II. Complex inter-relations among height, maturity and their common components

A five-parent complete diallel analysis indicated that internode number was the major component of flowering date (r = 0.95), while internode length was the major component of height (r = 0.96). The association between height and earliness (r = 0.76) is seen in terms of control by the height and earliness genes of the components associated with both characters (internode number and length, penduncle length and panicle length), the final balance between these common components determining the height and earliness of the material. Since the common components generally had contradictory influences on height and earliness, it is thought advisable to breed for optimum (rather than extreme) height and earliness in order to achieve maximum yield. [See also PBA 49, 2656]