Maturity of potato seedlings in the greenhouse and their later behavior in the field

Summary

Significant differences in the mean number of days to maturity was obtained between families of seedling potatoes in the greenhouse. Progenies from crosses involving the early varieties matured more quickly than those from the late varieties. The coefficient of correlation for maturity between greenhouse and field was. 56. The variance for interaction of families with locations was no greater than that obtained for error. This result indicates that in this experiment early and late families reacted the same for maturity in the greenhouse as they did in the field. A study of maturity in the greenhouse and field, with seedlings comprising four families, furnished additional evidence of an association in maturity between the greenhouse and field. The observations indicate that maturity in the greenhouse, when combined with field observations, may increase the reliability of the estimate of the breeding value of a parent for quick maturity.