Yield potential assessment of different Iranian sesame landraces under various levels of Iron in Jiroft

In order to evaluate yield potential of different genotypes of sesame under different levels of Iron and determine the most effective traits on yield, an experiment was carried out as split plot based on randomized complete block design in Jiroft during 2008. Treatments consisted of three levels of iron (chelat 138) (0, 5, 10 kg.ha-1) as the main factor and genotypes of sesame (Markazi, Shahrbabak, Birjand, Dezfoul, Jiroft, Sirjan, Gorgan, Ardestan and Orzooieyeh landraces) as the sub factor. Traits such as plant height, number of stems/plant, number of pods/plant, number of pods/main stem, pod length, number of seeds/pod, 1000-seed weight, seed yield, biological yield and harvest index were studied. According to the results of analysis of variance, genotypes were significantly different for all the traits and Jiroft genotype was considered as the best one for cultivation in this region. Fe had no significant effect on the studied traits except 1000-seed weight. Since the interaction of fertilizer and genotype was not significant too, it was concluded that the fertilizer did not have effective role on the yield of the studied genotypes. Seed yield showed highly significant, positive correlation with plant height, pod length, number of seeds/pod, 1000-seed weight, number of stems, biological yield and number of pods/plant. Based on path analysis, number of seeds/pod had the highest positive direct effect on plant yield indicating that this trait can be considered as a criterion for improving seed yield in sesame breeding programs.