Abstract:

Studies reviewed and reported herein showed that single plant selection can be used to improve simple characters such as plant height pods per plant and pod clusters/plant. For the complex characters such as seed yield and protein content phenotypic recurrent selection was more effective. Tall, indeterminate plant types performed best under non-stress water conditions where secondary growth was not affected. The short cultivars, however performed well during both seasons since they escaped the pest population build up at the end of the seasons. Under water stress conditions high population levels (up to 110,000 plants/ha.) with more square arrangements were suitable for tall and short plant types but under non-stress conditions low populations (40,000 plants/ha.) with wide spacings were more suitable for the tall cultivar due to the extra growth. Both population and spacing had little or no effect on yield components