Selection of artichoke plants and analysis of correlation between quantitative traits for fresh consumption

Abstract

The goals of the present study were to evaluate and select artichoke plants suitable for fresh consumption and to establish correlations between quantitative traits. Clones from 39 accessions were obtained from the germplasm collection of the University of Passo Fundo and evaluated for 17 quantitative and 3 qualitative traits. Data on quantitative traits were subjected to analysis of variance followed by a Tukey test at p<0.05 to compare averages, and correlations were analyzed using the Pearson product moment correlation coefficient. Significant differences were observed for 9 of the 17 quantitative traits analyzed, and 10 of the 39 accessions presented higher values for some of those traits than the remaining tested accessions. Significant correlations were observed between several traits and the capitulum yield, which makes indirect selection easier. For the qualitative traits, nine accessions were selected that presented circular head, violet colored bracts and absence of thorns, which are desirable traits for fresh consumption.