Stability analysis of fruit yield of some olive cultivars in semi-arid environmental condition

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate yield stability of 12 Iranian and foreign olive cultivars in Dalaho Olive Research Station during 2006-2008. According to the variance analysis, significant variation (p<0.01) was observed between cultivars and years. Classification based on Duncan (p<0.05) showed that Konservolia was superior variety and Sevillano, Koroneiki and Zard were placed in the second group. Cultivars were divided into 3 groups based on cluster analysis using Ward method. The first principal component of the interaction between olive cultivars and the year’s show 69.25% of the variance and was statistically significant at 1% level based on AMMI analysis. According to regression coefficient (bi) deviation from regression (S2di), Wricke’s ecovalence (Wi), coefficient of determination (Ri2) and Shukla’s stability variance (δi2) methods Mission and Zard had the higher stability. According to the AMMI stability (ASV) ranking, the following cultivars were the most stable, Mission, Amigdalolia and Koroneiki, while the most unstable were 'Konservolia', 'Sevillano', 'Roghani', 'Arbequina' and 'Abou-Satal'. 'Konservolia' even showed the lowest stability but its stability in all parameters was significantly different in terms of performance. Generally 'Konservolia', 'Sevillano', 'Koroneiki' and 'Zard' were appropriate for fruit yield and will be introduced for breeding programs in semi-warm climate.