Resumo

MENDEZ-NATERA, J. R.. Determination of correlation and path coefficients among vegetative and productive characteristics of cashewnut cultivars (Anacardium occidentale L.) at Madakkathara, Kerala, India. Rev. Fac. Agron. [online]. 2003, vol.20, n.4, pp.401-416. ISSN 0378-7818.

The objectives of this present study were to determine the associations among nut yield/tree (NYT) and three vegetative characteristics of trees: mean canopy (MC), shaft circumference (SC) and tree height (TH) and three characteristics of edible parts: nut weight (NW), apple weight (AW) and AW/NW ratio and to determine direct and indirect effects of these characters on the NYT. The correlation coefficients were calculated using the means of three replications of an experiment with 18 cashewnut cultivars with four trees/cultivar. The probability level was: 5% (*) and 1% (**). The NYT was correlated negatively with AW (-0.645**) and the AW/NW ratio (-0.522*). NW was positively correlated with AW (0.812**). AW was associated positively with AW/NW (0.642**). The MC was related positively with SC (0.560*) and TH (0.607**). SC was correlated positively with TH (0.592**). The other correlation coefficients were not significant. The path coefficient analysis indicated that the characteristics that more directly affected NYT were: AW (-1.761) and NW (0.985), the other four characteristics had direct affects inferior to the residual effect (0.689). These results indicate that increments of nut yield/tree can be obtained by selecting heavier nuts and lighter apples, on the other hand, the three vegetative characters of tree showed very low direct effects on the NYT (< 0.186) and they did not show any significant association with it.

Palavras-chave : Cashewnut; Anacardium occidentale; path coefficient analysis; correlation.