Inheritance of Heading Date and its Association with Plant Height and some Qualitative Characters in Barley

The mode of inheritance of heading period was studied in two crosses of E. 406 with C.I. 2210 and G.I. 2256 using parental, F₂ and F₃ data. E. 406 is a late maturing variety while C.I. 2210 and C.I. 2256 are early and medium maturing varieties respectively. Epistatic genes of complementary nature governed the inheritance of heading period in both the crosses and showed dominance of lateness. Members of the polygene systems governing heading date showed some association with leaf blade roughness (Brl brl) and independent inheritance from N n Lk Ik R r, G₂ g₂, Eh eh and P p. The genotypic phenotypic and environmental correlation coefficients between plant height and heading date were non-significant indicating that individual plants combining short plant height and early maturity could be isolated from segregating populations.