Journal of Crop Production and Processing

In order to evaluate the morphological and agronomic characteristics of 19 land races of onions and one foreign cultivar (Yellow Sweet Spanish), an experiment was conducted in 1998 at the Research Farm of the College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology.

 Analysis of variance showed significant differences among genotypes for all of the morphological and agronomic traits. Dry weight and number of days to emergence had the highest and lowest coefficients of genetic variability, respectively. Plant fresh weight, yield of 30 plants and total yield also had high coefficients of variability. Broad sense heritability estimates were high for all of the traits, indicating low environmental affects them. Based on cluster analysis and plot of the first two canonical variables, the genotypes were classified in four groups with different agronomic traits. Canonical discriminant analysis based on nine agronomic traits introduced three canonical variables which justified 99.9 percent of the total variation among characters. Principal component analysis revealed four components while factor analysis showed three factors which explained 87.3 and 95.5 percent of the total variation among characters, respectively. The first and second factors were related to adaptation and assimilate translocation, respectively. Bulb diameter, bulb height and bulb weight in positive directions and sensitivity to Fusarium in negative direction had greater loads in the third factor.