Secondary characters and their association with latex yield in Hevea brasiliensis(Mull Arg.)

Abstract

Ten Hevea clones developed at the Rubber Research Institute Of Nigeria (RRIN) and a control clone RRIM 600 were evaluated for their latex yield after six months of tapping. The mean dry latex yield recorded for each clone was correlated with their Juvenile secondary characters i. e Height, Girth and Plant Vigour at 18 months. Significant variability was exhibited by the clones in terms of yield with clone C 83 having the highest mean latex yield of 42.15 g/t/t/ while clone C 202 had the least mean yield of 22.73 g/t/t. The secondary characters i. e Hewight, Girth and Vigour were significantly positively correlated to themselves but all negatively correlasted to latex yield. However a spurious correlation was established between latex yield and the secondary characters. The implication of the results are discussed