Variations in some morphological and yield characteristics of mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek) cultivars introduced into the rain-forest agroecology of Southeastern Nigeria

Abstract

In an effort to increase the legume base of the people, mungbean (Vigna radiata (L) Wilczek) was introduced into the agro-ecology of southeastern Nigeria. During a field evaluation of mungbean cultivars at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria, nine (9) plants were observed to differ in some vegetative and reproductive traits. The plants were consequently protected and their seeds harvested for further investigations. The progenies of the 9 genotypes and 2 mungbean cultivars (NM-92 and NM-94) were further evaluated in the screen house at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria. Data on the peduncle and vine lengths, days to 50 % anthesis, growth period, pod maturity period, pod length, number of seeds pod-1, number of pods plant-1 and 100 seed weight and subjected to analysis of variance using the unbalanced treatment procedure. In terms of the morphological characteristics, variation can be said to have occurred with regards to: growth habit (length of vine), vine hairiness, petal and seed coat colours. Results however show that Genotype-6 and Genotype-8 resemble the NM-92 and NM-94 cultivars in nearly all the attributes measured. Variations among the cultivars have also been observed in the aspects of: pod
yield per plant, pod and peduncle lengths, seed weight (g/100 seeds) and number of seeds per pod. Further studies are however ongoing to establish the genetic evidence of this phenotypic differences.