Correlations of upland cotton within‐boll yield components with fiber properties in breeding populations with improved fiber bundle strength

Abstract A diverse population of 239 genotypes across 18 families plus five control populations (released genotypes) were evaluated for HVI fiber traits, yield components of S/B (average number of seeds per boll) and LP (lint weight divided by the seed cotton weight), and within‐boll yield components of SSA (cm 2 of surface area per seed), L/S (lint weight per seed), L/SSA (lint yield per cm 2 of seed surface), F/S (number of fibers per seed), and F/SSA (number of fibers per unit area of seed surface) at College Station, TX in 2019, 2020, and 2021. This total population of 244 genotypes across 3 years provided 774 observations. The dataset was evaluated on a family basis and it was determined that it varied significantly across HVI fiber properties and yield components. HVI fiber properties were within normal ranges reported widely in the literature except fiber bundle strength (FBS), of which 11 families averaged higher values than the control families. For upper half mean length (UHML), several experimental families averaged longer UHML than the shorter control family but not different than the longest control family. Fewer differences were observed in the yield components, although those values were similar to values previously reported. Spearman's correlations were calculated for LP, S/B, and HVI fiber properties and the within‐boll yield components of SSA, L/S, L/SSA, F/S, and F/SSA. Results indicated that the negative associations of SSA, L/S, and L/SSA reported earlier for FBS did not exist in this population and that the r values for FBS with F/S and F/SSA were reduced and explained less than 3% of the variation in FBS.