PHENOTYPIC CHARACTERIZATION OF VEGETABLE SOYBEAN ((GLYCINE MAX (L.)) GERMPLASM ACCESSIONS

Vegetable soybean, commonly known as edamame, is a special type of soybean.While fresh pods are economic harvestable products, fresh immature beans are consumed as vegetables.Breeding for vegetable soybean is still in its infancy.Exploiting natural genetic variability is a short-term strategy to meet the immediate cultivar needs of farmers.Based on this premise, 116 vegetable soybean germplasm accessions, along with two check varieties, were evaluated for fresh pod and seed yield and their component traits during the 2019 kharif season.Based on fresh pod yield and days to 50 % flowering a total of 18 high-yielding genotypes selected from these 116 germplasm accessions were evaluated for both fresh bean and dry seed yield in replicated trials during the 2019-20 rabi season.The results indicated substantial variability, as evidenced by the standardized range and phenotypic coefficient of variance (PCV).Fresh bean yield of the genotypes was higher during the rainy season than during the post-rainy season.Most of the traits under study performed similarly across the two seasons, as indicated by the significant correlation coefficients among them.These results are discussed in relation to strategies for breeding vegetable soybeans.