Determination of yield and agronomic traits and correlation analysis in F3 soybean crosses

This study was conducted under the ecological conditions of İzmir-Bornova in 2019 to assess certain agronomic traits of F3 generation soybean hybrids and to find selection criteria for the early generation. The experiment, established using a randomized complete block design with three replications, evaluated 12 soybean hybrids alongside three control cultivars. Observations were made for grain yield, plant height, first pod height, days to flowering, days to maturity, thousand-grain weight, number of pods per plant, and grains per pod. Results showed that the hybrid lines A1337 x A38 (4879.8 kg ha⁻¹) and Tüm 15-2 (4877.7 kg ha⁻¹) had higher yield potential per hectare than the control cultivars and other crosses. The highest first pod height was observed in the A1337 x A38 line (14.89 cm), while the Tüm 15-4 line had the highest thousand-grain weight (198.04 g). The Tüm 15-1 line (119.3 days) stood out for earliness. According to correlation analysis, the number of pods per plant and the number of days to flowering positively affected the grain yield. However, since strong correlations (r≥0.5) could not be obtained in these hybrid populations, selection criteria could not be determined.