The objective of this research was to determine the number of environments (experiments) that were necessary to identify the diversity in common bean cultivars (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), by cluster methods based on productive, phenologic and morphologic traits. Thirteen common bean cultivars were evaluated in nine experiments conducted in Santa Maria, in Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil (latitude 29°42'S, longitude 53°49'W, altitude 95m) in the agricultural years of 2000/2001and 2004/2005. Randomized blocks design with three replications was installed to evaluate the following characters: grain yield, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, weight of 100 grains, final population of plants, number of days of the emergency to flowering, number of days of the emergency to harvest, height of first pod insertion, height of the final pod insertion and degree of the down. In the central depression region of Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil, seven and six experiments are sufficient to identify the diversity in common bean cultivars, by hierarchical methods of the Ward and optimizing Tocher, respectively, for productive, phenologic and morphologic traits.
Phaseolus vulgaris L.; Mahalanobis distance; genetic diversity
