The present work was conducted aiming to estimate genetic parameters associated with traits of importance to carrot breeding, including: number of leaves per plant (NL), length of the longest leaf in the plant (LL), root length (RL), root weight (RW), root diameter (RD), and xylem diameter (XD). This experiment was carried out during the rainy summer season (1999/2000) using 69 half-sib families derived from cultivar Brasília. Progenies were evaluated using a complete randomized block design with two replications and 2 m² plots, with four 20-plant rows. The broad-sense heritability (h a²) values ranged from 29.9% (for RD) to 77.6% (for LL). Genotypic, phenotypic, and environmental correlations displayed a large variation in magnitude with the highest genotypic correlation (0.85) being observed between the traits RW and RD. Negative genotypic correlation was observed between RL and XD, which indicates that the development of new cultivars suitable for processing as baby-carrots is feasible using populations derived from cultivar Brasilia. High negative environmental correlation values were obtained between the traits RW and XD, as well as between RD and XD. This information would be of extreme importance aiming to optimize the selection process when using segregating populations derived from the tropical-adapted cultivar Brasilia.
Daucus carota; genetic parameters; heritability; genetic correlation; summer cropping
