Clonal stability of latex yield in eleven clones of Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg.

Eleven Hevea brasiliensis clones were evaluated for clonal stability of latex yield. A randomized complete block design was used with four replicates, two locations, seven years and three periods per year. Stability analysis was based on clone x year and clone x year x location interactions. Five stability parameters viz environmental variance, shukla's stability variance, regression of clonal latex yield on environmental index, variance due to regression and variance due to deviation from regression were applied. There was significant clone x environment effect at the two levels of interaction. Among the eleven clones, C 162 was outstanding for clonal stability and it can serve as donor parent for stability alleles. Three clones (C 76, C 150 and C 154) were also stable. The four stable clones (C 76, C 150, C 154 and C 162) are suitable for broad-spectrum recommendation for latex yield. Five clones (C 83, C 143, C 163, C 202 and RRIM 600) will require environment-specific recommendation because of their unstable phenotype. The stability feature of two clones (C 145 and C 159) was not clear and this will be investigated in subsequent studies.