Agronomic evaluation and web blight resilience of common bean genotypes in the littoral region of Ecuador

Abstract

Common bean is very important in the daily diet of Ecuadorians. Web blight (Rhizoctonia solani (Kuhn)is the major constraint faced by common bean farmers in Ecuador and everywhere in the world, causing high losses of yield grain every year. A constant selection of genotypes with excellent productive and resilience to disease features in each region is presented as a potential solution to these problems. The present study aimed to evaluate the phenology, web blight resilience and grain yield production of 17 common bean genotypes in field conditions, in the Guayas River Basin, Ecuador. Three commercial varieties (two belonging to determined feature and one to undetermined feature) and 14 more promising genotypes were evaluated. Day period for phenological stage R 6 (full bloom) and R 9 (flowering maturity), web blight resilience, number of harvested pods, number of grains per pod per plant, 1000-seed weight, grain yield and later yield per hectare were measured. Scott Knott test (p ≤ 0.05) was executed for mean comparisons and principal component analysis (PCA) statistical test was performed using the productive and agronomical variables, successfully distinguishing two group of genotypes according to their types of growth (determined and undetermined), highlighting the genotypes EVG- 6-103, EVG-6, CAL-96, INIAP-473, AFR-619, INIAP-474, AFR-298, SER-29, SER-35, EVG-16-08 which showed the higher agronomic, sanitary, and productively averages in approximately all the studied variables.