The objectives were to estimate variance, co-variance and heritability components of potato tuber shape and fresh weight and the correlation among these traits in the early generations of selection. Seed and harvested tubers of nine progeny were evaluated for length, larger and smaller diameter and fresh weight. In average, the tubers were lengthy, because the relationship between lenght with larger diameter was 1.30 and with smaller diameter was 1.51. High heritability estimations were gotten for progeny selection, and low heritability for clone selection in the progeny. Heritability estimations got from correlation between generations were high and similar to progeny mean estimations. The tuber shape and fresh weight traits were highly correlated. The breeding gain can be maximized combining the selection among and within progeny to early discard undesirable clones.
Solanum tuberosum L.; genetic variance; selection gain; potato breeding
