The aim of this work was to evaluate the recurrent selection efficiency for reduction of stature of the castor bean plants of the Guarani cultivar (Ricinus communis L.), turning it with appropriate strucuture to facilitate the manual and/or mechanic harvest. Four cycles of recurrent selection were accomplished through the utilization of self-pollinated progenies in the Guarani cultivar for reduction of plants stature, in edaphclimatic conditions of São Manuel-SP, Botucatu-SP and Penápolis-SP towns. The evaluations of plants stature and yield (kg.ha-1) of the four selection cycles and the original cycle (cycle 0) were accomplished in São Manuel-SP, Botucatu-SP and Penápolis-SP, under a randomized block design with five repetitions and useful parcels of 30 m². The analysis of variance for the characteristics plant stature and yield was made apart to each environment and together for the three environment and, afterwards one performed the average comparison by the Tukey test using 5% of probability. One estimated for the three environments, by the regression analysis, the genetic gains of the four selection cycles for plant stature. One concluded that the recurrent selection was efficient to the reduction of plant stature and that Guarani castor bean cultivar could create genetic variability for this characteristic and the yield was not influenced by the reduction of plants stature.
Castor bean; genetic variability; genetic gain; productivity; Ricinus communis
