CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

In peach breeding, suitable identification methods for performance stability studies as well as the asso-ciations between stability parameters are poorly understood. Therefore, the aims of this work were tocompare parametric (S2ij, bi S2xi, Wi, 0i and Ii) and non-parametric (S(1)i, S(2)i, S(3)i and Pi) stability measures,evaluate the level of association among them, select superior accessions and identify major environmen-tal variables as causes of yield variation among years. Fruit yield stability was studied using data of fruityield from 25 peach genotypes under three environments, arranged in a completely randomized designwith three replications. Frosts, chilling, heat, rainfall and the interactions among them were consideredas explanatory variables of yield variation through years. Crossover was the main effect of genotype-by-environment interaction indicating that the selection of high-yielding and stable peach genotype wouldbe a laborious task for breeders. The interaction between rainfall and heat accumulation during fruitdevelopment period explained 96.7% of yield variation among years. Yield (Yi) exhibited negative cor-relation with Wi and 0i, while Wi showed negative association with Pi. S(1)i, S(2)i, and S(3)iwere positivelyassociated with each other, showing that just one of these three statistics would be sufficient to selectstable accessions although they were not correlated with Yi. Fruit yield was positively correlated withPiand Ii, these two measures were also positively associated with each other, and therefore, only one ofthem would be enough for selection of superior peach accessions. Both, Piand Iistatistics revealed thataccessions Sunprince, Flameprince, María Aurelia, Vega, Starlite and Flavorcrest were the most stable andhigh-yielding genotypes across environments.