Screening Winged Bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus (L) DC) Accessions Using Agronomic Characters

Aim: This research aimed at screening winged bean accessions using morphological characters.

Study Design: The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design and replicated three times.

Place and Duration of Study: The experiment was carried out at the Teaching and Research Farm, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso situated on longitude 8°7' N, latitude 4°14' E, and at altitude of 323.5 m above sea level.

Methodology: Seeds of thirty-eight accessions of winged bean were obtained from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan and were evaluated. Data were collected on germination count at 2, 3 and 4 weeks after planting (WAP), days to first and 50% flowering, days to first and 50% podding, top leaflet length, petiole length, secondary vine lengths at 8 and 9 WAP, pod length, and number of seeds per pod and were subjected to analyses variance.

Results: Accessions exhibited significant (P≤0.05) variation for flowering and podding dates, petiole length and top leaflet length. Days to first flowering varied from 68 to 114 days after planting (DAP) with an average of 76 days while days to 50% flowering ranged between 78 and 121 days with a mean of 83 days. Number of seeds per pod varied from 7 to 15 seeds per pod among the accessions with a mean of 12.5 seeds per pod while pod length varied from 12.3 cm to 25.6 cm with a mean pod length of 22.2 cm. Accessions TPT 26 and TPT 32 were consistent for early flowering and high seed yield and are therefore recommended for further adaptation and nutritional trials.