The purpose of this work was to estimate the effect of the ear number per plant, number of seeds per ear, seed weight, size of the ear and spikiest number per ear in relation to the grain yield through its correlation coefficients and its decomposition by the path analysis. The genotypes were obtained through the advances generation in the years from 1999 to 2001, using two sowing dates per year, in the warm and cold season, in the field and in green-house conditions, at the Federal University of Pelotas, RS. The experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design with five replications. The characters spikiest number for spike and hectoliter weight were identified by the path analysis, as being the one of high potentiality for selection of superior genetic constitutions for seed yield seeds.
productivity; seed filling; variability
