It was assumed that the means of segregate and parental populations could be expressed in terms of the mean, additive and dominant effects. This assumption was evaluated through the individual scale test proposed by Mather, and the set scale test idealized by Cavalli, to the following characteristics: seed yield and plant height. The segregates were derived from crosses between two pure lines. The experiment was carried out in 1990, in field conditions at the Campinas Experimental Center of the Agronomic Institute in Campinas, State of São Paulo, Brazil. The results showed that the model was suitable to the seed yield but the same adjustment was not verified for plant height data. The estimation of dominant effect, calculated through the minimum square method, was nine times larger than the additive effect. These results open the prospects to the exploration of hybrid vigor in sunn hemp, since it is possible to control the polinization.
mean components; additive and dominant effects; heterosis; sunn hemp; Crotalaria juncea L