General, Specific, Maternal, and Reciprocal Effects on Seed Set in a Diallel Cross Among Eleven Clones from Buffalo Alfalfa1

A diallel cross including reciprocals was performed on 11 random clones of Buffalo alfalfa to investigate seed set differences. Seeds/pod, seeds/flower, and percentages of flowers forming pods were measured for each cross and reciprocal. A diallel analysis was performed for each of these characters. Significant general, specific, and maternal effects were detected for each character. Significant reciprocal effects were detected for seeds/flower and percentages of flowers forming pods. Specific effects made the largest contribution to variance for seeds/pod and seeds/flower. General effects were the largest contributor to the variance for percentages of flowers forming pods. The combination of effects found in this study could be used more efficiently with hybrid than with synthetic varieties.