TY - JOUR AU - O. Serhiienko AU - Z. Linnik PY - 2022/07/18 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - LEVEL OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHARACTERISTICS OF WATERMELON COLLECTIONS JF - Vegetable and Melon Growing JA - VMG VL - 0 IS - 71 SE - Articles DO - 10.32717/0131-0062-2022-71-16-24 UR - https://vegetables-journal.com/index.php/journal/article/view/329 AB - The aim. To establish the relationship between the main valuable breeding traits (length of the growing season, productivity indicators, disease resistance, and product quality) to further selection of a strategy for breeding improvement of genotypes. The object – 101 collectible varieties of watermelon. Methods. General scientific, measuring and weighing, calculation, chemical, statistical. Results. There was held the study of the principles of formation of correlation pleiads in collectible varieties of watermelon after three years of research. Thus, in 2018 the correlation graph was divided into two groups of traits that formed clusters: correlation pleiad of the interdependence of yield components, disease resistance and dry soluble matter content of watermelon collectibles, and correlation pleiad of interdependence. In 2019 there was a slightly different picture of the manifestation of correlations in the collection of watermelon varieties. All correlations were also divided into two groups, but there wasn’t observed a clear separation of the components of the growing season from the components of yield. In 2020 the graph was also formed from two correlation pleiads, the first of which was formed with the most features and contains all the features of the components of the growing season (1-10), marketability (15), dry soluble matter content (19) and separate signs of resistance to diseases. It should be noted that there was established the moving of the sign "marketability" from the constellation of components of productivity (2018 and 2019) to the constellation of components of the growing season in 2020. At the same time, resistance to disease is separated by all years of research as well as the content of dry soluble matter in the fruit. The second pleiad was formed from only with five traits (11-14 and 16). Conclusions. It is established that the signs of the components of the growing season usually form clusters, a group with small exceptions depending on the conditions of the year. Similarly, the signs of the components of the yield form a separate cluster group with small exceptions depending on the conditions of the year. Signs of disease resistance are separated from others with a weak connection to the signs - 8 (flowering of female flowers - tying the fruit), 15 (marketability), and 13 (overall productivity) with a strong relationship with each other throughout the years of the research. The attribute "dry soluble content" (19) was also separated from others with a weak connection to the attributes - 1 (stem formation), 5 (stem formation - flowering of female flowers), and 15 (marketability). Therefore, the research results established the level of relationships between breeding traits, their grouping, and the level of dependence of the direction of their manifestation on cultivation conditions, which will more effectively develop a strategy for selective improvement of collection varieties of watermelon to further creation of initial forms including heterosis selection. ER -