Assessment of Agro-Morphological Traits of Common Bean Genotypes Grown Under Organic Farming Conditions with Multi-Variate Analyses and Applications

Among the edible legumes, the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) has first place in the world in terms of production quantity and plays a great role in human nutrition. There is an ever-increasing interest in organically-grown foodstuffs, especially by dieticians and conscious consumers who wish to consume chemical residue-free products. This study was conducted in the 2018 and 2019 growing seasons under organic farming conditions without any chemical inputs to determine agro-morphological traits of 16 registered common bean cultivars and 4 local genotypes. Experiments were conducted in randomized blocks design with 3 replications. For agro-morphological traits, plant height (PH), first pod height (FPH), number of branches per plant (NBP), number of pods per plant (NPP), number of seeds per pod (NSPO), number of seeds per plant (NSPL), seed yield (SY), 100-seed weight (100-SW) and seed protein content (PC) were investigated. Experimental data were assessed through multi-variate analysis methods. Correlation analysis revealed the greatest positive correlation between NPP—NSPL (r = 0.8851) and the greatest negative correlation between NSPL—100 SW (r = −0.6118). In principal component analysis (PCA) the first principal component (PC1) axis had NSPL, NPP, NSPO, FPH and 100-SW parameters and explained 41.28% of the total variation. The first 3 principal components explained 76.29% of the total variation. Hierarchical cluster analysis, performed to determine genetic relationships among the genotypes, revealed 5 main clusters and Güzelöz genotype alone formed the 5th cluster. The greatest genetic distance of cultivars was encountered between Adabeyazı—Aras cultivars (6.963) and the greatest genetic distance of local genotypes was seen between Güzelöz—Aras genotypes (4.944).