Abstract
Research was conducted to define the characteristics of common buckwheat in the Kyushu area by using local and breeding varieties containing various origins and ecotypes. In 1995, summer cultivation was researched, and the results showed the need to develop a new variety that has a short growing period and resistance to pre harvest germination for summer cultivation in the Kyushu area. As a result of autumn cultivation, by the use of 3 years data from 1995 to 1997, the differences in years and variety were indicated to be statistically significant for all agronomic characters. It seemed that the characters of productivity, however, such as total weight and grain yield, were influenced easily by environmental effects. On the other hand, there were high year-to-year correlations of morphological characters, such as plant heights, number of nodes, and 1, 000-grain weights, showing that these characters were indicators of varietal characteristics. It was indicated that big growing characters are advantageous for obtaining high grain yield. These genetic resources showed varietal differences, depending on their origins. Especially, the native varieties of the Kyushu area had a long growing period and high grain yield, showing that they were suitable ecotypes for growing in that area.
