DIVERGENCE AND CHARACTER ASSOCIATION STUDIES IN SNAKE GOURD (Trichosanthes cucumerina L.)
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Date
2018-07
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University of Horticultural Sciences, Bagalkot. (KRC College of Horticulture, Arabhavi).
Abstract
The investigation on “Divergence and character association studies in Snake
gourd (Trichosanthes cucumerina L.)” was conducted in the field of Vegetable Science,
Kittur Rani Channamma College of Horticulture, Arabhavi. Thirty genotypes collected
from NBPGR, New Delhi were evaluated in randomized block design with two
replications during kharif 2017. The analysis of variance revealed highly significant (both at P=0.01 and P=0.05)
difference among the genotypes for all the characters studied indicating the higher
magnitude of variability in the germplasm. The high genetic advance over mean coupled with high heritability was
observed for characters like number of primary branches per plant, vine length, number
of nodes per vine, inter nodal length, node at which first female flower appears, number
of fruits per plant, average fruit weight, fruit length, flesh thickness, number of seeds
per fruit, fruit fly infestation, downy mildew incidence and yield per plant. Thus, these
characters were under additive gene effect and could be improved by simple selection
schemes. The results on correlation and path analysis revealed high positive and
significant association of fruit yield per vine with characters Viz., vine length, fruit
length, number of fruits per vine, average fruit weight, flesh thickness, protein and
these characters also had high direct and indirect effect on fruit yield per vine. Hence
direct selection for these traits would be more useful in the improvement of yield per
vine. Based on Mahalonobi’s D2 analysis, 30 genotypes were grouped into 7 clusters.
The cluster I showed maximum intra-cluster distance (D2 = 912.37), whereas, the
maximum inter cluster distance was observed between cluster II and VII (D2
=13761.92). Among the 22 characters studied, number of seeds per fruit (39.77%)
contributing maximum to genetic diversity. Top five genotypes viz., ASNG -7, ASNG23, ASNG-24, ASNG-8 and ASNG-16 were recorded high fruit yield per vine. Therefore, these genotypes can be further assessed for their stability