Makhan LalKarande Priyanka Jalindar2024-02-202024-02-202023-10https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810206955The present study entitled “Characterization and variability studies in ridge gourd genotypes” was conducted at the Research Farm of the Department of Vegetable Science, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar. Forty ridge gourd genotypes were used as experimental material and evaluated according to the objectives of the study during the last week of February and the second week of March of 2022 and 2023 to assess the performance of morphological characterization, genetic variability, correlation and path co-efficient analysis of various traits. The study involved determining morphological traits of ridge gourd such as vine, leaf, flower, fruit and seed traits. A list of fifteen morphological descriptors was taken from NBPGR guidelines and applied for characterization. The study performed ANOVA, mean performance and variability on the data for quantitative traits using R software. The doebioresearch package was used for RBD design and the variability package was used for variability studies. The study confirmed the effects as significant at the 5% level. Considerable variability for morphological characters (fifteen) and quantitative characters (twenty-two) was observed for this study. The high morphological variation observed for the traits plant growth habit, leaf shape, leaf blade: Number of lobes, fruit shape and fruit ridge shape in all the genotypes, while for the quantitative traits, among all the genotypes of ridge gourd observed in the last week of February and second week of March in 2022 and 2023, the genotype T17 (IC-345576) was recorded superior for fruit yield and its contributing traits followed by the genotypes T16 (IC-341161) and T15 (IC-341122). The traits namely days to 50% germination, number of primary branches per vine, days to first male and female flower opening, days to first fruit harvest, number of fruits per vine, fruit diameter, number of seeds per fruit, fruit yield per vine and per hectare exhibited considerable variability in terms of GCV, PCV, heritability and genetic advance as per cent of mean in the last week of February and second week of March in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Correlation and path analysis studies indicated that the days to first male and female flower opening, days to first fruit harvest, number of fruits per vine, average fruit weight and fruit yield per vine recorded positive significant effect on fruit yield per hectare and these characters can be considered for improvement of fruit yield by various breeding programmes.EnglishThesis