Studies on variability, heritability and genetic advance for yield and yield contributing characters in Pointed Gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.)

Abstract

In order to determine the magnitude of variability, 35 genotypes of pointed gourd have been evaluated at Vegetable research centre, Pantnagar during rainy season of 2014. Through analysis of variance, a high significant difference was found for almost all characters indicating a greater opportunity of exploit variability. PPG-26 has obtained highest mean for fruit length (10.39) and PPG-2 for fruit diameter (4.35) while PPG-31 genotype was resulted as the earliest among all. High GCV along with high PCV was found for the characters like Number of seeds per fruit (33.22 and 33.45), Fruit yield (q/ha) (31.38 and 33.09), Node number to first female flower (29.39 and 30.26) and Number of fruits per plant (29.29 and 29.70). Whereas, high heritability coupled with greater genetic advance was observed for number of fruit per plant and fruit yield per hectare which indicates that these characters are govern with additive gene effect with minimum environment effect so we can go for direct selection of pointed gourd genotypes for further improvement.