Characterization of pummelo germplasm in new alluvial zone of West Bengal

Abstract

Pummelo (Citrus grandis Osbeck.), the giant among the citrus, is one of the major monoembryonic species and is well known as the ancestor of grapefruit. The present investigation was carried out with twelve genotypes of pummelo with three replications in each during 2016-17considering nineteen characters like leaf characters, flowering and fruit morphological, physical and chemical characters from ‘citrus descriptor’ (cited by IPGRI, Rome, Italy).Among different morphological characters of leaf, fruit, pulp and seed the pattern of variation was more in characters like leaf lamina margin, leaf apex, fruit shape, fruit base, fruit skin colour, pulp colour and seed shape. The above-mentioned morphological characters are generally highly heritable characters and identity of individual types which may lead to chance of getting desirable types. Early flowering and maximum yield obtained in Type-1.The wide variation of fruit yield showed due to number of fruits per plant and other yield attributing characters. Less number of seeds in a fruit was obtained in Type-9. Significant variation in ascorbic acid (34.98 – 62.61 mg/100 ml juice) was obtained among different pummelo germplasm. From the present investigation, it can be concluded that there is a wide range of variation among different pummelo germplasm. Few types can be exploited for commercial cultivation in new alluvial zone of West Bengal like-Type-1, Type-2, Type-3, Type-5, Type-9 and Type-10 and Type-11.