Morphological characterization of indigenous custard apple (Annona squamosa L.) genotypes at Dharsiwa block of Chhattisgarh

Abstract

The present investigation to study the morphological characters of indigenous custard apple (Annona squamosa L.) genotypes evaluated from Dharsiwa block of Chhattisgarh, was carried out during the year 2022-23 and 2023-24. In this experiment, 60 genotypes of custard apple collected from various locations of Dharsiwa block at Raipur district (Chhattisgarh) were evaluated. The experiment was laid in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replications. The morphological characterization for tree characters, leaf characters and fruit characters were recorded for the observations of growth habit, leaf shape, leaf colour fruit shape and fruit colour. These in-situ genotypes under study were found growing in their wild forms in villages and farmer’s fields and showed large variation in terms of these characters among them. The investigation was performed for the characterization of custard apple genotypes for morphological characteristics.