Heritability, correlation and genetic divergence studies in okra {Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) moench}

Abstract

Fruit yield per plant (g) and fruit production per kilogram (kg) were highest for the genotypes Rohini Bhindi Selection (211.37), 10.48. Variance values for the genotypic coefficient were classified as low (0-10%), moderate (10-20%), and high (20% and above). The heritability estimates in this study were broadly divided into three categories: low (<10%), moderate (20-30%), and high (>30%). It was discovered that the estimates of genetic advancement for plant height and yield plant-1 (g) were high. The following data showed high genetic advancement as a percentage of mean: plant height, number of leaves per plant, fruit, fruit surface (cm), fruiting span, and days until first picking. Genotypic and phenotypic coefficient analysis revealed that fruit yield per plant showed positive significant association with Plant height, Number of branches per plant). Genotypic Path coefficient analysis revealed that the maximum positive direct effect was observed for fruiting span (0.8599) followed by plant height (0.4411) and number of branches per plant (0.1223) on yield per plant. However, Fruit surface cm2 (-0.8657), number of leaves per plant (-0.3862), number of fruits per plant (-0.1281), length of internodes (-0.1208) and days taken to 50% flowering (-0.111) had considerable negative direct effect on yield per plant. Length of internodes (0.2422) and Fruit width (0.1277) had considerable positive indirect effect on yield per plant via fruit surface cm2.The clustering pattern showed that cluster III is the biggest cluster, with 7 out of 21 genotypes. Cluster I had 5 genotypes, cluster II had 3 genotypes, and clusters IV, V, and VI had 2 genotypes each. The distance between clusters I and III was the greatest (88463.020), followed by the distance between clusters I and VI (46942.130), clusters III and V (38836.750), clusters V and VI (3609.836), and clusters II and IV (4500.390).Fruiting Span, Number of Fruit per Plant, Fruit weight (gm), and Yield per Plant had a large effect on genetic divergence.