Correlation and path coefficient analysis studies in tomato germplasm (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

Abstract

Forty tomato genotypes were studied for correlation and path co-efficient analysis of yield and yield attributes in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) at PG student research farm, College of Horticulture, Rajendranagar, SKLTSHU, Hyderabad, Telangana during Kharif, 2017. Fruit yield had positive and significant correlation with number of primary branches per plant, number of flowers per cluster, number of fruits per cluster, number of fruits per plant, Per cent fruit set, number of marketable fruits per plant, fruit length, fruit width, fruit weight, fruit yield per plant, ascorbic acid content, lycopene content and beta-carotene. Character association analysis among yield and yield contributing characters revealed that in most of cases the genotypic correlation coefficient was higher than the respective phenotypic correlation coefficients. Also, narrow difference between phenotypic and genotypic correlation coefficient was noticed for almost all the pairs of characters studied showing that masking or modifying effects of the environment was little indicating the presence of an inherent association among these characters. Path coefficient analysis of different yield and yield contributing traits revealed with plant height, number of primary branches per plant, days to 50% flowering, number of flowers per cluster, number of fruits per plant, per cent fruit set, number of marketable fruits per plant, fruit weight, fruit yield per plant, ascorbic acid content, lycopene content and beta-carotene exhibited positive direct effects on fruit yield. Hence, these characters play a major role in recombination breeding and suggested that direct selection based on these traits will be rewarded for crop improvement of tomato.