Vol. 11, Issue 3 (2022)

Author(s):
Rakesh Kumar, V Rajasree, Lalichetti Sagar, Atal Hameedi, Ashish Sheera, Vimal Kumar Naga, Khalid Ferooz and Hilal Ahmad Pir

Abstract:
Nine genotypes were studied for genetic variability studies on Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch. Ex Poir) at orchard of Department of Vegetable Crops, College of Horticulture, TNAU, Coimbaotre, Tamil Nadu, India during kharif 2016-17 in Randomized Block Design. The data was recorded for seventeen different characters to study genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance and genetic gain. Analysis of variance among 9 pumpkin genotypes showed highly significant differences for all the characters indicated the presence of substantial amount of genetic variability. Highest genotypic coefficient of variance (GCV) and phenotypic coefficient variance (PCV) was observed for fruit yield per vine followed by beta carotene content, number of fruits per plant indicating that these characters could be used as selection for crop improvement. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as percent of mean was observed for traits like vine length (86.65, 32.35), days to first female flower appearance (81.90, 35.63), node number for first female flower appearance (88.25, 71.54), sex ratio (75.61, 43.09), fruit number per vine (81.30, 79.27), fruit weight (66.96, 50.97), flesh thickness (80.12, 44.40) and fruit yield per vine (95.05, 174.75), ascorbic acid content (77.78, 76.33), crude fibre content (94.15, 78.71) and beta carotene content (93.41, 101.20) indicating predominance of additive gene effects and the possibilities of effective selection for the improvement of these characters.