Genetic Variability, Correlation and Path Analysis in Ridge Gourd (Luffa acutangula (Roxb) L.)

Abstract

The study was conducted at Department of Horticulture, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai, Tamil Nadu during September 2013 to August 2016 to study the performance of genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance, correlation and path analysis for yield and yield attributing characters namely first female flower node, days taken for first female flowering, number of fruits per plant, fruit length, fruit weight (g), fruit yield per plant (kg) of twenty ridge gourd genotypes collected from different parts of Tamil Nadu. The genotypes exhibited higher percentage of genotypic coefficient variability, phenotypic coefficient variability and genetic advance with fruit yield per plant (31.55, 32.86 and 62.39) respectively and the heritability was high with fruit length (98%). The genotypic and phenotypic correlation coefficients showed that the fruit yield per plant significantly contributed by fruit weight (0.722 and 0.681), fruit diameter (0.426 and 0.393), number of fruits per plant (0.504 and 0.477) and first female flower node (0.467 and 0.428). The path coefficient analysis showed that number of fruits per plant exhibited significant positive direct effect on yield per plant (1.4792) followed by fruit weight directly (0.9346) and indirectly (0.7220)