GENETIC VARIABILITY AND CHARACTER ASSOCIATION OF YIELD AND YIELD CONTRIBUTING CHARACTERS IN BOTTLE GOURD (Lagenaria siceraria L.)

Abstract

The experiment was carried out using ten genotypes of bottle gourd at the farm of Shere-

Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka to determine the genetic variability and to select the best performing genotypes for yield and its contributing traits during October 2020 to March 2021. The experiment was carried out in randomized complete block design with three replications. Analysis of variance revealed significant variations was exist among all the genotypes for the selected traits. The estimated variance components indicated environmental factors also contributed for the expression of the traits as the phenotypic co-efficient variation was higher than the genotypic counterparts. However, high heritability coupled with high genetic advance as percentage of mean was found in number of fruits per plant, fruit length, fruit diameter, fruit pedicel length, individual fruit weight, number of seeds per fruit, 100 seed weight, seed length, seed breadth and fruit yield per plant, hence inheritance of these traits was controlled by the additive gene actions whereas rest of the traits was governed by non-additive gene actions. Correlation study revealed that fruit yield per plant had a significant positive correlation with leaf breadth (cm), fruit diameter (cm), 100 seed weight (g) and individual fruit weight (kg) at the both genotypic and phenotypic levels. Moreover, path analysis revealed that days to 1 st female flowering, leaf length, no. of male flowers, fruit length (cm), fruit diameter (cm), no. of fruits per plant, 100 seed weight (g) and individual fruit weight (g) showed positive direct effect on fruit yield per plant (kg) indicating that direct selection based on these traits may be helpful in evolving high yielding varieties of bottle gourd. Among the ten genotypes, G4 followed by G5, G7 and G10 showed the highest individual fruit weight while the highest fruit diameter was found in genotype G4 followed by G5, G7 and G8. Based on the individual fruit weight and fruit diameter that have a direct influence on generating the highest yield production; genotypes G4, G5, G7, G8 and G10 can be selected for developing the superior bottle gourd variety in future breeding programme.