CORRELATION AND PATH ANALYSES AMONG SCENTED AND NON-SCENTED ASH GOURD [Benincasa hispida Thunb. Cogn.] GENOTYPES

NAGARAJU KATTULA¹*, T. SARASWATHI^2
1Division of Vegetable Crops, ICAR- Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Hessaraghatta Lake Post, Bangalore, 560089
²Horticultural Research Station, Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 641003, Tamil Nadu, India
* Corresponding Author : ngrjkattula13@gmail.com

Received : 12-12-2016     Accepted : 16-12-2016     Published : 18-12-2016
Volume : 8     Issue : 61       Pages : 3494 - 3498
Int J Agr Sci 8.61 (2016):3494-3498

Keywords : Ash gourd, Correlation, Path Analysis, Direct and Indirect Effects, Selection
Academic Editor : Surendranath R, Elangaivendhan A
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : The Author would like to acknowledge the financial support of ICAR-JRF fellowship, Government of India during the M.Sc. research programme to conduct this experiment and for kind and needful support of Dr. Natarajan Sundaram, Emeritus scientist, Division of Vegetable Crops, HC & RI, TNAU, Coimabatore and Dr. A. Mahalingam, National Pulses Research Centre (NPRC), Vamban, Tamil Nadu during the research programme
Author Contribution : Kattula Nagaraju –conception and design of the work, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, drafting the article, Critical revision of the article, final approval of the version to be published and acted as corresponding author

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the relationships between yield and yield contributing traits and identify their direct and indirect effects on fruit yield of ash gourd genotypes. The correlations and path analyses was performed by the method suggested by Wright. Forty accessions were evaluated for the following eighteen traits: days to first female flower opening (DTFFA), node at first female flower appearance (NFFA), sex ratio (SR), vine length (VL), internodal length (INL), number of primary branches (NPB), number of fruits per vine (NFPV), average fruit weight (AFW), flesh thickness (FT), polar diameter (PD), equatorial diameter (ED), number of seeds per fruit (NSF), hundred-seed weight (HSW), yield per vine (YPV), carbohydrate content (CHO), crude fibre content (CRUDE), protein content (PRO) and total soluble solids (TSS). The correlation analysis indicated that NFFA, VL, INL, NFPV, AFW were positively and significantly correlated with YPV at genotypic as well as phenotypic levels respectively. Path coefficient analysis indicated that VL, INL, AFW, NSPF, HSW, NFPV and CHO exhibited positive direct effect on FYPV. Positive indirect effect was observed by VL, INL, DFFA, NFFA, SR, AFW, PD and ED, NSF, HSW, NFPV, CHO and TSS expressed positive and indirect effect on yield via their respective component traits where as NPB, FT, CRUDE and PRO recorded negative indirect effects via their component traits. Selection among genotypes based on these analyses can be made for further improvement in fruit yield and component characters.

As per corresponding author email request, following author names were retracted from article - Sharma V.R. and Bommesh J.C.