Genetic diversity studies for improved horticultural traits in bitter gourd [Momordica charantia L.] genotypes

Abstract

Twenty-seven bitter gourd genotypes were evaluated at
Research farm of Department of Vegetable Science, CCS,
Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar to find out suitable
bitter gourd genotypes for future breeding programme.
These genotypes were evaluated morphologically on leaf
and fruit characters along with sixteen quantitative traits. In
general, ample variation was observed for most of leaf and
fruit characters, except for leaf pubescence. Analysis of
variance exhibited highly significant variation among all
genotypes for all the characters except nodes to first male
and female flower and leaf length (cm). The maximum
genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation (GCV
and PCV) were recorded for number of primary branches
(22.50 and 23.14) and number of fruits per vine (26.41 and
26.64). High heritability coupled with high genetic advance
as percent of mean were observed for number of fruits per
vine (95.18 and 53.96), number of primary branches (85.20
and 45.06), weight of 100 seeds (98.98 and 37.26) and fruit
yield per vine (96.64 and 31.03) showing strong impact of
additive gene effect. The following bitter gourd genotypes
viz., IC 85624 and HK 113 were recorded best in terms of
fruit yield.