Evaluation of genetic variability, heritability and genetic advances in gladiolus (Gladiolus hybridus hort.) genotypes

The present experiment was conducted at Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India during Rabi session 2014–2015. To assess the variability, heritability and genetic advance of 50 gladiolus genotypes for fifteen characters planted at second fortnight of October, 2014. Phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was higher than the genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) for all traits indicating that these traits are governed by environmental factor influencing their expression and their susceptibility to environmental fluctuations. Heritability ranged from 41.40–88.30%, the highest heritability were observed in weight of corm. Genetic advance expressed between ranges 57.87 to 0.21 by different characters. Genetic advance expressed as percentage of mean it was observed high (above 60%) for weight of corm, number of florets per spikes and moderate (50–25%) in some characters like, number of spike per corm, number of corms per plant, leaf width, yield of corm and cormlets per hectare, length of spikes, diameter of corms, number of cormlets per plants and whereas, low values (less than 25%) showed in character like diameter of spike, leaf length plant height, yield of corms per hectare, diameter of flower while lowest value of genetic advance showed i.e. (<10%) in only number of leaf per plant.