Genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance for yield and its components in bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria M.)

The present investigation was conducted to magnitude the genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance in bottle gourd for identifying desirable parents. The experiment comprising 24 hybrids obtained by crossing 11 parents (eight lines viz. C-29, C-37, C-74, C-78, C-4, C-55, C-34, C-26 and three tester viz. C-12 (Azad Harit), C-21 (PSPL) and C-35 (KLG). All the hybrids and their parents were grown in a randomized block design (RBD) with three replication at Horticultural Research Centre of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture & Technology-Meerut, during Kharif 2008 and 2009. Analysis of variance revealed the adequate variability among the all genotypes (Parents and Hybrids) for all characters. The phenotypic coefficient of variance (PCV) was slightly higher than their corresponding genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) for all characters. It was observed that genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variations was high for fruit yield per plant and followed by fruit length and number of seeds per fruit. Heritability was high for fruit yield per plant, number of seeds per fruit and fruit diameter. Genetic advance was high for fruit yield per plant. Hence these characters may be improved through selection breeding methods.