Genetic Interrelationship of Quantitative and Nutritional Traits in Grain Amaranthus (Amaranthus cruentus L.)

Eleven genotypes of grain amaranth were used to compute the correlation co-efficient among the twenty-one different traits. Correlation analysis of A. cruentus accessions indicated that the grain yield per plant was significantly and positively correlated with plant height, stem girth, number of leaves per plant, number of branches per plant and leaf breadth. At both genotypic and phenotypic level, green yield was significantly and positively associated with plant height, stem girth, number of leaves/plant, number of branches per plant and leaf length but there was negative and significant association with days to flower appearance which implied that late flowering favoured more foliage development. This study suggests that selection of varieties with higher number of leaves per plant, number of branches per plant, plant height and stemgirth will helpthe breeder to select the genotypes which can give better grain yield as well as foliage yield in amaranthus genotypes.