Department of Vegetable Crops, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana -141 004
Twelve varieties/inbred lines of okra and their 66 F1’s, were analyzed to study the genotype-environment interactions and to identify more stable genotypes/crosses for five different fruit traits in okra. The stability analysis of variance of mean data revealed that the mean squares for genotypes were highly significant for all the characters indicating presence of genetic variability among the genotypes. The mean squares due to environments were also significant for all the traits indicating that the varying environments were effective in influencing the performance of the genotypes. The cross NDO-10 x S-2 was found stable for fruit weight under favourable environment. For fruit diameter, six cross combinations i.e. IIVR-11 x HU, IIVR-11 x VRO-4, IIVR-11 x NDO-10, VRO-4, PP x VU and PP x NDO-10 were stable for favourable environments. All the parents and hybrids were found stable for fruit length under unfavourable environments but their performance cannot be predicted with greater accuracy due to significant deviation from regression. Five crosses were stable for favourable environments for number of fruits per plant. For total yield per plant, the crosses HU x PA-4, VRO-3 x S-2, PA-4 x S-2, VU x NDO-10, VU x NDO-10, VU x HRB-108-2 and NDO-10 x PB-1 were stable for better/favourable environments as these crosses possessed high mean values, regression coefficient greater than unity and non-significant deviations.
okra, stability, genotype x environment, fruit characters
