Physicochemical Profiling for Selection of Promising Annona Genotypes

Annona is one of the favourite dry land fruit of Maharashtra, because it is hardy in nature and drought tolerant. One of the important bottlenecks to increase the area under production is unavailability of suitable and improved varieties. Among 101 genotypes collected from Western Maharashtra; twenty two genotypes were found superior for physicochemical characteristics. On the basis of two year data (2011 and 2012); the highest fruit pulp percentage was found in Island Gem (61.72) and SG-8 (60.46), but genotype SG-8 was superior for other fruit quantitative and biochemical characters. Dendrogram using average linkage on the basis of physicochemical characteristics revealed that genotype SG-8, Island Gem and Pink Mammoth formed distinct cluster from other genotypes. The Annona is highly perishable fruit, so shelf life is an important trait. The genotype SG-8 showed highest (five days) shelf life among selected genotypes. Hence, the genotypes collected from various regions had significant variation for various traits and can be evaluated physicochemically and promising one can be selected for further improvement programme.