Haryana Agricultural University, Hissar
*Present Address: Institute of Advanced Studies, Meerut University, Meerut.
Online published on 25 January, 2012.
Under the All-India Coordinated Cotton Research Project, 1137 world collections of Gossypium hirsutum were evaluated for variability during the years 1967–68 at the Research Farm, Punjab Agriculural University, Hissar.
Observations on means and variance for yield per plant (gm.), number of bolls per plant, plant height, number of monopodia per plant, number of sympodia per plant, ginning percentage and mean halo length were recorded. Considerable variability for all the characters was observed among as well as within geographic groups. Both the exotic and the Indian collections were variable. Frequency of favourable alleles for yield characters was high in African, Pakistan and Ceylon cultures among exotics, while from within the country, cultures from Mysore, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana had higher concentration of yield genes. The U. A. R. and Tamil Nadu (India) cultures were good sources of fibre quality genes.
Geographic groups which had high means also combined high variability, particularly for yield characters. Year effect on means and variances of all the characters was substantial, both for exotic and Indian cultures.
