Exploitation of polycross variation and early stage selection criteria in ramie

Open-pollinated population of 20 ramie (Boehmeria nivea L. Gaud.) genotypes differed significantly for morphological traits, number of nodes/plant, internode length, plant height, lower, middle and upper stem diameters, and root and shoot length. None of the morphological traits showed significant positive association with seed size and shoot length. Root length had significant positive association with seed size and short length. Rootlength had significant association with number of nodes and plant height, which itself had strong association with fibre yield. Plant characters like number of nodes, plant height, lower, middle and upper stem diameters had positive association amongst themselves as well as with yield. Three genotypes, R 1414, R 1420 and R 67–34, possessing high variation for morphological traits may be preferred to exploit resultant recombinations. Selection for longer root length of germinating seedlings will be helpful in improvement for fibre yield and its components.