Evaluation of Vinifera Varieties for Genotypic and Phenotypic Variability

A diverse collection of 30 grape varieties was evaluated at Haryana Agricultural University, Hissar with regard to some growth characters following pruning and a number of fruit characters, related to yield and quality. The variability of the material was assessed from the estimates of range, mean, standard deviation of mean, phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variability, heritability (broad sense) and expected genetic advance expressed as percentage of mean. The variability was rather poor for growth characters studied as also for fruit characters like number of seeds in 20 berries, percentage of juice and looseness index. But a high amout of variability was present with regard to yield per plant, average bunch weight, 50-berry weight, weight of seeds of 20 berries, sugar/acid ratio and total number of bunches per vine. A wide scope for improving these traits is indicated. The contents of T.S.S., acidity and sugar/acid ratio showed a high interaction variance between genotype and developmental stages, thus indicating necessity to conduct quality test at different time intervals with individual genotypes.