Studies on Association Between Economic Traits in Gourds

Correlation between 12 economic characters in 24 bottlegourd and 13 bitter -gourd accessions were studied. In 70 per cent of the character pairs, correlation was found to be similar in both the gourds. Earliness was associated with higher fruit weight and yield. This was also associated with larger number and larger sized fruits in bittergourd but not in bottlegourd. Fruit weight and fruit size were found to contribute significantly towards yield than fruit number. Selection for larger number of fruits per plant together with larger leaf size in bittergourd, and less number of branches with less vegetative spread in bottlegourd may be other criteria for improvement.