Genetic variability for antioxidants and horticultural traits in cabbage

Significant differences for antioxidant content and horticultural traits among 36 diverse cabbage genotypes revealed the presence of sufficient variability which could be exploited for developing nutritionally and antioxidant rich cultivars. The phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation were high for carotenoids, stalk length, head compactness, gross plant weight, net head weight, dry matter, core length, plant height and equatorial diameter, and low for days to 50% maturity, number of non-wrapper leaves, frame spread and ascorbic acid. the expressions of all the studied traits except ascorbic acid, harvest index and head compactness were less influenced by environment, as evident from meagre differences between respective PCV and GCV. Moderate to high heritability was evident for all the traits and was accompanied with high genetic advance for carotenoids (138.25%), dry matter (62.74%), plant height (49.76%), gross plant weight (65.35%), net head weight (64.71%), stalk length (81.82%), core length (57.72%) and head compactness (76.0%) which show the presence of additive gene action. On the other hand, low genetic advance observed for ascorbic acid, number of non-wrapper leaves, head shape index, days to 50% maturity and harvest index reflected the predominance of non-additive gene action.