Indian Journal of Plant Genetic Resources

Fifteen pear accessions (European, Asiatic and hybrid types) were evaluated for important qualitative and quantitative characters with two checks namely EC 027810 (Flemish Beauty) and EC 126286 (Kieffer) under Shimla conditions. Coefficient of variation was highest for fruit weight (58.37%) followed by fruit length (38.25%) and width (33.99%) indicating considerable variability to exploit in breeding programme. Only one accession EC 038739, belonging to Asiatic types showed high productivity with agreeable quality characters also. Though low yielding, accessions viz. EC552668, EC027809, EC552667 and EC552676 showed their distinction for most of the fruit quality characters, hence may be used as breeding material for genetic improvement.