Since there is an appreciable deficit between realized and potential crop yields in cucumber, so there is a strong need to dcvelop hybrids having desirable horticultural traits. This necessitated the identification of suitable divergent parents to get high heterotic effect in terms of yield and quality. Thus, divergence analysis was carried out in 26 genotypes of cucumber. All the character under study showed a wide range of values except days to first picking and fruit circumference. Phenotypic variability was high for node at which first female tlower appears, sex ratio, yield per plant, number of fruits and vine length. The genotypes could be grouped into 5 clusters. Cluster nos. I, II, III, IV and V contained II, 3, 5, 2 and 5 genotypes, respectively which are independent of geographical distribution. The genotypes in cluster I had maximum intra-cluster distance closely followed by cluster nos. V and II. Inter-cluster distance was maximum between the clusters I and II followed by clusters II and III suggesting wide diversity between the groups.. Highest yield per plant was recorded in cluster no. IV followed by cluster no. III. Cluster nos. I and III may be employed for improvement programme in cucumber. Market Long was best gene source for yield, no. of fruits and TSS.
Cucumis sativus, D2 analysis, Cluster, Gene source
