Indian Journal of Plant Genetic Resources

Seventeen plum accessions were evaluated for important qualitative and quantitative characters under Shimla conditions with two checks, ‘Burbank Grand Prize’ and ‘Methley’. Qualitative characters expressed large variation for various character states proving the variability in the germplasm. Highest Coefficient of Variation was observed forfruit weight (53.87%) followed by percentage of stone in fruit (50.73%) and stone weight (37.84%) indicating that there is enough potential for exploiting the variability present in these characters. Like the check ‘Burbank Grand Prize’, EC034052 (Tarrol), EC552694 (B1ackamber) and EC552684 (Fortune) had high productivity along with acceptable fruit size and weight and minimum percentage of stone in the fruit (3.0). Meanwhile they ripen 1–3 weeks before the above mentioned checks, bestowed to attract early market. None of the accessions studied could surpass the check ‘Methley’, which had the rare blend of fruit quality traits and productivity.