Assessment of per se Performance of Gomphrena (Gomphrena globosa L.) Genotypes for Productivity and Quality traits

An experiment was conducted to evaluate 13 Gomphrena genotypes for qualitative and quantitative traits at College of Horticulture, Bagalkot in a randomized block design with three replications during 2022. Observations were recorded from each genotype for both qualitative and quantitative traits. The results revealed that maximum plant height, plant spread in N-S and E-W direction, stem girth, days from bud to bloom, duration of flowering, , individual flower weight, number of flowers per plant and yield per plant was observed in genotype AGS-4. More number of primary branches were noticed in AGS-7, secondary branches in AGS-10, maximum leaves count in AGS-5. The genotype AGS-9 took minimum number of days to bud initiation, while AGS-8 took least number of days to 50 percent flowering. The quality traits like stalk length and inflorescence length were best in genotype AGS-1. The highest shelf life and display life was observed in genotype AGS-3 and AGS-6. Based on the qualitative results, genotype AGS-8, 9 and 10 exhibited upright growth habit and remaining other genotypes belonged to spreading type. RHS colour chart grouped all genotypes into four major flower colour groups i.e, pink, white, purple and red flower colour, leaf blade as reddish purple group, genotype AGS-1, 2, 4, 5 8 and 9 belonged to short acuminate blade shape, whereas other genotypes showed acute leaf blade shape.