* Department of Horticulture, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
Department of Horticulture, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand-263145
The present study comprises of twenty nine lines of African marigold (Tagetes erecta) to assess the diversity present in the population for various growth, flowering and seed attributes. The marigold germplasm exhibited significant variation for various vegetative and reproductive parameters. Germplasm TEG 26 recorded maaxmum pfant height, leaf biomass per plant, flower diameter, weight of seeds per peduncle and seed yield per plant along with second maximum value with respect to number of leaves/plant, number of petals per flower and 1000-seed weight. Germplasm TEG 26 also attained second earliest value for days taken to flowering and occupied third maximum position for fresh weight of one flower. Maximum number of secondary branches per plant, number of petals per flower, average fresh weight of one flower and second highest number of seeds per peduncle was recorded with germplasm TEG 17, whereas TEG 19 attained maximum flower yield per plant among all the twenty nine accessions. Germplasm TEG 29 was earliest to ripen the seed and attained second highest seed yield per plant. TEG 20 was categorized as the early seed ripening germplasm which produced maximum number of seeds/peduncle whereas TEG 28 produced maximum 1000-seed weight among all the twenty nine lines of marigold.
Assessment, germplasm, marigold
