Progressive Horticulture

Twenty-two genotypes of marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) were evaluated for 16 growth and flowering related traits to study their genetic parameters such as variability, heritability, genetic (GCV) and phenotypic (PCV) coefficient of variation. Analysis of variance for all traits showed highly significant differences among genotypes for all the growth and flowering related traits. The high genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation was observed for flower yield per plant, fresh weight per flower and stalk length whereas lowest value for both GCV and PCV were obtained for number of seeds per head followed by days to flowering and harvest index. High heritability (>70%) were recorded for stalk length, stem diameter, flower diameter, fresh weight per flower, dry weight per flower, flower yield per plant and 1000 seed weight. High genetic advance as per cent of mean was observed for flower yield per plant followed by fresh weight per flower and stalk length revealing the importance of additive gene effects for these traits.