Genetic Variability, Correlation and Path Coefficient Analysis in Bottle Gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.] Genotypes

The present investigation was carried out at the Experimental field of Urban Technological Park Habbak, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir during kharif-2022. The experiment was laid out in Augmented Randomized Block Design with three blocks and plant spacing of 2×1 m for seventy- seven genotypes including two checks, Pusa Naveen and Pusa Santushti. Observations were recorded for growth and yield traits, seed traits and quality parameters. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among genotypes for all the traits. The estimates of phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) were slightly higher than the corresponding genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) for all the characters studied indicating little influence of environment in the expression of these traits. The highest phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation were observed for seed weight fruit-1 (45.15 and 45.13). High heritability coupled with high genetic gain was recorded for seed weight fruit-1 (0.99 and 93.01), indicating that the heritability is most likely due to additive gene effects and thus the chances of fixing this trait by selection are more. The estimates of heritability in broad sense were high for all the traits. Correlation studies indicated that fruit yield plant-1 followed by fruit weight, vine length, number of primary branches and number of fruits plant-1 had significant and positive correlation with fruit yield ha-1. Path coefficient analysis showed that fruit yield plant-1 followed by fruit weight, number of primary branches, node number at which 1st male flower appeared and fruit diameter had highest direct effects on the yield per ha-1.