Genetic Estimations of Available Quality Traits for Improved Growth Yield of Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch) in Kumarganj, India

Abstract

Pumpkin is one of the most economically important and nutritious member of the  family Cucurbitaceae. The present investigation was conducted to evaluate genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance in per cent of mean among the 30 genotypes including one check variety (Narendra Agrim) for 21 qualitative and quantitative traits. The experiment was conducted in randomized block design with three replication ,the observations were recorded on the traits like days to 50% staminate flower anthesis , days to 50% pistillate flower anthesis, node no. to first staminate flower anthesis, node no. to first pistillate flower anthesis, vine length, no. of nodes, no. of primary branches, inter-nodal length, days to first fruit harvest, polar circumference, equatorial circumference, flesh thickness, cavity, average fruit weight, no. of fruits per plant, total soluble solids, reducing sugars, non reducing sugars, total sugars, fruit yield per plant. The analysis of variance for the design of experiments indicated highly significant difference among the genotypes for all 21 characters. The four genotypesviz.NDPK-17-12-1,NDPK-23,NDPK-P-6 and NDPK-32-1-2 were found significantly superior for fruit yield per plant over the check variety (NarendraAgrim).The PCV was higher than the GCV and was found highest for the trait fruit yield per plant, the presence of high heritability in broad sense along with high genetic advance in per cent of mean were observed for fruit yield per plant.Therefore,from the above obtained results it can be concluded that the characters will result in effective crop improvement for higher yield and yield contributing traits.