Evaluation of drumstick genotypes suitable for semi-arid ecosystem of western India

Abstract

Drumstick (Moringa oleifera Lamk.) is one of the important perennial vegetable grown in India; having almost every part of plant valued for food, but is also enriched with more nutrition and high mineral and vitamins at cheaper inputs. Except its edible pod, no other exploitation has been done in drumstick in India yet, though seed oil (lubricator in delicate machineries, manufacturing of perfumes and hair dressings), seed powder (a water clarifier). Considering the above said facts, an attempt has been made to identify a suitable type for this region through an experiment comprising 14 diverse genotypes were evaluated with three replications in randomized block design. The results revealed a significant difference for all the characters under study. The economically important parameters like fruit length ranged from 32.5 (MO-8) to 123.1 cm (PKM-2), pulp weight ranged from 35.1 to 169.8 g and number of fruit per plant ranged from 78.5 to 314.7. The highest seed weight was observed in Dwarf moringa (12.8 g) having 23.5 seeds per fruit. Drumstick cv. PKM-2 recorded the highest yield of 44.3 kg per tree followed by PKM-1 (36.7 kg) under semi-arid ecosystem of western India.