Genetic variability and correlation studies for vegetative, reproductive and yield attributing traits in papaya

Abstract

An experiment was carried out with 5 parent and 3 hybrid papaya genotypes to study the genetic variability and correlation between different yield attributing traits by evaluating 16 vegetative, reproductive, and fruit yield contributing traits during 2016-2017. The findings indicate that the maximum fruiting zone (129.8 cm) was in PS 3 followed by PS 3 × P-7-9 (128 cm). The hybrid PS 3 × P-7-9 had maximum number of fruits per plant (44.67), minimum fruit weight (1020g) and maximum yield per plant (46.33 kg/plant) among the three hybrids evaluated. The phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) is higher than the genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) for all the traits studied. The genotypic variance and phenotypic variance were high for traits like leaf width, stem diameter and fruit weight. Traits such as leaf length, petiole length, number of fruits per plant, fruit diameter and fruit yield exhibited higher value of GCV and PCV. Heritability for traits ranged from 53.83 to 99.49, of which majority of traits showed very high heritability, except some traits such as inflorescence size and fruit length which showed moderate heritability. Genetic advance (GA) was recorded highest for fruit length (179.13). Traits like fruit yield, petiole length and leaf length exhibited high heritability accompanied by high to moderate genetic advance indicating additive gene action, which suggest that selection may be effective for these traits. The trait, fruit yield was positively associated with plant height at flower initiation and maturity stage, stem diameter, days to flowering, fruiting zone, number of fruits per plant and fruit diameter.