VARIABILITY CHARACTER ASSOCIATION AND PATH CO-EFFICIENT ANALYSIS OF RIDGE GOURD

Abstract

The experiment was carried out during the period from April to August 2012 at the Regional Horticulture Research Station, Narsingdi. In this experiment nine collected lines and one local germplasm of ridge gourd were used as test crop. The single factor experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The highest weight of individual fruit (137.55 g) was obtained in LA-211 and the lowest weight (73.55 g) in LA-208. The highest fruit yield (22.41 t/ha) was found in LA-211 and the lowest yield (8.04 t/ha) in LA-210. For 10 traits phenotypic variation was higher than the genotypic variance with moderate to high heritability and moderate genetic advance and in percentage of mean. Positive significant association was observed for fruit yield/ha in respect of individual fruit weight (0.526), number of fruits/plant (0.711), fruit yield/plant (0.968) and fruit yield/hectare (1.00), while significant negative association was observed for days required to 1 st harvest (-0.390). Path analysis revealed that all the parameter showed positive direct effect except days to 1 st harvest and weight of 100 seeds. On the basis of performance study, the genotype LA-211 was found to be most promising in order to develop a ridge gourd variety.