Direct and Indirect Effects of Quantitative Traits on Yield of Bitter Gourd (Momordica charantia) Hybrids
G. P. Prabakaran *
Department of Horticulture, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru College of Agriculture and Research Institute, Karaikal, UT of Puducherry, India.
V. Sundaram
Department of Horticulture, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru College of Agriculture and Research Institute, Karaikal, UT of Puducherry, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The present research was conducted using 16 different hybrids of bitter gourd to study path coefficients of various yield-contributing traits and was conducted in the Department of Horticulture, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru College of Agriculture and Research Institute, Karaikal, Puducherry, India. The results showed that the length of the vine at final harvest (10.3228) had the greatest direct positive effect on the fruit yield of vine-1, and then the days until the first fruit harvest (5.2426), flesh thickness (1.7492), the node with the first female flower (1.7188) and the number of primary branches of vine-1 in the final harvest (0.5681) and thus showed the importance of these traits in choosing a desirable bitter gourd genotype.
Keywords: Bitter gourd, path coefficient, selection, direct and indirect effect