Vegetos

Abstract

Present investigation was carried out in spring summer season of 2014 using 30 chilli genotypes to elucidate the association of various growth, yield and quality traits to develop a reliable set of traits for indirect selection. The experiment was conducted in randomized block design using three replications. The data were observed from five randomly selected plants from each replication for thirteen quantitative traits. The genotypic coefficients were higher in the magnitudes relative to corresponding estimates of phenotypic coefficients, which indicated high heritability of the traits under study. The fruits yield per plant exhibited highly significant positive correlation with number of fruits per plant, average fruit weight and fruit body length, indicating the useful of these traits for improving upon fruit yield in chilli. Whereas it showed significantly negative correlation with days to 50 percent flowering and days to 50 percent fruiting inferred that early flowering and fruiting plants had higher yield over those having late flowering and fruiting. Path coefficient analysis revealed that the highest direct effect on fruit yield per plant was exerted by average fruit weight followed by number of fruits per plant, showing its more accountability for higher fruit yield. Therefore, it may be possible to improve fruit yield and quality by selecting the accessions on the basis of number of fruits, average fruit weight and fruit body length.