Vegetos

Abstract

This study was made to determine variability in various pomological traits of well grown plum cultivars and wildly growing plum species on foothills of Mahadeva range. Various fruit parameters like fruit length, fruit diameter, suture diameter, fruit weight, stone length, stone width, pedicel length, acidity and TSS were taken and the variations in these parameters have been discussed. The results suggested that the plum genotypes differed in their pomological traits and these plum gnotypes may be used in future breeding programmes. Analysis of variance showed that the studied genotypes were significantly different for most of the traits. Cluster analysis classified studied genotypes into four clusters. Among these clusters, cluster I and cluster IV were monogenic. Intra-cluster variation was higher in cluster III (117.10) as compared to cluster II (65.94). Cluster means for various traits within the plum germplasm revealed significant variation. Analysis of variance for the various traits under study revealed significant differences at genotypic level among the cultivars. The phenotypic variance and genotypic variance viz., (173.29%and 165.26%), phenotypic coefficient of variation and genotypic coefficient of variation (56.37% and 55.20%) were recorded highest for fruit weight and fruit stone ratio respectively. The estimates of heritability in broad sense and genetic advance (as percent of mean) were high for TSS acidity ratio (0.99, 77.14%), TSS (0.97, 57.19%), suture diameter (0.97, 33.51%). Genetic advance (% of mean) among traits of studied germplasm set was found highest for fruit stone ratio (91.35%) followed by fruit weight (86.20%), TSS acidity ratio (77.14%) and TSS (57.19%).