Abstract

A field trial was conducted at the farm of Department of Fruit Science, College of Horticulture, VCSG Uttarakhand University of Horticulture and Forestry, Bharsar, Pauri Garhwal during the year 2013–14. Experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications. The experiment was conducted to find out the genotypes to be used as parents for mapping populations as well as in hybrid breeding programmes. Both cluster and principal component analysis showed an adequate grouping of genotypes according to phenotypical data. Principal component analysis revealed that the first five principal components were accounted for 82.31% of the total variation. Cluster analysis using Ward method classified the 19 genotypes into five clusters. The most important traits for strawberry genotypes grouping were fruit traits and plant architecture, which should be taken into account in the further strawberry genetic resource characterization and analysis of breeding material. The present study showed that strawberry genotypes possessed high level of genetic variation that was useful for breeding.