Abstract

The present investigation was undertaken during kharif 2018-19 at College of Horticulture, Dr. Y. S. R. Horticultural University, Venkataramannagudem, Andhra Pradesh, India to evaluate bitter gourd genotypes for yield and its contributing traits in order to assess genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance. Trial was laid out in Augmented Block Design with twenty nine bitter gourd genotypes. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among all the genotypes for all the characters. The phenotypic co-efficient of variation (PCV) for all traits were slightly higher than their corresponding genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV). High heritability along with high genetic advance was observed for fruit yield per hectare (99.57 and 85.84), node number at which first female flower appeared (98.63 and 27.99), fruit yield per vine (98.04 and 83.52), number of fruits per vine (97.44 and 47.97), node number at which first male flower appeared (97.35 and 27.80), fruit length (97.18 and 62.38), average fruit weight (95.47 and 74.00) and vine length (94.07 and 20.88) indicating that such traits were mainly governed due to additive gene effect and hence selection was felt highly effective for their improvement. High heritability along with moderate genetic advance was observed for the traits viz., number of primary branches, internodal length (cm) and days to opening of first female flower indicated presence of additive gene action and selection may be effective for these characters. Based on the present study, it was concluded that for selecting promising genotypes, primary emphasis should be given on fruit yield per vine (kg) followed by average fruit weight (g), fruit length (cm) and number of fruits per vine.