A study of the nature and magnitude of inter-relationship among components of economic worth in Saffron (Croccus sativusL.)

Abstract

Fifty clones of saff ron (Crocus sativus L.) were planted in a randomized bock design wi th three repl ications at Saffron Research Station, Pampore, SKUAST-Kashmir during 2010. Observations were recorded on 10 randomly selected and tagged competitive plants for 11 morphological, physiological, floral and corm attributes. The estimates of genotypic correlation coeff icients were higher in magnitude through simi lar in direction for al l the trai ts. The results have further revealed that the number of flowers corm−1 exhibited a strong signif icant positive association with all the traits. The fresh pistil weight, an important yield attributing character revealed a strong positive association with all the f loral attributes except number of radical leaves plant−1 and number of flowers corm−1. Similarly, stomatal frequency also recorded signif icant positive association with all the trai ts. The average weight of daughter corms showed signi f icant posi tive association with stomatal size and positive association wi th chlorophyll content. The average weight of daughter corms shows signi f icant positive association with stomatal size and positive association with chlorophyll content. A signif icant positive association of average weight of daughter corms with number of daughter corms was observed both at phenotypic and genotypic levels, indicating that an increase in number of daughter corms results in proportional decline in average corm weight. Identif ication of f ive elite genotypes with distinct superiority in yield and corm attributes could be a source for further improvement and development of high yielding varieties.