Genetic Divergence Studies of Bottle Gourd (Lagenaria siceraria (MOL.) STANDL.) in Garo Hills Region of Meghalaya

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out at Horticultural Research Farm, Department of Horticulture, North Eastern Hill University, Tura Campus, Chasingre, Meghalaya, India during 2019 in a Randomized Block Design with three replications. Genetic divergence was assessed among thirty indegenous genotypes of bottle gourd for thirty-three quantitative characters using Mahalanobis’ D2 statistics. The genotypes were grouped into seven clusters. Maximum number of genotypes including seven genotypes was grouped in cluster IV (GHA-30, GHA-8, GHA-21, GHA-20, GHA-23, GHA-29 and GHA-25). Maximum inter-cluster distance was found between cluster I and cluster III (10.940) and minimum inter-cluster distance was recorded between cluster VII and cluster VI (7.425). Cluster IV showed highest cluster mean for maximum characters namely, number of primary branches (30.83), number of marketable fruit harvest (4.60), fruit width (15.24), fruit weight (3005.65), number of fruits per plant (17.92), total carbohydrate % (2.73), calcium mg/100g (11.95), yield of marketable fruits kg/plant (54.20) and yield t/ha (135.50). Cluster VII exhibited highest mean for five characters namely, vine length (461.93), days to last fruit harvest (158.77), number of leaves (217.13), seed length-breadth ratio (2.41) and ascorbic acid (9.55). Cluster I and Cluster II exhibited highest mean for five characters, sex ratio (0.74), number of seeds per fruit (449.65), 100 seed weight (13.43), total soluble protein % (0.95) and total phenols % (44.04). In the present study it was found that Cluster I (GHA-4, GHA-2, GHA-5 and GHA-1) was highly divergent from all other genotypes.