Performance of bitter gourd genotypes (Momordica charantia var.muricata L.) for higher yield and quality traits under sodic soil condition cultivar mithi pagal

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out at Horticultural college and Research Institute for Women, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Trichy during Kharif 2017 with 30 mithipagal (Momordica charantia var. muricata.L) collected from different parts of Tamil Nadu to identify high yield and quality genotypes under sodic soil condition. Observation were recorded for the following traits viz, vine length, days to first male flower appearance, days to first female flower appearance, nodes of first male flower appearance, nodes of first female flower appearance, sex ratio, number of fruits per vine, fruit weight, fruit length, fruit girth, number of seeds per fruit, 100 seed weight, yield per vine, ascorbic acid, carotenoid content and total soluble solids. Among the genotypes MCM-19 was found to be the most promising genotype which recorded higher fruit yield per vine (0.72 kg) as well as other economic fruit yield components viz., fruit length (5.51 cm), fruit girth (6.47 cm), fruit weight (9.08 g), number of seeds per fruit (9.80), 100 seed weight (10.59 g) followed by MCM 22 and MCM 21. The highest total soluble solids was recorded in the genotypes MCM-4 (5.90 0brix) followed by MCM-21 (5.87 0brix), where as highest ascorbic acid was recorded in the genotypes MCM-26 (123.62 mg/100g) followed by MCM-22 (122.59 mg/100g). Hence selecting bitter gourd var. mithipagal genotypes with high fruit weight, more number of fruits per vine and seeds per fruit will help to improve yield per vine and quality of bitter gourd var fruits.