Profiling of Mineral Nutrients and Variability Study in Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) Genotypes

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out to estimate the extent genetic variability and character association for fruit yield and nine mineral nutrients (sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, copper, zinc and selenium) in 76 genotypes of pumpkin during spring–summer season of the year 2014. The experimental results revealed significant differences among the genotypes for all the traits under study. Based on mean performance, the genotypes DPU-6, DPU-26 and DPU-51-3 were found most promising for different mineral nutrients and fruit yield per plant. Further, high heritability estimates coupled with high genetic gain were observed for all the traits under study, which indicated that these traits are under additive gene effects and are more reliable for effective selection. The correlation coefficients (phenotypic and genotypic) among different minerals along with fruit yield per plant depict that fruit yield per plant has significantly positive association with calcium (0.187 and 0.216) and magnesium (0.149 and 0.155) content. Path coefficient analysis at genotypic level revealed that iron has maximum positive direct effect (0.374) on marketable fruit yield per plant, followed by calcium (0.198) and copper (0.037). Besides, maximum positive indirect effect of manganese (0.331) and copper (0.265) via iron was observed on the fruit yield per plant.