Studies on genetic variability, heritability, correlation and path coefficient analysis in curry leaf (Murraya koenigii Spreng.) genotypes

Abstract

A study was conducted on thirty curry leaf genotypes to analyse the variability and correlation among different qualitative traits viz., plant height, number of secondary branches, secondary branch length, secondary branch weight, length at branching, compound leaves, leaflet length, number of leaflets and inter nodal length that influences the fresh leaf yield. Analysis of variance revealed that the genotypes significantly differed for all the traits studied. The results showed that PCV was higher than the GCV for all the characters and high genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation was recorded for the traits viz., plant height, number of secondary branches, secondary branch length, compound leaves and fresh leaf yield per plant. High heritability was observed for plant height, secondary branches, secondary branch length, length at branching, number of leaflets and inter nodal length. Correlation studies showed that fresh leaf yield per plant was significantly and positively correlated with almost all the traits studied. The highest and direct effect on fresh leaf yield per plant was observed for compound leaves (1.195) followed by leaflet length (0.093), number of leaflets (0.306), secondary branch length (0.300) and length at branching (0.142). Hence, compound leaves, leaflet length, number of leaflet, secondary branch length and length at branching traits will be useful for selection of superior genotypes in curry leaf . Keywords: Genotypes, variability, correlation, fresh leaf yield