Construction of Selection Indicesbased on Yield Related Traits for Ashgourd [Benincasa Hispida (Cogn.)] Genotypes

ABSTRACT A research program was carried out, at the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, College of Agriculture, Vellayani with the objective of assessing the genetic variability, present in a population of twenty-five ash gourd genotypes. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences, for almost all the characters studied. Yield per plant showed strong positive genotype correlation, with mean fruit weight, fruit length, fruit girth, flesh thickness and seeds per fruit. The discriminant function technique was adopted, for the selection of construction index for yield using characters, which showed a relatively stronger association with yield. The genotypes BH 2 and BH 3, ranked the first with high index values.