STUDY ON GENETIC VARIABILITY AND HERITABILITY IN Ocimum spp.

A field experiment was conducted during kharif season of 2008 to study the variability of 25 genotypes of Ocimum spp. for 11 traits. The estimate of maximum range and coefficient of variability were noted for six different characters including plant height, leaf length, no. of inflorescence/plant, length of inflorescence, days to maturity and fresh herb yield/plant. The highest estimates of heritability in broad sense were observed for plant height (99.70%) followed by length of inflorescence/plant (98.80%), fresh herb yield per plant (98.60%), no. of inflorescence/plant (98.40%), days to maturity (92.60%) and leaf width (91.50%). The highest value of genetic advance was obtained for fresh herbage yield per plant (1018.02) followed by dry herb yield per plant (394.31), no of inflorescence/plant (43.76) and plant height (39.13). Highest values of genotypic and phenotypic covariance indicated wide range of variability and high heritability associated with higher values of relative genetic advance.