Assessment of Heritability, Genetic Advancement and Yield of Bitter Gourd under Garhwal Region

A field experiment was conducted at Horticultural Research Centre, Department of Horticulture, H. N. B. Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand. The mean sum of squares due to treatments showed significant differences for all the traits except for number of nodes per vine, fruit length and seed diameter. Coefficients of variability, heritability and genetic advance were computed on 37 traits. In the present investigation, the PCV were higher than the GCV for almost all the traits under studied. The GCV and PCV were moderate to low for almost all the characters except fruit yield per vine. The highest heritability was observed in length of vine, number of nodes per vine, leaf area, days to first fruit harvest, length of fruit, weight of fruit, fruit yield per hectare, carbohydrate content and vitamin A. The estimates of high heritability accompanied with moderate genetic advance over mean were recorded for days taken to opening of first female flower, percent of fruit setting, seed length and percentage of seed germination, so there is an ample scope for direct selection for these traits and also can be improve through mass selection. Hence, provides better opportunities for selecting plant material for these traits in bitter gourd.