STUDIES ON VARIABILITY, HERITABILITY AND GENETIC ADVANCE IN BRINJAL (SOLANUM MELONGENA L.)

The present investigation was conducted during Kharif, 2013 at Vegetable Research Block, Uttarakhand University of Horticulture and Forestry, Ranichauri Campus, Tehri Garhwal (Uttarakhand), India with 21 diverse genotypes of brinjal. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications. The data was recorded for sixteen plant growth and fruit yield related characters viz., days to 50% flowering, plant height at 50% flowering (cm), number of branches per plant, leaf area (cm 2 ), flowers per cluster, fruits per cluster, fruit setting percentage (%), fruit length (cm), fruit diameter (cm), fruit volume (cm 3 ) number of fruits per plant, average fruit weight (g), plant height at last picking (cm), dry matter content (%), number of pickings and fruit yield per plant (kg). The cultivars viz., Azad T-3, JBGR-1, CH-10-45, Mukta Keshri and Punjab Nagini were found promising as they contained more than one desirable trait. High phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation (PCV and GCV), heritability and genetic advance were observed for number of fruits per plant, average fruit weight, fruit yield per plant, fruit volume, fruits per cluster, number of pickings, flowers per cluster, fruit diameter and dry matter content. Therefore, these characters which may be included in selection criteria for improvement in fruit yield per plant.