Genetic Variability and Selection Parameter for Yield and its Components in Linseed (Linum utitassisimum L.)

An experiment consisting 60 genotypes of linseed was conducted at Research Farm of P. G. College Ghazipur during two years 2008-9 and 2009-10 in three micro environments results showed high level of variability for pooled data for all the characters. Highest PCV and GCV were recorded for biological yield per plant followed by capsules per plant and seed yield per plant. It was lower for days to maturity and oil content. High heritability in broad sense was recorded for all the characters except days to maturity which showed moderate heritability. Genetic advance was a high for number of capsules per plant. Other characters showed moderate to low genetic advance indicating the role of both additive and non-additive genes. An advancement of 139.6% over base population was expected for biological yield per plant followed by capsule per plant (56.30%). Seed yield had about 50% improvement over mean. Seed yield per plant showed positive and significant correlation with days to flowering, days to maturity, tillers per plant, branches per plant, capsules per plant, number of seeds per capsule and biological yield per plant. Simple selection method would be more appropriate for improving the seed yield.