Studies genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance for various yield contributing traits in garlic (Allium Sativum L.)

The experiment was conducted during rabi season, 2016-2017 in Augmented Randomized Block Design at Vegetable Research Station, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh. Genotypic variability, heritability and genetic advance for bulb yield and bulb yield contributing characters were studied on 126 garlic genotypes and 4 checks. The observation were recorded on 14 characters viz., plant height (cm), pseudostem height (cm), number of leaves per plant, leaf length (cm), leaf width at middle portion (cm), bulb equatorial diameter (cm), bulb polar diameter (cm), bulb weight (g), number of cloves per bulb, clove weight (g), clove length (cm), days to maturity (days), bulb yield (kg/ha) and total soluble solid (%). The analysis of variance revealed that mean square due to genotypes were highly significant for all the characters except plant height, pseudostem height and days to maturity, implies the presence of sufficient amount of genetic variability among the genotypes. The phenotypic coefficient of variation were higher than the corresponding genotypic coefficient of variation for all the characters studied, however, the differences was narrow which implied less environmental influences. High heritability estimates were obtained for bulb yield and number of leaves per plant, while high genetic advance as percent of mean were obtained for bulb yield followed by pseudostem height and clove weight indicating wide scope for improvement through selection of these traits