Genetic variability and component analysis in sponge gourd (Luffa cylindrica)

Abstract

Thirty five Accessions of sponge gourd were grown in a randomized block design with three replications during summer season of 2008. The analysis of variance indicated highly significant differences among genotypes for all the characters. The accession VRSG-16 was earliest, whereas VRSG-7 was late for days taken to initiated of 1st female flower and days taken to 1st harvesting. The minimum and maximum length of fruit was recorded in VRSG-10 (10.10 cm) and VRSG-18 (29.33 cm), respectively. High estimate of heritability in broad sense were obtained for all the characters except inter-nodal length, vine length and number of primary branches per plant. The high value for heritability was obtained for fruit weight (97.8), days to 1st harvest (92.0), fruit length (90.) and yield per plant (89.9). So, practicing phenotypic selection should be based on days to first fruit harvest, fruit weight and fruit length in improvement of sponge gourd.