Cause and effect analysis of yield in off-season bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.)

Abstract

The present experiment was comprised of 26 diverse genotypes of bitter gourd, were evaluated during 2001-02 in off-season (November-sowing) at ICAR-IIVR, Varanasi (U.P.). The analysis of variance revealed that the genotypes included for investigation differed significantly for all the characters. The mean value of genotypes indicates that the indigenous materials have sufficient amount of variation for most of the traits, thus selection will be very effective. The range of variation was very high for plant height (55.65-105.45 cm) followed by fruit weight (15.03-45.38 g). The coefficient of variation was maximum for days to male flower emergence (44.87%), seed weight/fruit (40.48%), yield/plant (39.47%), fruit weight (30.97%) and fruit length (30.82%) in order of merit. The trait possessing high value and wider range, showed comparatively more opportunity for selection of better genotypes. This also describe that genetic factors were also equally and predominantly responsible for expression of these attributes.