Genetic diversity and heterosis of Bottle gourd

Present work presents evaluation of 22 genotypes of bottle gourd, both from local and exotic sources, which was made in respect of different vegetative and reproductive characters. Wide variations were observed among the genotypes for the characters studied. Days to 1st harvest ranged from 54.00 in LS09 to 84.30 in LS02. Twenty two genotypes were subjected to multivariate analysis for testing the genetic divergence based on thirteen characters. No direct relationship was found between genetic divergence and geographical distribution of the genotypes. These results indicated that days to 1st harvest, fruit length, fruit diameter, fruit mesocarp thickness, fruit endocarp thickness, fruit weight had the highest contribution towards the divergence among 22 genotypes of bottle gourd and contributed the maximum towards total divergence. Combining ability and genetic parameters for thirteen vegetative and reproductive characters were estimated from a 7 X 7 diallel set excluding reciprocals. The result revealed that the variances due to general and specific combining ability (GCA and SCA) were highly significant for all the characters.