CPTS SELECTION AND PROGENY TESTING IN MELIA COMPOSITAVISHAL JOHAR, VIKRAM SINGH, PATIL NIRMAL SUNIL AND PRAGYAN RAIAbstract Twenty five superior candidate plus trees (CPTs) of Melia composita were selected through an intensive survey from Haryana, Punjab and Uttrakhand. The trees were selected on the basis of the different characters of economic importance viz. straightness, clear bole height, self-pruning ability, acute branch angle etc. Among all the plus trees the maximum tree height was reported in MC21 (17.9 m) whereas the minimum was reported in MC3 (6.5 m). Highly significant and positive correlation (r = 0.941) was obtained between the tree height and other morphological characters viz. clear bole height, girth at breast height, crown spread etc. with optimum amount of variability among different progenies for various characters. Further, the progeny performance also provided a huge amount of variability which may be helpful in identifying superior plus trees for further scientific improvements of this versatile tree species. |