Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

GENETIC VARIABILITY STUDIES IN WILD POMEGRANATE GERMPLASM COLLECTED FROM FOUR DIFFERENT DISTRICTS OF HIMACHAL PRADESH, INDIA

Gopa Mishra Girish Sharma and Sukumar Taria

Abstract

Wild pomegranate accessions were evaluated for various variability parameters for the traits like growth parameters, floral biology, types of flower, fruit weight, length, diameter, aril weight, peel and rag weight, rind thickness, fruit TSS, acidity, sugars and yield per plant and it was found that, phenotypic coefficients of variability were higher in magnitude than genotypic coefficients of variability, though differences were very less in majority of the cases. Among all the traits yield had maximum GCV, PCV and genetic gain followed by peel and rag weight whereas high heritability was found for all the traits except the characters, stamen number and male flower which was rated to be having moderate heritability.