Vol. 8, Special Issue 9, Part R (2024)

Ridge gourd is an important cucurbit cultivated in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of India as well as other parts of the world, especially for its green long fruits, consumed as vegetable. Genetic variability and penetrance of favorable characters to the progenies are two important factors in the success of any crop improvement programme. Therefore, the present study was conducted with 35 genotypes of ridge gourd collected from different sources and their evaluation for growth parameters, fruit yield and yield contributing traits using Randomized Block Design at Department of Vegetable Science, SKUAST-K, Shalimar during Kharif, 2022. The results indicated significant variability among the genotypes studied for all traits observed. Analysis of variance revealed that sum of squares due to genotypes for all the characters were highly significant revealing significant variation among all the genotypes for all the traits under study. Coefficient of variation revealed high values of phenotypic co-efficient (PCV) and genotypic co-efficient (GCV) of variation were observed seed cavity length (54.43% and 33.80%), fruit yield plant^-1 (31.53% and 31.47%), fruit yield hectare^-1 (31.53% and 31.47%), rind thickness (24.32% and 22.40%), average fruit weight (24.04% and 24.02%) respectively, indicating that genotypes had broad genetic base for these characters. The heritability estimates were found to be high (more than 70%). The genetic advance and genetic advance as percent of mean estimates were found to be high (more than 20%). The characters viz., vine length (99% and 33.77%), inter-nodal length (99% and 28.34%), fruit length (99% and 26.60%), average fruit weight (99% and 24.02%), fruit yield per plant (99% and 64.73%), fruit yield per hectare (99% and 64.73%), vit ‘C’ content (86% and 25.09%), node at which first female flower appeared (99% and 33.45%), no. of seeds per fruit (99% and 28.91%) and no. of nodes per vine (99% and 27.33%) showed high estimates of heritability coupled with high genetic gain (genetic advance as percent of mean), indicating the preponderance of additive gene action for control of these traits and suggesting the possibility of improvement in these traits through simple selections.