CORRELATION AND PATH ANALYSIS IN GENOTYPES OF OKRA [ABELMOSCHUS ESCULENTUS (L.) MOENCH]

Abstract

A study of correlation and path analysis was undertaken in 27 genotypes of okra for fruit yield and its component traits. Yield per plant had highly significant positive genotypic and phenotypic correlation with plant height (0.49**, 0.47**), length of pod (0.78**, 0.75**), average weight of edible pod (0.93**, 0.91**) and number of seeds per pod (0.59**, 0.57**). Non-significant correlation was observed for yield component traits like number of pods per plant and weight of 100- seeds with yield per plant. Correlation studies indicated that close relationship between genotypic and phenotypic correlation coefficients and magnitude of genotypic correlation were higher than their corresponding phenotypic correlation for most of the characters. Path coefficient analysis revealed that average weight of edible pod (0.943) had highest positive direct effect followed by number of pods per plant (0.372) and number of leaves per plant (0.125) on yield per plant. The study suggested that plant height, length of pod, average weight of edible pod and number of seeds per pod are important traits which should be used as selection criteria to develop high yielding varieties in okra.