PHENOTYPIC AND GENOTYPIC COEFFICIENT OF VARIATION AND PATH COEFFICIENT ANALYSIS IN TOMATO (Lycopersicon esculentum mill.)

Abstract

The experiment was initiated with objectives to estimate the nature and extent of variability in the available varieties of tomato for fruit characteristics and fruit yield to establish the inter relationship among yield contributing traits to assess direct and indirect contribution towards yield and quality components. The Phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation and path coefficient analysis were studied using 28 tomato genotypes. The highest genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation was recorded for pericarp thickness (53.21 mm), number of locules per fruit (35.69), fruit weight (31.56 g) and plant height 29.95 (cm). The highest yield was recorded in genotype Uday PGT-II (6.97 kg/plant), followed by Pusa Ruby (6.45 kg/plant) and Local-2 (6.08 kg/ plant). In this analysis yield per plant was taken as dependent variable and rest of the characters were considered as in dependable variables. Path coefficient analysis revealed that fruit weight (0.897), number of locules per fruit (0.474), number of primary branches per plant (0.319), total soluble solids (0.318), fruit length (0.162), days to 50% flowering (0.125), plant height (0.050) and pericarp thickness (0.033) had positive direct effect on yield per plant. This shows the significant effect of these characters towards the increased yield of tomato.