Study genetic divergence (D2) among the parents and their crosses in bottle gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (Mol.) Standl.]

The experiment entitled “Diallel cross analysis for growth (earliness), fruit yield and quality traits in bottle gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (Mol.) Standl.]” was undertaken with the objectives (i) To study the combining ability, variances and their effects (ii) to estimate heterosis over better-parent and standard variety (iii) to find out gene action involved in the inheritance of various characters and (iv) to estimate the heritability (narrow sense) and genetic advance in per cent of mean (v) to examine the genetic divergence (D2) among the parents and their crosses. The materials of experiment consisted of ten diverse parents Pusa Naveen (P1), NDBG-601 (P2), PBOG-3 (P3), NDBG-517 (P4), NDBG-603 (P5), NDBG-624 (P6), N. Pooja (P7), NDBG-100 (P8), Punjab Komal (P9), and NDBG-11 (P10) were crossed in diallel fashion excluding reciprocal to obtained 45 F1 and evaluated in randomized block design in three replications having each experimental unit of single row with spacing of 3 m x 0.5 m at MES Vegetable Science, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Narendra Nagar (Kumarganj), Ayodhya during Zaid, 2017 and 2018. Observations were recorded for 18 metric traits viz. days to first staminate and pistillate flower appearance, node number to first staminate and pistillate flower anthesis, days to first fruit harvest, primary branches per plant, vine length (m), fruit length (cm), fruit circumference (cm), T.S.S. (⁰B), ascorbic acid (mg per 100 g fresh weight), reducing sugar, non-reducing sugar and total sugars (%),dry matter content, Fruit weight (kg), number of fruits per plant, fruit yield per plant (kg).The maximum inter-cluster distance was observed between clusters I to VIII (1177.61) and the intra cluster D2 values ranged from 8.279 (cluster V) to 15.466 (cluster I). The maximum inter-cluster distance was observed between clusters I to VIII (13.225) during pooled. Which suggested that members of these two clusters were genetically very diverse to each other.