A Study on Variability of Elite Landraces of Small Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum Maton)

Even though over one dozen improved varieties of small cardamom are made available to farmers, many farmers still depend on promising landraces for cultivation. Being a crop that is mainly propagated clonally by suckers, evaluation of such landraces in order to select promising genotypes from them has immense scope in the crop improvement of cardamom. With this objective, a field experiment for the evaluation of ten elite landraces of cardamom based on genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance was undertaken. Sixty-three characters including seven growth characters, nine yield characters, sixteen quality characters and thirty-one biophysical/chemical characters were recorded. Among the growth characters, highest GCV and PCV were shown by tillers per clump; highest heritability was shown by leaf length and highest genetic advance by tillers per clump. This shows that number of tillers per clump is the most important growth character. Among the yield characters highest GCV and genetic advance were shown by internodal length, PCV by panicles per clump and heritability by racemes per panicle. In quality characters, GCV and PCV were the highest in dry seed weight and heritability in percentage of 7 mm and above sized capsules which is a very desirable phenomenon. With regard to the biophysical/biochemical characters, acid insoluble ash showed the highest GCV; PCV was shown by chlorophyll b content of leaf; heritability by acid insoluble ash in capsule. The characters analyzed showed genetic advance ranging from 0.006 to 0.58. Characters with high genetic advance could be utilized for selection.