Searching for the optimum multivariate profile of an ash gourd [Benincasa hispida (Thunb.) Cogn.] genotype

Ash gourd is an important vegetable especially in the Indo-China region, but also in America and Africa. It is a monotypic genus, and its genetic pool is considered little diverse, which makes breeding of good ash gourd cultivars difficult. A pool of 56 genotypes, of which 10 are released cultivars and 46 indigenous lines collected from different parts of India, was studied in a two-year experiment. Various traits are important when breeding new cultivars, so an optimum multivariate performance is studied in this germplasm, with a special focus on traits of the greatest importance, namely fruit yield per plant, flesh thickness, vine length, and number of days to female and male flowering. Such performance is studied for the best-yielding genotypes, and promising genotypes in terms of multivariate performance are selected.