ASSESSMENT OF VEGETATIVE AND REPRODUCTIVE TRAITS IN BOTTLE GOURD CULTIVARS

Abstract

Low yield of bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria L.) in Pakistan can be attributed to number of factors, however, cultivation of low-yielding cultivars is a serious and an important issue. Yield in bottle gourd can be improved by using adaptable high-yielding cultivars. The present investigation was carried out with ten cultivars of bottle gourd to evaluate their performance for various horticultural attributes. Cultivars grown under agro-climatic conditions of Faisalabad exhibited significant variation in number of horticultural attributes. The genotype G6 (Akash Green gold) was found to possess maximum internodal length (3.61 cm) while, G2 (Arya 187 F1) recorded maximum leaf area (89.29 cm2). The cultivar G4 (Akash F1 hybrid) and G8 (Kohli Long hybrid) was noted for higher fruit diameter (11.96 cm) and fruit length (13.23 cm), respectively. The cultivar G2 (Arya 187 F1) was found to be superior and promising for more fruit weight, higher number of fruits per vine and elevated fruit yield, thus it can be recommended to farmers for commercial cultivation. Moreover, outcome of this bottle gourd characterization exhibiting signi?cant variations can be organized in accordance to their usefulness for identi?cation of morphological traits, fruit characters and seed attributes.

Keywords

• assessment
• bottle gourd
• cultivars
• vegetative
• yield