No abstract

The experimental material consisted of 28 pumpkin genotypes including three standard checks viz., Arka Chandan, Azad Kaddu and Pusa Vikash was conducted in a Randomized Block Design with three replications. Analysis of variance studies indicated significant differences among all the genotypes for all the characters under study. Genetic diversity was worked out using Mahalanobis D 2 statistic. Based on D 2 analysis, the genotypes were grouped into 7 distinct non-overlapping clusters. Cluster I, II and III had 6 genotypes in each clusters. Cluster IV, V and VI also had 3 genotypes and cluster VII had presented only one genotype. The maximum intra-cluster distance was in cluster V (139.09) and minimum intracluster distance was found for cluster VII (0.00). Clustering pattern revealed that geographical diversity was not associated with genetic diversity of genotypes. The maximum inter-cluster distance was observed between clusters III to cluster VII (503.329), which suggested that members of these two clusters are genetically very diverse to each other. The inter cluster values between cluster I to cluster VII (398.733), V to VII (325.792), II to VII (315.975), V to VI (312.753) and I to V (309.983) were also high. The minimum inter-cluster D 2 value was recorded in case of cluster III to cluster IV (174.606). The wider genetic diversity were observed in cluster clusters I to VII, V to VII, II to VII, V to VI and I to V which indicated the potentiality of these diverse genotypes collection for providing basic material for future breeding programmes.

3G cutting is one of the most popular and successful inter-culture operations in cucurbitaceous crops like; bottle gourd, cucumber, pumpkin, sponge gourd, bitter gourd, etc. as well as in plants like tomato, eggplant, chilli, and lady’s finger for a small patch of land. Low fruit set is an emerging constraint in cucurbits, and when it does, extremely small-sized fruits develop and degrade the mother plant. This is the main problem that farmers are currently facing. This problem arises due to a rapid decrease in beneficial insects and other pollinators as a result of the haphazard use of foliar fertilizers and chemical pesticides. 3G cutting is a scientific process to get higher production from plants by increasing the number of female flowers in the plant by adopting practices like trimming and pruning of 1st and 2nd generation branches.  Generally, 1G and 2G branches have more no. of male flowers than female (approximately in the ratio of 14:1) whereas this ratio is reduced to 1:2 in 3G branches. We are all known that fruits develop from female flowers, while one male flower can pollinate several female flowers. However, this does not imply that there is no need for male flowers. Male flowers are necessary for pollination. Thus, 3G cutting is the finest scientific practice for farmers to maximize the number of female flowers and fruit yield.

The experiment was conducted at Vegetable Research Farm, Banda University of Agriculture and Technology, Banda, UP, India during the Rabi season in 2021 and 2022 to assess the performance of thirty-four genotypes of brinjal. The investigation was carried out in a Randomised Complete Block Design with three replications. The genotype BUB-18-27 exhibited the best yield potential of all the genotypes evaluated based on mean performance, followed by BUB-18-12, BUB-18-4, BUB-18-24, BUB-18-20, BUB-18-22, BUB-18-25, Kashi Taru, BUB-18-25 and BUB-18-17. From the earliness point of view, the genotypes BUB-18-20 recorded lowest value for days to 50% flowering and days to first fruit harvest among the recognized high yielding genotypes. The genotype BUB-18-27 was also found positively best with respect to average fruit weight, total soluble solids, fruit diameter, fruit circumference, number of primary branches and leaf area index. Other genotypes showing better performance for fruit yield per plant were also better for most of fruit yield contributing traits. As a result, these genotypes can be utilized for further improvement of fruit yield and its contributing traits in brinjal.

The present investigation was conducted in Randomized Block Design with 38 genotypes (including three checks) of tomato in three replications for thirteen quantitative traits. The objectives were to assess the correlation for fruit yield and yield contributing characters. The association studies showed that fruit yield per plant had highly significant and positive correlation with marketable fruit yield per plant, average fruit weight, equatorial diameter, unmarketable fruits yield per plant and number of fruits per plant at both phenotypic and genotypic levels.