Fruit development studies were taken up in white and pink types of wax apple trees aging twelve years old at Goa, India. The study was initiated with the onset of flowering in November during the year 2018. After tagging the flowers on anthesis, samples were drawn periodically to record parameters like fruit weight, fruit volume, fruit length and diameter (upper, middle and lower), quality or biochemical parameters like total acids and sugars. Relative growth rate (RGR) was calculated for all parameters and graphs were generated. In both the types, fruit weight, fruit volume, fruit length and diameter increased in a sigmoidal pattern. The quality characters like TSS, total acids and total sugars also showed a sigmoidal pattern of increase whereas the increase in reducing sugars exhibited a double sigmoidal pattern of increase. It was evident from the curves that there was pronounced peak in growth rate between 21 and 28 days after anthesis for fruit weight, fruit volume, fruit length and diameter, in both pink and white types of wax apple.

Vegetable cowpea or Yard long bean [Vigna unguiculata var. sesquipedalis L. (Walp)] is a warm season leguminous crops grown especially for vegetable purpose along the west coast of India. In Goa, pole type varieties are preferred over bushy types as they offer multiple harvests with comparatively longer pods. There is wide variability found for different morphological and other traits in the local types cultivated in the state of Goa. Exploration of genetic variability in the available germplasm is a prerequisite for initiation of any successful breeding programme. Twenty nine genotypes of vegetable cowpea including three improved varieties collected from different parts of Goa state were evaluated for twelve quantitative characters including yield. High variability was observed for pod yield/plant, number of pods/plant and pod length. The high variability for pod yield per plant is apparent as the pod yield ranged from 315.25 to 2070.45 g/plant with an average of 827.48 g per plant. Pod yield depends on number of pods per plant, pod length and pod weight. Number of pods per plant ranged from 36.65 to 147.80. Pod weight depends on pod length, number of seeds per pod and hundred seeds weight. Wide variation was observed for all these characters in the present study. The GCV value was maximum for pod yield per plant (g) followed by pod weight (g) and number of pods per plant. Low values of GCV were observed for days to first flowering, days to first harvest and number of seeds per pod. In the present study, the twenty nine genotypes could be grouped into fourteen clusters based on genetic distance. High coefficient of variation was observed for pod yield per plant, pod weight, number of pods per plant and pod length indicating their significant contribution in determining the inter cluster distances.

The effect of seed priming with calcium nitrate Ca (NO3)2 and potassium nitrate (KNO3) on germination and seedling vigour were studied in papaya varieties. Open pollinated local (gauty) papaya seeds were soaked in Ca (NO3)2 and KNO3 solutions (10000 ppm, 15000 ppm and 20000 ppm) up to 24 hours and germination percentage and seedling characteristics were recorded. The least number of days taken for seed germination (4.33 days), the highest germination percentage (82.56 % ), the highest shoot length (14.31 cm) the highest fresh biomass (1.36 g) and dry biomass (0.174 g) were recorded in 10000 ppm   Ca(NO3)2 treatment. Further, seeds of papaya varieties viz., Arka Surya, Arka Prabhat and Madhu bindhu were treated with 5000 ppm, 10000 ppm and 15000 ppm Ca (NO3)2 and observed that Arka Prabhat seeds treated with 10000 ppm Ca (NO3)2 hadtaken the least number of days for germination (4.75 days) and also the highest shoot length (25.2 cm). The results of the experiment proved the significant effect of calcium ions over potassium ions on papaya seed germination and seedling vigour.