GENETIC VARIABILITY AND CORRELATION STUDIES IN OLIVE (OLEAEUROPEA L.) GENOTYPES UNDER MID HILLS CONDITIONS OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR, INDIAAmit Kumar, Nirmal Sharma, Angrej Ali, Pradeep Kumar Singh, Nowsheen Nazir and Aroosa KhalilAbstract The present investigation for assessment of genetic variability on horticultural traits in sixteen olive genotypes was carried out at experimental farm of Advance Centre for Horticulture Development, Govindpura, Ramban (Jammu and Kashmir). All the selected genotypes differed significantly for the selected traits. Twenty traits were scored and subjected to genetic variability analysis. Highest phenotypic coefficient of variation was observed for plant volume (57.87 %), pulp weight (34.06 %) and fruit weight (32.88 %) followed by moderate PCV values for leaf area (27.62 %), stone weight (26.60 %), plant spread (24.26 %), yield (20.61 %), number of fruiting shoot (20.01 %). High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was found for the character plant volume, TSS, yield and oil content. Correlation coefficient between the characteristics suggested that there were some significant correlations among a number of measured characteristics. A significant and positive correlation was observed between leaf and fruit characters. Plant spread (-0.685), plant volume (- 0.679), leaf length (-0.594), fruit length (-0.733), fruit diameter (-0.788), fruit weight (-0.783), pulp weight (-0.769), stone diameter (-0.637), stone weight (-0.841) showed negative but highly significant correlation with oil content. Among genotypes most diverse genotypes were Nocellara Messinese, Leccino and Cipressino which could be utilized as donor parents breeding programs which may result in increase in the desired traits such as fruit size, oil content and yield. |