Varun Dwivedi, Ajeet Singh, Manish Kumar Singh, Himanshu Singh, Shweta Soni, Rehan Anjum, Shubham Kumar and Ankur Kumar
Abstract
The present study was conducted to evaluate genetic divergence among 30 pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch. ex Poir.) genotypes during the kharif season of 2024-25 using Mahalanobisâ D² statistics. The analysis revealed considerable genetic variability, with the genotypes grouped into five distinct, non-overlapping clusters. The intra-cluster distance ranged from 0.00 to 509.52, with the highest value observed in cluster III, indicating greater heterogeneity within this group. The maximum inter-cluster distance was recorded between clusters V and II (2604.98), suggesting the existence of wide genetic divergence and the possibility of obtaining superior recombinants through hybridization. Cluster mean analysis demonstrated significant variation among clusters for different morphological, yield, and quality traits. Cluster V exhibited superior performance for yield and most associated traits, including number of fruits per plant, average fruit weight, and fruit yield per plant, along with higher values of ascorbic acid and chlorophyll content. Cluster IV showed higher mean values for quality parameters such as total soluble solids and ?-carotene content. The analysis of trait contribution indicated that ?-carotene contributed the maximum (51.72%) towards total genetic divergence, followed by total soluble solids (26.44%) and ascorbic acid (14.25%). The findings suggest that selection of parents from genetically distant clusters, particularly clusters V and II, would be effective for developing high-yielding and nutritionally improved pumpkin genotypes.