1 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 00-00, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction tomato (solanum lycopersicum l.) is a widely cultivated vegetable crop in india. karnataka is one of the major tomato producing states in the country. in 2017-18, karnataka state accounted for 10.54 per cent of the total production of the country (nhb, 2021). tomato production is limited by several biotic stresses. among biotic stresses, late blight disease caused by phytophthora infestans (mont.) de bary is a deva sta ting disea se on toma to in india a nd worldwide (fry et al., 2015). tomato late blight has emerged as a major pr oduction risk in toma to cultivation in southern hills and plains including karnataka. under severe epidemics, crop loss up to 100 per cent has been reported (chowdappa et al., 2013). in india, cr op insura nce scheme implies yield insurance. tomato crop yield loss is covered under pradhan mantri fasal bima yojana (pmfby) and restructured weather based crop insurance scheme (rwbcis). comprehensive risk insurance is provided to cover yield losses due to non-preventable risks, among other widespread pests and disease attack in standing crop from sowing to harvesting (anon., 2021). to consider tomato late blight disease as an important peril under insurance scheme, scientifically validated da ta on yield loss a re required in a par ticular geography. previously 100 per cent crop loss due to late blight in tomato due to a2-13 mating type of phytophthora infestans in southern plains and hills has been reported as per rapid roving survey observation (chowdappa et al., 2013; 2015). currently there are no reports in india with data generated on yield loss assessment due to late blight based on crop cutting exper iments. in this context, field tr ials wer e undertaken at icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hesaraghatta, bengaluru, india during kharif 2019 and 2020, with two objectives viz., i) to estimate the magnitude of tomato yield loss due to late blight disease ii) to assess resistant hybrid as risk management option against late blight epiphytotics. materials and methods estimation of yield loss two sea son field tr ia ls wer e under ta ken in hesar aghatta farm of icar-india n institute of horticultural research, bengaluru (13.1362° n, 77.4980° e). the trials were conducted in kharif (july-december) 2019 a nd 2020 under na tur al epiphytotics of late blight. tomato late blight yield loss assessment and risk aversion with resistant hybrid sandeep kumar g.m.*, sriram s., laxman r.h. and harshita k.n. icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru 560 089, karnataka, india *corresponding author email : sandeep.gm@icar.gov.in abstract late blight (phytophthora infestans) is one of the devastating diseases of tomato worldwide. field trial was carried out in kharif 2019 and 2020 in hesaraghatta, bengaluru, karnataka, india, to estimate yield loss due to late blight and to assess extent of protection in resistant genotype during late blight epiphytotics. yield loss was calculated as per cent difference in yield between fungicides treated and unprotected plots in three f1 hybrids ns501, arka rakshak, both susceptible genotypes and arka abhed, a resistant genotype. over two years, average yield loss due to late blight was 79.47 per cent in ns501, 75.53 per cent in arka rakshak and 12.84 per cent in arka abhed. with lower mean audpc values (147.22 in 2019 and 469.17 in 2020) and with low yield loss, arka abhed provided affordable protection against late blight. our findings indicate late blight as an economically important peril to be considered for tomato yield loss coverage under insurance scheme in bengaluru region. arka abhed hybrid can be cultivated to avert yield loss risk associated with late blight epiphytotics. key words: arka abhed, resistance hybrid, tomato late blight and yield loss. 2 sandeep et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 00-00, 2022 field exper iment wa s la id out in 2 fa ctor ia l randomized complete block design. factor 1 was tomato genotypes with three levels. the three tomato f1 hybrids were ns501, arka rakshak and arka abhed (h-397). the second factor was fungicide protection with two levels, i.e., with and without fungicide protection against late blight as treatments. each treatment was replicated four times. these three hybrids were selected as they have relatively different degree of resistance against major diseases of tomato, so that effect of other disease on yield loss estimation is minimal. among three hybrids, hybrid ns 501 is tolerant to bacterial wilt and tlcv but susceptible to early and late blight. arka rakshak has resistance against leaf curl, bacterial wilt and moderate resistance against early blight, but it is susceptible to late blight. arka rakshak was chosen to minimize the effect of other diseases on yield loss, which might occur even with pesticide usage. the third hybrid chosen was arka abhed (h-397), which has disease resistance to tomato leaf curl disease (ty2+ty3), bacterial wilt (bwr.12), early blight and late blight (ph-2 + ph-3) and has field tolerance to bipa r tite tomato leaf curl new delhi virus (tolcndv) (kaushal et al., 2020). arka abhed was included in the experiment, to test the relative efficacy of this hybrid to be adopted as a strategy against this disease risk to get assured yield in conditions of late blight epidemics. each plot measured 3m × 3m, with 20 plants were transplanted on raised beds and covered with reflective agriculture mulch film (30μ) at spacing 100 cm × 45 cm. twenty-five-day old tomato seedlings at 3-4 leaf stage were transplanted on 21st july in both the years. the crop was raised with staking and drip irrigation. fertilizer application and weed management were made as per package of practices of icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, for open field cultivation of tomato (sadashiva et al., 2018). yield loss was calculated by subtracting yield from a plot protected with fungicides a nd one without fungicide protection. to protect tomato plants from late blight, a total of five sprays of dimethomorph 50% wp (1. 2 g/l) + ma ncozeb 75%wp (2 g/l), fenamidone 10% + mancozeb 50% wg (3 g/l) and famoxadone 16.6% + cymoxanil 22.1% sc (1 ml/l), fosetyl al 80 wp (80% w/w) (1 g/l), were sprayed at weekly interval until final harvest. all these fungicides have label claim for use on tomato in india (dppqs, 2021). a control plot without any fungicide protection against late blight was maintained in each hybrid with four replications. to exclude other pests additional sprays of following pesticides were given; spinosad 45.00% sc (0.32 ml/ l), indoxacarb 14.50% sc (1.34 ml/l), imidacloprid 17.80% sl(0.5 ml/l), azadirachtin 01.00% ec (10000 ppm)(3 ml/l), streptomycin sulphate 90% + tetracycline hydrochloride 10% sp (500ppm), neem soap (10 g/l), to manage, bacterial leaf spot, south american tomato pinworm, fruit borer and sucking pests. fruit yield data from all the pickings from each plot was pooled and expressed as t ha-1. at each harvest, observations on marketable and non-marketable fruits, incidence of late blight infection on fruits was recorded. in addition, ancillary observations on incidence of ea r ly blight, toma to gbnv, a nd infestation of south american tomato pin worm and tomato fruit borer on fruits were recorded. yield loss was calculated as the difference between actual yields recorded in plots with fungicide protection and unprotected plots (cooke et al., 2006). where yp=yield recorded in protected plot, yup=yield recorded in unprotected plot disease assessment late blight severity was assessed at weekly intervals from transplanting to final harvest on five randomly selected plants tagged in a plot. severity on leaves was assessed by using 0-5 scale where, 0=no symptoms, 1=1 to 11% disease (midpoint 6%), 2=12 to 38% disease (midpoint 25%), 3=39 to 61% disea se (midpoint 50%), 4=62 to 88% disease (midpoint 75%), 5=89 to 100% disease (midpoint 95%) (seidl-johnson et al., 2015). per cent disease index (pdi) was calculated based using the formula. from multiple severity assessments made at periodical intervals, area under disease progress curve for each variety was worked as per equation (wilcoxson et al., 1975). 3 tomato late blight yield loss assessment and risk aversion with resistant hybrid where, si=disease severity at the end of week i, k = the number of successive evaluations of disease and d=interval between two evaluations. statistical analysis: disease severity index data was subjected to arcsine transformation before calculating audpc values. the data were subjected to anova at 5 per cent significance level by spss software. yield loss and disease severity data were subjected to anova for statistical significance among different treatments at significance level 5 per cent using spss software. results and discussion yield loss assessment the results on marketable yield and yield loss in two years are presented in table 1. significant difference in yield was observed between varieties and level of protection. this may be attributed to inherent yielding potentials of the varieties and efficacy of plant protection schedule applied in both the years. yield loss in kharif 2019 was less compared to kharif 2020. this may be attributed to higher disease incidence of late blight recorded in 2020 (table 2). over two years, average yield loss due to late blight was 79.47 per cent in ns501, 75.53 per cent in arka rakshak and 12.84 per cent in arka abhed. in india, severe tomato late blight epidemics have been recorded during 2009-2010 in south indian plains and hills by chowdappa et al. (2013), during 2014 in eastern and northeastern india (nei) by dey et al. (2018) and during 2016 in eastern uttar pradesh by tripathi et al. (2017). in all these reports there was no yield loss estimation except for reports from south india plains and hills, where 100% crop loss is reported as per rapid roving survey observation. our data establishes that late blight is an inevita ble r isk in kharif cultivation of tomato causing considerable yield loss in bengaluru region if resistant genotypes are not used. the yield loss data generated will pave way for inclusion of this peril under pradhan mantri fasal bima yojana (pmfby) of india for yield coverage. disease assessment data on disease severity on three varieties during 2019 and 2020 kharif season are presented in table 2. data table 1 : tomato late blight yield loss estimation in kharif 2019 and 2020 in hesaraghatta, bengaluru kharif 2019 kharif 2020 marketable yield mean marketable yield mean average treatment yield (t/ha) loss (variety) yield (t/ha) loss (variety) yield (%) (%) loss (%) p* up p up arka rakshak 70.94 19.98 71.92 45.46 61.47 12.82 79.14 37.15 75.53 ns-501 53.84 13.25 75.39 33.55 48.12 7.92 83.54 28.02 79.47 arka abedh 61.25 53.14 13.65 57.20 55.12 48.50 12.02 51.81 12.84 mean 62.01 28.79 54.90 23.08 (protection) variety sem = 1.87, cd = 5.63 sem = 3.15, cd = 9.51(pd<0.05) protection sem = 1.52, cd = 4.60 sem = 2.57, cd = 7.76(pd<0.05) variety* protection sem = 2.64, cd = 7.97 sem = 4.46, cd = 13.45 (pd<0.05) cv (%) 11.81 22.48 *p=protected up=unprotected 4 analysis revealed significant effect of varieties and level of protection on severity of late blight. in 2019, significantly lower disease severity was recorded with variety arka abhed, which was statistically superior over arka rakshak and ns501, which were at par with respect to late blight severity. similar trend was observed in 2020 except for higher disease severity recorded in second year. the higher incidence in second year may be attributed to build up of soil borne inoculums a nd pr eva iling fa vor a ble wea ther conditions. in susceptible varieties, late blight severity ranged from 54.44 to 74.17 over two years. in a trial on four years evaluation of integrated management packages for management of tomato diseases at hesa r agha tta , la te blight was r ecorded a s the predominant disease during 2015-18 kharif season (kumar et al., 2020). the current and previous works substantiate that bengaluru region is a natural hot spot of tomato late blight disease. in our exper imenta tion, even with pr otective application of systemic fungicides at 7 days interval, late blight severity values in fungicide protected plots ranged from 8.34 to 18.33 in 2019 and 6.67 to 27.50 in 2020. this is due to prevailing continuous rains that might have reduced the bioefficacy of fungicides applied. this is in conformation with work of rani et al. (2015) that simulated rainfall after spray reduced persistence a nd bioefficacy of fungicides viz. , meta la xyl 8%+ ma ncozeb 64%wp, ma ncozeb 75%wp, which are widely used against late blight management in tomato. in kharif tomato production, where weather events like continuous rains limits fungicide and protection against late blight. in such situa tions, arka abhed, a r esista nt f1 hybr id developed at icar-iihr can be used as an effective component to get assured yield with reduction in input costs incurred on usage of protective and curative fungicides. in two consecutive season’s evaluation in hesaraghatta under high disease pressure, the hybrid arka abhed had significantly recorded low audpc values (147.22 and 469.17 in 2019 and 2020 respectively) compared to higher audpc values of susceptible genotypes viz., ar ka ra ksha k (997. 22, 2683. 33) a nd ns501 (1096.68, 2655.83) which were at par with each other in turkey’s test at 5 per cent probability (fig. 1). table 2 : tomato late blight severity in kharif 2019 and 2020 under fungicide protected and unprotected conditions kharif 2019 kharif 2020 treatment per cent disease index (pdi) per cent disease index (pdi) p up mean p up mean (variety) (variety) arka 13.89 54.44 34.17 25.83 72.50 49.17 rakshak (21.88) (47.55) (34.72) (30.55) (58.37) (44.46) ns-501 18.33 61.11 39.72 27.50 74.17 50.84 (25.34) (51.42) (38.38) (31.63) (59.45) (45.54) arka 8.34 12.22 10.28 6.67 17.50 12.09 abedh (16.78) (20.46) (18.62) (14.96) (24.72) (19.84) mean 13.52 42.59 20.00 54.72 (protection) (21.33) (39.81) (25.71) (47.51) variety sem = 1.42, cd = 4.27 sem = 1.29, cd = 3.89(pd<0.05) protection sem = 1.16, cd = 3.49 sem = 1.05, cd = 3.17(pd<0.05) variety*protection sem = 2.01, cd = 6.04 sem = 1.83, cd = 5.49(pd<0.05) cv (%) 13.12 9.95 *value in the parenthesis is arcsine transformed values of per cent disease index. first year peak severity data on september 12, second year peak severity on november 24. p=protected up=unprotected sandeep et al 5 higher audpc values in 2020 can be attributed to higher late blight severity recorded in second year. previous study by hansen et al. (2014) suggests that tomato varieties possessing both ph-2 and ph-3 genes can be used to effectively manage late blight caused by p. infestans clonal lineage us-23. in our two years study we have found that arka abhed with ph-2 and ph-3 genes has provided affordable protection against the prevailing late blight population 13_a2 clonal lineage of p. infestans in bengaluru location. conclusions the current yield loss assessment validates late blight as a major production constraint causing considerable yield loss in kharif cultivation of tomato in bengaluru region. hence, late blight disease has to be considered as an important peril and yield loss arising out of it has to be covered under national crop insurance programme. based on disease prevalence data it is clear that bengaluru area is hot spot for late blight disease. tomato breeders and pathologist should eva lua te their ma ter ial in benga lur u a r ea for identification of resistant germplasm and testing field efficacy of management measures evolved against this disea se. in consecutive two year s, two sea son evaluation, we have found that arka abhed is a risk aversion technology with assured yield under late blight epiphytotics. acknowledgements the authors are grateful to the director, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru, for providing facilities. authors acknowledge the funding for this study by icar under nicra programme. references anonymous. 2021. operational guidelines pradhan mantri fasal bima yojana (pmfby) accessed on 24 april2021,https://pmfby.gov.in/pdf/ revised_operational_guidelines.pdf. chowdappa, p., kumar, n., madhura, s., kumar, m., myers, k., fry, w., squires, j. and cooke, d. 2013. emergence of 13_a2 blue lineage of phytophthora infestans was responsible for severe outbreaks of late blight on tomato in south west india. journal of phytopathology, 16:49-58. chowdappa, p., nirmal kumar, b. j., madhura, s., mohan kumar, s. p., myers, k. l., fry, w.e. and cooke, d. e. l. 2015. severe outbreaks of late blight on potato and tomato in south india caused by recent changes in the phytophthora infestans population. plant pathology, 64:191199. cooke, b. m. 2006. disease assessment and yield loss. in: cooke, b. m., jones, d. g and kaye, b(eds)the epidemiology of plant diseases. second edition, springer, netherlands, p. 4375. dey, t., saville, a., myers, k. tewari, s., cooke, d. e. l., tripathy, s., fry., w. e., ristaino, j. b. and roy, s. g. 2018. large sub-clonal variation in phytophthora infestans from recent severe late blight epidemics in india. scientific reports, 8:4429. dppqs. 2021. major uses of fungicides, accessed 25th april 2023, http://ppqs.gov.in/divisions/ cib-rc/major-uses-of-pesticides. fry, w. e., birch, p. r., judelson, h. s., grunwald, n. j., danies, g., everts, k. l., gevens, a. j., gugino, b. k., johnson, d. a., johnson, s. b., mcgrath, m. t., myers, k. l., ristaino, j. b., roberts, p. d., secor, g and smart, c. d. 2015. five reasons to consider phytophthora infestans a r eemerging pa thogen. phytopathology, 105(7):966-81. hansen z. r., small, i. m, mutschler, m., fry, w. ., smart, c. d. 2014. differential susceptibility of 39 toma to va r ieties to phytophthora infestans clonal lineage us-23. plant disease, 98(12):1666-1670. tomato late blight yield loss assessment and risk aversion with resistant hybrid fig. 1 : area under disease progress curve (audpc) of tomato late blight in three varieties during 2019 and 2020 in unprotected plots under natural epiphytotics. audpc values were arrived from seven disease assessments in 2019 and six assessments in 2020. 6 sadashiva, a. t., hebbar, s. s., nair, a. k. and senthilkumar, m. 2018. production technology of vegetable crops-a hand book (eds). icariihr, bengaluru, 560 089. seidl-johnson, a. c., jordan, s. a. and gevens, a. j. 2015. efficacy of organic and conventional fungicides and impact of application timing on control of tomato late blight caused by us-22, us-23, and us-24 isolates of phytophthora infestans. plant disease, 99(5): 641-647. kaushal, a., sadashiva, a. t., ravishankar, k.v., singh, t. h., prasanna, h. c., rai, a. k and jatav, v. k. 2020. a rapid disease resistance breeding in tomato (solanum lycopersicum l.). in: gosal satbir singh and wani shabir hussain (eds) accelerated plant breeding, volume 2: vegetable crops.; 1st ed. springer international publishing, springer nature switzerland ag. springer. p.17-55. kumar, g. m. s., reshma, v., reddy, m. k., sriram, s and sharma, d. 2020. integrated management of major tomato diseases. pest management in horticultural ecosystems, 26(1): 140-146. rani, r., sharma, v. k., kumar, p and mohan, c. 2015. impa ct of simula ted r a infa ll on persistence of fungicides used against late blight (phytophthora infestans) of tomato (solanum lycopersicum). indian journal of agricultural sciences, 85(2): 256-60. tripathi, a. n, pandey, k. k., meena, b. r., rai, a. b. and singh, b. 2017. an emerging threat of phytophthora infestans causing late blight of tomato in uttar pradesh, india. new disease reports, 35(1): 14. wilcoxson, r. d., skovmand, b. and atif , a.h. 1975. evaluation of wheat cultivars for their ability to retard development of stem rust. annals of applied biology, 80(3):275-281. nhb. 2019. area production statistics accessed on 24 april 2021, <http://www.nhb.gov.in/statistics/ reports/tomato-for-october-2019.pdf. sandeep et al okra (abelmoschus esculentus (l) moench) commercially cultivated in india. india is the largest producer of okra in the world, which contributes about 4% of total vegetable consumption in most developing countries (eftal duzyanman, 1997). okra is extensively cultivated during the spring-summer (march-june) and rainy (julyseptember) seasons for its green tender fruits. okra is increasing in popularity. the rapid expansion of okra processing by freezing and canning in the last three decades has been responsible for the increase of commercial okra production, as well as the development of suitable cultivars such as louisiana green velvet. the ideal fruit type for freezing should be short, dark green, round or multifaceted (sistrunk et al, 1960). canned okra requires colour retention, low mucilage content and low fiber content (woodroof and shelor, 1958). during the last 25 years a good deal of efforts have been made to enrich its genetic variability, and in developing promising cultivars, namely arka anamika and arka abhay. these are adapted to a wide range of agro-climatic conditions and cropping patterns, possess better fruit yield and quality combined with yellow vein mosaic virus resistance (dutta, 1990). germplasm characterization is essential for selection of distinctly variable characters. during 1998, the breeding work was initiated at indian institute of horticultural research, hessaraghatta and short communication development of novel character in okra [abelmoschus esculentus (l.) moench] m. pitchaimuthu, o. p. dutta, v. s. r. k. krishna prasad 1 and k. r. m. swamy division of vegetable crops indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, banaglore-560 089, india e-mail: muthu@iihr.ernet.in abstract transgressive segregation in the population of iihr-31-1-2 x arka anamika bc 3 f 1 -f 6 generations led to the development of, various novel characters such as, ridgeless fruits (round fruit) and enhanced nodal productivity bearing short internodal length in okra selection-1, which was found to be promising for cultivation with high yield and good fruit quality. it can be grown both during kharif and summer seasons. okra selection–1 was also found to exhibit smooth fruits, high yield potential with sturdy plant habit and field tolerance to fusarium wilt and yvmv. due to rapid rate of increase of processing in okra by freezing and canning, okra selection i may be an ideal fruit type for freezing because of its short, smooth, dark green and round or multifaceted fruits with low mucilage content. key words: novel character, ridgeless, introgression, processing 1present address: principal scientist, national research centre for onion and garlic, rajgurunagar, pune available germplasm was characterized and iihr-31-1-2 was selected [nbpgr, new delhi, original sources from philippines (ec-no-189926)]. gene introgression was achieved through normal hybridization between iihr-31-1-2 and arka anamika, followed by backcrossing with yvmv resistant commercially cultivated variety arka anamika (fig1.). in the advanced progenies of bc 3 f 1 -f 6, a recombinant line having ridgeless fruits, enhanced nodal productivity, shorter internodal length, smooth fruits and, high yield with sturdy plant habit was identified. (fig 2 & 3). the salient features fig 1. pedigree of ridge less okra novel line j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 66-67, 2008 page 66 67 of the recombinant line are listed below: � plants are short to medium (75-100 cm), bushy, erect and well branched � short to medium fruit length (8-10 cm) � no ribs on the fruit, spineless, lush green, tender, and are borne in two flushes � fruit stalk is long and easy to snap � shorter internodal length � low fiber and mucilaginous content � good cooking and keeping quality � suitable for canning and freezing � field tolerant to fusarium wilt and yvmv � yield 15-20 tonnes /ha in 120-135 days � suitable for kharif and summer season fig 2. ridgeless and normal ridged fruit acknowledgement the authors are thankful to the director, nbpgr, new delhi for supply of okra germplasm and director, iihr for providing facilities to carry out the research. the help rendered by mr. s.k. ramakrishna rao and mr. chickabachanna both technical officer and field technicians, ms. manjula, ms. k. shobha, and ms. r. pushpalatha are thankfully acknowledged. references dutta, o.p. 1990, okra germplasm utilization at iihr, bangalore report of an international workshop on okra genetic resources, held at nbpgr, new delhi, india, 8-12 october, pp 114-116. eftal duzyanman 1997. okra: botany and horticulture. p. 41-72. in horticultural reviews. volume 21, (ed.) jules janick, john wiley & sons, inc. sistrunk, w. a., jones, l. g. and miller j. c. 1960. okra pod growth habit. proc. amer. soc. hortl. sci.,76: 486-491. woodroof, j. g., and shelor e. 1958. okra for processing. ga. agri. exptl. stn. bull., 56:5-51 fig 3. selected line bearing ridgeless fruit (ms received 14 november 2007, revised 10 march 2008) development of novel character in okra j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 66-67, 2008 comparative toxicity of two isolates of bacillus thuringiensis berliner from plutella xylostella l. and papilio demoleus l. to some important lepidopteran pests of horticultural crops r. asokan1 and puttaswamy department of entomology university of agricultural sciences g. k. v. k., bangalore – 560 065, india e-mail: asokan@iihr.ernet.in abstract toxicity of two isolates of bacillus thuringiensis viz. kpx-1 and ipd-1 isolated from diamondback moth, plutella xylostella (lepidoptera: yponomeutidae), and citrus butterfly, papilio demoleus (lepidoptera: papilionidae), were tested against cabbage leaf webber, crocidolomia binotalis, hairy caterpillar, diacrisia obliqua and tomato fruit borer, helicoverpa armigera. among these, c. binotalis was highly susceptible (28.4 and 26.0 ng/cm2, for kpx-1 and ipd-1, respectively), while, h. armigera was the least susceptible (9.5 and 10.0 µg/ml, for kpx-1 and ipd-1, respectively). key words: bacillus thuringiensis, isolates, toxicity short communication 1 present address: division of biotechnology, indian institute of horticultural research, hessaraghatta lake (po), bangalore – 560 089, india bacillus thuringiensis (bt) has been successfully employed in the management of insect pests in agriculture and in public health. during the survey, two isolates of bt subsp kurstaki (btk), namely, kpx-1 and ipd-1 were isolated from diamondback moth, plutella xylostella (lepidoptera: yponomeutidae), and the citrus butterfly, papilio demoleus (lepidoptera:papilionidae), respectively. in this communication we report the toxicity spectrum of these bt isolates to some important lepidopteran pests of horticultural crops viz., cabbage leaf webber, crocidolomia binotalis (lepidoptera: pyralidae), hairy caterpillar, diacrisia obliqua (lepidoptera:arctiidae) and tomato fruit borer, helicoverpa armigera (lepidoptera:notuidae). stock culture of h. armigera was maintained on semisynthetic diet (nagarkatti and prakash, 1974), while, that of c. binotalis and d. obliqua maintained on cabbage. the bt isolates were grown on nutrient agar at 30°c for 72 h and were homogenized in distilled water which formed the spore, crystal preparation (scp). an aliquot of the scp was used for protein estimation using lowry’s method (lowry et al, 1971). bioassay was conducted using serial dilutions of the scp. two hundred µl of different dilutions were applied on both sides of fresh cabbage leaf discs (62cm2) @ 100µl/side. single treated leaf disc was placed in individual, sterile plastic petri plate (10 x10cm) and 20 five-day old larvae of each c. binotalis and d. obliqua were released separately per replication. similarly, 100 µl of different dilutions were surface coated on 3 ml of semi synthetic diet and a single, five-day old larva of h. armigera was released per replication. there were five replications per treatment and an untreated control. mortality of the treated larvae was recorded every 24 h interval for one week and data were subjected to probit analysis (abbott, 1925). bioassay results showed that there was little variation in toxicity of kpx-1 and ipd-1 to all the test insects. differences in toxicity were 0.1 & 4.0 ng/cm2 and 0.1 µg/ ml for c. binotalis & d. obliqua and h. armigera, respectively. among the test insects, c. binotalis was found to be the most susceptible while h. armigera was least susceptible to both the isolates (table 1). minor differences in toxicity of the above isolates could be attributed to various factors such as protoxin composition, rate of dissolution and activation of protoxins, presence of receptors, etc. in different test insects (crickmore et al, 1998). other factors governing toxicity are complex and poorly understood (jarret, 1985). in the present investigation, as we found no appreciable variation in toxicity of the two isolates, it is likely that composition, rate of dissolution and activation of the protoxin may have been similar in the three test insects used. j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 71-72, 2007 acknowledgement the senior author is grateful to the indian council of agricultural research (icar), new delhi, and director, indian institute of horticultural research (iihr), bangalore, for encouragement and for granting study leave. references abbott, w. s. 1925. a method of computing the effectiveness of an insecticide. j. econ. entomon., 18: 265-267. crickmore, n., zeigler, d. r., feitelson, j., schnepef, e., van rie, j., lereclus, d., baum, j. and dean, d. h. (ms received 8 june 2007, revised 29 june 2007) table 1. comparative toxicity of b. thuringiensis isolates, kpx-1 and ipd-1 to some important lepidopterous pests of horticultural crops insect species kpx –1 ipd – 1 lc 50 fiducial limit lc 50 fiducial limit lower upper lower upper crocidolomia binotalis (lepidoptera: pyralidae) 28.40 ng/cm2 28.30 28.50 26.00 ng/cm2 25.93 26.07 diacrisia obliqua(lepidoptera: arctiidae) 249.00 ng/cm2 248.89 249.12 245.00 ng/cm2 244.90 245.10 helicoverpa armigera (lepidoptera: noctuidae) 3.30 µg/ml 3.29 3.31 3.40 µg/ml 3.28 3.52 control 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1998. revision of the nomenclature for the bacillus thuringiensis pesticidal crystal proteins. microbiol. mol. biol. rev., 62: 870-813. jarret, p. 1985. potency factors in the delta endotoxin of bacillus thuringiensis var aizawai and the significance of plasmids in their control. j. appl. bacteriol., 58: 437-448. lowry, o. h., rosenbrough, n. j., farr, a. l. and randall, r. j. 1951. protein measurement with the folinphenol reagents. j. biol. chem., 193: 265-275. nagarkatti, s and prakash, s. 1974. rearing heliothis armigera (hb.) on an artificial diet. tech. bull. no. 17, commonwealth institute of biological control, p 169. asokan and puttaswamy j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 71-72, 2007 72 waterapple [syzygium aqueum (berm. f.) alston], a member of the family myrtaceae, is a tropical fruit plant cultivated in assam, meghalaya and, to a limited scale in west bengal. water apple is locally called jamrul, gives handsome returns to farmers of north 24-parganas district of west bengal. the crop has also been popularized in red laterite zone of west bengal. the taste of the fruit is very good due to dry climatic conditions prevalent during flowering and fruiting. the crop is conventionally propagated by layering but success rate is said to be low (biswas and roy, 1983). as no investigation has been made in the red lateritic zone of west bengal, where the climate is completely different from that in other parts of the state, an experiment was set up to find out congenial time for air layering in water apple. the experiment was conducted in a private orchard at jhargram, paschim midnapore, west bengal. air layering was done on 10th and 25th of every month from june to november in 2004 and 2005. eight-year old water apple plants were used in the study. each time, thirty layers were prepared with three replications in a randomized block design on 10-12 month old shoots of 3.5 cm diameter. the layers were detached from the plant when roots were clearly visible. five rooted layers from each replication were selected randomly for recording observations. the remaining layers were planted in polybags and placed in the nursery for studies on field establishment. data on establishment was recorded 90 days effect of season on success of air layering in water apple in red laterite zone of west bengal s. n. ghosh department of fruits and orchard management faculty of horticulture bidhan chandra krishi viswavidyalaya, mohanpur-741252, india e-mail: profsnghosh@rediffmail.com abstract an experiment was conducted during 2004-05 on farmers’ field at jhargram to work out optimum time for air layering in water apple. results revealed that air layering performed during june and july resulted in highest rooting success (100%) with maximum field establishment (100%). considering overall performance, the months of june and july can be recommended for air layering in water apple in red laterite zone of west bengal. key words : air layering, water apple, season, west bengal after detachment. data on root number of layers, time taken for separation of layers, root growth and establishment of layers were collected and statistically analyzed. data presented in table 1 indicate that the highest number of rooted layers (100%) was recorded when layering was done from 10th june to 25th july, whereas establishment percentage was maximum (100%) from 10th june to 25th august, followed by 10th september. after 10th september, it showed a decreasing trend and was zero on 10th november, when rainy season completely ceased. it was interesting to note that the percentage of rooted layers in water apple was maximum during the rainy season. meteorological data (table 2) indicate that a maximum temperature of 40.3oc and a minimum of 25.2oc, with relative humidity of 95% at 7.00 am and 51% at 2.00 pm are congenial for getting higher percentage of rooted layers of water apple in the red laterite zone of west bengal. the maximum percentage of rooted layers was recorded in rainy season (june to july); this may be attributed to the prevalent favourable weather conditions which fostered better root formation and development. suitability of air layering in rainy season (june to september) in many fruit crops has also been advocated earlier by many workers (sharma and grewal, 1989; ghosh, 1998; ghosh and banik, 2008). for separation of rooted layers from the mother plant, a minimum of 80 days were required during september-october, while, during june-july, it took a maximum of 110 days. short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 164-165, 2008 165 field establishment of rooted layers is considered to be an important observation in any layering experiment, as, the ultimate aim is to get maximum number of plant surviving under field conditions. results from table 1 indicate that establishment of rooted layers was highest (100%) when the operation was done during 10th june to 25th august, followed by 10th september, and, it reduced thereafter. it is clear from data in table 1 that root growth was maximum in layers prepared on 10th july which resulted in highest root number (11.5) and longest root length (11.6 cm), followed by 25th july. considering the production of maximum number of rooted layers and their establishment, the months of june and july are the best, followed by august, for air layering in water apple in red laterite zone of west bengal. references biswas, s. and roy, b.n. 1983. induction of rooting in airlayering of water-apple by auxin and non-auxinic chemicals. punjab j. hort., 23: 209-211 ghosh, s.n. 1998. studies on vegetative propagation in sweet orange (citrus sinensis osbeck) cv. mosambi. the hort. j., 11: 21-28 ghosh, s.n. and banik, b. c. 2008. effect of season on success of air layering in acid lime grown in red laterite zone of west bengal. environ. eco., 26: 12041205 sharma, r.c. and grewal, g.p.s. 1989. a note on propagation studies in litchi (litchi chinensis sonn.). haryana j. hortl. sci., 18: 74-76 table 2. meteorological data during the period of investigation month temperature (0c) humidity (%) rainfall number of maximum minimum maximum minimum (mm) rainy days 1st to 15th june 40.3 28.7 81 51 11.4 1 16th to 30th june 37.7 27.5 87 58 154.1 4 1st to 15th july 32.0 25.2 94 80 199.6 7 16th to 31st july 33.2 25.5 95 75 119.4 7 1st to 15th august 33.4 26.3 90 68 142.7 5 16th to 31st august 34.1 25.7 94 66 203.2 5 1st to 15th september 32.9 25.4 95 78 211.0 7 16th to 30th september 33.4 25.2 94 71 33.0 3 1st to 15th october 33.2 23.8 97 69 178.7 4 16th to 31st october 29.8 22.5 95 75 18.3 2 1st to 15th november 30.8 16.8 90 47 0 16th to 30th november 29.5 12.9 90 39 0 table 1. effect of season on success of air layering in water apple* date of layering number of rooted days taken for number of length of establishment layers (%) detachment of layer (days) roots/layer longest root (cm) of rooted layer (%) 10th june 100 (84.26) 110 10.0 8.5 100 (84.26) 25th june 100 (84.26) 110 10.8 10.0 100 (84.26) 10th july 100 (84.26) 100 11.5 11.6 100 (84.26) 25th july 100 (84.26) 95 11.0 11.0 100 (84.26) 10th august 85 (67.21) 95 11.2 9.0 100 (84.26) 25th august 80 (63.43) 90 9.0 8.4 100 (84.26) 10th september 60 (50.77) 80 7.0 7.0 95 (77.08) 25th september 35 (36.27) 80 5.0 5.2 60 (50.77) 10th october 30 (33.21) 80 3.4 4.0 60 (50.77) 25th october 25 (30.00) 80 3.2 3.8 60 (50.77) 10th november 0 (0.00) 0 (0.00) 25th november 0 (0.00) 0 (0.00) s.em ± 1.4 2.0 0.2 0.2 1.9 c.d. (p=0.05) 4.2 5.8 0.6 0.5 5.6 figures in the brackets are angular transformed value * the results are the average of 2004 and 2005 (ms received 28 december 2007, revised 23 september 2008) air layering in water apple j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 164-165, 2008 guava [psidium guajava l., (family: myrtaceae)] is the only cultivated species among 70 odd psidium species (landrum et al, 1995). though other species of psidium are non-edible and wild in nature, some of them possess a few desirable traits, which could be exploited either as rootstocks or as parents for incorporating the pest and disease résistance. (vasugi and dinesh, 2007). mango fruit fly, bactrocera dorsalis (hendel) and tea mosquito bug, helopeltis antonii (sign.) are serious and economically important pests of guava (butani, 1975) and finding a source of resistance against them would be useful in evolving resistant varieties. varietal differences of guava in their reaction to fruit fly and tea mosquito bug are reported (arora et al, 2000; reddy and vasugi, 2004) but information is lacking on the reaction of wild psidium species. in the present study, five wild species of psidium were field evaluated for their resistance to b. dorsalis and h. antonii. as endogenous metabolites were reported to play a significant role in fruit fly resistance (kaur et al, 1994), the per cent fruit fly and tea mosquito bug infestation were correlated with tss, total sugars, vitamin c and acidity. field studies were carried out during 2002-2004 at the indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore short communication resistance to fruit fly, bactrocera dorsalis (hendel) and tea mosquito bug, helopeltis antonii (sign.) in certain wild psidium species p. venkata rami reddy and c. vasugi division of plant genetic resources indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bangalore-560089, india e-mail: pvreddy@iihr.ernet.in abstract five wild species of psidium viz., psidium cattleianum lucidum, p. chinensis, p. friedrichsthalianum, p. molle and p. quadrangularis were evaluated for resistance to fruit fly [bactrocera dorsalis (hendel)] and tea mosquito bug (tmb) [helopeltis antonii (sign.)], during 2002-04. significant variations were recorded among species in their reaction to pests. two species viz., p. chinensis and p. quadrangularis were resistant to fruit fly (<10% fruit damage) while p. quadrangularis was immune. psidium. molle and p. cattleianum were resistant to tea mosquito bug. pest incidence was correlated with fruit biochemical components viz., total soluble solids (tss), total sugars, vitamin c and acidity. the tss and total sugars were positively correlated with fruit fly infestation while acidity was negatively correlated. the tmb incidence did not exhibit significant correlation with any of these parameters. key words: guava, psidium species, resistance, fruit fly, tea mosquito bug using 8-10 years old wild psidium species viz., p. cattleianum var. lucidum, p. chinensis, p. friedrichsthalianum, p. molle and p. quadrangularis. ‘lucknow-49’, a popular cultivar of p. guajava, was used as standard check. one hundred and fifty randomly selected, mature fruits were harvested from each species (comprising four trees) and brought to the laboratory to record fruit fly incidence during the months of august – september. on attaining the fully ripened stage, fruits were cut open and observed for the maggots. tea mosquito bug incidence was recorded based on the visual symptoms of damage such as corky appearance on the fruit surface. three replications were maintained with fifty fruits per replication. data were subjected to the analysis of variance (anova) to compare the significance of mean differences. species were classified as immune (0% fruit damage), resistant (1-10%), moderately resistant (11-25%), susceptible (26-50%) and highly susceptible (>50%) based on the pooled means of both the years following a partially modified varietal classification suggested by reddy and vasugi (2002). the titrable acidity (%), vitamin c (mg/100g) and total sugars (g/100g) were estimated following ranganna (2000) and total soluble solids (tss) was determined as 0brix using a hand refractometer. j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 79-81, 2008 page 79 80 data on the variable reaction of psidium species to fruit fly and tea mosquito bug are presented in table 1. there were significant differences in the extent of fruit damage due to both the pests. the resistance trends of species were consistent in both the years of study. none of the psidium species was completely free from fruit fly infestation. psidium quadrangularis recorded the lowest fruit fly damage (4.66%) followed by p. chinensis (7.33%) during 2002-03 and they sustained the resistance in the subsequent year also with 3.33 and 6.00 % damage, respectively. two species viz., p. cattleianum var. lucidum and p. molle suffered high incidence (38.66 and 39.33%, respectively) and were on par with ‘lucknow-49’ (35.00%) during 2002-03 and recorded a similar trend in the following year. the extent of fruit damage due to h. antonii ranged from 0.00 to 29.33 % and 0.00 to 32.00 % during 2002-03 and 2003-04 respectively. psidium quadrangularis remained free from tea mosquito bug damage in both the years while p. friedrichsthalianum had the highest fruit damage and at a par with check variety. based on two year means, two species viz., p. quadrangularis and p. chinensis were resistant (< 10% damage) to fruit fly while p. cattleianum was moderately resistant. the other two species viz., p. friedrichsthalianum and p. molle with >30% damage were classified as susceptible and were on par with the check ‘lucknow-49’. the species, p. quadrangularis was free from tea mosquito bug (immune) and the factors contributing to immunity need to be further examined. however, considering an earlier report of reddy and vasugi (2004), rough fruit surface can be one of the contributing factors. among the rest of species, p. cattleianum (4.33%) and p. molle (5.33%) were resistant, p. chinensis (18.67%) was moderately resistant and p. friedrichsthalianum was susceptible. the tss in psidium species ranged from 7.4% in p. cattleianum to 11.6% in p. molle (table 2). similarly total sugars varied from 5.85 to 9.62g, vitamin c from 16.78 to 81.33 mg/100g and total acidity from 0.61 to 2.70%. correlation analysis (table 3) showed that the extent of fruit fly incidence was significantly correlated with three characters viz., tss, total acidity and sugars. there was a positive correlation between the fruit fly infestation levels in different species and their tss and total sugar contents. the correlation coefficient values were 0.576 and 0.674 pertaining to tss and total sugars, respectively. however, fruit acidity was negatively correlated with the fruit fly incidence (r = 0.614) and thus considered to have a role in imparting resistance, while correlation with vitamin c was non-significant. arora et al (2000) reported a similar trend of correlation between fruit fly incidence and tss of guava fruits. they also observed that total phenols were negatively correlated while vitamin c had non significant correlation. our findings are in agreement with these observations. on the other hand, none of these parameters showed significant correlations with the tea mosquito bug infestation. the non significant effect of biochemical components on tea mosquito bug infestation could be because of the fact that, the infestation starts at early stages of fruit formation and also confines to the fruit surface unlike fruit fly, where maggots develop inside the fruit and table 1. extent of fruit fly and tea mosquito damage in psidium species species fruit fly damage (%) tea mosquito bug damage (%) 2002-03 2003-04 mean 2002-03 2003-04 mean p. cattleianum var. lucidum 38.66 26.00 32.33 5.33 3.00 4.17 p. chinensis 7.33 6.00 6.67 21.00 16.33 18.67 p. friedrichsthalianum 16.00 12.00 14.00 29.33 32.00 30.67 p. molle 39.33 34.00 36.67 6.33 4.33 5.33 p. quadrangularis 4.66 3.33 4.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 p. guajava (lucknow-49) 35.00 30.33 32.62 30.66 25.66 28.16 cv (%) 15.59 11.14 15.37 14.85 cd (p=0.05) 4.31 4.67 4.19 4.02 table 2. biochemical composition of psidium species species tss total vitamin c acidity (%) sugars (g) (mg/100g) (%) p. cattleianum var. lucidum 7.40 5.85 16.78 1.31 p. chinensis 8.30 9.34 22.15 0.70 p. friedrichsthalianum 3.20 9.62 19.75 1.13 p. molle 11.60 8.12 80.65 2.70 p. quadrangularis 9.10 5.89 81.33 1.10 p. guajava (lucknow-49) 11.50 8.80 19.50 0.61 cd (p=0.05) 1.14 1.85 4.02 0.78 table 3. correlation coefficient (r) values of per cent fruit infestation with biochemical parameters of psidium species pest tss total vitamin c acidity sugars fruit fly 0.586* 0.674* ns -0.614* tea mosquito bug ns ns ns ns * significant at p= 0.05; ns = non-significant j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 79-81, 2008 venkata rami reddy and vasugi 81 are thus vulnerable to fruit biochemical composition variations. high tss and total sugars are generally desirable traits in fruits and hence it is appropriate to locate a resistance source rich in these quality parameters. our results show that p. quadrangularis, which was immune to fruit fly and resistant to tea mosquito bug, holds promise in this direction. psidium cattleianum and p. chinensis, which exhibited resistance to one pest and moderate resistance to another may also be useful. though p. molle was resistant to tea mosquito bug, it was highly susceptible to fruit fly and thus its potential is limited. as majority of species tested showed high degree of resistance compared to the check, it is worthwhile to screen as many wild species as possible to find resistance. acknowledgements authors are grateful to the director, iihr for facilities and acknowledge the assistance of sri. dasappa, field technician, in the field gene bank maintenance. we thank dr. n. k. krishna kumar, head, division of entomology, iihr for critical evaluation of the manuscript. references arora, p. k., kaur., n., thind, s. k. and aulakh, p. s. 2000. metabolites of some commercial cultivars of guava (ms received 12 october 2007, revised 3 december 2007) in relation to incidence of fruit fly. pest mgt. hortl. ecosys., 6: 61-62 butani, d. k. 1979. insects and fruits. periodical expert book agency, new delhi kaur, h., batra, r. c., dhaliwal, g. s. and singh, r. 1994. relationship of biochemical constituents to incidence of fruit fly in guava cultivars. punjab hort. j., 34: 47-49 landrum, l. r., clark, w. d., sharp, w. p. and brenecke, j.1995. hybridisation between psidium guajava and p. guineense. eco. bot., 49:153-161 ranganna, 2000. handbook of analysis and quality control for fruit and vegetable products. t a t a mc graw hill co. ltd., new delhi. reddy, p.v. r. and vasugi, c. 2002. evaluation of guava germplasm for resistance to fruit fly, bactrocera dorsalis (hendel) in relation to fruit morphological characters. pest mgt. hortl. ecosys., 8: 27-32 reddy, p.v.r. and vasugi, c., 2004. screening of guava germplasm for resistance to tea mosquito bug, helopeltis antonii sign. in relation to certain morpho characters of fruit. ind. j. agril. sci., 74 : 1-4 vasugi, c. and dinesh, m. r. 2007. genetic variability in some psidium species. ind. j. agril. sci., 77: 420-23 j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 79-81, 2008 resistance to fruit fly and tea mosquito bug pilot scale processing of red flesh guava rts beverage s. bhuvaneswari and r. b. tiwari division of post harvest technology indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake (p.o), bangalore-560 089, india e-mail: bhuvana@iihr.ernet.in abstract pilot scale studies on production of ready-to-serve (rts) beverage from red flesh guava were done using 100 kg of the fruit. pulp yield was more (73.68 %) in lye peeling than in hand peeling (58.68 %). rts beverage was prepared by mixing fruit pulp with syrup to an optimum level of acidity and sugar, as standardized on a laboratory scale. blending rts beverage by using colloidal mill improved the colour, consistency and overall quality. from 100 kg of red flesh guava, 247 litres of rts beverage could be obtained. the cost:benefit ratio and value addition from this process were worked out at 1.79 and rs. 5.45/kg of fruit, respectively. key words: exotic red flesh guava, rts beverage, pilot scale, colloidal mill, cost:benefit ratio, value addition introduction guava is one of the most important fruits, valued for its high vitamin c content. it is widely grown in india under an area of approximately 0.15 million hectares producing 1.8 mt (anon. 2000). use of guava fruits in processed products such as jam, jelly, nectar (kalra and tandon, 1984), beverage (kalra et al, 1987), blended rts beverage and cheese (singh et al, 1983) is well established and several commercial products are being marketed. in general, both white and pink flesh guava fruits have good market value for fresh consumption. however, these fruits can also be used for processing. pink varieties are better suited for beverage preparation owing to their attractive colour. an exotic red flesh guava variety, with high acidity, attractive colour and good flavour was earlier identified as the raw material for production of rts beverage (tiwari and dinesh, 2001). fruit juice based rts beverages have the distinct advantage of higher nutritional value over synthetic aerated waters. hence, pilot scale studies on preparation of rts beverage from the high acid red flesh guava were undertaken as this is a prerequisite for commercialization of the product. results of the pilot scale production trial are detailed in this paper. material and methods fully ripe, exotic red flesh guava, harvested from the iihr orchard was used for scale-up trial. rts beverage was prepared by subjecting 100 kg fruits to the following unit operations. washing and preparation fruits were manually washed thoroughly using a jet of clean, running water. hand peeling with a stainlesssteel knife and lye peeling using 3% naoh solution were carried out. pulping and sieving peeled guava slices were pulped using a wareing blender (make: kenstar excellence) @ 10 kg/h. the pulp was sieved using a rectangular sieve of size 33 cm x 27.5 cm x 15 cm with 1/32" thick stainless-steel wire mesh to separate seeds from the pulp. rts beverage preparation rts beverage was prepared by using 15% pulp and adjusting tss to 18o brix with sugar syrup and 0.3% acidity. thorough blending of rts beverage was done using a colloidal mill (make: cm 305/94). bottling and pasteurization the rts beverage was pasteurized at 80oc and bottled in 200ml sterilized, dry bottles using a poweroperated bottle filling machine @ 300 bottles/h. bottles were corked manually, using a hand-operated crown corking j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 50-52, 2007 machine @ 240 bottles/h. filled bottles were batch pasteurized and stored at room temperature (28 – 30oc). quality evaluation in rts beverage total soluble solids (obrix) was determined using erma hand refractrometer. acidity(%) and ascorbic acid (mg/100ml) content were determined using standard procedures (ranganna 2000). viscosity (cps) was measured using brookefield viscometer fitted with spindle no.18 and at a spindle speed of 60 rpm. non-enzymatic browning was measured using a spectrophotometer by measuring absorbance at 440nm (ranganna, 2000). sensory evaluation sensory evaluation of rts beverage was done by a panel of 25 semi-trained judges using a 9-point hedonic scale with scores from ‘like extremely” to “dislike extremely”(ranganna, 2000). storage quality rts beverage was stored at room temperature (25oc-30oc) for 6 months and samples were analyzed for their composition at monthly intervals during the storage period. results and discussion in guava, fruit skin constitutes a minor portion of the fruit and loss due to peeling the skin varies with the method applied. use of lye solution in peeling several fruits and vegetables is common (khurdiya and srivastava, 1994). hence, fruits were subjected to lye-peeling and were compared hand-peeling. peeling loss and pomace recovery was lower in lye-peeling when compared to hand-peeling. time required for peeling was reduced by 50 % in lye peeling when compared to hand-peeling. in lye-peeling, pulp yield (73.68 %) and peeling rate (20kg/person/h) was higher when compared to hand-peeling (58.68 %) and (12kg/person/h), respectively (table 1). from the results it is obvious that lye peeling is advantageous over hand peeling in terms of pulp yield and peeling rate. pulping and blending of rts beverage in a pilot scale preparation of rts beverage, manual mixing is laborious and timeconsuming. hence, blending of ingredients was attempted using a colloidal mill. quality of the final product was compared to that from the manual method. from these studies, it was found that viscosity, ascorbic acid content and colour retention in the rts beverage was more when colloidal mill was used for blending as compared to manual mixing (table 2). it was also observed that blending in colloidal mill improved the colour, consistency and ascorbic acid content in the final product. this may be due to recirculation of the juice which could have resulted in the reduction of particle size in the pulp thereby improving product quality. these results are similar to studies on homogenized tomato juice by thakur et al (1995) . storage studies of red flesh guava rts beverage change in composition of the red fleshed guava rts beverage over 6 months storage period at ambient conditions is shown in fig 1. tss and acidity ranged between 16 –18.2 obrix and 0.26-0.3 %, respectively. there was a gradual increase in viscosity optical density of the juice indicating non-enzymatic browning increased with storage period similar results were observed table 1. peeling characteristics of exotic red flesh guava parameters hand peeling lye peeling weight of fruit (kg) 50 50 number of persons 2 1 time required for peeling (min.) 180 90 peel contentfruit basis (%) 26.88 17.98 average peeling rate (kg/person/h) 12 20 pulp yieldfruit basis (%) 58.68 73.68 pomace recoveryfruit basis (%) 13.44 7.46 table 2. quality parameters of red flesh guava rts beverage parameter manual blending mixing in colloidal mill tss (o brix) 18 18 acidity (%) 0.30 0.30 ascorbic acid (mg/100ml) 4.55 5.85 ph 3.48 3.48 viscosity (cps) 12.80 16.70 overall sensory score(9 points) 6.17 7.35 fig 1 storage studies on red flesh guava rts beverage j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 50-52, 2007 51 pilot scale processing ofguava by shrestha and bhatia (1982) during apple juice storage. ascorbic acid content decreased from 9.75 to 3.5 mg/100ml during 6 months of storage. reduction in ascorbic acid content during storage has been reported in amla (mehta and rathore, 1976), lemon (palaniswamy and muthukrishnan, 1974) and in citrus juices (mehta and bajaj, 1983). cost economics of pilot scale production of red flesh guava rts beverage guava fruit @ rs. 10/kg rs. 1000.00 sugar @ rs. 20/kg rs. 700.00 bottles @ rs.2 / bottle (200ml) rs. 2000.00 labour charges @ rs.107/day rs. 1950.00 chemicals rs. 100.00 total rs. 5750.00 overhead charges (electricity, operation of equipment and machinery) @ 20 % of total rs. 1150.00 grand total rs. 6900.00 rts beverage output (litres) 247.0 cost of production/litre rs. 27.95 selling price of rts beverage @ rs. 50/litre rs. 12, 350.00 selling price of guava @ rs. 10/kg rs. 1000.00 profit/litre rs. 22.05 cost:benefit 1: 1.79 value addition/kg guava rs. 5.45 / kg cost economics was worked out based on actual expenditure incurred during production acknowledgement the authors are thankful to the director, iihr, bangalore and project leader shri. e. r. suresh for encouragement and providing facilities to carry out the research. help rendered by dr. t. m. gajanana, sr. scientist (agril. economics), in working out cost economics is gratefully acknowledged. (ms received 21 february 2007, revised 29 june 2007) references anonymous, 2000. current status report. http:// agricoop.nic.in/hort/hortrevo 5.htm kalra, s. k and tandon, d.k. 1984. guava nectars from sulphited pulp and their blends with mango nectar. ind. food. packer, 38: 74-77. kalra, s. k, tandon, d. k. and lohari, h. c. 1987. prevention of discolouration in guava beverage during storage. ind. food. packer, 41 : 21-25. khurdiya d. s. and srivatsava, s. 1994. effect of enzymes, lye peeling and conditions of fruits on the quality of guava juice. ind. food. packer, 48 : 5-10. mehta, u. and bajaj, s. 1983. effect of storage and methods of preservation on the physicochemical characteristics of citrus juice. ind. food. packer, 37 :42-51 mehta, u. and rathore, h. 1976. storage studies of pressed juice from amla (phyllanthus emblica). ind. food. packer, 30: 9-11. palaniswamy, k. p. and muthukrishnan, c. r. 1974. studies on the physico-chemical characters of lemon juices and squashes during storage. ind. food. packer, 28: 37-41. ranganna, s. 2000. hand book of analysis and quality control for fruit andvegetable products. second edition. tata mcgraw hill publishing company limited, new delhi, p 9, p. 105. shrestha, m. k. and bhatia b. s. 1982. apple juice – physico-chemical characteristics and storage study. ind. food. packer, 36: 53-60. singh, r, kapoor, a. c, and gupta, o. p. 1983 the effect of cultivars, seasons and storage on the nutritive value and keeping quality of guava cheese. ind. food. packer, 37: 571 thakur, b. r, singh, r. k. handa. a.k. 1995. effect of homogenization pressure on consistency of tomato juice. j. food qlty., 18 : 389 396 tiwari, r. b. and dinesh, m. r. 2001. evaluation of seven exotic red fleshed guava varieties for processing into rts beverage. ind. food packer, 55: 58-62 j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 50-52, 2007 52 bhuvaneswari and tiwari page 135 effect of modified atmosphere packaging on maintenance of quality in apple f. a. khan, a. h. rather, n. a. qazi, m. y. bhat1, m. s. darzi, m. a. beigh and imtiyaz ahmad plant physiology section, division of post harvest technology sher-e-kashmir university of agricultural sciences & technology of kashmir shalimar campus, srinagar-191121, india e-mail: fakphtskuastk@rediffmail.com abstract an experiment was conducted to study the effect of modified atmosphere packaging (map) on the quality of ‘red delicious’ and ‘golden delicious’ apples. freshly harvested fruits were wiped clean and (25 µm thick) with varying number of perforations and stored in cardboard boxes at ambient temperature. ‘golden delicious’ showed higher incidence of bitter pit as compared to ‘red delicious’ apples. map proved effective in controlling the bitter pit disorder and in maintenance of quality. the least incidence of bitter pit in ‘golden delicious’ was recorded with t 4 (30 x 2 mm perforation) and t 3 (20 x 2 mm) treatment in ‘red delicious’ apples. however, map retained more freshness in ‘golden delicious’ than in ‘red delicious’. key words: apple, modified atmosphere packaging, bitter pit, quality j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 135-137, 2006 1directorate of extension education bitter pit of apples has long been recognized as a serious physiological disorder of stored apples and limits the local as well as export market resulting in economic losses. bitter pit has been described as a physiological breakdown of cells under the skin, causing slight depressions, which are generally concentrated around the calyx end of the fruit. the tissue in the depressed areas is dry and spongy with a bitter taste (ferguson and watkins, 1989). this is generally associated with low levels of calcium in the fruit (perring, 1986); however, the exact cause of bitter pit is not understood (steenkamp et al, 1983; witney and kushad, 1990). application of calcium salts as preor post-harvest treatment has long been practiced as a measure to control development of bitter pits in apple (van goor, 1971). it has been reported that reduction in bitter pit can also be achieved by storing fruits in controlled or modified atmosphere. modified atmosphere packaging (map) refers to the storage of fruits in polymeric films, which restrict transmission of respiratory gases. it is a simple and cheap means of storage but care must be taken to avoid injuriously high co 2 or low o 2, levels which may develop around the fruit due to a change in respiration rates under fluctuating temperatures. insertion of small holes into polymeric film bags has been shown to moderate co 2 and o 2 fluctuations and may be a safer way of obtaining desired atmospheric conditions. however, information on influence of map on reduction of bitter pits in apple is inadequate (hewett and thompson, 1989). therefore, the present study was carried out to examine the effect of map on bitter pit development and quality in kashmir apples. physiologically mature fruits of ‘red delicious’ and ‘golden delicious’ apples were obtained from a private orchard of shopion (dist.pulwama, j&k) in the last week of september. large and uniform sized fruits were surfacecleaned and packed in 25 µm thick polymeric film of 30 x 30 cm size. various treatments of map comprised of polymeric film without perforation (t 1 ), polymeric film with 10 x 1 x 2 mm perforations (t 2 ), polymeric film with 10 x 2 x 2 mm perforations (t 3 ), and polymeric film with 10 x 3 x 2 mm perforations (t 4 ). fruits without polymeric film packaging (t 5 ) served as the control. each treatment with ten fruits was replicated five times. packed fruits were kept in separate cardboard boxes and stored at ambient temperature (180c/120c). after four months of storage, observations were recorded on incidence of bitter pit and on other quality parameters. fruit firmness and tss were measured with penetrometer and hand refractometer, respectively. acidity was determined following the procedure of ranganna (1986). data were statistically short communication page 136 analyzed using standard procedures (gomez and gomez, 1984). bitter pit incidence was higher in ‘golden delicious’ than in ‘red delicious’ apples (table 1). fruits packed in polymeric film containing perforations had significantly less bitter pit incidence than fruits in sealed polymeric film and without perforation polymeric film. the incidence was found to decrease with increasing number of perforations (fig1). the incidence of the disorder in ‘golden delicious’ (15.1%) was the highest in t 1 treatment followed by t 5 (7.8%) and the least (1.8 %) in t 4 . ‘red delicious’ apples also showed the highest incidence (3.7%) in t 1 followed by t 5 (2.7%) and the least incidence of bitter pit in t 3 (1.5 %), and t 4 (1.8%). higher incidence of bitter pit in ‘golden delicious’ apples may be due to low levels of calcium in the fruits tissue as compared to ‘red delicious’ apples (khan et al, 2006). ‘golden delicious’ apple has also been reported to be the most susceptible cultivar with reference to bitter pit development (snowdon, 1990). efficacy of perforated polymeric film in reducing the incidence of bitter pit has also been shown by hewett and thompson (1989) with ‘cox’s orange pippina apples, on the contrary, fruit spoilage due to internal breakdown was significantly higher in ‘red delicious’ compared to ‘golden delicious’ apples (fig 2). this may be attributed to accumulation of co 2 in the intercellular spaces of the fruit, as, ‘red delicious’ apples have thicker skin than ‘golden delicious’ which may have hindered the diffusion of co 2 from the fruit. a possible reason for the increased rate of spoilage in fruits stored in polymeric film with a smaller number of perforations may be accumulation of acetaldehyde, ethanol, malic acid and succinic acid. the activity of glycolytic and krebs cycle enzymes is known to be inhibited by low levels of 02 leading to accumulation of co 2 around the fruits (parritt et al, 1982). it is also evident from table 1 that physiological loss of weight (plw) increased with increasing number of perforations, and, fruits of both the cultivars packed in polymeric films without perforation exhibited minimum weight-loss compared to fruits stored without polymeric film packing. the physiological loss in weight is attributed chiefly to transpiration. higher number of perforations in polymeric j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 135-137, 2006 khan et al 136 table 1. effect of modified atmosphere packaging on quality parameters in apple cultivars treatment plw fruit t.s.s. titrable (%) firmness (lbs) (%) acidity (%) ‘golden delicious’ t 1 5.3 10.3 9.8 0.228 t 2 7.1 11.0 9.2 0.258 t 3 9.0 9.3 8.6 0.265 t 4 10.2 9.6 11.2 0.188 t 5 15.5 8.2 13.2 0.154 c.d (p=0.05) 0.5 0.5 0.6 0.038 ‘red delicious’ t 1 7.3 8.8 13.4 0.165 t 2 6.5 7.8 14.6 0.158 t 3 7.7 7.1 16.8 0.135 t 4 9.8 7.6 15.3 0.128 t 5 16.2 8.5 14.8 0.184 c.d (p=0.05) 0.7 0.4 0.8 ns t 1 : without perforation; t 2 : 10 x 1 x 2mm perforation; t 3 : 10 x 2 x 2mm perforation; t 4 : 10 x 3 x 2mm perforation; t 5 : without polyethylene packaging. fig 1. effect of modified atmosphere packaging on bitter pit development in apple. t 1 : without perforation; t 2 : 10 x 1 x 2mm perforation; t 3 : 10 x 2 x 2mm perforation; t 4 : 10 x 3 x 2mm perforation; t 5 : without polyethylene packaging. fig 2. effect of modified atmosphere packaging on fruit spoilage in apple. t 1 : without perforation; t 2 : 10 x 1 x 2mm perforation; t 3 : 10 x 2 x 2mm perforation; t 4 : 10 x 3 x 2mm perforation; t 5 : without polyethylene packaging. page 137 j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 135-137, 2006 effect of modified atmosphere packaging on apple 137 films may have may increase vpd leading to higher transpiration and weight-loss. fruit firmness decreased with increasing number of perforations whereas total soluble solids showed the opposite trend. decrease in fruit firmness with increased perforation could be the result of enhanced activity of glycolytic and krebs’ cycle enzymes due to an increased level of oxygen in perforated polybags (parritt et al, 1982; mir and beaudry, 2002). greater water loss from the tissue may also be one of the reasons for decreased fruit firmness through decreased turgor pressure of cells. increased tss in better aerated packing may also be attributed to hydrolysis of complex food materials to simpler forms due to aerobic respiration and to concentration of the juice due to dehydration. similarly, titrable acidity also differed significantly in ‘golden delicious’ apples but did not show marked variation in ‘red delicious’ with perforated polymeric films packing. references ferguson, i. b. and watkins, c. b. 1989. bitter pit in apple fruit. hort. rev., 11: 289-355. plate 1. bitter pit in golden delicious apple gomez, k. a. and gomez, a. a. 1984. statistical procedures for agricultural research. john wiley & sons, new york, usa, pp. 92-98. hewett, e. w. and thompson, c. j. 1989. modified atmosphere storage and bitter pit reduction in ‘cox’s orange pippin’ apples. sci. hort., 39: 117-129. khan, f. a. rather, a. h, qazi, n. a. and bhat, m. y. 2006. effect of post harvest application of calcium chloride on bitter pit incidence and quality of red and golden delicious apples. progressive hort., (communicated) mir, n and beaudry, r. 2002. atmosphere control using oxygen and carbon dioxide. in: fruit quality and its biological basis (ed. m. knee), sheffield academic press, sheffield s ii 9as, uk., pp. 122-156. parritt, s. h., meheriuk, m. and lidstor, p. d. 1982. postharvest disorders of apples and pears. agriculture canada publications, 1737/e, ottawa, ont. perring, m. a. 1986. incidence of bitter pit in relation to the calcium content of apples: problems and paradoxes, a review. j. sci. food agri., 37: 591606. ranganna, s. 1986. handbook of analysis & quality control for fruit and vegetable products (2nd edn.), pp 1-111. tata mcgraw hill publishing co. ltd., new delhi, india. snowdon, a. l. 1990. post-harvest disease and disorders of fruits and vegetables. wolfe scientific ltd., london. pp 203. steenkamp, j., terblanche, j. h. and de villeirs, o. t. 1983. the role of organic acids and nutrient elements in relation to bitter pit in golden delicious apples. acta hort., 138: 35 -42. van goor, b. 1971. the effect of frequent spraying with calcium nitrate solutions and occurrence of bitter pit of the apple cox’s orange pippin. j. hortl. sci., 46: 347-364. witney, g. w. and kushad, m. m. 1990. correlation of pyruvate kinase activity with bitter pit development in apple fruit. sci. hort., 43: 247-253. (ms received 3 june 2006 , revised 27 september 2006) j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (1): 64-67, 2006 a statistical model for ascertaining the influence and reliability of weather parameters on incidence of blossom blight in mango (mangifera indica l.) r. venugopalan, r. d. rawap and a. k. saxena' section of economics and statistics indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bangalore-560 089, india e-mail: venur@iihr.emet.in abstract a statistical model was developed to study the influence and reliability of weatlier parameters on incidence of blossom blight in mango {mangifera indica) and subsequently to predict their incidence. results showed that preceding week's weather variables viz., maximum and minimum temperature, evaporation, rainfall, morning and evening relative humidity and wind speed were found to collectively predict blossom blight incidence to the extent of 94.3 per cent. further, as a measure of goodness-of-fit, the coefficient of determination (r̂ ) and mean squared error were used to evaluate the empirical model developed by using above variables. validation test showed that the model developed using relative humidity at 07.30 h (x,), evaporation (x̂ ) and wind speed (x̂ ) (y = 883.4 8.065 x, -11.506 x̂ -33.619 x̂ ) could predict the incidence to the extent of 75.7%. this model is useful in determining the role of climatic factors in disease appearance and progression and devising suitable management strategy. keywords: blossom blight, mango, coefficient of determination, climatic factors, model introduction mango {mangifera indica l) is the most important fruit crop grown across various climatic and soil conditions in india. although mango is grown in large area, the productivity is much lower than the world average. there are many biotic and abiotic stresses, which are responsible for the low productivity. among the biotic factors, diseases like powdery mildew, leaf spot and blossom blight are the most serious on mango and account for the major losses. the pathogens such as, colletotrichum glaeosporioides, alternaria alternata and pestalotiopsis mangiferae are responsible for blossom blight. these pathogens can cause disease singly or in combination depending upon the weather conditions. in india, the occurrence and importance of blossom blight disease was reported during 1992 (rawal, 1992). however, information on the influence of weather factors on disease outbreak is lacking. in view of this, a study was undertaken to find out the role of weather factors individually and in combination that lead to the disease incidence. such work will be helpful to develop prediction equations so as to facilitate devising a suitable management strategy. material and methods mango var. totapuri orchards were surveyed during august to october 2005 (flowering period) to record the blossom blight disease initiation and its progression. disease ratings were recorded at weekly interval by following 0-5 scale, where 0 = nil pdi; 1= 0> pdi d>10; 2= 11>pdi<25; 3= 26>pdi<50; 4= 51>pdi<75 and 5 =e <76 per cent disease intensity (pdi). data thus recorded were converted to percent disease index as per mckenny (1923). the weekly weather data such as maximum temperature (°c) (x,), minimum temperature (°c) (x^), relative humidity (%) (7.30 h) (x3); x4: relative humidity (%) (14.30 h), (x^), evaporation (mm) (x^), wind speed (kph) (xg), rainfall (mm) (x )̂ and number of rainy days (xj) were collected from iihr meteorological observatory for the same period. all the data were subjected to statistical analysis in order to assess the influence of abiotic factors on blossom blight incidence and subsequently for the development of disease prediction models as detailed below. in order to assess the degree of linear association of each of the weather variables on blossom blight incidence over a time period, linear correlation coefficient was worked out. further, with a view to understand the role of weather 'division of plant pathology mailto:venur@iihr.emet.in venugopalan et al parameters on degree of disease incidence, a statistical model was developed. as a measure of goodness-of-fit, the value of the co-efficient of determination (r^) was calculated (kvalseth, 1985) as illustrated below: a r^= 1-[i(y,-y)^ / [ i ( y , y ) ^ ] where ŷ represents pdi during the time period t. however, inclusion of an additional independent variable into the selected candidate model always boosts the computed rvalue. hence, to ensure the statistical significance of the computed regression coefficients, these were subjected to r-test statistical analysis. further, to test whether the regression models are robust against the basic assumption of regression approach, viz., independent variables should not be related among themselves, commonly known as the problem of multi-colinearity, variance inflation factor (vif) was worked out. a value of vif exceeding 10 indicates the presence of strong multicolinearity among observations (ryan, 1997). to select the significant weather parameters influencing the observed variability in blossom blight incidence, a step-wise regression procedure (ryan, 1997), was employed as delineated below. in step-wise regression, the final regression equation was developed stage by stage. during each stage, making use of f test, an independent variable (weather factor) would enter into the equation if the significance level of its f value is <0.05, and would be removed if the significance level is >0.1. this process was continued until all the variables were exhausted and are found significant, resulting in the final equation comprising only the significant weather variables. further, as we are dealing with a set of sample observations to take inference about the whole population under study (variability in blossom blight incidence over time), in general, it is essential to perform a detailed residual (difference between observed and predicted pdi) analysis (venugopalan and prajneshu, 1997) before flagging of the developed model for its universal validity. to this end, two important assumptions about the model generated residuals; viz. randomness and normality were tested by following onesample run test and shapiro-wilk test, respectively (agostid'no and stephens, 1986). results and discussion linear correlation coefficient analysis among weekly blossom blight incidence with preceding week's weather parameters were worked out and presented in table 1. perusal of the results indicated the presence of highly significant correlation among blossom blight incidence with the averages of preceding week's weather variables viz., relative humidity at 14.30 h (r=0.60) and wind speed (r=0.69). among the intra-class linear correlation coefficients based on preceding week's weather parameters, maximum temperature had shown a significant positive correlation with wind speed (r=0.65); relative humidity at 7.30h with evaporation (r=-0.82), with rainfall (r=0.79); relative humidity at 14.30h with wind speed (r=-0.88) indicating about the indirect effect of these factors on blossom blight incidence. as a next step, statistical model was developed by regressing weekly blossom blight incidence with all the weather parameters of preceding week. perusal of table 2 indicates that the preceding week's weather variables were found to predict blossom blight incidence to the extent of 94.3%. though the model developed resulted in considerably high r^ value, some of the regression coefficients corresponding to weather parameters were only significantly related to blossom blight incidence as indicated by the t-test statistic value (being greater than 1.96). in addition to this, the model indicated the presence of strong multi-collinearity among weather variables as indicated by vif (variance inflation factor) value 23.18 (being >10 and eigen value being nearer to zero). table 1. correlation coefficient ( r ) among weekly blossom blight incidence and weather parameters variable % damage (1) maximum temperature (2) minimumtemperature (3) rh 7hrs (4) rh 13hrs(5) wind speed (6) evaporation (7) rain fall (8) no of rainy days (9) (1) 1.00 -0.37 -0.41 0.31 0.60 -0.54 -0.69 0.10 0.3 1 (2) 1.00 -0.22 -0.11 -0.41 -0.12 0.65 0.09 -0.50 (3) -1.00 -0.22 -0.17 0.25 -0.02 0.19 0.35 (4) 1.00 0.37 -0.82 -0.52 0.79 0.76 (5) 1.00 -0.33 -0.88 0.05 0.56 (6) 1.00 0.40 -0.58 -0.51 (v) 1.00 -0.13 -0.69 (8) 1.00 0.60 note: bold values are significant at 5% level j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (1): 64-67, 2006 65 mango blossom blight forecasting model table 2. results of statistical models with goodness of fit statistics model type full regression model (ail weather parameters) model using wind speed (x^), relative humidity 07.30 h (x,) evaporation (x,) and rainfall (x )̂ optimised model wind speed (x^), relative humidity 07.30 h (x,) evaporation (x,) only] y = 1866.4 (18.3) -stat -1.6 y = 1290.8 t-stat y = 8 8 3 . 4 t-.stat statistical model (with standard error of b̂ )) -31.1 x, -h30.4 x, -19.9 x, 25.5 x^ 4-4.6 x,-21.52 x^-h3.64 x, -15.45 x, (20.3) (7.7) (4.8) (8.8) (33.7) (1.6) (8.03) 1.5 -2.6 0.95 -2.87 -0.63 2.25 -1.9 12.9x,-12.7x,-41.2x^ 4-1.57 x, (5.04) (3.98) (11.3) (1.27) -2.56 -3.2 .15 -3.67 8.06x,-11.506 x,-33.619 x(, (3.3) (4.02) (9.84) -2.42 -2.86 -3.42 rh%) 94.3 80.7 75.7 vif 23.2 8.76 3.56 note: values parenthesis are standard error of regression estimates bi accordingly, to eliminate this multi-couinearity problem, step-wise regression models were developed and the results are presented in table 2. the results indicated that only four variables viz., wind speed, relative humidity at 07.30h, rainfall and evaporation could explain the variability in blossom blight incidence to the extent of 80.7 % as against 94.3% (when all weather variables included in the model). however, in another optimized model, rain fall was also eliminated, because the corresponding regression coefficient was not statistically significant as indicated by t-test statistical value 1.27 (being <1.96). therefore, among all weather parameters tried, only three weather variables, viz. relative humidity at 07.30h, evaporation and wind speed could themselves collectively explain 75.7% of the variation in weekly blossom blight incidence, which is quite high while predicting a biological variable. further, the regression coefficients corresponding to these variables in the final model were also statistically significant, as indicated by the t-statistic value, which in table 3. results of residual analysis for the optimized model test criterion residual statistic significance assumption tested value run test shapiro-wilk randomness normality 0.0091 0.931 p<0.005 p<0.005 table 4. calculated per cent error variation for predicted blossom blight incidences time in date of week observation predicted blossom blight incidence (%) error variation between observed and blossom blight (%) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 j. hon. 12.8.05 19.8.05 26.8.05 2.9.05 9.9.05 16.9.05 23.9.05 30.9.05 7.10.05 14.10.05 21.10.05 sci. vol. 1 (1): 64-67,2006 16.44 41.68 56.67 19.49 45.78 31.08 57.48 64.84 86.50 96.18 92.63 -7.76 -25.60 -27.30 12.50 -4.44 20.92 16.52 10.48 0.83 -2.17 6.03 absolute value exceeded 1.96, the critical region value. also the vif value computed for this model was well inside the acceptable limit (3.56<10.0) which further strengthens the statistical validity of the optimized model. before drawing final conclusion about the adequacy of the selected model, universal validity of the model was assessed by performing detailed residual analysis. the randomness assumption of the residuals tested using the one-sample run test resulted in the test statistic value as 0.009, which being less than 1.96, is well inside the critical region of normal table at 5% level of significance. the normality assumption of the model generated residuals tested using shapiro-wilk test resulted in the test statistic value as 0.931, which being less than 1.96, is well inside the critical region at 5% level of significance (table 3). these two results further ensured the universal validly of the developed model. a graphic representation of the adequacy of the fitted models is presented in fig. 1. the per cent error variation between observed and predicted values ranged from 0.83 to 20.9 (table 4). the approach of this study is to develop a reasonable prediction model for mango (cv totapuri) blossom blight using reliable and dependable weather variables which have direct influence on blossom blight incidence. further, validation of optimized model (the observed incidence values were fig. 1. statistical model for epidemiology of blossom blight in mango (cv totapuri) time pariod observed pdi predicled pdi 66 venugopalan et al compared to predicted values using optimized model), clearly indicated that the model could predict the incidence reasonably well. by using the model developed in the present study, it is possible to workout mango (cv totapuri) blossom blight incidence with minimum available data viz., relative humidity at 07.30h, evaporation and wind speed. however, future studies to standardize variables for improving the precision of blossom blight incidence estimates will be envisaged with good variability in the data set. this model is useful in determining the role of climatic factors in disease appearance and progression and devising a suitable management strategy. thus, we have used statistical modelling as a power tool for developing suitable disease forecasting models and also for optimizing factors influencing disease incidence. acknowledgements the authors are grateful to the director, indian institute of horticultural research, hesseraghatta lake po, bangalore , india for providing facilities to carry out the work. the authors also thank the anonymous referee and the editor for their critical suggestions which led to substantial improvement in the quality of the paper. references agostid'no r.b and stephens. m.a. 1986. goodness of fit techniques. marcel dekker, new york.576p kvalseth, t. o. 1985. cautionary note about r^ amer. 5far., 39:279-85 mcknney, h. h., 1923. influence of soil temperature and moisture on infection of wheat seedlings by helminthosporium sativum. j. agric. res., 26:195-217 rawal, r.d. 1992. ann. rep. 1991-92. indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore, india 204p ryan, thomas r 1997. modem regression methods. john wiley and sons inc., new york. 515p venugopalan, r and prajneshu. 1997. a generalized allometric model for determining length-weight relationship. biometrical j., 39:733-39. (ms received 3 april, 2006 revised 12 june, 2006) j. hon. sci. vol. 1(1): 64-67, 2006 67 introduction the productivity of brinjal could be improved by the use of high quality seed, which is affected during storage leading to loss of vigour and viability. several factors viz., inherent genetic potential, initial seed quality, environment during seed production, seed moisture content, mechanical damage, seed borne pathogens, storage insects, seed dressing chemicals and seed treatments influence the seed longevity and affect subsequent field emergence. hence, storage of seeds after harvest until sowing assumes great importance for a successful crop production programme. during storage, viability and vigour are lost due to many biotic factors like storage pests and other micro flora. the insect pest and fungi cause considerable damage and are responsible for deterioration and reduction in storage potential of seed. therefore, seed treatment with suitable chemicals and botanicals will reduce the quantitative and qualitative losses besides maintaining quality of seed for a longer period. seed pelleting is the process of enclosing small and irregular seeds with a small quantity of inert material to produce a globular unit of standard size needed to facilitate precision planting. it is also a mechanism of applying needed materials in such a way that they affect the seed or soil at the seed soil interface. thus seed pelleting influence of storage containers and seed pelleting on seed quality in brinjal (solanum melongena l.) during storage satish kumar, basave gowda and s. patil shekhar seed science and technology research laboratory regional agricultural research station, raichur – 584 102, india email: bgowdseeds@rediffmail.com abstract the experiment was conducted using brinjal hybrid seeds cv. arka navneet. seeds were pelleted with bavistin, znso 4, mnso 4, dap and arappu leaf powder and stored in paper and polyethylene bags under ambient conditions for 12 months. among the seed pelleting treatments, seeds pelleted with bavistin (0.1%) followed by albezia amara leaf powder (250 g/kg) resulted in minimum quantitative losses with better seed quality parameters. the seeds stored in polyethylene (700 gauges) bags maintained better seed quality parameters with less quantitative losses in comparison with seeds stored in paper bags throughout the storage period. in the interaction, effect of seeds pelleted with bavistin and stored in polyethylene bag followed by albezia amara leaf powder and stored in polyethylene bag revealed higher values for all the positive quality parameters when compared to other interaction effects throughout the storage period. key words: brinjal, seed pelleting, seed quality, seed storage. provides an opportunity to package, effective quantities of materials such that they can influence the micro environment of each seed (krishnasamy, 2003). hence, the present investigation was carried out to study the influence of seed pelleting and storage containers on seed quality of brinjal during storage. material and methods four months old hybrid seeds of brinjal cv. arka navneet, were obtained from agricultural research station, uas, dharwad. the seeds were pelleted with bavistin (0.1%), zns0 4 (0.03%), mns0 4 (2%), dap (6%). albezia amara leaf powder (2.5%) and stored in paper bags and polyethylene bags of 700 gauge with four replications laid out in crd with two factorial concepts along with control. the seeds were initially coated with adhesive and pelleting material followed by sprinkling and was rolling on the filler material (ash) for effective and uniform coating. the seeds were then dried back to their original moisture content and stored in paper and polyethylene bags under ambient conditions for 12 months. seeds were drawn at random from the bags at bimonthly intervals for sowing in the field above observations. observations on germination percentage, speed of germination, seedling length (cm), seedling vigour index j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 146-149, 2008 147 j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 146-149, 2008 (svi), seedling dry weight (mg) and field emergence (%) were collected following procedure prescribed by ista (anon.,1999). the field emergence was studied by using one hundred seeds selected at random from each treatment in four replications, sown in well prepared black soil. field emergence count was taken on the 15th day after sowing and emergence percentage was calculated taking into account the number of seedlings measuring cm above the soil surface. results and discussion seed pelleting with fungicides and botanicals had a significant effect on germination. seeds treated with bavistin resulted in significantly higher germination throughout the storage period followed by seeds treated with albezia amara leaf powder, mnso 4 , znso 4 , dap and control (table 1). seed pelleting with bavistin was found to preserve the quality by its protecting the seeds from fungal and insect attack thus contributing to seed quality parameters (taylor and eckenrode, 1993). beneficial effects of albezia amara leaf powder could be attributed to bio-active materials present in them which might synergistically interact with amino acids especially tryptophan to form iaa in germinating seeds resulting in enhancement in seedling growth (krishnasamy and basaria begam, 2003). increased seed quality parameters might be due to the physiologically active substances present on the albezia amara leaf powder which might have activated the embryo and other associated structure leading to development of stronger and efficient root system and higher vigour index (ahmedraza, 1997). however, the decline in per cent germination observed in all the treatments with increasing storage period might be due to the phenomenon of ageing, depletion of seed reserves and degradation of seed coat resulting in leaching of its constituents as reported by chandra senan (1996) in chilli and joeraj (2000) in sunflower and basavegowda and nanjareddy (2008) in groundnut. seed pelleting with bavistin followed by albezia amara leaf powder recorded significantly higher seedling length, vigour index and seedling dry weight during storage (table 1). this might be due to the control of physiological deterioration of seeds by their anti fungal and antioxidant effects, increased enzymatic activity, efficient translocation of nutrients from the seed into the initially heterotrophic seedling (ref). the decrease in germination, seedling length, seedling vigour index and seedling dry weight with increasing storage period increased (tables 1 and 2) could be attributed to the damage to membranal enzyme, proteins and nucleic acids resulting in the complete disorganization of membranes and cell organelles (roberts, 1972). table 1. effect of seed pelleting and containers on seed quality parameters during storage of brinjal hybrid cv. arka navneet treatment 2 mas 4 mas 6 mas g sg vi sw g sg vi sw g sg vi sw (%) (mg) (%) (mg) (%) (mg) p0 87.50 12.58 913 438 85.10 12.13 839 415 82.60 11.78 768 393 (69.30) (67.24) (65.31) p1 96.70 13.78 1293 477 95.20 13.57 1224 460 93.70 13.35 1160 444 (79.56 (77.32) (75.45) p2 93.20 13.28 1139 470 91.60 12.07 1082 453 90.20 12.85 1026 436 (74.80) (73.13) (71.69) p3 92.60 13.21 1115 463 89.50 12.85 1050 446 87.60 12.50 973 428 (74.20) (71.60) (69.37) p4 91.60 13.06 1054 454 88.60 12.64 961 433 85.90 12.26 886 412 (73.10) (70.21 (67.96) p5 95.70 13.49 1267 473 94.20 13.28 1198 459 92.60 13.07 1140 442 (76.68) (76.06) (74.21) sem± 0.73 0.09 11.11 0.84 0.25 0.08 10.5 0.61 0.80 0.08 7.81 0.71 cd (p=0.05) 2.08 0.24 31.76 2.41 1.73 0.24 29.9 1.74 1.84 0.24 22.30 2.03 c1 92.30 13.14 1106 461 89.70 12.76 1023 441 87.10 12.49 945 422 (73.98) (71.27) (68.94) c2 93.60 13.31 1133 464 92.00 13.09 1072 446 90.50 12.87 1019 430 (75.38) (73.58) (73.04) sem± 0.30 0.03 4.53 0.34 0.61 0.03 4.30 0.25 0.23 0.03 3.20 0.30 cd (p=0.05) 0.85 0.09 12.90 0.98 0.70 0.09 12.22 0.71 0.67 0.09 9.09 0.83 g-germination (%), sg-speed of germination, vi-vigour index, sw-seedling dry weight seed quality in brinjal during storage 148 seed pelleting with znso 4 , mnso 4 and dap was not found to be effective in maintaining seed quality during storage. although micronutrients are not helpful in enhancing storage life of the seed, they are helpful in plant establishment in the field (krishna samy and basaria begam, 2003). effect of containers on storability moisture content, temperature and rh during storage are the most important factors in determining seed storability. the hygroscopic nature of seeds results in fluctuation of seed moisture content due to changes in atmospheric temperature and rh. so, storage of seeds in moisture proof containers during storage will eliminate the dampness, deterioration, microbes, and enhance the seed longevity. it was observed that a decrease in germination percentage, root length, shoot length, vigour index, seedling dry weight, field emergence and speed of germination occurred with increase in storage period of seeds in both paper and polyethylene bags. significantly higher root length, germination, shoot length, svi, and seedling dry weight were noticed in the seeds stored in polyethylene bag while the seeds stored in paper bag recorded lower values which might be due to a larger fluctuation in moisture content leading to a faster rate of deterioration in the seeds stored in paper bags. similar results were also obtained by karivaratharaju et al (1987) in brinjal. the seeds treated with bavistin, zinc sulphate, manganese sulphate, dap, arappu leaf powder and stored in polyethylene bag recorded better seed quality parameters. seed pelleting with bavistin accompanied by and storage in polyethylene bag recorded significantly higher germination percentage, speed of germination, root length, shoot length, vigour index, seedling dry weight and field emergence (table 2) than those seeds stored in paper bag. results obtained in seeds pelleted with bavistin and stored in polyethylene bag might be due to anti fungal effect of bavistin and impervious nature of polyethylene bag which caused less interference of outside atmosphere. similar observations were made by jacqueline and selvaraj (1988) in brinjal. references ahmedraza, m. 1997. seed technological studies on bellary onion (allium cepa) cv. agri found darked. m.sc. (agri.) thesis, tnau, coimbatore anonymous.1999. international rules for seed testing. seed sci & tech,12: 299-520 table 1. effect of seed pelleting and containers on seed quality parameters during storage of brinjal hybrid cv.arka navneet (contd.) treatment 8 mas 10 mas 12 mas g% sg vi sw g% sg vi sw g% sg vi sw p0 80.10 11.42 699 370 76.60 10.92 626 348 72.00 10.35 552 325 (63.52) (61.08) (58.40) p1 92.20 13.14 1092 428 89.70 12.78 1021 412 85.70 12.21 887 395 (73.36) (71.25) (65.74) p2 88.70 12.64 971 419 86.30 12.28 903 402 82.20 11.71 798 380 (70.31) (68.21) (65.03) p3 85.20 12.14 906 411 81.90 11.73 832 393 77.70 11.07 739 375 (67.38) (64.88) (61.77) p4 83.60 11.92 817 392 80.10 11..36 735 371 75.70 10.78 640 350 (67.12) (63.46) (60.44) p5 91.10 (73.64) 12.85 1070 427 88.10 12..58 996 411 84.70 11.97 835 392 (69.42) (66.97) sem± 0.54 0.09 9.16 0.70 0.50 0.09 9.80 0.61 0.50 0.09 9.60 1.11 cd (p=0.05) 1.64 0.25 26.24 1.95 1.38 0.25 27.90 1.75 1.38 0.25 27.30 3.25 c1 84.60 12.04 869 402 80.90 11.52 694 383 76.70 10.95 694 362 (66.89) (64.11) (61.27) c2 89.10 12.66 965 430 86.89 12.33 790 395 82.50 11.73 790 377 (70.68) (68.65) (65.23) sem± 0.22 0.04 3.74 0.30 0.20 0.04 5.52 0.30 0.20 0.04 5.52 0.50 cd (p=0.05) 0.63 0.10 10.70 0.83 0.56 0.10 15.80 0.81 0.56 0.10 15.80 1.38 p 0 – control p 3 – mnso 4 (2%) c 1 – paper bag p 1 – bavistin (0.1%) p 4 – dap (60 g/ka) c 2 – polythene bag 700 gauge p2 – zinc sulphate (300 mg/kg) p 5 – arappu leaf powder (albizia amara)(250g/kg) • figures in the parentheses indicate arc sine transformed values satish kumar et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 146-149, 2008 149 basavegowda and nanjareddy. 2008. effect of kernel pelleting on storability of groundnut. crop res., 35: 23-26 chandrasenan, n.v. 1996. effect of provenance on seed quality and halogenations treatment tocontrol seed deterioration. m.sc. (agri.), thesis, tnau, coimbatore jacqueline, a. and selvaraj. 1998. studies on storage of brinjal (solanum melongena.l) seeds biocide treatments and containers for storage. south ind. hort., 36: 313-317 joeraj, h.j. 2000. certain seed technological studies in sunflower (helianthus annus l.) hybrid kbsh-1. m. sc. (agri.) thesis, tnau, coimbatore karivaratharaju, v., palniswamy. v. and kumarasen, k. 1987. effect of seed treatment and containers on the storability of brinjal seeds. seed res., 12: 141–153 krishnasamy, v and basaria begam, j. 2003. effect of seed hardening and pelleting on seed germination and vigour in black gram. seed res., 31:194–195 krishnasamy, v. 2003. seed pelleting principles and practices. icar short course on seed h a r d e n i n g and pelleting technologies for rainfed garden land ecosystems, tnau, coimbatore, p.96 roberts, e.h. 1972. cytological, genetical and metabolic changes in seed viability associated with loss of viability of seeds. roberts, e.h.(ed.), chapmann and hall limited, london, 253-306 taylor, a.g. and eckenrode, c.j.1993. seed coating technologies to apply trigard for the control of onion maggot and to reduce pesticide application. in: efforts pertinent to the integrated pest management at cornell university, nys ipm publication, 117: 73-78 table 2. interaction effect of seed pelleting and containers on field emergence (%) during storage of brinjal hybrid cv. arka navneet treatments storage period (months) interaction 2 4 6 8 10 12 effect (p x c) p 1 c 1 88.00 87.00 86.10 85.10 82.50 75.10 (66.73)* (68.85) (68.06) (67.24) (65.24) (60.04) p 2 c 1 86.10 85.10 84.10 83.20 79.20 70.10 (68.06) (67.24) (66.45) (65.75) (62.82) (56.79) p 3 c 1 86.10 84.10 82.10 80.20 74.10 69.10 (68.06) (66.45) (64.99) (63.53) (59.35) (56.18) p 4 c 1 83.10 80.20 77.10 74.40 72.10 65.10 (66.67) (63.53) (61.36) (59.60) (58.06) (53.74) p 5 c 1 87.00 86.10 85.10 84.10 80.90 74.10 (68.85) (68.06) (67.24) (66.45) (64.03) (59.41) p 0 c 1 82.10 79.20 75.10 72.10 70.80 60.00 (64.92) (62.82) (60.01) (58.06) (56.88) (50.77) p 1 c 2 89.10 88.00 87.00 86.00 84.10 78.00 (70.65) (69.73) (68.85) (68.06) (66.45) (62.03) p 2 c 2 87.00 86.10 85.10 84.10 82.10 74.10 (68.85) (68.06) (67.24) (66.45) (64.99) (59.35) p 3 c 2 87.00 85.10 83.20 80.90 78.10 70.00 (68.85) (67.24) (65.75) (64.18) (62.04) (56.79) p 4 c 2 84.10 82.10 80.20 78.10 75.10 68.10 (66.44) (64.99) (63.53) (62.04) (60.01) (55.56) p 5 c 2 88.00 87.00 86.00 85.10 83.80 77.10 (69.69) (68.85) (68.06) (67.24) (66.25) (61.41) p 0 c 2 84.70 80.96 79.20 77.10 72.40 65.10 (66.99) (64.18) (62.82) (61.36) (58.55) (53.74) mean 86.03 84.24 82.53 81.10 78.00 70.50 s. em+ 0.70 0.69 0.66 0.64 0.64 0.53 cd at 5% 2.00 1.96 1.97 1.82 183 1.50 p0 – control p3 – mnso 4 (2%), c 1 – paper bag p1 – bavistin (0.1%), p4 – dap (60 g/ka) c2 – polythene bag (700 gauge) p2 – zinc sulphate (300 mg/kg), p5 – arappu leaf powder (albizia amara)(250g/kg) • figures in the parentheses indicate arc sine transformed values (ms received 5 february 2008, revised 15 july 2008) j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 146-149, 2008 seed quality in brinjal during storage introduction alphonso mango (mangifera indica l.) is a leading cultivar grown commercially in the konkan region of maharashtra and occupies an area of 1,64,000 ha. the variety is highly preferred for export. but, alternate bearing and low productivity (3.0 t/ha) realized with normal spacing gives low net returns to the farmer. to overcome this constraint, a trial was conducted at the agriculture research station, mulde with five different spacings during the period 1997 to 2009. efforts were made to accommodate higher number of plants per unit area so as to get higher yield from the mango plantation during the initial period of orchard development. it takes at least 15 to 20 years to cover all the area with canopy in a mango orchard. this leads to low net returns to the grower. as a result, there is a feeling among mango growers that mango cultivation is not economical. to increase net returns per unit area of mango cultivation, this trial was undertaken. the major objective of the study was to optimize spacing for high density planting to obtain higher yields per unit area during the early period of the plantation. material and methods the study was conducted at agriculture research station, mulde, sindhudurg district, maharashtra state. the high density planting in mango cv. alphonso n.v. dalvi, b.r. salvi, s.a. chavan and m.p. kandalkar regional fruit research station dr. balasaheb sawant konkan krishi vidyapeeth vengurle 416 516, india e–mail: nitesh_flori@yahoo.com abstract a trial was conducted to optimize spacing for high density planting in mango cv. alphonso to obtain higher yield/ unit area at the agriculture research station, mulde, during 2006-07 to 2008-09 with four close spacings and one normal spacing as control. highest yield (6.4 mt/ha) was recorded with a spacing of 5 m x 5 m without reduction in fruit size in 10 year old plants compared to the mean yield of 1.12 mt/ha in 10m x 10m normal spacing. high density plantation helped to get significantly higher yield per unit area compared to the normal spacing, without affecting size and quality of mango fruits. the highest cost:benefit ratio (2.33) was recorded in high density plantation of 5m x 5m, with maximum net returns of rs.1,12,000/per hectare. the present findings show promise for more yield and returns per unit area during the initial years of mango plantation by adopting 5m x 5m high density planting. key words : mango, alphonso, spacing, high density planting trial was laid out in randomized block design, with five replications. the soil was red laterite, with ph range 5.5 to 6.5, and was rich in iron content. soil nutrient status of this experimental plot was as follows : n (2.24%), p (0.10%), k (0.72%) and minor nutrients zn (63.7 ppm), cu (12.1 ppm), fe (72.70 ppm) and mn (68.8 ppm). average rainfall in this region is 3000–4000 mm, with relative humidity of 85–90%. maximum average temperature is 35oc and minimum average temperature 16oc, with average sunshine hours of 9.00 h. weather conditions are ideally suited to mango cultivation. five spacings used for the planting were: 1) 2.5m x 10m, 2) 5m x 5m, 3) 5m x 7.5m, 4) 5m x 10m and 5) 10m x 10m. unit area /treatment /replication and details of number of plants /treatment are given below: treatment spacing number of number of total plants/ replications number of plot/ plants/ treatment treatment t 1 2.5m x 10m 20 5 100 t 2 5m x 5m 20 5 100 t 3 5m x 7.5m 13 5 65 t 4 5m x 10m 10 5 50 t 5 10m x 10m 5 5 25 j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 117-119, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 118 the trial was conducted under rainfed conditions. planting was done during 1997. plants were given recommended fertilizer doses and prophylactic measures (with standard dose of paclobutrazol) were practised during july – august every year. age of the trees was ten years. regular pruning of overcrowded branches was done in the trial. three vegetative flushes occurred in june, october and march every year which led to luxuriant growth. observations were recorded at fortnightly intervals. to get better yield during the initial years, pruning of dead, diseased, weak and intermingling branches of mango plants was done at the age of eight years. observations on vegetative growth, flowering and number of fruits/plant and average yield kg/ plant were recorded and yield expressed as metric tons/ha. data reported here is the average of three years (2006-07 to 2008-09) and was statistically analyzed as per panse and sukhatme (1985) for randomized block design. mean values are reported for the physico chemical properties like fruit length, breadth, size, weight, tss, acidity, stone, peel, pulp ratio and shelf life. results and discussion vegetative parameters vegetative parameters of plants under different treatments are presented in table 1. plant height was found to be significantly higher (9.10m) with 2.5m x 10m treatment, whereas normal spacing (6.99m) was at par with the spacing 5m x 7.5m (9.05m). no significant differences were observed with respect to plant girth and spread among the treatments. in high density planting natural tendency of the plant is to put forth vertical growth rather than horizontal, due to mutual shading of plants. these findings are in line with earlier reports of ram et al (1996) and gunjate et al (2003). flowering and fruit yield parameters high density planting with 2.5m x 10m (t 1 ) spacing recorded a mean of 42 fruits/tree during both years and average fruit yield of 16.9 kg/tree, also in the same treatment. maximum fruit yield (6.4 t/ha) was recorded in 5m x 5m spacing, whereas, normal spacing recorded the lowest fruit yield (1.12 t/ha). all the high density treatments recorded higher fruit yield compared to normal spacing. maximum fruit yield (6.4 t/ha) in 5m x 5m spacing was due to higher number of plants and maximum number of fruiting branches. it was seen that under the konkan agroclimatic zone, the hot and humid climate favours luxuriant growth of cv. alphonso. during the initial years, high density orcharding with 2.5m x 10m, 5m x 5m and 5m x 7.5m spacings appears promising. these results are in line with those reported by ram et al (1996) in ‘dashehari’ mango. more number of plants /unit area resulted in more number of fruits/plant, higher yield/ha, and thereby, more tonnage from the same unit area. these results are similar to those reported earlier by gunjate et al (2003) and nath et al (2007). fruit quality data on physico chemical properties are presented in table 3. the study on fruit quality attributes of ‘alphosno’ mango showed that maximum fruit weight (248g) was recorded in the spacing 2.5m x 10m, which was significantly table 1. vegetative parameters in high density orchard of ‘alphonso’ mango treatment spacing no of tree tree tree spread (cm) trees/ha height girth e –w n – s (m) (cm) t 1 2.5 m x 10 m 400 9.10 59 4.85 4.60 t 2 5 m x 5 m 400 7.12 57 5.12 5.30 t 3 5 m x 7.5 m 267 9 .05 51 4.75 4.63 t 4 5 m x 10 m 200 7.80 53 5.10 5.05 t 5 10 m x 10 m 100 6.99 61 6.70 5.78 sem+ 0.31 0.81 0.20 0.24 cd (p=0.05) 0.93 ns ns ns * the figures are average/mean values of three years’ data (2006-07 to 2008-09) table 2. flowering and yield parameters in ‘alphonso’ mango as influenced by high density planting treatment spacing no. of flowering no. of average. average. trees/ha (%) fruits/tree fruit yield yield (kg/tree) (t/ha) 2008 2009 2008 2009 2008 2009 t 1 2.5 m x 10 m 400 31.80 30.83 32 52 8.3 13.1 4.280 t 2 5 m x 5 m 400 27.52 29.83 45 89 11.2 22.5 6.400 t 3 5 m x 7.5 m 266 16.50 15.83 39 74 9.7 18.4 3.737 t 4 5 m x 10 m 200 07.83 08.33 43 71 10.2 18.0 2.820 t 5 10 m x 10 m 100 15.80 15.00 31 48 8.0 12.3 1.12 sem+ 2.21 2.57 1.1 1.4 0.42 0.79 0.19 cd (p=0.05) 6.72 7.60 3.4 4.1 1.3 2.5 0.67 dalvi et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 117-119, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 119 superior over the spacing 5m x 10m, and was at par with normal spacing (10m x 10m). the rest of quality parameters like tss, acidity, pulp to stone ratio, etc., did not show significant differences between treatments. these results show that a closer spacing and high density mango plantation does not influence or hamper the quality of fruit. regular training and pruning helps generate good aeration, thus ensuring better quality. the present findings are in line with earlier reports of krishna et al (2003) and gunjate et al (2003). cost : benefit ratio data in table 4 show that maximum net returns (rs.1,12,000/-) and cost benefit ratio (2.33) was recorded in the spacing 5m x 5m, whereas, normal spacing of 10m x 10m fetched lower net returns (rs.8,000/-) and cost: benefit ratio (0.22). normal spacing 10m x 10m may have yielded lower net returns as the trees were 10 years old and ‘alphonso’ orchards become profitable only after 15 years. these findings indicate that high density planting of ‘alphonso’ mango not only gives higher yield/unit area during the initial years, but also promises higher net returns subsequently. though the present findings are based on three years yield data these sufficiently indicate that high density plantation in ‘alphonso’ mango with 5m x 5m spacing is helpful for getting higher yield and more net returns/unit area. references kumbhar, a.r., gunjate, r.t., thimaiah, i.m. and amin, s.m. 2009. growth and fruiting of some mango cultivars under high density plantation in arid conditions of gujarat (india). acta hort., 820: 403406 krishna, b., kale, a.n., dhake, a.v., despande, s.s. and balsubrahmanyam, v.r. 2009. high density plantation in marginal soils and processing of mango. acta hort., 820: 447-462 nath,v., das, b. and rai, m. 2007. standardization of high density planting in mango (mangifera indica) under sub humid alfisols of eastern india. ind. j. agril., sci., 77:3-7 ram, s., singh, c.p. and kumar, s. 1996. success story of high density orcharding in mango. proceeding of the 5th international mango symposium. acta hort., 55:375-382 panse, v.g. and sukhatme, p.v. 1985. statistical methods for agriculture worker, edn. 4. indian council of agricultural research, new delhi table 4. cost: benefit ratio under high density planting in 10-year old alphosno mango trees treatment expenditure/ receipts net c:b ha (rs.) realized profit/ha ratio (rs.)* t 1 48,000 1,0,7000 59,000 1.23 t 2 48,000 1,60,000 1,12,000 2.33 t 3 42,640 93,425 50,785 1.19 t 4 40,000 70,500 30,500 0.76 t 5 36,000 28,000 -8,000 -0.22 *fruits were sold @ rs. 25/kg table 3. fruit quality attributes of ‘alphonso’ mango under high density planting during year 2009 treatments spacing fruit fruit pulp stone peel fruit pulp: tss(0b) acidity(%) shelf life length breadth weight weight weight weight stone at room (cm) (cm) (g) (g) (g) (g) ratio temperature (days) t 1 2.5 m x 10 m 7.0 6.8 122.0 29.0 40.0 248.0 3.2 18.0 0.30 13 t 2 5 m x 5 m 7.0 7.0 120.0 35.0 39.0 194.0 3.2 18.0 0.29 14 t 3 5 m x 7.5 m 6.5 6.5 119.6 38.0 39.4 197.0 3.1 16.75 0.35 17 t 4 5 m x 10 m 8.0 7.0 122.2 38.0 39.8 200.0 3.2 17.00 0.29 18 t 5 10 m x 10 m 6.5 6.2 123.0 34.0 40.0 243.0 3.2 19.50 0.28 15 sem+ 0.4 0.8 3.2 0.6 0.8 4.3 0.2 0.7 0.6 0.1 cd (p=0.05) n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. 12.9 n.s. n.s. n.s. 0.3 n.s.=non-significant (ms received 14 march 2010, revised 7 october, 2010) j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 117-119, 2010 high density planting in mango prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no introduction allahabad safeda is largely grown in plains of deccan plateau characterized by subtropical climate conditions but rarely under heavy rainfall and humid conditions (rathore and singh 1976). chettalli, located in the hilly region of karnataka at an elevation of 1000 msl receives on an average, 1250 mm annual rainfall distributed over six months and is considered to be less suitable for guava cultivation as compared to other known agro-climates of guava production. however, a survey of north coorg region conducted during late 1980’s revealed reasonably successful cultivation of guava in few pockets of somwarpet taluk under marginal holdings (anon., 1986). therefore, it was felt that there existed scope to improve the profitability of such holdings by changing planting densities. studies in other fruit crops have shown that closer plantings resulted in early productivity leading to early returns on capital invested (iyer and kurien, 2006). it was reported that closely planted trees fill their allotted space earlier and the intense root competition increased fruitfulness (leigh issell, 1994 effect of planting density on growth parameters and fruit yield in guava (psidium guajava l.) cv. allahabad safeda cultivated under mild humid conditions of coorg h. ravishankar, t. n. shivananda and a.g. purohit central horticultural experiment station chettalli-571 248, india e-mail: hravi@iihr.ernet.in abstract a study was carried out in ‘allahabad safeda’ guava (psidium guajava l.) to standardize the effect of planting densities on growth parameters viz., scion girth, plant height, and spread (east – west and north – south), canopy area, canopy volume and fruit yield over a ten years period. the trial was laid out with five planting densities viz., 6x3, 6x4, 6x6, 8x4, 8x3m accommodating 555, 416, 277, 312 and 416 plants/ha respectively with four replications having sixteen plants per treatment in a randomized block design during 1988-89 season. the grafted plants on seedling rootstock were planted and the yield data were recorded from 1992 to 1997. the results indicated that the scion girth was significantly higher in 8x3 or 8x4m configurations. there were no significant differences among treatments for plant height. the plant spread across east-west direction was however significant in 8x3m. the fruit yield in mrig bahar was significantly higher as compared to that of hasth bahar in terms of fruit number and weight. land use index (lui) values exceeding 50% had bearing on the productivity of different configurations. the productivity was nearly double in 6x3m where, the planting density was twice as much in recommended spacing (6x6m) by sixth year of planting after which, yield levels declined. thus, it was concluded that a spacing of 6x3m having 555 plants/ha, gives the highest productivity in ‘allahabad safeda’ guava by sixth year of planting under north coorg conditions. key words: allahabad safeda, planting density, growth parameters, land use index (lui), productivity and miles and guarnaccia, 1999). under the prevailing land use pattern in coorg, there is enormous scope for crop diversification. in this background, it was felt to generate information on the effect of planting densities on growth aspects and their influence on fruit yield in guava for the north coorg region. material and methods uniformly aged inarch grafted plants of ‘allahabad safeda’ were procured from the nursery of state department of horticulture, hunsur, mysore district, for the study. they were planted in june 1988, in pits (0.5 x 0.5 x 0.5 m size ) filled with 10 kg farmyard manure and 10 kg sand for easy and quick establishment of the crop. the experiment was laid out with five planting densities along with 6 x 6m spacing as the check (277 plants/ha). the other four configurations included, 6 x 3 m (555 plants/ha), 6 x 4 m (416 plants/ha), 8 x 4 m (312 plants/ha) and 8 x 3 m (416 plants/ha). a total of 240 plants were planted in randomized block design (rbd) with four replications, consisting of 12 plants per replication. j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 123-126, 2008 124 the plants were raised under uniform growth conditions with timely cultural practices including drip irrigation and application of recommended doses of manures twice a year. recommended npk fertilizers were applied and appropriate plant protection measures were adopted as and when required. the plants started flowering during 1991 but fruit set was prevented by deblossoming in order to encourage optimum canopy development through training to modified central leader. regular fruit harvests of ‘mrig’ and ‘hasth’ bahar crops were obtained from 1992 onwards. observations on different growth parameters viz., scion girth, plant height , plant spread in terms of east west and north south directions, canopy size, canopy volume, fruit yields in ‘mrig’ and ‘hasth’ bahars and productivity were recorded. the effect of planting density was evaluated by the measurement of land use index (lui), which was expressed as the percentage of the canopy area (m2) occupied by the plant in relation to the spacing (m2). the data were statistically analyzed by adopting standard procedures and interpreted using analysis of variance. results and discussion vigour scion girth (cm): scion girth increased from 17.24 cm to 41.56 cm from 1991-1992 to 1997-98 (table 1). there were no significant differences among the treatments for scion girth during the first four years of observation but significant differences were seen thereafter. the plants under 8 x 3 m configuration showed significantly higher scion girth as compared to the rest during 1996 and 1997 possibly due to table 1. effect of planting densities on scion girth (cm) spacing 19911993 199419951996199792 -94 95 96 97 98 6mx3m 17.79 22.93 24.24 26.67 30.46 33.42 6mx4m 17.24 22.71 26.08 28.63 33.29 36.63 6mx6m 19.05 23.92 27.83 30.70 35.11 38.08 8mx4m 18.79 23.70 28.43 33.19 37.19 40.44 8mx3m 17.69 23.65 28.88 33.76 37.75 41.56 sem — — — — 1.97 0.53 cd (p= 0.05) ns ns ns ns 6.40 1.72 table 2. effect of planting densities on plant height (m) spacing 19911993 199419951996199792 -94 95 96 97 98 6mx3m 3.19 3.28 3.75 4.48 5.22 6.54 6mx4m 3.09 3.26 3.44 4.40 5.08 6.45 6mx6m 3.18 3.23 3.99 4.59 5.33 6.97 8mx4m 3.20 3.33 3.80 4.49 5.22 6.73 8mx3m 2.87 3.35 3.88 4.58 5.45 6.99 sem — — — — — — cd (p= 0.05) ns ns ns ns ns ns table 3. effect of planting densities on plant spread (m) in east – west direction spacing 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 6mx3m 2.72 3.01 3.57 4.02 5.28 6.50 6mx4m 2.68 3.06 3.44 3.37 4.96 6.70 6mx6m 3.08 3.05 3.65 4.05 5.40 6.80 8mx4m 2.54 2.94 3.40 3.96 5.44 7.07 8mx3m 3.02 3.77 4.32 4.82 6.15 7.44 sem — — 0.15 0.25 0.23 0.22 cd (p= 0.05) ns ns 0.49 0.81 0.75 0.71 table 4. effect of planting densities on plant spread (m) in north – south direction spacing 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 6mx3m 3.15 3.32 3.69 4.20 5.46 6.86 6mx4m 2.84 3.20 3.59 4.00 5.39 6.84 6mx6m 3.55 3.55 4.08 4.56 5.80 6.98 8mx4m 2.82 3.55 3.93 4.50 5.76 6.67 8mx3m 3.42 3.55 3.87 4.46 5.22 6.14 sem 0.17 — — — — 0.07 cd (p= 0.05) 0.56 ns ns ns ns 0.23 ravishankar et al wider inter-row space available in the middle of the alleys facilitating maximum light interception. they also showed a higher canopy volume and higher lui values as compared to plants grown in 6 x 4 m configuration. this is in congruence with the findings of leigh issell (1999). plant height (m): height of the plant increased from 2.87 m to 6.99 m from 1992 to 1997 (table 2) with maximum values recorded in 8 x 3 m by 1997 and a significantly higher lui value over the recommended spacing (table 5). this implied that over a period of ten years, the plants under 8 x 3 m spacing could fill their allotted space to a greater extent. such a situation warrants canopy management strategies to sustain productivity of the system (robinson et al, 2007; walsh, 1991). leigh issell (1999) also reported that closer planting forced the trees to grow taller and fill their allotted space. as a general rule, the height of the hedgerow should not be more than double the width of the alleyway (leigh issell, 1999). in this background, plants in 8 x 3 m configuration had attained more than 50% lui values by sixth to seventh year of planting. plant-spread (m): plant spread in terms of east-west and north-south directions was measured as one of the indices contributing to fill of allotted space by the configurations. further 8 x 3 m configuration recorded significantly higher east-west spread than the rest up to seventh year of planting (table 3). this may be attributed to wider inter-row spacing facilitating better light interception (leigh issell, 1999). the data on north-south spread (table 4) however, did not present clear cut trends. the seasonal variations in growth parameters and fruit yield documented by sahay and kumar j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 123-126, 2008 125 (2004) in guava indicated higher yields in winter. thus, seasonal fluctuations do influence yield as they are influenced by growth dynamics across seasons. the results obtained in the present study are consistent with the earlier studies. land use index (lui): the land use index values were derived in order to serve as an index for evaluating the capacity of the respective configurations to fill their allotted space over a period of time. lui also indicates the possible inter-plant competitions for water, nutrients, light and microclimate impacts on the system. in the present study, 8 x 3 and 6 x 3 m configurations, by sixth year of planting had crossed 50% lui values which were significantly higher over the rest (table 5). the ultimate cropping potential per unit of land, after the trees have filled their allotted space, depends upon the total volume of the hedgerow mantle where fruiting primarily occurs. the fruitproducing area and depth, or tree mantle, are the result of tree training and depth of penetration of light for cropping (leigh issell, 1999). this may possibly explain significantly higher level of productivity (table 10) attained by the 6 x 3 m configuration that also recorded significantly higher lui value over the rest by sixth year of planting. from seventh year of planting, the productivity of different configurations showed a declining trend, which highlighted the criticality of lui values exceeding 50%. this may be due to overlapping of the canopies of the adjacent plants and mutual shading of the branches leading to barrenness arising from low production of new shoots as observed by walsh (1991) in peach and bhatia et al (2001) in guava. thus, table 6. effect of planting densities on number of fruits /tree during mrig bahar spacing 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 6mx3m 124.17 203.03 410.67 192.09 143.38 6mx4m 124.75 159.75 368.42 192.50 139.65 6mx6m 144.67 141.33 459.58 198.52 144.20 8mx4m 117.38 107.38 398.38 203.75 151.82 8mx3m 122.50 122.50 463.75 222.38 156.31 sem — 7.37 — — — cd (p= 0.05) ns 23.87 ns ns ns table 7. effect of planting densities on weight of fruits/tree (kg) during mrig bahar spacing 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 6mx3m 13.04 21.32 43.12 20.17 15.05 6mx4m 13.22 16.92 38.91 20.38 14.79 6mx6m 15.77 15.43 50.24 21.67 15.77 8mx4m 12.68 11.63 42.95 22.07 16.44 8mx3m 12.99 12.98 49.10 23.56 16.56 s em — 0.80 — — — cd (p= 0.05) ns 2.59 ns ns ns table 8. effect of planting densities on number of fruits/tree during hasth bahar spacing 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 6x3 m 68.25 34.42 68.59 23.92 25.50 6x4 m 73.50 22.00 62.92 38.29 24.91 6x6 m 72.25 21.58 53.79 39.25 28.1 8x4 m 61.13 54.25 49.79 33.11 25.44 8x3 m 80.63 23.63 52.5 31.08 25.94 sem — 2.14 — 3.4 — cd (p= 0.05) ns 6.93 ns 11.31 ns planting density and growth parameters in guava table 5. effect of planting density on *land use index (lui) spacing 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 6mx3m 43.99 57.90 101.06 127.82 195.82 6mx4m 32.66 40.98 71.25 88.96 139.47 6mx6m 24.08 32.70 55.50 70.84 105.32 8mx4m 26.55 33.46 60.25 80.17 114.00 8mx3m 44.16 54.96 84.00 112.86 150.36 sem 4.01 3.55 6.79 8.70 9.40 cd (p= 0.05) 12.99 11.50 21.20 28.18 30.46 * expressed as per cent values judicious pruning of canopies is necessary to sustain productivity through higher light interception and promotion of new shoots. fruit yield ‘mrig’ bahar : the analysis of results indicated that yield performance in sixth year of planting of ‘allahabad safeda’ guava had reached stability. number of fruits/tree in ‘mrig’ bahar across treatments did not vary significantly except during 1993 (table 6). by sixth year of planting however, maximum number of fruits was recorded in 8 x 3 m. correspondingly, this treatment also had maximum fruit yield of 49.10 kg/tree in 1994 (table 7). after 1994, trend of yield decline was apparent. these variations are probably brought about by the dynamics of vegetative growth, crucial to fruiting intensity in guava. such variations have been reported by other workers also (sahay and kumar, 2004; bhatia et al, 2001; and yadav et al, 2001). ‘hasth’ bahar : results indicated that both number as well as weight of fruits/tree was maximum during 1994 (tables 8 and 9) in 8 x 3 m configuration although differences were not significant. it was observed that ‘mrig’ bahar was better than ‘hasth’ bahar in terms of number and weight of fruits/ tree due to the seasonal influence as it coincided with regular monsoon. productivity : the closer configurations of 6 x 3, 6 x 4 and 8 x 3 m gave significantly higher productivity by fourth year of planting, which increased progressively up to sixth year of planting(table 10). the total fruit yield data suggested that there were significant differences among the j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 123-126, 2008 126 treatments (tables 6, 7, 8 and 9). the configuration 6 x 3 m recorded higher yield by sixth year of planting suggesting that the high density planting of guava is superior to the conventional planting at 6 x 6 m. the spacing of 6 x 3 m also recorded significantly higher lui values than the rest by sixth year of planting (table 5) and continued its superiority even up to ninth year of planting. this is in agreement with the reports of walsh (1991), leigh issell (1999), robinson and hoying (2004) and robinson et al (2007). judicious timely pruning operations to overcome the adverse effects of closer configurations after sixth year of planting may sustain the productivity of the system in the long run. references anonymous. 1986. annual report of ches, chettalli, indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore bhatia, s.k., yadav, s., ahlawat, v.p and dahiya, s.s. 2001. effect of foliar application of nutrients on the yield and fruit quality of winter season guava cv. l-49. haryana j. hortl. sci., 30:6-7 day, k.r., dejong, t.m., and johnson, r.s. 2005. orchard-system configurations increase efficiency, improve profits in peaches and nectarines. calif. agri., apr-june, 75-79 iyer, c.p.a. and reju m. kurian. 2006. high density planting in tropical fruits: principles and practices. lucknow, international book distributing, xi, p. 260 leigh issell. 1999. closer planting of peach trees in goulburn valley orchards, tatura. ny fr uit quarterly, 7: 26-30 miles, n.w. and r. guarnaccia. 1999. high density peach production in ontario. ny fruit quarterly, 7: 1-5 robinson, t.l. and s.a. hoying. 2004. which high-density orchard planting system for replant sites in ny is the most productive and profitable? acta hort., 636: 701-709 robinson, t.l, hoying, s.a. and andersen, r.l. 2007. performance of 6 high density peach training systems in the northeast. acta hort., 732: 421-428 walsh, c. 1991. overview of peach training systems and the application of pruning techniques. acta hort., 322: 93-98 yadav, s., bhatia, s.k., godara, r.k. and rana, g.s. 2001. effect of growth regulators on the yield and quality of winter season guava cv. l-49. haryana j. hort. sci., 30: 1-2 ravishankar et al table 9. effect of planting densities on weight of fruits/tree (kg) during hasth bahar spacing 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 6x3 m 7.17 3.55 7.52 2.51 2.68 6x4 m 7.72 2.33 9.29 4.01 2.62 6x6 m 7.58 2.36 5.71 4.12 2.94 8x4 m 6.42 3.70 5.31 3.48 2.67 8x3 m 8.47 2.51 5.46 3.27 2.72 sem — — 0.87 0.43 — cd (p= 0.05) ns ns 2.83 1.30 ns table 10. effect of planting densities on productivity (tons/ha) spacing 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 6x3 m 7.27 13.81 28.97 17.53 10.29 16.64 6x4 m 5.50 8.01 20.78 11.77 7.34 12.35 6x6 m 4.37 4.92 15.06 10.50 5.22 11.03 8x4 m 3.96 4.78 19.86 15.56 6.15 10.48 8x3 m 5.40 6.44 16.58 11.27 8.48 16.08 sem 0.52 0.51 2.71 0.66 0.24 1.60 cd (p= 0.05) 1.14 1.56 6.69 2.15 0.78 3.50 (ms received 28 september 2007, revised 21 november 2008) j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 123-126, 2008 7 j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 7-12, 2019 original research paper soft wood grafting a novel and rapid multiplication technique in coorg mandarin (citrus reticulate blanco) b.m. muralidhara1 and i.n. doreyappa gowda2 1scientist (fruit science), 2principal scientist & head icar-indian institute of horticultural research central horticultural experimental stationchettalli 571248 1e-mail: muralidhara.bm@gmail.com abstract coorg mandarin is commercially multiplied by shield or t budding. the process of shield budding will takes eighteen to twenty months for the production of quality planting material. hence present experiment was conducted to standardize soft wood grafting in coorg mandarin to reduce the nursery phase for rapid multiplication of quality planting materials. in this study, two to three months old terminal shoots of coorg mandarin were grafted on one, two, three and four months old rootstocks of rangpur lime.the soft wood grafting on three and four months old rootstocks were recorded cent per cent graft success and higher plant survivability (98%) and minimum was noticed in one month old rootstocks. the plant height (45.77 cm), plant girth (0.60 cm), number of leaves per plant (42.9), number of side shoots per plant (5.65), root length (33.15 cm) and root spread (8.29 cm) were also found maximum on four months old root stocks followed by three month old rootstocks. age of rootstocks have significant difference (p=0.05) for plant weight, shoot weight and root weight in both fresh and dry weight basis.the above findings revealed that, four months old rootstocks are more suitable for soft wood grafting in terms of graft success and plant traits. soft wood grafting can be gainfully exploited for rapid multiplication of good quality planting material by reducing the nursery phase. key words: coorg mandarin, rangpur lime, soft wood grafting, success rate introduction citrus fruits have a prominent place among popular and extensively grown tropical and subtropical fruits. among the citrus fruits, mandarins are the most important one grown in india. there are three distinct ecotypes of mandarin (citrus reticulata blanco) in india viz., nagpur mandarins, coorg mandarins and khasi mandarins. coorg mandarin is one of the most important crops grown as component crop in coffee ba sed cr opping system in coor g, ha ssa n a nd chikkamagalur districts of karnataka and some parts of kerala and tamil nadu. the area under coorg mandarin is decreasing gradually due to many factors such as greening, phytophthora, tristeza virus and lack of availability of quality planting material for establishment of new plantations and replanting. coorg mandarin is commercially propagated by shield and t-budding wherein rootstock used is 1½ to 2 years old (karunakaran et al., 2014) and takes long time for production of quality planting material. presently there is huge demand for planting material and it is unable to meet the demand through conventional budding. hence there is an urgent need for alternate rapid multiplication technique which fastens the planting material production by reducing nursery phase. micro-budding is a new propagation technique and standardized in citrus species which could revolutionize the commercial citrus industry by saving grower’s time, space and money. skaria and zhang (2000) first developed this technique and later this was standardized in nagpur mandarin, sweet orange and grapefruit (vijayakumari and singh, 2003; alam et al., 2006; mazhar et al, 2006). this technique was also tried in coorg mandarin (karunakaran et al., 2014) but it was not successful commercially due to 8 muralidhara and doreyappa gowda j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 7-12, 2019 less graft success. soft wood grafting will help in rapid multiplication and reduces the cost of production as well as early detection of virus and virus-like diseases in plants through the biological indexing (ochoa et al., 2000; vijayakumari et al., 2008). therefore, present study was formulated to observe performance of soft wood grafting in coorg mandarin on different aged rootstocks of rangpur lime and which is beneficial for commer cia l citr us gr owers and nurser ymen to strengthen coorg mandarin cultivation in karnataka, kerala and tamil nadu. it will also help to double the production of quality planting material by reducing nursery phase and cost of production. material and methods the present study was carried out at the central horticultural experiment station, chettalli, kodagu, karnataka, india during 2016-17 under poly house condition. the soft wood grafting was carried out in the month of december 2016. production of rootstocks: the fruits of rangpur lime (citrus limonia osb.), were collected from healthy mother plants and seeds were extracted. the fresh seeds weresown inplastic trays at primary nursery. the seedlings were transplanted to polybags conta ining soil:sand:fa r m ya rd ma nure (1:1:1) atsecondary nursery, when they attained 4-5 leaf stage. after transplanting, one, two, three and four month’s old rootstocks were used for soft wood grafting. selection of scion: sixty to ninety days old terminal shoots were used as scion material from healthy coorg mandarin mother plants which are grown under polyhouse condition. seven to ten days prior to grafting the selected scion shoots were defoliated on mother plants. scions of 1.0-2.0 mm thickness and 5-10 cm length were used for grafting. technique of soft wood grafting : rootstocks were headed back at 6 to 15 cm above the polythene bag and the leaves of rootstock were removed leaving 2-3 leaves on the lower side before grafting. rootstock was split 1.5 to 2 cm deep through the centre of the stem with a grafting knife. a wedge-shape cut, slanting from both the sides (1.5-2 cm long) was made on the lower side of the scion shoot. the scion stick was inserted into the split of the stock and aligned properly. the union was tied using a 50-gauge polythene strip. use of poly tubes: the grafts were covered with 100 micron polytubes immediately after grafting will help in early sprouting and success of grafting. use of poly tubes will help to retain moisture content in scion and to avoid diffusion of water into graft union at the time of watering in initial stages. diffusion of water into graft union will lead to failure of grafts at initial period. observations recorded: daily observations were taken for initiation of sprouting and completion of sprouting. the graft success was calculated by using the formula i.e, {(number of grafts sprouted/ total number of plants grafted) x 100}. after 180 days of grafting all the parameters such as plant survival (%){(survived plants/ graft success plants) x 100}, plant height (cm), plant girth (cm), number of leaves per plant, number of side shoots per plant, root length (cm), root spread (cm), plant fresh and dry weight (g), shoot fresh and dry weight (g), root fresh and dry weight (g) were recorded. design and statistical analysis: the experimental design used was completely randomized design.there were four treatments which are replicated four times. twenty five plants were used for each replication. data were expressed as means of standard deviation. anova (spss version 16.0) and turkey’s post hoc test were used to determine the mean difference of different variables at different age of rootstocks. results and discussion the age of rootstocks showed significant (p=0.05) effect on initiation of sprouting, completion of sprouting, graft success and graft survival (table 1). coorg mandarin grafted on four months old rootstocks showed early initiation of sprouting on 11th day and took minimum (12.9) days for completion of sprouting and it was at par with the plants grafted on three months old rootstocks. delayed sprouting was observed, where coorg mandarin was grafted on one month old rootstocks in terms of initiation (18.75) and completion of sprouting (21.75). the early sprouting in four months old rootstocks may be due to, rapid callus formation between xylem and cambium tissues in the scion and rootstock union (hartmann et al., 1997). cent per cent graft success was recorded in two, three and four month’s old rootstocks whereas 89 per cent was observed in one month old rootstoc. the higher 9 soft wood grafting technique in coorg mandarin percentage of graft success in four months old rootstocks might be due to a ppropriate age of rootstock with higher sugars and moderate c:n ratio (deshmukh et al., 2017). the decline in graft success in one month rootstocks may be due to physiological condition of rootstock and decreased sap flow or quick cell dehydration, proliferation of callus tissues by both the graft components leading to vascular discontinuity arising from inadequate physiological maturity of rootstock (wang and kollmann, 1996). the similar results were also reported in coorg ma ndar in (ka runa ka ra n et al., 2014), nagpur mandarin (vijayakumari et al., 2003) and khasi mandarin (dubey et al., 2004). plant survival per cent was higher in coorg mandarin grafted on three (98%) and four month’s (98%) old rootstocks where as lowest plant survivability was noticed in one month old rootstocks (86.37 %). the higher survival on three and four months old rootstocks which may be due to strong stock-scion interaction which is very much necessary for water and essential nutrient flow (prez-alfocea et al., 2010) and findings are in line with deshmukh et al (2017) and patel et al (2010). after 180 days of grafting plant morphological traits were recorded and mean values were presented in table. 2. the maximum plant height (45.77 cm), plant girth (0.60 cm), number of leaves per plant (42.90), number of side shoots per plant (5.65), root length (33.15 cm) and root spread (8.29 cm) was recorded in coorg mandarin grafted on four months old r ootstocks a nd followed by thr ee months old rootstocks. the low values were observed in one month rootstocks for all the traits viz., plant height (28.65 cm), plant girth (0.38 cm), number of leaves per plant (22.55), number of side shoots per plant (2.88), root length (22.62 cm) and root spread (3.74 cm). the better morphological characters in the plants grafted on four month old rootstocks is due to suitable maturity of rootstock as well as rapid and better union of stock and scion (skene et al., 1983) is influencing the better absorption of nutrients by more number of leaves and higher number of side shoots. desmukh et al (2017) also found better morphological traits when they grafted kashi mandarin on six months old rootstocks of rough lemon and similar results were reported for plant height and girth by patel et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 7-12, 2019 age of rootstock days taken for days taken to graft success graft survival in months first sprouting complete sprouting (%) (%) one 18.75 21.75 89 86.37 two 17.5 20.25 100 91.0 three 13 15.15 100 98.0 four 11 12.9 100 98.0 cd (p=0.05) 2.87 2.97 6.83 6.59 cv (%) 12.38 11.01 4.56 4.58 table 1. influence of age of rootstocks on success of soft wood grafting in coorg mandarin table 2. influence of age of rootstocks on morphological characters of grafted plants age of plant plant number of number of root root rootstock in height girth leaves side shoots length spread months (cm) (cm) per plant per plant (cm) (cm) one 28.65 0.38 22.55 2.88 22.62 3.74 two 32.52 0.45 28.48 3.40 24.75 4.96 three 38.47 0.47 36.45 4.33 24.27 5.90 four 45.77 0.60 42.90 5.65 33.15 8.29 cd (p=0.05) 1.86 0.045 3.65 0.74 1.82 0.91 cv (%) 3.32 5.51 7.27 11.81 4.31 10.33 10 (2010). the four months’ rootstocks r ecor ded maximum root length and root spread due to the synthesis of required amount of secondary metabolites like phenols and alkaloid compounds which are most important for protection of rootstock by less root infestation by soil borne pathogens (el-motty et al., 2010; qiang et al., 2010). deshmukh et al (2017) also observed maximum root length (385.36 cm) on six months old rootstocks of rough lemon. the results also revealed that, the differences among plant traits viz., plant fresh and dry weight, shoot fresh and dry weight, root fresh and dry weight were significantly (p=0.05) influenced by age of rootstocks (table 3). the higher plant fresh weight (23.15 g), plant dry weight (8.34 g), fresh shoot weight (15.07 g), dry weight (5.16 g), root fresh weight (8.09 g) and dry weight (3.18 g) were recorded in four months old rootstocks followed by three months old rootstocks. the one month old rootstocks showed minimum values for plant fresh weight (9.31 g), plant dry weight (2.82 j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 7-12, 2019 muralidhara and doreyappa gowda table 3. influence of age of rootstocks on biomass accumulation of soft wood grafted plants age of plant weight shoot weight root weight rootstock in months fresh (g) dry (g) fresh (g) dry (g) fresh (g) dry (g) one 9.31 2.82 5.76 1.77 3.56 1.05 two 13.54 4.32 8.78 2.71 4.77 1.61 three 17.31 5.58 11.34 3.69 5.98 1.89 four 23.15 8.34 15.07 5.16 8.09 3.18 cd (p=0.05) 1.61 0.91 1.05 0.81 0.71 0.16 cv (%) 6.61 11.32 6.71 15.8 8.34 5.59 g), fresh shoot weight (5.76 g), dry weight (1.77 g), root fresh weight (3.56 g) and dry weight (1.05 g). the coorg mandarin grafted on four months old rootstocks have better biomass compared to grafts on one month old rootstock and this is mainly due to the higher age of plants which will help for better growth of scion and root system. the higher dry weight of four month rootstocks indicates the presence of higher vigour. in conclusion, soft wood grafting of two to three months old terminal shoots of coorg mandarin on four months old rootstocks of rangpur lime have more graft success and better graft growth. exploitation of soft wood grafting in coorg mandarin will be very much useful in doubling the production of quality planting material by shortening the nursery phase and reducing the cost of planting material production. fur ther studies a r e r equir ed to eva lua te the performance of grafted plants in field condition for growth and yield. fig. 1. four months old rootstocks of rangpur lime fig. 2. grafts covered with poly tubes 11 j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 7-12, 2019 soft wood grafting technique in coorg mandarin fig. 3. successful grafts of coorg mandarin on different aged rootstocks of rangpur lime fig. 4. general view of three month’s old grafted plants fig.5. scion suitable for successful grafting fig.6. general view of successful grafted plants acknowledgement the authors gratefully acknowledge director icar-indian institute of horticulture research, bengalur u for guidance and encouragement during the study. we also thank grafter mr. madhesh for successful grafting work. references alam, n., naveed, f., khan m.m., abbas, m. and ahmad, s. 2006. early age propagation of thr ee commer cial citr us species through microbudding technique. pak. j. agri. sci., 43: 42-44. deshmukh, n.a., pa tel, r.k., krishnappa, r., verma, b. c., rymbai, h., assumi, s.r., lyngdoh, p., jha, a.k. and malhotra, s.k. 2 0 1 7 . i nf lu enc e of r oot s t oc k a ge a nd propogation methods on scion physiology and root morphology of khasi mandarin (citrus reticulata). ind. j. agri. sci., 87: 203-209 dubey, a.k., mishra, m. and yadav, d.s. 2004. softwood grafting in khasi mandarin (citrus reticulata blanco). ind. j. hort. sci.,61: 263–4. ei-motty, e.z.a., metwally, s.e., abou, y.r. and fa r aha t, s. a. 2010. studies on gr owth, nutritional and microbiological status of citrus seedlings infested with root-rot disease. nat. sci.,8: 112–21 hartmann, h.t., kester, d.e., davies, f.t. and geneve, r. l. 1997. pla nt pr opa ga tion: 12 (ms received 26 september 2017, revised 16 may 2018, accepted 22 june 2019) j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 7-12, 2019 muralidhara and doreyappa gowda principal and practices, 8th edn, pp 770. prentice hall of india pvt ltd, new delhi. kadam, j.h., karale, a.r., garad b.v. and desai, u.t. 2007. micro-grafting in wood apple. in: recent trends in horticultural biotechnology, raghunathkeshvachandran (eds.), new india publishing agency, new delhi, pp. 371-73 karunakaran, g. ravishankar, h., sakthivel, t and samuel, d.k. 2014. optimization of microbudding technique in coorg mandarin (citrus reticulata blanco). ind. j. hort.,71: 311-314 mazhar, a., khan, m.m., mughal, s.m., jaskani, m.j. and haider, a. 2006. propagation of ctv free sweet orange [citrus sinensisosb.] plants through micr obudding technique. pak. j. bot.,38: 583-87 ochoa, p.m., dekkers, m.g.h., skaria, m. and lee, r.f. 2000. use of microbudding to expedite production of experimental citrus hosts for use for biological indexing of citrus pathogens. in: isc congress, orlando, florida, pp., 129 patel, r.k., babu, k.d. and akath singh 2010. soft wood grafting in mandarin (citrus reticulata bla nco): a novel vegetative pr opa gation technique. int. j. f. sci., 10:54-64 perez-alfocea, f., albacete, a., ghanem, m.e. and dodd, i.a. 2010. hormonal regulation of source and sink relations to maintain crop productivity under salinity: a case study of root to shoot signa ling in toma to. functional pl. bio.,37:592–603 qia ng, s. w. , ying, n.z. a nd xin, h.h. 2010. contributions of arbuscularmycorrhizal fungi to growth, photosynthesis, root morphology and ionic balance of citrus seedlings under salt stress. acta physiol. plant.,32:297–304 skaria, m. and zhang, t. 2000. field performance of micro-budded citrus trees in texas. in: isc congress, orlando, florida, pp. 130 skene, d.s., shepherd, h.r. and howard, b.h. 1 98 3 . c ha r a ct er is tic a na tomy of u nion formation in budded fruit and ornamental tree. j. hort. sci.,58:295–299 vija ya ku ma r i, n . a nd s ingh, s . 2 0 0 3 . standardization of microbudding technique in citrus. ind. j. hort. sci.,60: 127-30 vijayakumari, n., singh, s. and thote, s.g. 2008. app lica tion of micr obu dding: a f a s ter propagation technique in citrus. j. soils and crops,18: 89-91 vijayakumari, n., singh, s., ghosh, d.k., das, a.k. a nd d hu r ja ti, t. 20 0 1. p er f or ma nce of micr obudding under different greenhouse structures in citrus reticulata cv. nagpur mandarin. south ind. hort.,49: 335-37 wa ng, y. a nd k ollma nn, r . 1 9 9 6 . va s c u la r differentiation in the graft union of in vitro grafts with different compatibility. j. plant physiol., 147: 521-33 00 contents.pdf 01. rms copy 62(17) gauva.marketing & phl-pinflesh.pdf 02. rms copy 63(17) soft wood grafting – a novel and rapid multiplication technique in coorg mandarin (citrus reticulata blanco).pdf 03. rms copy 25(18) evaluation of solanum species and eggplant cultivated varieties for bacterial wilt resistance.pdf 04. rms 18(18).pdf 05. rms_ii _24_18.pdf 06. rms copy 26 (18) metabolite paper-edited_04.05.2019.pdf 07. rms copy 1(19).pdf 08. rms copy 2(19) revised heterosi and combining effects ridge gourd 2019.pdf 09. rms copy 5(19) digital repository revised.pdf s1. rms 45(17) effect of trichomes in cowpea on infestation by spotted pod borer.pdf s2. rms copy 65(17) performance of anthurium (anthurium andreanum lind) cultivars in hill zone of.pdf s3. rms copy 2(18) langsat paper revised.pdf s4. rms 3(19) mineral content of red skinned potatoes of eastern india-revised.pdf sph -jhs coverpage jun 2019 issue 14(1).pdf page 3 page 4 sph -jhs coverpage jun 2019 issue 14(1).pdf page 1 page 2 20 j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 20-25, 2019 original research paper effect of cultivars on tree growth, yield and quality attributes of apple on espalier architecture under high density planting system k.k. srivastava, dinesh kumar, s.r. singh and o.c. sharma icar-central institute of temperate horticulture, old air field, rangreth, srinagar 190 007 (j&k), india. email : kanchanpom@gmail.com abstract annual extension growth (aeg), an indicator of tree vigor, was recorded maximum (145.63 cm) in granny smith and minimum (111.04cm) in spartan, where as correlation matrix showed negative relation between trunk cross sectional area (tcsa) and aeg. granny smith exhibited maximum (184.09 g) fruit weight and it was minimum (128.68 g) in spartan, the correlation matrix between fruit weight and yield efficiency exhibited significant positive correlation over the years. yield tree-1 was maximum (29.45 kg tree-1) in coe red fuji and minimum (16.04 kg/tree) in spartan. significant and positive correlation coefficient (0.870) observed between yield and tcsa. tcsa has positive correlation with fruit weight and yield efficiency, maximum mean yield efficiency (1.11 kg/cm2) was recorded in granny smith. all the cultivars trained on this architecture had high chroma values (color intensity). key words: apple, tree architecture, espalier, high density planting, coe-red –fuji, yield efficiency, chroma introduction apple (malus domestica borkh) is an important fruit, occupies more than, 70% area and 60% production of total temperate fruits in india. apple productivity is a production function of rootstock, planting density, tree architecture and variety in addition to orchard and floor management. dwarfing and semi-dwarf rootstocks ha ve been widely accepted in apple industry a s effective tools to increa se orcha rd efficiency (barritt et al., 1995) as smaller and compact trees can more efficiently intercept the solar energy. high and early productivity in high density planting system is partly based on the greater leaf area ha -1, r esulting gr ea ter light inter ception of photosynthetically active radiations (par) (jackson, 1980). tree height and canopy shape also affect the light interception, penetration and distribution in the inner portion of the canopy. high density orchards have varied canopy architecture form, practiced all over world; however, the most common is the spindle form (mika et al., 1984; mika et al., 2001). tall trees have potential to intercept more light and yield than short statured tree at the same spacing (barrit, 2000, callesen, 1993; palmer 1989. the trunk cross sectional area in the hdp was 20% less than that of low density (hampson et al., 2004). the tree size is virtually expressed in trunk cross sectional area (tcsa), as it is the most common and reliable factor to determine tree size and yield potential (jimenez and diaz 2004, wright et al. (2006) a nd yield efficiency indicates the real potential of tree yield irrespective of the tree size. annual extension growth exhibited the state of tree health; it is not affected by the training system (hampson et al. 2004). the fruit weight, yield and fruit color depends on light interception, plant architecture, cultivars, density and planting rectangularity. square planting system (1:1) is the most favorable for light interception and distribution (wagenmakers, 1991; wagenmakers and ca llesen, 1995). espa lier is like kniffin tr ee architecture of grape, comprising 4-5 layer of wires running parallel at 30-45 cm interval on which scaffold branches are trained on both directions. materials and methods the present experiment was carried out during 2010 to 2014 at icar-central institute of temperate hor ticulture, srina gar, j&k. the experiments includes 3 cultivars; co-red fuji (v1), granny smith (v2), spartan (v3) which were grafted on to m.9 rootstock. the planting was done at 1.5x 3.0 m (row 21 espalier architecture in apple j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 20-25, 2019 to row and plant to plant). all the experimental trees were trained on 5 tier galvanized wires fixed on the iron angle of 1.5 m, the angles were fixed at 8 m distance. first wire fitted at 45 cm from ground level and rest 4 wires at 30cm intervals. the experiment was laid out in complete randomized block design with six replications and 2 plants/ replication; uniform cultural operations were practiced in all the trees under study, drip irrigation laid out for irrigation and fertigation. trunk diameters were measured 15 cm above the graft union. the trunk cross sectional area wa s ca lcula ted by using sta nda r d for mula e (tcsa=girth2/4π). for fruit weight, 15 fruits were randomly harvested at maturity, weighted using digita l electr onic ba lance a nd fr uit yield wa s calculated as total weight of fruit per unit tcsa (kg/ cm2 of tcsa) at the time of harvest. the color was recorded using hunter colour lab, it was calibrated using the manufacturers’ standard white tile and were expressed in l*,a* and b* . the color intensity (chroma) was worked out using formula (a2+b2)1/2). the data were analyzed statistically as per procedure given sheoran et al (1998), and are being presented in the table for interpretation of the results. results and discussion espalier architecture annual extension growth (aeg) is the indicator of tree vigour, maximum aeg (145.63 cm) noted in granny smith and minimum (111.04 cm) in spartan while as correlation coefficient exhibited negative over the years between tcsa and aeg (table 1). similar trend in fruit weight with respect to variety was recorded in this experiment, granny smith showed maximum fruit weight throughout the studied per iod. avera ge fr uit weight r ecorded maximum (184.09 g fruit-1) in granny smith, while a s minimum (128. 68 g fruit -1) in spar tan, the correlation matrix between fruit weight and yield efficiency exhibited significant positive correlation over the years (table 2). yield per tree was also inf lu enc ed b y t he c u lt iva r s u nd er es p a lier architecture, where in, maximum avera ge yield (29.45 kg tree-1) was recorded in coe red fuji and minimum (16.04 kg tree-1) in spartan. significant and positive correlation coefficient (0.870) was observed between yield and tcsa (table 3). the apple grafted on to dwarfing rootstocks, the tree exhibited precocity resulting fair yield in 2nd year on wards. coe red fuji has tendency to bear large number of fruits tree-1 of medium sized in turn had maximum mean productivity (65.84 t ha-1), while as, spartan has comparatively low productivity over the years, 40.69 t ha -1(fig.1). tcsa is reliable criteria to estimate yield of the tree. trunk cross sectional area was recorded maximum (33.01 cm2) in coe red fuji over the years which were on par to gr anny smith and spa rta n, significant and positive correlations were noted, tcsa with fruit weight and yield efficiency (fig 2). fig. 1: yield of apple varieties under espalier architecture fig. 2. yield efficiency of apple under espalier architecture yield efficiency permits comparisons among the trees of varying vigor and was used as reliable cr iteria to estima te yield potential of different varieties grown under different spacing. maximum average yield efficiency (1.11 kg cm-2) recorded in granny smith followed by coe red fuji (1.04 kg cm-2), whereas, it was minimum (0.67 kg/cm2) in spartan. chroma values were worked out to show the color intensity, all the studied varieties exhibited high color intensity as per their genetic constituents hence, no considerable variations were observed on the chroma values among the studied varieties over the years (table 4). 22 srivastava et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 20-25, 2019 table 1. varietal influence on annual extension growth under espalier architecture aeg (cm) variety year year year year year 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 mean co-red fuji 106.67 113.66 116.89 121.0 127.17 117.07 granny smith 139.66 142.50 145.50 148.17 152.33 145.63 spartan 97.67 105.87 111.17 118.67 121.83 111.04 r with tcsa* -0.368 -0.053 -0.325 -0.025 -0.035 cv (%) 8.90 8.91 7.10 6.15 6.17 lsd (p= 0.05) 13.31 16.95 10.75 9.73 10.75 *r= correlation matrix (p=0.05) table 2. effect of varieties on fruit weight under espalier architecture friut weight (g) variety year year year year year 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 mean co-red fuji 154.71 163.03 148.47 155.67 182.53 159.98 granny smith 176.14 172.76 160.58 208.28 207.68 184.09 spartan86.28 125.67 94.62 166.97 171.86 128.68 r with yield efficiency 0.933 0.988 0.919 0.985 0.602 0.950 cv(%) 3.0 2.41 4.90 1.92 2.50 1.50 lsd(p= 0.05) 4.87 4.38 7.71 4.00 4.82 2.73 *r= correlation matrix (p=0.05) table 3. effect of varieties on yield potential yield kg tree-1 variety year year year year year 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 mean co-red fuji 7.52 26.09 43.26 46.22 24.18 29.45 granny smith 6.80 22.83 20.19 43.91 15.67 21.88 spartan 2.70 13.50 10.72 38.40 14.90 16.04 r with tcsa 0.782 0.643 0.875 0.638 0.977 0.870 cv (%) 5.18 12.87 9.1 5.08 12.16 4.25 lsd(p= 0.05) 1.20 3.15 2.70 2.60 2.61 1.30 *r= correlation matrix (p=0.05) 23 t he scion gr owth is not a ffected by the tr ee architecture as it is due to genetic constituents of the cultivars; similarly hampson et al. (2004) also reported that scion growth was affected by genetic constituents of cultivars not by tree architecture. the coe red fuji which has prolific in bearing habit are medium sized and large number of fruit set per tree (4-5 thousand) after 3 years, these results are in agreement with ahmed et al. (2015) who also reported higher yields in coe red fuji, granny smith and spartan on espalier architecture. fruit weight has dir ect corr elation with yield; it decreased with increasing planting density (costa et al., 1997). tcsa of the tr ee wa s positively cor r ela ted with the transporting and distribution of the photosynthates from source to sink, which ultimately affects the tree growth and fruit yield. the productivity efficiency of the tree increased with increase in tcsa (table 5). similar growth pattern in tcsa with yield and tcsa with aeg were reported by, kumar and kumar et al (2011) in banana. in general, fruit weight is negatively correlated with tree density, where in higher tree density has low fruit weight. in espalier architecture, initially no clear cut trend in fruit weight was observed because of negligible competition among fruit-lets for photosynthates, space, and light energy. similarly, palmer et al. (1997) reported that fruit weight was greatest when there were minimum competition between fruits. the yield per tree was observed increasing trends, since the observations were taken on the 3 years after plants, the trend may change in future with the age of the trees. tree architecture determined the tree shape, but not over a ll tr ee size (ha mpson et al. , 2004). further, horizontal growing shoots have lower auxin content as compared to upright shoots (kato and ito, 1962). luckwill (1968) reported that the supply table 4. trunk cross sectional area of apple varieties tcsa treatment year year year year year 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 mean co-red fuji 25.99 27.90 33.31 37.02 40.83 33.01 granny smith 17.54 19.87 21.70 24.97 28.13 22.44 spartan 17.22 19.49 22.03 25.97 28.93 22.72 r with fruit weight 0.321 0.246 0.135 0.552 0.392 0.990 r with yield efficiency 0.639 0.592 0.511 0.385 0.956 0.638 cv (%) 14.47 9.20 8.5 9.90 4.67 2.5 lsd (p= 0.05) 3.45 2.4 2.47 3.2 1.8 0.75 *r= correlation matrix (p=0.05) table 5. chroma value of apple on espalier architecture variety year year year year year 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 mean treatment year 2010 year 2011 year 2012 year 2013 year 2014 mean co-red fuji 26.53 27.14 26.35 25.67 29.68 27.07 granny smith 23.27 28.47 28.37 26.70 27.70 26.90 spartan 25.25 25.71 25.71 28.00 27.85 26.50 r with aeg -0.822 0.853 -0.014 -0.660 -0.185 0.760 cv (%) 9.07 1.90 10.16 11.53 8.20 5.80 lsd (p= 0.05) ns 1.33 ns ns ns ns *r= correlation matrix (p=0.05) espalier architecture in apple j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 20-25, 2019 24 of nutrient to the apex is controlled by auxin in top meristem. srivastava et al (2008) also reported that minimum growth in shoot diameter noted at 60 and 900 branch angles in conian itly apricot. the color was very intense in granny smith, however, costa et. al. (1997) reported decrease in chroma values with tree density in braeburn apple. yield efficiency is reliable parameter for estimating the yield potential of varying tree size. aeg ha ve positive correlation with yield efficiency, it may be due to more vegetative growth, more production of photosynthates resulting high partitioning of photoassimilates to developing fruits, thus increased in yield efficiency. similarly srivastava et al (2008) recorded maximum yield in apricot tree branched at 600 angle. maximum color intensity (chroma) was recorded in espalier architecture, which may be due to the maximum exposed leaves to the solar r adia tions which results in more car bohydr ate production and increased sugar content in fruits help ed in t he develop ment of c olor int ensity (chadha, 2001). the coe red fuji and granny smith have better performance on espalier architecture, though the initial cost for erection of the training structure was high. yield efficiency and quality on espalier tree a r chitectu r e wer e high. fur ther, ea se in tr ee br a nc h, shoot a nd lea f positioning a r e a dded advantage and low wastage of inputs are additional advantage. the aeg might be an indicator for assessing tree vigour. granny smith exhibited high growth and fruit weight but overall productivity was r ec or ded hi gh in c oe r ed f u ji o n es p a lier architecture. tcsa showed positive correlation with fruit weight, yield efficiency, and yield kg tree1. chroma value in all the varieties were found on par, as trees on espalier architecture have all the leaves well illuminated to the solar radiations. srivastava et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 20-25, 2019 references ahmed n., srivastava, k.k., kumar dinesh, lal shiv. 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(1995) light distribution in a pple or cha rd systems in relation to production and fruit quality. j hort. sci 70: 935-48. wright h., nichols d., embree c. 2006. evaluating the accountability of trunk size and canopy volume models for determining apple tree pr oduction potentia l a cr oss diver se ma na gement r egimes. acta hort. 707 : 237-243. espalier architecture in apple j. hortl. sci. vol. 34(1) : 20-25, 2018 (ms received 24 september 2018, revised 16 march 2019, accepted 21 june 2019) 00 contents.pdf 01. rms copy 62(17) gauva.marketing & phl-pinflesh.pdf 02. rms copy 63(17) soft wood grafting – a novel and rapid multiplication technique in coorg mandarin (citrus reticulata blanco).pdf 03. rms copy 25(18) evaluation of solanum species and eggplant cultivated varieties for bacterial wilt resistance.pdf 04. rms 18(18).pdf 05. rms_ii _24_18.pdf 06. rms copy 26 (18) metabolite paper-edited_04.05.2019.pdf 07. rms copy 1(19).pdf 08. rms copy 2(19) revised heterosi and combining effects ridge gourd 2019.pdf 09. rms copy 5(19) digital repository revised.pdf s1. rms 45(17) effect of trichomes in cowpea on infestation by spotted pod borer.pdf s2. rms copy 65(17) performance of anthurium (anthurium andreanum lind) cultivars in hill zone of.pdf s3. rms copy 2(18) langsat paper revised.pdf s4. rms 3(19) mineral content of red skinned potatoes of eastern india-revised.pdf sph -jhs coverpage jun 2019 issue 14(1).pdf page 3 page 4 sph -jhs coverpage jun 2019 issue 14(1).pdf page 1 page 2 404 not found stack trace: file: /var/www/jhs/pages/article/articlehandler.inc.php line 167 function: dispatcher->handle404() file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/pkprouter.inc.php line 392 function: articlehandler->initialize(object(request), array(0)) file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/pkppagerouter.inc.php line 246 function: pkprouter->_authorizeinitializeandcallrequest(array(2), object(request), array(2), false) file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/dispatcher.inc.php line 144 function: pkppagerouter->route(object(request)) file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/pkpapplication.inc.php line 362 function: dispatcher->dispatch(object(request)) file: /var/www/jhs/index.php line 68 function: pkpapplication->execute() introduction pomegranate (punica granatum l.) is a widely grown fruit crop in almost all the tropical and subtropical countries. it is classified as a non-climacteric fruit, and, in spite of the low respiration rate reported (ben-arie et al, 1984), it is a highly perishable commodity. pomegranate, when stored at room temperature, suffers reduction in shelflife by accelerated desiccation and decay, which makes it necessary to store fruits at low temperatures. however, when stored below 5oc, pomegranate fruits develop chillinginjury (ci), resulting in reduced internal and external fruit quality (mirdehghan and rahemi, 2005). to reduce occurrence of ci, several technologies have been tested, including chemical treatment with thiabendazole (mcdonald et al, 1991), controlled and modified atmosphere storage, intermittent warming (artés et al, 1996), shrink-film wrapping and coatings (nanda et al, 2001). polyamines (pas) are low molecular-weight, small, aliphatic amines ubiquitous in living organisms, and have been implicated in a wide range of biological processes, including plant growth, development and response to stress (smith, 1985). the most common pas, putrescine (put), spermidine (spd) and effect of polyamines on storability and quality of pomegranate fruit (punica granatum l.) cv. bhagwa d.p. waskar*, v.s. khandare, b.m. kalalbandi and p.s. shelke department of horticulture vasantrao naik marathwada krishi vidyapeeth parbhani 431 402, india e-mail: dpwaskar@gmail.com abstract pomegranate cv. bhagawa fruits harvested at adequate stage of maturity were dipped in aqueous solutions containing various concentrations of the polyamines putrescine (1mm, 2mm and 3mm) and spermidine (0.5mm, 1mm and 1.5mm), along with tween-20 as a surfactant, for 5 minutes. the fruits were then stored at 5oc and 8oc temperature with under 90-95% relative humidity. polyamine-treated fruits showed reduced chilling-injury, weight loss and respiration rate during storage at these 5oc and 8oc temperatures. an increasing trend in total soluble solids (tss) content, and a decreasing trend in acidity were found in polyamine-treated fruits during storage at 5oc and 8oc temperature. maximum reduction in chilling-injury was obtained with putrescine (2mm) at both the storage temperatures. control fruits stored at 5oc and 8oc temperature rapidly developed chilling-injury developed symptoms of brown discoloration of skin and weight-loss in pomegranate fruits. key words: pomegranate, polyamines, shelf-life, storability, chilling injury spermine (spm) are found in every plant cell. it is believed that pas have anti-senescence function (kumar et al, 1997), but their levels usually decrease during ripening in most fruits. this general diminution affects textural attributes of the fruit and its shelf-life. thus, exogenous application of pas has been reported to enhance shelf-life and textural attributes in fruits like plum (pérez-vicente et al., 2002) and mango (malik and singh, 2005). scanty information is available on the effect of polyamines on extending shelf-life, alleviating ci, and maintaining quality attributes of pomegranate fruits. in view of the importance of pomegranate cv. bhagwa, and problems faced by growers/traders in cold-storing, this experiment aimed to study the effect of polyamines on storage-life and quality attributes of pomegranate fruits under low-temperature storage. material and methods sample preparation: pomegranate cv. bhagawa fruits were procured from a commercial orchard in solapur (maharashtra). fruits were harvested at commercial maturity stage and transported immediately to the laboratory. uniform-sized fruits, free from sunburn, cracks or bruises were selected. the experiment was conducted in completely j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):48-53, 2015 49 effect of polyamines on storability and quality of pomegranate randomized design, including seven treatments, viz., t1– 1mm putrescine, t2–2mm putrescine, t3–4mm putrescine, t4–0.5mm spermidine, t5–1mm spermidine, t6–1.5mm spermidine and to–control, with three replications. fruits were treated with various concentrations of putrescine (put) (1mm, 2mm and 3mm) and spermidine (spd) (0.5mm, 1mm and 1.5mm), along with tween-20 as a surfactant, for 5 min and washed in distilled water (control). after treatment, fruits were air-dried and kept in ventilated, corrugated fiber-board boxes. fruits packed in boxes were kept in the laboratory at room temperature, and at low temperatures of 5oc and 8oc. after 15, 30, 45, 60 and 75 days of storage, fruits from each treatment were sampled. fruit peel was carefully cut at the equatorial zone with sharp knives and arils were taken out from which juice was extracted, manually, for further analysis. weight-loss in fruits was determined during storage at different sampling intervals of 15, 30, 45, 60 and 75 days after treatments and expressed as percentage. respiration rate was measured using auto gas analyzer (model: checkmate 9900 o2/co2, pbi dansensor, denmark). respiration rate was expressed in milliliters of co2 released per kg of fruit per hour (ml co2 kg ”1 h”1). pomegranate fruits for studies on chilling-injury were rated on a scale of 0–4 (wild and hood, 1989). for juice recovery, arils were removed from the fruit and weighed using an electronic balance. juice was extracted by a hydraulic juice press and weighted. juice recovery was expressed as percentage of total aril weight at the time of measurement. total soluble solids content was determined using erma hand refractometer at 20oc and results expressed as percentage. titrable acidity was estimated as per ranganna (1986). data were subjected to anova in completely randomized design, and, the means were separated by lsd test. results and discussion effect of polyamines on physiological changes in fresh pomegranate fruit physiological loss of weight: physiological loss in weight was found to increase with advancement in storage period at room temperature. all the treatments led to loss in fruit weight during the entire storage period up to 75 days (table 1). at 30 days of storage, highest (18.5%) physiological loss in weight was found in control treatment t0, while, the lowest was recorded in treatments t1 and t5 (8.8 and 9.0%, respectively) in fruit stored at room temperature. at 50c, the highest percentage of weight loss (8.9%) was recorded in control fruits, and the lowest (2.22%) in treatment t1. at 30 days of storage, a similar trend in physiological loss of weight was observed at 80c storage. at 30 days of storage, end of the shelf-life of fruit was observed in control treatment t0. at 75 days of storage, the lowest (11.00%) physiological loss in weight was recorded in treatment t1, followed by that in treatment t5 (11.12%) at 50c. at 75 days of storage, a similar trend of physiological loss in weight was observed at 80c. loss of weight in the stored pomegranate fruit is mainly due to transpiration of water from the fruit, and is apparent as shrivelling. loss in weight was found reduced with application of put. lower weight-loss in put treated fruits can be attributed to stabilization or consolidation of cell integrity and permeability of tissues, and amelioration of ci. the ci induces tissue disruption and the connection between fruit skin and the external atmosphere, allowing transfer of water vapour. besides this, lower respiration rate in put treated fruits may also contribute to lower rate of weightloss (valero et al, 1998). elyatem and kader (1984) also established a strong relation between respiration rate in pomegranate and loss in weight. table 1. effect of polyamines on physiological loss in weight (plw %) in pomegranate fruit stored at room temperature and low temperature treatment storage period (days) room temperature 5oc temperature 8oc temperature 15 30 15 30 45 60 75 15 30 45 60 75 t 1 2.18 8.8 1.35 2.21 6.12 9.84 11.00 1.40 2.40 6.19 9.84 11.07 t 2 3.31 11.23 2.22 3.70 9.10 12.16 14.13 2.29 3.82 9.13 12.17 14.21 t 3 2.91 12.23 2.74 3.97 8.90 11.44 13.86 2.91 3.94 8.90 11.49 14.07 t 4 2.87 11.80 2.83 3.98 9.12 12.20 14.16 2.86 4.01 9.16 12.21 14.24 t 5 2.27 9.00 1.41 2.74 7.14 10.04 11.12 1.64 2.80 7.16 10.08 11.26 t 6 2.92 12.00 2.87 4.01 8.89 11.05 13.92 2.90 3.98 9.10 11.85 14.04 t 0 9.34 18.50 4.30 8.90 00 00 00 4.42 9.09 00 00 00 se± 0.36 0.12 0.026 0.157 0.03 0.06 0.03 0.01 0.08 0.01 0.01 0.04 cd at 5% 1.11 0.38 0.08 0.476 0.09 0.09 0.09 0.03 0.26 0.04 0.03 0.12 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):48-53, 2015 50 respiration rate: respiration rate of fruit increased with advancement in storage period under all treatments tested (fig. 1). up to 15 days of storage, no significant difference in respiration rate was seen in fruits treated with put and spd, at room temperature, 5oc and 8oc. however, a marked difference was recorded in respiration rate at 45 and 60 days of storage under all the treatments used. at 60 days of storage, highest respiration rate (41.80ml co2 kg -1 h-1) was recorded under control, while, the lowest (10.76ml co2 kg -1 h-1) in t1 treatment at 5 oc. comparatively higher respiration rate in the control fruits was mainly due to ci. chilling injury is known to abrade cell membrane and other cell organelles, which leads to higher cell-respiration rate. the above findings are in agreement with macrae (1987) in persimmon. chilling injury: ci developed in pomegranate fruits from 45th day of storage at 50c and 80c (table 2). symptoms appeared as skin-browning, and its intensity increased with storage duration prolonged to 75 days. highest ci was recorded in the control fruits (40.00%). however, application of put and spd led to significant reduction in ci and skinbrowning. at the end of the experiment, fruits treated with t1 showed 55% lower symptoms of ci compared to the control fruits. chilling injury could be considerably reduced by the sole application of put or spd. in addition, adaptation or cold acclimation has been proposed to cause an increase in the proportion of unsaturated membrane lipid, and, this is considered to be a critical factor for maintenance of cellular integrity under chilling conditions (campos et al, 2003). here, the control fruits failed at cold-acclimation/adaptation, thus leading to ci. polyamines play a very significant role in alleviating chilling injury symptoms in fruits. when polyamines are applied exogenously, they seem to induce cold-acclimation, which could help maintain membrane fluidity at low temperatures, and in thus, responsible for reducing electrolyte-leakage and skin-browning. polyamines, due to their antioxidant property, prevent mainly lipid peroxidation, thus protecting membrane lipids from conversion in physical state (mirdehghan et al, 2007). table 2. effect of polyamines on chilling injury (%) in pomegranate fruit stored at room temperature and low temperature treatment storage period (days) 5oc temperature 8oc temperature 30 45 60 75 30 45 60 75 t 1 00 14.06 (16.97) 21.20 (12.23) 00 27.20 (15.78) 29.20 (16.98) 39.22 (23.08) t 2 00 21.73 (12.55) 29.20 (8.085) 39.40 (23.20) 00 30.20 (17.75) 34.06 (19.91) 45.50 (27.06) t 3 00 19.22 (11.08) 31.05 (18.08) 37.06 (21.75) 00 30.32 (17.68) 32.22 (18.79) 45.30 (26.93) t 4 00 24.66 (14.29) 32.33 (18.86) 39.33 (22.86) 00 30.22 (17.52) 32.06 (18.70) 44.19 (26.22) t 5 00 18.30 (18.54) 26.60 (15.42) 00 28.30 (16.44) 30.10 (17.51) 41.03 (24.22) t 6 00 17.32 (19.76) 18.40 (10.60) 39.06 (22.99) 00 34.20 (20.00) 44.07 (26.23) t 0 00 28.30 35.00 40.00 00 30.25 36.00 46.00 se± 0.75 0.011 0.015 0.010 0.029 0.37 cd at 5% 2.28 0.034 0.046 0.031 0.088 0.14 *figures in parentheses indicate transformed value fig. 1 effect of polyamines on respiration rate in pomegranate fruit stored at room temperature and low temperature waskar et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):48-53, 2015 51 juice recovery: juice recovery decreased in all the treatments (fig. 2). however, the decline was much higher in control (arils from untreated fruit) compared to treatment with put and spd. at 30 days of storage, this trend was found to be reverse, where, juice recovery increased in control fruits. but, this surge was observed much later, at 45 days of storage in putand spdtreated fruits. regardless of the treatment, juice recovery depleted after 45 days of storage. however put treatment proved to be better over the control. in the present investigation, application of put and spd gave positive results going by the higher juice recovery over control. owing to its antisenescence property, put retards respiration rate and activities of enzymes responsible for cell-wall degradation. further, the role of pas in reducing ci and associated activities of cell-wall degrading enzymes have been reported by several workers (fernández-trujillo et al, 1998). thus, in the control pomegranate fruits, increase in juice recovery after 30 days of storage may be attributed to ci-mediated activity of cell-wall degrading enzymes such as pectinmethylesterase and polygalacturonase. effect of polyamines on chemical composition of fresh pomegranate fruit total soluble solids (tss): the total soluble solids increased with increase in storage period (table 3). at 15 days of storage, the lowest (15.37%) tss was recorded in treatment t4, at room temperature. the highest (15.49%) tss was recorded in treatment t1, followed by that in treatment t5 (15.47%). at 60 days of storage, a similar trend was observed too. at 75 days of storage, highest tss was recorded in control treatment t0 (17.01%), at 5 0c, while, the lowest was recorded in treatment t4 (16.17%), followed by treatment t1 (16.18%). titrable acidity: titrable acidity decreased with increase in storage period (table 4). at 15 days of storage, highest (0.61%) titrable acidity was recorded in control treatment t0. the lowest (0.36%) titrable acidity was recorded in treatment t1, followed by treatment t5 (0.37%). at 60 days of storage, a similar trend was observed. at 75 days of storage, highest titrable acidity was recorded in control treatment t0 (0.39%), while, lowest titrable acidity was recorded in treatment t1 (0.29%), followed by treatment t5 (0.33%). previous work on plum (serrano et al, 2003) fig. 2. effect of polyamines on juice recovery in pomegranate fruit stored at room temperature and low temperature table 3. effect of polyamines on total soluble solids (%) in pomegranate fruit stored at room temperature and low temperature treatment storage period (days) room temperature 50c temperature 80c temperature 0 15 30 0 15 30 45 60 75 0 15 30 45 60 75 t 1 15 15.49 15.74 15 15.5 15.76 16.21 16.41 16.18 15 15.50 15.71 16.17 16.37 16.37 t 2 15 15.37 15.73 15 15.42 15.62 15.84 15.95 16.16 15 15.42 15.60 15.81 15.90 15.90 t 3 15 15.36 15.72 15 15.41 15.58 15.64 15.90 16.15 15 15.41 15.62 15.71 15.81 15.81 t 4 15 15.37 15.70 15 15.41 15.68 15.54 15.85 16.10 15 15.41 15.56 15.61 15.71 15.75 t 5 15 15.47 15.77 15 15.46 15.71 16.14 16.35 16.17 15 15.46 15.66 16.12 16.35 16.35 t 6 15 15.39 15.70 15 15.40 15.70 16.17 16.20 16.07 15 15.40 15.65 16.11 16.16 16.16 t 0 15 15.42 15.60 15 15.39 15.56 16.23 16.50 17.01 15 15.39 15.53 16.22 16.47 16.60 se± 0.007 0.005 0 0.005 0.008 0.005 0.005 0.005 0 0.005 0.01 0.006 0.005 0.005 cd at 5% 0.023 0.015 0 0.015 0.026 0.017 0.17 0.17 0 0.015 0.03 0.019 0.017 0.017 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):48-53, 2015 effect of polyamines on storability and quality of pomegranate 52 and pomegranate (mustapha et al, 1995) also confirm these findings. conclusion exogenous application of polyamines like putrescine and spermidine showed improvement in storability of pomegranate at 5oc, which otherwise would lead to chilling injury and compromised quality. treatment with putrescine reduced respiration rate and physiological loss of weight, and enhanced total soluble solids content, amount of reducing sugars, and decreased acidity of the fruit. thus, shelf-life can be extended in pomegranate fruits stored at low temperatures (5oc) for upto 75 days. as demonstrated by us, application of 1mm putrericine could be effective in alleviating chilling injury symptoms during long duration, lowtemperature storage of pomegranate fruits. however, further studies are necessary on combined use of putrescine with other treatments in alleviating chilling injury and possible mechanisms of action for increasing post-harvest life of the fruit. references artés, f., marín, j.g. and martínez, j.a. 1996. controlled atmosphere storage of pomegranate. eur. food res. technol., 203:33–37 ben-arie, r., segal, n. and guelfat-reich, s. 1984. the maturation and ripening of the ‘woderful’ pomegranate. j. am. soc. hortl. sci., 109:898–902 campos, p.s., quartin, v., ramalho, j.c. and nunes, m.a. 2003. electrolyte leakage and lipid degradation account for cold sensitivity in leaves of coffea sp. plants. j. pl. physiol., 160:283–292 elyatem, s.m. and kader, a. 1984. post-harvest physiology and storage behavior of pomegranate fruits. sci. hortic., 24:287–298 fernández-trujillo, j.p., cano, a. and artés, a. 1998. physiological changes in peaches related to chilling injury and ripening. postharvest biol. technol., 13:109–119 kumar, a., altabella, t., taylor, m.a. and tiburcio, a.f. 1997. recent advances in polyamine research. trends pl. sci., 2:124–130 macrae, e.a. 1987. development of chilling injury in new zealand grown fuyu persimmon during storage. new z. j. expt’l. agri., 15:333–344 malik, a.u. and singh, z. 2005. pre-storage application of polyamines improves shelf-life and fruit quality of mango. j. hortl. sci. biotechnol., 80:363–369 mcdonald, r.e., miller, w., mccollum, t.g. and brown, g.e. 1991. thiabendazole and imazalil applied at 53oc reduce chilling injury and decay of grapefruit. hort sci., 26:397–399 mirdehghan, s.h. and rahemi, m. 2005. effects of hot water treatment on reducing chilling injury of pomegranate (punica granatum) fruit during storage. acta hort., 682:887-892 mirdehghan, s.h., rahemi, m., martínez-romero, d., guillen, f., valverde, j.m., zapata, p.j, serrano, m. and valero, d. 2007. reduction of pomegranate chilling injury during storage after heat treatment: role of polyamines. postharvest biol. technol., 44:19– 25 mustapha, a., al-mughrabi, mohamed, a.b. and abdelsalam, o.a. 1995. effect of storage temperature and duration on fruit quality of three pomegranate cultivars. j. king saud. univ., 7:239– 248 nanda, s., rao, d.v.s. and krishnamurthy, s. 2001. effects of shrink-film wrapping and storage temperature on the shelf-life and quality of pomegranate fruits cv. ganesh. postharvest biol. technol., 22:61–69 table 4. effect of polyamines on titrable acidity (%) in pomegranate fruit stored at room temperature and low temperature treatment storage period (days) room temperature 5oc temperature 8oc temperature 0 15 30 0 15 30 45 60 75 0 15 30 45 60 75 t 1 0.36 0.36 0.36 0.36 0.32 0.31 0.30 0.30 0.29 0.36 0.34 0.33 0.33 0.32 0.30 t 2 0.36 0.40 0.39 0.36 0.37 0.36 0.35 0.35 0.33 0.36 0.36 0.35 0.34 0.33 0.32 t 3 0.36 0.51 0.50 0.36 0.36 0.36 0.35 0.35 0.34 0.36 0.70 0.36 0.35 0.34 0.34 t 4 0.36 0.56 0.55 0.36 0.37 0.40 0.39 0.39 0.38 0.36 0.43 0.42 0.41 0.40 0.35 t 5 0.36 0.37 0.36 0.36 0.36 0.35 0.34 0.34 0.33 0.36 0.30 0.35 0.34 0.30 0.32 t 6 0.36 0.46 0.45 0.36 0.41 0.36 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.36 0.36 0.36 0.35 0.34 0.31 t 0 0.36 0.61 0.58 0.36 0.42 0.41 0.40 0.40 0.39 0.36 0.38 0.37 0.36 0.36 0.36 se± — 0.008 0.008 — 0.007 0.006 0.007 0.006 0.006 — 0.007 0.007 0.007 0.007 0.003 cd at 5 % — 0.027 0.0027 — 0.02 0.02 0.022 0.02 0.02 — 0.021 0.022 0.0023 0.024 0.012 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):48-53, 2015 waskar et al 53 pérez-vicente, a., martínez-romero, d., carbonell, a., serrano, m., riquelme, f., guillén, f. and valero, d. 2002. role of polyamines in extending shelf-life and the reduction of mechanical damage during plum (prunus salicina lindl.) storage. postharvest biol. technol., 25:25–32 raganna. 1986. hand book of analysis and quality control for fruits and vegetables. p 9 serrano, m., martínez-romero, d., guillen, f. and valero, d. 2003. effects of exogenous putrescine on improving shelf-life of four plum cultivars. postharvest biol. technol., 30:259–271 smith, t.a. 1985. polyamines. annu. rev. pl. physiol., 36:117–143 valero, d., romero, d.m., serrano, m. and riquelme, f. 1998. influence of post-harvest treatment with putrescine and calcium on endogenous polyamines, firmness, and abscisic acid in lemon (citrus lemon l. burm cv. verna). j. agril. food chem., 46:2102– 2109 wild, b.l. and hood, c.w. 1989. hot dip treatments reduce chilling injury in long-term storage of ‘valencia’ oranges. hort. sci., 24:109-110 (ms received 07 march 2014, revised 24 march 2015, accepted 13 april 2015) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):48-53, 2015 effect of polyamines on storability and quality of pomegranate lime (citrus aurantifolia swingle) is one of the important fruits of citrus group, acidic in nature and excellent source of vitamin c. india produces 15.42 thousand tonnes of lime per year, raw fruit is freshly consumed and also utilized in preparation of value added products like squash, cordial, syrup, marmalade, pickle, salted lime and dried peel. however, very less work has been done on preservation of lime juice for long duration. since ancient times, ginger (zingiber officinale rosc.) has been used as a spice and medicine in india. the total production of ginger is 359 thousand tonnes during 2004-05 (anonymous, 2005). ginger can be used in ginger ale, ginger beer, dried pickle, paste and candied ginger. as lime and ginger juices are health benefitting and refreshing, the ready-to-serve juice of lime, ginger and their blends are very important. blending not only improves quality and nutrition of basic raw material, but also offers for development of newer product (nath and yadav, 2005). very little work has been done on lime and ginger rts as well as blended rts of lime and ginger. therefore, the present investigation was carried out at post-harvest laboratory of department of horticulture, i.g.k.v., raipur, during the year 2007-08. lime and ginger juices were extracted from mature well-ripened lime and fresh ginger procured from local market. healthy lime fruits and ginger rhizomes were short communication studies on effect of chemical preservatives on physico-chemical changes of beverages in lime and ginger juice with their combinations ravishankar lanjhiyana, pravin kumar sharma and n. shukla department of horticulture, college of agriculture indira gandhi agricultural university raipur, chhattisgarh – 492006, india. e-mail: fresh007-no@yahoo.com abstract the physico-chemical character of lime and ginger rts and blended rts were evaluated after addition of potassium meta-bi-sulphite (kms) and sodium benzoate stored at ambient temperature up to 150 days. lime and ginger rts preserved with kms (0.1%) retained more ascorbic acid and acidity as compared to other treatments. during storage, total soluble solids, reduction and total sugars showed an increasing trend with increasing period of storage under ambient condition in kms (0.1%) as compared to other treatments. among the various treatment rts prepared from ginger juice with kms 0.1% could be stored for extended period of time for sensory characteristics. key words: lime, ginger, potassium, meta-bi-sulphite, sodium benzoate, rts, storage selected and washed thoroughly in running tap water to remove dirt and dust particles. lime juice was extracted by lime squeezer and filtered with muslin cloth to obtain clear fruit juice free from juice vesicles. in case of ginger, after removal of the peel, rhizomes were cut into pieces with the help of knife and ground in mixer and filtered through muslin cloth to obtain fiber-less juice. after the juice extraction 10% of blended juice of lime and ginger were used for rts preparation. tss of 17% and acidity of 0.3 % were maintained by addition of calculated amount of sugar, citric acid and water for all treatments. fifteen treatments were prepared by combination of different concentration of lime juice (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%), ginger juice (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%), and chemical preservatives (sodium benzoate 0.1%, potassium meta bisulphate 0.1% and sodium benzoate 0.05% + potassium meta bisulphate 0.05%). the bottles of rts beverages were kept at ambient condition for further studies up to 150 days. stored rts were evaluated at 0, 30, 60, 90, 120 and 150 days of storage for various physico-chemical parameters analysed by using completely randomized design. stored rts were evaluated for ascorbic acid, acidity, tss, reducing sugar, non-reducing sugar, total sugar, sugar: acid ratio and sensory characteristics. tss was recorded by using hand refractometer. the ascorbic acid was determined by using 2-6 dichlorophenol-indophenol dye. the acidity per cent was analysed by titrating the fruit and j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 151-154, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 152 rhizome juice with n/10 naoh using phenolphthalein as an indicator. the reducing sugar, non reducing sugar and total sugar were also determined as per ranganna (1997). sensory evaluation of the rts beverages was done by the panel of ten judges at 30 days interval following the hedonic rating test as described by ranganna (1997). the ascorbic acid and acidity were decreased in lime and ginger rts but tss and sugar: acid ratio showed an increasing trend with increase in storage period (table 1). maximum ascorbic acid and acidity retention was observed in case of rts preserved with kms (0.1%). the loss in ascorbic acid might be attributed to the oxidation of irreversible conversion of l-ascorbic acid into dehydroascorbic acid oxidase caused by trapped or residual oxygen in the glass bottles. the decrease in acidity in rts during storage might be attributed to the chemical interaction between organic constituents of the juice induced by temperature and action of enzymes. deka (2000) and deka et al (2004) reported similar finding with lime-aonla blended rts and nath and yadav (2005b) with ginger-kinnow squash. the increase in tss in rts/ blended rts, during storage was probably due to conversion of polysaccharides, like pectin, cellulose, starch etc., into simple sugars. sugar: acid ratio in rts/ blended rts showed an increasing trend with increasing period of storage (table 2). the finding of singh et al (2005) for bael/ blended bael rts beverages are in close conformity with these results. reducing sugar and total sugar increased with the increase in storage period in lime and ginger rts/ blended table 1. effect of different preservatives on ascorbic acid (mg/100ml) of stored lime and ginger rts/ blended rts beverages treatments storage period (in days) 0 30 60 90 120 150 t 1 27.63 27.53 25.30 20.30 10.50 9.50 t 2 27.50 25.16 22.41 18.23 8.43 6.43 t 3 27.60 25.85 24.46 19.23 9.43 7.96 t 4 3.25 3.21 2.30 1.46 1.15 1.03 t 5 3.13 2.58 2.20 1.16 0.95 0.89 t 6 3.16 2.86 2.23 1.36 1.00 0.93 t 7 26.50 26.33 24.30 18.36 9.43 8.86 t 8 26.13 25.43 22.35 15.36 7.56 6.46 t 9 26.36 26.06 24.25 17.36 9.10 8.43 t 1 0 25.36 25.30 23.21 17.36 9.30 8.76 t 1 1 25.33 25.10 22.26 15.46 8.03 7.06 t 1 2 25.40 25.26 23.16 16.70 9.16 8.50 t 1 3 27.36 27.10 25.05 17.36 10.36 9.50 t 1 4 27.20 25.06 22.10 14.60 7.50 6.43 t 1 5 27.30 25.76 24.36 17.26 9.36 8.60 sem ± 0.07 0.12 0.16 0.13 0.12 0.14 cd(p=0.05) 0.19 0.32 0.46 0.36 0.31 0.39 notation detailst 1 lime juice + kms 0.1% t 2 lime juice + sb 0.1% t 3 lime juice + kms 0.05% + sb 0.05% t 4 ginger juice + kms 0.1% t 5 ginger juice + sb 0.1 t 6 ginger juice + kms 0.05% +sb 0.05% t 7 lime juice 50% + ginger juice 50% + kms 0.1% t 8 lime juice 50% + ginger juice 50% sb 0.1% t 9 lime juice 50% + ginger juice 50% + kms 0.05% + sb 0.05% t 10 lime juice 75% + ginger juice 25% + kms 0.1% t 11 lime juice 75% + ginger juice 25% + kms 0.1% t 12 lime juice 75% + ginger juice 25% + kms 0.05% + sb 0.05% t 13 lime juice 25% + ginger juice 75% + kms 0.1% t 14 lime juice 25% + ginger juice 75% + kms 0.1% t 15 lime juice 25% + ginger juice 75% + kms 0.05% + sb 0.05% table 2. effect of different preservatives on tss (%), acidity (%) and sugar: acid ratio of stored lime and ginger rts/ blended rts treatment tss (%) acidity (%) sugar: acid ratio storage period (in days) storage period (in days) storage period (in days) 0 30 60 90 120 150 0 30 60 90 120 150 0 30 60 90 120 150 t 1 17.00 17.33 17.33 17.47 17.54 17.60 0.30 0.29 0.28 0.26 0.24 0.22 56.60 59.31 61.89 67.19 73.08 80.00 t 2 17.00 17.20 17.30 17.38 17.47 17.56 0.30 0.29 0.26 0.22 0.20 0.16 56.60 59.31 66.53 79.00 87.35 109.75 t 3 17.00 17.20 17.31 17.40 17.48 17.58 0.30 0.28 0.27 0.24 0.22 0.17 56.60 61.42 64.11 72.50 79.45 103.41 t 4 17.00 17.10 17.14 17.21 17.30 17.34 0.30 0.29 0.29 0.28 0.26 0.24 56.60 58.96 59.00 61.46 66.53 75.25 t 5 17.00 17.10 17.12 17.21 17.25 17.30 0.30 0.29 0.28 0.28 0.26 0.22 56.60 58.96 61.14 61.46 66.34 78.36 t 6 17.00 17.10 17.12 17.20 17.29 17.33 0.30 0.29 0.29 0.28 0.26 0.23 56.60 58.96 59.03 61.42 66.50 75.34 t 7 17.00 17.20 17.34 17.38 17.45 17.52 0.30 0.29 0.28 0.27 0.25 0.22 56.60 59.31 61.92 64.37 69.80 79.63 t 8 17.00 17.20 17.30 17.38 17.38 17.45 0.30 0.29 0.27 0.25 0.23 0.18 56.60 59.31 64.07 69.52 75.56 96.94 t 9 17.00 17.20 17.31 17.32 17.43 17.48 0.30 0.28 0.27 0.26 0.24 0.19 56.60 61.42 64.11 66.61 72.02 92.00 t 1 0 17.00 17.20 17.34 17.46 17.54 17.56 0.30 0.28 0.27 0.26 0.24 0.20 56.60 61.42 64.22 67.15 73.08 87.80 t 1 1 17.00 17.20 17.30 17.39 17.47 17.54 0.30 0.27 0.25 0.23 0.21 0.17 56.60 63.70 69.20 75.60 83.19 103.17 t 1 2 17.00 17.20 17.31 17.42 17.50 17.55 0.30 0.29 0.27 0.26 0.24 0.22 56.60 59.31 64.11 66.96 72.19 87.75 t 1 3 17.00 17.20 17.34 17.42 17.50 17.56 0.30 0.29 0.28 0.27 0.25 0.22 56.60 59.31 61.92 64.51 70.00 79.81 t 1 4 17.00 17.20 17.31 17.33 17.40 17.50 0.30 0.27 0.25 0.23 0.21 0.17 56.60 63.70 61.92 75.34 82.85 102.94 t 1 5 17.00 17.20 17.30 17.42 17.47 17.52 0.30 0.28 0.27 0.25 0.23 0.21 56.60 61.42 69.24 69.68 75.95 83.42 sem ± 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.15 0.09 0.15 0.26 cd 0.16 0.16 0.15 0.15 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.04 0.43 0.26 0.44 0.77 (p=0.05) j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 151-154, 2010 ravishankar lanjhiyana et al prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 153 table 3. effect of different preservatives on reducing sugar (%), non reducing sugar (%) and total sugar (%) of stored lime and ginger rts/ blended rts treatment reducing sugar (%) non-reducing sugar (%) total sugar (%) storage period (in days) storage period (in days) storage period (in days) 0 30 60 90 120 150 0 30 60 90 120 150 0 30 60 90 120 150 t 1 6.62 6.79 6.96 7.13 7.28 7.45 1.36 1.30 1.20 1.14 1.08 1.02 7.98 8.09 8.16 8.27 8.36 8.47 t 2 6.62 6.74 6.84 6.95 7.13 7.25 1.36 1.25 1.16 1.07 0.90 0.80 7.98 7.99 8.00 8.01 8.03 8.05 t 3 6.62 6.77 6.92 7.07 7.22 7.37 1.36 1.27 1.18 1.10 0.93 0.86 7.98 8.03 8.05 8.10 8.15 8.20 t 4 6.11 6.28 6.45 6.62 6.79 6.96 1.12 1.06 1.00 0.94 0.88 0.82 7.23 7.34 7.45 7.56 7.67 7.78 t 5 6.11 6.24 6.36 6.49 6.61 6.73 1.12 1.00 0.90 0.79 0.69 0.59 7.23 7.24 7.26 7.28 7.30 7.32 t 6 6.11 6.26 6.41 6.56 6.70 6.85 1.12 1.02 0.92 0.82 0.72 0.62 7.23 7.28 7.33 7.38 7.42 7.47 t 7 6.50 6.67 6.84 7.01 7.18 7.35 1.24 1.18 1.12 1.06 1.00 0.94 7.74 7.85 7.96 8.07 8.18 8.29 t 8 6.50 6.60 6.75 6.88 7.02 7.14 1.24 1.15 1.02 0.91 0.79 0.68 7.74 7.75 7.77 7.79 7.81 7.83 t 9 6.50 6.65 6.80 6.95 7.07 7.20 1.24 1.14 1.04 0.94 0.84 0.73 7.74 7.79 7.84 7.89 7.91 7.93 t 1 0 6.37 6.54 6.71 6.88 7.05 7.21 1.30 1.24 1.18 1.12 1.05 0.98 7.67 7.78 7.89 8.00 8.10 8.19 t 1 1 6.37 6.50 6.64 6.75 6.90 6.97 1.30 1.18 1.07 0.97 0.85 0.77 7.67 7.68 7.70 7.72 7.74 7.75 t 1 2 6.37 6.52 6.67 6.82 6.97 7.12 1.30 1.20 1.10 1.00 0.90 0.81 7.67 7.72 7.77 7.82 7.87 7.93 t 1 3 6.23 6.40 6.57 6.74 6.92 7.09 1.18 1.12 1.06 1.00 0.93 0.86 7.41 7.52 7.63 7.74 7.85 7.95 t 1 4 6.23 6.33 6.48 6.63 6.80 6.94 1.18 1.10 0.98 0.84 0.70 0.58 7.41 7.43 7.46 7.48 7.50 7.52 t15 6.23 6.38 6.53 6.68 6.84 6.98 1.18 1.08 0.98 0.88 0.78 0.67 7.41 7.46 7.51 7.56 7.62 7.65 sem ± 0.07 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.09 0.09 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.03 cd 0.19 0.04 0.04 0.06 0.27 0.26 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.04 0.04 0.04 0.06 0.06 0.06 0.05 0.09 (p=0.05) table 4. effect of different preservatives on overall acceptability scores of stored lime and ginger rts/ blended rts treatments overall acceptability storage period (in days) 0 30 60 90 120 150 t 1 8.0 7.7 7.5 7.4 7.2 6.6 t 2 8.0 7.6 7.4 7.3 7.0 5.2 t 3 8.0 7.8 7.6 7.5 7.2 6.2 t 4 8.6 8.4 8.3 8.2 7.4 6.8 t 5 8.6 8.4 8.2 8.1 6.2 5.4 t 6 8.4 8.2 7.9 7.7 7.0 6.4 t 7 7.8 7.5 7.3 7.2 6.8 6.4 t 8 7.8 7.5 7.3 7.1 5.4 5.0 t 9 7.7 7.4 7.2 6.9 6.6 6.0 t 1 0 8.4 8.0 7.6 7.3 7.0 6.4 t 1 1 8.3 8.0 7.4 7.1 5.8 5.2 t 1 2 8.1 7.7 7.5 7.2 6.8 6.4 t 1 3 8.2 7.8 7.4 7.1 6.8 6.4 t 1 4 8.1 7.7 7.3 6.9 5.6 5.2 t 1 5 8.2 7.7 7.4 7.0 6.4 6.0 rts but, non-reducing sugar decreased with increase in storage period (table 3). maximum change in sugar content in lime and ginger rts/ blended rts, was observed in rts preserved with (kms 0.1%) whereas, minimum change was recorded with rts preserved with (sb 0.1%). the increase in reducing sugar as well as total sugar were related to the increase in total soluble solids and ultimate decrease in nonreducing sugar in the beverage during storage period. the variation in different fraction of sugar might be due to hydrolysis of polysaccharides like starch, pectin and inversion of non-reducing sugar into reducing. the increase level of total sugar was probably also due to conversion of starch and pectin into simple sugar. the similar findings reported by deka (2000) and deka et al (2004) for lime-aonla blended rts and tiwari (2000) for rts beverages prepared from guava-papaya. the organoleptic score reflects the acceptability of the produce to the consumer. the rts/blended rts showed decrease in overall acceptability score with increasing storage period up to 150 days under ambient condition (table 4). the treatment t 4 (ginger juice 100% + kms 0.1%) had a highest overall acceptability score followed by the t 6 (ginger juice 100% + kms 0.05% + sb 0.05%) and t 5 (ginger juice 100% + sb 0.1%). however, the rts of treatment t 9 (lime juice 50% + ginger juice 50% + sb 0.05%) and t 8 (lime juice 50% + ginger juice 50% + sb 0.1%) were least acceptable by the evaluators. references: anonymous, 2005. national horticulture board. ministry of agriculture, gurgaon, haryana http:// www.nhb.com/area lime and production overview 2.html deka, b.c. 2000. preparation and storage of mixed fruit juice spiced beverages. ph.d. thesis, iari, new delhi deka, b.c., sethi, v., suneja, p. and sriastava, v.k.2004. physico-chemical changes of lime-aonla spiced j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 151-154, 2010 effect of chemical preservatives in rts beverages prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 154 beverage during storage. j. food sci. tech., 41 : 329-332 jain, s.p., tripathi, v.k. and ram, h.b. 1984. studies on storage behavior of orange, lemon and bael squashes. indian food packer, 38 :33-32 nath, a. and yadav, d.s. 2005a . standardization of ginger – kinnow, a blended beverage from kinnow mandarin juice. j. food sci. tech., 42 :520-522 nath, a. and yadav, d.s. 2005b. standardization of ginger – kinnow, a blended beverage from kinnow mandarin juice. indian j. citriculture, 189-192 palaniswamy, k.p. and muthukrishnan, c.r. 1974. studies on the physico-chemical characters of lemon juices and squashes during storage. indian food packer, 28 : 37-40 ranganna, s. 1997. handbook of analysis and quality control for fruit and vegetable products. tata mcgraw hill publishing co. ltd., new delhi singh s., godara r.k., saini, r.s. and sharma, j.r. 2005. standardization of processing technology for bael/ blended bael (aegle marmelos) ready-to-serve beverages. haryana j. hort. sci., 34 : 263-265. tiwari, r.b. 2000. studies on guava and papaya pulp for rts beverage. indian food packer, 68-72 (ms received 31 may 2010, revised 26 october 2010) j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 151-154, 2010 ravishankar lanjhiyana et al prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no effect of sprigging density and foliar nitrogen on the growth of bermuda grass (cynodon dactylon l. pers. x cynodon transvaalensis) d. dhanasekaran department of horticulture, faculty of agriculture, annamalai university, annamalai nagar, tamil naduindia-608002 email:dhansflora@rediffmail.com abstract turf grasses have been utilized by humans to enhance their environment for more than 10 centuries. aesthetically, lawns enhance the quality of life, contribute to social harmony and community pride, increase property values and compliment other landscape plants. the beauty of any garden largely depends on the greenness of the lawn. the first and foremost criteria for a well establishment and a satisfactory lawn are selection of suitable grass species and methods of its establishment. hence, an experiment was laid out to study the effect of different sprigging density and foliar nitrogen on the growth and establishment of bermuda grass (cynodon dactylon l. pers. x cynodon transvaalensis) in floriculture unit of the department of horticulture, faculty of agriculture, annamalai university, tamil nadu during the year 2013-2015. bermuda grass sprigs were planted in different spacing levels and foliar spray of urea with twelve treatment combinations comprising of different levels viz., 10 x 10 cm with 1%, 1.5% and 2%; 15 x 15 cm with 1%, 1.5% and 2%; 20 x 20 cm with 1%, 1.5% and 2%; 25 x 25 cm with 1%, 1.5% and 2%, in factorial randomized block design with three replications. from the results, it was found that the earliest spread and ground cover were observed in planting sprigs at closer spacing of 10 x 10 cm in combination with foliar application of nitrogen in the form of urea as 2 % for two times at seven and fifteen days after planting. keywords : bermuda grass, spacing, foliar nutrition introduction a lawn is more than just a patch of grasses which under proper planting and aftercare can be proved as a beauty spot. it is one of the important features of landscape garden. lawn is an inevitable component in gardens as because it serves as an important aid to beauty for the landscapes. the beauty of any garden largely depends on the greenness of the lawn. the success of a lawn largely depends on the selection of right type of grasses suitable to the climatic and soil conditions, besides appropriate cultural practices and management skills. the first and foremost criteria for a well establishment and a satisfactory lawn are selection of suitable grass species and methods of its establishment. a proper planting method ensures good ground cover in a short span of time. hence, selection of appropriate method suitable for selected grass species is of greater importance in establishment of lawn. however, establishment is made based on the growth pattern of grass species. since, bermuda grass is a stoloniferous type of grass, the spread and ground cover is more rapid. the faster spread is largely depends on the distance between sprigs planted. on the other hand, nutrition played a major role in establishment and greenness of lawn. nitrogen is an essential element for all living things and the mineral element needed in larger quantities for lawn grasses. although nitrogen fertilization is essential for healthy lawn, the quantity and method of application determines the growth rate of lawn grasses. it is evident that foliar spray of nitrogen showed better results (baldwin et al., 2009). foliar spray of urea is not so easier due to the scorching effect of leaf lamina of lawn if the dosage is increased even to micro level. hence standardizing the dosage of application of urea as foliar spray to bermuda grass is a timely need for many landscapers. hence, an experiment was formulated to study the effect of different spacing levels and foliar nitrogen on the growth and establishment of bermuda grass. j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 172-177, 2018 172 original research paper 173 sprigging density of bermuda grass j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 172-177, 2018 material and methods bermuda grass springs were planted at four different spacing levels viz., 10 x 10 cm, 15 x 15 cm, 20 x 20 cm and 25 x 25 cm and foliar spray of urea (7 and 15 days after planting) with urea as nitrogen sources @ 1%, 1.5% and 2% in the floriculture unit of the depa r tment of horticulture, faculty of agriculture, annamalai university, annamalai nagar, tamil na du dur ing 2015. the experiment wa s conducted with 12 treatment combinations in factorial r a ndomized block design (frbd) a nd thr ee replication. observations were recorded during 15, 30, 45 and 60 days after planting for percent ground cover, number of runner, length of runner and shoot density, root length, shoot length, root / shoot ratio, leaf area and number of leaves per clipped shoot at 60 days after planting. the data were statistically analyzed by using panse and sukhatme (1978). results and discussion significant differences were noticed among the treatments (table 1). among the spacing levels, maximum ground cover percentage was observed in closest spacing s4 (8.68 %, 84.23%, 96.75 % and 98.61 % at 15, 30, 45 and 60 days after planting respectively. the least ground cover percentage was recorded in wider spacing s1 (51.56 %, 74.46 %, 85.16 % and 86.12 % at 15, 30, 45 and 60 days after planting respectively. among the various nitrogen levels, maximum ground cover percentage was recorded in the n3 (55.36 %, 79.59 %, 91.52 %, and 92.67 % in 15, 30, 45 and 60 dap respectively. the least values was recorded in n1 (52.82 %, 76.03 %, 87.05 % and 88.12 % in 15, 30, 45 and 60 dap respectively. the data on interaction of spacing x nitrogen showed that maximum ground cover per cent was recorded in s4n2 (60.07 %, 86,26 %, 99.15 % and 101.21 %) and the least ground cover per cent was recorded in s1n1 (49.94 %, 72.05 %, 82.35 % and 83.01 % in 15, 30,45 and 60 dap respectively. this might be due to the fact that the formation of stolon above the soil is quite rapid in closer spacing (10 x 10 cm) which expands and spreads the empty spaces with more number of runner and increased density of the shoot leading to quick coverage of areas in this treatment which ensured the highest ground cover per cent in addition to the impact of foliar nitrogen. this might be due to the absorption of nitrogen through leaves in ionic form and translocation in plants without any loss and significant increase in the above characters. this is in accordance with the findings of deleuran et al (2009) in perennial rye grass; stiglbauer et al. (2009) in zoysia grass, han et al. (2013) in brome grass, david et al. (2003) guertal and evans (2006) in bermuda grass. maximum number of runners was observed in medium spacing s4 (10.08, 14.13, 19.25 and 26.88 in 15, 30, 45 and 60 dap respectively. however, lowest number of runners was recorded in wider spacing s1 (5.35, 9.58, 15.26 and 21.07 in 15, 30, 45 and 60 dap respectively among the spacing levels. among the various nitrogen levels, maximum number of runners was recorded in n3 (8.37, 12.46, 17.7 and 24.7 in 15, 30, 45 and 60 dap respectively). the least values was recorded in n1(6.81,11.08,16.62 and 22.96 in 15, 30, 45 and 60 dap respectively). the data on interaction of spacing x nitrogen showed that maximum number of runners was recorded in s4n3 (11.20, 15.31, 20.08 and 28.12 in 15, 30, 45 and 60 dap respectively). however, least number of runners was recorded in s1n1 (4.56, 8.91, 14.75 and 20.16) at 15, 30, 45 and 60 dap respectively. the data on length of runners showed significant variations among the treatments. among the spacing levels, the longest runner was noticed under wider spacing s1 (7.13 cm, 14.85 cm, 17.04 cm and 20.22 cm) at 15, 30, 45 and 60 dap respectively. the least values were recorded in closest spacing s4 (4.76 cm, 13.06 cm, 15.44 cm and 18.70 cm at 15, 30, 45 and 60 dap respectively. among the various nitrogen levels, lengthy runner was recorded under n3 (7.96 cm, 16.20 cm, 18.30 cm and 21.02 cm) at 15, 30, 45 and 60 dap respectively. however, the shortest runner was noticed under n1 with 3.94 cm, 11.93 cm, 14.39 cm and 18.47 cm at 15, 30, 45 and 60 dap respectively. the data on interaction of spacing x nitrogen showed that, maximum length of runner was recorded in s1n3 (9.20 cm, 17.50 cm, 19.50 cm a nd 21. 80 cm a t 15, 30, 45 a nd 60 dap respectively). however, the shortest runner was recorded in s4n1 (2.55 cm, 10.85 cm, 13.41 cm and 17.81 cm in 15, 30, 45 and 60 dap respectively). this might be due to the fact that enough space available for the runners to grow due to less competition of nutrients which in turn produced maximum length of runners. further, each node produced a considerable amount of root which adhered to the soil and involved in the uptake of nutrients. this might be the reason for the enhancement in the length of runners in this treatment. similar results were also observed by wijitphan et al. (2009) in napier grass and deleuran et al (2010) in festuca grass. 174 dhanasekaran var ious levels of spacing had significa nt differences in the shoot and root length (table.2). among them, medium spacing (s3) recorded highest shoot length of 11.19 cm and root length of 7.84 cm. the lowest shoot and root length was recorded in wider spacing s1(6.60 cm and 6.45 cm) respectively. among the nitrogen levels, maximum shoot length (10.90 cm) was recorded in n3. similarly, the same treatment n3 recorded for the maximum root length (7.87 cm). the lowest shoot length (6.46 cm) and root length (6.33 cm) was recorded in n1. interaction effect of spacing and nitrogen also had significant effect on shoot and root length. maximum shoot length (13.76 cm) and root length (8.70 cm) was recorded in s3n3. however, lowest length of shoot and root was recorded under s1n 1 with 4. 80 cm a nd 5. 69 cm respectively. maximum values in the medium spaced treatment and optimum dosage of nitrogen showed positive influence due to the role in cell division as well as protein synthesis. bowmann et al.(2002) and boyer et al.(2014) reported favourable effects on length of runners in bermuda grass; bilgilli and acikgoz (2005) for shoot length in kentenky blue grass and totten et al.(2007) for root length in creeping bent grass with the increased dose of nitrogen. the data pertaining to root/shoot ratio showed that, s2 and s3 recorded the highest value (0.26) and both was on par with each other. the lowest value was recorded in s1 and s4 with 0.24. however, under various nitrogen levels, the highest root shoot ratio was recorded in n3 (0.27). the lowest value was noticed in n1(0.23). maximum root/shoot ratio (0.29) was observed in s3n3 and the lowest root/shoot ratio (0.22) was recorded in s1n1 in the interaction effect of spacing and nitrogen. maximum shoot density was noticed in closest spacing s4 (1244.63 m2) and the lowest density was recorded in s 1 (828.38 m2) observed under spacing levels. similarly, the treatment n3 recorded the maximum shoot density (1140.55 m2) and the lowest value was noticed in n1 (901.52 m2). however, in the interaction effect, maximum values was obtained in s4n3 (1404.00 m2) and minimum density was noticed in s1n1 (732.76 m2). the shoot density progressively increased with the increment in n levels and recorded maximum in 2% urea spray. this might be due to the absorption of nitrogen through leaves in ionic form and translocation in plants without any loss. this might have induced higher metabolic activity and significant increase in the shoot density. the results of johnson et al.(1987); white (1987); rodriguez et al.(2001);kopp et al.(2002); david et al.(2003); guertal and evans (2006) in bermuda grass and ledeboer and skogley (1973) in lolium perenne; fry and dernoedon (1987); carroll et al (1996) in zoysia japonica are in consonance with the results of this experiment. maximum leaf area of 0.59 cm2 and 0.53 cm2 was noticed in s4 and n3 among the spacing levels and nitrogen levels respectively. however, minimum values of 0.39 cm2 and 0.41 cm2 was observed under s2 and n1 at spacing and nitrogen levels respectively. in the interaction of spacing x nitrogen, maximum leaf area was recorded in s4n3 with 0.67 cm 2 and minimum value was noticed in s2n1 with 0.28 cm 2. application of various levels of spacing on number of clipped shoot recorded maximum values in s4 (12.34) and minimum va lue wa s r ecor ded under s 1 with 8.24.among the nitrogen levels, maximum number of leaves per clipped shoot is observed in n3 (12.13) and minimum value was recorded in n1 (8.18). the data on interaction of spacing x nitrogen showed maximum values in the treatment s4n3 with 14.50 and minimum values in s2n1 with 6.53. the increased leaf area and number of clipped shoot in closest spacing treatment might be because of the rapid growth and production of more number of leaves and the sprigs produced lengthy stolen in the treatment. interestingly, the data on maximum leaf area (0.67 cm2) and more number of leaves (14.50) was recorded in the treatment s4n3 (10 x 10 cm and 2 % urea). this may be due to the fact that the closely planted sprigs attributed for maximum shoot density which ensured the highest ground cover per cent in a ddition to the impa ct of foliar nitrogen. the application of foliar nitrogen rapidly increased the absorption mechanism and might have enhanced the photosynthetic rate. these results corroborate the findings of guertal and evans (2006) in bermuda grass and razmjoo and kaneko (1993) in perennial rye grass; razmjoo et al.(1996) in creeping bent grass and zhao et al.(2008) in tall fescue grass. from the above results, it was clearly evident that early ground cover, number if runners, leaf area, number of leaves are the positive characters of a good quality lawn which is exhibited by the treatment s4n3 (10 x 10 cm spacing and 2% foliar spray of urea) established through sprigging method. even though the treatment s3n3 exhibited maximum values for shoot length, root length and root shoot ratio, more considerations were given for the visual quality which attributed through per cent ground cover, shoot density, number of runners, leaf area and number of leaves per clipped shoot. hence, it could be concluded that the best quality of bermuda grass turf can be established at the earliest duration by planting sprigs at closer spacing of 10 x 10 cm in combination with foliar application of nitrogen in the form of urea as 2 % spray for two times at seven and fifteen days after planting. j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 172-177, 2018 175 per cent ground cover (%) number of runners length of runners (cm) treatment 15 30 45 60 15 30 45 60 15 30 45 60 dap dap dap dap dap dap dap dap dap dap dap dap s1n1 49.94 72.05 82.35 83.01 4.56 8.91 14.75 20.16 5.28 12.32 14.72 18.70 s1n2 50.04 73.50 83.97 84.91 5.29 9.49 15.23 20.97 6.92 14.74 16.90 20.16 s1n3 54.06 77.85 89.16 90.46 6.21 10.36 15.82 22.09 9.20 17.50 19.50 21.80 s2n1 51.04 73.79 84.36 85.26 5.48 9.78 15.50 21.28 4.45 12.75 15.15 18.95 s2n2 52.53 75.82 86.76 87.86 6.40 10.65 16.25 22.40 7.11 15.35 17.33 20.41 s2n3 51.43 74.08 84.75 85.61 7.32 11.52 17.00 23.52 8.06 16.55 18.63 21.23 s3n1 52.92 76.11 87.15 88.26 9.16 13.26 18.50 25.76 3.50 11.08 14.28 18.44 s3n2 58.58 84.28 96.75 98.61 10.08 14.13 19.25 26.88 7.30 15.60 17.76 20.66 s3n3 55.90 80.17 91.95 93.41 8.97 12.97 18.23 25.45 8.25 16.12 18.20 20.98 s4n1 57.39 82.20 94.35 96.01 8.05 12.39 17.75 24.64 2.55 10.85 13.41 17.81 s4n2 54.41 78.14 89.55 90.81 8.24 12.10 17.48 24.33 5.40 13.70 16.02 18.20 s4n3 60.07 86.26 99.15 101.21 11.20 15.31 20.08 28.12 6.35 14.65 16.89 20.09 sed 1.10 0.99 1.05 1.09 0.60 0.56 o.60 0.26 0.49 0.43 0.31 0.44 cd 2.28 2.05 2.18 2.26 1.26 1.18 1.25 0.55 1.02 0.89 0.65 0.93 (p=0.05) s mean s1 51.56 74.46 85.16 86.12 5.35 9.58 15.26 21.07 7.13 14.85 17.04 20.22 s2 51.66 74.56 85.29 86.24 6.40 10.65 16.25 22.40 6.54 14.88 17.03 20.19 s3 54.41 78.14 89.55 90.81 8.42 12.48 17.82 24.80 6.35 14.50 16.74 20.02 s4 58.68 84.23 96.75 98.61 10.08 14.13 19.25 26.88 4.76 13.06 15.44 18.70 sed 0.63 0.57 0.61 0.63 0.34 0.32 0.34 0.15 0.28 0.24 0.18 0.26 cd 1.32 1.18 1.26 1.30 0.72 0.68 0.72 0.31 0.59 0.51 0.37 0.53 (p=0.05) n mean n1 52.82 76.03 87.05 88.12 6.81 11.08 16.62 22.96 3.94 11.93 14.39 18.47 n2 54.41 77.92 89.25 90.54 7.50 11.59 17.05 23.64 6.68 14.84 17.00 19.85 n3 55.36 79.59 91.52 92.67 8.37 12.46 17.70 24.7 7.96 16.20 18.30 21.02 sed 0.55 0.49 0.52 0.54 0.30 0.28 0.30 0.13 0.24 0.21 0.15 0.22 cd 1.14 1.02 1.09 1.13 0.62 0.58 0.62 0.27 0.51 0.44 0.32 0.46 (p=0.05) table 1. effect of spacing and foliar nitrogen of bermuda grass (cynodon dactylon l. pers. x cynodon transvaalensis) sprigging density of bermuda grass j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 172-177, 2018 176 shoot length root length root/shoot shoot density leaf area number of treatment (cm) (cm) ratio (m2) (cm2) leaves per clipped shoot s1n1 4.80 5.69 0.22 732.76 0.39 6.94 s1n2 6.26 6.62 0.25 828.38 0.43 8.02 s1n3 8.55 7.05 0.26 924.00 0.40 9.77 s2n1 5.01 6.12 0.23 734.66 0.28 6.53 s2n2 7.51 7.12 0.27 830.28 0.36 8.69 s2n3 9.01 8.27 0.28 925.90 0.55 11.26 s3n1 7.30 6.98 0.24 1021.52 0.47 9.10 s3n2 12.51 7.84 0.26 1308.30 0.63 13.42 s3n3 13.76 8.70 0.29 1115.24 0.52 13.01 s4n1 8.76 6.55 0.24 1117.14 0.51 10.18 s4n2 11.26 7.41 0.25 1212.76 0.59 12.34 s4n3 12.30 7.48 0.25 1404.00 0.67 14.50 sed 0.47 0.43 0.16 1.51 0.10 0.78 cd 0.98 0.89 0.03 3.14 0.21 1.61 (p=0.05) s mean s1 6.60 6.45 0.24 828.38 0.40 8.24 s2 7.10 7.17 0.26 830.28 0.39 8.82 s3 11.19 7.84 0.26 1148.35 0.54 11.84 s4 10.77 7.48 0.24 1244.63 0.59 12.34 sed 0.27 0.24 0.009 0.87 0.59 0.45 cd 0.56 0.51 0.019 1.81 0.12 0.93 (p=0.05) n mean n1 6.46 6.33 0.23 901.52 0.41 8.18 n2 9.38 7.24 0.25 996.66 0.50 10.61 n3 10.90 7.87 0.27 1140.55 0.53 12.13 sed 0.23 0.21 0.008 0.75 0.05 0.39 cd 0.49 0.44 0.017 1.57 0.10 0.80 (p=0.05) table 2. effect of spacing and foliar nitrogen of bermuda grass (cynodon dactylon 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(ms received 25 november 2018, revised 01 december 2018, accepted 27 december 2018) sprigging density of bermuda grass j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 172-177, 2018 introduction guava (psidium guajava l.) is an important tropical and commercial fruit rich in dietary fibre, calcium, phosphorus and iron. the fruits are used for table and processing purposes (rathore, 1976). guava bears crop two to three times a year. the economic returns are also higher with few inputs. judicious management is required to produce a profitable crop and that includes optimum fertilization of the orchard. else, fruiting, yield and fruit quality are all affected adversely. nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, being the essential major elements, are required by plants in relatively large quantities for building their infrastructure. these are especially responsible for maximising physiological activities of the plant and for plant, water and soil relationships, which ultimately affect fruiting and quality until the fruits attain physiological maturity (nijjer, 1996). requirement for nutrients and their absorption by the plant vary with the cultivar, apart from physical and chemical composition of the soil and availability of nutrients. in recent years, efforts have been made to widen the genetic base of guava by developing new varieties. a new selection of guava has been made at g.b.p.u.a &t., pantnagar and named pant prabhat (tiwari et al, 2003). in view of the role of major elements in optimum fruiting and quality, a fertilizer trial was laid out with cv. pant prabhat to work effect of n, p & k on fruiting, yield and fruit quality in guava cv. pant prabhat pankaj kumar, j. p. tiwari and raj kumar department of horticulture, g.b.p.u.a &t pantnagar 246 123, india e-mail: pundeerpankaj@indiatimes.com abstract response of various combinations of npk on fruiting, yield and fruit quality were studied in guava cv. pant prabhat in a field experiment, over two years. treatments comprised of three different levels of nitrogen (0, 75 and 150g/plant/year), phosphorus (0, 50 and 100g p 2 o 5 /plant/year) and potassium (0, 75 and 150g k 2 o/plant/ year) in all the possible 27 combinations. treatments with higher nitrogen level attained maximum yield and fruiting compared to treatments with lower nitrogen levels, in combination with phosphorus and potassium. maximum yield of 69.64, 60.72 kg/plant and 22.66, 26.35 kg/plant, and, fruit set of 73.23%, 75.07%, 34.73% and 35.65% were recorded with 150g n, 50g p 2 o 5 and 75g k 2 o/plant/year in the rainy and winter seasons in both years, respectively, while treatment combinations with high potassium level recorded higher ascorbic acid and sugar content in the fruit. key words: guava, fertilization, npk, ‘pant prabhat’ out ideal n p k levels for maximizing economic returns. material and methods the experiment was carried out at the horticulture research centre, patherchatta, g.b. pant university of agriculture & technology, pantnagar, during 2004 2006 on five year old guava plants of cv. pant prabhat. all the plants were subjected to standard cultural practices except for fertilization. the orchard soil is derivative from calcarious alluvial soil with sandy-loam texture at ph 7.6 and the available n, p 2 o 5 and k 2 o were 276, 30.24 and 136.92 kg/ha, respectively. experimental treatments comprised of 27 treatment combinations of n (0, 75 and 150g plant/year), p (0, 50 and 100g plant/year) and k (0, 75 and 150g plant/year) and laid were out in a randomized block design, replicated thrice having two trees as a treatment unit. half dose of nitrogen as urea and full doses of phosphorus as single super phosphate, and, potassium as muriate of potash, were given in the first week of may. the remaining dose of nitrogen was applied in the first week of december in both the years. observations on yield per tree (in kg) were worked out by average fruit weight of ten fruits and multiplied by the total number of fruit. fruiting parameters recorded were per cent fruit set, fruit drop and fruit retention, by selecting four branches randomly from all directions of a tree for the rainy and winter season crops during both the years. ascorbic acid, total sugars, reducing j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 43-47, 2008 page 43 44 sugar and non-reducing sugars in the fruit pulp were estimated by the method of lane and eyon (ranganna, 1986) and the results were analysed statistically. results and discussion fruiting and yield : maximum fruit set of 73.23%, 75.07% and 34.73%, 35.65% was recorded with 150g n, 50g p 2 o 5 and 75 g k 2 o in the rainy and winter season in both years, respectively (table 1). fruit drop percentage of 70.21 and 39.85 in rainy and winter seasons during 2004-05, and, 69.99 and 39.10 during 2005-06, were found to be maximum with 0g n, 0g p 2 o 5 and 0 g k 2 o and 0g n, 0g p 2 o 5 and 75 g k 2 o, respectively (table 1). minimum fruit drop percentage was recorded with 150g n, 100g p 2 o 5 and 0 g k 2 o in both the seasons during both years. the combination of npk achieved significant fruit retention percentage in 2004-05 and 2005-06. treatments with 150g n, 100g p 2 o 5 and 0 g k 2 o, and, 150g n, 50g p 2 o 5 and 150 g k 2 o exhibited maximum fruit retention of 43.25%, 73.09%, and, 47.15%, 73.15% in rainy and winter seasons, respectively, during the years of study (table 2). in general, treatments having higher nitrogen dose reported higher fruit set and yield. during both the years maximum yield of 69.64, 60.72 kg/plant (rainy season) and 22.66, 26.35 kg/ plant (winter season) was recorded with 150g n, 50g p 2 o 5 and 75 g k 2 o/plant/ year. significant improvement in the number of fruits that set per shoot, and yield, by applying different levels of nitrogen to guava cv. sardar was also recorded by tasser et al (1989) and best results were observed with 400g n dose. similar findings on fruit set and fruit drop percentage in sapota were observed by singh et al (2003), where, per cent fruit set increased and fruit drop decreased significantly with increasing levels of nitrogen. chemical attributes: treatment with 150g n, 50g p 2 o 5 and 150 g k 2 o was observed to induce maximum ascorbic acid content (169.67 mg/ 100 mg of pulp) during the rainy season of 2004-05, while, in the winter season 150g n, 0g p 2 o 5 and 150 g k 2 o was observed to induce maximum ascorbic acid content (276.63 mg/100 mg of pulp). during 2005-06, maximum fruit ascorbic acid content was recorded in rainy season with 150g n, 100g p 2 o 5 and 150 g k 2 o, and, in the winter season with 150g n, 50g p 2 o 5 and 150 g table 1. effect of npk dose on fruit set and fruit drop in guava treatment fruit set (%) fruit drop (%) combination 2004-05 2005-06 2004-05 2005-06 rainy season winter rainy season winter rainy season winter rainy season winter n 0 p 0 k 0 45.48 18.38 52.96 19.39 67.14 37.38 59.48 33.27 n 0 p 0 k 1 53.95 20.21 48.74 19.78 68.18 38.36 69.99 39.10 n 0 p 0 k 2 57.52 21.08 49.19 22.51 70.21 39.85 68.31 37.70 n 0 p 1 k 0 58.69 22.42 56.21 24.52 69.44 38.06 67.30 40.71 n 0 p 1 k 1 59.54 23.47 51.69 21.34 67.82 36.70 69.59 37.14 n 0 p 1 k 2 58.97 25.35 59.24 23.23 69.37 35.43 70.12 38.59 n 0 p 2 k o 56.65 23.70 54.00 25.62 65.81 35.36 65.59 38.62 n 0 p 2 k 1 53.19 21.03 49.45 20.62 67.47 37.06 68.47 36.71 n 0 p 2 k 2 52.79 23.13 59.46 24.26 66.21 37.56 66.39 36.39 n 1 p 0 k 0 69.27 25.13 65.73 27.49 64.19 26.44 63.33 34.67 n 1 p 0 k 1 63.81 26.67 68.42 29.99 62.15 35.52 61.64 35.21 n 1 p 0 k 2 63.38 25.44 61.12 28.79 62.29 34.63 62.33 33.43 n 1 p 1 k 0 64.38 26.53 67.79 29.13 63.23 35.29 63.43 34.48 n 1 p 1 k 1 67.59 27.82 70.85 33.01 62.55 33.35 60.13 36.35 n 1 p 1 k 2 67.51 26.42 70.18 30.38 63.36 34.47 64.07 33.53 n 1 p 2 k 0 67.96 28.40 66.41 26.50 60.66 32.36 61.29 34.26 n 1 p 2 k 1 69.75 25.62 59.37 29.64 61.32 33.37 62.62 31.38 n 1 p 2 k 2 61.33 24.85 67.58 27.16 59.30 32.51 57.74 30.17 n 2 p 0 k 0 64.26 29.92 70.52 30.49 60.35 30.98 57.58 30.70 n 2 p 0 k 1 72.85 30.82 69.71 34.26 58.87 31.02 58.38 30.35 n 2 p 0 k 2 67.59 32.37 72.32 35.11 61.35 31.63 59.75 33.40 n 2 p 1 k 0 71.17 33.42 73.41 33.19 58.13 29.41 61.14 29.45 n 2 p 1 k 1 73.23 34.73 75.07 35.65 60.43 28.17 55.68 32.36 n 2 p 1 k 2 68.25 33.22 70.31 33.01 57.34 28.51 59.57 30.41 n 2 p 2 k 0 65.39 31.78 68.29 32.41 55.24 26.41 50.34 26.54 n 2 p 2 k 1 68.03 30.77 62.48 28.75 56.33 29.35 56.00 29.38 n 2 p 2 k 2 62.37 29.50 63.00 29.50 57.43 27.56 53.39 27.99 c.d (p=0.05) 6.53 3.21 8.91 7.32 6.91 8.82 7.24 5.86 j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 43-47, 2008 pankaj kumar et al 45 table 2. effect of npk dose on fruit retention and yield in guava treatment fruit retention (%) yield (kg/plant) combination 2004-05 2005-06 2004-05 2005-06 rainy season winter rainy season winter rainy season winter rainy season winter n 0 p 0 k 0 32.68 62.34 36.13 66.42 14.68 3.20 16.50 4.11 n 0 p 0 k 1 31.52 61.36 32.47 60.55 24.40 7.29 18.45 4.88 n 0 p 0 k 2 29.65 60.45 31.27 62.28 15.54 5.68 24.93 6.39 n 0 p 1 k 0 30.34 61.37 32.29 60.33 30.52 9.49 22.70 5.93 n 0 p 1 k 1 32.41 63.16 33.36 62.26 31.38 6.96 31.05 7.10 n 0 p 1 k 2 30.62 64.34 30.06 61.28 28.70 6.43 28.19 6.76 n 0 p 2 k 0 33.33 64.28 34.29 61.56 23.47 8.35 21.42 5.78 n 0 p 2 k 1 32.19 62.69 32.55 63.06 16.97 7.53 19.45 5.05 n 0 p 2 k 2 33.60 62.49 33.39 63.15 25.13 4.02 21.50 6.11 n 1 p 0 k 0 35.63 66.54 36.68 65.01 49.39 9.50 54.45 14.11 n 1 p 0 k 1 37.48 64.49 38.45 64.50 33.71 10.40 43.77 14.65 n 1 p 0 k 2 37.36 65.17 37.50 66.16 55.48 11.21 45.47 13.87 n 1 p 1 k 0 36.36 64.79 36.56 65.32 52.11 10.59 41.84 11.72 n 1 p 1 k 1 37.43 66.49 39.43 63.58 54.65 11.91 46.47 14.20 n 1 p 1 k 2 36.57 65.22 36.09 66.37 52.03 13.32 45.40 14.16 n 1 p 2 k 0 39.15 67.23 38.59 65.18 45.98 9.43 40.69 11.34 n 1 p 2 k 1 38.17 66.27 37.28 68.91 42.43 11.33 37.15 13.38 n 1 p 2 k 2 37.47 67.50 42.29 69.62 36.00 9.95 42.61 12.61 n 2 p 0 k 0 40.52 68.39 42.22 69.59 61.64 15.98 55.49 20.28 n 2 p 0 k 1 41.31 69.30 41.68 69.22 59.64 17.28 58.69 23.53 n 2 p 0 k 2 38.31 69.36 40.20 66.00 55.42 15.90 56.41 19.72 n 2 p 1 k 0 41.52 70.40 45.04 70.29 66.75 14.12 57.68 22.52 n 2 p 1 k 1 39.59 71.50 41.33 67.63 69.64 22.66 60.72 26.35 n 2 p 1 k 2 42.69 71.26 47.15 73.15 57.30 13.73 57.78 23.62 n 2 p 2 k 0 43.25 73.09 44.41 69.63 64.44 19.55 52.34 20.60 n 2 p 2 k 1 40.22 70.84 43.40 70.49 51.64 14.51 50.70 20.37 n 2 p 2 k 2 38.27 68.24 42.62 67.48 41.50 11.06 53.71 19.64 c.d (p=0.05) 6.11 6.73 5.66 6.85 6.34 3.82 8.95 4.12 table 3. effect of npk dose on ascorbic acid and total sugar content in guava treatment ascorbic acid (mg/100 g pulp) total sugars (%) combination 2004-05 2005-06 2004-05 2005-06 rainy season winter rainy season winter rainy season winter rainy season winter n 0 p 0 k 0 139.66 232.00 137.00 234.33 7.78 8.75 7.32 8.89 n 0 p 0 k 1 142.67 235.67 141.66 236.65 8.18 8.86 7.82 9.25 n 0 p 0 k 2 146.33 240.35 145.62 238.60 8.35 10.16 8.16 10.44 n 0 p 1 k 0 141.23 233.67 140.33 234.66 8.09 9.24 7.50 9.00 n 0 p 1 k 1 143.00 236.00 144.66 238.66 8.37 10.14 7.99 9.62 n 0 p 1 k 2 145.66 239.30 147.00 240.29 8.54 10.43 8.54 10.52 n 0 p 2 k 0 143.32 233.36 138.30 235.61 8.13 9.38 7.71 8.92 n 0 p 2 k 1 145.33 239.65 144.29 239.00 8.41 10.34 8.34 9.65 n 0 p 2 k 2 150.00 239.34 150.00 240.66 8.71 10.58 8.84 11.00 n 1 p 0 k 0 161.00 253.28 163.28 251.50 8.33 9.45 7.65 9.20 n 1 p 0 k 1 163.00 253.66 165.58 256.00 8.41 10.55 8.41 9.98 n 1 p 0 k 2 163.00 259.38 169.66 257.00 8.65 10.76 8.40 10.71 n 1 p 1 k 0 159.67 256.00 164.00 251.64 8.16 9.80 8.17 9.28 n 1 p 1 k 1 161.67 257.60 165.00 254.30 8.59 10.27 8.63 9.99 n 1 p 1 k 2 165.65 260.32 170.64 259.35 8.73 10.87 9.03 11.12 n 1 p 2 k 0 161.33 255.40 161.66 254.33 8.23 9.86 7.80 9.34 n 1 p 2 k 1 167.00 259.66 167.33 256.38 8.44 10.48 8.39 9.96 n 1 p 2 k 2 167.60 261.66 171.57 259.68 8.59 10.91 8.98 11.10 n 2 p 0 k 0 166.35 267.00 159.67 253.59 8.18 9.72 8.08 9.14 n 2 p 0 k 1 168.00 273.00 167.00 257.33 8.38 10.27 8.48 9.73 n 2 p 0 k 2 169.33 276.63 170.67 267.33 8.66 10.57 8.89 10.60 n 2 p 1 k 0 165.34 260.66 164.34 257.36 8.23 9.49 7.96 9.11 j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 43-47, 2008 effect of npk on fruit parameters in guava 46 table 4. effect of npk dose on reducing sugars and non-reducing sugars in guava treatment reducing sugars (%) non-reducing sugars (%) combinations 2004-05 2005-06 2004-05 2005-06 rainy season winter rainy season winter rainy season winter rainy season winter n 0 p 0 k 0 4.79 5.59 4.34 5.33 3.00 3.16 3.02 3.53 n 0 p 0 k 1 5.09 6.21 4.65 5.73 3.04 3.30 3.15 3.82 n 0 p 0 k 2 5.24 6.75 4.93 6.02 3.07 3.42 3.32 4.43 n 0 p 1 k 0 5.02 5.93 4.45 5.54 3.06 3.28 3.04 3.44 n 0 p 1 k 1 5.51 6.31 4.81 6.03 3.17 3.84 3.16 3.57 n 0 p 1 k 2 5.33 6.56 5.20 6.42 3.23 3.87 3.33 4.12 n 0 p 2 k 0 5.01 6.11 4.62 5.33 3.11 3.24 3.11 3.57 n 0 p 2 k 1 5.16 6.88 5.11 5.91 3.26 3.42 3.22 3.75 n 0 p 2 k 2 5.32 7.11 5.38 6.50 3.32 3.75 3.39 4.51 n 1 p 0 k 0 5.14 6.11 4.54 5.57 3.10 3.29 3.10 3.61 n 1 p 0 k 1 5.26 6.95 5.08 6.10 3.14 3.57 3.31 3.87 n 1 p 0 k 2 5.42 7.15 5.28 6.64 3.26 3.63 3.41 4.06 n 1 p 1 k 0 5.12 6.42 5.01 5.51 3.02 3.34 3.09 3.75 n 1 p 1 k 1 5.37 6.73 5.24 5.93 3.10 3.53 3.37 3.96 n 1 p 1 k 2 5.48 7.03 5.50 7.00 3.16 3.55 3.50 4.14 n 1 p 2 k 0 5.17 6.53 4.76 5.70 3.02 3.33 3.07 3.66 n 1 p 2 k 1 5.34 6.89 5.18 6.08 3.06 3.57 3.21 3.88 n 1 p 2 k 2 5.47 7.23 5.48 7.13 3.14 3.68 3.47 3.99 n 2 p 0 k 0 5.11 6.33 5.07 5.44 3.04 3.35 3.01 3.71 n 2 p 0 k 1 5.25 6.78 5.24 5.81 3.10 3.48 3.23 3.94 n 2 p 0 k 2 5.50 7.01 5.48 6.04 3.15 3.53 3.40 4.56 n 2 p 1 k 0 4.94 6.13 4.48 5.49 3.09 3.37 3.15 3.62 n 2 p 1 k 1 5.36 7.04 4.83 6.25 3.11 3.43 3.26 3.99 n 2 p 1 k 2 5.41 7.18 5.09 6.43 3.16 3.52 3.41 -4.17 n 2 p 2 k 0 5.18 6.30 4.43 5.54 3.00 3.20 3.07 3.57 n 2 p 2 k 1 5.28 6.62 4.74 6.04 3.08 3.43 3.24 3.82 n 2 p 2 k 2 5.31 7.37 5.15 6.39 3.19 3.47 3.42 3.98 c.d (p=0.05) 0.33 0.86 0.39 0.49 0.07 0.26 0.09 0.34 table 3. (contd.) effect of npk dose on ascorbic acid and total sugar content in guava treatment ascorbic acid (mg/100 g pulp) total sugars (%) combination 2004-05 2005-06 2004-05 2005-06 rainy season winter rainy season winter rainy season winter rainy season winter n 2 p 1 k 1 167.00 269.65 169.00 261.66 8.50 10.50 8.07 10.25 n 2 p 1 k 2 169.67 270.68 171.62 267.67 8.57 10.68 8.50 10.57 n 2 p 2 k 0 163.59 261.00 160.33 255.00 8.20 9.48 7.53 9.10 n 2 p 2 k 1 167.00 265.66 168.37 262.58 8.40 10.03 7.99 9.83 n 2 p 2 k 2 169.30 268.33 175.28 267.33 8.47 10.17 8.62 10.37 c.d (p=0.05) 8.79 8.51 12.57 11.81 0.32 1.10 0.37 0.39 k 2 o (table 3). in general, treatments having higher nitrogen content in combination with higher potassium, attained higher ascorbic acid content (table 2). the maximum values of total sugars 8.73% and 9.03% in rainy season and 10.87% and 11.12% in winter season were recorded with 75g n, 50g p 2 o 5 and 150 g k 2 o during both the years. in rainy season fruits, the maximum reducing sugars at 5.50% each were recorded with 150g n, 0g p 2 o 5 and 150 g k 2 o, and 75g n, 50g p 2 o 5 and 150 g k 2 o during 2004-05 and 200506, respectively; while, in the winter season fruits, reducing sugars at 7.37% and 7.13% were recorded with 150g n, 100g p 2 o 5 and 150 g k 2 o, and, 75g n, 100g p 2 o 5 and 150 g k 2 o during the two years, respectively. the maximum non-reducing sugar content of 3.325 and 3.50% in rainy season fruits in both the years was recorded under the treatment 0g n, 100g p 2 o 5 and 150 g k 2 o, and, 75g n, 100g p 2 o 5 and 150 g k 2 o, respectively; while, in the winter season, treatments with 0g n, 50g p 2 o 5 and 150 g k 2 o, and, 150g n, 0g p 2 o 5 and 150 g k 2 o gave maximum amounts of non-reducing sugars (3.87% and 4.56%) during the years of study (table 4). the minimum values of reducing and non-reducing sugars were recorded with 0g n, 0g p 2 o 5 and 0 g k 2 o (table 4). similar findings were also recorded by singh et al (2004) in pineapple and j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 43-47, 2008 pankaj kumar et al 47 (ms received 11 january 2008, revised 15 april 2008) umashanker et al (2002) in guava cv. sardar. treatment combinations with higher nitrogen content were found to be superior in yield and fruiting attributes, while, treatments with high potassium attained higher ascorbic acid and sugar content in guava, and were at par with treatments of medium level potassium. this may be due to the enhancing effect of nitrogen on growth and sufficient availability of phosphorus and potassium already present in the soil. acknowledgement the authors are grateful to the director, experimental station, g. b. pant university of agriculture & technology, pantnagar, for providing necessary facilities for the investigation. references nijjer, g. s. 1996. nutrition of fruit trees. kalyani publishers, new delhi, ludhiana. pp. 6-9. ranganna, s. 1986. mannual of analysis of fruit and vegetable products, new delhi, tata mcgraw hill publishing company, ltd. rathor, d. s. 1976. effect of season on the growth and chemical composition of guava (psidium guajava l.) fruits. j. hortl. sci., 51: 41-47. sharma, j. r. panwar, r. d. kaushik, r. a. and suleman, m. 2003. effect of different levelsof n, p and k on growth and flowering of phalsa (grewia subinaequalis d.c.). haryana j. hortl. sci., 32: 40-41. singh, d. b. and singh, v. 2004. growth and development in pineapple var. kew as influenced by nitrogen and phosphorus levels. prog. hort., 36: 44-50. singh, g., singh, a. k. and singh, v. k. 2002. review and refinemnt of nutrient recommendation for guava. in: nutrient status, needs and recommendation for major fruit crops of uttar pradesh and uttaranchal. r. k. pathak, d. k. tandon, v. k. singh and k. n. tiwari (eds.). proceeding of the workshop held on december 10-11, cish, lucknow, pp. 38-43. singh, r., singh, devi, siddiqui, s. and godra, r. k. 2003. effect of npk on chlorophyll content, fruit set, fruit drop and mineral composition of fruit and leaf of sapota. haryana j. hortl. sci., 32: 185-186. tassar, koj, tiwari, j. p. and lal, shant. 1989. effect of different levels of nitrogen on leaf nutrient status, fruit yield and quality of guava (psidium guajava l.) cv. sardar. prog. hort., 21: 51-55. tiwari, j. p., bisen, brijpal and mishra, d. s. 2003. improvement of guava using indigenous s t r a i n s . procs. national seminar on role of indigenous germplasm in improvement of horticulture crops, g.b. pant univ. of agri. and tech., pantnagar pp. 227-234 uma shankar pathak, r. a. pathak, r. k. and ojha, c. m. 2002. effect of npk on the yield and fruit quality of guava cv. sardar. prog. hort., 34: 49-55. j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 43-47, 2008 effect of npk on fruit parameters in guava introduction gujarat is endowed with a diverse agroclimate conducive for growing different flower crops throughout the year. gujarat has made rapid strides in floriculture, evident from 61% increase in area from 7,118 ha (2005-06) to 11,473 ha (2008-09) and over 100% increase in flower production from 42,182 tonnes in 2005-06 to 85,216 tonnes in 2008-09 (anon., 2009). major flowers grown in the state are roses, spider lily, marigold, jasmine and tuberose. among these, tuberose is valued by the aesthetic world for its beauty, elegance and pleasant fragrance. long flower spikes are excellent cut flowers for table decoration. individual florets are much in demand for preparation of artistic garlands, floral ornaments, bouquets and for button holes. the ‘concrete’ and ‘absolute’ prepared from tuberose florets are valuable perfumery products. in fact, india is the second largest producer and exporter of tuberose concrete to the world market. though tuberose is cultivated on a commercial scale in gujarat, there are no standard recommended packages of practices available for the saurashtra region of gujarat. it is well established that flower and bulb production in tuberose is strongly influenced effect of spacing and crop duration on growth, flowering and bulb production in tuberose (polianthes tuberosa l.) cv. double v.r. malam, s.p. singh, t.r. ahlawat1, r.k. mathukia and giriraj jat department of horticulture junagadh agricultural university, junagadh-362 001, india e-mail: tahlawat4@gmail.com abstract field experiments were conducted at junagadh during 2002-05 to study the response of spacing (45 x 45, 45 x 30, 45 x 15, 30 x 30 and 30 x 15 cm) and crop duration (first year crop, first ratoon and second ratoon) on growth, flowering, cut flower yield and bulb production in tuberose cv. double. the widest spacing (45 cm x 45 cm) registered the highest values for plant height (46.18 cm), number of leaves per clump (67.25), spike length (89.64 cm), spike diameter (0.95 cm), diameter of open flower (4.6 cm), rachis length (34.8 cm), number of spikes per clump (4.1), number of florets per spike (48.2), number of bulbs per clump (18.40) and number of bulblets per clump (31.60). it also induced early spike emergence and flowering. a planting distance of 30 x 30 cm realized the highest cut flower yield (2.72 lakh ha-1) and that of 30 cm x 15 cm recorded the highest bulb production (22 lakh ha-1). ratoon crops showed higher plant height, number of leaves, bulbs, bulblets and spikes per clump and cut flower yield as well as bulb production over the first year crop. early spike emergence and flowering was also noted in ratoon crops compared to the first year crop. however, spike and flower quality was inferior to that of first year crop with regard to spike length and diameter, number of florets per spike, diameter of open flower and rachis length. key words: tuberose, spacing, crop duration, growth and flowering by planting density and crop duration, besides other factors. keeping this in mind, the present experiment was undertaken to evaluate the response of spacing and crop duration on growth, flowering, cut flower yield and bulb production in tuberose. material and methods the present investigation was undertaken at the jambuvadi fruit research station, department of horticulture, junagadh agricultural university, junagadh. the effect of five different spacings (45 x 45, 45 x 30, 45 x 15, 30 x 30 and 30 cm x 15 cm) on growth, cut flower yield and bulb production in tuberose was evaluated in a randomized block design with four replications. medium sized bulbs (1.8 to 2.4 cm in diameter) of tuberose cultivar ‘double’ were planted in the first week of june 2002 and retained for the next three years [first year crop, second year crop (first ratoon) and third year crop (second ratoon)]. the experimental field was brought to a fine tilth by ploughing and harrowing. the gross plot size was 2.70 m x 2.70 m. however, net plot size varied with the spacing employed (table1). 1aspee college of horticulture and forestry, navsari agricultural university, navsari – 396 450 j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 134-137, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 135 well decomposed farm yard manure @15 t ha-1 was uniformly applied and thoroughly mixed with the soil. the crop was fertilized with 150 kg n, 25 kg p 2 o 5 and 25 kg k 2 o ha-1. half dose of nitrogen as urea, and full doses of phosphorus as single super phosphate and potassium as muriate of potash, were applied at the time of planting. the remaining half of nitrogen was applied in two equal splits at 45 and 90 days after planting. the same dose of fertilizers was repeated for ratoon crops, as well. five plants were selected randomly from the net plot in each treatment and replication and tagged for recording observations. plants were grown under uniform cultural practices. observations were recorded on fourteen plant characters, viz., plant height, number of leaves per clump at first flower emergence, number of bulbs, bulblets and spikes per clump at final harvest, days to first spike emergence and first flower opening from the date of planting, spike length and diameter (cm), number of florets per spike, diameter of open flower (cm) and rachis length (cm). cut flower and bulb yield (lakh ha-1) were calculated on per hectare basis to reflect the yield per unit area. plant height (cm) was measured from the ground level to the tip of the longest leaf at harvest. data obtained were tested for critical difference (cd) among various treatments (gomez and gomez, 1984). results and discussion vegetative growth parameters data presented in table 2 reveal that different spacings and crop duration had significant influence on growth of tuberose in the first year crop and ratoon crops. table 1. planting density and net plot size under different spacings sl. no. spacing (cm) planting density net plot (number of plants/ha) size (m) s 1 45 x 45 49383 1.80 x 1.80 s 2 45 x 30 74074 2.10 x 1.80 s 3 45 x 15 148148 2.40 x 1.80 s 4 30 x 30 111111 2.10 x 1.80 s 5 30 x 15 222222 2.40 x 2.10 growth parameters, viz., plant height and number of leaves per clump increased with increase in spacing. the widest spacing of 45 cm x 45 cm was at par with 45 cm x 30 cm and recorded the highest values for plant height (46.18 cm) and number of leaves per clump (67.25). this may be due to greater available space to every plant for availing sufficient nutrients, soil moisture and solar radiation, factors which may have restricted the plants in closer spacings. this is in accordance with findings of malik et al (2009). these attributes progressively increased in ratoon crops compared to the first year crop. this could be ascribed to formation of bulblets in the first year crop that could develop into bulbs in the ratoon crop which, in turn promoted plant growth during the ratoons. flowering traits flowering traits also differed significantly under various plant spacings and crop durations in the first year crop as well as in ratoon crops (table 3). however, days to spike emergence, days to first flower opening and spike diameter were not affected by spacing in the second ratoon crop. it was also observed that days to spike emergence and days to first flower opening decreased with increase in spacing. on the other hand, spike length, spike diameter, diameter of open flower and rachis length increased with increase in spacing. wider spacings, viz., 45 cm x 45 cm and 45 cm x 30 cm were on par and induced early spike emergence with higher spike length and diameter as compared to closer spacings (45 cm x 15 cm and 30 x 15 cm). earliest spike emergence (205.75 days) and maximum spike length (89.64 cm) and diameter (0.95 cm) were observed under a spacing of 45 cm x 45 cm. better growth and subsequent differentiation may have contributed to improved spike characters under wider spacing. similar results were obtained by tyagi et al (2008). early spike emergence was recorded in ratoon crops compared to the first year crop. this might be due the well established root system in ratoon crops. nevertheless, spikes had smaller diameter in both ratoon crops compared to the first year crop. wider spacings also resulted in early opening of flowers, with higher diameter of open flower and rachis length. the spacing of 45 cm x 45 cm registered minimum days to flower opening (229.2 days) and maximum diameter of open flowers (4.6 cm) and rachis length (34.8 cm). better leaf growth under wider spacing may have accelerated photosynthesis during the vegetative period and its translocation of photosynthesis to various metabolic sinks during the reproductive period could be responsible for table 2. influence of spacing and crop duration on vegetative growth parameters in tuberose cv. ‘double’ spacing(cm) plant height (cm) no. of leaves per clump first ratoon crop first ratoon crop year firs year second first second crop ratoon crop ratoon ratoon ratoon s 1 (45 x 45) 46.18 52.63 58.82 67.25 82.70 98.00 s 2 (45 x 30) 44.15 49.30 56.82 60.75 74.95 91.70 s 3 (45 x 15) 35.76 42.86 43.74 46.95 60.00 76.10 s 4 (30 x 30) 41.72 48.99 55.79 57.80 69.60 87.80 s 5 (30 x 15) 30.09 33.66 33.45 36.60 46.15 57.50 cd (p = 0.05) 5.36 5.40 4.53 8.36 12.75 11.91 effect of spacing in tuberose j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 134-137, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 136 improvement in floral attributes. these results are in line with those reported by kumar and singh (1998). early flowering was observed in ratoon crops compared to that in the first year crop. however, flower quality (with regard to diameter of open flowers and rachis length) was inferior to the first year crop. cut flower yield and bulb production an appraisal of data furnished in table 4 indicates that cut flower yield and associated traits were significantly affected by planting distance and crop duration in the first year crop and ratoon crops. number of spikes per clump and number of florets per spike increased with increase in spacing. maximum number of spikes per clump (4.1) and number of florets per spike (48.2) were obtained in bulbs planted at a spacing of 45 cm x 45 cm. ratoon crops recorded higher number of spikes per clump than the first year crop, whereas, the first year crop registered higher number of florets compared to the ratoon crops. cut flower yield increased with decrease in spacing and highest cut flower yield (2.72 lakh/ha) was recorded under a spacing of 30 x 30 cm, which was at par with 45 cm x 15 cm spacing in both the first year crop and in ratoon crops. these results are in agreement with earlier findings of kadam et al (2005). higher cut flower yield was observed in ratoon crops as compared to the first year crop. bulb production also varied significantly with different spacings and crop durations in the first year crop and ratoon crops (table 5). number of bulbs and bulblets per clump increased with increase in spacing. the widest spacing of 45 x 45 cm was at par with 45 cm x 30 cm and the highest number of bulbs (18.40) and bulblets (31.60) per clump. number of bulbs and bulblets per clump under each spacing were correspondingly higher in ratoon crops compared to the first year crop. bulb yield increased with decrease in spacing. highest bulb yield (22.00 lakh/ha) was obtained with a spacing of 30 cm x 15 cm. this is in close conformity with observations of singh (2003). ratoon crops showed a progressive increase in bulb yield for each successive spacing compared to the first year crop. this may be ascribed to the fact that well established clumps had higher number of daughter bulbs which in turn produced more number of spikes thereby resulting in higher cut flower yield and bulb yield compared to the first year crop. table 3. influence of spacing and crop duration on flowering traits in tuberose cv. ‘double’ trait spacing (cm) s 1 (45 x 45) s 2 (45 x 30) s 3 (45 x 15) s 4 (30 x 30) s 5 (30 x 15) cd (p = 0.05) 1. days to spike emergence first year crop 205.7 210.2 225.0 215.2 234.7 19.71 first ratoon crop 189.0 194.0 208.5 198.7 216.2 18.67 second ratoon crop 178.7 183.7 193.7 189.7 200.7 ns 2. days to first flower opening first year crop 229.2 235.0 257.0 240.2 268.7 25.01 first ratoon crop 216.2 222.0 239.2 228.2 249.2 14.79 second ratoon crop 203.0 210.5 221.7 216.2 228.5 ns 3. spike length (cm) first year crop 89.6 87.0 74.9 84.2 66.4 7.08 first ratoon crop 82.4 77.2 62.3 70.8 53.0 7.15 second ratoon crop 68.4 64.5 50.9 62.1 39.7 6.72 4. spike diameter (cm) first year crop 0.95 0.92 0.87 0.90 0.82 0.06 first ratoon crop 0.83 0.78 0.72 0.75 0.65 0.04 second ratoon crop 0.67 0.66 0.64 0.65 0.61 ns 5. diameter of open flower (cm) first year crop 4.6 4.4 4.0 4.3 3.9 0.6 first ratoon crop 3.3 3.0 2.4 2.7 2.2 0.18 second ratoon crop 2.6 2.8 2.1 2.5 1.5 0.14 6. rachis length (cm) first year crop 34.8 33.0 30.4 32.1 28.9 3.2 first ratoon crop 27.2 24.9 19.5 21.7 17.8 1.58 second ratoon crop 21.7 21.0 17.3 20.5 11.2 1.32 malam et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 134-137, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 137 table 4. influence of spacing and crop duration on yield parameters in tuberose cv. ‘double’ spacing(cm) no. of spikes/clump number of florets/spike cut flower yield (lakh/ha) first ratoon crop first ratoon crop first ratoon crop year first second year first second year first second crop ratoon ratoon crop ratoon ratoon crop ratoon ratoon s 1 (45 x 45) 4.1 4.6 5.0 48.2 40.7 35.0 1.99 2.21 2.46 s 2 (45 x 30) 3.1 3.5 4.0 46.2 37.1 32.5 2.27 2.57 2.94 s 3 (45 x 15) 1.5 2.0 2.1 40.7 30.9 25.8 2.26 2.93 3.05 s 4 (30 x 30) 2.9 2.9 3.0 44.3 33.3 31.7 2.72 3.24 3.25 s 5 (30 x 15) 0.9 1.0 1.1 34.0 26.3 17.6 1.94 2.16 2.38 cd (p = 0.05) 0.33 0.31 0.39 5.01 3.10 2.84 0.52 0.38 0.51 table 5. influence of spacing and crop duration on bulb production in tuberose cv. ‘double’ spacing(cm) no. of bulbs/ clump no. of bulblets/clump bulb yield (lakh/ha) first ratoon crop first ratoon crop first ratoon crop year first second year first second year first second crop ratoon ratoon crop ratoon ratoon crop ratoon ratoon s 1 (45 x 45) 18.40 24.05 28.10 31.60 38.80 44.00 09.09 11.88 13.88 s 2 (45 x 30) 16.55 21.95 25.10 28.15 34.90 39.40 12.26 16.26 18.59 s 3 (45 x 15) 12.05 15.65 17.65 23.20 28.10 30.40 17.85 23.19 26.15 s 4 (30 x 30) 14.20 18.85 21.00 26.00 31.85 34.85 15.78 20.94 23.33 s 5 (30 x 15) 9.90 12.45 14.15 18.50 21.95 23.90 22.00 27.67 31.44 cd (p = 0.05) 1.89 2.78 3.68 5.67 3.97 5.75 2.74 4.45 5.66 ratoon crops registered higher cut flower yield and bulb production over the first year crop owing to better vegetative growth and higher number of spikes per clump. however, flower quality was inferior which can hinder better price realization in the increasingly quality conscious markets. tuberose plants, when spaced at a distance of 30 cm x 30 cm, yielded maximum number of cut-flowers without any detrimental effect on flower quality. from the present investigation it may be therefore inferred that for higher cut flower yield, planting distance of 30 cm x 30 cm and for higher bulb yield 30 cm x 15 cm be adopted for planting tuberose cv. ‘double’ in the saurashtra region of gujarat. it is further recommended that fresh crop be planted for ensuring superior quality cut flowers. references anonymous. 2009. district-wise area and production of horticultural crops in gujarat state. directorate of horticulture, gandhinagar, government of gujarat, india gomez, k.a. and gomez, a.a. 1984. statistical procedures for agricultural research (2nd ed)., john wiley and sons, inc., new york, usa kadam, m.b., dumbre patil, s.s. and ambad, s.n. 2005. effect of spacing and bulb size on cut flower production of tuberose (polianthes tuberosa linn). j. maharashtra agril. univ., 30:229-230 kumar, s. and singh, r.p. 1998. effect of nitrogen, bulb size and plant density on growth, flowering and yield of tuberose (polianthes tuberosa l.) j. orn. hort., new series, 1:6-10 malik, s., yadav, r.b., kumar, m. and vivek. 2009. effect of plant geometry and bulb size on growth, flowering and post harvest characters of tuberose. in: proceedings of national conference on “floriculture for livelihood and profitability iari, new delhi (india), pp 111-112 singh, k.p. 2003. effect of plant spacings on flower and bulb production in tuberose (polianthes tuberosa l.) cultivar ‘shringar’. haryana. j. hortl. sci. , 32:79-80 tyagi, a.k., sharma, r.k. and yadav, s.k. 2008. effect of bulb size, spacing and depth of planting on growth and flowering of tuberose (polianthes tuberosa l.) cultivar ‘single’. prog. agri., 8:281-282 (ms received 3 february 2010, revised 6 september 2010) j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 134-137, 2010 effect of spacing in tuberose prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 417 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 417-423, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction capsicum (capsicum annum var. grossum sendt) also called as bell pepper is an important vegetable crop. it is known for its nutritional aspects and also for nation’s foreign exchange. india contributes one fourth of the world production of capsicum with an average annual production of 1.9 mt from an area of 1.82 mha with the productivity of 1.28 t/ha. karnataka stands second in area with 89 thousand ha and production of 158 thousand tons (anon., 2015). among the various biotic constraints in the production of bell pepper, viral diseases play a major role. bell pepper is highly susceptible to natural infection by a large number of viruses in addition to being susceptible to several other diseases. out of 42 viruses so far reported in bell pepper, 22 ar e found to occur naturally, while the rest are known to infect on artificial inoculation. among these, potyviruses viz., potato virus y (pvy), pepper veinal mottle virus (pvmv), pepper vein banding virus (pvbv), chilli veinal mottle virus (chivmv), pepper mottle virus (pmv), tobacco etch virus (tev) are more prevalent (caranta et al.,1996). among these, chilli veinal mottle virus (chivmv) is the major prevalent virus with the incidence of 50 per cent that reduce yield by 50 per cent worldwide (hussain et al., 2008). further, the chivmv is transmitted mechanically and also through aphid vector (aphis gossypii) and found to infect several plant species and induces characteristic systemic mottling symptoms within 7 to 14 days of inoculation. sever a l a biotic a nd biotic str esses a ffect the productivity of chilli pepper crop worldwide. more than 45-65 viruses have been reported infecting the crop worldwide (green and kim, 1994; anon., 2001). among pathogenic diseases, viruses are the most devastating agents of chilli pepper, causing serious losses by reducing both fruit quality and quantity (kang et al., 1973; villalon, 1975; ong et al., 1980; yoon et al., 1989; chew and ong, 1990). viruses epidemiology of chivmv and loss assessment in capsicum (capsicum annum var. grossum sendt) praful m.v.1, reddy b.a.2, ramachandra r.k.2, reddy m.k.3 and anjanappa m.1 1 college of horticulture, university of horticultural sciences, bengaluru 560 065, karnataka, india 2 horticulture research and extension center, hogalagere, srinivasapura 563138, karnataka, india 3 icarindian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru 560 089, karnataka india *corresponding author email : arb_agri@yahoo.co.in, ajreddyb007@gmail.com abstract the survey was conducted during rabi season (2021) to determine the incidence of mosaic disease of capsicum in major capsicum growing districts namely, chikkaballapura, kolar, bengaluru rural and ramanagar. the per cent incidence of mosaic disease based on symptoms in field was recorded, highest in ramanagar (54.85%) and the least incidence of mosaic disease was observed in chikkaballapura (26.85%). transmission and host range studies under glasshouse conditions revealed that chivmv is transmitted mechanically. among 16 host plants tested, 7 plant species (nicotiana tabacum cv. samsun, n. glutinosa, n. occidentalis, datura metel, physalis floridana, s. nigrum, capsicum annum) were infected with the chilli veinal mottle virus disease and the symptom could be seen in 20-25 days. the per cent transmission of chivmv by aphid aphis gossypii was studied. the results showed that chivmv can be transmitted by a. gossypii. however, five aphids per plant showed highest per cent transmission (100%). the effect of different dates of inoculation on different plant growth parameters was also studied, the highest per cent disease transmission was observed in t1: inoculation 15 days after sowing (100.00%). keywords: aphis gossypii, capsicum, chivmv, mosaic 418 praful et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 417-423, 2022 produce various types of disease syndrome like mosaic, mottling, leaf distortion, vein etching, yellowing, stunting and narrowing of leaves (green, 1991; hameed et al., 1995; anon., 2001). chilli veinal mottle virus (chivmv) is the major virus infecting chilli pepper reducing yield losses up to 50% (joshi and dubey, 1973; ong et al., 1980). materials and methods survey a roving survey was conducted during rabis season to determine the incidence of mosaic disease in major ca psicum gr owing districts of souther n kar nataka (chikkaba llapur a, kolar, bengaluru rural and ramnagar). plants were observed for the t yp ic a l s ymp t oms v i z . , yellowin g, mos a ic symptoms, mottling etc. during the survey, type of symptoms was recorded a t different fields a nd samples were collected. for each one acre of field five sites were randomly selected (10m 10m) and the average disease incidence was calculated using the following formula. per cent disease incidence (pdi) = number of infected plants × 100 total number of plants observed serological survey the samples brought from the field were subjected to serological assay using cmv and chivmv antiserum adopting the dac-elisa procedure (hobes et al., 1987). host range to identify the natur al reservoirs of the virus different hosts viz., tomato, brinjal, chilli, potato, n i c o t i a n a t a b a c u m c v. s a m s u n , n i c o t i a n a g l ut i n os a , n i c ot i a na o cc i d en t a li s , s o l an u m nigrum, and other s like chenopodium quinoa, datura metel, d. stromanium, physalis minima, physalis floridana and gomphrena globosa and also the other weed hosts were sown in polythene bags of 3 x 6" size and seedlings were raised with standard agronomic practices and seedlings of 2530 days old were used for sap inoculation. the host plants were inoculated by following the procedure described by (noordam, 1973) and the inoculated plants were observed for symptom expression under insect proof cages for upto 30 days. vector transmission the experiment was carried out to know the aphid transmissibility of chivmv using aphis gossypii, as per the procedure explained by damiri et al. (2013). the healthy aphid (a. gossypii) colony was first raised on the cotton host plant under greenhouse conditions (25-27oc). the vector aphids were carefully collected in plastic petri plates and starved for 60 min. in petri plates lined with black paper on both sides. later allowed for 5 min. acquisition feeding on chivmv infected capsicum leaves, followed by brief inoculation feeding period of 1-3 min. on healthy capsicum plants. after that aphids were killed by spraying with systemic insecticide and the plants were then placed in insect proof conditions in greenhouse at 25-27°c and observed for symptom expression upto 30 days and a set of uninoculated plants were maintained as control. loss estimation to know the impa ct of chivmv on per cent transmission, plant growth and yield. the experiment on loss estima tion wa s ca r r ied out using the susceptible capsicum var. indra. the experiment was conducted in green house conditions using crd design with nine treatments and three replications with standard agronomic practices using the pots of 9 x 12" cement pots. the artificial sap inoculation was done at fifteen days intervals viz., t1: inoculation 15 days after sowing, t 2: inoculation immediately after planting, t3: inoculation 15 days after planting, t4: inoculation 30 days after planting, t5: inoculation 45 days after planting, t6: inoculation 60 days after planting, t7: inoculation 75 days after planting, t8: inoculation 90 days after planting, t9: control. the observations on per cent transmission growth and yield par ameter s viz. , pla nt height (cm), number of branches, number of fruits, fruit weight and per cent disease transmission were recorded at the time of harvest, the data was analyzed statistically. results and discussion survey in random survey carried out in south karnataka, in kolar district of 32.99 average per cent disease incidence was recorded, and it ranged from 14.85 to 47.42 per cent. in chikkaballapura district the average per cent disease incidence was 20.25 and it ranged from 7.99 to 26.85 per cent and in ramanagar district the average per cent disease incidence was 27.42 and 419 epidemiology of chivmv and loss assessment in capsicum it ranged from 26.28 to 54. 85 per cent and in bengaluru rural district the average per cent disease incidence was 29.24 and it ranged from 27.42 to 36.56 (table 1). this difference may be attributed to different climatic factors, vectors activity, different cultivars and different cultivation practices followed. it may also be due to variation in plant protection practices followed by the farmers, low quality seeds (hameed et al., 1995), and similar work carried laxminarayana reddy (2006), conducted survey and reported the chivmv incidence ranged from 5.3 to 81.5 per cent in karnataka, 7.6 to 31.7 per cent in andhra pradesh, 5.7 to 47.6 per cent in tamil nadu, 5.9 to 25.3 per cent in kerala and 7.5 to 37.8 per cent in maharashtra. therefore, the natural incidence of chilli veinal mottle virus disease would vary from field to field in the surveyed area. host range to identify the natural reservoirs and those susceptible to virus, the host range study of the virus was conducted. out of sixteen different plant species used in the study (table 2). seven plant species viz., nicotiana tabacum cv. samsun, nicotiana glutinosa, nicotiana occidentalis, daturametel, physalis floridana, solanum nigrum, capsicum annum were infected with the chivmv and the symptoms could be seen in 20-25 days (table 2). the infection was confir med by dac-elisa. simila r work wa s conducted by siriwong et al. (1995) reported that host range of chivmv is restricted to solanaceae family. the present results are in accordance to those reported by moury et al. (2005) i.e., three isolates of chivmv induced systemic mosaic symptoms on n. occidentalis, n. glutinosa but none infected solanum melongena. brunt et al. (1996) reported that n. glutinosa is diagnostically not a susceptible host but our findings show that this host species was susceptible and developed mosaic symptoms and was found positive in dac-elisa. similar results have also been reported by ong et al. (1979). brunt (1996) reported that gomphrena globosa and nicotiana glutinosa is diagnostically not a susceptible host but in our case nicotiana glutinosa became susceptible and developed mosaic symptoms and was dac-elisa positive. vector transmission to find out the vector transmissibility and per cent transmission of chivmv by aphid a. gossypii was used for the transmission of chilli veinal mottle virus using susceptible capsicum cultivar indra. t he r es u lt s s howed t ha t c hivm v c ou ld b e transmitted by a. gossypii. further, five aphids per plant showed highest per cent transmission (100 %) followed by four aphids per plant (80 %), three and two aphids per plant (60 %) and one aphid per plant (40 %) (table 3). the chilli veinal mottle virus was readily transmitted by sap inoculation and also by aphid vector namely a. gossypii, which resembled potyvirus, reported by mariyappan et al. (1973) and bida ri (1982). jeyarajan and ramkrishnan (1969) reported a. gossypiias the sole vector of potyvirus on bell pepper and chilli. this virus, on young leaves of capsicum produced green veinbanding, leaves are smaller and distorted, stunted and have dark-green streaks on their stems and bra nches. the symptoms were similar to those produced by potyvirus on chilli and bell pepper as reported by earlier workers (prasad rao, 1979; bidari, 1982 and pandurangegowda, 1989). the c hivm v wa s r ea dily t r a ns mit t ed b y s a p inoculation to chilli and other herbaceous hosts. the virus wa s also tr ansmitted in a non persistent manner by the aphids na mely, a. gossypii , a. cr ac ci vo ra a nd my zu s per si ca e a nd no s eed tra nsmission wa s obser ved (sa tya pr aka sh and singh, 2006). table 1 : average per cent disease incidence of capsicum mosaic disease in different districts in southern karnataka district per cent disease incidence average range kolar 32.99 14.85-47.42 chikkaballapura 20.25 7.99-26.85 ramanagar 27.42 26.28-54.85 bengaluru rural 29.24 27.42-36.56 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 417-423, 2022 420 table 2 : host range of mosaic disease caused by chivmv under laboratory conditions host no of symptoms elisa elisa plants absorbance reaction inoculated (+/-) nicotiana tobacum cv. samsun 5 necrotic lesion 3.08 + nicotiana glutinosa 5 severe mosaic 3.40 + nicotiana occidentalis 5 mild mosaic & 2.87 + vein banding datura metel 5 severe mottling & 3.51 + rat tail physalis floridana 5 sever mottling 3.02 + solanum nigrum 5 mild mosaic 2.45 + capsicum annum 5 mild mosaic 2.32 + solanum melongina 5 nil 0.42 solanum tuberosum 5 nil 0.38 solanum lycopercicum 5 nil 0.23 chenopodium quinoa 5 nil 0.25 datura stromonium 5 nil 0.52 physalis minima 5 nil 0.34 gomphrena globosa 5 nil 0.65 stachy terpeta 5 nil 0.42 passiflora foetida 5 nil 0.53 chivmv 1.53 (positive check) healthy 0.56 table 3 : vector transmission of chivmv by using the aphidaphis gossypii no. of no. of no. of per days required aphids plants plants cent for symptom per plant inoculated infected transmission expression 1 10 4 40 20-21 2 10 6 60 19-20 3 10 6 60 19-20 4 10 8 80 19-20 5 10 10 100 19-20 control (uninoculated) 10 0 0 0 loss estimation to know the impact of stage of inoculation on per cent transmission and on plant growth and yield, the plants were inoculated artificially as explained in the material and methods. it revealed that the dates of inoculation on plant growth parameters such as plant height and number of branches and per cent transmission differed significantly over different dates of inoculation (table 4). the maximum reduction of plant height was observed in t1 (22.06 cm) and maximum height was praful et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 417-423, 2022 421 found in t9 (55.22). similarly, maximum reduction in number of branches found in t1 (0.66) maximum number of branches was found in t9 (4.23) (table 4 and fig.1). there was significant difference with respect to number of fruits per plant observed among the treatments (table 4). maximum reduction of fruits per plant were noticed in t1 (0.00) and maximum number of fruits per plant was found in t9 (8.04) (table 4 and fig.1). data pertaining to average fruit weight differed significantly over different dates of inoculation and similar trend was observed in t9 (133.13) (table 4 and fig.1). fig. 1 : effect of different dates of inoculation on growth and other characters per cent transmission highest per cent disease transmission was observed in t1 (100.00 per cent) followed by t2 and t3 (99 per cent each), t4 (98.66 per cent), t5 (91.33 per cent), t6 (72 per cent), t7 (71.33 per cent) and t8 (44.66 per cent) and the rate of transmission and the impact was decreased with the increase in age of the plant and they differ significantly (fig.1). the infection occurs at later stages, the extent of reduction in yield and plant height was less. sastry and singh (1976) reported that tolcv infected plants produced very few fruits when infected within 20 days after planting and resulting up to 92.30 per cent yield loss. while plants infected at 35 and 50 days after transplanting resulted in 82.9 and 74.0 per cent yield loss, respectively. similar results were reported by reddy et al. (2010). conclusion it is concluded that since the infected plants cannot be cured and the early infection leads to severe reduction both in yield and quality, early-stage protection of the crop both in nursery and in the main field is important in order to reap the better yields. references reddy, b.a. , patil, m. s. and ra ja sekara m, t. 2010.effect of tomato leaf curl virus infection epidemiology of chivmv and loss assessment in capsicum table 4 : loss estimation in capsicum due to chivmv under polyhouse conditions plant no. of no. of average per cent treatment height branches/ fruits/ fruit weight disease (cm) plants plants (g) incidence t1 15das 22.06 0.66 0.00 0.00 100.00 t2 30das 25.83 1.73 1.66 7.93 99.00 t315 dat 33.56 2.60 1.86 22.93 99.00 t430 dat 51.10 3.46 2.37 45.83 98.66 t545 dat 49.87 3.60 2.60 61.63 91.33 t660 dat 50.37 3.40 4.13 79.67 72.00 t775 dat 52.64 3.53 4.27 100.43 71.33 t890 dat 54.06 4.13 6.06 101.26 44.66 t9uninoculated 55.22 4.23 8.04 133.13 0 (control) s.em ± 0.74 0.08 0.16 0.62 1.05 cd @ 5% 2.21 0.26 0.48 1.86 3.14 note: dasdays after sowing, datdays after transplanting j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 417-423, 2022 422 on plant growth and yield in tomato. k. j. agric. sci., 23(5): 806 anonymous.2001. proceedings of the south asia vegetable research network (savernetii) final workshop 3-8 june 2001, bangkok, t ha ila nd. asia n vegetable resea r ch and d evelop ment cent er, sha nhua , ta ina n, taiwan. bidari, v. b. 1982. distribution and epidemiology of chilli viruses in karnataka. ph. d. thesis, uni. agric. sci., bangalore. brunt, a. a., crabtree, k., gibbs, m. j., watson l. and zurcher, e. j. 1996. plant viruses online: description and lists from vide. http://biology.anu.edu. au/group/mes/vide. caranta, c. and palloix, a. 1996. both common and specific genetic factors are involved in phylogenic resistance of pepper to several potyviruses. theor. appl. genet., 92: 15-20. chew, b.h. and ong, c.a., 1990. genetics and b re e d i n g f o r c h i l l i v e i n a l m o t t l e a n d cucumber mosaic virus resistances in hot pepper. malaysian plant protection society. damiri, b. v., al-shahwan, i. m., al-saleh, m. a., abdalla, o. a. a nd amer, m. a. 2013. identification and characterization of cowpea aphid-borne mosaic virus isolates in saudi arabia. j. pl. pathol., 95(1): 79-85. green, s.k. 1991. guidelines for diagnostic work in plant virology. asian vegetable research and development center. tech. bulletin, no. 15, second edition. green, s.k. and kim.j.s.1994. source of resistance t o vir u s es of p epp er ( c a ps i c um s p p. ) : acatalog. avrdc tech. bulletin, p. 20-64. hameed, s., shah, h., ali, h., and khalid, s. 1995. prevalence of chilli viruses in pakistan. fifth national congress of pl. sci., 28-30 march, narc, islamabad. hussain, s., tahira, y.fahim, m., shahid, h., and haque, m.i. 2008. transmission and host range studies of pakistani isolate of chilli veinal mottle virus. pak. j. bot. , 40(6): 2669-2681. jeyarajan, r. and ramakrishnan, k.1969. potato virus y on chilli (capsicum annuum l.) in tamil nadu. madras agric. j., 56: 761-766. joshi, r.d. and dubey, l.n. 1973. assessment of losses due to cmv on chilli. sci. cult., 39: 521-522. kang, k.y., choi, j.i. and la, y.j. 1973. isolation and identification of viruses affecting pepper (capsicum annuum) in korea. j. kor. soc. horti. sci., 13: 35-43. la xmina r a ya na reddy, c. n. 2006. molecula r characterization of chilli veinal mottle virus infecting chilli (capsicum annum l.), ph. d.(agri.) thesis, uas, bengaluru, p. 136. m a r ia p p a n, v. , g ovinda s wa my, c . v. a nd ramakrishnan, s. 1973. studies on the role of weed plants in spread virus diseases. ii role of solanum nigrum in spreading chilli mosa ic vir us a str a in of pota to virus-y. madras agric. j., 60: 120-122. moury, b., palloix, a., caranta, c., gagnalons, p., souche, s., gebre, s. k. and marchoux, g. 2 0 0 5 . s er ologic a l, mole c u la r a nd pathotype diversity of pepper veinal mottle v i r u s a nd c h i l l i v e i n a l m o t t l e v i r u s . phytopathol., 95: 227-232. noordam, d.,1973. dilution end-point determination in: identification of plant viruses: methods and experiments. published by pudoc, center for agricultural publishing and documentation, wageningen, netherlands. ong, c. a., varghese, g. and poh, t. w. 1979. an etiological investigation on a veinal mottle virus of chilli (capsicum annuum l.), newly recorded from peninsular malaysia. malaysian agric. res. dev. inst. (mardi) res. bull., 7: 78-88. ong, c.a.,varghese, g. and poh, t.w.1980. the effect of chilli veinal mottle virus on yield of chilli (capsicum annuum l.). mardi res. bulletin, 8: 74-79. ong, c.a., va rghese, g. and tingwen, p. 1979. aetiological investigation on a veinal mottle virus of chilli (capsicum annuum l.) newly recorded from peninsular malaysia, mardi res. bulletin., 7: 278-288. praful et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 417-423, 2022 423 pandurangegowda, k. t. and reddy, h. r. 1989. aphid transmitted viruses infesting chilli. curr. res., 18: 71-72. prasad rao, r. d. v. j. and yaraguntaiah, r. c. 1979. a key for diagnosis of some chilli mo saic vi ruse s. my sur u j . a gri c. sci . , 13: 442-445. sastry, k. m. s. and singh, s. j. 1976. assessment of losses in tomato caused by tomato leaf curl virus. indian j. mycol. pl. pathol., 3: 50-54. sa t ya pr a ka sh a nd s ingh, s . j. 20 06. insect tr ansmitted viruses of peppers. veg. sci. 33(2): 109-116. siriwong, p., kittipakam, k. and lkega ru, m. 1995. characterization of chilli vein banding m o t t l e v i r u s is ola t ed f r om p ep p er in thailand. pl. pathol., 49: 710-727. villalon, b.1975. virus diseases of bell pepper in south texas. pl. dis. rep., 59: 858-862. yoon, j.y., green, s.k., tschanz, a. t., tsou, s.c.s. and chang, l.c.1989. pepper improvement for the tr opics, pr oblems a nd the avrdc approach. in: tomato and pepper production in the tropics. (eds.) s.k. green, t.d. griggs and b.t. mclean, b.t.: proceeding of the inter na tiona l symposium on integr a ted management practices 21-26 march 1998, tanian, taiwan, pp. 86-98. epidemiology of chivmv and loss assessment in capsicum j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 417-423, 2022 (received : 04.11.2021; revised : 27.11.2022; accepted : 04.12.2022) page 109 combining ability studies in muskmelon (cucumis melo l.) rukam s. tomar and m. k. bhalala main vegetable research station anand agricultural university, anand, gujarat, india e-mail: rukam@rediffmail.com abstract the parent hara madhu in e 1, amm-01-18 and amm-02 -26 in e 2 and amm-01-18, amm-02-26 and hara madhu on pooled basis exhibited positive and significant gca effects for fruit yield per plant. thus these three parents appeared to be good general combiners for fruit yield. out of these parents amm-01-18 had a good combining ability for fruit yield per plant, number of primary branches, number of fruits per plant, fruit weight, moisture content, total soluble solids, acidity and total soluble sugars on pooled basis. specific combining ability effects for fruit yield and yield attributing traits revealed significant and positive sca effects in fourteen crosses for number of primary branches per plant, nine for fruit length, twelve for fruit girth, ten for fruits per plant, eleven for fruit weight, nine for fruit yield per plant, eleven for flesh thickness, nine for moisture content, twenty for total soluble solids, twenty for acidity and fifteen for total soluble sugars data in the desired direction in pooled analysis. however, some crosses like amm-01-18 x amm-02-26, hara madhu x rm-50 and amm01-18 x dm-1 exhibited significant sca effects for fruit yield per plant over environments along with some of the component traits in different environments. key words: gca, sca introduction muskmelon, cucumis melo l. with diploid chromosome number, 2n = 24 belongs to the family cucurbitaceae. persia and the transcaucasus are believed to be the main centres of origin and development of muskmelon with a secondary centre including the northwest provinces of india and afghanistan. although truly wild forms of cucumis melo have not been found, several related wild species have been observed in those regions. the early travellers introduced it to europe from where it moved the usa. at present, muskmelon is being cultivated throughout the world under both tropical and subtropical climatic conditions. in breeding high-yielding varieties of crop plant the breeder is often faced with the problem of selecting parents and crosses. combining ability analysis is one of the powerful tools available, which gives an estimate of combining ability effect and aids in selecting desirable parents and crosses for further exploitation. the common approach of selecting parents on the basis of per se performance does not necessarily lead to fruitful results (allard, 1960). selection of the best parents for hybridization has to be based on complete genetic information. knowledge of combining ability estimates gives information about the genetic architecture of the parents. with this aim in view, the present investigation was undertaken to identify the best combiners among the existing germplasm in 10 x 10 diallel set to facilitate the formulation of a sound breeding programme of this crop. material and methods ten varieties of muskmelon, viz., punjab sunehri, pusa madhuras, amm00-25, amm00-11, amm0118, dm-1, amm02-26, pmm96-20, hara madhu and rm-50 were crossed in all possible combinations, excluding reciprocals. the resulting 45 f 1 hybrids alongwith their parents were grown in randomized block design with three replications at a spacing of 150 cm (row to row) and 90 cm (plant to plant) in plots of size 6m x 4.5 m. observations were taken on 10 selected plants from each plot in two environments created by different sowing dates (e 1 =15th october, 2003 and e 2 =15th february, 2004). all the recommended cultural practices were followed during experimentation. observations were recorded on number of the node on which the first female flower appeared, j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 109-115, 2006 page 110 days to first open female flower, number of primary branches per plant, days to first harvest, fruit length (cm), fruit girth (cm), number of fruits per plant, fruit weight (g), fruit yield per plant (kg), flesh thickness (cm), moisture content (%), total soluble solids (tss %), acidity (%) and total soluble sugars (mg g-1). data were statistically analysed for the study of combining ability, by method 2, model 1 of griffing (1956). table 1. parental lines and their source variety/genotype source punjab sunehri pau, ludhiana pusa madhuras iari, new delhi amm00-25 aau, anand amm00-11 aau, anand amm01-18 aau, anand dm-1 iari, new delhi amm02-26 aau, anand pmm96-20 pantnagar hara madhu pau, ludhiana rn-50 durgapura results and discussion mean squares due to gca and sca were found significant for all the traits across environments except gca mean square for fruit yield per plant in e 1 . these results suggest the importance of both additive and non-additive gene action for different traits studied during the two different seasons. further, the variance ratio of gca : sca indicated that non-additive gene action was greater for all the traits under study. the potence ratio of both the components of genetic variance was below one (unity) for all the characters except fruit girth and moisture content in e 1 which suggests that specific combining ability effects were more pronounced for inheritance of most traits. the predictivity ratio of variance was estimated below 0.5 for all the characters in each environment indicating that variance due to specific combining ability was predominant for genetic control for all the traits. general combining ability effects for fruit yield and yield components were estimated between the environments as well as over the environments for parents (table 2). the top three good combiners for fruit yield and yield attributing traits with respect to mean performance in each environment were identified and are presented in table 3. the consideration of per se performance of parents in combination with their gca effects was reported to provide a better criteria for choice of superior parents in hybridization programs. in the present investigation, per se performance of the parents for different characters was generally related to the gca effects for the number of the node on which first female flower appeared, number of primary branches, days to first harvesting, fruit girth and number of fruits per plant. in muskmelon, fruit yield is a complex trait, hence direct selection for this trait is not usually effective. several workers (swamy, 1985; randhawa and singh, 1990) have reported that the number of fruits, average fruit weight, number of the node on the main stem, number of primary branches and fruit shape index are the important component traits of fruit yield in muskmelon. these component traits are expected to have greater variability, heritability and a positive association with fruit yield. selection based on these important traits may be effective in improving this complex trait of fruit yield. general combining ability of parents for the characters studied are presented in table 2, a perusal of which indicates that none of the parents were good general combiners for all the characters in an individual environment and in pooled analysis. further, table 2 revealed that the parents hara madhu in e 1, amm-01-18 and amm-02 -26 in e 2 and amm-01-18 and amm-02-26, on pooled basis, exhibited positive and significant gca effects for fruit yield per plant. thus, these three parents were observed to be good general combiners for fruit yield. parent amm-01-18 was a good combiner not only for fruit yield per plant but also for number of primary branches, number of fruits per plant, fruit weight, moisture content, total soluble solids, acidity and total soluble sugars on pooled basis. similarly, parent hara madhu was also a good combiner for the number of node on which first female flower appeared, days to first harvesting, number of fruits per plant, acidity and total soluble sugars. however, parent amm-02-26 was a good combiner for fruit yield peer plant but was average or poor combiner for the remaining traits in pooled analysis. in addition to this, parent amm-00-11 also seems to be a good combiner for days to first open female flower, number of primary branches, total soluble solids, moisture content, acidity and total soluble sugars. in a crosspollinated crop like muskmelon, specific combining ability effects are of great importance because they are mostly related to dominance gene effects which could be utilized for the development of hybrid varieties. moreover, if a cross combination having at least one parent as a good general combiner exhibits high sca effect in addition to high per se performance, it is expected that such a cross combination would throw up desirable transgressive segregants in later generations. in muskmelon, such type of combinations could be utilized for the development of improved cultivars. further, cross combinations involving j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 109-115, 2006 tomar & bhalala 110 page 111 parent days to first harvesting fruit length fruit girth e 1 e 2 p e 1 e 2 p e 1 e 2 p punjab sunehri 2.17 ** -0.14 1.02 ** -0.28 -0.59 * -0.70 ** -1.49 ** -2.45 ** -1.97 ** pusa madhuras 0.53 0.26 0.40 0.53 ** -0.49 0.02 2.39 ** -1.54 ** 0.42 amm-00-25 -0.38 -0.61 ** -0.50 * 0.78 ** 0.39 0.58 ** 0.95 ** 1.82 ** 1.38 ** amm-00-11 0.23 0.36 * 0.29 -0.28 0.74 ** 0.23 -0.90 ** -0.14 -0.52 * amm-01-18 0.03 0.80 ** 0.42 0.19 -0.66 * -0.24 -0.84 ** 1.15 ** 0.15 dm-1 -0.11 -0.35 * -0.23 0.47 * -0.13 0.17 1.31 ** -0.36 0.47 * amm-02-26 -0.80 0.02 -0.39 -0.49 ** 0.77 ** 0.14 -0.60 ** 0.81 0.11 pmm-96-20 -1.08 * -0.45 * -0.77 ** 0.38 * -0.39 0.00 0.83 ** 0.16 0.50 * hara madhu -1.13 * -0.15 -0.64 * -0.33 * -0.36 * -0.35 * -0.57 ** -0.24 -0.40 rm-50 0.53 0.26 0.40 -0.44 * 0.73 ** 0.15 -1.07 ** 0.80 -0.14 se (g i ) ± 0.48 0.18 0.25 0.19 0.28 0.17 0.18 0.43 0.23 se (g i – g j ) ± 0.39 0.27 0.38 0.29 0.42 0.25 0.28 0.65 0.35 c.d. (p=0.05) 0.94 0.35 0.49 0.37 0.55 0.33 0.35 0.84 0.45 c.d. (p=0.01) 1.24 0.46 0.65 0.49 0.72 0.44 0.46 1.11 0.59 parent number of fruits per plant fruit weight fruit yield per plant e 1 e 2 p e 1 e 2 p e 1 e 2 p punjab sunehri 0.33 * -0.35 ** -0.01 -47.37 ** -31.29 * -39.33 ** -0.01 -0.31 ** -0.16 ** pusa madhuras -0.34 * -0.03 -0.19 ** 25.10 * -36.31 * -5.60 -0.05 -0.13 -0.09 * amm-00-25 -0.43 * -0.17 * -0.30 ** 18.10 13.80 15.95 -0.07 -0.08 -0.07 amm-00-11 0.16 -0.10 0.03 -28.38 ** 23.80 -2.29 -0.04 -0.02 -0.03 amm-01-18 0.30 0.10 0.20 * 1.40 51.97 ** 26.69 * 0.07 0.23 ** 0.15 ** dm-1 -0.08 0.10 0.01 -8.43 -38.42 * -23.42 * -0.05 0.01 -0.02 amm-02-26 -0.21 0.32 ** 0.06 -9.51 35.08 12.79 -0.06 0.34 ** 0.14 ** pmm-96-20 0.15 -0.04 0.05 -1.95 28.45 13.25 0.06 0.01 0.03 hara madhu 0.29 0.23 ** 0.26 ** 30.62 ** 0.69 15.66 0.17 ** 0.12 0.14 ** rm-50 -0.17 -0.06 -0.11 20.42 -47.78 ** -13.68 0.00 -0.17 * -0.09 * se (g i ) ± 0.17 0.07 0.09 10.48 18.35 10.57 0.05 0.07 0.04 se (g i – g j ) ± 0.25 0.11 0.13 15.62 27.36 15.75 0.08 0.11 0.07 c.d. (p=0.05) 0.33 0.14 0.18 20.54 35.97 20.72 0.10 0.14 0.08 c.d. (p=0.01) 0.44 0.18 0.23 27.04 47.34 27.27 0.13 0.18 0.10 *, ** significant at 5 and 1 per cent levels, respectively e 1 = 15th october, 2003 e 2 = 15th february, 2004 p = pooled j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 109-115, 2006 combining ability studies in muskmelon 111 table 2. estimates of general combining ability (gca) effects of parents for various characters in muskmelon parent number of the node on which first days to first open female flower number of primary branches female flower appears per plant e 1 e 2 p e 1 e 2 p e 1 e 2 p punjab sunehri 0.19 * -0.26 * -0.04 0.83 ** -0.75 * 0.04 -0.30 ** -0.11 -0.20 ** pusa madhuras 0.06 -0.31 ** -0.12 0.38 -0.60 -0.11 -0.40 ** -0.33 ** -0.37 ** amm-00-25 -0.20 * -0.37 ** -0.28 ** -0.60 ** -0.34 -0.47 * -0.27 ** -0.55 ** -0.41 ** amm-00-11 -0.21 ** 1.14 ** 0.46 ** -0.85 ** -0.77 * -0.81 ** 0.14 0.54 ** 0.47 ** amm-01-18 0.04 0.26 * 0.15 * -0.42 ** 1.98 ** 0.78 ** 0.50 ** 0.48 ** 0.49 ** dm-1 0.19 * -0.24 * -0.02 -0.18 0.92 ** 0.37 * 0.25 ** 0.36 ** 0.31 ** amm-02-26 0.06 0.34 ** 0.20 ** -0.03 1.06 ** 0.51 ** -0.04 -0.12 -0.08 pmm-96-20 0.15 -0.38 ** -0.11 -0.02 0.10 0.04 0.09 0.09 0.09 hara madhu -0.01 -0.50 ** -0.25 ** 0.71 ** -0.82 * -0.06 -0.31 ** -0.50 ** -0.40 ** rm-50 -0.28 ** 0.31 ** 0.02 0.18 -0.79 * -0.30 0.07 0.13 0.10 se (g i ) ± 0.08 0.11 0.07 0.20 0.32 0.19 0.09 0.11 0.07 se (g i – g j ) ± 0.12 0.17 0.10 0.29 0.48 0.28 0.14 0.16 0.10 c.d. (p=0.05) 0.16 0.22 0.14 0.39 0.63 0.37 0.18 0.22 0.14 c.d. (p=0.01) 0.21 0.28 0.18 0.52 0.83 0.49 0.23 0.28 0.18 page 112 good x good combiners and exhibiting significant sca effects indicate a major role of additive type of gene effects, which are fixable. however, two good general combiners may not necessarily throw up good segregants. similarly, in the segregating progenies of superior crosses involving both poor general combiners, very little gain is expected from such cross combinations because the high sca effects obtained may be due to dominance and epistatic gene effects which dissipate the progress towards fixation of heterosis. a critical study of the gca effects of the parents for crosses exhibiting significant desirable sca effects for fruit yield per plant on pooled basis revealed maximum number of elite hybrids to be of good x good, average x average/poor type of combinations (62.5 per cent). in e 1, 60 per cent of the cross combinations registered average x average type of combination, while 50 per cent of the crosses showed average x average type of combination in e 2 . gurav et al (2000) also reported that crosses showing significant sca effects evolved parents with good x good, good x poor and poor x poor combining ability suggesting the presence of additive as well as non-additive gene action in the expression of characters. specific combining ability effects for fruit yield and yield attributing traits revealed that fourteen crosses for the number of primary branches per plant, nine for fruit length, twelve for fruit girth, ten for fruit per plant, eleven for fruit weight, nine for fruit yield per plant, eleven for flesh thickness, nine for moisture content, twenty for total soluble solids, twenty for acidity and fifteen for total soluble depicted significant sca effects in the desired direction in pooled analysis. however, out of these, only eight crossess exhibited significant and positive sca effects for the number of primary branches per plant, two crosses each for fruit length, fruit girth, fruit yield per plant and flesh table 2. contd… parent flesh thickness moisture content total soluble solids e 1 e 2 p e 1 e 2 p e 1 e 2 p punjab sunehri 0.01 -0.02 -0.01 -0.24 -0.39 ** -0.32 ** -1.51 ** 0.15 -0.68 ** pusa madhuras 0.08 * -0.01 0.03 -1.31 ** -0.26 * -0.79 ** 0.78 ** -0.43 ** 0.18 amm-00-25 0.06 -0.01 0.03 0.28 0.01 0.14 0.79 ** -0.34 * 0.23 amm-00-11 0.06 -0.11 ** -0.03 -0.60 ** -0.14 -0.37 ** 0.20 1.23 ** 0.72 ** amm-01-18 -0.04 -0.07 * -0.05 -0.71 ** -0.19 -0.45 ** 0.20 0.35 * 0.27 * dm-1 0.07 0.10 ** 0.08 ** -0.83 ** -0.32 ** -0.58 ** 0.77 ** 0.26 0.52 ** amm-02-26 -0.04 0.06 * 0.01 -0.23 0.03 -0.10 0.35 -0.09 0.13 pmm-96-20 0.01 -0.12 ** -0.05 0.85 ** -0.02 0.42 ** -0.16 -0.27 * -0.22 hara madhu -0.12 ** 0.12 ** 0.00 1.37 ** 0.17 0.77 ** -0.52 * 0.05 -0.23 rm-50 -0.08 * 0.06 * -0.01 1.43 ** 1.11 ** 1.27 ** -0.90 ** -0.92 ** -0.91 ** se (g i ) ± 0.04 0.03 0.03 0.21 0.11 0.12 0.24 0.14 0.14 se (g i – g j ) ± 0.06 0.05 0.04 0.31 0.16 0.17 0.36 0.21 0.21 c.d. (p=0.05) 0.08 0.06 0.06 0.41 0.22 0.24 0.47 0.27 0.27 c.d. (p=0.01) 0.10 0.08 0.08 0.54 0.28 0.31 0.62 0.36 0.36 j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 109-115, 2006 tomar & bhalala 112 parent acidity total soluble sugar e 1 e 2 p e 1 e 2 p punjab sunehri -0.01 -0.02 * -0.02 ** 0.07 0.31 * 0.19 * pusa madhuras 0.00 -0.01 0.00 0.00 0.14 0.07 amm-00-25 0.02 * 0.02 * 0.02 ** -0.14 -0.19 -0.17 * amm-00-11 -0.06 ** -0.04 ** -0.05 ** 0.43 ** 0.47 ** 0.45 ** amm-01-18 -0.02 * -0.02 * -0.02 ** 0.21 0.21 0.21 ** dm-1 0.02 * 0.01 0.02 ** -0.22 * -0.17 -0.20 * amm-02-26 0.04 ** 0.03 ** 0.04 ** -0.24 * -0.42 ** -0.33 ** pmm-96-20 -0.04 ** -0.03 ** -0.04 ** 0.15 0.32 * 0.23 ** hara madhu -0.02 * -0.02 * -0.02 ** 0.36 ** 0.17 0.26 ** rm-50 0.08 ** 0.08 ** 0.08 ** -0.62 ** -0.83 ** -0.72 ** se (g i ) ± 0.01 0.01 0.007 0.11 0.13 0.08 se (g i – g j ) ± 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.16 0.20 0.13 c.d. (p=0.05) 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.22 0.25 0.16 c.d. (p=0.01) 0.03 0.03 0.02 0.28 0.34 0.21 *, ** significant at 5 and 1 per cent levels, respectively e 1 = 15th october, 2003 e 2 = 15th february, 2004 p = pooled page 113 table 3. top three parents with respect to their per se performance and gca effects in desirable direction for various traits in muskmelon characters e 1 e 2 p per se gca per se gca per se gca performance effects performance effects performance effects number of node on which rm50 rm50 punjab sunehri hara madhu amm-00-25 amm-00-25 first female flower appears amm-00-25 amm-00-11 pmm-96-20 pmm-96-20 punjab sunehri hara madhu pusa madhuras amm-00-25 amm-00-25 amm-00-25 pmm-96-20 pusa madhuras days to first female amm-00-25 amm-00-11 pmm-96-20 hara madhu pmm-96-20 amm-00-11 flower open pusa madhuras amm-00-25 punjab sunehri rm50 punjab sunehri amm-00-25 punjab sunehri amm-01-18 amm-02-26 amm-00-11 amm-00-25 rm50 number of primary branches amm-01-18 amm-01-18 amm-01-18 amm-00-11 amm-01-18 amm-01-18 per plant amm-00-11 dm-1 amm-00-11 amm-01-18 amm-00-11 amm-00-11 pmm-96-20 pmm-96-20 dm-1 pmm-96-20 dm-1 days to first harvesting hara madhu hara madhu pmm-96-20 amm-00-25 pmm-96-20 pmm-96-20 pmm-96-20 pmm-96-20 punjab sunehri pmm-96-20 hara madhu hara madhu amm-00-25 dm-1 dm-1 punjab sunehri amm-00-25 fruit length amm-01-18 amm-00-25 rm50 amm-02-26 dm-1 amm-00-25 pusa madhuras pusa madhuras dm-1 amm-00-11 rm50 dm-1 dm-1 hara madhu rm50 hara madhu fruit girth pusa madhuras pusa madhuras rm50 amm-00-25 dm-1 amm-00-25 dm-1 dm-1 amm-00-25 amm-01-18 pusa madhuras pmm-96-20 pmm-96-20 pmm-96-20 dm-1 rm-50 dm-1 number of fruits per plant amm-00-11 punjab sunehri dm-1 amm-02-26 pusa madhuras hara madhu pmm-96-20 hara madhu hara madhu punjab sunehri amm-01-18 punjab sunehri pusa madhuras hara madhu fruit weight amm-01-18 hara madhu pmm-96-20 amm-01-18 amm-02-26 amm-01-18 amm-02-26 pusa madhuras dm-1 pusa madhuras pmm-96-20 amm-01-18 amm-00-25 fruit yield per plant pmm-96-20 hara madhu dm-1 amm-02-26 amm-02-26 amm-01-18 pusa madhuras hara madhu amm-01-18 rm50 amm-02-26 punjab sunehri pusa madhuras pmm-96-20 hara madhu flesh thickness dm-1 pusa madhuras rm50 hara madhu pusa madhuras dm-1 punjab sunehri hara madhu dm-1 amm-02-26 pmm-96-20 amm-02-26 amm-02-26 rm50 rm50 moisture content pusa madhuras pusa madhuras punjab sunehri punjab sunehri amm-00-25 pusa madhuras punjab sunehri dm-1 dm-1 dm-1 punjab sunehri dm-1 amm-01-18 amm-01-18 amm-01-18 pusa madhuras hara madhu amm-01-18 total soluble solids dm-1 amm-00-25 punjab sunehri amm-00-11 amm-01-18 amm-00-11 pmm-96-20 pusa madhuras pusa madhuras amm-01-18 hara madhu dm-1 pusa madhuras dm-1 pmm-96-20 pmm-96-20 amm-01-18 acidity amm-00-25 amm-00-11 amm-00-25 amm-00-11 amm-01-18 amm-00-11 pmm-96-20 pmm-96-20 pusa madhuras pmm-96-20 amm-00-11 pmm-96-20 pusa madhuras amm-01-18 amm-02-26 amm-01-18 amm-02-26 amm-01-18 hara madhu hara madhu hara madhu total soluble sugars amm-00-25 amm-00-11 amm-00-25 amm-00-11 amm-01-18 amm-00-11 pusa madhuras hara madhu pusa madhuras pmm-96-20 amm-00-11 hara madhu amm-02-26 pmm-96-20 punjab sunehri amm-02-26 pmm-96-20 e 1 = 15th october e 2 = 15th february p = pooled j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 109-115, 2006 combining ability studies in muskmelon 113 page 114 thickness, five crosses for moisture content, nine for total soluble solids, fourteen for acidity and ten for total soluble sugars in individual environment and when averaged over environments. the relative ranking of three best crosses over environments on the basis of sca effects and per se performance (table 4) indicating that crosses exhibiting high sca effects would not necessarily give either the highest mean values and vice-versa. further none of the cross combination showed consistently high sca effects for all the characters over environment. however, some crosses like amm-01-18 x amm-02-26, hara madhu x rm-50 and amm-01-18 x dm-1 exhibited significant sca effects for fruit yield per plant over the environments along with some of the component traits in different environments. from the perusal of table 4, it is clear that hybrids hara madhu x rm-50 and amm-01-18 x amm-02-26 are high yielding. hence, these two hybrids were identified as potential hybrids for widespread cultivation and commercial exploitation. the hybrid hara madhu x rm-50 involved parents with good x poor combiners and hybrid amm-0118 x amm-02-26 involved both parents with good table 4. top three hybrids with respect to their sca effects in desirable crosses for various traits in muskmelon on pooled basis character per se performance sca effects number of the node on which first female flower appears amm-01-18 x amm-02-26 amm-01-18 x amm-02-26 p. madhuras x hara madhu amm-00-11 x pmm-96-20 p. madhuras x amm-01-18 p. madhuras x amm-00-11 days to first open female flower amm-01-18 x rm-50 amm-00-11 x rm-50 dm-1 x hara madhu dm-1 x hara madhu amm-00-25 x pmm-96-20 amm-00-25 x rm-50 number of primary branches per plant amm-00-11 x dm-1 dm-1 x rm-50 dm-1 x rm-50 p. madhuras x dm-1 dm-1 x pmm-96-20 amm-00-11 x dm-1 days to first harvesting amm-00-25 x dm-1 amm-00-25 x dm-1 amm-00-25 x amm-02-26 p. sunehri x p. madhuras amm-00-25 x amm-01-18 amm-00-25 x amm-01-18 amm-00-25 x amm-02-26 fruit length amm-00-25 x rm-50 amm-00-25 x rm-50 amm-02-26 x rm-50 amm-02-26 x rm-50 p. madhuras x amm-01-18 p. sunehri x pmm-96-20 fruit girth amm-00-25 x rm-50 amm-01-18 x hara madhu amm-01-18 x hara madhu amm-00-25 x rm-50 amm-01-18 x dm-1 p. sunehri x amm-00-25 number of fruits per plant pmm-96-20 x hara madhu pmm-96-20 x hara madhu amm-01-18 x hara madhu pmm-96-20 x amm-01-18 amm-01-18 x dm-1 amm-00-25 x amm-00-11 fruit weight p. sunehri x amm-00-11 hara madhu x rm-50 hara madhu x rm-50 amm-01-18 x amm-02-26 amm-00-25 x rm-50 amm-00-25 x pmm-96-20 fruit yield per plant hara madhu x rm-50 amm-01-18 x amm-02-26 p. madhuras x amm-00-11 hara madhu x rm-50 p. madhuras x amm-00-25 amm-01-18 x dm-1 flesh thickness amm-00-11 x dm-1 amm-01-18 x pmm-96-20 p. madhuras x pmm-96-20 amm-01-18 x hara madhu p. madhuras x amm-01-18 amm-00-25 x amm-00-11 moisture content dm-1 x rm-50 amm-00-11 x dm-1 p. sunehri x dm-1 amm-00-25 x hara madhu p. sunehri x amm-01-18 amm-00-11 x rm-50 total soluble solids p. madhuras x amm-00-25 p. sunehri x amm-02-26 pmm-96-20 x rm-50 amm-00-11 x pmm-96-20 p. sunehri x pmm-96-20 amm-00-25 x hara madhu acidity p. madhuras x hara madhu dm-1 x pmm-96-20 p. madhuras x rm-50 amm-01-18 x dm-1 pmm-96-20 x rm-50 p. madhuras x hara madhu total soluble sugars p. madhuras x hara madhu dm-1 x pmm-96-20 p. madhuras x amm-00-25 amm-01-18 x dm-1 amm-00-11 x hara madhu amm-01-18 x pmm-96-20 j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 109-115, 2006 tomar & bhalala 114 page 115 combiners for fruit yield per plant indicating the role of additive x additive type of gene action and hence, there is good scope for isolation of high yielding homozygous lines in advanced generations. references allard, r.w. 1960. principles of plant breeding. john wiley and sons inc., new york griffing, b. (1956). the concept of general and specific combining ability in relation to diallele crossing system. austr. biol., 9: 463-493 gurav, s.b. wavhal, k.n. and navale, p.a. 2000. heterosis and combining ability in muskmelon (cucumis melo l.). j. agrl. univ., 25: 149-152 randhawa, k.s. and singh, m.j. 1990. assessment of combining ability, heterosis and genetic variance for fruit quality characters in muskmelon (cucumis melo l.). indian journal of genetics and plant breeding, 50: 127-130 swamy, k.r.m. 1985. studies on improvement for qualitative and quantitative characters in muskmelon (cucumis melo l.). mysore j. agril. sci., 19: 283 (ms received 20 may 2006 revised 30 september 2006) j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 109-115, 2006 combining ability studies in muskmelon 115 introduction common bean (phaseolus vulgaris l.), native to central and south america, is widely cultivated in the temperate and subtropical regions of the globe. it is the most important food legumes in the world; its dry seed contains 21.1% protein, 69.9% carbohydrates, 1.7% fat, 381mg calcium, 425mg phosphorus and 12.4mg iron per 100g edible part (ali and kushwaha, 1987). moreover, it serves as a functional food, as, it contains several bioactive compounds like enzyme inhibitors, lectins, phytates, oligosaccharides and various phenolic substances (diazbatalla et al, 2006). medicinally, it is used for controlling diabetics, certain cardiac conditions, it is a good natural cure for bladder burn and has both carminative and reparative properties against constipation and diarrhoea, respectively (duke, 1981). common bean is considered third in importance after soybean and peanut, but tops in direct consumption by humans (broughton et al, 2003). nutritionally, beans are often called the “poor man’s meat” as these are rich in proteins and minerals (especially iron and zinc), and vitamins (beebe et al, 2000). in humans, iron is essential for preventing anemia, while, zinc is essential for adequate growth, sexual maturation, resistance to gastroenteric and respiratory infections, especially in children (bouis, 2003). morpho-agronomic diversity in pole-type common bean (phaseolus vulgaris l.) landraces from lushai hills of north-east india s.k. dutta, s.b. singh, t. boopathi, a.r. singh and y. ramakrishna icar-rc neh region, mizoram centre kolasib 796 081, india e-mail: sudipiari@rediffmail.com abstract the present study was based on morphological and agronomical characterization of 23 pole-type common bean (phaseolus vulgaris l.) landraces collected from lushai hills of north-east india. extensive variation in plant and seed traits was found in 16 morphological and agronomical characters. cluster analysis based on euclidean distance grouped the genotypes into five main branches, reflecting their growth type and reproductive traits. significant positive or negative correlation was observed among important traits. principal component analysis was used for assessing patterns of variation by accounting for all the 10 quantitative and six qualitative variables together. ordination among accessions showed that the first five principal components had eigen values greater than one, and cumulatively accounted for 72% of the variation. characterization based on quantitative and qualitative traits enabled separation of accessions into various groups representing landraces with distinct characters. key words: common bean, pole-type, north-east india, landraces, principal components, morphological characterization in india, common bean is known by names like ‘rajma’ and ‘french bean’ (green bean), and is grown mainly in north-western himalayan region comprising parts of himachal pradesh and jammu & kashmir, bearing a great diversity of agro-morphological traits like, seed size and colour (kumar et al, 2008). a huge diversity in poletype common bean landraces exists in hilly states of northeast india, particularly in mizoram, cultivated from a long time. in mizoram, beans are primarily grown in the backyard and kitchen gardens for their green pods used as fresh vegetable, and, dried seeds as pulse or for seed purpose. the foliage is used as fodder and to restore soil fertility. in this state, a large pool of common bean landraces was found in farmers’ fields and forest areas. nevertheless, these landraces were being lost to replacement by: high-value crops, drought, jhum fire, and human interference such as deforestation, etc. therefore, a need is felt to characterize, conserve and maintain these landraces to serve as a source of desired traits for future breeding programme, and, to check further genetic erosion. thus, a detailed description of accessions based on morpho-agronomical characters has tremendous bearing on conservation and genetic improvement in this crop. until now, there have been no adequate studies on genetic diversity of pole-type common bean landraces in mizoram, which provides ample scope j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):177-182, 2015 178 for studying variation in morphological and economic traits to be used for improvement of this crop. therefore, the present investigation was aimed at studying vegetative and reproductive variation among pole-type common bean landraces from the north-eastern state of mizoram, india. material and methods twenty three pole-type common bean landraces (table 1) were collected from different districts of mizoram during august-september, 2013. seeds were multiplied and plants were evaluated for qualitative and quantitative traits during september – december 2013. the study was carried out in the experimental field of icar rc neh region, mizoram centre, kolasib district (24.2304°n, 92.6761°e) of mizoram, india, in completely randomized block design, with ten replications. twenty seeds of each genotype were sown at a depth of 3-4cm after field preparation, at a spacing of 40cm (between plants) and 90cm (between rows). irrigation was applied at two-day intervals. mineral fertilization included 50kg n, 75kg p2o5 and 75kg k2o per hectare. ipgri (1982) descriptor for phaseolus vulgaris was used for morphological description, and the traits assessed are listed in table 2. the quantitative variables evaluated were: number of flowers per plant, leaf length, leaf breadth, pod length, number of pods per plant, pod yield, number of seeds per pod, days to flowering, no. of nodes on main stem from base to first inflorescence, and number of flower buds per inflorescence. qualitative variables studied were: colour of freshly-opened flower, pod colour, pod crosssection, pod curvature, seed-coat colour, and seed shape. statistical analysis was based on descriptive analysis (sas 9.3), hierarchical cluster analysis (using the method of mean linkage in upgma with which dendogram was constructed). correlation analysis and principal component analysis (pca) was done using princomp procedure of sas 9.3. results and discussion twenty three landraces of common bean were collected from across the state of mizoram including backyards of farmers and roadside markets. of all the landraces, mzfb-43 and mzfb-47 were rare in occurrence and distinct, with purple coloured pods (fig. 1). pod yield ranged between 118.43 g/plant (mzfb-29) and 49.47 g/ plant (mzfb-28). descriptive statistics of 10 quantitative table 1. french bean landraces from mizoram, their source, frequency of occurrence and yield s. accession source frequency yield no. (g/plant) 1. mzfb-27 roadside market frequent 91.37 2. mzfb-28 roadside market frequent 49.47 3. mzfb-29 roadside market frequent 118.43 4. mzfb-32 backyard of farmer frequent 87.50 5. mzfb-36 roadside market frequent 67.37 6. mzfb-38 roadside market frequent 66.93 7. mzfb-40 backyard of farmer frequent 83.23 8. mzfb-41 backyard of farmer frequent 91.90 9. mzfb-42 backyard of farmer frequent 106.20 10. mzfb-43 sel. from ic-595238 rare 108.70 (purple colour pod) 11. mzfb-44 backyard of farmer frequent 53.40 12. mzfb-45 roadside market frequent 89.67 13. mzfb-47 sel. from ic-595238 rare 98.77 (purple colour pod) 14. mzfb-48 backyard of farmer frequent 84.97 15. mzfb-49 roadside market frequent 96.03 16. mzfb-50 backyard of farmer frequent 60.20 17. mzfb-51 backyard of farmer frequent 65.10 18. mzfb-52 backyard of farmer frequent 53.37 19. mzfb-53 roadside market frequent 65.43 20. mzbf-70 backyard of farmer frequent 93.97 21. mzfb-74 roadside market frequent 60.37 22. mzfb-76 backyard of farmer frequent 86.70 table 2. list of morphological traits assessed during vegetative growth (assessment done in accordance with ipgri recommendations, with some modification) sl. trait score code-descriptor state no. 1. nf: number of 20-40=1; 40-60=2; >60=3 flowers per plant 2. ll: leaf length 10-15=1; 15-20=2 3. lb: leaf breadth 6-8cm=1; >8cm=2 4. pl: pod length 5-8cm=1; 8-11cm=2; >11cm=3 5. np: number of 5-15=1; 15-25=2 pods per plant 6. py: pod yield 40-60g/plant=1; 60-80g/plant=2; >80g/plant=3 7. ns: number of 4-6=1; 6-8=2; 8-10=3; >10=4 seeds per pod 8. df: days to flowering <45 days=1; 46-60 days=2 9. nb: no. of nodes on 3-4=1; >5=2 the main stem from base to 1st inflorescence 10. fbi: no. of flower 1-2=1; 3-4=2; >4=3 buds/inflorescence 11. cf: colour of white=1; lilac=2; white with freshly opened flower red stripes=3; purple=4 12. pc: pod color dark purple=1; purple stripe on green=2; normal green=3 13. pcs: pod cross-section pear shaped=1; round/elliptic=2 14. pcu: pod curvature slightly curved=1; curved=2 15. sc: seed-coat color black=1; brown (pale to dark)=2; pale creamy=3 16. ss: seed shape cuboid=1; kidney shaped=2 dutta et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):177-182, 2015 179 flowering, number of nodes on the main stem from the base to the first inflorescence, pod curvature, seed-coat color, etc. cluster ii consisted of a single landrace, mzfb-29, having the highest recorded leaf length (18cm), leaf breadth table 3. descriptive statistics of 10 quantitative parameters in 23 common bean landraces variable mean variance minimum maximum t value pr > |t| nf 43.50 138.79 20.33 61.33 17.70 <.0001 ll 15.40 2.94 12.00 18.00 43.10 <.0001 lb 10.41 0.99 8.00 12.77 49.97 <.0001 pl 11.24 3.27 8.13 14.63 29.82 <.0001 np 13.02 17.25 7.67 23.67 15.04 <.0001 py 80.59 372.96 49.47 118.43 20.01 <.0001 ns 5.69 1.91 4.17 10.77 19.75 <.0001 df 49.43 7.34 43.00 54.00 87.46 <.0001 nb 5.25 0.56 3.80 6.70 33.42 <.0001 fbi 3.42 0.25 2.70 4.20 32.47 <.0001 nf= no. of flowers per plant, ll= leaf length, lb= leaf breadth, pl= pod length, np= no. of pods per plant, py= pod yield, ns= no. of seeds per pod, df= days to flowering, nb= no. of nodes on the main stem from the base to the first inflorescence, fbi= no. of flower buds/ inflorescence fig. 1. distinct pod, flower and seed, respectively, of mzfb-43 (a, b and c) and mzfb-47 (d, e and f) parameters among the 23 common bean landraces revealed that all the parameters had a highly significant (p< .0001%) variation among them (table 3). number of flowers averaged 43.5 and ranged from 20.33 (mzfb-52) to 61.33 (mzfb-45). leaf length averaged 15.4cm, with a range of 12cm (mzfb-74) to 18cm (mzfb-29). average leaf breadth was 10.41cm, and ranged from 8cm (mzfb-74) to 12.77cm (mzfb-29). pod length averaged 11.24cm, with a range of 8.13cm (mzfb-43) to 14.63cm (mzfb-29). average number of pods per plant was 13.02, and ranged from 7.67 (mzfb-51 and 52) to 23.67 (mzfb-38). pod yield averaged 80.59g/plant, and ranged from 49.47g/plant (mzfb-28) to 118.43g/plant (mzfb-29). number of seeds per pod averaged 5.69, and varied from 4.17 (mzfb-45) to 10.77 (mzfb-29). average days to flowering were 49.43, and ranged from 43 (mzfb-45) to 54 days (mzfb-51 and 52). number of nodes on the main stem from the base to the first inflorescence averaged 5.25, and varied from 3.8 (mzfb-28) to 6.7 (mzfb-40). number of flower buds/ inflorescence averaged 3.42, and ranged from 2.7 (mzfb43) to 4.2 (mzfb-30, 44 and 74). in fig. 1 are depicted the distinct pod, flower and seed, respectively, of mzfb-43 (a, b and c) and mzfb-47 (d, e and f). our results prove that landraces of common bean, grown by farmers in the lushai hill region of northeast india, are valuable sources of genetic variation for breeding in this crop. this variation is due to inherent genetic differences among landraces grown throughout this area. morphologically, common bean differs in its growth habit (singh, 1982), vegetative characters, and flower, pod and seed traits (singh et al, 1991a, b) useful in selection in breeding programmes. besides, this result was expected, as, landraces are a result of decades of natural and artificial selection by the farmer for a better adaptation to the local growing conditions, with different types being preferred by farmers in various regions (harlan, 1976). similar findings were reported by stoilova et al (2013), where landraces were evaluated for 16 morphological characters, and considerable variation was found among genotypes. a majority of landraces had white seed-colour, but some also had cream, purple, and white with red colour around the hilum. the predominant seed-shape was long, but three accessions had round seeds. based on euclidean distance, five clusters were formed which, in turn, fell into sub-groups, as depicted in fig. 2. number of genotypes in the clusters varied from one (cluster ii) to eight (cluster iv). cluster i was predominant in landraces with similar number of days to fig. 2. grouping of common bean landraces on the basis of morphological traits: prior to clustering data, variable rescaling was done for comparability; hierarchical cluster analysis: distance calculation method “euclidean”, hierarchical cluster analysis method “ward”; based on euclidean distance (7.856), 5 clusters were formed j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):177-182, 2015 morpho-agronomic diversity in pole-type common bean 180 (12.77), pod yield (118.43 g/plant) and number of seeds per pod (10.77). cluster iii grouped three accessions with similar traits like normal, green pod-color, pear-shaped pod crosssection, and brown (pale to dark) seed-coat color. cluster iv was dominated by kidney-shaped seeds and whitecoloured freshly-opened flowers. slightly curved pod, pod length 8-11cm and 4-6 seeds per pod were the dominant traits in cluster v. traits that showed highest difference among clusters were those related to reproduction, like pod yield, number of flowers per plant, number of pods per plant, etc. characterization based on qualitative traits enable separation of the accessions into various groups representing accessions from different geographical areas of the country (beyene, 2013). consequently, our results can give an index for identifying characters helpful for characterizing common bean. pearson correlation coefficients of quantitative variables in 23 common bean landraces are presented in table 4. a significant (p <0.05%) positive correlation was found between number of flowers per plant and pod yield, while, a significant (p <0.05%) negative correlation was found between number of flowers per plant and days taken to flowering. leaf length exhibited a highly significant (p <0.01%) positive correlation with leaf breadth, pod length and number of seeds per pod, while, number of pods per plant showed a significant (p <0.05%) negative correlation for this trait. leaf breadth showed a highly significant (p <0.01%) positive correlation with pod length and number of seeds per pod. pod length and number of seeds per pod, number of pods per plant, pod yield, pod yield and number of seed per pod exhibited a highly significant (p <0.01%) positive correlation. a strong correlation between these traits allows selection of the related trait/s interchangeably in a breeding programme. if two strongly correlated traits are desired, both can be selected simultaneously, based on one of the traits (okii et al, 2014). miko (2008) reported strongly correlated traits to be possibly under the influence of the same genes or showed pleiotropic effects. principal component analysis was used for assessing patterns of variation, by accounting for all the 10 quantitative and 6 qualitative variables together. also, eigen vectors, eigen values, differences, proportions and cumulative percentages of variation were explained by the principal components. ordination among accessions showed the first five principal components as having eigen values greater than one, and these cumulatively accounted for 72% of the variation (table 5). the first component alone explained 21% of the total variation and was mainly associated with characters such as pod length, number of seeds per pod, leaf length, leaf breadth and pod yield. the second principal component explained 19% of the variation and was associated with number of pods per plant and number of flowers per plant. the third principal component explained 12% of the variation, and was associated with pod curvature, pod color, number of nodes on the main stem from the base to the first inflorescence, and seed-coat color. the fourth and fifth principal components together explained 20% of the variation, and were associated with seed shape, pod curvature, number of nodes on the main stem from the base to the first inflorescence, and seed-coat color. our study revealed that the first five principal components had eigen values greater than one, and cumulatively accounted for 72% of the variation. the first component explained 21%, second 19%, third 12%, and, fourth and fifth combined 20% of the total variation. principal component analysis has been applied for studying germplasm collections in several species, table 4. pearson correlation coefficients of quantitative variables in 23 common bean landraces nf ll lb pl np py ns df nb fbi nf 1 0.11 0.07 0.27 0.37 0.52* 0.25 (-0.48)* 0.17 0.30 ll 1 0.83** 0.62** (-0.43)* 0.13 0.54** 0.25 -0.20 -0.02 lb 1 0.54** -0.33 0.09 0.60** 0.14 -0.36 -0.11 pl 1 -0.35 0.41 0.55** 0.18 -0.03 0.11 np 1 0.53** 0.02 (-0.42)* 0.35 0.25 py 1 0.59** -0.16 0.25 0.42* ns 1 0.24 -0.07 0.19 df 1 -0.15 -0.03 nb 1 0.05 fbi 1 nf= no. of flowers per plant, ll= leaf length, lb= leaf breadth, pl= pod length, np= no. of pods per plant, py= pod yield, ns= no. of seeds per pod, df= days to flowering, nb= no. of nodes on the main stem from the base to the first inflorescence, fbi= no. of flower buds/ inflorescence *significant at 5%, **significant at 1% dutta et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):177-182, 2015 181 including horticultural and arboreal species (iezzoni and pritts, 1991; pe´rez-gonza´lez, 1992; badenes et al, 1998; mars and marrakchi, 1999; leguizamo´n and badenes, 2003). principal component analysis allows better comprehension of relations, correlations and significance among the variables studied; applied to the germplasm collections, it shows the structure of a collection by identifying the most relevant variables, relationship among accessions, and, identification of possible mistakes. to assess the score of individual landraces, principal component 1 and principal component 2 are plotted in fig. 3. landraces mzfb-27, mzfb-30, mzfb-38, mzfb-40, mzfb-42, mzfb-45 and mzfb-48 occupied the right top corner of the plot, indicating higher scores for principal component 1. these clustered genotypes have positive scores for pod length, number of seeds per pod, leaf length, leaf breadth and pod yield. also, landraces mzfb-28, mzfb-32, mzfb36, mzfb-51, mzfb-43 and mzfb-70 occupied the left top corner of the plot, indicating higher scores for principal component 2 with similar number of pods per plant and number of flowers per plant. characterization based on quantitative and qualitative traits enables separation of accessions into different groups representing landraces with distinct characteristics. therefore, the present finding can help identify characters necessary to characterize common bean landraces. a broad genetic diversity of common bean landraces exists in mizoram state of india. the germplasm clustered into five major groups, with the most variations attributed to days to flowering, node number on the main stem from the base to first inflorescence, pod curvature, seed-coat colour, pod yield, number of seeds per pod, etc. these traits can be used for characterization; conservation and breeding in common bean landraces. similarity in clustering and correlation information on phenotypic traits can be used for parent selection in breeding programmes. these results show the use of morpho-agronomic information for characterization of common bean landraces of mizoram. references ali, m. and kushwaha, b.l. 1987. cultivation of rabi rajmah in plains. indian farming, 31:20-23 badenes, m.l., martý´nez-calvo, j. and lla´cer, g. 1998. analysis of apricot germplasm from the european eco-geographical group. euphytica, 102:93-99 beebe, s., gonzalez, a.v. and rengifo, j. 2000. research on trace minerals in the common bean. food nutr. bull., 21:387-391 beyene, t.m. 2013. morpho-agronomical characterization of taro (colocasia esculenta) accessions in ethiopia. plant, 1:1-9 bouis, h.e. 2003. micronutrient fortification of plants through plant breeding: can it improve nutrition in man table 5. component scores, eigen values, differences, proportions and cumulative percentage of variation explained by the first five principal components (pc) in common bean landraces trait pc 1 pc 2 pc 3 pc 4 pc 5 lb 0.371 -0.296 -0.044 -0.066 0.190 pl 0.432 -0.141 0.055 0.113 0.019 np -0.037 0.452 0.193 -0.186 0.044 nf 0.281 0.350 0.025 -0.117 0.261 ll 0.383 -0.301 0.067 0.021 0.165 py 0.337 0.284 0.198 -0.154 -0.233 ns 0.396 -0.093 0.269 -0.225 -0.125 df 0.002 -0.343 0.192 -0.115 -0.266 nb -0.027 0.257 0.365 0.394 -0.119 fbi 0.160 0.215 0.122 0.008 -0.337 cf 0.217 0.254 -0.437 0.159 -0.166 pc -0.300 -0.221 0.380 -0.148 0.087 pcs -0.092 0.100 0.210 -0.499 0.152 pcu -0.007 -0.090 0.417 0.433 -0.286 sc 0.043 0.142 0.313 0.104 0.527 ss 0.040 0.021 0.032 0.441 0.420 eigen value 3.47 3.15 1.95 1.83 1.25 difference 0.31 1.19 0.12 0.57 proportion 0.21 0.19 0.12 0.11 0.09 cumulative 0.21 0.41 0.53 0.65 0.72 lb= leaf breadth, pl= pod length, np= no. of pods per plant, nf= no. of flowers per plant, ll= leaf length, py= pod yield, ns= no. of seeds per pod, df= days to flowering, nb= no. of nodes on the main stem from the base to the first inflorescence, fbi= no. of flower buds/ inflorescence, cf= colour of freshly-opened flower, pc= pod color, pcs= pod cross-section, pcu= pod curvature, sc= seed-coat color, ss= seed shape fig. 3. representation of common bean landraces in a space defined by the first two principal components (principal components 1 vs. principal components 2) morpho-agronomic diversity in pole-type common bean j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):177-182, 2015 182 at low cost? procs. nutr. soc., 62:403-411 broughton, w.j., hernandez, g., blair, m.w., beebe, s.e., gepts, p. and vanderleyden, j. 2003. beans (phaseolus spp.): model food legumes. plant soil, 252:55-128 díaz-batalla, l., widholm, j.m., fahey, g.c. jr., castañotostado, e. and paredes-lópez, o. 2006. chemical components with health implications in wild and cultivated mexican common bean seeds (phaseolus vulgaris l.). j. agril. food chem., 54:2045-2052 duke, j.a. 1981. handbook of world economic importance. usda, beltsville, maryland, plenum press, new york and london harlan, j.r. 1976. our vanishing genetic resources. science, 188:618-621 iezzoni, 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gepts, p. 2014. morphological diversity of tropical common bean germplasm. afr. crop sci. j., 22:59-67 pe´rez-gonza´lez, s. 1992. associations among morphological and phenological characters representing apricot germplasm in central mexico. j. amer. soc. hortl. sci., 117:486-490 singh, s.p. 1982. a key for identification of different growth habits of frijol, phaseolus vulgaris l. annual report, bean improvement cooperative, u.s.a., 25:92-95 singh, s.p., gepts, p. and debouck, d.g. 1991a. races of common bean (phaseolus vulgaris, fabaceae). econ. bot., 45:379-396 singh, s.p., gutierrez, j., molina, a., urrea, c. and gepts, p. 1991b. genetic diversity in cultivated common bean. ii. marker-based analysis of morphological and agronomic traits. crop sci., 31:23-29 stoilova, t., pereira, g. and tavares-de-sousa, m. 2013. morphological characterization of a small common bean (phaseolus vulgaris l.) collection under different environments. j. centr. europ. agr., 14:1-11 (ms received 27 november 2014, revised 18 may 2015, accepted 02 july 2015) dutta et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):177-182, 2015 horticulture crop sector comprising of fruits, vegetables, ornamental and medicinal plants, mushrooms and plantation crops has emerged as a key sector of indian economy in the recent past. with two-fold increase in area coupled with four-fold increase in production, fruits and vegetables have shown that these could add value not only to the nutritional security but also to the income and employment security of rural population. however, increased production of horticultural produce has resulted in increased marketable surplus and hence resulted in increased market arrivals and associated market lead risks. horticultural crops, especially fruits, vegetables and flowers being highly seasonal and perishable, pose difficulties in their disposal and often lead to frequent market gluts and associated distress sale for producers. market information system for horticultural crops: web application development for interactive graphs m.k. chandra prakash, reena rosy thomas1, sudha mysore, g. vadivel and rasika thaker section of economics and statistics indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bangalore 560 089, india email: mk_chandraprakash@yahoo.com abstract marketing information service has been recognized as key for success in marketing of perishable commodities. effort has been made to improve access to market information to all stakeholders involved in marketing of horticultural crops. current study is an attempt in this direction to review various modes of such information support and also to highlight the effort made by premier institution like indian institute of horticultural research. web application has been developed for market information to display the data as interactive graphs. data for the study includes the month-wise arrival and price information of different horticultural commodities from different markets for a period of ten years. this is collected from primary sources such as district -wise, marketwise and secondary sources such as nhb, nhrdf etc., the data were tabulated and uploaded to microsoft sql server database through customized cms module. further, the price arrival data has been translated to the interactive charts by programs developed using microsoft visual studio. net technologies, which is a relatively new addition to iihr website. interactive charts are used for drilling down for more information on price and arrivals. it consists of several interactive components like zoom, compare etc. zoom component of the chart enables the user to zoom the graph to read the price trend prevailed in market in detail, which cannot be possible on basic chart. the compare option allows user to compare price data with several other markets. the farmers and traders will get the advantage of taking precise decisions regarding choice of time and place for sale of their produce using this information system. further, lean, peak stabilization periods prevailing in various markets enable farmers to schedule the cultivation plans. key words: horticulture, competitiveness, comparative advantage, interactive chart, price, arrival and markets realizing the need to provide access to markets and to help producers for higher share in consumers’ rupee, efforts have been made to create requisite market infrastructure closer to production centres. effort has also been on to improve access to market information to all stakeholders involved in marketing of horticultural crops. day to day price fluctuations for some of the vegetables like tomato are so steep that often makes it uneconomical for producers even to harvest the produce. while much has been accomplished in augmenting the production risks in case of horticultural crops through improved technologies and other package of practices, marketing is still in the hands of few exploitative traders and middlemen. in a market network, flow of physical goods is in the forward direction, while the flow of money and information is in opposite 1project co-ordinator (tropical fruits) cell, iihr, bangalore short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 6(1):76-83, 2011 77 direction. a typical marketing network of horticultural crops is thus dominated by pre-harvest contractors and commission agents, who not only assist the marketing process through assembling and forwarding, but also hold key information about the arrivals and price movements there by managing a hold on the entire marketing transaction. the marketing networks of horticultural crops are long with a number of market intermediaries, each adding cost and claiming margin, there by reducing the producers share in final consumers’ rupee. access to market information, often referred to as market intelligence or marketing information service, has been recognized as the key for success in marketing of perishable commodities. the data for this study was collected from different markets for a period of ten years (1993-94 to 2006-07) from primary and secondary sources including nhb, nhrdf besides primary market centres. the month wise arrival and price data, thus collected were then uploaded to ms sql database through customized content management module, in market-wise, month-wise and crop-wise. the advantage of ms sql server database is it can accommodate millions of records and easily be retrieved. the sql stored procedures are embedded in website’s market information system module, which enables the data retrieval as text and graph as well, using component art software. market information graphical display, primarily uses two major files, one for forms and objects and other for program codes. program modules were developed using microsoft visual studio.net‘s c# (c sharp) programming language. in appropriate location, component art modules were also called as sub-program to enable the graphical display. database connection has been established using data bind modules, while label style and high speed rendering for graph display were developed using component art’s label style and geometric engine, respectively. similarly for drawing graph, comparing graphs zooming a graph, table view for predefined periods separate modules were developed and embedded in appropriate controls to execute the same. the entire graph in this module has been used with two dimensional projection systems component art charting software has been used for developing the market information system (mis). it is a comprehensive set of charting components designed to deliver highly interactive visualization of business data, featuring brilliant rendering, interactive drill-downs, with built-in zooming & scrolling. the software is also equipped to handle extremely large datasets and integration with the powerful calcengine data processing control. bar & column charts has been used for plotting discrete (or ‘discontinuous’) data, providing an effective visualization for a sequence of values. bar charts are displayed in horizontal orientation for depicting into various markets, while columns or line graphs in vertical orientation for price movement. line charts have been used to capture the trends in data over different time intervals; for the nature of the pattern being followed line graphs are appropriate. extensive designtime capabilities of the software are programmed within microsoft’s visual studio ide. all controls include custom design ui panels, enables quick customization and designtime preview. programmes have been developed to support embedded visualizations and gridview’s data panel, and dynamic visualizations of tabular data. by utilizing virtualized rendering, gridview maintains optimal performance as its data set grows. scroll through tens of thousands of rows, and sort or group them, without compromising the usability of the application. the software had the ability to handle very large datasets. the charting controls has been leveraged to handle extremely large amounts of data – measured in millions of records – through a highly effective wcf web service communication layer. in addition, all controls are capable of handling tens of thousands of records of sql database. status and efforts so far into market information systems access to markets by the producers has been well recognized. in view of the prevailing malpractices in agricultural markets, a task force has been set up to bring about market reforms. as a result of concerted efforts agricultural/horticultural crops have witnessed several market reforms. these include the establishment of markets close to production areas, infrastructure, proper weighment and other facilities at the markets have been accomplished. market regulation has also been enforced at different markets. besides these, the need to impart access to market information has been felt especially in case of horticultural commodities. web-based market information system for horticultural crops j. hortl. sci. vol. 6(1):76-83, 2011 78 the impact of it on the agricultural supply chain has largely been ignored in the information systems empirical literature. initiatives have the potential to affect the lives of billions of people that live on the other side of the digital divide, their effectiveness is often unclear and many are skeptical that the benefits actually reach the rural communities; the other potential area is policy formulation, such as the nature and magnitude of the benefits from online platforms (banker and mitra, 2005). the general price level of an agricultural commodity, whether at a major terminal, port, or commodity futures exchange, is influenced by a variety of market forces that can alter the current or expected balance between supply and demand. (randy schnepf, 2006). in the recent past, ministry of agriculture and several state governments started providing the arrival and price details for different agricultural commodities on line for access by different stakeholders much of this information could be made as practical value for the producers. the portal www.agmarknet.nic.in which belongs to directorate of marketing & inspection (dmi), ministry of agriculture, government of india provides easy access to commodity-wise, variety-wise daily prices and arrivals information in respect of various wholesale markets spread across the country. prices and arrivals trend reports for important commodities are also published regularly. besides, future prices from national multi-commodity exchange of india ltd www.nmce.com are being reflected online on the portal. linkages are available for food and agriculture organization (fao) http://www.fao.org and asian & pacific coconut community (apcc) http://www.apccsec.org for accessing international commodity price trends. the arrival and prices of different agricultural commodities as received from the agricultural produce market committee (apmcs) of different states are uploaded at agmarknet portal for information. the market information on the portal is as reported by the respective markets. the portal is designed, developed and maintained by national informatics centre, contents provided by directorate of marketing & inspection (dmi), ministry of agriculture. state agricultural marketing boards / directorates agriculture being a state subject, development of the agricultural marketing system in the respective states is primarily being taken care by the state agricultural marketing boards and directorates. the activities, schemes and state specific initiative are accessible through the linkages provided to their websites (madhya pradesh, karnataka, punjab, orissa, delhi, tamil nadu, andhra pradesh, meghalaya etc). karnataka state agricultural marketing department/ board: www.maratavahini.kar.nic.in, its objective is to coordinate functioning of all the market committees with the help of information service obtained by both national and international markets the rajasthan state agricultural marketing board (http://rsamb.rajasthan.gov.in) has devoted itself to the development of agricultural marketing since its inception in 1974. the activities of the marketing board are now not limited to construction of market yards-godowns and village link roads, but cover the entire gamut of post harvest management and agricultural marketing developmental activities in the wake of the liberalization of the economic policy of the country. the rajasthan state agricultural marketing board has taken up the task to export main commodities of the state to other countries with an object to not only boost up production and productivity but also quality of agro produce in the state. the government of meghalaya has set up two secondary regulated markets in the state http:// megamb.gov.in. the first one was set up in mawiong in east khasi hills district and the second at garobadha, west garo hills district. moreover, there are daily markets in shillong (iewduh), jowai, tura, williamnagar etc. farmers can bring their agricultural produce to regulated market (apmc) to get remunerative prices. free temporary storage of the farmers’ unsold produce may be provided in the market yard till the farmer gets a favourable price in order to prevent distress sales. madhya pradesh state agricultural marketing board http://www.mpmandiboard.org provides daily rates (rs per quintal) on paddy, wheat, jawar and maize. academic institutions on agricultural marketing academic institutions and agricultural institutes viz. national institute of agricultural marketing, national institute of agricultural extension management, institute of rural management etc are imparting training and consultancy on agri-business management, agricultural marketing, cochandra prakash et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 6(1):76-83, 2011 79 operative marketing etc. also provides market related information. national institute of agricultural marketing http:// www.ccsniam.gov.in focuses on agricultural marketing system in states, post harvest loss reduction aspects, information technology application in agricultural marketing, future and forward markets and commodity exchanges food safety, quality certification & standardization etc. the manage (http://www.manage.gov.in) vests with the responsibility to develop linkages between state, regional, national and international institutions concerned with agricultural extension management. it also, focuses on agricultural extension management systems and policies, collaborative linkages with national and international institutions. related marketing organizations in agricultural sector market organization viz. nhb, apeda, ncdc, nafed and nhrdf also provide information relating to agricultural marketing schemes implemented by government departments. central agencies viz. commerce, food and public distribution, food processing industries, consumer affairs, health national dairy development board, national horticulture board, national horticultural research and development foundation, coconut development board, agricultural processed food products development authority, marine products exports development authority etc also provide data for effective marketing. national horticulture board (nhb) (http://nhb.gov.in) the national horticultural board (nhb) ever since its inception has been publishing the market arrivals and prices for different commodities for important markets across the country. the nhb also started faxing this data on request to different organizations as and when required. its role to strengthen market intelligence system by developing, collecting and disseminating horticulture database, it provides price and arrival statistics. daily arrivals and prevailing minimum, maximum and nodal price data have been compiled for different horticultural commodities at different market yards. the market committees also record the daily information, compile into weekly and monthly data and compile the same for the district as a whole and publish it periodically. the agricultural and processed food products export development authority (apeda): (http:// www.apeda.gov.in) was established by the government of india under the agricultural and processed food products export development authority with objective for improving of marketing of the scheduled products outside india, promotion of export oriented production and development of the scheduled products viz., fruits, vegetables and their products, meat and meat products, poultry and poultry products, dairy products, confectionery, biscuits and bakery products, honey and sugar products, cocoa and its products cereal and cereal products floriculture and floriculture products apeda is also mandated with the responsibility of collection of statistics from the owners of factories or establishments engaged in the production, processing, packaging and marketing. the national cooperative development corporation (ncdc) (http://www.ncdc.in) supports fruit and vegetable marketing and processing cooperatives. it is a unique organization, which not only plays a developmental role but also provides financial assistance for creating infrastructure for marketing, processing and storage of agricultural produce in the cooperative sector. national agricultural cooperative marketing federation of india ltd (nafed) (http://www.nafedindia.com): the objectives of the nafed shall be to organize, promote and develop marketing, processing and storage of agricultural, horticultural and forest produce, distribution of agricultural machinery, implements and other inputs, undertake inter-state, import and export trade, wholesale or retail as the case may be and to act and assist for technical advice in agricultural production for the promotion and the working of its members and cooperative marketing, processing and supply societies in india. national horticultural research and development foundation: (http://www.nhrdf.com): this site contains in-depth information pertaining to production and postharvest technology, data on area, production, export, market arrivals, and prices of onion, garlic and potato. agriwatch.com: (http://www.agriwatch.com) is a private enterprise by indian agribusiness systems pvt. ltd. (iasl). the agribusiness sector lacks quality of information and analysis about demand, supply, prices, market trends for various agri-commodities. the company primarily aims at filling out the information and communication gap that exists web-based market information system for horticultural crops j. hortl. sci. vol. 6(1):76-83, 2011 80 in various sub-sectors of the agricultural economy and commodities trade in particular. the company is making use of the latest developments in information technology. the objective of the company is to achieve a perfect flow of information, analyses, communication and e-commerce. the company also provide information for various participants in the agribusiness sector such as the farmers, traders, processors of agricultural outputs, suppliers of agricultural inputs etc. it provides analyses to the trade participants that will enhance their decision taking abilities in trade. the site provides commodity trading trends on various markets on grains, pulses, vegoils, oilseed, oil meal, sugar, cotton, spices, plantation crops. it provides market intelligence reports, spot market comments etc. it also provides exchange quotes viz. commodity exchange packages: oil complex, soy complex, vegoils, oilseeds, mustard seed. individual exchanges: cbot, klce, nbot, hapur, hissar and external exchanges quotes viz. nbot delayed, jakarta exchange, tocom – tokyo, nymex, cbot projections (soy oil), cbot projections (soy meal), cbot projections (soy bean). though all the above mentioned database, website, portal provides information, the main drawback is translating such information to knowledge. even if the producers do have access they may not be able to use this information effectively due to lack of tools to translate the data to meaningful conclusions. in this context mis has been developed to translate the data into interactive graphs, where price movement in markets, arrival and comparison of markets can be viewed as graphical charts where the user absorbs much easily than textual data. the human brain has the ability to easily absorb graphical representation than text. market information system on iihr website: http:// www.iihr.ernet.in/frmmarketinformation.aspx access methods and highlights: market information system (mis) developed and placed on iihr website (fig. 1) is unique in the sense it is a static data set that provides a dynamic access and utility to all users. the information seeker has an option to select the commodity, different periods of time and different markets, which results in a graphic representation of the data set. below the main graph is zoom component, which when moved highlights the selected portions on graph providing a detailed trend of price movements. the special feature of the mis is its ability to provide comparative picture of price movement in two selected markets for the selected commodity in a graphic form. such a representation provides ready and easy comparison for the information seeker. the fact that the data set sought for is also depicted in a table format below the graph itself is an additional advantage of this system. this data set can be selected, copied and pasted and printed as per the requirement of the information seeker. the data on area production and productivity of horticultural commodities at district level is a very useful and essential feature for several r& d and other government and non government organizations and researchers. such a voluminous data, easily accessible and available as graph is also first of its kind and has been presented in mis of iihr website. above all, having created the web page, the authors are confident of replicating such access to other commodities and markets as well. mis features: the market selection box (fig. 2) enables the user to choose a market. a similar selection box is provided below for comparing price prevailed at both the markets. by default, the data provided is for ten years. further to enable the user, choose predefined periods; 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, options are provided. also, the date range selection box is provided to select the specific periods, to display the data within the range. the compare options enable the comparison of two markets as line graph. the graphical comparison the enable fig 1. market information system on iihr website: displays dynamic interactive graphs of price and arrival data for horticultural crops of various markets chandra prakash et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 6(1):76-83, 2011 81 fig 2. the selection box displayed with red borders enables the user to choose markets to view price and arrival data and compare as well the user to absorb the relative price difference between markets, this would be advantageous if the markets are accessible with the same logistic cost. the better market with price advantageous could be chosen for disposal of the produce. for example, fig. 3 shows a comparison of market prices in chennai and bangalore for a selected commodity. chennai price seems higher than bangalore market price for most period, but a sudden steep rise is seen in bangalore fig 3. compare options-price comparison of two markets chennai and bengaluru for the brinjal crop on clicking compare graph button, displays the price movement in both the markets price. this could be taken as an arbitrage advantage, as both the markets may be easily accessible for the producers located in the nearby regions and take advantage of the higher prices prevailing in a specific market. further, the graph also provides the prevailing price trends in different markets for ready reference. similarly for other crops can also be visualized for the price trend, peaks, lean and stability periods. zoom: a zoom component is provided just below the primary graph display region which enables the user to expand and contract the zoom component, (fig. 4) which in turn zoom the primary graph display area. the users are able to visualize the peaks with much clarity by zooming the date range. the years and prices are displayed in ‘x’ and ‘y’ axis, respectively. the peak price could be viewed from y axis. however, the exact data point could be obtained from the text data display box beneath the zoom component, by default, 10 years price is displayed. users can expand up to maximum data range and contract to minimum of few months. the zoom object could be moved horizontally across the 10 years to view price data of specific year too. by zooming in and out the large set of sql data translated to dynamic graph during run time, thus the user view the graph with out date range input. grid view: the grid view data panel displays tabular data that consist of crop name, month, price arrival and year. the advantage of this table view is that the data points fig. 4. zoom component a zoom object with horizontal scroll bar enables the user to zoom graphical display area by expanding and contracting the zoom object. web-based market information system for horticultural crops j. hortl. sci. vol. 6(1):76-83, 2011 82 displayed in graph with text data. the data retrieved from large set of sql database, the fig. 5 above displays table view of onion price data. it is observed that the trend of onion price is at its peak at year end around november, december and lowest at middle of the year around may, june months. the trend repeats itself year after year for the last ten years.. it clearly depicts the price trend from which the producers can schedule their cultivation and decide on the best period and market for disposal of their produce.. thus, the mis with interactive graphical charts display is first of its kind developed by the authors for horticultural commodities. the information presented in graphic format is more easily understood by one and all. the fact that the data sets provide comparison of different markets in graphical view is an added advantage as this information may be of immense use for all stakeholders involved in marketing of horticultural produce. the producer or market intermediary can compare two markets for prices and arrivals of a selected crop over the years and make decision on accessing the market which is beneficial to him. this interactive graphical chart could be further extended to statistical indicators such as simple moving averages and trend analyzing tools etc. this could be embedded with the interactive charts to make charts more dynamic. acknowledgement the authors wish to thank the naip coordinator and pi, naip agroweb project for providing funds from fig. 5. grid view data panel displays the exact text data of onion crop of bengaluru market to view data points displayed in graphs. naip project for financing this project, development of website and this paper as well, also thankful for icar and indian institute of horticultural and research, nhb and nhrdf for technical support. references agmarknet 2000 an e-governance portal connecting the farmers to their markets, microsoft sql server customer solution case study, sharad joshi, former chairman, high level task force on agriculture, govt of india, p. k. suri, national project manager, agmarknet. microsoft sql server customer solution case study, document published january, 2006, microsoft corporation. page 1-5. banker, r.d and mitra,s. 2005. impact of information technology on agricultural commodity auctions in india. twenty-sixth international conference on information systems. december 9-12, 2004, washington dc usa, page 97-107 randy schnepf, 2006. specialist in agricultural policy resources, science, and industry division, price determination in agricultural commodity markets: a primer, for background information on the underlying nature of the different commodity markets. crs report rl33204 january 6, 2006. websites/portals referred: http://www.agmarknet.nic.in/: directorate of marketing & inspection (dmi), min. of agriculture, govt of india. http://www.apccsec.org asian & pacific coconut community (apcc) http://www.fao.org food and agriculture organization (fao) http://www.nmce.com national multi-commodity exchange of india ltd (nmce) http://www.maratavahini.kar.nic.in, karnataka state agricultural marketing department/board http://rsamb.rajasthan.gov.in/ the rajasthan state agricultural marketing board http://megamb.gov.in/: the government of meghalaya has set up two secondary regulated markets in the state. http://www.mpmandiboard.org/: the madhya pradesh state agricultural marketing board. http://www.ccsniam.gov.in/: national institute of agricultural marketing http://www.manage.gov.in/: national institute of agricultural extension management http://nhb.gov.in/: national horticulture board http://www.apeda.gov.in the agricultural and processed food products export development authority (apeda) chandra prakash et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 6(1):76-83, 2011 83 http://www.ncdc.in/: the national cooperative development corporation (ncdc) http://www.nafed-india.com: national agricultural cooperative marketing federation of india ltd (nafed) http://www.nhrdf.com: national horticultural research and development foundation http://www.agriwatch.com: agriwatch.com databases referred and data sources: indian horticulture database by national horticulture board (nhb), govt. of india ‘area, production and yield of principal crops in india’, directorate of economics and statistics, ministry of agriculture “faostat” online database from food and agriculture organization of the united nations (fao) agricultural produce market committee, bijapur, hubli, dharwad and bangalore, karnataka agricultural produce market committee, madurai tamilnadu directorate of economics and statistics department, karnataka and tamilnadu directorate of horticultural department, karnataka and tamilnadu (ms received 17 march 2010, revised 16 june 2011) web-based market information system for horticultural crops j. hortl. sci. vol. 6(1):76-83, 2011 light trap, an effective component of integrated management of tuta absoluta(lepidoptera : gelechiidae) on tomato v. sridhar*1 and g. senthil kumaran2 1division of entomology and nematology, 2division of post-harvest technology and agricultural engineering, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru – 560 089 *e-mail: sridhar.v@ icar.org.in abstract the effectiveness of mass trapping the moths of tuta absoluta was evaluated using light traps in tomato polyhouse at icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru during march june, 2018. various colours of light sources were evaluated for their efficacy in attracting the moths. of different coloured light sources evaluated, yellow and white (bluish) were found relatively effective for attraction of the moths. the efficacy of mass trapping was further evaluated and incandescent yellow bulb of 60 w was found most efficient in attracting both sexes of tuta moths. thus light traps can be an effective tool for ipm of this pest on tomato, under polyhouse conditions. key words: tuta absoluta, light trap, mass trapping short communication introduction insect attraction to different light sources is a known fact and light trapping is an ideal method for surveying nocturnal moth population. light trap collections provide a significant clue to understand the diversity of nocturnal insects which differ in their affinity to varied wavelengths of light (southwood and henderson, 2000). as an alternative to chemical based pest management, light traps have been used in dif f er en t c ou nt r ies in p es t ma na gement (srivastava et al., 1992; oliveira et al., 2008; ma et al., 2009). in india, tuta absoluta (lepidoptera: gelechiidae) has been reported from karnataka and maharashtra during 2014 and has further spread to all the ma jor tomato-growing r egions/states (sridhar et al., 2014;swathi et al., 2017). the pest can cause up to 100% crop loss in both greenhouse and open field cultivated tomato. the leaf-mining habit of this pest makes chemical or biological control more difficult. as an alternative, mass trapping could be useful in the management of t.absoluta. light traps are advantageous over pheromone traps as they attract both male and female moths (cocco et al., 2012). information on type of light source effective against t. absoluta is scanty. hence, the present study was conducted to identify the visible range for the maximum attraction of t. absoluta adults. the trials were conducted in a tomato polyhouse located at icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru during march – june 2018. initially, different light sources in the visible spectrum (wavelength of 390 – 700 nano meters) were screened for attracting tomato moth, t. absoluta during march 2018.based on initial evaluation results, different bulbs viz., led 8w; incandescent bulb (15w, 40w, 60w) and cfl 10w which attracted relatively more moths of t. absoluta were installed in the tomato polyhouse. the tomato crop was 50 days old after transplanting and was in flowering stage when the light traps were installed. the observations/counts on number of moths trapped were taken daily for 5 days to assess the best source of light attracting maximum number of tuta moths. the number of males and females attracted to the light source were differentiated based on the size and wing colour pattern and also based on genetalia. incandescent (yellow) bulb was found most effective followed by white (bluish) in attracting tuta moths. of all the bulbs under study, incandescent (yellow) 60 w bulb attracted maximum number of tuta j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 126-128, 2018 126 127 sridhar and senthil kumaran j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 126-128, 2018 adults i.e., 2953 catches within 5 days when compared to other sources of light tested (table 1, fig. 1 & 2). of the total catch, up to 46 per cent catch of the moths constitutes females and thus use of light traps can be an effective tool in the integrated management of t. absoluta. light traps have been effectively used for the management of pests in cotton and rice (srivastava et al., 1992; ma et al., 2009). as the light traps can also attract some of the natural enemies, there is a need to study the peak activity of the pest, so that timer based automated (switch on and off) light traps can be designed, which can minimise trapping of natural enemies. table 1. relative catches of t. absoluta moths in different light traps source of day 1 day 2 day 3 day 4 day 5 males females light/bulb* (12/5/18) (13/5/18) (14/5/18) (15/5/18) (16/5/18) total (%) (%) led 8 w (bluish 170 770 492 454 318 2204 54 46 white) incandescent 15 w 130 250 225 410 201 1216 55 45 (yellow) incandescent 40 w 150 350 330 390 140 1360 55 45 (yellow) incandescent 60 w 260 892 671 820 310 2953 54 46 (yellow) cfl 10 w 130 495 352 410 158 1545 58 42 (milky white) *per cent female catches in these light traps ranged from 42 46 %. fig 1. light trap installed in tomato polyhouse fig 2. tuta moths attracted to 60 w yellow incandescent light from the present study, we conclude that, incandescent (yellow) 60 w bulb can be used as an efficient tool/component in ipm for management of t. absoluta on tomato, under polyhouse condition. acknowledgement the authors are thankful to the director, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru for providing facilities. 128 light traps for tuta management j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 126-128, 2018 references (ms received 06 june 2018, revised 17 june 2018, accepted 29 june 2018) southwood, t. r. e. and henderson, p. a. 2000.ecological methods. blackwell science, uk, p 269 292. sridhar, v., chakravarthy, a. k., asokan, r., vinesh, l. s., rebijith, k. b. and vennila. s. 2014. new record of the invasive south american tomato leaf miner, tuta absoluta(meyrick) (lepidoptera: gelechiida e) in india . pest manag. hort. ecosys.,20:148-154. srivastava,v.k., diwakar, m. c. and pawar, a. d. 1992. light trap and rice pest management. plant prot. bull.(faridabad),44: 39–41. swathi, p., swathi, b., das, s.b., sridhar, v., giribabu, o., g. snehalatha, g., neelesh raypuriya. 2017. first report of south american tomato leaf miner, tuta absoluta (meyrick) from madhya pradesh, india. pest manag. hort. ecosys., 23:92-93. cocco, a., deliperi, s. and delrio, g. 2012. potentia l of ma ss tr a pping f or tuta absol uta management in greenhouse tomato crops using light and heromone traps. integrated control in protected crops, mediterranean climate. iobc-wprs bul., 80: 319-324. ma, c.s., ma, g., chang, x.q. and yang, h.p. 2009. environment-friendly methods for controlling cotton bollworm moths, helicoverpa armigera. chin. j. environ. entomol.,31: 220–226. oliveira, a.c., veloso, v.r., barros, r.g., fernandes, p.m. and souza, e.r. 2008. capture of tuta absoluta (meyrick) (lepidoptera: gelechiidae) with light trap in tomato crop. pesq. agropec. trop.,38: 153–157. banana is a major fruit crop of gujarat state making up 17% of the total area under fruit crops and accounts for about 53% of the total fruit production in the state (anon., 2007). many varieties of banana are under cultivation in this region but no systematic studies have been conducted to screen them for high yield. therefore, the present study was undertaken to evaluate improved cultivars of banana for their suitability for cultivation in saurashtra region of gujarat. the present investigation was undertaken during the period 2000-06 at the lalbagh fruit research station, department of horticulture, junagadh agricultural university, junagadh. six varieties of banana viz., basrai, harichal, robusta, gros michel, gandevi selection and lacatan were evaluated in a randomized block design with three replications at a spacing of 1.8 x 1.8 m. plants were grown with uniform cultural practices. five plants of each variety in each replication were used for recording data on growth characters, duration of the crop, yield and quality performance of banana cultivars in gujarat d.v. delvadia, t.r. ahlawat, r.s. chovatia and a.v. barad department of horticulture junagadh agricultural university, junagadh-362 001, india e-mail: tahlawat@jau.in abstract field experiments were conducted for three years to assess the performance and select the cultivar ideally suited to saurashtra region in gujarat. the cultivars evaluated were basrai, harichal, robusta, gros michel, gandevi selection and lacatan. of these, gandevi selection proved superior, with regard to growth parameters, yield characters and its attributes. it also yielded the highest benefit cost ratio. key words: evaluation, banana, cultivars, growth, yield parameters and statistically analyzed. the tss was estimated using a hand refractometer and values were expressed in obrix. the pooled analyses of data of three season’s trials are presented in table 1, 2 and 3. significant differences were observed among the different varieties for all characters studied except fruit girth. significant variation in growth and yield of banana varieties was reported earlier by singh et al (1996). the data on growth, flowering and maturity characters of different varieties of banana are given in table 1. the results revealed that the maximum plant height (2.08 m) was recorded in gandevi selection which was on par with gros michel (2.07 m) while, the lowest plant height (1.71 m) was recorded in basrai. similarly, the highest stem girth (81.98 cm) was registered in gandevi selection which was again at par with gros michel (79.06 cm). the lowest stem girth (54.07 cm) was observed in lacatan. number of leaves per plant ranged from 24.43 in gandevi selection to 20.73 in lacatan. lacatan also table 1. growth, flowering and maturity characters of different varieties of banana varieties plant height (m) stem girth (cm) no. of leaves/plant days to flowering days to maturity basrai 1.71 65.04 20.74 307.25 398.00 harichal 1.77 69.18 21.02 327.00 421.75 robusta 1.90 71.56 21.72 303.08 404.92 gros michel 2.07 79.06 22.83 336.42 443.08 gandevi sel. 2.08 81.98 24.43 395.00 522.92 lacatan 1.90 54.07 20.73 300.83 388.58 cd (p=0.05) 0.12 4.99 1.70 4.26 5.93 cv % 4.83 6.42 5.63 7.68 4.78 y x t ns ns ns n s ns ns: non-significant short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 166-168, 2008 167 registered minimum number of days to flowering (300.83) and days to maturity (388.58). at the other end of the spectrum, gandevi selection recorded the highest number of days to flowering (395) and days to maturity (522.92). evaluation of varieties for yield parameters (table 2) revealed that gandevi selection recorded the highest yield (72.53 t/ha), heaviest bunch weight (23.50 kg), maximum number of hands (10.89 per bunch) and number of fingers (178.66 per bunch). the higher fruit yield in gandevi selection was due to heavier bunch weight and more number of hands and fingers. these results are in general agreement with earlier findings. vijayaraghavakumar et al (1984) reported that number of fingers influenced the yield of banana directly. kurian et al (1985) reported a strong positive correlation of fruit yield with number of hands, number of fingers, number of leaves per plant, stem girth and total duration of the crop. on the contrary, basrai recorded the lowest yield (42.25 t/ha), bunch weight (13.04 kg) and minimum number of fingers (85.67/bunch) as compared to other varieties. studies on fruit characters (table 3) indicated that robusta recorded the highest fruit weight (138.33 g) and length of fruit (21.67 cm) while, gandevi selection recorded the lowest fruit weight (117.88 g) and fruit length (18.59 cm). fruit girth was found non-significant. evaluation of varieties for quality characters revealed maximum pulp to peel ratio and tss (3.46 and 19.15%) in gros michel (table 3). pulp to peel ratio was the least (2.99) in robusta and tss was lowest in harichal. the minimum (15.31%) weight loss due to ripening was observed in basrai and the maximum (17.35%) was observed in gros michel. the economics of cultivation under different varieties indicated that gandevi selection recorded the highest yield (72.53 t/ha) with the cost of cultivation of rs.78,693/ha. the net income was rs.1,38,897/ha, with a bcr of 1:2.77 which was the highest amongst all the varieties (table 4). table 2. performance of different varieties of banana with respect to fruit yield and its attributes varieties yield weight of no. of hands no. of fingers (ton/ha) bunch (kg) /bunch /bunch basrai 40.20 13.04 7.77 85.67 harichal 49.44 16.02 8.22 116.08 robusta 46.85 15.18 7.62 104.68 gros michel 59.64 19.28 8.58 130.17 gandevi sel. 72.53 23.50 10.89 178.66 lacatan 46.29 15.00 7.73 112.24 c d (p=0.05) 6.69 2.176 0.581 10.996 cv % 6.86 6.673 8.688 5.364 y x t n.s. ns n. s. n.s. ns: non-significant table 3. fruit and quality characters of different varieties of banana varieties av. fruit fruit length fruit girth weight loss pulp skin ratio tss weight(g) (cm) (cm) due to ripening (%) (%) basrai 133.83 20.47 13.05 15.31 3.13 18.78 harichal 124.10 18.82 12.94 16.11 3.08 18.48 robusta 138.33 21.67 13.05 15.96 2.99 19.01 gros michel 128.73 20.14 13.28 17.35 3.46 19.15 gandevi sel. 117.88 18.59 12.45 15.58 3.21 18.74 lacatan 128.44 20.71 13.36 16.48 3.14 18.54 cd (p=0.05) 7.54 0.77 n. s. n.s. 0.21 0.42 cv % 4.48 4.66 4.35 2.45 3.80 2.17 y x t ns ns ns ns ns ns ns: non-significant table 4. economics of different varieties of banana sl. no varieties yield of banana(t/ha) total cost(rs./ha) gross income(rs/ha) net income(rs/ha) cbr 1. basrai 42.25 74064 126750 52686 1:1.71 2. harichal 49.44 74064 148320 74256 1:2.00 3. robusta 46.86 74064 140580 66516 1:1.90 4. gros michel 59.46 74064 178380 104316 1:2.41 5. gandevi sel. 72.53 78693 217590 138897 1:2.77 6. lacatan 46.30 74064 138900 64836 1:1.88 * the cost of planting materials, labour, fertilizers, irrigation, cultivation and other expenditure was considered to be rs.24/plant * the market price of banana fruits was considered as rs.3000/ton performance of banana cultivars in gujarat j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 166-168, 2008 168 (ms received 14 march 2008, revised 17 november 2008) based on trials conducted over a period of three years, it could be inferred that gandevi selection was superior to the other varieties in terms growth characters, fruit yield and associated traits. gandevi selection also recorded the highest benefit cost ratio and therefore may be recommended for cultivation in the saurashtra region of gujarat. references anonymous. 2007. district-wise area and production of horticultural crops in gujarat state. directorate of horticulture, gujarat state, gandhinagar kurian, t.m., prabhakaran, p.v. and varkey, p.a. 1985. path coefficient analysis in nendran variety of banana. south ind. hort., 33:1-5 singh, d.b., sharma, t.v.r.s. and suryanarayana, m.a. 1996. evaluation of banana cultivars under rainfed condition in andamans. south ind. hort., 44:90-92 vijayaraghavakumar, george, k.c. and krishan nair, n. 1984. comparative study of the contribution of biometric characters on yield in desert varieties of banana. agric. res. j. kerala, 22:155-160 delvadia et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 166-168, 2008 final sph -jhs coverpage 17-1 jan 2022 single j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 166-173, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction the demand for processed tropical fruit products is increasing in domestic and international markets, however less tha n 15 fr uits a re commer cially processed. as these fruits are seasonal and perishable in nature, their seasonal surpluses in different regions a re wasted in bulk due to impr oper ha ndling, distribution, marketing, and inadequate storage facilities. for this reason, fruits in excess need immediate processing for value-added products to minimize postharvest losses, which are about 30–35% according to national horticultural board. (nhb 2016). the bael is increasingly becoming an important crop in functional food production and is of economic importance. although the pulp is mainly consumed fresh, the juice prepared from bael fruit was rich in bioactive compounds such as carotenoids, phenols, alkaloids, coumarins, flavonoids, terpenoids and other antioxidants (thakur, 2014). fruit beverages are processed food products that are conveniently used and liked by all age group consumers. they also provide a better chance of meeting the daily requirement of nutrients in a healthy diet. there are many different product variants marketed in india, such as sweetened carbonated soft drinks, clarified juice beverages, pulpy beverages, and soda water. among these non-alcoholic beverages, the share of fruit-based beverages is pr esently very sma ll as compa red to synthetic carbonated beverages. consumers are now gradually shifting towards the consumption of natural fruit-based bever ages because of their nutritional qua lity, medicinal importance, and good calorific value over synthetic beverages). the advantage of rts beverage is that there is no need to dilute it further with a required quantity of water, unlike other concentrated beverages such as squash, or syrup, which are diluted judiciously with water before consumption. at present, bael is an underutilized fruit in india and has a limited shelf life in fresh form. therefore, there is a need for processing it into a value-added product like rts beverage with extended storage life so that the product can be consumed throughout the year and consumers may relish its unique taste and flavour and quench their thirst. the demand for natural fruit-based beverages with high nutritional value and other health-imparting attributes are immense in the global market. development and evaluation of ready to serve (rts) beverage from bael (aegle marmelose correa.) udayakumar k.p.1*, kanupriya chaturvedi2, swamy g.s.k.1 anuradha sane2, pritee singh2 and suresh g.j.1 1department of fruit science, college of horticulture, bengaluru 560 065, india 2division of fruit crops, icar-iihr, bengaluru 560 089, india *corresponding author e-mail : udaypkumar2897@gmail.com abstract a research study was carried out to develop a rts beverage by exploiting the nutritional and organoleptic properties of bael fruit pulp. six treatment combinationsof bael rts with 10, 15 and 20% of pulp concentration and 10 and 15°b of tss were prepared based on the review of literature. the biochemical and organoleptic properties of the prepared rts were evaluated during storage. the ph, ascorbic acid and antioxidant activity of the rts decreased with the storage, while acidity and total sugars increased. results of the sensory evaluation showed that there was a significant difference between treatments in terms of color, flavor, taste, body and overall acceptability. from the results of quality assessments, the formulated bael rts beverage with 15% pulp and 15°b tss was found to be superior and suitable for consumption up to 12 weeks without any significant changes in the quality characteristics. keywords: bael, beverage, biochemical, nutritional, organoleptic properties and rts 167 ready to serve beverage from bael j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 166-173, 2022 bael (aegle marmelose correa.) is one of the ancient, nutritious minor fruit crops that belongs to the family rutaceae. indo-malayan region is believed to be the centre of origin of this tree and it is found growing in many south east asian countries including sri lanka, pakistan, nepal, bangladesh, myanmar, vietnam, thailand, cambodia, malaysia, philippines, java and fiji. the tree grows up to 6-8m height, leaves are trifoliate and deciduous in nature, fruits are aromatic, bark is thick, branches are spiny in some varieties and lower branches are drooping. young leaf of the tree is glossy shiny and pinkish maroon in color, the flowers are bisexual, 4 curved fleshy petals with green outside and yellowish inside, fragrant having sweet aroma, cluster blooming (4-7), and stamens are 50 or more in number. fruits are hard-shelled berries, greenish yellow inearly immature stage and turn yellow when mature. it consists of thin or hard woody or soft rind dotted with oil glands, a hard central core with triangular segments and dark orange walls. segments of fruit are filled with aromatic pale orange, pasty, sweet resinous, more or less astringent pulp, seeds are embedded in the pulp, have round-oblong structure bearing woolly hairs and each enclosed in a sac of adhesive, transparent mucilage that solidifies on drying. the shape and size of the fruit varies with varieties and round, pyriform, oval, or oblong fruit shape having 5-20 cm diameter have been reported. the bael is well-known for its organoleptic properties with special reference to its unique flavour and color. the pulp is highly nutritious and very good source of vitamins, minerals, fiber and pectin (table 1). further, the bael fruit was found to be antispasmodic, diuretic, antiseptic, sedative, and analgesi. epidemiological studies revealed that increased consumption of bael could lead to lower the risk of developing chronic degenerative diseases (reddy et al., 2010). studies indicate that consumption of bael have a significant effect on blood glucose and lipid parameters and bael can alleviate the symptoms of diabetes in a natural manner (sharma et al., 2016). therefore, the present study was focused with an objective to optimize the process conditions for the preparation of rts beverage from bael fruit and to eva lua te the physicochemica l a nd sensor y characteristics during storage period. materials and methods preparation of rts beverage of bael fruit the ripe bael fruits were collected from the iihr field gene bank and washed with tap water in the laboratory. the fruits were opened by hitting with hammer due to its hard outer shell. the fruit pulp along with seeds and fiber was scooped with the help of stainless-steel spoon manually. amount of water equal to the weight of pulp was added. the mixture was heated up to 70°c for 1min and cooled. the pulp was then passed through stainless-steel sieve (800µm) to separate seeds and fibres. the beverage was prepared by varying the pulp concentration and tss. acidity was maintained at 0.3% and kms was added at 120ppm in all the treatmentsas per the formulations given bellow. experimental formulations for rts preparation t110% bael fruit pulp + 10°b tss with sugar syrup. t210% bael fruit pulp + 15°b tss with sugar syrup. t315% bael fruit pulp + 10°b tss with sugar syrup. t415% bael fruit pulp + 15°b tss with sugar syrup. t520% bael fruit pulp + 10°b tss with sugar syrup. t620% bael fruit pulp + 10°b tss with sugar syrup. the requisite amount of sugar and citric acid were dissolved in requisite amount of water to prepare sugar syrup in heating condition and then mixed with bael fruit pulp in rts beverage. it was removed from the gas burner and was allowed to cool for 10 min at room temperature of 28 30°c. subsequently, 70 ppm of kms was added and mixed well with the solution. just after addition of kms, hot filling was done into already oven sterilized (160°c for 45 min) glass bottles and caped with stopper immediately. the sealed bottles were put on the hot water bath at 80°c for 30min for pasteurization. then bottles were removed from the hot water bath and allowed to cool. determination of sensory properties sensory evaluation was conducted to evaluate the organoleptic properties of the rts by semi-trained panelists. the color, taste, flavor, body and overall acceptability was evaluated using 9 points hedonic scale. samples were evaluated between 10.00 to 11.00am for morning session and 2.00 to 3.00 pm for evening session for effective assessment by the panelists. each panelist was asked to evaluate the 168 udayakumar et al samples which were arranged randomly to judge the organoleptic properties. the samples were served to the panelist at 10°c as this temperature is commonly used for serving rts. quality analysis of ready to serve (rts) ph the ph of the sample was taken using a ph meter (model: eutech instruments-ph tutor, singapore). twenty ml of the rts beverage sample was taken to dip the calibrated electrode of the ph meter and the observations were recorded in triplicate for each sample. titratable acidity acidity was determined by titration method (aoac, 942.15, 2000). homogenized sample of 5 g was mixed with distilled water, squeezed through a muslin cloth and volume was made up to 50 ml. a known volume of the filtrate (25 ml) was titrated against 0.01n naoh using 0.5% phenolphthalein (3 to 4 drops) as indica tor. acidity wa s ca lculated a s percentage of citric acid equivalent using citric acid standard curve. tv. (ml) × n naoh × volume(ml) × eq. wt. (citric acid) titratable acidity (%) = ×100 sample weight (g) × aliquot taken (ml) × 1000 ascorbic acid ascorbic acid content wa s deter mined by 2, 6dichlorophenol indophenol method (aoac, 967.21, 2006). about 5ml of sample was mixed with 4% oxalic acid solution and volume was made up to 50 ml and was then estimated by titrating a 25ml of the extract a gainst dcpip. vitamin c content was calculated as mg of ascorbic acid per 100ml rts using a standard curve of l-ascorbic acid. total sugar total sugar was estimated by the standard method of aoac (1980). the sugar extract was hydrolysed with concentrated hydrochloric acid and titrated against 10ml of mixed fehling’s solution (5ml fehling a + 5ml fehling solution b) using methylene blue as indicator. results were expressed as per cent total sugar. total antioxidant activity 2, 2 – diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (dpph)assay was done according to the method of williams et al. (1995) with some modifications. the dpph stock solution was prepared by dissolving 19.7 mg of dpph in 100 ml of 80% methanol. rts (200 µl) was allowed to react with 50 µl of dpph solution for 30 min in dark conditions. readings were taken at 517 nm. the calibration curve was linear from 50 to 500 µl of trolox. the results were expressed in µm trolox equivalents (µm t e/g dr y weight). additiona l dilutions were made when the values obtained from the samples were outside the linear range of the calibration curve. sensory evaluation (9-point hedonic scale) samples of appetizers were presented to a panel of 8 judges. for evaluating the rts, nine-point hedonic scale was used. the samples were served at room temperature. statistical analysis biochemical and quality analysis data were subjected to statistical analysis, level of significance (los). cr itical differ ence (cd) at 5 per cent level of pr oba bility wa s used for compa r ison a mong treatments. the results were presented by way of tables. analysis of quantitative data (biochemical and quality analysis) was done in statistical tool opstat, statistical software. results and discussion qualitative analysis of ready to serve (rts) beverage from fruit pulp of bael ph there was a significant decrease in ph during storage (table 1). this might be due to increase in acidity, as acidity and ph are inversely proportional to each other. it was observed that the maximum ph (3.38) was recorded in t2 (10% pulp + 15°brix). the decrease in ph was due to increase in titrable acidity which affects the organoleptic quality of juice. similar effect of ingredients on ph of the value-added product of fruit was observed by jain and nema (2007), elbelazi et al. (2015). titratable acidity there was a significant increase in acidity content dur ing stora ge (table 1). it was observed that maximum acidity (0.53%) was recorded in t5 (20% pulp + 10° brix). the minimum increase (0.36%) in acidity was observed in t1 treatment which might be due to addition of citric acid. similar effect of ingredients on titratable acidity of value-added product of fruit was observed by jain and nema (2007), elbelazi et al. (2015), asghar et al. (2016). j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 166-173, 2022 169 table 1. influence of pulp level and tss on physio-chemical attributes of bael rts. titrable ascorbic total total antioxidant treatments ph acidity acid sugar activity (%) (mg/100 ml) (%) (mg aeac/100ml) t1: 10% pulp + 10°brix 3.35 0.28 30.54 22.18 81.58 t2: 10% pulp + 15°brix 3.38 0.31 32.42 22.59 82.60 t3: 15% pulp + 10°brix 3.22 0.34 34.50 23.20 83.52 t4: 15% pulp + 15°brix 3.23 0.38 37.60 23.54 84.52 t5: 20% pulp + 10°brix 3.05 0.45 44.50 24.05 86.90 t6: 20% pulp + 15°brix 3.00 0.42 41.50 24.34 85.50 mean 3.21 0.36 36.84 23.32 84.10 sem± 0.070 0.008 0.817 0.074 0.768 cd at 5% 0.211 0.024 2.447 0.221 2.301 4 weeks after storage t1: 10% pulp + 10°brix 3.32 0.30 30.00 22.90 81.08 t2: 10% pulp + 15°brix 3.34 0.34 31.95 23.34 82.13 t3: 15% pulp + 10°brix 3.21 0.37 33.94 23.90 83.03 t4: 15% pulp + 15°brix 3.20 0.41 37.15 24.28 84.04 t5: 20% pulp + 10°brix 3.02 0.48 43.98 24.75 86.42 t6: 20% pulp + 15°brix 2.98 0.45 40.97 25.04 84.97 mean 3.178 0.392 36.332 24.036 83.612 sem± 0.067 0.008 0.764 0.501 1.741 cd at 5% 0.199 0.024 2.287 n/a n/a 8 weeks after storage t1: 10% pulp + 10°brix 3.29 0.33 29.54 23.65 80.54 t2: 10% pulp + 15°brix 3.30 0.36 31.46 24.15 81.64 t3: 15% pulp + 10°brix 3.17 0.40 33.39 24.65 82.51 t4: 15% pulp + 15°brix 3.18 0.45 36.65 25.00 83.56 t5: 20% pulp + 10°brix 3.00 0.50 43.48 25.40 85.94 t6: 20% pulp + 15°brix 2.95 0.47 40.48 25.81 84.45 mean 3.149 0.419 35.833 24.777 83.107 sem± 0.065 0.009 0.752 0.516 1.731 cd at 5% 0.196 0.026 2.252 n/a n/a 12 weeks after storage t1: 10% pulp + 10°brix 3.25 0.36 28.03 24.19 80.02 t2: 10% pulp + 15°brix 3.27 0.39 30.89 24.90 81.06 t3: 15% pulp + 10°brix 3.15 0.43 32.85 25.35 82.00 t4: 15% pulp + 15°brix 3.16 0.48 35.98 25.78 83.08 t5: 20% pulp + 10°brix 2.98 0.53 42.94 26.18 85.48 t6: 20% pulp + 15°brix 2.92 0.49 39.95 26.52 83.97 mean 3.122 0.447 35.107 25.487 82.602 sem± 0.065 0.009 0.739 0.531 1.719 cd at 5% 0.195 0.027 2.212 n/a n/a ready to serve beverage from bael j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 166-173, 2022 170 ascorbic acid content the ascorbic acid (vitamin c) content of the juice decreased during storage with the advancement of storage period, which was probably due to the fact that ascorbic acid being sensitive to oxygen, light and heat gets easily oxidized in presence of oxygen by both enzymatic and non-enzymatic catalyst. maximum ascorbic acid content (44.50 mg/100 ml juice) was recorded in t5 initially, and decreased to 42.94 mg/100 ml juice at the end of the storage. each ingredient used in preparation of rts has its own organic acid composition which affect the ascorbic acid of rts. jain and nema (2007) and abhangrao et al. (2017) also reported the similar effect of ingredients on ascorbic acid content of the fruit-based value-added product. total sugars the results revealed that the total sugars content wa s significantly affected a s a result the total sugars content in the juice increased apparently during storage (table 1), which might be due to hydrolysis of polysaccharides into monosaccharide a nd oligos a ccha r ides. t he minimu m incr ea se (24.19%) in total sugar content was recorded in t 1 treatment. the change in total sugar content of beverage was almost negligible during storage, the different ingredients used for rts preparation vary in their total sugar content which affects the total sugar content of rts. the effect of ingredients on total sugar of other value-added products was also reported by asghar et al. (2016) in functional bael jam and chauhan et al. (2016) in bael vermouth. total antioxidant activity decreased antioxidant activity in the juice was observed during storage (table 1), which might be due to increase in pulp content. the maximum total a ntioxida nt a ctivity r ecor ded in t 5 (86. 90 mg aeac/100ml); the minimum tota l a ntioxidant activity recorded in t1 (81.58 mg aeac/100ml). the different pulp concentration used for rts preparation vary in their antioxidant activity which affects the total antioxidant content of rts. similar effect of ingredients on antioxidant activity of the value-a dded product of fr uit wa s observed by asghar et al. (2016), bhatt and verma (2016), chauhan et al. (2016), and bisen et al. (2017). sensory evaluation sensory assessment is a scientific discipline that uses the concepts of exper imenta l design a nd statistical analysis to evaluate consumer products through the use of human senses (sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing). it necessitates the use of human assessors, who test the product and keep track of the r esults. it is ther efore feasible to genera te insights and judgments about the products under test by using statistical approaches to the results acquired from human assessors. it is the final judge of a p r odu ct ’s qu a lit y f r om t he c ons u mer ’s per s pect ive, a nd it is a significa nt f a c tor in determining quality. it’s all about the product’s c olou r, f la vou r, t a s t e, t ex t u r e, a nd over a ll acceptability. rts sensory evaluation is described in depth in the following sections (table 2). table 2. influence of pulp level and tss on sensory evaluation (9-point hedonic scale) scores of bael rts. treatments colour flavour taste body overall acceptability t1: 10% pulp + 10°brix 6.45 6.40 6.45 6.10 6.60 t2: 10% pulp + 15°brix 6.65 6.65 6.70 6.90 7.05 t3: 15% pulp + 10°brix 6.80 6.25 6.10 6.65 6.85 t4: 15% pulp + 15°brix 7.60 7.30 7.6 7.10 7.70 t5: 20% pulp + 10°brix 7.60 7.00 7.20 7.05 7.30 t6: 20% pulp + 15°brix 7.65 6.90 6.85 6.95 7.15 mean 7.13 6.75 6.81 6.79 7.10 sem± 0.065 0.062 0.142 0.141 0.148 cd at 5% 0.196 0.185 0.425 0.423 0.443 udayakumar et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 166-173, 2022 171 a thing that can sense when it is in the mouth. taste is impor tant for accepta bility of a ny pr oduct. similar effect of ingredients on the bael based value added product was reported by liyanaduragc et al. (2007), kaur and kochhar (2017), body body differed significantly among the treatments with mean value of 6.79 (table 2). maximum body recorded in t4 (7.1) which was on par with t5 (7.05), t-6(6.95) and t-2(6.9). the minimum value for an attribute body was recorded in t1 (6.1). body is another important sensory parameter to judge the quality of product. the body parameters are perceived with the sense of touch or either when the product is picked up by hand or placed in the mouth a nd swirled. simila r effect on body of different bael based value added product was found by liyanaduragc et al. (2007), pingale and dighe (2015), overall acceptability overall acceptability differed significantly among the treatments with mean value of 7.1 (table 2). maximum overall acceptability recorded in t4 (7.7) which was on par with t5 (7.3). the minimum overa ll a ccepta bility r ecor ded in t 1 (6.6). the colour and appearance decides the first purchase of the product but ultimately the overall acceptability of the product is the most important factor for its further future purchase. a similar effect on overall acceptability of different bael based value added product was found by liyanaduragc et al. (2007), pingale and dighe (2015), conclusion this research was designed to utilize the bael fruit pulp to formulate rts beverage. the range of pulp and sugar concentration used for the development of rts beverage was in combination of 10, 15 and 20% pulp and 10 and 15ºb tss. rts beverage formulation with 15% pulp and 15ºb having ph 3.23, acidity 0.38%, ascorbic acid 37.60 mg/100g, total sugar 23.54%, and total antioxidant activity of 84.52 mg aeac/100ml was found best. the rts beverage t4 with 15% pulp and 15ºb showed highest overall acceptability (7.7) along with colour 7.60, flavour 7.30, taste 7.6 and body 7.10. appearance/colour appearance/colour differed significantly among the treatments with mea n va lue of 7.13 (table 2). maximum appearance/ colour recorded in t6 (7.65) which was on par with t4 (7.6) and t5 (7.6). the minimum a p pea r a nc e/ c olour r ecor ded in t 1 (6.45).the colour attracts the consumers towards the product and can help in impulse purchases. at the p oint of pur cha se, consumer s use mostly a ppea r ance fa ctor a s a n indica tion of qua lity. colour is derived from the natural pigments present in fruits. the primary pigments which impart colour are the fat-soluble chlorophylls (green), carotenoids (orange, yellow and red) and the water-soluble anthocyanins (red, blue), flavonoids (yellow), and betalains (red). an effect of ingredients on colour of product was reported by kaur and kochhar (2017), thukral (2017) and ullikashi et al. (2017). t he best p r oduct with r espec t to c olour wa s obtained when 50% level of aonla pulp and 50% of bael pulp were used for preparation of mixed fruit leather by uttarwar et al. (2018). flavour flavour differed significantly among the treatments with mean value of 6. 75 (table 2). maximum flavour was recorded in t4 (7.3) and the minimum flavour was recorded in t 3 (6.25). flavour is a mingled but a unitary experience which includes sensations of taste, smell, and pressure. flavour is typically described by aroma and taste. similar findings on effect of ingredients on flavour of bael based value added product was reported by kaur and kochhar (2017), thukral (2017) and ullikashi et al. (2017). similar effect was also reported by uttarwar et al. (2018) in preparation of mixed fruit leather and the highest score obtained from 50% level of aonla pulp and 50% of bael pulp with respect to flavour. taste taste differed significantly among the treatments with mean value of 6.81 (table 2). maximum taste recorded in t4 (7.6) was on par with t5 (7.2). the minimum taste wa s r ecor ded in t 3 (6. 1). t he sensation that is perceived in the mouth and throat on contact with a substance is called as taste. it includes the sweet, sour, salty and bitter quality of ready to serve beverage from bael j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 166-173, 2022 172 reference a.o.a.c., 1980. official methods of analysis. edn. 1 3 . as s oc i a t ion of o ff ic ia l ana lyt ic a l chemist, washington, d. c. abhangrao, a.k., naidu, a.k., deshmukh, m., yadlod, s.s. and deshmukh, s., 2017. effect of recipes and cultivars on standardization of guava r.t.s. int. j. curr. microbio. and app. sci.,6(4): 1335-1341. asghar, n., imran, m., mushtaq, z., ahmad, r.s., k ha n, m . 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(received: 30.12.2021; revised: 04.02.2022; accepted: 04.03.2022) 00 a final sph -jhs coverpage first 2 pages.pdf 00 content and in this issue.pdf 01 mohan kumar g n.pdf 02 meera pandey.pdf 03 biradar c.pdf 04 varalakshmi b.pdf 05 vijayakumari n.pdf 06 barik s.pdf 07 sajid m b.pdf 08 ranga d.pdf 09 usha s.pdf 10 manisha.pdf 11 amulya r n.pdf 12 akshatha h j.pdf 13 adak t.pdf 14 sujatha s.pdf 15 gowda p p.pdf 16 subba s.pdf 17 dhayalan v.pdf 19 ahmed s.pdf 20 vishwakarma p k.pdf 21 deep lata.pdf 22 udaykumar k p.pdf 23 nayaka v s k.pdf 24 sahel n a.pdf 25 bayogan e r v.pdf 26 rathinakumari a c.pdf 27 yella swami c.pdf 28 saidulu y.pdf 29 sindhu s.pdf 30 neeraj.pdf 31 sivaranjani r.pdf 32 rashied tetteh.pdf 34 sangeetha g.pdf 35 shareefa m.pdf 36 last pages.pdf final sph -jhs coverpage 17-1 jan 2022 single j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 190-198, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction tomato (solanum lycopersicum l.) is an important and widely grown crop in the philippines (philippine sta tistics author ity, 2019). toma to fr uit is a climacteric fruit, and its stages of maturity or ripeness are measurable through its color from green mature to red stage (quinet et al., 2019). ripening of tomato is also associated with the fruit maturity stage and physico-chemical properties such as firmness, fresh weight loss (tilahun et al., 2017a), polyphenol content, and antioxidant scavenging activity (anton et al., 2017). maintaining the good postharvest quality of tomatoes during storage is a big problem in developing tropical countries. tomato fruit metabolizes faster at high temperatures during the postharvest stage leading to shortened shelf life (liberty et al., 2017). the evaporative cooling system uses a process that can maintain a low temperature and higher relative humidity storage conditions as heat is removed from the ambient environment with evaporation (vanndy et al., 2008). this storage system has been tested on tomato varieties in combodia and laos (vanndy et al., 2008); and sweet pepper in the philippines (bayogan et al., 2017; majomot et al., 2019). the above studies have demonstrated the promising effects of the evaporative cooling storage system on the maintenance of the postharvest qualities of some crops. the brickwalled evaporative cooler (bec) is a simple type of evaporative cooling system. the bec is made up of a double wall of clay bricks with a moistened jute sack-covered wooden frame over the structure (vanndy et al., 2008). the double-walled bec has a 10-20 cm space between the walls filled with sand or sawdust being kept moist during use. this brick-walled evaporative cooling technology is known to be costefficient and easy to construct. the study aimed to evaluate the quality of tomatoes using the brick-walled evapor ative cooler a s a stora ge system and to determine the cost and benefit of its use relative to ambient storage. the use of brick-walled evaporative cooler for storage of tomato bayogan e.r.v.*, secretaria l.b., lequigan d.b. and abad r.g. university of the philippines mindanao, college of science and mathematics mintal, tugbok district, davao city 8022, philippines *corresponding author e-mail : evbayogan@up.edu.ph abstract a cost-effective alternative to cold storage is the brick-walled evaporative cooler (bec). the effects of bec on mature green and breaker ‘diamante max’ tomatoes were assessed. two trials were carried out at ambient conditions with (i) 27.13±0.78 °c and 80.89±4.47%rh; (ii) 26.93±0.87 °c and 80.05±5.20% rh and with bec (i) 25.49±0.58 °c and 99.90±0.10% rh; (ii) 25.42±0.90 °c and 97.75±3.25% rh. bec-stored tomatoes showed 10.36% lesser weight loss, lesser decay incidence, redder color and better visual quality compared to control fruit. the higher l* and hue of around 90 in ambient-stored tomatoes indicated a lighter color as fruit turned to yellow compared to a lower l* and hue in bec indicating a darker red color. an increased chroma was recorded as fruit turned from green or breaker to yellow, orange, or light red while the values of a* became negative. the bec maintained the firmness and total soluble solids, especially in mature green tomatoes. after 49 days of storage, 61.8% of the fruit stored in the bec were marketable compared to 23.3% in ambient conditions. the bec system showed 27.16% higher annual benefit over cost than the ambient storage conditions. thus, the bec system can potentially maintain the quality of ‘diamante max’ tomatoes. keywords: brick-walled evaporative cooler (bec), color, quality, solanum lycopersicum and storage 191 brick-walled evaporative cooler for storage of tomato j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 190-198, 2022 material and methods experimental materials newly harvested tomatoes (cv. diamante max) were procured from a commercial farm in calinan, davao city. fruits of uniform and good quality at two maturity stages, mature green and breaker, were used in the experiment. storage and quality evaluation were done at the postharvest biology laboratory, university of the philippines mindanao (up mindanao) in mintal, tugbok district, davao city from november 2018 to january 2019, and january 2020 to march 2020 for the first and second trials, respectively. t he br ick-wa lled eva por a tive cooler (bec) construction was done at the up. the bec has dimensions of 76 in l x 32 in w x 26 in h outer brick wall, 70 in l x 26 in w x 26 in h inner brick wall, and a 3 in space between the two walls which is filled with sand. the faucet connected to the pipes was slightly turned on for 30 min for twice a day to moisten the sand. the covering of bec at the top was made of a jute sack framed with bamboo. the dimensions of the cover for bec was 78 in l x 30 in w. the sand and jute sack covering were moistened regularly during the use of the bec. two trials were conducted to assess the quality of tomato at two maturity stages, mature green and breaker, and stored in the bec or ambient room conditions. a total of 800 medium tomatoes of uniform quality were selected. a total of 400 fruit were used for each storage condition at 200 tomatoes per maturity stage. in the second trial, 86.4 kg of mediumsize tomatoes of uniform quality were used. sample tomatoes at 945±33 g were packed in a net bag for the various data parameters. a total of 24 net bags were used for each maturity stage and stored in bec or ambient conditions. in both trials, fruit samples were disinfected with 200 mg/l naocl solutions for 3 min and air-dried before holding in the bec or ambient conditions. data collection the relative humidity (rh), temperature in bec and ambient storage conditions were recorded using digital data loggers. the digital data loggers used were tinytag ultra 2 tgu-4500 (gemini data loggers ltd., england) and elitech usb temperature data logger (rc-5, uk. ltd.). fruit weights were taken at 0, 7, 14, 21, 35, 42, and 49 da ys a fter tr ea tment. weight cha nges wer e measured using a digital high precision balance (bh2600, fuji). percentage weight loss was calculated using the formula: the decay incidence was determined every 7 d for 49 d through a 5-point scale visual observation of the degree of decay of the sample: 1 = no visible infection; 2 = slight infection (1-10%); 3 = moderate infection (11-25%); 4 = moderately severe infection (26-50%); 5 = severe infection (>50%). the fruit was nonmarketable when it reached a of decay rating of 3. the value was further expressed as the accumulated percentage of the total number of fruit decayed divided by the initial number of fruit stored (arthur et al., 2015). the visual quality rating (vqr) of tomato was measured using a 5-point scale (1 = excellent, fresh appearance, 2 = very good, slight defects, 3 = good, defects progressing, limit of saleability, 4 = fair, useable but not saleable, and 5 = poor). the fruit was non-marketable when it reached vqr of 3. the changes in color of the tomatoes were evaluated based on the maturity stages of the fruit from 1 to 6 (1 = mature green, 2 = breaker, 3 = turning, 4 = pink, 5 = light red, 6 = red). in the second trial, nix pro color sensor (nix sensor ltd., ontario, canada) was used to measure the l* a* b*, hue and chroma. the l* value corresponds to the brightness or luminosity; a* va lue shows the redness (+a*) or greenness (a*); b* value indicates the yellow (+b*) or blue (b*). the chroma corresponds to the saturation of the color while hue indicates the red (0 or 360), yellow (90), green (180) or blue (270) (barreiro et al., 1997). the firmness of fruit was measured using a fruit penetrometer (fruit tester ft 327 pressure tester, wagner instruments, usa). a digital refractometer (atago pal-1 (3810) digital hand-held pocket refractometer, atago co., ltd. japan) was used to measure the total soluble solids (tss).the costs and benefits of the use of the bec and ambient conditions were identified and quantified (rolfe, 2014). 192 bayogan et al experimental design and statistical analysis a sample size of 50 pieces was used per replication in each maturity stage at each storage condition in the first trial. each treatment was replicated four times. a sample of 3.8 kg of tomato per maturity stage and storage condition in the second experiment. each experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design. data were analyzed using two-way anova and treatment means were compared using lsd at p<0.05. results and discussion temperature and relative humidity (rh) t hr oughout the stor a ge per iod in tr ia l 1, a temperature of 27.13±0.780c and relative humidity (rh) of 80.89±4.47% were recorded in ambient storage while 25.49±0.580c and 99.90±0.10% rh were recorded in the brick-walled evaporative cooler, bec (fig. 1). the temperature and rh differences between the two storage conditions were 1.64oc and 19.01%, respectively. in the second trial, 26.93±0.87 ! and 80.05±5.20% rh were recorded in ambient storage while 25.42±0.78oc and 97.75±3.25% rh were recorded in bec (fig. 2). bec showed a slightly lower temperature by 1.510c and higher rh by 18.06% and 17.7% in the second trial. a lower temperature (0.41oc) difference from ambient conditions was reported during the storage of sweet pepper in a cabinet evaporative cooler, yet it allowed maintenance of fruit quality longer due to the relatively higher rh (majomot et al., 2019). in south sulawesi, indonesia, an underground zero-energy cool chamber made of bricks (without produce in it) registered a relatively lower temperature (26.2°c) and higher rh (87.2%) compared to the outside conditions of the chamber (dirpan et al., 2017). however, the bec used in the present study provided a slightly lower temperature (25.49±0.58°c and 25.42±0.78°c) and higher rh (99. 90±0. 10% a nd 97. 75±3. 25%) compared with the zero-energy cool chamber used in the previous study (dirpan et al., 2017). percentage weight loss weight loss of tomato in bec was consistently lower at 2.36 % (figure 3a) and 5.63% at the end of the stor a ge per iod for the fir st a nd second tr ia ls, respectively, compared to ambient conditions. weight loss was 10% lower in tomatoes stored in bec than those in ambient room conditions. at 42 days of storage, weight loss in tomatoes stored at the breaker stage was higher relative to tomatoes stored at the mature green stage (fig. 3a). decay incidence bec storage conditions reduced the decay incidence among stored tomatoes by 29.5% (figure 3b). fig. 2. temperature and relative humidity in ambient and brick-walled evaporative cooler (bec) conditions during january 2020 to march 2020. fig. 1. temperature and relative humidity in ambient and brick-walled evaporative cooler (bec) conditions during november 2018 to january 2019. j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 190-198, 2022 the dates of the figures for temperature should be the same witht he relative humidity (see graph below) 193 at 49 days after storage, the cumulative decay incidence in samples stored in bec ranged from 19 to 28.5% only compared to 36.5 to 53.5% in ambient conditions. tomatoes stored at the breaker stage showed a higher percentage of fruit decay than fruit stored at the mature green stage. as the fruit ripens, metabolic activity and fruit degradation tend to escalate (quinet et al., 2019) and makes the fruit more prone to decay as obsorved in fruit stored at the advanced maturity stage. further, the higher temperature(i.e., 21 to 30oc) in ambient conditions is a favorable condition for microorganism growth and development (da cruz cabral et al., 2019). however, sweet pepper stor ed in the ca binet evaporative cooler system showed higher decay due to excessive surface moisture (majomot et al., 2019). fluctuations in temperature and relative humidity cause condensation or surface moisture (islam et al., 2019). given that the temperature and rh recorded in the bec have been relatively stable, especially in the first experiment, surface moisture was relatively low resulting in a lower incidence of decay. visual quality and shelf life regardless of maturity stage, samples stored in bec ha d better appea rance due to lower deca y a nd shriveling than fruit stored in ambient conditions (figure 3c). a lower visual quality rating of fruit in ambient conditions indicated a higher degree of fruit deterioration. fruit stored in the bec showed a longer shelf life and was highly marketable for an extended duration both in the first (figure 3d) and second trials (data not shown). t he lower temper a tur e a nd higher rh in the evaporative cooler extended the shelf life of sweet pepper (majomot et al., 2019). likewise, in the present study, the conditions in the bec with lower temperature and higher rh helped maintain better quality of tomato during storage compared to ambient conditions. the storage conditions slowed down the respiration and transpiration that preserved the quality of tomatoes (da cruz cabral et al., 2019). peel color in the first trial, tomatoes stored in bec developed color faster than those in ambient storage starting at day 14 with a peel color of 4.75 (pink with some starting to turn light red), while tomatoes stored in ambient conditions had the mean color of 4.47 (pink) (table 1). tomatoes in bec were redder than fruit held in ambient conditions that were more yelloworange. fig. 3. weight loss, visual quality, incidence of decay and percentage of marketable fruit of mature green and breaker ‘diamante max’ tomatoes stored at ambient or in brick-walled evaporative cooler (bec) conditions. bars refer to lsd values at p < 0.05. brick-walled evaporative cooler for storage of tomato j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 190-198, 2022 194 the color change was confirmed in the second trial as indicated by the l*, a* b*, hue and chroma values (figure 4). the results showed that tomatoes were redder in the stor age condition wher e the temperature was slightly lower (i.e., in the bec), compared to yellow and lighter pink fruit color in ambient room conditions. the l* was consistently higher in ambient-stored fruit indicating a lighter color as fruit turned yellow compared to lower l* in fruit stored in bec (figures 4a). a redder color of tomato stored in bec was indicated by higher positive a* values compared to fruit in ambient conditions (figure 4b). the higher b* (figure 4c) and the hue of around 90 (figure 4d) indicated fruit were more yellow when stored in ambient than in bec. the vividness of fruit color increased as shown by increasing chroma (figure 4e). climacteric fruits like tomatoes continue to mature even after being removed from the main plant. as the fruit continues to mature, its color changes from green to red due to the degradation of chlorophyll and the synthesis of lycopene (tilahun et al., 2017a; he et al., 2019). however, inhibition of lycopene synthesis was reported at temperatures below 12°c and above 30°c, which favored other carotenoids responsible for the yellow to the orange color of fruit (tilahun et al., 2017b). the present agreed with the previous study wherein the use of the bec for the storage of tomatoes resulted in a more uniform bright red color compared to fruit stored in a mbient conditions (babarinsa and omodara, 2016). firmness and total soluble solids (tss) regardless of maturity stage, tomatoes stored in bec were firmer compared to fruit stored under ambient conditions (figure 5a). on the other hand, mature green tomatoes stored in bec had lower tss than fruit stored in ambient conditions (figur e 5b). regardless of the maturity stage, tss in fruit stored in ambient conditions were higher than those tomatoes table 1. peel color of ‘diamante max’ tomatoes stored at mature green and breaker stages under ambient and brick-walled evaporative cooler (bec) conditions. peel color indexz treatment time of storage (day) 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 storage ambient 4.26a 4.47b 4.71b 4.66b 4.68b 4.75b 4.77b brick-walled ec 3.59b 4.75a 4.98a 4.99a 5.02a 5.05a 5.03a maturity stage mature green 3.36b 4.50b 4.78b 4.76b 4.79b 4.89a 4.90a breaker 4.49a 4.72a 4.91a 4.88a 4.92a 4.91a 4.91a per storage period, means in a column with a common letter are not significantly different using lsd at 5% level of significance. fig. 4. color changes, l*, a*, b*, hue and chroma, of mature green and breaker ‘diamante max’ tomatoes stored at ambient or in brick-walled evaporative conditions. bars refer to lsd values at p < 0.05. bayogan et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 190-198, 2022 195 stored in bec at 28 days. the low temperature in bec could have delayed the ripening in mature green tomatoes the temperature has been reported to affect the firmness of tomatoes in which storage at lower temperature delayed the reduction of firmness while a sharp decrease was observed after transfer in room conditions (najat et al., 2018). changes in fruit firmness or softening during postharvest occur due to moisture loss and ripening-related cell wall metabolism or cell wall-modifying enzymes (lara et al., 2019). the present results validate the previous finding that tomatoes stored in an evaporative cooler were firmer than those stored in ambient conditions (adekanye et al., 2019; manyozo et al., 2018). tss in fruit is associated with starch degradation into sugar as the fruit ripens (adjouman et al., 2018). hence, there was higher tss in tomatoes at the breaker stage than fruit stored at the mature green stage. the increase in carbohydrate hydrolysis into soluble sugars at higher temperatures and reduced rh of a mbient conditions r esulted in a higher accumulation of tss in tomatoes. cost-benefit analysis the cost-benefit analysis of using the brick-walled evaporative cooling (bec) storage system showed that an estimated 168.42 kg of the stored tomatoes is expected to be marketable at the end of the storage period compared to the ambient storage with only 108.72 kg of fruit. the benefit over cost value of the bec, assuming eight months (dry months) a year of use, was 27.16% higher than the ambient storage system (table 2). fig. 5. firmness and total soluble solids content of mature green and breaker ‘diamante max’ tomatoes stored at ambient or in brick-walled evaporative cooler (bec) conditions. bars refer to lsd values at p < 0.05. moreover, monthly income from produce stored in bec could potentially increase compared with ambient storage. the bec system could last longer than a year, further lowering the maintenance costs. after one year of usage, the producers can earn more profit for the succeeding years since the only cost they need to pay is the water usage and disinfection of the bec system. the evaporative cooler made of bricks, or the zeroenergy brick cooler, was reported to be the cheapest evaporative cooler than other evaporative cooling technologies such as charcoal cooler and pot-in-pot cooler, hence, recommended for smallholder farmers (manyozo et al., 2018). conclusion t he b r ic kwa lled eva p or a t ive c ooler ( be c ) recorded a lower temperature and higher relative humidity (rh) compared to ambient conditions. the mean temperature differences between the two storage conditions in the two experiments were 1.64oc and 1.51oc, while the differences in rh were 19.01% and 17.70% for the first and second trials, respectively. percentage weight loss was consistently lower in bec and showed 10.36% lesser weight loss compared in ambient conditions after 49 days. decay incidence was lower in bec and green tomatoes compared to fruit stored in ambient conditions and fruit stored in advanced stage. fruit stored in bec had better visual quality and longer shelf life. fruit can be stored in the bec for up to 49 days in which 61.8% of the initial fruit remained marketable compared to only 23.2% of fruit in the ambient storage system. storage of fruit in bec resulted in a redder fruit than those in brick-walled evaporative cooler for storage of tomato j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 190-198, 2022 196 table 2. cost-benefit analysis of tomato storage in ambient and brick-walled evaporative cooling storage systems for one month computed for use for eight months per year. quantity price/unit total total (usd) (usd) (usd) for for brickambient walled storage evaporative cooler (bec) benefit monthly income 108.72 kga 1.4047 152.72 236.59 with marketable produce 168.42 kgaa monthly benefit 152.72 236.58 annual benefitb 1,221.76 1,892.64 cost sanitizer 8 set-ups 1.00/set-up 8.00 8.00 container 8 pieces 3.01/crate 24.08 24.08 newspaper lining 1/2 kg 0.50/kg 4.00 4.00 construction of bec 1,100 pcs of 362.17 362.17 bricks, labor and transportation water 60l/day 0.19/ 1.52 consumption month x 8** labor costsc 2-man days 6.42/md 92.47 102.72 (md)/200 kg x 8 set ups total annual cost, usd b 128.55 502.49 annual benefit minus annual cost, usd 1,093.21 1,390.15 advantage of bec over ambient, % 27.16 atwo hundred (200) kg of very good quality mature green or breaker tomato are stored in ambient in 8 plastic crates; after one month of storage, 40.81% were non-marketable = 118.38 kg are marketable/month; with 8.16% weight loss after 1 month= 108.72 kg/month (based on results at 28-day of storage). aatwo hundred (200) kg of very good quality mature green or breaker tomato are stored in bec in 8 plastic crates; after one month of storage, 17.05% were non-marketable = 165.90 kg/month; with 1.52% weight loss after 1 month= 168.42 kg/month (based on results at 28-day of storage). bfor 8 months/cycles of storage per year. clabor costs include sorting, wiping/cleaning of tomatoes, air-drying, sanitizing of plastic crates, putting in crates, loading/unloading, monitoring of tomato quality, disposal of culls, and sanitizing of bricks for bec. *price of tomatoes per kg based on philippine statistics authority (2018). **usd 0.007/day*28days = usd 0.19/month. conversion rate= usd 1= php49.83 ambient room conditions which was confirmed by l*, a* b*, hue and chroma values. tomatoes stored in bec were firmer and had low total soluble solids (tss). the higher tss of tomatoes in ambient conditions indicated faster ripening of fruit. the b enef it ove r c os t va lu e of t he b r ic kwa lled evaporative cooling storage system was 27.17% higher than the ambient storage system showing more profit. in general, the bec storage system ma intained the qua lity of tomatoes better than ambient storage. acknowledgment the authors gratefully acknowledge the funding s u p p or t f r om t he agr ic u lt u r a l c ent r e f or international agricultural research on “improved postharvest management of a fruit and vegetables in austr alia and southern philippines (aciar hort/2012/098)”. bayogan et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 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bayogan et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 190-198, 2022 (received: 16.11.2021; revised: 03.03.2022; accepted: 04.03.2022) 00 a final sph -jhs coverpage first 2 pages.pdf 00 content and in this issue.pdf 01 mohan kumar g n.pdf 02 meera pandey.pdf 03 biradar c.pdf 04 varalakshmi b.pdf 05 vijayakumari n.pdf 06 barik s.pdf 07 sajid m b.pdf 08 ranga d.pdf 09 usha s.pdf 10 manisha.pdf 11 amulya r n.pdf 12 akshatha h j.pdf 13 adak t.pdf 14 sujatha s.pdf 15 gowda p p.pdf 16 subba s.pdf 17 dhayalan v.pdf 19 ahmed s.pdf 20 vishwakarma p k.pdf 21 deep lata.pdf 22 udaykumar k p.pdf 23 nayaka v s k.pdf 24 sahel n a.pdf 25 bayogan e r v.pdf 26 rathinakumari a c.pdf 27 yella swami c.pdf 28 saidulu y.pdf 29 sindhu s.pdf 30 neeraj.pdf 31 sivaranjani r.pdf 32 rashied tetteh.pdf 34 sangeetha g.pdf 35 shareefa m.pdf 36 last pages.pdf onion (allium cepa) is an important commercial vegetable crop of india. it is grown predominantly in kharif and rabi seasons in the country. the onion is grown under 0.76 million hectares with a production of 12.16 million tonnes and productivity of 16.1 tonnes hectare-1 (nhb, 2010). productivity of this crop is quite low in the country, which could be attributed to improper and inadequate nutrient management, higher disease incidence, non availability of critical inputs, particularly water, lack of adoption of new improved production technologies, etc. (saxena et al, 2008). over the last few years, emphasis has been laid on enhancing productivity by applying irrigation water and fertilizer. in india, it is a common practice to use surface irrigation for an irrigated onion crop. water productivity or irrigation efficiency in surface irrigation is low (< 44%) due to higher percolation, distribution and evaporation losses (locascio, 2005). modern systems of irrigation such as through drip and sprinklers ensure better irrigation and water use efficiency. sprinkler irrigation system has become popular under undulating topography, particularly, for light textured soils in a variety of horticultural crops. this system is ideally suited for closely spaced vegetable crops as it maintains optimum soil moisture for shallow rooted crops like onion (satyendra kumar et al, 2006). for intensive and effect of microsprinkler fertigation on growth and yield of rabi onion m. prabhakar, s.s. hebbar and a.k. nair division of vegetable crops indian institute of horticultural research hessarghatta lake post, bangalore-560089, india e-mail:mpkar@iihr.ernet.in abstract a field experiment was conducted during rabi 2005-2006 at indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore, to study the performance of onion cv. arka niketan as influenced by microsprinkler fertigation using different sources and levels of fertilizers. results indicated that crop growth in terms of leaf production, plant height, radial and equatorial diameter was not significantly influenced by the treatments. fertigation treatments were superior for marketable bulb yield as compared to soil application of fertilizer. also bulb yield through soil application of fertilizer increased by changing over from surface-irrigation to microsprinkler irrigation. however, bulb yield did not significantly decrease by applying just 75% of the recommended npk fertilizers, using common or water soluble fertilizers supplied through fertigation. for achieving maximum yield, however, it is recommended to apply 100% recommended dose of fertilizers through sprinkler fertigation using water soluble fertilizers. key words: onion, microsprinkler, fertigation, growth and yield economical crop production, and for achieving higher yield with quality bulbs in onion, the best solution is fertigation, as both water and fertilizers are delivered in time and in small amounts to growing crops through micro irrigation system (neeraja et al, 1999). fertigation also saves time and lobour, making it profitable. experiments have proved that this system economizes use of fertilizer and water to a tune of 40-60 per cent. information on combined use of fertilizers with sprinklers is limited in a closely spaced crop like onion in our country. hence, a trial was conducted to study the effect of various fertilizers applied through fertigation using sprinklers in onion crop. the experiment was conducted during rabi season of 2005-2006 at indian institute of horticultural research, hessaraghatta lake, bangalore. mean annual temperature range of hessaraghatta was 27-35oc and 14-20oc during day and night with annual average rainfall of 850 mm. the soil was well drained sandy loam with an initial organic carbon (0.55%), ph (6.75), available n (160 kg/ha), available p (88 kg/ha), available k (280 kg/ha) and electrical conductivity (0.23 dsm-1). the available water holding capacity was 153 mm for one meter soil depth. seedlings (35 days old) of cultivar arka niketan were planted at a spacing of 15 x 15 cm during the first week of november. short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 6(1):66-68, 2011 67 the experiment was laid out in randomized block design with eleven treatments and three replications. a uniform dose of fertilizer at the rate of 125:75:125 kg n, p 2 o 5 and k 2 o per hectare was applied through different treatments, along with a basal application of farm yard manure (25 tonnes hectare-1.) in soil application treatments (t 1 and t 2 ), the entire amount of p, and half of n and k were given as basal dose and the remaining half was side dressed 30 days after transplanting. in n and k fertigation (t 3 to t 7 ) treatments, all the p was applied to the soil as basal dose. all fertigation treatments, were applied through a fertilizer pump at weekly intervals starting three weeks after transplanting, for twelve weeks. micro sprinkler irrigation was done on alternate days to replenish 90 per cent of the pan evaporation losses. all other recommended practices were followed for crop growth and plant protection. treatment details are given under table1. there were no significant differences among treatments with reference to crop growth characters like plant height, number of leaves and leaf dry weight per plant. however, application of 100-0-100 per cent fertigation using common fertilizers (t 7 ) and 100-0-100 per cent fertigation using specialty fertilizers (t 6 ) recorded the highest (57.7cm) and lowest (54.1cm) values respectively for plant height (table 2). treatment t 6 recorded the highest value (10.4) for number of leaves per plant. though application of 100 per cent npk fertigation using common fertilizers (t 9 ) recorded lower number of leaves per plant (9.6), it recorded higher leaf dry weight per plant (5.9 g) compared to other treatments. this may be attributed to vigorous growth of leaves available on the plant. the same treatment recorded significantly higher (233.9 cm2) leaf area per plant than t 1 , t 3 , t 10 and t 11. application of common fertilizers to soil with furrow irrigation (t 1 ) recorded the lowest (191cm2) leaf area per plant. different treatment combinations did not differ significantly with respect to radial and equatorial bulb diameter among yield and yield attributing characters studied. however, t 9 and t 2 recorded higher values than other treatments for radial (6.59 cm) and equatorial (6.14 cm) diameter, respectively. application of 75% npk fertigation using specialty fertilizers (t 10 ) recorded minimum radial (6.05 cm) and equatorial (5.76 cm) diameter. treatment, t 9 recorded significantly higher total soluble solids (11.8obrix) than most of the other treatments except t 5 , t 6 , t 8 and t 10 , while, the minimum was recorded with t 1 and t 2 (10.7o brix). similarly individual bulb weight (84.1g) was significantly higher in t 9 compared to t 1 , t 2 , t 3 , t 4 and t 11 treatments. second highest bulb weight (82.4 g) was table 1. treatment details for onion cultivar arka niketan under fertigation treatment treatment details t 1 application of common fertilizer to soil with furrow/bed irrigation t 2 application of common fertilizer to soil with microsprinkler irrigation t 3 50-0-50% fertigation using urea and muriate of potash t 4 50-0-50% fertigation using water soluble solid fertilizers (specialty fertilizers*) t 5 50-0-50% fertigation using specialty fertilizers t 6 100-0-100% fertigation using specialty fertilizers t 7 100-0-100% fertigation using common fertilizers t 8 100% npk fertigation using specialty fertilizers t 9 100% npk fertigation using common fertilizers t 1 0 75% npk fertigation using specialty fertilizers t 1 1 75% npk fertigation using regular fertilizers * specialty fertilizers used were 19:19:19 npk, potassium nitrate and calcium nitrate table 2. effect of sprinkler fertigation on crop growth and yield in rabi onion treatment plant no.of leaf area leaf dry radial equatorial tss bulb marketable height (cm) leaves per per plant weight diameter diameter (obrix) weight (g) bulb yield plant (cm2) per plant (g) (cm) (cm) (t/ha) t 1 55.5 9.7 191.0 5.3 6.27 5.92 10.7 74.7 25.8 t 2 57.2 9.8 211.3 5.4 6.21 6.14 10.7 77.3 29.5 t 3 56.6 9.7 210.0 5.6 6.08 5.82 10.8 78.3 30.3 t 4 57.3 9.7 212.9 5.5 6.24 6.11 11.0 76.7 31.1 t 5 55.0 9.4 218.9 5.5 6.33 5.98 11.2 81.2 31.8 t 6 54.1 10.4 223.8 5.7 6.14 5.92 11.3 82.4 33.8 t 7 57.7 9.9 225.9 5.7 6.43 6.05 11.0 82.0 32.7 t 8 56.3 10.0 226.5 5.8 6.08 5.79 11.6 81.8 32.2 t 9 54.2 9.6 233.9 5.9 6.59 6.08 11.8 84.1 33.9 t 1 0 54.7 9.6 209.4 5.4 6.05 5.76 11.6 80.4 31.5 t 1 1 54.8 9.7 205.9 5.1 6.21 5.79 11.0 78.3 30.6 s.em± 1.4 0.3 7.9 0.2 0.7 0.5 0.2 1.9 1.5 cd (p=0.05) ns ns 22.7 ns ns ns 0.7 5.4 4.3 microsprinkler fertigation in onion j. hortl. sci. vol. 6(1):66-68, 2011 68 recorded with t 6 , while t 1 had lowest bulb weight of 74.7 g. there were significant differences for marketable bulb yield among almost all fertigation treatments, recording higher bulb yield compared to soil application treatment with furrow irrigation treatment. sprinkler irrigation also gave higher bulb yield as compared to furrow irrigation. treatment t 9 recorded significantly higher mean bulb weight (84.1g) and higher bulb yield (33.9 t ha-1). this may probably be due to higher leaf area, resulting in greater photosynthetic surface, leading to higher carbo-hydrate synthesis and translocation to the sink, coupled with marginally higher total soluble sugars. higher bulb yields obtained with fertigation compared to soil application could result in saving in fertilizer (25 %) and higher nutrient productivity. this is in conformity with earlier findings of murali krishnasamy et al (2006). from the present study, it can be inferred that 100% application of recommended dose of nitrogenous, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers (125:75:125 kg ha-1) via fertigation through microsprinklers has a positive effect on plant growth characters and improves marketable bulb yield in onion. hence, fertigation using microsprinklers can be recommended for onion to attain improved growth and marketable bulb yield in locations where it is traditionally grown under irrigation. references national horticulture board. 2010. indian horticulture database, ministry of agriculture, government of india locascio, s.j. 2005. management of irrigation for vegetables, past, present and future. hort. tech., 15:477-481 murali krishnasamy,s., veerabadram, v. krishnsamy,. s. kumar and s. sakthivela. 2006. microsprinkler irrigation and fertigation in onion (allium cepa). 7th international micro-irrigation congress, 13-15 september, kualalumpur, malaysia neeraja, g, reddy, k.m,.reddy, i.p. and reddy,y.n. 1999. effect of irrigation and nitrogen on growth, yield and yield attributes of rabi onion (allium cepa) in andhra pradesh. veg. sci., 26:64-68 satyendra kumar, ashwini kumar and goutam mandal. 2006. effect of irrigation scheduling and fertigation on storability of onion (allium cepa) under microsprinkler irrigation regime.ind. j. agril sci., 76:401-404 saxena, a.k, sobaran singh, ajay srivastava and poonam gautam. 2008. yield target approach under integrated nutrient management for assessing fertilizer requirements of onion in mollisols of uttarakhand. ind. j. hort., 65:302-306 (ms received 04 november 2010, revised 15 febuary 2011) prabhakar et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 6(1):66-68, 2011 page 138 evaluation of spur and colour mutant cultivars of apple (malus domestica borkh.) for their suitablity under mid hill conditions of uttaranchal pankaj kumar1, m. p. gangwar and d. c. dimri department of horticulture, college of forestry and hill agriculture, gbpua&t, hill campus, ranichuari-249199, uttaranchal, india abstract out of 9 apple cultivars belonging to spur and colour mutants, red spur exhibited the largest fruit size (6.38 cm x 7.69cm) followed by red chief (6.37 cm x 7.11 cm) and vance delicious (5.95 cm x 6.68 cm). the maximum value of average fruit weight (170.4 g) and fruit volume (193.1 ml) were observed in red spur. maximum value for firmness (1.35 kg/cm2) and t.s.s. (12.50°b) were observed in red chief with the lowest acidity in vance delicious (0.23%). the highest value for total sugars (8.45%) was recorded in vance delicious and for reducing sugars (6.98%) in red chief . on the basis of these characteristics, spur type cultivars red chief and red spur, with maximum yield/tree of 27.4 kg and 24.3 kg respectively, and the colour mutant cultivar, vance delicious with an yield of 25.1 kg were suitable for cultivation under mid-hill conditions of uttaranchal. key words: apple, spur, colour mutant, evaluation presently, a major area of apple cultivation in india is under standard cultivars of the delicious group. most of these cultivars, when grown in the mid -hills and in valleys produce low yield and exhibit a tendency to biennial bearing due to high chilling requirement. in the recent past, introduction of colour strains, viz., top red, vance delicious, skyline supreme delicious, etc. have shown good performance in himachal pradesh and j&k (chadha, 1993). these strains develop fruit colour early and also have a higher yield potential. spur-type cultivars like red chief, oregon spur, etc. were introduced in to india during 1985-86 from usa and italy. these are prolific bearers with better colour development hardiness against insect pests, diseases and adverse environmental conditions and require low pruning (kanwar, 1991). these colour mutant and spur type strains have shown promise under the agro-climatic conditions of himachal pradesh and j&k. therefore, the present investigation was undertaken to evaluate economic feasibility of these apple strains under humid temperate midhill conditions of uttaranchal. the investigation was carried out at the horticulture research block, g.b. pant university of agriculture & technology, hill campus, ranichauri (tehri garhwal) during 2002 on nine apple cultivars belonging to the spur type and the colour mutants. nine year old, uniform trees of apple on seedling rootstocks maintained under uniform 1present address : ta (farm manager), kvk, vcsg college of horticulture, bharsar, via chipalghat, pauri garhwal, uttaranchal 246123 orchard management practices were selected for the study. a single tree was used for each treatment, replicated thrice in randomized block design. a composite sample of ten fruits from each treatment was drawn and subjected to various physical and chemical analysis. titrable acidity and sugars were estimated as per the procedure of ranganna (1986). all the apple cultivars under study showed significant variation in fruit length and diameter, which varied from 3.92 cm (tydeman’s early worcester) to 6.38 cm (red spur) and 4.77 cm (golden spur) to 7.69 cm (red spur), respectively (table 1). jindal et al (1992) also measured the variation among different spur, standard and colour mutants in a range of fruit dia meter 5.90 cm (vance delicious, golden spur) to 7.80 cm (hardeman, starking delicious). in addition, farooqui et al (1986) recorded fruit diameter in the delicious group of apple cultivars ranging from 6.52 cm to 8.24 cm. observations on fruit weight and volume also showed significant variation ranging from 118.1 g (tydeman’s early worcester) to 170.4 g (red spur) and 136.89 ml (tydeman’s early worcester) to 193.13 ml (red spur). in agreement with the present findings, farooqui et al (1986) also noticed great variation, with maximum weight (224.18 g) and volume (120 ml) in cultivar ambri. j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 138-140, 2006 short communication page 139 fruit weight ranging from 142.0 g (tydeman’s early worcester) to 186.3 g (hardeman) was also estimated by jindal et al (1992). variation in fruit size (length and diameter), weight and volume in different apple cultivars is attributed to intervarietal differences associated with genetic make-up of the cultivars and is governed by the cell size and intercellular spacing of fruit tissues. fruit firmness indicated maximum values of 1.35kg/cm2 in red chief, followed by starkrimson (1.33kg/cm2) as against the minimum value of 1.04kg/cm2 in golden spur, which was at par with red spur and tydeman’s early worcester. change in fruit firmness is primarily attributed to breakdown of the insoluble proto-pectin to soluble pectin compounds which ultimately affects cell wall consistency. a close perusal of data showed that all the quality attributes differed significantly in different apple cultivars. maximum total soluble solids of 12.50° brix were recorded in red chief and a minimum of 10.25° brix in tydeman’s early worcester. various apple cultivars also showed marked difference in total acidity which varied from 0.23% (vance delicious) to 0.39% (tydeman’s early worcester and golden spur). the highest value of total sugars was found in vance delicious (8.45%), while, the least value in cultivar oregon spur (7.41%). however, both the reducing and non-reducing fractions of the total sugars were recorded to be maximum in cultivars red chief (6.98%) and starkrimson (2.19%), respectively, while their respective values were minimum in starkrimson (5.57%) and oregon spur (0.82%). farooqui et al (1986) also observed that total, reducing and non-reducing sugars varied from 7.80% (ambri) to 11.36% (golden delicious), 6.20% (ambri) to 7.5% (golden delicious x ambri) and 0.75% (golden delicious x ambri) to 5.17% (golden delicious), respectively. jindal et al (1992), on the other hand recorded reducing sugars in the range of 4.91% (starking delicious) to 6.89% (top red) and total sugars from 6.05% (starking delicious) to 9.01% (top red). the extent of variation in sugars in different apple cultivars is obviously due to leaf fruit ratio, abundance of chloroplasts and a highly variable amount of starch in young fruits. the average yield/tree revealed that the cultivar red chief gave the maximum yield (27.4 kg), closely followed by vance delicious (25.1 kg) and red spur (24.3 kg), while, the minimum yield/tree of 15.6 kg and 15.4 kg was observed in the cultivars golden spur and tydeman’s early worcestor, respectively. top red also recorded significantly higher yield/tree (21.2 kg) than stark spur gold and golden spur. acknowledgement the authors are grateful to the dean, college of forestry and hill agriculture, and director, experiment station, g. b. pant university of agriculture & technology pantnagar for providing necessary facilities. references chadha,t.r. 1993. improvement of apple. in: advances in horticulture. vol 1 fruit crops. (eds. k l. chadha and o.p. pareek), malhotra publishing house, new delhi. pp. 25-33 farooqui, k.d., dalal, m.a. and ahanger, h.u. 1986. genetic upgrading of apple. prog. hort. 18 : 19-23. jindal, k.k. karkara, b.k., sharma, v.k. and uppal, d.k. 1992. evaluation of spur types and colour strains of apple. n.h.b. tech. comm. bull. pp.29-42 table1. physico-chemical parameters of fruit in various apple cultivars cultivar mean fruit mean fruit mean fruit fruit fruit t.s.s acidity total reducing nonyield/ length diameter weight volume firmness (0brix) (%) sugars sugars reducing tree (cm) (cm) (g) (ml) (kg/cm2) (%) (%) sugars (%) (kg) spur type red spur 6.38 7.69 170.40 193.13 1.04 11.17 0.26 7.61 6.55 1.06 24.30 stark spur gold 6.14 6.62 159.21 173.61 1.20 11.18 0.34 8.21 6.72 1.49 16.20 golden spur 4.31 4.77 132.22 151.05 1.04 10.34 0.39 7.95 5.86 2.09 15.60 red chief 6.37 7.11 164.40 181.43 1.35 12.50 0.31 8.27 6.98 1.29 27.40 oregon spur 4.50 5.71 149.53 163.17 1.27 11.60 0.28 7.41 6.59 0.82 20.10 starkrimson 4.91 5.88 152.71 167.28 1.33 11.31 0.32 7.76 5.57 2.19 20.90 colour mutant vance delicious 5.95 6.68 161.30 178.65 1.13 11.60 0.23 8.45 6.32 2.13 25.10 top red 4.28 5.12 134.50 151.76 1.19 11.32 0.29 8.23 6.40 1.83 21.20 tydeman’s early worcester 3.92 4.80 118.10 136.89 1.07 10.25 0.39 7.51 5.87 1.64 15.40 cd (p=0.05) 2.00 1.93 11.79 14.60 0.23 1.96 0.05 0.86 4.39 0.46 2.10 j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 138-140, 2006 evaluation of apple cultivars 139 page 140 kanwar, s.m. 1991. apple : production technology and economics. tata mcgraw hill publishing company ltd., new delhi. pp.51-153 j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 138-140, 2006 pankaj kumar et al 140 (ms received 4 may 2006, revised 11 september 2006) ranganna, s. 1986. handbook of analysis and quality control of fruit and vegetable products 2nd ed. tata mcgraw hill publishing company, calcutta, pp. 279-309 final sph -jhs coverpage 16-2 jan 2021 single c o n t e n t s journal of horticultural sciences volume 16 issue 2 june 2021 in this issue i-ii review phytoremediation of indoor air pollutants: harnessing the potential of 131-143 plants beyond aesthetics shalini jhanji and u.k.dhatt research articles response of fruit yield and quality to foliar application of micro-nutrients in 144-151 lemon [citrus limon (l.) burm.] cv. assam lemon sheikh k.h.a., singh b., haokip s.w., shankar k., debbarma r. studies on high density planting and nutrient requirement of banana in 152-163 different states of india debnath sanjit bauri f.k., swain s., patel a.n., patel a.r., shaikh n.b., bhalerao v.p., baruah k., manju p.r., suma a., menon r., gutam s. and p. patil mineral nutrient composition in leaf and root tissues of fifteen polyembryonic 164-176 mango genotypes grown under varying levels of salinity nimbolkar p.k., kurian r.m., varalakshmi l.r., upreti k.k., laxman r.h. and d. kalaivanan optimization of ga3 concentration for improved bunch and berry quality in 177-184 grape cv. crimson seedless (vitis vinifera l) satisha j., kumar sampath p. and upreti k.k. rgap molecular marker for resistance against yellow mosaic disease in 185-192 ridge gourd [luffa acutangula (l.) roxb.] kaur m., varalakshmi b., kumar m., lakshmana reddy d.c., mahesha b. and pitchaimuthu m. genetic divergence study in bitter gourd (momordica charantia l.) 193-198 nithinkumar k.r., kumar j.s.a., varalakshmi b, mushrif s.k., ramachandra r.k. , prashanth s.j. combining ability studies to develop superior hybrids in bell pepper 199-205 (capsicum annuum var. grossum l.) varsha v., smaranika mishra, lingaiah h.b., venugopalan r., rao k.v. kattegoudar j. and madhavi reddy k. ssr marker development in abelmoschus esculentus (l.) moench 206-214 using transcriptome sequencing and genetic diversity studies gayathri m., pitchaimuthu m. and k.v. ravishankar generation mean analysis of important yield traits in bitter gourd 215-221 (momordica charantia) swamini bhoi, varalakshmi b., rao e.s., pitchaimuthu m. and hima bindu k. influence of phenophase based irrigation and fertigation schedule on vegetative 222-233 performance of chrysanthemum (dendranthema grandiflora tzelev.) var. marigold vijayakumar s., sujatha a. nair, nair a.k., laxman r.h. and kalaivanan d. performance evaluation of double type tuberose iihr-4 (ic-0633777) for 234-240 flower yield, quality and biotic stress response bharathi t.u., meenakshi srinivas, umamaheswari r. and sonavane, p. anti-fungal activity of trichoderma atroviride against fusarium oxysporum f. sp. 241-250 lycopersici causing wilt disease of tomato yogalakshmi s., thiruvudainambi s., kalpana k., thamizh vendan r. and oviya r. seed transmission of bean common mosaic virus-blackeye cowpea mosaic strain 251-260 (bcmv-blcm) threaten cowpea seed health in the ashanti and brong-ahafo regions of ghana adams f.k., kumar p.l., kwoseh c., ogunsanya p., akromah r. and tetteh r. effect of container size and types on the root phenotypic characters of capsicum 261-270 raviteja m.s.v., laxman r.h., rashmi k., kannan s., namratha m.r. and madhavi reddy k. physio-morphological and mechanical properties of chillies for 271-279 mechanical harvesting yella swami c., senthil kumaran g., naik r.k., reddy b.s. and rathina kumari a.c. assessment of soil and water quality status of rose growing areas of 280-286 rajasthan and uttar pradesh in india varalakshmi lr., tejaswini p., rajendiran s. and k.k. upreti qualitative and organoleptic evaluation of immature cashew kernels under storage 287-291 sharon jacob and sobhana a. physical quality of coffee bean (coffea arabica l.) as affected by harvesting and 292-300 drying methods chala t., lamessa k. and jalata z vegetative vigour, yield and field tolerance to leaf rust in four f1 hybrids of 301-308 coffee (coffea arabica l.) in india divya k. das, shivanna m.b. and prakash n.s. limonene extraction from the zest of citrus sinensis, citrus limon, vitis vinifera 309-314 and evaluation of its antimicrobial activity wani a.k., singh r., mir t.g. and akhtar n. event report 315-318 national horticultural fair 2021 a success story dhananjaya m.v., upreti k.k. and dinesh m.r. subject index 319-321 author index 322-323 251 j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 251-260, 2021 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper seed transmission of bean common mosaic virus blackeye cowpea mosaic strain (bcmv-blcm) threaten cowpea seed health in the ashanti and brong-ahafo regions of ghana adams f.k.1*, kumar p.l.2, kwoseh c.3 ogunsanya p.2, akromah r.3 and tetteh r.1 1csir-plant genetic resources research institute, p. o. box 7, bunso, eastern region-ghana 2international institute of tropical agriculture (iita), oyo road, pmb 5320, ibadan, nigeria 3department of crop and soil sciences, faculty of agriculture, kwame nkrumah university of science and technology, p.m.b., university post office, kumasi, ghana *corresponding author email : ffffulera@yahoo.com abstract antigen-coated plate enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (acp-elisa) and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rt-pcr) were used to detect the presence and seed transmissibility of bean common mosaic virus-blackeye cowpea mosaic (bcmv-bicm) in farmretained cowpea seed lots obtained from 46 locations, including markets and farms in major cowpea growing areas in the ashanti and brong ahafo regions of ghana. in the growout tests, virus symptomatic plants were observed in seedlings of 19 of the 46 seed lots tested under insect-proof screen-house conditions. all the symptomatic plants tested positive to polyclonal antiserum raised against bcmv-bicm in acp-elisa. the seed transmission rates based on symptoms ranged from 0 to 37.8 %. rt-pcr with primer pair designed to amplify the potyvirus cylindrical inclusion (ci) region resulted in an expected 720 bp dna segment in 19 seed lots as a further confirmation of virus in the seed lots. the remaining 27 lots were asymptomatic and tested negative to bcmv-blcm in both acp-elisa and rtpcr. the findings of this study revealed seed as the source of primary inoculum in the farmers’ fields and may aid in the implementation of control strategies such as discouraging farmers from retaining their own seeds for subsequent sowing and encouraging them to take appropriate measures in obtaining virus-free cowpea seeds from other sources. key words: bean common mosaic virus-blackeye cowpea mosaic, cowpea, vegetable legume, elisa, potyvirus, rt-pcr, virus detection virus-seed transmission introduction cowpea (vigna unguiculata (l.) walp) is the most widely cultivated tropical vegetable legume in subsaharan africa (ssa). it is predominantly produced by smallholder farmers because of its tolerance to drought and ability to thrive in zero or low input farming. it provides affordable protein for humans and animals in ssa, asia, and latin america (bashir and hampton 1993; tarawali et al., 2002; boukar et al., 2013) and also serves as a cover crop in soil nitrogen fixation a nd the contr ol of er osion a nd weeds (hutchinson and mcgiffen, 2000). cowpea has the potential to enhance food security and reduce poverty in west africa, provided both socio-economic and biological constraints such as poor application of appropriate cultural technologies, infestation by weeds and insect pests, and infection by diseases are adequately tackled (jackai and adalla, 1997; quin, 1997; coulibaly and lowenberg – deboer, 2002; boukar et al., 2013). in ghana, cowpea is second to groundnut in terms of area under cultivation and quantity produced and consumed annually (egbadzor et al., 2013). an average of 143,000 mt is produced annually on about 156,000 ha making ghana the fifth-highest producer of cowpea in africa (icrisat, 2012). the guinea savannah zone of ghana, which includes the northern and upper west regions, is the major production area in the country (al-hassan and diao, 2007). other 252 adams et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 251-260, 2021 production areas include the sudan savannah zone (upper ea st r egion) a nd some districts in the transitional zones of brong ahafo and ashanti regions (haruna et al., 2018). bean common mosaic virus – blackeye cowpea mosaic (bcmv-bicm) is an important seed-borne virus reported in almost all cowpea growing areas worldwide (cabi/eppo, 2010; hema et al., 2014). cowpea fields can suffer substantial yield losses from seed-borne pathogens (bankole and adebanjo, 1996). sowing infected seeds increase germination failure, seedling mortality, and diseased plants, leading to lower yields. additionally, diseased crops may increase seed infection levels in young plants (manyangarirwa et al., 2009). seed transmission offers an effective means of introducing viruses into crop fields at an early stage, giving r a ndomized foci of pr ima r y infections throughout the season, which serves as the primary inoculum source for further virus spread by insect vectors (booker et al., 2005). viruses may persist in cotyledons and embryo axes of matured seeds for long periods (sekar and sulochana, 1988), enabling scope for long distances virus spread through contaminated seed lots. t he r ole of fa r mer-sa ved seeds in transmitting cowpea diseases was analyzed in northern nigeria (biemond et al., 2013), and seed to plant transmission of seed-borne pathogens in farmer-saved cowpea wa s investiga ted in zimba bwe (manyangarirwa et al., 2009). these studies have shown that farmer-saved cowpea seeds were heavily infected, with a ra nge of seeda nd soil-borne pathogens. t he latter empha sizes the negative influence on germination and potential crop losses. infections caused by seed-borne viruses reduce seed quality and the potential yield of crops. booker et al. (2005) reported seed transmission rates from less than 1 to 100% depending on the virus and host. yield reductions from expected 2500kg/ha to 50kg/ha were also reported in fields infected with bcmv-bicm in india (puttaraju et al., 2000a). further, cowpea varieties inoculated with bcmv-bicm at the primary leaf stage showed 92-100% infection at first trifoliate lea f (http://cr opgenebank. sgr p. cgia r. org/ da te accessed: 16/07/2019). the virus is readily transmitted mechanically and in a non-persistent manner by the aphids aphis craccivora, a. gossypii, and myzus persicae (orawu, 2007). a survey conducted on cowpea fields in the forest and transitional zones of ghana revealed the presence of bcmv-blcm among other six viruses, namely, cowpea aphid-borne mosaic virus (cabmv, genus potyvirus), cowpea mottle virus (cpmov, genus carmovirus), southern bean mosaic virus (sbmv, genus sobemovirus), cowpea mild mottle virus (cpmmv, genus carlavirus), cowpea yellow mottle virus (cymv, genus comovirus) and cucumber mosaic virus (cmv, genus cucumovirus) with bcmv-bicm being the most prevalent (adams et al., 2020). according to the study, farmers in the forest and transitional zones of the brong-ahafo and ashanti regions adopt production practices such as high cropping density as a result of random sowing methods, recycling of seeds from season to season, the closeness of fields to each other with different planting and pesticide application periods as well as preference for and cultivation of susceptible local cowpea cultivars which increases the incidence and severity of viruses on fields in those areas (amaza et al., 2010; adams et al, 2016). during the 2015 growing season, vir al disease symptoms, similar to those caused by the bcmvblcm, were observed on cowpea fields in the ashanti and brong ahafo regions of ghana. seeds collected from farmers in these areas were mostly shriveled. this study was conducted to confirm the virus identity in the symptomatic plants observed in the farmers’ fields and virus seed transmission in the seeds lots harvested from the 46 farmers’ fields and seed markets in ghana. materials and methods seed sample collection a total of forty-six (46) cowpea seed lots were collected from randomly selected farms and markets in the ama ntin-atebubu (17 lots), ejur a sekyeredumasi (13 lots), and nkoranza (16 lots) districts. seed lots were obtained from 24 farm locations (15 in amantin-atebubu, and 9 in ejurasekyeredumasi) and 22 market locations (16 in nkoranza, 2 in amantin-atebubu, and 4 in ejurasekyeredumasi) (table 1). seeds sourcing from farmers was done by selecting cowpea farms separated by at least 0.5 km in each district. in each farm, seed lots were obtained by collecting and bulking seeds from 30 plants randomly selected in an ‘x’ transect, 253 seed transmission of bean common mosaic virus-blackeye cowpea mosaic strain with 15 plants per diagonal axis. for market-sourced seeds, lots were obtained by randomly collecting seeds from different market women during the main market days in each district. seed samples were kept in labeled sample bags with naphthalene balls. a gps device was used to record coordinates and altitudes of the field and market locations. grow-out test from each sampled seed lot, 100 seeds were sown in trays filled with two liters of steam-sterilized topsoil in an insect-proof screen house. cowpea seedlings were visually examined for any symptoms. the total number of plants germinated and the number of symptomatic plants was counted in each try to estimate the percent symptomatic plants. at the three-week sta ge, a pica l lea ves of both symptoma tic a nd asymptomatic plants were sampled for bcmv-blcm indexing by antigen-coated plate enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (acp-elisa). symptomatic and asymptomatic plants were tested separately. in the case of asymptomatic plants, ten apical leaves, one from each plant, were collected, and they were together as one composite sample for virus indexing. this was repeated for all the seed lots. acp-elisa for bcmv-bicm detection to test each plant, a sterile cork borer was used to obtain 5 mm diameter pieces of all leaves in each of the 46 groups of leaf samples. about 100 mg of leaf tissue from each sample was grounded in the carbonate coating buffer (0.015 m na 2co3 and 0.0349 m nahco3) with dieca at 100 mg/ml buffer (1:10 w/v). one hundred microlitres of the extract were added to each well of a microtitre plate. infected, healthy plant sap and buffer were used as controls. plates were incubated in a humid chamber for 1 hour at 37oc and then washed with three changes of phosphate-buffered saline with tween 20 (pbs-tween 20), allowing three minutes for each wash. plates were emptied and tapped dry on a layer of paper towel. wells were blocked with 200 µl of 3% dried skimmed milk in pbs-tween 20. plates were incubated at 37oc for 30 minutes, and then tapped dry. healthy cowpea leaf extract in p bs t po ( 1 :1 0 w/ v) wa s u s ed t o c r os s a dsor ption of the bcmvbicm a ntiser u m a t 1:5000 µl. the mixture was incubated at 37oc for 30 minutes. one hundred microlitres of the crossadsorbed antisera was dispensed in each well and plates were incubated at 37oc for 1 hour. plates were washed and tapped dry as described above. one hundred microlitres of goat anti-rabbit alkaline phosphatase (alp) conjugate diluted in conjugate buffer (ovalbumin, polyvinyl pyrrolidone and pbstween 20) (1: 15,000) were dispensed into each well and incubated for 1 hour at 37oc. plates were washed and tapped dry. one hundred microlitres of 0.5 mg ml-1 p-nitrophenyl phospha te substr a te in substr a te buffer (diethanolamine and distilled water) were added to each well and incubated in a dark room for 1 hour. absorbance values were measured, and plates were kept in a refrigerator at 4oc overnight. quantitative mea sur ements of the p-nitr ophenyl substr a te conversion resulting in yellow colour were made by determining the absorbance at 405 nm (a405) in an elisa plate reader at 1 and 6 hours. the mean absor ba nce readings of nega tive controls were determined, and twice the values were used as the positive thresholds. reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (rt-pcr) the rt-pcr protocol described by gillaspie et al. (2001) was used for the detection of bcmv-blcm in the 46 seed lots to confirm the acp-elisa result. total nucleic acid was extracted using the cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (ctab) method described by dellaporta et al. (1983). cylindrical inclusions forward (ci-f; 5’cgi vig tig giw sig gia art cia c-3’) and reverse (ci-r; 5’-aci ccr tty tcd atd atr tti gti gc-3’) primers designed by ha et al. (2008) were used for rt-pcr amplification and the rt-pcr products were resolved on a 1.5% agarose gel along with 100 bp dna ladder as a size marker (cat nos n0467s, quick-load, biolabs inc., ipswich, ma, usa). the gel was viewed under a uv trans-illuminator (biorad gel doc xr, california, usa), and the virus-specific band in the samples were identified based on the presence of an expected amplicon size of 720bp. results among the 46 seed lots of cowpea subjected to a grow-out test in the screen-house, 19, made up of six lots obtained from atebubu-amantin, five from ejurasekyeredumasi, and eight from nkoranza, showed mottling and mosaic (fig. 1) on leaves. j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 251-260, 2021 254 all the symptomatic plants of 19 seed lots also gave positive reactions to bcmv-blcm in acp-elisa (table 1). bcmv-blcm transmission based on symptoms among the lots ranged from 0 to 37.8 % (table 2). some of the infected seed lots recorded low germination rates. for instance, of the 100 seeds of each seed lot planted, 51 of “nkoranza-14” and 30 of “amantin-15,” which were positive to bcmvbicm, germinated. all asymptomatic plants tested negative to bcmv-blcm in acp-elisa (table 1). all the 19 seed lots that had symptomatic plants and tested positive to bcmv-blcm have also tested positive to the virus in rt-pcr (amplified a 720 bp amplicon) (fig. 2). amplification was not detected in the remaining 27 asymptomatic seed lots (fig. 4), confirming the results obtained using bcmv-blcm antiserum in acp-elisa. discussion grow-out tests, acp-elisa and rt-pcr have confirmed bcmv-blcm seed transmission in the 19 of 46 seed lots assessed in this study. aliyu et al. (20 12) pr evious ly detected bcmv-bi cm among other seed-borne viruses infecting cowpea in nigeria, using acp-elisa. like the results obtained in this study, several authors (hampton et al., 1997; shanker et al., 2009; ittah and binang, 2 0 1 2 ) ha ve a t va r iou s t imes p r oved s eed transmission of the virus. shanker et al. (2009) reported bcmv-blcm as a serious pathogen on cowpea worldwide, to which field plants succumb to infections from virulent strains. booker et al. (2005) also reported the detrimental effect of the virus on cowpea production, causing stunting and plant deformation in the early growth stage and not allowing the plants to reach their full potential. mottling and interveinal chlorosis observed on the primary leaves of the plants in the grow-out test were consistent with symptoms reported to be associated with infections caused by bcmv-blcm (aliyu et al., 2012). the bcmv-blcm incidence in farmers’ fields and the corresponding seed transmission rates were given in table 3. some seed lots obtained from markets recorded seed transmission rates as high as 36.3% (nkoranza-6) in the grow-out test. some seed lots collected from farmers’ fields with high bcm v-blcm incidences r ec or ded zer o seedtransmission (amantin-2, -7, -13, -14 and ejura3) while a few other lots recorded very low seed transmission values (amantin-1, -11, ejura-8 and -13). amantin-6, ejura-9, amantin-5, and ejura-4 recorded 100, 90, 87 and 83% field incidences, respectively, with corresponding seed transmission rates of 21.3, 37.8, 16.7 and 16.3%, respectively (table 3). low germination rates recorded in some infected seed lots may be attributed to infection by the bcmv-bicm. ittah et al. (2010) reported in a previous study that seed-borne viruses such as bcmv-bicm, cabmv, cmev, and sbmv may cause some infected cowpea lines to lose their fig. 1. mottle mosaic symptoms of seed-borne bcmvblcm on grow-out cowpea plants in a screen house fig. 2. agarose gel electrophoresis showing amplification of rt-pcr products key; m = dna marker, h = healthy control, b = buffer, d = positive control nkoranza samples: 1-16; amantin samples: 17-33; ejura samples: 34-46 adams et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 251-260, 2021 255 samples bcmv-blcm samples bcmv-blcm samples bcmv-blcm nkoranza 1 3.175* amantin 1 2.658* ejura 1 0.287 nkoranza 2 0.253 amantin 2 0.349 ejura 2 2.658* nkoranza 3 0.225 amantin 3 0.367 ejura 3 0.204 nkoranza 4 0.222 amantin 4 0.288 ejura 4 3.370* nkoranza 5 3.438* amantin 5 3.383* ejura 5 0.345 nkoranza 6 3.446* amantin 6 2.851* ejura 6 0.282 nkoranza 7 3.645* amantin 7 0.247 ejura 7 0.281 nkoranza 8 3.445* amantin 8 0.416 ejura 8 3.457* nkoranza 9 0.139 amantin 9 0.373 ejura 9 3.285* nkoranza 10 0.249 amantin 10 3.396* ejura 10 0.224 nkoranza 11 0.193 amantin 11 2.962* ejura 11 0.282 nkoranza 12 3.174* amantin 12 0.568 ejura 12 0.283 nkoranza 13 3.381* amantin 13 0.316 ejura 13 3.322* nkoranza 14 3.275* amantin 14 0.471 nkoranza 15 0.517 amantin 15 3.140* nkoranza 16 0.285 amantin 16 0.410   amantin 17 0.419 positive control out out out negative control 0.268 0.36 0.36 buffer 0.21 0.28 0.28 *absorbance value (a405 nm) is >2x of negative control regarded as the virus positive. “out” indicates an out-of-range value (a405 >4) table 1. acp-elisa result for bcmv-blcm seed transmission table 2. seed transmission rates of bcmv-blcm among accessions seed transmission rate (%) number of seed lots 0 27 0.1 5.0 6 5.1 10 0 10.1 20 4 20.1 30 4 30.1 37.8 5 ability to germinate. fawole et al. (2006) also analyzed the effect of seed-borne fungi infection of cowpea seed on germination rate and found reduced germination rate because of infection by the fungi. further, manyangarirwa et al. (2009) reported that f a r mer pr odu ced c owp ea s eeds wer e hea vily infected with a r a nge of seeda nd soil-bor ne pathogens in zimbabwe, emphasizing the negative influence on germination. however, in contrast to the above findings, biemond et al. (2013) found that natural infection of cowpea seeds with some seed-borne pathogens increased germination. alt hou gh bc mvbi c m ha s b een p r eviou sly detected in cowpea seeds in ghana (zettler and evans, 1972), according to the literature available, most previous detections were limited to grow-out test , host r a nge, a nd r ea ct ivity t o polyclona l a ntibodies. ojueder ie et al. (2009) suggested stringent screening methods such as rt pcr to be used in screening for the presence of seed-borne viruses in a ddition to elisa, which employs reactivity to polyclonal antibodies since samples which appear nega tive with the latter could be positive when tested with rt pcr. the study confor ms with the a bove r ec ommenda tion a s bcmv-blcm was assessed with acp-elisa, and the results were confirmed with rt-pcr. bcmv-blcm was identified to be seed-borne in cowpea collected fr om fa r ms a nd ma r kets in seed transmission of bean common mosaic virus-blackeye cowpea mosaic strain j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 251-260, 2021 256 cowpea seed total total total % field transmission seed lots source sown germinated symptomatic incidence rate (%) nkoranza 1  market 100 53 18 * 34 nkoranza 2  market 100 42 0 * 0 nkoranza 3  market 100 93 0 * 0 nkoranza 4  market 100 58 0 * 0 nkoranza 5  market 100 63 14 * 22.2 nkoranza 6  market 100 80 29 * 36.3 nkoranza 7  market 100 91 28 * 30.8 nkoranza 8  market 100 65 10 * 15.4 nkoranza 9  market 100 36 0 * 0 nkoranza10  market 100 71 0 * 0 nkoranza11  market 100 89 0 * 0 nkoranza12  market 100 87 18 * 20.7 nkoranza13  market 100 80 19 * 23.8 nkoranza14  market 100 51 16 * 31.4 nkoranza15  market 100 68 0 * 0 nkoranza16  market 100 50 0 * 0 amantin 1  farm 100 60 1 63 1.7 amantin 2  farm 100 68 0 50 0 amantin 3  farm 100 52 0 30 0 amantin 4  farm 100 42 0 33 0 amantin 5  farm 100 78 13 87 16.7 amantin 6  farm 100 94 20 100 21.3 amantin 7  farm 100 63 0 70 0 amantin 8  farm 100 69 0 38 0 amantin 9  farm 100 82 0 38 0 amantin 10  farm 100 96 12 87 12.5 amantin 11  farm 100 100 4 60 4 amantin 12  farm 100 73 0 45 0 amantin 13  farm 100 76 0 87 0 amantin 14  farm 100 65 0 57 0 amantin 15  market 100 30 1 * 3.3 amantin 16  farm 100 83 0 30 0 amantin 17  market 100 33 0 * 0 ejura 1  farm 100 42 0 43 0 ejura 2  market 100 86 2 * 2.3 ejura 3  farm 100 62 0 63 0 ejura 4  farm 100 80 13 83 16.3 ejura 5  farm 100 82 0 30 0 ejura 6  market 100 72 0 * 0 ejura 7  farm 100 71 0 17 0 ejura 8  farm 100 92 1 50 1.1 ejura 9  farm 100 90 34 90 37.8 ejura 10  market 100 66 0 * 0 ejura 11  market 100 57 0 * 0 ejura 12  farm 100 63 0 40 0 ejura 13  farm 100 80 1 53 1.3 *denotes unknown (seed lots sourced from markets) table 3. bcmv-blcm incidence in farmers cowpea fields and respective seed transmission rates observed in grow-out test adams et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 251-260, 2021 257 nkoranza, amantin, and ejura. a study conducted by biemond et al. (2013) showed that farmerproduced cowpea seeds were heavily infected with a r a nge of s eed a nd s oilb or ne p a t hogens . transmission rates based on symptoms ranged from 0 to 37.8 %. ladipo (1977) and ng and hughes (1998) estimated that the rate of seed-transmission of virus in cowpea may range from 0 to 90%, which aligns with the seed transmission rates observed in this study and a previous study by zettler and evans (1972) that showed the frequency of seed transmission of bcmv-blcm at about 30.9% in cowpea. seed transmission rates of bcmv-blcm did not necessarily correspond with infection levels observed in fields from which the collections were made. although some lots obtained from fields with high disease incidence recorded correspondingly high transmission rates in the grow-out test, others recorded either zero or very low rates. low transmission rates of bcmv-blcm in seed lot s ob t a in ed f r om f ields wit h h igh dis ea s e incidences c ould b e du e t o s ever a l r ea s ons , including infection after flowering to the presence of virus in seed coat but not in the embryos (gupta et al., 1985). shanker et al. (2009) showed that sowing cowpea seeds with the incidence of bcmvblcm a s low as less than 1% might result in significant virus spread with a major influence on grain yield. puttaraju et al. (2004b) also reported a 65-100% bcmv-blcm transmission resulting from sowing cowpea seeds with a bout 4-10% infection rate. thus, even with the relatively low seed transmission rates observed in the current study, there is cause for concern. according to shanker et al. (2009), a threshold level below 2% infection for cowpea seeds is recommended as suitable to avoid the risk of economic losses due to the spread of bcmv-blcm in cowpea. seed-borne vir uses can pr esent a cha llenge to ma na ging v ir a l dis ea s es in t he f ields a nd complicate the transfer of seeds by trade and other met hods of s eed ex c ha nge b et we en f a r mer s (manyangarirwa et al., 2009; ittah et al., 2010; biemond et al., 2013). recycling farmers’ seeds for subsequent planting, as in the present study areas, may result in high virus incidence and significant yield loss (owolabi et al., 1988). in conclusion, this study demonstrated a high risk of seed-borne virus threat in the farmer-saved seed. it showed a need to improve awareness among farmers and extension agents about the risk of seedborne virus infections and discourage farmers from reusing their seeds for long periods, particularly those harvested from infected fields. this study also calls for an increase in the supply of certified seed production that will serve as a sustainable solution to reduce the risk of bcmv-blcm threat to cowpea production in ghana. acknowledgements authors acknowledge the west african agriculture productivity program (waapp-ghana) who funded the research work in ghana, and the international institute for tropical agriculture (iita), ibadan, nigeria, for supporting virus diagnostics research. authors appreciate funding from cgiar research program on dryland cereals and legumes. seed transmission of bean common mosaic virus-blackeye cowpea mosaic strain j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 251-260, 2021 references ada ms , f. k . , k u ma r, l . , k wos eh, c . a nd akromah, r. 2020. occurrence of cowpea viruses in the forest a nd sa va nna h a gr oecological zones of ghana. african crop science journal, 28(3):443-450. adams, k. f. 2016. survey of cowpea viral disease symptoms and detection of associated viruses in selected cowpea growing areas in ghana. mphil thesis, knust, ghana. al-hassan, r. m. and diao, x. 2007. regional dispa r ities in gha na : policy options and p u blic inves tment imp lica t ions . g ha na st r a t egic s u p p or t p r ogr a mme . ht t p :/ / www.ifpri.org/ themes/gssp/gssp.htm. aliyu, t. h., balogun, o. s. and kumar, l. 2012. s u r vey of t he s ymp t oms a n d vir u s es associated with cowpea in the agro ecological zones of kwara state, nigeria. ethiopian j ou r na l o f e n vi ron me n ta l st ud i es an d management, 4(5):2 258 amaza, p.s., udo, e.j., abdoulaye, t., kamara, a.y. 2010. analysis of technical efficiency among community-based seed producers in the savannas of borno state, nigeria. j. food agric. environ., 8:1073-1079. bankole, s.a. and adebanjo, a. 1996. biocontrol of b r own b lot c h of c owp ea c a u s ed b y colletotrichum truncatum with trichoderma viride. crop protection, 15:633-636. bashir, m. and hampton, r. o. 1993. natural occurrence of five seed-borne cowpea viruses in pakistan. plant disease, 77: 948-951 biemond, p. c. , ogunta de, o. , kuma r, p. l . , stomph, t.j., termorshuizen, a. and struik, p. 2013. does the infor ma l seed system t hr ea t en c owp ea s eed h ea lt h? c ro p protection, 43:166-174. booker, h. m., umaharan, p. and mcdavid, c. r. 2005. effect of cowpea severe mosaic virus on crop growth characteristics and yield of cowpea. plant disease, 89:515-520. boukar, o., bhattacharjee, r., fatokun, c., kumar, p. l. a nd gueye, b. 2013. cowpea , in: genetic and genomic resources of grain legume improvement. elsevier, sing, m. and bisht, s. i. 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(eds.). iita/jircas. seka r, r. a nd suloc ha na , c. b. 1988. seed transmission of blackeye cowpea mosaic vir us in two cowpea va rieties. current science, 57(1):37-38 shanker, u. c. a., nayaka, s. c., kumar, h. b., shetty, h. s. and pra kash, s. h. 2009. detection and identification of the blackeye cowpea mosaic str a in of bea n common seed transmission of bean common mosaic virus-blackeye cowpea mosaic strain j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 251-260, 2021 260 (received on 24.11.2021, revised on 09.12.2021 and accepted on 11.01.2022) adams et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 251-260, 2021 mosaic virus in seeds of cowpea in southern india. phytoparasitica, 37:283-293 tarawali, s. a., singh, b. b., gupta, s. c., tabo, r., harris, f., nokoe, s., fernandez-rivero, s., bationa, a., manyong, v. m., makinde, k. and odion, e. c. 2002. cowpea as a key factor for a new approach to integrated croplives t oc k s ys t ems r es ea r c h i n t he dr y savannas of west africa. in: challenges and opportunities for enha ncing susta inable c owp ea p r odu c t ion. wor l d c owp ea c onf er ence p r oc eedings (i i ta) ib a da n, nigeria. p 233-251. zettler, f. w. and evans, i. r. 1972. blackeye cowpea mosaic virus in florida. host range a nd incidence in certified cowpea seeds. fl o r i d a st a t e h o r t i c u l t u r a l s o c i e t y proceedings, 85:99-101. 00 contents.pdf 14 adams.pdf 19 lamesssa.pdf 20 divya.pdf 21 wani.pdf 23 index and last pages.pdf influence of some pesticides on entomopathogenic fungus lecanicillium ( = verticillium) lecanii (zimm.) zare & gams a. krishnamoorthy, p. n. ganga visalakshi, a. manoj kumar1 and m. mani division of entomology and nematology indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bangalore560 089, india e-mail: akmurthy@iihr.ernet.in abstract an in vitro study was conducted to determine the interaction effect of ten pesticides tested at field recommended dose on conidial germination, vegetative growth and sporulation of lecanicillium lecanii(zimm.) zare & gams. compatibility of l. lecanii to different pesticides was found to be varied. conidial germination was 99.3 and 85.7% in pongamia oil and acephate, whereas, it was totally inhibited by the presence of chlorothalonil, iprodion + carbendazim, carbendazim and thiophanate methyl indicating that these pesticides were highly toxic. dinocap recorded as moderately toxic while endosulfan, abamectin and ethion were least toxic based to the germination of conidia. so also iprodion + carbendazim did not and carbendazim allow l. lecanii to put forth mycelium growth in their presence. thiophanate methyl, pongamia oil, acephate, endosulfan, ethion and chlorothalonil were observed to be innocuous pesticides registering growth of mycelium upto 2.33, 2.23, 2.23, 2.03, 2.03 and 2.00 cm dia., respectively, from 0.6 cm dia. held in the center of petri plate on 14th day after treatment. as far as sporulation is concerned, pongamia oil alone recorded the maximum yield of 47.2x106 conidia/ml followed by 18x106 conidia/ml, in chlorothalonil as against 20x106 conidia/ml in control, which means that the pongamia oil exhibited synergistic effect on l. lecanii, yielding more conidial spores. thus, based on in vitro interaction study, pongamia oil alone was found to be safe to the entamopathogenic fungus l. lecanii in nature and iprodion + carbendazim and carbendazim were found to be highly toxic. key words: botanicals, pesticides, lecanicillium lecanii introduction the entomopathogenic fungus, lecanicillium (=verticillium) lecanii (zimm.) zare & gams naturally infects a wide range of sucking pests such as thrips, whiteflies, aphids, etc. the effect of entomopathogenic fungi depends not only on the strain and favourable environmental conditions, but also on their interaction with other factors such as sprays of pesticides, micronutrients, hormones, etc. used by man in his attempt to increase productivity. it was demonstrated that verticillium lecanii zimm. caused over 90% mortality in whiteflies (schaaf et al, 1990) and coffee green scale, coccus viridis (green) (reddy et al, 1997) and produced excellent control of thrips in greenhouse grown crops (gillespie, 1986; meyer et al, 2002). sprays of synthetic insecticides, botanical insecticides, fungicides, etc. used for the control of other pests and diseases in the same ecosystems may have better chances to interact with l. lecanii present in nature and possibly bring down its efficacy on the target pest. therefore, a study on the compatibility of l. lecanii with some pesticides that are under use in the same environment was conducted under in vitro conditions to investigate the effect of interaction in terms of conidial germination, growth and conidial production. material and methods the commonly used pesticides in horticultural crops, viz., endosulfan, acephate, abamectin, ethion, pongamia oil (pongamia glabra vent. jard. malm.), chlorothalonil, iprodion + carbendazim (a combination of two fungicides, marketed as quintol), carbendazim, thiophanate methyl and dinocap were tested to determine the influence of pesticides on l. lecanii. the fungus, l. lecanii, originally isolated from thrips, thrips palmi karvy, was used for the study (ganga visalakshy et al, 2004). conidial germination, mycelial growth and conidial production in l. lecanii was determined by calibrating i) per cent germination of conidial spores ii) rate of growth of mycelium and iii) yield of conidial spores after the vegetative phase. initially potato deextore agar (pda) was autoclaved at 1 atmospheric pressure for 20 min. and 1 present address: department of crop physiology, uas, gkvk, bangalore560 065 j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 53-57, 2007 pesticides were added at recommended doses (table 1) at approx 45°c under aseptic conditions and mixed thoroughly by shaking the conical flask. the medium was then poured into sterilized petri plates (90mm dia.) under aseptic conditions for solidification (antonio batista filho et al, 2001). un-amended pda medium served as the control. preparation of conidial suspension the fungus, l. lecanii, was cultured on pda for two weeks in a bod incubator at 27°c, 65% rh and a photoperiod of l16:d8. conidia harvested from this using sterile distilled water were held in sterilized vials. the conidial load was adjusted to 3x103 conidia/ml by serial dilution with sterile distilled water using sterile micro-tip pipette, with the help of a haemocytometer. inoculation of conidia the surface of the pesticide amended and unamended medium in petri plate was uniformly smeared with 0.1ml of freshly prepared conidial suspension (ca. 300 conidia). two days after the smear, total number of germinated conidia in each petri plate was counted under a stereomicroscope. based on conidial germination, the pesticides were grouped under four categories viz. (i) no germination: highly toxic, (ii) 1-35% germination: moderately toxic, (iii) 36-70% germination: least toxic and (iv) 71 – 100% germination: safe. each pesticide was considered as a treatment and each treatment was replicated five times. a total of eleven treatments was used in completely randomized design (crd). square root transformation was used to analyze difference in the germination of spores. rate of growth of mycelium the medium with the isolate of l. lecanii cultured on pda (stock culture) for two weeks was cut into 6mm dia. discs (with spores) using a sterile cork borer. cut blocks were inverted and transferred to the center of pesticide + pda amended petri plates using a sterilized inoculum loop and placed gently on the surface of the media. a disc of l. lecanii at the center of the unamended medium petri plate was served as the control. all the treated petri plates were incubated at 27±1°c and 65 % rh in a bod incubator with a photoperiod of l16:d8. conidial spores that spilled from the stock culture on the surface while transferring onto the treated medium were ignored for study (like germination, mycelial growth, etc). further, the rate of growth and the total growth of l. lecanii (in diameter) from the transferred block at 1st and 2nd week from inoculation of l. lecanii was determined. the rate of growth was calculated by the distance the fungus to which had actually grown (radial distance – initial radial distance) and dividing it by the number of days after inoculation. per cent inhibition of mycelial growth over the control was calculated using the formula given by vincent (1927). based on per cent inhibition of mycelial growth, pesticides were grouped as non-toxic to very highly toxic, with six levels of categorization. a rating with 0% mycelial inhibition denotes that the pesticide in question can be used either alone or can be combined with an entomopathogenic fungus. a rating with 1-20% inhibition denotes that there is less interaction and therefore less compatibility and can be considered as least toxic. a rating with 21-40% inhibition denotes that the interaction resulted in low toxic effect on mycelial growth of l. lecanii. a rating with 41-60% and 61-80% inhibition denotes that the interaction resulted in moderately toxic and highly toxic effect, respectively, on mycelial growth of l. lecanii. a rating with 81-100% inhibition denotes that the interaction resulted in very highly toxic effect on mycelial growth of l. lecanii, where there is no chance of revival of the fungus. the resultant data were subjected to analysis of variance (anova) using sas (1996) package. yield of conidia the conidial yield obtained from mycelia grown in the above study on rate of growth of mycelium, was recorded using improved neubauer double ruled haemocytometer and phase contrast microscope on 14th day after inoculation. results were expressed a number of conidia per milliliter to determine the overall table 1. effect of various pesticides on germination of conidial spores of lecanicillium lecanii pesticide dose/l mean no. of per cent germinated germination conidia * endosulfan 2.00ml 118.7d 39.6 acephate 0.75g 256.7b 85.7 abamectin 0.60ml 169.4c 56.5 ethion 1.00ml 126.3d 42.1 pongamia oil 2.00ml 297.7a 99.3 chlorothalonil 2.00ml 0.0 0.0 iprodion + carbendazim 2.00g 0.0 0.0 carbendazim 2.00g 0.0 0.0 thiophanate methyl 1.00g 0.0 0.0 dinocap 1.00ml 94.2e 31.4 control 299.7a 99.9 cv (%) 2.32 cd (p=0.05) 0.73 * mean of five replications means in the same column with same alphabet are not significantly different krishnamoorthy et al j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 53-57, 2007 54 effect. compatibility was finally decided based on mean diameter of the colony and number of conidia produced after a fortnight of incubation (loureiro e de et al, 2002). results and discussion per cent germination of conidia results on the effect of different pesticides on germination of conidia of l. lecanii under in vitro conditions are presented in table 1. the fungicides, viz., chlorothalonil, iprodion + carbendazim, carbendazim and thiophanate methyl were found to be highly toxic and they completely inhibited conidial germination. majchrowicz and poprawski (1993), similarly, reported with different pesticide , zineb + copper oxychloride and metalaxyl, that these completely inhibited germination of metarhizium anisopliae (metsch) sorokin and verticillium lecanii (zimm.) viegas. dinocap was found to be moderately toxic as there was 31.4% germination. endosulfan, ethion and abamectin allowed conidia to germinate to a large extent and, therefore, they appeared to be the least toxic. conidial germination was not much affected in acephate and pongamia oil and these two pesticides alone were found to be safe to l. lecanii as there 85.7 and 99.3% germination, respectively. germinated conidia continued to produce radial growth of mycelium in all the above treatments. thus, acephate and pongamia oil alone were found to be safes and compatible with l. lecanii as far as germination of conidia is considered. rate of growth of mycelium data in table 2 show that the pesticides produced varied levels of inhibitory effect on fungal mycelial growth. during the first week, mycelia of l. lecanii grew to a maximum colony dia of 1.73 cm. in pongamia oil amended medium, which is however, significantly less than the control ie., 2.03 cm dia. abamectin, acephate, ethion, dinocap and thiophanate methyl recorded 1.40 1.53 cm diameter of mycelial growth, which is on par and significantly affected the fungus resulting in less rate of mycelial growth of 0.06 0.07 cm per day than in the control at 0.1 cm per day. the interaction of endosulfan and chlorothalonil with the fungus resulted in very less rate of mycelial growth of 0.06 and 0.04 cm, respectively. however, carbendazim and iprodion + carbendazim were found to be the most toxic chemicals, recording no increase in mycelial growth. however, in the second week, although the maximum mycelial growth in terms of cumulative growth of colony diameter of 2.33 cm was observed in thiophanate methyl, it was significantly less than 2.73 cm recorded in the control (table 2). this was followed by 2.23 cm mycelial radial growth in acephate and pongamia oil, 2.03 cm in ethion and endosulfan and 2.00 cm in chlorothalonil; but all were on par with each other. toxicity of abamectin appeared to continue even in the second week, registering a colony diameter of 1.90 cm. also, during the second week, interaction of dinocap with the fungus was so severe that there was very less mycelial growth, measuring colony diameter of 1.53 cm and was found to be significantly different from other treatments. the rate of growth of 0.03cm per day indicated that the fungus could not overcome the toxic effect although it registered growth. iprodion + carbendazim and carbendazim remained at very high level of toxicity and did not allow the mycelium to grow further (table 2). machowicz et al (1981) also reported that carbendazim limited the growth of v. lecanii more than thiophanate methyl. the above data show that there was significant interaction among pesticides with the entomopathogenic fungus, which resulted in inhibition of l. lecanii growth. among fungicides, iprodion + carbendazim and carbendazim interaction produced significantly lethal effect table 2. effect of different pesticides on growth of lecanicillium lecanii pesticide dose/l rate of growth total mycelial ‘cm’ per day growth of colony (diameter in ‘cm’)# 7th 14th at 7th at 14th day day day day (cumulative growth) endosulfan 2.00ml 0.05 0.05 1.33cd 2.03bc acephate 0.75g 0.06 0.06 1.43c 2.23bc abamectin 0.60ml 0.07 0.05 1.53bc 1.90c ethion 1.00ml 0.06 0.05 1.43c 2.03bc pongamia oil 2.00ml 0.08 0.06 1.73b 2.23bc chlorothalonil 2.00ml 0.04 0.05 1.13d 2.00bc iprodion + 2.00g 0.00 0.00 0.60e* 0.60e* carbendazim carbendazim 2.00g 0.00 0.00 0.60e* 0.60e* thiophanate 1.00g 0.06 0.06 1.40cd 2.33b methyl dinocap 1.00ml 0.06 0.03 1.43c 1.53d control 0.10 0.08 2.03a 2.73a cv (%) 12.79 11.22 cd (p=0.05) 0.28 0.33 cd (p=0.01) 0.38 0.45 * initial disc diameter plated at inoculation # mean of five replications means in the same column with same alphabet are not significantly different influence of pesticides on lecanicillium lecanii j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 53-57, 2007 55 on l. lecanii, so much so that even after two weeks of association, 100% inhibition of mycelial growth was observed (fig 1). similar observations were made by loureiro e de et al (2002) with iprodione used alone. therefore, these fungicides are considered to be the most toxic and incompatible. further, as there was no production of spores due to interaction (fig 2), the pathogen had of no chance revival. during the first week, chlorothalonil, although highly toxic, registering 62.93% inhibition of mycelial growth (fig 1), became low toxic to the fungus during the second week, indicating that the fungus was able to overcome the toxic effect due to degradation of the fungicide. degradation of the fungicide was observed in terms of increased mycelial growth, from 1.3 to 2.0 cm. insecticides such as acephate and endosulfan, the acaricide ethion and fungicides such as dinocap and thiophanate methyl were moderately toxic, inhibiting 41.95 to 48.95% of mycelial growth during the first week. all these pesticides, however, became low toxic during the second week except dinocap, which remained moderately toxic, registering cumulative inhibition of 56.33%. abamectin and pongamia oil were low toxic to l. lecanii during the first and second weeks of interaction. the above chemicals, with exception of dinocap, thus had low toxicity and did not overly affect mycelial growth in l. lecanii. as there was an increase in mycelial growth in the second week due to degradation of pesticides, it may be surmised that there was sporulation after two weeks. yield of conidia significant difference was observed in conidial yield (fig 2). pongamia oil recorded the maximum yield of 47.2x106 conidia/ml, followed by 18x106 conidia/ml in chlorothalonil as against 20x106 conidia/ml in the control, which means that pongamia oil exhibited a synergistic effect on l. lecanii leading to higher yield of conidial spores. l. lecanii yielded 9.37x106 and 3.45x106 conidia/ ml in endosulfan and ethion. least conidial production was observed in dinocap and abamectin with 1.0 and 0.63x106 conidia/ml, respectively, followed by 0.50x106 conidia/ml in thiophanate-methyl. conidial germination was found to the totally inhibited in the presence of chlorothalonil, iprodion + carbendazim, carbendazim and thiophanate-methyl and, fig 1. per cent inhibition (over control) of mycelial growth of l. lecanii due to pesticides fig 2. conidial spore yield l. lecanii due to interaction with pesticides on 14th dai. krishnamoorthy et al j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 53-57, 2007 56 therefore, these chemicals are highly toxic to l. lecanii. as there was, however, low rate of mycelial growth (from the inverted cut block) in chlorothalonil and thiophanatemethyl, these two fungicides can be recommended for needbased application. thrips, one of the major pests that affect yield and quality of table grapes, is susceptible to l. lecanii. therefore, these sprays in the field, affect the vegetative phase of the fungusless and inoculum of the fungus remains in the ecosystem either for enzootic or epizootic appearance when other conditions are favourable. the above observation is, however, dissimilar from that of khalil et al (1985) who reported that thiophanate-methyl had little effect on conidial germination at both the recommended and sub-lethal concentrations. of the pesticides investigated for their compatibility, based on interaction effects on l. lecanii during the vegetative phase, only pongamia oil and chlorothalonil can be used along with l. lecanii, either alone or in combination with v. lecanii for control of pests and diseases. endosulfan and ethion can be used sparingly because of their low toxicity on mycelium of l. lecanii. also, the fungus yielded at least 50% of conidia as that in control. batista filho et al (2001), similarly, observed low toxicity of endosulfan to several entomopathogenic fungi including l. lecanii. other treatments such as abamectin, thiophanate-methyl and dinocap resulted in very low production of conidia of l. lecanii,and hence were considered to the incompatible. based on interaction of pesticides with germination of l. lecanii conidia, vegetative growth of mycelia and final conidial spore production (which ultimately determines vailability of the inoculum in subsequent generations), it can be considered that the fungus can be best combined with pongamia oil, and followed by chlorothalonil. the fungicides iprodion + carbendazim and carbendazim produced very severe toxic effect on the entomopathogenic fungus and are hence considered incompatible. acknowledgement the authors are 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(ms received 4 may 2006, revised 2 february 2007) influence of pesticides on lecanicillium lecanii j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 53-57, 2007 57 final sph -jhs coverpage 17-1 jan 2022 single j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 227-236, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction potato (solanum tuberosum l.), the fourth most important vegetable crop, serves as an important raw source for starch extraction and applications in food industry. potato starch can form thick visco-elastic gel unlike millet starches due to its composition of phosphate ester groups on amylopectin, larger granule size, longer amylose and amylopectin chain length, and higher purity (singh et al.,2003). its major application in food industry is limited by properties such as low shear resistance, thermal decomposition and thermal r esista nce, a nd its higher tendency towa r ds retr ogra da tion (avula a nd singh 2009). t hese limitations can be easily overcome by modification of extracted starch using extraction methods to meet the demands of final product (liu et al.,2003). changes in methods of extraction affect yield and recovery, cost, product pur ity, desir ed physico-chemica l properties, and mechanical properties of starch. potato starch is unique compared to cereal starches (corn, wheat, rice, etc.) because of its wider granule size and purity, longer amylose and amylopectin chain length, presence of phosphate ester groups on amylopectin, ability to exchange certain cations with corresponding effects on viscosity behaviour, ability to form a thick viscoelastic gel upon heating and subsequent cooling in water, and poor thermal as well as shear stability of this gel (singh et al., 2003). pre-treatments such as curing have also been reported to affect yield and amylose content of starch. this investigation was thus performed out with an aim to characterize the morphological and physiochemical characteristics of potato starch extracted by control and combined method (extraction with ambient water 30oc + 0.25% naoh + 2% w/v sds: me + 5.25% naocl + 0.15% cellulase enzyme) from fresh and cured tubers of five cultivars to identify varieties of potato with highest starch content so as to aid the farmers and industry. materials and methods plant material the fresh harvested potato tuber (solanum tuberosum l.) of kufri chipsona-4 (v1), kufri badshah (v2), kufri pushkar (v3), kufri bahar (v4) (white flesh morphological, physiochemical and colour characteristics of fresh and cured starch in potato varieties neeraj1*, siddiqui s.1,2, dalal n.1, bindu b.3 and srivastva a.1,4 1centre of food science and technology, ccs haryana agricultural university, hisar 125 004, india 2school of agricultural sciences, sharda university, greater noida 201 310, u.p., india 3department of food nutrition and food technology, lady irwin college, new delhi, india 4 icar, directorate of mushroom research, solan, h.p., india *corresponding author e-mail : phogatneeraj23@gmail.com abstract the present study was conducted to study the morphological, physicochemical and colour characteristics of potato starch extracted by control and combined methods from potato varieties viz., kufri chipsona-4, badshah, pushkar, bahar and sindhuri (fresh and cured). among these varieties, kufri chipsona-4 exhibited maximum percent of small size (< 30 µm) particles (48%). kufri sindhuri showed highest starch purity (87.1%) but lowest whiteness (92.2%) whereas, highest whiteness (95.4%) was recorded in starch extracted from kufri badshah. among starch extraction methods, combined method showed significantly lower starch moisture content (11.8%), fat (0.28%), protein (0.31%), ash (0.28%) and crude fibre (0.15%) whereas; starch purity (87.2%), percentage of small size particles (45%) and starch whiteness (96.3%) were observed higher than control methods in all varieties. keywords: curing, starch purity, starch whiteness and tuber 228 neeraj et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 227-236, 2022 varieties) and kufri sindhuri (v5) (pink flesh variety) were procured from vegetable farm, ccs haryana agricultural university, hisar.they were sorted and cured without packaging in a bod (biological oxygen demand) incubator at ~22 oc temperature and 90% relative humidity in the dark for 18 days. extraction of starch fresh and cured potato tubers were used for starch extraction. for control extraction, starch was extracted a s descr ibed by peshin (2001) with slight modifications. for combined extraction, a combined method of phogat et al., (2020) (extraction with water at 30oc +0.25% naoh + 2% w/v sds:me + 5.25% naocl + 0.15% cellulase enzyme) was used. the starch was analysed for the following parameters: physico-chemical properties potato starch was analysed for moisture, crude protein, fat, ash, and crude fibre content by the aoac (2006) method. starch yield (%) or crude starch content was calculated by the following formula: starch purity (%) was calculated with the following formula: purity (%) = [100 – (moisture + fatty materials+ crude protein+ ash + crude fibre)] colour of starch: whiteness value [l* (whiteness or blackness), a* (redness or greenness) and b* (yellowness or blueness)] was measured by hunter lab colorimeter (colour flex, usa). whiteness = 100 [(100-l)2+ a2 + b2 ]1\2 morphological properties the shape and size of extracted starch particles were ascertained using an inverted compound microscope (olympus, ja pa n; model: cx-41with 10× magnification) equipped with a digital camera. starch particle size was measured using calibrated ocular scale fitted on the microscope lens. statistical analysis the factorial crd was used with three replications for analysis using opstat software (sheoran et al.,1998). means were separated by critical difference (cd) at 5% significance level. principal component analysis (pca) was performed with past-3 software. results and discussion physico-chemical properties va r ieties, cur ing a nd extr a ction methods ha d significant effect on physico-chemical properties of starch. moisture content was varied from 11.7 to 12.6% (table 1). combined extraction method had lower starch moisture content.v5 had least (11.7%) starch moisture content and it was maximum (12.6%) in v2. the starch fat content ranged from 0.33 to 0. 43% (ta ble 1). combined tr ea tment ha s significa ntly lower fa t content. t her e was no significant difference in starch fat (%) extracted from 5 varieties, except v5 which exhibited significantly lower fat content (table 3). the starch protein (%) of potato varieties ranged from 0.35 to 0.48% (table 1). combined treatment has significantly lower protein content. it was recorded minimum (0.35%) in v5 and maximum (0.48%) in v4 (table 4). for all the varieties, there was nonsignificant effect of curing on starch moisture, fat and protein content (table 2, 3 and 4). the starch ash content ranged from of 0.32 to 0.36% (table 1). variety and curing did not significantly affect ash content (table 5). the starch crude fiber content ranged from 0.15 to 0.23% (table 1). combined tr ea tment extr a cted sta r ch ha d significa ntly lower a sh and crude fiber. it was minimum (0.15%) in v3 and it was maximum (0.23%) in v1 (table 6). curing had non-significant affect in crude fiber. the slight difference with respect to moisture content could be the result of extraction method, varieties, and curing (table 2). kim and co-workers (1995) reported differ ences r anging from 7.2-16. 70% in star ch moistur e contents a mong 42 pota to va r ieties. karmakar et al., (2014) compared the moisture content of potato with taro and corn starch and pointed that starch moisture content also depends on the extent of drying. similar was the observation by abegunde et al., (2013). the lower fat (table 3) and protein content (table 4) in starch extracted by combined treatment attributed to the action of alkali and sds used during extraction. naoh, an alkali solvent, can easily solubilize major proteins enclosing the starch and thus soften-up the protein-starch matrix. kaur and co-workers (2007) observed that the kufri sindhuri had highest ash content and kufri chandarmukhi the lowest. starch purity the starch purity varied between 86.0 to 87.1% (table 1). variety and curing did not significantly affect the starch purity (table 7). the starch purity for all the potato varieties was observed significantly higher 229 starch morphological, physiochemical and colour characteristics ta bl e 1. s um m ar y st at is tic s of s ta rc h ch ar ac te ri st ic s of p ot at o va ri et ie s. st ar ch c ha ra ct er is ti cs m in m ax s. d . sk ew ne ss k ur to si s c oe ff . v ar m oi st ur e co nt en t (% ) 11 .7 0 12 .6 0 0. 34 -0 .2 8 -0 .0 9 2. 81 fa t (% ) 0. 33 0. 43 0. 04 -1 .8 1 3. 25 10 .4 7 pr ot ei n (% ) 0. 35 0. 48 0. 06 -0 .2 4 -2 .9 1 14 .4 9 a sh ( % ) 0. 32 0. 36 0. 01 0. 55 0. 87 4. 39 c ru de f ib re ( % ) 0. 15 0. 23 0. 03 0. 61 -0 .6 8 17 .4 4 pu ri ty ( % ) 86 .0 0 87 .1 0 0. 45 0. 38 -1 .1 4 0. 52 w hi te ne ss ( % ) 92 .2 0 95 .4 0 1. 41 0. 45 -2 .5 9 1. 50 sm al l si ze p ar tic le s (% ) 41 .0 0 48 .0 0 2. 86 0. 31 -1 .5 4 6. 48 ta bl e 2. m oi st ur e co nt en t (% ) of s ta rc h as i nf lu en ce d by v ar ie tie s, c ur in g an d ex tr ac tio n m et ho ds . e xt ra ct io n m et ho ds c ur in g o ve ra ll v ar ie ti es c on tr ol m et ho d c om bi ne d tr ea tm en t m ea n f re sh c ur ed m ea n f re sh c ur ed m ea n f re sh c ur ed k uf ri c hi ps on a4 (v 1) 13 .4 ±0 .5 4 12 .2 ±0 .5 1 12 .8 10 .4 ±0 .4 7 12 .5 ±0 .6 4 11 .5 11 .9 12 .4 12 .1 k uf ri b ad sh ah ( v 2) 11 .7 ±0 .6 8 13 .3 ±0 .7 8 12 .5 11 .4 ±0 .4 1 13 .9 ±0 .7 6 12 .7 11 .6 13 .6 12 .6 k uf ri p us hk ar ( v 3) 12 .5 ±0 .8 8 11 .7 ±0 .7 4 12 .1 12 .7 ±0 .8 1 11 .4 ±0 .3 9 12 .0 12 .6 11 .6 12 .1 k uf ri b ah ar ( v 4) 13 .5 ±0 .7 1 12 .8 ±0 .6 4 13 .2 11 .7 ±0 .8 5 11 .7 ±0 .5 9 11 .7 12 .6 12 .3 12 .4 k uf ri s in dh ur i (v 5) 12 .5 ±0 .5 8 12 .4 ±0 .6 2 12 .5 11 .4 ±0 .6 1 10 .5 ±0 .6 0 11 .0 12 .0 11 .5 11 .7 m ea n 12 .6 11 .8 12 .1 12 .3 c d a t 5% v ar ie tie s (v ) = 0. 54 c ur in g (c ) = n s m et ho ds ( m ) = 0. 35 v ×m = 0 .7 8 v ×c = 0 .7 8 m ×c = n s v ×m ×c = 1 .1 1 m ea n± sd ; n s – no nsi gn if ic an t j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 227-236, 2022 230 ta bl e 3. f at c on te nt ( % ) of s ta rc h as i nf lu en ce d by v ar ie tie s, c ur in g an d ex tr ac tio n m et ho ds . e xt ra ct io n m et ho ds c ur in g o ve ra ll v ar ie ti es c on tr ol m et ho d c om bi ne d tr ea tm en t m ea n f re sh c ur ed m ea n f re sh c ur ed m ea n f re sh c ur ed k uf ri c hi ps on a4 (v 1) 0. 59 ±0 .1 5 0. 58 ±0 .1 1 0. 58 0. 28 ±0 .0 8 0. 24 ±0 .0 5 0. 26 0. 44 0. 41 0. 42 k uf ri b ad sh ah ( v 2) 0. 48 ±0 .0 6 0. 53 ±0 .0 3 0. 50 0. 22 ±0 .0 6 0. 36 ±0 .0 7 0. 29 0. 35 0. 44 0. 40 k uf ri p us hk ar ( v 3) 0. 47 ±0 .1 1 0. 60 ±0 .0 5 0. 53 0. 34 ±0 .0 9 0. 34 ±0 .0 8 0. 34 0. 40 0. 47 0. 43 k uf ri b ah ar ( v 4) 0. 56 ±0 .0 6 0. 57 ±0 .1 6 0. 56 0. 29 ±0 .0 4 0. 30 ±0 .0 9 0. 29 0. 43 0. 43 0. 43 k uf ri s in dh ur i (v 5) 0. 47 ±0 .0 5 0. 43 ±0 .0 9 0. 45 0. 17 ±0 .0 5 0. 25 ±0 .0 7 0. 21 0. 32 0. 34 0. 33 m ea n 0. 53 0. 28 0. 39 0. 42 c d a t 5% v ar ie tie s (v ) = 0. 07 c ur in g (c ) = n s m et ho ds ( m ) = 0. 04 v ×m = n s v ×c = n s m ×c = n s v ×m ×c = n s m ea n± sd ; n s – no nsi gn if ic an t ta bl e 4. p ro te in c on te nt ( % ) of s ta rc h as i nf lu en ce d by v ar ie tie s, c ur in g an d ex tr ac tio n m et ho ds . e xt ra ct io n m et ho ds c ur in g o ve ra ll v ar ie ti es c on tr ol m et ho d c om bi ne d tr ea tm en t m ea n f re sh c ur ed m ea n f re sh c ur ed m ea n f re sh c ur ed k uf ri c hi ps on a4 (v 1) 0. 48 ±0 .0 8 0. 53 ±0 .0 8 0. 51 0. 34 ±0 .1 7 0. 38 ±0 .0 5 0. 36 0. 41 0. 46 0. 43 k uf ri b ad sh ah ( v 2) 0. 55 ±0 .1 5 0. 61 ±0 .1 1 0. 58 0. 35 ±0 .1 8 0. 36 ±0 .1 9 0. 35 0. 45 0. 48 0. 47 k uf ri p us hk ar ( v 3) 0. 46 ±0 .0 7 0. 41 ±0 .0 3 0. 44 0. 29 ±0 .0 9 0. 27 ±0 .0 4 0. 28 0. 37 0. 34 0. 36 k uf ri b ah ar ( v 4) 0. 70 ±0 .0 1 0. 67 ±0 .1 2 0. 68 0. 30 ±0 .0 6 0. 25 ±0 .1 3 0. 28 0. 50 0. 46 0. 48 k uf ri s in dh ur i (v 5) 0. 38 ±0 .0 6 0. 49 ±0 .0 5 0. 43 0. 28 ±0 .1 4 0. 26 ±0 .0 4 0. 27 0. 33 0. 37 0. 35 m ea n 0. 53 0. 31 0. 41 0. 43 c d a t 5% v ar ie tie s (v ) = 0. 09 c ur in g (c ) = n s m et ho ds ( m ) = 0. 06 v ×m = 0 .1 3 v ×c = n s m ×c = n s v ×m ×c = n s m ea n± sd ; n s – no nsi gn if ic an t neeraj et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 227-236, 2022 231 ta bl e 5. a sh c on te nt ( % ) of s ta rc h as i nf lu en ce d by v ar ie tie s, c ur in g an d ex tr ac tio n m et ho ds . e xt ra ct io n m et ho ds c ur in g o ve ra ll v ar ie ti es c on tr ol m et ho d c om bi ne d tr ea tm en t m ea n f re sh c ur ed m ea n f re sh c ur ed m ea n f re sh c ur ed k uf ri c hi ps on a4 (v 1) 0. 32 ±0 .0 6 0. 37 ±0 .0 6 0. 35 0. 30 ±0 .0 5 0. 31 ±0 .0 5 0. 31 0. 31 0. 34 0. 33 k uf ri b ad sh ah ( v 2) 0. 39 ±0 .0 4 0. 41 ±0 .0 9 0. 40 0. 27 ±0 .0 4 0. 31 ±0 .0 2 0. 29 0. 33 0. 36 0. 34 k uf ri p us hk ar ( v 3) 0. 36 ±0 .0 5 0. 40 ±0 .0 5 0. 38 0. 31 ±0 .0 3 0. 21 ±0 .0 5 0. 26 0. 34 0. 30 0. 32 k uf ri b ah ar ( v 4) 0. 42 ±0 .0 3 0. 39 ±0 .0 6 0. 41 0. 26 ±0 .0 2 0. 28 ±0 .0 4 0. 27 0. 34 0. 33 0. 34 k uf ri s in dh ur i (v 5) 0. 36 ±0 .0 3 0. 47 ±0 .0 7 0. 42 0. 34 ±0 .0 6 0. 26 ±0 .0 3 0. 30 0. 35 0. 37 0. 36 m ea n 0. 39 0. 28 0. 33 0. 34 c d a t 5% v ar ie tie s (v ) = n s c ur in g (c ) = n s m et ho ds ( m ) = 0. 03 v ×m = n s v ×c = n s m ×c = 0 .0 4 v ×m ×c = 0 .0 8 m ea n± sd ; n s – no nsi gn if ic an t ta bl e 6. c ru de f ib re c on te nt ( % ) of s ta rc h as in flu en ce d by v ar ie tie s, c ur in g an d ex tr ac tio n m et ho ds . e xt ra ct io n m et ho ds c ur in g o ve ra ll v ar ie ti es c on tr ol m et ho d c om bi ne d tr ea tm en t m ea n f re sh c ur ed m ea n f re sh c ur ed m ea n f re sh c ur ed k uf ri c hi ps on a4 (v 1) 0. 26 ±0 .0 9 0. 30 ±0 .0 8 0. 28 0. 15 ±0 .0 4 0. 20 ±0 .0 5 0. 17 0. 21 0. 25 0. 23 k uf ri b ad sh ah ( v 2) 0. 17 ±0 .0 3 0. 24 ±0 .0 6 0. 20 0. 16 ±0 .0 4 0. 22 ±0 .0 7 0. 19 0. 17 0. 23 0. 20 k uf ri p us hk ar ( v 3) 0. 19 ±0 .0 4 0. 15 ±0 .0 4 0. 17 0. 11 ±0 .0 4 0. 13 ±0 .0 4 0. 12 0. 15 0. 14 0. 15 k uf ri b ah ar ( v 4) 0. 28 ±0 .0 6 0. 16 ±0 .0 7 0. 22 0. 15 ±0 .0 7 0. 13 ±0 .0 6 0. 14 0. 21 0. 14 0. 18 k uf ri s in dh ur i (v 5) 0. 17 ±0 .0 5 0. 25 ±0 .0 9 0. 21 0. 10 ±0 .0 3 0. 11 ±0 .0 4 0. 11 0. 14 0. 18 0. 16 m ea n 0. 22 0. 15 0. 18 0. 18 c d a t 5% v ar ie tie s (v ) = 0. 04 c ur in g (c ) = n s m et ho ds ( m ) = 0. 03 v ×m = n s v ×c = 0 .0 6 m ×c = n s v ×m ×c = n s m ea n± sd ; n s – no nsi gn if ic an t starch morphological, physiochemical and colour characteristics j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 227-236, 2022 232 ta bl e 7. p ur ity ( % ) of s ta rc h as i nf lu en ce d by v ar ie tie s, c ur in g an d ex tr ac tio n m et ho ds . e xt ra ct io n m et ho ds c ur in g o ve ra ll v ar ie ti es c on tr ol m et ho d c om bi ne d tr ea tm en t m ea n f re sh c ur ed m ea n f re sh c ur ed m ea n f re sh c ur ed k uf ri c hi ps on a4 (v 1) 85 .0 ±0 .9 8 86 .0 ±0 .9 5 85 .5 88 .5 ±0 .8 3 86 .4 ±0 .6 6 87 .4 86 .7 86 .2 86 .5 k uf ri b ad sh ah ( v 2) 86 .7 ±0 .4 1 84 .9 ±0 .7 4 85 .8 87 .5 ±0 .8 5 84 .9 ±0 .5 1 86 .2 87 .1 84 .9 86 .0 k uf ri p us hk ar ( v 3) 86 .0 ±0 .7 9 86 .7 ±0 .7 3 86 .4 86 .3 ±0 .3 9 87 .7 ±0 .8 2 87 .0 86 .2 87 .2 86 .7 k uf ri b ah ar ( v 4) 84 .5 ±0 .9 2 85 .4 ±0 .5 8 85 .0 87 .3 ±0 .8 0 87 .3 ±0 .5 5 87 .3 85 .9 86 .4 86 .1 k uf ri s in dh ur i (v 5) 86 .1 ±0 .7 7 85 .9 ±0 .6 9 86 .0 87 .7 ±0 .8 5 88 .6 ±0 .4 4 88 .1 86 .9 87 .2 87 .1 m ea n 85 .7 87 .2 86 .6 86 .4 c d a t 5% v ar ie tie s (v ) = n s c ur in g (c ) = n s m et ho ds ( m ) = 0. 38 v ×m = 0 .8 5 v ×c = 0 .8 5 m ×c = n s v ×m ×c = 1 .2 0 m ea n± sd ; n s – no nsi gn if ic an t (87.2%) when starch was extracted by combined treatment. pure starch had lower protein, fat, and ash content. thus, the non-significant differences observed in purity of starches from different varieties was due to the nonsignificant differences in fat and ash contents of their starches (table 5 and 6). abegunde and coworkers (2013) reported that starch purity was reasonably high (>91%) in sweet potato cultivars due to low starch impurities (moisture, fat, protein, ash, and crude fibre). in the present study starch purity was maximum in v1 because it had less impurities (table 7). combined extraction resulted in significantly lower crude fibre, fat, protein and ash contents of starch hence combined treatment had lower impurity content in starch and thus produced starch with higher purity. starch paste thought to be clear and did not contain any off colouration, especially if it’s to be used in food application. kordylas (1990) reported that impurities in form of moisture, fat, protein, ash and crude fibre content decrease the starch whiteness value. principal component analysis (pca) pca wa s per for med keeping in mind the characteristics of starch among the potato varieties. the eigenvalue, variance contribution rate of pcs and the cumulative variance are presented in table 10. the first three pcs with eigen values >1.0 accounted for 92.71 % of variation among potato varieties. other pcs were not interpreted since they had eigen values <1.0.t he fir st pc, explained 56.56 % of total variation. eigen vector of the first principal component had high loading values for starch moisture content (0.41), protein content (0.41), purity (-43) and whiteness (0.38). second principal component which r epresented 21. 47 % of total var ia tion mainly represented the starch ash (0.56), fat (-44) content and starch small size particles (-0.53). third principal component explained mainly crude fibre (0.64). the biplot between pc1 and pc2 (fig 2) compares the potato varieties based on their starch characteristics. starch whiteness starch whiteness ranged from 92.2 to 95.4 (table 1). va r ieties, extr a ction methods a nd cur ing ha d significantly affected starch whiteness value. it was minimum (92.2) in v5 and it was maximum (95.4) in v2. for all the varieties, combined extraction method had significantly higher starch whiteness value and curing of potatoes resulted in significantly lower whiteness value of extra cted star ch (table 8). neeraj et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 227-236, 2022 233 combined method extracted starch had significantly higher starch whiteness because of bleaching action of chemicals or by decreased moisture content, protein, fat, ash, and crude fibre contents which act as impurity. colour is an important criterion for starch quality, especially for use in various types of food products. minimum whiteness value was recorded in starch extracted from kufri sindhuri (92.2) due to its pink flesh and maximum (95.4) in v2 (table 8). curing resulted in lower starch whiteness. abegunde a nd co-worker s (2013) a lso repor ted differ ent whiteness values of starches extracted from varieties of sweet potato using multiple extraction methods to remove pigments from starch. this is in agreement with the reports of hu and co-workers. (2011) who observed that starch colour isolated from two-day old root was slightly grey. morphological properties the percentage of small size particles (< 30 µm) in different potato varieties ranged from 41% to 48%. curing and method of extraction non significantly affected the percentage of small size particles. minimum number of small size particles was observed in v2 (41%) and v5 (42%) and maximum in v1 (48%). in the present investigation, minimum number of small size particles was observed in v2 (41%) and v5 (42%) and maximum in v1 (48%) (table 9& figure 1). minimum number of small size particles was observed fig. 2. segregation of the potato varieties based on their respective starch traits as determined by pca. in v2 (41%) and v5 (42%) and maximum in v1 (48%) (table 9). this may be attributed to difference in temperature of the locations during tubers growth. singh and singh (2001) documented small and large sta r ch gr a nules of 15-20 µ m a nd 20-45 µ m respectively, with shapes r anging from oval to irregular or cuboidal, which may be attributed to difference in tubers growth. further, it has also been r epor ted tha t sta r ch gr a nule size is dir ectly proportional to the weight of a potato tuber (liu et al., 2003). during tuber development, the membranes and physical characteristics of plastids differ among potato varieties and this in turn lead to difference among shape of starch granules among varieties (lindeboom et al., 2004). physicochemical properties of starch had been linked to difference in its granule shape and size. skewness and kurtosis skewness and kurtosis were calculated to analyse the genetic difference among potato varieties. the positive skewness was obtained for starch small size particles, yield, ash content, crude fibre, purity and whiteness whereas negative skewness was found for starch moisture content, fat and protein. the starch fat and ash content showed platykurtic distribution (positive) pattern. leptokurtic distribution (negative) was followed by starch small size particles, crude fibre, purity, whiteness, peak viscosity, moisture, and protein content (table 1). starch morphological, physiochemical and colour characteristics j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 227-236, 2022 234 ta bl e 8. c ol ou r va lu e (w hi te ne ss ) of s ta rc h as i nf lu en ce d by v ar ie tie s, c ur in g an d ex tr ac tio n m et ho ds . e xt ra ct io n m et ho ds c ur in g o ve ra ll v ar ie ti es c on tr ol m et ho d c om bi ne d tr ea tm en t m ea n f re sh c ur ed m ea n f re sh c ur ed m ea n f re sh c ur ed k uf ri c hi ps on a4 (v 1) 94 .4 ±0 .5 1 90 .9 ±0 .6 4 92 .6 97 .4 ±0 .6 7 97 .0 ±0 .8 6 97 .2 95 .9 93 .9 94 .9 k uf ri b ad sh ah ( v 2) 95 .8 ±0 .6 4 91 .1 ±0 .7 8 93 .5 97 .9 ±0 .5 3 96 .8 ±0 .5 1 97 .4 96 .9 94 .0 95 .4 k uf ri p us hk ar ( v 3) 90 .8 ±0 .8 7 88 .7 ±0 .7 7 89 .7 95 .3 ±0 .7 2 96 .0 ±0 .8 4 95 .7 93 .0 92 .4 92 .7 k uf ri b ah ar ( v 4) 91 .8 ±0 .8 4 90 .1 ±0 .4 9 91 .0 95 .2 ±0 .7 7 95 .4 ±0 .6 5 95 .3 93 .5 92 .8 93 .1 k uf ri s in dh ur i (v 5) 88 .6 ±0 .7 9 88 .2 ±0 .5 8 88 .4 95 .8 ±0 .6 0 96 .1 ±0 .6 1 95 .9 92 .2 92 .1 92 .2 m ea n 91 .0 96 .3 94 .3 93 .0 c d a t 5% v ar ie tie s (v ) = 0. 56 c ur in g (c ) = 0. 36 m et ho ds ( m ) = 0. 36 v ×m = 0 .8 0 v ×c = 0 .8 0 m ×c = 0 .5 0 v ×m ×c = n s m ea n± sd ; n s – no nsi gn if ic an t ta bl e 9 pe rc en t of s m al l s iz e (< 3 0 µm ) pa rt ic le s of s ta rc h as in flu en ce d by v ar ie tie s, c ur in g an d ex tr ac tio n m et ho ds . e xt ra ct io n m et ho ds c ur in g o ve ra ll v ar ie ti es c on tr ol m et ho d c om bi ne d tr ea tm en t m ea n f re sh c ur ed m ea n f re sh c ur ed m ea n f re sh c ur ed v 1 45 49 47 47 51 49 46 50 48 v 2 39 40 40 41 43 42 40 42 41 v 3 42 43 43 44 45 45 43 44 44 v 4 43 46 45 46 48 47 45 47 46 v 5 40 42 41 42 44 43 41 43 42 m ea n 43 45 43 45 c d a t 5% v ar ie tie s (v ) = 4 c ur in g (c ) = n s m et ho ds ( m ) = n s v ×m = 6 v ×c = 6 m ×c = 4 v ×m ×c = 6 m ea n± sd ; n s – no nsi gn if ic an t neeraj et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 227-236, 2022 235 table 10. principal component (pc) loadings for quality variables of the potato starch. starch characteristics pc1 pc2 pc3 moisture content (%) 0.41 0.20 -0.36 fat (%) 0.36 -0.44 -0.25 protein (%) 0.41 0.25 0.00 ash (%) -0.24 0.56 0.23 crude fiber (%) 0.33 0.09 0.64 starch purity (%) -0.43 -0.20 0.23 starch whiteness (%) 0.38 0.23 0.28 small size particles (%) 0.18 -0.53 0.46 eigen value 4.52 1.72 1.17 % variance 56.56 21.47 14.67 cumulative variance (%) 56.56 78.04 92.71 fig. 1. particle of starch from potato varieties as effected by curing (inverted compound microscope (olympus, japan; model: cx-41) equipped with digital camera facility at 10 x power lens.) in the present study, biplot indicates that starch crude fibr e, moistur e, pr otein a nd sta r ch whiteness correspond more to kufri badshah and kufri bahar whereas, starch fat (%), and small size particles values correspond more to kufri chipsona-4 (fig. 2). the starch purity was more associated with the kufri sindhuri and kufri pushkar. the angle size between two or more traits in the biplot is directly proportional to correlation between those characters. a high positive correlation was discerned between the starch crude fibre, moisture, protein and starch whiteness value whereas, high negative correlation was discerned by starch purity with starch protein, moisture, crude fibre content, and starch whiteness. the biplot reflected diversity among potato varieties based on variables measured. projection of the variables on the factors plane exhibits an independent group consisting of starch characteristics and the pca analysis revealed several remarkable variations that exist among potato varieties. kong et al., (2009) extracted four principal components (using 17 variables) that accounted for 88% of the total variance of starches properties, both physiochemical and functional, isolated from 15 amaranth grain cultivars. starch morphological, physiochemical and colour characteristics j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 227-236, 2022 236 conclusion characteristics of starch extracted varied with potato variety, curing and, extraction method. least moisture and protein content and highest starch purity was observed in kufri sindhuri. kufri sindhuri also resulted in least starch fat content and starch colour values. the percentage of small size particles was maximum in kufri chipsona-4 and minimum in kufri badshah. starch extracted by combined method had lower starch moisture content, fat, protein, ash and crude fibre and higher starch purity, percentage of small size particles, yield, and starch colour values. curing resulted in lower starch yield, starch whiteness value, higher peak viscosity. it can be thus concluded that it is profitable to extract starch by combined method fr om fr esh tuber s of va r iety kufr i chipsona 4. acknowledgement this work was supported by the centre of food science and technology, ccs haryana agricultural university, hisar, india under the student research work for ph.d. references a.o. a.c. (2006): official methods of methods of an alysis. associa tion of offici al anal ytical chemists. washington, d. c. abegunde, o.k., mu, t.h., chen, j.w. and deng, f.m, 2013. physicochemical characterization of sweet potato starches popularly used in chinese starch industry. food hydrocolloids.33(2):169177. avu l a , r. y. a n d si n gh , r. k , 2 00 9 . f un c t i on a l properties of potato flour and its role in product development-a review. food.3:105-112. hu, w., jiang, a., jin, l., liu, c., tian, m. and wang, y, 2011. effect of heat treatment on quality, thermal and pasting properties of sweet potato starch during yearlong storage. journal of the science of food and agriculture.91:1499-1504. ka r m a k a r, r. , ba n , d. k . a n d gh osh , u, 2 01 4. com par a t i ve st udy of n a t ive a n d m odi fi ed s t a r c h e s i s ol a t e d fr om c on ve n t i on a l a n d nonconventional sources. international food research journal.21: 597-602. kaur, a., singh, n., ezekiel, r. and guraya, h.s,2007. physicochemical, thermal and pasting properties of sta rch es separ a ted from di fferent pot at o cultivars grown at different locations. food chemistry.101:643-651. kim, y.s., wiesenborn, d.p., orr, p.h. and grant, l.a,1995. screening potato starch for novel p r op e r t i e s u s i n g d i ffe r en t i a l s c a n n i n g calorimetry. journal of food science.60:10601065. kong, x., ba o, j. a n d cor ke, h, 2009. ph ysica l p r op e r t i e s of a m a r a n t h u s st a r c h . f o o d chemistry.113:371-376. kordylas, j.m, 1990. processing and preservation of t ropical an d sub-tr opi cal foods, macmi l la n publishers, 414-426. lindeboom, n., chang, p.r. and tyler, r.t, 2004. analytical, biochemical and physicochemical aspects of starch granule size, with emphasis on small granule starches: a review. starch.56:89-99. liu, q., weber, e., currie, v. and yada, r, 2003. physicochemical properties of starches during potato growth. carbohydrates polymer.51:213-221. phogat, n., siddiqui, s., dalal, n., srivastva, a. and bindu, b, 2020. effects of varieties, curing of tubers and extraction methods on functional characteristics of potato starch. journal of food measurement and characterization. 14:3434– 3444. peshin, a, 2001. characterization of starch isolated from potato tubers (solanum tuberosum l.). journal of food science technology.38:447-449. sheoran, o.p., tonk, d.s., kaushik, l.s., hasija, r.c. and pannu, r.s. 1998. statistical software package for agricultural research workers. recent advances in information theory, statistics & computer a ppl i cat i ons by d. s. hooda & r. c. ha si ja department of mathematics statistics, ccs hau, hisar, 139-143. sin gh , j. a n d si n gh , n, 2001. st udi es on th e morphological, thermal and rheological properties of starch separated from some indian potato cultivars. food chemistry.75:67-77. singh, n., singh, j., kaur, l., sodhi, n.s. and gill, b.s, 2003. morphological, thermal and rheological properties of starches from different botanical sources. food chemistry.81:219-231. neeraj et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 227-236, 2022 (received: 16.01.2022; revised: 17.02.2022; accepted: 02.03.2022) 00 a final sph -jhs coverpage first 2 pages.pdf 00 content and in this issue.pdf 01 mohan kumar g n.pdf 02 meera pandey.pdf 03 biradar c.pdf 04 varalakshmi b.pdf 05 vijayakumari n.pdf 06 barik s.pdf 07 sajid m b.pdf 08 ranga d.pdf 09 usha s.pdf 10 manisha.pdf 11 amulya r n.pdf 12 akshatha h j.pdf 13 adak t.pdf 14 sujatha s.pdf 15 gowda p p.pdf 16 subba s.pdf 17 dhayalan v.pdf 19 ahmed s.pdf 20 vishwakarma p k.pdf 21 deep lata.pdf 22 udaykumar k p.pdf 23 nayaka v s k.pdf 24 sahel n a.pdf 25 bayogan e r v.pdf 26 rathinakumari a c.pdf 27 yella swami c.pdf 28 saidulu y.pdf 29 sindhu s.pdf 30 neeraj.pdf 31 sivaranjani r.pdf 32 rashied tetteh.pdf 34 sangeetha g.pdf 35 shareefa m.pdf 36 last pages.pdf introduction preservation of vegetables in brine of higher salt concentration as salt-stock is one of the traditional methods commercially practised in several countries (costilow and ubersax, 1982; fleming, 1982; daeschel and fleming, 1984). however, fermentation of vegetables in low salt brine by natural flora or by pure cultures of lactic acid bacteria is known to produce stable products. this technique of low-salt fermentation is gaining greater importance in recent years as the finished product contains optimum level of salt and obviates cumbersome de-salting process. several reports indicate possibility of preserving vegetables such as cucumber, cabbage, carrot, french bean, okra, turnip, etc. by fermentation (pederson and albury, 1969; gordona et al, 1973; fleming et al,1978; kozup and sistrunk, 1982; fleming et al, 1983, yamini, 1993). reduction in ph due to lactic acid production and removal of sugars from vegetables during fermentation prevents growth of pathogenic microorganisms, thereby, providing prolonged shelf-life that extends over a year. the relative advantage of lower ph value (below 3.5) enables vegetables to be preserved as such by a simple heating process. microbiological and physico-chemical changes occurring during fermentation are of great importance in terms of development of shelf-stable brined vegetables by lactic acid fermentation e. r. suresh division of post harvest technology indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore-560 089, india e-mail: ers@iihr.ernet.in abstract preservation of vegetables, viz., bitter gourd, carrot, capsicum, cucumber, french bean and gherkin by lactic acid fermentation was attempted. properly prepared vegetables, packed in brine containing 2.5% equilibrated salt with additives, were allowed to undergo fermentation by their natural flora and this was compared with pure culture fermentation by lactobacillus plantarum. fermented vegetables had 0.5 to 1.31% lactic acid, with ph values ranging from 2.97 to 4.02, at the end of 4 weeks of fermentation at 20 ± 2oc. in general, fermentation by l. plantarum resulted in a slightly faster rate of acid production compared to that by natural flora. mustard powder at 1% concentration was found to be useful as alternate preservative in vegetable fermentation. fermented vegetables had acceptable quality in terms of colour, texture, flavour, taste and were microbiologically stable for six months of storage at room temperature (25 ± 8 oc). key words: vegetables, lactic acid fermentation, natural flora, lactobacillus plantarum storage stability and quality of the fermented vegetable. it is well-established that raw vegetables improve in taste, aroma and flavor due to fermentation, resulting in a more palatable product (fleming and mc feeters, 1981). although fermented cabbage (sauerkraut), cucumber (pickle), carrot and mixed vegetable ‘korean kimchi’ are popular and commercially produced in several countries, these products are not common in india. a few attempts have been made to develop lactic fermented vegetables in this country (anand and das lakshmi, 1971; kohli and kulkarni, 1973; sethi and anand, 1984; ramdas and kulkarni, 1987; sethi, 1990; suresh et al, 1996; desai and seth, 1997). these fermented vegetables have a good potential for use in pickling, salads and various culinary preparations, with or without addition of spices, condiments, etc. in traditional pickle products, spices are used as an essential ingredient and a few of these even exert inhibitory action against selected microorganisms (pruthi, 1980). mustard is a common ingredient in many indigenous, pickled products and its use in vegetable fermentation is suggested (sethi and anand, 1984). the present investigation deals with lactic fermentation of some vegetables by natural flora l. plantarum and use of mustard as an alternate preservative for vegetable fermentation. j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 150-155, 2008 151 material and methods microbial culture: a standard culture of lactobacillus plantarum obtained from the microbiology department of michigan state university, east lansing, u.s.a., and maintained in our laboratory was used in this study. a loopful of culture grown in de man rogosa sharpe (mrs) agar medium was transferred to mrs broth (himedia, mumbai) containing 2% sodium chloride and incubated at 30 oc. at 48h of growth, cells were harvested by centrifugation at 10,000 rpm for 15 min, washed and the pellet was suspended in normal saline. concentration of the cells in suspension was adjusted to 106 / ml and used as inoculum at 2% (v/w) for vegetable fermentation. preparation of vegetables: freshly harvested vegetables were collected from the local market and from experimental fields of the institute at hessaraghatta, bangalore. they were thoroughly washed under running tap water and subjected to specific pre-treatments. carrot skin was removed by scraping and cut into small, longitudinal pieces of 2-3 cm. in the case of french bean, both the ends of the pod were trimmed and the bean pod cut into 3 to 4 pieces. similarly, in gherkin, ends were trimmed off and the cucurbit was cut into two longitudinal slices. the stem and seeds of capsicum were removed and the vegetable cut into slices 1 cm wide. trimmed bitter gourd and cucumber were sliced longitudinally, their seed and placenta portions removed and made into small pieces of 1-2 cm. duplicate lots (1 kg. each) of all these prepared vegetables meant for l. plantarum fermentation were blanched at 80 °c for 5 min and rapidly cooled in water. unblanched lots were used in studies on fermentation by natural flora. brining and fermentation: prepared vegetables were packed in brine containing 2.5% each of sodium chloride, calcium chloride, acidifying agent acetic acid, texture improver and preservative, potassium sorbate, with a packout ratio of 1:1. ph of the brine was adjusted to 4.5 with sodium hydroxide to maintain buffering capacity wherever needed. fermentation was carried out by natural flora or by inoculation with l. plantarum for 4 weeks at 20 ± 2 oc. in experiments with mustard, vegetables viz., carrot, cucumber and french bean were fermented in brine by l. plantarum as described above in the presence of 1% mustard powder and were compared with treatments of 0.1% potassium sorbate, a common preservative used in vegetable fermentation. preservation: at the end of 4 weeks, fermented vegetables were rinsed in water, re-packed in hot-filtered mother brine and stored at room temperature (25 ± 8 oc). analysis: changes in brine acidity and ph were measured using standard methods at weekly intervals during one month of fermentation (ranganna, 1986). visual observations on colour, retention of texture, softening and microbial growth were recorded. data obtained were subjected to anova following crd, and the means were compared at 1 and 5% levels of significance. results and discussion the build-up of lactic acid and changes in ph during progression of fermentation in various vegetables by natural flora and by l. plantarum are illustrated in fig. 1. in general, all vegetables (except carrot and gherkin) showed a slightly increased production of lactic acid due to fermentation by l. plantarum, as compared to that by natural flora. fermented carrot and french bean had high acidity, i.e., above 1.3%, and low ph of 3.0 to 3.1 compared to that in other vegetables. lowest acidity was recorded in bitter gourd (table 1). there was significant variation in acidity due to fermentation methods used the type of vegetable as well as interaction between fermentation method and the vegetable. significant variation in ph value was also observed. however, the effect of fermentation method used was not significant. these variations can be attributed to the specific vegetable used, in fermentation. however, acidity and ph levels attained at the end of fermentation period was sufficient to make the product shelf-stable. traditional methods of vegetable fermentation depend mainly on activity of the natural flora viz., lactic acid bacteria and yeast. in this study, unblanched and blanched vegetables were used for fermentation by natural flora and l. plantarum, respectively. blanching treatment eliminates yeast and homoand hetero-lactics naturally present in vegetables, and encourages growth of the inoculated culture i.e., l. plantarum only. salt used in the brine inhibits growth of pathogens and other destructive micro-organisms. pure culture fermentations are known to result in better and uniform quality of the product and are generally preferred over natural fermentation (fleming et al, 1978, daeschel and fleming, 1984). the present study revealed that vegetables fermented with l. plantarum had special flavour and a pleasant aroma. however, both natural as well as l. plantarum inoculated fermentation resulted in product of acceptable quality. incomplete utilization of sugars in the vegetable makes the product susceptible to secondary fermentation by yeast. hence, it is essential to set up suitable environment lactic acid fermentation for brined vegetables j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 150-155, 2008 152 natural fermentation: acidity; ph. l. plantarum: acidity; ph. fig 1. changes in acidity and ph during fermentation of vegetables suresh j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 150-155, 2008 153 around the vegetable to allow desirable microflora to proliferate and predominate in the course of fermentation. neutralization of brine acidity by adding sodium acetate or sodium hydroxide (for assuring complete fermentation) in cucumbers was reported earlier (etchells et al, 1973; fleming et al, 1978). in this study too, adjustment of brine ph to 4.5 and maintenance of buffering capacity (by adding alkali) resulted in stability of the products. usefulness of calcium chloride/calcium acetate for retention of firmness in fermented vegetable has been reported earlier (fleming et al, 1978; thompson et al, 1979; buescher et al. 1979, buescher and burgin, 1988). based on this information, calcium chloride as an additive was incorporated into the brine solution, and this helped retain firm texture in fermented products during storage. microbial stability of fermented and stored vegetables was ascertained by absence of gas formation or visual microbial growth, supplemented with no changes in acidity and ph at the end of 6 months of storage. hence, this study indicated the possibility of preserving seasonal vegetables by fermentation, due to which these can be made available throughout the year. traditional pickled products of individual or mixed vegetables are popular in different parts of our country. use of raw vegetables, as such, in pickles results in loss of texture and colour during storage. table 2. effect of potassium sorbate/mustard on changes in ph and acidity of vegetables fermented by l.plantarum vegetable fermentation 0.1% potassium sorbate 0.1% mustard powder period acidity (%) ph acidity (%) ph in days) carrot 0 0.19 ± 0.01 4.75 ± 0.03 0.13 ± 0.01 4.94 ± 0.04 7 0.86 ± 0.01 3.42 ± 0.03 0.92 ± 0.02 3.35 ± 0.02 14 1.12 ± 0.05 3.24 ± 0.01 0.97 ± 0.02 3.23 ± 0.02 21 1.17 ± 0.05 3.21 ± 0.02 1.11 ± 0.03 3.22 ± 0.03 28 1.20 ± 0.05 3.19 ± 0.01 1.04 ± 0.04 3.12 ± 0.02 cucumber 0 0.09 ± 0.01 4.95 ± 0.02 0.15 ± 0.03 4.81 ± 0.01 7 0.70 ± 0.02 3.45 ± 0.03 0.72 ± 0.02 3.31 ± 0.01 14 0.85 ± 0.01 3.30 ± 0.01 0.81 ± 0.01 3.26 ± 0.02 21 0.93 ± 0.02 3.22 ± 0.03 0.87 ± 0.01 3.22 ± 0.03 28 0.94 ± 0.02 3.15 ± 0.01 0.82 ± 0.02 3.24 ± 0.02 french bean 0 0.15 ± 0.02 4.86 ± 0.01 0.14 ± 0.01 4.76 ± 0.02 7 0.92 ± 0.02 3.64 ± 0.02 0.73 ± 0.02 3.46 ± 0.29 14 1.13 ± 0.02 3.34 ± 0.01 0.81 ± 0.01 3.44 ± 0.01 21 1.18 ± 0.05 3.11 ± 0.02 0.87 ± 0.01 3.41 ± 0.01 28 1.13 ± 0.05 3.20 ± 0.01 0.91 ± 0.03 3.35 ± 0.03 sd value ± table 1. changes in brine acidity and ph during lactic fermentation of vegetables sampling period bitter gourd capsicum carrot cucumber french bean gherkin mean acidity (% lactic acid) initial 0.29 0.13 0.14 0.07 0.13 0.23 0.17 natural (4 weeks) 0.50 0.75 1.31 0.63 0.97 0.73 0.82 l. plantarum(4 weeks) 0.60 0.87 1.02 0.67 1.03 0.64 0.80 mean 0.55 0.81 1.17 0.65 1.00 0.69 cd (p=0.05) method (m) 0.01 s.em ± 0.00 cd (p=0.01) vegetable (v) 0.03 s.em ± 0.01 cd (p=0.01) interaction (m x v) 0.04 s.em ± 0.01 ph initial 4.5 4.71 4.68 5.17 4.97 4.8 4.81 natural(4 weeks) 4.02 2.98 3.16 3.31 3.22 3.32 3.33 l. plantarum (4 weeks) 3.88 2.97 3.11 3.23 3.21 3.50 3.32 mean 3.95 2.97 3.13 3.27 3.22 3.41 cd (p=0.05) method (m) ns s.em ± 0.01 cd (p=0.01) vegetable (v) 0.05 s.em ± 0.01 cd (p=0.01) interaction (m xv) 0.07 s.em ± 0.02 ns= non significant lactic acid fermentation for brined vegetables j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 150-155, 2008 154 hence, it is suggested that these fermented vegetables can be a good replacement for raw vegetables in pickle production. in pure culture fermentation of vegetables, use of the preservative potassium sorbate is essential to ensure growth of the introduced culture by suppressing competing microbial groups naturally present in vegetables. since mustard is commonly used in traditional pickles, its use as a substitute for potassium sorbate in fermentation of some vegetables, viz., carrot, cucumber and french bean was tested. it is evident from table 2 that there is only a marginal difference in acidity and ph of the vegetables during fermentation done in the presence of potassium sorbate or mustard. no difference in the quality of these fermented vegetables was noticed, except for a faint flavour wherever mustard was used. mustard powder is reported to stimulate acid production during fermentation by lactic acid bacteria (zaika and kissinger, 1979). no such clear-cut observations were recorded in the present study. sethi and anand (1984) recommended the use of mustard in cauliflower fermentation. based on results of this study, it is concluded that microbiologically stable, fermented vegetables of acceptable quality can be derived either by natural flora or l. plantarum fermentation. mustard can replace potassium sorbate as a selective preservative in vegetable fermentation stimulating the growth of lactic acid bacteria. acknowledgement the author is thankful to director, i.i.h.r., hessaraghatta, bangalore, for providing facilities and to mr. c. lokesh for technical assistance. references anand, j.c. and das lakshmi. 1971. effect of condiments on lactic fermentation of sweet turnip pickle. j. fd. sci. 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of carrots. ind. fd. packer, 41:40 48 sethi, v. 1990. evaluation of different vegetables for lactic fermentation. ind. j. agril. sci., 60:638 640 suresh j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 150-155, 2008 155 sethi, v. and anand, j.c. 1984. effect of mustard and its components on the fermentation of cauliflower. ind. fd. packer, 38:451 -466 suresh e.r., rajashekhara, e. and ethiraj, s. 1996. selection of lactic acid bacterial cultures for vegetable fermentation. ind. j. microbiol., 36:185 188 thompson, r.l., fleming, h.p. and monroe, r.j. 1979. effect of storage conditions on firmness of brined cucumbers. j. fd. sci., 44:843-846 yamini, m.i. 1993. fermentation of brined turnip roots using lactobacillus plantarum and leuconostoc mesenteroids starter cultures. world j. microbiol. biotech., 9:176 179 zaika, l.l. and kissinger, j.c. 1979. effect of some spices on acid production by starter cultures, j. fd. protection., 42:572 -576 (ms received 7 november 2007, revised 27 november 2008) lactic acid fermentation for brined vegetables j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 150-155, 2008 final sph -jhs coverpage 17-1 jan 2022 single 41 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 41-50, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction br injal (solanum melongena l.) is among the foremost important and popular vegetables consumed globally as well as in india. it consists of a significant amount of anthocyanin pigments (purple types), phenols, amide proteins as well as free reducing sugars. brinjal is widely utilized for its medicinal properties and has also been prescribed for diabetic patients and liver complaints (sabolu et al., 2014). although brinjal is one of the prime members of the solanaceae family, minimal breeding attempts have been undertaken for the development of potential hybrids/hybrid as well as for crop improvement by the exploitation of local germplasm in comparison to the remaining solanaceous crops. yield being a highly complex trait gets fluctuated by genetic as well as environmental factors, (foolad and lin, 2001) and applied agro technical methods (kaşkavalci, 2007). the selection of suitable parental material is of utmost importance during crop improvement program to a chieve the inher ent yield potentia l of a cr op (koutsika-sotiriou et al., 2008). in brinjal, the number of marketable fruits per plant, the number of branches, and the average fruit weight are the major yield attributing traits. in brinjal, yield per plant directly correlates with average fruit weight and number of fruits (kaffytullah et al., 2011; angadi et al., 2017); and these traits are highly influenced by several genetic and environmental components (karki et al., 2020). t he extent of the success a chieved in a cr op impr ovement pr ogr a m r elies solely upon the accessibility to the information concerning nature as well as the measure of gene action governing the traits of commercial significance. yield being a complex trait relying upon several other parameters along with their interactions, understanding the alliance of these traits with fruit yield will supplement the selection procedure genetics of growth and yield attributing traits of brinjal (solanum melongena l.) through six generation mean analysis barik s., naresh p., acharya g.c.*, singh t.h., kumari m. and dash m. central horticultural experiment station, icar-indian institute of horticultural research bhubaneswar, india. *corresponding author e-mail : gobinda.acharya@icar.gov.in abstract understanding gene action of different traits is of utmost importance for formulating successful breeding programs. the population was developed involving arka neelachal shyama and cari-1 to inquire the gene actions controlling the inheritance of several growth as well as yield attributing parameters through six-generation mean analysis. three parameter model revealed the insufficiency of the simpler additive dominance model for the evaluated traits, referring to the existence of inter-allelic interactions. six parameter model was implemented to better understand gene actions. most of the yield and attributing traits under study except number of branches showed a high estimate of dominance as well as environmental variance, disclosing a lower extent of heritability. the number of branches was observed to be controlled by duplicate epistasis. hence, for the fixation of this trait, the best strategy is to exercise minimal selection during advance generations, followed by intense selection during later generations (f4­ population onwards). the preponderance of the narrow sense type of heritability revealed that dominant effects were predominantly accountable for the existing genetic variation. hence, recurrent selection followed by bi-parental mating and selection during the later stage of generations is advised to increase the occurrence of favorable alleles and accumulation of desirable genes. keywords: brinjal, gene action, genetics, six-generation mean analysis and yield. 42 barik et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 41-50, 2022 with enhanced accuracy and precision (deb and khaleque, 2009). keeping the above-mentioned points in view, the extent of hybrid vigour and inbreeding depression as well as the gene action governing various growth and yield attributing characters in brinjal was assessed though six generation mean analysis, as this is highly efficient technique providing the accurate evaluation of chief genetic components governing the manifestation of the quantitative traits (mather and jinks, 1982). materials and methods experimental site the present research work was commenced during the period from 2018 2020 at ches, iihr-icar, bhubaneswar, india. the experimental soil was red laterite soil with very low ph (4.4) containing organic car bon in a medium a mount. t he soil contained be 296 kg/ha, 39.2 kg/ha, and 157kg/ ha of nit r o gen, p hos p hor u s a nd p ot a s s iu m, respectively. plant materials for development of the population, two parents viz, arka neelachal shyama (large, round, green with purple stripes) and cari-1 (large, oblong, light green) were selected. arka neelachal shyama was used as female parent, while cari-1 was used as pollen parent. the two parents were artificially c r os s ed f or t he p r odu c t i on of f 1 hyb r id. subsequently, f1 generation plants were selfed to obtain f2 generation seeds as well as backcrossed with arka neelachal shyama (p1) and cari-1(p2) to obtain b1 and b2 generations respectively. evaluation of populations under field growing conditions the seeds of six generations including two parents, their f 1 hybr id, segr egating f 2 popula tion a nd backcross populations with each of the parents were sown and proper nursery management practices were followed. during the tra nsplanting of the seedlings, a spacing of 60 x 60 cm2 was adopted. the number of plants evaluated differed according to the gener a tion. for the a s sessment of t he inheritance of growth and yield attributing traits, 30 plants each of female and pollen parents and their f1’s, 259 plants of f2 population, 50 plants of b1 population and 58 plants of b2 population wer e pla nted in the open field. recommended package of practices such as fertilizer application, intercultural operations, crop protection measures a nd ir r iga t ion wer e ca r r ied out for r a ising a successful crop. freshly harvested and marketable fruits of individual plants were utilized for genetic inheritance study. the mode of inheritance of various traits including plant height, number of branches, number of fruits and yield per plant, as well as average fruit length, girth, and weight were recorded. statistical analysis in the current experiment, the scaling test was per formed on means of each gener ation as per mather and jinks, 1982. the joint scaling test along with χ2 test were utilized for the determination of the sufficiency of the additive-dominance model (ca valli, 1952; fowler et al., 1998; singh and chaudhary, 1977). similarly, the χ2 values for all the tr a its wer e checked to fit into the thr eeparameter model (m, d, h) and significant values implica ted the epista tic gene inter a ct ion. by exer cising the s ix-pa r a meter model, six gene components including mean (m), pooled additive component (d), dominance component (h), additive × additive component (i), additive × dominance c omp onent ( j ) , a nd domina nc e × domina nc e component (l) were calculated (jinks and jones, 1958).the magnitude of scales was estimated by the formulae: a=2b1 p1 f1=0; b=2b1 p2 f1 =0; c=4f2 2f1 p1 p2 = 0 and d = 2f2 b1 b1 =0. significance of any of these scales indicated the involvement of epista sis in gover ning the respective traits (mather and jinks, 1982). the estimate of heterosis over parents as well as midpar ent value was calcula ted as % incr ease or decrease of f1 mean over the parental and midparental means, respectively. heritability (narrowsense) wa s ca lculated by method suggested by warner (1952). potence ratio was estimated as per smith (1952) to analyze the extent of dominance, which is given below: 43 genetics of growth and yield attributing traits of brinjal where, p = +1, suggest complete dominance, -1<p<+1 suggest partial dominance, except p=0, which suggests non-existence of dominance. when potence ratio exceeds ±1; it indicates over dominance. the signs (+/ -) of the parents indicate the direction of dominance. op-stat softwa re was used for all the above statistical analysis (sheoran et al., 1998). results heterosis and inbreeding depression heterosis over the mid-parent i.e., relative heterosis (table 1) was found to be significantly negative for all the traits. only vegetative traits under study exhibited positive relative heterosis i.e., 72.09 % in case of plant height and 2.82 % for the number of br a nches. rela tive heter osis (-13. 41%) a nd heterobeltios over p1 (-18.39 %), along with positive inbreeding depression (33.55 %) were recorded for fr uits per pla nt in this popula tion. t he higher magnitude of heterobeltiosis/over p2 (-31.64 %) as well as relative heterosis (-17.80 %) in the negative direction was observed for fruit yield per plant. in the current study, negative relative heterosis for both fruit length (-19.36 %) and fruit girth (-6.24 %) were observed in this population. negative relative heterosis (-6.24 %) as well as heterobeltiosis/over p2 (-25.76 %) was observed for fruit weight. similarly, inbreeding depression ranged from 0.12 % (fruit length) to 40.60 % (yield per plant). gene action for the assessment of inheritance pattern and gene actions gover ning gr owth a nd yield attributing t r a it s , s i x gener a t ion mea n a n a lys is wa s implemented and the findings are presented in table 2. significant variability among the populations were recorded implicating the appropriate choice of the parents. the significance estimates of three parameter model associated with joint scaling test for the means of generation of each parameter are shown in table 3. owing to the significant χ2 value for all the traits, this test disclosed the constraints of the additive a s well as domina nce gene actions to des c r ib e t he t r a it ’s inher it a nc e. h owever, it expressed their cumulative effects on interaction. hence, for the better interpretation the gene actions six pa r a meter model wa s ut iliz ed ( ta ble 4) . nonetheless, the inheritance of the studied traits could not be adequately elucidated through the normal additive-dominance model after obtaining the significant estimate of individual scales (a, b, c , or d ) f or t he mea ns of gener a t ions. t he existence of epista sis was concluded upon the significant estimate of either of ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’ or ‘d’ components of the scaling test for all the traits under study. plant height the highest and lowest plant height were recorded in f1 (55.50 cm) and p1 (29.10 cm), followed by f2 (51.96), b2 (47.07 cm) and b1 (43.48 cm). significant value of mean (m) was recorded, however additive (d) along with dominant (h) estimates appeared to be insignificant(table 4). the additive x additive (-i) component contributed significantly towards the plant height similar to additive x dominance (j) component. table 1. estimates of genetic parameter for plant vigor, yield and yield attributing traits in the cross between arka neelachal shyama (p1) and cari-1 (p2) traits heterosis (%) inbreeding depression (%) over p1 over p2 over mid parent plant height (cm) 90.72 56.78 72.09 6.38 number of branches per plant 10.98 -4.21 2.82 21.89 yield per plant (g) 3.07 -31.64 -17.80 40.60 number of fruits per plant -18.39 -7.79 -13.41 33.55 fruit length (cm) -1.81 -31.59 -19.36 0.12 fruit girth (cm) -4.25 -8.15 -6.24 3.89 fruit weight (g) 27.22 -25.76 -6.24 9.46 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 41-50, 2022 44 table 2. generation means (+/-se) for fruit traits and yield per plant from the arka neelachal shyama x cari-1 derived population characters population p1 p2 f1 f2 b1 b2 plant height (cm) 29.10 35.40 55.50 51.95 43.48 47.06 ±1.36 ±1.62 ±2.22 ±0.61 ±2.10 ±1.17 number of branches per plant 8.20 9.50 9.10 7.10 5.14 6.91 ±0.38 ±0.76 ±0.33 ±0.16 ±0.27 ±0.26 number of fruits per plant 8.70 7.70 7.10 4.71 4.98 4.53 ±0.36 ±0.26 ±0.34 ±0.14 ±0.30 ±0.23 yield per plant (g) 1472.00 2219.50 1517.25 901.28 1000.75 958.70 ±61.78 ±87.26 ±86.31 ±30.16 ±66.23 ±63.81 fruit length (cm) 9.65 13.85 9.47 9.46 9.76 10.27 ±0.23 ±0.31 ±0.30 ±0.10 ±0.21 ±0.20 fruit girth (cm) 23.55 24.55 22.55 21.67 21.40 21.98 ±0.39 ±0.39 ±0.35 ±0.14 ±0.39 ±0.34 fruit weight (g) 169.27 290.08 215.34 194.97 200.45 210.23 ±1.61 ±11.88 ±9.49 ±3.80 ±8.80 ±7.40 table 3. joint scale test with three parameter model (m, d and h) for various traits in the cross of arka neelachal shyama and cari-1 population plant number of number of yield per fruit fruit fruit height branches fruits per plant plant length girth weight m 34.77 6.68 6.91 1488.26 11.17 23.08 188.20 ±0.92** ±0.28** ±0.19** ±46.59* ±0.17** ±0.23** ±28.17** d 3.06 0.51 -0.25 184.70 1.52 -0.50 -60.40 ±0.94** ±0.27 ±0.19 ±45.75* ±0.16** ±0.24* ±5.99** h 25.91 0.48 -3.02 -834.46 -2.75 -2.04 -19.35 ±1.76** ±0.50 ±0.38** ±92.35* ±0.33** ±0.44** ±9.82** χ2 52.13** 100.83** 155.01** 188.79* 49.63** 39.81** 26.52** *and **significant at p “0.05” and “0.01”, respectively the dominance x dominance (l) estimate showed superiority over additive × dominance (j), dominance (h) and additive × additive (i) estimates. the potence ratio of -7.381 was observed indicating overdominance in inheriting this trait. number of branches p2 (9.50) exhibited the highest number of branches, while b1 exhibited the least number of branches (5.14), followed by f1 (9.10), f2 (7.11) and b2 (6.91). besides mean (m), a significant estimate of the additive (-d), dominance (-h), additive x additive (-i), and dominance x dominance (l) components was noticed (table 4).the estimate of dominance x dominance (l) component exhibited superiority over the additive × dominance (j), dominance (h) and additive × additive (i) estimates. number of fruits per plant plants of p1 produced the highest average number of fruits, while the minimum fruit count was noticed in b2 (4.53), accompanied by p2 (7.70), f1 (7.10) and b1 (4.98). the mean (m) was shown to be significant, however non-significant value was recorded for additive (d) along with dominance (h), additive x barik et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 41-50, 2022 45 additive (i) as well as additive x dominance (j) estimates (table 4). in the current study, dominance x dominance (l) played key role in the governance of this trait. the estimate of dominance x dominance (l) was higher than dominance (h), additive × dominance (j) and additive × additive (i) estimates. yield per plant the highest yield from individual plant was obtained from p2 (2.22 kg), while the minimum yield per plant was procured from f2 (0.90 kg), accompanied by f1 (1.52 kg), p1 (1.47 kg) and b1 (1.00 kg). the mean (m), additive x dominance (j) in addition to dominance x dominance (l) components were recorded to be significant (table 4), while non-significant values was reported for additive (d), dominance (h), additive x additive (i) components. the higher estimate of domina nce x domina nce (l) wa s obser ved in comparison with the additive × dominance (j), additive × additive (i), as well as dominance (h). the potence ra tio of 0.87 was estima ted suggesting par tial dominance in the inheritance. fruit length fr uit tr a its including fr uit skin color va r ied significantly across the population (fig 1). the mean maximum length was exhibited by the fruits of p2 (13.85 cm) and the lowest fruit length was observed for f2 (9.46 cm), succeeded by b2 (10.27 cm), b1 (9.76 cm) and p1 (9.65 cm). the mean (m) was found to be significant, however non-significant estimates wer e obser ved for a dditive (d), domina nce x dominance (l) as well as dominance (h) components (table 4). besides additive x additive (i) estimate, a significant estimate of additive x dominance (j) components was also found for fruit length. the magnitude of additive × dominance (j), was greater as compared to additive × additive (i), dominance x dominance (l) as well as dominance (h). the potence ratio of 1.083 was found stipulating overdominance in the trait’s inheritance. fruit girth the highest and lowest fruit girth were recorded in p2 (24.55 cm) and b1 (21.40 cm), followed by p1 (23.55 cm), f1 (22.55 cm) and b2 (21.99 cm). except the mean (m) and dominance x dominance (l) components, the r emaining estima tes wer e estima ted to be nonsignificant (table 4). in the current study, the estimate of dominance x dominance (l) was greater than additive × additive (i), additive × dominance (j), and dominance (h). for fruit girth, the potence ratio of 3.00 was recorded referring towards overdominance in inheriting this trait average fruit weight the greatest and lowest individual fruit weight were exhibited by p2 (290.08 g) and p1 (169.27 g), followed by f1 (215.3 g), b2 (210.23 g) and b1 (200.45 g). the significant value of mean (m) was recorded. the additive x dominance (j) component was found to be significant, unlike the additive (d), additive x additive (i), dominance (h) as well as dominance x dominance (l) components(table 4). the additive × dominance (j) estimate was shown to be more in comparison with the additive × additive (i), dominance x dominance (l) and dominance (h) components. the potence ratio of 0.237 was observed indicating partial dominance in the inheritance of this trait. discussion heterosis and inbreeding depression the parameters pertaining to growth and vigor showed significantly positive relative heterosis. the greater estimates of positive heterotic effects and minimal inbreeding depression for plant height revealed that crop improvement programs through heterosis could be successfully implemented for growth and vigor in brinjal (roy et al. 2009; mistry et al. 2018). relative heterosis as well as heterobeltiosis over p1 in the negative direction recorded for fruits per plant in this population. plant yield being a highly complex trait, is the sum total of various basic yield constituents. the greater estimate of heterobeltiosis/over p2 along with relative heterosis in the negative direction suggested that instead of heterosis breeding, selection at the later stage of the segregating population may be the best way to obtain higher yield per plant in the population studied (sao and mehta, 2011; patel et al., 2013; bagade et al., 2020). fruit length as well as fruit girth are regarded as essential characters considering the diversity observed in consumer preference especially in india, where eastern region prefer large round types as opposed to south region preferring long types hence, negative heterosis for these traits especially fruit length is desired. in the current study, desirable negative relative heterosis for both fruit length and fruit girth were observed in this population, which will have advantage in development of round type fruits. genetics of growth and yield attributing traits of brinjal j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 41-50, 2022 46 c ha ra ct er s pl an t he ig ht n um be r of n um be r of y ie ld p er p la nt fr ui t le ng th fr ui t gi rt h fr ui t w ei gh t br an ch es fr ui ts p er p la nt a -9 .4 0± 3. 32 ** 7. 02 ±0 .7 4* * 5. 84 ±0 .7 9* * 98 7. 75 ±1 69 .7 4* * -0 .4 0 ±0 .5 7 3. 29 ±0 .9 4* * -1 6. 28 ±2 0. 06 b 2. 83 ±4 .3 0 4. 77 ±0 .9 8* * 5. 73 ±0 .6 4* * 18 19 .3 3 ±1 77 .0 6* * 2. 78 ±0 .5 9* * 3. 12 ±0 .8 7* * 84 .9 6± 21 .2 2* * c -3 2. 33 ±4 .8 2* * 7. 46 ±1 .2 6* * 11 .7 2± 1. 00 ** 31 20 .8 6± 23 6. 20 ** 4. 59 ±0 .8 2* * 6. 50 ±1 .0 6* * 11 0. 16 ** ±2 7. 11 d 12 .8 8± 2. 76 ** 2. 16 ±0 .4 9* * -0 .0 7 ±0 .4 8 -1 56 .8 8 ±1 09 .9 9 -1 .1 0± 0. 35 ** -0 .0 4 ±0 .5 9 -2 0. 73 ±1 3. 78 m ea n (m ) 51 .9 5± 0. 78 ** 7. 10 ±0 .1 6* * 4. 71 ±0 .1 4* * 90 1. 28 ±3 0. 16 ** 9. 46 ±0 .1 0* * 21 .6 7± 0. 14 ** 19 4. 97 ±3 .8 0* * a dd iti ve ( d) 2. 96 ± 2. 27 -1 .7 7± 0. 37 ** 0. 44 ± 0. 38 42 .0 4 ±9 1. 96 -0 .5 0 ±0 .2 9 -0 .5 8 ±0 .5 2 -9 .7 8± 11 .5 0 d om in an ce ( h) -2 .5 1± 5. 81 -4 .0 7± 1. 13 ** -0 .9 4 ±1 .0 4 -1 4. 72 ± 24 2. 28 -0 .0 6± 0. 80 -1 .4 0± 1. 27 27 .1 4± 29 .7 7 a dd iti ve × a dd iti ve ( i) -2 5. 76 ±5 .5 2* * -4 .3 2± 0. 99 ** 0. 15 ± 0. 96 31 3. 77 ± 21 9. 98 2. 21 ±0 .7 1* * 0. 09 ± 1. 18 41 .4 7± 27 .5 7 a dd iti ve × d om in an ce ( j) 12 .2 3± 5. 01 * -2 .2 4 ±1 .1 4 -0 .1 0 ±0 .8 9 83 1. 58 ±2 12 .7 5* * 3. 18 ±0 .7 0* * -0 .1 6 ±1 .1 8 10 1. 25 ±2 5. 94 ** d om in an ce × 19 .1 9± 10 .2 8 16 .1 1 ±1 .9 7* * 11 .4 1 ±1 .8 4* * 24 93 .3 1± 43 7. 17 ** 0. 17 ± 1. 43 6. 31 ± 2. 34 ** 27 .2 1± 53 .4 0 do m in an ce ( l) d+ h 0. 45 -5 .8 4 -0 .4 9 27 .3 1 -0 .5 7 -1 .9 8 17 .3 6 l+ i+ j 5. 66 9. 54 11 .4 6 36 38 .6 7 5. 56 6. 24 16 9. 93 m ag ni tu de o f g en e e ff ec t l> j> h> i l> j> h> i l> i> j> h l> j> i> h j> i> l> h l> i> j> h j> i> l> h e pi st as is d up lic at e po te nc e ra tio ( f 1 ) -7 .3 8 -0 .3 8 -2 .2 0 0. 87 1. 08 3. 00 0. 23 *a nd * *s ig ni fi ca nt a t p “0 .0 5” a nd “ 0. 01 ”, r es pe ct iv el y. ta bl e 4. e st im at es o f ge ne e ff ec ts f or v ar io us t ra its in t he c ro ss b et w ee n a rk a n ee lc ah al s hy am a x c a r i1 de ri ve d po pu la tio n us in g si x pa ra m et er m od el barik et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 41-50, 2022 47 these results are consistent with the result obtained by timmapur et al., (2008), chowdhury et al., (2010), sahajahan et al., (2016) and sujin and karuppaiah (2018). nega tive r ela tive heter osis a s well a s heterobeltiosis/over p2 were observed for fruit weight. the pronounced negative heterosis for fruit weight revealed dominance of negative alleles contributed by the lower scoring parent (patil et al., 2001; das et al., 2009). east (1908) and shull (1909, 1910) demonstrated that a decrease in heterozygosity results in a corresponding decline in vigour due to inbreeding (crow, 1952), which also fully satisfies the dominance hypothesis. inbreeding depression was resulted to the extent of 40.60 % (fr uit yield per pla nt) in our br inja l population. however, the inbreeding depression reports of this research work is also supported by the findings of recent research workers like sao and mehta (2010), singh and rai (1990) and kumar and pathania (2003), who reported positive inbreeding depression for a number of traits of brinjal. gene action significant variability among the means of populations were recorded suggesting that the choice of parents was appropriate. plant height: additive x additive (-i) component contributed significantly towards the plant height similar to additive x dominance (j) component, which suggested the pr eponder a nce of non-a dditive components; hence should be considered immensely in fig 1. segregation of fruit traits in populations derived from cross between arka neelchal shyama x cari-1 the crop improvement programs. the magnitude of dominance x dominance (l) was higher than additive × dominance (j), dominance (h) and additive × additive (i), suggesting heterosis breeding is the best strategy to for improvement programs for enhancing plant height. non-additive gene action governing the plant height trait in brinjal was also recorded by singh et al. (2002) as well as patel (2003). number of branches: the significant value of the additive (-d), dominance (-h) as well as additive x additive (-i) components pointed towards the existence of additive and non-additive gene actions controlling this trait. the contrasting signs of h and l showed the existence of duplicate epistasis interaction among the alleles. the estimate of dominance x dominance (l) component was superior to the additive × dominance (j), dominance (h) a nd a dditive × a dditive (i) components. significa nt estima te of a dditive component in negative direction was observed, hence revealed that the trait could not be fixed via simple selection. the involvement of non-additive gene action in governing number of branches in brinjal was reported by dharwad et al. (2011), reddy and patel (2014) and sujin and karuppaiah (2018). however, in our study, association of additive along with nonadditive gene actions suggested that the population improvement through reciprocal recurrent selection should be considered as the best breeding scheme to increase the accumulation of fa vora ble alleles (ramalho et al., 2001). again, duplicate class of interallelic interrelationship is operating (patel, 2003; genetics of growth and yield attributing traits of brinjal j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 41-50, 2022 48 mistry et al., 2016) indicating the reduction in variability in segregating generations which obstruct the selection activity (kumar and patra, 2010). hence, mild selection during earlier generations, followed by bi-parental mating and intense selection in the later generations should be done for improving the trait. number of fruits per plant: in the current study, dominance x dominance (l) was playing major role in the governance of this trait. for the given trait, additive gene action (dixit et al., 1982; joshi and chadha, 1994) and non-additive gene action (rao 2003; aswani and khandelwal 2005) have been reported. the estimate of dominance x dominance (l) was higher than additive × additive (i), dominance (h) and additive × dominance (j).thus, recombination breeding and hybridization accompanied by selection during early generations could be performed for the improvement of this trait. non-significant value was recorded for additive (d) along with dominance (h), additive x additive (i) as well as additive x dominance (j) components. yield per plant: additive x dominance (j) in addition to dominance x dominance (l) components were recorded to be significant. the higher estimate of domina nce x domina nce (l) wa s obser ved in comparison with the additive × dominance (j), additive × additive (i), as well as dominance (h). thus, additive along with non-additive interactions were involved in governing the trait. hence, trait improvement strategy consisting of recurrent selection as well as bi-parental mating could be highly fruitful for the accumulation of the favorable genes and/or to remove the existing undesirable and unfavorable linkages (mistry et al., 2016). shafeeq et al. (2013) in their study involving genetic inheritance of yield and yield attributing traits found the similar report concluding the fruit yield per plant to be governed by both additive and non-additive gene actions. non-significant value was found for additive (d), dominance (h), additive x additive (i) components. fruit length: predominance of additive gene action was concluded towing to the significance of additive x additive (i) and additive x dominance (j) components. the magnitude of additive × dominance (j), was grea ter as compared to additive × additive (i), dominance x dominance (l) and dominance (h). hence, selection would be the best strategy in the improvement of fr uit length. t his finding however wa s in contradiction to mistry et al. (2016) who reported the fruit length trait to be governed by additive-dominance interaction. the non-significant estima tes were observed for additive (d), dominance x dominance (l) and dominance (h) components. fruit girth: in the current study, only dominance x dominance (l) components were observed to be significant and the estimate of dominance x dominance (l) was higher than additive × additive (i), additive × dominance (j), and dominance (h). for fruit girth, both additive gene action and non-additive gene action have been reported by the researchers (kumar and ram, 1987; vaghasiya et al., 2000; rao, 2003; patel, 2003).thus, due to the involvement of the non-additive gene action, recombination breeding and hybridization accompanied by selection during later generations could be performed for the improvement of this trait (mistry et al., 2016). the non-significant estimate of additive (d), additive x additive (i), dominance (h) and additive x dominance (j) were recorded. fruit weight: the additive x dominance (j) component was found to be significant. the additive × dominance (j) estimate was shown to be more in comparison with the additive × additive (i), dominance x dominance (l) and dominance (h) components. hence, reciprocal recurrent selection can be adopted. meanwhile, selection process needs to be delayed until required homozygosity is achieved in the inbred lines (mistry et al., 2016).the additive (d) component in addition to additive x additive (i), dominance (h) as well as dominance x dominance (l) components, were recorded to be non-significant. conclusion in the current study, the growth and yield attributing traits were identified/reported to be governed by additive and non-additive gene action along with the preponderance of combination of both the gene actions. a higher order of non-allelic interaction (involvement of more than 2 genes) was exhibited by most of the traits except number of branches in which duplicate type of epistasis was recorded. due to the existence of a higher estimate of interactions, the frequency of the non-fixable gene effects was more as compared to the fixable gene effects. of all the traits, only fruit length was reported to be governed by additive gene action, which can be fixed by simple selection. however, for the r ema ining tr a its combination of recurrent selection/ hybridization and bi-parental mating can be adopted followed by intense selection at later stage of segregating population. barik et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 41-50, 2022 49 references angadi, p., indiresh, k.m. and rao, a.m. 2017. correlation studies for fruit yield and its attributing characters in brinjal (solanum melongena l.). int. j. curr. microbiol. app. sci., 6 (12): 1007-1012. aswani, r.c. and khandelwal, r.c. 2005. combining ability studies in brinjal. ind. j. hort., 62:37– 40. bagade, a.b., deshmukh, j.d., and kalyankar, s.v. 2020. heterosis studies for yield and yield traits in brinjal. the pharma innov. j., 9 (11):205208 cavalli, l. 1952. an analysis of linkage in quantitative inheritance. in: reeve, e.c.r., waddington, c.h. 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(4): 379-383. timma pur, p.h. , dha rmatti, p. r. , patil, r. v. , kajjidoni, s.t. and naik, k. 2008. heterosis for yield in brinjal (solanum melongena l.). karnataka j. agril. sci., 21(3): 476-478. vaghasiya, m.h., kathiria, k.b., bhalala, m.k. and doshi, k.m. 2000. gene action for yield and its components in two cr osses of brinjal (solanum melongena l.). ind. j. gen., 60 (1): 127–130. wa r ner, j. n. 1952. a method for estima ting heritability. agron. j., 44: 427–43. barik et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 41-50, 2022 (received: 14.11.2021 ; revised: 18.01.2022; accepted : 05.02.2022) 00 a final sph -jhs coverpage first 2 pages.pdf 00 content and in this issue.pdf 01 mohan kumar g n.pdf 02 meera pandey.pdf 03 biradar c.pdf 04 varalakshmi b.pdf 05 vijayakumari n.pdf 06 barik s.pdf 07 sajid m b.pdf 08 ranga d.pdf 09 usha s.pdf 10 manisha.pdf 11 amulya r n.pdf 12 akshatha h j.pdf 13 adak t.pdf 14 sujatha s.pdf 15 gowda p p.pdf 16 subba s.pdf 17 dhayalan v.pdf 19 ahmed s.pdf 20 vishwakarma p k.pdf 21 deep lata.pdf 22 udaykumar k p.pdf 23 nayaka v s k.pdf 24 sahel n a.pdf 25 bayogan e r v.pdf 26 rathinakumari a c.pdf 27 yella swami c.pdf 28 saidulu y.pdf 29 sindhu s.pdf 30 neeraj.pdf 31 sivaranjani r.pdf 32 rashied tetteh.pdf 34 sangeetha g.pdf 35 shareefa m.pdf 36 last pages.pdf editor’s exordium diversified experimentation in horticulture “i haven’t failed. i’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” (the fabulous drone, 1967, thomas edison) this issue yet again marks a compendium of articles on diverse crops and aspects in horticulture. this multifariousness or the absence of monotony is indeed a mark of dynamism in science experimentation, especially and specially in the field of horticulture. in vegetables, varalakshmi et al have investigated into the determination of the variability, heritability, genetic advance and correlation of fruit yield and yield contributing characters in bottle gourd (lagenaria siceraria (mol. stadl.)), emphasizing the importance of indirect selection. gupta et al have utilized a bioinformatics approach to identify micrornas from partial genome sequence data in okra by next generation sequencing (ngs) technology and identified two mirnas and their cognate target rnas. kurian et al, in their study, have explored the predisposing factors leading to the occurrence of inflorescence blight and pod rot in dolichos bean (dolichos lablab l.) and yard long bean, and the pathogen identified as choanephora infundibulifera. anitha et al studied the effects of weed management practices on seed yield and quality of bitter gourd (momordica charantia), in terms of weed control efficiency, mulching effects, germination and vigour indices. higher seedling lengths and fresh weights were sweetly recorded, of course. nasiyabeegum and subramanian evaluated cowpea accessions for resistance to the spotted pod borer, maruca vitrata (fab.; lepidoptera: crambidae) by examining calyx configurations and sepals while indicating that tight calyx could possibly deter entry of freshly hatched first instar larval instars. surya et al investigated the quality performance of coriander leaves under open and rain shelter conditions in terms of herbage, biomass yield, vitamin c content, volatile oil content and total chlorophyll contents. anyways, the smooth lingering aroma of fresh coriander leaves in indian kitchen needs no emphasis. in fruits, shikhamany et al conducted a nutritional survey to study the quadratic relationship and influence of variety and rootstock on various cation interactions in grapes. the soil na+, k+ and ca++ had varied absorption and interaction dynamics in different grapes rootstock and scions. covering the post harvest aspects in fruit crops, muralidhara et al assessed the post harvest changes in bioactive phytonutrients and total antioxidant activity during ripening of mango cv. amrapali, through the analysis of total antioxidants, total phenols, total flavonoids and total carotenoids while noticing the profound effects of ripening on the post harvest composition of nutraceuticals. ranjitha et al screened strains of lactobacillus helveticus, l. rhamnosus and saccheromyces boulardii towards the development of ready-to-serve probioticated mango beverages. i j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : i-ii, 2018 interestingly, hic!, l. helveticus probioticated mango beverage showed improved acceptability and higher nutrients. pushpa chethan kumar et al prepared moringa, a tree-vegetable hybrid, infusions along with some herbs/flavouring agents such as tulsi, ginger and lemon grass for green tea and evaluated the organoleptic properties. this desi/traditional/heirloom crop and concoction combination, potent i must say, offers a new coffee table book recipe! menon and shibana evaluated the performance of two garlic (allium sativum l.) genotypes in the plains of kerala in terms of bulb weight and number of cloves per bulb, the two main yield components and suggesting the possibilities of garlic cultivation in the new niche with some refinements in the agrotechniques. dhanasekaran studied the effects of different sprigging densities and foliar nitrogen on the growth and establishment of bermuda grass (cynodon dactylon l. pers. x cynodon transvaalensis), with not surprisingly, the usual urea at 2% proved better. i n f l o r i c u l t u re , s a t h a p p a n st u d i e d t h e p e rf o rm a n c e o f g e n o t y p e s o f t u b e ro se (polyanthes tuberosa l.) and identified genotypes with high heritability and in terms of various yield traits, suitable for the coastal region and future breeding programs. praveen et al, through a purposive sampling survey, revealed the existence of powdery mildew in gerbera crop grown under protected and open conditions, on the scenic hilly tracts of wayanad, kerala. characterization of pathogens, golovinomyces cichoracearum and podosphaera sp., indicated differential disease incidence and severity. dhanasekaran also examined the influence of growth regulators on jasmine (jasminum sambac ait.) in terms of flowering attributes and inferred that the good old gibberellic acid can enhance growth and flower yield. in this issue, papers on fruits (3), vegetables (6), spices (2) and flower (3) crops and one weed, have dwelled on genetic (2), post harvest (2), pest (1), disease (2), quality (1), agronomic (6) and biochemical (1) studies, thus again reassuring you, the readers, that indeed this issue, also is as diversified in its content, as its previous brethren. on behalf of the executive council and the editorial board, i humbly thank and acknowledge all the referees et al for critically reviewing the submitted manuscripts, for both the issues. i also request the readers and potential contributors to mainly consider online manuscript submission route. this is the only unfailing way, to respect edison as in the opening quotable quote! vageeshbabu s. hanur editor in chief journal of horticultural sciences ii j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : i-ii, 2018 83 j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 79-82, 2019 short communication mineral content of red skinned potatoes of eastern india dalamu*, j. sharma, s. kumar, v. sharma, s.k. luthra, a.k. sharma and v.k. dua icar-central potato research institute, shimla, himachal pradesh-171 001 *email : dalamu04@gmail.com abstract potato tuber colour is an important factor that influences consumer preferences. eastern plain region of india contributes about 50% of total potato acreage and production. consumers in this region generally prefer red skinned varieties. growing awareness for nutrient rich food can create a niche market for nutritious potatoes. potato is crop of choice for mineral biofortification owing to better mineral bioavailability due to its high ascorbic acid and minimal phytate content. iron and zinc are the essentially required minerals for good health. considering the nutritional importance of these elements and wider prevalence of their deficiency in indian sub-continent, thirteen eastern regions red skinned advanced hybrids and varieties were evaluated to find the genetic diversity for iron and zinc content. a significant wide range of contents was observed for both the elements. high heritability of both mineral suggests feasibility of selecting genotypes for breeding nutrient rich varieties. identified genotypes can be utilised as parental lines for future breeding programme and can be released as nutrient rich potato variety. key words: potato, eastern india, mineral, genetic diversity introduction potato is a nutritious crop that has proven capacity of providing food security and mitigating poverty. this crop yields quick and better nutritious produce per unit area and fits well into different cropping pattern. the iron content of potatoes is comparable to most other vegetables and is better than white rice while it is humble source of zinc. the average iron content in whole potato is 0.78 mg /100 g fresh weight (fw) while average zinc content is 0.29 mg / 100 g fw. presence of promoters and inhibitors components is essentia l pa r a meter s for a ny biofortification activity. potato has minimal phytate content that inhibits the nutrient bioavailability while known source of ascorbic acid, an important factor for better nutrient absorption. iron and zinc deficiency are major risk factors affecting global population especially the poor people. in india 79 % of children (<3 years), 55 % women and 24% men are iron deficient (nfhs-3) while 25% of the india n population is at risk of zinc deficiency. globally india is the second largest producer of potato after china. per capita consumption of potato in india is 20 kg and this will increase to 50 kg by 2050. with the incr ea sing tr end for pota to consumption and wider population coverage there is a need to discover the nutritional composition of varied potato genotypes as it will affect the health of common mass. breeding of any crop involves selection of new parental lines based on the results of characterisation of germplasm for trait of interest and developing new cross combinations. identification of high and low iron and zinc containing potato genotypes can be used in breeding program as parental material and for introgression of high fe and zn controlling genes or qtls. thirteen advanced hybrids and varieties were raised under uniform field and management conditions at the icar-cprs, patna, india during 2015-16 in plots of 4.8 m2 with inter and intra row spacing of 60 cm by 20 cm. freshly harvested unblemished 10 tubers were cleaned with tap water followed by rinsing in high purity 0.1 n hcl and finally with double distilled water. air dried samples in triplicate were peeled with stainless steel peeler, sliced lengthwise and oven dried at 70 oc. the acid digest grinded samples were used in atomic absorption spectrometer 84 dalamu et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 79-82, 2019 for determination of iron and zinc content. statistical analyses were performed by means of tnaustat software (manivannan, 2014). the mean values were compared by one-way anova. t hirteen a dvanced sta ge hybr ids a nd va rieties (table 1) were evaluated for iron and zinc content. analysis of variance depicted significant variations (p<0.01) for the content of both the elements. table 1. pedigree of coloured skinned advanced hybrids and varieties the iron contents ranged from 19.28-63.94 ppm dry weight basis and the mean value was 33.03 ppm (table 2). the highest performing genotype was the rajendra-ii containing 3 times more iron than the lowest ranking advanced hybrid ps/9-09. the iron content is reported up to 11.2 mg /kg fw (rivero et al, 2003). with the average dry matter content of 20 % the content varies to 56 ppm and the iron content of us varieties and advanced breeding selections (17 to 62 ppm dry weight basis; brown et al, 2010) were comparable to our study. in earlier analysis of indian potato genotypes the iron content varies between 21 to 53 ppm in tuber flesh on dry weight basis (trehan and sharma, 1996). genotypes parentage genotypes parentage ps/7-7 kufri arun × desiree ps/9-09 j/96-84 × cp 2132 ps/5-75 cp 2376 × kufri kanchan ps/6-88 kufri arun × cp 3192 rh-3 kufri pukhraj × cp 3192 ms/08-88 cp1923 × jn 2207 p-7 kufri arun × cp 3192 ps/8-31 kufri arun × prt-19 ps/78-1 prt 17 × cp 3192 ps/6-24 cp 2376 × d-150 p-14 ms/89-1095 × cp 3290 rajendra-ii clonal selection of pc 46 rajendra-iii clonal selection of pc 676 in the present study the zinc content varied between 7.03-39.20 ppm on dry weight basis. advanced hybrid p/6-24 had the highest zinc content followed by rajendra-ii. zinc content in potato germplasm has been reported to be in range of 0.22 (tuberosum gp; rivero et al, 2003) -0.76 (andigena gp) mg/100g fw of tuber (andre et al, 2007). considering an average 20 % dry matter, the zinc content (11-38 ppm dry weight basis) in these studies corroborates to that of results of our study while zinc content of united states genotypes and previous reports of indian genotypes was on lower side ie 12 to 18 ppm (brown et al, 2011) and 10 to 18 ppm (trehan and sharma, 1996), respectively on dry weight basis. genotype iron content (mg/kg dw/ppm) zinc content (mg/kg dw/ppm) rajendraii 63.94 30.62 ps/5-75 36.10 16.6 ps/7-7 29.72 12.06 ps/9-09 19.28 7.03 ps/6-88 30.19 18.51 rh-3 32.68 19.88 p-7 29.00 16.96 ms/08-88 30.38 19.90 ps/8-31 32.48 9.71 table 2. iron and zinc content in coloured skinned advanced hybrids and varieties 85 mineral content red skinned potatoes ps/78-1 21.02 12.39 rajendraiii 22.67 17.79 p-14 43.04 19.57 p/6-24 38.93 39.20 mean 33.03 18.48 range 19.28-63.94 7.03-39.20 std. error 2.80 2.88 std. deviation 4.98 5.00 phenotypic and genotypic variance estimates depict the extent of variation in the present germplasm. genotypic va r ia nce wa s high for both t r a it s indicating sufficient variability in the genotypes (table 3). the better variability magnitude of the present germplasm may be due to varied pedigree of each genotype thus broadening the genetic base. broadsense heritability is the ratio of genotypic variance/ phenotypic variance that provides an estimate of the proportion of total transmissible variation. it predicts the changes affected to the trait by virtue of selection. high estimates of heritability (broad sense) wer e ob ta ined for both the c ha r a ct er s studied depicting feasibility for improvement of these characters through direct selection (table 3). similarly, brown et al, 2010 recorded high iron content in red-skinned clones with high heritability while high zinc variability and heritability was obser ved in r usset potato clones (brown et al, 2011). heritability estimates along with genetic advance are useful in selection of individuals. heritable variation can be found out with greater degr ee of accur acy when studied with genetic advance. the genetic advance was moderate for iron and zinc content but this may be compensated by the high heritability values and indicates additive gene a c t ion gover ning t hes e tr a it s a nd t heir s u it a b ilit y of dir ec t s elec t ion f or f u r t her improvement. correlation between iron and zinc content was moderate (r=0.65) in contrast to weak correlation (r = 0.35) observed by (andre et al, 2007) while highly significant (r=-0.70 to 0.84, p<0.01) to non significant correlations obtained by brown et al, 2011. the bioavailability of potato iron is higher than those of cer ea ls a nd leguminous cr ops due to higher ascorbic acid content. in the present study the correlation estimate revea led no significant relationship between iron and ascorbic acid content (data not shown). brown et al., (2010) also did not observe significant relationship between iron and ascorbic acid. the suitable genotypes identified will be used as parental lines for specialty potato breeding programme and the advanced hybrids can be released as nutrient rich potato variety. j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 79-82, 2019 table 3. variance, heritability and genetic advance for iron and zinc content iron zinc genotypic variance 123.60 64.52 phenotypic variance 131.93 72.85 heritability 93.68 88.56 genetic advance 22.16 15.57 genetic advance (% of mean) 67.10 84.26 86 andre, c.m., ghislain, m., bertin, p., oufir, m., del rosario herrera, m., hoffmann, l., hausman, j.f., larondelle, y. and evers, d. 2007. andean potato cultivars (solanum tubersum l.) as source of antioxidants and minerals micro nutrients. j. agril. food chem. 55:36678 brown c. r., haynes, k.g., moore, m., pavek, m.j., hane, d.c., love s.l., novy, r.g. and miller jr j. c. 2011. stability a nd broa d-sense heritability of mineral content in potato: zinc. am. j. pot. res. 88:238-44 brown c. r., haynes, k.g., moore, m., pavek, m.j., hane, d.c., love s.l., novy, r.g. and miller jr j. c. 2010. stability and br oa d-sense heritability of mineral content in potato: iron. am. j. pot. res. 87:390-96 maniva nna n, n. 2014. t naustat-sta tistica l package. https://sites.google.com/site/tnaustat. national family health survey-3. 2005-06 rivero, r. c., suarez hernanuez, p., rodrýguez rodrýguez, e.m., darias martýn, j., dýaz romero, c., 2003. mineral concentrations in cultivars of potatoes. food chem. 83, 247-53 trehan, s.p. and sharma r.c.1996. mineral nutrient content in peels and flesh of tubers of some potato genotypes. jipa, 23: 139-143 references j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 79-82, 2019 dalamu et al (ms received 30 march 2019, revised 17 may 2019, accepted 23 june 2019) 00 contents.pdf 01. rms copy 62(17) gauva.marketing & phl-pinflesh.pdf 02. rms copy 63(17) soft wood grafting – a novel and rapid multiplication technique in coorg mandarin (citrus reticulata blanco).pdf 03. rms copy 25(18) evaluation of solanum species and eggplant cultivated varieties for bacterial wilt resistance.pdf 04. rms 18(18).pdf 05. rms_ii _24_18.pdf 06. rms copy 26 (18) metabolite paper-edited_04.05.2019.pdf 07. rms copy 1(19).pdf 08. rms copy 2(19) revised heterosi and combining effects ridge gourd 2019.pdf 09. rms copy 5(19) digital repository revised.pdf s1. rms 45(17) effect of trichomes in cowpea on infestation by spotted pod borer.pdf s2. rms copy 65(17) performance of anthurium (anthurium andreanum lind) cultivars in hill zone of.pdf s3. rms copy 2(18) langsat paper revised.pdf s4. rms 3(19) mineral content of red skinned potatoes of eastern india-revised.pdf sph -jhs coverpage jun 2019 issue 14(1).pdf page 3 page 4 sph -jhs coverpage jun 2019 issue 14(1).pdf page 1 page 2 404 not found stack trace: file: /var/www/jhs/pages/article/articlehandler.inc.php line 167 function: dispatcher->handle404() file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/pkprouter.inc.php line 392 function: articlehandler->initialize(object(request), array(0)) file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/pkppagerouter.inc.php line 246 function: pkprouter->_authorizeinitializeandcallrequest(array(2), object(request), array(2), false) file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/dispatcher.inc.php line 144 function: pkppagerouter->route(object(request)) file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/pkpapplication.inc.php line 362 function: dispatcher->dispatch(object(request)) file: /var/www/jhs/index.php line 68 function: pkpapplication->execute() 1 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 00-00, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. short communication introduction brinjal is one of the most important solanaceous vegetables next to tomato, potato and chilli. brinjal is enriched with high net content of nutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, and edible good fats, along with some minerals, vitamins, antioxidants and seconda r y meta bolites. e ggp la nt is b a sica lly originated from india during 300 b.c. to 300 a.d. and distributed all across the country. brinjal is economically grown as annual crop though it is a perennial plant. eggplant mainly bears gradient violet big solitary flower but some cultivars or species bears clustered inflorescence with variable tinge color with five peta ls, five sepa ls, five stamens and variable length of stigma i.e., long styled, medium styled and short styled flowers. eggplant is hardy crop and even sustains prolonged stress periods but many studies have been reported there was decrease in fruit yield upon increased moisture deficiency. in eggplant upon increased drought there would be sequential decrease in fruit length, circumference, width, average fruit weight, p la nt height , da ys f or f lower init ia t ion a nd increased number of fruits and branches (faizan et al., 2021c) which would be drought susceptible t r a it s . w her ea s , inc r ea s ed lea f chlor op hyll, membrane stability index, relative tissue water, epiculticular wax, root length, volume and number of seconda r y r oots would be dr ought tolera nt character for genotype selection (faizan et al., 2 0 2 1 b ) mor e over u p on dr ou ght indu c t ion cytological and molecular changes will also occur like certain gene expressivity (faizan et al., 2021a). screening genotypes based on particular trait or a character can be done on its genetic values like phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variance, broad sense heritability as well genetic advance over mean that would help breeder to understand or find out material genetic variability and study influence of environment over trait exhibition while select ing elite genotypes. as f r u it yield is a dependent trait majorly governed by additive gene a ction with the association of differ ent tr aits. therefore, it was directed that association studies of yield and yield components is an elementary protocol to find out elite genotypes upon correlated t r a it or c ha r a c t er. c ha r a c t er a s s oc ia t ion or correlation analysis is an appropriate statistical method to quantify the degree, range and explain na t u r e of r ela t ions hip s ha r ing b et ween t wo variables based on its intensity of association. phenotypic trait association studies in brinjal upon drought stress faizan m.*a, harish babu b.n.b, lakshmana d.a, ganapathi m.a and rakshith m.a adepartment of genetics and plant breeding, college of horticulture, mudigere, bzonal agricultural and horticultural research station, hiriyur, university of agricultural and horticultural sciences, shivamogga, karnataka, india. *corresponding author email : faizanscf@gmail.com abstract eggplant is popularly known as poor man’s vegetable. with respect to present situation of climatic challenges, fruit yield of eggplant is reduced due to drought or moisture stresses. in view of this condition, an experiment was aimed to study character association between yield and yield components in eggplant. the resultant outcome from correlation analysis computed among nine eggplant characters indicated that traits like plant height and total plant length at harvesting, fruit length and number of fruits per plant significantly correlated with fruit yield per plant. whereas, traits like plant height and total plant length observed at harvesting stage, number of days for flower initiation, number of primary branches, fruit length and average fruit weight were significantly associated with fruit yield per plant under moisture stressed condition. keywords: brinjal, drought, fruit yield, moisture stress and phenotypic correlation. 2 faizan et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 00-00, 2022 our primary aim was to study the effect of moisture str ess on physiologica l, r oot, yield a nd yield components and evaluation of genetic values present in research incurred material for experiment. in addition to these, in this experiment we are aiming to exhibit yield component association or relationship towards fruit yield. country wide collected fifty eggplant genotypes (table 1) were sown in portray after treating with carbendazim and etiolated for three days and after 30 days of sowing seedlings were transplanted into pots. experiment was designed with factorial completely random design which includes two factors viz., (a) drought conditions (normal moisture condition/control table 1. list of eggplant genotypes used in the present experiment sl. name of the sources of no. genotype collection 1. pusa upkar iivr, varanasi, 2. arka kranti uttar pradesh 3. bhagyamati 4. pusa ankur 5. pusa bindu 6. punjab sadabahar 7. aruna 8. shobha 9. swarna manjari 10. ch-215 11. jawahar brinjal-8 12. jawahar brinjal-69 13. r-2580 vegetable research 14. r-2594 station kalyanpur, 15. r-2591 uttar pradesh 16. malapur local 17. l-2232 18. r-2581 19. l-2230 20. m4 college of 21. m21 horticulture, 22. m17 mudigere 23. mattigulla 24. ramdurga 25. melavanki 26. m19 27. very green long zonal research 28. iihr-322 station, chianky, 29. pant samrat palamu, jharkhand 30. iihr-7 31. long green 32. swarna pratibha 33. swarna mani 34. early round market hiriyur local 35. rampur local collection 36. hebbal gulla (chitradurga, 37. round green karnataka) 38. ic354140 nbpgr, 39. ic90785 new delhi 40. ic99676long 41. ic99676round 42. ic90691 43. ic354597-round 44. suvarna gp098 suvarna seeds pvt. ltd. 45. vijaya arbh98 vijaya seeds pvt. ltd. 46. co-2 tnau, coimbatore, tamil nadu 47. solanum macrocarpon college of horticulture, bangalore 48. solanum indicum 49. solanum torvum 50. solanum mammosum 3 phenotypic trait association studies in brinjal upon drought stress fig. 1. heatmap for comparative mean performance of eggplant genotypes over growth and yield parameters. x1plant height @ 90 dat (cm), x2total plant length @ 90dat (cm), x3number of days for flower initiation, x4number of primary branches/plants, x5fruit length (cm), x6fruit circumference (cm), x7average fruit weight (g), x8number of fruits per plant, x9fruit yield (g/plant); smoisture stress condition, nnormal moisture condition 4 faizan et al ta bl e 2. e st im at es o f ph en ot yp ic c or re la tio n co ef fic ie nt s fo r 12 d iff er en t ch ar ac te rs in eg gp la nt g en ot yp es u nd er n or m al m oi st ur e an d m oi st ur e st re ss t ra it s m oi st ur e x 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 x 9 c on di ti on x 1 r n 1. 00 0 0. 76 8* ** 0. 29 9* ** 0. 16 1* -0 .3 32 ** * -0 .1 96 * -0 .1 6* -0 .0 09 -0 .3 72 ** r s 1. 00 0 0. 66 9* ** 0. 18 1* 0. 04 3 0. 01 9 -0 .1 63 * -0 .3 08 ** * 0. 14 5 -0 .2 94 ** * x 2 r n 1. 00 0 0. 26 7* ** -0 .0 32 -0 .3 23 ** * -0 .1 7* -0 .1 77 * 0. 00 4 -0 .3 18 ** * r s 1. 00 0 0. 31 5* ** 0. 09 6 -0 .1 32 -0 .2 43 ** * -0 .3 73 ** 0. 17 * -0 .4 12 ** * x 3 r n 1. 00 0 -0 .0 74 -0 .3 71 ** * 0. 05 3 -0 .0 7 0. 06 1 -0 .1 52 r s 1. 00 0 0. 05 7 -0 .1 44 -0 .0 29 -0 .1 7* 0. 12 7 -0 .3 16 ** * x 4 r n 1. 00 0 -0 .0 62 -0 .0 83 -0 .1 49 0. 14 1 -0 .0 44 r s 1. 00 0 -0 .3 86 ** * 0. 02 5 -0 .1 94 * 0. 15 8 -0 .2 63 ** * x 5 r n 1. 00 0 0. 11 8 0. 25 8* ** 0. 01 7* 0. 40 9* ** r s 1. 00 0 0. 08 9 0. 16 5* -0 .2 82 * 0. 27 2* ** x 6 r n 1. 00 0 0. 65 1* ** -0 .4 26 ** 0. 14 7 r s 1. 00 0 0. 52 7* ** -0 .4 81 ** 0. 14 1 x 7 r n 1. 00 0 -0 .5 07 ** 0. 13 8 r s 1. 00 0 -0 .5 92 ** 0. 39 2* ** x 8 r n 1. 00 0 0. 53 3* ** r s 1. 00 0 0. 03 6 x 9 r n 1. 00 0 r s 1. 00 0 * si gn if ic an ce @ 0 .5 ( r> 0. 16 ), * * si gn if ic an ce @ 0 .0 1 (r >0 .2 09 ), * ** s ig ni fi ca nc e @ 0 .0 05 ( r> 0. 22 8) , ** * si gn if ic an ce @ 0 .0 01 ( r> 0. 26 6) ; r n: c or re la tio n fo r no rm al m oi st ur e pl an ts ; r s : c or re la tio n fo r m oi st ur e st re ss ed p la nt s. x 1 p la nt h ei gh t @ 9 0 d at ( cm ), x 2 t ot al p la nt l en gt h @ 9 0d at ( cm ), x 3 n um be r of d ay s fo r flo w er i ni tia tio n, x 4 n um be r of p rim ar y br an ch es /p la nt s, x 5 f ru it le ng th ( cm ), x 6 f ru it ci rc um fe re nc e (c m ), x 7 a ve ra ge f ru it w ei gh t (g ), x 8 n um be r of f ru its p er p la nt , x 9 f ru it yi el d (g /p la nt ). 5 phenotypic trait association studies in brinjal upon drought stress and moisture stress condition); (b) 50 eggplant genotypes with three replications. moisture stress was induced for about 15 days during two critical stages of eggplant i.e., flower initiation and fruit initiation stage. furthermore, drought level was monitored by tensiometer r egula ted a t 85 centiba r s. upon experimentation, traits like number of days taken for flower initiation, plant height, total plant length, number of primary branches per plants, fruit length, fruit circumference, average fruit weight, number of fruits per plant, fruit yield per plant were recorded. phenotypic correlation coefficient was done for moisture stress (rs) and normal moisture condition (rn) with the help of windowstat v.7.2. the phenotypic correlation coefficient was calculated by using mean data (fig. 1) obtained from fifty eggplant genotypes after analyzing for variation. significant variation was observed for all the eight traits except for the number of days for flower initiation. plant yield is a complex trait and direct selection for this character based on genetic estimates alone is not enough. fruit yield is dependent on various other indirect component traits like plant height, number of branches, fruit length, fruit circumference, average fruit weight, etc. an acquaintance on the relationship between these traits helps in attaining the improved yield. a phenotypic correlation coefficient is an important appliance for the breeder which helps in selection of genotype for a complex trait through the selection of simpler traits. in this aspect, several studies reported significant relationships among the different pairs of the assorted characters of eggplant (abd-el-hadi et al., 2004, melad et al., 2005). the phenotypic correlation of coefficient for both normal moisture (rn) and moisture stress condition (rs) has been presented in table 2. fruit yield per plant in normal moisture has recorded a significant association with four traits viz., negative association with plant height at harvesting stage (rn= -0.372), total plant length at harvesting stage (rn= 0.318) and positive association with fruit length (rn= 0.409) and number of fruits per plant (rn= 0.533). whereas, in case of moisture stress condition, six characters viz., negative association with plant height at harvesting stage (rs=-0.294), total plant length at harvesting stage (rs= -0.412), number of days for flower initiation (rs= -0.316), number of primary branches (rs= -0.263) and positive association with fruit length (rs= 0.272) and average fruit weight (rs= 0.392) had significant correlation with fruit yield per plant. under normal moisture condition, fruit yield per plant had a non-significant association with number of days for flower initiation, number of primary branches per plants, fruit circumference and average fruit weight. wherea s, under moisture stress condition fruit circumference and number of fruits per plant are nonsignificantly associated with fruit yield per plant. under normal moisture, fruit yield per plant had significant association with plant height and total plant length at harvesting, fruit length and stage number of fruits per plant. this explains that fruit yield per plant increases upon increase in degree of the traits and these traits are having strong inherent association with fruit yield per plant. however, under moisture stress, plant height and total plant length at harvesting stage, number of days for flower initiation, number of primary branches, fruit length and average fruit weight showed significant association with fruit yield per plant. this explains that throughout moisture stress fruit yield increases upon decreased rate plant height and total plant length at harvesting stage, number of days for flower initiation and number of primary branches. whereas, fruit length and average fruit weight increased upon moisture stress condition this because of material which incurred for experimentation constitutes of maximum drought tolerant germplasm. the positive significant association between fruit length, average fruit weight and number of fruits per plant with fruit yield per plant is in conformity with the findings of kranthi and celine (2013); singh and kumar (2004); nayak and nagre (2013); akter and rahman (2019). however, the negative significant correlation between plant height and total plant length at harvesting stage, number of days for flower initiation and number of primary branches with fruit yield per plant is similar with the resulted reported by gobu (2015); dhaka and soni (2014); thirumurugan (1997), reddy (2003) and murugavel (2006). references abd-el-hadi, a.h., el-adl, a.m., el-diasty, z.m. and el-zaghauy, e.a. 2004. estimation of heterosis, inbreeding depression and genetic parameters associated with them on some economica l tr a its of eggpla nt (solanum 6 faizan et al melongena l.). zagazig j. agric. res., 31(5): 2207-2222. akter, a. and rahman, h. 2019. genetic diversity studies of eggplant (solanum melongena l.) genotypes. res. & reviews: j., 8(1): 42-57. dhaka, s.k. and soni, a.k. 2014. genotypic and phenotypic cor r ela tion study in br inja l genotypes. ann. plant soil res., 16(1): 53-56. fa iza n, m. , har ish ba bu, b.n. , fakrudin, b., lakshmana, d. and rakshith, m. 2021a. in silico identification and annotation of drought responsive candidate genes in solanaceous plants. international journal of creative research thoughts. 9(1):2320-2882. faizan, m., harish babu, b.n., lakshmana, d., ga na pa thi, m. and rakshith, m. 2021b. physiological and root growth response of eggplant genotypes upon drought stress and assessment of genetic parameters at different developmental stage. int. j. eco. environ. sci., 3(4):22-33. faizan, m., harish babu, b.n., lakshmana, d., ganapathi, m. and rakshith, m. 2021c. investigation on response of growth and yield characters of eggplant over moistures stress and dissection of genetic parameters. int. j. chem. stu., 9(5): 08-14. gobu, r. 2015. studies on genetic variability in eggplant (solanum melongena l.) genotypes for drought tolerance and yield, m. sc., thesis, university of agricultural and horticultural sciences, shivamogga. kranthi, r.g. and celine, v.a. 2013. correlation and path analysis studies in round fruited brinjal. veg. sci., 40(1): 87-89. melad, h.z., saleeb, f.s. and salama, g.m. 2005. combining ability and correlation between yield a nd differ ent cha r a cter s in eggpla nt for producing high quality of local hybrids. j. agric. sci., 30(1): 513-532. murugavel, m. 2006. studies on genetic divergence in eggplant (solanum melongena l.) m.sc. (ag.) thesis, annamalai univ., annamalai nagar, india. nayak, b.r. and nagre, p.k. 2013. genetic variability and correlation studies in brinjal (solanum melongena l.). int. j. appl. biol. pharma. tech., 4(4): 211-215. reddy, n.g. 2003. studies on genetic variability and corr elation in segrega ting gener ations of eggplant (solanum melongena l.). m.sc. (ag.) thesis, annamalai univ., annamalai nagar. singh, o. and kumar, j. 2004. correlation and path analysis in brinjal (solanum melongena l.). veg. sci., 31(2): 161-163. thirumurugan, t. 1997. studies on genetic divergence in eggplant (solanum melongenal.). m.sc. (ag.) thesis, annamalai univ., annamalai nagar. rose is the most popular garden plant and cutflower in the world. due to its importance, rose breeding and improvement programmes have received great attention throughout the world. wild species have always played greater role in present day roses in many ways. therefore, there is a great deal of interest in studying variability existing among various species, their characterization and adaptability for effective use in improvement programmes. rosa species grow wild in several regions of the world and most are of ornamental value only. temperate climate generally encourages growth and fruiting in rosa species. majority of the species are found in the wild in china, myanmar (burma), himalayan region, central europe and north east asia. the species gradually spread from the northern hemisphere from alaska and siberia, south to mexico, india, the philippines and ethiopia. rose hips are the enlarged floral cups (receptacles) which surround numerous small, hard dry fruits (achenes) commonly called seeds. rose hips are bright orange and oval and become fleshy, but are not true fruits. apart from having ornamental value, rose hips have attained great importance for their various economic uses. rose hip dry pulp is exported mainly to european countries. the dry pulp is used in herbal teas and marmalades and as a pigment for laying hens and broiler chickens (burgos, 1976; cortés, 1976; larraín, 1978). it variability in hip characters in rosa species t. janakiram and thomas debner1 division of ornamental crops indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore-560089, india e-mail: tolety07@gmail.com abstract the reddish ‘fruit’ of rose is commonly known as its hip. rose hips are formed when the tip of a rose stem swells up after a flower has faded. species roses, shrub roses, ramblers and other roses that are “close to nature” (r. gallica, r. rugosa) are the most likely to have noticeable hips. twenty three rose species were evaluated for hip characters. rose hips were very variable among the species. average hip length and diameter varies between 0.5 to 2.8 cm and 0.1 to 2.7 cm, respectively. hip shape viz., sub-globose, urn-shaped, ellipsoid and spindle-shaped were observed among the species. the range for number of hips was found to be 5 to 45 per cluster. rosa rugosa recorded larger hip size. majority of the species showed orange and deep red hip color. r. moyesii (blue-green foliage and bright to orange hips), r. glauca (bright scarlet hips), r. pimpinellifolia (tiny, red-black hips) with attractive hips having ornamental value can be utilized in landscaping and for garden purposes. keywords: rosa species, hips, ornamental, variability 1 department head, institute of plant genetics-molecular plant breeding herrenhacusen strz hannover, germany contains large amounts of vitamin c (1000-2000 mg/100g), riboflavin, pectin, nicotinic acid and malic acid (israel and benado, 1977). the objective of this study was to evaluate differences in hip characteristics, viz., size, colour and shape of rose hips under ahrenburg, germany conditions. sixty rosa species are maintained at the institute for ornamental plant breeding, ahrensburg, germany. twenty three hips from each of the species r. acicularis, r. alba, r. arvensis, r. glutinosa, r. helenae, r. macrantha, r. macrophylla, r. majalis, r. mollis, r. moyesii, r. multiflora, r. nitida, r. nutkana, r. pendula r. pimpinellifolia, r. roxburghii, r. rubinigosa, r. rubrifolia, r. rubus, r. rugosa, r. rugosa alba, r. tomentosa and r. wichuriana were collected and observations were made on hip characters viz., size, number, color and shape according to the rose description guide. a great variation is observed in size, shape and colour amongst rose hips (table 1 and plate 1). rose hips were highly variable among species. average hip length and diameter varied between 0.5 to 2.8 cm and 0.1 to 2.7 cm, respectively. rosa pimpinellifolium had tiny hips. the range for number of hips was found to be 5 to 45 per cluster. rosa rugosa recorded larger hip size. hip shape viz., subglobose, urn-shaped, ellipsoid and spindle were observed short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 169-171, 2008 170 among the species. majority of the species showed orange and deep red hip color. similarly, in chile, variability for hip size, pulp thickness and ascorbic acid was observed among rose hips collected and evaluated from 60 different locations. morphological differences are evident in the wild material, indicating that more than one species (and probably several sub species and ecotypes) have developed table 1. qualitative and quantitative characters in hips rosa species species shape of hip length of hip diameter of hip color of hip vestiture of hip number of (cm) (cm) achenes r. glutinosa spindle 1.3 0.7 orange red hispid 18 r. macrophylla oblong 2.1 1.0 orange red hispid 6 r. micrantha spindle 2.0 1.0 orange hispid 5 r. multiflora round 0.7 0.5 orange red glabrous 6 r. nitida globose 1.4 0.9 orange red glabrous 10 r. rubinigosa oblong 1.4 0.1 orange red glabrous 18 r. rubrifolia round 1.4 1.1 orange red hispid 16 r. rugosa globose 2.8 2.7 orange red glabrous 10 r. tomentosa round 1.1 0.9 orange red glabrous 6 r. wichuriana round 0.8 0.8 orange red glabrous 10 r. acicularis urn 1.0 0.5 dark red glabrous 15 r. alba oval 0.8 0.5 red glabrous 16 r. arvensis oval 0.5 0.3 red glabrous 18 r. helenae oval 0.7 0.6 orange red hispid 22 r. majalis round 1.4 1.3 scarlet glabrous 24 r. mollis spindle 1.5 1.2 red glabrous 20 r. moyesii urn 2.3 2.0 orange red glabrous 40 r. nutkana round 1.4 1.3 red hispid 8 r. pendula pear 2.5 2.0 red glabrous 20 r. pimpinellifolia oval 0.5 0.3 red black glabrous 45 r. rubus oval 0.5 0.4 orange red glabrous 19 r. roxburghii round 0.8 0.7 red hispid 20 se 0.14 0.13 2.26 s.d (s) 0.67 0.63 10.60 cv 51.14 66.31 64.24 since introduction (joublan et al, 1996). rosa moyesii (blue-green foliage and bright to orange hips), rosa glauca (bright scarlet hips), r. pimpinellifolia (tiny, red-black hips) with attractive hips having ornamental value can be utilized in landscaping and for garden purposes. janakiram and debner j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 169-171, 2008 plate 1. variability for hip characters in rosa species 171 (ms received 15 february 2008, revised 11 august 2008) acknowledgement the senior author is thankful to indian national science academy, new delhi, india, and deutsche forshungs gemeinschaft, germany for providing visiting scientist fellowship. references burgos, g.a. 1976. uso de la rosa mosqueta (rosa aff. rubiginosa l.) como pigmentante en raciones para ponedoras en jaula. tesis ing. agr. univ. concepción cortés, j.c. 1976. uso de la rosa mosqueta (rosa aff. rubiginosa l.) como pigmentante en raciones para broilers. tesis ing. agr. univ. concepción israel, j.m. and benado, t.s. 1977. aspectos preliminares del aprovechamiento de la rosa mosqueta (fructus cynosbati) en chile. alimentos, 2: 5-8 joublan, j.p., berti, m., serri, h., wilckens, r., hevia, and figueroa. i. 1996. wild rose germplasm evaluation in chile. p. 584-588. in: j. janick (ed.), progress in new crops. ashs press, arlington, va larraín, j.f.j. 1978. uso de la cascarilla de mosqueta rosa aff. rubiginosa como fuente pigmentante en raciones para ponedoras en jaulas. tesis ing. agr. univ. concepción variability in hip characters in rosa species j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 169-171, 2008 introduction rajasthan is a leading producer of seed spices, mainly coriander, and contributes 62% of india’s total production. it is grown mainly in the south and south-eastern plains of rajasthan comprising kota, bundi, baran and jhalawar districts, and accounts for the entire production in rajasthan. however, productivity of coriander is low compared to its potential yield. farmers face numerous problems in an effort to realize the full potential of coriander production. lack of suitable high-yielding varieties and poor knowledge of improved production technologies are ascribed as major reasons for this. productivity of coriander per unit area or time can be increased by adopting feasible, scientific and sustainable management practices by selecting a suitable variety. with this in view, frontline demonstrations were held at farmers’ fields, in a systematic manner, to showcase the worth of high-yielding varieties, to convince them about the potential of improved production technologies for enhanced productivity in coriander. material and methods the study was conducted in bundi district of rajasthan during 2008-09 to 2011-12. during this period, a total of 88 frontline demonstrations on coriander variety rcr 436 were conducted at the farmers’ fields in the service area of our kvk to convince farmers about the potential of this improved variety. all the demonstrations were conducted on mediumyield and economic viability of coriander under frontline demonstration in bundi district of rajasthan b.l. dhaka, m.k. poonia1, b.s. meena1 and r.k. bairwa krishi vigyan kendra post box no. 4, bundi-323 001, india e-mail: maheshkpoonia@gmail.com abstract a study was conducted in bundi district of rajasthan to analyze yield and economics of coriander under frontline demonstration. results of the study revealed that yields in coriander were substantially higher over the local check (control), fetching the participating farmers a higher price for their produce. a majority of the respondent farmers expressed high (44.32%) to very high (37.50%) level of satisfaction with extension services and performance of the technology under the demonstration. key words: coriander, farmer, frontline demonstration, yield black soils, under an area of 0.5 ha each. the participating farmers were trained in all the aspects of coriander production management. yield data was collected from all the 88 participating farmers, and economic viability calculation was based on the prevalent market price of the produce and inputs. technology gap, extension gap and technology index were calculated using the following formulae (samui et al, 2000): technology gap = potential yield – demonstration yield extension gap = demonstration yield – farmers’ yield technology index = potential yield – demonstration yield/potential yield ×100 further, satisfaction level of the respondent farmers was measured based on various dimensions like training of the participating farmers, timeliness of the services, supply of the inputs, solving field problems, and extending advisory services, fairness of the scientists, performance of the variety demonstrated and, overall impact of the flds. satisfaction level of the farmers was measured using an index prepared by kumaran and vijayaragavan (2005), upon necessary modification. a total of 15 statements were scored on a five-point continuum, viz., strongly agree (5), agree (4), undecided (3), disagree (2) and strongly disagree (1). possible highest score obtainable was 75, and the lowest 15. the respondents selected were interviewed personally 1krishi vigyana kendra, borkhera, kota 324 001, rajasthan, india j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):226-228, 2015 227 yield and economic viability of coriander in rajasthan on a pre-tested and well-structured interview schedule. responses were summed up to get the score on satisfaction. satisfaction index was calculated as follows: individual score of the farmer farmer’s satisfaction index = ×100 maximum score the respondents were classified into five categories, from very-low to very-high, by dividing the score into five classes of equal intervals. results and discussion a comparison of the productivity level between frontline demonstrations and local checks is shown in table 1. it is evident from results that under the demonstration plot, performance of coriander (yield) was substantially higher than that in the local check in all the years of study (2008-09 to 2011-12). yield in coriander under demonstration ranged from 1575-1800kg/ha, compared to the local checks (1217-1628kg/ha) during the period under study. technological intervention, thus, enhanced yield to a tune of 31.88%, 32.35%, 12.50% and 10.20%, respectively, over the local check. fluctuations in yield observed over the years were mainly on account of variation in soil moisture availability, rainfall, soil type and pest attack, besides a change in the location of the trials each year. similar enhancement in yield in different crops under frontline demonstrations was documented by mishra et al (2009), dhaka et al (2010), and kumar et al (2010). yield in frontline demonstrations and the potential yield of the crop was compared for estimating yield gaps. these gaps were further categorized as technology and extension gaps. technology gap indicates a gap in demonstration-yield over the potential yield, and this was 395, 425, 200 and 206kg ha-1 during 2008-09, 2009-10, 201011 and 2011-12, respectively (table 2). the technology gap observed may be attributed to dissimilarities in soil fertility, salinity, and to an erratic rainfall and other vagaries of weather in the demonstration area. hence, to narrow down the gap between the two types of yield in different varieties, location-specific recommendations may become necessary. extension gap ranged from 166 to 388kg ha-1 during the period under study (table 2). a wide extension gap emphasizes the need to educate farmers using various means to facilitate adoption of improved production technologies, to reverse this trend. greater use of the latest, improved production technologies applied to high-yielding varieties can subsequently bridge this extension gap between demonstration yield and potential yield. new technologies, may, eventually lead farmers into discontinuing obsolete varieties. technology index refers to the feasibility of a variety at farmers’ field. a lower value for technology index indicates greater feasibility. table 2 reveals that technology index values obtained were 19.75, 21.25, 10.00 and 10.30 during 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12, respectively. this finding corroborates results of hiremath and nagaraju (2009) and dhaka et al (2010). the economics of growing coriander under frontline demonstrations were estimated and results are presented in table 3. economic analysis of yield performance revealed that besides higher production, participating farmers in fld realized a higher price of their produce compared to that in the control (local checks) during the period under study. this was so because of a better quality of the produce. frontline demonstrations recorded higher gross returns (rs. 61793, 54968, 73800 and 80730 ha-1), and net returns (rs. 45743, 38218, 56000 and 61630 ha-1), with higher benefit:cost ratio (2.85, 2.28, 3.15 and 3.23) compared to the local checks in our study, respectively. these results are in line with findings of gurumukhi and mishra (2003), sawardekar et al (2003), and hiremath et al (2007). farmers’ satisfaction satisfaction level of the respondent farmers with the extension services and performance of frontline demonstrations was measured, and results are presented in table 2. yield gap and technology index in frontline demonstration year no. of technology extension technology flds gap gap index (kg ha-1) (kg ha-1) (%) 2008-09 10 395 388 19.75 2009-10 27 425 385 21.25 2010-11 36 200 200 10.00 2011-12 15 206 166 10.30 fld: frontline demonstrations table 1. productivity of coriander under frontline demonstration year no. of yield (kg ha-1) additional % flds fld local yield over increase check local check over local (kg ha-1) check 2008-09 10 1605 1217 388 31.88 2009-10 27 1575 1190 385 32.35 2010-11 36 1800 1600 200 12.50 2011-12 15 1794 1628 166 10.20 fld: frontline demonstrations j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):226-228, 2015 228 table 4. a majority of the respondents expressed high (44.32 %) to very high (37.50 %) level of satisfaction at the extension services offered and performance of the technology under demonstration; whereas, a meagre (18.18) per cent of respondents expressed a medium level of satisfaction. highto very-high level of satisfaction at the services rendered, linkage with farmers and technologies demonstrated, indicated a stronger conviction, and, physical and mental involvement in frontline demonstration. this, in turn, could lead to higher adoption of the technologies, which would prove the relevance of frontline demonstrations. it is concluded that frontline demonstration of improved technology reduces technology gap to a considerable extent, thus leading to increased productivity of coriander in bundi district of rajasthan. this also improved linkages between the farmers and scientists, and built confidence for adoption of the improved technology. productivity enhancement under fld over farmers’ practices of coriander cultivation created a greater awareness, and motivated other farmers not growing coriander to adopt improved technologies in this spice crop. references dhaka, b.l., meena, b.s. and suwalka, r.l. 2010. popularization of improved maize production table 4. extent of farmers’ satisfaction with extension services (n=88) satisfaction level class number per cent very low 15-30 0 0.00 low 16-30 0 0.00 medium 31-45 16 18.18 high 46-60 39 44.32 very high 61-75 33 37.50 table 3. economics of frontline demonstration variable demonstration local check additional gain in demonstration over local check 08-09 09-10 10-11 11-12 08-09 09-10 10-11 11-12 08-09 09-10 10-11 11-12 cost of cultivation (rs ha-1) 16050 16750 17800 19100 14500 15100 16300 17600 1550 1650 1500 1800 sale price (rs. q-1) 3850 3490 4100 4500 3610 3140 3950 4370 240 350 150 130 gross returns (rs. ha-1) 61793 54968 73800 80730 43934 37366 63200 71144 17859 17602 10600 9586 net returns (rs. ha-1) 45743 38218 56000 61630 29434 22266 46900 53544 16309 15952 9100 7786 benefit:cost ratio 2.85 2.28 3.15 3.23 2.03 1.47 2.88 3.04 10.52* 9.67* 6.07* 4.33* *incremental benefit:cost ratio technology through frontline demonstrations in southeastern rajasthan. j. agri. sci., 1:39-42 gurumukhi, d.r. and mishra, s. 2003. frontline demonstration a success story. agri. extn. rev., 15:22-23 hiremath, s.m. and nagaraju, m.v. 2009. evaluation of frontline demonstration trials on onion in haveri district of karnataka. karnataka j. agril. sci., 22:10921093 hiremath, s.m., nagaraju, m.v. and shashidhar, k.k. 2007. impact of frontline demonstrations on onion productivity in farmers’ field. in: national seminar on appropriate extension strategies for management of rural resources, university of agricultural sciences, dharwad, kranataka, india, december 18-20, 2007, p. 100 kumar, a., kumar, r., yadav, v.p.s. and kumar, r. 2010. impact assessment of frontline demonstrations of bajra in haryana state. indian res. j. extn. edn., 10:105-108 kumaran, m. and vijayaragavan, k. 2005. farmers’ satisfaction of agricultural extension services in an irrigation command area. indian j. extn. edn., 41:812 mishra, d.k., paliwal, d.k., tailor, r.s. and deshwal, a.k. 2009. impact of frontline demonstrations on yield enhancement of potato. indian res. j. extn. edn., 9:26-28 samui, s.k., maitra, s., roy, d.k., mondal, a.k. and saha, d. 2000. evaluation of frontline demonstration on groundnut (arachis hypogea l.) in sundarbans. j. indian soc. coastal agril. res., 18:180-183 sawardekar, s.v., dhane, s.s. and jadhav, b.b. 2003. frontline demonstration performance of salt-tolerant rice varieties in coastal saline soils. irrn, 28:73-74 (ms received 14 august 2013, revised 16 may 2015, accepted 05 june 2015) dhaka et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):226-228, 2015 33 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 33-41, 2017 standardisation of agro-techniques for flower quality parameters in ornamental sunflower (helianthus annus l.) kirtimala b. naik, s. k. nataraj , d. p. kumar, y. g. shadakshari, g. b. seetharamu, r. venugopalan and k.v. jayaprasad college of horticulture, gkvk, campus, bengaluru, uhs, bagalkot e-mail: kirtiflori@gmail.com abstract an experiment was carried out on standardisation of agro-techniques for flower quality parameters in ornamental sunflower during 2012-13 at gkvk, campus, college of horticulture, university of horticultural sciences, bagalkot. in three way interaction effect longest stalk length (36.33) was in the treatment combination of mulching i.e m1 (with mulch) with a spacing of s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) at the fertilizer rate f1 (40:60:40 npk kg ha-1). stalk girth was maximum with mulching treatment of m1 (with mulch) at a spacing of s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) with the fertilizer rate of f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha -1) and without mulch at the spacing of s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) with fertilizer rate of f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha 1) recording 0.49 and 0.46 cm respectively. mulching i.e m1 (with mulch) at spacing s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) with fertilizer rate if f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha -1) produced plants with largest flower head diameter (13.24 cm). the treatment combinations of m1 (with mulch) + s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) + f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha -1) 4.65 cm recorded broadest flower disc diameter. considering the results ornamental sunflower can be grown best without mulching, at a spacing of 60 x 30 cm or 60 x 40 cm with optimum to higher fertilizer dose to give best flower quality in ornamental sunflower. key words: ornamental sunflower, mulching, spacing, fertilizers, quality introduction sunflower (helianthus annuus l.) is native to north america and belongs to the family asteraceae. the term helianthus comes from the greek word ‘helios’ meaning sun and ‘anthos’ meaning flower. initially the americans used sunflower for food and medicinal purposes. in later years, sunflower became a very important oil seed crop around the world due to the industrial value of its oil. in the early ninetees, sunflower regained popularity as a cut flower crop. historically sunflower was first used as a garden plant, then as a flowering pot plant. this crop is very easy to grow and has wide adaptability. in india the area under cultivation of sunflower as garden crop or cut flower is negligible, as it is often grown for oil extraction purpose in india. in any crop, genotypes, soil, cultural practices and their interactions exert profound influence on productivity and quality of crops. however, it is not possible to manipulate the environment for better crop growth, but one can manipulate the micro climate of the field to certain extent by adopting suitable cultural practices. in the present study an attempt was made to study the impact of agrotechniques on quality parameters in ornamental sunflower. crop production and the resultant yield is a complex phenomenon interacted by several fa ctors. the yield can be manipulated by taking advantage of their combined actions. hence three factors viz., plastic mulching, spacing and fertilizer levels were used in the present experiment. material and methods an ex p er iment wa s c a r r ie d ou t on standardisation of agro-techniques for flower quality parameters in ornamental sunflower during 201213 at gkvk, campus, college of horticulture, university of horticultural sciences, bagalkot. the promising genotype m-17r was used to standardize original research paper 34 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 33-41, 2017 naik et al agro-techniques for flower yield and post harvest quality. split split plot design was followed by adopting fisher ’s method of analysis of variance technique as given by panse and sukhatamane (2002) by using sas package v9-3 available at statistical cell, iihr, bengaluru. the experiment c ons is t ed of thr ee r ep lica t ions a nd eighteen trea tments. the exper iment consisted of main factor, sub factor and sub sub factor. main factor: mulching 1) plastic mulch 50 (µ) (m1) 2) without mulch (m2) sub factor: spacing (cm) 1) 60 cm x 40 cm (s1) 2) 60 cm x 30 cm (s2) 3) 60 cm x 20 cm (s3) sub-sub factor: fertilizers (npk kg/ha) 1) 40:60:40 kg/ha (f1) 2) 60:75:60 kg/ha (f2) 3) 80:90:80 kg/ha (f3) the experiment was laid out with the above stated factors into plots measuring 6.72 m2 each with 4 rows in each plot of 2.8 meter length and 2.4 meter width with 37.33 plants in each plot. minimum distance of 60 cm was maintained between the plots. there were totally 54 plots. basal dose of 50% nitrogen in the form of urea + full dose of phosphorous (ssp) & pota ssium (mop) wer e applied at the time of sowing and top dressing of 50% nitrogen was taken up at 30-35 days after sowing. after sowing, plastic mulch (25 µ) was applied to the plots whereever mulching treatment was applicable. irrigation was provided 2 days before sowing and immediately after sowing and thereafter at 8-10 days interval and 45 days after sowing earthing-up was done. results and discussion individual effect of mulching, spacing and fertilizer levels on quality parameters mulching treatment m1 (with mulch) and m2 (without mulch) had no significant effect on flower stalk length, flower stalk diameter, number of petals, disc diameter. but m1 (with mulch) plants produced largest flower head diameter (11.55 cm) while m2 (without mulch) plants produced smallest flower head diameter (11.17 cm) (table 1).these results are in conformity with yathindra (2009) in china aster. wider spacing s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) produced highest stalk length (32.77 cm) and stalk girth (0.42 cm). the results are in conformity with sloan et al. (2004) in ornamental sunflower variety ‘sunbright supreme’. spacing of the plants at s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) followed by s3 (60 cm x 20 cm) increased the f lower hea d dia met er 1 2 . 0 9 a nd 11 . 1 8 c m, respectively. while, s2 (60 cm x 30 cm) spaced plants induced lowest flower head diameter (10.81 cm). widest flower disc was recorded in plants spa ced a t wider spa cing s 1 (60 cm x 40 cm) recording 4.29 cm. the higher flower diameter in plants grown at wider spacing might be due to the utilization of more nutrients by plants. similar results were reported by deepa (2007) and munikrisnappa (2011) in china aster (table 1). fertilizer application with f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha-1) and f2 (60:75:60 npk kg ha -1) produced longest flower stalk length (31.4 and 31.09 cm, respectively). application of f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha -1) followed by f2 (60:75:60 npk kg ha -1) increased the flower stalk girth (0.42 and 0.40 cm respectively. it may be due to the utilization of higher amount of nutrients which increases the stalk length and diameter of the flower stalk. similar results were obtained by gireesh (2004) and munikrisnappa (2011) in china aster. the three fertilizer levels registered no significant difference with respect to number of ray florets per flower. application of plants with higher level of fertilizers f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha-1) followed by optimum level of fertilizers f2 (60:75:60 npk kg ha -1) produced maximum flower head diameter (11.62 and 11.32 cm, respectively) while minimum flower head diameter (11.14 cm) was registered with f1 (40:60:40 npk kg ha -1) level of fertilizers. application of higher level of fertilizers f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha-1) and optimum level f2 (60:75:60 npk kg ha-1) produced maximum flower disc diameter (4.28 and 4.16 cm, respectively). similar results were reported by sowmyamala (2007) in gaillardia and munikrishnappa (2011) in china aster. two way interaction effect of mulching, spacing and fertilizers on quality parameters mulching at wider spacing s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) followed by m2 (without mulch) plants at s1 (60 cm x 40 cm), m2 (without mulch) plants at s3 (60 cm x 20 cm) and m2 (without mulch) plants at s2 (60 cm x 30 cm) induced longest flower stalk length (34.67, 30.87, 35 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 33-41, 2017 agro techniques for flower quality in ornamental sunflower ta bl e 1. in di vi du al e ff ec t o f m ul ch in g, sp ac in g an d fe rt ili ze r l ev el s o n flo w er q ua lit y pa ra m et er s. 36 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 33-41, 2017 naik et al 30.49 and 29.38 cm respectively). the combination of m1 (with mulch) at wider spacing s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) induced maximum stalk girth (0.45 cm). most of the treatment combina tions induced non-significant difference with respect to increased stalk girth. it is due to response of plant density levels to the behaviour of yield and growth characters. similar results were observed by venugopal (1991) in everlasting flower and munikrishnappa (2011) in china aster with different spacing levels (table 2). maximum number of ray florets per flower, was registered with m2 (without mulch) at s2 (60 cm x 30 cm) and s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) spacing levels (34.91 and 34.76 ray florets per flower, respectively and m2 (without mulch) s3 (60 cm x 20 cm) with (33.87) ray florets per flower, respectively. spacing without mulch gave maximum number of ray florets per flower which is an important character in ornamental cut flowers. generally number of petals is a genetic character and mulching or spacing plays a very little role to increase or decrease the character. m1 (with mulch) plants at all the three spacing levels registered highest flower disc diameter (4.45, 4.24 and 4.20 cm, respectively). this might be because sunflower is basically a drought tolerant crop, and performs better when it is not stressed for water. if all the resources needed for optimum growth and flowering parameters are supplied adequately there is no need of additional treatments in this crop (marc and palmer, 1976). while in mulching with fertilizer levels, m2 (without mulch) with f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha -1) and f2 (60:75:60 npk kg ha -1) increased stalk length of 32.64 and 31.36 cm respectively and m1 (with mulch) f2 (60:75:60 npk kg ha -1) 30.82 cm (table 3). the increase in stalk length may be due to adequate supply of nutrients and water to the crop. similar results were also recorded by gavhane et al. (2004) in marigold. overall treatment combinations of mulching and fertilizers levels recorded non significant influence on the number of ray florets per flower. flower head diameter was highest in m1 (with mulch) plants applied with f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha -1) (12.25 cm). the combination of m1 (with mulch) f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha-1) and m2 (without mulch) f2 (60:75:60 npk kg ha 1) produced maximum flower disc diameter (4.44 and 4.23 cm, respectively). the results are in conformity with gavhane et al. (2004) in marigold and yathindra (2009) in china aster (table 3). wider spaced plants at s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) with f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha -1), f1 (40:60:40 npk kg ha -1) and f2 (60:75:60 npk kg ha -1) levels of fertilizers produced plants with increased flower stalk length (34.93, 31.87 and 31.50 cm, respectively (table 4). similar results were also reported by karuppaiah and krishna (2005) in marigold. spacing s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) with f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha -1) produced maximum flower stalk girth 0.48 cm. the treatment combinations of spacing and fertilizers levels showed non significant influence on the number of ray florets per flower. the wider spacing s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) supplied with f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha-1) increased the flower head diameter (12.52 cm). while s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha -1) produced flower s with maximum disc diameter (4.60 cm). these results are in conformity with the findings of rangawala (1987) in tuberose. three way interaction effect of mulching, spacing and fertilizers on quality parameters longest stalk length (36.33) was recorded in the treatment combination m1 (with mulch) plants at wider spacing s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) with lower level of fertilizer f1 (40:60:40 npk kg ha -1). stalk girth was maximum with m1 (with mulch) + s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) + f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha -1) and m2 (without mulch) + s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) + f3 (80:90:80 n p k k g ha -1) r ec or ding 0 . 4 9 a nd 0 . 4 6 c m, respectively (table 5) sloan et al. (2004 reported that spacing in ornamental sunflower depends on the desired plant population, length and thickness of the stem and the size of the inflorescence. the most popular spacing range is 15-30 cm in between the plants and 45-91 cm between rows. similar results were also reported by hemalatha (2010) in gomphrena globosa. the number of ray florets per flower was not significantly influenced by the treatment combination of mulching, spacing and fertilizer levels. the treatment combination m1 (with mulch) s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) with f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha-1) produced plants with largest flower head diameter (13.24 cm). the treatment combinations of m1 (with mulch) + s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) + f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha-1) 4.65 cm recorded broadest flower disc diameter which was at par with m 2 (without mulch) + s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) + f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha-1), m1 (with mulch) + s3 (60 cm x 20 37 agro techniques for flower quality in ornamental sunflower j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 33-41, 2017 ta bl e 2. e ff ec t o f d iff er en t l ev el s o f m ul ch in g w ith sp ac in g le ve ls o n flo w er q ua lit y pa ra m et er s. ta bl e 3. e ff ec t o f d iff er en t l ev el s o f m ul ch in g w ith fe rt ili ze r l ev el s o n flo w er q ua lit y pa ra m et er s. 38 ta bl e 4. e ff ec t o f d iff er en t l ev el s o f s pa ci ng w ith fe rt ili ze r le ve ls o n flo w er q ua lit y pa ra m et er s. naik et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 33-41, 2017 39 agro techniques for flower quality in ornamental sunflower j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 33-41, 2017 ta bl e 5. in te ra ct io n ef fe ct o f d iff er en t l ev el s o f m ul ch in g x sp ac in g x fe rt ili ze r le ve ls o n flo w er q ua lit y pa ra m et er s. 40 naik et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 33-41, 2017 cm) + f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha -1), m1 (with mulch) + s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) + f1 (40:60:40 npk kg ha -1) and m2 (without mulch) + s2 (60 cm x 30 cm) + f1 (40:60:40 npk kg ha-1) registering 4.54, 4.53, 4.43 and 4.43 cm, respectively. this may be attributed to the wider spacing with or without mulching which may have provided with optimum space for growth and development of the flowers. the results are in c onfor mit y wit h shekha wa t e t al . ( 2 00 8 ) in sunflower. conclusion mulching at wider spacing s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) produced longest flower stalk length. m1(with mulch) at wider spacing s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) induced maximum stalk girth. maximum number of ray florets per flower, was with m2 (without mulch) at s2 (60 cm x 30 cm) and s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) spacing levels. mulching with fertilizer levels, m2 (without mulch) with f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha -1) and f2 (60:75:60 npk kg ha -1) increased stalk length. flower head diameter was highest in m 1 (with mulch) plants applied with f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha 1) (12.25 cm). the combination of m1 (with mulch) f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha -1) and m2 (without mulch) f2 (60:75:60 npk kg ha -1) produced maximum flower disc diameter. while the three way interaction effect of mulc hing, s p a c ing a nd fer tiliz er s on qua lit y pa r ameter s r evealed longest sta lk length with treatment combination m1 (with mulch) plants at wider spacing s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) with lower level of fertilizer f1 (40:60:40 npk kg ha -1). stalk girth was maximum with mulch) at s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) + f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha -1) and m2 (without mulch) + s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) + f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha -1). the treatment combination m1 (with mulch) s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) with f 3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha -1) produced plants with largest flower head diameter (13.24 cm). the treatment combinations of m1 (with mulch) + s1 (60 cm x 40 cm) + f3 (80:90:80 npk kg ha-1) 4.65 cm recorded broadest flower disc diameter. 41 references deepa, s., 2007, studies on the influence of plant density and nutrition on growth, seed yield, quality and storability of china aster cv. poornima (callistephus chinensis (l) nees.), m.sc. thesis, univ. agri. sci. bengaluru. gavhane, p. b., kore, v. n., dixit, a. j. and gondhali, b. v., 2004, effect of graded doses of fertilizers and polythene mulches on growth, flower quality and yield of marigold (tagetes erecta l.) cv. pusa narangi gainda. the ori. j. of hort., 32(1): 35-37. gireesh, s. r., 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on the effect of plant density and nitrogen in groth and flower production in everlasting flower (helichrysum bracteatum andr.). m.sc. thesis, univ. agric. sci. dharwad. yathindra, h. a., 2009, effect of plastic mulching and fertigation on growth, yield and flower quality of china aster (callistephus chinensis nees), ph.d. thesis, univ. agric. sci. bengaluru. agro techniques for flower quality in ornamental sunflower j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 33-41, 2017 (ms received 26 july 2016, revised 07 april 2017, accepted 30 june 2017) 00 content jh june 2017.pdf 00 sph-journal november new 12.pdf 01 sph-journal november new 01.pdf 02 sph-journal november new 04.pdf 03 sph-journal november new 05.pdf 04 sph-journal november new 07.pdf 05 sph-journal november new 09.pdf 06 sph-journal november new 10.pdf 07 sph-journal november new 11.pdf 08 sph-journal november new 13.pdf 09 sph-journal november new 03.pdf 10 sph-journal november new 06.pdf 11 sph-journal november new 08.pdf c o n t e n t s journal of horticultural sciences volume 16 issue 1 june 2021 in this issue i-ii review moringa (moringa oleifera l.): an underutilized and traditionally valued 1-13 tree holding remarkable potential jattan m., kumari n., raj kumar, kumar a., rani b., phogat d.s., kumar, s. and kumar, p. original research in papers characterization and evaluation of mountain sweet thorn 14-25 (flacourtia montana j. grah) collections tripathi p.c., ganeshan s., radhika v. and shetti d.l. optimization of methodology for the extraction of polyphenolic compounds 26-35 with antioxidant potential and á-glucosidase inhibitory activity from jamun (syzygium cumini l.) seeds arivalagan m., priyanka d.r. and rekha a. genetic variability studies in amaranthus (amaranthus spp.) 36-44 agadi a.h., kolakar s., lakshmana d., nadukeri s. and hanumanthappa m. morpho-physiological parameters associated with chlorosis resistance to 45-52 iron deficiency and their effect on yield and related attributes in potato (solanum tuberosum l.) challam c., dutt s., sharma j., raveendran m. and sudhakar d. responses of different okra (abelmoschus esculentus) cultivars to water 53-63 deficit conditions ayub q., khan s.m., hussain i., naveed k., ali s., mehmood a., khan m.j., haq n.u., shehzad q. induced variability for yield and its attributing traits in cluster bean 64-68 [cyamopsis tetragonoloba (l. ) taub] through gamma irradiation lavanya h.n., mishra s., sood m., aghora t.s., anjanappa m., rao v.k. and reddy a.b. in vitro multiplication protocol for curcuma mangga : studies on carbon, 69-76 cytokinin source and explant size waman a.a., bohra p., karthika devi r. and pixy j. effect of fungicide and essential oils amended wax coating on quality and shelf life 77-90 of sweet orange (citrus sinensis osbeck) bhandari m., bhandari n. and dhital m. post-harvest quality and quantification of betalains, phenolic compounds and 91-102 antioxidant activity in fruits of three cultivars of prickly pear (opuntia ficus-indica l. mill) gonzalez f.p.h., saucedo v.c., guerra r.d., suarez e.j., soto h.r.m. lopez j.a., garcia c.e. and hernandez r.g. soil microbial community dynamics as influenced by integrated nutrient 103-113 management practices in sweet basil (ocimum basilicum l.) cultivation baraa al-mansour and d. kalaivanan effect of spectral manipulation and seasonal variations on cut foliage production 114-120 and quality of philodendron (philodendron ‘xanadu’) sujatha a. nair, laxman r.h. and sangama short communications studies on mutagenic sensitivity of seeds of pummelo (citrus maxima merr.) 121-124 sankaran m., kalaivanan d. and sunil gowda d.c. isolation and characterization of microsatellite markers from 125-129 garcinia indica and cross species amplification ravishankar k.v., vasudeva r., hemanth b., nischita p., sthapit b.r., parthasarathy v.a. and rao v.r. 103 j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 103-113, 2021 original research paper soil microbial community dynamics as influenced by integrated nutrient management practices in sweet basil (ocimum basilicum l.) cultivation baraa al-mansour*1 and kalaivanan d.2 1ministry of agriculture, directory of agriculture and agrarian reform, lattakia, syria 2division of natural resource management, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru *corresponding author e-mail : baraaalmansour@yahoo.com. abstract an experiment was conducted to study the effect of integrated nutrient management practices on the microbial community dynamics of soils under sweet basil (ocimum basilicum l.) at icar indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru during kharif season of 2015 and 2016. there were nine treatments replicated thrice in randomized complete block design. the results indicated that integrated application of fym (10 t/ha) + 100% recommended n through fym + bio-fertilizer i.e., t2 recorded the highest population of heterotrophic free-living n2 fixers (40.66 and 63.33 cfu ×10 3/ g), phosphate solubilizing bacteria (5.6 and 6.6 cfu ×103/ g) and fungal (6.4 and 5.33 cfu ×103/ g) while t9 with application of npk (160:80:80 kg /ha) + fym (10 t/ha) recorded the highest population of actinomycetes (29.93 and 44.56 cfu ×103/ g) in soil during 2015 and 2016, respectively. application of recommended dose of fym (10 t/ha) in t7 resulted in reduction in population of heterotrophic free-living n2 fixers (26.13 and 34 cfu ×10 3/ g) and actinomycetes (20 and 30.5 cfu ×103/ g) whereas, the application of recommended dose of chemical fertilizer in t8 recorded the lowest population of phosphate solubilizing bacteria (3.9 cfu ×10 3/ g) and fungal (3.6 and 2.5 cfu ×103/ g) during 2015 and 2016, respectively. highest organic carbon (0.63 and 0.66 %) content in the post-harvest soil samples was recorded with application of npk (160:80:80 kg /ha) + fym (10 t/ha) while, the lowest organic carbon value (0.52 and 0.53%) was recorded in t8 during 2015 and 2016, respectively. application of recommended fym (10 t/ha) along with recommended npk (160:80:80 kg/ha) in t9 recorded maximum herbage yield in the main crop (41.59 and 38.31 t/ha) and ratoon (20.97 and 17.77 t/ha) during 2015 and 2016, respectively. the results obtained from this study clearly demonstrated that integrated nutrient management can maximize soil microbial community dynamics which is considered as driving force behind regulating soil processes that support sustainable sweet basil cultivation. keywords : chemical fertilizers, bio-fertilizer, farm yard manure, soil microbial community and sweet basil. introduction soil biota refers to the organisms both animals (fauna/ micr o-fauna) and plants (flora /microflora) that determines overall quality, fertility and stability of the soils. further, the process of soil formation, structural stabilization, nutrient cycling is largely regulated by these soil organisms. hence, they are most important in achieving the soil sustainability. the fact is that soil contains a vast number and wide range of organisms which are important in the myriad of biochemical reactions and intricate biological processes that take place within the soil (bajracharya, 2011). koopmans and smeding (2008) state that learning how to manage beneficial soil biological processes as the key step towards developing sustainable agricultural systems. maintenance of soil fertility reflects positively on the crop yield (mbonigaba, 2007). this can be achieved by practicing integrated nutrient management including application of organic manures that results in a general improvement in the soil organic matter (som) which r epr esents the ma in r eser voir of ener gy for this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. 104 al-mansour and kalaivanan j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 103-113, 2021 microorganisms and nutrients supply for plants (almansour et al., 2019). microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and other micro fauna representatives are responsible for the energy and nutrients cycling (bot and benites, 2005). so it represents important component in the evaluation of soil quality and can be used as biological indicators for production systems (fr a nchini, 2007) a nd it ha s str ong correlation with the soil organic matter, which in turn reflects in crop yield (gundale, 2005). increase in the microbial population have been linked to increase in soil carbon and ecological buffering capacity and in response to organic management, as well as various organic amendments application such as livestock manure (ling et al., 2014). a 19-year long-term experiment conducted to evaluate the effects of fertilization regimes on soil organic carbon (soc) dynamics indicated that the soc content in the top 20cm soil layer remained unchanged over time under the unfertilized control plot whereas it significantly increased under both organic, bio and npk fertilizers and combined manure treatments (yang et al., 2011). regular/recommended application of organic manures such a s fym that incr ease soil a ggr egation is therefore vital because most soils rely on aggregation of particles to maintain favorable conditions for soil microbial and faunal activity, plant growth and yield (yu et al., 2012). an experiment was conducted to study the effect of fym, bio-fertilizers, mineral npk fertilization on vegetative growth, oil production and chemical composition of basil plant. the results obta ined by (zeina b, 2005) indica ted that the application of fym at high level (25t/ha) significantly increased the studied parameters compared with other fertilization including the control. the interaction between the main-plots (fym treatments) and subplots (bio, and npk treatments) had significant effect on the yield parameters. the rise in agricultural systems studies concerning soil quality and microbial properties are a reflection of the importance of soil to the understanding of agricultural sustainability. how management practices impact the soil is fundamental in evaluating the sustainability of an agricultural system. more than just a substrate for suppor ting root structur e, the soil ha s its own complexes ecosystem in which microorganisms are the dominant form of life and are responsible for performing functions vital to soil productivity. sweet ba sil (ocimum basilicum l.) belonging to the lamiaceae fa mily, cultiva ted around the world (baritaux et al., 1992) is considered as an important source for food and medicine (palada et al., 2002). however, the studies on integr a ted nutr ient management in basil are meager. hence, the study was conducted with different combination of inorganic fertilizers, organic manure (fym) and biofertilizer to find out their effect on dynamics of soil microbial population and organic carbon in sweet basil (ocimum basilicum l.) cultivation. material and methods experimental location and treatment details field experiments were conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications in an exper imental field of icar-indian institute of horticultural research (iihr), bangalore during the kharif season of 2015 and 2016. the experimental station is situated at an altitude of 890 m above mean sea level and 13o58" north latitude and 77o29" east longitudes. the nine treatments of the experiment consisted of different combinations of organic manure (fym), bio-fertilizers and chemical fertilizers (npk) : t1(fym (10 t/ha) +100% recommended n through fym), t2 (fym (10 t/ha) + 100% recommended n through fym + arka microbial consortium @ 5 kg/acre), t3 (fym (10 t/ha) + 75% recommended n through fym), t 4 (fym (10 t/ha) + 75% recommended n through fym + arka microbial consortium @ 5 kg/acre), t5 (fym (10 t/ha) + 50% recommended n through fym), t6 (fym (10 t/ha) + 50% recommended n through fym + arka micr obia l consor tium @ 5 kg/a cr e), t 7 (r ecommended fym (10 t/ha ) only), t 8 (recommended npk(160:80:80 kg/ha) only), and t9 (recommended fym (10 t/ha) + recommended npk (160:80:80 kg/ha). estimated n content of fym used in this experiment was 0.64%. arka microbial consortium (amc) is a carrier-based product which contains n fixing, p & zn solubilizing and plant growth promoting microbes as a single formulation. after 15 days of transplanting, recommended dose of amc @ 5 kg/acre was applied at 2 cm deep to individual plants in treatments t2, t4, t6 and immediately covered by soil. similar method of application was followed for ratoon crop after harvest of main crop. land preparation the land was brought to a fine tilth by ploughing and harrowing. the experimental site was divided 105 soil microbes and integrated nutrient management in sweet basil into plots having dimensions of 4.8 m long and 4.0 m wide with the spacing of 40 cm between the plants and 60 cm between the rows. there was a space of 0.5 meter between plots and 0.5 meter between replications. basil seeds were sown in two nursery beds of 6.0 m in length with 0.1 m in width and 10 cm height. forty days old (40 days) healthy and uniformly rooted seedlings of sweet basil were t r a ns pla nted to t he f ield. weeding wa s done manually and drip irrigation was given daily for half an hour during the early stages of the crop and subsequently irrigation was given depending on the soil moisture condition. estimating the fresh herbage yield five plants were randomly selected from each plot for recording the observations and the crop was harvested at full bloom stage before setting the seed. fresh herbage harvested from each plot was weighed a n d c onver t ed t o p er h ec t a r e a nd expressed in tonnes (t). microbial population of the soil microbial population of the soil under different treatments was enumerated by standard plate count t ec hnique. tota l b a ct er ia l c ount in s oil wa s determined by serial dilution method. for the study, initia l soil sa mples pr ior t o t he s t a r t of the experiment and after harvest were collected from the surface layer (0-15 cm) according to different treatments with three replications. exactly 5 gm of soil sample was taken into 50 ml of sterile distilled water and shaken for 15 minutes. a series of 9 fold dilutions were prepared and 0.1 ml of each dilution was spread on media plates. to enumerate fungal, azotobacter, phosphate solubilising bacteria and actinomycetes population, potato dextrose agar (pda), jensen’s media , pikovska ya aga r a nd kenknight media were used, respectively. after 35 days of incubation microbial population was counted following the spread plate technique and expressed as cfu ×103/ g of soil. organic carbon estimation (% ) t he or ga nic c a r b on c ont ent of t he s oil wa s estimated by walkley and bla ck wet oxidation method as described by jackson (1973). statistical analysis t he data gener a ted fr om the exper iment wer e analyzed using sas 9.3 version of the statistical package (sas institute inc, 2011). analysis of var ia nce (anova) wa s per for med using sas proc anova procedure. means were separated using fisher ’s protected least significant difference (lsd) test at a probability level of p<0.01 results and discussion populat io n o f he te r ot ro phic fr ee liv ing n 2 fixers the data in table 1 indicated significant difference among the treatments with respect to population of heterotrophic free-living n2 fixers (cfu ×10 3/g of soil). while, maximum population of the colonies in the soil after cropping (40.66 and 63.33 cfu ×103/ g) was recorded in t 2 with application of fym (10 t/ha) +100% recommended n through fym + arka microbial consortium @ 5kg/acre during 2015 and 2016, respectively. whereas, the treatment i.e. t7 recorded the lowest counts (26.13 and 34 cfu ×103/ g) during first and second year, r espectively. t he a ddition of orga nic ma nur e greatly influences the microbial populations which expected to cause changes in the organic matter content of soil that directly influenced microbial dyna mic s of s oil ( d ef or es t e t a l . , 2 0 1 2 ) . application of bio-fertilizer stimulates the native s oil mic r o or ga nis ms a nd r ea c t iva t es t he biogeochemical cycles leading to increase in the organic material that significantly increases the bacterial populations. the results are on line with watts et al., (2010), krishnakumar et al. (2005) and lalfakzuala et al., (2008). population of phosphate solubilizing bacteria the data on the population of phosphate solubilizing bacteria (cfu ×103/ g of soil) after cropping given in table 1 indicated that there was no significant difference between the treatments during first year (2015). the application of fym (10 t/ha) + 100% recommended n through fym + arka microbial consor tiu m @ 5kg/a cr e i. e. , t 2 r ecor ded t he highest population of psb (5.6 cfu ×103/ g) while, the lowest psb (3 cfu ×103/ g) was recorded in t8. however, there were significant differences among the treatments in respect to population of j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 103-113, 2021 106 phosphate solubilizing bacteria in the soil after cropping was observed during second year (2016). similar to first year, application of fym (10 t/ha) + 100% recommended n through fym + arka microbial consortium @ 5kg/acre recorded the highest population of psb (6.6 cfu ×103/ g) in soil while, the application of recommended dose of chemical fertilizer recorded the lowest population of psb (3.9 cfu ×103/ g). g r owth of p solub ilizing mic r oor ga nisms is generally accompanied by decrease in ph of the soil ( mishr a , 19 85). reduct ion in ph due to application of fym along with bio-fertilizer is a result of the production of organic acids which include citric, gluconic, fumaric, malic, oxalic, lactic, 2ketogluconic, malonic acids etc. (vassilev, 1996). although chemical fertilization has resulted in increases in crop yield, this application was not sufficient in triggering a significant improvement in the soil microbial properties. similar results were obtained by wang et al., (2011). the addition of fertilizers enriched the soil microbial biomass and soil enzymes by enha ncing t he soil phys ic ochemic a l p r oper ties a nd s oil orga nic ma t ter, especially thr ough the a ddition of fym. root exudates augmented the soil microbes in general by the crop growth and that could expla in the inc r ea s e of s oil p op u la t ion a t h a r ves t t ime comparing with the initial soil. population of fungi fungal population in the soil after cropping in two years of the experiment was affected significantly by the treatments involving different levels of organic manure with and without bio-fertilizers and inor ga nic f er tiliz er s . as s howed in table 2 application of fym (10 t/ha) +100% recommended n through fym + arka microbial consortium @ 5 kg/ a c r e (t 2) r ecor ded t he ma x imum fu nga l population (6.4 and 5.33 cfu ×103/ g) in the soil while, the application of recommended dose of chemical fertilizer (t8) recorded the lowest fungal population (3.6 and 2.5 cfu ×103/ g) in the soil after cropping in 2015 and 2016, respectively. microbial population size and community structure are sensitive to changes in chemical properties of the surrounding soil (pansomba t et al., 1997). f u ngi c ons t it u t e a n es s ent ia l c omp onent of biologica l c ha r a cter istic s in soil ecos ystems. organic carbon level in the soil and precipitation play pivotal role in fungal growth and sporulation. greater microbial populations in fym treated plots along with bio-fertilizer as compared to chemically amended plots due to enhancing the organic carbon in the soil. similar kind of results was reported by venka t es wa r lu a nd s r iniva s a r a o, ( 2 0 0 0 ) . application of farm yard manure can be viewed a s a n exc ellent wa y to r ecycle nutr ients a nd provide a steady source of organic c to support the microbial community resulting in higher fungal populations compared to npktreated plots. lower fungal population in soil with application of chemical fertilizers alone is attributed to lack of organic amendment input. the microbial population dynamics is governed by interactions between plant type, climate, and management practice. so that, the low tempera ture that pr eva iled in the fir st season could have influenced the proliferation of fungi, which require low temperature for their gr owt h; s ong e t a l . ( 2 0 0 7 ) ind ic a t ed t ha t difference in the establishment of field leads to alteration of microbial communities. population of actinomycetes the data in table 2 on actinomycetes population of the soil after cropping (cfu ×103/ g of soil) indic a ted s ignifica nt dif fer enc es bet ween t he t r ea t ment s . t he highes t p op u la t ion of actinomycetes (29.93 and 44.56 cfu ×103/ g of soil) wa s r ecor ded in t 9 with a pplica tion of recommended npk (160:80:80 kg/ha) + fym (10 t/ha) during 2015 and 2016, respectively, while application of recommended dose of fym (10 t/ ha) in t7 resulted in minimum population (20 and and 30.5 cfu ×103/ g of soil) during 2015 and 2016, respectively. ac t inomyc e t es a r e one of t he p r edomina nt members of soil microbial communities and they have beneficial roles in soil nutrients cycling and agricultural productivity (elliot and lynch, 1995). o r ga nic ma t t er, s a linit y, r ela t iv e mois t u r e, temper ature, ph a nd vegetation a r e impor tant factors which control abundance of actinomycetes in soil (mcarthy and williams, 1992). the density of actinomycetes is opposite to the hydrogen ion concentra tion, that could justify increasing its population with application of npk along with al-mansour and kalaivanan j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 103-113, 2021 107 ta bl e 1: h et er ot ro ph ic f re eliv in g n 2 fix er s an d ph os ph at e so lu bi liz in g ba ct er ia p op ul at io n (c fu × 10 3 / g of s oi l) as i nf lu en ce d by d iff er en t le ve ls o f n t hr ou gh f y m , bi ofe rt ili ze rs a nd i no rg an ic f er ti liz er so il m ic ro bi al p op ul at io n tr ea tm en ts h et er ot ro ph ic fr ee li vi ng ph os ph at e so lu bi liz in g n 2 f ix er ba ct er ia t1 fy m (1 0 t/h a) + 10 0% r ec . n th ro ug h fy m 34 .9 6a b c 41 c 4 5. 48 a b c t2 fy m (1 0 t/h a) + 10 0% r ec . n th ro ug h fy m + b f 40 .6 6a 63 .3 3a 5. 6 6. 6a t3 fy m (1 0 t/h a) + 75 % r ec . n th ro ug h fy m 31 .8 3b c d 36 .8 3c 3. 6 4. 8b c d t4 fy m (1 0 t/h a) + 75 % r ec . n th ro ug h fy m + b f 36 .4 2a b c 54 .5 b 4. 5 5. 6 a b t5 fy m (1 0 t/h a) + 50 % r ec . n th ro ug h fy m 29 .5 c d 39 .4 c 3. 3 4. 08 c d t6 fy m (1 0 t/h a) + 50 % r ec . n th ro ug h fy m +b f 34 a b c 40 c 4 4. 9b c d t7 r ec . f y m ( 10 t/ ha ) o nl y 26 .1 3d 34 c 3. 7 4. 06 c d t8 r ec .n pk (1 60 :8 0: 80 k g /h a) 36 .2 6a b 35 c 3 3. 9d t9 r ec . n pk (1 60 :8 0: 80 k g /h a) + r ec . f y m (1 0 t/h a) 39 a 55 b 4. 5 5. 32 a b c g en er al m ea n 34 .2 6 44 .6 7 4. 04 4. 99 cv % 10 .9 9 10 .3 3 26 .5 4 17 .0 7 ls d a t 5 % 6. 52 7. 99 n s 1. 47 soil microbes and integrated nutrient management in sweet basil j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 103-113, 2021 108 ta bl e 2: f un ga l a nd a ct in om yc et ye s po pu la tio n (c fu × 10 3 / g of s oi l) as i nf lu en ce d by d iff er en t le ve ls o f n t hr ou gh f y m , bi ofe rt ili ze rs an d in or ga ni c fe rt ili ze r so il m ic ro bi al p op ul at io n tr ea tm en ts fu ng al a ct in om yc et ye s a fte r th e ex pe ri m en t 20 15 20 16 20 15 20 16 t1 fy m (1 0 t/h a) + 10 0% r ec . n th ro ug h fy m 6. 26 a b 5. 16 a b 24 .3 3 34 .0 0 a b t2 fy m (1 0 t/h a) + 10 0% r ec . n th ro ug h fy m + a m c (5 kg /a c) 6. 4a 5. 33 a 26 .6 7 36 .3 3 a b t3 fy m (1 0 t/h a) + 75 % r ec . n th ro ug h fy m 4. 1c d 3c d 22 .6 7 31 .6 7b t4 fy m (1 0 t/h a) + 75 % r ec . n th ro ug h fy m + a m c ( 5k g/ ac ) 4. 7 c d 3. 65 c d 25 .8 5 35 .0 7 a b t5 fy m (1 0 t/h a) + 50 % r ec . n th ro ug h fy m 4. 3c d 3c d 21 .6 7 30 .6 7b t6 fy m (1 0 t/h a) + 50 % r ec . n th ro ug h fy m + a m c (5 kg /a c) 5. 3b c 4b c 24 .6 7 32 .5 0b t7 r ec . f y m ( 10 t/ ha ) o nl y 3. 7d 2. 66 d 20 .0 0 30 .5 0b t8 r ec .n pk (1 60 :8 0: 80 k g /h a) 3. 6d 2. 5d 28 .3 3 41 .8 3 a b t9 r ec . n pk (1 60 :8 0: 80 k g /h a) + r ec . f y m (1 0 t/h a) 5. 1b c 4b c 29 .9 3 44 .5 6 a g en er al m ea n 4. 80 3. 70 24 .3 3 35 .2 4 cv % 1. 26 1. 26 16 .7 4 12 .5 ls d a t 5 % 15 .2 0 19 .7 2 n s 7. 47 al-mansour and kalaivanan j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 103-113, 2021 109 fym (alexa nder, 1977) while, increasing the colony’s in the second season comparing to first one due to a relatively low level of moisture, this property of actinomycetes might be due to their sporulation capability under stress conditions (eltarabily and sivasithamparam, 2006). organic carbon the treatments effect on organic carbon per cent in the soil are presented in table 3. application of fym (10 t/ha) +100% recommended n through fym + arka microbial consortium @ 5kg/acre i.e., t2 recorded the maximum organic carbon (0.63 a nd 0.66 %) in the post-ha rvest soil sa mples collected dur ing 2015 a nd 2016, respectively. while, the minimum value (0.52 and 0.53%) was recorded in t8 with application the recommended dose of inorganic fertilizer (160:80:80 kg /ha) during 2015 a nd, 2016, r espectively. organic carbon per cent is fine indicators of soil quality which influence soil function in specific ways (e.g., immobilization–mineralization) and are much more sensitive to change in soil management practices (saviozzi et al., 2001). the results showed the positive influence of higher level of n through fym and bio-fertilizer in increasing the organic carbon content that could be beca use of the effect of fym a nd biofer tilizer in stimula t ion of soil microbial activity, therefore increasing the c output. similar results were also found by halvorson et al., (2002); su et al. , (2006) a nd lou et al. , (2011). fresh herbage yield t he f r es h h er b a ge yield of b a s i l dif f er ed significantly between the treatments during two year s of the experiment. it is evident from the table 4 that the application of npk (160:80:80 kg /ha) + fym (10 t/ha) i.e., t9 recorded significantly the highest herbage yield in the main crop (41.59 and 38.31 t/ha) and ratoon (20.97 and 17.77 at/ha) during kharif 2015 and 2016, respectively. the lowes t f r es h her b a ge yield p er hec t a r e wa s recorded with recommended dose of fym alone in the main crop (28.36 and 17.49 t/ha) and in ratoon (12.59 and 8.93 t/ha) during first and second year, respectively. similar trend was also reflected in total herbage yield of basil. application of npk (160:80:80 kg /ha) + fym (10 t/ha) i.e., t9 recorded significantly the highest total herbage yield (62.56 and 56.08) while, the lowest value (40.95 and 26.42 t/ha) was recorded in t7 during individual years. treatments organic carbon (%) before the experiment 0.5 after the experiment 2015 2016 t1 fym (10 t/ha) +100% rec. n through fym 0.61 ab 0.65a t2 fym (10 t/ha) +100% rec. n through fym + amc (5kg/ac) 0.63 a 0.66 a t3 fym (10 t/ha) +75% rec. n through fym 0.58abc 0.62 a t4 fym (10 t/ha) +75% rec. n through fym + amc (5kg/ac) 0.61ab 0.65 a t5 fym (10 t/ha) +50% rec. n through fym 0.56 abc 0.60ab t6 fym (10 t/ha) +50% rec. n through fym+ amc (5kg/ac) 0.58 abc 0.64 a t7 rec. fym (10 t/ha) only 0.55 abc 0.57abc t8 rec.npk (160:80:80 kg /ha) 0.52 0.53c t9 rec. npk (160:80:80 kg /ha)+ rec. fym (10 t/ha) 0.54bc 0.54bc general mean 0.58 0.60 cv% 5.09 6.13 lsd at 5% 0.02 0.03 table 3: organic carbon content (%) in the soil as influenced by different levels of n through fym, bio-fertilizers and inorganic fertilizer j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 103-113, 2021 soil microbes and integrated nutrient management in sweet basil 110 tr ea tm en ts fr es h he rb y ie ld (t h a1 ) f ir st y ea r (2 01 5) se co nd y ea r (2 01 6) a fte r th e ex pe ri m en t m ai n cr op r at oo n to ta l y ie ld m ai n cr op r at oo n to ta l y ie ld t1 fy m (1 0 t/h a) + 10 0% r ec . n th ro ug h fy m 33 .3 1c 17 .0 3d 50 .3 4 e 25 .9 4c 11 .3 3c 37 .2 7 c t2 fy m (1 0 t/h a) + 10 0% r ec . n th ro ug h fy m + a m c (5 kg /a c) 37 .8 4b 18 .5 9c 56 .4 3 c 27 .7 3c 12 .3 1b 40 .0 4 c t3 fy m (1 0 t/h a) + 75 % r ec . n th ro ug h fy m 32 .4 0c 15 .6 3e 48 .0 3 e 21 .7 3d 10 .1 9d 31 .9 2d e t4 fy m (1 0 t/h a) + 75 % r ec . n th ro ug h fy m + a m c ( 5k g/ ac ) 36 .1 9b 17 .1 2d 53 .3 1 d 22 .8 4d 11 .2 7c 34 .1 1 d t5 fy m (1 0 t/h a) + 50 % r ec . n th ro ug h fy m 29 .9 3d 13 .5 7g 43 .4 7 f 21 .0 2d 9. 51 e 30 .5 3 e t6 fy m (1 0 t/h a) + 50 % r ec . n th ro ug h fy m + a m c ( 5k g/ ac ) 33 .0 8c 14 .9 6f 48 .0 4 e 22 .3 2d 10 .1 1d 32 .4 3 d e t7 r ec . f y m ( 10 t/ ha ) o nl y 28 .3 6d 12 .5 9h 40 .9 5g 17 .4 9e 8. 93 e 26 .4 2f t8 r ec .n pk (1 60 :8 0: 80 k g /h a) 40 .3 9a 19 .5 9b 59 .9 8 b 33 .2 8b 14 .9 2b 48 .2 b t9 r ec . n pk (1 60 :8 0: 80 k g /h a) + r ec . f y m (1 0 t/h a) 41 .5 9a 20 .9 7a 62 .5 6 a 38 .3 1a 17 .7 7a 56 .0 8 a g en er al m ea n 34 .7 9 16 .6 7 51 .4 6 27 .0 5 10 .8 2 37 .4 4 cv % 3. 15 2. 21 2. 19 5. 72 3. 83 4. 58 ls d a t 5 % 1. 89 0. 63 1. 95 2. 54 0. 71 2. 88 t ab le 4 : f re sh h er b yi el d (t /h a) o f ba si l (o ci m um b as il ic um l .) a s in fl ue nc ed b y di ff er en t le ve ls o f n t hr ou gh f y m , bi ofe rt ili ze rs an d in or ga ni c fe rt ili ze r j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 103-113, 2021 al-mansour and kalaivanan 111 application of inorganic fertilizers are expected to release greater quantity of nutrients particularly n, p, k at a faster rate and higher level and there by gr eater upta ke by the pla nts which resulted in higher growth and yield parameters. on the other hand a pplication of fym along with inorganic fertilizer release nutrients after mineralization. such c ont r olled b ut r egula ted s u pp ly of nu t r ient s increased uptake n, p, k which in turn, brought about higher growth and yield. increase in the yield par a meter s with combined use of or ga nic and inorganic application reported in earlier reports of joy et al. (2005) in black musli, kothari et al. (2005) in spila nthus a cmella , ra jendr a n a nd gnanavel (2008) in aloe vera and ravikumar et al. (2012) in coleus. organic amendments show a s lower nut r ient r elea se pa tt er n t ha n miner a l fertilizer but facilitate an increased soil organic matter (som) content (pinitpaitoon et al., 2011). although vanlauwe and giller (2006) claim that or ga nic r esour ces a re not sufficient enough to supply c r ops with the r equir ed nutr ients, the increased som is enhancing productivity due to the improved soil properties (watson et al., 2002). similar results were obtained by mohamad et al. (2014) and asieh (2012). conclusion t he ex per iment a l r esu lts c onc luded tha t the c onju nc t iv e u s e of f ym ( 1 0 t / ha ) + 1 0 0 % recommended n through fym + arka microbial consortium @ 5kg/acre is found to ha ve best microbial population dynamics and organic carbon content. however, the highest fresh herbage yield of sweet basil was recorded with integrated use of recommended fym (10 t/ha) and recommended npk (160:80:80 kg/ha). further, the study evidently emphasis that the appropriate utilization of manures and bio-fertilizers within the nutrient management systems can enhance the soil microbial activity and diversity that reflected on yield sustainability. alexander, m., 1977. introduction to soil microbiology, 2nd edition, krieger publishing ompany, usa. al-ma nsour ba r a a , ka la iva na n d. a nd suryanarayana m.a., 2019. effects of organic and inorganic fertilizers on soil fertility, nutrient uptake and yield of french basil. medicinal plants international 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(received on 7.09.2020; revised on 15.05.2021; accepted on 13.06.2021) j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 103-113, 2021 soil microbes and integrated nutrient management in sweet basil introduction banana is the major fruit crop of kerala cultivated by marginal and poor farmers. it grows well under a wide range of agro-climatic situations and cropping systems. it can be well fitted in crop rotations, multiple cropping, intercropping and companion cropping (varkey and pushkaran, 1992). among the different cultivars of banana, “njalipoovan” (musa ab group) is one of the popular varieties cultivated in the homesteads of kerala.this variety assumes significance in view of its high export potential mainly due to its edible and keeping quality. banana is a soil exhaustive crop which requires adequate quantity of nutrients throughout its growth period. a judicious application of fertilizers not only gives high yield but also improves the quality of the produce. under onattukara conditions, the nutrient requirement of any of cultivars of banana especially “njalipoovan” has not been standardized. the present investigation was therefore, taken up to study the effect of different levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium on the growth, yield and quality and to formulate an economic nutrient management schedule for banana cv. “njalipoovan” in onattukara soil. standardization of npk requirement in banana cv. “njalipoovan” (musa ab group) in onattukara soil of south kerala m. indira and c. s. nair1 onattukara regional agricultural research station kayamkulam-690 502, india e-mail: indirasuresh@gmail.com abstract banana cv. “njalipoovan” (musa ab group, syn. ney poovan) is one of the popular varieties cultivated in the homesteads of kerala. this variety has high export potential due to its edible and keeping quality. eventhough fertilizer requirement was worked out for different varieties; no attempt has been made to standardize the nutrient requirement of banana cv. “njalippovan”, especially in the loamy sand soils of onattukara. field experiments were conducted for two years (1998-2000) at onattukara regional agricultural research station, kayamkulam to study the influence of three levels each of n (100, 200 and 300 g plant-1), p 2 o 5 (100, 200 and 300 g plant-1) and k 2 o (200,400 and 600 g plant-1) with one absolute control (n o p o k o ) on growth, yield, quality and economics of cultivation. increasing the rate of application of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium improved the growth and yield. total soluble solids (tss), total sugars and reducing sugars increased with increasing levels of nitrogen and potassium. fruit acidity decreased at higher rate of n and k 2 o. applied phosphorus had no effect on quality of fruits. application of n, p 2 o 5 and k 2 o at 200:200:400 g plant-1 proved to be ideal for maintaining higher yield and benefit: cost ratio. key words: njalipoovan, growth, yield, quality, economic returns material and methods the field experiment was conducted in the garden land of the farm attached to onattukara regional agricultural research station, kayamkulam for two seasons (1998-99 and 1999-2000). the experimental site had soils of the class isohyperthermic ustic quartzi psamments, with ph of 5.27 and low content of organic carbon (0.27%), available n (184.58 kg ha-1), available p 2 o 5 (9.70 kg ha-1) and exchangeable k 2 o (77.02 kg ha-1). the experiment was laid out in confounded 33 factorial rbd. three levels each of n (100, 200 and 300g plant -1), p 2 o 5 (100,200 and 300g plant -1) and k 2 o (200,400 and 600g plant -1) with one absolute control (n 0 p 0 k 0 ) constituted the treatments. urea (46% n), mussoorie rock phosphate (20% p 2 o 5 ) and muriate of potash (60% k 2 o) were used as the source of n, p and k, respectively. banana suckers were planted at a spacing of 2.13 mx 2.13 m in plots of size 10.70m x 8.50m (20 plants plot-1) during the month of may 1998 and 1999. fertilizers at the calculated amount were applied in two equal splits at two and four months after planting to supply different levels 1present address: retired dean, college of agriculture, vellayani, thiruvananthapuram j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 127-131, 2008 128 of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as per the treatments. general crop recommendations for banana varieties other than “nendran” were followed (kau, 1996). four plants in each plot were marked as observational plants and growth characters such as height and girth of pseudostem, number of functional leaves and leaf area index (lai) were recorded six months after planting. leaf area was computed using the formula lx bx 0.8 (murray, 1960) where ‘l’ is the length of the lamina and ‘b’ the breadth of the lamina. leaf area index was determined using the formula, leaf area per plant (cm2)/land area occupied by the plant (cm2) (watson, 1947). yield and yield attributes viz., number of hands bunch-1 and number of fingers bunch-1 were recorded at harvest. quality analysis of the fully ripe fruits such as total soluble solids (tss), total sugars, reducing sugars, acidity and shelf life were done following standard procedures (aoac, 1977 and ranganna, 1977). the data were statistically analysed by applying the techniques of analysis of variance for confounded rbd (panse and sukhatme, 1967). total cost of cultivation and gross returns were calculated from average input cost and average market price of the produce during the period of investigation and benefit: cost ratio was computed as follows: benefit: cost ratio (bcr) = gross income / cost of cultivation results and discussion growth attributes application of n at the highest level (300 g plant -1) significantly increased the height and girth of pseudostem, number of functional leaves and lai in both the years (table 1). stimulation of vegetative growth at higher rates of applied n has been reported earlier in banana cv. palayankodan (sheela, 1982) and in “nendran” (geetha and nair, 2000). large leaf size combined with more number of functional leaves retained per plant at higher levels of n resulted in higher lai. it is a proven fact that adequate supply of nitrogen promotes vegetative growth and helps to retain leaves for a longer time (tisdale et al, 1995). the influence of different levels of phosphorus in increasing the plant height is indicative of the role of phosphorus in improving the vegetative growth. the height and girth of pseudostem was maximum with the highest level of k (600 g plant-1). the influence of medium rate of k (400 g plant -1) in increasing the number of functional leaves and retaining up to harvest indicates the significant role of k in promoting vigorous healthy crop growth. potassium at higher rates significantly influenced the lai. the higher number of functional leaves and greater leaf size might have contributed to the higher lai at higher levels of k supply. crop duration application of nitrogen at 300 g plant-1 markedly reduced the total duration of the crop in both the years (table 2). applied nitrogen exerted its effect on total crop duration mainly by influencing the days to shooting. there was a reduction of 22-29 days in the total crop duration when nitrogen level was increased from 100 to 300 g plant-1. nitrogen reduced phyllochron and increased the leaf area in a short span of time thereby helping the plant to attain early physiological maturity. thus shooting occured early which in turn reduced the total crop duration (geetha, 1998). potassium applied at 400 g plant-1 profoundly reduced duration of the crop. this might be due to the enhanced vigour of the plant and increased vegetative table 1. effect of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium on growth attributes main effects pseudostemheight (cm) pseudostemgirth (cm) no. of functional leaves lai 1998-99 1999-2000 1998-99 1999-2000 1998-99 1999-2000 1998-99 1999-2000 n 1 119.67 117.39 31.89 31.00 8.61 6.50 0.74 0.68 n 2 139.50 142.17 44.44 41.33 10.94 9.61 1.23 1.13 n 3 174.94 166.44 47.83 44.94 11.83 10.78 1.77 1.61 cd (p=0.05) 1.677 2.437 1.535 1.285 0.57 0.65 0.043 0.065 p 1 142.00 139.00 39.44 37.39 10.22 8.33 1.11 1.03 p 2 144.83 141.78 41.72 39.50 10.22 9.06 1.28 1.15 p 3 145.28 145.22 43.00 40.39 10.94 9.50 1.35 1.24 cd (p=0.05) 1.677 2.437 1.535 1.285 0.57 0.65 0.043 0.065 k 1 135.78 133.83 36.44 33.89 9.61 8.06 1.00 0.98 k 2 147.67 143.83 42.56 40.94 10.39 9.22 1.33 1.18 k 3 150.67 148.33 45.17 42.44 11.39 9.61 1.41 1.26 cd(p=0.05) 1.677 2.437 1.535 1.285 0.57 0.65 0.043 0.065 details of treatments are given in the text indira and nair j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 127-131, 2008 129 growth. higher levels of potassium might have contributed much to early flowering. this view was corroborated by jumbulingam et al (1975) who observed earlier flowering and maturation with potassium application above 360 g plant-1. similar results were reported by peters (1997) in banana cv. nendran in a red loam soil. yield attributes applied nitrogen markedly influenced the yield attributing characters particularly number of hands and fingers bunch-1 (table 3). nitrogen applied at 300 g plant1 produced more number of hands and fingers bunch-1. phosphorus applied at 200 and 300 g plant-1 exerted similar effect on number of hands bunch-1 and number of fingers bunch-1 during 1999-2000. adequate supply of phosphorus with n and k favoured the root proliferation and penetration, covering very large root volume resulting in high uptake of the nutrient. these factors might have contributed to the favourable condition in the soil for growth and development of the plant and thereby exerting positive effect on the yield attributing factors. number of table 3. effect of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium on yield components and yield main effects no. of hands bunch-1 no. of fingers bunch-1 weight of bunch(kg) 1998-99 1999-2000 1998-99 1999-2000 1998-99 1999-2000 n 1 7.06 7.33 111.78 111.94 7.69 6.66 n 2 8.50 8.44 131.39 128.89 11.68 9.68 n 3 9.33 9.11 142.56 138.50 12.11 11.03 cd(p=0.05) 0.328 0.510 3.283 6.093 0.244 0.255 p 1 7.83 7.78 120.83 118.72 9.52 8.37 p 2 8.33 8.50 129.94 128.72 10.81 9.39 p 3 8.72 8.61 134.94 131.89 11.05 9.61 cd(p=0.05) 0.328 0.510 3.283 6.093 0.244 0.255 k 1 7.72 7.83 121.44 119.72 9.64 8.29 k 2 8.39 8.39 130.28 128.50 10.82 9.24 k 3 8.78 8.67 134.00 131.11 10.99 9.83 cd(p=0.05) 0.328 0.510 3.283 6.093 0.244 0.255 details of treatments are given in the text table 2. effect of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium on crop duration main effects days from plantingto shooting days from shooting to harvest total crop duration(days) 1998-99 1999-2000 1998-99 1999-2000 1998-99 1999-2000 n 1 291.72 297.11 110.44 109.50 402.17 406.06 n 2 281.11 283.89 106.44 106.17 387.56 390.06 n 3 274.17 273.00 106.11 104.11 380.28 377.11 cd(p=0.05) 2.537 1.839 2.521 2.514 2.711 2.587 p 1 283.89 286.89 107.83 107.72 391.72 394.61 p 2 281.50 285.11 107.61 106.61 381.11 391.72 p 3 281.61 284.43 107.56 105.44 389.17 389.88 cd (p=0.05) ns 1.839 ns ns ns 2.587 k 1 284.78 286.11 107.78 107.94 392.56 394.06 k 2 282.33 284.392 107.50 106.22 389.83 390.06 k 3 279.89 83.50 107.72 105.61 387.61 389.11 cd(p=0.05) 2.537 1.839 ns ns 2.711 2.587 details of treatments are given in the text hands and fingers bunch-1 was highest with the highest level of potassium during 1998-1999. during the subsequent year the increase was significant upto 400 g k 2 o plant-1. the effect of potassium in improving the yield attributes in banana was confirmed by many workers (sheela, 1982; mustaffa, 1987 and baruah and mohan, 1992). yield nitrogen at 300 g plant-1 significantly increased the bunch weight (table 3). increased availability and uptake of nutrients at higher levels of n might have led to the better expression of growth and yield attributes which ultimately resulted in higher yield. positive effect of phosphorus in improving the yield was noticed up to 200 g p 2 o 5 plant-1. bunch weight increased with increasing rate of potassium up to 600 g k 2 o plant. earlier reports also indicate positive yield response of banana cv. palayankodan to higher levels of k (sheela, 1982). the interaction of nitrogen with phosphorus and potassium was significant in 1998-99 and 1999-2000 (table 4). application of n , p 2 o 5 and k 2 o at 300:300:600 g plant-1, standardization of npk requirement in banana j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 127-131, 2008 130 300:300:400 g plant-1, 300:200:600g plant-1, 300:200:400 g plant-1, 200:300:600g plant-1, 200:300:400g plant-1 200:200:600g plant-1 and 200:200:400g plant-1 produced almost the same yield. application of n, p 2 o 5 and k 2 o at 300:300:600g plant-1 showed a modest yield increase over the treatment combination of n, p 2 o 5 and k 2 o at 200:200:400 g plant-1. so application of moderate dose of n, p 2 o 5 and k 2 o at 200:200:400g plant-1 year-1 is found to be optimal for banana cv. “njalipoovan”. the response of crops to fertilizer application depends on the status of available plant nutrients in the soil and a low rating means that crops on such soil should respond very readily to nutrient application (bains and bhardwaj, 1976). in the present study the soil nutrient status was low which explains the better response to applied fertilizers. applied nutrients increased the availability of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and micronutrients which resulted in favourable growth condition in soil. quality attributes increase in the level of nitrogen significantly table 5. effect of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium on quality attributes main effect tss (%) acidity (%) total sugars (%) reducing sugars (%) shelf life(days) of factors 1998-99 1999-2000 1998-99 1999-2000 1998-99 19992000 1998-99 1999-2000 1998-99 1999-2000 n 1 17.16 17.11 0.33 0.33 12.91 12.69 9.45 9.33 5.80 5.83 n 2 17.75 17.39 0.26 0.26 14.97 14.79 11.22 11.07 6.47 6.48 n 3 18.03 17.87 0.23 0.22 16.13 15.9 12.18 12.13 5.88 5.89 cd(p=0.05) 0.029 0.084 0.010 0.006 0.024 80.022 0.016 0.016 0.026 0.064 p 1 17.62 17.38 0.28 0.29 14.58 14.41 10.89 10.80 6.04 6.09 p 2 17.64 17.45 0.27 0.27 14.65 14.47 10.94 10.83 6.05 6.04 p 3 17.65 17.49 0.27 0.26 14.77 14.58 11.02 10.90 6.06 6.06 cd(p=0.05) ns ns ns ns ns ns ns ns ns ns k 1 17.57 17.34 0.29 0.29 14.59 14.42 10.89 10.80 6.00 6.01 k 2 17.67 17.48 0.26 0.27 14.69 14.51 10.96 10.85 6.02 6.03 k 3 17.71 17.55 0.25 0.26 14.73 14.54 10.99 10.88 6.13 6.11 cd(p=0.05) 0.029 0.084 0.010 0.006 0.024 0.022 0.016 0.016 0.026 0.064 details of treatments are given in the text increased the tss, total sugars and reducing sugars (table 5). maximum values were recorded by the application of nitrogen at 300g plant-1. but the acidity of ripe fruit tends to decrease with the increasing rates of nitrogen. shelf life increased with increase in the level of nitrogen up to 200g plant-1 beyond which there was a decrease. effect of different levels of potassium was also significant in the case of tss, total sugars, reducing sugars and shelf life. tss increased with the application of potassium up to 400g plant -1during 1999-2000. fruit acidity decreased with the increasing level of potassium up to 400g plant -1. adequate supply of n and k might have ensured optimal functioning of sucrose synthatase and suppression of hydrolytic enzymes leading to build up of greater quantity of sugars in proplastids (nitsos and evans, 1969). the applied phosphorus had no significant effect on tss, acidity, total sugars, reducing sugars and shelf life of ripe fruits. economic analysis application of n, p 2 o 5 and k 2 o at the rate of 200:200:400 g plant-1 proved profitable and showed maximum bcr (1.96 and 1.84 for the first and second year respectively) due to lower cost of cultivation and high yield obtained (table 6). the treatment combination of n, p 2 o 5 and k 2 o at lower levels recorded lowest economic returns. the substantial increase obtained in bunch weight due to treatment effects resulted in maximum returns thereby enhancing bcr. in conclusion, the present study reveals that application of n, p 2 o5 and k 2 o at the rate of 200:200:400 g plant-1 is appropriate for higher yield in banana cv. “njalipoovan” in the loamy sand soils of onattukara. table 4. influence of n x p x k interaction on yield p × k yield (kg plant-1) interaction 1998-1999 1999-2000 n 1 n 2 n 3 n 1 n 2 n 3 p 1 k 1 7.10 10.00 10.35 6.25 7.95 9.30 p 1 k 2 7.30 10.25 11.20 6.60 8.05 9.75 p 1 k 3 7.65 10.45 11.35 6.65 9.25 11.50 p 2 k 1 7.50 9.95 11.30 6.15 8.20 10.45 p 2 k 2 7.75 12.95 12.95 6.90 12.15 12.20 p 2 k 3 8.10 13.05 13.30 7.00 12.25 12.35 p 3 k 1 7.50 11.25 11.80 6.55 9.00 10.75 p 3 k 2 8.05 13.00 13.30 6.65 11.85 11.90 p 3 k 3 8.25 13.00 13.40 7.15 12.25 12.60 cd (p=0.05) 0.731 0.765 details of treatments are given in the text indira and nair j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 127-131, 2008 131 references aoac. 1977. official and tentative methods analysis, eleventh edition. association of official and analytical chemists, washington, u.s.a., 53-126 bains, s.s. and bhardwaj, b.l. 1976. fertilizer management for efficient crop production. soil fertility theory and practice (ed. kanwar, j.s). indian council of agricultural research, new delhi, p. 503 baruah, p.j. and mohan, n.k. 1992. effect of k on yield and yield attributing characters of dwarf cavendish banana (musa aaa group, cavendish sub-group) in assam. banana newsletter, 15: 24-25 geetha, k. 1998. integrated plant nutrition system (ipns) for maximizing yield in banana, musa (aab group) ‘nendran’. ph.d thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, p. 149 geetha, k. and nair, r.r. 2000. integrated plant nutrition system (ipns) for banana. ann. agril. res., 21: 499-503 jambulingam, a.r., ramaswamy, n. and muthukrishnan, c.r. 1975. studies on the effect of potassium on robusta banana. potash rev., 27: 4-6 kau.1996. package of practices recommendations: crops 1996. directorate of extension agricultural university, thrissur, pp. 179-185 murray, d.b. 1960. the effect of deficiencies of the major nutrients on growth and leaf analysis of banana. trop. agri., 37: 97-106 mustaffa, m.m. 1987. growth and yield of robusta banana in relation to potassium nutrition. j. pot. res., 3: 129-132 nitsos, r.e. and evans, h.j. 1969. effect of univalent cations on the activity of particulate starch synthatase. pl. physiol., 44: 1260-1266 panse, v.g. and sukhatme, p.v. 1967. statistical methods for agricultural workers, second edition. indian council of agricultural research, new delhi, p. 381 peters, d. 1997. maximization of productivity by rescheduling the nutrient application in banana (musa ab group nendran). m.sc. (ag) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, p. 117 ranganna, s. 1977. manual of analysis of fruits and vegetable products. tata mcgraw hill publishing company ltd., new delhi, p. 94 sheela, v.l. 1982. potassium nutrition in rainfed banana musa (aab group) palayankodan. m.sc. (hort) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, p.109 tisdale, s.l., nelson, w.l., beaton, j.d. and havlin, j.l. 1995. soil fertility and fertilizers, fifth edition. prentice hall of india pvt. ltd., new delhi, p. 638 varkey, p.a. and pushkaran, k. 1992. banana cultivation. kerala agricultural university, thrissur, p. 54 watson, d.j. 1947. comparative and physiological studies on the growth of field crops i. variation in net assimilation rate and leaf area between species and varieties and within and between use. ann. bot., 11: 41-76 (ms received 22 january 2008, revised 14 september 2008) table 6. influence of n x p x k interaction on benefit: cost ratio p × k benefit: cost ratio interaction 1998-1999 1999-2000 n 1 n 2 n 3 n 1 n 2 n 3 p 1 k 1 1.14 1.58 1.61 1.18 1.25 1.45 p 1 k 2 1.14 1.58 1.71 1.03 1.24 1.49 p 1 k 3 1.17 1.58 1.70 1.06 1.40 1.72 p 2 k 1 1.18 1.54 1.72 0.96 1.27 1.59 p 2 k 2 1.19 1.96 1.94 1.06 1.84 1.76 p 2 k 3 1.22 1.94 1.95 1.05 1.82 1.81 p 3 k 1 1.15 1.71 1.77 1.01 1.36 1.61 p 3 k 2 1.21 1.93 1.95 1.00 1.76 1.75 p 3 k 3 1.22 1.90 1.93 1.06 1.79 1.81 cd (p=0.05) 0.112 0.146 details of treatments are given in text standardization of npk requirement in banana j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 127-131, 2008 the sapota or chiku (achras sapota l.) is one of the most delicious, sweet, pulpy fruits, grown extensively in 24-parganas (north and south) and purba midnapur districts of west bengal. due to its tropical nature, the crop is also found to grow well in the drier tracts of west bengal, like paschim midnapore. there is a good demand for planting material of this crop not only in west bengal, but also in the neighboring states of jharkhand, bihar and orissa. the crop is mainly propagated by grafting on to khirnee (manilkara hexandra l.) rootstock. although inarch grafting or approach grafting is universally practised, the method is laborious, time-consuming and also expensive. currently, an alternative to approach grafting, softwood method of grafting in polythene bags, is becoming very popular. however, its success depends mainly on season of operation and varietal reaction to this method, which need to be standardized for west bengal conditions. this information is particularly lacking for the western part of west bengal where the weather is somewhat different from that in other parts of the state. the study was undertaken in the nursery of mps farm at paschim midnapore where adequate nursery facilities and mother plants are available. the investigation was conducted in 2007 and 2008 following randomized effect of cultivars and season on grafting success in sapota under paschim midnapur conditions of west bengal s.n. ghosh, b. bera1, s. roy1 and b.c. banik department of fruits and orchard management faculty of horticulture bidhan chandra krishi viswavidyalaya mohanpur – 741 252, nadia, india e-mail: profsnghosh@yahoo.co.in abstract two sets of experiments were carried out during 2007-08 to assess incompatibility of sapota cultivars to softwood grafting, and to find out the best time for softwood grafting, in a private orchard at jhargram of paschim midnapore, west bengal. considerable variation in success of softwood grafting among sapota cultivars was observed. among ten cultivars studied, co-2 showed highest compatibility with khirnee rootstock to softwood grafting, followed by cricket ball and dsh-2. there was a total failure in graft-take in cultivars co-1, dsh-1 and guthi. softwood grafting success was highest in sapota when carried out on 1st july (72%) followed by 15th august (70%), 5th june (62%) and 15th june (56%). key words : sapota, softwood grafting, khirnee, cultivars, incompatibility, season block design using ‘cricket ball’ as the scion. to identify the best time of operation for large-scale production of sapota grafts, grafting was made on 1-year old khirnee rootstock seedlings, during june to october. fifty grafts with three replications were made each time. to study varietal response to softwood grafting, scions of ten cultivars, viz., cricket ball, co-1, co-2, co3, dsh-1, dsh-2, guthi, h7/1, kalipati and pkm-2 were grafted on khirnee rootstock on 1st july of 2007 and 2008. fifty grafts with three replications in each combination were made. the terminal portion of sapota shoot having grayish coloured wood (6-8 mm thick and 6-8 cm in length) was used as scion. each graft was tied and covered with white polythene (pepsicap) for creating higher humidity around the scion. grafted plants were kept under partial shade for better success. plant growth was recorded 90 days after grafting. data presented in table 1 reveal that sapota cultivars responded significantly to softwood grafting, with different degree of success. the highest successful grafts were obtained in co-2 (85%) variety, followed by ‘cricket ball’ and ‘dsh-2’ (65%). but, there was total failure of graft in co-1, dsh-1 and guthi varieties. other cultivars like co-3, h-7/1, kalipatti and pkm-2 also showed poor response to softwood grafting. the results clearly indicates 1mps farm, dahijuri, paschim midnapore, west bengal, india j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 138-139, 2010 short communication prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 139 that graft-incompatibility phenomenon exists between stock and scion of sapota cultivars, which may be attributed to varied woody nature of tissues, differential active-movement of sap, presence of growth promoting/inhibiting factors at the site of graft union hampering cambial activity between stock and scion. differential response of sapota cultivars to softwood grafting has also been reported by kulwal et al (1988) and shirol et al (2005). incompatibility in softwood grafting in cultivars was also reported in fruit crops like cashew (ghosh, 1995) and custard apple (ghosh and tarai, 2005). another interesting observation in this experiment was that cultivars, co-2, cricket ball and dsh-2 [that gave the highest percentage of success (85 to 65%) under paschim midnapore, west bengal condition], showed less success in softwood grafting under dharward conditions of karnataka (shirol et al., 2005). this finding indicates that propagation technique needs to be standardized in each variety for each locality. growth of the grafted plants in respect of height and leaf production was better in cultivars with higher grafting success compared to that cultivars those performed poorly in softwood grafting. it is clear from data in table 2 that success in softwood grafting is significantly influenced by time of grafting. highest success (70 to 72%) was recorded when grafting was carried out on 1st july and 15th august, followed by 5th and 15th june. higher grafting success during the early part of monsoon (5th june to 1st july) was mainly due to favourable weather conditions (high humidity and atmospheric temperature) which could have resulted in maximum cambial activity in both stock and scion. besides, the scion seemed to be in a physiologically active condition for better sap flow at that time. although early and middle part of the rainy season (15th august) was found to be better under paschim midnapore condition of west bengal, in dharwad (karnataka), the months of april and may were the best suited for softwood grafting in sapota with graft success of 47 to 62% (sulikeri et al, 1997). in navsari (gujarat) january and february were congenial for approach-grafting (bhuva et al, 1990) in sapota. growth of grafts in terms of leaf production was higher in grafts prepared during the early part of rainy season (5th june to 15th july) and leaf number progressively decreased in grafts prepared after 15th july. references bhuva, h.p., katrodia j.s. and chundawat b.s. 1990. influence of environment on success of sapota propagation. the hort. j., 3:6-9 ghosh, s.n. 1995. studies on graft incompatibility in cashew. cashew bull., 32:8-9 ghosh, s.n. and ranjan tarai. 2005. effect of two rootstock species on success of grafting in nine types of custard apple. south ind. hort., 53:221-223 kulwal j., yayde g.s. and deshmukh, p.p. 1988. a simple method of grafting in sapota. shetkari, 1:26-29 shirol, a.m., kanamadi, v.c. and thammaiah, n. 2005. response of different sapota cultivars to softwood wedge grafting. the karnataka j. hort., 1:41-43 sulikeri, g.s., patil v.s., madalgeri m.b. and mokashi, a.n. 1997. standardization of softwood grafting technique in sapota. in. research and development in fruit crops in north karnataka, university of agricultural sciences, dharwad, 40-42 table 1. response of sapota cultivars to softwood grafting after three months cultivar success (%) plant number of height (cm) leaves/graft (extended new growth) cricket ball 65 (53.73) 2.8 15.4 co-1 0 (0.00) 0.0 0.0 co-2 85 (67.21) 6.0 19.0 co-3 25 (30.00) 1.4 10.0 dsh-1 0 (0.00) 0.0 0.0 dsh-2 65 (53.73) 3.2 17.6 guthi 0 (0.00) 0.0 0.0 h-7/1 30 (33.21) 2.6 8.8 kalipatti 25 (30.00) 1.1 8.2 pkm-2 20 (26.57) 2.4 8.0 sem ± 1.5 0.3 0.7 cd (p=0.05) 4.4 0.8 2.2 figures in parantheses indicate angular transformed values table 2. effect of season on success of softwood grafting in sapota after three months date of operation success (%) number of leaves/graft 5th june 62 (51.94) 13.8 15th june 56 (48.45) 14.0 1st july 72 (58.05) 12.0 15th july 45 (42.13) 14.8 1st august 15 (22.79) 8.0 15th august 70 (56.79) 9.6 1st september 20 (26.57) 7.0 15th september 10 (18.43) 6.0 1st october 0 (0.00) sem ± 1.6 cd (p=0.05) 4.8 1.6 figures in parantheses indicate angular transformed values (ms received 19 august 2009, revised 15 july 2010) effect of season and cultivar on grafting in sapota j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 138-139, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 278-292, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction tomato (solanum lycopersicum l.) is one of the most important vegetable crops cultivated in the wor ld. i t is u s ed a s s a la ds a nd a lso cooked vegetable in the preparation of curries. processed items su ch a s toma to p ur ee, ketchup, pickle, chutney, whole peeled tomatoes, and tomato powder are also consumed considerably. tomatoes are also an important source of vitamins and minerals. they are an excellent source of phosphorus, iron and vitamin a, b and c (cobley and steele, 1976). they also contain small amounts of the b complex vitamins; thiamin, niacin and riboflavin (naika et al., 2005). they are loaded in minerals, vitamins, essential amino acids, sugars and dietary fibers. most importantly, tomatoes are rich in carotenoids, especially lycopene (beecher, 1998). lycopene and other flavonoids in tomato serve as good source of antioxidants (agarwal and rao, 2000). tomato occupies 5.05 million hectares with a productivity of 37 t/ha in the world. in india it is cultivated in an estimated area of 0.81 million hectares with productivity of 25.3 t/ha (fao stat 2020). one of the major reasons for low productivity in india is due to prevalence of various biotic and abiotic stresses. white fly (b. tabaci) transmitted tomato leaf curl disease, bacterial wilt (r. solanacearum) and early blight (a. solani) cause economic yield losses in the major tomato growing areas of the country and elsewhere in the world (lukyanenko, 1991). though india is the second largest producer breeding tomatoes suitable for processing with triple disease resistance to tomato leaf curl disease, bacterial wilt and early blight sadashiva a.t.$*, oberoi h.s., singh t.h., prasanna h.c., madhavi reddy k. krishna reddy m., ravishankar k.v. and nayana r.s.** icarindian institute of horticultural research, bangalore, india $present address nethra crop sciences pvt., ltd, bengaluru, karnataka, india **university of horticultural sciences, bagalkot, karnataka, india *corresponding author email : atsbrs@gmail.com abstract india is the second largest producer of tomato with 11 per cent global share and cultivated on an estimated area of 0.76 million hectares with productivity of 24 tonnes per hectare. less than 1% of the produce is processed when compared to 26% in other major producing countries. of the estimated more than 41 million tonnes of tomato processed globally, only 130,000 tonnes were processed in india and domestic demand for processed tomato products is expanding at an estimated 30% annually. at present traditional fresh market tomato cultivars are being processed though such cultivars are unsuitable for processing. processors in india are looking for high yielding tomato cultivars with high total soluble solids (5-6 º brix), acidity not less than 0.4%, ph less than 4.5 and uniform red colour with a/b colour value of at least 2. in addition, firm fruited tomato cultivars with joint less pedicel (j2) which facilitate mechanical harvesting or rapid hand picking. icar-indian institute of horticultural research has recently developed two high yielding f1 hybrids in tomato viz: arka apeksha and arka vishesh suitable for processing. on evaluation for three years, both the hybrids recorded good level of total soluble solids (4.5-5º brix) and colour value of 2. further, both the hybrids had high yield potential (80-90 tonnes / hectare) with triple disease resistance to tomato leaf curl disease, bacterial wilt and early blight. arka apeksha and arka vishesh were also bred with jointless pedicel making them suitable for mechanical harvesting. our experimental studies on vine storability revealed that all the fruits were intact on plants even 110 days after transplanting in the main field facilitating once over harvest. 279 breeding tomatoes suitable for processing with triple disease resistance j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 278-292, 2022 of tomato with 11 % global share, less than 1% of the produce is processed when compared to 26% in other major producing countries of the estimated more than 41 million tonnes of tomato processed globally, only 130,000 tonnes are processed in india a nd domes t ic dema nd f or p r oc es s ed t oma t o products is expanding at an estimated 30% annually (subramaniam, 2016). at present traditional fresh market tomato cultivars are being processed though suc h cult iva r s a r e u nsuit a ble f or pr ocessing. processors in india are looking for high yielding tomato cultivars with high total soluble solids (56º brix), acidity not less than 0.4%, ph less than 4.5 and uniform red colour with a/b colour value of a t lea st 2 (stevens a nd rudich, 1 978). in addition, firm fruited tomato cultivars with joint less p edicel (j2 ) which f a c ilita te mecha nic a l harvesting or rapid hand picking. tomato breeding p r ogr a mme a t i c ar i ndia n i ns t it u t e of horticultural research, bengaluru has resulted in the development of high yielding dual purpose f1 hybrids with triple disease resistance to tomato leaf curl disease (tolcd), bacterial wilt (bw) and early blight (eb) suitable for both fresh market and processing. materials and methods development of triple disease resistant lines and f1 hybrids back cross breeding method was adopted during 2005 to pool genes carrying resistance to tolcd, bw and eb. an advanced breeding line iihr-2202 (cln-2123-dc1f1-111-17-21-2-12) with combined r esista nce to tolcd +bw received fr om the world vegetable center (wvc) was crossed with eb r esista nt line iihr-1816 (ncebr1). t he resultant f1 was backcrossed to iihr-1816 and further advanced up to bc1f7 to develop seven a dva nc ed b r eeding line s wit h t r ip le dis ea s e resistance to tolcd+bw+eb (fig. 1). all the seven advanced breeding lines were resistant to tolcd (ty 2), bw and eb had high potential with good fruit quality attributes like deep red and firm fruits. all the seven lines were crossed with eight advanced breeding lines received from the world vegetable center, taiwan in a line x tester design to develop 56 hybrids with triple disease resistance. two hybrid combinations viz., iihr2834 (tlber-12-21-43-1) x iihr-2833 (cln2498d) later named as arka rakshak and iihr2835 (tlber-38-7-4-27) x iihr-2832 (cln2498e) later named as arka samrat were resistant to tolcd+bw+eb with high yield potential & exc ellent fr u it qu a lit y a tt r ib ut es . bot h ar ka ra ksha k a nd ar ka sa mr a t wer e identified a t institute level for commercial cultivation during 2010 (fig. 2). results and discussion development of dual purpose f1 hybrids in tomato with triple disease resistance breeding for dual purpose tomato was initiated during 2016. our aim was to develop high yielding triple disease resistant f1 hybrids suitable for both f r es h ma r ket a nd p r oces s ing f or yea r r ou nd cultivation under open. several hybrid combinations were attempted involving the triple disease resistant parent iihr-2834 which had jointless (j2) pedicel which facilitates mechanical harvesting. iihr-2834 was crossed with two advanced breeding lines viz., iihr-2918 (tolcvres4-f3-21-9-1) and iihr29 17 ( tolc vr es4 -f 318 81-1 ) whic h wer e resistant to tolcd (ty 3) and bw and later named as arka apeksha (h-385) and arka vishesh (h391) respectively (fig. 3). performance of dual purpose f1 hybrids: arka apeksha (h-385) and arka vishesh (h-391) a total of eighteen f1 hybrids including two hybrids viz., h-385 (iihr-2834 x iihr-2918) and h-391 (iihr-2834 x iihr-2917) were evaluated for two years viz., 2017 (rainy season), 2017-18 (winter iihr-2202 (combined resistant to tolcv + bw) x iihr-1816 (moderately resistant to eb)  f1 x iihr-1816  bc1f1 (triple disease resistant recombinants selected underartificial conditions and advanced)  bc1f7 (seven advanced breeding lines viz; tlber-712-15-28, 7-12-15-29, 7-4-11-29, 7-4-11-34, 38-74-27, 38-7-41-43 and 12-21-43-1 with triple resistance were selected) fig. 1 : flow chart detailing the development of triple disease resistant tomato lines 280 fig. 2 : triple disease resistant f1 hybrids developed at icar-iihr arka rakshak arka samrat iihr-2833 iihr-2832 iihr-2834 iihr-2835 sadashiva et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 278-292, 2022 281 arka apeksha (h-385) arka vishesh (h-391) fig. 3 : arka apeksha and arka vishesh dual purpose tomato f1 hybrids sea son) and 2018 (r ainy season) a nd 2018-19 (winter sea son) r espectively under open field conditions. five commercial f1 hybrids viz., arka rakshak, arka samrat, abhinava, lakshmi and shivam were also included as checks. during rainy sea son (2017), h-397 wa s the highest yielder followed by h-391 (94 t/ha), h-387 (84 t /ha) & h-385 (83 t /ha) (table 1). during winter season (2017-18), h-391 (44 t/ha) was the top yielder followed by h-387 (34 t/ha) and h-397 (33t/ha) (table 2). during rainy season (2018), h-397 (51.88t/ha), h-387 (46t/ha), h-391 (28 t/ha) and h-385 (25 t/ha) (table 3) were the top yielders among the processing type. during winter season (2018-19) both h-391 (31 t/ha) and h-385 (30t/ha) were also high yielders (table 4). mean yield over all the seasons revealed that h385 (46 t/ha) &h-391 (43 /ha) (table 5) expressed high yield potentia l over the commer cia l dua l purpose hybrid abhinava (40 t/ha). both these two hybrids also recorded average fruit weight of 70g90g with high tss (50brix) and deep red firm fruits (8 kg/cm2) which meet present day market demand. during rainy season (2018), both the hybrids viz., h-385 and h-391 were triple disease resistant to tolcd+bw+eb, whereas commer cial hybrids expressed moder ate resista nce and susceptible r ea c tion to tol cd a nd bw (ta b le 6) . four season’s data revealed that h-385 and h-391 had high yield potential & commercially acceptable fruit quality attributes with triple disease resistance to tolcd, bw and eb. pooled analysis for yield per hectare over three years confirmed yield stability of arka apeksha and arka vishesh (table 7) breeding tomatoes suitable for processing with triple disease resistance j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 278-292, 2022 282 h yb ri d e st im aa ve ra ge n o of f ru it f ru it p er ic ar p t ss f ru it n o. sh el f f ru it f ru it te d yi el d f ru it fr ui t/ le ng th w id th th ic kn es s (0 b ri x) fi rm ne ss of l if e co lo ur sh ap e (t /h a) w ei gh t kg ( g) (c m ) (c m ) (c m ) (k g/ cm 2 ) lo cu le s (d ay s) h -3 85 83 .0 0 81 .2 3 12 .3 1 6. 25 4. 50 0. 10 5. 00 8. 25 2. 00 h -3 87 84 .0 0 92 .8 5 10 .7 7 5. 55 5. 00 0. 50 5. 10 9. 75 3. 00 18 r sq . r ou nd h -3 91 (a rk a v is he sh ) 93 .1 7 10 1. 11 9. 89 5. 90 5. 00 0. 75 5. 50 7. 00 3. 00 19 r sq . r ou nd h -3 97 11 2. 83 91 .6 6 10 .9 1 4. 90 6. 00 0. 70 5. 00 8. 00 6. 00 12 r o bl -r d h -4 23 52 .5 0 95 .2 4 10 .5 0 6. 10 5. 50 0. 55 4. 70 8. 25 3. 00 h -5 01 79 .5 0 93 .9 8 10 .6 4 5. 15 6. 00 0. 70 5. 00 7. 75 4. 00 14 r o bl -r d h -5 02 89 .5 0 80 .4 5 12 .4 3 4. 35 5. 80 0. 65 4. 00 8. 25 4. 00 h -5 04 72 .2 5 95 .1 5 10 .5 1 5. 10 5. 90 0. 50 4. 80 6. 75 6. 00 h -5 05 74 .6 7 10 1. 42 9. 86 5. 10 6. 00 0. 60 5. 00 9. 50 4. 00 h -5 06 98 .3 3 11 3. 38 8. 82 5. 15 6. 60 0. 90 4. 10 6. 75 5. 00 13 r o bl -r d ph -1 02 1 88 .8 3 13 4. 41 7. 44 5. 35 6. 00 0. 60 4. 70 8. 75 6. 00 8 r o bl -r d ph -1 02 5 89 .0 0 12 7. 23 7. 86 5. 75 6. 00 0. 70 5. 10 7. 25 6. 00 9 r o bl -r d ph -6 32 1 92 .2 3 12 0. 05 8. 33 6. 00 7. 30 0. 65 4. 15 7. 50 5. 00 9 r o bl -r d a rk a r ak sh ak 90 .1 7 72 .9 4 13 .7 1 5. 90 5. 00 0. 55 4. 40 8. 75 3. 00 18 d r o va l a rk a sa m ra t 10 3. 33 89 .9 3 11 .1 2 5. 10 6. 20 0. 80 4. 90 9. 00 4. 00 19 d r o bl -r d l ak sh m i 10 2. 33 63 .6 9 15 .7 0 5. 25 4. 80 0. 55 4. 25 6. 25 4. 00 13 d r o bl at e sh iv am 99 .8 3 86 .4 3 11 .5 7 4. 65 5. 65 0. 50 4. 80 6. 75 5. 00 13 d r o bl at e a bh in av 88 .3 3 90 .9 1 11 .0 0 5. 50 4. 60 0. 60 4. 35 8. 25 2. 00 13 d r o va l c d @ 5% 27 .8 3 18 .2 1 2. 08 0. 32 0. 15 0. 10 0. 73 0. 78 0. 15 c v ( % ) 19 .1 7 8. 21 11 .0 7 2. 30 0. 95 5. 25 5. 47 3. 70 2. 26 ta bl e1 : p er fo rm an ce o f to m at o f 1 h yb ri ds a t ic a r -i ih r , b en ga lu ru ( r ai ny s ea so n, 2 01 7) sadashiva et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 278-292, 2022 283 h yb ri d e st im at ed a ve ra ge n o of f ru it f ru it p er ic ar p t ss f ru it n o. o f yi el d f ru it fr ui t/ le ng th w id th th ic kn es s (0 b ri x) fi rm ne ss lo cu le s (t /h a) w ei gh t (g ) kg (c m ) (c m ) (c m ) (k g/ cm 2 ) h -3 85 ( a rk a a pe ks ha ) h -3 87 34 .0 0 85 .8 6 11 .6 5 6. 83 6. 33 0. 67 5. 17 8. 00 3. 00 h -3 91 ( a rk a v is he sh ) 43 .6 7 89 .5 6 11 .1 7 7. 17 6. 17 0. 90 4. 83 7. 17 2. 00 h -3 97 33 .3 3 10 5. 30 9. 50 6. 33 7. 17 0. 77 5. 17 7. 17 4. 00 h -4 23 h -5 01 16 .0 8 12 5. 00 8. 00 6. 50 7. 67 0. 97 5. 20 7. 00 6. 00 h -5 02 24 .8 3 10 9. 01 9. 17 6. 67 7. 33 0. 70 4. 83 7. 50 5. 00 h -5 04 h -5 05 34 .3 3 97 .6 4 10 .2 4 5. 17 6. 17 0. 67 5. 00 9. 00 3. 00 h -5 06 34 .8 3 10 5. 30 9. 50 5. 17 6. 33 0. 50 5. 00 6. 00 4. 00 ph -1 02 1 29 .1 7 12 0. 37 8. 31 6. 00 6. 67 0. 63 5. 17 8. 33 4. 00 ph -1 02 5 32 .3 3 13 2. 28 7. 56 7. 00 7. 50 0. 70 4. 83 8. 00 4. 00 ph -6 32 1 38 .1 7 11 2. 04 8. 93 6. 67 6. 77 0. 73 5. 17 8. 00 3. 00 a rk a r ak sh ak 40 .0 0 93 .9 4 10 .6 5 6. 67 6. 83 0. 83 4. 17 7. 50 4. 00 a rk a sa m ra t 40 .1 7 86 .7 5 11 .5 3 6. 17 7. 00 0. 80 5. 00 8. 00 3. 00 l ak sh m i 39 .8 3 88 .3 8 11 .3 1 6. 83 6. 17 0. 83 5. 00 8. 00 2. 00 sh iv am 37 .8 3 72 .1 2 13 .8 7 6. 50 6. 17 0. 53 5. 17 7. 00 5. 00 a bh in av 32 .3 3 92 .9 8 10 .7 6 4. 50 6. 00 0. 60 5. 00 6. 17 4. 00 c d @ 5% 15 .6 2 30 .3 7 2. 12 0. 65 0. 49 0. 10 0. 40 0. 39 0. 31 c v ( % ) 6. 78 6. 81 2. 21 1. 29 2. 00 7. 49 2. 87 1. 45 2. 14 ta bl e 2 : pe rf or m an ce o f to m at o f 1 h yb ri ds a t ic a r -i ih r , b en ga lu ru ( w in te r se as on , 20 17 -1 8) breeding tomatoes suitable for processing with triple disease resistance j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 278-292, 2022 284 h yb ri d e st im at ed a ve ra ge n o of f ru it f ru it p er ic ar p t ss f ru it n o. o f yi el d f ru it fr ui t/ kg le ng th w id th th ic kn es s (0 b ri x) fi rm ne ss lo cu le s (t /h a) w ei gh t (g ) (c m ) (c m ) (c m ) (k g/ cm 2 ) h -3 85 ( a rk a a pe ks ha ) 24 .6 7 66 .6 7 15 .6 7 5. 63 5. 27 0. 70 5. 00 8. 20 3. 33 h -3 87 46 .0 9 10 0. 00 10 .0 0 5. 03 4. 90 0. 70 4. 33 8. 17 3. 00 h -3 91 (a rk a v is he sh ) 28 .0 7 68 .7 0 14 .6 7 5. 33 5. 60 0. 97 4. 83 9. 17 3. 00 h -3 97 51 .8 8 81 .2 0 12 .3 3 4. 93 6. 30 0. 97 4. 17 6. 63 6. 00 h -4 23 22 .6 7 83 .3 3 12 .0 0 6. 20 5. 30 0. 80 5. 17 7. 37 3. 00 h -5 01 21 .0 4 12 0. 37 8. 33 5. 33 6. 03 0. 87 5. 00 6. 50 5. 00 h -5 02 2. 81 * 93 .9 4 10 .6 7 4. 00 5. 90 0. 91 5. 17 7. 33 5. 67 h -5 04 1. 04 * 91 .4 1 11 .0 0 4. 03 4. 90 0. 47 5. 73 6. 50 5. 00 h -5 05 9. 79 96 .9 7 10 .3 3 4. 50 4. 80 0. 50 4. 77 8. 33 4. 33 h -5 06 22 .1 9 10 0. 67 10 .0 0 5. 23 6. 23 0. 77 4. 23 6. 17 6. 00 ph -1 02 1 27 .6 0 12 0. 37 8. 33 5. 03 6. 20 0. 57 5. 37 7. 50 5. 00 ph -1 02 5 17 .8 1 12 0. 37 8. 33 5. 23 5. 90 0. 30 4. 60 8. 17 5. 00 ph -6 32 1 40 .6 3 11 6. 67 8. 67 5. 17 6. 03 0. 60 5. 10 10 .3 3 5. 00 a rk a r ak sh ak 52 .7 1 91 .4 1 11 .0 0 6. 17 5. 83 0. 93 5. 17 10 .3 0 3. 00 a rk a sa m ra t 40 .7 3 12 0. 37 8. 33 4. 97 5. 73 0. 83 5. 33 8. 70 5. 00 l ak sh m i 4. 38 * 84 .9 2 12 .0 0 5. 10 5. 33 0. 70 4. 17 7. 50 5. 67 sh iv am 25 .5 2 81 .2 0 12 .3 3 3. 93 6. 00 0. 53 5. 23 7. 67 6. 00 a bh in av 25 .8 3 10 3. 70 9. 67 6. 10 4. 87 0. 90 4. 50 8. 50 2. 00 c d @ 5% 18 .5 0 15 .1 2 2. 17 0. 31 0. 45 0. 18 0. 79 0. 48 0. 42 c v ( % ) 9. 30 0. 96 2. 45 0. 46 3. 12 2. 82 0. 65 1. 99 1. 26 ta bl e 3 : pe rf or m an ce o f pr om is in g to m at o hy br id s du ri ng r ai ny s ea so n (2 01 819 ) sadashiva et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 278-292, 2022 285 h yb ri d e st im at ed f ru it f ru it p er ic ar p t ss f ru it n o of yi el d le ng th w id th th ic kn es s (0 b ) f ir m ne ss lo cu le s (t /h a) (c m ) (c m ) (c m ) (k g/ cm 2 ) h -3 85 (a rk a a pe ks ha ) 30 .0 6. 8 6. 1 0. 7 5. 3 7. 5 2. 3 h -3 87 28 .8 6. 9 5. 6 0. 7 4. 5 7. 0 3 h -3 91 ( a rk a v is he sh ) 31 .4 6. 5 5. 6 0. 7 4. 7 6. 6 2. 7 h -4 23 28 .9 7 5. 6 0. 7 4. 4 7. 3 3. 3 h -5 01 24 .8 5. 5 7 0. 4 4. 8 6. 0 5. 3 h -5 02 28 .1 4. 5 6. 7 0. 6 5. 4 5. 7 5. 7 h -5 04 28 .6 4. 2 5. 8 0. 5 5. 5 6. 1 5. 0 h -5 05 26 .1 5. 8 6. 8 0. 7 5. 3 6. 9 5. 7 h -5 06 28 .0 5. 3 6. 5 0. 8 4. 6 6. 9 5. 3 ph -1 02 1 28 .3 5. 4 5. 8 0. 5 5. 4 7. 7 5. 7 ph -1 02 5 25 .3 6. 6 7 0. 5 5. 2 5. 9 6. 3 ph -6 32 1 32 .3 5. 7 5. 7 0. 6 5. 5 6. 0 6. 3 a rk a a bh ed 28 .9 5. 4 6. 1 0. 7 5 6. 7 6. 0 a rk a r ak sh ak 26 .6 6. 1 5. 4 0. 7 5. 2 6. 7 2. 7 a rk a sa m ra t 23 .7 6. 2 6. 2 0. 5 5. 5 6. 0 4. 0 l ak sh m i 22 .9 4. 4 5. 8 0. 5 5. 8 5. 8 4. 0 sh iv am 21 .6 4. 6 5. 5 0. 6 4. 8 6. 0 4. 7 a bh in av 30 .7 6. 3 5. 2 0. 7 5 7. 8 2. 0 c d ( p= 0. 05 ) 5. 35 0. 25 0. 45 0. 2 0. 65 0. 86 1. 58 c v ( % ) 2. 4 0. 53 0. 88 3. 91 1. 4 1. 61 3. 99 ta bl e 4 : pe rf or m an ce o f to m at o hy br id s du ri ng w in te r se as on ( 20 18 -1 9) breeding tomatoes suitable for processing with triple disease resistance j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 278-292, 2022 286 h yb ri d e st im at ed y ie ld a ve ra ge f ru it t ss f ru it f ir m ne ss % i nc re as e in (t /h a) w t (g ) (0 b ri x) (k g/ cm 2 ) yi el d ov er a bh in av h -3 85 ( a rk a a pe ks ha ) 46 .0 0 95 .1 4 5. 15 7. 85 15 h -3 87 41 .7 5 77 .5 6 4. 70 7. 80 h -3 91 ( a rk a v is he sh ) 43 .1 9 69 .8 8 4. 90 7. 20 7. 5 h -3 97 47 .4 6 74 .4 3 4. 60 7. 30 h -4 23 31 .2 0 82 .9 6 4. 40 6. 90 h -5 01 33 .4 9 10 1. 55 5. 35 6. 40 h -5 02 33 .8 3 83 .7 6 5. 10 6. 90 h -5 04 31 .3 8 88 .1 7 5. 30 6. 75 h -5 05 33 .8 0 94 .9 5 4. 75 7. 90 h -5 06 40 .0 4 88 .9 7 4. 90 7. 00 ph -1 02 1 36 .9 2 10 8. 80 5. 15 7. 05 ph -1 02 5 39 .3 4 92 .5 7 5. 15 6. 90 ph -6 32 1 42 .9 6 88 .1 2 4. 90 7. 65 a rk a r ak sh ak 43 .7 8 72 .0 7 4. 90 7. 80 a rk a sa m ra t 42 .5 6 75 .8 2 5. 30 7. 30 l ak sh m i 35 .8 8 65 .6 8 5. 15 6. 55 sh iv am 38 .0 0 72 .8 9 4. 95 6. 55 a bh in av 39 .7 7 72 .8 8 4. 80 7. 70 ta bl e 5 : m ea n pe rf or m an ce o f se le ct ed t om at o f 1 h yb ri ds f or y ie ld a nd q ua lit y pa ra m et er s sadashiva et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 278-292, 2022 287 h yb ri d r ea ct io n to t ol c b v d is ea se b ac te ri al w ilt r ea ct io n r ea ct io n d is ea se s ev er it y sc or e r ea ct io n in ci de nc e to to 30 dp i 60 dp i (% ) e b ( p d i) l b ( p d i) h -3 85 ( a rk a a pe ks ha ) 0. 44 ±0 .2 2 1. 00 ±0 .1 9 h r 2 (r ) 05 ( h r ) 97 ( h s) h -3 87 0. 67 ±0 .1 9 0. 89 ± 0. 29 h r 2 (r ) 10 ( h r ) 92 ( h s) h -3 91 (a rk a v is he sh ) 0. 33 ± 0 .1 9 0. 67 ± 0. 00 h r 1 (r ) 10 ( h r ) 10 0 (h s) h -3 97 0. 00 ± 0. 00 0. 44 ± 0. 19 h r 0 (h r ) 05 ( h r ) 0 (h r ) h -5 01 0. 22 ± 0 .1 1 0. 44 ± 0 .1 1 h r 0 (h r ) 20 ( r ) 94 ( h s) h -5 06 0. 22 ± 0. 11 0. 67 ± 0. 00 h r 2 (r ) 15 ( r ) 92 ( h s) a rk a r ak sh ak 1. 78 ± 0. 11 2. 44 ± 0. 19 m r 6 (r ) 15 ( r ) 10 0 (h s) a rk a sa m ra t 2. 00 ± 0. 19 2. 78 ± 0. 19 m r 8 (r ) 20 ( r ) 10 0 (h s) a bh in av a 1. 11 ± 0. 11 1. 67 ± 0 .1 9 m r 9 (r ) 30 ( m r ) 98 ( h s) l ak sh m i 0. 67 ± 0. 19 2. 17 ± 0 .1 1 m r 5 8 (h s) 30 ( m r ) 10 0 (h s) sh iv am 0. 83 ± 0. 19 3. 00 ± 0 .1 1 s 45 ( s) 05 ( h r ) 93 ( h s) pu nj ab c hu ha ra 1. 75 ± 0. 09 4. 00 ± 0 .0 0 h s c d @ 5% 0. 65 2 0. 65 0 14 .1 1 c v % 36 .3 2 22 .3 2 6. 89 n ot e: d pi = da ys o f po st i no cu la tio n, h r = h ig hl y r es is ta nt , m r = m od er at el y r es is ta nt , r = r es is ta nt , s= s us ce pt ib le a nd h s= h ig hl y su sc ep tib le ta bl e 6 : r ea ct io n of t om at o f 1 h yb ri ds t o to l c b v, b w , e b a nd l b d ur in g ra in y se as on ( 20 18 ) breeding tomatoes suitable for processing with triple disease resistance j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 278-292, 2022 288 assessment of arka apeksha (h-385) and arka vishesh (h-391) for processing qualities processing qualities in fine pulp were estimated in arka apeksha and arka vishesh at icar-iihr, bengaluru. both the hybrids exhibited higher values for tss (>50brix), lycopene (>12 mg/100g) and colour index (47) (table 8). processing qualities in tomato puree was also estimated in arka apeksha and arka vishesh. arka vishesh recorded the highest tss (11.200 brix) when compared to commercial puree marketed by popular processing industries such as dabur, kisan and morton (table 9). both the hybrids also exhibited higher values for lycopene (> 13 mg/ 100g). higher values were also observed for tss (>270brix) & lycopene (>14 mg/100g) in tomato paste in both the hybrids (arka apeksha & arka vishesh) (table 10). in order to assess the processing qualities and suitability of arka apeksha (h-385) and arka vishesh (h-391), fruit samples were supplied to four commercial processing industries located in the different states in the country viz., sahyadri foods, na shik, ma ha r a shtr a sta te, sun-sip foods, sr iniva sa pur a , ka r na ta ka sta te, ja dli foods, krishnagiri, tamil nadu state and cremica food industries ltd., phillaur, punjab state. sahydri foods analysed fruit samples of four entries viz., arka apeksha, arka vishesh, abhinav and arka ashish (a pure line selection from uc82b) for hunter lab colour value, lycopene, acidity, tss, ph and total solids in the initial pulp and puree (table 11). colour value was more than 2 in the puree in all the samples. arka apeksha and arka vishesh recorded tss 40 brix and >120 brix in the initial pulp and puree respectively which was slightly more than dual sadashiva et al table 7 : pooled analysis for estimated yield per hectare hybrid yield (t/ha) 2017 2018 2019 h-385 (arka apeksha) 83.0 24.7 30.0 h-387 84.0 46.1 28.8 h-391 (arka vishesh) 93.2 28.1 31.4 h-397 112.8 51.9 28.9 h-423 52.5 22.7 28.9 h-501 79.5 21.0 24.8 h-502 89.5 2.8 28.1 h-504 72.3 1.0 28.6 h-505 74.7 9.8 26.1 h-506 98.3 22.2 28.0 h-1021 88.8 27.6 28.3 h-1025 89.0 17.8 25.3 h-6321 92.2 40.6 32.3 arka rakshak 90.2 52.7 26.6 arka samrat 103.3 40.7 23.7 laxmi 102.3 4.4 22.9 shivam 99.8 25.5 21.6 abhinav 88.3 25.8 30.7 cd (p=0.05) 10.86 cv (5%) 24.58 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 278-292, 2022 289 hybrids tss ph acidity vit-c lycopene colour tomato (°brix) (%) (mg/ (mg/ value colour 100g) 100g) index abhinav 10.2 4.1 0.66 36.56 11.90 0.99 42.18 h-397 10.80 4.1 0.67 22.26 13.91 1.20 45.65 arka vishesh (h-391) 11.20 4.1 0.83 28.75 13.03 1.36 47.21 arka apeksha (h-385) 8.80 4.1 0.81 27.54 13.41 1.28 47.99 h-387 10.33 4.0 0.72 24.06 13.38 1.34 50.46 dabur old 9.8 3.9 0.59 13.42 14.02 1.21 45.22 dabur new sample 10 3.8 0.60 14.66 13.92 kisan 8.9 4.0 0.62 26.47 10.65 1.31 47.10 morton 9.0 4.0 0.634 19.74 10.72 1.14 45.38 table 9 : processing qualitiestomato puree table 10 : processing qualities-tomato paste hybrid tss acidity colour tomato vitamin lycopene tomato (°brix) (%) value as colour c (mg/ (mg/ colour per index 100g) 100g) index formula abhinav 28.0 1.95 1.20 47.72 47.13 12.85 28.0 h-397 27.5 1.31 1.73 53.36 32.08 14.16 27.5 arka vishesh (h-391) 27.0 1.72 1.38 48.98 38.97 14.13 27.0 arka apeksha (h-385) 26.2 1.43 1.40 50.65 36.58 14.15 26.2 indira 28.0 1.12 1.21 45.22 32.33 14.08 28.0 table 8 : processing qualities attribute for fine pulp hybrid tss total juice ph acidity vit-c lycoptomato (°brix) solids yield (%) (mg/ ene (mg/ colour (%) (%) 100g) 100g) index abhinav 5.68 7.54 74 4.2 0.38 27.84 10.26 44 h-397 5.66 6.86 67 4.1 0.33 17.52 12.19 45 arka vishesh (h-391) 5.40 6.60 70 4.3 0.54 15.83 12.97 47 arka apeksha (h-385) 5.33 6.88 74 4.2 0.54 20.15 13.41 47 h-387 5.00 7.26 74 4.1 0.52 13.85 11.95 47 purpose commercial hybrid abhinav and processing variety aka ashish. but arka ashish (476) recorded highest lycopene (c/2 scale) followed by abhinav (473), arka apeksha (469) and arka vishesh (442). acidity was less than 0.26 in arka ashish and abhinav. ph was less than 4.3 in all the entries. arka apeksha recorded the highest total solids (86.35%) (table 11) in the puree. both arka apeksha and arka vishesh had acceptable processing qualities. sun-sip foods analysed fruit samples in arka apeksha, arka vishesh and abhinav for process time, brix, acidity, ph, colour value and number. of pouches filled. all the parameters were on par with each other in the initial pulp and the final product, where as arka apeksha (2 hr 12 min) took less time compared to arka vishesh (2 h 25min ) & abhinav (2 h 27 min) breeding tomatoes suitable for processing with triple disease resistance j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 278-292, 2022 290 ta bl e 11 : p ro ce ss in g qu al ity p ar am et er s of s el ec te d hy br id s p ar am et er h -3 91 (a rk a v is he sh ) a bh in av h -3 85 ( a rk a a pe ks ha ) a rk a a sh is h in it ia l p ul p 12 b ri x pu re e in it ia l p ul p 12 b ri x pu re e in it ia l p ul p 12 b ri x pu re e in it ia l p ul p 12 b ri x pu re e h un te r o n o n o n o n o n o n o n o n o n o n o n o n o n o n o n o n l ab c ol ou r c /2 d 65 /2 c /2 d 65 /2 c /2 d 65 /2 c /2 d 65 /2 c /2 d 65 /2 c /2 d 65 /2 c /2 d 65 /2 c /2 d 65 /2 va lu e sc al e sc al e sc al e sc al e sc al e sc al e sc al e sc al e sc al e sc al e sc al e sc al e sc al e sc al e sc al e sc al e l 32 .9 2 31 .2 7 23 .7 4 23 .1 32 .3 8 31 .1 5 24 .3 23 .5 32 .7 5 30 .5 4 23 .6 5 22 .7 7 32 .7 7 31 .1 2 23 .1 7 22 .3 7 a 34 .3 6 31 .4 5 27 .8 9 26 .4 7 34 .0 4 31 .8 5 30 .8 6 29 .1 8 33 .2 6 30 .0 5 29 .4 8 28 .1 6 34 .0 9 31 .9 1 30 28 .4 b 16 .7 5 15 .3 13 .5 5 12 .1 8 15 .7 14 .1 9 14 .1 6 12 .9 6 17 .2 5 15 .3 3 13 .6 4 12 .6 17 .0 3 15 .3 7 13 .7 12 .4 9 a/ b 2. 05 2 2. 05 5 2. 05 8 2. 17 3 2. 16 9 2. 24 4 2. 17 9 2. 25 1 1. 92 8 1. 96 2. 16 2 2. 23 4 2. 00 2 2. 07 6 2. 18 9 2. 27 3 ly co pe ne c /2 44 0 n a 44 2 n a 47 1 n a 47 3 n a 40 9 n a 46 9 n a 42 8 n a 47 6 n a b ri x 4 12 .2 4 12 4 12 .2 3. 2 12 .1 a ci di ty 0. 3 0. 94 0. 25 0. 63 0. 35 0. 62 0. 26 1. 07 ph 4. 1 3. 93 4. 14 4. 1 4. 12 4. 09 4. 14 4. 16 to ta l s ol id s (% ) 95 .2 2% 85 .3 8% 94 .7 6% 85 .9 1% 95 .1 5% 86 .3 5% 96 .1 3% 84 .7 8% c ou rt es y: m r. sa ch in , s ah ya dr i fo od s, n as hi k, m ah ar as ht ra p ar am et er a rk a v is he sh ( h -3 91 ) a rk a a pe ks ha ( h -3 85 ) a bh in av n et f ru it w ei gh t (k g) 6 5. 85 6 pr oc es s t im e 2 h rs 2 5 m in 2 h rs 1 2 m in 2 h rs 2 7 m in r ea di ng s in iti al fi na l in iti al fi na l in iti al fi na l b ri x 4. 05 12 .1 2 4. 28 12 .2 1 4. 41 12 .3 1 a ci di ty % 0. 28 0. 89 0. 28 0. 85 0. 31 0. 89 ph 4. 16 3. 51 4. 01 3. 71 4. 0 3. 85 c ol ou ra/ b 1. 75 1. 98 1. 9 1. 97 1. 9 1. 98 n o of p ou ch es f ill ed 2 n o’ s 2 n o’ s 2 n o’ s c ou rt es y: m r. h em an th , su nsi p fo od s, s ri ni va sa pu ra , k ar na ta ka ta bl e 12 : p ro ce ss in g qu al ity p ar am et er s of s el ec te d hy br id s sadashiva et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 278-292, 2022 291 ta bl e 13 : p hy si ca l, ch em ic al , o rg an ol ep tic a na ly si s of f re sh f ru its p ar am et er a bh in av a rk a v is he sh ( h -3 91 ) a rk a a pe ks ha ( h -3 85 ) t .s .s . 4. 2o b ri x 4. 2o b ri x 4. 2o b ri x a c id it y (% a s c /a ) 0. 27 % 0. 33 % 0. 38 % se e d s pe r c e n ta g e v e r y l e ss v e r y l e ss v e r y l e ss c o l o u r d e e p r e d d e e p r e d d e e p r e d ta st e n a t u r a l & c h a r a c t e r st ic s n a t u r a l & c h a r a c t e r st ic s n a t u r a l & c h a r a c t e r st ic s o f r ip e t o m a t o o f r ip e t o m a t o o f r ip e t o m a t o fl u sh g o o d /d e e p r e d g o o d /d e e p r e d g o o d /d e e p r e d fl a v o r t y pi c a l r ip e t o m a t o f l a v o r t y pi c a l r ip e t o m a t o f l a v o r t y pi c a l r ip e t o m a t o f l a v o r a pp e a r a n c e so u n d & g o o d so u n d & g o o d so u n d & g o o d h yb ri d t .s .s . ph a ci di ty h un te r co lo r va lu e on v is co si ty ( 30 s ec .) v is ua l (0 b ri x) (% ) c 2 ill um in at io n b o st w ic k ob se rv at io n a rk a v is he sh (h -3 91 ) 4. 05 4. 39 0. 36 l =3 2. 56 a =3 5. 37 b =1 6. 67 a b= 2. 12 14 .0 0 l es s ju ic y, s of t sk in , le ss s ee d 4. 00 4. 44 0. 32 l =3 5. 80 a =3 4. 89 b =1 7. 96 a b= 1. 94 14 .0 0 3. 94 4. 42 0. 35 l =3 0. 19 a =3 4. 45 b =1 6. 16 a b= 2. 13 14 .2 0 m ea n 4. 00 4. 41 0. 34 a/ b= 2. 06 14 .0 0 a rk a a pe ks ha ( h -3 85 ) 4. 15 4. 36 0. 38 l =3 2. 52 a =3 5. 12 b =1 6. 84 a b= 2. 09 12 .0 0 h ar d sk in , le ss s ee d 4. 10 4. 43 0. 33 l =3 6. 51 a =3 5. 75 b =1 8. 09 a b= 1. 98 12 .5 0 4. 05 4. 42 0. 35 l =3 2. 94 a =3 5. 87 b =1 7. 43 a b= 2. 06 12 .5 0 m ea n 4. 1 4. 4 0. 35 a/ b= 2. 04 12 .3 3 c ou rt es y: c re m ic a, p hi lla ur , p un ja b ta bl e 14 : p ro ce ss in g qu al ity c ha ra ct er is tic s of h yb ri ds ; a rk a v is he sh ( h -3 91 ) an d a rk a a pe ks ha ( h -3 85 ) breeding tomatoes suitable for processing with triple disease resistance j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 278-292, 2022 292 table 15 : processable characteristics for arka vishesh (h-391) and aka apeksha (h-385) parameter h-391 h-385 parameters desired by processing industry tss (degree obrix) 4-4.6 4-4.7 4.2 or higher (higher the better) colour value 1.98-2.12 1.96-2.09 > 1.95 acidity (%) 0.32-0.36 0.34-0.38 <0.40 ph 4.21-4.41 4.12-4.40 < 4.40 texture/ firmness 4.09-5.41 4.05-4.30 > 4 lycopene (mg/100g fresh weight) 8.5-10.5 11.12-11.42 >8.0 lycopene in tomato paste 14.14 14.15 >14 (mg/100g fresh weight) viscosity (bostwick, cms/30 sec) 14-14.20 12-12.50 7-14 (table 12). jadli foods carried out physical, chemical and organoleptic analysis of fresh fruits. all the parameters in arka apeksha and arka vishesh were on par with commercial hybrid abhinav (table 13). cremica analysed both arka apeksha and arka vishesh for tss (40brix), ph (4.4), acidity (0.35), colour value (>2) and viscosity (12-14) (table 15). conclusion values obtained for all the parameters revealed that both the hybrids in arka apeksha and arka vishesh were suitable for processing. the processing qualities analysed by four commercial processing industries were in the acceptable range as desired by the processing industry in india. however, there is a need to breed tomato varieties / f1 hybrids with higher tss (5.5-60 brix). references agarwal, s. and rao, a. v., 2000, tomato lycopene and its role in huma n health and chr onic diseases. cmaj, 163(6): 739-744. beecher, g. r. 1998, nutrient content of tomatoes and tomato products, proc. soc. exp. biol. med., 218: 98-100. cobley, l. s and steele, w. m., 1976, an introduction to the botany of tropical crops. elbs and longman, london, p. 267-272 faostat: http://faostat3.fao.org/home/e). accessed on 21st march 2022. lukyanenko, a. n., 1991, disease resistance in toma to. in genetic impr ovement of tomato. springer, berlin, heidelberg, p. 99-119. naika, s., juede, j.,goffau, m.,hilmi, m. and dam, v., 2005, cultivation of tomato production, processing and marketing. agromisa/cta, agrodokseries no. 17. stevens, m. a. and rudich, j., 1978, genetic potential for overcoming physiological limitations on adaptability, yield, and quality in the tomato. hortic. sci., 13(6): 673-677. subramanian r. 2016. india processing tomato segment: cur r ent sta tus, tr ends a nd opportunities for engagement. world vegetable center, taiwan. sadashiva et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 278-292, 2022 (received : 21.03.2022; revised : 01.12.2022; accepted : 12.12.2022) introduction alpha-crystallin domain (acd) belongs to the class of small heat-shock proteins (shsps) functioning as a molecular chaperone, preventing undesired protein-protein interactions and assisting in refolding of denatured proteins (liberek et al, 2008). the term ‘molecular chaperone’ is normally used for describing the function of alpha-hsps, as, these bind to and stabilize misfolded conformers of proteins, and, facilitate refolding of proteins in vivo (parsell and lindquist, 1993). to protect irreversible disaggregation of proteins, the chaperone activity of alpha-shsps is limited to binding unstable intermediates (jorg and elizabeth 1994). most acds have some common structural and functional features, including the molecular chaperone activity. alphacrystallins merge into a highly synergistic and adaptable multi-chaperone network to secure protein-quality control in the cell (franz, 2002). productive delivery and refolding in silico analysis of whole-genome of solanum lycopersicum for alpha-crystallin domains associated with heat stress tolerance m.k. chandra prakash, reena rosy thomas and papiya mondal section of economics & statistics icar-indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bengaluru 560089, india e-mail: mk_chandraprakash@yahoo.com abstract living organisms alter their gene-expression patterns to withstand stressful conditions. drought, salinity, heat and chilling are potent abiotic stresses causing an alteration in gene expression. among these, high temperature stress stimulates heat shock transcription factors (hsf) which activate heat shock promoters, thus turning on the heat shock genes. heat shock proteins are, therefore, products of heat shock genes and are classified as per their molecular weight, including small heat shock proteins (shsps). hsps are chaperones playing an important role in stress tolerance. these consist of a conserved domain, flanked by nand c-terminal regions termed the alphacrystallin domain (acd), and are widely distributed in living beings. their role as chaperones is to help the other proteins in protein-folding and prevent irreversible protein aggregation. the conserved domains in shsps are essential for heat-stress tolerance and for their molecular chaperone activity, enabling plant survival under increasing temperatures, leading to adaptations needed for coping with extremes climatic conditions. the present study focusses on identification of acds in the whole-genome of solanum lycopersicum. a multinational consortium, international tomato annotation group (itag), funded in part by the eu-sol project, provides annotation of the whole genome of s. lycopersicum available in the public domain. we used several in silico methods for exploring alpha-crystallin domains in all the chromosomes of s. lycopersicum. surprisingly, these acds were found to be present in all the chromosomes excepting chromosome 4; these are highly conserved in shsps and are related to heat tolerance. key words: solanum lycopersicum, alpha-crystallin domain (acd), small heat shock proteins (shsps), in silico, heat stress j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):143-146, 2015 of misfolded proteins into their native state demands close cooperation with other cellular chaperones. further, alphahsps have a significant role in stabilizing the cell membrane. acds are conserved regions found in shsps of all the three domain of life (bacteria, archaea and eukarya), suggesting their wide importance. there are different classes of acd proteins comprising classical shsps and, likely, chaperones. the α-crystallin domains are fundamental building blocks for most shsps, consisting of several beta strands accountable for dimer formation arranged into two beta-sheets (tariq et al, 2010). mostly, varying the shsps acquires less conserved nand c-terminal extensions, whereas, greater sequence similarities can be seen in conserved acds (eisenhardt, 2013). unfortunately, very little information is available on acds. however, some examples indicate that this family is of great significance. recently, in arabidopsis, one acd protein was reported 144 to be an essential element of a specific resistancemechanism against systemic spreading of the tobacco etch virus (whitham et al, 2000). it was reported that both shsps and α-crystallins show atp-independent molecular chaperone activity and, under heat stress, interact with partially unfolded polypeptides to prevent unspecific aggregation of protein substrates (jakob et al, 1993 and tyedmers et al, 2010). the tomato genome: tomato genome consortium started its work in the year 2003. genome of the tomato (solanum lycopersicum l.) was sequenced completely and published in 2012 (ftp://ftp.sgn.cornell.edu/genomes/ solanum_lycopersicum/annotation/). size of the tomato genome is 950 megabases (mb), divided into 12 linear molecules, each containing different chromosomes. the shortest is chromosome 6, with 46,041,647 nucleotides; the longest is chromosome 1, with 90,304,255 nucleotides. average length of the chromosome is 65 million nucleotides of dna sequence. in the present study, acds available in whole-genome of s. lycopersicum have been explored. in computational biology, genes can be detected by comparing genomes of related species. these detect evolutionary pressure for conservation, especially identification of conserved regions (including markers) as, these are conserved evolutionarily across species, and include solanaceous crops (reena et al, 2013). conservedness relies heavily on sequence-similarity, whose run-time grows with square of the number and length of the aligned sequence, demanding noteworthy computational resources (nagar and hahsler 2013). material and methods identification of conserved domains in genes is one of the important steps in understanding the genome of any species. sequence-similarities provide evidence for functional and structural conservation, along with evolutionary relationships, between sequences. specifically, shsp sequences are highly conserved across species, despite evolutionary pressure (chandraprakash et al, 2013). comparative analysis is a key method by which functional elements are identified. ligand-binding sites of proteins and active sites of enzymes are the most highly conserved protein sequences. to identify conserved elements in a desired gene, the same sequence from several species should be aligned and common areas should be identified. in our work, several in silico methods were used for showing the presence of conserved domains, especially acds belonging to shsp of s. lycopersicum. published shsp sequences were used for comparative analysis to identify similar regions in the whole-genome of s. lycopersicum. the identified, similar regions in tomato genomic sequences were obtained. these sequences were uploaded onto ncbi batch cd search program in an appropriate format to be processed as batch files. ncbi batch cd search program is one of the programs used for searching the input sequences against conserved domain database (cdd). the output generated (cdd) is a tabdelimited list of conserved-domain hits, found on each protein, against input query sequences of s. lycopersicum. from the output file, matching sequences of α-crystallin domain were clustered chromosome-wise. these acds were found to be highly conserved and available in almost all the chromosomes in multiple copies. results and discussion generally, highly-conserved proteins are needed in fundamental cellular functions, stability or reproduction. conservation of the protein structure is indicated by presence of functionally equivalent amino acid residues (not necessarily identical) and structures between analogous parts of the protein structure. chandraprakash et al (2013) reported hsps to be evolutionarily conserved in solanaceous crops. defined by conserved alphacrystalline domains, a sequence of 90 amino acid residues (approximately) constitutes small heat shock proteins (also known as αhsps) (macrae, 2000). most multiple α-hsps translated in plants are housed in different cellular compartments, to prevent them from interacting with each other (franz, 2002). however, engineering a single transcribed gene is not of much use, as, more than one stress-responsive genes may be necessary for survival of a plant under extreme conditions. at the genomic level, understanding the expression of a specific protein under a particular abiotic stress can provide a base for recognizing genes (reena et al, 2013). expression of shsps is seen in response to various kinds of abiotic stresses, including extreme temperatures, oxidative stress, osmotic stress, etc. in the present study, published sequences matched against the available s. lycopersicum database revealed 61 alpha-crystallin domains to be widely distributed throughout the whole-genome of s. lycopersicum, except in chromosome 4. a genome-wide analysis for presence of acds revealed these to be conserved in shsps. a chromosome-wise distribution of acds in the whole-genome of s. lycopersicum is shown in fig. 1. chandra prakash et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):143-146, 2015 145 in silico analysis in wheat had shown the presence of alpha crystalline domain (kumar et al, 2012). in the human genome, α-crystallin–related small heat shock proteins are dispersed over nine chromosomes (kappé et al, 2003). chromosome-wise distribution of alpha crystallin domains (acds) in s. lycopersicum, along with the nature of protein and matching similarity-values, is presented in table 1. genome-wide, this acd is sited maximally in chromosomes 2 and 9, followed by chromosomes 12, 8, 7, 6, 11, 3, 1, 10 and 5, with the exception of chromosome 4. acds in chromosome 6 had maximum matching similarity. genome-wide analysis of acds revealed these genes to be enriched on several chromosomes, majorly, 15% in chromosomes 2 and 9. acds are unusually abundant and cover a segment in heat stress induced proteins termed small heat shock proteins, ranging in size from ~ 17 to 30 kda. these are highly conserved sequences of around 90 amino acids, found extensively in all the domains of life. representation of a typical acd structure with two conserved regions that form a sandwich of two β pleated-sheets is shown in fig. 2. the ubiquitous nature of acds implies that these domains are of great significance and help plants combat heat-stress and render longevity. acknowledgement the authors wish to thank centre for agricultural bioinformatics, and, pi of cab-in project for funding this work. they are also thankful to icar-indian institute of horticultural research and iasri, for technical support. references chandraprakash, m.k., reena rosy thomas, krishna reddy, m. and sukhada mohandas. 2013.molecular evolutionary conservedness of small heat shock protein sequences in solanaceae crops using in silico methods. j. hortl. sci., 8:82-87 eisenhardt, b.d. 2013. small heat shock proteins: recent developments. biomol. concepts,4:583-595 franz narberhaus. 2002. alpha-crystallin-type heat shock proteins: socializing minichaperones in the context of a multichaperone network. microbiol. mol. biol. rev., 66:64-93 jakob, u., gaestel, m., engel, k. and buchner, j. 1993. small heat shock proteins are molecular chaperones. j. biol. chem., 268:1517-20 jorg becker and elizabeth a. craig. 1994. heat-shock proteins as molecular chaperones. european j. biochem., 219:11-23 kappé, g., franck, e., verschuure, p., boelens, w.c., leunissen, j.a.m. and de jong, w.w. 2003. the human genome encodes 10 α-crystallin-related small heat shock proteins: hspb1-10. cell stress chaperones, 8:53-61 kumar, r.r., singh, g.p., sharma, s.k., singh, k., goswami, s. and rai, r.d. 2012. molecular cloning of hsp17 gene (shsp) and their differential expression under exogenous putrescine and heat shock in wheat fig. 1. distribution of alpha-crystallin domains (acd) in solanum lycopersicum chromosomes table 1. distribution of ααααα-crystalline domains (acd) in the wholegenome of solanum lycopersicum sl. chromosome total number nature of hit-value no. no. of acds protein range 1 chr 1 3 shsp 599-734 2 chr 2 9 shsp 523-959 3 chr 3 4 shsp 649-765 4 chr 4 5 chr 5 2 shsp 507-1033 6 chr 6 5 shsp 667-8824 7 chr 7 6 shsp 597-1101 8 chr 8 7 shsp 791-948 9 chr 9 9 shsp 616-1007 10 chr 10 3 shsp 520-780 11 chr 11 5 shsp 595-933 12 chr 12 8 shsp 625-941 fig. 2. quaternary structure of a typical acd in silico analysis of whole-genome of tomato for heat stress j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):143-146, 2015 146 (triticum aestivum). african j. biotech., 11:16800 -16808 liberek, k., lewandowska, a. and zietkiewicz, s. 2008. chaperones in control of protein disaggregation. embo j., 27:328-335 macrae, t.h. 2000. structure and function of small heat shock/alpha-crystallin proteins: established concepts and emerging ideas. cell mol. life sci., 57:899-913 nagar, a. and hahsler, m. 2013. fast discovery and visualization of conserved regions in dna sequences using quasi-alignment. bmc bioinformatics, 14 suppl., 11:s2 parsell, d.a. and lindquist, s. 1993. the function of heat shock proteins in stress tolerance: degradation and reactivation of damaged proteins. annu. rev. genet., 27:437-497 reena rosy thomas, chandraprakash, m.k., krishna (ms received 31 march 2015, revised 15 november 2015, accepted 18 november 2015) reddy, m., sukhada mohandas and riaz mahmood. 2013. microsatellite identification in solanaceae crops associated with nucleoside diphosphate kinase (ndk) specific to abiotic stress tolerance through in silico analysis. j. hortl. sci., 8:195-198 tariq mahmood, waseem safdar, bilal haider abbasi and saqlan naqvi, s.m. 2010. an overview on the small heat shock proteins. african j. biotech., 9:927-939 tyedmers, j., mogk, a. and bukau, b. 2010. cellular strategies for controlling protein aggregation. nat’l. rev. mol. cell biol., 11:777-788 whitham, s.a., anderberg, r.j., chrisholm, s.t. and carrington, j.c. 2000. arabidopsis rtm2 gene is necessary for specific restriction of tobacco etch virus and encodes an unusual small heat shock like protein. pl. cell, 12:569-582 chandra prakash et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):143-146, 2015 introduction ber (zizyphus mauritiana lamk.) is a hardy fruit crop and its fruits are a good source of vitamin c and minerals like calcium, phosphorus and iron. it is an ideal fruit for cultivation in the arid and semi-arid zones of northern india, because of its very low irrigation requirement in the hot and dry months of may and june, when it sheds its leaves and enters into a period of dormancy. due to high economic returns, improved budded varieties of ber are being cultivated on a commercial scale in punjab, haryana, rajasthan and uttar pradesh. ber can thrive well under adverse conditions, viz., salinity, drought and waterlogging. however, high post-harvest losses are a major constraint in developing the ber fruit industry in the country. ber fruits are perishable in nature and cannot be stored for long periods under ambient conditions (salunkhe and kadam, 1995). calcium compounds are known to extend the shelf-life of several fruits by maintaining firmness, minimizing the rate of respiration, protein breakdown and disease incidence (gupta et al, 1980). growth regulators also increase the post harvest life of fruits by retarding of ripening, senescence, by minimizing the rate of respiration and by reduction in weight loss (huang, 1974). the ber industry can take a further leap if its post-harvest life is effect of post-harvest treatment on storage quality in ‘umran’ ber fruit s. k. jawandha, j. s. randhawa, p. p. s. gill and jagjit singh department of horticulture punjab agricultural university, ludhiana – 141 004, india email: punjabbeauty2000@rediffmail.com abstract an experiment was conducted to study the effect of post-harvest sprays of cacl 2 (@ 0.5%, 1.0% & 2.0%), ca(no 3 ) 2 (@ 0.5%, 1.0% & 2.0%), ga 3 (@ 20, 40 and 60 ppm) and bavistin (0.1%) on storage quality of ‘umran’ ber’. fruits of uniform size were harvested at physiological maturity and treated with various chemicals. treated fruits were placed in cfb boxes and placed in cold storage (3-5 °c and 85-95% rh). stored fruits were evaluated at 10, 20 and 30 days from storage for palatability rating, tss, acidity, vitamin c and total sugars. after 30 days from storage, the highest palatability rating was recorded in ga 3 (60 ppm) treated fruits, followed by cacl 2 (2.0%). both tss and total sugars showed a similar trend of increase upto 20 days from storage, followed by a decrease. however, acidity and vitamin c content of fruits decreased continuously with advancement of storage period. at the end of storage, maximum tss, total acidity vitamin c and total sugars were observed in ga 3 (60 ppm) treated fruits, followed by cacl 2 (2.0%). studies revealed that ga 3 (60 ppm) treated ber fruits maintained very good quality at 20 days of cold storage. key words: ber, ga 3 , calcium, post-harvest treatment, cold storage extended without significant deterioration in fruit quality. the present study was, therefore, undertaken to study the effect of post-harvest treatments with various chemical compounds on the quality of ber fruit during cold storage. material and methods the present study was conducted in the department of horticulture, punjab agricultural university, ludhiana during the years 2002 and 2003. uniform sized fruits of ‘umran’ cultivar were harvested at optimum maturity from the marked trees. the fruits were dipped in aqueous solution (at 20°c) of different compounds, viz., as cacl 2 (0.5, 1.0 & 2.0%), ca(no 3 ) 2 (0.5, 1.0 & 2.0 %), ga 3 (20, 40 & 60 ppm) and bavistin (0.1%) for five minutes. treated fruits were then air dried in shade, packed in netlon bags (1.0 kg) and placed in cfb boxes (30.0 x 21.5 x 21.5 cm) of 5% perforation with paper lining. thereafter, these boxes were kept in cold storage (3-5°c and 85-95% rh). the experiment was laid out in completely randomized block design with eleven treatments and three replications. each replication comprised of one kilogram fruit. fruit samples were analysed for physico-chemical changes like palatability rating (pr), tss, acidity, vitamin c content and total sugars at 10, 20 and 30 days of storage. palatability j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 48-52, 2008 page 48 49 rating (pr) was recorded on the basis of a score card viz., 1-poor; 2-fair; 3-good; 4-very good and 5-excellent (dhanrai et al, 1980). total soluble solids (tss) were determined with the help of hand refractometer from the juice of fruit and the values were corrected at 20°c. fruit acidity was estimated by titrating the juice against standard 0.1 n sodium hydroxide solution using phenolphthalein as indicator and represented as per cent. vitamin c content was determined by titrating the juice against 2, 6dichlorphenol indophenol dye solution to a light pink colour, which persisted for 15 seconds. results were expressed as mg/100 g of fruit flesh. total sugars were estimated by titrating boiling fehling solution (5 ml a + 5 ml b) against aliquot using methylene blue as the indicator (a.o.a.c., 1980). results and discussion palatability rating (pr) of fruits decreased significantly with advancement of storage period regardless of the post harvest treatment (table 1). at the end of storage, fruits treated with ga 3 (60 ppm) showed maximum pr (3.16 & 3.25). prolongation of fruit life due to growth regulators is probably due to effectiveness of these chemicals in retardation of ripening and senescence and reduction in weight loss (huang, 1974). likewise, various calcium treatments significantly increased pr as compared to control. increase in calcium content of the fruits has been associated with reduced softening (haggag, 1987), decreased incidence of physiological disorders and improved storage life (raese, 1986). similar results were also reported by chahal and bal (2003) in ber fruits. tss content of fruits increased upto 20 days of storage in all the treatments, except the control, which recorded increase in tss content only upto 10 days of storage (table 2). but, at 30 days of storage, decrease in tss content was noticed in all the treatments. jawanda et al (1980) also reported inconsistent trend in tss of ber fruits during cold storage. among the different treatments, ga3 (60 ppm) recorded the maximum tss at the end of storage, closely followed by cacl 2 (2.0%) treatment. this might be due to reduction in metabolic activities like respiration and senescence by ga 3 (60 ppm) and cacl 2 (2.0%) treatments. during the course of investigation, there was an initial rise in tss content of fruits till it reached the peak, followed by a gradual decline after 30 days of storage. the initial increase in tss may be due to hydrolysis of starch into mono-and di-saccharides, and, on complete hydrolysis of starch, no further increase occurred. subsequently, a decline was observed because of utilization of the primary substrate for respiration (wills et al, 1980). fruit acidity showed a general decline in all the treatments as storage period progressed (table 3). such a decrease in acidity might be attributed to conversion of acids to sugars and then utilization in the respiration process (pool et al, 1972). sandbhor and desai (1991) also reported a gradual decrease of acid content in ber fruit during storage. after 30 days of cold storage, lowest acidity was recorded table 1. effect of post-harvest treatment on palatability rating in ber fruits during cold storage palatability rating treatment 2002 2003 days after storage days after storage 10 20 30 mean 10 20 30 mean cacl2 0.5% 4.58 3.25 2.30 3.38 4.40 3.15 2.40 3.32 cacl2 1.0% 4.66 3.30 2.40 3.45 4.50 3.41 2.50 3.47 cacl2 2.0% 4.80 3.70 3.00 3.83 4.80 3.60 3.10 3.83 ca(no 3 ) 2 0.5% 4.41 3.00 2.15 3.19 4.30 3.00 2.20 3.17 ca(no 3 ) 2 1.0% 4.60 3.15 2.20 3.31 4.38 3.00 2.33 3.24 ca(no 3 ) 2 2.0% 4.50 3.40 2.50 3.46 4.58 3.50 2.75 3.61 ga 3 20 ppm 4.60 3.20 2.30 3.37 4.50 3.33 2.50 3.44 ga 3 40 ppm 4.75 3.50 2.75 3.67 4.70 3.60 2.85 3.72 ga 3 60 ppm 4.80 4.00 3.16 3.97 4.83 3.75 3.25 3.94 bavistin 0.1% 4.00 3.00 2.00 3.00 4.25 3.10 2.00 3.12 control (untreated) 3.75 2.50 1.60 2.62 3.83 2.60 1.62 2.68 mean 4.50 3.27 2.40 4.46 3.28 2.50 cd (p=0.05) treatments (a) = 0.213 0.183 storage days (b) = 0.111 0.196 interaction (a x b) = 0.302 0.210 post-harvest storage quality in ber j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 48-52, 2008 50 in untreated fruits, whereas highest acidity was observed with ga 3 (60 ppm) followed by cacl 2 (2.0%) treatment. this might be due to low respiration rate in ga 3 (60 ppm) and cacl 2 (2.0%) treatments. data pertaining to vitamin c content in the fruit are presented in table 4. significant decrease in vitamin c content was noted with advancement of storage period in all the treatments. these findings were in accordance with the results of bal et al (1978) who reported a decrease in vitamin c content with prolongation of storage period. reduction in vitamin c content might be attributed to its oxidation in the presence of molecular oxygen by ascorbic acid oxidase (mapson, 1970; tarkase and desai, 1989). at the end of storage, minimum vitamin c content was found in control fruits, whereas, it was maximum in ga 3 (60 ppm) treated fruits, followed by cacl 2 (2.0%) treatment, which may be a result of low respiration transpiration rates and delayed senescence (huang,1974; faust and shear, 1972). total sugars showed an increasing trend up to 20 days of storage in all the treatments except in control, but decreased after 30 days of storage. similar results were also reported by jayachandran et al (2005) in gauva fruits. stahl and camp (1971) reported certain cell wall materials such table 2. effect of post-harvest treatment on total soluble solids in ber fruits during cold storage tss% treatment 2002 2003 days after storage days after storage 10 20 30 mean 10 20 30 mean cacl2 0.5% 13.66 14.40 12.50 13.52 13.53 14.30 12.60 13.48 cacl2 1.0% 13.53 14.20 12.66 13.46 13.40 14.20 12.70 13.43 cacl2 2.0% 13.46 13.80 12.86 13.37 13.35 13.80 12.94 13.36 ca(no 3 ) 2 0.5% 13.80 14.80 12.30 13.63 13.60 14.40 12.46 13.49 ca(no 3 ) 2 1.0% 13.70 14.40 12.45 13.52 13.60 14.20 12.60 13.46 ca(no 3 ) 2 2.0% 13.60 14.00 12.70 13.43 13.50 14.00 12.80 13.43 ga 3 20 ppm 13.60 14.40 12.60 13.53 13.60 14.20 12.70 13.50 ga 3 40 ppm 13.40 13.93 12.80 13.38 13.42 13.80 12.85 13.36 ga 3 60 ppm 13.40 13.70 13.00 13.37 13.20 13.73 13.13 13.35 bavistin 0.1% 13.66 14.60 12.33 13.53 13.70 14.40 12.40 13.50 control (untreated) 14.80 13.80 12.10 13.57 14.80 13.86 12.00 13.55 mean 13.69 14.18 12.57 13.61 14.08 12.65 cd (p=0.05) base value = 13.20 base value = 13.10 treatments (a) = 0.072 0.008 storage days (b) = 0.088 0.010 interaction (a x b) = 0.029 0.033 table 3. effect of post-harvest treatment on acidity in ber fruits during cold storage treatment acidity (%) 2002 2003 days after storage days after storage 10 20 30 mean 10 20 30 mean cacl2 0.5% 0.154 0.144 0.128 0.142 0.157 0.143 0.132 0.144 cacl2 1.0% 0.157 0.144 0.130 0.143 0.160 0.150 0.137 0.149 cacl2 2.0% 0.164 0.152 0.140 0.152 0.170 0.156 0.142 0.156 ca(no 3 ) 2 0.5% 0.152 0.139 0.122 0.137 0.155 0.140 0.130 0.142 ca(no 3 ) 2 1.0% 0.157 0.140 0.126 0.141 0.160 0.150 0.134 0.148 ca(no 3 ) 2 2.0% 0.164 0.146 0.134 0.148 0.164 0.148 0.138 0.150 ga 3 20 ppm 0.160 0.148 0.136 0.148 0.164 0.152 0.138 0.151 ga 3 40 ppm 0.167 0.150 0.138 0.151 0.174 0.152 0.140 0.155 ga 3 60 ppm 0.170 0.156 0.142 0.156 0.174 0.159 0.148 0.160 bavistin 0.1% 0.152 0.140 0.124 0.138 0.157 0.146 0.132 0.145 control (untreated) 0.140 0.132 0.120 0.130 0.150 0.138 0.118 0.135 mean 0.157 0.144 0.131 0.162 0.148 0.135 cd (p=0.05) base value = 0.173 base = 0.176 treatments (a) = 0.0034 0.0032 storage days (b) = 0.0018 0.0017 interaction (a x b) = ns ns jawandha et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 48-52, 2008 51 as pectin and hemicellulose to be converted into reducing substances during prolonged storage. at the end of the storage, maximum total sugars content were recorded in ga 3 (60 ppm) and cacl 2 (2.0%) treated fruits, whereas untreated fruits registered minimum total sugars content (table 5). it might be due to low respiration rate and delayed senescence in ga 3 and cacl 2 (2.0%) treated fruits. gupta et al (1984) stated that calcium compounds significantly thickened middle lamella of the fruit cells owing to increased deposition of calcium pectate, thereby maintaining the cell wall and cell wall material. table 4. effect of post-harvest treatment on vitamin c content in ber fruits during cold storage treatment vitamin c (mg/100 g fruit flesh) 2002 2003 days after storage mean days after storage mean 10 20 30 10 20 30 cacl2 0.5% 82.76 62.80 53.68 66.41 83.25 63.45 55.03 67.24 cacl2 1.0% 84.32 67.08 57.63 69.67 87.20 67.12 57.83 70.72 cacl2 2.0% 90.87 71.42 60.88 74.39 92.86 71.79 63.92 76.19 ca(no 3 ) 2 0.5% 82.80 60.40 52.29 65.16 82.40 60.93 54.49 65.94 ca(no 3 ) 2 1.0% 85.98 63.84 55.62 68.48 84.80 66.41 56.34 69.18 ca(no 3 ) 2 2.0% 86.72 65.27 58.26 70.08 88.32 67.44 59.74 71.83 ga 3 20 ppm 88.44 67.35 56.82 70.87 90.40 68.36 57.62 72.13 ga 3 40 ppm 91.59 70.23 59.83 73.88 93.82 72.62 62.03 76.16 ga 3 60 ppm 95.10 73.48 62.39 76.99 96.56 79.46 64.48 80.16 bavistin 0.1% 80.82 61.13 55.10 65.68 82.34 62.10 52.80 65.75 control (untreated) 77.73 56.02 50.69 61.48 79.20 57.26 49.87 62.11 mean 86.10 65.36 56.65 87.38 66.99 57.65 cd (p=0.05) base value = 96.79 base value = 98.93 treatments (a) = 1.224 1.018 storage days (b) = 0.639 0.532 interaction (a x b) = 2.121 1.764 table 5. effect of post-harvest treatment on total sugars in ber fruits during cold storage treatment total sugars (%) 2002 2003 days after storage mean days after storage mean 10 20 30 10 20 30 cacl2 0.5% 10.08 10.38 9.00 9.82 10.01 10.30 9.02 9.78 cacl2 1.0% 9.92 10.27 9.02 9.74 9.89 10.26 9.10 9.75 cacl2 2.0% 9.84 10.00 9.22 9.69 9.70 10.07 9.29 9.68 ca(no 3 ) 2 0.5% 10.16 10.67 8.80 9.87 10.10 10.35 8.93 9.79 ca(no 3 ) 2 1.0% 10.10 10.37 8.92 9.80 10.10 10.26 9.02 9.79 ca(no 3 ) 2 2.0% 9.90 10.17 9.09 9.72 9.90 10.17 9.16 9.74 ga 3 20 ppm 9.90 10.38 9.02 9.76 9.92 10.28 9.10 9.76 ga 3 40 ppm 9.82 10.10 9.18 9.70 9.77 10.10 9.20 9.69 ga 3 60 ppm 9.78 9.90 9.30 9.66 9.68 9.92 9.40 9.66 bavistin 0.1% 10.10 10.65 8.82 9.86 10.14 10.37 8.90 9.80 control (untreated) 10.69 10.15 8.73 9.86 10.60 9.90 8.84 9.78 mean 10.02 10.27 9.01 9.98 10.18 9.08 cd (p=0.05) base value= 9.71 base value = 9.60 treatments (a) = 0.061 0.059 storage days (b) = 0.092 0.072 interaction (a x b) = 0.030 0.040 references a.o.a.c. 1980. official methods of analysis of analytical chemists. association of the official analytical chemists, washington, d.c. bal, j. s. singh, p. and singh, r. 1978. preliminary observations on the storage behaviour of ber at room and refrigerated temperature. j. res. punjab agri. univ., ludhiana 25: 396-99. chahal, s. and bal, j. s. 2003. effect of post-harvest treatments and packaging on shelf-life of ‘umran’ ber at cool temperature. j. res. punjab. agri. univ., 40 : 363-370. post-harvest storage quality in ber j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 48-52, 2008 52 dhanraj, s., ananihakrishna, s. m. and govindrajan, v. s. 1980. apple quality: development of descriptive quality profile for objective sensory evaluation. j. food qual. 4 : 83-100. faust, m. and shear, c. b. 1972. the effect of calcium on respiration of apples. j. amer. soc. hortl. sci., 97 : 437-439. gupta, o. p. jindal, p. c and singh, b. p. 1980. effect of pre-harvest spray of calcium nitrate on the storage behaviour of grapes cv. perlette. j. res. haryana agri. univ., 10: 204-206. gupta, o. p. singh, b. p. singh, s. p. and chauhan, k. s. 1984. effect of calcium compounds as pre-harvest spray on the shelf life of peach cv. sharbati. punjab hort. j., 24 : 105-110. haggag, m. n. 1987. effects of pre-harvest and post-harvest calcium treatments on storage behaviour of leconte pears. alexandra j. agri. res., 32 : 175-188. huang, c. c. 1974. maintaining freshness of pineapple fruits for export. taiwan agril. quarterly, 10: 103-11. jayachandran, k. s., srihari, d. and reddy, y. n. 2005. pre-harvest sprays of different sources of calcium to improve the shelf-life of guava. ind. j. hortl. sci., 62: 68-70. jawanda, j. s., bal, j. s., josan, j. s. and mann, s. s. 1980. studies on storage of ber fruit ii. cool temperature. punjab hort. j., 20 : 56-61. mapson, l.w. 1970. vitamins in fruits: stability of l(ms received 3 september 2007, revised 19 april 2008) ascorbic acid. in: biochemistry of fruits and their products. vol. i (ed., a.c. hulme). academic press, london 376-377. pool, k. m. weaver, r. j. and kliewer, k. m. 1972. the effect of growth regulators on changes in fruits of thompson seedless during cold storage. j. amer. soc. hortl. sci., 97: 67-70. rasese, j. t. 1986. nitrogen and calcium important in determining yield, fruit quality and disorders of ‘anjou’ pears. in. proc. pac. northwest tree fruit short course. pp. 155-168. salunkhe, d. k. and kadam, s. s. 1995. handbook of fruit science and technology pp 387. marcel dekker inc., new york. sandbhor, d. r. and desai, u. t. 1991. influence of post harvest treatment on the shelf life of ber (zizyphus mauritiana lamk.) cv. umran. mah. j. hort., 5: 2428. stahl, a. c. and camp, a. f. 1971. citrus fruits. in the biochemistry of fruits and their products (ed., hulme a c). 2: 107-169. tarkase, e. g. and desai, u. t. 1989. effects of packaging and chemicals on storage of orange cv. mosambi, j. mah. agri. univ., 14: 10-13. wills, r. b. h. babmbridge, p. a. and scott, k. j. 1980. use of flesh firmness and their objectives tests to determine the consumer acceptability of delicious apple. aust. j. agri. anim. husb., 20: 252-256. j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 48-52, 2008 jawandha et al 43 j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 43-47, 2019 original research paper sweet cherry cultivars influencing the growth and productivity under hdp k.k. srivastava*, dinesh kumar and p. barman icar-central institute foe temperate horticulture, old air field, srinagar, j&k 190 007. *e-mail: kanchanpom@gmail.com abstract in a field experiment, to identify the best sweet cherry varieties for high density orcharding, maximum canopy volume (18.94 cm3) was recorded in variety ‘steela’ and minimum in ‘lambert’ while, ‘bigarreau napoleon’ had maximum tcsa (213 cm2). trees grown under hdp have lower tcsa in comparison to normal density. primary and secondary branch girth were maximum in ‘bigarreau napoleon’ whereas, annual extension growth and shoot thickness were high in ‘steela’. yield, yield efficiency and cumulative yield efficiency were registered maximum in ‘bigarreau napoleon’ and ‘bigarreau noir grossa’ cultivars. largest fruit weight, fruit length and fruit diameter were found maximum (10.16 g/fruit), (25.51 mm) (25.20 mm) respectively in ‘bigarreau napoleon’. total soluble solids were found maximum in ‘bigarreau noir grossa’ (17.30 0brix) among the studied cultivars. correlation matrix showed that tcsa had positive correlation with canopy volume, primary branch girth and secondary branch girth and fruit weight showed positive correlation with fruit length and fruit diameter. key words: sweet cherry, prunus avium, high density planting, tcsa, quality attributes, yield efficiency introduction sweet cherry (prunus avium l.) an important stone fruit growing world-wide in temperate zone. fruits are harvested in may-june, when no fresh fruits are available in the market, so it is sold at premium price. sweet cherry fruits are consumed fresh as well as for processing purpose. the fruit has high medicinal properties and offers a good source of antioxidants. total world’s sweet cherry production was 2.25 mt out of it turkey produced almost 20% of the world sweet cherry, whereas, highest sour cherry produced by russia (1.98 mt), other important sweet cherry pr oducer s ar e usa, ir a n, spa in, ita ly, chile, romania, uzbekistan, russia, greece (anonymous, 2014). india produces 2.92 t ha-1 sweet cherry, which is far below than world average. jammu and kashmir is leading sweet cherry producer in india, accounting 2835 hectare area and 8282 mt production (20162017) (anonymous, 2016). it is mainly grown in srinagar, ganderbal and shopian, and sizeable area in baramulla, budgam, anantnag in jammu and kashmir.. cherry fruits are mainly used for table purpose and only 10% produce are used for processing purpose. sour cherry fruits are smaller in size and bears 1-2 fruit per spur with acidic in taste. it is abundantly found at higher altitudes of jammu and kashmir, himachal pradesh and uttarakhand. the fruits are used for processing purpose and seeds for raising rootstock. the rootstock raised from the sour cherry have deep well developed tap root system, suitable for establishing orchard at adverse soil conditions where, clonal rootstocks won’t do well. most of the sweet cherry orchards in india have been raised on seedling r ootstock of sour cher r y (prunus pseudocerasus), hence, they are heterozygous in nature. with the introduction of clonal rootstocks, most of the new plantations are coming up on high density system. rootstock has impact on growth, yield and quality attributes of the tree and hence, selecting a suitable rootstock is imperative for success of orchard. dwarf trees have a greater proportion of well illuminated ca nopy, low spr a y solution a nd higher la bor efficiency. rootstock influenced the tree growth (cantin et al., 2010; blazkova and hlusickova, 2007), yield performance (moreno et al., 2001), fruit quality (whiting et al., 2005, usenik et al., 2010, lanauskas 44 srivastava et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 43-47, 2019 et al., 2012). sansavini et al., (2001), reported, when ‘burlat 1’, ‘durone compatta di vignola’, ‘lapins’ and ‘van’ grafted on 20 clonal rootstock and planted in hdp system, bearing starts 4-5 years after planting and tree attained full bearing (10 kg tree-1 ) after 7-8 years. the short statured trees are prone to frost damage. semi dwarf rootstock gave best result rather dwarfing rootstock in apple. apple cultivars ‘golden reinders’, ‘jonagored’, ‘staymared’, ‘braeburn’ and ‘fuji’ on m.9 rootstocks planted under hdp, orchard under hdp began early cropping, than low density (guglielmo et al. , 1997 and similar view wa s expressed by wertheim et al (2001), that high density allows greater early productivity and earlier return on capital investment. high early productivity in hdp is partly based on the fact that, greater leaf area per unit land area r eceived gr ea ter light inter ception of photo synthetically active radiation (par), compared to lower density (jackson, 1989). tree height and canopy shape also influenced the light interaction and light penetration within the canopy. the present experiment was carried out with an aim to identify the best sweet cher r y cultiva r s for intensive orcharding. materials and methods present experiment was carried out on 6-7 years old sweet cherry orchard at icar-central institute of temperate horticulture, srinagar, j&k, during 2011 to 2013. the orchard was established in early spring 2003-04 on sour cherry (prunus reases) rootstock. well feathered grafted plants of ‘van’, ‘lambert’ ‘steela’, ‘bigarreau noir grossa’ and ‘bigarrean napoleon’ were planted at 3 x 3m (1111 trees ha-1 ) at north-south row orientation, trained on modified central leader. dormant pruning was carried out in february-march regularly for making balance in tree growth and flowering. trunk girth was recorded 20 cm above union and primary and secondary branch girth, annual shoot thickness, annual shoot extension growth were recorded at cessation of tree growth by digital vernier caliper of 0-6 inch capacity. for recording total yields (t ha-2), individual tree was ha r vest a nd weighted the yield on tr ee ba sis calculated. yield efficiency and cumulative yield efficiency were determined as per the methods descr ibed by fior a va nço et al. (2016). yield efficiency (ye) = average yield per tree (kg)/ average t csa (a rea of tr unk cr oss section (cm2) a nd cumulative yield efficiency (©ye) = sum of annual yield, area of trunk cross section (average of 3 years). trunk cross sectional area was calculated by using standard formulae, tcsa=girth2/4π (westwood 1970). canopy volume (v) was determined from individual measurements of tree height (h) and width in parallel (dl) and perpendicular (dr) directions to the tree row, assuming that the tree shape was one half prolate spheroid, using the formulae: v = (pi/6) × h × dl × dr (zekri, 2000). other routine cultural practices were performed uniformly in all the trees. fruits were harvested at proper maturity and twenty fruits were taken randomly for recording the fruit length (mm) and fruit breadth (mm) using digital vernier caliper. weight of the fruit (g) was recorded as mean of 20 fruits using digital electronic balance. total soluble solids contents (0brix) were assessed with hand refractometer at 200 c. experiment were la id out in r a ndomized block design with 4 replications and each replication comprised 2 trees. data recorded were subjected to statistical analysis using o p stat software for drawing the conclusion. results and discussion significant variations were observed on the canopy volume, maximum volume ( 18.94 m3 ) was recorded in ‘steela ’ which wa s sta tistica lly on pa r to ‘bigarreau, noir grossa’ and ‘bigarreu napolean’, minimum volume (5.39 m3 ) noted in lambert. as expected high tcsa (0.213 cm2) were recorded in ‘bigarreau napoleon’ and ‘steela’ (0.213 cm2), whereas, minimum tcsa (0.086 cm2) in lambert. variations in tree canopy volume and tcsa with respect to cultivars may be due to difference in genetic constituents of the cultivars. higher the planting density lower the trunk cross sectional area (t csa), as the tr ee density incr ea ses, t csa decreases because of the competition among the closely pla nted tr ees (musacchi et al. , 2015). melosevic et al., (2014) reported similar variation with respect to tcsa in different sweet cherry cultivars on semi dwarf and vigorous root stocks. primary and secondary branch girth were found maximum in ‘bigarreau napoleon’ (49.61 and 33.14), which was on par to ‘bigarreau noir grossa’ and ‘steela’, and it was minimum (27.43 cm) and (15.44 cm) in lambert (table 1). aeg, tree canopy and annual shoot 45 sweet cherry performance under hdp thickness (ast) have direct effect on tree canopy growth. aeg and ast were found maximum in ‘steela’. 79.17 cm and 8.47 cm and minimum 35.08 and 4.08 cm respectively found in ‘van’. overall results showed that the cultivars which are vigorous in nature have higher aeg and ast. tree growth parameters variety canopy primary secondary annual volume (m3) tcsa (m2) branch girth branch girth aeg (cm) shoot (cm) (cm) thickness (cm) van 7.41±0.23 0.103±0.003 39.52±1.12 19.79±0.44 35.08±0.78 4.08±0.12 lambert 5.39±0.31 0.086±0.002 27.43±0.88 15.44±0.90 52.11±0.61 6.32±0.27 steela 18.94±5.36* 0.208±0.003 48.40±1.71* 55.68±20.25 79.17±1.32* 8.47±0.17* bigarreau noir grossa 13.43±0.86 * 0.164±0.003 45.73±0.59 27.06±0.57 68.30±3.80 7.65±0.24 bigarreau napoleon 12.84±0.20 * 0.213±0.003* 49.61±0.80* 33.14±0.33 46.44±1.11 6.01±0.17 sem ± 2.43 0.006 1.25 1.84 0.23 lsd (p= 0.05) 7.30 0.002 3.66 ns 5.47 0.69 table 1. tree growth parameters of sweet cherry varieties under hdp (3 years pooled data) it is obvious from table 2 that maximum yield (10.83 t ha-1) was recorded in ‘bigarreau napoleon’ followed by ‘bigarreau noir grossa’ (7.18 t ha-1), which was statistically on par to ‘steela’ and minimum yield (4.42 t ha-1) was registered in lambert. this indicated that ‘bigarreau napoleon’, ‘bigarreau noir grossa’ and ‘steela’ are most suitable cultivars for growing under hdp so for as yield attributes are concerned. the responses to yield efficiency and cumulative yield per tree was significantly affected by cultivars (table 2) being highest in ‘bigarreau noir grossa’ (43.27 kg cm-2 tcsa) which was statistically on par to ‘bigarreau napoleon’ and ‘van’. the cumulative yield efficiency, more or less followed the pattern of yield efficiency over the years. ‘bigarreau noir gr ossa ’ exhibited highest (129. 80 kg cm-2) cumulative yield efficiency which was on par to ‘biga rreau napoleon’ and ‘van’, ‘steela ’ a nd ‘lambert’ showed minimum ye and cumulative yield efficiency (table 3). quality parameters showed significant variations, maximum fruit weight (10.16 g/fruit), fruit length (25.51 mm) and fruit diameter (25.20mm) were noticed in ‘bigarreau napoleon’, while as total soluble solids were found maximum in ‘bigarreau noir grossa’. correlation matrix showed that tcsa had positive correlation with canopy volume, primary branch girth and secondary branch girth. aeg a lso exhibited significant positive corr elation with ast a nd fr uit weight showed positive cor relation with fruit length and fruit diameter. fruit weight has negative correlation with tss as fruit weight increase tss decreases (table 4). these results are in consonance with the findings of szot and meland (2001) and kappel et al. (1996). similarly manolova and kolev (2013) observed that high density of sweet cherry he observed that hdp exhibited greater precocity, high annual yield per unit area along with faster financial returns. similar results were reported in some previous studies by radunic et al., 2011, aglar et al., 2016; in contrary srivastava et al. (2017 ) noticed low ye in hdp apple having 1600 trees ha-1 and high ye in 952 trees ha-1. it can be concluded that steela exhibited maximum canopy volume, annual extension growth and annual shoot thickness over the yea rs; however, yield efficiency, cumulative yield efficiency and tss were found maximum in ‘bigarreau noir grossa’. larrgest fr uits were pr oduced by ‘bigar rea u napoleon’ cultivar. the ‘steela’, ‘van’, ‘bigarreau noir grossa’ and ‘bigarreau napoleon’ can be selected for high density planting on the basis of tree growth, yield and quality attributes. j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 43-47, 2019 46 variety yield (t/ ha) ye (kg/cm2) ©ye (kg/cm2) van 5.39±0.11 43.08±1.88* 129.23±5.63* lambert 4.42±0.16 31.93±1.28 95.78±3.85 steela 7.05±0.39 31.27±2.30 93.80±6.91 bigarreau noir grossa 7.18±0.23 43.27±2.15* 129.80±6.45* bigarreau napoleon 10.83±0.45* 43.13±1.57* 129.38±4.73* sem ± 0.31 2.03 6.10 lsd (p= 0.05) 0.93 6.04 18.13 note: value represents mean ± s.em; * indicates significant difference at lsd (p d” 0.05) table 2. yield attributes of sweet cherry varieties under hdp (3 years pooled data) factor canopy tcsa pbg sbg aeg ast yield fruit fruit fruit t.s.s volume (cm2) (cm) (cm) (cm) (cm) (t/ ha) length diameter weight (0 brix) (m3) (mm) (mm) (g) canopy volume (m3) 1.00 tcsa(cm2) 0.90* 1.00 pbg (cm) 0.84 0.91* 1.00 sbg (cm) 0.95* 0.83 0.72 1.00 aeg (cm) 0.78 0.52 0.36 0.72 1.00 ast (cm) 0.75 0.57 0.36 0.69 0.98* 1.00 yield (t/ ha) 0.54 0.85 0.81 0.43 0.06 0.17 1.00 fruit length (mm) -0.14 0.32 0.20 -0.13 -0.49 -0.33 0.72 1.00 fruit breadth (mm) -0.12 0.33 0.22 -0.10 -0.49 -0.34 0.73 1.00* 1.00 fruit weight (g) 0.08 0.50 0.31 0.08 -0.24 -0.06 0.81 0.96* 0.96* 1.00 t.s.s (0 brix) 0.31 0.14 0.47 0.07 0.21 0.11 0.05 -0.46 -0.47 -0.48 1.00 note: * and ns indicate significant and non-significant difference at lsd (p d” 0.05) table 3. pearson’s correlation matrix for tree growth and yield attributes variety fruit length fruit diameter fruit wt. t.s.s (mm) (mm) (g) (° brix) van 21.99±0.26 21.49±0.33 5.00±0.07 15.11±0.28 lambert 22.50±0.08 21.89±0.14 6.44±0.20 11.11±0.44 steela 21.25±0.28 20.75±0.32 5.70±0.15 13.73±0.50 bigarreau noir grossa 21.54±0.06 20.80±0.10 5.50±0.19 17.30±0.13* bigarreau napoleon 25.51±0.14* 25.20±0.08* 10.16±0.46* 12.68±0.36 sem ± 0.21 0.25 0.23 0.35 lsd (p= 0.05) 0.65 0.75 0.69 1.03 table 4. fruit quality attributes of sweet cherry varieties under hdp (3 years pooled data) srivastava et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 43-47, 2019 47 aglar e, yildiz k and long l e. 2016. the effect of root stocks and training system on the early performance of ‘0900 ziraat’ sweet cherry. notulae botanicae horti agrobotanici clujnapoca. 44 (2):573-578. anonymous. 2016-17. district wise estimated area production of ma jor hor ticultura l cr ops. department of horticulture, j&k, srinagar india. pp 1-2. anonymous. 2014. faostat, stastics division r etr ieved 12 th sep 2017 fr om htt p// www.fao.org. blazkova, j., and hlusickova, i., 2007. results of an orchard trial with new clonal sweet cherry rootstocks established at holovousny and evaluated in the stage of full cropping. hortic. sci., 2:54-64 cantin celia, j.p., pinochet j., gogorcena y., moreno, m. a. 2010. growth, yield and fruit quality of van and star k hardy giant sweet cherry cultivars as influenced by grafting on different root stocks. scientia hort., 123: 329-335. fioravanço j c , czermainski a. b. c. and de oliveira p. r .d. 2016. yield efficiency for nine apple cultivars grafted on two rootstocks. ciência rural, 46(10): 1701-1706. guglielmo costa, emilio, beltrame, zerbinipaola eccher and pianezzola, alberto. 1997. high pla nted a pple or cha r d effect on yield performance and fruit quality. acta hort. 451:505-508. kappel k., fisher-fleming, b, hoghe e. 1996. fruit characteristics and sensory attributes of an ideal sweet cherry. hort sci. 31:443-446. lanauskas j., uselis n., kviklys, d., kvikliene n. and buskiene l. 2012. rootstock effect on the performance of sweet cherry cv. lapins. hort. sci., 39:55-60 manolova v and kolev k, 2013. economics results from growing cherry in differ ent level of intensification. acta hort. 981:719-723. milosevic tomo, milosevic nebojsa, milivojevic jelena, glisic ivan and nikolic radmila. 2014. experience with mazzard and colt sweet cherry rootstocks in serbia which are used for high density planting system under heavy and acidic conditions. sci. hort.. 176: 261-270. moreno, m.a., adrada, r., aparicio, j., betran, j.a. 2001. performance of sunburst cherry grafted on differ ent r ootstocks. j. hortic. sci. biotechnol., 76:167-173. jackson, j.e. 1989. world-wide development of high density planting in research and practice. acta hort. 243: 17-28 musacchi s, gagliardi f, serra s. 2015. new training systems for high density planting of sweet cherry. horticultural sci.. 50: 59-67. radunic m, jazbec a, pecina m, cosic t and pavicic n. 2011. growth and yield of the sweet cherry (prunus avium l) as affected by training system. african j. bot. 10 (24): 49014906. sansavini s, luglis, grandi m, gaddoni m,correale r(2001). impianto ad altadensita di ciliegi llevati a v: confronto fra portinesti nanizzanti. rivista di frutticoltura n.3:63-73. srivastava k.k., singh d.b., kumar dinesh, singh s r, sharma o c and lal s. 2017. effect of planting densities and varieties on yield and yield associated characters of apple (malus domestica) on semi-dwarfing rootstock. indian j. agri. sci. 87(5):593-6. szot i and meland m.2001 . influence of root stock on size distribution and fruit quality of sweet cherry cultivars. int. agrophysics. 15: 207214. wertheim, s. j., wagenmaker, p. s., bootsma, j. h., groot, m. j. 2001. orchard system for apple and pear: condition for success. acta hort., 557: 209-227 westwood m n a nd rober ts a n. 1970. t he relationship between trunk cross sectional area and weight of apple tree. j. amer. soc. hort. sci. 95:28-30. whiting md, la ng g. a nd ophar dt, d. 2005. rootstock and training system affect sweet cherry growth, yield and fruit quality. hort sci., 40 (3): 582-586 zekri m. 2000. citrus rootstocks affect scion nutrition, fr uit quality, growth, yield and economical return. fruits, 55: 231–239. references (ms received 16 march 2019, revised 15 may 2019, accepted 20 june 2019) sweet cherry performance under hdp j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 43-47, 2019 00 contents.pdf 01. rms copy 62(17) gauva.marketing & phl-pinflesh.pdf 02. rms copy 63(17) soft wood grafting – a novel and rapid multiplication technique in coorg mandarin (citrus reticulata blanco).pdf 03. rms copy 25(18) evaluation of solanum species and eggplant cultivated varieties for bacterial wilt resistance.pdf 04. rms 18(18).pdf 05. rms_ii _24_18.pdf 06. rms copy 26 (18) metabolite paper-edited_04.05.2019.pdf 07. rms copy 1(19).pdf 08. rms copy 2(19) revised heterosi and combining effects ridge gourd 2019.pdf 09. rms copy 5(19) digital repository revised.pdf s1. rms 45(17) effect of trichomes in cowpea on infestation by spotted pod borer.pdf s2. rms copy 65(17) performance of anthurium (anthurium andreanum lind) cultivars in hill zone of.pdf s3. rms copy 2(18) langsat paper revised.pdf s4. rms 3(19) mineral content of red skinned potatoes of eastern india-revised.pdf sph -jhs coverpage jun 2019 issue 14(1).pdf page 3 page 4 sph -jhs coverpage jun 2019 issue 14(1).pdf page 1 page 2 dry storage of flowers in water-retentive plastic sleeves has been considered useful for long term storage (goszczynska and rudnicki, 1988; singh et al, 2001a). during dry storage, metabolic activity of the stem remains low which subsequently results in a long vase life in storage (gosczcynska and rudnicki, 1988). among various polymeric film sleeves evaluated for dry storage of gladiolus spikes, polypropylene (pp) sleeve (25 µ thick) was found to be the most suitable, as it retained optimally high co 2 and low o 2 levels inside the package (grover et al, 2006). singh et al (2000) earlier reported aluminium sulphate solution to effectively suppress sucrose-induced bacterial growth in vase water of the gladiolus spikes. studies have also revealed that sucrose promotes opening of immature florets of gladiolus (nowak and rudnicki, 1990; singh et al, 2001b). due to lack of organized marketing system for flowers in our country, there is a need to develop efficient storage systems to overcome glut, especially, in periods of over production and lean demand. studies were, therefore, made on the effect of pre-storage pulsing of gladiolus spikes with ga 3, in combination with sucrose and aluminium sulphate, on keeping quality. spikes of gladiolus cv. white prosperity (90 cm long) were harvested at the tight bud stage, i.e., when the colour was visible in the basal 1-2 florets, and were pulse-treated with 20% sucrose + aluminium sulphate [al 2 (so 4 ) 3 .16h 2 o] @ 400mg/l + gibberellic acid (ga 3 ) @100 mg/l (t1) and 20% sucrose + al 2 (so 4 ) 3 .16h 2 o @ 400mg/l (t2) for 24h effect of pre-storage ga 3 pulsing on keeping quality of gladiolus spikes kushal singh, ranjit singh and ramesh kumar department of floriculture and landscaping punjab agricultural university, ludhiana 141004, india e-mail: kushal_flori@rediffmail.com abstract pre-storage pulsing of gladiolus spikes with a solution containing 20% sucrose and 400 mg/l aluminium sulphate [al 2 (so 4 ) 3 .16h 2 o] significantly improved vase life, floret size and per cent opening of florets. the effect was significantly enhanced with addition of ga 3 @ 100 mg/l. spikes pulse-treated with ga 3 could be stored for 14 days with an acceptable vase life of 5.44 days. these spikes also exhibited 49.65 per cent opening of florets even at 21 days from onset of storage. on the other hand, spikes pulse-treated with a solution containing 20% sucrose and aluminium sulphate [al 2 (so 4 ) 3 .16h 2 o] @ 400 mg/l or water (control) showed no opening of florets after 21 days of storage. key words: pulsing, gladiolus, spikes, vase life at 23±2oc, 60-70% rh and 16h illumination of 1000lux intensity, provided by 40w white, fluorescent tubes. control spikes were similarly treated with water (t3). the spikes were then grouped into bundles of 3 each, loosely tied at the base with a rubber band and inserted into polypropylene (pp) sleeves of 25µ thickness. the sleeves were sealed hermetically with an electrical sealing machine and stored vertically under refrigerated conditions in a cold store (3.54oc, 85-90% rh) for 7, 14 and 21 days. after storage, 2cm basal ends of the spikes were recut under water to remove surface blockages and the keeping quality was evaluated in an air-conditioned laboratory at 23±2oc, 60-70% rh and 1000lux light intensity (cycle of 16h light and 8h dark). observations were recorded for vase life, floret size (size of second floret from the base) and per cent opening of florets in the vase. vase life of the spikes was evaluated from the day one basal floret was open till there were five open florets left on the spike. spikes which exhibited opening of less than five florets with wilting of the basal floret, were taken as an index for termination of vase life. the data presented are a mean of three replications each representing, three spikes. data presented in table 1 show that vase life was maximum in spikes treated with 20% sucrose + al 2 (so 4 ) 3 .16h 2 o @ 400mg/l + gibberellic acid @ 100mg/l (6.14 days), followed by pulsing with 20% sucrose + al 2 (so 4 ) 3 .16h 2 o @ 400mg/l (4.59 days), and, was minimum (3.33 days) in control. vase life decreased with increase in short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 6(1):69-70, 2011 70 duration of storage (table 1). decrease in vase life following storage was reported earlier in freesia refracta (zencirkiran, 2002) and gladiolus (singh et al, 2003; grover et al, 2006). floret size also decreased with increase in storage duration (table 1) but was maximum (9.25cm) in spikes pulse-treated with 20% sucrose + 400 mg/l al 2 (so 4 ) 3 .16h 2 o, + ga 3, and was minimum in control (6.70cm). per cent opening of florets was maximum in freshly-harvested control spikes (60.81) and continued to decrease with increase in storage duration, and was 53.88, 45.03 and 16.55% after 7, 14 and 21 days of storage, respectively (table 2). among the three treatments imposed, spikes pulse-treated with a solution containing sucrose + al 2 (so 4 ) 3 .16h 2 o+ga 3 showed maximum opening of florets (61.03%), followed by those treated with 20% sucrose + al 2 (so 4 ) 3 .16h 2 o (42.63 per cent). per cent opening of florets was, however, minimum in non-pulsed control flowers. in the present study, ga 3 was seen to synergize the effect of sucrose + al 2 (so 4 ) 3 .16h 2 o. the present study also shows that spikes pulse-treated with a combination of sucrose, al 2 (so 4 ) 3 .16h 2 o and ga 3 could be stored for upto 14 days, with an acceptable vase life of 5.44 days. even after 21 days of storage, pulse-treated spikes showed 49.65 per cent opening of florets. on the other hand, florets in t2 and t3 failed to open after 21 days of storage. references goszczynska, d.m. and rudnicki, r.m. 1988. storage of cut flowers. hort. rev., 10:3562 grover, j.s., gupta, a.k., singh, k., kumar, a. and singh, p. 2006. studies on passive modified atmosphere storage of gladiolus spikes. adv. hort. sci., 20:175180 nowak, j. and rudinicki, r.m. 1990. post harvest handling and storage of cut flowers, florist greens and potted plants. chapman and hall, london. pp. 209 singh, k., arora, j. s. and bhattacharjee, s.k. 2001a. postharvest management of cut flowers. tech. bull. no. 10, all india coordinated research project on floriculture, iari., new delhi, pp. 39 singh, k., singh, p. j and arora, j. s. 2003. studies on dry refrigerated storage of gladiolus spikes. j. orn. hort., new series, 6:107-09 singh, k., singh, p.j., arora, j.s. and mann, r.p.s. 2000. studies on postharvest management of gladiolus. j. orn. hort., new series, 3:107-110 singh, k. singh, p.j., arora, j.s. and mann, r.p.s. 2001b. effect of vase solutions on keeping quality of different grades of gladiolus j. orn. hort., new series, 17: 23-25 zencirkiran, m. 2002. cold storage of freesia refracta ‘cordula’. new zealand j. crop and hort. sci., 30:171-174 (ms received 07 september 2009, revised 15 april 2011) table 1. effect of pre-storage pulsing treatments with sucrose, al 2 (so 4 ) 3 .16h 2 o and ga 3 on vase life and floret size in gladiolus cv. white prosperity duration storage vase life (days) floret size (cm) of (days) t1 t2 t3 mean t1 t2 t3 mean 07 6.67 6.22 5.33 6.07 10.32 9.96 9.42 9.90 14 5.44 4.56 2.89 4.30 8.73 7.93 7.37 8.01 21 3.56 0.00 0.00 1.19 7.45 2.48 control(0 day) 8.89 7.56 5.11 7.19 10.51 10.17 10.01 10.23 mean 6.14 4.59 3.33 9.25 7.02 6.70 cd (p=0.05) treatment 0.41 treatment 0.20 storage duration 0.47 storage duration 0.24 interaction 0.82 interaction 0.41 table 2. effect of pre-storage pulsing treatment with sucrose, al 2 (so 4 ) 3 .16h 2 o and ga 3 on per cent opening of florets in gladiolus cv. white prosperity duration floret opening (%) storage of (days ) t1 t2 t3 mean 07 63.61(52.88) 54.78(47.73) 43.25(41.07) 53.88(47.23) 14 57.45(49.29) 54.37(47.50) 23.27(28.72) 45.03(41.84) 21 49.65(44.78) 0.00(0.00) 0.00(0.00) 16.55(14.93) control 73.41(58.94) 61.38(51.60) 47.64(43.62) 60.81(51.39) (0 day) mean 61.03(51.47) 42.63(36.71) 28.54(28.35) cd (p=0.05) treatment 2.13, storage duration 2.46, interaction 4.26 * figures in parentheses are transformed values singh et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 6(1):69-70, 2011 page 116 synergistic use of hypocotyl explants and high bap preconditioning for enhanced transformation frequency in brinjal (solanum melongena l.) vageeshbabu s. hanur, d. p. prakash, b. s. deepali, r. asokan, y. l. ramachandra1 riaz mahmood1 and lalitha anand division of biotechnology indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bangalore 560 089, india e-mail: vageesh@iihr.ernet.in abstract poor regeneration is one of the limiting factors in the development of transgenic crops since agrobacterium as a plant pathogen can disturb the fragile in vitro conditions with wounding and infection regimes. we have tried to optimize the transformation system in two important varieties of brinjal after agrobacterium infection to the explants. the effect of explant was studied and hypocotyls were found to be better than cotyledonary leaves. high bap during the preconditioning period was found to further enhance the regeneration rate. therefore, use of hypocotyls and high bap during preconditioning can improve the regeneration of transformed cells and recovery of transformants in vegetables especially brinjal. key words: solanum melongena, transformation, hypocotyl, bap, preconditioning. introduction brinjal (eggplant, solanum melongena l.) is one of the most important vegetable crops in india and southeast asia. crop improvement through breeding has substantially addressed many problems associated with yield and quality in brinjal. the most important factor that is responsible for severe reduction in yield and marketable quality of the crop which needs to be addressed is the damage caused by the brinjal shoot and fruit borer (leucinodes orbonalis guenee) (pyralidae: lepidoptera). no source of stable genetic resistance is available in brinjal germplasm and this has necessitated the use of bt transgenic technology (kumar et al, 1998). successful development of transgenics in brinjal depends on the availability of standardized in vitro regeneration and agrobacterium mediated genetic transformation systems (collonnier et al, 2001; rotino and gleddie, 1990; kumar and rajam, 2005). the success of agrobacterium mediated genetic transformation of plants generally depends on several plant, bacterial and in vitro factors such as genotype, explant type, physiological state and age of donor plant, agrobacterium virulence, conditions for inoculation of the tissue with agrobacterium, growth of agrobacterium with respect to the transformed plant cells and plant tissue necrosis caused by agrobacterium (sharma and rajam, 1995; lin et al, 1994). a major problem with any transgenic development is the severe reduction in the transformation frequencies even after optimizing the regeneration conditions. this is because agrobacterium is basically a plant pathogen and upon wounding and cocultivation with the explant, the bacterium may elicit defense responses. agrobacteriuminduced responses may be similar to abiotic responses, nonpathogenic bacteria and/or unique to agrobacterium only (robinette and matthysse, 1990; ditt et al, 2001; hanur, 2004). recent studies have unraveled the roles of some of the host factors in agrobacterium-host plant interactions (ditt et al, 2001; gelvin, 2000). deliberate infection and cocultivation of the explant with virulent agrobacterium during routine transformation experiments thus affects the established redifferentiation and morphogenetic pathways in the cultured tissues, causing break down of the in vitro conditions standardized before transformation. one efficient way of increasing the regeneration of transformed cells is to optimize the regeneration protocol during and after agrobacterium challenge and under selection pressure. this method not only takes into consideration routine requirements of optimum regeneration conditions but also helps in identifying factors that can be used to regenerate transformed cells vis-à-vis untransformed j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 116-119, 2006 1 department of biotechnology, kuvempu university, shankaraghatta, shimoga, india page 117 cells in the cultured tissue. moreover, unlike in the case of routine regeneration protocols where non-transgenic regenerants are generated, using this protocol, the regenerants are (mostly) transformants that are useful. we report here a simple way of increasing frequency of transformed regenerants by manipulation of two parameters, choice of explant type and preconditioning with higher levels of the cytokinin hormone, 6-benzylaminopurine (bap) in two popular varieties of brinjal, arka keshav (purple long type)and manjarigota (synonym manjarikota) (striped round type). material and methods seeds of brinjal cvs. arka keshav and manjarigota were surface sterilized using 70% ethanol for 45-60 sec followed by two washes with sterile distilled water and treatment with sodium hypochlorite (approximately 4% available chlorine) for 5 min. the seeds were germinated aseptically on 0.5x murashige skoog (ms) (murashige and skoog, 1962) basal medium containing 3% sucrose and 0.8% agar. cotyledonary leaf explants and single hypocotyl explants excised from 7-10 day old seedlings were used as explants. for regeneration experiments, the ms medium was supplemented with different levels of bap and anaphthalene acetic acid (naa) (shoot induction medium, sim). in the experiment involving hypocotyl explants, the sim treatments included 1, 2 or 3 mm bap and 0.05 or 0.1 mm naa while for cotyledonary leaf explants, the sim included 10 or 12.5 mm bap and 1, 3 or 5 mm naa. for the experiment involving different levels of bap, the level of naa was kept constant at 0.05 mm. the ph of the medium was adjusted to 5.7-5.8 prior to autoclaving at 121°c for 20 min. aseptic seed germination and culture incubation were carried out at 26±1°c under 16 h photoperiod. a minimum of 8-10 explants was inoculated onto the 100 mm sterile glass petri plates containing respective media. for preconditioning, the explants were maintained on the sim for 2 days. for high bap preconditioning experiment, the cultures were placed on the sim with different (0, 2, 10, 20, 30 and 40 mm) bap levels (and 0.05 mm naa) for 2 days and later shifted to the sim with 2 mm bap and 0.05 mm naa during cocultivation and subculture. for the experiment involving explant selection, the total numbers of explants were 658 for cotyledonary leaves and 1061 for hypocotyls (three replications) and for the experiment involving challenging hypocotyls with agrobacterium, the total number of explants was 879 (three replications), using both varieties. for the experiment involving varying levels of bap in arka keshav, the total number of explants was 470 (four replications). after every 8-10 days, subculturing was done onto fresh sim or shoot elongation medium (sem, ms medium supplemented with only 2 mm bap). kanamycin (kancinò, 100 mg l-1) was used for selection in the medium after cocultivation and during subsequent subcultures of the explants. cefotaxime (taximò, 500 mg.l-1 for the first subculture and 250 mg l-1 for subsequent cultures) was used in the medium to arrest agrobacterium growth. a. tumefaciens a208 host cells containing pbinbt modified binary vector (kumar et al, 1998a, b) with a cassette containing camv35s promoter, synthetic cry1ab coding region, paocs terminator and nptii selectable marker, were used for challenging hypocotyl explants in the experiments using bacterial treatment and different levels of bap. agrobacterium was grown on agrobacterium minimal medium (abmm) broth containing kanamycin (50-100 mg l-1) at 28°c for 6-8 h. actively growing midlog phase culture was centrifuged, washed with fresh abmm broth and concentration adjusted to an o.d. of 0.10.3. hypocotyl explants were cocultivated with this agrobacterium suspension for 10 min and then transferred to the sim plates. after 2 days, the cultures were transferred to the sim with kanamycin. elongated and welldifferentiated shoots were excised from callus mass after 15-25 days and transferred onto the sim, sem or rooting induction medium (ms medium supplemented with 5 mm naa). table 1. regeneration response in arka keshav and manjarigota cultivars of brinjal using different explants and agrobacterium treatment explant cultivar mean no. of mean no. of explants regeneration explants cultured±se showing regeneration±se response (%) cotyledonary leaves arka keshav 129.3±8.5 (388)* 5.32±4.1 (16) 4.1 manjarigota 90.0±0.0 (270) 12.6±3.7 (38) 14.1 hypocotyls arka keshav 250.1±32.5 (752) 185.6±16.2 (557) 74.1 manjarigota 103.0±33.8 (309) 48.3±21.6 (145) 46.9 hypocotyls treated with agrobacterium arka keshav 133±14.9 (399) 29.6±13.7 (89) 22.3 manjarigota 160.0±28.3 (480) 39.0±9.1 (117) 24.4 *numbers in parantheses indicate total no. of explants j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 116-119, 2006 enhancing transformation frequency in brinjal 117 page 118 results and discussion the present study showed that hypocotyl explants were better for regeneration response compared with cotyledonary leaf explants, which are routinely considered as the explant of choice in many crops including tomato and other vegetables (allichio et al, 1982; magioli et al, 1998; magioli and mansur, 2005). the use of hypocotyls as explants has not been much investigated (magioli et al, 1998). our initial observations indicated that hypocotyls were better (with an average of 61%) than cotyledonary leaves (with an average of 9%) in both varieties of brinjal (table 1) with respect to regeneration per se. while hypocotyl explants produced more shoots, leaf explants only showed more callus and rooting (plate 1). arka keshav gave a better regeneration response (74%) than manjarigota (47%) when hypocotyls were used as explants. hypocotyl explants in control (those that were not challenged by cocultivation with agrobacterium) and agrobacterium treatment differed considerably in regeneration averaging 61% and 23.3% responses, respectively. within the varieties also the reduction was noticeable, albeit with differing magnitudes. reduction in regeneration was from 74% to 22.3% in arka keshav and from 47% to 24.3% in manjarigota. these results vindicate our view on the effect of agrobacterium infection on regeneration in brinjal (billings et al, 1997). in the experiment involving preconditioning of the hypocotyl explants, in arka keshav variety, higher levels of bap before agrobacterium cocultivation and selection (i.e., during preconditioning), resulted in significant differences in the number of regenerants selected on kanamycin medium (table 2). the frequencies ranged from 16.8% to 27.2% as compared to 19.7% in the treatment without any bap (negative control) preconditioning with 40 mm bap definitively produced highest frequency of regeneration (27.2%). previous studies have indicated that the population of competent cells increases by adequate pre-culture period facilitating improved transformation (hamza and chupeau, 1993; lipp-joao and brown, 1993; mchughen et al, 1989). extending the duration of pre-culture period increases the proportion of competent cells. our results are in agreement with the results of earlier preconditioning experiments but with the additional information that higher bap of 40 mm during preconditioning can be beneficial even to the explants challenged with agrobacterium. plate 1. typical regeneration response in brinjal using cotyledonary leaves (a) and hypocotyls (b) on shoot induction medium. hypocotyls were better for shoot induction. transgenic crop production via agrobacterium mediated gene transfer is dependent, among other factors, on the successful interaction between the agrobacterium and specific plant tissue types, which are competent for in vitro regeneration along with certain treatments like preculture (freitas et al, 1997). our studies have shown that the type of explant and preconditioning treatments can considerably improve the frequency of regeneration of bt gene transformed tissues in brinjal and this may be applicable in other crops also. acknowledgements the authors are grateful to the national agricultural technology project (natp), icar, for the financial assistance in the form of a competitive grants programme to the senior author. thanks are also due to dr. p. ananda kumar, nrcpb, iari, for providing agrobacterium and construct, dr. pious thomas, division of biotechnology, iihr, for technical suggestions and the director, iihr, for encouragement. references allichio, r., del grosso, e . and boschieri, e. 1982. tissue cultures and plant regeneration from different j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 116-119, 2006 vageeshbabu et al 118 table 2. regeneration response using agrobacterium treated hypocotyl explants of brinjal cv. arka keshav to preconditioning with different levels of bap bap conc (mm) + total no. of mean no. of 0.05 mm naa regenerantsa (%) regenerants±se 0 17/86b (19.7) 18.2±7.0 2 14/83 (16.8) 15.7±4.7 10 8/68 (11.7) 11.6±4.4 20 14/80 (17.5) 16.8±4.1 30 15/76 (19.7) 19.3±5.6 40 21/77 (27.2) 26.4±7.4 adata of 4 replications; bno. of explants shooted/total no. of explants inoculated; c.d (p=0.01) : 0.23; se: standard error page 119 explants in six cultivars of solanum melongena. experientia, 38: 449-450. billings, s., jelenkovic, g., chin, c. k. and eberhardt, j. 1997. the effect of growth regulation and antibiotics on eggplant transformation. j. amer. soc. hort. sci., 122:158-162. collonnier, c., fock, i., kashyap, v., rotino, g. l., daunay, m. c., lian, y., mariska, i. k., rajam, m. v., servaes, a., ducreux, g. and sihachakr, d. 2001, applications of biotechnology in eggplant. plant cell tissue organ cult., 5: 91-107. ditt, r. f., nester, e. w. and comai, l. 2001. plant gene expression response to agrobacterium tumefaciens. proc. natl. acad. sci., usa, 98: 10954-10959. freitas, v. g., lacorte, c., sachetto-martins, g., krul, w. r., oliveira, d. e., neves, l. j. and mansur, e. 1997. identification of competent cells for agrobacteriumtransformation and in vitro regeneration in peanut leaf and cotyledon explants. r. bras. fisiol. veg., 9: 157-167. gelvin, s. b. 2000. agrobacterium and plant genes involved in t-dna transfer and integration. annu. rev. plant. physiol. plant. mol. biol., 51: 223-256. hamza, s. and chupeau, y. 1993. re-evaluation of conditions for plant regeneration and agrobacteriummediated transformation from tomato. j. exp. bot., 44: 1837-1845. hanur, v. s. 2004. genetic transformation of human cells by a soil phytopathogen presents common molecular strategies. curr. sci., 87: 856-857. kumar, p. a., mandaokar, a. d. and sharma, r. p. 1998a. genetic engineering for the improvement of eggplant (solanum melongena l.). agbiotech news inform., 10: 329-332. kumar, p. a., mandaokar, a., sreenivasu, k., chakrabarti, s. k., bisaria, s., sharma, s. r., kaur, s. and sharma, r. p. 1998b. insect-resistant transgenic brinjal plants. mol. breed., 4: 33-37. kumar, s. v. and rajam, m. v. 2005. enhanced induction of vir genes results in the improvement of agrobacte-rium-mediated transformation of eggplant. j. plant biochem. biotechnol., 14: 89-94. lin, j. j., assad-garcia, n. and kuo, j. 1994. improved regeneration of plant tissues: a novel medium format and membrane based liquid culture system. focus, 16:72. lipp-joao, k. h. and brown, t. a. 1993. enhanced transformation of tomato co-cultivated with agrobacterium tumefaciens c58c1 rifr::pgsfr1161 in the presence of acetosyringone. pl. cell rep., 12: 422-425. magioli, c. and mansur, e. 2005. eggplant (solanum melongena l.): tissue culture, genetic transformation and use as an alternative model plant. acta bot. bras., 19: 139-148. magioli, c., rocha, a. p. m., de oliveira, d. e. and mansur, e. 1998. efficient shoot organogenesis of eggplant (solanum melongena l.) induced by thidiazuron. pl. cell rep., 17: 661-663. mc-hughen, a., jordan, m. and feist, g. 1989. a preculture period prior to agrobacterium inoculation increases production of transgenic plants. j. plant physiol., 135: 245-248. murashige, t. and skoog, f. 1962. a revised method for rapid growth and bioassays with tissue cultures. physio.l plant., 15: 473-497. robinette, d. and matthysse, a. g. 1990. inhibition by agrobacterium tumefaciens and pseudomonas savastanoi of development of the hypersensitive response elicited by pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola. j. bacteriol., 172: 5742-5749. rotino, g. l. and gleddie, s. 1990. transformation of eggplant (solanum melongena l.) using a binary agrobacterium tumefaciens vectors. plant cell rep., 9: 26-29. sharma, p. and rajam, m. v. 1995. genotype, explant and position effects on organogenesis and embryogenesis in eggplant (solanum melongena l.). j. exp. bot,, 46: 135-141. j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 116-119, 2006 enhancing transformation frequency in brinjal 119 (ms received 12 april 2006 , revised 29 november 2006) effect of pruning intensity on leaf tissue micronutrient status in three mango (mangifera indica l.) cultivars under high density planting sanjay kumar singh1 and s.k. singh division of fruits and horticultural technology, indian agricultural research institute, new delhi -110 012, india e-mail: sanjayhor@rediffmail.com abstract an experiment was conducted to study the effect of pruning on leaf micro nutrient (cu, zn, fe and mn) status in nonfloral and floral shoots of three mango cultivars (‘amrapali’, ‘mallika’ and ‘dashehari’) under high density planting during 2005-2007. all the three cultivars differed significantly in cu, zn, fe and mn content in leaves of nonfloral as well as floral shoots. pruning showed marked influence only on cu and zn content in the leaves of nonfloral and floral shoots. leaf nutrient status in terms of fe and mn also varied in cultivars irrespective of pruning intensity, and pruning did not have significant impact on fe and mn status in leaf tissue. non-floral shoots had greater concentration of cu and zn than floral shoots in both the years of experiment. highest cu, fe and mn content was recorded in ‘mallika’ mango, while, zn content was highest in ‘dashehari’ mango. severe pruning (90 cm from apex) improved cu and zn content in leaves of non-floral shoots as well as floral shoots. the lowest amount of cu and mn was noted in ‘dashehari’ leaves, while, ‘amrapali’ had the lowest zn and fe content in both non-floral and floral shoots. severely pruned ‘mallika’ trees registered the highest amount of cu, while lightly pruned ‘dashehari’ trees had highest zn content in their floral and non-floral leaves. moderate pruning in’ mallika’ enhanced mn content in leave of non-floral and floral shoots. no-pruning in ‘dashehari’ trees led to lower cu content but zn content was the least in lightly pruned ‘amrapali’ trees. severe pruning in ‘dashehari’ trees drastically reduced mn content. thus, severe pruning in old mango trees may be advisable to improve micronutrient status in floral and non floral shoots. key words: mango, mangifera indica, pruning, micronutrients, cu, zn, fe, mn introduction mango (mangifera indica l.), member of the family anacardiaceae, is the most important fruit crop of both subtropical and tropical regions of the world. there is ample scope for enhancing production and productivity of mango through pruning under high density planting (hdp). pruning is also practised to avoid overlapping/ intermingling of branches, improve light interception, increase photosynthetic rate, reduce relative humidity within the plant canopy, etc. (lal et al, 2000). not much work has been reported on determining optimum pruning intensity in close spaced orchards compared to wider spaced (traditional) ones. the practice of mango pruning is followed immediately after harvest (heading back branches) which encourages shoot growth just beneath the site of the first bud break (sauco, 1996). these shoots [newly emerged] have different physiological responses post-pruning, i.e., changes in biochemical, physiological and nutritional status, which subsequently affect overall performance of the trees in the long run. pruning decreases yield in the initial years due to simulative growth of shoots, while minerals absorbed by roots are readily available to a few fruits only (mika, 1986). root shortening coupled with stem pinching, followed by spray of pbz or tiba on shoots is the most effective treatment enhancing root and shoot branching and also for increasing leaf content of n, ca, mg, fe and zn (helail and eissa, 1997). hence, the present work was carried out to study effect of pruning intensity on micronutrient status in leaf tissues of mango obtained from non-floral (vegetative) and floral (reproductive) shoots, which may reflect futurie performance of trees, especially under high density planting. material and methods the field experiment was conducted at the main orchard of the division of fruits and horticultural technology, iari, new delhi, during 2005-2007. three mango cultivars, viz., ‘amrapali’ (23-year-old), ‘mallika’ (24-year-old) and ‘dashehari’ (26-year-old) were selected 1 present address: central institute for arid horticulture, bikaner 334 006 j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 120-123, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 121 pruning intensity on leaf micronutrients in mango for the present study. these cultivars were planted under high density with spacings of 2.5m x 2.5m, 3.0m x 4.0m and 3.0m x 2.0m for cvs. amrapali (v 1 ), mallika (v 2 ) and dashehari (v 3 ), respectively. trees were provided with uniform agronomic and cultural practices during the course of investigation. pruning was done in mid august, 2005 and pruning intensities were: i0 (control): un-pruned, i1 (light): 30 cm from the apex, i2 (moderate): 60 cm from the apex, and i3 (severe): 90 cm from the apex. each cultivar had three replications with four levels of pruning intensities. thus, the total number of treatment combinations was 12, with one tree per replication. balanced pruning was performed in all directions by removing the inner and a few peripheral branches of the canopy that were dense and overcrowded. the control trees were maintained without pruning. as a result of pruning, trees did show some flowering and fruiting during 2006, i.e. the first year (presumed to be an ‘off’ year) and the second year (2007, the ‘on’ year). the leaves (7-8 month old) from non-flowered (vegetative), flowered (reproductive) shoots were collected from all directions and immediately shifted to the laboratory where these were washed quickly and rinsed with distilled water. the samples were air dried, cut into small pieces and oven dried at 700c for 48h in paper bags until gaining constant weight and milled to a powder in a stainless steel grinder. the powder was stored in paper bags at room temperature. the powdered plant material (500 mg) was digested in 20 ml di-acid mixture [nitric acid (hno 3 ):perchloric acid (hclo 4 ) 3:1] and the volume was made up to 100 ml with distilled water. micronutrient concentration was determined on an atomic absorption spectrophotometer directly from the di-acid digest, using an air-acetylene flame. content of cu, fe, mn and zn was measured at 386 nm (lamp current 7 ma), 22.6 nm (lamp current 3 ma), 403.1 (lamp current 5 ma) and 213.9 nm (lamp current 5 ma) wavelength, respectively. the sensitivity was 0.05, 0.008, 0.02, and 0.025 µg/ ml for fe, zn, mn and cu, respectively. final concentration (in ppm) was calculated by multiplying the concentration with a suitable dilution factor. experimental data were subjected to statistical analysis in factorial randomized block design and two years data from nonfloral and floral shoots were analyzed as per methods suggested by gomez and gomez, 1984. interpretation of results was based on ‘f’ test and critical difference (cd) at p=0.05 was worked out for comparing means. results and discussion role of micronutrients in plant nutrition is vital because several deficiency symptoms occur in plants due to which performance of the entire tree declines markedly. although micronutrient deficiencies produce characteristic symptoms, the symptoms are very confusing under field conditions, especially, when more than one nutrient is deficient. mango cultivars, irrespective of pruning intensity, had significantly different concentrations of cu, zn, fe and mn in the leaves in the ‘off’ as well as the ‘on’ year of our experiment. highest concentration of cu and mn was observed in ‘mallika’, and lowest in ‘dashehari’ (table 1) which may be due to the biennial nature of ‘dashehari’ mango (thakur et al, 1981). it was also noted that in the ‘on’ year, cu and mn content leaves was lower than in the ‘off’ year (thakur et al, 1973) because fruiting terminals numbered more in the ‘on’ year than in the ‘off’ year which acted as a sink for mineral nutrients (thakur et al, 1981). similarly, pruning intensity showed marked influence on cu and zn content in mango leaves. severely pruned trees (i 3 ) had the highest cu content, followed by moderately pruned (i 3 ) trees and the least cu content was observed in unpruned trees (i 0 ), as, pruning destabilizes the root:shoot ratio. in addition, defoliation along with root pruning and stem pinching invariably increases cu content in shoots as noted by helail and eissa, 1997. in contrast, mn content in leaves did not differ significantly (table 1). content of zn in mango leaves improved after severe pruning (i 3 ), followed by light pruning while, moderate pruning reduced zn level in mango leaves of both non-floral and floral shoots. the interaction effect of cultivar and pruning intensity also affected cu (except flowered shoots in the ‘off’ year), zn and mn content in leaves of non-floral and floral shoots. cu and mn content were highest in severely (v 2 i 3 ) and moderately pruned ‘mallika’ (v 2 i 2 ) trees, respectively, while the lowest cu concentration was estimated in un-pruned ‘dashehari’ mango. in contrast, severely pruned ‘dashehari’ had the lowest mn in leaves (table 2). cultivar ‘mallika’ encouraged greater vegetative growth (and produced substantial number of non-fruiting terminals in the beginning) /and non-fruiting terminals had higher cu and mn content (thakur et al, 1979). un-pruned trees had slow growth (less number of new shoots), thus resulting in deficiency of cu. among the three cultivars, ‘dashehari’ leaves had highest zn content (kumar et al, 1985), while ‘amrapali’ had the lowest concentration of both zn and fe due to continuous production of fruiting terminals in both the years of experiment (thakur et al, (1981). on the other hand, severely pruned tree had the lowest zn content (26.66, 23.25; 25.64, 22.35 ppm) probably due to higher number of new j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 120-123, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 122 t ab le 1 . e ff ec t of c u lt iv ar a n d p ru n in g in te n si ty o n m ic ro n u tr ie n t co n te n t in l ea ve s of t h re e m an go c u lt iv ar s u n d er h ig h d en si ty p la n ti n g t re at m en ts † c u ( p p m ) z n ( p p m ) f e (p p m ) m n ( p p m ) 2 0 0 5 -0 6 * 2 0 0 6 -0 7 * * 2 0 0 5 -0 6 * 2 0 0 6 -0 7 * * 2 0 0 5 -0 6 * 2 0 0 6 -0 7 * * 2 0 0 5 -0 6 * 2 0 0 6 -0 7 * * n f s f s n f s f s n f s f s n f s f s n f s f s n f s f s n f s f s n f s f s a m ra pa li ( v 1 ) 18 .7 8 15 .5 8 16 .0 0 13 .0 7 19 .4 4 16 .4 0 18 .5 9 15 .5 9 20 1. 11 12 6. 50 16 2. 78 14 6. 86 10 0. 50 95 .8 4 88 .6 2 85 .1 0 m al li ka ( v 2 ) 22 .8 0 18 .9 2 20 .0 2 16 .8 0 22 .1 2 19 .3 9 21 .3 9 18 .6 2 23 8. 62 21 8. 92 21 5. 05 19 6. 02 11 3. 45 11 0. 27 10 2. 33 10 1. 57 d as h eh ar i (v 3 ) 14 .3 0 10 .7 2 12 .2 7 8. 83 30 .9 0 26 .9 1 29 .6 0 26 .0 1 20 2. 85 18 1. 36 17 4. 75 15 6. 44 76 .4 2 73 .7 5 67 .1 8 63 .6 2 s e m ± 0. 41 0. 29 0. 32 0. 97 0. 80 0. 74 0. 82 0. 79 11 .8 5 12 .0 2 13 .3 1 13 .6 4 5. 09 5. 00 5. 45 5. 12 c d ( p = 0 .0 5 ) 1. 18 0. 86 0. 93 0. 80 2. 31 2. 14 2. 37 2. 20 34 .0 5 34 .3 3 38 .2 2 45 .2 4 14 .6 4 14 .6 0 15 .6 0 14 .7 1 u n -p ru n ed ( i 0 ) 17 .1 7 13 .5 6 14 .2 7 11 .2 3 23 .6 7 20 .3 4 22 .4 2 19 .7 1 20 8. 46 18 3. 96 17 4. 96 15 6. 84 92 .1 4 88 .8 3 80 .9 1 81 .2 4 30 c m ( i 1 ) 18 .1 3 14 .4 0 15 .2 0 12 .1 0 25 .3 3 21 .9 7 24 .0 8 20 .8 3 19 6. 25 17 5. 94 17 2. 21 13 4. 20 10 2. 07 99 .2 6 92 .1 4 88 .8 3 60 c m ( i 2 ) 18 .5 2 15 .0 2 16 .2 1 13 .0 0 20 .9 5 18 .0 3 20 .6 2 17 .4 1 23 7. 23 21 6. 13 19 7. 53 18 2. 88 96 .0 7 91 .8 5 83 .0 5 79 .2 0 90 c m ( i 3 ) 20 .7 2 17 .3 2 18 .7 2 15 .2 1 26 .6 6 23 .2 5 25 .6 4 22 .3 5 21 3. 54 19 2. 04 19 2. 00 17 1. 79 96 .8 8 93 .2 1 88 .0 7 84 .2 0 s e m ± 0. 47 0. 34 0. 37 0. 32 0. 93 0. 86 0. 95 0. 92 13 .6 9 13 .8 8 15 .3 6 15 .7 5 5. 88 5. 87 6. 30 5. 91 c d ( p = 0 .0 5 ) 1 .3 6 0 .9 9 1 .0 7 0 .9 2 2 .6 7 2 .4 7 2 .7 4 2 .6 4 n s n s n s n s n s n s n s n s * ‘ o ff ’ y ea r; * * ‘ o n ’ y ea r n f s = n o n -f lo ra l sh o o ts ; f s = f lo ra l sh o o ts † f o r d et ai ls o f th e tr ea tm en ts , p le as e se e te x t t ab le 2 . in te ra ct io n e ff ec t of c u lt iv ar a n d p ru n in g in te n si ty o n m ic ro n u tr ie n t co n te n t of l ea ve s in t h re e m an go c u lt iv ar s u n d er h ig h d en si ty p la n ti n g t re at m en ts † c u ( p p m ) z n ( p p m ) f e (p p m ) m n ( p p m ) 2 0 0 5 -0 6 * 2 0 0 6 -0 7 * * 2 0 0 5 -0 6 * 2 0 0 6 -0 7 * * 2 0 0 5 -0 6 * 2 0 0 6 -0 7 * * 2 0 0 5 -0 6 * 2 0 0 6 -0 7 * * n f s f s n f s f s n f s f s n f s f s n f s f s n f s f s n f s f s n f s f s v 1 i 0 18 .5 6 15 .1 6 13 .6 6 12 .8 3 23 .2 3 19 .5 3 21 .1 6 18 .8 6 20 2. 90 17 6. 13 15 9. 13 14 4. 60 88 .3 0 84 .6 6 76 .7 6 72 .8 0 v 1 i 1 16 .8 0 13 .2 6 13 .8 3 10 .5 6 17 .0 8 14 .2 0 17 .0 6 13 .0 20 0. 03 18 0. 66 16 7. 00 14 9. 68 10 8. 90 10 5. 43 98 .6 6 95 .3 3 v 1 i 2 19 .0 3 15 .9 0 16 .3 6 13 .4 0 17 .5 6 15 .4 3 17 .4 6 14 .7 6 22 6. 20 20 2. 23 17 3. 90 16 1. 96 86 .1 0 73 .6 6 67 .6 0 64 .2 3 v 1 i 3 20 .7 3 18 .0 0 18 .1 6 15 .2 6 19 .9 3 16 .4 3 18 .6 6 15 .7 3 17 5. 33 14 7. 00 15 1. 13 13 1. 26 11 8. 73 11 4. 60 11 2. 06 10 8. 06 v 2 i 0 21 .6 0 17 .9 0 18 .1 0 15 .3 3 22 .6 3 20 .2 3 22 .5 6 19 .6 0 21 8. 10 19 3. 60 18 5. 63 16 7. 16 97 .0 0 92 .6 0 82 .1 3 90 .2 0 v 2 i 1 23 .4 0 19 .4 6 20 .2 0 17 .4 3 21 .4 3 18 .4 0 19 .9 0 17 .3 3 20 6. 16 18 2. 86 19 0. 33 16 8. 93 11 7. 73 11 5. 56 10 9. 30 10 6. 20 v 2 i 2 21 .0 6 16 .9 6 18 .4 0 15 .1 0 21 .3 3 18 .5 6 20 .7 3 17 .9 0 26 7. 60 25 1. 13 24 4. 96 22 8. 13 13 4. 46 18 1. 80 12 2. 66 11 0. 56 v 2 i 3 25 .1 6 21 .3 6 23 .4 0 19 .3 6 23 .1 0 20 .3 6 22 .3 6 19 .6 6 26 2. 63 24 6. 16 23 9. 30 21 9. 86 10 4. 63 10 1. 13 95 .2 2 91 .3 3 v 3 i 0 11 .3 6 7. 63 9. 06 5. 53 25 .1 6 21 .2 6 23 .3 3 20 .6 6 20 5. 90 18 3. 16 18 0. 16 15 8. 76 91 .1 3 89 .2 3 84 .4 3 80 .7 3 v 3 i 1 14 .2 0 10 .4 6 11 .5 6 8. 30 37 .3 3 33 .3 3 35 .6 0 32 .1 6 19 2. 56 16 4. 30 15 9. 30 14 4. 16 79 .6 0 76 .8 0 68 .4 6 64 .9 6 v 3 i 2 15 .4 6 12 .2 0 13 .8 6 10 .5 0 23 .9 6 20 .1 0 23 .6 6 18 .5 6 21 7. 90 19 5. 03 17 3. 73 15 8. 56 67 .6 6 65 .1 0 58 .9 0 54 .8 0 v 3 i 3 16 .2 6 12 .6 0 14 .5 6 11 .0 36 .9 6 32 .9 6 35 .3 0 31 .6 6 20 2. 66 18 2. 96 18 5. 83 16 4. 26 67 .3 0 63 .9 0 56 .9 3 53 .2 0 s e m ± 0. 82 0. 60 0. 64 0. 55 1. 61 1. 49 1. 65 1. 59 23 .7 1 24 .0 4 26 .6 1 27 .2 9 10 .1 9 10 .1 7 10 .9 1 10 .2 4 c d (p = 0 .0 5 ) 2. 36 n s 1. 85 1. 59 4. 63 4. 29 4. 74 4. 57 n s n s n s n s 29 .2 0 29 .2 1 31 .3 6 29 .4 3 * ‘ o ff ’ y ea r; * * ‘ o n ’ y ea r n f s = n o n -f lo ra l sh o o ts ; f s = f lo ra l sh o o ts † f o r d et ai ls o f tr ea tm en ts , p le as e se e te x t j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 120-123, 2010 sanjay kumar singh and singh prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 123 (ms received 23 march, 2010, revised 17, november 2010) leaves and perhaps due to zn regulating enzymes synthesized after pruning and then rapid translocation due to high activity of cytokinins in leaves. the lowest level of zn in moderately pruned trees (i2) may be due to existence of old leaves and fruiting leading to exhaustion of nutrients (table 1). the rest of the treatments were at par. lightly pruned ‘dashehari’ recorded maximum zn content (37.33, 33.33, 35.60 and 32.16 ppm) due to varietal characters, while lowest was seen in lightly pruned ‘amrapali’ (17.08, 14.20, 17.06 and 13.0 ppm) may be due to a higher number of fruiting terminals (table 2) (thakur et al, 1981). during the ‘on’ year, zn and fe content decreased in mango leaves compared to the‘off’ year (mishra and dhillon ,1978; thakur et al, 1979). highest fe content was noted in leaves of ‘mallika’, while the minimum in ‘amrapali’. effect of pruning intensity and its interaction with cultivar on fe content was non-significant, which could be due to the several factors regulating nutrient composition in plant tissues. it is also clear from the data (tables 1 and 2) that ‘on’ year had low levels of all the micronutrients studied in leaves than in the ‘off’ year. similarly micronutrient content declined during the reproductive stage compared to the vegetative stage. the result of this study indicates that severe pruning in old mango trees may be preferred to improving micronutrient status, especially cu and zn, in flowering and non-flowering shoots. references gomez, k.a. and gomez, a.a. 1984. statistical procedures for agricultural research (2nd edition), john wiley and sons, inc., new york, usa helail, b.m. and eissa, m.a. 1997. effect of some cultural practices and growth regulator treatment on growth of mango seedlings. ann. agril. sci., 35:883-894 lal, b., rajput, m.s., rajan, s. and rathore, d.s. 2000. effect of pruning on rejuvenation of old mango trees. ind. j. hort., 57:240-242 mika, a. 1986. physiological response of fruit trees to pruning. in: hort. rev., janick, j (ed.), avi publishing. house, west port, connecticut, 88:337-338 mishra, k.a. and dhillon, b.s. 1979. level of endogenous gibberellins in the healthy and malformed panicles of mango (mangifera indica l.). ind j. hort, 37:3540 sauco, v.g. 1996. horticultural practices of mango. acta hort., 455:391-400 thakur, r.s., samra, j.s. and chadha, k.l. 1973. assessment of micronutrient status in the foliage of mango trees around malihabad, lucknow. ind. j. hort., 37:120-123 thakur, r.s., samra, j.s. and chadha, k.l. 1981. the nutrient levels in fruiting and non-fruiting terminals of three mango cultivars. sci. hort., 15:355-361 pruning intensity on leaf micronutrients in mango j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 120-123, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no page 141 genetic divergence for yield and yield-contributing traits in cucumber (cucumis sativus l.) h. r. sharma and deepa sharma dr. yashwant singh parmar university of horticulture and forestry horticultural research station kandaghat, district solan, himachal pradesh 173 215 india e-mail: hrs_kgt@yahoo.com abstract the cluster analysis grouped the thirty one genotypes of cucumber, collected from different sources in india, into seven clusters. the genotypes jorji local, bengal 60, jjl and derabassi local were promising with respect to yield per plant and fruit length, while gyn-2, gyn-3 and gyn-4 were superior for number of fruits per plant. however, genotypes chakkimore local, farukabad local, chamoli local and chamba local were promising for average fruit weight and fruit breadth. key words: cluster analysis, cucumber, genetic divergence, cucumis sativus l. cucumber (cucumis sativus l.) is an important vegetable crop that has its origins in the indian subcontinent. a lot of diversity in this crop exists in the country. but, most of the farmers grow their own land races to fulfil their domestic or local market demands. a huge portion of the diversity is, thus, still restricted to kitchen gardens or individual farms. hence, efforts were made to collect this diversity from farmers’ fields or kitchen gardens from all over india and to use it in active crop improvement programmes. in this study, the non-hierarchical clustering approach was employed to evaluate and assess genetic divergence among genotypes/land races and to select elite ones for further crop improvement. the experimental material comprised of 31 genotypes/land races of cucumber collected from different sources in india. the experiment was laid out at dr. y.s. parmar university of horticulture and forestry, horticultural research station, kandaghat, solan (himachal pradesh) during kharif, 2005.the experimental site is situated at an altitude of 1270m above mean sea level, lying between latitude 30o52’ north and longitude 77o11’ east. it falls under the mid hill zone of himachal pradesh. the climate ranges from sub-tropical to sub-temperate. sixteen plants of each genotype were transplanted at the recommended spacing of 1.5 x 1.0 m. standard cultural practices to raise the cucumber crop in mid hills were followed as per recommendations of package of practices developed by the university. the observations on number of fruits per plant, yield per plant, average fruit weight, fruit length and fruit width were recorded on 10 randomly selected competitive plants from each plot. mean values in each replication for all the traits were subjected to statistical analysis. genetic divergence analysis was performed using non-hierarchical euclidean cluster analysis (spark, 1973). the performance of 31 genotypes of cucumber with respect to fruit yield and fruit traits is given in table 1. cluster analysis grouped the genotypes of cucumber into seven clusters. the maximum number of genotypes (7 genotypes) were grouped in cluster i followed by cluster v and cluster vii (5 genotypes each), cluster ii and cluster vi (4 genotypes each), and, cluster iii and cluster iv (3 genotypes each). the composition of the clusters is given in table 2. intra-cluster distances (table 3) revealed that the maximum divergence was present in cluster ii (1.319), followed by cluster vi (1.135) and cluster vii (1.127). the lowest value of intra-cluster distance (0.769) was observed for cluster iii indicating limited genetic divergence in this group. the maximum inter-cluster distance (4.875) was observed for cluster ii and cluster iii, followed by cluster j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 141-143, 2006 short communication page 142 table 1. performance of cucumber genotypes for fruit yield traits genotype number of fruit yield average fruit fruit fruit fruits per plant per plant (kg) weight (g) length (cm) width (cm) sex form fruit colour k-75 12.0 3.6 300.0 17.5 7.1 monoecious light green k-90 13.0 4.1 320.0 20.1 7.6 monoecious light green gyn-1 18.0 4.5 250.0 13.5 6.0 gynoecious dark green gyn-2 19.0 4.7 250.0 17.0 8.0 gynoecious light green gyn-3 20.0 5.5 275.0 21.5 7.5 gynoecious dark green gyn-4 19.0 5.7 300.0 20.0 8.5 gynoecious light green mncc 01 11.0 2.7 250.0 12.5 6.2 monoecious light green mncc 02 12.0 3.0 250.0 13.0 6.5 monoecious light green mncc 03 12.0 3.7 312.5 13.5 7.0 monoecious light green ec 173931 8.0 3.4 425.0 26.0 6.4 monoecious green ec 173940 9.0 2.5 277.7 20.5 6.8 monoecious green ec 173971 7.0 2.8 407.1 19.2 7.3 monoecious green poinsett-76 8.0 2.0 250.0 12.9 5.7 monoecious dark green market more 10.0 3.6 366.0 19.5 6.8 monoecious green sheetal 11.0 3.0 280.0 23.4 7.6 monoecious light green orissa local 9.0 3.1 350.0 21.8 6.9 monoecious dark green sanech local 6.0 3.6 600.0 22.5 6.5 monoecious light green subathu local 7.0 2.8 407.1 19.7 7.0 monoecious light green jorji local 14.0 5.9 425.0 29.0 7.5 monoecious light green chakkimor local 9.0 4.5 500.0 25.0 8.5 monoecious light green faizabad local 8.0 3.6 450.0 17.8 6.3 monoecious green hisar local 7.0 3.3 471.4 19.5 6.4 monoecious green farukabad local 12.0 5.2 433.3 22.5 9.0 monoecious light green bengal 60 14.0 6.1 439.2 18.0 7.5 monoecious dark green kanpur local 7.0 3.2 464.2 20.5 7.0 monoecious dark green chamoli local 8.0 3.8 475.0 22.0 9.0 monoecious green pilibhit local 6.0 2.8 475.0 17.0 6.4 monoecious green jjk 10.0 6.2 625.0 25.0 8.0 monoecious light green derabassi local 11.0 5.9 536.3 22.0 7.5 monoecious light green chamba local 6.0 3.9 650.0 19.5 8.5 monoecious green himangi 13.0 4.4 338.4 15.5 7.5 monoecious white mean 10.4 4.1 392.0 19.5 7.2 iii and cluster vi (4.703), cluster i and cluster iv (4.251), and cluster iii and cluster iv (4.221). parents selected from these clusters may, thus, provide a broader genetic base for crop improvement programmes and may produce heterotic hybrids or transgressive segregants in later generations. similar findings have also been reported earlier in some genotypes of cucumber (prasad et al 1993, 2001; more and seshadri 2002; rao et al, 2003; xu et al 2003). they too adopted the clustering approach to identify parents for crop improvement programmes. cluster means (table 4) for different traits indicated that maximum number of fruits per plant (19.3) was produced by members of cluster iv, whereas, yield per plant and fruit length were maximum for cluster ii (6.0 kg and 23.5 cm, respectively). however, maximum average fruit weight (514.5 g) and fruit breadth (8.7 cm) were observed for cluster vi. the genotypes jorji local, bengal 60, jjl and derabassi local are promising with respect to yield per plant and fruit length while, gyn-2, gyn-3 and gyn-4 are superior for number of fruits per plant. however, genotypes chakkimore local, farukabad local, chamoli local and table 2. composition of clusters in cucumber cluster number of genotypes genotypes i 7 ec 173971, sanech local, subathu local, faizabad local, hisar local, kanpur local, pilibhit local ii 4 jorji local, bengal 60, jjk, derabassi local iii 3 mncc 01, mncc 02, poinsett-76 iv 3 gyn-2, gyn-3, gyn-4 v 5 ec 173931, ec 173940, market more, sheetal, orissa local vi 4 chakkimor local, farukabad local, chamoli local, chamba local vii 5 k-75, k-90, gyn-1, mncc 02, himangi j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 141-143, 2006 sharma & sharma 142 page 143 table 3. intra and inter cluster distance values in cucumber cluster i ii iii iv v vi vii i 0.831 ii 3.162 1.319 iii 2.760 4.875 0.675 iv 4.251 2.914 4.221 0.769 v 1.461 3.074 2.659 3.450 0.959 vi 2.729 2.152 4.703 3.626 2.807 1.135 vii 2.508 3.130 2.058 2.267 2.048 3.325 1.127 table 4. cluster means for five characters in cucumber cluster number of yield per average fruit fruit fruits plant fruit length width per plant (kg) weight (g) (cm) (cm) i 6.8 3.1 467.8 19.4 6.7 ii 12.2 6.0 506.4 23.5 7.6 iii 10.3 2.5 250.0 12.8 6.1 iv 19.3 5.3 275.0 19.5 8.0 v 9.4 3.1 339.7 22.2 6.9 vi 8.7 4.3 514.5 22.2 8.7 vii 13.6 4.0 304.1 16.0 7.0 table 5. promising genotypes for different traits trait genotypes number of fruit gyn-2, gyn-3, gyn-4 per plant yield per plant jorji local, bengal 60, jjk, derabassi local average fruit chakkimor local, farukabad local, weight chamoli local, chamba local fruit length jorji local, bengal 60, jjk, derabassi local fruit width chakkimor local, farukabad local, chamoli local, chamba local (ms received 30 september 2006, revised 29 november 2006) chamba local are the promising ones for average fruit weight and fruit breadth (table 5). references more, t.a. and seshadri, v.s. 2002. studies on genetic divergence in muskmelon (cucumis melo l.). j. mah. agri.univ., 27: 127-131 prasad, v.s.r.k., jain, b.p., verma, s.p.p. and ganguly, d.k. 2001. diversity pattern and choice of parents for hybridization in slicing cucumber (cucumis sativus l.). j. res. birsa agri. univ., 13: 33 39 prasad, v.s.r.k., singh, d.p. and singh, r.p.. 1993. biological divergence in the land races of indian cucumber (cucumis sativus l.). ind. j. hort., 50: 57-63 rao, e.s., verma, v.k. and munshi, a.d.2003. breeding potential of cucumber (cucumis sativus l.) genotypes using d2 analysis. ind. j. hort., 60: 53-58 spark, d.n. (1973) euclidean cluster analysis. algorithm as 58. appl. stat., 22:126-130 xu qiang liu jinsheng, chen xuehao, li lingli , go shaogui chen zhiming, xiao jiang, cao beisheng, xu q.a., liu j.s., chen, xh li ll go sg,chen. z.m., xiao, j.a. and cao, b.s. 2003. principal component and cluster analysis of quality characters of pickling cucumber (cucumis sativus l.). j. yangzhou univ. agric. life sci., 24:78-81 j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 141-143, 2006 genetic divergence in cucumber 143 1 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 00-00, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction coconut (cocos nucifera l.) belonging to family arecaceae is an important plantation crops of india providing livelihood to a substantial number of farm families. the versatile palm popularly known as ‘king of palms’, ‘tree of heaven’, ‘tree of life’, ‘tree of abundance’, as well as ‘god’s gift to mankind’, is grown in more than 93 countries within an area of 12.8 million hectares and production of 10.9 m mt (copra equivalent) in 2001. the total area and the production in asian pa cific coconut committee (apcc) countries are estimated at 11.4 mha and 9.2 m mt respectively, which is 90 and 84 per cent of world area and production (rethinam and taufikkurahman 2002). in india, coconut palms are grown in an area of 2.17 million hectares with a production of 20,308.70 million nuts and a productivity of 9345 nuts/ha annually (cdb, 2019-20). kerala ranks first in terms of area and production followed by tamil nadu, karnataka and andhra pradesh, while, tamil nadu ranks first in the productivity followed by andhra pradesh and kerala. morphological and molecular diversity of ganoderma spp. causal agent of basal stem rot of coconut in southern dry tracts of karnataka palanna k.b.1*, koti p.s.2, basavaraj s.3, boraiah b.4 and narendrappa t.3 1icaraicrp on small millets, pc unit,uas, gkvk, bengaluru-560065, 2the university of trans-disciplinary health sciences and technology, bengaluru, india, 3department of plant pathology, uas, gkvk, bengaluru-560065 4zonal agricultural research station, uas, gkvk, bengaluru-560065, karnataka, india. *corresponding author email : kbpalanna@gmail.com abstract morphological and molecular diversity of ganoderma species causing basal stem rot of coconut in southern dry tracts of karnataka, india was carried out during 2016-17. a total of 20 isolates were isolated from chitradurga, chikamagalore, hassan and tumkur districts of karnataka and were identified based on morphological and molecular characteristics. sporocarps and diseased root bits were found as good source for isolation of ganoderma. in all the isolates there were high variability in cultural, morphological and molecular characteristics. the dendrogram generated from the cultural and morphological characteristics showed clear variations among ganoderma isolates and formed two main clusters, one cluster consisted of 13 isolates and another cluster consisted of 7 isolates. several isolates showed 100 per cent similarity in the morphological characters regardless of their geographical origin. all the ganoderma isolates amplified a fragment of 650 bp with fungal universal primers (its1 and its4). the its gene sequences of five isolates viz., cg1 (mk 681870), cg7 (mk681871), cg11 (mk681872), cg14 (mk681873) and cg20 (mk681874) were deposited in ncbi gene bank. taxonomic comparison of the isolates with ncbi database proved that the isolates were genetically related to ganoderma spp. with 80-100 per cent identity. however, all the tested isolates could not amplify g. lucidum species specific markers which indicate its absence in the region. the phylogenetic analysis of the ganoderma isolates (its1 and its4) of coconut with other known species of ganoderma from genbank emphasized the close relationship with india, china and sri lanka isolates. the isolate cg1 grouped with ganoderma carnosum (kr 733545.1) with 98.97 per cent identity which is isolated from sri lanka and cg14 and cg20 grouped with g. applanatum (mf 072395.1) and g. gibbosum (om 350473.1) with 98 to 99 per cent identity and cg7 and cg11 isolates of coconut grouped into distinct sub cluster and clearly indicated the species diversity in ganoderma infecting coconut in southern karnataka. keywords: coconut, dna sequence, ganoderma wilt, its, phylogeny and variability 2 palanna et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 00-00, 2022 coconut palms are normally affected by various biotic and abiotic str esses resulting in dr astic reduction in yields. among the va rious biotic stresses that affect coconut production in india, basal stem rot (bsr) or ganoderma wilt caused by ganoderma applanatum pers and g. lucidum (leys). karst. is a major constraint in coconut production, especially in dry tracts of southern karnataka. the disease is reported from various places all over the tropical world viz., india, sri lanka, west indies, seycheles, guam etc., though the disease was first recorded by dr. butler in the b eginnin g of 2 0 t h c ent u r y a nd la t er b y venkatanarayan (1936) from karnataka, a severe outbreak occurred in 1652 in thanjavur district of tamil nadu and hence named as thanjavur wilt. the disease is also reported from andhra pradesh, k er a la , m a ha r a s ht r a , g u ja r a t a nd o r is s a (bhaskaran, 1994; wilson et al, 1987). ganoderma s p ec ies a r e imp or t a nt wood dec a ying f u ngi occurring throughout the world. they are diverse in the tropics affecting plantation crops such as coconut, arecanut and oil palm by causing basal stem rot (flood et al., 2000 and pilotti, 2005) and they also a ffect or namental and forest trees in tropical and temperate areas causing disease and wood rots of timber (lee, 2000). the taxonomy of basidiomycetes has traditionally been based on the morphological features of the b a s idioc a r p s . i dent if ic a t ion b a s ed on t he basidiocarp features, however, is prone to problems such as absence of basidiocarps during certain times of the year, their morphological plasticity and p r es enc e of c r yp t ic s p ec ies ( m o nc a lvo a nd ryva rden, 1997; gottlieb a nd wr ight, 1999). however, studies had shown that ganoderma species were genetically heterogeneous since wide range of genetic variation were reported and caused by out crossing over genera tions and different geographical origins (miller et al., 1999; pilotti et a l . , 2 0 0 3 ) . t h is lea ds t o va r ia t io n in t heir morphological characteristics even within same species (hong et al., 2001). for these reasons, contemporary taxonomists employ morphological studies, mating tests, analyses of biochemical and dna sequence information or combina tions of these for identification of the pathogen. recently, molecular approach has been adapted to identify ganoderma species such a s thr ough multiplex polymerase chain reaction (pcr) which is a more rapid and precise approach (idris et al., 2010; wong et al., 2012). disease management is an importa nt aspect to sustain the pa lm industr y. accur a te identification of the pa thogen is pr e requisite for designing mana gement strategies. h enc e, t he p r es ent s tu dy wa s u nder ta ken t o investigate the diversity of ganoderma species isolated from bsr infected coconut palms in terms of t heir molec u la r a nd mor p hologic a l characteristics. materials and methods collection of diseased root samples/stem bit and sporocarps of coconut from different places of southern karnataka differ ent pa r ts of the coconut pa lms such a s diseased root bits/stem bits affected by ganoderma wilt showing typical symptoms and sporocarps were collected from infected palms from various pla ces of souther n kar na ta ka (ta ble 1). t he samples were labeled and packed in polythene bags for the purpose of isolation of the causal organism. isolation and designation of the causal organism isolates infected roots/ stem bits collected from infected palms were washed thoroughly with sterile water and cut into small bits/pieces and were surface sterilized in 1 per cent sodium hypochlorite solution for 30 seconds and rinsed with sterile distilled water thr ice serially to remove the tra ces of sodium hypochlorite. after surface sterilization, diseased specimens were kept in sterilized bags along with wet cotton under room temperature for about 8 to 10 days. after 8 to 10 days of incubation period, slight mycelial growth was observed and that was tr a nsf er r ed into p ot a to dex tr os e a ga r ( pd a) medium. the inoculated plates were incubated at room temperature (28 °c ± 2 °c) for 3-5 days to facilitate growth of the fungus. later, the bit of fungal growth was transferred to pda slants. the p ur e cu ltu r e of t he f u ngu s wa s obt a ined b y following hyphal tip culture technique under aseptic conditions. the isolated ganoderma isolates of coconut were designated as cg1, cg2, cg3, cg4, cg5, cg 6, cg 7, cg8, cg 9, cg 10, cg 11, cg 12, cg13, cg14, cg15, cg16, cg17, cg18, cg19 and cg20. 3 morphological and molecular diversity of ganoderma spp. causal agent maintenance of pure cultures the isolated fungus was sub-cultured on pda slants and allowed to grow at 28 °c ± 2°c temperature for 8-10 days. the cultures so obtained were stored in refrigerator at 4°c for further studies and they were cultured periodically once in 2 to 3 months. study on variability of ganoderma isolates of coconut twenty ganoderma isolates of coconut isolated during course of investigation were used in variability study. cultural morphological variability of ganoderma isolates growth on potato dextrose agar twenty ganoderma isolates [cg1, cg2, cg3, cg4, cg5, cg6, cg7, cg8, cg9, cg10, cg11, cg12, cg13, cg14, cg15, cg16, cg17, cg18, cg19 and cg20] of coconut collected from different geographic locations were cultured on pda. the morphological characters like colony diameter/growth, biomass production, colony colour, colony margin, mycelial density, appearance of zones, reverse pigmentation etc were studied. mycelia plug (6 mm) from seven days old active culture was transferred onto the centre of a standard 9 cm pda plate and incubated for 7 days at an ambient temperature (idris et al., 2000). the test for a ll isola tes with thr ee r eplica tions wa s r un simultaneously to avoid bias due to external factors. the diameter was measured daily and the number of days required for maximum growth of mycelium was also recorded. the colony texture, appearance of zone, reverse pigmentation colour, type of colony margin and mycelial density were recorded after seventh day of incubation. table 1 : identity and designation of ganoderma isolates of coconut and their source of collection sl. source place of collection designation of ganoderma no. forisolation isolates 1 sporocarp karekodihally, arsikere tq. hassan dist. cg1 2 root sample haranahally, arsikeretq. hassan dist. cg2 3 sporocarp vittalapura, arsikeretq. hassan dist. cg3 4 sporocarp nagenakoppalu, cr pattana tq. hassan dist. cg4 5 root sample badarahally, channarayapattana tq. hassan dist. cg5 6 root sample belagralli, tiptur tq. tumkur dist. cg6 7 sporocarp hindiskere, tiptur tq. tumkur dist cg7 8 sporocarp thimmanahali, c.n.halli tq. tumkur dist. cg8 9 sporocarp anesidri, hiriyur tq. tumkur dist. cg9 10 root sample dharmapura(h), hiriyur tq. chitradurga dist. cg10 11 root sample venglapura, hosdurga tq. chitradurga dist. cg11 12 sporocarp shettihalli, hosdurga tq. chitradurga dist. cg12 13 root sample thirumalapura holalkere tq. chitradurga dist. cg13 14 sporocarp thalakatta, hosdurgatq. chitradurga dist. cg14 15 sporocarp vaderahalli, holalkere tq. chitradurga dist. cg15 16 root sample doddanaramangala, tumkur tq. tumkur dist. cg16 17 root sample kodipalya, tumkur tq. tumkur dist cg17 18 sporocarp shettikere, c.n.halli tq. tumkur dist. cg18 19 sporocarp hullekere, turvekere tq. tumkur dist. cg19 20 sporocarp thyagaturu, gubbi tq. tumkur dist. cg20 note: cg-coconut ganoderma 4 growth on liquid media the flasks containing 100 ml of sterilized potato dextrose broth (pdb) were inoculated with the 0.6 cm mycelial discs of ganoderma isolates of coconut. three replications were maintained for each treatment. t he inoculated fla sks wer e incubated at r oom temperature (28±2 °c) for 10 days, and then mycelial mat was harvested on a previously weighed whatman no.4 filter paper and dried at 60 °c in a hot air oven till constant weight was obtained. the dry mycelial weight was recorded and expressed in mg 100 ml-1 broth and results were analysed statistically. qualitative data of cultural characteristics on solid media and bio mass were transformed into code and a numerical data matrix was generated (table 2). the da ta wa s subjected to cluster a na lysis using multivariate statistical package (mvsp version 3.13). similarity matrices were calculated using the simple matching coefficient and a dendrogram was generated using the unweighted pair group method of arithmetic averages (upgma) (pilotti et al., 2004). characters description code days for full plate < 8 1 8-9 2 10-11 3 > 11 4 biomass (g/100 ml-1) < 1 5 1-1.25 6 > 1.25 7 colony colour white 8 creamy white 9 mycelia texture smooth 10 leathery 11 fluffy 12 concentric rings present 13 absent 14 reverse pigmentation no pigmentation (white) 15 pale yellow 16 yellowish 17 yellow 18 pinkish 19 mycelia density thin 20 dense 21 thin at center & dense at corner 22 dense at center 23 margin filamentous 24 even 25 undulate 26 erose 27 lobate 28 table 2 : cultural morphological characters and their corresponding codes used to describe ganoderma isolates for assessment of cultural morphological characteristics palanna et al 5 molecular characterization of ganoderma the isolates of ganoderma species were identified through its (internal transcribed spacer) region using universal primers its1 and its4 amplification. reagents and chemicals all the chemicals were of analytical grade (m/s sigma ltd. and m/s merck ltd.). the following buffers and solutions were prepared : extraction buffer (100 mmm tris-hcl (ph 8); 20 mm edta (ph 8); 2 m nacl; 3 % ctab (w/v); 1 % pvp; 2 % β-mercaptoethanol (v/v); phenol : chloroform (24:1); potassium acetate 7.5 m; proteinase k, 0.05 mg ml-1 ; wash solution [15 mm ammonium acetate in 75 % (v/v) ethanol ]; te buffer [10 mm tris-hcl (ph 8), 1mm edta (ph 8)]. fungal genomic dna extraction fungal mycelia (100 mg) were ground to fine powder using liquid nitrogen. pre-warmed extraction buffer (1 ml) was added to the samples and it was ground once more in the buffer. all the samples were transferred to 2.0 ml eppendorf tubes and 5 µl proteinase k (10 mg ml-1) was added. the tube was incubated in 37 °c for 30 min and then at 65°c for another 30 min with frequent swirling. samples were centrifuged at 10,000 x g for 10 min at rt and the supernatant was tr a nsfer r ed to fr esh eppendor f tube. to the supernatant, 100 µl of 7.5 m potassium acetate was added and incubated at 4°c for 30 min. the samples were centrifuged at 13,000 x g for 10 min at rt; the supernatant was transferred to fresh tube, an equal volume of chloroform: isoamyl alcohol was added and mixed by gentle in version 30-40 times. the samples were centrifuged at 10,000 x g for 10 min at rt. the supernatant was transferred to a fresh tube and precipitated with 2/3 volume of isopropanol. the precipitated nucleic acids were collected and washed twice with the wash solution. the nucleic acid pellet so obtained was air dried until the traces of ethanol was removed and dissolved in an appropriate amount of te buffer (50-70 µl). the nucleic acid dissolved in te buffer were treated with ribonuclease (rnase 10 mgml-1), incubated at 37 °c for 30 min and stored at -20°c until further use. the experiment was repeated thrice and the results described as the mean of three independent experiments (sambrook and russel, 2001). qualitative and quantitative analysis of dna the quality and quantity of dna was analyzed by running 2 µl of each sample mixed with 2 µl of 10x loading dye in one per cent agarose gel. the dna from all the isolates produced clear sharp bands in one per cent agarose gel indicating good quality of the dna. the dna has been quantified by comparing with the 1 kb size marker (genei, bangalore) and by spectrophotometer (nanodrop nd 1000). pcr amplification of internal transcribed spacer (its) region the ribosomal dna (rdna) unit contains genetic and non-genetic or spacer r egion. each repeat unit consisted of a copy of 18s, 5.8s and 28s like rdna and its spacer like internal transcribed spacers (its) and inter-genic spacers (igs). the rdna has been employed to analyze evolutionary events because it is highly conserved whereas its rdna is more variable. hence, it has been used for investigating the species level relationships. the primers for amplification were custom synthesized at bangalore genie pvt. ltd., bangalore and supplied as lyophilized products of desalted oligos. pcr was carried out in poly propylene tubes using univer sa l pr imer s it s 1 (5' aacgttaccaaactgtta-3') and its 4 (5' aagttcagcgggtattcct-3') and g. lucidum specific primers gsf (5' -ccctaaacctctcaaa gtca-3') and gsr (5' -tatcgtacaggttct cgtg -3). pcr amplification was performed in 25 µl reaction mixture containing 10× reaction buffer supplied by the manufacturer, 100 ng of fungal dna, each dntp at a concentration of 0.5 mm, 20 pico moles of each primer and 1 u of taq dna polymerase (neb, usa). thermo cycling conditions were 94o c for 5 min, followed by 30 cycles of 94o c for 30 sec, 56o c for 1min and 72o c for 1min and a final elongation step of 72o c for 5min. separation of amplified products by agarose gel electrophoresis agarose gel electrophoresis was performed to resolve the amplified product using 1.4 per cent agarose in 1x tbe (tris borate edta) buffer, 0.5 mg ml-1 of ethidium br omide a nd loa ding buffer (0. 25 % bromophenol blue in 40 % sucrose). four µl of the loading dye was added to 5 µl of pcr product and loaded to the agarose gel. electrophoresis was carried at 65 v for 1.5 hrs. the gel was observed under uv light and documented using gel documentation unit. morphological and molecular diversity of ganoderma spp. causal agent 6 sequencing of its region: the its region was sequenced from isolates of ganoderma species to confirm the organism and to know the variability present in them. homology search was done using blast algorithm (basic local alignment search tool). results cultural and morphological variability/ characteristics of ganoderma isolates of coconut t he r esults r evea led tha t ther e wer e cultur a l mor phologica l va r ia tions between isola tes of ganoderma isolated from infected palms of coconut in southern dry tracts of karnataka. the colony diameter on 5th, 7th and 9th day after inoculation was significantly varied, where radial growth ranged from 1.87 to 8.53 cm on 5th day after inoculation. similarly on 7th and 9th day after inoculation it ranged from 2.63 to 9.00 cm and 4.75 to 9.00 cm respectively. the number of days taken to cover full plate ranged from 7 to 18 days and most of the isolates covered entire plate in 7 days as noted in cg4, cg7, cg10, cg11, cg12, cg13, cg14 and cg20. however, some of isolates taken <10 days to cover entire plate. the bio mass production also varied significantly between different isolates and it ranged from 0.56 to 1.46 g/ 100ml. there were lot of variations observed with respect to colony/ mycelial characteristics viz., concentric rings. reverse pigmentation, density of mycelium and colony margin. however, there was not much variations were observed with respect to colour and texture of the colony (fig.1 & 2 and table 3) fig. 1 : dendrogram showing relationships of ganoderma isolates of coconut based on similarity matrix of cultural/morphological characteristics fig. 2 : cultural morphological variability ganoderma isolates. a1-a4, ) ganoderma isolates on pda and b) ganoderma isolates on pdb palanna et al 7 r ad ia l gr ow th ( cm ) c ol on y/ m yc el ia l ch ar ac te rs is ol at es 5 d a i 7 d a i 9 d a i d ay s b io m as s c ol ou r/ re ve rs e te xt ur e/ c on ce nt ri c m ar gi n ta ke n g/ 10 0m l pi gm en ta ti on d en si ty r in gs c g 1 6. 16 7. 75 9. 00 9 1. 27 ( 6. 48 ) w hi te / w hi te fl uf fy /d en se fi la m en to us c g 2 7. 08 8. 68 9. 00 8 1. 17 ( 6. 14 ) w hi te /w hi te fl uf fy /d en se e ve n c g 3 7. 63 8. 95 9. 00 8 1. 36 ( 6. 69 ) w hi te /p al e ye llo w fl uf fy /d en se fi la m en to us c g 4 8. 36 9. 00 9. 00 7 1. 09 ( 5. 98 ) w hi te /w hi te fl uf fy /d en se fi la m en to us c g 5 2. 50 4. 75 6. 25 14 1. 01 ( 5. 75 ) c re am y w hi te /p al e ye llo w sm oo th /d en se e ve n c g 6 2. 67 4. 33 6. 00 11 0. 77 ( 5. 05 ) w hi te / pa le y el lo w fl uf fy /th in e ve n c g 7 8. 53 9. 00 9. 00 7 1. 46 ( 6. 94 ) w hi te /y el lo w is h fl uf fy /d en se fi la m en to us c g 8 7. 89 8. 64 9. 00 8 0. 87 ( 5. 33 ) w hi te /y el lo w is h fl uf fy /d en se fi la m en to us c g 9 6. 58 8. 22 9. 00 9 1. 16 ( 6. 18 ) w hi te /w hi te fl uf fy /d en se fi la m en to us c g 10 8. 39 9. 00 9. 00 7 1. 14 ( 6. 12 ) w hi te / pa le y el lo w fl uf fy /th in fi la m en to us c g 11 8. 34 9. 00 9. 00 7 1. 20 ( 6. 28 ) w hi te /y el lo w fl uf fy /th in fi la m en to us c g 12 8. 22 9. 00 9. 00 7 1. 07 ( 5. 95 ) w hi te / pa le y el lo w fl uf fy /d en se fi la m en to us c g 13 8. 34 9. 00 9. 00 7 1. 05 ( 5. 86 ) w hi te / pa le y el lo w fl uf fy /d en se fi la m en to us c g 14 8. 26 9. 00 9. 00 7 1. 32 ( 6. 58 ) w hi te / pa le y el lo w fl uf fy /d en se + fi la m en to us c g 15 2. 64 5. 58 7. 00 14 0. 95 ( 5. 53 ) w hi te /y el lo w l ea th er y/ de ns e + e ve n c g 16 2. 47 5. 50 7. 50 11 1. 30 ( 6. 54 ) w hi te / ye llo w is h fl uf fy /th in u nd ul at e c g 17 2. 08 4. 08 6. 25 17 0. 71 ( 4. 81 ) w hi te / y el lo w fl uf fy /d en se u nd ul at e c g 18 3. 08 6. 08 8. 00 15 0. 87 ( 5. 36 ) w hi te / pa le y el lo w fl uf fy /d en se + e ve n c g 19 1. 87 2. 63 4. 75 18 0. 56 ( 4. 26 ) w hi te /w hi te fl uf fy /th in e ro se c g 20 8. 08 9. 00 9. 00 7 1. 27 ( 6. 45 ) w hi te / p al e ye llo w fl uf fy /d en se + fi la m en to us se m ± 0. 08 6 0. 15 5 0. 01 4 0. 22 6 c d ( p= 0. 01 ) 0. 85 0 1. 12 0. 39 5 1. 34 8 c v ( % ) 4. 99 8 5. 27 3 1. 71 9 7. 97 8 n ot e: + p re se nt ; a bs en t; d a id ay s af te r in oc ul at io n *m ea n of t hr ee r ep lic at io ns ta bl e 3 : c ul tu ra l a nd m or ph ol og ic al c ha ra ct er is tic s/ va ri ab ili ty o f g an od er m a is ol at es o f co co nu t morphological and molecular diversity of ganoderma spp. causal agent 8 t he dendr ogr a m gener a ted fr om the cultur a l morphological characteristics showed clearly the variations among ganoderma isolates and dendrogram formed two main groups (fig.1). the isolate cg14 and cg5 are distinct. the complete similarity (100%) was found in several isolates of ganoderma regardless of their geographical origin. all the isolates used under study showed high va r ia bility in cultur a l a nd morphological characteristics. rakib et al. (2014) who had studied the genetic morphological variability of forty six isolates of ganoderma causing basal stem rot and upper stem rot in oil palm stated that, there wer e significant variations within and between ganoderma species in terms of their cultur a l morphology and basidiospore characteristics and they also reported that, cluster analysis of the cultural morphology and scattered plot of basidiospore features indicated that there was no distinct relationship within and between species, disease types or geographical origins of ganoderma species. t he wide r ange of va r ia tion in mor phologica l characteristic can be related to the heterogeneity of ganoderma species. the cultural characteristic that appeared to distinguish g. zonatum from g. boninense and g. miniatocinctum wa s the str ongly wa vy characteristic of the colony in g. zonatum. however, this characteristic also varied and was not present in all of the g. zonatum isolates. furthermore, the cultural appearances of fungi are also highly dependent on several factors such as type of media, ph and temperature (adaskaveg and gilbertson, 1989). although simila r (100 % simila r ity) cultur a l morphological features were observed between g3 and g4, g15 and g33, g19 and g27, and g30 and g31 based on the dendr ogr a m gener a ted, they wer e still genetica lly differ ent ba sed on the soma tic incompatibility between the isolates. this showed that different genotype in ganoderma species may express similar morphological features (phenotype). the dendrogram also showed same species of ganoderma may be separated by up to 40 per cent dissimilarity, while different species of ganoderma may have up to 92 per cent simila r ity. t his indica tes tha t ganoderma species in an oil palm plantation could not be separated according to their species, disease type or geographical origins based on their cultural morphological features. more precise tool such molecular techniques/tools should be used to identify the ganoderma species accurately. molecular characterization of ganoderma isolates genomic dna of different isolates of ganoderma was isolated by ctab method and the size was determined by resolving on one per cent agarose gel. the concentration of dna was determined using nanodrop equipment which was 75µg/µl. amplification of its1 and its4 region of rdna the full length its rdna region was amplified with its region with fungal universal primers (its1 and its4) and g. lucidum specific primers from the total genomic dna of a ll the five isola tes of ganoderma.dna amplicon was 600-650 bp in length in universal primers (fig.3) and dna was not amplified with g. lucidum specific primers and results revealed that, the g. lucidum species was absent in coconut isolates tested. further, the species identity was confirmed with dna sequencing. dna sequencing and specific amplification of ganoderma isolates the its rdna fragments of ganoderma isolates sequences were sequenced and dna amplification from ganoderma was observed at good specificity for the genus ganoderma and approximately 600-650 bp product was exclusively amplified in all the isolates tested with fungal universal primers. dna sequences of selected isolates of coconut was compared using bioinformatics tool like ncbi (national centre for bioinformatics) blast programme. based on the sequence comparison, the identification of ganoderma isola tes wa s confirmed and all the its r dna sequences of the isola tes wer e confir med a s ganoderma sp. with 80-100 per cent identity. the genbank accession number for the its sequences for the isolates cg1, cg7, cg11, cg14 and cg20 were mk681870, mk681871, mk681872, mk681873, mk681874. and phylogenetic tree of ganoderma constructed with its region sequences is shown in fig. 4. the phylogeny of the ganoderma isolates of coconut r evea led tha t, the isola te cg 1 gr ouped with ganoderma carnosum (kr 733545.1) which is originated from sri lanka and cg14 and cg20 grouped with ganoderma sp. (kr154930) and ganoderma sp. (km229652). these species were originated from india and cg7 and cg11 isolates of coconut grouped into distinct sub cluster and indicated the species palanna et al 9 diversity and dissimilarity of ganoderma in southern karnataka. abundance and uniform distribution of genetic markers in any pathogen is necessary for applications like diversity analysis at various levels. almost unlimited in number, they are widely and evenly distributed in the genome. unaffected by other genes and environment, the genotype of any individual of a population with respect to dna based markers can be determined unequivocally at any stage of the development non-destructively. in addition, it is possible to genera te ma r ker s to suite specific applications without altering the genotype of the individuals. it is difficult to distinguish these species using traditional morphological and physiological differences. to understand existence of variation among the isolates of pathogens, pcr based technique with g. lucidum specific markers and its sequence was used in the present investigation. var iations in mor phologica l char a cteristics of ganoderma have led many taxonomists to introduce biochemical and molecular methods to differentiate ganoderma species. dna a mplifica tion fr om ganoderma was observed at good specificity for the genus ganoderma and approximately 600-650 bp product was exclusively amplified in all the isolates tested with fungal universal primers. however, dna amplification was not amplified with g. lucidum specific primers in the isolates tested. the sequencing a nd phylogenetic ana lysis of selected isolates ganoderma infecting coconut r evea led the ganoderma species diversity in dry tracts of southern karnataka. nuclear rdna, including the small and large subunits, 5.8s, and the internal transcribed spacer (its) region, proved an ideal target for specific pcr primers, as each sequence is variable at the family, legend: lane m = 100bp ladder; lane 1-5 = ganoderma isolates of coconut; lane n = negative control fig. 3 : gel picture showing pcr amplification of rdna of ganoderma isolates of coconut with its1, its4 and g lucidum primers its primers g. lucidum specific primers morphological and molecular diversity of ganoderma spp. causal agent fig. 4 : phylogenetic relationships of ganoderma isolates of coconut inferred from the sequences of the its region 10 genus, or species level. internal transcribed spacer (its) regions have been successfully used to generate specific primers capable of differentiating closely related fungal species. amplification of target dna thr ough pcr with ta xon-specific pr imers is a potentially more sensitive and accurate approach than conventional microscopic techniques. nucleotide sequences from certain regions of the dna reflect phylogeny at various taxonomic levels. such regions need to be evolving at an appropriate rate in order to supply enough consistent differences to separate the taxa into statistically supported monophyletic groups. these regions must be present as a single copy in the genome or evolve as a single copy region in order to avoid comparisons of different copies in different species (paralogous comparisons) if the region exists as multicopy. also, the region should have the same function in all organisms (mitchell et al., 1995). the ribosomal rna (rrna) genes, certain ribosomal elongation factors, and genes from the nuclear and the mitochondrial genomes have been useful for dna sequence analysis in fungi (tan and niessen, 2003; moreau et al., 2006). consequently, nucleotide sequence information from relatively conserved genes/ dna segments such as the its (moncalvo et al., 1995a, b; smith and sivasithamparam, 2000a), the mitochondrial small subunit (mtssu) (hong and jung, 2004), and nuclear large subunit (lsu) (lee et al., 2006) rdna have been widely used in the taxonomy and phylogeny of ganoderma species. this is because the variability of these regions, which is harboured mainly in the introns, provides sufficient resolution at various taxonomic levels. gottlieb et al. (2000) adopted rdna analysis (its i and ii of 5.8s rdna) to identify south american isolates of ganoderma and elfvingia and found molecular and morphological agreement at the sub generic level, however this relationship was difficult to visualize at the species level. singh et al. (2003) characterized 61 accessions using dna finger printing technique and rapd/ aflp analysis which revealed highly significant genetic variability among g. lucidum isolates collected from coconut gardens in coimbatore. phylogenetic analysis of the its sequence data was used to resolve australian ganoderma isolates into five terminal clades, and showed that a number of isola tes ha d been misna med (smith a nd sivasithamparam, 2000a). based on the phylogenetic analysis of the its and 5.8s sequence, latiffah et al. (2002) showed that ganoderma isolates from infected oil palm and coconut stumps belong to the same group as classified by pcr-rflp. gottlieb et al. (2000) also used its-based phylogenetic analysis together with pcr-rflps to elucidate the taxonomy of ganoderma species in south amer ica. t hey r epor ted tha t molecular and morphological data agree at the subgeneric level, but that it was difficult to determine relationships at the species level. e a r lier s t u dies b a s ed on mor p hologic a l identification a sserted that north american g. lucidum and european g. resinaceum belong to the same biological species (adaskaveg and gilbertson, 1986). based on phylogenetic relationships and nu c leot ide s equ enc e va r ia t ions of t he i t s (moncalvo et al., 1995a, b) as well as the mtssu (hong and jung, 2004), these two species were shown to be differ ent. the gene phylogeny by moncalvo et al. (1995b) has indicated that isolates that were morphologically identified as g. lucidum did not cluster together, neither did those identified as g. tsugae or g. resinaceum. in the phylogenetic a na lysis of ganoderma species using mtssu s equ enc e d a t a b y h ong a nd j u ng ( 2 0 0 4 ) , g a n o d e r m a s p ec ies wer e divided i nt o s ix monop hyletic gr ou ps ( g. co lo s su s gr ou p, g. applanatum gr oup, g. tsugae gr oup, asian g. lucidum gr oup, g. meredithiae gr oup, a nd g. resinaceum group) that included different species t ha t wer e identified b a sed on mor p hologica l char a cter s. species tha t wer e identified as g. lucidum were scattered over three of the groups, the asian g. lucidum group, the g. resinaceum group and the g. tsugae group. also, isolates that were identified as g. oregonense and g. oerstedii did not group together. these two studies indicate that s ome is ola t es wer e mis ident if ie d b a s ed on morphological characters since isolates that were identified as one thing do not form a monophyletic group. from the preceding discussion it is clear that dna sequence analysis of the ribosomal dna region has provided an alternative approach to elucidate the taxonomy of ganoderma. these techniques have pla yed a n impor ta nt r ole in the ta xonomy of ganoderma, and have proved to be more reliable than other techniques that have been used for the same purpose. misidentification and species synonyms based on morphological identification have been reduced using the molecular techniques. among 5 isolates sequenced, isolate cg14 and cg20 are grouped palanna et al 11 in same cluster both in morphological and molecular phylogeny. however, other isolates viz., cg7 and cg11 which are genetically 100 per cent similar and grouped in same cluster are morphologically different as evidenced by grouping in different clusters in morphological phylogeny. in this study, a combination of cultur a l/mor phologica l cha r a cter istics a nd molecular techniques allowed identification of groups within ganoderma isolates of coconut and results indicated existence of morphological and molecular variability of ganoderma isolates of coconut causing bsr in dry tracts of southern karnataka. further, molecular characterization with g. lucidum species specific markers and fungal universal primers also indicated species diversity in ganoderma causing basal stem rot/ ganoderma wilt in coconut. in the present study based on phylogenetic analysis isolate cg1 was identified as g. carnosum with 98.97 per cent identity and isolates cg14 and cg20 showed ma ximum (98. 96 to 99. 46 %) identity with g. gibbosum and g. applanatum species and indicating the different species associated with ganoderma wilt of coconut in dry tracts of southern karnataka. however, the species identity has to be confirmed by systematic investigation with polyphasic taxonomic a ppr oa ch to unr a vel the species diver sity of ganoderma causing basal stem rot in coconut in karnataka. acknowledgement the authors gratefully acknowledge icar-aicrp on palms, agriculture research station, arsikere and department of horticulture, government of karnataka for providing base line information on coconut cultivation and department of plant pathology, univer sity of agr icultur a l sciences, gkvk, bengaluru for providing facilities to carry out this work. references adaskaveg, j. e. and gilbertson, r. l.1986. cultural studies and genetics of sexuality of ganoderma lucidum and g. tsugae in r ela tion to the taxonomy of g. lucidum complex. mycologia 78: 694-705 adaskaveg, j. e. and gilbertson, r. l. 1989. cultural studies of four north american species in the ganoderma lucidum complex with comparisons to g. lucidum and g. tsugae. mycol. res.92: 182-191 bhaskaran, r.1994. biofertilizers for the management of basal stem rot disease of coconut. indian coconut j.25: 7–11 flood, j., hasan, y., turner, p. d. and ogrady, e. b. 2000. the spread of ganoderma from infective sources in the field and its implications for management of the disease in oil palm. in ganoderma diseases of perennial crops, j. flood, p.d. bridge and m. holderness, (eds.), cab international, oxon, uk. pp 101-113 gottlieb, a. m., ferrer, e. and wright, j. e. 2000. rdna analyses as an aid to the taxonomy of species of ganoderma. mycological research., 104: 1033-1045 gottlieb, a.m. and wright, j. e. 1999a. taxonomy of ganoderma from southern south america: subgenus ganoderma. mycological research,103: 661-673 hong, s. g. and jung, h.s. 2004. phylogenetic a na lysis of ganoderma ba sed on near ly complete mitochondrial small subunit ribosomal dna sequences. mycologia, 96: 742-755 hong, k. k., geon, s. s. and hong, g. k.2001. comparison of characteristics of ganoderma lucidum according to geographical origins: consideration of morphological characteristics. micobiology,29: 80-84 idris, a. s., ariffin, d., swinburne, t. r. and watt, t. a. 2000. the identity of ganoderma species responsible for basal stem rot (bsr) disease of oil pa lm in ma la ysia – mor phologica l characteristics. malaysian palm oil board inform. series, 102, mpob tt no. 77a idris, a.s., rajinder, s., madihah, a. z. and wahid, m. b. 2010. multiplex pcr-dna kit for early detection and identification of ganoderma species in oil palm. malaysian palm oil board inform. series, 531, mpob ts no.73 latiffah, z., harikrishna, k., tan, s. g., tan, s. h., abdullah, f. and ho, y. w. 2002. restriction analysis and sequencing of the its regions and 5.8s gene of rdna of ganoderma isolates from infected oil palm and coconut stumps in malaysia. association of applied biologists, 141: 133-142 lee, j. s., lim, m. k., cho, k. y., chang, s.y. a nd na m, d. h. 2006. identifica tion of medic ina l mu s hr oom s p ec ies b a s ed on morphological and molecular diversity of ganoderma spp. causal agent 12 nuclear large subunit rdna sequences. the journal of microbiology,44: 29-34. lee, s. s. 2000. the current status of root diseases of acacia mangium willd. [in “ganoderma diseases of perennial crops” (j. flood, p. d . br i d g e an d m . h o l d e r ne s s , (eds.)], cab international, oxon, uk. pp 71-79. miller, r. n.g., holderness, m., bridge, p. d., chung, g. f. and za kar ia , m. h. 1999. genetic diversity of ganoderma in oil palm plantings. plant pathol.,48: 595-603 mitchell, j.i., roberts, p. j. and moss, s.t. 1995. sequence or structure? a short review on the a p p lic a t i on of nu c leic a c id s equ enc e information to fungal taxonomy. mycologist, 9: 67-75 monca lvo, j. m. a nd ryva r den, l. 199 7. a nomencla tur e s tudy of t he ganod erma taceae donk. sinopsis fungorum,11: 1-14 moncalvo, j. m., wang, h. h. and hseu, r. s. 1 9 9 5 a . p h ylogenet ic r ela t io ns hip s in g a n o d e r m a inf er r ed f r om t he int er na l transcribed spacers and 25s ribosomal dna sequences. mycologia,87: 223-238 moncalvo, j m; wang, h. and hseu, r s 1995b. gene phylogeny of ganoderma lucidum complex based on ribosomal dna sequences. 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diversity of ganoderma species isola ted from infected oil pa lms ( elaeis guineensis). int. j. agric. biol., 16: 691 699 rethinam, p. and taufikkurahman, l. 2002. global scenario of coconut oil. indian coconut j.33(7): 1–8 sambrook, j. and russell, d. w. 2001. molecular cloning: a laboratory manual, cold spring harbor laboratory press, new york. p. a3.1a3.10 singh, s. k., yadav, m. c., upadhyay, r. c., shwetkamal, r. d. and tewari, r. p. 2003. molecula r cha r a cter iza tion of specia lty mushr oom ger mpla sm of the na tiona l mushroom repository. mushroom research, 12: 67-78. smith, b. j. and sivasithamparam, k. 2000. internal transcribed spacer ribosomal dna sequence of five species of ganoderma from australia. mycological research 104(8): 943-951. tan, m. k. and niessen, l. m. 2003. analysis of rdna its sequences to determine genetic relationships among, and provide a basis for simplified diagnosis of, fusarium species causing crown rot and head blight of cereals. mycol res., 107: 811–821 venkatarayan, s. v. 1936. the biology of ganoderma lucidum on a r eca a nd coconut pa lms. phytopathology, 26: 153–175 wilson, k. i., rajan, k. m., nair, m. c. and bhaskaran, s. 1987. ganoderma disease of coconut in kerala. international symposium on ganoderma wilt disease on palms and other perennial crops, tnau, coimbatore (abstract) pp 4-5 wong, l., bong, c. f.j. a nd idris, a.s. , 2012. ganoderma species associated with basal stem rot disease of oil palm. american journal of applied sciences, 9(6), pp.879-885. palanna et al india stands third in papaya production, after brazil and nigeria with a 12% share of the total global production (f.a.o., 2004). the total area under papaya cultivation in india is about 73,000 ha and the total production is about 0.26 million tonnes (anon, 2004). it is cultivated chiefly in uttar pradesh, gujarat, maharashtra and tamil nadu. cultivation of papaya is beset with a number of problems like poor seed viability, sexual propagation, instability in sex ratio, sensitivity to water logging, frost, hot winds and susceptibility to fungal and viral diseases. papaya being a highly cross pollinated and polygamous fruit species, produces large variability with effect of γγγγγ irradiation on germination, growth, sensitivity and survivability of papaya cv. kesar king murlee yadav, m. s. kushwah, d. b. singh, r. k. roshan and nongallei pebam department of horticulture allahabad agricultural institutedeemed university allahabad – 211 007, india e-mail: murli_y@yahoo.com abstract an experiment was laid out in a 4x2 factorial design, with 4 levels of γγγγγ-irradiation (0,5,10 & 15 krad) and two dates of sowing (15th september and 15th october) on papaya cv. kesar king. the results indicated that germination percentage, survival percentage and plant growth increased with the increased in γγγγγ-irradiation upto 10 krad. early sowing of seed (15th september) showed better germination (73%), survival (70%) and plant growth as compared to late sowing (15th october). interaction between γγγγγ-irradiation of 10 krad and early sowing of seed (15th september) was found superior to all the other treatment combinations to obtain optimum germination percentage, survival percentage and plant growth. key words: γ-irradiation, papaya respect to plant characters. it is also very difficult to maintain the purity of variety and uniformity in plants. papaya seeds exhibit poor seed viability and germ inability in stored seeds. presently, there is a huge demand for healthy and productive seedlings among papaya farmers. mutation by γ-irradiation is used for improvement of fruit crops, particularly in papaya. the present investigation was carried out during 2006–2007 in the department of horticulture, allahabad agricultural institute deemed university, allahabad. the experiment was laid out in a 4 x 2 factorial crd, comprising of four levels of γ-irradiation (0, 5, 10 and 15 krad.) and table 1. effect of different levels of γγγγγ-irradiation and date of sowing on germination percentage and survival percentage of papaya (carica papaya l.) germination percentage survival percentage date of sowing (d) mean (r) date of sowing (d) mean (r) γ-irradiation (r) d 1 (15th sep.) d 2 (15th oct.) d 1 (15th sep.) d 2 (15th oct.) no irradiation 59.40 55.00 57.20 57.33 52.00 54.67 5 krad 65.00 62.00 63.50 60.20 60.00 60.10 10 krad 73.20 70.00 71.60 70.00 65.00 67.50 15 krad 67.50 66.00 66.75 64.00 63.50 63.75 mean (d) 66.27 63.25 64.76 62.88 60.13 61.50 r s rxs r s rxs s.em ± 0.33 0.46 0.46 0.54 0.77 0.77 cd (p=0.05) 0.70 0.99 0.99 1.17 1.65 1.65 short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 68-71, 2008 page 68 69 two dates of sowing (15th september and 15th october) on papaya cv. kesar king. observations on germination percentage, survivability, and growth parameters namely, plant height, number of leaves per plant, leaf spread, diameter of stem, and petiole length were taken at 15 days interval. the data pertaining to germination percentage and survival percentage of papaya, as influenced by different level of γ-irradiation and dates of sowing are presented in table 1. a significant increase in germination and survival percentage was recorded with γ-irradiation of 10 krad (r 2 ). however, the minimum germination and survival percentage were recorded with no irradiation (r 0 ). seeds sown on 15th september (d 1 ) recorded significantly higher percentage of germination (73.20%) and survival percentage (70%) as compared to (70% and 65%, respectively) 15th october sowing. interaction effect of γ-irradiation of 10 krad and 15th september seed sowing (r 2 d 1 ) recorded the highest percentage of germination (73.20%) and survival (70%), whereas the lowest germination (55%) and survival (52%) were observed with no irradiation in 15th october sowing. bankapur and habib (1979) reported that 5-15 krad doses of γ-irradiation increased the germination, survival and number of male and female flowers and hafiz et al (2005) also found maximum germination (87.50%) with 2.5 krad of γ-irradiation. the data with respect to plant height recorded at 15 days intervals is presented in table 2. effect of γirradiation and date of sowing were non-significant at 15 days after sowing (das). plant height was significantly influenced by γ irradiation and date of sowing from 30 das. the maximum plant height at 30, 45, 60, 75, 90 das was recorded in 10 krad (r 2 ), whereas minimum plant height was observed with no irradiation (r 0 ). interaction effect of γ irradiation of 10 krad and sowing date of 15th september recorded the maximum plant height. however, minimum plant height was observed with the interaction between no irradiation (r 0 ) and 15th october sowing. the data presented in table 2 revealed that number of leaves per plant was significantly influenced by different level of γ-irradiation and dates of sowing from 30 das. the maximum number of leaves per plant 16.06,24.00,34.33 at 60, 75, 90 das was recorded in 10 krad (r 2 ) on 15th september sowing whereas it was minimum 8.23, 17.88, 21.68 with no irradiation (r 0 ) on 15th october sowing. interaction effect of γ irradiation of 10 krad and sowing date of 15th september was found to have maximum number of leaves per plant at all intervals. however, minimum numbers of leaves per plant was observed with the interaction between no irradiation (r 0 ) and sowing date of 15th october at all interval. the data pertaining to leaf spread at 15 day intervals is presented in table 3. effect of γ-irradiation and date of sowing was found non-significant with leaf spread at 15 das. the leaf spread was significantly influenced by γ irradiation and date of sowing from 30 das. the maximum leaf spread at 30, 45, 60, 75, 90 das was recorded in 10 krad (r 2 ) at 15th sept. sowing while minimum leaf spread was observed with no irradiation (r 0 ). interaction effect of γ irradiation of 10 krad and 15th september sowing was found maximum in leaf spread at all interval i.e., 60, 75, 90 das. while it was minimum with interaction between no irradiation (r 0 ) and 15th october sowing at all interval. hafiz et al (2005) also found maximum germination (87.50%) with 2.5 krad of γ irradiation. the data in respect of stem diameter at 15 day intervals is presented in table 3. effect of γ-irradiation and date of sowing was found non-significant in stem diameter at 15 das, while it was significantly affected 30 days after sowing. the maximum stem diameter at 60, 75, 90 das were recorded in 10 krad (r 2 ) at 15th sept. sowing whereas minimum with no irradiation (r 0 ). interaction effect of γ irradiation of 10 krad and 15th september sowing showed maximum stem diameter at all intervals. however, minimum stem diameter was observed with the interaction between no irradiation (r 0 ) and 15th october sowing. the data presented in table 4 revealed that petiole length was significantly influenced by different level of γ-irradiation and dates of sowing from 30 das. the maximum petiole length at 60, 75, 90 das was recorded in 10 krad (r 2 ) on 15th september sowing whereas it recorded minimum with no irradiation (r 0 ). interaction effect of γ-irradiation of 10 krad and 15th september sowing on petiole length was maximum at all the interval. however, it was minimum with the interaction between no irradiation (r 0 ) and 15th october sowing. acknowledgements the authors are thankful to the head, deptt. of horticulture, aai-du for providing research facilities for the work. effect of γ-irradiation on papaya plant j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 68-71, 2008 70 t ab le 2 . p la n t h ei gh t an d n u m b er o f le av es p er p la n t as i n fl u en ce d b y d if fe re n t le ve l of γγγγ γ i rr ad ia ti on a n d d at es o f so w in g p la n t h ei g h t (c m ) n u m b er o f le av es p er p la n t 6 0 d a s 7 5 d a s 9 0 d a s 6 0 d a s 7 5 d a s 9 0 d a s ãir ra d ia ti o n d at e o f m ea n ( r ) d at e o f m ea n ( r ) d at e o f m ea n ( r ) d at e o f m ea n ( r ) d at e o f m ea n ( r ) d at e o f m ea n ( r ) ( k ra d ) so w in g ( d ) so w in g ( d ) so w in g ( d ) so w in g ( d ) so w in g ( d ) so w in g ( d ) d 1 d 2 d 1 d 2 d 1 d 2 d 1 d 2 d 1 d 2 d 1 d 2 0 5 .2 9 4 .6 2 4 .9 6 9 .4 4 8 .8 1 9 .1 3 1 2 .2 0 11 .7 0 11 .9 5 1 2 .2 0 8 .2 3 1 0 .2 2 1 8 .4 3 1 7 .8 8 1 8 .1 6 2 3 .6 0 2 1 .6 8 2 2 .6 4 5 6 .2 4 6 .1 5 6 .2 0 1 3 .6 0 11 .1 7 1 2 .3 9 1 4 .2 0 1 5 .0 0 1 4 .6 0 1 4 .7 3 1 4 .5 0 1 4 .6 2 2 0 .6 9 1 9 .8 3 2 0 .2 6 2 5 .7 3 2 4 .8 0 2 5 .2 7 1 0 1 3 .8 1 1 3 .3 0 1 3 .5 6 1 7 .5 7 1 7 .1 4 1 7 .3 6 2 1 .2 3 2 1 .1 6 2 1 .2 0 1 6 .0 6 1 5 .9 7 1 6 .0 1 2 4 .0 0 2 2 .0 7 2 3 .0 3 3 4 .3 3 2 8 .7 7 3 1 .5 5 1 5 1 3 .1 2 1 2 .1 1 1 2 .6 2 1 6 .0 2 1 5 .6 9 1 5 .8 5 2 1 .1 2 2 0 .4 7 2 0 .7 9 1 5 .4 7 1 5 .0 0 1 5 .2 3 2 1 .0 5 2 0 .7 8 2 0 .9 2 2 7 .9 0 2 7 .3 8 2 7 .6 4 m ea n ( d ) 9 .6 2 9 .0 5 9 .3 3 1 4 .1 6 1 3 .2 0 1 3 .6 8 1 7 .1 9 1 7 .0 8 1 7 .1 3 1 4 .6 2 1 3 .4 3 1 4 .0 2 2 1 .0 4 2 0 .1 4 2 0 .5 9 2 7 .8 9 2 5 .6 6 2 6 .7 7 r s r x s r s r x s r s r x s r s r x s r s r x s r s r x s s .e m ± 0 .1 5 0 .1 0 0 .2 1 0 .2 9 0 .2 1 0 .4 1 0 .0 7 0 .1 0 0 .0 5 0 .6 5 0 .4 6 0 .9 2 0 .1 8 0 .1 3 0 .2 6 0 .6 9 0 .4 9 0 .9 7 c d (p = 0 .0 5 ) 0 .3 1 0 .2 2 0 .4 4 0 .6 3 0 .4 4 0 .8 9 0 .1 5 0 .2 1 0 .1 1 1 .3 9 0 .9 9 1 .9 7 0 .3 9 0 .2 7 0 .5 5 1 .4 8 1 .0 4 2 .0 9 t ab le 3 . l ea f sp re ad ( cm 2 ) a n d s te m d ia m et er ( cm ) as i n fl u en ce d b y d if fe re n t le ve l of γγγγ γ i rr ad ia ti on a n d d at es o f so w in g l ea f sp re ad ( cm 2 ) s te m d ia m et er ( cm ) 6 0 d a s 7 5 d a s 9 0 d a s 6 0 d a s 7 5 d a s 9 0 d a s ãir ra d ia ti o n d at e o f m ea n ( r ) d at e o f m ea n ( r ) d at e o f m ea n ( r ) d at e o f m ea n ( r ) d at e o f m ea n ( r ) d at e o f m ea n ( r ) ( k ra d ) so w in g ( d ) so w in g ( d ) so w in g ( d ) so w in g ( d ) so w in g ( d ) so w in g ( d ) d 1 d 2 d 1 d 2 d 1 d 2 d 1 d 2 d 1 d 2 d 1 d 2 0 11 .7 3 1 0 .3 9 11 .0 6 2 1 .4 3 2 1 .1 0 2 1 .2 7 2 6 .2 7 2 5 .3 3 2 5 .8 0 0 .8 4 0 .8 4 0 .8 4 1 .1 3 1 .1 2 1 .1 3 1 .5 9 1 .4 8 1 .5 3 5 1 2 .3 7 1 2 .1 7 1 2 .2 7 2 5 .1 3 2 3 .8 3 2 4 .4 8 2 9 .5 7 2 8 .7 3 2 9 .1 5 0 .8 6 0 .8 5 0 .8 6 1 .2 2 1 .2 1 1 .2 2 1 .7 6 1 .6 4 1 .7 0 1 0 4 5 .0 0 4 1 .1 7 4 3 .0 8 5 8 .7 5 5 8 .3 7 5 8 .5 6 7 7 .3 7 6 9 .3 7 7 3 .3 7 1 .0 5 0 .9 0 0 .9 8 1 .3 2 1 .2 5 1 .2 8 1 .8 5 1 .8 3 1 .8 4 1 5 4 1 .0 0 3 7 .8 0 3 9 .4 0 5 4 .0 3 5 1 .5 3 5 2 .7 8 6 9 .3 3 6 9 .0 7 6 9 .2 0 0 .9 0 0 .8 9 0 .9 0 1 .2 4 1 .2 3 1 .2 3 1 .8 3 1 .7 6 1 .8 0 m ea n ( d ) 2 7 .5 3 2 5 .3 8 2 6 .4 5 3 9 .8 4 3 8 .7 1 3 9 .2 7 5 0 .6 3 4 8 .1 3 4 9 .3 8 0 .9 1 0 .8 7 0 .8 9 1 .2 3 1 .2 0 1 .2 1 1 .7 6 1 .6 8 1 .7 2 r s r x s r s r x s r s r x s r s r x s r s r x s r s r x s s .e m ± 0 .6 0 0 .4 3 0 .8 6 0 .3 9 0 .2 8 0 .5 5 1 .3 8 0 .9 8 1 .9 5 0 .0 1 0 .0 1 0 .0 1 0 .0 1 0 .0 1 0 .0 1 0 .0 1 0 .0 1 0 .0 2 c d (p = 0 .0 5 ) 1 .3 0 0 .9 2 1 .8 3 0 .8 4 0 .5 9 1 .1 8 2 .9 6 2 .0 9 4 .1 9 0 .0 2 0 .0 1 0 .0 2 0 .0 2 0 .0 2 0 .0 3 0 .0 3 0 .0 2 0 .0 4 j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 68-71, 2008 murlee yadav et al 71 table 4. petiole length (cm) as influenced by different level of γγγγγ irradiation and dates of sowing petiole length (cm) 60 das 75 das 90 das ã-irradiation date of sowing (d) mean (r) date of sowing (d) mean (r) date of sowing (d) mean (r) (krad) d 1 d 2 d 1 d 2 d 1 d 2 0 1.91 1.84 1.88 4.47 3.65 4.06 7.40 5.40 6.40 5 5.40 3.11 4.25 6.87 5.74 6.30 10.50 8.30 9.40 10 8.71 8.33 8.52 12.67 10.73 11.70 14.65 13.87 14.26 15 7.43 6.37 6.90 10.43 10.11 10.27 13.27 12.67 12.97 mean (d) 5.86 4.91 5.39 8.61 7.56 8.08 11.46 10.06 10.76 r s rxs r s rxs r s rxs s.em ± 0.16 0.11 0.22 0.16 0.11 0.23 0.19 0.13 0.26 cd(p=0.05) 0.34 0.24 0.48 0.34 0.24 0.49 0.40 0.28 0.57 references anonymous, 2005. national horticulture board. horticulture data base. bankapur, v. m. and habib, a. f. 1979. mutation studies in papaya (carica papaya). mysore j. agril. sci., 13:113-116. hafiz, i. a., naveed, anwar, abbas, n. a. and asi, a. a. 2005. effect of various doses of g-radiation on the seed germination and seedling growth of mangosarad. j. agri., 21 : 63-567. (ms received 28 september 2007, revised 5 february 2008) j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 68-71, 2008 effect of γ-irradiation on papaya plant 119 assessment of chilli varieties in salem district for higher productivity p.s. kavitha1, a. sudha2 and s. srividya3 1horticultural college and research institute for women, trichy, tamil nadu, india 2forestry college and research institute, mettupalayam tamil nadu, india, 3regional research station, paiyur, tamil nadu, india. 1e-mail: oviya232@yahoo.com abstract chilli is an important spice which is grown throughout india. chillies are integral and the most important ingredient in many different cuisines around the world as it adds pungency, taste, flavour and color to the dishes. chilli is grown in kolathur block of salem district in an area of nearly 879 ha. the farmers are mainly growing the local varieties and private hybrids in kolathur block. during the farmers and scientist conference conducted at kvk, sandhiyur (2013), the growers opted for new varieties (high yield, lengthy fruit, good pungency, and colour retention during storage). an onfarm trial was conducted in pannavadi village of kolathur block. in this study three varieties (lalima, lca 625 and kovilpatti 2) were assessed for yield, pest disease tolerance and quality parameters. lca 625 gave an average yield of 6.2-6.8 t / ha, fruit length of 9-11 cm, good pungency and good colour retention during storage compared to other two varieties. the colour of dry chilli during storage was orange compared to lalima with bright attractive red colour. hence in the market lalima fetched more price than the other two varieties. hence, it is suggested for the researchers that lca 625 may be refined for marketable colour. keywords : on farm trial, pungency, lca 625, shrinkage, marketable colour introduction chillies are native to the tropics of central a nd south amer ica a nd a r e a mong the oldest cultivated crops on this continent. basically chilli is a crop of tropical and subtropical region. india is the world’s largest producer, consumer and exporter of chilies in the world (crop reports, 2015). india produces about 1.298 mmt of chillies from an area of 0.806 mha with an average productivity of 1611 kg/ha (ncpah, 2017). t he impor ta nt sta tes gr owing c hi lli a r e andhr a p r a de s h, o r is s a , maharashtra, west bengal, karnataka, rajasthan and tamilnadu. it requires annual rainfall of 25-30 inches. chillies can be grown in a wide range of soils whereas ideal soil ph is 5.5 – 6.8. chillies grow well in areas where the average temperature is 24 °c for at least 4 to 5 months of the year. chillies are used as ingredients to add flavour and colour to most dishes. they are high in vitamin a and c, calcium and iron and can be used as a medicine to treat asthma, coughs and sore throats. commercial cultivation of chillies is more successful and one can expect decent profits in chilli farming du e t o it s ma r ket va lu es in loc a l a r ea s a nd inter na t iona l ma r ket s (p a ndey et a l. , 2 00 8) . kolathur block of salem district covers an area of nearly 879 ha for cultivation of chillies. the farmers are mainly concentrating on the local varieties and private hybrids in kolathur block. during the farmers a nd s cient is t confer enc e c ondu ct ed a t k vk , sa ndhiyur (2013), the gr ower s opted for new va r ieties with high yield, lengthy f r uit, good pungency, a nd colour retention dur ing stor age (kumar et al., 2006). based on their request, a field survey was conducted by kvk scientists during 2013-14. p r ima r y da ta wa s c ollec ted on va r iou s aspects of chilli cultivation. an on farm trial was conducted at 5 locations in pannavadi village of kolathur block. in this trial three varieties (lalima, lca 625 and kovilpatti 2) were assessed for yield, short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 119-121, 2018 120 assessment of chilli varieties j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 119-121, 2018 and quality parameters. lalima was the farmers grown local check, kovilpatti2 (k 2) was used as reference variety and lca 625 was the variety r elea sed by l am r es ea r ch sta tion, gu nt ur, andrapradesh horticultural university (aphu). lca 625 gives an average yield of 6.2-6.8 t / ha, fruit length of 9-11 cm, good pungency and good colour retention during storage. hence this variety was chosen for the performance in kolathur block. seeds of lca 625 were purchased from the lam station, guntur and distributed to farmers. farmers were given training on protray nursery raising, improved package of practices and value addition in chilli. in addition to this planofix and arka veget a b le b oost er wer e a lso given f or f olia r spraying to increase the fruit set and quality (mehraj et al., 2014). observations on crop duration, day of first flowering, green chilli and red chilli yield, no. of fruits, fruit length, pungency, total yield, net income and bcr were studied (singh et al., 2009). average and standard deviation was calculated and the pooled da ta of the above pa r ameter s at 5 locations are presented as results. observations were recorded periodically in all the five fields at pannavadi village and tabulated (table 1.). the results indicated that the maximum fruit set was observed in lca 625 than the other two varieties, fruit length was observed to be higher (9.78 cm) in lalima than lca 625 (8.44 cm). the crop duration was found to be 207days for lca 625 and 210 days for the other two varieties with high yield of 12.6 t/ha of green chilli in lca 625 and 12.46t/ha in lalima, whereas the reference variety yielded only 3.42 t/ha of green chilli (maurya et al., 2015). further dry chilli yield of 4.82 t/ha in lca 625, 4.32 t/ha in lalima and 1.8t/ha in kovilpatti 2 (chakrabarthy et al., 2017) (fig. 1 and 2). table 1. assessment of morphological and fruit characters in chilli varieties treatments particulars crop duration fruit length green chilli dry chilli duration for (days) (t/ha) (t/ha) drying of fruits (days) to 1 local lalima 265 ± 5.0 9.78 ± 0.5 12.6 4.32 ± 0.3 10-11 to 2 tnau 210 ± 0.0 6.86 ± 0.2 3.42 1.80 ± 0.2 10-11 kovilpatti 2 tnau to 3 lca 625 207 ± 4.5 8.44 ± 0.4 12.46 4.82 ± 0.3 8-9 with the net return of rs. 79,120 and bcr of 3.04 lca 625 performed well compared to net return of rs 71,740 and bcr of 2.9 in lalima and rs. 32,120 and 1.94 in k 2. table 2. cost economics of the assessed varieties technology assessed gross cost gross net return (profit) bc in rs. / unit ratio technology option 36200 ± 1461.1 107940± 7541.1 71740± 6821.5 2.981± 0.2 1 lalima technology option 34340± 909.9 66460± 2463.3 32120± 1825.4 1.9348±0.1 2 k2 kovilpatti 2 tnau technology option 38740± 1357.5 117860± 6315.6 79120± 5221.3 3.041± 0.1 3 lca 625 121 kavitha et al fig 1. lca 625 and lalima fig 2. field observation on standing crop of lalima, while the other two varieties are short duration chilli var ieties tha t wer e studied in this experiment showed variations in crop duration, fruit length, green chilli yield, dry chilli yield and duration of drying of fruits (chowdhury et al., 2015). with the assessment made in 5 locations it was observed that though in most of the parameters lca 625 excelled other two varieties, the colour of dry chilli during storage was orange compared to lalima with bright attractive red colour. hence in the market, lalima fetched more price than the other two varieties. however the pungency was more and the shrinkage of skin was less in lca 625 compared to other varieties (table 2). hence it is suggested for the resea rchers that lca 625 may be refined for marketable colour. acknowledgements authors are highly grateful to those peoples and organizations who were helpful for the conduct of this research. chakrabarthy, s. and aminul islam, a.k. 2017. selection criteria for improving yield in chilli (capsicum annuum). advances in agriculture volume 2017   https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/ 5437870 chowdhury, m. s. n., hoque, f., mehraj, h. and jamal uddin, a. f. m. (2015). vegetative growth and yield performance of four chilli (capsicum frutescens) cultivars. american-eurasian j. agric. & environ. sci. 15(4): 514-517 kumar s, kumar r, singh j 2006. cayenne/ american pepper (capsicum species). in: handbook of herbs and spices, peter kv (ed), vol 3. woodhead publ, cambridge, uk. p 299-312. maurya, a.k., yadav, s.k. and sunita kushwaha. 2015. growth, flowering and yield of chilli, capsicum annuum l as influenced by age of references seedlings. inter na tional journa l of far m sciences 5(1) : 14-16. mehraj, h., tamima, m. h., chowdhury, m. s. n., ferdous, m. h. and jamal uddin, a. f. m. 2014. study on morpho-physiological characteristics and yield performance of four chilli lines. j. biosci. agric. res. 2(1): 1-7 pandey jyoti, singh jagdish, verma ajay, singh ak , rai mathura, kumar sanjeet. 2008. evaluation of chilli (capsicum annuum l) genotypes for some quality traits. j food sci technol, 2008, 45(5), 463–465. singh, y, sharma, m. and sharma, a. (2009). genetic variation, association of characters, and their dir ect a nd indir ect contr ibutions for improvement in chilli peppers. international journal of vegetable sciences. 15: 340–368. (ms received 22 february 2018, revised 10 may 2018, accepted 27 june 2018) j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 119-121, 2018 j. hon. sci. vol. 1 (1): 68-70, 2006 statistical modelling for pre-harvest forecast: an illustration with rose k. s. shamasundaran and r. yenugopalan section of economics and statistics indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bangalore-560 089, india e-mail: sham@iihr.emet.in abstract crop yield forecast plays a vital role in arriving at pre-harvest yield estimate of a standing crop and to identify the stage at which reliable forecasting could be made before final harvest. in this paper, an attempt has been made to apply the regression technique for prediction of yield in rose. rose, is an important flower crop not only for internal market but is also intended for export, and since it shrivels, estimation of yield of a standing crop before its actual harvest is essential. based on results a model was developed, which showed that information from the first two pickings of a standing crop could be used to forecast rose yield to an extent of 77% two months before final harvest. it is also suggested to have a minimum sample size of 20 % to develop such a forecast model. key words: goodness of fit statistics, statistical modelling, yield forecast introduction commercial cultivation of roses has gained importance in recent years in india due to a growing demand for these flowers in both domestic and export markets. india, blessed with diverse agro-climatic conditions, has an immense potential to increase the productivity and, in turn, yields maximum return, in overseas market for this crop. this can be achieved by developing a suitable model to predict the actual yield of a standing crop and subsequently identify the stage within which forecasting could be made to the desired extent. to this end, it is imperative to develop a model through which growers and policy makers could frame suitable management strategies for maximizing crop productivity and net return. in this regard, statistical modelling plays a vital role in developing appropriate forecast models, on a strong scientific footing, for crop yield prediction. shamasundaran and singh (2003) made a beginning in this direction. in the present study, an attempt has been made to develop multiple regression models for obtaining a preharvest estimate of yield of rose based on information pertaining to several pickings. goodness of fit of the models developed was carried out by statistically testing the computed regression coefficients and working out measures model adequacy. material and methods an investigation was carried out at the indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore during 199495 for yield prediction in rose cv. happiness. two hundred and fifty six samples were used in this study. all the recommended cultural practices with a spacing of 75 cm x 75 cm were followed uniformly for the entire plot. data on yield in terms of number of flowers/plant from several pickings were recorded and consolidated. the first picking was made eleven months after planting. subsequent pickings were made at an interval of 45 days. linear correlation coefficient among harvests done during several pickings and total yield were computed and statistically tested. further, multiple regression models were developed by regressing harvest pertaining to different pickings with the cumulative yield by utilizing the principle of least squares (lewis-beck, 1993). the following measures of goodness of fit statistics were used to judge the adequacy of the model developed (agostid'no and stephens, 1986): mean squared error (mse) a m s e = [ e ( y t y t ) ^ / n ] coefficient of determination (r )̂ r^= l [ 2 : ( y t y ) 2 / [ 2 : ( y t y t ) ^ ] where ŷ represents the harvest/yield at time t. however, while fitting regression models to the data considered, it mailto:sham@iihr.emet.in shamasundaran and venugopalan may be noted that even an addition of one more independent variable to the model would result in increase in r̂ value (kvelsth, 1985). hence, to test the significance of the added variable, regression coefficients were subjected to t-test statistic analysis (lewis-beck, 1993). results and discussion linear [simple(r) and multiple(r)] correlation among yield (total) and individual pickings yield were computed are presented in tables 1 and 2. results revealed that there existed a highly significant relationship in almost all the pickings at 1 % level, either individually or in combination with total yield. further, it was noticed that the first picking gave rise to r̂ of 70% followed by others and the least was noticed with the fifth picking. when multiple correlation and regression was carried out, it revealed that all the pickings, individually or in combination, had significantly higher association with total yield ranging from 0.3889 to 0.9060. it was found that more than 80% of r̂ noticed with all the pickings together followed by first three and first four pickings. the first two pickings and the same along with four pickings; the first five pickings except second gave rise to an r̂ of more than 77% yield prediction. further, as discussed earlier, inclusion of additional information about the harvest obtained in every pickings, r̂ value tends to increase further. to this end, regression coefficients derived by including an additional variable were tested for its statistical significance. results presented in table 3 indicate that inclusion of x^ variable into the model yielded non-significant regression coefficient, as indicated by t-statistic value of 1.04, which falls outside the acceptance region. similarly, it may be further observed table 1. results of correlation (r) among individual pickings and total yield dv iv r 6 ) 0.84** 2 0.51** 3 0.53** 4 0.39** 5 0.15 ** significant at 1% a 2.5487 -0.0172 -0.4903 0.0992 0.4205 dvdependent variable iv-lndependent variable 1-first picking (x,) 2-second picking (x^) 4-fourth picking (x )̂ 5fifth picking (x5) b, 0.3682 b, 0.0759 3-third picking (x,) 6.total yield (x,) table 2. results of multiple correlation (r) among pickings and total yield dv iv r 6 1,2 0.88** 1,3 0.72** 1,4 0.81** 1,5 0.79** 2,3 0.72** 2,4 0.75** 2,5 0.57** 3,4 0.74** 3,5 0.51** 4,5 0.39** 1,2,3 0.89** 1,2,4 0.88** 1,2,5 0.84** 2,3,4 0.81** 2,3,5 0.73** 3,4,5 0.74** 1,2,3,4 0.91** 1,2,3,5 0.90** 1,3,4,5 0.89** 2,3,4,5, 0.85** 1,2,3,4,5 0.91** a -1.6575 3.4425 3.2340 1.6152 6.2107 7.0901 7.9559 5.8523 8.5244 9.7716 -1.1389 2.7167 1.2488 4.5190 5.9351 5.8802 -0.8506 0.6815 1.1059 4.3604 -0.8571 b , 1.7039 1.2992 1.2362 1.4667 1.4853 1.0018 1.2886 1.2582 1.1200 1.1847 1.2599 b, 1.9354 3.3277 1.3168 1.2598 2.0963 0.9228 0.7775 2.4385 1.3418 1.8455 0.8992 3.4531 1.8408 b, 0.2385 b, 0.8668 1.1362 1.4238 1.3072 0.3648 1.3419 1.4194 0.5842 1.0148 0.8509 1.3611 0.5831 b. 0.1139 b. 1.0299 1.5209 1.8123 1.2908 1.1600 1.3873 0.6845 0.8678 1.5174 0.6835 b, 0.0387 b, 1.2010 1.0325 1.0150 0.1404 1.2007 1.0604 1.1987 0.9536 1.0970 0.0043 rm%) 69.83 25.96 27.80 15.12 2.20 r̂ (%) 77.43 60.09 65.85 62.56 52.37 58.90 32.11 54.60 25.68 15.25 79.30 77.92 71.28 66.33 53.97 54.64 82.08 81.78 79.58 71.72 82.08 ** significant at 1"; dvdependent variable 1-first picking (xj) 4-fourth picking (x^) iv-lndependent variable 2-second picking (x )̂ 5fifth picking (x,) 3-third picking (x )̂ 6.total yield (x )̂ / hon sci. vol. 1(1): 68-70, 2006 69 statistical modelling for pre-harvest forecast table 3. results of goodness of fit statistics along with the selected models iv r2 mse model and (t-statistic) significant iv ,2 ,2,3 ,2,3,4 ,2,3,4,5 0.88 0.89 0.82 0.82 6.05 6.01 5.69 6.52 y = -1.66+1.7x,+1.93xj (5.44) (2.09) y = -1.14+1.48x,+2.09x2+0.36x3 (3.95) (2.24) y = -0.85+1.26x,+1.84x2+0.58x3+0.68x, (3.1) (1.98) (1.54) (1.3) y = -0.85+1.26x,+1.8x2+0.58x3+0.68x,+0.004x5 (1.1) (0.005) x,,x, x,,x, x „ x , x, figures in parentheses indicate t-statistic values dvdependent variable iv-independent variable 1-first picking (x,) 2-second picking (x^) 4-fourth picking (x^) 5fifth picking (x5)\ 3-third picking (xj) 6.total yield (x^) that inclusion of an additional variable into the model results in non-significant regression estimates. thus, results indicate that information from two pickings could predict the yield to an extent of 77 %. further, corresponding regression coefficients were significant as indicated by the t-statistic values, which fall inside the acceptance region of 1.96. moreover, the mean square error in reduction also strengthens our conclusion for identifying a model based on the first two pickings. hence, the model developed showed that information from the first two pickings of a standing crop could be used to forecast rose yield considerably two months before final harvest. it may also be stressed here that as reported by shamasundaran et al (2003), a minimum sample size of 20% of the population is required to get a good estimate to develop such a forecast model. acknowledgement the authors are grateful to director, indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore for providing all facilities to conduct this investigation. references agostid'no, r.b. and stephens m.a.1986. goodness of fit techniques. marcel dekker, new york 576p lewis-beck, s. m.1993. regression analysis. sage publ., new york. 433p kvelseth,t.o 1985. cautionary note about r .̂ the amer. stat., 39:279-85. shamasundaran, k. s. and.singh, k. r 2003. yield forecasting in tuberose (polyanthes tuberosa linn.) as effected by association of various characters. j. om. hort., 6:372-75. shamasundaran, k. s. venugopalan, r and singh, k. r 2003. optimum sample size for yield estimation in certain commercial crops. j. orn. hart., 6:2aa-a1 (ms received 16 february, 2006 revised 6 june, 2006) j. hort. sci. vol. 1(1): 68-70, 2006 70 introduction gladiolus (gladiolus grandiflorus l.), generally called “glad”, is the second most important cut flower grown from storage organs. gladiolus belongs to the family iridaceae, and has originated in the tropical region of south africa. centre of origin of the genus is located in cape florist region where most species were discovered. gladiolus was introduced to cultivation during the 19th century in india. it is mainly cultivated in karnataka, west bengal, maharastra, punjab, haryana, uttar pradesh, tamil nadu, jammu and kashmir, uttarakhand, delhi, sikkim, himachal pradesh and odisha. in odisha, it is cultivated over an area of 2350 ha, with production of 2329 lakh spikes (oas, 2011). success in plant breeding depends upon existing genetic variability within the breeding material. it is well-known that larger the variability, greater the scope for selection and improvement. genotypic variability, more specifically additive variance, is the most important for a plant breeder, as, it determines genetic gain through selection. before aiming at improvement in yield, it is necessary to be equipped with information on genetic variability and heritability in respect of important characters associated with yield. analysis of variance (anova) for quantitative traits revealed highly significant differences among the 29 performance of gladiolus genotypes: growth, flowering and corm production sanghamitra pattanaik, amitava paul1 and pravu charan lenka2 krishi vigyan kendra orissa university of agriculture and technology shyamakhunta, mayurbhanj 757 049, india e-mail: dina_neha@yahoo.co.in abstract variance analysis was made for 20 quantitative traits in 29 genotypes of gladiolus. high variation in terms of range was recorded for almost all the traits except days to sprouting, number of leaves, flowering duration, number of florets/spike, floret diameter, number of cormels/plant, number of corms/plant, and number of spikes/corm. tallest plants (159.25cm) were recorded in the variety windlin, early spike-initiation was recorded in ‘intrepid’ (45.5 days), and the highest number of florets per spike was recorded in ‘hunting song’ (20). maximum floret diameter was recorded in ‘senset jubilee’ (7.28cm), while spike yield was highest in ‘ballerina’ (139.05 q/ha). maximum number of corms per plant was recorded in ‘hunting song’ (3.0). key words: gladiolus, flowering, corm j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):194-198, 2015 genotypes for all the traits under study. this variation can be utilized by adopting a suitable selection scheme for improvement in these traits in gladiolus. existence of genetic variation is of paramount importance for starting a judicious plant breeding programme. in gladiolus, genetic variability for growth, flower and corm production was studied under different agroclimatic conditions. soorianathasundaram and nambisan (1991) studied gladiolus cultivars for genetic variability and observed higher heritability values for spike weight and spike length. mahanta and paswan (1995) reported maximum heritability for weight of the corm, followed by number of cormels per plant, and diameter of the cormel. sheikh et al (1995) observed a high genetic advance in the case of plant height, days to flower and spike length, and, heritability estimates were high for all the characters studied. pratap and rao (2006) observed highest gcv for characters like plant height, number of florets/ spikes, and days to flowering. high genetic advance was noticed for traits like plant height, number of spikes and days to flowering. significant differences among genotypes and their interaction effects warranted grouping of the genotypes to identify those that were genetically diverse, to ensure success in breeding programmes. therefore, the present study was planned to obtain information on the range of variability present for various, important economic traits. 1department of cihab, palli siksha bhavan (institute of agriculture), viswa bharati, sriniketan, odisha, india 2department of fruit science, orissa university of agriculture and technology, bhubaneswar, odisha, india 195 material and methods the present investigation was carried out in the experimental field of krishi vigyan kendra, mayurbhanj (north central plateau agro-climatic zone), odisha, during two consecutive post-rainy seasons of 2009-10 and 201011. krishi vigyan kendra, mayurbhanj, which falls under orissa university of agriculture and technology, bhubaneswar, is located at 21o16' to 22o34' n latitude and 85o40' to 87o11' e longitude, at an altitude of 592m above mean sea level. mayurbhanj district experiences a subtropical climate, with average annual rainfall of 1648.2mm, distributed mainly from june to october. annual maximum and minimum temperatures are 39oc and 14oc, respectively, and relative humidity ranges from 70% to 90%. soil at the experimental site is clay-loam, with 5.3% organic carbon and is acidic (ph 5.42) in nature. genotypes under the present study were collected from bidhan chandra krishi viswavidyalaya, west bengal, and directorate of horticulture, government of odisha, mayurbhanj. the experiment was conducted in randomized (complete) block design (rbd), with two replications, during the two growing seasons (i.e., post-rainy seasons of 2009-10 and 2010-11) to assess the performance of 29 gladiolus genotypes. bulbs were planted at a spacing of 30cm row-to-row, and 20cm plant-to-plant. all the recommended package of practices and plant protection measures were duly followed during the crop growth period for raising a healthy crop. data were recorded for yield and twenty (20) contributing traits thereof, viz., days to sprouting, plant height (cm) at 30 and 60 days after planting (dap), number of leaves, days to spike initiation, days to floret initiation, flowering duration, spike length (cm), rachis length (cm), number of florets per spike, floret diameter (cm), spike weight (g), number of corms per plant, number of cormels per plant, corm diameter (cm), corm weight (g), number of spikes/corm, number of spikes per m2, spike yield (q/ha), and corm yield (q/ha). ten plants, at random, from each sub-plot were earmarked for recording experimental data, excluding the bordering plants. statistical software windostat version 8.6 from indostat services was used for data analysis. results and discussion correlation coefficient analysis measures mutual relationships between various plant characters and determines component characters upon which selection can be based for genetic improvement in yield. phenotypic and genotypic variance was calculated from the total variance and used for determining phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variability. coefficient of variation indicates only the extent of variability present in different characters, but does not indicate their heritable portion. estimates for phenotypic coefficient of variation ranged from 8.52% for number of leaves, to 50.92% for corm weight (q/ha); whereas, for genotypic coefficient of variation, this was 7.99% to 50.52%, exhibited by the same two characters (table 1). estimates for phenotypic co-efficient of variation performance of gladiolus genotypes: growth, flowering and corm production table 1. genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variability, heritability and genetic advance for 20 quantitative traits in gladiolus trait range grand coefficient of variation (%) heritability genetic genetic min. max. mean pcv gcv % advance % advance as % of mean days to sprouting 6.00 8.75 7.06 11.25 8.18 52.93 0.87 12.26 plant height (cm) at 30 days 37.45 90.27 61.62 20.57 20.56 99.88 26.08 42.32 plant height (cm) at 60 days 57.00 159.25 105.76 17.16 17.12 99.47 37.20 35.17 no. of leaves 6.00 8.75 7.62 8.52 7.99 88.01 1.18 15.44 days to spike initiation 45.50 82.00 62.56 16.33 16.28 99.33 20.90 33.41 days to floret initiation 61.00 91.00 72.59 13.69 13.62 99.01 20.26 27.91 flowering duration (days) 17.00 28.25 22.30 12.81 12.52 95.59 5.62 25.22 spike length (cm) 39.50 82.00 63.66 14.19 14.14 99.28 18.47 29.01 rachis length (cm) 8.25 31.50 21.32 29.52 29.27 98.36 12.75 59.80 no. of florets/spike 9.50 20.00 14.91 18.53 17.89 93.26 5.31 35.59 floret diameter (cm) 4.05 7.28 5.45 17.12 16.53 93.22 1.79 32.88 spike weight (gm) 18.25 65.85 40.32 31.41 31.35 99.64 25.99 64.46 no. of corms/plant 1.00 3.00 1.83 25.60 23.60 84.95 0.82 44.80 no. of cormels/plant 0.00 2.50 1.43 45.42 38.03 70.12 0.94 65.60 corm diameter (cm) 6.50 28.80 14.36 44.01 43.63 98.31 12.80 89.12 corm weight (gm) 6.20 46.63 19.63 50.55 50.02 97.92 20.02 101.96 no. of spikes/bulb 0.90 1.81 1.30 23.41 22.00 88.30 0.56 42.59 no. of spikes/m2 14.40 28.96 20.84 23.41 22.00 88.30 8.88 42.59 yield of corms (q/ha) 7.95 59.68 25.24 50.92 50.52 98.44 26.06 103.26 yield of spikes (q/ha) 28.48 139.05 69.90 48.36 47.36 95.91 66.80 95.55 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):194-198, 2015 196 were high (>40%) for number of cormels per plant, corm diameter (cm), individual corm weight (g), corm weight (q/ ha), and, low (< 20%) for days to spike emergence, days to first floret opening, flowering duration (days), spike length (cm), number of florets per spike, etc. values for genotypic coefficient of variation were high (> 40%) for corm diameter (cm), corm weight (g) corm weight (q/ha), spike weight (q/ ha), and, low (< 20%) for days to spike emergence, days to first floret opening, flowering duration (days), spike length, and number of florets per spike. pcv for all the characters studied indicated that the variation was due to the genetype, and not due to environmental factors. maitra and staya (2004) recorded higher gcv than pcv in gladiolus for most of the characters studied, but, there was close relation between gcv and pcv in some of the characters. gcv was highest for characters like corm weight, spike weight and corm diameter. balaram et al (2000) reported both pcv and gcv to be high for characters like spike length, spike weight, weight of daughter corm, and number of cormels per corm. pratap and mohan rao (2006) reported maximum gcv for characters like number of florets per spike, and days to flowering. bichoo et al (2002) reported high gcv for number of cormels per plant. the high value of pcv, along with gcv, indicates a greater variability for characters like corm weight (q/ha) and spike weight (q/ha). in the present study, genotypic and phenotypic correlations showed a similar trend, but, genotypic correlation was a higher magnitude than phenotypic correction in most of the cases. heritability estimate is used for determining that portion of the phenotype which is due to the genotype. estimate for genetic advance are also very important for an insight into the speed of genetic gain through selection. among the quantitative characters studied, estimates for heritability were very high for plant height, days to spike emergence, days to floret opening, spike length, spike weight, flowering duration, corm weight, and spike weight. corm weight and spike weight showed high heritability (98.44 to 95.91%), along with high genetic advance, as percentage of mean at 103.26% and 95.55%, respectively. early generation selection could be practical for improving these characters due to the reliability of additive gene action for selection. high heritability was over 90% in days to spike emergence, and days to first floret opening along with genetic advance; over 100% in corm weight gives an indication for scope of improvement in these crops. the present findings are in accordance with balaram et al (2000) and balamurugan et al (2002). pratap and manohar rao (2006) also reported high heritability and high genetic advance for number of cormels and corm weight. mahanta and paswan (1995) reported maximum heritability (99.38%) for corm weight, followed by number of cormels and diameter of the cormel. results on pcv, gcv, heritability and genetic advance revealed that selection for corm weight, spike weight, number of corms per plant, and number of spikes per m2 could be effective for improvement in spike yield and corm yield. the range of variance for plant height was 57cm to 159.25cm (table 2). ‘windlin’ was significantly superior to all the other varieties; lowest height was recorded in ‘moralo’. the range for days to spike emergence was 45.50 to 82.0, with a mean of 62.56 days. early spike-emergence was recorded in ‘intrepid’, while maximum days taken to spike emergence was seen in ‘blue frost’. days to first floret opening varied from 61.0 to 91.0, with a grand mean of 72.59 days. values for days taken to first floret opening were lowest in ‘american beauty’, and highest in ‘blue frost’. number of florets per spike varied from 9.50 to 20.0, with a grand mean of 14.91. maximum numbers of florets per spike were recorded in ‘hunting song’, while ‘moralo’ recorded minimum number of florets per spike. spike weight (g) varied from 18.25g to 65.85g, with 40.32g as the mean value. maximum spike weight was recorded in the genotype ballerina, and, minimum in ‘moralo’. number of spikes per corm varied from 0.90 to 1.81, with a mean value of 1.30. the genotype peter pears recorded maximum number of spikes per corm; whereas, the genotype venutrie recorded minimum corm yield (q/ha), which varied from 7.95 to 59.68q, with a mean value of 25.24q. ‘red beauty’ recorded maximum corm weight (q/ha), while, the genotype novalux recorded minimum value of co-efficient of variation; it was observed that variability was highest in the number of cormels per plant (35.11), followed by number of corms per plant (14.04) and spike yield (13.84). considerable variability for weight of cormels produced per corm, number of cormels per corm, and weight of corm was earlier reported by negi et al (1982). soorianthasundaram and nambisan (1991) reported considerable amount of genotypic variability in gladiolus for characters like spike weight, spike length, number of florets, number of cormels, and daughter corm weight. mahanta and paswan (1995) reported a good amount of genotypic variability for weight of corm, and number of cormels per plant. sanghamitra et al (2014) reported that path analysis (with corm yield as dependent variable) indicated that characters like days to first floret sanghamitra pattanaik et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):194-198, 2015 197 ta bl e 2. m ea n pe r se p er fo rm an ce o f 29 g en ot yp es f or 2 0 qu an ti ta ti ve t ra it s in g la di ol us g en ot yp e d ay s to p la n t n o. o f d ay s to d ay s to fl ow er in g s pi ke r ac hi s n o. o f f lo re t s pi ke n o. o f n o. o f c or m c or m n o. o f n o. o f c or m s pi ke sp ro ut in g he ig ht le av es / sp ik e fi rs t du ra ti on le ng th le ng th fl or et s/ di am et er w ei gh t co rm s/ co rm el s/ di am et er w ei gh t sp ik es / sp ik es / yi el d yi el d at 60 pl an t em er ge nc e fl or et (d ay s) (c m ) ( cm ) sp ik e (c m ) (g ) pl an t pl an t (c m ) (g ) co rm m 2 (q /h a) (q /h a) d a p * op en in g ( cm ) c an di m an 7. 75 7 0 8. 00 69 .5 8 5 .5 0 2 1 .0 0 55 .5 2 3 .0 0 1 5 .0 0 5. 50 6 0 .5 0 2. 00 1. 00 1 3 .2 5 1 6 .5 8 1. 79 2 8 .6 8 2 1 .2 3 13 8. 86 h un ti ng 7. 75 9 9 8. 00 5 7 6 8 .2 5 1 9 .0 0 4 1 2 4 .2 5 2 0 .0 0 6. 07 2 8 .0 0 3. 00 1. 00 1 2 .3 5 2 0 .4 5 1. 28 2 0 .4 8 2 6 .1 8 4 5 .8 8 so ng pi se il la 6. 75 6 8 8. 00 7 6 8 5 .0 0 2 5 .7 5 6 1 2 9 .0 0 1 4 .5 0 4. 30 4 9 .0 0 2. 00 1. 50 2 5 .6 5 3 0 .0 0 1. 20 1 9 .2 0 3 8 .4 0 7 5 .2 4 v en ut ri e 8. 00 1 2 1 8. 75 5 5 .2 5 6 5 .5 0 1 9 .5 0 5 9 .7 5 2 0 .5 0 1 4 .0 0 5. 75 3 0 .0 0 1. 00 2. 00 2 0 .5 0 2 7 .2 5 0. 90 1 4 .4 0 3 4 .8 8 3 4 .5 8 c hi pp er 6. 50 11 6. 25 7. 75 5 6 6 4 .5 0 2 0 .7 5 7 0 2 3 .2 5 1 7 .2 5 5. 95 4 9 .7 5 2. 00 1. 00 1 0 .9 0 1 9 .5 0 0. 95 1 5 .2 0 2 4 .9 5 6 0 .5 1 e dg ew on de r 8. 75 10 5. 75 8. 00 5 4 .7 5 6 5 .0 0 1 9 .2 5 65 .5 2 4 .5 0 1 9 .7 5 5. 22 4 0 .7 5 2. 00 1. 00 2 1 .5 8 2 8 .7 0 1. 40 2 2 .4 8 3 6 .7 2 7 3 .8 9 b al le ri na 7. 00 1 0 5 .5 8. 00 52 .5 6 3 .5 0 2 3 .0 0 65 .5 3 1 .5 0 1 0 .5 0 5. 75 6 5 .8 5 2. 00 1. 00 8. 20 1 2 .5 0 1. 65 2 6 .4 8 1 6 .0 0 13 9. 05 fr ie nd sh ip 7. 25 1 1 9 8. 00 5 4 .2 5 6 4 .0 0 2 0 .0 0 7 4 .7 5 2 6 .2 5 1 7 .0 0 5. 15 4 0 .9 0 1. 00 2. 00 1 0 .2 5 1 4 .0 0 1. 13 1 8 .0 0 1 7 .9 0 5 8 .9 1 m ay ur 8. 75 10 7. 25 7. 00 7 1 8 2 .5 0 2 2 .7 5 70 .5 2 5 .2 5 1 9 .0 0 7. 00 5 1 .0 0 2. 00 2. 00 1 8 .1 5 2 4 .1 3 1. 35 2 1 .6 8 3 0 .8 8 8 8 .4 9 su ns et 6. 00 1 1 0 7. 00 5 0 6 2 .5 0 2 2 .7 5 66 .5 2 9 .2 5 1 8 .0 0 7. 28 4 3 .0 5 1. 50 2. 00 1 5 .8 5 2 0 .8 5 1. 23 1 9 .6 8 2 6 .7 0 6 7 .6 7 ju bi le e in tr ep id 7. 00 99 .5 7. 00 45 .5 6 2 .0 0 2 5 .5 0 70 .5 2 6 .2 5 1 6 .5 0 4. 05 3 5 .5 5 2. 00 1. 00 1 0 .1 5 1 9 .0 5 1. 24 1 9 .9 2 2 4 .3 8 5 6 .7 3 a m er ic an 7. 00 1 0 4 8. 00 48 .5 6 1 .0 0 2 0 .0 0 5 9 .2 5 2 5 .2 5 1 5 .5 0 5. 05 4 2 .3 0 2. 00 2. 00 2 1 .7 3 3 5 .9 5 1. 04 1 6 .7 2 4 6 .0 2 5 6 .5 1 b ea ut y w ed di ng 7. 00 10 1. 25 6. 50 5 8 .2 5 6 7 .5 0 2 0 .0 0 6 0 1 9 .5 0 1 4 .0 0 6. 95 4 1 .3 0 2. 00 2. 00 2 4 .3 8 3 3 .3 0 1. 00 1 6 .0 0 4 2 .6 3 5 2 .8 6 b ou qu et m or al o 6. 75 5 7 7. 00 5 5 .7 5 6 9 .0 0 1 8 .5 0 39 .5 1 9 .2 5 9. 50 4. 15 1 8 .2 5 1. 50 2. 00 1 4 .7 5 2 2 .4 2 1. 22 1 9 .4 8 2 8 .7 0 4 1 .0 3 a pp al as e 7. 00 1 1 5 7. 25 5 3 6 1 .5 0 2 1 .5 0 7 0 .2 5 2 9 .7 5 1 2 .0 0 5. 68 2 9 .7 5 2. 25 2. 25 2 3 .9 8 3 3 .2 5 1. 39 2 2 .2 0 4 5 .7 7 5 2 .7 6 m el od y 6. 00 10 4. 25 6. 00 5 4 .7 5 6 1 .5 0 2 3 .5 0 76 .5 2 4 .5 0 1 7 .0 0 5. 72 4 0 .6 5 2. 00 1. 75 1 8 .8 8 2 3 .5 8 1. 15 1 8 .4 8 3 0 .2 0 6 0 .0 7 sp ic a nd 6. 75 10 2. 25 7. 00 66 .5 7 7 .2 5 2 2 .0 0 6 2 .7 5 1 6 .2 5 1 2 .5 0 6. 25 3 9 .0 5 2. 00 2. 00 7. 75 9. 65 1. 58 2 5 .2 0 1 2 .3 5 7 9 .0 0 sp an r os e 6. 75 10 6. 75 8. 00 70 .5 7 9 .5 0 2 8 .2 5 5 8 .7 5 2 2 .0 0 1 3 .0 0 4. 40 5 5 .1 5 2. 00 2. 50 7. 35 6. 55 1. 70 2 7 .2 0 8. 40 12 0. 02 s up re m e o sk ar r ed 6. 00 1 0 5 7. 00 6 4 7 4 .2 5 2 5 .2 5 6 2 .2 5 1 7 .5 0 1 3 .0 0 4. 15 5 0 .8 8 2. 00 1. 00 1 2 .2 5 1 2 .6 0 1. 15 1 8 .4 8 1 6 .1 5 7 5 .0 4 pe te r pe ar s 6. 50 1 0 9 8. 00 6 7 .7 5 8 0 .0 0 1 8 .5 0 6 5 .2 5 2 4 .0 0 1 5 .5 0 6. 10 4 6 .2 0 2. 25 1. 75 1 0 .7 5 1 5 .3 0 1. 81 2 8 .9 6 1 9 .5 8 10 7. 06 n ov al ux 6. 00 1 0 9 8. 00 7 1 .7 5 7 9 .2 5 2 4 .7 5 7 1 2 0 .0 0 1 5 .0 0 5. 15 6 1 .5 8 2. 00 1. 00 6. 50 6. 20 1. 75 2 7 .9 6 7. 95 13 7. 71 r ip li ng 6. 50 11 9. 25 8. 00 6 2 6 6 .2 5 2 5 .5 0 7 2 1 0 .5 0 1 2 .0 0 6. 05 3 3 .2 5 1. 00 1. 00 1 4 .0 0 1 8 .1 5 1. 45 2 3 .2 0 2 3 .2 5 6 1 .5 7 w at er g re en ba y 6. 75 10 8. 75 8. 00 5 8 6 4 .7 5 2 1 .2 5 5 7 .7 5 1 2 .0 0 1 6 .5 0 6. 00 3 7 .5 0 2. 00 1. 00 1 0 .1 0 1 4 .6 3 1. 59 2 5 .4 4 1 8 .7 0 7 6 .2 0 w in dl in 7. 00 15 9. 25 8. 50 5 8 6 5 .7 5 2 5 .7 5 8 2 2 6 .7 5 1 8 .5 0 4. 63 2 2 .2 5 1. 00 0. 00 7. 60 7. 38 1. 00 1 6 .0 0 9. 45 2 8 .4 8 p se ta ti no us 6. 75 9 8 .7 5 7. 25 6 6 7 5 .7 5 2 5 .0 0 6 2 2 0 .5 0 1 2 .5 0 4. 15 5 4 .0 0 1. 50 1. 75 7. 50 6. 35 1. 37 2 1 .9 6 8. 13 9 4 .9 0 b lu e fr os t 8. 00 11 9. 75 8. 00 8 2 9 1 .0 0 1 7 .0 0 6 1 8. 25 1 4 .0 0 4. 13 2 5 .5 0 1. 00 1. 00 1 1 .8 5 1 3 .9 0 1. 00 1 6 .0 0 1 7 .7 7 3 2 .6 4 g re en s ta r 8. 50 1 1 1 8. 00 7 8 8 7 .5 0 2 4 .0 0 5 8 .2 5 9. 00 1 2 .0 0 6. 00 2 4 .5 0 2. 00 0. 00 9. 63 1 0 .8 8 1. 23 1 9 .7 2 1 3 .9 5 3 8 .6 0 w h it e 7. 00 1 1 1 .5 8. 00 79 .5 8 5 .5 0 2 1 .2 5 6 6 .2 5 1 6 .0 0 1 6 .0 0 6. 25 2 5 .2 5 2. 00 1. 00 1 1 .9 5 1 9 .6 0 1. 20 1 9 .2 0 2 5 .0 8 3 7 .7 6 p ro sp er it y r ed b ea ut y 7. 00 1 0 4 7. 00 7 8 .2 5 8 9 .7 5 2 5 .5 0 6 1 1 4 .2 5 1 2 .5 0 5. 10 2 7 .5 0 2. 00 2. 00 2 8 .8 0 4 6 .6 3 1. 00 1 6 .0 0 5 9 .6 8 3 5 .2 0 g ra nd m ea n 7. 06 10 5. 76 7. 62 6 2 .5 6 7 2 .5 9 2 2 .3 0 6 3 .6 6 2 1 .3 2 1 4 .9 1 5. 45 4 0 .3 2 1. 83 1. 43 1 4 .3 6 1 9 .6 3 1. 30 2 0 .8 4 2 5 .2 4 6 9 .9 0 se (m ) ± 0. 38 0. 93 0. 15 0. 59 0 .7 0. 42 0 .7 0. 56 0 .5 0. 17 0. 53 0. 12 0. 25 0. 58 1. 01 0. 07 1. 18 1. 13 4. 83 c d (p = 0. 05 ) 1. 09 2. 64 0. 45 1. 67 1. 98 1 .2 1. 98 1. 61 1. 43 0. 48 1. 52 0. 36 0. 71 1. 64 2. 86 0. 21 3. 34 3. 21 13 .7 c v 1 0 .9 1 1. 76 4. 17 1. 89 1. 93 3 .8 1. 93 5. 34 6 .8 6 .3 2. 67 1 4 .0 4 3 5 .1 1 8 .1 1 0 .3 1 1 1 .3 3 1 1 .3 3 8. 98 1 3 .8 4 *d ay s af te r pl an ti ng performance of gladiolus genotypes: growth, flowering and corm production j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):194-198, 2015 198 opening, number of corms per plant, no. of cormels per plant, and corm weight had a positive direct effect, maximum positive direct effect was seen in corm weight, followed by number of corms/plant. in view of the relative contribution of traits in determining spike yield and corm yield, and per se performance of the genotypes mayur, windlin and peter pears, these are promising and may be used as parents in future hybridization programmes. acknowledgement the authors are thankful to vice-chancellor, visva bharati and vice-chancellor, ouat, for extending facilities and moral support. references balamurugan, r.p. and arijmugam, t. 2002. variability studies in gladiolus, j. orn. hort., 5:38-39 balaram, m.v., janakiram, t., vasantha kumar, e., choudhary, m.l., ramachandran, n. and ganeshan, s. 2000. genetic variability among gladiolus genotypes: exploring the gladiolus in india, procs. nat’l. conf. gladiolus, pp. 17-33 bichoo, g.a., jhon, a.o. and wani, s.a. 2002. genetic variability in some quantitative characters of gladiolus. j. orn. hort., 5:22-24 govt of odisha, area of production under floriculture, odisha agriculture statistics, 2011, p. 15 mahanta, p. and paswan, l. 1995. studies on variability and heritability of some quantitative characters in gladiolus. south indian hort., 41:166-168 maitra, s. and satya, p. 2004. studies on genetic parameters of some off-season planted gladiolus genotypes in humid sub-himalayan region. j. orn. hort., 3-4:5761 negi, s.s., sharma, t.v.r., raghava, s.p.s. and srinivasan, v.r. 1982. variability studies in gladiolus. indian j. hort., 39:269-272 pratap, m. and manohar rao, a. 2006. assessment and variability studies in gladiolus. j. orn. hort., 9:145147 sanghamitra, p., amitava, p. and pravu charan, l. 2014. path analysis and correlation studies on corm yield in gladiolus cultivars. asian j. hort., 9:368-371 sheikh, m.q., john, a.q., siddique, m.a.a. and paul, t.m. 1995. genetic variability in gladiolus. j. orn. hort., 3:2325 soorianathasundaram, k. and nambisan, k.m.p. 1991. studies on variability and certain genetic parameters in gladiolus. south indian hort., 39:207-209 (ms received 15 july 2014, revised 26 may 2015, accepted 15 june 2015) sanghamitra pattanaik et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):194-198, 2015 variation in the interactions among soil k+, ca++, mg++ and na+ ions as influenced by the variety and rootstock in grape s.d. shikhamany*, j.n. kalbhor, t.s. shelke and t.s. mungare r & d unit, maharashtra grape growers’ association, manjri farm, pune 412 307 *e-mail: sdshikhamany@gmail.com absract a nutritional survey was conducted to study the influence of variety and rootstock on interaction among k+, ca++, mg++and na+ ions in grape during 2012-14. soil cation contents did not correlate with their respective contents in petioles indicating a strong antagonism among them. quadratic relationship of soil cations with the absorption (ratio of petiole content to soil content) of other ions revealed that the antagonism among cations was observed in case of soil k+ with ca++ and na+ absorption on 110r and dog ridge rootstocks, soil ca+ with k+ and mg++ and na+ in sonaka variety and na+ in own rooted vines, soil mg++ with ca++ and na+ also in own rooted vines; and na++ with ca++ and mg++ respectively in 2a clone and dog ridge. contrarily, increased absorption of k+ by soil ca++ on 110r, na+ and k+ by soil mg++ respectively in sonaka and 110r, and ca++ by soil na+ on dog ridge was also observed. all the soil cations together influenced k+ absorption most in sonaka followed by mg++ absorption in 2a clone, but ca++ absorption on dog ridge followed by k+ on 110r. keywords: cations, interactions, grape, variety, rootstock introduction antagonism among k, na, ca and mg ions is well esta blished (robson a nd pitma n, 1983; shikhamany et al., 1988; wilkinson et al., 1999; fageria, 2001). cation content in the plant tissue is dependent on the physico-chemical characteristics of the soil (abrol et al., 1988; sumner and yamada, 2002; fisarakis et al., 2005; shikhamany and sharma, 2008; shikhamany et al., 2017), both the availability of a particular cation and the presence and absence of other cations (emmert, 1959; bergman et al., 1960) and their relative abundance in the growth medium (epstein, 1972). generally an excess of one cation in the medium reduces the uptake of other cations to maintain the cation equilibrium in the soil-plant system (dibb and thompson, 1985). further, the cation composition of the plant tissue was found to vary with the variety, based on its physiological need (jacobson and ordin, 1954; barbar and russell, 1961) and the rootstock due to affinity of their roots to particular ion ( downton, 1977; anna and lajos, 2008; antonio and carlos, 2009; marco et al., 2011). the vineyard soils of maharashtra, where more than 80 per cent of the area under grapes in india exists, are saline alkali with wide variation in soil physico-chemical characteristics and available nutrient status. thompson seedless and its clones, namely 2a and sonaka are grown on their own roots as well as on dog ridge and 110r rootstocks. in this background, these investigations were aimed at bring out the variation in the influence of dominant cations in the absorption of other cations in a given stionic combination and guide in fertilizer practices. material and methods a survey was conducted to study the variation in bloom time petiole nutrient contents of thompson seedless and its clones namely, 2a and sonaka grown on their own roots, dog ridge or 110richter rootstocks in pune and sangli districts of maharashtra during 201214 fruiting seasons. six vineyards in each stionic combination (three varieties x three roots) were selected for the study. all the vineyards were in the age group of 4-6 years and received varying levels of nutrients. the soils of the vineyards surveyed belonged to the order ‘vertisols’ with the following characteristics. all the vines selected for the study were planted at 2.7 x 1.8 m, trained to extended y trellis and pruned j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 178-187, 2018 178 original research paper 179 cation interactions in grape j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 178-187, 2018 to have 30±2 canes/vine. one hundred petioles of leaves opposite to flower clusters were collected at full bloom in november 2013 from each vineyard and soil samples from 15-30 cm depth at 60 cm away from the vine stem at back pruning before the application of fertilizers. cations from soil samples were extracted using 1.0 n neutral ammonium acetate in 1:5 (w/v) ratio. oven dried petiole samples were wet digested with hno3: hclo4 (9:4 v/v). potassium and sodium contents in soil as well as petiole samples were determined by flame photometer, while calcium and ma gnesium contents by a tomic a bsor ption spectrophotometer. all the contents were expressed as me/100 g dry weight. linear, quadratic and multiple regression equations were fitted to elucidate the variation in the interaction of soil cation contents (independent variable) with petiole contents (dependent variable) among the varieties and rootstocks. threshold levels of soil cations were determined by the formula -b/2c in the quadratic equation y= a + bx + cx2 in negative correlations. it is the level of x at which the negative relationship between x and y parameters turns positive. it is inverse to the x-optimum in a positive correlation. results and discussion interaction among cations: cor relations among the major cation nutrients in the petioles revealed positive relationship of mg with ca and na across all the varieties and rootstocks (table 1). on the other hand, in contrast to the observations of bayers (1951), emmert (1959) and bergman et al. (1960), no significant relationship between the soil and petiole contents of any ion was observed except the negative r ela tionship between k + cont ents (table 2). since the uptake of nutrient ions is directed by the variety (jacobson and ordin, 1954; barbar and russell, 1961) and rootstock (smith and wallace, 1956; general characteristics of the vineyard soils (mean of 54 samples) om ph ec caco3 esp available available available available (dsm-1) (%) (%) k ca mg na (mg/kg) (mg/kg) (mg/kg) (mg/kg) mean 2.57 7.76 0.604 15.79 7.7 110.8 456.0 141.4 70.4 sd 1.08 0.52 0.428 4.21 1.82 54.2 118.8 29.5 17.4 cv(%) 27.8 14.9 70.9 26.7 32.6 48.9 26.1 20.9 24.7 cook and lider, 1964; downton, 1977); and different varieties and rootstocks were involved in these cor r ela tions, va r iety-wise a nd r ootstock-wise regression analysis could reveal better picture of the interactions among the cations in different varieties and rootstocks. simple correlations revealed that soil contents of k, ca or na were not correlated with their respective contents in the petioles of any variety or rootstock, but mg content alone was correlated in the variety sonaka. petiole k and na contents were also influenced by the soil ca in this variety. among the rootstocks, soil na influenced the petiole ca on dog ridge, while soil ca influenced the petiole k on 110r (table 3). interaction among cations was also dependent on their relative abundance in the root medium (bayers, table 1. correlation matrix among petiole nutrient contents ________________________________________________________ k ca mg na_______________________________________________________ k 1.000 ca -0.0029 1.000 mg 0.0019 0.2989* 1.000 na 0.0409 0.1638 0.3475* 1.000 ___________________________________________________________ table 2. correlations between soil and petiole cation contents ___________________________________________________________ x parameter y parameter r___________________________________________________________ soil k petiole k -0.291* soil ca petiole ca -0.004 soil mg petiole mg -0.083 soil na petiole na -0.118 ___________________________________________________________ 180 shikhamany et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 178-187, 2018 table 3. linear relationship of soil nutrients with petiole contents in grape varieties and rootstocks correlation coefficients (r) varieties rootstocks soil petiole thompson 2a sonaka own root dog ridge 110 r nutrient content seedless clone k k 0.045 -0.382 -0.359 -0.283 -0.285 -0.399 ca 0.077 -0.330 -0.089 0.313 -0.077 -0.443 mg 0.032 0.319 -0.089 0.054 0.063 -0.235 na 0.032 0.000 -0.095 0.376 -0.366 -0.352 ca ca -0.095 -0.032 0.288 -0.316 -0.044 0.418 k 0.045 0.055 0.588* -0.333 0.095 0.567* mg -0.167 -0.167 0.195 -0.212 0.138 0.173 na 0.326 0.055 -0.515* 0.359 0.089 0.333 mg mg -0.182 -0.504* 0.288 -0.207 0.045 0.134 k 0.045 0.170 0.431 -0.363 0.465 0.435 ca -0.239 -0.184 0.167 -0.385 0.237 0.071 na 0.167 0.000 -0.032 0.279 0.212 0.416 na na -0.167 -0.032 -0.406 0.373 -0.352 -0.418 k -0.032 -0.173 -0.032 0.122 -0.247 -0.348 ca -0.084 0.452 0.210 0.000 0.510* 0.170 mg 0.179 0.361 -0.214 0.000 0.439 0.341 *significant at p=0.0 1951; emmert, 1959; bergman et al., 1960) and was found to be synergistic under low levels but antagonistic under high levels (fageria, 1983). hence interactions were assessed in a quadratic relationship. quadratic functions reflected the interactions among cations better tha n the linea r functions with higher determination coefficients (table 4). regression equations for the significant quadratic relationship among soil and petiole contents of cations with their determination co-efficient and the threshold levels of soil cations associated with the lowest contents of other ions in petioles, are presented in table-4 and the graphical presentation of the variation in the petiole contents in relation to the increasing levels of soil cation contents in figure 1. interaction among cations was complex in this study. a soil cation was found to influence more than one ion in the petiole; differently in different varieties and rootstocks. interaction of soil k+: increasing levels of soil k up to 1.59 me/100 g were associated with its increased contents in petioles in sonaka and reduced on dog ridge rootstock up to 3.95 me/100 g. the threshold levels of soil k, beyond which the ca content in the petiole on 110r rootstock and na contents on dog ridge rootstock increased, were respectively 6.3 and 4.38 me/100 g. soil k accounted for 22.9 per cent variation in the petiole k in sonaka while for 39.6 per cent on dog ridge rootstock. it also accounted for 31.0 per cent variation in petiole ca on 110r rootstock and 24.5 per cent in petiole na on dog ridge rootstock. absorption of k by sonaka was independent of other cation contents in the soil. physiological demand for k seems to be more in sonaka, irrespective of the root affinity for any cation in any rootstock. optimum level of soil k seemed to be 1.59 me/100 g for this variety. negative relationship of soil k with petiole k and na on dog ridge rootstock suggests its higher affinity for other cations than k and dominant antagonism between na and k on this rootstock. 181 j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 178-187, 2018 cation interactions in grape variety/ soil ion petioleion regression r2 threshold rootstock (x) (y) equation level (me/100 g) sonaka k k 35.4+ 33.5x10.56x2 0.229* 1.59 dog ridge k k 131.2550.52x+ 6.39x2 0.396** 3.95 110r k ca 115.4723.17x+ 1.84x2 0.310* 6.30 dog ridge k na 74.3923.41x+ 2.67x2 0.245* 4.38 sonaka ca k 120.988.12x+ 0.233x2 0.429** 17.42 110r ca k 22.68+ 1.52x+ 0.002x2 0.322* -608.3 2a clone ca ca 449.7327.29x+ 0.47x2 0.403** 29.03 sonaka ca mg 142.42x9.79x+ 0.231x2 0.263* 21.19 sonaka ca na 59.391.7x+ 0.015x2 0.266* 56.67 own root ca na 110.366.51x+ 0.146x2 0.365** 22.29 110r mg k -29.89+ 11.37x0.32x2 0.222* 17.76 own root mg ca 242.6926.53+ 0.99x2 0.223* 13.40 sonaka mg mg 93.4110.19x+ 0.47x2 0.340* 10.84 sonaka mg na -25.64+ 10.17x+0.436x2 0.272* -11.66 own root mg na 113.7815.13x +0.75x2 0.253* 10.09 2a clone na ca 169.382.44x+ 15.87x2 0.368** 2.60 dog ridge na ca -27.91+ 34.86x1.53x2 0.260* 11.39 dog ridge na mg 260.6-145.18x+ 23.8x2 0.300* 3.05 *significant @p=0.05 **significant @p=0.01 table 4: quadratic relationship of the significant correlations of soil cations with petiole contents in grape varieties and rootstocks interaction of soil ca++: increasing levels of soil ca were not associated with increase in petiole ca in any variety or on any rootstock, but contrarily resulted in its quadratic reduction in 2a clone. the threshold level of soil ca, beyond which its content increased was 29.03 me/100 g. increasing levels of ca in soil up to 17.42 me/100 g resulted in reduced contents of k in petioles in sonaka but in steadily increasing k contents in a linear fashion on 110r. they were also found to reduce the petiole na contents in sonaka and in all varieties on their own roots. the threshold levels of soil ca above which it was associated with increasing levels in petiole na were 56.67 and 22.29 me/100 g respectively for sonaka and own rooted vines of other varieties. increasing levels of ca in soil up to 21.19me/ 100 g were associated with reduced content of mg in the petioles of sonaka, above which, mg contents increased. soil ca was found to determine its content in petiole by 40.3 per cent in 2a clone. it accounted for variation in petiole k by 42.9 per cent in sonaka, and 32.2 per cent on 110r rootstock. it also accounted for 26.3 per cent variation in petiole mg. soil ca was also found to determine the petiole na contents by 26.6 and 36.5 per cent respectively in sonaka and own rooted vines. reduction in petiole ca with increasing levels of soil ca was due to either less physiological need by 2a clone or strong antagonism of other cations in the soil. soil ca at higher levels was synergistic to k in sonaka and on 110r and to mg in sonaka. it was antagonistic to na in sonaka but synergistic at higher levels on own root. thus, sonaka proved to be a better bet for the utilization of available soil k and mg; and restricting the sodium absorption in soils with high available ca (> than 20 me/100 g). higher absorption of na by own rooted vines of all variety suggests the 182 j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 178-187, 2018 shikhamany et al fig.1: relationship of soil cations with petiole contents (yaxis) in me/100 g in grape varieties /rootstocks 183 use of either dog ridge or 110r rootstock; particularly 110r for better utilization of k in such soils. interaction of soil mg++: increasing levels of soil mg up to 10.84 me/100 g were found to reduce its contents in sonaka but not in any other variety or on any root stock. higher levels of soil mg up to 17.76 me/100 g were associated with higher petiole contents of k on 110r rootstock. increasing levels of soil mg up to 13.4 me/100 g reduced the petiole ca in vines on their own roots. they increased the petiole na steadily in a linear fashion in sonaka. increasing levels of soil mg up to 10.09 me/100 g were associated with reduced contents of na in the petioles of vines on their own roots. soil mg was found to determine the petiole mg by 34.0 per cent in sonaka only but not in other varieties or on any rootstock. it also accounted for 22.2 per cent variation in petiole k on 110r rootstock and 22.3 per cent in the petiole ca in own rooted vines. soil mg determined the petiole na content by 27.2 per cent in sonaka and 25.3 per cent in vines on their own roots. reduction in petiole mg with its increasing soil levels; and strong synergism of soil mg with petiole na in sonaka imply that either the physiological needs are less or its roots have less affinity for mg and more affinity for na. synergism of soil mg with petiole k on 110r rootstock can be attributed to its root affinity. positive relationship between two cations is possible, when a third dominating one simultaneously suppresses their absorption. such phenomenon was observed by shikhamany and satyanarayana(1972) in grape. strong antagonism of soil mg with petiole ca and na points out that management of available soil mg is crucial in balancing the absorption of ca and na in vines of any variety on their own roots. interaction of soil na+: higher levels of soil na up to 2.6me/100 g were associated with reduced petiole ca content in 2a clone. soil na up to 11.39/100 g increased the ca contents steadily, but reduced the mg contents up to its level of 3.05me/100 g on dog ridge. soil na accounted for variation in the petiole ca by 36.8 per cent in 2a clone and 26.0 per cent on dog ridge rootstock. it also accounted for30.0 per cent variation in petiole mg on dog ridge. the negative relationship of soil na with petiole mg but positive one with petiole ca on dog ridge rootstock indicates the greater affinity of its roots for j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 178-187, 2018 cation interactions in grape ca than mg in soils with high available na content. soil na at its lower levels although reduced the absorption of ca, increased it at higher levels in 2a clone. interaction with petiole contents: individual cation contents in the petioles were influenced by many soil cations; differently in different varieties and rootstocks. their co-efficient of determination by all the four soil cations together in different varieties and rootstocks is presented in table 5. individual effects of soil cations (table 4) were masked by their mutual interactions in their combined effect. the normalized petiole contents in relation to their respective soil contents in varieties on different rootstocks are presented in table 6. interaction with k: petiole k was influenced by soil k as well as ca in sonaka with their respective determinations of 22.9 and 42.9 per cent as against 57.2 per cent by all the soil cations together. soil ca was found to influence the petiole k more than soil k. soil ca and mg had synergistic effect, whereas na had strong antagonism on the absorption of k. thus soil na reduced the absorption of k by antagonizing with soil k, ca and mg in sonaka. petiole k contents were also influenced by soil ca and mg on 110r rootstock. they respectively accounted for 32.2 and 22.2 per cent variation in the petiole k content as against 44.0 per cent by all the soil cations together. antagonistic effect of soil na on reducing the synergistic effect of soil ca and mg on k was evident on 110r rootstock also. petiole k content was also found to be determined by 39.6 per cent by soil k on dog ridge rootstock, as against 28.5 per cent by all the soil cations together. in addition to antagonizing k, soil na suppressed the synergistic effect of soil mg in k absorption. this was how, the relatively higher absorption of k by sonaka and on 110r rootstock; and less absorption on dog ridge rootstock (table-6). interaction with ca: petiole ca varied differently with soil ca and na levels in 2a clone. they respectively accounted for 40.3 and 36.8 per cent variation in petiole ca, as against 32.4 per cent by all the soil cations together. soil k and mg antagonized 184 j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 178-187, 2018 shikhamany et al table 5. multiple regression equations for the relationship of nutrient ion contents (me/100 g) of petioles(y) and soil (x) in grape varieties and root stocks. variety y parameter regression equation r2 thompson petiole k y= 42.25 +0.409k +0.079ca +0.193mg -0.615na 0.005 seedless petiole ca y= 98.05 +2.844k +0.976ca -5.767mg -0.509na 0.083 petiole mg y= 28.69 +1.96k -0.258ca -1.341mg +8.026na 0.108 petiole na y= 42.2 -0.596k +1.075ca -0.722mg -6.426na 0.179 2a clone petiole k y=105.11 -17.84k -0.174ca +0.798mg -5.545na 0.223* petiole ca y=103.99 -19.08k +0.702ca -3.56mg +11.55na 0.324* petiole mg y= 58.22 +2.78k +0.78ca -4.02mg +5.77na 0.431** petiole na y= 34.55 +0.97k +0.29ca -0.37mg -0.32na 0.006 sonaka petiole k y=5.13 -1.75k +2.55ca +1.84mg -6.96na 0.572** petiole ca y=60.49 -13.76k -0.23ca +1.0mg +11.41na 0.154 petiole mg y= 30.78 -2.79k +0.53ca +1.25mg -3.09na 0.291* petiole na y= 46.15 +2.1k -0.93ca +0.81mg -3.48na 0.379** rootstock own root petiole k y=66.95 -2.87k -0.36ca -1.53mg +7.25na 0.463** petiole ca y=119.2 +8.8k -1.42ca -3.77mg +2.4na 0.368** petiole mg y=58.72 +0.64k -0.38ca -0.61mg +1.8na 0.087 petiole na y= 20.4 -2.11k +0.42ca +0.18mg +2.17na 0.209 dog ridge petiole k y=30.84 -2.27k -0.66ca +4.1mg -3.33na 0.285* petiole ca y=-73.25 -0.25k -2.26ca +7.65mg +32.48na 0.507** petiole mg y=-19.52 +0.75k +0.11ca +1.22mg +14.82na 0.220* petiole na y= 60.08 -3.71k +0.25ca -0.02mg -7.07na 0.239* 110 r petiole k y=65.32 -2.03k +1.27ca -0.18mg -8.41na 0.440** petiole ca y=70.47-4.59k +2.16ca -4.0mg +3.8na 0.374** petiole mg y=19.08 -0.62k +0.13ca +0.29mg +4.74na 0.175 petiole na y= 37.02 -1.18k -0.002ca +0.56mg -4.268na 0.360** ca and na in reducing their synergistic effect on ca absorption. petiole ca contents were also influenced by soil mg on own roots; soil k on 110r and soil na on dog ridge. while soil mg explained the variation in petiole ca by 22.3 per cent, all the soil cations together did 36.8 per cent. ca absorption was antagonized by mg, but soil k and na increased it in own rooted vines. soil k accounted for 31.0 per cent variation in petiole ca on 110r rootstock, as against 37.4 per cent by all the soil cations together. while soil k and mg antagonized, na increased the absorption of ca on this rootstock. soil na was found to explain the variation in petiole ca by 26.0 per cent on dog ridge rootstock as against 50.7 per cent by all the soil cations together. soil mg enhanced the favourable effect of na in ca absorption. thus these cation interactions contributed for less absorption of ca by 2a clone and 110r rootstock; and further less in 2a clone on dog ridge rootstock, but more in own rooted vines of sonaka and thompson seedless (table-6). interaction with mg: petiole mg was influenced by ca and mg levels in soil accounting respectively for 26.3 and 34.0 per cent variability in petiole mg 185 j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 178-187, 2018 cation interactions in grape variety/ petiole contents soil contents ratio of petiole/ rootstock (mean of 6 samples) (mean of 6 samples) soil contents k+ na+ ca++ mg+ + k+ na+ ca++ mg+ + k+ na+ ca++ mg+ + thompson 30.6 50.4 88.0 48.6 4.81 3.39 24.4 11.2 6.36 14.9 3.61 4.33 seedless/ own root thompson 39.2 28.3 64.9 48.5 3.88 3.31 21.5 11.0 10.1 8.55 3.03 4.43 seedless/ dog ridge thompson 48.1 22.2 51.8 35.9 5.07 3.33 19.5 10.3 9.48 6.65 2.65 3.49 seedless/ 110r 2a clone/ 58.7 44.5 70.8 54.6 2.26 3.06 25.5 12.1 26.0 14.5 2.78 4.53 own root 2a clone/ 53.5 41.2 66.1 53.4 2.0 3.0 26.2 12.7 26.8 13.9 2.52 4.21 dog ridge 2a clone/ 63.1 29.6 82.6 40.6 1.7 3.1 27.4 14.3 36.3 9.60 3.02 2.84 110r sonaka/ 52.3 36.0 70.7 47.1 1.4 1.8 17.6 10.2 38.4 20.0 4.02 4.60 own root sonaka/ 46.7 28.0 70.9 37.2 2.6 3.3 19.7 11.1 18.1 8.56 3.58 3.36 dog ridge sonaka/ 68.3 28.3 75.9 41.7 1.9 3.3 23.7 13.3 35.9 8.51 2.21 3.14 110r mean 51.2 34.3 71.3 45.3 2.8 3.1 22.8 11.8 23.1 11.7 3.05 3.88 sd± 11.7 9.30 10.5 6.75 1.4 0.8 5.94 2.46 12.5 4.35 0.59 0.67 cv % 22.9 27.2 14.7 14.9 48.7 24.7 26.0 20.2 54.3 37.3 19.3 17.3 table 6: cation composition of soil and petioles (me/100 g) of vineyards content, while all the soil cations together for 29.1 per cent in sonaka. this was due to the suppression of mg absorption by soil k and na. petiole mg was also influenced by soil na on dog ridge. while all the soil cations together accounted for 22.0 per cent variation in petiole mg, soil na alone for 30.0 per cent. soil na contributed more than soil mg in the absorption of mg by this rootstock. absorption of cations, including na, was highest in sonaka on its own r oots. na absorption wa s reduced by the rootstocks in this variety (table-6). since absorption of mg was favoured by soil na on dog ridge, this r ootstock is better for the management of mg nutrition in sonaka in soils with high levels of available na. int eract ion with na: ab sor p tion of na wa s influenced by soil ca and mg in sonaka. they were found to determine the petiole na by 26.6 and 27.2 per cent respectively as against 37.9 per cent by all soil cations together. soil k had synergistic effect on soil na in the absorption of na in this variety. soil ca and mg also influenced the absorption of na by vines on their own roots. they accounted respectively for 36.5 and 25.3 per cent variation in the petiole na contents, while all the soil cations t oget her a c c ou nt ed f or 2 0 . 9 p er c ent only. favourable effect of ca and mg on the absorption of na was suppressed by soil k in own rooted vines. soil k influenced na absorption on dog ridge rootstock with a determination of 24.5 per cent as 186 j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 178-187, 2018 shikhamany et al against 23.9 per cent by all the soil cations together. soil ca reduced the suppressing effect of soil k in the absorption of na by dog ridge rootstock. these interactions suggested the use of rootstocks for sonaka and application of higher doses of potash to vines on their own roots or dog ridge rootstock to limit the absorption of na. acknowledgements the authors are grateful to the office bearers and the chairman, central research committee of the maharashtra grape growers’ association for facilita ting the conduct of the survey; 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(ms received 17 november 2018, revised 17 december 2018, accepted 30 december 2018) 08 rms 23 (18).pdf off-season mango production is predominant in tropical countries, mainly thailand, philippines, indonesia, and some parts of peninsular india especially, kanyakumari and areas of tamil nadu, due to the prevalent high temperature and relative humidity. demand for off-season mango fruits is gaining prominence in the international markets of asia and north america. productivity of offseason fruits is negligible compared to the main-season mango under indian conditions. the benefit of off-season mango production is higher profits to the farmer by avoiding a market glut. in off-season mango production, cv. royal special is the only variety bearing fruits during septemberoctober (considered off-season) and in may-june, which is the main-season under south indian conditions, owing to its multiple flushing and flowering pattern. round fruits, yellowish-red in color, with a thick skin, abundant fiber, good total soluble sugar (tss) content (16.80brix), with average fruit weight of 197.5g are the desirable traits in ‘royal special’ mango (dinesh et al, 2012). several authors have reported beneficial properties of the fruit such as lycopene, carotenoids, curcumins, phenolics, flavonoids and sugars, including their chemopreventive role (lakshminarayana et al, 1970; kubo and chemical constituents during the main and off-season in mango (mangifera indica l.) cv. royal special s.r. shivu prasad, y.t.n. reddy, k.k. upreti1 and v. srilatha division of fruit crops, icar-indian institute of horticultural research hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru 560 089, india e-mail: nreddy@iihr.ernet.in abstract evaluation and quantification of fruit quality parameters like carbohydrates, phenolics, flavonoids, ascorbic acid, titrable acidity, total soluble solids (tss), carotenoids and lycopene content was done in fruits of mango cv. royal special, at icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, india, during the off-season (october, 2012) and main-season (june, 2013), respectively. ‘royal special’ is a typical off-season bearing cultivar, often characterized by multiple flushing and flowering under south indian conditions. major phytonutrients such as total sugars, reducing sugars, starch, total carotenoids, lycopene, total phenols, flavonoids, ascorbic acid, tss, titrable acidity and average fruit yield per plant, were recorded during the offand mainseasons. results indicated that fruits from off-season were higher in the major chemical constituents studied compared to the main-season crop, except for fruit yield per plant. this may be attributed to poor competition for nutrients among the developing fruits which act as a sink, besides fluctuating environmental conditions during the off-season, compared to the main-season. key words: mango, cv. royal special, off-season, fruit yield, carbohydrates, pigments, total phenols, flavonoids matsumoto, 1984; lechaudel and joas, 2007; ojewole, 2005; rodeiro et al, 2007). most table-varieties exhibit an average tss of 7.5-28.00brix (dinesh et al, 2012) under various climatic conditions. in addition to several other components, total carotenoids and ascorbic acid contribute are high in the mango pulp (ross, 1999). malundo et al (2001) reported that an ideal sugar:acid blend makes it favorable for flavonoid perception in ripe fruits. pulp of haden, tommy atkins and uba varieties is a good source of total carotenoids, phenolics and ascorbic acid – components with antioxidant properties (varakumar et al, 2011). potential nutritional and health benefits of mango have gained great importance in fruit quality and marketing strategy of the fruit. as for fruit quality parameters, most of the earlier studies are restricted to the main-season, and information on off-season fruit quality parameters is scanty. therefore, we aimed at a comparative study of off-season and main-season fruit quality parameters such as ascorbic acid content, total carotenoids, lycopene, total phenols, flavonoids, titrable acidity (ta), tss, total sugars, reducing sugars, starch and fruit yield/plant in cv. royal special. the study was conducted at icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, india, on 21-year old, short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):229-232, 2015 1division of plant physiology & biochemistry, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru-560089, india 230 uniformly-grown mango trees of cv. royal special, planted at 10m × 10m spacing having average canopy diameter of 8.0m. the experimental farm is located at 914.4m above mean sea level, with average temperatures ranging from 13.3 -32.40c during the year. the soil is sandy loam with available soil-nutrients n:250 kg/ha, p:30 kg/ha, k:300 kg/ ha, at ph 7.2, average silt 9% and clay 21.5%. the trees were raised under rainfed conditions. six trees were selected randomly for sampling fruits. samples of five mature fruits from each tree were drawn during early october, 2012 and late june, 2013. these were ripened at room temperature in both the seasons. during the fruit ripening, the average maximum and minimum temperature was 27.8/ 19.4oc and 30.1/20.8oc and ripening duration 5 and 8 days in october and june, respectively. appearance of desired skin colour in the fruit peel, and olfactory perception of fruit aroma, were employed as indices of fruit ripening for laboratory analysis. ripe fruits were then completely peeledoff, pooled, sliced, the kernel removed, weighed and samples subjected to further analysis for fruit pulp traits. tss was estimated using a hand-held erma refractrometer, while ta was estimated as per association of official analytical chemists (aoac) method, using phenolphthalein as an indicator. total sugars in fresh samples were estimated following hansel and moller (1975). reducing sugar content was determined by somagyi (1952) method, and amount of reducing sugars calculated using a glucose standard. non-reducing sugars were estimated by subtracting reducing sugars from the total sugar content. starch content in fresh samples was determined using anthrone reagent, as per hedge and hofreiter (1962). for determining the content of total phenols and flavonoids, 1.0g fresh pulp was finely ground with 5.0ml 80% ethanol, centrifuged at 10000rpm for 10 min, supernatant collected and volume readjusted to an initial volume with 80% ethanol. total phenols were estimated spectrophotometrically using folin-ciocalteu reagent (bray and thorpe, 1954) with gallic acid as the standard. the values were expressed as mg/ 100g fresh weight. total flavonoid content was estimated using catechin as the standard, and the values were expressed as mg/100g fresh weight (zhishen et al, 1999). total carotenoids and lycopene content was estimated spectrophotometrically (jensen, 1978; ranganna, 1976). molar extinction coefficient of 2500m-1 cm-1 at 450nm for total carotenoids, and 1.72x105 m-1 cm-1 at 503nm for lycopene was used for calculating their respective content. ascorbic acid was estimated by extracting the fruit pulp in 5% metaphosphoric acid, and titrated with 0.05% aqueous 2,6-dichlorophenol-indophenol as per harris and olliver (1942). data were statistically analyzed using anova, and significance (p>0.01) was determined for comparing treatments. total sugar content increased up to 50% during the off-season, at 132.95 mg/g in october, 2012, and 81.98 mg/ g in june, 2013. significant variation was observed in the content of reducing sugars during off-season (63.09mg/g), while, during the main-season, 26.45mg/g was recorded (table 1). analogous to total and reducing sugars, the nonreducing sugars, the starch and tss were found to be significant. maximum content recorded was 69.89mg/g, 28.3mg/g and 210brix, respectively, while minimum content recorded was 55.53mg/g, 17.2mg/g and 14 0brix, respectively, during off-and on-seasons, respectively. differences among carbohydrate and starch content can be attributed to differences in competing growth-aspects in the developing /ripening fruits. increase in carbohydrate content can be correlated with increase in tss in the fruit, noticed in the present study. fruit development during september-october was perhaps facilitated optimally due to less fruit-load on the trees. these trees had been affected by the previous year’s crop-load. in simple terms, more the crop-load, higher the competition among developing fruits, and vice-versa. on the contrary, burdon et al (2007) reported that carbohydrate status in avacado fruit was the same, irrespective of the season, under new zealand conditions. in our studies earlier, non-reducing sugars were monitored at various stages in mango (reddy et al, 2014). there is an added complication in fruit crops, especially in mango, in interpreting carbohydrate status of the fruit, due to asynchronous flowering. titrable acidity (ta) had no determining role during either the main or the off-season. however, higher titrable acidity was recorded (0.32%) during off-season, and table 1. carbohydrates, tss and ascorbic acid content in mango fruit season total sugars reducing non-reducing starch tss ascorbic acid titrable (mg/g) sugars (mg/g) sugar (mg/g) (mg/g) (obrix) (mg/100g) acidity (%) off-season 132.95±0.577 63.09±0.578 69.89±0.057 28.3±0.173 21±1.173 0.87±0.011 0.32±0.057 main-season 81.98±0.562 26.45±0.259 55.53±0.303 17.2±0.577 14±1.154 0.67±0.011 0.25±0.056 (p significant >0.01, n=3) shivu prasad et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):229-232, 2015 231 minimum ta (0.25%) was recorded in the main-season crop. ascorbic acid content was 0.87mg/100g in off-season, and 0.67mg/100g in the on-season. ascorbic acid content was 20% higher in off-season fruits. higher content of phenolics and flavonoids was recorded during off-season (table 2). the difference seen in flavonoid content between seasons can be directly correlated with sugar:acid blend. in support of our findings, a study by malundo et al (2001) states that sugars and acids enhance human perception of specific flavor-notes in mango, including the aromatics. on the other hand, lower tss:acid ratio is directly related to higher sourness (lechaudel and joas, 2007). total carotenoid and lycopene content increased in off season fruits compared to the on-season ones, at a maximum of 4.47mg/100g and 1.01mg/100g, respectively while, minimal content recorded was 2.33mg/100g and 0.45mg/100g during the offand onseason, respectively. these results were found to be significant (table 3) increase in content of carotenoids and lycopene during the off-season can be directly correlated with fluctuating environment (stress), viz., temperature, light intensity, leaf photosynthetic capacity and rainfall, along with poor competition for nutrition demand in a growing fruit on the tree. also, lower day temperatures were often seen to be associated with higher pigmentation in apple (solovchenko et al, 2006). we too observed this in our study. average fruit yield per plant reduced considerably during the off-season. maximum fruit yield (40kg/plant) and minimum fruit yield (5kg/plant) was recorded in the onand off-season, respectively, and these differences were significant. the present study revealed that differences in crop yield during the onand offyears influenced biochemical factors in the fruit, especially carbohydrates, along with others like phenolics, flavonoids and carotenoids. prior to this study, none of the research works on mango have shown clear-cut accumulation pattern and development of fruit quality parameters during main and off season grown mango fruits especially, in cv. royal special, which is erratic in flowering. from this study, it can be inferred that fruits grown in the off-season are richer in phytonutrients than those grown during the main-season crop. it is worthwhile to promote off-season production in mango cv. royal special. table 2. total flavonoids and phenols in mango fruit season phenols flavonoids (mg/100g) (mg/100g) off-season 0.817±0.009 0.481±0.047 main-season 0.653±0.003 0.123±0.013 (p significant >0.01, n=3) table 3. carotenoids, lycopene content and average fruit yield in mango season carotenoids lycopene average fruit (mg/100g) (mg/100g) yield (kg/plant) off-season 4.47±0.288 1.01±0.144 5.0±2.603 main-season 2.33±0.191 0.45±0.025 40.0±5.773 (p significant >0.01, n=3) fig. 2. ripe fruits of mango cv. royal special fig. 1. ‘royal special’ mango tree in different stages of growth chemical constituents in mango during the main and off-season j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):229-232, 2015 232 acknowledgement the authors are thankful to director, icar-iihr, for providing facilities and grateful to naip, icar new delhi, india, for financial support. thanks go out to national coordinator-4 for providing encouragement in the course of the study. active support of h.l. jayaram, technical officer, t.n. nagaraj, field technician, h.s. naveen, skilled assistant and j. varun, naip project is gratefully acknowledged. references aoac. 1990. official methods of analysis. association of official analytical chemists, washington d.c., usa bray, h.g. and thorpe, w.v. 1954. analysis of phenolic compounds of interest in metabolism. methods biochem. anal., 52:1-27 burdon, j., lallu, n., haynes, g., pidakala p., willcocks, p., billing, d., mcdermott, k., voyle, d., and boldingh, h. 2007. carbohydrate status of late-season ‘hass’ avocado fruit. new zealand avocado growers’ association ann. res. rep., 7:97-102 dinesh, m.r., vasugi, c. and reddy, y.t.n. 2012. mango catalogue. ic no; 391846, pp. 282 hansel, j. and moller, i. 1975. percolation of starch and soluble carbohydrates from plant tissue for quantitative determination with anthrone. anal. biochem., 68:87-94 harris, l.j. and olliver, m. 1942. vitamin methods: the reliability of the method for estimating vitamin c by titration against 2:6-dichlorophenolindophenol. 1. control tests with plant tissues. biochem. j., 36:155182 hedge, j.e. and hofreiter, b.t. 1962. in: methods in carbohydrate chemistry, vol. 17, whistler, r.l. and be miller, j.n. (eds), academic press, new york, usa jensen, a. 1978. chlorophylls and carotenoids. in: hellebust, a. and crargie, j. (eds), handbook of phytological methods, cambridge university press, london, pp. 59-70 kubo, i. and matsumoto, a. 1984. molluscicides from olive, olea europea, and their efficient isolation by countercurrent chromatogrphies. j. agri. food chem., 32:687-688 lakshminarayana, s., subhadra, n.v. and subramanyam, h. 1970. some aspects of developmental physiology of mango fruit. j. hortl. sci. biotech., 45:133-142 lechaudel, m. and joas, j. 2007. an overview of pre-harvest factors influencing mango fruit growth, quality and post-harvest behaviour. brazilian j. pl. physiol., 19:287-298 malundo, t.m.m., shewfelt, r.l., ware g.o. and baldwin, e.a. 2001. sugars and acids influence flavour properties of mango (mangifera indica). j. amer. soc. hortl. sci., 126:115-121 ojewole j.a. 2005. anti-inflammatory, analgesic and hypoglycemic effects of mangifera indica linn. (anacardiaceae) stem-bark aqueous extract. methods find expt’l. clin. pharmacol., 27:54754 ranganna, s. 1976. manual of analysis of fruits and vegetable products, tata mcgraw hill publishers, new delhi, pp. 634 reddy, y.t.n., shivu prasad, s.r. and upreti, k.k. 2013. effect of paclobutrazol on fruit quality attributes in mango (mangifera indica l.) cv. totapuri. j. hortl. sci., 8:236-239 rodeiro, i., donato, m.t., jimnenez, n., garrido, g., delgado, r. and gomez-lechon, m.j. 2007. effects of mangifera indica l. aqueous extract (vimang) on primary culture of rat hepatocytes. food chem. toxicol., 45:2506-2512 ross, i.a. 1999. medicinal plants of the world. vol.1. human press, new jersey, usa, pp. 199-200 solovchenko, a.e., avertcheva o.v. and merzlyak, m.n. ý2006. elevated sunlight promotes ripening-associated pigment changes in apple fruit. postharvest biol. technol., 40:183-189 somagyi, m. 1952. notes on sugar determination. j. biol. chem., 195:19-23 varakumar, s., sudheer kumar, y. and reddy, o.v.s. 2011. carotenoid composition of mango (mangifera indica l.) wine and its antioxidant activity. j. food biochem., 35:1538-1547 zhishen, j., mengcheng, t. and jianming, w. 1999. the determination of flavonoid content in mulberry and their scavenging effects on superoxide radicals. food chem., 64:555-559 (ms received 20 january 2015, revised 27 august 2015, accepted 08 september 2015) shivu prasad et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):229-232, 2015 molecular characterization of phytophthora nicotianae associated with diseases of horticultural crops by rflp of pcr internal transcribed spacer region of ribosomal dna and aflp fingerprints. p. chowdappa1 central plantation crops research institute regional station, vittal574 243, india e-mail: pallem @iihr.ernet.in abstract molecular characterization of phytophthora isolates from tobacco, tomato, carnation, gerbera, crossandra and periwinkle was carried out using internal transcribed spacer(its) regions of rdna gene repeat and amplified fragment length polymorphism (aflp). all the isolates of phytophthora were identical in morphology and itsrflp patterns, indicating p. nicotianae and p. parasitica are synonymous. however, based on aflp, four sub groups were evident within population of p. nicotianae (p. parasitica): group i, includes isolates from tomato, tobacco and periwinkle. isolates from carnation represents group ii. isolates from gerbera falls under group iii. the crossandra isolates formed a group iv. thus, present study showed the existence of four molecular sub groups within population of p. nicotianae (p. parasitica) in india. key words: phytophthora nicotianae, aflp, its-rflp 1present address: division of plant pathology, indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore – 560 089, india introduction phytophthora parasitica ( sensu dastur,1913) and p. nicotianae (sensu waterhouse, 1963), are pathogenic to a wide range of hosts ranging from tree crops to herbaceous plants(oudemans and coffey, 1991). phytophthora nicotianae has been reported as causal agent of diseases of tobacco, crossandra, carnation, gerbera and periwinkle and p. parasitica on tomato in india (mehrotra and aggarwal, 2001). these species were mainly identified based on morphological features (stamps et al, 1990; sarma et al, 2002)morphological criteria have limitations in understanding genetic diversity and genetic distance between isolates of p. nicotianae and p. parasitica. protein patterns (erselius and de vallavielle, 1984), serological analysis (morton and dukes, 1967), dna rflp patterns (forster and coffey, 1991) and isozyme patterns (oudemans and coffey, 1991) were found to be useful in understanding genetic divergence between isolates belonging to p. nicotianae and p. parasitica. endonuclease restriction digestion analysis of the its region of ribosomal dna (its-rflp) (cooke and duncan,1997; crowford et al, 1996; chowdappa et al, 2003a, b, c; chowdappa and sarma, 2003) and aflp finger prints were successful to separate species and also differences. the objective of the present study is to understand molecular diversity of phytophthora isolates from tobacco, tomato carnation, gerbera, crossandra and periwinkle in india based on its-rflp and aflp fingerprinting. material and methods fungal isolates phytophthora nicotianae isolates from tobacco, tomato, perwinkle, gerbera (05 isolates each), carnation and crossandra (04 isolates each) collected from bangalore, mysore, tumkur and hassan districts of karnataka were used in this study. reference cultures of p. nicotianae (imi 3406160 and imi 235604) were also included for comparison. morphological studies colony morphology of isolates, on carrot agar medium(ca) after three days of incubation in the dark at 24 ± 1ºc, was studied. sporangia were produced on ca using mycelium-agar-disk-in-water method (alhedaithy and tsao,1979). observations were made on length and breadth of sporangia, presence of papilla, caducity and shapes. observations on chlamydospore production were made on ca following incubation at 18ºc in the dark. the mating types of isolates were determined by taking 5 mm dia. discs from advancing margins of 3dayold cultures of opposite mating types and placed them 20 mm apart on ca. the inoculated plates were incubated j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 58-62, 2007 at 20oc in the dark for 15-20 days. the influence of temperature on vegetative growth on ca was determined in the dark at temperature ranging from 6 to 39ºc with an increment of 3oc. molecular studies the fungal mycelium was grown in 100 ml of v8 juice in a 250 ml flask for 3 days at 25°c on orbital shaker at 100 rpm. dna was extracted from freeze dried vegetative mycelium following a method of raeder and broda (1985). pcr amplification of the its region was performed using with universal primer pair its1 and its 4 (white et al ,1990). each 50 µl reaction mixture contained 100 ng of dna, 50 pmol of each primer, 200 mm each dntp, 5 µl of 10 x pcr buffer and 10 units of taq dna polymearse enzyme. pcr was carried out with following cycling parameters. a 4 minute denaturation at 94°c, followed by 34 cycles of 60s at 94°c, 60s at 55°c, and 1.5 min at 72°c and then a 5 min extension at 72°c. pcr products (5µl ) were electrophoresed in a 2 % agarose gel with tris-borateedta (tbe) buffer, stained with ethidium bromide and visualised under uv illumination. pcr product was digested with restriction enzymes namely hinf i, msp i, alu i, hae iii, rsa i, taq i and ecor v. restriction digestions were performed in 10 µl reaction containing 5 µl pcr product, 1 µl 10 x restriction buffer, 3.6 µ l pcr grade water, 0.1 µl bovine serum albumn and restriction enzyme (3 u/reaction) at 37°c for overnight (16h). digestion products were electrophoresed in 2.5% le agarose. the size of restriction fragments was determined by comparison of fragments migration with that of known marker fragments (100bp molecular size ladder). amplified fragment length polymorphism (aflp) analysis was carried out as per the method of muller et al (1996). fungal genomic dna ( 500 ng) was digested by pst (20 units), ligated to pst adaptor at 37°c for 4h and preamplification was carried out at 94ºc for 4 min for initial denaturation followed by 34 cycles of denaturation for 1 min at 94oc, annealing for 1 min at 60ºc, extension for 1.5 min at 72ºc and a final extension step of 5min at 72ºc. pre amplified pcr products were then diluted 1:100 in te buffer and amplified with five aflp primers, a(5’gactgcgtacatgcaggt3’,b(5’gactgcgta catgcagga3’), c,5’gactgcgtacatgcaggc3’), d (5’gactgcgtacatgcagac3’), e(5’gactgcgt acatgcagcg-3’) each with two selective bases at its 3’ end underlined, adopting above thermal cycling parameters. the pcr products were electrophoresed in 2% agarose gels in tris-borate-edta (tbe) buffer and visualized under uv after staining with ethidium bromide results and discussion phytophthora nicotianae isolates isolated from tobacco, tomato, periwinkle, carnation, crossandra and gerbera displayed no distinctive colony morphology (dense whitish aerial mycelium). most isolates produced spherical, ovoid, ellipsoid and persistent sporangia on irregular / loose sympodial sporangiophore (fig1). sporangial sizes ranged from 36.70 to 46.50 x 24.92 to 32.25 µ m (table1). l:b ratios of sporangia ranged from 1.31 to 1.53. chlamydospores were produced readily by all isolates on ca incubated in the dark at 18°c. chlamydospores were single, spherical, terminal or intercalary and pale yellow in colour (fig 1). the mean chlamydospores diameter ranged from 20 to 30 µ m (table 2). none of the isolates produced sexual structures. when paired with isolates of p. capsici of known mating types, all isolates produced sexual table 1. sporangial measurement in p. nicotianae isolates isolate no length*(µm) breadth (µm) l/b ratio(µm) mating type tobacco oh 37 41.50 ± 1.21 29.50 ± 0.77 1.40 ± 0.77 a2 oh 38 43.07 ± 0.93 31.92 ± 0.61 1.33 ± 0.02 a2 oh 39 41.00 ± 1.08 30.20 ± 0.71 1.37 ± 0.02 a2 oh 40 36.70 ± 1.21 24.92 ± 0.54 1.47 ± 0.36 a2 oh 41 40.93 ± 1.91 27.80 ± 0.69 1.41 ± 0.04 a2 tomato oh 42 38.50 ± 1.67 28.50 ± 1.14 1.30 ± 0.06 a2 oh 43 42.50 ± 0.86 32.25 ± 0.74 1.30 ± 0.02 a2 oh 44 40.00 ± 1.30 29.57 ± 0.83 1.37 ± 0.05 a2 oh 45 40.50 ± 0.77 29.00 ± 0.63 1.39 ± 0.03 a2 oh 46 39.00 ± 1.71 25.50 ± 1.00 1.38 ± 0.08 a2 periwinkle oh 47 41.66 ± 1.45 28.54 ± 1.23 1.43 ± 0.03 a2 oh 48 42.75 ± 1.14 30.25 ± 0.96 1.41 ± 0.06 a2 oh 49 41.25 ± 1.53 28.75 ± 0.78 1.43 ± 0.02 a2 oh 50 41.66 ± 1.63 30.41 ± 1.09 1.36 ± 0.03 a2 oh 51 39.58 ± 1.81 27.91 ± 1.37 1.41 ± 0.06 a2 carnation oh 52 38.61 ± 1.52 27.22 ± 1.32 1.41 ± 0.02 a2 oh 53 38.50 ± 1.67 28.50 ± 1.14 1.30 ± 0.06 a2 oh 54 44.44 ± 1.39 30.55 ± 1.51 1.46 ± 0.06 a2 oh 55 38.75 ± 1.39 27.25 ± 1.20 1.45 ± 0.48 a2 oh 56 46.50 ± 2.74 31.50 ± 1.53 1.46 ± 0.03 a2 crossandra oh 57 43.25 ± 1.17 28.75 ± 1.28 1.53 ± 0.06 a2 oh 58 45.00 ± 1.32 31.11 ± 1.42 1.46 ± 0.05 a2 oh 59 40.00 ± 1.23 27.00 ± 0.93 1.48 ± 0.04 a2 oh 60 46.38 ± 2.28 30.31 ± 1.34 1.53 ± 0.05 a2 oh 61 40.55 ± 1.70 27.77 ± 1.32 1.46 ± 0.05 a2 gerbera oh 62 45.50 ± 1.88 30.25 ± 1.24 1.49 ± 0.04 a2 oh 63 41.66 ± 1.63 30.41 ± 1.09 1.36 ± 0.03 a2 oh64 41.25 ± 1.53 28.75 ± 0.78 1.43 ± 0.02 a2 oh 65 44.07 ± 1.00 30.47 ± 0.90 1.44 ± 0.04 a2 oh 66 42.91 ± 1.49 28.33 ± 1.27 1.51 ± 0.05 a2 *mean of 100 sporangia; ± standard deviation j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 58-62, 2007 59 fig 1. morphology of p. nicotianae isolates, top left, sporangia, top right, chlamydospores, bottom left, oogonia, bottom right, oospores table 2. dimensions of chlamydospores , oogonia and oospores of p. nicotianae isolates isolate chlamydospores oogonia oospores (µm) (µm) (µm) tobacco oh 37 24.38 ± 1.75* 28.34 ± 2.10 25.90 ± 2.00 oh 38 22.78 ± 2.30 27.26 ± 1.90 26.24 ± 1.75 oh 39 28.20 ± 2.60 28.75 ± 2.00 25.34 ± 2.30 oh 40 23.34 ± 3.24 25.20 ± 1.95 24.37 ± 2.30 oh 41 23.28 ± 1.95 27.32 ± 2.60 25.20 ± 2.60 tomato oh 42 27.34 ± 2.02 29.75 ± 2.72 26.37 ± 2.27 oh 43 28 .28 ± 2.78 27.14 ± 2.02 25.40 ± 2.50 oh 44 23.38 ± 2.50 27.30 ± 2.50 26.32 ± 2.71 oh 45 26.72 ± 2.31 28.14 ± 2.60 26.37 ± 2.80 oh 46 24.32 ± 1.31 27.20 ± 1.90 25.27 ± 1.70 periwinkle oh 47 20.24 ± 1.32 28.14 ± 2.60 25.32 ± 2.75 oh 48 26.32 ± 2.34 28.20 ± 2.80 26.97 ± 2.60 oh 49 26.78 ± 2.14 27.20 ± 1.97 24.32 ± 2.32 oh 50 28.24 ± 3.21 27.30 ± 2.30 25.84 ± 2.00 oh 51 24.32 ± 2.20 27.10 ± 2.02 26.80 ± 2.72 carnation oh 52 28.45 ± 2.10 28.32 ± 2.00 27.40 ± 1.72 oh 53 30.25 ± 1.78 27.20 ± 1.80 26.68 ± 2.34 oh 54 28.75 ± 2.24 27.45 ± 2.20 27.35 ± 2.40 oh 55 25.62 ± 3.14 28.47 ± 2.15 26.40 ± 1.80 oh 56 25.34 ± 2.45 27.90 ± 2.70 25.21 ± 2.30 crossandra oh 57 26.25 ± 2.41 29.30 ± 1.60 24.00 ± 2.26 oh 58 20.35 ± 2.35 26.40 ± 2.30 25.34 ± 1.60 oh 59 20.75 ± 2.48 25.30 ± 1.60 26.73 ± 1.70 oh 60 24.34 ± 1.82 28.17 ± 1.20 27.40 ± 1.20 oh 61 25.75 ± 2.35 26.30 ± 2.00 24.37 ± 1.78 gerbera oh 62 27.32 ± 1.32 27.34 ± 2.06 26.75 ± 1.80 oh 63 26.31 ± 2.71 26.48 ± 2.68 25.30 ± 2.07 oh 64 28.25 ± 2.24 27.84 ± 2.50 25.24 ± 2.01 oh 65 26.32 ± 2.18 26.34 ± 1.85 25.70 ± 2.07 oh 66 22.35 ± 2.14 27.84 ± 2.00 26.87 ± 2.80 *mean of 100 reproductive structures ± standard deviation structures (fig 1). size of oogonia ranged from 26 to 29 µm and oospores varied from 24 to 27 µm (table 2). minimum temperature for growth of all isolates was 9°c; optimum was 24 30°c; and maximum was 33°c. thus, the present study showed that sporangial, chlamydospore, oogonial and oospore characteristics of p. nicotianae isolates from periwinkle, carnation, gerbera, tobacco and crossandra are similar to those of p. parasitica isolates from tomato. waterhouse (1963) created two morphological varieties; p. nicotianae var. nicotianae and p. nicotianae var. parasitica, which were based on ashby (1928) microspore and macrospora, respectively. further morphological studies of ho and jong (1989) in isolates from tobacco and other hosts clearly showed that var. nicotianae and var. parasitica could not be differentiated. separation of the varieties nicotianae and parasitica based on morphological criteria was also questioned (gallegly,1983). oudemans and coffey (1991) and hall (1993) reported that oogonia , oospore and sporangial dimensions are similar among two groups. when dna was amplified with universal primer pair (its1 and its4), there was single band of 920 bp (fig 2) for all isolates of p. nicotianae and reference cultures of p. nicotianae (imi 3406160 and imi 235604). all isolates had identical its rflp patterns when pcr product was digested with enzymes hinf 1, msp i, alu i, hae iii and rsa i (fig 3). restriction fragment sizes of the its region of rdna digested with different enzymes are also identical. fig 2. pcr amplification of its region of r dna lane1, marker, 100bp ladder, lane2, periwinkle, lane 3, gerbera, lane,4,carnation, lane,5, crossandra 600bp j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 58-62, 2007 60 chowdappa fig 3. its-rflp patterns generated with hinf i (lane 2-5)and taqi(lane 6-9). lane 1and 10, marker (100bp) lane2 and 6,periwinkle, lane 3and 7, gerbera, lane,4 and 8,carnation, lane,5 and 9, crossandra protein profiles (erselius and de vallavielle,1984), serological reactions (morton and dukes, 1967), rflpdna patterns ( forster and coffey,1991) of p. nicotianae isolates from tobacco were almost identical to those of p. nicotianae isolates from other crops. itsrflp data obtained in the present study also showed that p. nicotianae isolates from tobacco, tomato, periwinkle, carnation, gerbera and crossandra were identical. as varieties nicotianae and parasitica are identical based on morphological and molecular criteria, many researchers proposed (ho and jang,1989; oudemans and coffey,1991; hall,1993) that the name p. nicotianae be eliminated and that all isolates from tobacco and other hosts should be merged under the name p. parasitica. among the isolates of p. nicotianae, four aflp finger print groups were evident based on the combined results of five primers (a,b,c,d and e). the aflp finger prints generated with primer e is shown in fig 4. group i includes isolates from tomato, tobacco and periwinkle. isolates from carnation represents group ii. isolates from gerbera falls under group iii. the crossandra isolates formed a group iv. although there was no intra specific its variation among isolates of p. nicotianae, host specialized groups from tobacco, tomato, periwinkle, gerbera, carnation, and crossandra were found based on aflp fingerprints. there is considerable amount of evidence to show that some isolates of p. nicotianae are host-specific. for instance, isolates from okra and sesame were host specific, while isolates from peperomia obtusifolia and saintpaulia ionatha had different host ranges (ho and jong,1989). isolates from carnation and tomato were more virulent on fig 4. aflp finger prints of phytophthora nicotianae isolates lane 1, bp ladder(size marker), lane2,periwinkle, lane 3, gerbera, lane,4,carnation, lane,5, crossandra carnation and tomato respectively than other hosts. thus, the present study clearly indicated that p. nicotianae isolates from tobacco, periwinkle, carnation, gerbera and crossandra and p. parasitica isolates from tomato were identical. the aflp finger prints were useful in identifying host specialized groups within p. parasitica (p. nicotianae). while screening the accessions for disease resistance, host specialized aflp molecular groups should be used rather than morphologically defined isolates. acknowledgement the author is grateful to the indian council of agricultural research, new delhi for financial assistance in the form of national network project on phytophthora diseases of horticultural crops. he is also thankful to dr. n. ramachandran, head, division of plant pathology, indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore, for phytophthora cultures from gerbera, carnation and crossandra, and, to dr. m. m. shenoi, head, ctcri regional station, hunsur, for phytophthora infected samples of tobacco. references al-hedaithy, s. s. a. and tsao, p. h.1979. sporangium pedicel length in phytophthora species and the consideration of its uniformity in determining sporangium caducity. trans. brit. mycol. soc.,72: 1-13. ashby, s. f.1928. the oospores of phytophthora nicotianae br.de.haan with notes on the taxonomy of p.parasitica dastur. trans. brit. mycol. soc., 13: 86-95 600bp 600bp j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 58-62, 2007 61 molecular characterization of phytophthora chowdappa, p., brayford, d., smith, j. and flood, j. j.2003a. molecular discrimination of phytophthora isolates on cocoa and their relationship with coconut, black pepper and bell pepper isolates based on r dna repeat and aflp finger prints. curr. sci., 84: 1235 – 1238. chowdappa, p., brayford, d., smith, j. and flood j. j. 2003b. identification of phytophthora species affecting plantation crops by rflp of pcr amplified its region of ribosomal rna. curr. sci., 85: 34-36. chowdappa, p., brayford, d., smith, j. and flood, j. j. 2003c. identity of phytophthora associated with arecanut and its relationship rubber and cardamom isolates based on rflp of pcramplified its region of r dna and aflp fingerprints. curr.sci., 85: 585587. chowdappa, p. and sarma, y. r. 2003. application of molecular markers for resolving taxonomic complexities in phytophthora . j. plantn. crops.,31: 1-12 cooke, d. e. l . and duncan, j. m. 1997. phylogenetic analysis of phytophthora species based on its1 and its2 sequences of the ribosomal rna gene repeat. mycol.res.,101: 667-677 crowford, a. r., bassam, b. j., drenth, a., maclean, d. j. and irwin, j. a. g . 1996. evolutionary relationships among phytophthora species deduced from r dna sequence analysis. mycol. res., 100: 437-443. dastur,j. f.1913. phytophthora parasitica n.sp, a new disease of castor oil plant. mem. dep. agric. bot. ser., 5: 177-231. erselius, l. j. and de vallavieille, c. 1984. variation in protein profiles in phytophthora : comparision of six species. trans. brit. mycol. soc., 83: 463-472 forster, h. and coffey, m. d. 1991. approaches to the taxonomy of phytophthora using polymorphisms in mitochondrial and nuclear dna. p164-183. in: phytophthora. leucas, j.a. shattock, r.c. shaw.d.s. and cooke, l.r.(ed.) cambridge uni. press, cambridge, uk gallegly, m. e. 1983. new criteria for classifying phytophthora and critique of existing approaches.p167-172. in: phytophthora: its biology, taxonomy, ecology and pathology. erwin, d.c. bartnicki-garcia, s. and tsao, p.h.(ed.) american phytopathological society, st. paul. hall, g. 1993. an integrated approach to the analysis of variation in phytophthora nicotianae and a redescription of the species. mycol. res.,97 :559-574. ho, h. h and jong, s. c.1989. phytophthora nicotianae (p. parasitica). mycotaxon, 36 : 243-276. mehrotra, r. s. and aggarwal, a. 2001.phytophthora diseases in india. smps, dehradun, p 322 morton, d. j. and dukes, p. d.1967. serological differentiation of pythium aphanidermatum from phytophthora parasitica var.nicotianae and phytophthora parasitica. nature, 213: 923. mueller, u. g., lipari, s. e. and milgroom, m. g. 1996. amplified fragment length polymorphism finger printing of symbiotic fungi cultured by fungusgrowing ant cyphomyrex minutus. mol. ecology, 5: 119-122. oudemans, p. and coffey, m. d. 1991. a revised systematics of twelve papillate phytophthora species based on isozyme analysis. mycol. res., 95: 10251046 raeder, u. and broda. p. 1985. rapid preparation of dna from filamentous fungi. lett. appl. microbiol., 1: 17-20. sarma, y r., chowdappa, p. and anandaraj. m. 2002. phytophthora disease of plantation crops in india.p149-187. in: ipm system in agriculture: key pathogens and diseases .vol. 8. upadhyay, r.k. arora, d. k. and dubey, o. p. (ed.). aditya books pvt. ltd., new delhi stamps, d. j., waterhouse, g. m., newhook, f. j and hall, g. s .1990. revised tabular key to the species of the phytophthora, mycological papers 162, cab international mycological institute, kew, london, p 28 waterhouse, g. m. 1963. key to the species of phytophthora de bary; mycological papers (cmi), 92 : 1-22 white, t. j., bruns, t., lee, s. and taylor j. 1990. amplification and direct sequencing of fungal ribosomal rna genes for phylogenetics. p 315-322. in:pcr protocolsa guide to methods and applications .innis, m a. gelfand, d. h. sninsky, j. j. and white, t. j(ed. ). academic press, san diego. (ms received 3 november, 2006, revised 2 june 2007) j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 58-62, 2007 62 chowdappa standardization of stage-wise requirement of nutrients in banana cv. grande naine (aaa) t.n. balamohan, j. auxilia1 and r. sudha2 department of fruit crops horticultural college and research institute tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore – 641 003, india e-mail: rsudhahort@yahoo.co.in abstract a field trial was conducted during 2009-2010 at college orchard, horticultural college and research institute, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore, to standardize stage-wise requirement of nutrients in banana cv. grand naine (aaa). treatment t16 where application of 100% rdf (165:52.5:495g npk plant -1) at 4 critical growth stages, i.e., 40:52.5:25, 30:0:35, 30:0:25 and 0:0:15% at the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th months after planting (map), respectively, recorded maximum plant height, pseudostem girth and leaf area index. maximum bunch weight of 32.15kg was recorded in t16. higher yield was attributed to more number of (i) hands per bunch, (ii) fingers per hand and (iii) per bunch, besides the higher average weight of the finger. better quality fruits, with higher tss, total sugars, low acidity and better sugar:acid blend, were obtained in t16. in treatment t16, where 100% rdf was applied, increased n, p, and k content were seen in the index leaf of the crop. lower soil-available nutrients, viz., n, p, k, at the higher level of split-application at critical stages of the crop revealed, that, the nutrients applied were utilized efficiently. this was reflected in the better yield and quality obtained. economics were worked out which indicated t16 as giving the highest cost:benefit ratio (1:3.97). key words: banana, grande naine, stage-wise nutrient requirement, yield, quality, cost:benefit ratio j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):165-171, 2015 introduction banana, the second largest fruit crop in the world in terms of cultivation, produced in the tropical and subtropical regions, is recognized as the fourth most important food commodity in terms of gross value next only to paddy, wheat and milk products. india is the largest producer of banana in the world, accounting for about 25% of the global output. its availability round-the-year at a reasonable cost, and its ready acceptance by all sections of the society, make it a very popular fruit. peninsular india, especially the states of tamil nadu, kerala and karnataka, constitute an area of great diversity of both the banana and the plantain. over five lakh smalland mediumfarmers depend on banana cultivation for livelihood in our country. though the farmers spend huge amounts on fertilizer, only 50% of the potential crop yield is realized owing to poor fertilizer use efficiency. with a growing population and enhanced awareness among public about health and nutritional aspects of banana, the country’s requirement in the next 20 years is expected to go up to 25 million tonnes. this volume of production can be achieved through increased productivity while ensuring better fertilizer use efficiency. banana is a voracious feeder of nutrients; therefore, addition of mineral fertilizer stands to have a major effect on yield potential. banana requires high amounts of k than n or p to ensure high yield and quality. it is estimated that a crop of 50 tonnes of banana in one hectare removes 320kg n, 32kg p2o5 and 925kg k2o every year. hence, it is of paramount importance to maintain a high degree of soil fertility by timely and judicious application of npk for achieving good fruit yield and quality in banana. in tamil nadu, nutrients are applied in three split doses during the 3rd, 5th and 7th month after planting (map) @ 110:35:330g/npk/plant/year; but, under tropical conditions, soil nutrients are leached/ lost rapidly due to various factors. therefore, it is important to apply nutrients at the critical stages of crop growth in small doses, at shorter intervals, to minimize loss of nutrients and cost of production. though extensive information is available on nutrient requirement in banana, very little work has been done on stagewise nutrient requirement in this crop. this necessitates research on application of nutrients at various stages of crop growth to derive maximum benefit from a given quantity of 1horticultural college and research institute, tnau, periyakulam, tamil nadu, india 3central potato research station, muthorai, ooty, the nilgiris, tamil nadu, india 166 the nutrient. with this background, the present study was undertaken to standardize stagewise nutrient requirement in banana cv. grand naine under coimbatore conditions to achieve improved yield and quality. material and methods soil parameters a field experiment was conducted at the college orchard, horticultural college and research institute, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore, during 2009-2010. soil type in the experimental field was clayey-loam, and its initial status revealed that it was alkaline (ph 8.41), medium in ec (0.32 dsm-1), available n (216.7kg ha-1), available k (453.60kg ha-1) and low in available p (18.32kg ha-1). the experiment was laid out using tissue-culture derived banana cv. grand naine (aaa). drip irrigation was provided to the experimental plot. experiment details the treatments consisted of three nutrient levels (l1: 60% recommended dose of fertilizer, l2: 80% recommended dose of fertilizer, and l3: 100% recommended dose of fertilizer) and four stages of nutrient application (3rd month, 5th month, 7th month and 9th month after planting). per cent nutrients applied at each stage are given hereunder: treatment per cent nutrient level / stage of growth 3 map* 5 map 7 map 9 map (vegetative (flower-bud (pre-flowering/ (flowering/ stage) initiation flowering bunch stage) stage) stage) n k 2o n k 2o n k 2o n k 2o s1 10 10 40 20 30 30 20 40 s2 20 15 30 25 30 30 20 30 s3 30 20 20 30 30 30 20 20 s4 40 25 30 35 30 25 0 15 s5 50 30 20 40 20 30 10 0 s6 50 20 30 40 20 40 0 0 *map: months after planting a total of 19 treatments, viz., t1 l1s1, t2 l1s2, t3 l1s3, t4 l1s4, t5 l1s5, t6 l1s6, t7 – l2s1, t8 l2s2, t9 l2s3, t10 l2s4, t11 l2s5, t12 l2s6, t13 l3s1, t14 l3s2, t15 l3s3, t16 l3s4, t17 l3s5, t18 l3s6 and t19 – control (recommended dose of fertilizer @ 165: 52.5: 495g of npk/plant/year in 4 splits at 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th map) and phosphorus was applied as a single dose, i.e., at 3rd map. the above-stated treatments were tested in randomized block design, with four replications. each treatment was spread over a net area of 12.96m2, enclosing nine plants. all the recommended agronomic practices and plant protection measures were applied for raising the crop. data analysis observations on morphological characters, viz., pseudostem height and girth, leaf area index, and bunch characters, viz., bunch weight, number of hands and fingers, and, average weight of finger, were recorded as per standard procedures. total soluble solids (tss) were determined by using a hand refractometer. total sugars, total acidity and vitamin c were estimated using standard methods (aoac, 1960). for soil nutrient analysis, soil samples were collected before planting and at harvest. available nitrogen in the soil was estimated by the alkaline permanganate method (subbiah and asija, 1956), available phosphorus in soil estimated using klett summerson colorimeter with a red filter (olsen et al, 1954), and, available potassium in the soil was estimated upon extraction with neutral n ammonium acetate using a flame photometer (hanway and heidal, 1952). for plant nutrient analysis, functional leaves were used at different stages of growth. nitrogen content was estimated by microkjeldahl method (piper, 1966) and phosphorus content in the leaf was estimated using triple acid extract by vanadomolybdate phosphoric yellow colour method (jackson, 1973). potassium content was estimated by flame photometry (jackson, 1973). statistical analysis of the data was done as per gomez and gomez (1984). results and discussion morphological parameters potential yield in banana can be achieved only by applying adequate doses of fertilizer at critical stages of plant growth. banana crop requires a larger quantity of potassium, moderate quantity of nitrogen and a relatively lower dose of phosphorus for optimal growth and yield (norris and ayyar, 1942). data on the influence of different levels of nutrients applied during various growth stages on growth characteristics in our study are presented in table 1. progressive increase in plant height and girth of the pseudostem from 3rd map up to shooting was observed in all the treatments. among the treatments, t16 (with 100% of rdf at four different stages) registered maximum plant height and girth at 7th, 9th map, and at harvest. increases in plant height and girth may be attributed to an increase in utilization of nutrients, more specifically, nitrogen. improved nitrogen absorption ultimately led to balamohan et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):165-171, 2015 167 formation of complex nitrogenous substances like amino acids and proteins for building new tissues (childers, 1966). application of n at the critical growth stages, viz., early vegetative stage, flower-bud initiation and differentiation stage, and, post-shooting stage had a great influence on growth and development, plant health and yield. increases in plant height and girth from application of nitrogen and potassium is commonly noticed in banana (basagarahally, 1996; shakila and manivannan, 2001; nalina, 2002); while, phosphorus increased the girth when applied along with k (jagirdar and ansari, 1966). lowest plant height and stem girth were observed in treatment t1. this could be due to an insufficient supply of nitrogen and potassium at the initial stages of plant growth. reddy et al (2002) reported that increases in plant height and girth may be largely due to a regular supply of higher doses of nitrogen and potassium. though banana requires nutrient supplementation throughout its growing period, application of n and k prior to shooting, especially, during flower-bud initiation (4th-6th map) ensures uninhibited growth, and has a greater influence on bunch-size, number of fingers and hands per bunch, and ultimately, the yield (simmonds, 1982). leaf area index (lai) is critical for maximum utilization of photosynthetically active radiation (par). in banana, optimum lai should be 4 to 4.5. lai was higher when the plants were under t17 at 3 rd map; t18 at 5 th map, and t16 at 7 th, 9th map and at harvest. rapid development in leaf area was associated with higher accumulation of most of the nutrients applied. in the present study too, lai increase was rapid between the 7th and 9th map as a result of 100% rdf applied at the four critical stages (t16). baruah and mohan (1991) showed that higher potassium application increased lai considerably in banana cv. jahaji (aaa group). yield parameters influence of various levels of nutrients applied at different growth stages on yield and quality is presented in table 2. among the treatments, t16 (npk @ 165:52.5:495g per plant at four stages of growth) registered maximum bunch-weight (32.15kg), followed by t14 (27.96 kg) and t13 (27.77 kg). increase in yield may be attributed to improved morphological traits such as plant height, girth and number of functional leaves. better lai, faster rate of leaf production and higher nutrient-uptake by plants were also observed in this treatment (t16). this is in conformity with shakila (2000) and nalina (2002). increased yield in treatment t16 could be due to application of optimum quantity of fertilizers, well-spread at the four different critical stages of crop growth. this may lead to an increase in dry matter table 1. effect of various levels of fertilizer at different growth stages on growth parameters in banana cv. grande naine treatment plant height (m) plant girth (cm) leaf area index 3 5 7 9 a t 3 5 7 9 a t 3 5 7 9 a t map* m a p m a p m a p harvest m a p m a p m a p m a p harvest m a p m a p m a p m a p harvest t 1 0.76 1.64 1.78 1.86 1.87 25.21 49.25 57.188 65.42 66.72 0.46 2.43 2.56 4.39 2.75 t 2 0.79 1.74 1.81 1.92 1.95 26.42 50.61 59.683 66.63 69.21 0.48 2.48 2.69 5.04 2.82 t 3 0.78 1.72 1.79 1.92 1.96 26.19 50.37 59.467 66.63 67.63 0.48 2.48 2.60 5.00 2.81 t 4 0.77 1.71 1.82 1.89 1.92 25.98 49.98 59.271 66.50 67.25 0.48 2.45 2.59 4.76 2.77 t 5 0.82 1.75 1.83 1.94 1.97 26.77 50.94 59.717 67.25 69.63 0.49 2.53 2.71 5.13 2.84 t 6 0.83 1.78 1.87 1.95 1.98 27.06 51.45 60.292 68.21 70.21 0.49 2.55 2.73 5.17 2.88 t 7 0.83 1.83 1.88 2.04 2.04 27.35 51.91 60.717 68.96 70.92 0.49 2.70 2.82 5.41 2.94 t 8 0.84 1.84 1.95 2.03 2.05 27.67 52.34 60.758 70.58 71.46 0.50 2.71 2.82 5.43 2.94 t 9 0.83 1.82 1.89 2.01 2.04 27.19 51.83 60.642 68.46 70.58 0.49 2.61 2.75 5.40 2.93 t 1 0 0.84 1.87 1.91 2.03 2.06 27.71 52.38 61.096 70.92 71.46 0.51 2.72 2.84 5.55 2.95 t 1 1 0.85 1.92 1.99 2.06 2.08 27.90 53.19 61.396 71.50 71.83 0.51 2.79 2.95 5.71 3.14 t 1 2 0.85 1.93 1.98 2.05 2.07 28.02 55.57 61.396 71.33 71.54 0.52 2.86 2.91 5.68 3.14 t 1 3 0.85 1.95 2.03 2.06 2.10 28.15 55.98 62.588 71.83 72.25 0.52 2.95 3.12 5.92 3.15 t 1 4 0.85 1.96 2.06 2.07 2.15 28.90 56.63 62.833 72.17 72.46 0.53 2.97 3.13 5.93 3.17 t 1 5 0.85 2.01 2.02 2.06 2.10 29.40 57.31 62.202 71.63 72.17 0.54 3.00 3.05 5.80 3.15 t 1 6 0.86 2.01 2.13 2.16 2.18 29.83 57.36 64.117 74.75 75.25 0.54 3.02 3.19 6.50 3.26 t 1 7 0.92 2.02 2.05 2.07 2.09 30.27 59.90 62.846 72.88 72.68 0.58 3.05 3.14 6.05 3.22 t 1 8 0.87 2.08 2.09 2.12 2.12 30.17 62.39 63.108 73.33 73.30 0.56 3.14 3.15 6.26 3.25 t 1 9 0.85 1.91 1.97 2.05 2.06 27.77 53.10 61.292 70.96 71.46 0.51 2.73 2.86 5.57 3.02 sed 3.74 11.48 9.61 4.91 0.10 1.38 4.31 1.50 2.54 0.04 0.05 0.27 0.24 0.58 0.24 cd 7.49 23.01 19.26 9.85 0.20 2.78 8.65 3.00 5.09 0.08 (ns) 0.54 0.49 1.17 0.47 (p=0.05) *map: months after planting nutrient requirement in banana cv. grand naine j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):165-171, 2015 168 at harvest, contributing ultimately to suoerior bunch and finger characters. another plausible explanation is the timely availability of required amounts of nutrients for flower-bud initiation, a finding corroborated by basagarahally (1996). in the present study, a low yield obtained at lower levels of nutrients applied (t1) is probably due to lower uptake of nutrients, consequently lower dry-matter production, as banana requires large amounts of potassium before and during the reproductive stage, application of 60% rdf is adequate for accelerating growth and development. kholi et al (1985) reported that application of nitrogen increased biomass production in the leaves, rachis and flower buds, whereas, lack of n supply confined biomass production to the rhizome and pseudostem. in the present investigation, lower nutrient levels led to reduced leaf size, delayed flowering, reduced fruit number per bunch and fruit size. highest yield in terms of bunch weight (32.15kg plant-1) was observed in t16. this increase was also associated with a corresponding increase in number of hands per bunch (10.18) and number of fingers per bunch (191.09). in any production system, the primary objective is to attain maximum fruit yield per unit area without affecting fruit quality. fruit quality in banana is judged mainly by sugar content and acidity in the pulp. a marked effect on fruit quality was observed with application of adequate amount of nutrients. higher levels of tss (17.20%), ascorbic acid (15.07mg/100g), total sugars (20.23%), sugar/ acid ratio (183.90) and lower acidity (0.11%) were recorded in fruits under t16. higher fruit-quality, especially sugar content, can be explained on the basis of the role of nutrients, particularly potassium, involved in carbohydrate synthesis, breakdown and translocation of starch, synthesis of protein, and, in neutralization of physiologically important organic acids (tisdale and nelson, 1966). several investigations have more firmly established the involvement of k + in carbohydrate synthesis and its absolute requirement for the activity of the enzyme, starch synthetase (greenberg and preiss, 1965). increased level of potassium reduced the acidity in the pulp. this may be due neutralization of organic acids from a high k+ level in the tissues (tisdale and nelson, 1966; ram and prasad, 1988). leaf nutrient content leaf nutrient concentration in the banana plant provides information on plant nutrient status, and reflects the optimum leaf concentration of major nutrients aiding in growth and development in the banana crop. the present study, maximum n content was registered in treatment t16 at the 7th (3.46%), t13 at the 9 th (3.49%) map and at harvest (table 3). this may be due to an optimum availability of n table 2. effect of various levels of fertilizer at different growth stages on yield and fruit quality in banana cv. grande naine treatment bunch no. of no. of no. of average tss acidity ascorbic total sugar/ weight hands fingers in fingers finger (%) (%) acid sugars acid (kg) (bunch-1) 2nd hand (bunch-1) weight (g) (mg 100 g-1) (%) ratio t 1 24.06 8.75 17.21 162.63 147.36 12.30 0.22 11.56 15.80 71.81 t 2 25.62 9.13 18.67 169.45 157.51 15.10 0.19 12.04 16.30 85.78 t 3 24.29 9.13 18.17 165.89 154.19 14.90 0.20 11.93 16.27 81.35 t 4 25.11 8.92 17.33 163.12 150.38 14.40 0.21 11.62 16.00 76.19 t 5 25.63 9.21 19.25 169.60 158.88 15.20 0.18 12.37 16.67 92.61 t 6 25.65 9.33 19.67 170.23 159.96 15.50 0.18 12.43 16.83 93.50 t 7 26.65 9.46 19.71 180.00 161.15 15.60 0.17 12.69 17.50 102.94 t 8 26.73 9.54 19.83 180.59 161.99 15.70 0.17 12.93 18.20 107.05 t 9 26.32 9.33 19.71 170.52 161.10 15.50 0.18 12.57 17.22 101.87 t 1 0 26.73 9.67 19.96 173.39 165.00 15.85 0.17 13.62 15.73 126.46 t 1 1 27.66 9.79 20.21 181.10 176.19 16.50 0.16 14.36 17.20 135.78 t 1 2 27.56 9.75 20.13 177.07 171.13 15.90 0.16 14.05 16.73 101.87 t 1 3 27.77 9.83 20.63 184.11 181.65 16.50 0.15 14.85 18.97 126.46 t 1 4 27.96 9.96 21.04 184.83 185.79 16.75 0.14 14.89 19.01 135.78 t 1 5 27.67 9.79 20.63 181.79 176.19 16.50 0.15 14.49 18.90 126.00 t 1 6 32.15 10.18 21.50 191.09 190.00 17.20 0.11 15.07 20.23 183.90 t 1 7 28.18 10.00 21.13 185.98 186.87 16.90 0.14 14.92 19.10 136.42 t 1 8 30.27 10.33 21.50 186.01 188.25 16.90 0.13 14.92 19.97 153.61 t 1 9 27.31 9.75 20.04 176.31 170.08 15.90 0.18 14.02 18.43 102.38 sed 0.76 0.33 1.45 0.28 4.13 0.02 0.007 0.023 0.05 7.86 cd (p=0.05) 1.52 ns 2.91 0.56 8.29 0.04 0.015 0.046 0.10 16.45 balamohan et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):165-171, 2015 169 in the soil, favouring higher absorption and translocation by roots. lower content of n in the higher dose of applied fertilizer, viz., t1 to t6, could be due to the osmotic effect, which may have hindered uptake of n and supply of nitrogen converted from the nitrate to the ammoniacal form. also, per cent dose of fertilizer applied was lower than in t16. phosphorus content in various plant parts at different growth stages in banana cv. grand naine revealed that in leaves, this nutrient increased linearly until shooting. this may be due to an increased physiological activity in the plant as development proceeded. decrease in p content in leaves at harvest could be related to mobilization of stored assimilates to the fruit. p content was maximum in leaf lamina at the shooting stage. this indicates that p absorbed during earlier stages accumulates in the midrib and leaf lamina, thereby serving as a source during peak vegetative stages for higher photosynthetic activity. p content in the leaves decreased at harvest showing that metabolites containing p were translocated to the fruit. a higher demand for p at the early stages and at flowering (veerannah et al, 1976) and reduction in p at harvest (twyford and walmsley, 1974) have been reported. in the present investigation, k content in leaves at different stages indicates that this nutrient accumulated in the vegetative parts until shooting, highlighting that k concentration increased with increased physiological activity during the developmental processes. decrease in k content during harvest was probably due to an increased catalytic activity of k in reproductive parts for mobilizing metabolites from the vegetative part (despite substantial post-shooting uptake from the soil). veerannah et al (1976) reported similar results in banana cv. robusta. among the treatments, t16 recorded highest k content at the 5th (4.10%) and 7th (4.21%) map. this may be due to an increase in the available form of k in the soil solution. soil nutrient status in the present investigation, available n, p and k were estimated at planting and at harvest to study soil nutrient status under various treatments (table 4). initial soil n status was found to be 216.70kg/ha. available n in the soil at harvest under different treatments was significantly variable. treatment t1 (572.55kg/ha), followed by t4 (486.65kg/ha), recorded high amounts of available n, as, 20% was applied at the 9th map which was perhaps not fully utilized by the plant (since, at 9th map, no vegetative growth occurs, and only bunch-development and fruit-filling takes place). lesser amount of soil n was recorded in t16 (118.15kg/ha) due to application of n upto the pre-flowering stage (7th map). thus, the plant was able to utilize n optimally for production of the vegetative parts. treatment t16 recorded higher bunch yield and had 509kg ha-1 available n (which had been applied table 3. effect of various levels of fertilizer at different growth stages on leaf nutrient concentration in banana cv. grande naine treatment nitrogen (%) phosphorus (%) potassium (%) 5 7 9 a t 5 7 9 a t 5 7 9 a t map* m a p m a p harvest m a p m a p m a p harvest m a p m a p m a p harvest t 1 2.46 2.53 2.97 2.97 0.172 0.497 0.635 0.137 3.41 3.67 4.42 3.75 t 2 2.62 2.78 2.91 2.82 0.184 0.509 0.649 0.141 3.54 3.74 4.39 3.73 t 3 2.12 2.83 2.89 2.81 0.181 0.504 0.642 0.140 3.42 3.69 4.20 3.69 t 4 2.71 2.91 2.76 2.59 0.179 0.498 0.639 0.138 3.55 3.69 4.34 3.71 t 5 2.85 2.83 2.87 2.76 0.189 0.509 0.651 0.145 3.55 3.81 4.24 3.67 t 6 2.86 2.96 2.62 2.73 0.192 0.511 0.653 0.147 3.42 3.81 4.18 3.72 t 7 2.97 3.05 3.25 3.14 0.196 0.514 0.657 0.149 3.60 3.87 4.53 3.83 t 8 2.99 3.06 3.21 3.11 0.197 0.514 0.657 0.151 3.61 3.92 4.56 3.84 t 9 2.89 3.06 3.19 3.09 0.194 0.514 0.654 0.149 3.56 3.82 4.51 3.79 t 1 0 3.01 3.15 3.11 3.03 0.198 0.516 0.657 0.151 3.72 3.96 4.47 3.78 t 1 1 3.04 3.12 3.18 3.06 0.211 0.517 0.663 0.155 3.81 4.03 4.43 3.78 t 1 2 3.07 3.16 3.09 3.05 0.213 0.517 0.662 0.153 3.67 4.01 4.46 3.79 t 1 3 3.09 3.22 3.49 3.37 0.213 0.519 0.671 0.156 3.84 4.11 4.52 3.81 t 1 4 3.12 3.23 3.42 3.29 0.213 0.520 0.674 0.156 3.85 4.11 4.63 4.04 t 1 5 3.14 3.25 3.39 3.23 0.214 0.518 0.664 0.156 4.02 4.09 4.59 3.91 t 1 6 3.18 3.46 3.29 3.15 0.215 0.524 0.698 0.164 4.10 4.21 4.58 4.10 t 1 7 3.21 3.32 3.39 3.22 0.215 0.521 0.678 0.158 3.68 4.17 4.69 3.89 t 1 8 3.24 3.39 3.29 3.17 0.217 0.521 0.684 0.159 4.09 3.97 4.58 3.84 t 1 9 3.16 3.39 3.26 2.73 0.204 0.516 0.659 0.151 4.10 4.17 4.58 3.87 sed 0.005 0.004 0.004 0.005 0.002 0.0009 0.002 0.002 0.005 0.004 0.004 0.003 cd (p=0.05) 0.012 0.009 0.008 0.009 (ns) (ns) (ns) (ns) 0.009 0.008 0.008 0.006 *map: months after planting nutrient requirement in banana cv. grand naine j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):165-171, 2015 170 in three splits). this may be due to utilization of n, by the plant during its critical stages of growth, in three split applications. this may have facilitated optimum n concentration in the soil for the entire cropping period. therefore, residual nutrients in the soil may be subjected to lower loss. phosphorus estimated at the initial stages and at harvest revealed that available p in the soil showed a decreasing trend, which may be due to a continuous uptake of this nutrient by the plant. however, differences among treatments were not significant. uptake of p was also influenced substantially by potassium application. application of fertilizers also altered available k in the soil. available k in the soil at harvest showed a decreasing trend with time, and the quantity applied. among the various treatments, available k in soil was lower in t5 (475.6kg/ha) and t6 (457.89kg/ha) at 60% rdf; in t11 (385.78kg/ha) and t12 (385.85kg/ha) at 80% rdf, and, in t18 (295.78kg/ha) at 100% rdf at harvest. k content in soil in t16 treatment was lower than in treatment t19 (in which the same dose of fertilizer was applied in four equal splits). higher application of potassium in the early stages improved growth, yield and quality attributes. as, the time of application and stage of plant growth determines uptake and translocation of k, application of this nutrient at four critical stages may have provided optimal availability of k in the soil, throughout the growth period, and facilitated better growth. similarly, higher k uptake for bunch-development and finger-filling also resulted in lower levels of k in soil at harvest. application of 100% rdf in t16 (165:52.5:495 g npk plant-1 at 4 critical growth stages, i.e., 40:100:25, 30:0:35, 30:0:25, 0:0:15% at 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th map, respectively) recorded highest cost:benefit ratio (1:3.97). the highest gross and net returns realized were because of highest yield. as, the cost of cultivation was also equal to that in the control, application of fertilizer this way was found to be economically more viable. references a.o.a. c. 1960. official methods of analysis. a.o.a.c., washington d.c., usa basagarahally, r. 1996. micropropagation and nutritional studies of tissue cultured banana cv. grand naine. ph.d. thesis, university of agricultural science, bangalore, karnataka, india baruah, p.j. and mohan, n.k. 1991. effect of potassium on leaf area index, phyllochron and number of leaves of banana cv. jahaji. banana newslett., 14:21-22 childers, n. f. 1966. fruit nutrition. horticulture publication, new brunswick, new jersey, usa gomez, k.a. and gomez, a.a. 1984. statistical procedures for agricultural research. an irri book, wiley interscience publication, john wiley and sons, new york, usa, p. 680 greenberg, e. and preiss, j. 1965. biosynthesis of bacterial glycogen. ii. purification and properties of the adenosine diphosphoglucose glycogen transflucosylase of arthrobacter species. j. biol. chem., 240:2341-2348 hanway, j. and heidal. 1952. soil analysis methods as used in lowa state college. agri. bull., 57:1-13 jackson, m.l. 1973. soil chemical analysis, prentice hall of india pvt. ltd., new delhi, pp. 1-498 jagirdar, s.a.p. and ansari, a.r. 1966. effect of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium on the growth and production of cavendish banana (musa cavendishii lamb.). in: procs. agri. symp. atomic energy centre, dacca, bangladesh, pp. 71-80 kohli, r.r., reddy, y.t.n. and iyengar, b.r.v. 1985. effect of nitrogen on biomass distribution in robusta banana. gartenbauwissenschaft, 50:117-120 nalina, l. 2002. standardization of fertilizer requirement table 4. effect of various levels of fertilizer on soil npk (kg/ha) during harvest in banana cv. grande naine treatment nitrogen phosphorus potassium (kg/ha) (kg/ha) (kg/ha) t1 572.55 121.67 626.64 t2 453.65 112.57 497.46 t3 460.25 114.71 532.75 t4 486.65 118.63 573.70 t5 381.76 108.36 475.6 t6 375.48 105.45 457.89 t7 286.38 98.62 430.23 t8 276.89 97.83 429.48 t9 345.89 104.23 453.76 t10 265.70 97.20 420.76 t11 221.65 91.67 385.78 t12 228.45 93.30 385.85 t13 183.45 87.57 372.83 t14 176.65 83.27 358.70 t15 198.32 89.61 372.94 t16 118.15 76.25 270.6 t17 169.97 82.56 343.67 t18 168.35 78.56 295.78 t19 249.75 96.81 419.53 sed 2.34 0.24 1.63 cd (p=0.05) 4.66 n 3.27 balamohan et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):165-171, 2015 171 (ms received 09 june 2014, revised 08 june 2015, accepted 20 june 2015) for tissue cultured banana cv. robusta (aaa). ph.d. thesis, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore, india norris, r.v. and ayyar, c.v.r. 1942. the nitrogen and mineral requirement of the plantain. agri. j. india, 20:463-467 olsen, s.r., cole, c.v., watanabe, f.s. and dean, l.a. 1954. estimation of available phosphorus in soils by extraction with sodium bicarbonate. united states department of agriculture, circular no. 939, washington d.c., usa piper, c.s. 1966. soil and plant analysis, hans publishers, bombay, india, pp. 7-299 ram, r.a. and prasad, j. 1988. effect of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium on fruit quality of banana cv. campierganji local. south indian hort., 36:290292 reddy, b.m.c., shrinivas, k., padma, p. and raghupathi, h.b. 2002. response of robusta banana to n and k fertigation. indian j. hort., 59:342-348 shakila, a. 2000. studies on nutrition for in vitro propagated banana cv. robusta. ph.d. thesis, annamalai university, annamalai nagar, tamil nadu, india shakila, a. and manivannan, k. 2001. response of in vitro raised banana cv. robusta to different levels of n and k application. south indian hort., 49:362-364 simmonds, n.w. 1982. bananas. 2nd edn., longman group limited, london and new york subbiah, b.v. and asija, g.l. 1956. a rapid procedure for estimation of available nitrogen in soils. curr. sci., 25:259-260 tisdale, s.l. and nelson, w.n. 1966. soil fertility and fertilizer. macmillan co., london, uk, p. 81 twyford, i.t. and walmsley, d. 1974. the mineral composition of the robusta banana plant. iii. uptake and distribution of mineral constituents. plants and soil, 41:471-491 veerannah, l., selvaraj, p. and azhakia manavalan, r.s. 1976. studies on the nutrient uptake in robusta and poovan. indian j. hort., 33:203-208 nutrient requirement in banana cv. grand naine j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):165-171, 2015 effect of blending, additives and storage conditions on the quality of watermelon nectar harshata pal, ashis kumar banik and nuchhungi faculty of horticulture department of post harvest technology of horticultural crops bidhan chandra krishi viswavidyalaya, mohanpur-741252, india e-mail: harshata_sonai@yahoo.co.in abstract the impact of blending of nectar with coconut water, fortification with ascorbic acid and tocopherol and subsequent storage at low temperature (4-5oc) and room temperature (15-33oc) on the quality of nectar was evaluated. in most of the treatments, total soluble solids and reducing sugar content of the nectars increased during storage, whereas the total titratable acidity and lycopene content decreased. blending and addition of tocopherol did not show improved effect on quality. low temperature storage recorded better stability. key words: watermelon nectar; total soluble solid, reducing sugar, lycopene, titratable acidity, blending, additives, storage introduction watermelon (citrullus lanatus) is an important cucurbitaceous crop, which is widely grown in our country and is highly relished due to its cool and thirst quenching property. the edible portion of the fruit forms about 60% of the whole fruit and juice is the major product for which the fruit is processed (teotia et al, 1988). watermelon juice contains a fair amount of vitamin ‘c’, vitamin ‘a’ precursor (lycopene) and a high content of potassium, which is believed to have valuable diuretic properties (gusina and trostinskaya, 1974). because of its high juice content, beverages such as nectars are the obvious choice, which will satisfy thirst, supplement nutritional requirements as well as help in stabilizing the market price. blending of juice add variety in terms of flavour as well as nutritional value, and may result in product that possess the combined advantage of two or more fruits. coconut water can be utilized in the processing industry for blending. tender coconut water and pineapple juice, blended beverage can form an ideal health drink (illaiaskutty et al, 2002). teotia et al (1997) also observed that fortification of muskmelon rts with ascorbic acid improved the quality of the beverage. in light of the above, the present study was carried out to prepare a stable beverage product from watermelon fruit. material and methods the experiment was conducted at the department of post harvest technology of horticultural crops, faculty fig 1 steps followed for processing of watermelon nectar of horticulture, b.c.k.v., mohanpur, nadia, west bengal. the nectars were prepared during the months of may and september 2006. recipe the following different recipes were used for preparing watermelon nectars (table 1) with different treatments so as to ascertain that the final product should contain 20% juice, 15% tss and 0.3% acidity as per the fruit products order specification for nectars. j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 38-43, 2007 table 1. different receipes used for preparing watermelon nectar ingredients watermelon nectar watermelon juice and without blending coconut water blended (50:50) nectar watermelon juice 200 ml 100 ml coconut water — 100 ml sugar 129.6 g 134.7 g citric acid 3 g 3 g water 667.4 ml 662.3 ml finished product 1 litre 1 litre treatments control or ascorbic control or ascorbic acid (0.25%)2.5 g/l acid (0.25%)2.5 g/l of finished product or of finished product or tocopherol400 mg/l of tocopherol400 mg/l finished product of finished product table 2. effect of blending, additives and storage condition on the total soluble solids (0brix) content of watermelon nectar blending additives storage storage period (months) (watermelon juice: condition coconut water) 0 3 6 9 effect of blending (watermelon juice: coconut water) 100 : 0 — — 16.9 17.0 17.0 17.1 50 : 50 — — 16.6 16.6 16.7 16.8 s.em ± 0.027 0.015 0.015 0.021 cd (p=0.05) 0.079 0.044 0.044 0.063 effect of additives — ascorbic acid — 16.4 16.5 16.6 16.5 — tocopherol — 16.5 16.6 16.7 16.9 — control — 17.4 17.5 17.4 17.5 s.em ± 0.033 0.018 0.018 0.026 cd (p=0.05) 0.096 0.052 0.054 0.077 effect of storage condition — — rt 16.8 16.9 16.9 17.1 — — lt 16.8 16.8 16.8 16.9 s.em ± 0.027 0.015 0.015 0.021 cd (p=0.05) ns ns 0.044 0.063 effect of interaction 100 : 0 ascorbic acid rt 16.8 17.0 17.2 17.0 100 : 0 ascorbic acid lt 16.8 16.8 16.8 16.9 100 : 0 tocopherol rt 16.4 16.6 16.7 16.9 100 : 0 tocopherol lt 16.4 16.4 16.5 16.6 100 : 0 — rt 17.8 17.8 17.6 17.7 100 : 0 — lt 17.8 17.8 17.7 17.7 50 : 50 ascorbic acid rt 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.2 50 : 50 ascorbic acid lt 16.0 16.1 16.1 16.0 50 : 50 tocopherol rt 16.8 16.7 16.8 17.2 50 : 50 tocopherol lt 16.8 16.9 16.7 17.0 50 : 50 — rt 17.0 17.2 17.3 17.6 50 : 50 — lt 17.0 17.0 0.037 17.2 s.em ± 0.067 0.037 0.108 0.053 cd (p=0.05) ns 0.108 0.108 ns rt = room temperature (150-310c) lt = low temperature (40-50c) ns = non-significant j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 38-43, 2007 39 stable beverage product from watermelon tss content of extracted watermelon juice 10.2°brix tss content of watermelon juice: coconut water mixture 7.5°brix acidity of watermelon juice 0.02% acidity of watermelon juice: coconut water mixture 0.02% total soluble solids was determined using an erma hand refractometer. titratable acidity, reducing sugar and lycopene content were estimated following aoac (1984). statistical analysis was carried out according to gomez and gomez (1983). completely randomized design was followed for data interpretation. sensory evaluation the samples were evaluated by a panel of ten judges for three quality parameters viz., colour, taste and flavour with a possible scores of 40, 30 and 30, respectively. results and discussion total soluble solids (tss) tss content during storage increased (table 2) more prominently in the nectar blended with coconut water compared to the unblended samples. storage under low temperature condition (4°-5°c) showed less change in tss content as compared to the room temperature (15°-33°c) stored samples. the unblended watermelon nectars fortified with ascorbic acid and stored under low temperature condition (4°-5°c) showed minimum change in tss content during storage whereas the unblended watermelon nectar with tocopherol treatment and stored under room temperature condition (15°-33°c) showed maximum change in tss content during the nine months of storage. the increase in soluble solid content of the nectars during table 3. effect of blending, additives and storage condition on the reducing sugar content (%) of watermelon nectar blend additives storage storage period (months) (watermelon juice: condition coconut water) 0 3 6 9 effect of blending (watermelon juice : coconut water) 100 : 0 — — 8.26 8.41 8.57 8.73 50 : 50 — — 8.05 8.20 8.40 8.58 s.em ± 0.019 0.006 0.021 0.003 cd (p=0.05) 0.057 0.018 0.062 0.009 effect of additives — ascorbic acid — 8.22 8.32 8.49 8.58 — tocopherol — 7.66 7.88 8.11 8.28 — control — 8.59 8.72 8.86 9.10 s.em ± 0.024 0.007 0.026 0.004 cd (p=0.05) 0.071 0.022 0.076 0.012 effect of storage condition — — rt 8.17 8.37 8.63 8.86 — — lt 8.14 8.25 8.34 8.45 s.em ± 0.019 0.006 0.021 0.003 cd (p=0.05) ns 0.018 0.062 0.009 effect of interaction 100 : 0 ascorbic acid rt 8.69 8.83 8.78 9.24 100 : 0 ascorbic acid lt 8.69 8.71 8.28 8.82 100 : 0 tocopherol rt 7.80 8.04 8.02 8.51 100 : 0 tocopherol lt 7.80 7.98 8.82 8.17 100 : 0 — rt 8.21 8.58 8.24 9.22 100 : 0 — lt 8.21 8.35 8.14 8.47 50 : 50 ascorbic acid rt 7.76 7.92 7.97 8.28 50 : 50 ascorbic acid lt 7.76 7.82 8.08 8.02 50 : 50 tocopherol rt 7.52 7.81 7.90 8.43 50 : 50 tocopherol lt 7.52 7.71 9.24 8.08 50 : 50 — rt 8.89 9.02 9.07 9.53 50 : 50 — lt 8.89 8.95 0.052 9.20 s.em ± 0.048 0.015 ns 0.008 cd (p=0.05) ns 0.043 0.024 rt = room temperature (150-310c) lt = low temperature (40-50c) ns = non-significant storage may be attributed to partial hydrolysis of complex carbohydrates (awan et al, 1980). similar observation in storage of squashes of orange, lemon and bael fruits were reported by jain et al (1984). reducing sugar the reducing sugar content of watermelon nectars showed an increasing trend during storage irrespective of the treatments and storage conditions (table 3). however, this change was slightly higher in the blended watermelon nectars as compared to the unblended materials. fortification with ascorbic acid showed lesser change in reducing sugar as compared to those fortified with tocopherol or without fortification (control). the change in reducing sugar was also comparatively slower under low temperature storage than under room temperature storage j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 38-43, 2007 40 harshata pal et al table 4. effect of blending, additives and storage condition on the titratable acidity (%) of watermelon nectar blend additives storage storage period (months) (watermelon juice: condition coconut water) 0 3 6 9 effect of blending (watermelon juice : coconut water) 100 : 0 — — 0.45 0.43 0.38 0.34 50 : 50 — — 0.41 0.39 0.36 0.31 s.em ± 0.002 0.003 0.005 0.002 cd (p=0.05) 0.006 0.007 0.016 0.006 effect of additives — ascorbic acid — 0.45 0.42 0.40 0.36 — tocopherol — 0.39 0.37 0.33 0.27 — control — 0.45 0.43 0.38 0.35 s.em ± 0.002 0.003 0.007 0.303 cd (p=0.05) 0.006 0.007 0.020 0.008 effect of storage condition — — rt 0.43 0.40 0.36 0.30 — — lt 0.43 0.42 0.39 0.35 s.em ± 0.002 0.003 0.005 0.003 cd (p=0.05)! ns 0.007 0.016 0.007 effect of interaction 100 : 0 ascorbic acid rt 0.45 0.42 0.38 0.32 100 : 0 ascorbic acid lt 0.45 0.44 0.42 0.41 100 : 0 tocopherol rt 0.40 0.38 0.29 0.24 100 : 0 tocopherol lt 0.40 0.39 0.34 0.28 100 : 0 — rt 0.51 0.48 0.41 0.37 100 : 0 — lt 0.51 0.49 0.44 0.40 50 : 50 ascorbic acid rt 0.46 0.41 0.38 0.32 50 : 50 ascorbic acid lt 0.46 0.44 0.42 0.38 50 : 50 tocopherol rt 0.39 0.35 0.32 0.26 50 : 50 tocopherol lt 0.39 0.37 0.35 0.30 50 : 50 — rt 0.40 0.38 0.34 0.29 50 : 50 — lt 0.40 0.38 0.35 0.33 s.em ± 0.005 0.006 0.014 0.006 cd (p=0.05) ns ns ns 0.017 rt = room temperature (150-310c) lt = low temperature (40-50c) ns = non-significant which is in agreement with the findings on watermelon juice made by chahal and saini (1999) and also on mango nectar by sahni and khurdiya (1989). increase in reducing sugar during storage was observed in watermelon juice by bawa and bains (1977) and also in muskmelon rts (teotia et al, 1997). the increase in reducing sugars during storage may be attributed to hydrolysis of non-reducing sugars to reducing sugars, and a higher storage temperature and acidity accelerated the process of hydrolysis (sahni and khurdiya, 1989). among all the treatments, there was minimum increase in reducing sugar content in the unblended watermelon nectar which was fortified with ascorbic acid and stored under low temperature (4°-5°c). maximum increase in reducing sugar content was recorded in the watermelon nectar blended with coconut water and fortified with tocopherol and stored at room temperature (15°-33°c). total titratable acidity the total titratable acidity of the watermelon nectars decreased throughout the period of storage for six months irrespective of the treatments and storage conditions (table 4). the decrease in acidity of the nectars during storage was more rapid in the nectars with coconut water than in unblended samples. there was a significant difference in acid levels during storage with addition of different additives. the addition of ascorbic acid showed a slower lower change in the acid content as compared to the control and the tocopherol treatment showed a rapid increase in acidity during storage. low temperature storage (4°-5°c) a significantly reduction in acid content as compared to the room temperature storage (15°-33°c). least change in total titratable acidity was recorded in the unblended watermelon nectar with ascorbic acid fortification and storage under low temperature for nine j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 38-43, 2007 41 stable beverage product from watermelon months. bawa and bains (1977) also observed a slight decrease in acidity of stored watermelon juice. lycopene content the lycopene content of the watermelon nectars decreased during storage for nine months both under low temperature (4° 5°c) and room temperature (15° 33°c) conditions (table 5). the rate of decrease in lycopene content was slightly lower in the unblended watermelon nectars than those blended with coconut water. the nectars under room temperature storage (15° 33°c) also showed slightly higher rate of decrease in lycopene content as compared to the nectars under low temperature storage (4° 5°c). gowda and jalali (1995) also reported decrease in lycopene content of watermelon juice in storage. lycopene is the dominant pigment found in watermelon juice which is responsible for the red colour (huor et al, 1980). table 5. effect of blending, additives and storage condition on the lycopene content (mg/100 ml) of watermelon nectar blend additives storage storage period (months) (watermelon juice: condition coconut water) 0 3 6 9 effect of blending (watermelon juice : coconut water) 100 : 0 — — 564 517 457 423 50 : 50 — — 396 363 326 293 s.em ± 0.373 0.479 0.497 0.437 cd (p=0.05) 1.086 1.396 1.447 1.274 effect of additives — ascorbic acid — 488 453 394 367 — tocopherol — 463 418 375 344 — control — 487 449 405 362 s.em ± 0.456 0.587 0.608 0.536 cd (p=0.05) 1.329 1.711 1.771 1.561 effect of storage condition — — rt 479 444 388 354 — — lt 479 436 394 361 s.em ± 0.373 0.479 0.497 0.437 cd (p=0.05) ns 1.396 1.447 1.274 effect of interaction 100 : 0 ascorbic acid rt 581 549 408 402 100 : 0 ascorbic acid lt 581 543 517 486 100 : 0 tocopherol rt 538 492 441 403 100 : 0 tocopherol lt 538 481 432 397 100 : 0 — rt 572 523 481 425 100 : 0 — lt 572 517 464 423 50 : 50 ascorbic acid rt 396 357 331 291 50 : 50 ascorbic acid lt 396 363 321 289 50 : 50 tocopherol rt 388 361 324 299 50 : 50 tocopherol lt 388 341 303 278 50 : 50 — rt 403 385 345 302 50 : 50 — lt 403 372 331 297 s.em ± 0.919 1.174 1.217 1.071 cd (p=0.05) ns 3.422 3.546 3.121 rt = room temperature (150-310c) lt = low temperature (40-50c) ns = non-significant sensory quality data presented in table 6 revealed that the sensory quality of watermelon nectars of different treatments maintained acceptable quality during the entire period of storage for nine months at low temperature condition (4o 5o c). however, under room temperature condition (15o to 33o c) the quality was maintained upto six months of storage only. the quality rating of watermelon nectars of different treatments decreased with increase in duration of storage. the unblended watermelon nectar with ascorbic acid treatment stored under low temperature condition showed maximum quality rating of 91 at nine months of storage. the watermelon nectar with different treatments maintained higher scores of quality ratings i.e., above 70 at nine months of storage at low temperature. j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 38-43, 2007 42 harshata pal et al thus, the total soluble solids and reducing sugar content of nectars increased during storage, whereas the total titratable acidity decreased. on the other hand, the lycopene content of the nectars decreased during storage irrespective of the storage condition. blending watermelon with coconut water juice and supplementation with toopherol did not improve quality. acknowledgement we are thankful to dr. a. k. banik, chairman of my advisory committee and other associates in the project. references a. o. a. c. 1984. official methods of analysis, 14th edition. association of official agricultural chemistry, washington d.c. pp 16. awan, j. a., folaye, c. a. and okaka, j. c. 1980. effect of bottle colour and storage conditions on the quality of soursap (annona muricata). j. food sci. technol., 17: 251-53. bawa, a. s. and bains, g. s. 1977. integrated processing of watermelons for juice and seed. ind. food packer, 31: 12-15. chahal, g. s. and saini, s. p. s. 1999. storability of juice from new hybrid watermelon variety. ind. food packer, 53: 12-17. gomez, k. a. and gomez, a. a. 1983. statistical procedures table 6. effect of blending, additives and storage condition on sensory quality scores of watermelon nectar blend additives storage scores of sensory quality at different storage period (watermelon juice: condition (months) coconut water) 0 3 6 9 100:0 ascorbic acid rt 97 95 88 48 100:0 ascorbic acid lt 97 97 95 91 100:0 tocopherol rt 96 90 87 43 100:0 tocopherol lt 96 96 93 85 100:0 rt 97 92 85 47 100:0 lt 97 97 94 83 50:50 ascorbic acid rt 83 77 72 24 50:50 ascorbic acid lt 83 83 82 71 50:50 tocopherol rt 84 75 70 43 50:50 tocopherol lt 84 84 81 70 50:50 rt 84 77 70 29 50:50 lt 84 84 81 71 rt = room temperature (150-310c) lt = low temperature (40-50c) for agricultural research. an irri book, john wiley and sons, new york. gowda, i. n. d. and jalali, s. 1995. studies on juice making from watermelon fruits. ind. food packer, 49 : 33-41. gusina, g. b. and trostinskaya, l. o. 1974. watermelon juice with pulp. konserv. i ovoschesuch. prom., 3: 17-18. huor, s. s., ahmed, e. m. and carter, r. d. 1980. concentration of watermelon juice. j. food sci., 45: 718-719. illaiaskutty, n., ukkuru, m. and thomas, g. v. 2002. value added products from tender coconut. indian coconut j., 33 : 10-12. jain, s. p., tripathi, v. k. h. b. and singh, s. 1984. effect of storage condition on the keeping quality of fruit squash, part i, ind. food packer, 38: 33-39. sahini, c. k. and khurdiya, d. s. 1989. effect of ripening and storage temperature on the quality of mango nectar. ind. food packer, 43: 5-11. teotia, m. s., kaur, s. and berry, s. k. 1997. utilization of muskmelon (c. melo) ready – to – serve beverage from enzyme classified juice. ind. food packer, 51: 1114 teotia, m. s., kaur, s. and berry, s. k. 1988. recent advances in chemistry and technology of watermelon. ind. food packer, 42: 17-40. (ms received 7 november 2006, revised 2 june 2007) j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 38-43, 2007 43 stable beverage product from watermelon soil and seed borne diseases constitute a major constraint in crop production. seed-borne pathogens are carried externally and / or internally through seeds and it is essential to treat the seed with protectants for early control of pathogens and to raise healthy plant stand. this can be achieved through chemical and or biological means. trichoderma viride is a potential biocontrol agent against several soil and seed borne pathogens (papavizas, 1983). owing to its antagonistic effect on inimical organism, it ranks as one of the most successful agents for biological control of pathogens (gupta, 2004). as some fungicides are effectively used as seed-dressing, it is necessary to study compatibility of these with the commonly used bioagent, t. viride. further, pesticides applied as foliar spray or soil drench ultimately reach the soil and affect beneficial nontarget mycoflora, including fungi. hence, knowledge of compatibility of t. viride with important pesticides may help opt for better plant-protection measures. tolerance to commonly-used pesticides enhances the efficacy and expands the scope of application of biocontrol agents such as t. viride. hence, a laboratory study was made to assess compatibility of some commonly-used, commercially available pesticides on growth and sporulation of t. viride. trichoderma viride was isolated from soil by dilutionplate technique and efficiency of the isolates was tested against fusarium solani (isolated from chillies in dual cultures). the best isolate was maintained on potato dextrose agar for further studies. compatibility of biocontrol agent trichoderma viride with various pesticides g. bindu madhavi, s.l. bhattiprolu and v. bali reddy regional agricultural research station, lam, guntur -522 034, india e-mail: gopireddy_bindu@yahoo.co.in abstract compatibility of trichoderma viride with 25 pesticides was evaluated in vitro. among six seed-treatment chemicals tested, t. viride showed a high compatibility with the insecticide imidacloprid (7.6cm mycelial growth), followed by mancozeb (6.3cm) and tebuconazole (3.7cm). contact fungicides, viz., pencycuron and propineb were found to be fully compatible with t. viride. among the 10 herbicides also tested, the fungus was highly compatible with imazathafir (9.0cm) followed by 2,4-d sodium salt (8.9cm) and oxyfluoforen (6.5cm) while being totally incompatible with systemic fungicides like carbendazim, hexaconazole, tebuconazole and propiconazole. key words: trichoderma viride, compatibility, pesticides six seed-treatment chemicals, viz., carbendazim (0.1%), mancozeb (0.25%), captan (0.3%), tebuconazole (0.15%), captan+hexaconazole and imidacloprid (0.5%); five systemic-fungicides, viz., hexaconazole (0.2%), propiconazole (0.15%), tebuconazole (0.15%), difenconazole (0.05%), benomyl (0.1%); three contact fungicides, viz., pencycuron ( 0.2%), copper oxychloride(0.3%), propineb (0.2%); one combination product, viz., carbendazim+mancozeb (0.2%), and 10 weedicides, viz., quizalopop ethyl 5% ec , pyrithiobac sodium 10%ec, oxyfluoforen 3.5%ec, cyhalopop butyl 10%ec, glyphosate+ammonium sulphate, pendimethalin, 2,4-d sodium salt 80%wp, imazithaphir 10%ec, atrazine 50%wp and glyphosate 41%sl were evaluated for compatibility with t.viride, in vitro, by poisoned-food technique (nene and thapliyal, 1993). mycelial discs 0.5cm in diameter were cut out, using a sterile cork borer, from actively growing 7 day old culture of the fungus and placed in the centre of a petri dish containing pda supplemented with various pesticides. inoculated petri dishes were incubated at room temperature (28+2oc), and observations on radial growth of colony (mm) were recorded after 4 days when the growth of t. viride in the check plates was full. three replications were made for each treatment, including, the check. data was statistically analyzed. trichoderma viride showed a high compatibility with the insecticide imidacloprid (7.6cm mycelial growth), short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 6(1):71-73, 2011 72 followed by mancozeb (6.3cm) and tebuconazole (3.7cm), respectively. mycelial growth was inhibited in the presence of captan and captan+heaxaconazole 2.1cm and 1.6cm, respectively (table 1). t. viride isolate was totally incompatible with the systemic fungicide carbendazim, which showed no mycelial growth. on the other hand, t. viride was highly compatible with pencycuron, showing a radial growth of 8.9cm, followed by propineb (8.0cm). lower compatibility was recorded in copper oxy chloride and carbendazim+mancozeb (0.2%) amended medium (3.3cm and 2.9cm; table 2). it was least incompatible with hexaconazole, tebuconazole, propiconazole and benomyl, respectively, by showing very scanty growth. among the ten herbicides tested, t.viride was highly compatible with imazathafir (9.0cm), followed by 2,4-d sodium salt (8.9cm) and oxyflorofen (6.5cm) (table-3). moderate compatibility was observed with glyphosate, glyphosate+ammonium sulphate, cyhalopop butyl 10%ec and pyrithiobac sodium salt where it showed radial growth ranging from 2.8cm to 5.7cm. it was incompatible with quizalopop ethyl 5%ec, followed by atrazine and pendimethalin, by exhibiting almost no growth. growth response of t. viride, ranging from inhibitory, stimulatory to neutral with the above chemicals observed in this study, is in agreement with earlier reports (mondal et al, 1995; sharma et al, 1999). various seed-treatment chemicals positively affected growth of t. viride, while carbendazim had an inhibitory effect. however, high compatibility of t. viride with mancozeb and moderate compatibility with captan and 2,4-d sodium salt confirmed finding in the earlier reports (gounder et al, 1999); gupta, (2004). earlier, sharma et al (2001) suggested that coc fungicides were not compatible with trichoderma spp., while, compatibility of coc with t. viride was reported by karpagavalli (1997) and bhattiprolu (2007). in the present study, fytolan showed 62.9% inhibition of growth of t. viride. similar observations were reported by shanmugam (1996). the slight difference observed may be due to geographical separation of t. viride isolates. based on these studies, it is concluded that t. viride can be safely incorporated into idm of seed and soil borne diseases. references bhattiprolu, s.l. 2007. compatibility of trichoderma viride with fungicides. ind j. pl. prot., 35:357-358 table 1. compatibility of trichoderma viride with seed-treatment chemicals s.no. treatment dose of diameter of inhibition chemical fungus (cm) (%) 1 carbendazim 50%wp 0.10% 0.50 94.4 2 mancozeb 75%wp 0.25% 6.30 28.9 3 captan 50%wp 0.30% 2.10 59.4 4 tebuconazole 9.55% 0.105% 3.70 75.8 5 captan 70% 0.20% 1.60 84.7 + hexaconazole 5%wp, 6 imidacloprid 0.05% 7.60 14.8 70%sd 7 check 8.90 sem 0.088 sed 0.124 cd(p=0.05) 0.271 table 2. compatibility of trichoderma viride with fungicides s. no. treatment dose of diameter inhibition chemical of fungus (%) (cm) 1 hexaconazole 5%ec 0.20% 0.5 94.4 2 propiconazole 250ec 0.10% 0.6 93.0 3 tebuconazole 430sc 0.15% 0.5 94.4 4 difenconazole 25%ec 0.05% 1.5 83.0 5 pencycuron (contact) 0.20% 8.9 0.0 6 copper oxychloride 0.30% 3.3 62.9 (contact) 50%wp 7 carbendazim12% 0.20% 2.9 67.4 +mancozeb 64%wp 8 benomyl 50%wp 0.10% 0.7 92.0 9 propineb (contact) 0.25% 8.0 10.1 25%wp 10 check 8.9 sem 0.048 cd(p=0.05) 0.141 cv 2.3% table 3. compatibility of trichoderma viride with various herbicides s.no. treatment dose of diameter inhibition chemical of fungus (%) (cm) 1 quizalopop ethyl 5%ec 0.20% 0.5 94.4 2 pyrithiobac sodium 10%ec 0.125% 2.8 68.8 3 oxyfluoforen 3.5%ec 0.12% 6.5 27.7 4 cyhalopop butyl 10%ec 0.22% 3.5 61.1 5 glyphosate+ammonium 0.62% 4.7 47.7 sulphate71 6 pendimethalin 20%ec 0.62% 1.1 87.7 7 2,4-d sodium salt 80%wp 0.22% 8.9 1.1 8 imazithaphir 10%ec 0.152% 9.0 0.0 9 atrazine 50%wp 0.62% 0.5 94.4 10 glyphosate 41%sl 12% 5.7 36.6 11 check 9.0 0.0 sem 0.088 cd(p=0.05) 0.259 cv 3.2% bindu madhavi et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 6(1):71-73, 2011 73 gounder, s.b., kulkarni, s. and kulkarni, s. 1999. compatibility effect of antagonists and seed dressers against fusarium udum the causal agent of pigeon pea wilt. karnataka j. of agril. sci., 12:197-199 gupta, v. 2004. compatibility of biocontrol agent trichoderma harzianum with pesticides. j.mycol. pl. pathol., 34:504-505 karpagavalli, s. 1997. effect of different fungicides on the growth of trichoderma. ind. j. plant prot., 25: 82-83 mondal, g., srivastava, k.d. and agrawal r. 1995. antagonistic effect of trichoderma spp. on ustilago segetum var. tritici and their compatibility with fungicides and biocides. ind. phytopath., 48: 466-470 nene, y.l. and thapliyal p.n. 1993. fungicides in plant disease control. oxford and ibh, new delhi, pp 691 papavizas, g.c. 1983. trichoderma and gliocladium their biology, ecology and potential of biocontrol. ann. rev. phytopath., 23:23-54 shanmugham, v. 1996. biocontrol of rhizome rot of ginger (zingiber officinale) by antagonistic microorganisams. m.sc.(ag.) thesis, kerala agricultural university, vellanikkara, thrissur, kerala, p. 72 sharma, d.d., gupta v.p. and chandrasekhar, d.s. 1999. compatibility of certain biocontrol agents with chemical pesticides and fertilizers. ind. j. sericulture, 38:79-82 sharma, s.d., mishra, a., pandey, r.n. and patel, s. j. 2001. sensitivity of trichoderma harzianum to fungicides. j. mycol. pl. pathol., 31:251-253 (ms received 09 march 2010, revised 11 january 2011) compatibility of trichoderma with various pesticides j. hortl. sci. vol. 6(1):71-73, 2011 introduction the immense horticultural, agricultural and biological diversity has made chilli globally important as a fresh and processed vegetable, and as a source of ingredients for sauces and powders besides its use as a food colorant (boseland vatava 2000). lately, a demand for value-added products prepared from chilli like dried pods, flakes, powder, color oleoresin, pungent oleoresin, etc. has been steadily increasing. there is a wide range of chilli products, based on whole or ground chilli, entering world trade. most of these products are traded on the basis of their level of pungency. one attribute, typical of chillies, is its pungency, resulting from a direct effect of its capsaicinoid compounds on pain receptors in the mouth and throat (gibbs and yahia, 2006). quantification of these pungent compounds is an important index of pepper quality (contreras-padilla et al, 1998). the primary capsaicinoid in chilli pepper is capsaicin, followed by dihydrocapsaicin, nordihydrocapsaicin, homodihydrocapsaicin and homocapsaicin. capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin, the two most potent capsaicinoids, account for approximately 90% of the capsaicinoids in chilli pepper fruit (bernal et al, 1993). considerable variation in capsaicin content has been reported by cherian (2000); with the amount increasing in the order of: green fruit < ripe fruit < sundried fruit (ahmed et al, 1987). however, this content cultivar variation for capsaicinoid content in some processed products of chilli m. bhagawati and a. saikia1 horticultural research station guwahati-781017, india e-mail: mandakiniaau@rediffmail.com abstract determination of capsaicinoids content in various products from seven chilli cultivars was made. capsaicin, the major element among capsaicinoids, is found primarily in the fruit of capsicum to which it provides spicy flavor. extraction of capsaicin in the present study was done using acetonitrile as the solvent, and high performance liquid chromatography was used for its quantification. whole dried-fruits of ‘bhut red’ (capsicum chinense) showed the highest concentration of capsaicin (2.59%) and level of pungency (4,40,000 shu), whereas, salted mash of ‘lemon drop’ (capsicum baccatum) had the lowest capsaicin concentration (0.07%) and pungency level (12,000 shu). as capsaicinoids are important in food and pharmaceutical industries, developing products from selected cultivars of chilli with high pungency and high capsaicinoid content will prove useful in order to ensuring health security. key words: capsaicinoids, capsaicin, high performance liquid chromatography, hplc, shu j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):210-215, 2015 decreases with the degree of drying, as well as during storage (gbolade et al, 1997). the content may vary from 0.34 to 0.78% whole fruit on dry-weight basis (gibbs et al, 2006). govindarajan and ananthakrishna (1974) found 0.12% capsaicin in ‘mysore’ variety of chilli, and 0.7% in ‘guntur’ variety. in another experiment, 32 accessions of hot chillies were evaluated for capsaicin content, all of which had a high capsaicin content ranging from 1.20 to 3.74% (manju and shreelathakumary, 2002). the first reported, reliable measurement of chilli pungency was scoville organoleptic test (scoville, 1912). this test used a taste panel of five individuals who evaluated a chilli sample and recorded its heat level. the samples were then diluted until pungency could be no longer detected orally. this dilution is measured in terms of scoville heat unit (shu). there are five levels of pungency classified as: non-pungent (0-700 shu), mildly pungent (700-3,000 shu), moderately pungent (3,000-25,000 shu), highly pungent (25,000-70,000 shu), and very highly pungent (ã 80,000 shu) (weiss, 2002). however, with time, the scoville organoleptic test (sot) has been replaced with various instrumental methods. among these hplc provides an accurate and efficient analysis of content and type of capsaicinoids present in a sample (collins et al, 1995). 1assam agricultural university, jorhat, assam, india 211 capsaicinoid content variation in processed products of chilli cvs. material and methods collection of plant material seeds of ‘bhut red’, ‘bhut chocolate’, ‘mem jolokia’, and ‘khorika jolokia’ were collected from the fields of local farmers in the north eastern part of india. seeds of ‘shillong cherry’ were collected from the shillong market. those of ‘lemon drop’ and ‘goronong’ were received from pepper king, lise-meitner-str. 5, 38268 broistedt, germany. seedlings of the stated chilli types were raised in a nursery during rabi season (2007-2008) and, subsequently, planted in the open condition at experimental farm, department of horticulture, assam agricultural university, jorhat, india. each variety was raised in a 6m2 plot, at a spacing of 75cm x 60cm. the crop received timely management practices as per recommended package of practices devised by assam agricultural university. fresh, mature fruits from five plants, in each cultivar were selected randomly and placed in polythene bags for transport under refrigerated conditions to quality control and post-harvest technology laboratory, assam agricultural university, for further analysis. product preparation five products, namely, whole dried-pods, flakes, powder, natural paste and salted mash, were prepared from different cultivars of chilli. (a) whole dried-pods: fresh, ripe pods were collected from the field and dried in a unither cabinet dryer at 60°c for about 8 hours. dried pods were then packed into polypropylene bags and then kept under dark at ambient condition. (b) flakes: dried, ripe pods were first destalked, and then crushed with seeds in a willey mill. size of the flakes prepared was about 8-10mm. (c) powder: dried, ripe pods were destalked and powdered in an electrical grinder. using an 80 mesh sieve, the ground powder was sieved, collected and packed in polypropylene pouches and placed under ambient conditions. (d) natural paste: ripe chilli fruits were collected from the field, washed well and air-dried. pods were destalked and ground to a fine paste in an electrical grinder. the paste thus prepared was filled into retortable pouches and processed in an autoclave under 15lb pressure at 121°c for 30 minutes. (e) salted mash: ripe fruits were at first destalked, washed well and made into a paste. salt @ 15% (non-iodized) was added to the paste and mixed. the product was then sterilized in glass bottles under anaerobic conditions and allowed to mature. moisture content moisture content in each product was determined by oven-drying at 120p c as per aoac (1984). the samples were weighed in an aluminum pan, and weight of the dry sample was recorded. dry weight was calculated as: moisture content (dry basis) = initial weight-final weight x 100% final weight scoville heat test one gram of the material was weighed and mixed in 50ml of ethyl alcohol. the mixture was allowed to stand for 24 hours, with occasional shaking. serial dilution of the clear supernatant was made with 5% solution of sugar in distilled water. then, 5ml of the diluted solution was swallowed by individual judges, and presence or absence of a distinct pungency in the throat or mouth was noted (scoville, 1912). degree of dilution indicated pungency of the pepper, and rating was done in scoville units. heat level is based on this dilution, rated in multiples of 100 shu. sample extraction about 25g of whole dried-pods and flakes in each cultivar were ground together with seeds into a powder. then, 2g of the powder was mixed in 25ml of ethanol in a 50ml conical flask. the mixture was refluxed in a round bottom flask for 3 hrs, with a water condenser, vertically. the solution was cooled, filtered and diluted to 100ml in a volumetric flask with ethanol, and used for further analysis. as for salted mash and paste, 2g of the sample was extracted in ethanol, using sohxlet extraction, for 30min. at 60p c. the supernatant was then filtered through 0.45mm ptfe membrane and the volume made up to 100ml with ethanol. a 10µl aliquot was used for each hplc injection. the chilli extract was compared to standard capsaicin solutions (krishnamurthy et al, 1999) estimation of capsaicinoids by high performance liquid chromatography (hplc) capsaicin content was determined using hplc (high performance liquid chromatography) as per aoac official method 995.03 (1995) with a uv detector. 8methyl-n-vanillyl-6-nonenamide standard (65% purity) was taken as standard capsaicin (sigma chemical company). separation of capsaicinoids was accomplished on waters j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):210-215, 2015 212 hplc–empower system equipped with waters 600 pump, c18 column of size 300x4.5mm packed with 5µm particles, waters 2489 dual absorbance detector, detection made at 280nm. an isocratic mobile phase, consisting of 1% acetic acid in water and acetonitrile in 60:40 ratio (v/v), was used. the elution was allowed at a flow-rate of 1.5ml/min with injection volume of 20μl of the sample solution, at ambient temperature. scoville heat unit conversion capsaicin content was converted into scoville heat units by multiplying dry-weight capsaicin content per gram of pepper, by the coefficient of heat value for capsaicin (which, from literature, is 16) (todd et al, 1977). chemicals used all standard solutions were prepared in analytical grade type i water (milli-q synthesis, millipore, bedford, ma, usa). capsaicin (8-methyl-n-vanillyl-trans-6nonenamide) (97%), and, acetonitrile and acetic acid were of hplc grade purchased from qualigen fine chemicals, mumbai, spectrochem pvt. ltd., mumbai, and himedia laboratories pvt. ltd., mumbai, respectively. statistical analysis completely randomized design (crd) was planned for this experiment, with three replications. mean difference at 5% significance was carried out by duncan’s multiple range test (dmrt). graph were prepared in microsoft excel (ms office version 2003) results and discussion the aim of our work was to assess capsaicinoid content and pungency level of various value-added products of seven economically important chilli cultivars. retention of desirable qualities in the processed product makes the product acceptable in the market. however, along with these, an optimum level of moisture is necessary for safe storage. lee and howard (1999) reported that moisture content in dried chilli ranged from 10% to 14%. product evaluation in table 1 reveals variable moisture content, where, very high moisture content was recorded in the paste and salted mash, compared to that in dried fruits, flakes or powder. moisture content in the products ranged from 8% to 10% in dried fruits, 4%-6% in powder, 6%-8% in flakes, 58%-67% in paste and 46%-64% in the salted mash. these moisture variations were a critical factor in determining product quality in terms of pungency level. most chilli products are valued on the basis of level of their pungency, resulting from a direct effect of capsaicinoid compounds. quantification of these compounds is an important index of quality. in our study peaks were identified by comparing retention time of each component to standard components. diverse pungency levels were found among the products. as per results in tables 2 and 3, scoville heat units (shu) and the corresponding capsaicinoid content in different cultivars were significantly affected by the product from chilli cultivars. shu is a traditional organoleptic method for pepper evaluation, as, it provides a better indicator of the level of pungency, but is considered less precise (collin et al, 1995). our results indicated significant variation among different products in their pungency level. all the cultivars, excepting lemon drop, were classified as ‘very highly pungent’, with their pungency level ã 80,000 shu (table 2). among the products developed, whole dried-fruits and the powder of ‘bhut red’ recorded highest pungency level (4,40,000 shu), which was at par with that of ‘bhut chocolate’ while, shu was much lower in the paste and salted mash. salted mash of ‘lemon drop’ contained least amounts of shu (12,000 shu). table 1. moisture content (%) in various processed products of chilli cultivars (dry-weight basis) cultivar moisture content (%)db* whole powder flakes paste salted dried-fruit mash bhut red 9.0 4.5 7.2 64.6 55.5 bhut chocolate 9.3 5.1 8.3 63.3 54.8 mem 9.5 6.8 6.5 59.5 49.3 khorika 8.3 6.1 6.0 58.7 46.8 shillong cherry 10.3 5.4 8.1 60.3 51.2 goronong 8.9 6.3 8.3 66.7 61.1 lemon drop 9.3 6.9 8.8 65.0 63.7 s.em. (±) 0.9 0.3 0.4 1.5 0.9 cd (p=0.05) 1.9 0.8 0.8 3.2 1.9 * db= dry-weight basis table 2. scoville heat unit values in some processed products of chilli cultivars cultivar scoville heat unit (shu) whole powder flakes paste salted dried-fruit mash bhut red 4,40,000 4,40,000 4,10,000 3,15,000 3,00,000 bhut chocolate 4,30,000 4,35,000 4,00,000 3,10,000 3,00,000 mem 1,40,000 1,40,000 1,30,000 1,00,000 90,000 khorika 95,000 95,000 85,000 70,000 60,000 shillong cherry 90,000 90,000 75,000 60,000 55,000 goronong 65,000 65,500 60,000 35,000 32,500 lemon drop 25,000 25,000 20,000 15,000 12,000 s.em. (±) 4764.31 4764.31 2432.14 2458.61 2059.6 cd (p=0.05) 9528.61 9528.61 5864.27 5325.48 4231.2 bhagawati and saikia j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):210-215, 2015 213 results obtained from organoleptic test were further confirmed by hplc analysis. generally, apart from genetic differences, quantity of capsaicinoids may vary with the processing method (zewdie and bosland, 2001). hplc chromatogram of the capsaicin standard is shown in fig. 1. retention time for the constituents is 8 min for nordihydrocapsaicin, 8.8 min for capsaicin, and 13.4 min for dihydrocapsaicin. it is seen from table 3 that whole table 3. total capsaicinoid content in processed products of some chilli cultivars cultivar n c d total shu mg g-1 shu mg g-1 shu mg g-1 shu mg g-1 whole dried-fruit bhut red 11310.4 706.9 414504.0 25906.5 141372.8 8835.8 565489.6 35343.1 bhut chocolate 14068.8 879.3 410816.0 25676.0 139550.4 8721.9 562515.2 35157.2 mem 6040.0 377.5 144952.0 9059.5 50329.6 3145.6 201321.6 12582.6 khorika 5217.6 326.1 97299.2 6081.2 33912.0 2119.5 136428.8 8526.8 shillong cherry 2094.4 130.9 86019.2 5376.2 36153.6 2259.6 124665.6 7791.6 lemon drop 849.6 53.1 24428.8 1526.8 9913.6 619.6 35403.2 2212.7 goronong 2246.4 140.4 52412.8 3275.8 19467.2 1216.7 74875.2 4679.7 s.em(±) 1854.4 cd (p=0.05) 3977.4 powder bhut red 10760.0 672.5 392758.4 24547.4 134507.2 8406.7 538025.6 33626.6 bhut chocolate 133972.8 873.3 385846.4 24115.4 137811.2 8613.2 537054.4 33565.9 mem 6219.2 388.7 149249.6 9328.1 51822.4 3238.9 207291.2 12955.7 khorika 5289.6 330.6 92563.2 5785.2 34380.8 2148.8 132233.6 8264.6 shillong cherry 2574.4 160.9 86838.4 5427.4 39337.6 2458.6 128752.0 8047.0 lemon drop 705.6 44.1 24342.4 1521.4 10230.4 639.4 35278.4 2204.9 goronong 2227.2 139.2 54920.0 3432.5 17068.8 1066.8 74216.2 4638.5 s.em(±) 1709.1 cd (p=0.05) 3665.6 flakes bhut red 12254.4 765.9 375785.6 23486.6 127644.8 7977.8 510577.6 31911.1 bhut chocolate 12755.2 797.2 371150.4 23196.9 126324.8 7895.3 510230.4 31889.4 mem 5825.6 364.1 139798.4 8737.4 48540.8 3033.8 194164.8 12135.3 khorika 4912.0 307.0 85942.4 5371.4 31921.2 1995.1 122774.4 7673.4 shillong cherry 2400.0 150.0 82747.2 5171.7 34777.6 2173.6 119923.2 7495.2 lemon drop 614.4 38.4 21169.6 1323.1 8897.6 556.1 30681.6 1917.6 goronong 2131.2 133.2 53976.0 3373.5 16344.0 1021.5 71057.6 4441.1 s.em(±) 1182.8 cd (p=0.05) 2536.9 paste bhut red 7254.4 453.4 271859.2 16991.2 83371.2 5210.7 362484.8 22655.3 bhut chocolate 7249.6 453.1 268412.8 16775.8 81612.8 5100.8 357274.2 22329.7 mem 2651.2 165.7 59211.2 3700.7 26512.0 1657.0 88376.0 5523.5 khorika 1014.4 63.4 32972.8 2060.8 16740.8 1046.3 50728.0 3170.5 shillong cherry 913.2 57.7 29676.8 1854.8 15065.6 941.6 45656.0 2853.5 lemon drop 905.6 56.6 nd nd 11972.8 748.3 12944.0 809.0 goronong 1208.0 75.5 29796.8 1862.3 9260.8 578.8 40267.2 2516.7 s.em(±) 2541.3 cd (p=0.05) 5298.6 salted mash bhut red 7484.8 467.8 280691.2 17543.2 86078.4 5379.9 374256.0 23391.0 bhut chocolate 9358.4 584.9 280729.6 17545.6 84219.2 5263.7 374307.2 23394.2 mem 3788.8 236.8 66310.4 4144.4 24628.8 1539.3 94728.0 5920.5 khorika 2097.6 131.1 35137.6 2196.1 15209.6 950.6 52444.8 3277.8 shillong cherry 987.2 61.7 32060.8 2003.8 162776.8 1017.3 49315.2 3082.2 lemon drop 372.8 23.3 10940.4 683.8 4219.2 263.7 15628.8 976.8 goronong 1267.2 79.2 31238.4 1952.4 9708.8 606.8 42214.4 2638.4 s.em(±) 1175.4 cd (p=0.05) 2521.0 n – nordihydrocapsaicin, c – capsaicin, d – dihydrocapsaicin, shu-scoville heat unit, nd-not detected capsaicinoid content variation in processed products of chilli cvs. j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):210-215, 2015 214 dried-fruits of ‘bhut red’ contained the maximum total capsaicinoid content (5,65,489.6 shu), closely followed by ‘bhut chocolate’ (5,62,525.2 shu). other cultivars like ‘mem’, ‘kharika’ and ‘shillong cherry’ contained slightly lesser amounts of capsaicinoid viz., 2,01,321.6, 1,36,428.8, and 1,24,665.6 shu, respectively. like whole dried-fruits, powder of ‘bhut red’ also contained the highest levels of capsaicinoids (5,38,025.6 shu) than in the other cultivars. on the other hand, the paste of ‘lemon drop’ had the least capsaicinoid content (12,944 shu), while, the maximal content was recorded in ‘bhut red’ (22,655.3 shu). in salted mash, ‘bhut chocolate’ was found to be highly pungent, with 3,74,307.2 shu. among the individual components quantified, the highest amount of nordihydrocapsaicin was recorded in whole dried-fruits of ‘bhut chocolate’ (14,068.8 shu), while capsaicin (4,14,504 shu) and dihydrocapsaicin (1,41,372.8 shu) were highest in dried fruits of ‘bhut red’. mincing fresh chilli pods diminishes their capsaicin, dihydrocapsaicin and nordihydrocapsaicin content, as reported by orak and demirci (2005). this could be of relevance in our results where least amounts of nordihydrocapsaicin (372.8 shu), dihydrocapsaicin (4219.2 shu) and capsaicin (10,940.4 shu) were recorded in salted mash of ‘lemon drop’. table 4. capsaicin content in some processed products (%) in chilli cultivars cultivar capsaicin content (%) whole powder flakes paste salted dried-fruit mash bhut red 2.59 2.45 2.35 1.70 1.75 bhut chocolate 2.57 2.41 2.32 1.68 1.75 mem 0.91 0.93 0.87 0.37 0.41 khorika 0.61 0.58 0.54 0.21 0.22 shillong cherry 0.54 0.54 0.52 0.19 0.20 lemon drop 0.15 0.15 0.13 nd 0.07 goronong 0.33 0.34 0.34 0.19 0.20 *% capsaicin = shu of capsaicin x 100 16x 106 fig. 1. hplc chromatogram showing separation of the standards of various capsaicinoids (0.01mg/ml) capsaicin percentage for different products varied with the cultivar. from table 4, it can be observed that capsaicin content in the products ranged from 0.15% to 2.59% in dried fruits, 0.15%-2.45% in the powder, 0.13%2.35% in the flakes, 0.19%-1.70% in the paste and 0.07%1.75% in the salted mash, respectively. whole dried-fruits of ‘bhut red’ were the most pungent, with a capsaicin content of 2.59%, whereas, even traces of this compound could not be detected in the paste of ‘lemon drop’. a small amount of capsaicin (0.07%) was found in the salted mash of ‘lemon drop’. similar variation in capsaicin content (1.20%-3.74%) in different peppers has been previously reported by manju and shreelathakumary (2002). the present investigation concludes that products of chilli cultivars retain their level of pungency irrespective of moisture content. more specifically, ‘bhut red’ and ‘bhut chocolate’ (capsicum chinense) obtained from assam were the most pungent among the chilli cultivars studied. all the products prepared from these two cultivars may be classified as ‘very highly pungent’ as their scoville heat unit (shu) values exceeded 80,000. this implies that, with the exception of ‘lemon drop’, all the products of chilli cultivars, especially ‘bhut red’ and ‘bhut chocolate’ can serve as potential sources of capsaicin in both the domestic and international markets. references ahmed, n., khot, a.b., krishnappa, k.m. and upperi, s.n. 1987. pungency of chilli as influenced by variety and maturity. curr. res., 16:161-162 aoac. 1984. official methods of analysis, 14th edn., association of official analytical chemists, washington d.c., usa aoac. 1995. official methods 995.03. analyzing the heat level of spicy foods using ultra c18 hplc column. https://www.chromtech.net.au/pdf2/59199_anff_analyzing%20the%20heat %20 level%20of% 20spicy%20foods%20using% 20an%20ultra% 20c18% 20hplc%20column.pdf bernal m.a., calderon a.a., pedreno m.a., muñoz, r., ros barceló, a. and merino de caceres, f. 1993. capsaicin oxidation by peroxidase from capsicum annuum (var. annuum) fruits. j. agri. food chem., 41:1041-1044 bosland, p.w. and votava, e.j. 2000. peppers: vegetables and spice capsicums. crop prod. sci. hort., 12:204 cherian, e.v. 2000. genetic variability in capsicum chinense jacq. m.sc. thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, kerala, inda, p. 82 bhagawati and saikia j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):210-215, 2015 215 collins, m.d., mayer-wasmund, l. and bosland, p.w. 1995. improved method for quantifying capsaicinoids in capsicum using high performance liquid chromatography. hort. sci., 30:137-139 contreras-padilla, m. and yahia, e.m. 1998. changes in capsaicinoids during development, maturation, and senescence of chile peppers and relation with peroxidase activity. j. agri. food chem., 46:20752079 gbolade, a.a., omsbuwajo, o.r. and soremekun, r.o. 1997. evaluation of the quality of nigerian chillies for pharmaceutical formulations. j. pharma. biomed. annal., 15:545 -548 gibbs, h.a.a. and o’garns, l.w. 2004. capsaicin content of west indies hot pepper cultivars using colorimetric and chromatographic techniques. hort. sci., 39:132135 govindarajan, v.s. and ananthakrishna, s.m. 1974. paper chromatographic determination of capsaicin. flav. indus., 5:176-178 krishnamurthy, r., malve, m.k. and shinde, b.m. 1999. evaluation of capsaicin content in red and green chillies. j. sci. & indus. res., 58:629-630 lee, k.y. and howard, h.m.m. 1999. changes in sugar, vitamin c, capsaicinoids and flavonoid contents and antioxidant activities during maturation of pepper (capsicum annuum l.) fruit. paper presented at the ift annual meeting 24-28 july 1999, chicago, usa, manju, p.r. and shreelathakumary, i. 2002. quality parameters in hot chilli (capsicum chinense jacq.). j. trop. agri., 40:7-10 orak, h.h. and demiri, m. 2005. effect of different blanching methods and period of frozen storage on enzyme activities and some quality criteria of hot and sweet peppers (capsicum annuum. l.). pak. j. biol. sci., 8: 641-648 scoville, w.l. 1912. note: capsicum. j. amer. pharm. assoc., 1:453-454 todd, p.h., bensinger, m.g. and biftu, t. 1977. determination of pungency due to capsicum by gasliquid chromatography. j. food sci., 42:660-665 weiss, e.a. 2002. spice crops. cabi publishing international, new york, usa, p. 411 zewdie, y. and bosland, p.w. 2001. capsaicinoid profiles are not good chromotaxonomic indicators for capsaicin species. biochem. systematics ecol., 29:161-169 (ms received 21 december 2013, revised 14 september 2015, accepted 19 september 2015) capsaicinoid content variation in processed products of chilli cvs. j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):210-215, 2015 introduction in guava, a crop grown successfully in a variety of soils with ph ranging from 5.5 to 8.0, deficiency of both major and micronutrients is reported extensively (pathak and pathak, 1993). besides, in india, the crop is scarcely fertilized. incipient deficiency or hidden hunger is causing considerable damage to guava crop, resulting in economic losses (singh and singh, 2007). in order to avoid yield loss, nutrient management strategies need to be evolved for this crop based on comprehensive nutrient diagnostic norms. several approaches are adopted for identification of nutrient imbalances, a recent one being the compositional nutrient diagnosis (parent and dafier, 1992). cnd norms are multivariate norms that give due weightage to all the elements, including unmeasured factors and, therefore, have higher diagnostic sensitivity. the present investigation was carried out to develop multivariate diagnostic norms using cnd to improve diagnostic precision and to understand interaction among different nutrients governing yield and quality of the guava crop. compositional nutrient diagnosis norms (cnd) for guava (psidium guajava l.) k. anjaneyulu, h. b. raghupathi and m. k. chandraprakash division of soil science and agricultural chemistry indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore-560 089, india e-mail: anjaney@iihr.ernet.in abstract multivariate nutrient diagnostic norms were developed for guava using compositional nutrient diagnosis (cnd) through leaf nutrient concentration vs. yield data bank. cnd norms for n (v n ), p (v p ) and k (v k ) were 2.48, 0.23 and 2.13, respectively. norms for n and k were much higher compared to p, indicating higher requirement of these two nutrients. cnd norms are multivariate norms that consider all elements, including unmeasured factors and, therefore, has higher diagnostic sensitivity. among micronutrients, fe requirement was much higher than all other nutrients. interaction among different nutrients was explained by principal component analysis conducted on log-transformed data which produced four significant pcs, explaining about 73.66% of the variance. the four eigen values added up to 8.1 denoting the four significant pcs. the first pc was positively correlated with p, zn and r (residue, which is a reflection of dry matter accumulation in the plant) and negatively correlated with ca, mg, s and fe, indicating that p and zn behaved in one direction and the other elements in opposite direction. in the second pc, antagonistic effect of n, fe with p and cu was evident. in pc3, p and mg were negatively correlated with mn and cu. in pc4, n and s showed their behaviour in the same direction. diagnostic norms developed were used for identification of yield-limiting nutrients in low-yielding orchards. thus, diagnostic norms and nutrient interactions help evolve nutrient management strategies for guava to realize higher yields and better quality. key words: nutrients, diagnosis, norms, cnd, pca, guava material and methods sampling during july-august, a survey was conducted in guava orchards cultivating ‘allahabad safeda’ in and around bangalore and kolar (mostly alfisols) in karnataka, and, 280 leaf samples were collected to develop nutrient diagnostic norms. samples were collected from 70 orchards (around 15 years of age) by selecting the 3rd pair of leaves from apex, which provides the index leaf (recently matured leaf) in guava. from each orchard, 25 to 30 trees were selected and 50 leaves per plant were collected randomly at chest height from all sides of the tree to form a composite and representative sample (bhargava and chadha, 1993). the leaf samples were decontaminated by washing in a sequentially with tap water, 0.2% detergent solution, n/10 hcl and, finally, with double distilled water. leaf samples were dried at 65-70oc for 48 h. the samples were then powdered in a cyclotec mill and analyzed for different nutrients by digesting 1g tissue in di-acid mixture (9:4 ratio of nitric acid and perchloric acid) using standard analytical j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 132-135, 2008 133 methods (jackson, 1973). phosphorus was analyzed by vanado-molybdate method, k by flame-photometer and s by the turbidity method. ca, mg, fe, mn, zn and cu were analyzed using atomic absorption spectrophotometer (perkin-elmer-a-analyst-200). n was separately estimated by micro-kjeldhal method. thus, nutrient ‘concentration vs. yield’ data bank was established for developing nutrient diagnostic norms. compositional nutrient diagnosis cnd norms were developed by adopting the procedure outlined by parent and dafir (1992). full composition array for nutrient proportions (d) in plant tissues was described by the following simplex (sd) contained to 100%: s d=[(n, p, k,… r): n>o,p>o,k>o,…,r>o; n+p+k+…+r =100%] — 1 where, 100% is dry matter content (i.e., the invariable sum of all the components or full relative composition of the diagnostic tissues); n, p, k are nutrient concentrations and r is filling value between 100% and sum of the nutrient concentrations. the value of r is, thus, composed of undetermined components as well as experimental error, and was required to linearize compositional data. bounded sum constraint to 100% of compositional data was alleviated by correcting nutrient concentrations by geometric mean (g) of all the d components, including r. g = [ n x p x k x ….. x r]1/d —— 2 row centered log-ratios were generated for v n to v zn as follows: v n = ln (n/g),…..,v zn = ln (zn/g) —— 3 expressions such as n/g,… zn/g are multi-nutrient ratios, since, each nutrient is divided by the geometric mean of all components (the nutrients determined and the filling value). row-centered log-ratios are linearized (undistorted) estimates of the original components fully compatible with pca. v* n to v* zn and sd* n to sd* zn are cnd norms (indicated by asterisks), i.e., mean and standard deviation of each row-centered log ratios in the high-yielding population. the standardized variables (v n v n *) / sd* n to (v zn v* zn ) / sd* zn are cnd nutrient indices. i n = (v n v* n ) / sd* n ,… i zn = (v zn v zn *) / sd* zn — 4 independent values for v n to v zn were introduced in the equation for diagnostic purpose. principal component analysis (pca) pca application could lead to greater understanding of nutrient interactions in the plant. pca reduces the number of interdependent variables to a smaller number of independent pcs that are linear combinations of original variates. therefore, pca was performed on logtransformed data of the original nutrient concentrations, prior to statistical computation that followed normal distribution. selection criteria to be declared significant, pcs must have eigen values >100/p, where p is the total number of varieties under diagnosis. alternatively, pcs showing eigen values <1 were considered not significant. pc loadings in eigen vectors having values greater than selection criterion (sc) only are considered significant. selection criterion was computed as follows: sc = 0.50 / (pc eigen values) 0.5 results and discussion nutrient concentration range the mean n concentration was 1.91% and ranged from 1.33 to 2.48% (table 1). maximum yield in guava was reported when n concentration in the leaf ranged between 1.40 and 2.0% (singh and rajput, 1981). the mean p concentration was 0.20% and varied from 0.14 to 0.26%, which was comparable to the values (0.18 to 0.24%) published earlier by khanduja and garg (1980). the mean k concentration was 1.35% and varied widely between 0.90 and 1.85%. higher range of ca concentration (1.50 to 2.60%) was observed, whereas, a majority of the samples were in the optimum range with regard to mg (0.30 to 0.75%). the mean s concentration was 0.37% and was comparable to the earlier report. concentrations of fe and mn ranged from 104 to 197 and 25 to 98 ppm, respectively. the mean zn concentration was 56 ppm. table 1. mean and range of nutrient concentration for guava nutrient unit mean minimum maximum n % 1.91 1.33 2.48 p % 0.20 0.14 0.26 k % 1.35 0.90 1.85 ca % 1.14 0.53 2.41 mg % 0.43 0.33 0.57 s % 0.38 0.21 0.53 fe ppm 148.90 104.00 197.00 mn ppm 56.86 25.00 98.00 zn ppm 31.66 21.00 47.00 cu ppm 8.37 4.30 13.60 cnd norms for guava j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 132-135, 2008 134 cnd norms cnd norms for n (v n ), p (v p ) and k (v k ) for guava were 2.48, 0.24 and 2.13, respectively. cnd norms are multivariate norms with due weightage to all the other elements, including unmeasured factors. sum of the tissue components is 100% and, therefore, the sum of row-centered log ratios (including filling value) is zero (table 2). cnd norm values developed were difficult to comprehend compared to nutrient concentrations, expressed as % or ppm. however, cnd norms have higher diagnostic precision compared to the bivariate values, as in the case of diagnosis and recommendation integrated system (walworth and sumner, 1987). the ca norm (1.91) was twice as high as that of mg (0.99). among micronutrients, fe had higher norm value of –2.377 and, therefore, its requirement was much higher, compared to mn, zn or cu. principal component analysis pca conducted on log-transformed data produced four significant pcs and four eigen values added up to 8.10 explaining about 73.66% of variance (table 3). since pcs are the linear contrasts among nutrients, interpretation of pcs considers the sign of the variate. the first pc was positively correlated with k, fe, zn and r (residue, which is a reflection of dry matter accumulation in the plant) and was negatively correlated with ca, mg, and s indicating that k, fe, and zn behaved in one direction and the rest of the elements in an opposite direction. in the second pc, antagonistic effect of n and fe with p and cu was evident. in pc3, p and mg were negatively correlated to mn. in table 2. compositional nutrient diagnosis norms for guava cnd variate cnd norm sd v n 2.480 0.120 v p 0.236 0.140 v k 2.131 0.191 v ca 1.906 0.319 v mg 0.987 0.117 vs 0.844 0.164 v fe -2.377 0.172 v mn -3.383 0.311 v zn -3.932 0.201 v cu -5.291 0.283 v r 6.394 0.083 table 3. principal component analysis (pca) loading performed on logtransformed data nutrient pc1 pc2 pc3 pc4 n 0.196 0.572* 0.322 0.547* p 0.242 -0.414* 0.591* 0.026 k 0.800* -0.127 -0.034 0.354 ca -0.837* 0.145 0.117 -0.139 mg -0.598* 0.099 0.631* -0.274 s -0.714* 0.045 0.058 0.556* fe 0.431* 0.635* 0.091 -0.358 m n 0.002 0.349 -0.795* -0.139 zn 0.677* -0.280 -0.028 0.077 cu -0.094 -0.813* -0.123 -0.142 residue 0.712* 0.198 0.432* -0.268 eigen values 3.46 1.852 1.713 1.075 % variance 31.49 49.32 63.89 73.66 selection criteria 0.268 0.367 0.382 0.482 * significant over selection criteria anjaneyulu et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 132-135, 2008 table 4. cnd indices for selected, low-yielding orchards of guava n p k ca mg s fe mn zn cu r -0.80 1.23 1.44 0.53 -0.28 0.95 -0.61 -0.45 -0.07 -0.77 -1.53 2.24 -0.53 -0.52 0.92 2.32 -0.08 0.00 1.70 -0.61 -0.77 0.16 -0.32 -0.35 0.76 -0.38 -0.88 -0.21 0.10 -0.25 1.27 0.16 -0.01 -1.09 -1.07 -0.85 -0.05 -1.49 -0.87 -0.33 0.75 1.22 1.40 -0.06 0.90 0.70 0.29 -0.61 -0.57 -0.86 -0.81 1.58 1.03 2.15 -0.11 2.83 -1.22 1.25 -0.58 -1.12 -0.54 0.05 0.40 -0.96 -1.35 1.08 -0.02 0.17 1.86 -0.73 -1.21 -1.28 0.24 -0.19 1.27 0.42 1.49 -0.08 0.21 2.18 -0.79 -1.55 -0.48 0.64 -1.07 1.66 -0.27 0.97 -0.21 -0.55 1.57 1.94 0.21 -0.29 -0.82 0.47 -0.64 2.01 0.85 0.53 1.21 1.38 2.20 -0.58 -0.78 0.56 1.56 2.52 0.67 1.57 -0.74 0.12 1.10 -1.52 -0.15 -1.24 0.36 -1.38 2.02 1.73 0.89 -0.41 1.51 -1.19 1.76 2.04 0.58 -1.29 -0.70 -0.63 -1.64 -0.19 0.64 1.48 1.62 1.05 -1.01 2.10 0.07 1.55 -0.10 0.32 -1.07 -1.66 0.09 1.01 -1.09 -2.38 -2.69 -0.63 2.15 1.47 1.17 -1.09 -2.46 0.30 1.16 -0.61 -1.61 -1.63 -0.43 1.45 1.38 0.43 -0.74 2.29 -0.71 -0.14 1.13 -1.32 0.72 0.69 1.81 1.23 2.07 -0.66 -0.27 -2.06 -1.05 1.49 0.36 1.44 -0.41 0.23 -0.32 -0.36 -1.91 1.37 -3.19 -0.64 0.82 -0.86 2.29 -0.53 0.27 -0.04 0.41 -2.38 r = residue pc4, n and s were isolated (raghupathi et al, 2002). these nutrient interactions need to be considered for correction of nutrient deficiencies and for evolving nutrient management strategies for guava for realizing higher yield and better quality. 135 cnd indices independent values were introduced from lowyielding orchards for the purpose of diagnosis of a nutrient that limits the yield. among the eighteen low-yielding orchards studied, n was found to limit yield in as many as ten orchards, whereas, p was low in nine and k in six orchards. the micronutrients were also found to be either low or deficient, as reflected by the indices (table 4). however, no single nutrient was found solely responsible for low yield. correlation among indices indicated that n indices correlated with none of the nutrient indices, whereas, there was an overwhelming negative correlation between k and ca indices, indicating their antagonism. indices for zn were negatively correlated with s and positively correlated with fe. multi-nutrient diagnosis developed through cnd and nutrient interactions elucidated through pca were found to have higher precision in diagnosing nutrient imbalance in guava and, are thus helpful in evolving nutrient management strategies. references bhargava, b.s. and chadha, k.l. 1993. leaf nutrient guides for fruit crops. in: advances in horticulture-fruit crops, vol. 2. pp 973-1030. chadha, k. l. and pareek, o. p. (eds), malhotra publ. house, new delhi jackson, m.l. 1973. soil chemical analysis, prentice hall of india, new delhi, p 408 kanduja, s.d. and garg, v.k. 1980. nutritional status of guava (psidium guajava l.) trees in north india. j. hortl. sci., 55:433–435 parent, l.e. and. dafir, m. 1992. a theoretical concept of compositional nutrient diagnosis. j. amer. soc. hortl. sci., 117:239-242 pathak, r.a. and pathak, r.k. 1993. guava nutrition. in: advances in horticulture-fruit crops, vol. 2. pp 867878. chadha, k.l. and pareek, o.p. 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and u.k.dhatt research articles response of fruit yield and quality to foliar application of micro-nutrients in 144-151 lemon [citrus limon (l.) burm.] cv. assam lemon sheikh k.h.a., singh b., haokip s.w., shankar k., debbarma r. studies on high density planting and nutrient requirement of banana in 152-163 different states of india debnath sanjit bauri f.k., swain s., patel a.n., patel a.r., shaikh n.b., bhalerao v.p., baruah k., manju p.r., suma a., menon r., gutam s. and p. patil mineral nutrient composition in leaf and root tissues of fifteen polyembryonic 164-176 mango genotypes grown under varying levels of salinity nimbolkar p.k., kurian r.m., varalakshmi l.r., upreti k.k., laxman r.h. and d. kalaivanan optimization of ga3 concentration for improved bunch and berry quality in 177-184 grape cv. crimson seedless (vitis vinifera l) satisha j., kumar sampath p. and upreti k.k. rgap molecular marker for resistance against yellow mosaic disease in 185-192 ridge gourd [luffa acutangula (l.) roxb.] kaur m., varalakshmi b., kumar m., lakshmana reddy d.c., mahesha b. and pitchaimuthu m. genetic divergence study in bitter gourd (momordica charantia l.) 193-198 nithinkumar k.r., kumar j.s.a., varalakshmi b, mushrif s.k., ramachandra r.k. , prashanth s.j. combining ability studies to develop superior hybrids in bell pepper 199-205 (capsicum annuum var. grossum l.) varsha v., smaranika mishra, lingaiah h.b., venugopalan r., rao k.v. kattegoudar j. and madhavi reddy k. ssr marker development in abelmoschus esculentus (l.) moench 206-214 using transcriptome sequencing and genetic diversity studies gayathri m., pitchaimuthu m. and k.v. ravishankar generation mean analysis of important yield traits in bitter gourd 215-221 (momordica charantia) swamini bhoi, varalakshmi b., rao e.s., pitchaimuthu m. and hima bindu k. influence of phenophase based irrigation and fertigation schedule on vegetative 222-233 performance of chrysanthemum (dendranthema grandiflora tzelev.) var. marigold vijayakumar s., sujatha a. nair, nair a.k., laxman r.h. and kalaivanan d. performance evaluation of double type tuberose iihr-4 (ic-0633777) for 234-240 flower yield, quality and biotic stress response bharathi t.u., meenakshi srinivas, umamaheswari r. and sonavane, p. anti-fungal activity of trichoderma atroviride against fusarium oxysporum f. sp. 241-250 lycopersici causing wilt disease of tomato yogalakshmi s., thiruvudainambi s., kalpana k., thamizh vendan r. and oviya r. seed transmission of bean common mosaic virus-blackeye cowpea mosaic strain 251-260 (bcmv-blcm) threaten cowpea seed health in the ashanti and brong-ahafo regions of ghana adams f.k., kumar p.l., kwoseh c., ogunsanya p., akromah r. and tetteh r. effect of container size and types on the root phenotypic characters of capsicum 261-270 raviteja m.s.v., laxman r.h., rashmi k., kannan s., namratha m.r. and madhavi reddy k. physio-morphological and mechanical properties of chillies for 271-279 mechanical harvesting yella swami c., senthil kumaran g., naik r.k., reddy b.s. and rathina kumari a.c. assessment of soil and water quality status of rose growing areas of 280-286 rajasthan and uttar pradesh in india varalakshmi lr., tejaswini p., rajendiran s. and k.k. upreti qualitative and organoleptic evaluation of immature cashew kernels under storage 287-291 sharon jacob and sobhana a. physical quality of coffee bean (coffea arabica l.) as affected by harvesting and 292-300 drying methods chala t., lamessa k. and jalata z vegetative vigour, yield and field tolerance to leaf rust in four f1 hybrids of 301-308 coffee (coffea arabica l.) in india divya k. das, shivanna m.b. and prakash n.s. limonene extraction from the zest of citrus sinensis, citrus limon, vitis vinifera 309-314 and evaluation of its antimicrobial activity wani a.k., singh r., mir t.g. and akhtar n. event report 315-318 national horticultural fair 2021 a success story dhananjaya m.v., upreti k.k. and dinesh m.r. subject index 319-321 author index 322-323 271 j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 271-279, 2021 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper physio-morphological and mechanical properties of chillies for mechanical harvesting yella swami c.*1, senthil kumaran g. 1, naik r.k.2, reddy b.s.3 and rathina kumari a.c.1 1division of post harvesting technology and agricultural engineering icar-indian institute of horticultural research (iihr), bangalore 2department of farm machinery and power engineering, svcaet&rs, igkv, raipur 3icar-central research institute for dryland agriculture, hyderabad *corresponding author email : yellaswami@gmail.com abstract the plants and its produce characteristics are the basis to design a crop specific harvester. the objective of this study was to determine the physical, morphological and mechanical properties of chilli plant and fruits, that can be used in the design of harvester machine. the observations and data were collected by taking measurements at harvesting stage of three chilli cultivars. the fruit bearing behavior of plants was solitary with fruit position erect in demon f1 and pendent in arka meghana and mahyco tejaswini. the plant height ranged between 81.76 to 84.87 cm depending on cultivars number of fruits per plant were 170.25, 158.96 and 156.15 in tehaswini, arka meghana and menon respectively. it was observed that the length and diameter at shoulder of fruits was in the range of 4.97 to 10.44 cm and 0.8 to 1.25 cm, respectively. the moisture content reduced in leaves, stems and fruits as the maturation changed from matured green fruits bearing of plants to semi dry condition. the detachment force of fruits from plants increased as the fruits colour changed from matured green to fully ripened red and there after decreased. keywords: chillies, erect, detachment force, mechanical harvester and pendent chilli is a seasonal vegetable that is part of the spicy food culture in india. chilli (capsicum annuum l.) belongs to the solanaceae family (farhan et al., 2014). it is well known for its edible, colourful, juicy and crispy flesh, as well as for its nutritious contents. red chilli is an important commercial crop used as a condiment, culinary supplement or as a vegetable, physiological matured greens, ripened red color and red dried fruits. in india, among the spices consumed, dried chilies contribute a major share and grown in different agro-ecological zones and is the largest producer in the wor ld. during 2019-20, india produced approximately 17.52 lakh tonnes of chillies from an area of 7.03 lakh ha and the productivity was 2.49 tonnes ha-1 as per the report of spice board of india. chilli harvesting is not mechanized in the country and it depends entir ely on the ma nua l wor k for ce prolonging the extended period of field operation. the chilli fruit harvesting period occurs during the hot summer season, and the labour costs are very high, because the population residing in rural areas is decreasing and it is difficult to supply sufficient workforce to harvest in a timely manner. therefore, mechaniza tion of chilli ha rvesting is an urgent requirement to reduce the cost due to labour employed partly, faster operations at reduced drudgery and other production difficulties (nam et al., 2018). to reduce mechanical damage due to harvest and postha r vest oper a tions r equir es studies on the morphological, physical and mechanical properties of plants as well as fruits to design a harvesting machine. to optimize ma chines design a nd development par a meter s for oper ations such a s ha rvesting, handling, cleaning and conveying, the morphological, physica l a nd mecha nica l a ttr ibutes a nd their introduction 272 yella swami et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 271-279, 2021 relationships play a major role (rokayya and khojah, 2016). physical characteristics of agricultural crops, products are the most important para meters to determine the proper standards of grader design, conveying, pr ocessing a nd pa cka ging systems (tabatabaeefar and rajabour, 2005). several studies were conducted on pepper varieties in different countries, like turkey (ozgur et al., 2011; kadri and murat, 2010), nigeria (ilori et al., 2010), thailand (toontom et al., 2012), germany (romano et al., 2012), spain (vega-galvez et al., 2008), india (nidhi et al., 2016) and malaysia (noryati and revathi, 2006). previous studies on chilli varieties and cultivars revealed that great variations existed in plant growth, other qualitative attributes and yield under different agro-climatic zones. in country like india, a large diversity in chilli with different quality factors and other traits is expected due to different agro ecological zones. any developments in chilli harvesters should consider domestic cultivars and cropping systems because these are entirely different from exotic chilli varieties. hence, more studies are required to collect data and standardize the design parameters pertinent to harvesting and post-harvest operational machines. so, the a im of the present work was to study morphological, physical attributes and mechanical properties of chilli plants and fruits of three most popular cultivars (hybrids) grown in southern states at different stages pertinent to harvesting, cleaning and grading machines. materials and methods the chilli cultivars selected for the present study were arka meghana, mycho tejaswini and demon f1 and cultivated as per the recommended agronomical practices at icarindian institute of horticultural research, bangalore. the observations and pertinent data collection study were carried out between 125 to 150 days after transplanting, at which the crop reached to full growth, maximum fruiting and harvestable ripped red fruits were present in considerable number. in the identified crop rows, 50 randomly selected plants from each cultivar were tagged and from each plant 100 fruits were plucked covering all directions and from fruit bearing lower to top branches. the instruments used in this study to measure linear dimensions were steel rule, digital caliper with an accuracy of 0.01 mm and fruits weight using a digital electronic balance with an accuracy of 0.01 g. plant growth and morphological attributes t he pla nt gr owth ha bits a nd fr uit bea r ing characteristics qualitative information was collected from reliable secondary sources of literature and characterization descriptors of ipgri (1995). the plant growth attributes were measured when 100 per cent of the plants had at least certain proportion of fully ripped fruits. these attributes include plant height (cm), plant canopy spread across (cm) and along the row (cm), stem diameter (cm), stem length (cm), height of the lower most (cm) and upper most chilli fruit (cm) from ground. plant height was measured from the ground surface to the uppermost tip of the plant using the steel rule. plant stem girth measured at ground level and stem length was measured from the soil surface to the first internode of primary branch. the total number of fruits per plant was calculated by noting down harvested fruits at every picking from selected 50 plants. the moisture contents of three major portions of plants namely leaves, stems and fruits at different stages of fruits ripeness was collected randomly and estimated as per the standard laboratory drying procedure. geometrical and physical properties of fruits the geometrical and physical properties of fruits measured were length, diameter just below the calyx part where fruit is maximum in diameter and weight of 1000 fruits. fig. 1. measurement standard for chilli plant and fruits 273 physio-morphological and mechanical properties of chillies for mechanical harvesting moisture content of plant parts as t he f r u i t s a nd veget a b les c h a nges f r om physiological maturity to full ripeness, the moisture content of various plant parts like leaves, stems and branches may change in addition to changes in textural property. this property plays a major role in harvesting, especially fruits moisture content has profound effect beyond harvesting operation. the moisture contents were measured using oven dry method at different ripeness stages of fruits by collecting sa mples fr om differ ent p la nt p a r ts randomly. the moisture content was determined by using standard procedure of aoac (1970). detachment force/ pulling force of chilli fruit the force of detachment or pulling force of fruit to separate from the chilli plants was measured using digita l for ce gauge (fig. 2), which ca n measure maximum 50 newton (n). the digital force gauge used for the experiment was model no. sf-50, maximum load 50n and the least count of the instrument was 0.01n. the push and pull type digital force gauge was held with one hand one side hook and the other side hook was connected to the chilli fruit pedicle and the applied maximum force was noted from the display on the screen. for each cultivar detachment force of fruits was measured at four sta ges (i. e.) green, semi red, red/ fully ripped, partly dry and full dry condition (fig.3). the statistical analysis was carried out for the each obser ved cha racter under the study using msexcel. the mean values of data were subjected to analysis of variance as described by (gomez and gomez, 1984). fig. 2. images showing fruit detachment force with digital force gauge green semi-red red semi-dry dry fig. 3. image shows different stages of arka meghana cultivar j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 271-279, 2021 274 results and discussion plant growth characteristics the three cultivars selected for the study were dual purpose (i.e.) useful as green vegetable and as well as dried red chilli. the arka meghana had branches spr ea ding gr owth type a nd r est of two semispreading in nature either sparse or intermediate dense (table 1). the stem shape was found to be round for all three. the fruits shape was determined based on comparison with the shapes proposed in the list of descriptors of the ipgri (1995), the arka meghana and mahyco tejaswini possess elongate shaped fruits and demon f1 erect narrow fruits. based on fruit position the cultivars fall in two groups viz., demon f1 erect position fruits and remaining two in pendent position. as per the fruit bearing characteristic all the three falls in solitary behaviour. the plant gr owth, br anching pa tter n, physica l structure of fruits and other biological features have a s ignif ic a nt imp a c t on ma c hine ha r ves t ing efficiency. low plant structure and small branch angles make positive impact on machine harvesting efficiency. high canopy density vegetable crops need vigor ou s s ha king of t he b r a nc hes b y harvesting devices, which causes the high quantity of foreign material like tender branches, twigs in the harvested produce. this cause makes the quality produce separation process more energy intensive, because of necessary additional strength required for the mechanism to separate and transmit the unwanted material out of the harvesting machine. table 1. plant growth characteristics of selected three cultivars of chilli characteristics arka meghana tejaswini demon f1 utility green / dual purpose dual purpose dual purpose dried red / dual purpose plant growth habit medium height and medium height and medium height and spreading semi spreading semi spreading branching habit dense sparse intermediate stem shape round round round fruit shape elongate elongated erect narrow fruit position pendent pendent erect fruit bearing solitary solitary solitary fig. 4. fruit shape and fruit position of different cultivars of chilli yella swami et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 271-279, 2021 arka meghana tejaswini demon f1 275 chilli cultivars morphological attributes the distance from the ground level to the upper most tip of the plant is measured as the height of the plant. the average height of the plants was found as 82.20 cm, 84.87 cm and 81.76 cm for arka meghana, mahyco tejaswini and demon f1, respectively (table 2). the height of the plants varied from 64 to 115 cm and maximum height 115 cm observed in demon f1 and minimum of 64 cm in arka meghana. plant canopy width across and along the rows the minimum and maximum distances between the tips of the lengthiest branches spread in the tagged plant samples across the row (canopy width in eastwest direction) ranged from 59 to 98 cm and along the row (ca nopy width in north south direction) from 56 to 93 cm in mahyco tejaswini. generally, in crops sown in rows, the harvesting machine being operated along the rows, so the spread width of canopy across the row plays a critical role in deciding the harvester head size to cover entir e ca nopy f or ma ximum ha r vesting efficiency. plant stem length, stem diameter and number of fruits per plant the stem lengths of the chilli cultivars varied from 2 cm to 13 cm and the mean value of stem lengths recorded varied from 5.44 to 8.99 cm. the higher mean stem length to first bifurcation was recorded in d emon f 1 .t he st em dia meter of t he chilli cultivars varied from 1.82 to 2.16 cm. the plant stem diameter is higher 2.16 cm in arka meghana and lower in 1.82 cm in demon f1. the minimum and maximum number of fruits per plant ranged from 61-343 number for demon f 1with lowest mean value of 156.15 number of fruits per plant. among the three cultivars, a maximum mean value 170.25 fruit per plant was recorded for the mahyco tejaswini. table 2. morphological characteristics of different chilli cultivars characteristics plant across along plant stem number height of height of height row row stem dia of fruits the lower the upper (cm) ew ns length meter per most fruit most fruit (cm) (cm) (cm) (cm) plant (cm) (cm) arka meghana mean 82.20 79.55 76.18 6.35 2.16 158.96 21.46 84.71 minimum 64.00 63.00 59.00 3.00 1.60 76.00 10.00 62.00 maximum 108.00 97.00 93.00 13.00 2.72 243.00 31.00 100.00 standard deviation 9.28 7.46 7.90 1.90 0.63 39.91 4.24 10.43 standard error 0.92 0.74 0.79 0.19 0.06 3.97 0.80 1.97 mahyco tejaswini mean 84.87 75.16 72.17 5.44 1.90 170.25 20.83 67.66 minimum 69.00 59.00 56.00 2.00 1.06 73.00 12.00 65.00 maximum 108.00 98.00 93.00 11.00 2.52 234.00 32.00 98.00 standard deviation 14.98 11.35 1.99 1.99 0.34 36.47 4.71 18.14 standard error 1.50 1.14 1.10 0.23 0.04 4.27 0.87 3.37 demon f1 mean 81.76 73.40 63.89 8.90 1.82 156.15 28.11 98.56 minimum 65.00 60.00 57.00 4.00 1.44 61.00 17.00 90.00 maximum 115.00 92.00 88.00 13.00 2.68 343.00 36.00 112.00 standard deviation 9.52 9.47 9.67 1.85 0.31 50.28 6.29 7.02 standard error 0.94 0.93 0.95 0.18 0.03 4.93 2.10 2.34 physio-morphological and mechanical properties of chillies for mechanical harvesting j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 271-279, 2021 276 height of the lower most and higher most fruits bearing branches though there is not much considerable variation in the mean plant heights among the three cultivars, but considerable variation was observed in fruits bearing canopy zone lengths. the fruits bearing canopy spread height was maximum (70.45cm) for demon f1 and the least 46.83cm for mahyco tejaswini. the average height of the lowermost chilli fruits bearing was observed 20.83 cm in mahyco tejaswini and highest value 28.11 cm in demon f1. fruits geometrical and physical properties the size and shape of fruits play major role in separation of unwanted biomass and also immature harvested ones from the quality produce and otherwise more prone to storage disease in crop like chillies. the fruit shape description of chilli grown for dual purpose use in india is difficult, however in general it is triangular in shape with obtuse truncated shape pedicel attachment portion and blunt sunken at blossom end portion. maturation is indicative of the fruit being ready for harvest and after full maturation, there will not be much change in fruit size and shape, since the edible part of the fruit or vegetable is fully developed. dependence on colour parameter alone to harvest the matured vegetables at green colour stage may mislead in certain vegetables. rather than decision taken based on fruit size, shape and colour may yield best results. apart from that, fruits and vegetables geometrical parameters like length, width, thickness or diameter will give us an idea to design and develop sieve set to separate the discard able biomass from produce and graded marketable produce based on size. in chilli the total fruit length and diameter at shoulder are two geometrical dimensions, based on which the separation and grading of produce equipment could be planned. the fruit length measured without pedicle for the selected chilli crops ranged from 2.60 to 14.70 cm and for the same the mean length values varied 4.97 to 10.44 cm. the maximum mean fruit length was observed in arka meghana (10.44 cm) and minimum value 4.97 cm in demon f1. fruit diameter and 1000 fruits weight in cer tain fruits the sha pe ca n cha nge during maturation and can be used as a characteristic to determine harvest maturity. as the fruit or vegetable matures on the plant the relationship between the shoulders of the fruit and the point at which the stalk is attached may change. the shoulders of immature ones slope away from the fruit stalk and on full maturity the shoulders become level with the point of attachment, and in certain cases the shoulders may be raised above this point also. as per the forgone discussion, in chilli the size of fruits is maximum at shoulder s, so the diameter was measured at this point. for the selected chillies, overall fruit diameter varied from 0.51 to 1.58 cm and the mean values were ranged from 0.80 to 1.25 cm (table 3). the maximum values in all respects were observed in arka meghana and minimum in demon f1. the weight of 1000 ripened chilli fruits widely ranged from minimum 1.24 kg to maximum 9.21 kg. the mean weight of 1000 ripped fruits was 1.96 to 6.97 kg. the maximum 1000 chilli fruits weight was recorded in arka meghana 6.97 kg and minimum value in case of demon f1 (1.96 kg). table 3. ripened chilli fruits geometrical and physical properties cultivars arka meghana mahyco tejaswini demon f1 properties fruit fruit 1000 fruit fruit 1000 fruit fruit 1000 length dia fruits length dia fruits length dia fruits (cm) meter weight (cm) meter weight (cm) meter weight (cm) (kg) (cm) (kg) (cm) (kg) mean 10.44 1.25 6.97 7.74 0.92 3.81 4.97 0.80 1.96 minimum 6.20 0.81 4.13 4.30 0.69 2.40 2.60 0.51 1.24 maximum 14.70 1.58 9.21 9.80 1.18 5.43 10.50 1.05 2.98 standard 2.00 0.16 1.02 1.30 0.09 0.64 1.06 0.11 0.30 deviation standard 0.20 0.02 0.10 0.13 0.01 0.08 0.10 0.01 0.03 error yella swami et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 271-279, 2021 277 moisture content the moisture contents data of different plant parts at different ripeness stages was presented in table 4. at full matured green stage of fruits, the moisture content of the leaves was about 72% (db) and fruits possessed considerably higher amount of moisture about 80%.as the fruits maturation changes from physiological mature green colour to full red and beyond, all the plant parts namely leave, stems and fruits moisture contents decreased. when compared to other parts, the per cent of moisture loss was more rapid in leaves followed by stems and minimum gradual reduction was observed in fruits. the moisture content trend is more or less same in all the three cultivars. moisture content is an influential factor in all the crop processing operations and greatly influences other physical and mechanical properties (ilori et al., 2010). in harvesting stage of crops, excessive loss of moisture may lead to the structural parts of the plant to become softer. the softer plant parts cling to the rotating or oscillating or jolting components which shake or vibrate or comb or push the plant branches reducing its effectiveness thus reducing harvesting efficiency of the fruits and vegetables. in certain species, reduced moisture contents in plant parts result in excessive detachment of leaves, twigs in considerable quantity thus increasing energy expenditure in cleaning and grading unit of harvesting machine. table 4. moisture content of plant parts at different maturity stages of different cultivars plant part green semi-red red semi-dry dry arka meghana leaf 71.33±2.08 54.04±0.47 40.78±0.64 33.63±0.64 20.53±0.87 stem 68.90±0.87 66.54±0.76 49.15±0.31 46.15±0.75 39.71±1.27 fruit 81.29±2.85 84.35±0.81 77.86±0.31 79.77±0.78 72.70±0.82 mahyco tejaswini leaf 72.17±2.13 62.96±2.63 48.66±1.16 33.33±1.53 18.23±1.09 stem 63.69±2.29 54.45±1.27 53.83±2.40 53.16±1.04 38.05±2.10 fruit 77.86±0.31 76.72±0.46 74.85±0.17 74.76±1.57 72.17±1.02 demon f1 leaf 71.78±1.65 54.16±2.13 45.59±0.94 33.30±1.20 18.21±1.20 stem 60.85±1.57 58.83±1.22 52.87±1.57 44.12±0.58 37.12±1.50 fruit 77.58±0.59 76.96±0.93 74.79±1.40 72.49±0.69 71.04±1.72 detachment force of chilli fruits at different stages of ripeness the principles dictating at what stage of maturity the fruits or vegetable should be harvested are crucial to its subsequent drying /storage and marketable life and quality. post-harvest physiologists distinguish different impor ta nt sta ges in the life spa n of fruits a nd vegetables namely maturation (green), semi – ripeness, ripened, semi dried, dried and crop senescence (ageing) itself. all these stages have its own importance depending on how and where the produce being used a nd str a tegies being followed in collection, transportation, storing and marketing. ripening follows or overlaps maturation, rendering the produce edible, as indicated by colour and taste in majority of fruits and vegetables. in certain crops plant senescence (ageing) also considered as indicative of crop harvest. senescence is the last stage, characterized by natural degradation of the plants, as in loss of texture, colour, etc. in case of certain fruits and vegetables colour and moisture content are two majorly determining factors to harvest the produce that are to be dried to preserve for round the year use as it is or in size reduction form with or without pre-treatment. ripening stage has an important effect on the force required for removal or detachment of fruits or vegetables or nuts from the branches of plants or trees and on relative susceptibility to mechanical damage. some researchers reported that the holding force of fruits and vegetables to pedicle decreased as the fruit physio-morphological and mechanical properties of chillies for mechanical harvesting j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 271-279, 2021 278 matured, due to cork that is formed in the stem holding place. the detachment force required to pluck the fruits of selected cultivars of chillies at various stages of ripeness is presented in table 5. the results indicates that, the detachment force increased as the fruits maturation increased from green to full red and there after it decreased. this may be due to the fact that up to full maturation of fruits, pedicle contains more fibre content compared to remaining stages and at dry stage pedicle contain less fibre content. it was observed that, the average force required to pluck the chillies at green stage for arka meghana, mahyco tejaswini and demon f1 was found to be 3.45± 2.11 n, 2.43±1.53 n and 5.19± 2.31 n, respectively. similarly, in fully ripped red stage maximum plucking force noted, 5.85± 2.80n, 4.92± 2.23n and 8.58± 2.07n, respectively. the data also indicates that, specifically the cultivars having pendent position fruits have recorded lower plucking force than erect position. these observations concur with the findings of funk and walker (2010), pendant fruit position with minimum fruit attachment force in gr een chilli genotypes aides for better mechanical harvesting. when mechanical harvesting components designs involving working principles such as rotating, oscillating, push-pull, combing and jolter actions are employed to harvest fruits and vegetables; fruit/ vegetable detachment force, size properties, mass and puncture property against mechanical damages must be known. polat et al., (2010) reported that for pistachio nut the pod detachment force decreased from 436 to 118 n within 100 days prior to harvesting to harvest date of partially dried nuts. conclusions red chilli is an important commercial crop, besides its wide spread use in indian food culture. however, the fruits harvesting still being carried manually at incr ea sed ha rvesting costs a nd in hot wea ther conditions. so, important morphological attributes, p hys ic a l a nd mec ha nic a l p r op er t ies of t hr ee popularly grown cultivars were studied to provide a n idea a bout these for ha r vester developer s, r es ea r c her s . t he r es u lt s ha ve r evea led t he importance of the difference among cultivars, while designing and ma nufacture of machines. t hese properties are highly useful in harvesting machine development and as well as post harvesting like cleaning and grading equipment. table 5. force (n) required to detach chilli fruit at different growth stages different arka meghana mahyco tejaswini demon f1stages green semi red semi dry green semi red semi dry green semi red semi dry (n) red (n) dry (n) (n) red (n) dry (n) (n) red (n) dry (n) (n) (n) (n) (n) (n) (n) mean3.45 4.07 5.85 2.36 1.08 2.43 2.11 4.92 1.52 0.87 5.19 6.39 8.58 1.98 0.98 minimum 0.78. 1.04 1.90 0.39 0.75 0.99 0.45 1.23 0.50 0.69 1.18 1.02 1.20 0.93 0.78 maximum 9.86 11.30 17.49 6.21 1.43 8.79 5.80 13.18 4.47 1.13 13.82 12.21 15.65 5.95 1.32 standard 2.11 2.19 2.80 1.51 2.32 1.53 0.93 2.23 0.80 0.95 2.31 2.21 2.07 1.15 1.76 deviation standard error 0.19 0.22 0.28 0.15 0.19 0.15 0.09 0.22 0.08 0.14 0.21 0.22 0.21 0.11 0.34 references aoac. 1970. official methods analysis of the association of official analytical chemists, washington d. c.pp.211. bozokalfa, k.m. and murat, k. 2010. mathematical modeling in the estimation of pepper (capsicum annuum l.) fruit volume. chilean j of agri res, 70: 626-632. farhan, a. khan, mahmood, t., ali, m., saeed, a. a nd ma a lik, a. 2014. pha r ma cologica l impor ta nce of a n ethnobota nica l plant: capsicum annuum l., natural product research, 28:1267-1274. funk, p.a and walker, s.j. 2010. evaluation of five green chille cultivars utilizing five different harvest mechanisms. applied engineering in agriculture, 26(6), 955-964 yella swami et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 271-279, 2021 279 gomez, k.a. and gomez, a.a. 1984. statistical procedures for agricultural research (2 ed.). john wiley and sons, new york, 680p. ilori, t, raji, a, kilanko, o. 2010. some physical properties of selected vegetable. j of agri and veterinary sci, 2: 100-109. ipgri, avrdc and catie 1995. descriptors for capsicum (capsicum spp.). international plant genetic resources institute, rome, italy; the asian vegetable research and development center, taipei, and the centro agronómico tropical de investi-gación y enseñanza, turrialba, costa rica; 1995. nam, j., heebyun, j., kim,t., kim, m., and kim, d. 2018. measurement of mechanical and physical properties of pepper for particle behavior analysis. j biosyst engi, 43 (3): 173– 84.  nidhi, s., ankita, c., koustav, c. 2016. cytotoxic effect on mg-63 cell line and antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of silver nanoparticles synthesized with seed extracts of capsicum sp. rec nat prod, 10(1): 47-57 noryati, i: revathi r. 2006. studies on the effects of blanching time, evaporation time, temperature and hydrocolloid on physical properties of chili (capsicum annum varkulai) puree. lwt, 39: 91-97. ozgur, m., ozcan, t., akpinar-bayizit, a. 2011. functiona l compounds a nd a ntioxida nt properties of dried green and red peppers. afri j of agri res, 6: 5638-5644. polat,r., acar, i., bilim h.i.c., saglam, r. and erol. a. k. b. 2011. determination of spring r igidity a nd fr uit deta chment for ce with respect to harvesting technique in pistachio nut trees.afri j. agri rese, vol. 6(3): 532537. pruthi, j.s. 1998. chillies or capsicums. in: major spices of india crop management and post ha r vest technology; india n c ou ncil of agricultural research, krishi anusandhan bhavan: new delhi, p. 180–243. roka yya , s. a nd khoja h, e. 2016 . physica lmechanical estimation of pepper (capsicum annuum l.) fruit varieties. j. northeast agri university, 23(3): 61-69. romano, g., argyropoulos, d., nagle, m. 2012. combination of digital images and laser light to predict moisture content and colour of bell pepper simultaneously during drying. j food engi, 109: 438-448. tabatabaeefar a and rajabipur a, 2005. modeling the mass of apples by geometrical attributes. j. scienta, 105(3), 0-382 toontom n, meenune m, posri w. 2012. effect of drying method on physical a nd chemica l qu a lit y, hot nes s a nd vola t i le f a vou r characteristics of dried chilli. international food research journal, 19: 10231031. vega-galvez a, lemus-mondaca r, bilbao-sainz c. 2008. effect of air-drying temperature on the quality of rehydrated dried red bell pepper (cv. lamuyo). j. food engi, 85: 42-50. (received on 10.11.2021, revised on 15.12.2021 and accepted on 31.12.2021) physio-morphological and mechanical properties of chillies for mechanical harvesting j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 271-279, 2021 00 contents.pdf 16 yella swami.pdf 19 lamesssa.pdf 20 divya.pdf 21 wani.pdf 23 index and last pages.pdf pests and diseases are major limitations for successful cultivation of grapes. as many as 94 species of insects and mites have been reported on grapes in india (tandon and verghese, 1994). among various sucking pests, thrips are considered serious on grapes (anon., 2000). rhipiphorothrips cruentatus hood and scirtothrips dorsalis hood (thysanoptera: terebrantia: thripidae) were recorded infesting leaves and berries in india (ananthakrishnan, 1971, butani, 1979, verghese and kamala jayanti 2001). the scab caused by thrips on fruit reduces quality and marketability. the present study was taken up to assess and status of different thrips species on foliage, inflorescence and at different stages of berry development. location of survey and cultivars: bijapur (karnataka) and sangli (maharashtra), about 122 km away from bijapur categorized under hot tropical region (between 150 and 200 n longitude) are known for grape cultivation. hence, these places were surveyed for thrips species between january 2005 and january 2006. all vines were pruned in septemberoctober and subjected to different insecticides and fungicide treatment. eight orchards during january, march and thrips species composition on grapes in karnataka and maharashtra h.r. ranganath, n.k. krishna kumar and vikas kumar division of entomology and nematology indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore -560 089, india e-mail: hrr@iihr.ernet.in abstract a survey was undertaken to document species composition of thrips on grape foliage, inflorescence and different stages of berry development such as mustard size (2 mm), sorghum size (4 mm), pea size (8 mm) and beyond pea size (> 8 mm) berries at bijapur in karnataka and sangli in maharashtra during january 2005 to january 2006. cultivars sampled were thomson seedless, sonaka, sharad seedless, tas-a-ganesh, 2a and b5 clones of thomson seedless. scirtothrips dorsalis hood constituted over 90% of total thrips sampled from new flushes, inflorescence and berries in different stages during january, february, march and december 2005 at bijapur followed by thrips palmi karny (14.3%); thrips hawaiiensis (morgan) a hitherto unknown thrips species on grape dominated inflorescence (98.0%) on cv. sonaka during december 2005 in the same area. similar trend was observed in the vineyards of sangli. number of thrips, which was more on inflorescence declined as the berry matured. least number of thrips was observed on berries > pea size. as recorded in bijapur, t. hawaiiensis was dominant species on inflorescence of 2a (98.6%) and b5 (99.4%) clones of thompson seedless. in other cultivars s. dorsalis was dominant that formed 92.8 -100% of total thrips collected. thrips palmi constituted 0.8-1.7% of thrips collected from different parts of grape vine. other unidentified thrips constituted 0.9-7.2%. key words: inflorescence, scirtothrips dorsalis, thrips hawaiiensis, grapevine december 2005 and 11 orchards in february 2005 were surveyed at bijapur (thomson seedless, sonaka, sharad seedless). in sangli 13 orchards were surveyed during january 2006 (thomson seedless, tas-a-ganesh, 2a & b5 clones of thomson seedless) sample: in january and december 2005 (bijapur), fresh foliage, inflorescence and maturing fruit bunches (mustard size (2mm), sorghum size (4 mm), pea size (8 mm) and beyond pea size (> 8 mm berries) were sampled. in february 2005, out of 11 orchards 10 orchards had fruit bunches with pea size and > pea size berries and remaining one had sorghum size, pea size and > pea size berries. during march grape vines had bunches only with berries > pea size, fresh foliage/ inflorescence (bloom)/ fruit bunch in five randomly selected vines in each location were tapped twice over black paper using a stick (50 cm long). while sampling fruit bunches, bunches with mustard size (2 mm), sorghum size (4 mm), pea size (8 mm) and > pea sized berries (> 8 mm) were separately sampled. thrips fallen on the black paper placed below were collected using a fine brush and transferred into 2 ml vials containing a mixture of 70% ethyl short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 172-175, 2008 173 alcohol, acetic acid (9:1 v/v) and 0.5ml triton x 100. each vial was labeled (sampling date, locality, cultivar sampled, part sampled etc.). thrips in each vial were counted under a stereo-binocular microscope and slide mounts were prepared. process consisted of clearing thrips (after giving a slant cut on the first two segments of the abdomen) in naoh 5% for 7-8 h depending upon pigmentation, washed in distilled water, dehydration using grades of ethyl alcohol, clearing in terpineol and mounting on clean slides (2 mm thick) using canada balsam (natural) mountant. species were determined as per key provided by vikas kumar (2004) in january 2005 and december 2005 at bijapur all surveyed orchards had all stages of the crop. while february and march showed maturing berries (different stages), mainly pea size (8 mm). at sangli, orchards had stages from inflorescence to berries beyond pea size during january 2006. results revealed that s. dorsalis dominated new flushes, inflorescence, and all stages of berries in a fruit bunch. however, fruit bunches beyond pea size harboured thrips in low number (1-28 thrips/bunch) and the number declined as the berries matured. bijapur: scirtothrips dorsalis constituted over 90% of total thrips sampled from new flushes, inflorescence and berries in different stages during january, february, march and december 2005, followed by t. palmi karny (14.3%) (tables 1, 2 and 3). thrips hawaiiensis hood a hitherto unknown thrips species on grape was observed to dominate inflorescence on cv. sonaka during december 2005. thrips hawaiiensis formed 98.0% of total thrips counted on inflorescence (table 4). however, sampling inflorescence of other cultivars during december did not show t. hawaiiensis, which needs to be rechecked. number of thrips was maximum on inflorescence that declined as the table 1. incidence of grape thrips at different locations in bijapur (january 2005) no. of thrips collected out of 2 tapings location variety area(acre) new foliage inflor. millet size sorghum size pea size > pea size thidugundi ts 5 16.7 87.2 12.5 12.7 6.0 2.5 kadlivada ts 10 27.2 118.1 27.3 10.4 12.0 10.2 kadlivada ss 4 36.5 127.2 47.1 29.4 10.0 8.2 segunasi ts 2 37.3 112.7 60.2 32.6 23.1 18.5 bableshwar ts 2 48.1 93.6 44.2 12.6 10.1 3.2 a. tanda ts 5 21.7 86.6 31.2 27.1 18.6 4.3 zalki ts 2 18.2 14.2 96.8 41.6 37.1 10.5 galagali road ts 3 23.8 56.7 61.9 72.3 45.6 12.6 tsthomson seedless, sssharad seedless s. dorsalis ranged from 90-98.4% of total thrips collected in all plant parts sampled table. 2 incidence of grape thrips at different locations in bijapur (february 2005) no. of thrips collected out of 2 tapings location variety area(acre) new foliage inflor millet size sorghum size pea size > pea size kadlivada ts 10 6.3 —— —— —— 2 0 kadlivada ss 4 12.2 —— —— —— 6 1 bableshwar ts 2 8.6 —— —— —— 16 3 bableshwar ts 2 14.8 —— —— 8.9 4 0 bijapurts 2 6.5 —— —— —— 7 4 aurangabad road a. tanda ts 2 18.4 —— —— —— 4.3 zalki ts 3 17.5 —— —— —— 1 tajpur ts 2 11.2 —— —— —— 18 galagali road ts 4 23.6 —— —— —— 47 aliabad ts 2 7.8 —— —— —— 28 ts 3 3.1 —— —— —— 22.5 tsthomson seedless, sssharad seedless species of thrips identified: new foliage: scirtothrips dorsalis, thrips palmi inflorescence: scirtothrips dorsalis, t. palmi millet size berry s. dorslis sorghum size berry s. dorslis pea size berry s. dorsalis thrips species on grapes j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 172-175, 2008 174 table 3. incidence of grape thrips at different locations in bijapur (march 2005) no. of thrips collected out of 2 tapings location variety area(acre) new foliage inflor millet size sorghum size pea size > pea size bableshwar ts 2 8.7 —— —— —— —— 2.6 bableshwar ts 1 2.7 —— —— —— —— 0 aliabad ts 1 7.6 —— —— —— —— 0 trikota ts 2 12.5 —— —— —— —— 2 thidugundi ts 2 3.7 —— —— —— —— 2.5 a. tanda ts 1 8.3 —— —— —— —— 5.2 kadlivada ts 10 2.5 —— —— —— —— 2.6 kadlivada ss 4 6.8 —— —— —— —— 1.5 tsthomson seedless, sssharad seedless species of thrips identified: new foliage: scirtothrips dorsalis, thrips palmi inflorescence: scirtothrips dorsalis, t. palmi millet size berrys. dorslis sorghum size berrys. dorslis pea size berrys. dorsalis table: 4. incidence of grape thrips at different locations in bijapur (december 2005) no. of thrips collected out of 2 tapings location variety area(acre) new foliage inflor millet size sorghum size pea size > pea size bableshwar ts 5 52.2 82.7 21.2 27.8 5.8 6.2 bableshwar sk 2 26.0 42.8* 27.6 10.3 2.0 — ayeri ts 2 46.5 16.2 6.2 — a. tanda ts 5 23.4 66.4 50.8 32.1 10.2 thidugundi ts 2 21.5 42.6 36.8 21.7 16.2 6.3 thidugundi ts 1 17.2 96.5 54.2 36.4 14..8 jumnal ts 2 22.5 58.2 45.5 39.6 8.8 segunasi ts 2 16.9 76.3 32.7 221.5 — — tsthomson seedless, sksonaka dominant species of thrips identified: new foliage: scirtothrips dorsalis, thrips palmi inflorescence: scirtothrips dorsalis, t. palmi millet size berry s. dorsalis sorghum size berry s. dorsalis pea size berrys. dorsalis * thrips hawaiiensis constituted 98 % of the thrips collected on inflorescence berries matured. other unidentified thrips formed 0.5 to 7% of the thrips collected from january to march and december 2005. sangli: similar trend was observed in the vineyards of sangli. number of thrips was maximum on inflorescence that declined as the berry matured. as observed in bijapur, t. hawaiiensis was dominant species on inflorescence (cv. sonaka) (table 5). the same species shared 98.6% and 99.4% of thrips collected on inflorescence but on 2a and b 5 clones of thomson seedless, respectively in 2 different orchards at tasgaon. in other cultivars viz, thompson seedless and tas-aganesh, s. dorsalis was dominant that formed 92.8 -100% of total thrips collected. thrips palmi constituted 0.8-1.7% of thrips collected from different parts of grape vine. other unidentified thrips constituted 0.9-7.2%. harish (2000) observed that number of s. dorsalis was maximum in the vegetative and flowering stages (cv. bangalore blue) as compared to berry maturation period in winter and summer pruned vines. however, number of thrips declined as the berry matured. in the present study also the number of thrips was maximum at inflorescence stage (bloom) and declined as the berry matured on different cultivars. schwartz (1988) recorded maximum number of t. tabaci lindeman in blossom stage in south africa. similarly, ripa et al (1993) reported colonization of t. tabaci during anthesis and nymphs fed on pollen and internal tissues of calyptra. ananthakrishnan (1971) observed infestations of s. dorsalis on flower bunches and young berries of grapes resulting in reduced fruit set and development of corky layers and cracks on the surface of fruits. rose is widely grown in sangli. rose flowers sampled in adjoining fields of grape orchards at two locations, tasgaon and savlaz showed severe infestation by t. ranganath et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 172-175, 2008 175 table 5. survey for thrips of grapes in sangli (january 2006) no. of thrips collected out of 2 tapings location variety area(acre) new foliage inflor millet size sorghum size pea size > pea size kawlapur ts 2 12.6 30.7 23.6 7.3 10.6 3.2 kawlapur sonaka 1 52.3 74.2 tas gaon ts* 1 10.6 87.4 10.2 8.6 3.6 tas gaon ts* 2 22.6 45.6 27.1 18.2 11.6 savlej ts 4 23.1 58.6 27.1 18.6 20.6 11.3 savlej tag 1 6.7 25.6 11.5 12.7 savlej ts 3 43.2 56.2 35.5 savlej ts** 1 23.5 85.2 69.6 48.1 khanapur tag 426.5 19.2 17.6 khanapur sonaka 4 18.7 43.4 24.6 biranwadi tag 2 38.6 25.4 12.8 balaudi ts 5 88.5 136.2 87.5 87.2 41.2 manerajouri ts* 2 79.3 116.7 79.4 66.5 47.8 ssonaka, tsthomson seedless, ts*2a clone of thomson seedless, ts** b5 clone of thomson seedless, tagtasaganesh * t. hawaiiensis constituted 98.6% of the total thrips counted in inflorescence ** t. hawaiiensis constituted 99.4% of the total thrips counted in inflorescence (ms received 19 august 2008, revised 1 december 2008) hawaiiensis. it is likely that t. hawaiiensis, a polyphagous pest has moved to adjoining grape orchards to infest bloom. however, it is important to establish the role of t. hawaiiensis if any, in scaring/ scabbing of berries as damage inflicted at “bloom” brings down the quality of grapes. further, it needs to be found out by extensive survey whether t. hawaiiensis cross over to cultivars other than sonaka and clones of thompson seedless. acknowledgement we wish to express our sincere thanks to dr. g. s. prakash, principal scientist & head, division of fruit crops, i.i.h.r, bangalore for critically going through the manuscript. we thank the director, i.i.h.r, bangalore for encouragement. first author acknowledges the financial assistance provided by department of horticulture, government of karnataka under the project bio-ecology of thrips vectors of watermelon bud necrosis (wbnv). references: ananthakrishnan, t.n. 1971. thrips (thysanoptera) in agriculture and forestrydiagnosis, bionomics and control. j. sci. ind. res., 30:113-146 anonymous, 2000. grapes, agriculture, center for monitoring indian economy, pvt., ltd., mumbai, pp. 303-306 butani, 1979. insects and fruits, periodical export book agency, new delhi, pp. 190-194 harish, 2000. species complex, biology and management of thrips on grapes, thesis submitted to university of agricultural sciences, bangalore for partial fulfillment of master degree in agricultural entomology. pp 115 ripa, s. r., rodriguez, a. f. and vargas, m. r. 1993. relationship between thrips (thrips tabaci lindeman and frankliniella cestrum moulton) on grapes during flowering and scarring at harvest. agri. tecnica santiago, 53:16-22 schwartz, a. 1988. population dynamics of thrips tabaci lindeman (thysanoptera: thripidae) on table grapes. south african j.enology and viticulture, 9:19-21 tandon, p.l. and verghese, a. 1994. present status of insect and mite pests of grapes in india, drakshavritta souvenir, 149-158 verghese, a. and kamala jayanti, p.d. 2001 integrated pest management in horticultural ecosystems. (eds) p. parvatha reddy, abraham verghese and n. k. krishna kumar, capital publishing company, new delhi, pp 291 vikas kumar, 2004. taxonomic studies on thysanopteraterebrantia of delhi. thesis submitted to university of delhi for doctorate degree. pp 259 thrips species on grapes j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 172-175, 2008 carrot (daucus carota l.) of the family apiaceae is a cool-season crop grown across the world in spring, summer and autumn in the temperate countries, and during winters in the tropical and subtropical countries. it has a fleshy, edible tap root botanically designated as a conical root. carrot is classified into two groups: asiatic (tropical) and european (temperate) types. world-wide consumption of carrot has increased over the past years, and, it is now one of the most popular vegetable crops. asiatic carrots are generally red in colour owing to anthocyanin pigments. the european types are orange due to carotene, a precursor of vitamin a. in india, asiatic types are the ones mostly grown, probably due to their appealing red colour. carrot improves the quantity of urine and helps eliminate uric acid. chopra et al (1933) reported carrot as curing diseases of the kidney, and dropsy. dietary supplement of a combination of carrot and orange juices has been found to reduce oxidation of low-density lipoprotein in habitual cigarette smokers. the nilgiris district of tamil nadu is unique in being all hilly, 90% area of which is covered by horticultural crops, viz., plantation crops, vegetable crops, flower crops, etc. potato and carrot are the two major vegetable crops occupying a substantial area, the latter cultivated in about 2,677 ha, with a production of 75,818.64 metric tonnes, evaluation of carrot (daucus carota l.) hybrids at mid-elevation and higher in the nilgiris v.p. santhi* and p.a. priya horticultural research station tamil nadu agricultural university udhagamandalam – 643 001, tamil nadu, india *e-mail: santhihortvip@yahoo.co.uk abstract investigations were made on yield and quality in six hybrids of carrot spanning two seasons under nilgiri hill conditions during the year 2012-2013. the hybrids were evaluated for per se performance, genotypic coefficient of variance, heritability and genetic advance. a high estimate for genotypic coefficient of variation was observed in root-splitting percentage, total chlorophyll, root carotenoids, leaf carotenoids and root-forking percentage in the hybrids, indicating a potential for improvement of these traits by simple selection, in kharif and summer. leaf and root carotenoid content, total chlorophyll, number of leaves and root weight exhibited higher values for heritability, coupled with a high genetic advance, revealing these traits to be under the control of gene action. simple selection can, therefore, effect improvement in these characters. key words: genetic variability, hybrids, heritability, genetic advance j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):83-87, 2016 short communication and productivity of 28.17 mt/ ha. hence, developing highyielding hybrids with resistance to physiological disorders is of great importance. selection of desirable genotypes needs to be performed with reliable estimates. genetic parameters like coefficient of variation, heritability and genetic advance provide a clear insight into the extent of available variability and gives a relative measure of efficiency of selection of a genotype based on its phenotype in a highly variable population. therefore, the present study was carried out assess genetic parameters for yield, quality and resistance to physiological disorders under nilgiris’ conditions. the present study on evaluation of carrot (daucus carota l.) hybrids for high yield and for quality suited to the nilgiri conditions was conducted at nanjanad farm of horticultural research station, tamil nadu agricultural university, udhagamandalam, and at a farmer’s field at muthorai palada, udhagamandalam, during the year 20122013. the land was brought to a fine tilth by repeated ploughing and harrowing. clods were broken and debris removed. the soil was levelled and made into 30cm high raised beds with plot size of 2x1m2. the experimental field was divided into 24 plots. the experiment was laid out in randomized blocks design. six hybrids, namely, alamada f1, century f1, ns 854 f1, clause nant into f1, takii no. 84 555 f1 and vivek f1 were replicated four times. seeds were sown at row-to-row spacing of 15cm and plant-to-plant spacing of 10cm, at a depth of 1cm and covered with a thin layer of soil. thinning was done at 45 days after sowing. five plants were selected at random from each plot for recording observations at 90 days after sowing, and, at harvest. estimates for genetic parameters phenotypic and genotypic variance phenotypic and genotypic variance was estimated as per lush (1940). (ms1 ms2) a) genotypic variance (σ2g) = ---------------------------r where, ms1 = mean sum of squares for genotypes ms2 = mean sum of squares for error r = number of replications b) phenotypic variance (σ2ph) = σ2g+ σ2e where, σ2g = genotypic variance σ2e = error variance phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation was estimated as per burton (1952) and expressed in percentage. a) phenotypic coefficient of variation (per cent) (phenotypic variance) ½ pcv = ---------------------------------------------------------------x 100 general mean b) genotypic coefficient of variation (per cent) (genotypic variation) 1/2 gcv = --------------------------------------------------------------- x 100 general mean estimates for pcv and gcv were categorized on the scale given below (sivasubramanian and menon, 1973): category range low < 10 per cent moderate 11 to 20 per cent high > 20 per cent heritability (h2) heritability in the broad sense was calculated as per lush (1940) and expressed in percentage. vg heritability in broad sense (h2) = ---------------------------x 100 vph where, vg = genotypic variance vph = phenotypic variance range of heritability was categorized as per johnson et al (1955) category range low 0-30 per cent moderate 30-60 per cent high 61 per cent and above genetic advance (ga) genetic advance was worked out as per the formula of johnson et al (1955). vg genetic advance (ga) = ---------------------------x k (vph)1/2 where, vg = genotypic variance vph = phenotypic variance k = 2.06 (selection differential at 5 per cent selection intensity) ga b) genetic advance as per cent of mean = -------------------x 100 grand mean the range of genetic advance as per cent of mean was classified as per johnson et al (1955). category range low 0-10 per cent moderate 11-20 per cent high 21 per cent and above phenotypic and genotypic variance was estimated as per lush (1940). range of heritability and genetic advance were categorized as per johnson et al (1955) and panse (1957). genotypic coefficient of variation, phenotypic coefficient of variation, heritability and genetic advance as per cent mean in kharif, summer and pooled mean data are presented in tables 1, 2 and 3, and in fig 1 and 2. highest genotypic coefficient of variation was observed during kharif for total chlorophyll (38.84), followed by root carotenoids (35.71), root-splitting percentage (23.00) and leaf carotenoids (22.78). however, low genotypic coefficient of variation was noticed for plant height (5.90), leaf width (5.32), root length (0.67), root santhi and priya j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):83-87, 2016 85 diameter (8.47), inner-core diameter (5.66), root-to-top ratio (2.97) and yield per hectare (8.13). in our study, high heritability values were noticed for root carotenoids content (99.94), leaf carotenoids (99.91), total chlorophyll (98.32) and root-splitting percentage (60.99). the lowest estimates of heritability were observed for plant height (23.67), leaf width (19.34), root length (0.92), inner-core diameter (12.29) and root-to-top ratio (3.17). expected genetic advance (expressed as percentage of mean) was relatively high for characters like total chlorophyll (79.35), root carotenoids (73.55), leaf carotenoids (46.91), root-splitting percentage (37.01) and root-forking percentage (28.07) in summer, the highest genotypic coefficient of variation was observed for total chlorophyll (40.51), followed by root carotenoids (36.06), root-forking percentage (22.97) and leaf carotenoids (22.53). however, low genotypic coefficient of variation was noticed for traits like plant height (4.55), number of leaves (9.68), leaf width (7.30) and root-to-top ratio (7.39). in the present study, high heritability values were noticed for plant height (99.96), number of leaves (99.98), leaf width (99.98), root length (83.86), root weight (81.72), root-to-top ratio (61.23), root diameter (85.23), total chlorophyll (97.97), leaf carotenoids (99.96) and root carotenoids (99.93). lowest estimates of heritability were observed for root-splitting percentage (16.94) and root-forking percentage (27.94). expected genetic advance (expressed as percentage of mean) was relatively high for characters like root length (23.83), root weight (22.51), root diameter (24.52), root-forking percentage (25.01), total chlorophyll (82.61), leaf carotenoids (46.41) and root carotenoids (74.26). table 1. variability, heritability and genetic advance as per cent of mean for different parameters in carrot hybrids for 14 characters during kharif character genotypic phenotypic heritability genetic coefficient coefficient (%) advance of variation of variation as per cent (gcv %) (pcv %) of mean plant height (cm) 5.90 12.13 23.67 5.91 number of leaves 10.95 15.43 50.37 16.01 leaf width (cm) 5.32 12.09 19.34 4.82 root length (cm) 0.67 7.04 0.92 0.13 root weight (g) 14.24 20.97 46.14 19.93 root diameter 8.47 12.11 48.93 12.21 (cm) inner-core 5.66 16.16 12.29 4.09 diameter (cm) root-to-top ratio 2.97 16.69 3.17 1.09 root splitting % 23.00 29.45 60.99 37.01 root forking % 18.41 24.87 54.78 28.07 total chlorophyll 38.84 39.18 98.32 79.35 (mg/g) leaf carotenoids 22.78 22.79 99.91 46.91 (mg/g) root carotenoids 35.71 35.73 99.94 73.55 (mg/g) yield/ha (tonnes) 8.13 12.42 42.87 10.97 table 2. variability, heritability and genetic advance as per cent of mean for different parameters in carrot hybrids for 14 characters during summer character genotypic phenotypic heritability genetic coefficient coefficient (%) advance of variation of variation as per cent (gcv %) (pcv %) of mean plant height (cm) 4.55 4.55 99.96 9.38 number of leaves 9.68 9.68 99.98 19.94 leaf width (cm) 7.30 7.30 99.98 15.04 root length (cm) 12.63 13.79 83.86 23.83 root weight (g) 12.08 13.37 81.72 22.51 root diameter 12.89 13.96 85.23 24.52 (cm) inner-core 11.31 15.92 50.52 16.56 diameter (cm) root-to-top ratio 7.39 9.45 61.23 11.92 root splitting % 18.99 46.13 16.94 16.10 root forking % 22.97 43.46 27.94 25.01 total chlorophyll 40.51 40.93 97.97 82.61 (mg/ g) leaf carotenoids 22.53 22.54 99.96 46.41 (mg/ g) root carotenoids 36.06 36.07 99.93 74.26 (mg/ g) yield/ha (tonnes) 11.35 20.67 30.18 12.85 fig 2. genetic advance, variability and heritability as per cent of mean in carrot hybrids for 14 characters during kharif fig 1. genetic advance, variability and heritability as per cent of mean in carrot hybrids for 14 characters during summer cultivation of carrot hybrids in nilgiris j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):83-87, 2016 86 in pooled analysis, highest genotypic coefficient of variation was observed for total chlorophyll (37.85), root carotenoids (34.18), leaf carotenoids (22.66) and rootforking percentage (20.36). however, low genotypic coefficient of variation was noticed for traits such as plant height (5.54), number of leaves (9.77), leaf width (6.41), root length (7.36), root diameter (9.89), inner-core diameter (8.55), root-to-top ratio (2.26) and yield per hectare (8.64). in this study, high heritability values were recorded for root carotenoids content (99.94), leaf carotenoids (99.93), total chlorophyll (97.53), root length (81.61), root diameter (76.56), root-forking percentage (75.99), number of leaves (74.76) and root weight (69.06). lowest estimates of heritability were observed for root-splitting percentage (28.76) and root-to-top ratio (12.48). genetic advance (expressed as percentage of mean) was relatively high for characters like total chlorophyll (77.01), root carotenoids (70.39), leaf carotenoids (46.67), root-forking percentage (36.56) and root weight (23.14). improvement in crop yield depends upon the magnitude of genetic variability available in the breeding material, and the extent to which major yield component traits are heritable from generation to generation. genetic variability can, thus, be a choice for selecting suitable parents. however, quantitative characters are prone to environmental influence, necessitating the partitioning of overall variances as heritable and non-heritable components, for efficient breeding programme (hiremath and rao, 1974). the present study reveals the extent of variability available in the six hybrids collected by us from various sources. the scope for selection through heritability and genetic advance estimates, and, results obtained are discussed hereunder. analysis of variance (anova) revealed significant differences among the six hybrids studied for all the traits under consideration. the results support a selection programme for high root-yield. absolute variability in various characters cannot be considered as a critical factor for deciding upon a character showing the highest degree of variability. relative values of phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation, therefore, give an idea of the magnitude of variability present in a population. as the estimates of genotypic variance, heritability and expected genetic advance are useful for yield improvement, the above values were estimated to assess the scope of improvement in yield in the carrot hybrids studied. measurement of genotypic coefficient of variation is necessary to understand the role of environmental influences on various traits. in the present investigation, the six genotypes exhibited considerable variability for all the fourteen traits studied. variability highest genotypic coefficient of variation was observed during kharif for root-splitting percentage, followed by total chlorophyll, root carotenoids, leaf carotenoids and root-forking percentage. in summer, highest genotypic coefficient of variation was observed for total chlorophyll, followed by root carotenoids, rootsplitting percentage, root-forking percentage and leaf carotenoids. this is in accordance with findings of amin and singla (2010). phenotypic variance or phenotypic coefficient of variation was slightly higher than genotypic variance or genotypic coefficient of variation for all the characters studied, indicating environmental influence to some extent in expression of these characters. similar results were obtained by tewatia and dudi (1999) in carrot, rabbani et al (1998) in radish, and tewatia et al, 2000. low estimates for genotypic coefficient of variation were observed for plant height, root length, inner-core diameter, root diameter and root-to-top ratio in kharif, and, plant height, root length, inner-core diameter, root diameter and root-to-top ratio during summer. in this experiment, our results are in accordance with amin and singla (2010), ullah et al (2010), and tewatia and dudi (1999). table 3. pooled analysis for variability, heritability and genetic advance as per cent of mean for different parameters in carrot hybrid for 14 characters character genotypic phenotypic heritability genetic coefficient coefficient (%) advance of variation of variation as per cent (gcv %) (pcv %) of mean plant height (cm) 5.54 7.69 52.02 8.24 number of leaves 9.77 11.30 74.76 17.40 leaf width (cm) 6.41 8.56 56.06 9.88 root length (cm) 7.36 8.15 81.61 13.70 root weight (g) 13.51 16.26 69.06 23.14 root diameter (cm) 9.89 11.31 76.56 17.84 inner-core 8.55 13.32 41.27 11.32 diameter (cm) root-to-top ratio 2.26 6.39 12.48 1.64 root splitting % 12.34 23.02 28.76 13.64 root forking % 20.36 23.36 75.99 36.56 total chlorophyll 37.85 38.33 97.53 77.01 (mg/ g) leaf carotenoids 22.66 22.67 99.93 46.67 (mg/ g) root carotenoids 34.18 34.19 99.94 70.39 (mg/ g) yield/ha (tonnes) 8.64 14.20 37.01 10.83 santhi and priya j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):83-87, 2016 87 heritability and genetic advance genotypic coefficient of variation does not give any idea of the total variation heritable. further, it may not be feasible to determine the amount of heritable variation, or the relative degree to which a character is transmitted from a parent to the offspring, by the estimate of heritability. heritability estimate in the broad sense, alone, does not serve as a true indicator of genetic potential of a genotype, since the scope is restricted by the crop’s interaction with the environment. hence, it is advisable to consider the predicted genetic advance as per cent of mean, along with heritability estimate, as a reliable tool in selection programmes (johnson et al, 1955). hence, both heritability and genetic advance (as per cent of mean) are determined, to get a clear picture of the scope for improvement in various characters through selection. in the present study, high heritability was observed for leaf carotenoids, root carotenoids, root weight, innercore diameter, plant height, leaf width, total chlorophyll, number of leaves and root diameter. high heritability in the broad sense indicated that a large proportion of the phenotypic variance was attributable to genotypic variance. differences among genotypes were real, and showed that the above-mentioned traits with high heritability values, were less under the influence of environment. the above findings are in close conformity with brar and sukhija (1981) and tewatia and dudi (1999) who reported a high heritability for leaf length and root weight. high heritability for characters controlled by polygenes could be useful to plant breeders for making an effective selection. genetic advance (expressed as percentage of mean) was relatively high for carotene content in root. these results are in line with findings of amin and singla (2010). low heritability was observed for root length and root-to-top ratio during both the seasons, and genetic advance (expressed as percentage of mean) was relatively low for characters like plant height, root length, root-to-top ratio and inner-core diameter. these results are in line with findings of amin and singla (2010) and ullah et al (2010), and, yadav et al (2009) for root length alone. as the genetic coefficient of variability, phenotypic coefficient of variability and heritability estimates determine the component of heritable variation, and, genetic advance measures the extent of its suitability under selection all the above parameters should be considered simultaneously to bring about effective improvement in yield and other characters in carrot. references amin, a. and j. singla. 2010. genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance studies in carrot (daucus carota var. sativa l.). electronic j. pl. breed., 1:1504-1508 brar, j.s. and sukhija, b.s. 1981. studies on genetic parameters in carrot (daucus carota l.). punjab agri. univ. j. res., 18:281-291 burton, g.w. 1952. quantitative inheritance in grasses. proc. 6th international grassland congress, 1:277283 chopra, r.n. 1933. indigenous drugs of india. the art press, calcutta, india hiremath, k.g. and rao, m.p.g. 1974. genetic variability and correlation studies in solanum melongena l. mysore j. agril. sci., 8:197-202 johnson, h.w., robinson, h.f. and comstock, r.e. 1955. estimates of genetic and environmental variability in soyabean. agron. j., 7:314-318 lush, j.l. 1940. intra series correlation and regression of offspring as a method of estimating heritability characters. proc. amer. soc. anim. prod., 33:295-302 panse, v.g. 1957. genetics of quantitative characters in relation to plant breeding. indian j. genet., 47:318328 rabbani, n.a., murakami, y., kuginuki, y. and takayanagi, k. 1998. genetic variation in radish (raphanus sativus l.) germplasm. genetic resources and crop evolution, 45:307-316 sivasubramanian, s. and menon, p.m. 1973. genotypic and phenotypic variability in rice. madras agril. j., 60:1093-1096 tewatia, a.s. and dudi, b.s. 1999. genetic variability and heritability studies in carrot (daucus carota l.). anna. agril. biol. res., 4:213-14 tewatia, a.s., dudi, b.s. and dahia, m.s. 2000. correlation and path coefficient analysis in carrot at different dates of sowing. haryana j. hortl. sci., 29:217-220 ullah, m.z., hasan, m.j., rahman, a.h.m.a. and saki, a.i. 2010. genetic variability, character association and path coefficient analysis in radish (raphanus sativus l.). the agriculturists, 8:22-27 yadav, m., tirkey, s., singh, d.b., chaudhary, r., roshan, r.k. and pebam, n. 2009. genetic variability, correlation coefficient and path analysis in carrot. indian j. hort., 66:315-318 cultivation of carrot hybrids in nilgiris (ms received 21 february 2015, revised 19 november 2015, accepted 07 january 2016) j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):83-87, 2016 introduction lime fruits are important as these find several uses in culinary, beverage, industry and medicine. the high acceptability is due to their attractive colour and distinctive flavour, and the fact that they are a rich source of vitamin c and also contain vitamin b, pectin, organic acids, minerals and other nutritive substances, required for human health. fruits are perishable and get spoiled in times of a glut in the market. inadequate infrastructure for storage, improper handling of the produce during packaging, transport, storage and marketing also cause considerable losses. thus, retention of quality in fruits for a longer period is one of the most important aspects of post harvest handling and storage. various viable technologies such as use of gamma irradiation, growth retardants, anti transpirants, wax emulsion and oil coating have been used to increase longevity of harvested fruits. in places where refrigeration and storage facilities are not available, protective skin coating is one of the methods for increasing storage life of fresh fruits. keeping the above in view, an experiment was designed to test the effect of post harvest treatments on chemical composition and sensory qualities of kagzi lime fruits. material and methods the present investigation was carried out at the fruit preservation laboratory of the department of effect of post harvest treatment on biochemical composition and organoleptic quality in kagzi lime fruit during storage a. bisen and s. k. pandey department of horticulture college of agriculture jawaharlal nehru krishi vishwavidyalaya, jabalpur – 482 004, india e-mail: abhay_horti@yahoo.co.in abstract the present investigation was carried out to test the efficacy of various post harvest treatments using gamma irradiation, growth retardants and coatings on quality and sensory parameters of kagzi lime under ambient conditions. among various treatments, pure coconut oil coating was very effective as higher tss, acidity, vitamin c, juice content, flavour, appearance and taste were retained during storage. pure coconut oil coated fruits maintained natural light-green colour upto 24 days of storage, which was acceptable to consumers. key words: oil coating, consumer acceptability, organoleptic, kagzi lime, shelf-life, storage period horticulture, college of agriculture, jabalpur. freshly harvested kagzi lime fruits were procured from fruit research station, imalia, jabalpur. fruits were harvested at the physiological mature stage, which was decided on the basis of colour turn in the skin. fresh, fully ripe and uniform fruits were selected, thoroughly washed in tap water and subjected to different treatments, after initial quality analysis and organoleptic evaluation. fruits treated with five doses of gamma radiation (50, 100, 200, 300 and 400 gy), six treatments of growth retardants (mh-250 ppm, 500 ppm, 750 ppm, ccc-250 ppm, 500 ppm, 750 ppm) and three treatments of coating (mustard oil 100%, coconut oil 100%, and, liquid paraffin 100%). observations were recorded at 6, 12, 18 & 24 days of storage. total soluble solids were measured by zeis hand refractometer and values obtained were corrected at 200c. acidity and ascorbic acid content were measured as described by a.o.a.c. (1970). juice content was calculated on volume basis and expressed as per cent. the appearance, taste, flavour and colour of each sample was evaluated by panel of five judges on a scale of 10 marks. the experiment consisted of 15 treatments replicated thrice and laid out in complete randomized design. results and discussion data presented in table 1 clearly indicate that the tss of lime juice was not significantly influenced by different post harvest treatments. tss of the fruit increase j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 53-56, 2008 page 53 54 during storage upto 18 days, and thereafter a slight decline was noticed in all the treatments. increase in tss during storage may be due to water loss in the fruits. the minimum value (8.0%) of tss was observed with mustard oil coating. this may be due to cell death and highly concentrated oil penetration in the nuclei of cells resulting in lower tss percentage in fruits receiving mustard oil coating. similar findings were reported by sindhu and singhrot (1996) in baramasi lemon. maximum (9.9%) tss was recorded in coconut oil coated fruits followed by those coated in liquid paraffin (9.8). this could be due to delay in ripening and senescence. results are in conformity with ei. monem et al (2003) in custard apple and choudhary et al (2004) in kinnow mandarin. data given in table 1 reveal that pure coconut oil coating significantly influenced percentage of juice content as compared to control and all other treatments. although storage period was enhanced to 24 days, it was found that the juice content of fruits decreased in all the treatments. maximum (47.98%) juice content retention in fruits was observed under coconut oil coating, followed by (45.27%) liquid paraffin coating. this may be due to lower water loss. similar findings were made by bhullar (1983) in kagzi lime. the least juice content was found with pure mustard oil coating. this may be due to continuous transpiration from surface of the fruits as a result of higher dehydration and drying of juice due to skin injury. acidity of the fruits increased initially in all the treatments up to 18 days, but thereafter, it decreased up to 24 days of storage (table 1). this decrease in acidity with increasing storage period may be due to utilization of acids during metabolism. minimum acidity (7.01%) was observed in mustard oil coating due to dilution effect of the hydrolysis of acids. maximum acidity (7.25%) was recorded in pure coconut oil followed by liquid paraffin (7.22%) coated fruits after 24 days of storage at room temperature. higher acidity of lime fruits retained under coconut oil coating, followed by liquid paraffin coating may be due to lesser availability of oxygen to fruits in later stages of storage. it appears that an organic acids which participates in the respiratory process is not oxidized, and therefore, their levels remained high. similar result was also obtained by jagadeesh et al (2001) in guava fruits. vitamin c content showed an increasing trend up to 18 days. thereafter, it started decreasing in almost all the treatments (table 1). these results are in conformity with earlier findings of singhrot et al (1987) in baramasi lemon. maximum retention of vitamin c content (35.23 mg/100 ml juice) was recorded in pure coconut oil coating, followed by (33.95 mg/ 100 ml juice) liquid paraffin, which was significantly higher than control. minimum (29.10mg/100ml juice) vitamin c content was recorded under mustard oil coated fruits. coconut oil and liquid paraffin coating helped in reducing the rate of respiration table 1. effect of post harvest treatment on biochemical composition of kagzi lime fruit treatment tss (%) juice content (%) acidity (%) vitamin c (mg/100ml juice) dat dat dat dat 6 12 18 24 6 12 18 24 6 12 18 24 6 12 18 24 control 8.5 8.7 8.9 8.4 35.88 34.46 32.25 31.08 6.48 6.60 7.12 7.03 28.49 29.28 30.46 29.94 50gy 8.6 9.0 9.1 8.5 37.93 35.82 33.94 32.20 6.52 6.62 7.15 7.06 28.51 29.42 30.77 29.98 100 gy 9.7 10.0 10.1 9.5 50.32 47.34 45.64 41.25 6.67 6.83 7.31 7.21 30.88 31.60 34.10 33.64 200 gy 9.4 9.7 9.8 9.3 44.64 41.18 40.39 38.10 6.55 6.67 7.21 7.10 29.40 30.10 32.20 29.75 300 gy 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.3 34.57 32.07 31.12 29.57 6.45 6.58 7.11 7.04 28.60 29.57 31.23 30.19 400 gy 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.2 32.98 31.57 29.06 27.19 6.43 6.55 7.09 7.03 28.26 29.12 30.17 29.56 ccc 250 ppm 9.2 9.6 9.7 9.1 39.24 34.43 35.18 33.94 6.56 6.64 7.20 7.08 28.94 29.50 31.46 30.58 ccc 500 ppm 9.5 9.7 9.9 9.4 46.93 42.67 41.08 39.18 6.60 6.78 7.27 7.18 30.27 30.34 33.33 32.50 ccc 750 ppm 8.9 9.3 9.4 8.8 42.12 40.20 37.63 35.94 6.57 6.70 7.23 7.13 29.76 30.23 32.80 31.40 mh 250 ppm 8.7 9.2 9.3 8.6 40.87 38.75 36.54 35.20 6.53 6.63 7.18 7.07 29.12 29.88 31.76 30.98 mh 500 ppm 9.6 9.8 9.9 9.4 48.45 44.57 42.38 40.37 6.65 6.80 7.20 7.19 30.74 31.10 33.94 32.88 mh 750 ppm 9.1 9.5 9.6 9.0 43.19 40.12 38.94 37.14 6.51 6.74 7.25 7.15 30.56 30.94 33.66 32.75 mustard oil coating 8.1 8.3 8.4 8.0 31.37 29.59 27.42 25.10 6.40 6.55 7.08 7.01 27.92 28.74 29.80 29.10 (100% pure) coconut oil coating 10.1 10.4 10.6 9.9 56.61 54.23 50.78 47.98 6.75 6.93 7.39 7.25 32.49 33.80 36.92 35.23 (100% pure) liquid paraffin 9.9 10.2 10.4 9.8 52.93 50.07 48.34 45.27 6.69 6.87 7.35 7.22 31.32 32.13 34.84 33.95 coating (100%pure) sem+ 0.751 0.766 0.764 0.750 0.572 0.446 0.352 0.577 0.283 0.285 0.290 0.288 0.617 0.515 0.415 0.416 cd at (p=0.05%) ns ns ns ns 1.652 1.291 1.018 1.667 ns ns ns ns 1.783 1.488 1.200 1.201 ns = non significant ;dat= days after treatment j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 53-56, 2008 bisen and pandey 55 and ripening, which resulted in dissipation of ascortic acid into dehydro ascorbic acid during storage. the present findings are in conformity with nagar et al (2004) in kagzi lime fruits. relatively better physical appearance of fruits (9.6%) was observed 18 days storage period with coconut oil coating. at storage period of 24 days, appearance of the fruits was affected adversely in all treatments (table 2). however, maximum appearance acceptability of fruits (8.8%) was obtained under coconut oil coating at 24 days of storage period. this might be due to delay in ripening as well as uniform colour development in fruits under coconut oil coating at this period of storage. similar results were reported by mahajan et al (2005) in kinnow fruits. whereas, minimum acceptability regarding appearance of fruits (2.8%) was observed under mustard oil coating after 24 days of storage. this may be due to wrinkling and softening of fruit tissues by skin injury, which is caused by application of pure mustard oil coating. the highest organoleptic scoring for flavour was recorded under coconut oil coating followed by liqu id paraffin coating under every stage of storage. it might be due to delay in ripening of fruits, which retain the flavour for longer period of time and release pleasant flavour in those fruits were coated with coconut oil. while natural flavour decreased under mustard oil coating. some differences in appearance and flavour were also noted by dalal et al (1987) in baramasi lemon. maximum consumer acceptability for fruit juice was noted under coconut oil coating at 6, 12, 18 and 24 days storage, respectively, followed by liquid paraffin coating. whereas, satisfactory taste of lime juice was not retained under mustard oil coating. when the storage period was increased more than 12 days, it was observed that taste of fruit juice gradually deteriorated under all treatments. on the basis of the findings (table 2) more acceptable taste was noted with coconut oil coating at all the stages of storage period. retention of better taste is due to content of more acidity. these results are in conformity with the findings of naik and rekhade (1994) in ber fruits. coconut oil and liquid paraffin coating of fruits was found to be more effective in maintaining natural light green colour of fruits upto 24 days of storage, and this was acceptable to consumers. it might be due to retardation of senescence process and less degradation in the colour pigments (chlorophyll), which slowed the change in external colour under these treatments. similarly result was obtained by das and medhi (1996) in pineapple fruits, whereas, dark brown colour of fruits was observed with pure mustard oil coating at 24 days of storage. this may be due to skin injury caused by higher concentration of mustard oil coating further causing tissue softening and destruction of colour pigments, leading to a change in external colour of the fruits. similar findings were also reported by dalal et al (1987) in baramasi lemon. table 2. effect of post harvest treatment on organoleptic quality in kagzi lime fruit treatment appearance flavour taste external colour dat dat dat dat 6 12 18 24 6 12 18 24 6 12 18 24 6 12 18 24 control 5.8 6.4 6.7 5.5 5.4 5.8 4.4 3.8 5.4 5.8 4.4 3.8 yg+lg ly+yg lg+lb yb+db 50gy 6.0 6.5 6.9 5.8 5.7 6.0 4.7 4.0 5.7 6.0 4.7 4.0 yg+dg lg+yg dy+yb lb+yb 100 gy 8.5 8.7 8.9 7.8 7.1 7.6 6.9 6.0 7.1 7.6 6.9 6.0 lg+dg ly+yg ly+yg ly+lb 200 gy 7.5 7.9 8.2 6.8 6.7 7.2 6.2 5.2 6.7 7.2 6.2 5.2 yg+dg lg+yg ly+yg ly+lb 300 gy 6.2 6.0 5.6 4.5 5.3 4.7 4.0 3.3 5.3 4.7 4.0 3.3 lg+yg ly+yg lb+ly db 400 gy 5.6 5.2 4.8 3.9 4.9 4.5 3.5 3.0 4.9 4.5 3.5 3.0 lg+yg ly+yg lb+ly db ccc 250 ppm 6.3 6.8 7.1 6.1 5.8 6.1 4.9 4.1 5.8 6.1 4.9 4.1 yg+lg ly+lg ly+lb ly+db ccc 500 ppm 7.8 8.3 8.6 7.2 6.5 7.0 6.4 5.4 6.5 7.0 6.4 5.4 yg+dg ly+yg dy+ly ly+lb ccc 750 ppm 6.7 6.9 7.6 6.5 6.2 6.5 5.5 4.7 6.2 6.5 5.5 4.7 ly+lg lg+yg ly+lb ly+yb mh 250 ppm 6.5 7.0 7.3 6.3 6.0 6.2 5.1 4.4 6.0 6.2 5.1 4.4 yg+lg ly+lg ly+lb ly+db mh 500 ppm 8.2 8.0 8.7 7.5 6.9 7.4 6.7 5.6 6.9 7.4 6.7 5.6 lg+dg ly+yg dy+ly ly+lb mh 750 ppm 6.9 7.2 7.9 6.7 6.4 6.8 5.9 5.1 6.4 6.8 5.9 5.1 ly+lg lg+yg ly+lb ly+yb mustard oil 5.4 4.9 4.1 2.8 4.5 4.1 3.6 2.8 4.5 4.1 3.6 2.8 yg+lb ly+lb lb+db db coating (100% pure) coconut oil 9.1 9.3 9.6 8.8 7.8 8.3 7.3 6.7 7.8 8.3 7.3 6.7 lg+dg lg+dg lg+dg lg+ly coating (100% pure) liquid paraffin 8.8 9.1 9.3 8.4 7.5 7.9 7.1 6.3 7.5 7.9 7.1 6.3 lg+dg lg+dg lg+yg lg+ly coating (100% pure) db= dark brown dg= dark green lg= light greenlb= light brownyg= yellowish green yb= yellowish brown dat= days after treatment j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 53-56, 2008 post harvest treatment and kagzi lime quality 56 references a.o.a.c. 1970. methods of the association of official agricultural chemists. washington, d.c. bhullar, j. s. 1983. storage behaviour of kagzi lime fruits. haryana j. hortl. sci., 12; 5255. chaudhary, m. r., dhaka, r. s. and fageria, m. s. 2004. effect of wax emulsion and gibberellic acid on shelf life and quality of kinnow mandarin fruit during storage. j. udyanika hortl. sci., 10:6-9. dalal, y. b., eipeson, w. e. and singh, n. s. 1987. effect of skin coating emulsion on shelf life of baramasi lemon. proc. fla. sta. hort. society, new york,. pp 205206. das and medhi, 1996. physio-chemical changes of pineapple fruit under certain post-harvest treatments. south ind. hort., 44: 5-7. el. monem a., mestafa and ei-mageed m. a. a. 2003. effect of some post harvest treatments on the storage quality of annona and on its volatile components. ann. agril. sci., cairo., 48 : 757-775. jagadeesh, s. l., rokhade, a. k. and lingaraju, s. 2001. influence of post harvest treatments on storage behaviour of guava fruits cv. sardar. j. mah. sci., 26: 297-300. mahajan, b. y. c., dhatt a. s. and sandhu k. s., 2005. effect of different post harvest treatments on the storage life of kinnow. j. food & tech., 42: 296299. nagar, b. l., dashora l. k. and dhaka, r. s. 2004. effect of different post harvest treatments on shelf life and quality of kagzi lime (citrus aurantifolia swingle). udyanika, 10: 11-17. naik, k. r. and rekhade, a. k. 1994. effect of post harvest treatments on keeping, quality of ber fruits. j. mah. agri. univ., 19:180-183. sindhu, s, s. and singhrot, r. s. 1996. effect of oil emulsion and chemicals on shelf life of baramasi lemon (citrus limon burm). haryana j. hortl. sci., 25: 67--73. singhrot, r. s., sharma, r .k. and sandooja, j. k. 1987. effects of some chemicals enhance shelf life of baramasi lemon. haryana j. hortl. sci., 16: 25-30. j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 53-56, 2008 bisen and pandey (ms received 11 june, 2007, revised 27, november 2007) mango (mangifera indica l.) is one of the most important tropical fruits of india. it is known as king of fruits. it is the premier and choicest fruit of india. in mango production, india ranks first in the world with respect to area (2.20 m.ha) and production (13.79 m.t) with productivity of 6.3 t/ha (indian horticulture database, 2008). mango shares 38 % in area and 21.7% in production of total fruit production of india and this offers bright prospects for boosting the exports. chhattisgarh is one of the important mango growing states of india. most of the area of chhattisgarh is rainfed and has an immense potential to improve the mango production. under chhattisgarh conditions, north indian varieties mature 15 to 20 days earlier, which results in better market price. most of the areas are under mango grown as rainfed; it is therefore proposed to find out the optimum water requirement under drip irrigation for mango and to evaluate its effect on fruit yield & quality. increasing demand for highly efficient irrigation system calls for the use of drip irrigation, which has also been found suitable under adverse conditions of climate, soil and irrigation water (singh et al., 1989). keeping the above in mind, the study was carried out to understand the response of mango to drip irrigation with and without polythene mulch. effect of drip irrigation and polythene mulch on the fruit yield and quality parameters of mango (mangifera indica l.) hemant kumar panigrahi, narendra agrawal, r. agrawal, saket dubey and s.p. tiwari precision farming development centre department of horticulture, indira gandhi krishi vishwavidyalaya raipur – 492 006, india abstract a field experiment was carried out at horticultural research farm, precision farming development centre, department of horticulture, indira gandhi krishi vishwavidyalaya, raipur, chhattisgarh during the year 20092010 in randomized block design with three replications and ten treatment combinations ( 100%, 80%, 60%, and 40% water through drip irrigation system with and without polythene mulch + basin irrigation with and without mulch). fruits characters, yield and yield attributing parameter were higher under drip irrigation with 0.6 v volume of water + polythene mulch (t8) and the same characters were lowest under control (basin irrigation with vvolume of water). application of black plastic mulch with drip irrigation system can conserve moisture, check the growth of weeds and improve the fruit yield and quality. water use efficiency was higher under drip irrigation with 0.6 v volume of water + polythene mulch and low under basin irrigation with v volume of water. the net income and benefit cost ratio was also higher under the treatment t 8 as compared to surface method of irrigation. key words: mango, drip irrigation, mulching layout of experiment the study was a part of field experiment designed to compare drip and conventional method of basin irrigation at precision farming development centre, department of horticulture, indira gandhi krishi vishwavidyalaya, raipur, chhattisgarh during the year 2009-2010. the experiment consisted of using treatments i.e., 100%, 80%, 60% and 40% of water (percentage in respect to water requirement of crop) through drip irrigation system having with and without plastic mulch (100 micron) and a control. the distance between lateral-to-lateral was fixed as 10 m and four emitters of different lph in each plant is placed according to recommended spacing of mango plants (10 m row to row and plant to plant spacing). experiment was conducted on fifteen years old trees of mango cultivar dashehari. the treatments were replicated three times in randomized block design. the soil of experimental field was clay-loam which is locally known as dorsa in the region in which available n, p & k were 321.27, 30.83 and 200.02 kg/ha and soil ph was 7.31. the fertilizer doses of n: p: k 200:200:200 (g/tree/year) was applied through irrigation water (fertigation) in two split doses whereas, for surface irrigation system the fertilizer was sprayed after mixing with water in two split doses. standard cultural practices were j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 140-143, 2010 short communication prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 141 also followed for mango cultivation. the observations on yield and physico-chemical parameters of mango were recorded to know the effect of drip irrigation and mulch. the details of ten treatments are given below: t 1 : basin irrigation with 1.0 v-volume of water (control) t 2 : basin irrigation with 1.0 v-volume of water + polythene mulch t 3 : drip irrigation with 1.0 v-volume of water t 4 : drip irrigation with 1.0 v-volume of water + polythene mulch t 5 : drip irrigation with 0.8 v-volume of water t 6 : drip irrigation with 0.8 v-volume of water + polythene mulch t 7 : drip irrigation with 0.6 v-volume of water t 8 : drip irrigation with 0.6 v-volume of water + polythene mulch t 9 : drip irrigation with 0.4 v-volume of water t 10 : drip irrigation with 0.4 v-volume of water + polythene mulch where v = irrigation water requirement estimation of emission uniformity field emission uniformity takes into account the uniformity of emitter discharge through the system. keller and karmeli (1975) defined the emission uniformity as: average of lowest ¼ flow emission uniformity = —————————— x 100 average of all emitter flow estimation of irrigation water requirement (v) the depth of irrigation water for different treatments was calculated depending on the potential evaporation. reference crop evapotranspiration (et 0 ) was calculated using modified penman method (doorenbos, and pruitt, 1977). the crop co-efficient (kc) for different growth stages of mango was selected. the actual crop evapotranspiration was estimated by multiplying the reference crop evapotranspiration, crop co-efficient, area under each plant and wetting fraction. the quantity of water to be applied was estimated by using the following equation: v = eto x kc x ap – (ap x re) where, v = net depth of irrigation (litre/day/plant) eto = reference crop evapotranspiration (mm/day) kc = crop co-efficient ap = a x w = effective area to be irrigated (sq.m) a = area allocated to each plant, 36 sqm apprx. w = wetting fraction (0.3-0.5 for fruit crop) re = effective rainfall (mm/day). drip irrigation was scheduled on alternate days; hence total quantity of water delivered was cumulative water requirement of two days minus effective rainfall (if rain occurred). the duration of delivery of water to each treatment was controlled with the help of gate valves provided at the inlet of each lateral. in case of basin irrigation, irrigation was scheduled at weekly interval. the cumulative depth of water required for seven days was estimated and supplied to each plant. the water (through surface method of irrigation) was directly applied in the basin with the help of pvc pipes. benefit-cost analysis benefit-cost analysis was carried out to determine the economic feasibility of using the drip irrigation. the interest rate and repair and maintenance cost of the system were 12% and 1% per annum of the fixed cost respectively. the useful life of drip system was considered to be 8 years. the cost of cultivation includes expenses incurred in field preparation, cost of grafted plants, fertilizer, weeding, crop protection, irrigation water and harvesting charges. the income from produce was estimated using prevailing average market price as rs. 2000 /quintal for drip irrigated with polythene mulch, rs. 1500/ quintal for drip irrigated without mulch and rs. 1200/ quintal for surface irrigated, the difference in rates was due to better quality of produce found through drip with mulch as compared to without mulch and surface irrigation. the benefit–cost ratio, from mango cultivation over 1 ha was estimated. the data were analysed statistically as per standard procedure. fruit yield and quality data on yield with different irrigation treatments are presented in table –1. drip irrigation with 60 % v-volume of water + mulch (t 8 ) recorded the maximum yield (59.92 q/ha) as compared to other treatments and the yield was lowest in control (26.95 q/ha). the yield effect of drip irrigation and polythene mulch on mango j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 140-143, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 142 increase was 122.26% over control. this could be due to the water stress the plant has to undergo before the next irrigation. but in case of drip irrigation water is made available in the root zone there by reducing the water stress pressure directly near (bankar et al, 1993). the variation in water applied for different treatments was due to the variation in pan evaporation and rainfall pattern, as the quantity of water applied was based on pan evaporation. it was observed from the table-1, that drip irrigation treatments with replenishing 60% of water requirement or the depth of water (18.67cm) given to the plant was optimum for the growth and fruit yield as compared to the surface irrigation. water required for drip irrigation was lower than that of surface irrigation. water use efficiency the irrigation water use efficiency for different treatments was computed from fruit yield and water applied (table–1). the irrigation water use efficiency in drip irrigation treatments with 0.6 v-volume of water with polythene mulch was maximum (3.21 q/ha-cm) followed by drip irrigation with 0.4 v (1.75 q/ha-cm), 0.6v (2.29 q/ha-cm) and 0.8 v (1.65 q/ha-cm) volume of water. the water use efficiency was lowest in control treatment (0.98 q/ha-cm). the irrigation water use efficiencies of 60% water through drip with black polythene mulch was nearly 3.27 times the water use efficiencies of surface irrigation treatment. srivastava et al (1999) reported that with the highest water application it recorded the lowest water use efficiency. the emission uniformity was highest under drip irrigation with 0.6 vvolume of water + polythene mulch (95.35%) and lowest in basin irrigation with v-volume of water (85.10%). fruit quality attributes the tss, pulp and moisture content were highest under drip irrigated treatment of 0.6 v volume of water with black polythene mulch and lowest in control. but the peel, stone and acidity were lowest in the same treatment and highest in control, which is better in reference to quality for any fruit crop. patel and patel (1998) reported that the increase in yield was mainly because of better growth, bigger size and more juice content in the fruits under drip-irrigated plants. similarly the weed control percentage was higher under treatment t 8 (90.20%) and lowest in control (13.67%). economic-feasibility maximum net returns of rs. 88,709/ha with b: c ratio of 2.84 was recorded when mango crop were irrigated with 0.6 v-volume of water through drip irrigation + polythene mulch (table–3). however, in drip irrigated polythene mulch treatments t 4, t 6 and t 10, the net returns of rs. 58,709/ha, rs. 74,769/ha and rs. 45,069/ha were obtained with b: c ratio of 1.88, 2.40 and 1.45 respectively. while in case of surface irrigation without mulch the net return of rs. 12,340/ha was lowest with b: c ratio of 0.61. table 1. effect of irrigation levels on the yield and yield parameters of mango treatments water length of breadth no. of av. fruit yield (q/ha) increase water use emission applied fruits of fruits fruits/ weight(g) in yield (%) efficiency uniformity(%) (cm) (cm) (cm) plant (q/ha-cm) t 1 27.50 6.81 4.53 194.31 138.70 26.95 0.98 85.10 t 2 27.28 6.95 4.95 222.67 142.15 31.65 17.43 1.16 85.25 t 3 26.32 6.98 4.04 360.27 125.68 45.27 67.99 1.72 87.24 t 4 25.67 8.71 5.13 293.14 153.25 44.92 66.60 1.75 90.25 t 5 23.95 7.07 4.68 278.71 146.12 40.72 51.12 1.70 90.80 t 6 23.12 8.82 5.24 328.53 161.18 52.95 96.47 2.29 93.12 t 7 23.32 8.01 4.90 239.30 148.19 35.46 31.53 1.52 92.72 t 8 18.67 8.89 5.82 366.17 163.65 59.92 122.26 3.21 95.35 t 9 25.70 8.14 4.45 225.23 141.55 31.88 18.27 1.24 91.43 t 1 0 23.09 8.04 4.85 262.08 145.39 38.10 41.37 1.65 93.40 cd at (p=0.05) 0.954 0.378 0.210 27.96 4.41 1.12 0.102 0.962 table 2. effect of irrigation levels on physico-chemical composition of fruits treatments pulp tss peel stone acidity weed (%) (brix) (%) (%) (%) control (%) t 1 64.25 17.50 19.25 20.32 0.268 13.67 t 2 65.98 19.50 14.68 19.31 0.210 54.35 t 3 67.98 18.50 12.98 19.04 0.230 34.56 t 4 70.33 20.25 14.08 19.00 0.209 65.39 t 5 68.24 19.98 14.70 19.10 0.228 29.62 t 6 71.58 22.65 13.10 15.32 0.190 85.98 t 7 67.95 21.05 13.02 17.06 0.223 32.10 t 8 72.60 23.35 12.95 14.38 0.178 90.20 t 9 64.00 18.98 15.68 16.50 0.216 30.73 t 1 0 61.72 20.98 15.68 15.54 0.226 68.32 cd at 1.42 0.840 0.903 0.945 ns 12.29 (p=0.05) hemant kumar panigrahi et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 140-143, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 143 acknowledgement authors are thankful to the national committee on the use of plasticulture application in horticulture (ncpah), department of agriculture and cooperation, ministry of agriculture, government of india for providing the necessary funds to conduct this research. references banker, m.c., mane, m.c., khade, k.k. and kanjle, s.t. 1993. comparative performance of drip vs conventional method of irrigation on banana. procs. all india symposium on sprinkler and drip irrigation, 9-10 iei: 89-92 doorenbos, j. and pruitt, w.o. 1977. guidelines for predicting crop water requirements. fao, irrigation and drainage, paper no. 24, rome, italy keller, j. and karmeli, d. 1975. trickle irrigation design rain bird sprinkler manufacturing company. california, usa patel, n.m. and patel, m.m. 1998. water requirement of pomegranate (punica granatum l.) cv. ganesh for better yield under resources limited situations. national seminar on new horizons in production and post harvest management of tropical and subtropical fruits, delhi, dec. 8-9 table 3. cost analysis of mango s.no. particular/treatment t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6 t7 t8 t9 t10 1. fixed costa. cost of system 27,000 27,000 27,000 27,000 27,000 27,000 27,000 27,000 b. life (yrs.) 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 c. depreciation 3375 3375 3375 3375 3375 3375 3375 3375 d. interest cost@ 12 % 3240 3240 3240 3240 3240 3240 3240 3240 2. operation coste. repair 2700 2700 2700 2700 2700 2700 2700 2700 & maintenance @ 1 % 3. total operational cost (rs.) 9315 9315 9315 9315 9315 9315 9315 9315 4. a. cost of mulching 7816 7816 7816 7816 7816 b. cost of cultivation 14,000+6,000* 14,000 14,000 14,000 14,000 14,000 14,000 14,000 14,000 14,000 5. total cost of cultivation 20,000 21,816 23,315 31,131 23,315 31,131 23,315 31,131 23,315 31,131 (rs.) 3+4(a+b) 6. yield (q/ha) 26.95 31.65 45.27 44.92 40.72 52.95 35.46 59.92 31.88 38.10 7. selling price (rs./q.) 1200 1200 1500 2000 1500 2000 1500 2000 1500 2000 8. income from produce (rs.) 32,340 37,980 67,905 89,840 61,080 1,05900 53,190 1,19,840 47,820 76,200 9. net return (rs.) 12,340 16,164 44,590 58,709 37,765 74,769 29,875 88,709 24,505 45,069 10. b: c ratio 0.61 0.74 1.91 1.88 1.62 2.40 1.28 2.84 1.05 1.45 * in surface irrigation without mulch labour charges are extra for weeding, fertilizer application etc. singh, s.d. and singh, 1978. value of drip irrigation compared with conventional irrigation for vegetable production in hot and arid climate. agron., 70 : 23-27 singh, r.k., sulieman, a.d. and karim 1989. movement of salt and water under trickle irrigation and its field evaluation. j. agric. engg., 26: 49-51 sivanappan, r.k. 1993. increased production and income in banana crop through drip irrigation-a case study. technical journal, all india symp. on spriakla and drip irrigation iei, 21 jan: 105-106, 112 srinivas, k. and hedge, d.m. 1990. drip irrigation studies in banana. procs. xi international congress. pp. 151-157 subramanian, p., krishnaswamy, s. and devasagayam, m.m. 1997. studies on the evaluation of drip irrigation in comparison with surface irrigation in coconut. south ind. hort., 45: 255-58 srivastava, p.k., parikh, m.m., sawani, n.g. and raman, s. 1999. response of banana to drip irrigation, mulches and irrigation scheduling in south gujarat. agril. engg. today, 23 : 29-38 *wolf, p.1982. zwei jahrzehnte tropfbewasserungeiner zwishenbilanz, zeitshrift far, bewasserungswirtschaft, 17: 3-16 (ms received 10 august 2010, revised 22 december 2010) j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 140-143, 2010 effect of drip irrigation and polythene mulch on mango prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color 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cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no problems and prospects of banana breeding in india n. kumar department of fruit crops horticultural college and research institute tamil nadu agricultural university, periyakulam-625 604, tamil nadu, india e-mail : kumarhort@yahoo.com abstract banana breeding programme in india involves maintenance of various genetic resources of banana, of which triploids constitute the maximum share over diploids or tetraploids. rapd studies conducted in these clones exhibit many distinct genotypes. during a hybridization programme, although many crosses were made, seed set and seed germination were relatively poor in many crosses. male fertility in banana hybrids could be assessed by pollen output per anther; pollen viability and pollen size, which vary from cross to cross, and also from ploidy to ploidy. ploidy levels in hybrids are estimated by phenotypic appearance (scoring technique) and confirmed either by stomatal density, size and number of chloroplast per guard cell pair or root tip mitosis. however, flow cytometry appears to be the most reliable method in many disputed cases. generation of parthenocarpic hybrids depends largely upon selection and utilization of parents with parthenocarpic pedigree in a breeding programme. evaluation of hybrids and parents indicated the nature of inheritance with respect to plant height and suckering habit but no definite trend could be ascribed to the traits of bunch orientation. diploid x diploid breeding approach has led to identification of a superior triploid hybrid, nph 02-01, while triploid (with ab) x diploid approach has led to the development of a promising diploid hybrid h.212 and a triploid hybrid h.96/7 (abb). similarly, the triploid x diploid breeding programme resulted in development of many potential tetraploids that need further improvement. innovative breeding approaches through in vitro mutation breeding and in vitro polyploidazation resulted in the development of many potentially useful variants. breeding for resistance against biotic stresses such as fusarium wilt and nematodes holds promise in banana, and, biochemical mechanisms for resistance in resistant genotypes / hybrids have been elucidated. key words: banana, breeding, india, problems, prospects introduction banana is one of the most important fruit crops of india grown over an area of about 0.49 million hectares, annually producing about 11 million tonnes which account for 44.35 % of the total national fruit production. poovan (mysore -aab), cavendish cultivars (robusta and dwarf cavendish – aaa), silk (rasthali-aab), karpooravalli (pisang awak-abb) and virupakshi (aab), ‘nendran’ (plantain aab) and ney poovan (ab) are the important cultivars grown commercially in india. as banana production is limited by threat from pests and diseases, banana breeding was also started in india in line with that in other countries such as honduras, cameroon, brazil, etc. the breeding programme initiated at the then central banana research station, aduthurai, during 1949 in tamil nadu state, was the earliest among systematic banana improvement efforts in india. the tamil nadu agricultural university (tnau) at coimbatore, since its formation in 1971, is vigorously and actively pursuing musa improvement programmes. similarly, banana research station (brs), kannara, kerala agricultural university (kau) is also engaged in banana improvement and is concentrating on the improvement of ‘nendran’. besides, national research centre on banana (nrcb) (icar), trichy, established in 1994, is also involved in crop improvement in banana. in this paper, problems and prospects of banana breeding in india are highlighted. genetic resources in musa the breeding programme started as early as 1949 at aduthurai did not yield desirable results. however, a lot of cytogenetical information useful for formulating better strategies for musa improvement programmes was j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 77-94, 2006 focus accumulated (anon, 1968). detailed investigations on morphological characters and taxonomic status of south indian banana were earlier published by venkataramani (1949) and jacob (1952). several south indian banana were found to be more closely related to m. balbisiana than m. acuminata as revealed by the metroglyph (raman et al, 1968). bhakthavatsaulu and sathiamoorthy (1979) and sathiamoorthy et al (1979) also elaborated upon the genomic status and breeding potential of many south indian banana. many centres in india maintain the various genetic resources (table 1), which reveal that many clones available are triploid, and that too, under ‘aab’ category. as many synonyms exist for each clone and are differently named at various regions, much confusion prevails on the nomenclature of banana clones. in this situation, molecular characterization helps to identify clones unambiguously. molecular characterization of different clones has been attempted by various authors in india. jagannath et al (2003) characterized many aa and ab diploids using rapd markers. an overall similarity of 63% was found among the diploid cultivars. greater diversity was seen within the aa group than within the ab group. many natural mutants, such as ‘ambala kadali’, ‘erachi vazhai’, ‘thattila kunnan’, ‘vennetu kunnan’ and ‘rasa kadali’ showed significant variation from their parental genotypes (fig 1). rekha et al (2004) made an attempt to study the variability between the 17 ab cultivars available at indian institute of horticulture research, bangalore by using rapd markers. of the 80 primers that were screened, 16 table 1. musa genetic resources available at various centres in india (%) aa 9 7 15 9 1 5 8 ab 7 10 25 8 2 5 8 bb 6 2 20 1 4 2 aaa 14 10 16 21 12 12 aab 25 28 13 30 36 24 40 abb 25 30 20 28 31 22 21 aaaa 1 1 5 2 2 3 others 13 12 2 6 3 32 6 number of accessions 942 125 69 51 75 74 121 fig 1. dendrogram of diploid cultivars of banana j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 77-94, 2006 kumar 78 genome kau, kannara gau, gandevi, gujarat rau, pusa, bihar brs, kovvur (ap) iihr, bangalore tnau, coimbatore nrcb, trichy showed polymorphism. scorable polymorphic bands were analysed using cluster analysis and principal component analysis. results showed that there were two distinct clusters separating the ney poovan types and kunnan types. variability, attributed to somaclonal variation and natural mutations, was also observed in each group. menon et al (2003) assessed genetic diversity in 35 morphologically distinct indigenous banana cultivars representing five genomic groups, viz., aa, ab, aaa, aab and abb available at the genebank of kannara (kau), employing rapd analysis and found that the cultivars were grouped in clusters that generally represented the taxonomic classification based on morphological characters. cluster analysis among ‘b’ genome rich accessions of banana at nrcb, trichy (annual report, 2004-05) was done with bluggoe (abb), monthan (abb) and peyan (abb) and two sub-clusters were observed under each type. crossing technique pollinations are generally carried out between 7.00 and 10.00 a.m. undehisced anthers from male flowers are collected and twisted gently to force them to dehisce. using a soft sable hair brush, pollen grains are prised out and smeared gently over the stigmatic surface of those female flowers that open on the day of pollination. pollinated flowers are covered with a soft-cloth bag. seed set and germination unlike in other crops, seed set is very low in many varieties of banana. on hybridization the seed yield is reported to be influenced by time of pollination, fertility variations between basal and distal hands, the apical bias within a fruit (shepherd, 1960) and genomic make up (simmonds, 1962). most of the seeds (74.9%) are found in the distal one-third of the fruit bunch, 20.9 % in mid onethird and the rest (4.2%) in the proximal or basal one-third. using ‘matti’ as the female parent and seven diploids as male parents, 368 crosses were made but only 66 hybrids were obtained (sathiamoorthy, 1987). krishnamoorthy (2001) on the other hand crossed 7830 flowers and obtained a total seed yield of 1096 of which 91.5 % were good seeds while the rest were empty floats or bad (as designated by shepherd, 1960). among the various combinations such as aa x aa, ab x aa, and 3x x 2x crosses, he found that, in general, ab x aa crosses yielded more seed compared to the rest of the cross combinations, and, very low seed set in aa x aa crosses. this might be due to the fact that increase in balbisiana genome increased seed yield and factors for seed sterility increased with acuminata genome. climatic factors are also known to decide success of pollination and seed set in banana. krishnamoorthy (2001) observed that one of the reasons for obtaining relatively higher number of hybrids in his study might be the time of germination i.e., february to march under coimbatore conditions since, during this season, bright sunny weather and cooler nights prevail. seeds can be mechanically extracted from ripe fruits. the seeds are soaked in water for a week before sowing in seed pans kept in a mist chamber. germination is low and erratic, both during winter and warmer months (may-june). pollen fertility pollen fertility is an important factor for a clone to be used as the male parent in a hybridization programme. male fertility in banana clones / hybrids is assessed by pollen output per anther, pollen viability and pollen grain size. studies on pollen production and male fertility status of several clones by sathiamoorthy (1973, 1987) revealed the diploid aa cultivars ambalakadali, erachivazhai, pisang lilin and tongat to be more polleniferous than the triploids aaa, aab and abb. krishnamoorthy (2002) assessed male fertility in many newly developed hybrids and found that diploid progenies generally produced good pollen grains with stainability and germinability and were good enough to be considered as potential parents. further, he also found that lack of pollen production identified in some ab and aa hybrids was due to meiotic aberrations, confirming that male sterility in musa is not exclusive to triploids. damodaran (2004) assessed male fertility in ‘peykunnan’ derived hybrids and found that ‘peykunnan’ had poor male fertility but high female fertility, whereas, the reverse was true in the case of pollen parents pisang lilin and erachi vazhai. hence, the presence of high female and male fertility in ‘peykunnan’ derived crosses might be due to inheritance of these traits from their female and male parents respectively. sathiyamoorthy et al (1979) and krishnamoorthy (2002) found no consistence relationship between stainability and germinability values. it is obvious that acetocarmine staining of pollen is not a reliable index of fertility, since acetocarmine stains only the cytoplasm of the pollen grains as living or dead (vakil, 1958). evaluation of male fertility status of bananas based j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 77-94, 2006 banana breeding in india 79 on pollen size would be of considerable importance, as, the potential of a male parent depends on the quantum of fertile haploid spores it can produce. dodds (1943) reported, based on darlinton’s (1937) ratio of haploid, diploid and tetraploid spores, that in a banana the pollen diameter of 129.00 µm or less is haploid, 147.60 µm is diploid and 230.00 to 240.00 µm is tetraploid, whereas, sathiamoorthy (1987) arrived at the mean diameter of haploid, diploid and tetraploid pollen grains as 122.10, 139.20 and 222.22 µm, respectively, under coimbatore conditions. this brings out the fact, that in banana, pollen diameter is influenced by environment too. krishnamoorthy (2002) found that diploid hybrids produced 56.65 % pollen grains with a mean diameter of 101.12 µm, and 96.88 % of pollen grains had a diameter of 65.20 to 121.70 µm and these correspond to the haploid size mentioned by sathiamoorthy (1987). diploid hybrids / parents produced the maximum percent of haploid pollen grains (table 2) indicating their potential for use as male parents. table 2. haploid, diploid and tetraploid spores produced (%) by banana clones (based on darlington’s ratio) (sathiamoorthy, 1987) clone type haploid diploid tetraploid wild species 61.7 – 70.3 – – diploid cultivars 22.1 – 61.0 4.0 – 26.2 – triploids (aaa) 7.3 – 32.0 5.8 – 16.5 1.2 – 4.0 (aab) 10.0 – 20.0 12.0 – 20.0 2.7 – 13.3 (abb) 4.0 – 28.0 3.5 – 12.0 0 – 4.5 tetraploids 1.7 – 9.5 11.0 – 28.3 – krishnamoorthy (2002) also found that some synthetic triploid hybrids produced more than 50 % haploid pollen grains as; these can be used as male parents in future programmes. he also found that some tetraploid hybrids derived from ‘karpooravalli’ as female parent produced more than 90 % diploid pollen grains offering greater scope for use as the male parent in crossing programmes. ploidy assessment of hybrids studying ploidy levels of hybrids obtained from different cross combinations is a must in banana breeding because of potential production of diploid, triploid, tetraploid, hyperploid and aneuploid hybrids. ploidy levels are estimated by phenotypic appearance and confirmed either by root tip mitosis or stomatal density, size and number of chloroplast per guard cell pair. sathiyamoorthy (1973) and vandenhout et al (1995) classified banana clones into diploids, triploids and tetraploids based on stomatal density and stomatal size, respectively, as indicated below: ploidy level stomatal density stomatal size (mm2) sathiamoorthy (1973) vandenhout et al (1995) diploid 40.0 – 50.0 1250 triploid 30.0 – 40.0 1250 – 1840 tetraploid 9.0 – 15.2 1840 krishnamoorthy (2002), while assessing the ploidy status in his hybrids, found that stomatal density in different ploidy levels did not concur with the reports of sathiamoorthy (1973). hence, the range of stomatal density of respective ploidy parents was taken as the criterion for ploidy assessment. based on this criterion, all the diploid hybrids were found to fall in the range of parental diploids, whereas a few diploids, triploids and tetraploids exceeded the range. hence, stomatal size as well as number of chloroplast per guard cell pair was also taken as criteria. however, stomatal size in the exceeded diploid, triploid and tetraploids was found to be in the ranges observed in parental diploid, triploid as well as tetraploids. but, in respect of chloroplast number per guard cell pair, most of the diploids fell within the range of diploid parents or triploid parents. vandenhout et al (1995) observed that a high density of small stomata correlated with low ploidy level. besides stomatal size and density were also influenced by genotype effect within the same ploidy level. similarly, the chloroplast numbers in guard cell pair was influenced by ploidy level i.e, it increased with increase in ploidy level. root tip mitosis study is considered as one of the reliable methods or confirming ploidy status in banana. krishnamoorthy (2002) carried out root tip mitosis in all the 36 parthenocarpic hybrids to confirm the ploidy of each hybrid assessed by stomatal characters. the ploidy level of 34 hybrids was in accordance with ploidy level assessment based on stomatal characters. one of the hybrids, h-02-01, which had stomatal characters similar to that of tetraploids, had only 22 chromosomes, i.e., a diploid. another hybrid, h-02-21, did not fall under any of the ploidy ranges of parental cultivars-either triploid or tetraploid-but root mitosis confirmed it as a tetraploid. this serves as a caution to banana breeders to confirm the ploidy of any new hybrid by root mitosis as well. flow cytometry analysis is considered as the most superior and reliable method to confirm ploidy status, especially, in the case of most disputed cases, because of its precision, rapidity and it does not require dividing cells. precision is higher here because of analysis of the nuclear dna itself, which is least disturbed by environmental factors (dolezel et al, 1997). young cigar leaves of selected j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 77-94, 2006 kumar 80 hybrids are analysed for their ploidy level by measuring the size of nuclear genome by this high-throughput method. the cigar leaves were cut using a sharp sterile blade for a length of 15-20 cm, cleaned gently with sterile distilled water and wrapped with partially wetted sterilized whatman no. 3 filter paper. the samples were then packed in zipped polyethylene covers and sent to the laboratory of molecular cytogenetics and cytometry, czech republic, for ploidy analysis. flow cytometry ploidy assay involved preparation of suspensions of intact nuclei from small amounts of leaf tissue and the analysis of fluorescence intensity after staining with dapi. chicken red blood cell (crbc) nuclei were included in every sample as an internal reference standard. ploidy of individual plant was estimated based on the ratio of peaks corresponding to g1 nuclei of musa and crbc. damodaran (2004) employed this method for the first time in banana hybrids in india to confirm ploidy status of some hybrids. results indicated that two hybrids, viz., nph-02-01 and h-02-08, of doubtful ploidy status, were confirmed as triploids (aab), instead of diploids, as evident through stomatal density analysis and morphological scoring (fig 2, table 3). at nrcb, trichy , too, this method was employed to confirm ploidy status of 36 ambiguous accessions of banana. evaluation of hybrids for parthenocarpy although success in banana breeding depends on production of seed upon crossing, hybrids should be parthenocarpic to find acceptance as edible banana. sathiamoorthy (1987) evaluated 66 hybrids and found that only 23 were parthenocarpic and observed that a high degree of parhenocarpy, to an extent, suppresses seed set, although parthenocarpy and fertility are reported to be genetically independent characters. krishnamoorthy (2002) and krishnamoorthy and kumar (2005) subjected all the hybrids to assessment for parthenocarpy by bagging the female flowers. out of 312 seedlings evaluated, only 36 hybrids were found to be parthenocarpic (table 4). among these 36 hybrids, higher rates (by number) of parthenocarpic hybrids were obtained from diploid x diploid and triploid x triploid crosses. in crosses between h 201 and aa diploids (i.e., diploid x diploid), many hybrids were found to be nonparthenocarpic by krishnamoorthy (2002) indicating the table 3. confirmation of ploidy through flow cytometry hybrid / parent parentage ploidy status determined by morphological scoring stomatal density flow cytometry nph.02.01 h.201 x anaikomban 42 (aab) 3x 55.53 (2x) aab (3x) h.02.08 h.201 x erachi vazhai 46 (ab) 72.30 (ab) aab (3x) h.03.11 h.02.32 x pisary lilin 54 (aabb) 4x 46.05 (aabb) 4x 4x h.03.13 peykannan x erachi vazhai 56 (aabb) 4x 13.16 (aabb) 4x 4x h.03.15 h.02.32 x pisang lilin 42 aab (3x) (12.76 (aab) (3x) 3x banana breeding in india 81 nph 02-01 h-02-08 fig 2. flow cytometry analysis of selective banana hybrids for ploidy confirmation relative dna content n u m b er o f n u cl ei j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 77-94, 2006 influence of female parent, which is highly female fertile because of the influence of b genome contained in it. from the pedigree of hybrid h 201, when traced back, it was evident that one of its parents, cv. barelichina (abb) used as female parent, had contributed to the non-parthenocarpic nature. in this background, it may be inferred that the parthenocarpic hybrids obtained from crosses involving h 201 and diploid parents, or, in other crosses involving diploid parents, might be due to a series of complementary dominant genes which were derived from edible natural diploids, which are variously heterozygous in their genetic composition for these genes. from the breeding point of view, it is an important consideration, as, parthenocarpic progenies could be readily sorted out in a population from crosses involving these diploid parents. in the case of triploid x diploid crosses, out of four parthenocarpic hybrids (table 4), one (h-02-16) was found to be triploid with aab while all other hybrids were found to be tetraploid with aabb genome. the triploid hybrid could have arisen from an egg containing ab genome from ‘karpooravalli’ and one ‘a’ genome from pisang lilin, while, rest of the tetraploids could have arisen from unreduced gametes of abb combining with one ‘a’ genome from the male parent. in the case of triploid ´ triploid crosses (excepting h-02-20 and h-02-24), all were found to be tetraploids with aabb genome, thus again revealing the ability of ‘karpooravalli’ to produce unreduced gametes/egg cells to combine with ‘a’ genome from the triploid (red banana / robusta). puskaran (1991) also obtained 32 tetraploid hybrids using ‘karpooravalli’ as the female parent with pisang lilin, indicating the ability of ‘karpooravalli’ to produce unreduced egg cell during megasporogenesis. damodaran (2004), on the other hand, found that all the hybrids were parthenocarpic. selection and utilization of parents with parthenocarpic pedigree in the breeding programme might have contributed to enhanced parthenocarpy occurrence as he used all the parthenocarpic hybrids of krishnamoorthy (2002) for further improvement. it also confirms the role of dominant genes in controlling parthenocarpy (simmonds, 1953). two of the 25 hybrids, viz., nph-02-01 and nph02-02 which were found to be non-parthenocarpic in phase i generation by krishnamoorthy (2002) were, however, found to be parthenocarpic in phase ii evaluation by damodaran (2004). this suggests the possibility of reversion of non-parthenocarpy to parthenocarpy in some cases. reversion of gene for parthenocarpy to nonparthenocarpy in the first vegetative generation was earlier reported by simmonds (1953). this peculiar phenomenon should serve as a caution to banana breeders to carefully consider potential non-parthenocarpic hybrids lest they revert to parthenocarpy in subsequent vegetative generations. evaluation of hybrid seedlings apart from parhenocarpiness, hybrids need to be evaluated for desirable horticultural traits. the evaluation consists of phase i (seed to harvest stage) and phase ii (sucker to harvest stage). the full inherent potential of hybrids cannot be derived from the phase i as it is seed propagated and, therefore, it takes relatively more time for corms to develop from seeds. hence, evaluation of the phase ii sucker propagated hybrids is essential to assess the plant’s fullest potential (sathiamoorthy, 1987; krishnamoorthy, 2002). krishnamoorthy (2002) observed that hybrids involving dwarf parents, such as h 201 and or pisang lilin, were also dwarf. this indicates that the gene for dwarfness was derived either from h 201 or pisang lilin. it is also interesting to note that h 201 had one of the parents as pisang lilin and, hence, pisang lilin is the source of dwarf gene. ortiz and vuylsteke (1995) suggested that dwarf hybrids could easily be produced if only dwarf diploid male parents with better horticultural qualities were involved in the breeding programme. the importance of dwarfness as indicated by simmonds (1966) was the advantage conferred by it in terms of higher yields at high densities, enhanced weed control, reduced sucker pruning, less damage from table 4. ploidy distribution in hybrids obtained from various cross combinations name of the cross no. of no. of no. of hybrids parthenocarpic non-parthenocarpic obtained 2x 3x 4x 5x hybrids hybrids diplod x diploid 257 196 (76.27) 55 (21.40) 6 (2.39) 15 (5.84) 242 (94.16) triploid x diploid 12 1 (15.39) 12 (76.92) 4 (30.77) 8 (61.54) triploid x triploid 42 1 35 (83.33) 6 (16.67) 17 (40.48) 25 (59.52) figures in parantheses indicate % hybrid recovery j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 77-94, 2006 kumar 82 no. of hybrids in each ploidy level wind and easy harvest. krishnamoorthy (2002) observed tetraploids to be always very tall (fig 3 ). damodaran (2004) observed the segregation pattern of height of the progenies of h-02-32 (aabb) x pisang lilin (aa) which ranged from as dwarf as 149 cm to as high as 411 cm. this indicated that hybrids segregated for dwarf and tall stature of plants. the possibility of obtaining dwarf hybrids stems from the fact that dwarfism in banana is controlled by a recessive gene (ortiz and vuyletske, 1996) which should have been derived from dwarf parent pisang lilin. in rest of the crosses, the height of the progenies was over 400 cm, indicating tallness to be dominant and the recessive gene from the ‘a’ genome of pisang lilin could not express itself in tetraploid hybrids. in musa, suckering behaviour is influenced by apical dominance. inhibition of lateral bud growth due to growth substances released by the terminal bud has been considered as a limiting factor for perennial productivity (ortiz and vuylsteke, 1996). krishnamoorthy (2002) found that the mean number of suckers per mat in diploid hybrids was more than in triploid or tetraploid hybrids. even in diploid aa x diploid aa crosses, the number of suckers per mat was more (9.00) than in diploid ab x diploid aa crosses (7.00). damodaran (2004), on the other hand, found that the number ranged from two to four in diploids, seven to eight in triploids and five to eleven in tetraploids. this indicates that tetraploids of the present cross combination had higher suckering ability than diploids, a trait otherwise not common among diploids. better suckering ability in tetraploids may be attributed to heterotic vigour manifested in the 3n x 2n crosscombination. the hybrids h-03-07 and h-03-06 produced only one and two suckers, respectively, while the other hybrids from the same parents produced more number of suckers. this might be due to the poor penetration of the “ad” allele or due to the variable expressivity of the allele. the “ad” gene has incomplete penetrance, genetic specificity and variable expressivity (ortiz and vuylsteke, 1994). bunch orientation is an important trait in plantain and banana. pendulous bunches are more symmetrical than sub-horizontal or oblique and horizontal or erect bunches and are, therefore, better suited for transportation. studies by krishnamoorthy (2002) and damodaran (2004) revealed that inheritance of bunch orientation character is a complex trait and needs further systematic investigation (table 5). the duration of hybrids as assessed by days to flowering, filling and harvest varied widely within and between cross combinations in banana. total duration varied from 268 to 716 days in hybrids (krishnamoorthy, 2002). diploids had shorter duration, while tetraploids had a longer duration. wherever a long duration parent viz., ‘karpooravalli’ was involved, hybrids invariably had longer duration. this suggests that to breed varieties for shorter duration, the progenies need to be further backcrossed to shorter duration parents only. diploid breeding banana breeding is essentially a diploid breeding. the long-held conclusion of dodds (1943) that progress is dependent on breeding superior diploids and, then, selecting new commercial hybrids from tetraploids derived from crossing these diploids onto ‘gros michel’, was based on table 5. expression of bunch hang traits in banana hybrids name of the hybrid / genome bunch hang parent bunch hang parent bunch hang parent h.02.027 (aabb) p karpooravalli (abb) o red banana (aaa) p h.02.25 (aabb) h karpooravalli (abb) o red banana (aaa) p h.02.26 (aabb) o karpooravalli (abb) o red banana (aaa) p h.02.06 (ab) p h.201 (ab) h anaikomban o h.02.09 (ab) h h.201 (ab) h pisang 4 lin h h.02.11 (ab) o h.201 (ab) h h.110 h p : pseudoutous orientation, h : horizontal orientation, o : oblique orientation j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 77-94, 2006 banana breeding in india 83 tetraploid h-02-30 karpooravalli x red banana height : 490 cm girth : 105 cm no. of roots : 288/mat bunch not supported fig 3. a tall statured tetraploid hybrid (aabb) historical limitations of diploid accessions. these accessions (in all the germplasm collections) are agronomically so inferior that there was little expectation that diploids with adequate bunch sizes could be developed from breeding them. the continuous, primary emphasis in breeding has been to develop diploids with desirable agronomic qualities and, then, to cross theses agronomically improved hybrids with disease-resistant clones to synthesize diploids with combinations of agronomic excellence and disease resistance. diploid breeding at tnau, coimbatore, primarily involved the use of vars. anaikomban, namarai, erachi vazhai, pisang lilin and tongat (all aa) as male parents with matti (aa) as the female parent (sathiamoorthy et al, 1979, 1988) led to development of potential synthetic diploid hybrids (table 6). many of the synthetic diploids have been found to have good resistance to burrowing nematode, sigatoka leaf spot and fusarium wilt. cultivar matti showed higher female fertility than other diploids which were generally female sterile. a plausible explanation for high seed fertility of matti could be attributed to its localised cultivation in kanyakumari district of tamil nadu near the foot hills of southern travancore wherein, even now, its wild ancestor m. acuminata sub sp. burmanica could be traced. this wild species is highly female fertile and is self propagated through seeds. matti would have arisen as a clonal selection for parthenocarpic type from this wild species while probably retaining the seed fertility trait. development of potential synthetic diploid hybrid h 201(ab) robusta as male parent has been used almost simultaneously and independently in honduras and india. it readily crossed with both m. acuminata and m. balbisiana. hybrid progenies were also obtained when it was crossed with a synthetic tetraploid of aabb genome (bareli chinia x pisang lilin). except for one diploid, all the progenies consisted of non-parthenocarpic diploids. the parthenocarpic diploid hybrid, designated as h 201, was of the genome ab and was dwarf, non-polleniferous but highly seed fertile and exhibited high resistance to panama wilt, nematodes and sigatoka diseases (sathiamoorthy, 1987). its use in evolving new aab or abb forms appears to be worthwhile. diploid x diploid breeding approaches although extensive inter-diploid crosses were made at tnau, coimbature since 1971, with the primary objective of synthesizing new diploid forms as stated earlier, hybridisation work did not always result in pure diploid progenies. frequently, due to single and double restitution, occurrence of triploid and penta polyploids was also encountered among hybrids the generated (table 4). however, production of triploid hybrids through 2x x 2x breeding approaches will be very useful. krishnamoorthy (2002) crossed h 201 (ab) x anaikomban (aa) to develop new triploid combination viz., nph-02-01 (aab) (fig 4) which is a pome type, parthenocarpic, resistant to fusarium wilt (race 1) and nematodes (fig 5) and possesses desirable horticultural table 6. potential synthetic diploid hybrids developed at tamil nadu agricultural university using matti (aa) as female parent hybrids ploidy height number of bunch tss duration reaction to reaction to level (cm) suckers / mat weight (kg) (%) (days) sigatoka burrowing nematode h 21 2x 302 15.0 105 20.0 339 r hr h 59 2x 280 6.1 19.3 26.3 320 r r h 65 2x 355 9.3 17.8 19.5 327 hr r h 82 2x 301 6.7 8.3 20.5 350 s h 89 2x 301 18.4 12.3 24.0 372 r h 103 2x 303 10.0 16.7 27.1 333 hr h 109 2x 311 17.6 20.7 23.7 369 r r hr: highly resistant, r: resistant, s: susceptible j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 77-94, 2006 kumar 84 h-201 anai komban ank(t)8 nph-02-01 x fig 4. pedigree of hybrid nph 02-01 traits such as better bunch weight (19.00 kg) and 11.00 hands. this hybrid is now under multi-locational testing in different parts of tamil nadu. triploid x diploid breeding approaches the ‘pome’ cultivars are usually grown in cool, mid hill ranges of tamil nadu where they develop their characteristic flavour and taste. an attempt was made to improve a pome cultivar called ‘kallar ladan’. one of the ab hybrids from the cross kallar ladan (aab) x m. balbisiana clone sawai (bb) was used to cross with cultivar kadali (aa) to develop an aab hybrid. this was later released for commercial cultivation as co 1 banana (azhakiamanavalan et al, 1985). this belongs to ‘pome group’ and closely resembles virupakshi (aab), another popular ‘pome’ banana in the hills of tamil nadu. plants of co1 are medium tall (2.7 m). the bunch weighs 10.5 kg on an average with 7 hands and 80-85 fruits. fruits have tss of 22-24°brix. crop duration is 14 15 months. just before full ripening, fruits exhibit acidic taste but become sweet at full ripening. triploid x diploid breeding attempted at kau also led to the release of two hybrids, viz., brs-1 (agniswar x pisang lilin) and brs – 2 (vannan x pisang lilin). brs-1 (aab) is 100 days earlier than rasthali with significant difference in bunch weight. it has been released for homestead cultivation in kerala as it is resistant to sigatoka table 7. performance of triploid and tetraploid hybrids obtained from ‘karpooravalli’ (aab) crosses hybrid male parent bunch wt (kg) no. of fingers tss (obrix) total crop duration reaction to nematodes h 212 pisang lilin (aa) 12.52 160 31.00 363 tolerant h 02-21 red banana (aaa) 18.00 192 19.20 458 resistant h 02-34 red banana (aaa) 15.00 116 18.50 550 resistant leaf spot. brs-2 (aab) is a medium statured hybrid, tolerant to leaf spot and panama diseases, rhizome weevil and nematodes. the average bunch weight is 14 kg, with 8 hands and 118 fruits in a crop duration of 314 days. this suggests that triploid x diploid approach to breeding is a viable method to produce new hybrid combinations. in this direction, krishnamoorthy (2002) took up hybridisation between triploid parents ‘karpooravalli’, ‘red banana’, ‘nendran’ and rasthali with already identified, potential male diploids / synthetic diploids. among the triploid female parents, higher seed-set as obtained with ‘karpooravalli’ while the remaining commercial triploids ‘rasthali’ (aab), ‘red banana’ (aaa) and ‘nendran’ (aab) did not set seed. presence of female fertility in aab genome group of plantains has been reported in some african countries where high rainfall with high relative humidity may have favoured pollen germination and fertilization (swennen and vuylsteke, 1993 and vuylsteke et al. (1993). therefore, the climate of coimbatore where relative humidity is generally not very high may be a possible cause for poor or nil fertility in ‘rasthali’ (aab) and ‘nendran’ (aab). the stigmas in female flowers of these cultivars were dry and completely blackened on crossing, indicating that female flowers are not compatible for hybridisation. similarly, though the stigma of red banana showed stickiness indicating receptivity, it could not set any seed under coimbatore conditions. it may be due to post-pollination incompatibility. in contrast, karmacharya et al (1992) reported maximum seed production in agniswar, a synonym for red banana under kerala conditions. this indicates the influence of climate on fertilization and development of embryos. this poses a challenge to breeders to attempt induce female fertility by some means in clones that are otherwise female sterile. triploid x diploid breeding sometimes produces promising diploids too (table 7). the hybrid h-212 (fig.6), a diplod (ab), resembles ney poovan (ab) and possesses resistance to nematodes and sigatoka leaf spot. hence, this hybrid has been tested with ney poovan (table 8) and found to be promising. hence, this hybrid is also under multilocation testing now. j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 77-94, 2006 banana breeding in india 85 corm damage lesion symptoms nph-02-01 c.s of roots nendran nph-02-01 fig 5. nph-02-01 hybrid corm and roots exhibiting no damage by nematodes table 8. comparative performance of h.212 vs cv. ney poovan trait h-212 ney poovan genome ab ab male parent pisang lilin height (cm) 311 360 girth (cm) 66 85 bunch weight (kg) 13 10 number of fingers 160 130 tss (%) 31 26 total duration (days) 363 335 reaction to nematodes tolerant susceptible further, 3n x 2n breeding programme at tnau resulted in identification of a promising hybrid designated as 96/7 (fig 7). this was evolved by crossing ‘karpooravalli’ x h. 201 (3n x 2n) and its attributes are tabulated (table 9). the fruit colour is bright yellow without any ashy coating. the female parent (karpooravalli) has fruits with ashy coating that masks the brightness of yellow colour. the ploidy and genome were assessed to be abb, similar to female parent. this cultivar is now under small scale field-testing. table 9. comparison of hybrid 96/7 with the female parent ‘karpooravalli’ (abb) sl. characters hybrid 96/7 karpooravalli no. (abb) (abb) 1. plant height (cm) 3.10 3.25 2. plant girth (cm) 98.00 93.50 3. bunch weight (kg) 28.50 24.00 4. hands/bunch 12.00 10.00 5. fruits/bunch 202.00 186.00 6 fruit weight (g) 93.50 84.10 7 total soluble solids (°brix) 21.5 19.0 development of primary tetraploids and their further improvement hybridisation between triploid cultivars and dipoloid cultivars often results in many primary tetraploids. as tripoids are preferred over tetraploids because of superior vigour and yield potential, these primary tetrapoids are subjected to further crossing with potential diploids to develop secondary triploids, as indicated below : damodaran (2004) attempted crossing triploid peykunnan (syn. pisang awak) with many diploids (aa) to develop primary tetraploids (table 10). j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 77-94, 2006 kumar 86 fig 6. bunch traits of hybrid h 212 (ab) karpooravalli x h-201 h-96/7 under now multi location testing for yield potential and resistance to nematodes fig 7. a promising triploid hybrid (abb) these tetraploids need to be further improved by crossing again with diploids to improve bunch weight. one attempt by damodaran (2004) to cross h-02-02 (aabb), hybrid between karpooravalli (abb) and red banana (aaa) with pisan lilin (aa) has resulted in development of h.03-15 (aab), a primary triploid with good bunch weight (14.50 kg) and resistance to wilt and nematodes suggest that extensive hybridization between potential tetraploids and diploids has to be pursued in relatively large numbers so that there are more chances of producing of new triploids with novel genomic background. breeding may not be always successful in this direction. kavitha (2005) crossed a primary tetraploid (h.02.32 – aabb) with pisang lilin (aa) and obtained, again, tetraploid hybrid (aabb) only. this warrants the use of potential tetraploids as male parents (if male fertile) with potential diploids and triploids to develop new triploid combinations. in vitro mutation and selection improvement of commercial triploids like cvs. robusta and rasthali through sexual hybridisation is very difficult as these are female sterile. therefore, mutation breeding was initiated in 1995 with cultivars like robusta (aaa) and rasthali (silk –aab). these were subjected to 3 kr, 4 kr and 5 kr dosage of g irradiation (baskar rajan, 1998). among the three dosages used, 3 kr was found to be optimum (more than 50% of survival was observed). after three subcultures in vitro plants were established, rooted and hardened. plants obtained in vitro were planted in field for further evaluation (baskaran et al, 2000). recently, kumar et al (2004) reported the potential of in vitro mutation breeding with cvs. robusta, rasthali, nendran and poovan through gamma rays and ems (ethyl methane sulphonate) and isolated many economic mutants (table 11). table 11. economic mutants isolated in banana through in vitro mutation breeding mutant desirable attribute observed nendran ne-imvo-5 heavier bunch (13.0kg) larger fruits (269.3g) ne-imvo-7 heavier bunch (14.0kg) ne-imvo-8 good bunch and finger traits heavier bunch (14.5kg) larger fingers (weight : 302g, length : 27.1cm) poovan po-imvo-1 heavier bunch (16.0kg) larger fruits (114.2g) po-imvo-2 heavier bunch (15.5kg) more no. of fingers in the bunch (176) attractive fingers po-imvo-3 heavier bunch (15.5kg) po-imvo-4 lesser plant height (2.2m) po-imvo-7 heavier bunch (16.0kg) po-imvo-10 lesser plant height (2.2m) promising mutants and their desirable attributes robusta ro-imv 4 6-1-1 heavier bunch (30.5kg) ro-imv 4 6-1-2 heavier bunch (30.0kg) ro-imv 4 6-1-3 heavier bunch (28.5kg) ro-imv 4 6-2-1 heavier bunch (30.5kg) ro-imv 4 6-2-2 heavier bunch (29.5kg) lesser plant height (1.73m) rasthali si-imv 4 6-2-4 lesser plant height (1.98m) si-imv 4 6-2-5 heavier bunch (13.0kg) si-imv 4 10-5-1 lesser plant height (1.96m) si-imv 4 10-5-3 lesser plant height (1.90m) si-imv 4 11-6-5 heavier bunch (13.5kg) in vitro polyploidy breeding in vitro ploidy breeding programme was taken up at tnau to improve some potential diploid cultivars which are not amenable to conventional breeding methods due to sterility but are otherwise resistant to many biotic stresses with a good yield potential (ganga, 2001 and ganga et al, j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 77-94, 2006 banana breeding in india table 10. promising potential tetraploids in banana hybrid parent genome bunch weight (kg) tss(%) male fertility female fertility fusarium wilt nematodes h-02-34 karpooravalli aabb 13.5 20.05 p p r r x red banana h-03-05 karpooravalli aabb 11.0 24.10 p p r r op h-03-13 karpooravalli aabb 16.0 23.50 p p r r x erachi vazhai h-03-17 karpooravalli aabb 13.0 20.15 p p r r x pisang lilin h-03-19 peykunnan aabb 17.5 22.50 p p r r x ev p = present; r = resistant 87 2002). diploid cultivars cultivars viz., sannachenkadali (aa), anaikomban (aa), kunnan (ab) and thattillakunnan (ab) were treated with anti-mitotic agents like colchicine (c 22 h 25 n0 6 ) (fig 8) and oryzalin (3,5-dinitro n 4 -n 4 – dipropylsulfanilamide) (fig 9 ). relatively, oryzalin is found to be effective in producing higher frequency of tetraploids (fig 10). a totall of 41 tetraploids were obtained, 16 each from sannachenkadali and anaikomban, 12 from kunnan and 13 from thattillakunnan. uma et al (2003) evaluated the response of diploid cultivars to induction of tetraploidy and the efficiency of polyploidizing agents at nrcb, trichy. in the first trial, ‘kunnan’ and ‘matti’ shoot tips were soaked in colchicine for 24 h and in oryzalin for 72 h, respectively. in the second trial, these were, respectively, cultured in an initiation medium in which colchicines and oryzalin had been incorporated. ms medium fortified with 3.0 mg/l of bap was used for culture initiation. the same medium with reduced level of bap (2.0 mg/l) was used for monthly subculture. after the third subculture, explants were rooted on ms basal medium without any growth regulator. induction of polyploidy was verified. breeding for resistance to fusarium wilt fusarium wilt caused by fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense causes yield loss in south india from 2-90% (thangavelu et al, 1999). this warranted initiation of breeding for resistance to fusarium wilt at tnau. potential diploids like anaikomban (aa), matti (aa), namarai (aa) and pisang lilin (aa) and new synthetic diploid hybrids such as h-201 (ab) and h-65 (aa), developed at tnau, were screened for resistance to fusarium wilt by gunavathi et al (2003). of the 20 genotypes screened, synthetic diploid hybrids h-65, h-109, h.103 and h-201, the parents ‘anaikomban’, ‘pisang lilin’ and ‘tongat’ and the commercial cultivar ‘robusta’ showed resistance to fusarium wilt, while the others exhibited susceptible reaction. in breeding for resistance to any disease, the basic requirement is availability of an efficient screening technique, which should clearly distinguish resistant genotypes from susceptible ones. at tnau, screening was taken up against the pathogen fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense race 1 employing root inoculation technique (fig 11). (gunavathi, 2000 and damodaran, 2004). in this method, roots are directly exposed to the conidial suspension, which helps in better and easy colonization of j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 77-94, 2006 kumar 88 fig 8. shoot proliferation in colchicine treated cultures fig 9. shoot proliferation in oryzalin treated cultures fig 10. effect of colchicine vs. oryzalin on induction of tetraploidy in banana diploid clones inheritance of resistance genes with modifying effect. vakili (1965) stated that a single dominant gene governs resistance to fusarium wilt while using one homozygous parent as the resistant source. further, recovery of resistance genes from susceptible x susceptible combinations may be due to transgressive segregation and heterozygous nature of the parents. table 12. screening of banana hybrids for resistance to fusarium wilt (race 1) under pot culture by root inoculation technique hybrid parentage genome disease status score h-02-06 h 201 × an ab 5 hs h-02-08 h 201 × ev aab 1 r h-02-09 h 201 × pl ab 1 r h-02-10 h 201 × h 110 ab 1 r h-02-11 h 201 × h 110 ab 3 s h-02-17 kv × pl aabb 5 hs h-02-18 kv × pl aabb 2 s h-02-19 kv × ev aabb 1 r h-02-20 kv × rb aabb 6 hs h-02-36 kv × roo aabb 5 hs nph-02-01 h201 x an aab 1 r nph-02-02 h201 x am ab 2 s parents h201 ab 1 r anaikomban (an) aa 1 r ambalakadali (am) aa 1 r erachi vazhai (ev) aa 2 s pisang lilin (pl) aa 1 r h110 ab 3 s karpooravalli (kv) abb 5 hs red banana (rb) aaa 5 hs robusta (ro) aaa 1 r rresistant: ssusceptible: hshighly susceptible screening of hybrids under in vitro screening by damodaran (2004) confirms beyond doubt the claims of varying degree of resistance/susceptibility of a cultivar under different situations in banana. the major problem encountered in resistance screening programme in pot culture was limited availability of suckers from the field for testing. however, in in-vitro culture, production of multiple shoots from a single sucker enabled easy regeneration and increased sample number for evaluation. breeding musa hybrids resistant to nematodes banana production is severely threatened by many different types of soil nematodes. among the various nematodes, lesion producing nematodes such as radopholus similis and pratylenchus coffeae are considered to be economically important nematode pests of banana (rajendran et al, 1980). sundararaju (1996) reported that the burrowing nematode exhibited severe root rotting, j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 77-94, 2006 banana breeding in india 89 mother culture of fusarium race i fig.11 root inoculation technique against fusarium in banana culturing pathogen in pda broth root inoculation expression of leaf symptoms corm discoloration multiple shoot production single shoot regeneration plants in double cup ui r s ui : un inoculated, r : resistant, s : susceptible fig .12 in vitro screening of selected phase i & phase ii hybrids by double cup method for fusarium wilt (race 1) resistance inoculated roots the fungus in the susceptible host (sun and su, 1984). apart from pot screening, in vitro screening of hybrids was also attempted to test the utility of double cup method, as described by brake et al (1995) (fig 12). damodaran (2004) screened many hybrids and from these, 15 hybrids exhibited resistance, while others were susceptible. a critical analysis of inheritance pattern of hybrids revealed that resistant diploid, triploid and tetraploids hybrids had either pisang lilin or anaikomban as one of the parents (table 12). this indicates that dominant genes govern resistance. further, when a particular parental combination was taken into account, for example h-201 with anaikomban or pisang lilin, none of the progenies showed resistance although the male parents used were resistant to fusarium wilt. this may be due to the heterozygous nature of the parent or due to the polygenic j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 77-94, 2006 kumar 90 resulting in 25-35% reduction in yield. thus, the foremost aim in banana and plantain improvement is to enhance quantitative and qualitative traits besides developing hybrids with increased resistance/tolerance to major nematodes (kumar and soorianathasundaram, 2002). initial screening carried out at tnau resulted in the identification of potential diploids like anaikomban (aa), matti (aa), namarai (aa) and pisang lilin (aa) (sathiamoorthy and balamohan, 1993). further screening among diploids, showed that cultivars amabalakadali (aa), erachivazhai (aa), venneettu kunnan (ab), adakka kunnan (ab), poomkadali (ab), kadali (ab), ney poovan (ab) had moderate resistance (gowen et al, 1998). screening of banana hybrids/cultivars for resistance to nematodes requires an effective screening technique that should distinguish the genotype as susceptible, tolerant or resistant to various nematodes. the inibap method (fig 13) largely encompasses the ability of the genotype to resist nematode infection based on root and corm damage assessment besides its ability to tolerate a high population of nematodes. though the nematode can live in soil, it cannot enter the roots of resistant hybrids and multiply fast (gowen, 1994). as the nematode population inflicts damage directly to the root system by causing lesions, assessment of root and corm damage is important (speijer and gold, 1996). besides, root number and percent dead roots are considered critical in the assessment of nematode damage as gowen (1993) reported that the rate of root destruction is not directly related to nematode population density in the root system as a whole, but, to the number of individual colonies on the roots. evaluation of banana hybrids by krishnamoorthy (2002) and damodaran (2004) revealed significant difference in the ability of hybrids and parents to produce more number of functional roots (table 13). resistant/ tolerant hybrids produced thick and healthy roots besides more functional roots and the least number of dead roots to overcome nematode infection. however, assessment of soil in their mat showed a considerable amount of nematode population. thus, it is evident from the above facts that these hybrids possessed an inherent ability to overcome the invasion by nematodes. increase in number of functional roots in these hybrids compared to either of the parents was attributed to heterosis. damodaran (2004) observed that resistant x resistant crosses produced both resistant as well as susceptible hybrids. this indicated that resistance to nematodes is under polygenic control and segregation for resistance and susceptibility was expected because of the heterozygous nature of the parents studied. higher resistance in hybrids nph-02-01 and h-0208 may be attributed to triploidy (aab) with the hybrid having inherited the entire genome of ab from h-201 and the resistant ‘a’ genome from anaikomban or erachi vazhai, respectively. fig 13 . screening of banana against nematodes based on root and corm damage inoculated plants in glass house assessment of root damage root lesion percent infected root corm lesion index table 13. variation in root damage caused by nematodes in banana hybrids / parents sl. hybrid / genome resistant total no. of no. of no. of dead feeder root no. parent reaction roots dead roots functional roots roots (%) roots lesion (%) 1. h-02-34 aabb r 8.50 0 8.5 0.00 1.5 10.00 2. h-201 ab r 11.00 0 11.0 0.00 1.5 2.50 3. nph-02-01 aab t 16.50 0 16.5 0.00 1.0 0.01 4. karpooravalli aab t 10.50 3 7.5 28.63 2.0 17.00 5. anaikomban aa t 8.50 1 7.5 12.50 2.0 5.00 6. h-02-32 aabb s 9.00 4 4.5 44.44 3.0 37.50 7. red banana aaa hs 11.00 5.5 5.5 50.00 3.5 38.00 c.d (p=0.01) 1.081 0.78 1.021 19.298 0.661 5.669 in other tetraploid hybrids such as h-03-05, h-0310, h-03-11, h-03-13, h-03-17 and h-03-19, damodaran (2004) observed higher amount of resistance as these had inherited the extra resistant ‘a’ genome from diploid parents pisang lilin or erachi vazhai. in this situation, the tolerant genome abb might have interacted with resistant genome ‘a’ resulting in resistant aabb genome, implying the nonallelic genic interaction. rowe and rosales (1996) indicate that one or more dominant alleles control genetic resistance to burrowing nematode. it is interesting to analyse results in pot culture experiments which clearly showed that many of the hybrids claimed to be resistant under field conditions were found to be tolerant or susceptible under pot culture. this is normally expected, as a high population of nematodes is bombarded in to the root zone for forceful infection (dosselaere et al, 2003). besides, in the pot, nematodes are inoculated in 45 days old seedlings when the roots are young and tender. however, under field conditions a high table 14. biochemical activities in the roots of banana hybrids and parents inoculated with fusarium under pot culture conditions (damodaran, 2004) sl. hybrid / genome category total proline lignin peroxidase polyphenol pal β glucannase no. parent phenols (µg g-1) (%) (∆a min-1g-1) oxidase (nmol (µg min-1 g-1) (µg g-1) (∆a min-1g-1) min-1mg-1) 1. nph 02.01 aab r 620.0 586.0 1.39 4.55 0.75 14.80 312.82 (h2= 1x anaikomban) 2. h.201 ab r 610.5 583.0 1.22 5.55 0.83 15.10 321.68 3. anaikomban aa r 566.5 498.0 1.13 4.40 0.73 12.05 301.89 4. h.02.34 (aabb) (karpooravalli x red banana) aabb r 641.0 608.5 1.28 0.51 0.66 13.93 337.21 5. h.02.32 (aabb) aabb s 414.5 324.9 0.74 1.92 0.23 2.98 231.50 6. karpooravalli abb s 478.7 453.5 0.75 1.62 0.20 4.71 153.39 7. red banana aaa s 184.5 151.5 0.50 1.23 0.22 4.53 147.77 8. h.02.06 (h.2=1 x anaikomban) ab s 241.2 167.0 0.24 0.44 0.12 1.35 164.50 cd (p=0.05) 75.4 6.7 0.04 0.17 0.04 0.61 22.76 population of nematodes is encountered normally only at the time of shooting and harvest (jean et al, 2002), when the plants possess a larger and longer root system, with increased biochemical and enzyme activity, resulting in more resistant reaction to nematodes. this might be the probable reason why some hybrids that exhibit resistance under field conditions become susceptible when inoculated artificially. role of biochemical markers in resistance to fusarium wilt and nematodes when a pathogen infects the host tissue, a small number of specific gene, producing mrna’s that permit synthesis of similar number of specific proteins, are induced (vera conejero, 1989). many of these proteins are enzymes such as phenylalanine ammonia lyase, polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase, b-1-3 glucanase (vidhyasekaran, 1993) that are involved in synthesis of low molecular weight substances such as phytoalexins, phenols and lignin, which table 15. biochemical contents in the roots of banana hybrids and parents inoculated with nematodes under pot culture conditions sl. hybrid / genome category total proline lignin peroxidase polyphenol pal no. parent phenols (µg g-1) (%) (∆a min-1g-1) oxidase (nmol (µg g-1) (∆a min-1g-1) min-1mg-1) 1. h-02-34 aabb r 722.4 421.5 0.35 13.05 0.86 11.60 2. h-201 ab r 605.0 536.5 1.32 6.23 0.87 11.35 3. nph-02-01 aab t 656.7 404.0 1.27 16.45 1.10 12.35 4. anaikomban aa t 636.5 438.5 1.30 6.23 0.72 10.20 5. karpooravalli aab t 444.0 342.5 1.02 4.41 0.30 3.45 6. h-02-32 aabb s 414.4 211.3 0.53 4.22 0.46 5.25 7. red banana aaa hs 139.5 219.0 0.53 3.55 0.22 2.06 c.d (p=0.01) 8.9 2.9 0.06 0.448 0.036 0.536 j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 77-94, 2006 91 banana breeding in india j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 77-94, 2006 kumar 92 are inhibitory to fungal pathogens (bell, 1981; vidhyasekaran, 1993). hence, analysis of these biochemical markers, which provide a mechanism for resistance to fungal pathogens, is very essential. damodaran (2004) established that fusarium wilt resistant hybrids / parents had higher levels of these enzymes than the susceptible ones (table 14) confirming the role of biochemical markers in conferring resistance. similarly, assessment of these biochemical markers (damodaran, 2004) in resistant, tolerant and susceptible hybrids/ parents revealed their significant role in conferring resistance against 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the occurrence of musa balbisaina colla in south india and its importance in banana breeding. madras agri. j., 35: 552-554. vera, p. and conejero, v. 1989. the induction and accumulation of pathogenesis -related p69 proteinase in tomato during citrus exocortis viroid infection and after chemical treatments. physiol. mol. pl. pathol., 34: 323334. vidhyasekaran, p. 1993. defense genes for crop disease management, genetic engineering, tissue culture, and molecular biology for crop pest and disease management (p. vidhyasekaran ed.), daya publishing house, new delhi, pp.17-30. vuylsteke, d., ortiz, r. and swennen, r. 1993. development and performance of black sigatoka resistant tetraploid hybrids of plantain (musa spp., aab group). euphytica, 65: 33-42. 131 j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 131-136, 2018 genetic variability, correlation and path analysis in bottle gourd (lagenaria siceraria (mol. standl.) germplasm b. varalakshmi*, m. pitchaimuthu and e. sreenivas rao division of vegetable crops, icar-indian institute of horticultural research hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru 560 089, india *email : varalakshmi.b@icar.gov.in abstract the present investigation was conducted to determine the variability, heritability, genetic advance and correlation of fruit yield and ten different yield contributing characters in bottle gourd. wide range of variation was observed for most of the characters like fruit yield/vine, fruit number/vine, fruit weight, fruit yield/ha and node number for first female flower appearance. phenotypic coefficient of variation was higher than genotypic coefficient of variation for all the traits studied, indicating environmental influence on expression of these characters. however, high heritability (broad sense) along with high genetic advance was recorded by vine length, branch number, fruit length, fruit width, fruit yield/vine and yield/ha indicating the presence of additive gene effects, hence selection can be employed for the improvement of these parameters. fruit yield/ ha was significantly and positively associated with fruit number/ vine and fruit yield/vine both at genotypic as well as phenotypic levels. fruit number had maximum direct effect (0.812) on fruit yield/ha followed by fruit weight (0.407), fruit length (0.339), fruit width (0.310), fruit yield/vine (0.249), days taken for first female flower appearance (0.224) and vine length (0.173). therefore for the yield improvement in bottle gourd, emphasis may be given for indirect selection through fruit parameters like fruit weight, fruit length, fruit number and fruit yield/vine. key words: bottle gourd, genetic variability, heritability, path analysis original research paper introduction bottle gourd [lagenaria siceraria (mol.) standl.] commonly known as lauki or ghiya in india is one of the most important member of the family cucurbitaceae and believed to be originated in africa (whitaker, 1971). it is commercially grown in all the states of india in both rainy and summer seasons. the immature fruits contain good amount of vitamins and have good medicinal values. yield is a complex trait influenced by genetic fa ctor s inter a cting with environment. success in any breeding programme for improvement depends on existing genetic variability in the base-population and on efficiency of selection. for successful selection, it is necessary to study the nature of association of the trait of interest with other relevant traits and, also the genetic variability available for these. path coefficient provides a better index for selection than mere correlation coefficient, thereby separating the correlation coefficient of yield and its components into direct and indirect effects. therefore, the present study was undertaken to understand the nature and magnitude of variability, heritability, correlation coefficients and path analysis for different quantitative parameters in bottle gourd. the information on such aspects can be of great help in formulating an appropriate breeding strategy for genetic upgradation of this crop. material and methods t he exper iments wer e car ried out a t the vegetable farm, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru during rabi-summer seasons of 2012-13 and 2013-14. the experiments were laid out in randomized block design with 35germplasm lines in two replications in both the years. ten plants per replication were raised. two weeks old seedlings were planted at 200 x 60 cm spacing and the plants were trained on single trellis. the recommended agronomical practices were adopted to raise the crop. observations 132 j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 131-136, 2018 varalakshmi et al were recorded on five randomly selected plants from each replication on 11 quantitative traits such as node number for first female flower appearance, days taken for first female flower appearance, vine length (m), branch number, peduncle length (cm), fruit length (cm), fruit girth (cm), fruit number/plant, fruit weight (g), fruit yield/plant (kg) and fruit yield/ha (t). the pooled data of two years were analyzed as suggested by panse and sukhatme (1984) for analysis of variance. the phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation (pcv and gcv), heritability in broad sense a nd genetic advance a s per cent of mean wer e calculated as per the procedures given by burton and de vane (1953) and johnson et al (1955). the correlation co-efficient among all possible character combinations at genotypic (rg) and phenotypic (rp) level were estimated employing the formula given by aljibouri et al (1958) and path coefficient analysis has been done as per dewey and lu (1959). genres statistical software package (genres, 1994) was employed for analysis of variance and estimation of correlation among the traits. results and discussion mean, range and estimates of various genetic pa r a meter s of 11 differ ent cha r a cter s of the 35germplasm lines of bottle gourd are presented in the table 1. the analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the germplasm lines of bottle gourd for all the 11traits studied. wide range of variation was observed for most of the characters like fruit yield/ vine (1.5-8.5kg), fruit number/vine (1.9-6.1), fruit weight (79.8-300.8g), fruit yield/ha (12.0-70.9 t)and node number for first female flower appearance (4.715.2). presence of such high variability for these parameters will form the basis for effective selection of superior lines in bottle gourd. such wide variability in this crop has also been reported by kumar et al (2011), husna et al (2011), anchal sharma and sengupta (2013) and ara et al (2014). the degree of variability shown by different parameters can be judged by the magnitude of gcv and pcv. gcv, which gives the picture of extent of genetic variability present in the population ranged from 9.2 (days taken for first female flower appearance) to 31.2 (fruit yield/vine). similar findings were reported by yadavet al (2008), husnaet al (2011) and araet al (2014) in bottle gourd.a perusal of data in table 1showed that there is considerable difference between pcv and gcv values for all the characters studied (singh et al, 2008). this indicates the presence of higher environmental influence on the expression of all these parameters table 1. means, coefficients of variation, heritability and genetic advance for eleven different characters in bottle gourd sl.no. character mean range genotypic phenotypic heritability g.a.as %mean coefficient of coefficient of (h2) variation variation (gcv) (pcv) 1 vine length (m) 4.8 2.8-8.9 27.1 29.7 83.3 50.9 2 branch number 12.5 7.3-20.8 20.9 26.9 60.5 33.5 3 nff 7.2 4.7-15.2 23.3 31.6 54.2 35.3 4 dff 56.1 45.5-71.7 9.2 11.5 64.1 15.2 5 peduncle length (cm) 10.6 6.8-14.1 11.0 22.2 24.7 11.3 6 fruit length (cm) 31.8 11.2-48.5 24.9 28.4 77.2 45.2 7 fruit width (cm) 9.0 6.9-13.2 19.8 23.4 71.6 34.6 8 fruit weight (g) 1.3 0.5-2.6 22.5 31.9 49.7 32.7 9 fruit number/vine 3.7 1.9-6.1 26.1 33.8 59.7 41.6 10 fruit yield/vine (kg) 4.2 1.5-8.5 31.2 36.5 73.3 55.1 11 fruit yield/ha (t) 36.2 12.0-70.9 29.7 33.0 80.8 54.9 nffnode number for first female flower appearance, dffdays taken for first female flower appearance 133 genetic studies in bottle guard and selection as such may not be effective for the improvement of bottle gourd. further, the gcv values were low in magnitude compared to pcv values for all the characters studied. this also indicates that the direct selection is not effective for these characters and heterosis breeding can be resorted for further improvement. however, contrary to this anchal sharma and sengupta (2013) reported that the gcv and pcv values were in close proximity for all the traits studied in bottle gourd. with the help of gcv alone, it is not possible to determine the extent of variation that is heritable. thus the estimates of heritability indicate the effectiveness with which selection can be expected to exploit the existing genetic variability. the broad sense heritability was high (>60%) for almost all the traits except node number for first female flower appearance, peduncle length, fruit weight and fruit number. similar findings were reported by kumar et al (2011), husna et al (2011) and anchal sharma and sengupta (2013) in bottle gourd. moderate heritability (40-60%) was observed for node number for first female flower appearance, fruit weight and fruit number (table 1). johnson et al. (1955) reported that the heritability along with genetic advance is more useful than the heritability alone in predicting the resultant effect of selecting best individual genotype as it suggests the presence of additive gene effects. in the present study, high heritability along with high genetic advance was recorded by vine length, branch number, fruit length, fruit width, fruit yield/vine and yield/ha indicating the presence of additive gene effects, hence selection can be employed for the improvement of these parameters in bottle gourd. similar findings were reported by singh et al (2008), yadav et al (2008), husna et al (2011),kumar et al (2011), anchal sharma and sengupta (2013) in bottle gourd. days taken for the first female flower appearance, peduncle length and fruit weight have recorded moderate heritability and genetic advance. this suggests that the environmental effects constitute major portion of total phenotypic variation and hence direct selection for these characters will be less effective. all possible correlation coefficients between fruit yield/ha and its component characters were estimated at genotypic (g) and phenotypic (p) levels and have been presented in table 2. from these associations, it appeared that higher fruit yield/ ha was significantly and positively associated with fruit number/ vine and fruit yield/vine both at genotypic as well as phenotypic levels. in the present investigation, the interrelation between these two yield contributing parameters was also positive and significant. vine length had significantly positive correlation with branch number, node number and days taken for first female flower appearance and positive but non-significant association with fruit width. branch number was also positively correlated with node number and days taken for first female flower appearance and fruit width, but negatively and significantly correlated with fruit weight indicating that the increased branch number reduces fruit weight in bottle gourd. important fruit traits, fruit length and fruit width are significantly negatively correlated. indirect selection for fruit number and fruit yield/vine will improve the fruit yield in bottle gourd. these results are in conformity with the findings of yadav et al (2007), wani et al (2008), husna et al (2011) and ara et al (2014) in bottle gourd. though the correlation analysis can quantify the degree of association between two characters, it does not provide reasons for such association. the simple linear correlation coefficient is designed to detect the presence of linear association between two variables. it cannot be taken to imply the absence of any functional relationship between the two variables. path coefficient analysis reveals this mystery by breaking the total correlation into components of direct and indirect effects. thus path analysis was performed to assess the direct and indirect effects of different characters on fruit yield/ha (table 3). fruit number had maximum direct effect (0.812) on fruit yield/ha followed by fruit weight (0.407), fruit length (0.339), fruit width (0.310), fruit yield/vine (0.249), days taken for first female flower appearance (0.224) and vine length (0.173). the indirect effects of most other parameters through these parameters were also positive as well as negative, but the higher magnitude of positive direct effects nullified the negative indirect effects resulting in the positive direct effect on fruit yield/ha. the positive direct and indirect effects of fruit number and fruit yield/vine have lead to the significant and positive correlation with fruit yield/ha. similarly, wani et al (2008) and husna et al (2011) also reported that fruit traits had maximum direct effect on fruit yield j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 131-136, 2018 134 j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 131-136, 2018 varalakshmi et al c ha ra ct er v in e b ra nc h n ff d ff pe du nc le fr ui t fr ui t fr ui t fr ui t fr ui t fr ui t l en gt h n um be r le ng th le ng th w id th w ei gh t nu m be r/ y ie ld /v in e y ie ld /h a (m ) (c m ) (c m ) (c m ) (g ) vi ne (k g) (t) v in e l en gt h (m ) (r g) 1. 00 0 0. 58 7* * 0. 68 2* * 0. 71 1* * -0 .3 23 -0 .1 81 0. 28 8 -0 .2 38 -0 .0 19 -0 .0 83 -0 .0 96 (r p) 1. 00 0 0. 40 3* 0. 45 8* * 0. 53 2* * -0 .1 22 -0 .1 56 0. 24 2 -0 .0 90 -0 .0 17 -0 .0 57 -0 .0 53 b ra nc h nu m be r (r g) 1. 00 0 0. 19 5 0. 27 4 -0 .3 33 -0 .1 10 0. 16 6 -0 .4 49 ** 0. 24 0 0. 05 1 -0 .0 52 (r p) 1. 00 0 0. 15 8 0. 24 6 -0 .1 48 -0 .0 65 0. 10 9 -0 .2 18 -0 .0 23 -0 .0 44 -0 .1 10 n ff (r g) 1. 00 0 0. 76 9* * -0 .1 88 -0 .2 66 0. 42 9* -0 .0 51 -0 .2 36 -0 .2 79 -0 .2 83 (r p) 1. 00 0 0. 54 2* * -0 .0 82 -0 .0 63 0. 30 0 0. 03 0 -0 .2 34 -0 .2 03 -0 .1 92 d ff (r g) 1. 00 0 -0 .1 82 -0 .2 88 0. 31 2 -0 .2 38 -0 .2 01 -0 .2 29 -0 .2 52 (r p) 1. 00 0 -0 .0 57 -0 .1 72 0. 28 3 -0 .1 44 -0 .1 12 -0 .1 68 -0 .1 80 pe du nc le le ng th (c m ) (r g) 1. 00 0 0. 19 5 -0 .4 00 * 0. 49 7* * -0 .2 22 0. 05 8 0. 09 2 (r p) 1. 00 0 0. 11 3 -0 .1 40 0. 18 2 -0 .0 63 0. 02 9 0. 03 8 fr ui t l en gt h (c m ) (r g) 1. 00 0 -0 .8 77 ** 0. 23 3 -0 .1 55 0. 01 6 0. 05 7 (r p) 1. 00 0 -0 .6 29 ** 0. 23 4 -0 .1 06 0. 03 4 0. 08 5 fr ui t w id th (c m ) (r g) 1. 00 0 -0 .0 03 -0 .0 63 -0 .0 97 -0 .1 34 (r p) 1. 00 0 0. 01 8 -0 .0 44 -0 .1 29 -0 .1 06 fr ui t w ei gh t ( g) (r g) 1. 00 0 -0 .3 04 0. 13 0 0. 31 5 (r p) 1. 00 0 -0 .2 79 0. 03 8 0. 21 4 fr ui t n um be r/ vi ne (r g) 1. 00 0 0. 88 1* * 0. 79 2* * (r p) 1. 00 0 0. 72 2* * 0. 68 9* * fr ui t y ie ld /v in e (k g) (r g) 1. 00 0 1. 00 3* * (r p) 1. 00 0 0. 87 6* * ta bl e 2. g en ot yp ic ( r g ) an d ph en ot yp ic ( r p ) co rr el at io n co ef fic ie nt s am on g di ff er en t ch ar ac te rs i n bo tt le g ou rd ** s ig ni fic an t a t p = 0. 01 , * s ig ni fic an t a t p = 0. 05 n ff n od e nu m be r fo r fir st f em al e flo w er a pp ea ra nc e, d ff d ay s ta ke n fo r fir st f em al e flo w er a pp ea ra nc e 135 j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 131-136, 2018 genetic studies in bottle guard c ha ra ct er v in e b ra nc h n ff d ff pe du nc le fr ui t fr ui t fr ui t fr ui t fr ui t g en ot yp ic le ng th nu m be r le ng th le ng th w id th w ei gh t nu m be r/ yi el d/ vi ne co rr el at io n (m ) (c m ) (c m ) (c m ) (g ) vi ne (k g) v in e l en gt h (m ) 0. 17 3 -0 .0 96 -0 .1 93 0. 15 9 -0 .0 33 -0 .0 61 0. 08 9 -0 .0 97 -0 .0 16 -0 .0 21 -0 .0 96 b ra nc h nu m be r 0. 10 2 -0 .1 64 -0 .0 55 0. 06 1 -0 .0 34 -0 .0 37 0. 05 1 -0 .1 83 0. 19 4 0. 01 3 -0 .0 52 n ff 0. 11 8 -0 .0 32 -0 .2 84 0. 17 2 -0 .0 19 -0 .0 90 0. 13 3 -0 .0 21 -0 .1 92 -0 .0 69 -0 .2 83 d ff 0. 12 3 -0 .0 45 -0 .2 18 0. 22 4 -0 .0 19 -0 .0 98 0. 09 7 -0 .0 97 -0 .1 63 -0 .0 57 -0 .2 52 pe du nc le le ng th (c m ) -0 .0 56 0. 05 5 0. 05 3 -0 .0 41 0. 10 2 0. 06 6 -0 .1 24 0. 20 2 -0 .1 80 0. 01 4 0. 09 2 fr ui t l en gt h (c m ) -0 .0 31 0. 01 8 0. 07 5 -0 .0 65 0. 02 0 0. 33 9 -0 .2 72 0. 09 5 -0 .1 26 0. 00 4 0. 05 7 fr ui t w id th (c m ) 0. 05 0 -0 .0 27 -0 .1 22 0. 07 0 -0 .0 41 -0 .2 97 0. 31 0 -0 .0 01 -0 .0 51 -0 .0 24 -0 .1 34 fr ui t w ei gh t ( g) -0 .0 41 0. 07 4 0. 01 4 -0 .0 53 0. 05 1 0. 07 9 -0 .0 01 0. 40 7 -0 .2 47 0. 03 2 0. 31 5 fr ui t n um be r/ vi ne -0 .0 03 -0 .0 39 0. 06 7 -0 .0 45 -0 .0 23 -0 .0 53 -0 .0 19 -0 .1 24 0. 81 2 0. 21 9 0. 79 2* * fr ui t y ie ld /v in e (k g) -0 .0 14 -0 .0 08 0. 07 9 -0 .0 51 0. 00 6 0. 00 5 -0 .0 30 0. 05 3 0. 71 5 0. 24 9 1. 00 3* * ta bl e 3 . d ir ec t an d in di re ct e ff ec ts o f di ff er en t ch ar ac te rs o n fr ui t yi el d/ ha a t ge no ty pi c le ve ls i n bo tt le g ou rd ** s ig ni fic an t a t p = 0. 01 , * s ig ni fic an t a t p = 0. 05 d ire ct e ff ec ts a re in b ol d fig ur es o n m ai n di ag on al . n ff n od e nu m be r fo r fir st f em al e flo w er a pp ea ra nc e, d ff d ay s ta ke n fo r fir st f em al e flo w er a pp ea ra nc e 136 j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 131-136, 2018 varalakshmi et al in bottle gourd. whereas node number for first female flower appearance and branch number had negative direct effect on fruit yield/ha. the positive direct and indirect effects of fruit length, fruit weight, fruit yield/ plant, fruit number have lead to the significant and positive correlation with fruit yield/ha. this indicates that the positive selection for these parameters is going to contribute to higher fruit yields in bottle gourd. therefore for the yield improvement in bottle gourd, emphasis may be given for indirect selection through fruit parameters like fruit length, fruit weight, fruit number and fruit yield/plant. references al-jibouri, h.h., miller, p.a. and robinson, h.f. 1958.genotypic and environmental variances and covariances in upland cotton crosses of interspecific origin.agron. j., 50: 633-37. anchal sharma and s.k. sengupta.2013. genetic diversity, heritability and morphological cha r a cter iza tion in bottle gour d (lagenariasiceraria (mol. ) sta nd). the bioscan.8(4): 1461-1465. ara z.g., zakaria, m., uddin, m.z., rahman, m.m., rasul, m.g. and kabir, a.f.m.r. 2014. correlation matrix among different parameters of bottle gourd genotypes int. j nat. soc sci.1:48-51. issn: 2313-4461 burton, g.w. and de vane, e.w. 1953. estimating heritability in tall fescue (festucaarundinacea) from replicated clonal material. agron. j., 45:478-81. dewey, d.r. and lu, k.h. 1959. a correlation and path coefficient analysis of components of crested wheat grass seed production. agron. j.,51:515-18. genres. 1994. data entrymodule for genres statistical software pascal int’l. software solution, version 3.11 husna, a., mahmud, f., islam, m.r., mahmud,m.a.a. a nd ra tna , m. 2011. genetic va r ia bility, correlation and path co efficient analysis in bottle gour d (lageneriasicereria(mol. ) stand).ad.bio. res. 5(6): 323-327. johnson, h.w., robinson, h.f. and comstock, r.e. 1955. estimates of genetic and environmental variability in soybean.agron. j., 47:314-18. kumar, a., singh, b., kumar,m. and naresh,r.k. 2011.genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance for yield and its components in bottle gourd (lageneriasicereria(mol.) stand).ann. of horti.4(1): 101-103 panse, v.g. and sukhatme, p.v. 1984. statistical methods for agr icultural workers.indian council of agricultural research, new delhi. singh,k.p., choudhury,d.n., mandal,g. and saha,b.c. 2008. genetic va r iability in bottle gour d (lagenaria siceraria (molina) standl.).j. interacademicia. 12(2): 159-163 wani, k.p., ahmed, n., hussain, k., mehfuza-habib and kant, r.h. 2008.correlation and path coefficient a na lysis in bottle gour d (lagenariasiceraria l.) under tempera te conditions of kashmir valley.environment and ecology.26(2a): 822-824 whitaker, t.w. 1971.men across the sea. kelley jc, pennigton cw and rauds rl (eds.) pp. 320-27. yadav, a., srivastava, j.p., yadav, j.r., shukla, i.n., mishr a , g. , kuma r, s. a nd pa r iha r, n. s. 2007.correlation and path coefficient analysis in bottle gourd [lagenariasiceraria (molina) standl.].prog. res.2(1/2): 165-166 yadav, j.r., yadav, a., srivastava, j.p., mishra, g., parihar, n.s. and singh,p.b. 2008. study on variability heritability and genetic advance in bottle gourd [lagenariasiceraria (molina) standl.]. prog. res.3(1): 70-72 (ms received 22 june 2017, revised 15 november 2018, accepted 20 december 2018) 371 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 371-380, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction potted plants are an important segment in commercial floriculture occupying the second place after cut flowers with the demand increasing over the years @ 20-25%. global flower pots and planters’ market is expected to reach usd 2,208.3 million by the end of 2024 from usd 1,869.6 million in 2018 (anon., 2019). rapid urbanization and shrinking land area for conventional gardening and emergence of many highrise buildings in the city landscape has led to a huge market demand for flowering and foliage potted plants. potted plants are displayed in outdoor spaces, in spaces that are the extension of the house and indoors to improve indoor air quality. it has been reported that potted-pla nts can r educe total volatile organic compound loads, a major class of indoor pollutants, by 75% (<100 ppb) and also co and co2 contents. flowering potted plants like rose, chrysanthemum, aster, carnation, marigold etc. are in good demand for their aesthetic appeal beside other associated positive benefits. china aster [callistephus chinensis (l.) ness.], a member of the family asteraceae, is a commercial flower crop of india grown mainly for loose and cut flower purpose over an area of 3500 ha in ka rna ta ka, ta mil na du, tela nga na, andhra pradesh, maharashtra and west bengal (kumari et al., 2018). this crop can also be grown in containers. china aster var. arka archana released from icariihr, bengaluru is an early bloomer, with spreading plant type, bearing semi double white flowers, the plant form and floriferous nature makes it a suitable candidate for potted plant production. most of the consumers prefer eco-friendly products considering the health benefits while using these in indoor closed spa ces. flower ing potted pla nt production mainly relies on the selection of appropriate containers, potting media and optimum nutrition, which tends to influence the cr op ca nopy and standardization of container type, substrate and nutrition for potted plant production of china aster [callistephus chinensis (l.) ness.] var. arka archana smitha g.r.1*, sujatha a. nair1 and kalaivanan d.2 1division of flowers and medicinal crops; 2division of natural resources icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hesaraghatta, bengaluru 580 089 *corresponding author email : g.smitha@icar.gov.in abstract a study was conducted at the icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hesaraghatta, bengaluru for three consecutive seasons during 2019-20, to standardize the container type, substrate combination and nutrition for potted plant production of china aster var. arka archana. the treatments comprised of two type of containers (plastic and coir), three substrates {red soil + fym + sand (1:1:1 v/v), arka fermented cocopeat (afc), afc + vermicompost (1:1 v/v)} and four nutrition concentration (160:30:180 ppm n:p: k, 128:24:144 ppm n:p: k, 96:18:108 ppm n:p: k and jeevamrutha @ 3% ) laid out in factorial completely randomized design with three replications. plant height at flowering (33.12 cm), number of primary branches (12.4), plant spread (536.64 cm2), number of flowers/plant (26.47), flower size (5.26 cm) and uptake of major, secondary and minor nutrients were maximum in the plants grown in 6" plastic pots using the substrate combination of soil +sand +fym (1:1:1 v/v/v) along with the weekly application of nutrient solution of 96:18:108 ppm npk/plant. this production protocol resulted in a dense canopy and highly floriferous potted plants. the benefit cost ratio of potted china aster production was 1.70. this technology can be adopted by the nurserymen for large-scale commercial potted plant production. keywords: containers, substrate, china aster, nutrients, floriferousness, potted plant 372 smitha et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 371-380, 2022 floriferousness. alternate containers like coir pots are gaining popularity with certain section of consumers. an ideal potting substrate must possess unique physical and chemical cha racteristics fa voring maximum water retention between irrigations while being well drained in order to avoid drought and root asphyxia (caron and nkongolo, 1999). application of balanced nutrients to the potted plants, its solubility, availability, frequency of application is some of the factors that require standardization. the present study was undertaken to determine the effects of type of containers, substrate and nutrient levels on quality potted plant production of china aster var. arka archana. materials and methods the study on potted plants of china aster var. arka archana was done at the icar indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, karnataka, india. the pot plant experiment was conducted for a period of three seasons, i.e., february – may, 2019, july – october, 2019 and november 2019 – february, 2020 (fig. 1). the pots were kept under open condition with full sunlight. physical and chemical properties of initial and post-harvest media composition were analysed. the treatment details are as follows; factor a: type of pots (p1: 6" plastic pot; p2: 6" coir pot); factor b: substrate (s1: red soil + fym + sand (1:1:1 v/v), s2: arka fermented cocopeat (afc), s3: afc + ver micompost (1:1 v/v)}; factor c: nutr ition concentration (n1160:30:180 ppm, n2128:24:144 ppm, n3 96:18:108 ppm n:p:k; n4 jeevamrutha @ 3% (organic source). for treatments n1, n2 and n3, secondary and micronutrients applications were kept uncha nged. nutr ient solution a pplica tion wa s scheduled at weekly intervals @ 50 ml / pot. the experiment was conducted in factorial crd design with three replications and ten pots per replication. one month old seedlings at 4-6 leaves stage were transplanted in the centre of each pot @ one seedling/ pot and watered. thereafter regular need-based watering was done, depending on the media and season. the texture and porosity of the growing medium were important considerations in deciding the frequency of irrigation. pots containing substrate with cocopeat, cocopeat + vermicompost retained moisture for longer period compared to soil + sand + fym media . pinching wa s done one month a fter transplanting. prophylactic sprays of plant protection chemicals ensured no severe infestation of pest and diseases during the period of experimentation. the substrates arka fermented cocopeat (afc), soil and fym were characterized as per the standard procedures. soil physical and chemical properties were estimated by following standard procedures (jackson, 1973). for nutrient uptake studies, nitrogen (n) contents in the plant samples were analyzed after mineralization with sulfuric acid by kjeldahl method (jackson, 1973). phosphorus (p), potassium (k), calcium (ca), magnesium (mg), iron (fe), manganese (mn), zinc (zn) and copper (cu) were estimated digesting with a triacid mixture (9:4:1 hno3: hclo4: h2so4) as described by jackson (1973). observations were recorded at flowering stage on the vegetative and flowering parameters viz., plant height (cm), number of pr imary branches, number of secondary branches, plant spread (cm2), leaf area (cm2), internodal length, number of flowers plant-1, flower diameter (cm) and duration of flowering. economic analysis of potted plant production of china aster was done considering the market price ranging from rs. 45-70 per pot, depending upon the type of pot (plastic or coir), appearance and display life for computing gross returns from economic produce. pooled analysis of the data for three seasons on different growth and yield parameters was done using sta tistical softwar e wasp 2.0 (web agri sta t package, icar-central coastal agricultural research institute, goa). results and discussion vegetative parameters: plant height was recorded at the time of flowering varied significantly for the factors container type, substrate and nutrient doses (table 1) and for their interaction effect (table 2). maximum plant height was observed in plastic pots, p1 (26.32 cm) whereas; it was minimum in coir pots (p2). among different types of substrates used, maximum plant height (31.22 cm) was observed in s1 (red soil + sand + fym), followed by s3 (afc + vermicompost) and minimum (21.30 cm) was recorded in s2 afc alone. among different nutrient levels used, ma ximum pla nt height wa s observed in a pplica tion of 96:18:108 ppm of n:p:k n 3 (26.45cm) and minimum was in jeevamrutha n4 (23.33 cm). among the interaction effects, plants grown in plastic pots using red soil + fym + sand media with the application of 96:18:108 ppm npk 373 standardization of production techniques for potted china aster ta bl e 1 : in flu en ce o f ty pe o f po t, su bs tr at e an d nu tr ie nt s on g ro w th a nd y ie ld p ar am et er s of c hi na a st er v ar . a rk a a rc ha na p ot te d pl an t at flo w er in g (p oo le d m ea n of t hr ee s ea so ns ) p la nt n o. o f n o. o f a v. p la nt in te rn od al l ea f f lo w er n o. o f d ur at io n of t re at m en t h ei gh t pr im ar y se co nd ar y sp re ad le ng th ar ea si ze fl ow er s/ fl ow er in g (c m ) br an ch es br an ch es ar ea ( cm 2 ) (c m ) (c m 2 ) (c m ) pt (d ay s) t yp e of p ot s p 1 p la st ic p ot 26 .3 2 6. 96 2. 96 25 1. 61 2. 58 15 .5 9 4. 68 16 .2 4 32 .4 0 p 2 c oi r po t 25 .2 6 5. 82 2. 54 23 8. 42 2. 22 14 .0 6 4. 54 13 .4 0 29 .0 8 se m ± 0. 40 0. 20 0. 12 8. 53 0. 1 0. 39 0. 77 0. 26 0. 62 c d @ 5% 1. 05 0. 52 0. 31 20 .9 0 n s 0. 95 0. 19 0. 68 1. 50 t yp e of s ub st ra te s 1 r ed s oi l +f y m + 31 .2 2 8. 37 3. 10 29 5. 78 2. 46 15 .8 0 4. 95 17 .4 6 32 .7 5 sa nd ( 1: 1: 1 v/ v) s 2 a rk a fe rm en te d 21 .3 0 4. 49 2. 47 20 2. 56 2. 11 14 .0 9 4. 29 11 .5 7 29 .0 5 co co pe at ( a fc ) s 3 a fc + v er m ic om po st 24 .8 4 6. 30 2. 67 23 6. 72 2. 63 14 .6 0 4. 58 15 .4 4 30 .4 1 (1 :1 v /v ) se m ± 0. 50 0. 25 0. 25 9. 84 0. 16 0. 26 0. 10 0. 32 0. 71 c d @ 5% 1. 29 0. 64 0. 66 25 .5 9 n s 0. 67 0. 24 0. 83 1. 73 n ut ri en t co nc en tr at io n n 1 16 0: 30 :1 80 p pm 24 .0 7 6. 21 2. 67 23 6. 12 2. 31 14 .4 5 4. 58 14 .8 8 30 .0 7 n 2 12 8: 24 :1 44 p pm 26 .7 7 6. 30 2. 64 26 6. 76 2. 2 14 .9 4 4. 65 15 .0 3 30 .2 2 n 3 96 :1 8: 10 8 pp m 26 .4 5 6. 84 2. 87 24 6. 55 2. 79 15 .3 8 4. 72 15 .2 6 31 .9 2 n 4 je ev am ru th a 25 .8 6 6. 21 2. 80 23 0. 65 2. 31 14 .5 4 4. 49 14 .1 3 30 .7 5 @ 3 % w ee kl y dr en ch in g se m ± 0. 57 0. 28 0. 29 11 .3 7 0. 19 0. 22 0. 12 0. 37 0. 79 c d @ 5% 1. 49 0. 74 0. 76 29 .5 5 n s 0. 57 0. 28 0. 96 1. 93 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 371-380, 2022 374 smitha et al (p1s1n3) recorded maximum plant height (37.11 cm) and it was minimum in plants grown in plastic pot using red soil + fym + sa nd media with the application of jeevamrutha drenching@ 3% (p1s1n4) and pot using afc media with the application of nutrient combination of 160:30:180 (p1s2n1). number of primary and secondary branches was significant for individual factors (table 1) and their interaction (table 2). maximum number of primary and secondary branches was observed in plastic pots, p1 (6.96 and 2.92, respectively), red soil + fym + sand medium s1 (8.37 and 3.10, respectively) and nutrient combination of 96:18:108 ppm of n:p:k – n 3 (6. 84 a nd 2. 87, r esp ectively). among the interaction effect, significantly highest number of primary branches was obtained using plastic pots using red soil + fym + sa nd media with the application of nutrient combination of 160:30:180 ppm of n:p:k p 1s1n1 (12.73). the number of secondary branches was found maximum (3.8) in plastic pots, red soil + fym + sand medium with the application of 96:18:108 ppm of n:p:k (p1s1n3). plant spread area was significant for individual factors (table 1) and their interaction (table 2). maximum plant spread was recorded in plastic pots p1 (251.61 cm2) substrate containing red soil + sand + fym s1 (295.78 cm2) and supplied with nutrients, 96:18:108 ppm of n: p: k n3 (266.76 cm 2). among the interaction effect, maximum plant spread was in plastic pots, red soil + fym + sand medium with the application of 96:18:108 ppm of n:p:k p 1s1n3 (380.05 cm2). internodal length of pooled mean showed non-significant differences for all the three factors and their interaction (table 1 & fig 3). leaf area was found to be significantly different among the treatment combinations (table 3). maximum leaf area wa s obser ved in p 1 (15.59 cm 2). in substr a te combination, red soil + fym + sand media (s1) reported maximum leaf area of 15.85 cm2. application of nutrient 96:18:108 ppm of n:p:k (n3) resulted in maximum leaf area of 15.38 cm2. among interaction effect, p1s1n3 recorded maximum leaf area of 16.79 cm2 (table 1 and 3). in potted pla nt pr oduction pla nt gr owth a nd appearance plays an important role, not only to incr ease its ma r keting va lue by impr oving its appearance but also to improve the floriferousness. in this study, plant growth parameters like plant height, number of primary and secondary branches and plant spread was found ideal in plants grown in plastic pots using substrate containing red soil + sand + fym along with the application of the nutrients, 96:18:108 ppm of n: p: k. this increment of growth parameters could be attributed to the great input of nutrients provided by the media combination and balanced fertilizer dose which supplied the required quantity of major, secondary and micronutrients. the importance of potting media a nd nutr ient a pplica tion for ornamental plant production has been highlighted by jayasinghe (2012) and our findings are also in line with his findings. floral parameters: number of flowers per plant was found to be significant for all the three factors (table 1) and their interaction (table 3). among factor a, maximum number of flowers per plant for pooled mean of three harvests was observed in plastic pots (p1) (16.24) compared to coir pots (13.4). among different substrates used, maximum number of flowers was observed in s1 (17.46), followed by s3 (15.44) and minimum was in s2 (11.57). among nutrients, application of 96:18:108 ppm of n:p:k (n3) recorded ma ximum number of flower s (15.26). among interaction treatment p 1s1n3 recorded maximum number of flowers (21.85). flower size is an important aspect of potted plant production. bigger the bloom indicates better display quality and attractiveness. flower size was significant for two individual factors (table 1) and interaction of three factors (table 3). maximum flower size was observed in plastic pots (4.68 cm) grown in red soil + fym + sand media (4.95 cm) with the application of 96:18:108 n:p:k n3 (4.72 cm). among interaction effect, treatment combination of plastic pot+ red soil + fym + sand along with application of 96:18:108 (p1s1n3) recorded maximum flower size of 5.26 cm. flower ing dura tion plays an impor ta nt r ole in analyzing the display life of the pot plant. in the pr esent study, the flower ing dur a tion showed significant differences for individual factors and their interaction (table 1 & 3). flowering duration was maximum in plants grown in plastic pots (32.4 days), consist of red soil + fym + sand media (32.75 days) and with the application of nutrient of 96:18:108 ppm of n:p:k (31.92 days). among interaction effect, interaction of all these factors (plastic pots, red soil + fym + sand media and nutrient of 96:18:108 ppm j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 371-380, 2022 375 standardization of production techniques for potted china aster fig. 2 : best performing treatments of the china aster pot plant experiment fig. 1 : general view of china aster var. arka archana potted plant experiment j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 371-380, 2022 376 smitha et al t ab le 2 : i n te ra ct io n of t yp e of p ot , su bs tr at e an d nu tr ie nt s on p la nt g ro w th p ar am et er s in p ot p la n t of c h in a as te r va r. a rk a a rc h an a (p oo le d m ea n o f fo r th re e se as on s) tr ea tm en t p la nt h ei gh t (c m ) n um be r of p ri m ar y br an ch es n o. o f se co nd ar y br an ch es p la nt s pr ea d (c m 2 ) p 1 p 2 p 1 p 2 p 1 p 2 p 1 p 2 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 n 1 27 .2 3 18 .2 2 27 .3 5 26 .9 3 20 .4 5 24 .2 7 8. 46 4. 12 6. 77 7. 62 4. 51 5. 77 2. 82 2. 20 2. 98 2. 49 2. 33 3. 17 30 7. 73 16 8. 44 24 9. 98 25 0. 74 15 5. 62 26 9. 04 n 2 32 .5 5 22 .7 3 25 .1 0 31 .9 6 21 .0 9 25 .3 0 8. 22 4. 73 6. 48 7. 29 4. 41 6. 69 3. 18 2. 44 2. 54 2. 60 2. 43 2. 66 32 2. 82 20 6. 61 22 1. 04 26 3. 74 21 6. 65 24 8. 45 n 3 37 .1 1 23 .0 3 23 .2 4 29 .4 9 22 .4 7 25 .2 5 12 .7 3 4. 46 6. 97 6. 38 5. 00 5. 52 3. 80 3. 21 3. 07 2. 58 1. 70 2. 85 38 0. 05 24 0. 79 20 9. 83 28 6. 23 24 2. 70 25 6. 07 n 4 35 .2 0 20 .7 5 23 .2 6 29 .2 9 21 .6 7 24 .9 7 9. 69 4. 76 6. 11 6. 60 3. 96 6. 11 3. 36 2. 87 2. 99 2. 71 2. 57 2. 33 28 9. 72 22 4. 14 19 8. 23 24 8. 60 16 2. 43 26 0. 78 se m ± c d (p = 0. 05 ) se m ± c d (p = 0. 05 ) se m ± c d (p = 0. 05 ) se m ± c d (p = 0. 05 ) n 0. 43 1. 05 0. 21 0. 52 0. 22 0. 54 8. 50 20 .9 0 p 0. 52 1. 29 0. 26 0. 64 0. 27 0. 66 10 .4 0 25 .5 9 s 0. 61 1. 49 0. 30 0. 74 0. 47 n s 12 .0 1 29 .5 5 p x s 0. 74 1. 82 0. 37 0. 90 0. 38 0. 93 14 .7 2 36 .2 0 p x n 0. 85 2. 10 0. 42 1. 04 0. 51 n s 19 .8 n s s x n 1. 04 2. 57 0. 52 1. 27 0. 54 1. 32 20 .8 1 51 .1 9 p x s 1. 48 3. 64 0. 73 1. 80 0. 76 1. 86 29 .4 3 72 .3 9 x n fa ct or a : t yp e of p ot s (p 1: pl as tic p ot ; p 2: c oi r po ts ); f ac to r b : s ub st ra te ( s 1 : r ed s oi l + f y m + s an d (1 :1 :1 v /v ), s 2 : a rk a fe rm en te d co co pe at ( a fc ), s 3 : a fc + v er m ic om po st ( 1: 1 v/ v) }; f ac to r c : n ut rit io n co nc en tr at io n (p pm ) (n 1 1 60 :3 0: 18 0, n 2 1 28 :2 4: 14 4, n 3 96 :1 8: 10 8 n :p :k ; n 4 o rg an ic s ou rc e (j ee va m ru th a @ 3 % w ee kl y dr en ch in g) t ab le 3 : i nt er ac ti on o f ty pe o f po t, s ub st ra te a nd n ut ri en ts o n yi el d an d qu al it y pa ra m et er s in p ot p la nt o f c hi na a st er v ar . a rk a a rc ha na (p oo le d m ea n of f or t hr ee s ea so ns ) tr ea tm en t l ea f ar ea ( cm 2 ) n o. o f fl ow er s/ pl an t f lo w er s iz e (c m ) d ur at io n of f lo w er in g ( da ys ) p 1 p 2 p 1 p 2 p 1 p 2 p 1 p 2 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 n 1 16 .7 1 16 .7 3 14 .5 6 15 .0 4 14 .5 3 16 .6 0 17 .0 3 12 .1 7 17 .5 3 17 .0 2 11 .9 5 13 .5 6 4. 33 4. 85 5. 27 5. 18 3. 75 4. 07 34 .8 29 .5 32 .3 30 .1 26 .3 27 .4 n 2 16 .1 5 15 .5 1 14 .4 8 11 .9 9 13 .8 4 14 .5 3 17 .4 3 15 .2 8 15 .8 1 16 .5 0 11 .0 7 14 .8 2 4. 46 5. 19 5. 02 4. 96 3. 84 4. 62 33 .2 30 .2 31 .2 30 .7 27 .6 28 .4 n 3 16 .7 9 16 .7 2 13 .1 6 12 .4 9 13 .8 0 15 .0 0 21 .8 5 12 .2 9 13 .4 1 16 .6 2 13 .2 8 13 .3 5 5 .2 6 4. 56 4. 10 5. 08 3. 93 5. 14 35 .9 31 .5 34 32 .4 28 .2 29 .5 n 4 16 .9 0 14 .3 2 15 .1 1 15 .0 7 12 .5 2 13 .3 2 15 .4 7 11 .8 2 12 .9 8 17 .9 1 13 .0 1 13 .5 7 5. 08 4. 38 3. 41 5. 06 3. 85 4. 75 33 .7 30 .7 31 .8 31 .2 28 .4 28 .7 se m ± c d (p = 0. 05 ) se m ± c d (p = 0. 05 ) se m ± c d (p = 0. 05 ) se m ± c d (p = 0. 05 ) n 0. 38 0. 95 0. 28 0. 68 0. 08 0. 19 0. 62 1. 50 p 0. 27 0. 67 0. 34 0. 83 0. 10 0. 24 0. 71 1. 73 s 0. 23 0. 57 0. 39 0. 96 0. 11 0. 28 0. 79 1. 93 p x s 0. 38 n s 0. 48 1. 18 0. 14 0. 34 0. 93 2. 26 p x n 0. 45 1. 12 0. 55 1. 36 0. 16 0. 39 1. 05 2. 55 s x n 1. 09 2. 74 0. 68 1. 67 0. 20 0. 48 1. 24 3. 02 p x s 1. 23 3. 08 0. 96 2. 36 0. 28 0. 67 1. 68 4. 08 x n fa ct or a : t yp e of p ot s (p 1: pl as tic p ot ; p 2 : c oi r po ts ); f ac to r b : s ub st ra te ( s 1 : r ed s oi l + f y m + s an d (1 :1 :1 v /v ), s 2 : a rk a fe rm en te d co co pe at ( a fc ), s 3 : a fc + v er m ic om po st ( 1: 1 v/ v) }; f ac to r c : n ut rit io n co nc en tr at io n (p pm ) (n 1 1 60 :3 0: 18 0, n 2 1 28 :2 4: 14 4, n 3 9 6: 18 :1 08 n :p :k ; n 4 o rg an ic s ou rc e (j ee va m ru th a @ 3 % w ee kl y dr en ch in g) j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 371-380, 2022 377 standardization of production techniques for potted china aster of n:p:k) recorded maximum display life of 35.90 days. it was minimum in plants grown in coir pots, afc media with the application of 160:30:180 ppm of n:p:k (26.30 days). in the present study, plant growth parameters (plant height, number of primary br anches, plant spread) at flowering a nd yield parameters (number of flowers/plants, flower size) and uptake of nutrients were maximum in the plants grown in 6" plastic pots compared to coir pots of the same size. the coir pots maintained the shape for 3-4 months, ther ea fter sta r ted degr a ding. simila r observations were made in poinsettia potted plants grown in containers made of 100% biodegradable polyester for breakage problems during the handling of the marketing phase (castronuovo, 2015). the coir pots required frequent irrigation compared to plastic pots which was also reported by evans et al. (2015) in vinca (catharanthus roseus). beeks and evans (2013) a lso analyzed the beha vior of nine bio containers in comparison with a traditional petroleumbased plastic containers for the production of cyclamen (cyclamen persicum l.) cv. ‘rainer purple’ and pointed out those most plantable containers are not suitable for this purpose. analysis of substrate composition: the substrate afc had the following characteristics: bulk density 0.16 mg m-3; porosity 67.8%; ph 6.75; electrical conductivity 0.5 dsm-1; total carbon 36.1%; total n 0.98%; total p 0.07%; total k 2.20% and na 0.35%. the average concentration of macronutrients was estimated at 0.58% n, 0.26% p2o5 and 0.60% k2o in fym. physical and chemical characteristics of the soil were: bulk density 1.28 mg m-3; porosity 51.3%; ph 6.97, electrical conductivity 0.26 dsm-1; organic carbon 7.8 g kg-1; available n 0.13 g kg-1; 18 mg kg-1 olsen’s p, ammonium acetate (ch3coonh4) extractable nutrients as follow: 0.90 g ca kg-1, 0.174 g mg kg-1 and 0.15 g k kg-1 and dtpa extractable micronutrients as follow: 10.3 mg kg-1 fe, 5.70 mg kg-1 mn, 2.24 mg kg-1 cu and 1.35 mg kg-1 zn. plant production in growth media includes materials that contain soil or soilless media (savvas et al., 2013). plant faces two basic challenges for root growth in the containerized plant production system. the first one is the very shallow root growth area in the container envir onment which quickly becomes saturated after watering as compared to normal soil profile having limitless area for drainage. the second one is the limited water storage capacity between the irr igation interva ls due to small volume of the container (bunt, 1988). the physical structure must maintain equilibrium between air and water over the entire crop cycle, which is few months for annuals to prolonged time for perennials. the potting substrate physical properties are usually assessed by its particle size and shape, texture and physical organization (bilderback et al., 2005). selection of an ideal substrate, either soil or soilless is one of the important keys for success of potted plant production. our studies have revealed that the substrate combination of soil + sand + fym (1:1:1 v/v) have recorded compact plant growth, yield and quality parameters compared to afc + vermicompost and afc alone. addition of organic matter as compost or manure (green manure, farm yard manure, poultry manure) is a common practice for growing potted plants. in addition to supplying plant nutrients, it provides a favourable physical and biological environment for plant roots in the growth medium (kumar and goh, 2000). therefore, an ideal potting substrate must possess unique physical and chemical characteristics favoring maximum water retention between irrigation while being well drained in order to avoid drought and root asphyxia (nkongolo and carol, 2006). thus, the potting substrate is a pivotal advancement in plant production system providing grower with the full control over air, water and nutrients delivery as well as pathogen free environment to plant roots (raviv et al., 2002). on a commercial scale, there is a need of bulk quantity raw constituents for the production of soilless growing media (carlile et al., 2015). the growing substrate should also be economical and practical enough to be used for commercial purposes. nutrient uptake: the plant nutr ient upta ke as influenced by pot types, substrates and nutrient levels are given in figure 4. nutrient uptake was found to be non-significant for type of pots. among the substrate combinations, red soil + sand + fym recorded highest plant nutrient uptake for most of the nutrients {n (0.19 g/pt), ca (0.15 g/pt), mg (0.06 g/ pt), fe (4.45 mg/pt), mn (0.67 mg/pt) and zn (0.55 mg/pt)} followed by afc + vermicompost and all these pa ra meters were found minimum in pots containing afc alone. with respect to nutrient levels, the highest nutrient uptake {n (0.21 g/pt), k (0.35 g/ pt), ca (0.14 g/pt), mg (0.06 g/pt), s (0.01 g/pt), fe (4.04 mg/pt), mn (0.68 mg/pt), zn (0.59 mg/pt), cu (0.63 mg/pt)} was recorded with application of 96, j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 371-380, 2022 378 smitha et al 18 and 108 ppm of n:p:k (n3). this was followed by n2 (128:24:144 ppm of n:p:k) and found to be on par with jeevamrutha @ 3% weekly drenching (n4). the lowest nutrient uptake was recorded with application of higher levels of nutrient application (n1160:30:180 ppm of n: p:k). plant nutrition plays a pivotal role especially when it is grown in container. in this experiment among three levels of nutrient a pplica tion a nd one orga nic combina tion jeeva mr utha , weekly a pplica tion of lower concentrations of nutrient solution of 96:18:108 ppm n:p:k/plant (arka sasya poshak ras) has given better plant growth, flower yield and quality parameters. similar studies on adenum obesum ‘red’ under low nutrient supply was found to relocate more biomass into r oots (mcbr ide, 2014). however, tabernaemontana pachysiphon staph treated with three levels of osmocote, two water regimes, and two light intensities indicated that increasing nutrient supply had a positive effect on growth (hoft et al., 1996). mandevilla vogue varieties were shown to be moderate feeders, responding best to use of a balanced fertilizer at a rate of 100 to 200 mg l-1 and it was recommended that a low to medium rate of a standard slowrelease fertilizer should be added at planting (mart, 2012). plumeria rubra grown in pure silica sand in 4-l containers were treated with a low and high nutrient level (2.4 g and 24.0 g, respectively, of 14n–14p–14k of osmocote) revealed that more biomass was produced under high nutrient supply, whereas more biomass was allocated to the roots in low nutrient supply (huante et al., 1995). vinca (catharanthus roseus l.) seedlings benefitted from high concentrations of n (up to 32 mm) in the fertilizer, wherea s only low concentr a tions of phosphorus and potassium (0.25 mm) were needed (van iersel et al., 1999). the ideal potting substrate must also deliver an appropriate environment for proper plant nutrient availability. nutrient availability is very much dependent on the chemical properties including ph, cation exchange capacity, electrical conductivity of the substrate etc. economic analysis: economic indicators have been worked out considering the cost of inputs (pots, substrate and nutrients), labour and maintenance cost (fig 5). the three-season study suggested that pot plant production of china aster var. arka archana was profitable in plants grown in plastic pots using red soil + fym + sand media with the a pplica tion of fig. 3 : interaction effect of type of pots, substrate and media combination on internodal length of china aster var. arka archana fig. 5 : b:c ratio of different treatments of china aster var. arka archana pot experiment factor a: type of pots (p1: plastic pot; p2: coir pots); factor b: substrate (s1: red soil + fym + sand (1:1:1 v/v), s2: arka fermented cocopeat (afc), s3: afc + vermicompost (1:1 v/v)}; factor c: nutrition concentration (ppm) (n1160:30:180, n2128:24:144, n3 96:18:108 n:p:k; n4 organic source (jeevamrutha @ 3% weekly drenching) fig. 4 : nutrient uptake by china aster var. arka archana plants under pot experiment j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 371-380, 2022 379 term greenhouse crops in an ebb-and-flood irrigation system. hort. sci., 48(6): 732-737. bilderback, s.l., warren, j.s. owen, jr., and albano j.p.2005. hort. tech. 15: 747-751. br umfield, r. g., devincentis, a. j., wa ng, x., fernandez, r.t., nambuthiri, s., geneve, r.l., koeser, a.k., bi, g., li, t., sun, y., niu, g., cochran, d., fulcher, a. and stewart, j.r. 2015. economics of utilizing a lter native containers in ornamental crop production systems. hort. tech. 25(1): 17-25. carlile, t.m. and amon, a.  2008.  meiosis  i  is es t a b lis he d t hr ou gh divis ion s p ec if ic t r a ns la t i ona l c ont r ol of a c yc lin. cell: 133: 280-291. caron, j. and nkongolo, v.k.n. 1999. aeration in growing media: recent developments. acta hortic. 481: 545-552. castronuovo, d., picuno, p., manera, c., scopa, a., sofo, a. and candido, v. 2015. biodegradable pots for poinsettia cultivation: agronomic and technical traits. sci. hortic., 197: 150-156. evans, m.r., koeser, a.k., bi, g., nambuthiri, s., geneve, r., lovell, s.t. and stewart, r.j. 2015. impact of biocontainers with and without shuttle trays on water use in the production of a containerized ornamental greenhouse crop. hort tech. 25(1): 35-41. hoft, m.r. verpoorte and beck, e. 1996. growth and alkaloid content in leaves of tabernaemontana pachysiphon stapf (apocynaceae) as influenced by light intensity, water and nutrient supply. oecologia 107: 160-169. huante, p.e., rincon, and acosta i. 1995. nutrient availability and growth rate of 34 woody species from a tropical deciduous forest in mexico. funct. ecol. 9: 849-858. jackson, m.l. 1973. soil chemical analysis. prentice hall of india private ltd., new delhi. jayasinghe g. y. 2012. synthetic soil aggregates as a potting medium for or na menta l pla nt production. j. plant nutr., 35(10): 1441-1456. mcbride, k., henny, r.j., chen, j. and mellich, t.a. 2014. effect of light intensity and nutrition level on growth and flowering of adenium standardization of production techniques for potted china aster 96:18:108 ppm of n:p:k (p1s1n3) with a b:c ratio of 1.70. this might be due to the lower cost of production and better display life of the potted plant grown in this treatment. in general plants grown in plastic pots recorded better b:c ratio in the range of 1.02 to 1.70, whereas, coir pots due to higher cost of pots recorded lower b:c ratio range of 0.37 to 0.59. an alternative to the use of plastics in potted plant production could be the use of biodegradable pots instead of plastic pots (sartore et al., 2013). however, the technica l per for ma nce a nd suita bility for agricultural applications, of these biodegradable materials, that can be easily degraded by naturally occurring microorganisms must be ensured (lucas et al., 2008). the cost of bio pots is too high than traditional ones to make them utilizable by growers on large scale (brumfield et al., 2015) and it is about twice the cost the traditional ones according to minuto et al. (2008). this aspect is even more important for annual crops like potted china aster wherein the production costs should be considered as it is a short duration crop. conclusion from the results of the study, it is evident that in pot plant production of china aster var. arka archana, plant growth parameters like plant height (33.12 cm), number of primary branches (12.4), plant spread (536.64 cm2) at flowering and yield parameters like number of flowers/plant (26.47), flower size (5.26 cm) and uptake of nutrients were maximum in the plants grown in 6" plastic pots by using the substrate combination of red soil + sand + fym (1:1:1 v/v) along with the weekly application of nutrient solution of 96:18:108 ppm npk/plant (arka sasya poshak ras). the same treatment is profitable with the highest b:c ratio of 1.70. this technology can be adopted for large-scale commercial potted plant crop production as flowering potted plants are a way to bring in a visually pleasing effect, soften the hard lines of the living spaces that give health benefits. references anonymous, 2019. flower pots and planters market insights, trends, opportunity & forecast. https://www.fastmr.com/report/41/flower-potsand-planters-market. beeks, s. a. and eva ns, m. r. 2013. physica l properties of bio containers used to grow longj. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 371-380, 2022 380 obesum ‘red’ and ‘ice pink’. hort science 49(4): 430-433. kumar k. and goh k.m. 2000. crop residues and management practices: effects on soil quality, soil nitrogen dynamics, crop yield, and nitrogen recovery. adv. agron., 68: 197-319. lucas, n., bienaime, c., belloy, c., queneudec, m., silvestre, f. and nava-saucedo, j.e., 2008. polymer biodegradation: mechanisms and estimation techniques. chemosphere 73: 429442. mart, m. 2012. strike a pose: mandevilla vogue. grower talks 76: 1-8. minuto, g., minuto, a., pisi, l., tinivella, f., guerrini, s., versari, m., pini, s., capurro, m. and amprimo, i., 2008. use of compostable pots for potted ornamental plants production. acta hortic., 801: 367-372. nkongolo n.v. and caron, j., 2006. pore space orga niza tion a nd pla nt r esponse in pea t substrates: ii. dendrathemum morifolium ramat. sci. res. essays. 1(3): 93-102. kumari, p., rajiv kumar, t.m. rao, bharathi, t.u., m.v. dhananjaya and bhargav, v. (2018). cr ossa bility studies in china aster [callistephus chinensis (l.) nees]. int. j. curr. microbiol. appl. sci., 7: 2169-2175. raviv, m., wallach, r., silber, a. and bar-tal, a., 2002. substrates and their analysis. hydroponic production of vegetables and ornamentals pp. 25-105. sa r tor e, l. , vox, g. a nd schettini, e. 2013. pr epa r a tion a nd per for ma nce of novel biodegradable polymeric materials based on hydrolyzed proteins for agricultural application. j. polym. environ., 21(3): 718-725. van iersel, m.w.r.b., beverly, p.a., thomas j.g. and mills, h.a. 1999. nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium effects on pre-and post-transplant growth of salvia and vinca seedlings. j. plant nutr. 22: 1403-1413. smitha et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 371-380, 2022 (received : 26.07.2022; revised : 02.11.2022; accepted : 30.11.2022) page 120 integrated management of the yellow mite, polyphagotarsonemus latus (banks), on sweet pepper grown under polyhouse s. g. eswara reddy1 and n. k. krishna kumar2 department of entomology university of agricultural sciences, gkvk, bangalore 560 065, india e mail: ereddy2001@yahoo.com abstract different ipm modules were evaluated for the management of yellow mite, polyphagotarsonemus latus (banks) on sweet pepper grown under protected cultivation at the indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore. results indicated that application of module 1(spray of abamectin followed by ethion and abamectin) or module 2 (spray of abamectin followed by profenophos and abamectin) was significantly more effective (3.91-6.58 mites/ leaf) than module 3 (spray of dicofol followed by pongamia oil and neem seed kernal extract (5.79 -6.95 mites/ leaf) in the first two trials (sept. 2002mar. 2003 and june – dec.2003). ipm modules like module 4 (spray of dicofol followed by release of amblyseius tetranychivorus and spray of verticillium lecanii and module 5 (spray of dicofol followed by release of a. tetranychivorus and spray of pongamia oil (9.25-15.53 mites/leaf) were marginally effective during the first two trials. however, in the third trial (mar. sept., 2004) all the revised modules, viz., abamectin followed by dicofol (m 1 ), dicofol-fenazaquin (m 2 ), fenazaquin-pongamia oil (m 3 ) and organic module oxymetrin-neem soap (m 4 ) were effective (2.30-3.03 mites/leaf) against the yellow mite. key words: ipm, polyhouse cultivation, polyphagotarsonemus latus, sweet pepper introduction protected (polyhouse) cultivation is gaining popularity in india and is recognized as a useful technology to augment production of high quality vegetables. sweet pepper, capsicum annuum l., is one of the vegetables commercially suited for polyhouse cultivation, yielding 100 to 120 t ha-1 compared to 20 to 40 t/ha in open field (prabhakara et al, 2004). among different pests reported on sweet pepper, the yellow mite, polyphagotarsonemus latus (banks) is a major pest causing yield loss upto 96.4% in north karnataka (borah, 1987) and 25% in west bengal (ahmed et al, 1987) under open field is reported. adults and nymphs suck the sap from terminal leaves, auxiliary shoots and developing fruits. affected leaves become narrow and twisted resulting in downward curling (eswara reddy, 2005). information on yield loss due to p. latus infestation and its management on sweet pepper grown under protected cultivation is lacking in the tropics. hence, a study was carried out to study the effect of various ipm modules against p. latus on sweet pepper. material and methods experiments were conducted under a polyhouse (30 x 7 m) during september 2002 march 2003, june december 2003 and march september 2004 at the indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore. thirty five day old, indeterminate, hybrid sweet pepper seedlings raised under polyhouse (indra, syngenta india ltd.) was transplanted as recommended (prabhakara et al, 2004). experiments were carried out in a randomized block design (rbd) to evaluate six pest management modules in the first two trials. the third trial consisted of five modules. there were four replications and the plot size was 1.75 sq m. modules were revised during the third season to accommodate one more variable with no chemicals/ pesticides or botanicals. treatment sprays were imposed as soon as the first infestation of yellow mite, p. latus, was noticed (first spray was given 22 weeks after planting, second and third sprays) 23 and 25 weeks after plantings respectively in the first trial. correspondingly, it was 12, 15 and 17 weeks in the second trial and 6 and 9 weeks in the third trial. all pesticide sprays were applied with n adjuvant (teepol, 0.5 ml/l) using a high volume sprayer. observations on the incidence of p. latus were recorded a day prior to treatment and 7 and 14 days after j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 120-123, 2006 1present address: entomologist, e.i.d. parry (india) ltd., research & development centre, # 145, devanahalli road, off old madras road, bangalore–560 049 2 division of entomology and nematology, indian institute of horticultural research, hessaraghatta lake post, bangalore 560 089, karnataka, india page 121 each spray. the number of nymphs and adults of p. latus were counted under a stereo-binocular microscope from two terminal leaves/plant on 5 randomly selected plants/ treatment. mature, green sweet pepper fruits were harvested 60 days after planting in all the trials and repeated at regular intervals. data on incidence of mites were subjected to square root transformation and subjected to analysis of variance (anova). module details for the experiments are presented in the tables 1 and 2. rationale of module selection the selected ipm modules were basically derivatives of similar modules evaluated for management of tetranychus urticae on ornamental crops. this was necessary in the absence of similar work on vegetables. the main logic was to compare the efficacy of the most effective molecule (abamectin) for management of p. latus and gradual, stepwise replacement of this molecule with moderately effective but less expensive (dicofol) molecules and, if possible, to develop a module using only botanicals and predators. predatory mite information regarding phytoseiid mite adults, amblyseius tetranychivorus (gupta), was supplied by m/s. bio-control research laboratories (bcrl), bangalore, in plastic vials (200 mites/vial) containing artificial diet and bran. the predator was released by sprinkling the bran containing mites on leaves @ 20 mites/plant. results and discussion among the modules evaluated against p. latus on swet pepper, module 1 (abamectin followed by ethion and abamectin), module 2 (abamectin followed by profenophos and abamectin) and module 3 (dicofol followed by pongamia oil and neem seed kernel extract) were more effective in controlling p. latus (3.91-6.95 mites/leaf) (tables 3, 4). module 4 (dicofol followed by amblyseius tetranychivorus and verticilium lecanii) and module 5 (dicofol followed by a. tetranychivorus and pongamia oil) recorded moderately high infestation (13.99 -15.53 mites/ leaf). release of a. tetranychivorus following application of dicofol did not significantly reduce the infestation of p. latus. similarly, a comparison of module 4 and module 5 indicates that application of pongamia oil was more effective in suppressing p. latus numbers than the application of v. lecanii (table 3, 4). the efficacy of module 1 and 2 can be attributed to the effect of abamectin on p. latus. our results are in agreement with the findings of honnamma rani (2001) who table 1: modules evaluated against p. latus on sweet pepper under polyhouse (september 2002-march 2003 and june-december 2003) module spray sequence m 1 abamectin 0.00095% ethion 0.05% abamectin 0.00095% m 2 abamectin 0.00095% profenophos 0.05% abamectin 0.00095% m 3 dicofol 0.037% pongamia oil 1% neem seed kernel extract 4% m 4 dicofol 0.037% -amblyseius tetranychivorus verticilium lecanii 0.30% m 5 dicofol 0.037% a. tetranychivorus – pongamia oil 1% m 6 control (no spray) table 2: modules evaluated against p. latus on sweet pepper in polyhouse (march -september 2004) module spray sequence m 1 abamectin 0.00095% dicofol 0.037% m 2 dicofol 0.037% fenazaquin 0.01% m 3 fenazaquin 0.01% pongamia oil 1% m 4 oxymetrin 0.0009%neem soap 1% m 5 control (no spray) table 3: effect of various modules on management of p. latus on sweet pepper under polyhouse (september 2002march 2003) mean number of mites/leaf (days after spray) module i spray ii spray iii spray mean pre-count 7 14 pre-count 7 14 7 14 m 1 46.55 (6.85) 0.00 (0.71)a 0.00 (0.71)a 24.55 (4.99) 0.00 (0.71)a 2.83 (1.82)a 0.00 (0.71)a 0.00 (0.71)a 3.91 (1.96)a m 2 47.55 (6.92) 0.00 (0.71)a 0.00 (0.71)a 28.58 (5.34) 4.68 (2.27)c 5.08 (2.35)c 0.00 (0.71)a 0.00 (0.71)a 5.48 (2.28)b m 3 35.75 (6.01) 0.00 (0.71)a 0.00 (0.71)a 33.43 (5.77) 1.85 (1.53)b 3.53 (2.00)b 0.30 (0.89)b 1.45 (1.40)c 5.79 (2.61)c m 4 36.98 (6.10) 0.00 (0.71)a 0.00 (0.71)a 26.38 (5.16) 23.00 (4.84)e 19.88 (4.51)e 16.50 (4.11)d 12.15 (3.54)d 13.99 (3.89)e m 5 40.93 (6.40) 0.00 (0.71)a 0.00 (0.71)a 24.03 (5.29) 20.43 (4.57)d 18.48 (4.35)d 0.48 (0.98)c 1.33 (1.35)b 9.25 (3.06)d m 6 41.63 (6.48) 73.25 (8.59)b 71.45 (8.48)b 41.00 (6.38) 51.05 (7.18)f 41.93 (4.07)f 24.15 (4.96)e 21.23 (4.66)e 46.29 (7.01)f sem± 0.11 0.01 0.01 0.20 0.05 0.06 0.04 0.03 0.03 cd (p=0.05) 0.02 0.03 0.10 0.14 0.09 0.08 0.18 figures in parentheses indicate “x+0.5 transformations figures in columns followed by the same letter are not significantly different j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 120-123, 2006 integrated management of yellow mite 121 page 122 reported that dicofol (0.05%), abamectin (0.0007%), ethion (0.1%) and wettable sulphur (0.2%) were more effective against p. latus on chilli and potato under the field condition. green and dybas (1990) onkarappa (1999) and mallik et al (2002) also reported effect of the same molecules against tetranychus urticae on rose in polyhouse. abamectin is also the acaricide of choice in india for control of mites in ornamentals and vegetables grown under protected and open field cultivations. the efficacy of abamectin persists for 35 to 40 days, while other molecules retain their efficacy for 10 to 15 days only. several reports indicate that dicofol, ethion, profenophos and fenazaquin are also effective acaricides for the management of t. urticae and p. latus on a number of crops (khalid ahmed et al, 2000; honnamma rani, 2001; jhansi rani, 2001; mallik et al, 2001; mallik et al, 2002; anon, 2005). efficacy should be viewed from the point of reduction in pest population as well as persistence (of the efficacy). thus, while dicofol may not meet the stringent requirement for export of roses where zero tolerance is advocated, it can be a very important component of ipm in the management p. latus on sweet pepper as this crop is not exported. hence, use of abamectin may be more advantageous to the floriculture industry whereas the use of dicofol, ethion or pongamia oil is pragmatic for management of p. latus on sweet pepper grown under polyhouse. it is not surprising that in our trials, module 4 (dicofol followed by amblyseius tetranychivorus and verticilium lecanii) and module 5 (dicofol followed by a tetranychivorus and pongamia oil) were not effective as predators when released 30 days after the first application of dicofol. a number of workers have observed that a etranychivorus is an effective bio-control agent for control of t. urticae on rose under protected cultivation (mallik et al, 1998; jhansi rani, 2001). further, dicofol is highly toxic to the predatory mite, a. tetranychivorus, even at nine days from spray (krishnamoorthy, 1983). hence, it is likely that the potential of predatory mites is reduced in the presence of dicofol. all revised modules viz., abamectin followed by dicofol (m 1 ), dicofol fenazaquin (m 2 ), fenazaquin – pongamia oil (m 3 ) and organic module oxymetrin neem soap (m 4 ) during the third trial were significantly superior (2.30 -3.03 mites/leaf) (table 5). one of the reasons for choosing polyhouse cultivation is to grow crops with higher yields besides being qualitatively superior. however, there is value addition if the produce is pesticide residue -free or is organically grown. module 4 (spray of oxymetrin followed by neem soap) shows promise in this direction and may turn out to be extremely useful. table 4: effect of various modules on management of p. latus on sweet pepper under polyhouse (june december 2003) mean number of mites/leaf (days after spray) module i spray ii spray iii spray mean pre-count 7 14 pre-count 7 14 pre-count 7 14 m 1 69.60 (8.35) 0.00 (0.71)a 0.00 (0.71)a 25.55 (5.07) 0.65 (1.07)a 1.65 (1.46)c 15.30 (3.95) 0.45 (0.97)a 0.50 (1.00)a 5.51 (1.87)a m 2 72.60 (8.52) 0.00 (0.71)a 0.00 (0.71)a 26.40 (5.09) 0.80 (1.14)b 1.05 (1.24)a 23.10 (4.83) 0.63 (1.06)b 0.63 (1.06)a 6.58 (1.98)a m 3 73.70 (8.97) 0.00 (0.71)a 0.00 (0.71)a 29.30 (5.44) 0.70 (1.09)a 1.35 (1.36)b 21.33 (4.67) 1.23 (1.31)c 1.70 (1.48)b 6.95 (2.10)b m 4 77.23 (8.80) 0.00 (0.71)a 0.00 (0.71)a 27.75 (5.31) 19.55 (4.47)d 16.98 (4.18)e 22.80 (4.81) 21.15 (4.65)d 18.98 (4.41)d 15.53 (3.61)d m 5 76.90 (8.78) 0.00 (0.71)a 0.00 (0.71)a 26.90 (5.19) 16.15 (4.08)c 16.03 (4.06)d 24.33 (4.93) 1.20 (1.30)c 6.35 (2.61)c 10.70 (2.88)c m 6 75.28 (8.69) 94.18 (9.72)b 30.65 (5.57)b 21.90 (4.69) 23.45 (4.89)e 23.08 (4.85)f 25.15 (5.01) 31.10 (5.62)e 48.65 (7.00)e 37.89 (5.98)e sem± 0.39 0.09 0.07 0.17 0.03 0.03 0.12 0.03 0.04 0.03 cd (p=0.05) 0.19 0.15 0.06 0.06 0.06 0.09 0.17 figures in parentheses indicate “x+0.5 transformations figures in columns followed by the same letter are not significantly different table 5: effect of various modules on management of p. latus on sweet pepper under polyhouse (march september 2004) mean number of mites/leaf (days after spray) module i spray ii spray mean pre-count 7 14 pre-count 7 14 m 1 61.59 (7.87) 0.00 (0.71)a 0.38 (0.94)a 8.05 (2.88) 0.00 (0.71)a 3.05 (1.88)a 2.30 (1.42)a m 2 53.15 (7.32) 0.00 (0.71)a 1.60 (1.45)a 9.68 (3.15) 0.00 (0.71)a 2.38 (1.69)a 2.73 (1.54)a m 3 49.37 (7.04) 0.00 (0.71)a 1.28 (1.33)a 9.83 (3.16) 1.18 (1.29)a 3.23 (1.93)a 3.10 (1.68)a m 4 41.25 (6.36) 0.00 (0.71)a 0.63 (1.06)a 9.15 (3.07) 1.78 (1.51)a 3.58 (2.02)a 3.03 (1.67)a m 5 53.41 (7.33) 90.85 (9.51)b 26.25 (5.17)d 17.20 (4.20) 16.30 (4.10)c 11.45 (3.45)b 32.41 (5.29)b sem± 0.19 0.42 0.18 0.15 0.14 0.08 0.17 cd (p=0.05) 2.53 1.11 1.00 0.87 0.47 1.04 figures in parentheses indicate “x+0.5 transformations figures in columns followed by the same letter are not significantly different j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 120-123, 2006 eswara reddy & krishna kumar 122 page 123 effect of module on yield fruits harvested from polyhouse grown sweet pepper were completely free from feeding scars. marketable fruit yield in different modules during the first and second trials indicated that module 1 (abamectin followed by ethion and abamectin) recorded significantly higher yield (97.17116.71 t ha-1) and was on par with module 2 (abamectinprofenophosabamectin) (93.84-95.58 t ha-1) and module 3 (dicofol-pongamia oil-nske) (93.02-97.69 t ha-1), followed by module 4 (dicofola. tetranychivorus -v. lecani) and module 5 (dicofol-a. tetranychivoruspongamiaoil). control recorded significantly low yield (57.16-69.29 t ha-1). all the revised modules during the third trial viz., abamectin-dicofol (m 1 ), dicofol-fenazaquin (m 2 ), fenazaquin-pongamia oil (m 3 ) and oxymetrin-neem soap (m 4 ) were significantly superior (99.29-109.79 t ha-1) to control which recorded less yield (74.36 t ha-1) (table 6). resistance to insecticides under polyhouse cultivation has been documented earlier (anon, 2005). intensive polyhouse cultivation is practiced round the year and resistance can easily surface in mines under repeated selection pressure. modular approach for the management of mites can contribute to greater selection pressure. need based chemical application is a better approach in ipm of vegetables than a modular approach that is better suited for export in floriculture. based on efficacy, economics and persistence, dicofol application followed by pongamia oil and nske, or, fenazaquin followed by pongamia oil, or, oxymetrin followed by neem soap, can be recommended for control of p. latus on sweet pepper grown under polyhouse. acknowledgements authors are thankful to world bank aided natpmm project on “protected cultivation of vegetables and flowers in plains and hills” for providing funds. our thanks to director, indian institute of horticultural research (icar), for providing the facilities. we are grateful to m/s bio-control research laboratories (bcrl), bangalore, for providing the predatory mite and verticilium lecanii for the study. references anonymous, 2005. annual report, indian institute of horticultural research (iihr), bangalore. anonymous, 2005. technical folder, all india network project on agricultural acarology (icar), department of entomology, uas, bangalore, karnataka, india. ahmed, k., mohamed, m. g. and murthy, n. s. r. 1987. yield loss due to various pests in hot pepper. sweet pepper news letter. no. 6: 83-84. borah, d. c. 1987. bio-ecology of polyphagotarsonemus latus (banks) and scirtothrips dorsalis (hood) infesting chilli and their natural enemies. ph.d. thesis, uas, dharwad. eswara reddy, s. g. 2005. comparison of pest incidence and management strategies on capsicum and tomato grown under protected and open field cultivation. ph.d. thesis, uas, bangalore. honnamma rani, r. 2001. bio-ecology and control of yellow mite, polyphagotarsonemus latus (banks) infesting potato and chilli. m.sc. (agri.) thesis, uas, bangalore. jhansi rani, b. 2001. efficacy of phytoseid predator, amblyseius longispinosus evans, against the spotted spider mite, tetranychus urticae koch, on carnation. 7: 64-65. khalid ahmed, purna chandra rao, p. and rao, n. h. p. 2000. evaluation of new insecticides against yellow mite, polyphagotarsonemus latus (banks), in chillies. pestology 24: 54-57. krishnamoorthy, a. 1983. effect of some pesticides on the predatory mite, amblyseius tetranychivorus (gupta), (acari: phytoseiidae). entomon 8: 229-234. mallik, b., anil, k .n. onkarappa, s., shaila, h. m. and puttaswamy 2002. management of acarine and other pests of horticultural plants grown under controlled conditions. international symposium on hitech horticulture, bangalore, 240-246. prabhakara, b. s, prabhakar, m., hebbar, s. s., krishna kumar, n. k., krishna murthy, p. n., girija ganeshan, sreenivasa murthy, d., srinivas, v., eswara reddy, s. g. and anjula, n. 2004. greenhouse production of capsicum. technical bulletin 22, indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore. j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 120-123, 2006 integrated management of yellow mite 123 table 6: effect of various modules on yield for management of p. latus on sweet pepper under polyhouse module yield (t ha-1) sept. 02 –mar. 03 june-dec.2003 mar.-sept 2004 m 1 97.17a 116.71 a 109.79a m 2 93.84ab 95.58ab 105.00a m 3 93.02ab 97.69ab 102.63a m 4 83.22c 86.71b 99.29a m 5 91.33b 82.01b 74.36b m 6 69.28d 57.16c —— s. em ± 0.88 8.78 2.71 c.d (p=0.05) 5.32 18.72 16.38 figures in columns followed by the same letter are not significantly different (ms received 27 february 2006 , revised 22 december 2006) 363 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 363-370, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction chr ysa nthemum (chrysanthemum morifolium ramat.), commonly known as ‘pot mums’ belonging to the family ‘asteraceae’ ranks third in world cut flower trade and has retained first position in china and japan, being its primary centers of origin (datta and janakiram 2015). in india, chrysanthemum is cultivated in 28.32 thousand ha with an average annual production of 537.56 thousand mt (loose flowers) and 18.52 lakh (cut stems) (anonymous 2022). t he production of qua lity cut stems of chrysanthemum depends on several cultural practices, the most influential being the nitrogen (n) nutrition and availability of optimum space for the plants to manifest its vigorous vegetative and reproductive growth stages. chrysanthemum, being a heavy feeder requires n application in splits for the first seven weeks of its vegetative growth, that is essential for adequate accumula tion of n in br anches and leaves for utilization at later stage during reproductive phase (crater, 1992). the analysis of mature leaf samples revealed 4.6-6.0% n, which is considerably less then accounted during the active growth period (muniz et al., 2009; stern et al., 2008). most of the ornamental plants utilize either or both n-nh4 +and n-no3 " depending upon their stage of growth and development (bernstein et al., 2005). the quality of chrysanthemum cut stems can be influenced by the n-nh 4 +/nno3 "ratio that affect postharvest behaviour of cut stems (ramos et al., 2013). the availability of optimum space for proper growth and development of chrysanthemum is a key factor determining the quality and productivity of cut stems. an ideal planting geometry influence several factors such as the density of plants per unit area, light interception within the plant canopy, resource utilization, ease in performing various cultural operations, optimum ground to canopy ratio, suppression of weed growth and most important being the productivity of the crop.optimum utilization of resources is the need of the hour to safeguard and effectively utilize the available resources for successful production of high value and low volume flor icultur e cr ops, in pa r ticula r chrysanthemum. optimization of nitrogen application and planting geometry for production of cut chrysanthemums (chrysanthemum morifolium ramat.) singh m.1, bala m.2* and singh s.2 1 punjab urban planning and development authority (puda), punjab, india 2 department of floriculture and landscaping, punjab agricultural university, ludhiana, india *corresponding author email : madhu-flori@pau.edu abstract nutrition and planting geometry are the two key factors affecting the production and quality of cut stems in chrysanthemum. the present investigation was undertaken to standardize the nitrogen nutrition and planting geometry for chrysanthemum var. “yellow star” cultivated for cut flowers. the data revealed the proportionate increase in plant height, chlorophyll content, days to bud appearance and days to 50% inflorescence anthesis and length of cut stem with increase in nitrogen dose and row spacing. however, flower diameter, number of flowers per stem, cut stem diameter, vase life, and water absorbed by cut flower decreased proportionately with increase in nitrogen dose and row spacing. application of n@100 kg ha-1 to chrysanthemum planted at 20x10 cm spacing produced cut stems of acceptable length, more number of flowers of bigger size and optimum postharvest longevity. the amount of nitrogen can be reduced to 1/3rd to grow cut chrysanthemums planted at twice the row spacing for longer cut stems of appreciable vase life. keywords: chrysanthemum, fertilization, nitrogen, planting geometry, yellow star 364 singh et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 363-370, 2022 however, information regarding n-nutrition and planting geometry in cultivation of cut chrysanthemum needs to be determined under the subtropical climatic conditions of india. the study is deemed as significant for the small and marginal flower growers, to yield maximum productivity of quality cut stems from limited land-holdings. therefore, the present needbased investigation was undertaken to standardize the n nutrition and optimum planting geometry for cultivation of chrysanthemum var. “yellow star” for cut stems under subtropical conditions of north india. materials and methods the experimental was conducted at the research farm (33o55' n latitude; 75o54' e latitude; 247m above msl receiving 700 mm annual rainfall), department of floriculture and landscaping, punjab agricultural university, ludhiana, during the year 2018. the relative humidity ranged between 63.0-76.0%. the mean minimum evaporation during the period of crop growth was recorded during november (2.1 mm) and maximum during july (129.9 mm). the soil texture was classified as sandy loam with ph 7.75, 7.79 and 7.82 recorded from 15 cm, 30 cm and 45 cm soil depth respectively. the chrysanthemum variety “yellow star” was selected for the study as it is popular and commercially cultivated by flower growers for yielding cut flowers and for exhibition purpose. the flowers are yellow, with compact decorative type of inflorescence. healthy disease free rooted cuttings of uniform height (3 inches) and age (25 days old) with well developed root system were planted during first week of august. the treatments for planting geometry were designed at 3 spacing levels: s1 (10×10 cm), s2 (15×10 cm) and s3 (20×10 cm) accommodating 100, 66 and 50 pla nts per squa re meter ar ea r espectively the treatments for n-doses comprised 4 differential applications: n1 control (0 kg n ha -1), n2 reduced fertilizer (100 kg ha-1), n3 conventional fertilizer (200 kg ha-1), n4 excessive fertilizer (300 kg ha 1). t he experiment comprised of 12 treatments executed in factorial r a ndomized block design (frbd), replicated thrice. the straight fertilizers viz. ur ea, single super phosphate (ssp) a nd muriate of potash (mop) were taken as the sources of n, p2o5 and k2o, respectively. entire dose of p and k were applied each @ 200 kg ha-1 as basal dose and graded levels of n were applied in two splits doses. two splits doses one 30 days after transplanting and other 45 days after transplanting. various growth characteristics such as plant height (measured at 30, 60 and 90 days after transplanting), leaf area and total chlorophyll content were recorded. total chlorophyll content of leaves was determined using method purposed by witham et al. (1971): total chlorophyll (mg/g) = 20.2 (a645) + 8.02 (a663) final volume of dmso 1000  weight of tissue the floral characters such as days to flower bud appearance, days to 50 % flowering, flower diameter, number of flowers per stem, cut stem diameter and length of the cut stem were recorded and the average values were computed for data analysis. data was subjected to statistical analysis by spss v. 22 (ibm) software. results and discussion plant height, leaf area and total chlorophyll content the mean plant height recorded at 30, 60 and 90 dap with respect to differential application of n-levels showed pr ogr essive incr ea se with subsequent application of n, compared to control (table 1). the mean plant height was recorded least in control, however, the percent increment in plant height with increasing n-levels was more pronounced in plants during first 30 dap. the highest percent increment (40.6%) of plant growth during first 30 dap can be attributed due to ample availability of space and sunlight for the plants to grow that were supplemented with higher doses of n-levels. nitrogen is considered as an important factor for building plant biomass through photosynthesis and subsequent translocation of carbohydrates for vegetative growth (evans and clarke, 2019).the subsequent percent increase in plant height decreased relatively (29.1% and 22.4%) at 60 and 90 dap respectively. the availability of space and competition for air and sunlight tend to become a limiting factor, resulting in decrease in plant growth during later period (woodson and boodley 1983). the n requirement of chrysanthemum is highest during first 7 weeks after transplanting (fernandes et al., 2012), and n uptake thereafter tend to decrease (yoon et al., 2000). the further n requirement is pooled mostly from the accumulated nitrate in stems and the petioles (macdonald et al., 2013). conversely, the mean plant height decreased progressively in the plants 365 optimization of nitrogen application and planting geometry for chrysanthemum production planted at narrower to wider spacing. however, the percent decrease in plant height was more pronounced at 30 dap as compared to observations recorded at later monthly quarters. the plants planted at narrow spacing tend to compete for sunlight, as a consequence began to outgrowin length and appear taller compared to the plants planted at relatively wider spacing (lavhaji, 2007). the total chlorophyll content measured from the ma ture leaf tissue showed a significant 29. 5% increment at the highest n-level (n4) compared to control. similarly plants grown at wider spacing recorded 13.0% increase in chlorophyll content compar ed to plants grown a t na rr ow spacing. nitrogen, is an essential element for synthesis of amino acids and proteins, besides structurally important component of chlorophyll, and is considered essential for transportation of metabolites for synthesis of chlorophyll (tucker, 2004). the leaf area per plant was significantly influenced by the application of different n-levels and varying plant spacing (table 2). the maximum leaf area/plant (1435.37 cm2) was recorded in plants supplemented with n2 fertilizer treatment, and the minimum (992.67 cm2) leaf area was measured in control. further, planting distance also exhibited a significant effect on leaf area per plant. the plants planted at s3 spacing showed mean maximum leaf area (1266.80 cm2) while the minimum leaf area (1172.69cm2) was observed in plants planted at s1 spacing, irrespective of the nlevels. however, the interaction between n-level and spacing revealed non-significant differences for leaf area. flowering characteristics chrysanthemum plants delayed by 2.3 days to bud appearance with subsequent increase in n-levels (table 3). however, the mean days taken to bud emergence at highest n-level was found insignificant compared to control plants. plants planted at twice the row spacing showed 3.0 % delay in days to bud appearance compared to plants that were planted at narrower spacing. with the onset of short days, the accumulated leaf n is remobilized to developing buds to show color (macz et al., 2007). it has been proposed that n is not a decisive factor in initiation and development of floral primordia, but may alter (delay) the timing of its emergence (withrow, 1945). nitrogen affect the reproductive development of photosensitive short day plants (sdps) that initiate buds with the onset of sds, however, the split applications of n may slightly prolong the vegetative phase with the continuous synthesis and availability of accumulated photosynthates in the plant tissues which is utilized for flower bud growth and ultimately initiation of flowering. with subsequent increase in application of n-levels, the mean number of days taken to 50% flowering were found delayed by one week at highest n-level, but was found insignificant compared to control (table 3). however, plants planted at narrower spacing showed earliness in days to 50% flowering compared to plants at wider spacing. the application of higher n-level during early period of onset of sds and cool nights delayed flower bud initiation, and subsequent stages of inflorescence anthesis indicating the potential affect of exogenous n in timing of transition of vegetative to reproductive phase rather than inhibiting the onset of flowering. the plants planted at wider spacing also exhibited delayed flowering due to less competition for space, sunlight, water and nutrients in soil, that aid in prolonging the vegetative phase and delayed flowering (nagaraja, 2013). the flower diameter showed 19.1% decrement at highest n-level, however, differed significantly with the mean diameter of flower that was recorded least in plants under control treatment. chrysanthemum plants planted at twice the row spacing showed 9.23% increment in diameter of the flower compared to the plants that were planted at narrower spacing. the results present a contradictory observation to the synergistic effect of increasing n-level on flower diameter. the plants devoid of n dose (control) mea sur ed lea st flower dia meter which wa s in accordance with the findings of nell et al. (1989) and adams et al. (1970) who reported reduction in flower diameter in chrysanthemum with lower n-levels. the average number of flowers per stem recorded a s ignifica nt dec r ea s e (4 4. 7% ) in t he p la nt s subjected to highest n-level. the contr ol plots showed least number of flowers per stem which were found at par at highest n-level. however, the plants planted at wider spacing showed a significant 30.0% increment in number of flowers per stem compared to the plants planted at narrower spacing. the higher n doses likely induce succulence in plants with weak stems, causing reduction in flower j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 363-370, 2022 366 nu mb er. t he r es ult s a r e in a c cor da nc e wit h observations made by vijayakumar et al. (1988), recording greater number of china aster flowers at lower (300 kg n ha-1) n doses. the diameter of cut stem recorded 22.3% decrement a t higher n level, tha t diff er ed significa nt ly compared to control measured with least diameter of the cut stem (table 4). plants raised at wider spa cing showed 11. 57% incr ea se in cu t stem diameter, however, the increment was found nons ignifica nt comp a r ed t o t he p la nts gr own a t narrower spacing. the n application increased the diameter of cut stems that tend to become heavily lignified resulting in higher girth of stems (withrow, 1945). post-harvest characteristics the mean length of cut stem was measured least in plants under control (no n application). the stem length showed 7.58% increment in plants at highest n-level a nd wa s found statistically significa nt compared to stem lengths recorded in plants under control treatment. however, the mean length of stems showed a significant reduction (6.99%) in the plants that were grown at wider spacing. the higher n-levels resulted in more cell elongation and differentiation of the vascular tissues that caused increase in length of cut stems. the cut stems harvested from plots applied with n2-fertilizer dose reported mean 45.6% increase in vase life compared to the control pot recording mea n minimu m va se life (1 4. 8 da ys) (f ig1 ). however, the cut stems taken from plants grown at different spacing revealed improvement (15.5%) in mean vase life (fig 2). the higher n increased the c onduc t a nc e tha t is a det er mining f a c tor in enhancing the longevity of the cut stems (roude et a l . , 1 9 9 1 ) . h i gher c ondu c t a nc e r es u lt ed in damaging of the root system thereby limiting the water uptake. adequate availability of n during growth period maintains the level of carbohydrates that determines the post harvest longevity of cut s tems ( dr ü ge, 2 0 00 ) . h owever, ex ces s n is detrimental for the post harvest longevity of cut stems due to accumulation of excess sa lts and production of endogenous ethylene (roberts et al., 1984) that reduced the vase life of cut stems. total water absorbed by cut stem showed 34.6% decrement with subsequent additions of n. the cut stems harvested from plants devoid of n showed least uptake of water, that was less (18.2%) than the water absorbed by the cut stems at highest n nutrition. the interaction effect of n and plant spacing enhanced the water absorption, the highest wa t er a b s or p tion wa s r ecor ded in c ut s t ems harvested from chrysanthemum plants raised at wider spacing. the water absorbed by the cut stems is proportionate to their longevity. however, as st a ted a b ove, t he wa ter u pta ke by cut stems decr eased due to build up of excess salts with subsequent higher applications of n, supported from the findings of nell et al. (1989); proposed to terminate n fertilization in chrysanthemum 3 weeks prior to flowering to reduce the conductance and increase the longevity of cut stems. singh et al fig. 1 : response of n nutrition on vase life of cut stems *error bars represent standard error (se±0.071) fig. 2 : response of plant spacing on vase life of cut stems *error bars represent standard error (se±0.1) j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 363-370, 2022 367 ta bl e 2 : r es po ns e of v ar yi ng n -le ve ls a nd p la nt s pa ci ng o n ch lo ro ph yl l c on te nt a nd le af a re a of c hr ys an th em um n le ve l c hl or op hy ll co nt en t (m g/ g) l ea f ar ea ( cm 2 ) s1 s2 s3 m ea n s1 s2 s3 m ea n n 1 0. 80 0. 91 1. 03 0. 91 a 94 8. 13 98 6. 33 10 43 .5 6 99 2. 67 a n 2 1. 31 1. 42 1. 55 1. 4 b 11 17 .4 1 11 70 .0 0 12 14 .1 8 11 67 .1 9 b n 3 1. 51 1. 62 1. 71 1. 6 c 12 42 .7 6 12 93 .5 7 13 43 .0 7 12 93 .1 3 c n 4 1. 66 1. 77 1. 84 1. 7 d 13 82 .4 5 14 24 .3 3 14 66 .3 7 14 24 .3 8 d m ea n 1. 32 a 1. 43 b 1. 53 c 11 72 .6 9 a 12 18 .5 6 b 12 66 .8 0 c si gn if ic an ce o f fi xe d fa ct or s n itr og en ( n ) * * sp ac in g (s ) * * n x s n s n s e ac h va lu e re pr es en t a m ea n of n = 3 r ep lic at es .; ns : no t si gn if ic an t; d iff er en t le tte rs w ith in a c ol um n in di ca te s ig ni fi ca nt d iff er en ce s be tw ee n va lu es a t *: p < 0 .0 5 ta bl e 1 : r es po ns e of v ar yi ng n -le ve ls a nd p la nt s pa ci ng o n ve ge ta tiv e ch ar ac te rs o f ch ry sa nt he m um p la nt h ei gh t (c m ) 30 d a t p la nt h ei gh t (c m ) 60 d a t p la nt h ei gh t (c m ) 90 d a t n le ve l s1 s2 s3 m ea n s1 s2 s3 m ea n s1 s2 s3 m ea n n 1 13 .1 11 .7 10 .8 11 .8 a 48 .8 46 .9 44 .4 46 .7 72 .0 66 .6 63 .3 67 .3 a n 2 15 .1 13 .6 12 .1 13 .6 b 53 .0 78 .9 49 .9 51 .6 78 .9 76 .8 72 .5 76 .1 b n 3 16 .7 14 .0 13 .5 14 .7 c 56 .9 54 .3 53 .5 54 .8 81 .3 79 .6 76 .2 79 .0 c n 4 18 .2 16 .4 15 .2 16 .6 d 62 .1 60 .3 58 .6 60 .3 84 .9 82 .7 79 .5 82 .4 d m ea n 15 .7 a 13 .9 b 12 .9 c 55 .2 60 .1 51 .6 79 .2 a 76 .4 b 72 .8 c si gn if ic an ce o f fi xe d fa ct or s n * n s * s * n s * n x s n s n s n s e ac h va lu e re pr es en t a m ea n of n = 3 r ep lic at es .; ns : no t si gn if ic an t; d iff er en t le tte rs w ith in a c ol um n in di ca te s ig ni fi ca nt d iff er en ce s be tw ee n va lu es a t *: p < 0 .0 5 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 363-370, 2022 optimization of nitrogen application and planting geometry for chrysanthemum production 368 ta bl e 3 : r es po ns e of v ar yi ng n -le ve ls a nd p la nt s pa ci ng o n flo w er in g ch ar ac te rs o f ch ry sa nt he m um n le ve l d ay s to f lo w er b ud a pp ea ra nc e d ay s to 5 0 % f lo w er in g f lo w er d ia m et er ( cm ) n um be r of f lo w er s/ st em s1 s2 s3 m ea n s1 s2 s3 m ea n s1 s2 s3 m ea n s1 s2 s3 m ea n n 1 93 .0 95 .3 97 .0 95 .1 a 11 0. 3 11 1. 6 11 2. 0 11 1. 3 a 8. 1 8. 7 9. 0 8. 6 a 4. 6 5. 2 6. 2 5. 3 a n 2 87 .6 89 .3 90 .3 89 .1 b 10 0. 0 10 2. 3 10 3. 6 10 2. 0 b 11 .6 12 .6 13 .2 12 .5 b 10 .2 11 .9 13 .0 11 .0 b n 3 88 .6 90 .6 91 .3 90 .2 c 10 4. 6 10 6. 6 10 8. 3 10 6. 5 c 11 .3 11 .9 12 .2 11 .8 c 8. 3 10 .5 11 .4 10 .1 c n 4 91 .0 93 .0 94 .6 92 .8 d 10 7. 3 10 8. 0 10 8. 6 10 8. 0 d 10 .5 10 .9 11 .1 10 .8 d 7. 6 8. 3 9. 4 8. 4 d m ea n 90 .0 a 92 .0 b 93 .3 c 10 5. 5 a 10 7. 1 b 10 8. 1 b 10 .3 a 11 .0 b 11 .3 b 7. 6 a 8. 9 b 10 .0 c si gn if ic an ce o f fi xe d fa ct or s n itr og en ( n ) * * * * sp ac in g (s ) * * * * n x s n s n s n s n s e ac h va lu e re pr es en t a m ea n of n = 3 r ep lic at es ; ns : no t si gn if ic an t; d iff er en t le tte rs w ith in a c ol um n in di ca te s ig ni fi ca nt d iff er en ce s be tw ee n va lu es a t *: p < 0 .0 5 ta bl e 4 : r es po ns e of v ar yi ng n -le ve ls a nd p la nt s pa ci ng o n po st -h ar ve st c ha ra ct er s of c ut s te m s n le ve l c ut s te m d ia m et er l en gt h of c ut s te m to ta l w at er a bs or be d by w ei gh t of c ut s te m (m m ) (c m ) cu t st em ( m l) (g ) s1 s2 s3 m ea n s1 s2 s3 m ea n s1 s2 s3 m ea n s1 s2 s3 m ea n n 1 3. 1 3. 4 3. 7 3. 4 a 66 .0 60 .7 56 .9 61 .2 a 61 .6 69 .0 73 .9 68 .1 a 48 .2 54 .7 59 .6 54 .2 a n 2 7. 2 7. 4 7. 8 7. 5 b 74 .0 71 .0 70 .0 71 .7 b 11 0. 3 12 4. 5 13 5. 4 12 3. 4 b 80 .7 87 .2 92 .6 86 .8 b n 3 6. 1 6. 4 6. 7 6. 4 c 75 .2 73 .9 71 .5 73 .5 b 86 .4 91 .1 98 .3 91 .9 c 72 .4 76 .6 80 .1 76 .4 c n 4 5. 6 6. 0 6. 2 5. 9 d 78 .7 76 .9 73 .4 76 .3 c 83 .7 87 .0 93 .3 88 .0 d 66 .2 70 .8 75 .2 70 .8 d m ea n 5. 5 a 5. 8 b 6. 1 c 73 .4 a 70 .6 a 67 .9 b 85 .5 a 92 .9 a b 10 0. 2 b 66 .9 a 72 .3 b 76 .9 c si gn if ic an ce o f fi xe d fa ct or s n itr og en ( n ) * * * * sp ac in g (s ) * * * * n x s n s n s n s n s e ac h va lu e re pr es en t a m ea n of n = 3 r ep lic at es .; ns : no t si gn if ic an t; d iff er en t le tte rs w ith in a c ol um n in di ca te s ig ni fi ca nt d iff er en ce s be tw ee n va lu es a t *: p < 0 .0 5 singh et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 363-370, 2022 369 conclusion it can be concluded that application of n@100 kg ha-1 to chrysanthemum plants planted at 20x10 cm spacing accommodating 50 plants per square meter yielded best quality cut stems of acceptable length and optimum post-harvest longevity. thus, compared to the conventional practice of n application (300 kg ha-1) adopted by farmers, the amount of n can be reduced to 1/3rd to grow cut stems of chrysanthemums planted at twice the row spacing for optimum growth and flowering. the application of lower dose of n will likely reduce the production cost and lessen the environmental impact of leaching of n without compromising on quality and yield of chrysanthemum for commercial cultivation. references anonymous, 2017. advanced estimation of area and production of chrysanthemum in india.https:// w ww. a p e d a . i n/ a gr i e x c h a n g e/ i n di a % 2 0 production/india productions. aspx? hscode =102 accessed on 2 may 2020. ada ms, p. , gr a ves, c. j. a nd winsor, g. w. , 1970.nutrition of year-round chrysanthemums in peat and sand. annual report of glasshouse crops res. inst., 1969, pp.90-93. bernstein, n., ioffe, m., bruner, m.,nishri, y., luria, g.,dori, i.,matan, e., philosoph-hadas, s., umiel, n. and hagiladi.a., 2005. effects of supplied n form and quality of ranunculus asiaticus flowers. hort. sci., 40: 1879-86. cr ater, d. a. , 1992.potted chrysa nthemums.in introduction to floriculture; 2nd. edition.; larson, r.a. (ed.).; academic press: new york, pp.249-287. datta, s. k. and janakiram, t., 2015. breeding and genetic diversity in chrysanthemum morifolium in india: a review. indian j. agric. sci., 85(11): 1379-1395. drüge, u. 2000. influence of pre-harvest n supply on post-ha r vest beha viour of or na menta ls: impor ta nce of ca r bohydr a te sta tus, photosynthesis a nd pla nt hor mones. gartenbauwissenschaft, 65(2): 53-4. eastwood, t. 1952. forcing créole lilies at different levels of soil nitrate. pr. am. soc. hortic. sci., 59: 531-41. evans, j.r., clarke, v.c., 2019. the nitrogen cost of photosynthesis, j. exp. bot., 70(1): 7-15, fernandes, e. p., rezende, c. f. a., leandro, w. m., frazao, j. j. and barbosa, j. m. 2012. the accumulation of n, phosphorus and potassium in cut chr ysa nthemum (dendranthema grandiflorum) cv. jospithoven. semin. ciênc. agrár., 33: 2939. lavhaji, k. g. 2007 effect of n application and spacing on growth and yield of seasonal chrysanthemum (chrysanthemum coronarium). msc. thesis. mahatma phule krishi vidyapeeth, ahmednagar, india. macdonald, w. n., blom, t. j.,tsujita, m. j. and shelp, b.j., 2013. review: improving n use eff ic ienc y of p ot t ed c hr ys a nt hemu m: strategies and benefits. can. j. plant sci., 93(6): 1009-16 ma cz, o. , pa pa r ozzi, e. t. a nd str oup, w. w. 2007.the effect of n and sulfur application on pot chrysanthemum production and post-harvest per for ma nce. i. lea f n a nd sulfur concentrations. j. plant nutr., (24): 111-29. muniz, m.a., barbosa, j.g.,grossi, j.a.s.,orbes, m.y. and sa, p.g., 2009. production and quality of pot chrysanthemum ferti-irrigated with different nitrate/ammonium relations.bioscience journal, 25: 75-82. nagaraja, c. k., 2013. effect of spacing and nutrition on growth and yield of annual chrysanthemum chrysanthemum coronarium l. m.sc. thesis, university of horticultural sciences, bagalkot, india. nell, t.a., barrett, j. e. and leonard, r.t., 1989. fertilization termination influences postharvest performance of pot chrysanthemum. hort. sci., 24 (6): 996-98. roberts, j.a., tucker, g.a. and maunders, m.j., 1984. ethylene and foliar senescence. in: j.a. roberts and g.a. tucker (eds.), ethylene and pla nt development. ea ster school in agr icultur a l science, nottingha m, butterworths, london, pp. 267-273. ramos, l., andreas, b., herrada, b.m.p., arenas, t. l. and becker, s.j., 2013. effects of n form and application rates on the growth of petunia j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 363-370, 2022 optimization of nitrogen application and planting geometry for chrysanthemum production 370 singh et al and n content in the substrate. commun. soil sci. plant anal., 44: 473-479, 2013. roude, n., nell, t. a. and barrett, e. j., 1991. longevity of potted chrysanthemums at various n and potassium concentrations and nh4: no3 ratios. hortic. sci., 26:163-65. sharma, n. and bala, m., 2020. effect of different holding solutions on post-harvest keeping quality of chrysanthemum cut stems. agric. res. j., 57(3): 379-384. stern, k. r., bidlack, j. e. and jansky, s. h., 2008. introductory plant biology., new york, usa: mcgraw-hill companies. tucker, m., 2004. primary nutrients and pla nt gr owth. in: essentia l pla nt nutr ients (scribd, ed.). north carolina department of agriculturae. vijayakumar, k. t., patil, a. a. and hulmaniet, n.c. 1988.effect of plant density and n on growth characters and flower yield of china a ster (call istephus chinen sis nees) cv. ostrich plume mixed. south ind. hort., 36: 318-320. witham, f.h., blaydes, d.f. and devlin, r.m., 1971. experiments in plant physiology, van nostrand, new york. withrow, a.p., 1945. interrelationship of nitrogen and photo-period on the flowering, growth, and stem anatomy of certain long day and short day plants. butler univ. bot. studies, 7(1): 5. woods on, w. r . , & boodley, j. w. ( 1 98 3 ) . accumulation and partitioning of nitrogen a nd dr y ma t t er du r ing t he gr owt h of chrysanthemum. hortscience, 18(2): 196197. yoon, h. s., goto, t. and kageyama, y., 2000. mineral uptake as influenced by growing seasons and developmental stages in spray chrysanthemums grown under a hydroponic syst em. j . ja p an es e s oc . h or ti c. sc i. , 69: 255-60. j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 363-370, 2022 (received : 11.09.2021; revised : 25.10.2021; accepted : 25.07.2022) page 144 heterosis studies in muskmelon (cucumis melo l.) rukam s. tomar and m. k. bhalala national research centre for groundnut post bag no.5, ivanagar road, junagadh – 362 001, gujarat, india e-mail : rukam@rediffmail.com abstract ten parental lines and 45 f 1 hybrids of muskmelon obtained from half dialleles were studied to investigate the extent of heterosis in muskmelon. heterotic effects over the better parent were observed to be higher for number of the node on which first female flower appeared, fruits per plant, fruit weight, fruit yield per plant, moisture content and total soluble sugars in e 2 than in e 1 . the hybrids amm-01-18 x amm-02-26, hara madhu x rm50, amm-00-25 x amm-00-11 and amm-01-18 x dm-1 were found to be high-yielding and heterotic in both the seasons studied and even when averaged over the two environments, with other yield attributes and quality traits. hence, after sufficient evaluation, these hybrids were identified as potential hybrids for widespread cultivation and commercial exploitation. key words : heterosis, muskmelon, yield, quality traits, f1 hybrids muskmelon (cucumis melo l., 2n = 24) is the most common dessert vegetable crop grown all over the world. it is highly relished because of its flavour, sweet taste and refreshing effect. it is a good source of dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals. in spite of the wide range of genetic variability available in muskmelon, very little attention has been paid to exploit heterosis. observations showed that f 1 hybrids of muskmelon yield higher than the standard cultivars. there is, thus, a good scope for improvement of yield and other desirable traits through heterosis breeding. therefore, the present work was conducted to study the extent of heterosis for desirable attributes. the experiment was carried out at the main vegetable research station, anand agricultural university, anand, during 2003-04. ten varieties of muskmelon, viz., punjab sunehri, pusa madhuras, amm00-25, amm0011, amm01-18, dm-1, amm02-26, pmm96-20, hara madhu and rm-50 were crossed in all possible combinations, excluding reciprocals. the resulting 45 f 1 hybrids along with their parents were grown in randomized block design with three replications at a spacing of 150 cm (row to row) and 90 cm (plant to plant) in plots of 6 x 4.5 m size in two environments created by sowing dates (e 1 = 15th october, 2003 and e 2 = 15th february, 2004). all the recommended cultural practices were followed during experimentation. observations were recorded on 10 selected plants from each plot on the positional number of the node on which the first female flower appeared, days to opening of the first female flower, number of primary branches per plant, days to first harvest, fruit length (cm), fruit girth (cm), fruits per plant, fruit weight (g), fruit yield per plant (kg), flesh thickness (cm), moisture content (%), total soluble solids (tss in %), acidity (%) and total soluble sugars (mg g-1). heterosis was calculated in the favourable direction over the better parent and over the best parental line/s for each character. in the present investigation, parents and hybrids were found to show significant differences for all the traits studied except for the number of the node on which first female flower appeared and days to first female flower opening in both the environments, number of primary branches/plant and flesh thickness in e 2 and fruit weight and moisture content in e 1, indicating the existence of a considerable heterosis for these traits. the extent of heterosis observed was variable for other traits in different seasons, probably due to the presence of significant genotype x environment interaction as indicated by the significant and high value of its variance except for the number of primary branches per plant, acidity and total soluble sugars. heterotic effects over mid-parent in desirable direction were, in general observed to be marginally higher j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 144-147, 2006 short communication page 145 during e 1 compared to e 2 for all traits except fruit length, fruit girth and acidity. similarly, heterotic effects over the better parent were observed to be higher for number of the node on which first female flower appeared, days to first female flower opening, number of primary branches/plant, days to first harvest, number of fruits/plant, fruit weight, fruit yield/plant, flesh thickness, moisture content, total soluble solids, and total soluble sugars during e 1 compared to e 2 . relative heterosis for fruit yield/plant was observed to extent of 207.39 and 194.65% during e 1 and e 2 , respectively. similar high levels of relative heterosis for fruit yield/plant is reported earlier by several workers (chadha and nandpuri, 1977; randhawa and singh, 1990; singh and randhawa, 1990). heterobeltiosis effects for fruit yield/plant were 322.55% in e 1 and 190.89% in e 2 . appreciable levels of heterobeltiosis for fruit yield/plant were also reported earlier by pandey and kalloo (1976), nandpuri et al, (1974), chadha and nandpuri (1977), kalb and davis (1984), randhawa and singh (1990), singh and randhawa (1990), munshi and verma (1997) and chaudhary et al (2003). a perusal of table 1 reveals that heterosis over midparent was the highest for total soluble solids followed by fruit yield/plant, fruit length and acidity, while, the maximum number of hybrids showing heterobeltiosis was observed for total soluble solids, followed by fruit yield/ plant and total soluble sugars. for yield/plant, 22 hybrids in e 1 , 36 in e 2 and 37 on pooled basis displayed significant heterosis over the mid-parent. for heterobeltiosis, twentyfour, thirtyfive and thirtyeight hybrids registered significant heterosis in e 1 , e 2 and on pooled basis, respectively. out of these, five hybrids, namely, hara madhu x rm-50, amm-01-18 x amm-02-26, amm-00-25 x amm-00-11, amm-01-18 x dm-1 and amm-02-26 x rm50 showed significant heterobeltiosis on pooled basis. data on yield contributing traits of the five most heterotic crosses for fruit yield/plant in each environment and on pooled basis is presented in table 2. none of the hybrids exhibited significant and positive heterosis over the mid-parent as well as over better parent in both the environments and even when pooled over the two environments, indicating non-consistency of hybrids across the environments. on the basis of pooled data, out of the five most heterotic hybrids for fruit yield/plant, four hybrids viz., hara madhu x rm-50, amm-01-18 x amm-02-26, amm-00-25 x amm-00-11 and amm-01-18 x dm-1 showed heterosis for number of fruits/plant, fruit weight, total soluble solids, acidity and total soluble sugars over the mid-parent and the better parent. in addition, significant relative heterosis and heterobeltiosis for flesh thickness was seen in the hybrid hara madhu x rm-50; for number of the node on which first female flower appeared, number of primary branches, days to first harvesti, fruit length and fruit girth in the hybrid amm-01-18 x amm-02-26; for fruit length, fruit girth and flesh thickness in amm-00-25 x amm-00-11; for days to first female flower opening, number of primary branches, fruit length, fruit girth and moisture content in amm-01-18 x dm-1. hybrids showing heterosis for fruit yield/plant also showed heterosis for the number of fruits/plant and fruit weight. thus, total fruit yield could be a result of combinational heterosis. these results are similar to those table 1. number of hybrids with significant heterosis in the desirable direction for different traits in muskmelon character heterosis over mid-parent heterosis over better parent e 1 e 2 p e 1 e 2 p number of the node on which first female flower appeared 13 18 16 15 19 17 days to first open female flower 19 17 15 24 17 18 number of primary branches per plant 34 15 20 25 12 17 days to first harvest 36 10 32 30 13 28 fruit length (cm) 26 32 35 28 24 32 fruit girth (cm) 24 26 29 26 20 29 number of fruits per plant 24 37 28 26 34 30 fruit weight (g) 14 30 28 15 31 28 fruit yield per plant (kg) 22 36 37 24 35 38 flesh thickness (cm) 20 21 21 19 18 20 moisture content 13 27 18 20 26 26 total soluble solids (%) 37 29 38 37 35 39 acidity (%) 35 31 35 36 32 36 total soluble sugars (%) 29 30 30 31 32 33 e 1 = 15th october, e 2 = 15th february, p = pooled j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 144-147, 2006 heterosis in muskmelon 145 page 146 table 2.manifestation of relative heterosis (%) and heterobeltiosis (%) for different characters of the five most heterotic crosses for fruit yield per plant in individual environment and on pooled basis in muskmelon cross fruit yield / number of days to first number of days to fruit fruit plant the node on open female primary first length girth which first flower branches/ harvest female flower plant appeared relative heterosis amm-01-18 x amm-02-26 e 1 38.79 ** -8.93 ** -4.51 ** 27.71 ** -7.49 ** 9.65 ** 6.02 ** e 2 194.65 ** -55.79 ** 9.31 ** 11.76 ** 1.58 ** 18.20 ** 27.36 ** p 140.81 ** -40.68 ** 3.91 ** 18.97 ** -2.72 ** 14.31 ** 18.38 ** amm-00-25 x amm-00-11 e 1 100.41 ** 13.33 ** 6.95 ** 20.70 ** -1.99 13.95 ** 18.78 ** e 2 119.79 ** 7.63 ** -1.79 * 2.81 0.59 19.89 ** 6.73 ** p 112.05 ** 9.43 ** 1.48 ** 11.04 ** -0.62 17.34 ** 11.60 ** hara madhu x rm-50 e 1 207.39 ** -23.08 ** 3.96 ** -2.36 4.76 ** 3.02 1.48 e 2 60.98 ** -7.26 ** -0.60 -18.23 -3.62 ** -4.63 * -3.77 * p 104.20 ** -12.92 ** 1.21 -11.16 ** 0.22 -1.42 -1.43 amm-01-18 x dm-1 e 1 96.00 ** -7.69 * -9.11 ** 35.23 ** -13.33 9.44 ** -0.55 e 2 106.96 ** -32.85 ** 3.63 ** 23.87 ** 0.49 22.35 ** 31.93 ** p 104.20 ** -23.91 ** -1.30 * 29.14 ** -6.17 ** 16.37 ** 17.45 ** amm-00-25 x amm-01-18 e 1 31.41 * 10.00 ** 0.15 32.92 ** -10.04 ** -0.97 11.17 ** e 2 97.86 ** -11.49 ** 0.84 25.56 ** -1.42 ** 20.38 ** 24.52 ** p 75.80 ** -4.52 * 0.58 29.02 ** -5.47 ** 10.34 ** 18.85 ** heterobeltiosis hara madhu x rm-50 e 1 322.55 ** 8.11 8.77 ** -1.64 0.00 4.98 * 0.86 e 2 70.79 ** -11.28 -1.82 ** -17.74 ** -4.01 ** -6.34 ** -6.90 ** p 132.28 ** -5.95 * 2.24 ** -10.57 ** -2.13 ** -1.69 -3.58 ** amm-01-18 x amm-02-26 e 1 25.75 ** -1.92 -3.64 ** 37.54 ** -6.90 ** 19.85 ** 9.99 ** e 2 190.89 ** -44.68 ** 12.89 ** 18.75 ** 2.08 ** 9.56 ** 19.45 ** p 130.61 ** -29.45 ** 6.33 ** 27.17 ** -2.17 ** 13.82 ** 15.70 ** amm-00-25 x amm-00-11 e 1 72.28 ** 2.00 1.25 -0.86 -3.48 ** 20.90 ** 19.88 ** e 2 132.11 ** -17.93 ** -0.25 -22.89 ** 0.43 18.33 ** 7.02 ** p 105.52 ** -12.33 ** 0.33 -13.25 ** -1.41 ** 19.39 ** 12.20 ** amm-01-18 x dm-1 e 1 154.43 ** -5.26 -10.19 ** 59.82 ** -15.10 ** 12.33 -8.72 ** e 2 82.44 ** 0.28 2.79 ** 54.83 ** 1.26 ** 11.38 ** 21.12 ** p 95.88 ** -2.19 -2.24 ** 57.22 ** -6.73 ** 11.80 ** 7.81 ** amm-02-26 x rm-50 e 1 101.26 ** 78.38 ** 8.58 ** 31.97 ** -9.96 ** -1.71 1.47 e 2 71.02 ** -4.72 2.94 ** 5.96 -0.65 38.84 ** 7.42 ** p 78.39 ** 18.14 ** 5.10 ** 17.54 ** -5.02 ** 22.08 ** 5.07 ** j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 144-147, 2006 tomar & bhalala 146 cross number of fruit flesh moisture total soluble acidity total soluble fruits/ plant weight thickness content solids sugars relative heterosis amm-01-18 x amm-02-26 e 1 64.84 ** -13.41 ** -4.86 -1.15 ** 117.28 ** -23.46 ** 58.48 ** e 2 39.09 ** 112.81 ** 2.77 0.87 ** 46.86 ** -33.40 ** 25.41 ** p 51.06 ** 66.74 ** -0.39 -0.11 77.55 ** -27.35 ** 36.07 ** amm-00-25 x amm-00-11 e 1 51.79 ** 23.90 ** 76.67 3.24 ** 134.38 ** -18.75 ** 26.74 ** e 2 57.34 ** 40.35 ** 11.08 ** 3.04 ** -0.09 -15.13 ** 8.96 ** p 54.02 ** 35.02 ** 37.31 ** 3.14 ** 49.34 ** -17.34 ** 14.84 ** hara madhu x rm-50 e 1 -4.79 219.92 ** 2.78 -0.19 7.69 -12.78 ** 34.19 ** e 2 31.82 ** 22.37 ** -31.57 ** -0.70 ** 29.58 ** -17.92 ** 16.53 ** p 14.65 ** 86.08 ** -18.96 ** -0.45 * 19.39 ** -14.82 ** 22.29 ** amm-01-18 x dm-1 e 1 135.27 ** -11.55 ** -13.37 -0.86 ** 19.30 ** -43.15 ** 110.41 ** e 2 54.21 ** 34.19 ** 18.61 ** -1.88 ** 118.24 ** -70.05 ** 72.40 ** p 85.43 ** 18.49 ** 3.64 -1.38 ** 65.37 ** -53.97 ** 84.16 ** amm-00-25 x amm-01-18 e 1 72.91 ** -24.49 ** 22.19 ** -0.13 100.51 ** -4.31 ** 6.62 e 2 43.23 ** 38.46 ** 5.31 * 0.59 ** 26.38 ** -7.61 ** -1.42 p 57.26 ** 15.94 ** 12.26 ** 0.24 57.18 ** -5.61 ** 1.14 page 147 reported by nandpuri et al (1974), altaf et al (1979), randhawa and singh (1990), munshi and verma (1998) and chaudhary et al (2003). however, it was seen that not all the yield contributing traits contributed equally to heterosis for fruit yield/plant. this was because the component characters competed for the sum total of metabolic substances produced by the plant and conditions which favoured development of one component may have adversely affected the other component. therefore, to obtain maximum yield in a selection programme, desired levels of each component need to be known. the hybrids amm-01-18 x amm-02-26, hara madhu x rm-50, amm-00-25 x amm-00-11 and amm01-18 x dm-1 were found to be high-yielding and heterotic in both the seasons and even when averaged over the environments with other yield attributes and quality traits. hence, after sufficient evaluation, these hybrids were identified as potential hybrids for widespread cultivation and commercial exploitation. references altaf, h.; abdul, m. z. and abd-ul, m. z. 1979. studies on hybrid vigour in muskmelon crosses and determination of some best combinations for commercial crop production of muskmelon. procs. xxvi-xxvii pakistan sci. conf., lahore. part iii. abstracts, 16a-17a. chadha, m.l. and nandpuri, k.s. 1977. estimation of top cross performance in some muskmelon (cucumis melo l.) varieties. j. of hort., 34: 40-43. chaudhary, b.r., dhaka, r.s. and fageria, m.s. 2003. heterosis for yield and yield related attributes in muskmelon (cucumis melo l.). ind. j. genet .& pl. breed., 63: 91-92. hayes, h. k.; immer, f.r. and smith, d.c. 1955. methods of plant breeding. mcgraw hill book company inc., new york, london, toronto. pp. 329-332. kalb, t.j. and davis, d.w. 1984. evaluation of combining ability, heterosis and genetic variance for fruit quality characteristics in bush muskmelon j. amer. soc. horti. sci., 109: 411-415. munshi, a.d. and verma, v.k. 1997. studies on heterosis in muskmelon (cucumis melo l.). veg. sci., 24: 103106. munshi, a.d. and verma, v. k. 1998. a note on gene action in muskmelon (cucumis melo l.). veg. sci., 25: 93-94. nandpuri, k.s., singh, s. and lal, t. 1974. study on the comparative performance of f 1 hybrids and their parents in muskmelon. j. res. punjab agricultural university, 11: 230-238. pandey, s.c and kalloo, g. 1976. line x tester analysis for the study of heterosis and combining ability in muskmelon. recent advances in plant sciences. session 1. plant breeding and genetics abstr. p. 10 randhawa, k. s. and singh, m.j. 1990. assessment of combining ability, heterosis and genetic variance for fruit quality characters in muskmelon (cucumis melo l.). ind. j. of genet. and pl. breed., 50: 127-130. singh, m.j. and randhawa, k.s. 1990. assessment of heterosis and combining ability for quality traits in muskmelon. ind. j. hort., 47: 228-232. j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 144-147, 2006 heterosis in muskmelon 147 (ms received 20 may 2006, revised 30 september 2006) heterobeltiosis hara madhu x rm-50 e 1 9.33 280.52 ** 0.19 -0.08 7.69 -12.59 ** 29.36 ** e 2 39.24 ** 23.40 ** -32.96 ** -0.77 ** 37.93 ** -16.45 ** 14.47 ** p 25.93 ** 97.32 ** -20.76 ** -0.43 23.38 ** -14.11 ** 19.38 ** amm-01-18 x amm-02-26 e 1 47.26 ** -12.21 ** -0.81 -1.68 ** 151.43 ** -20.44 ** 36.65 ** e 2 35.20 ** 116.53 ** -11.59 ** 0.53 ** 50.68 ** -26.86 ** 16.55 ** p 40.99 ** 69.43 ** -7.62 ** -0.54 * 91.64 ** -22.87 ** 23.36 ** amm-00-25 x amm-00-11 e 1 18.07 * 43.38 ** 52.88 ** 2.67 ** 134.38 ** -25.49 ** 36.49 ** e 2 66.63 ** 41.40 ** 14.50 ** 3.23 ** 1.66 -24.09 ** 18.19 ** p 34.24 ** 41.99 ** 31.49 ** 2.96 ** 50.99 ** -24.93 ** 24.28 ** amm-01-18 x dm-1 e 1 171.29 ** -3.56 -23.90 -1.02 * 0.00 -41.78 ** 98.52 ** e 2 37.76 ** 32.60 ** 4.37 * -1.68 ** 137.82 ** -69.16 ** 67.89 ** p 81.50 ** 20.98 ** -8.88 ** -1.36 ** 55.31 ** -52.76 ** 77.57 ** amm-02-26 x rm-50 e 1 30.83 * 48.47 ** 4.07 -0.57 105.13 ** -6.47 ** -1.40 e 2 19.13 ** 43.12 ** -8.01 ** -2.28 ** 62.74 ** -4.02 -5.37 p 24.44 ** 44.66 ** -3.57 -1.45 ** 83.13 ** -5.51 ** -4.06 e 1 = 15th october, e 2 = 15th february, p = pooled table 2 (continued) introduction organic farming is becoming increasingly popular, with a rapidly growing global demand for organic products. it offers considerable benefits over conventional farming systems particularly with respect to sustainable yield, better quality and health hazard free produce. fruits, often eaten raw, are more vulnerable to contamination with chemicals due to the latter’s residual toxicity as compared to cereals and pulses. thus, organic production of fruits is gaining popularity over that of other crop groups. papaya is grown in an area of 98,000 ha with production of 36.29 lakh tons in india (national horticultural board, 2009). since papaya bears fruits and flowers round the year, it is likely to respond well to organic production systems compared to other perennial fruit crops. in almost all the states, area under papaya is increasing, and limited information is available on organic production system in this crop. hence, the present investigation is very important in crops like papaya. material and methods a field trial was conducted during 2005-2007 at the experimental farm of indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore. the soil in the experimental plot was red loam with ph 6.12, 0.73% organic carbon, 158 kg effect of organic nutrition practices on papaya (cv. surya) fruit yield, quality and soil health y.t.n. reddy, reju m. kurian, a.n. ganeshamurthy1 and p. pannerselvam1 division of fruit crops indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bangalore-560 089, india e-mail:nreddy@iihr.ernet.in abstract a field experiment was conducted during 2005-07 at indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore, on papaya cv. surya with six organic treatments along with recommended dose of fertilizers and no manure/fertilizer application. results indicated that crop growth and fruit yield were higher in inorganic fertilizer treatment (55 t ha1) compared to organic treatments (26.9 to 38 t ha-1). there was no significant variation in average fruit weight and tss, but shelf life of the fruit was significantly higher in organic treatments (6.2 to 7.9 days) as compared to inorganic fertilizer treatment (5.1days). among the treatments, application of 7 kg urban compost plant-1 or 10 kg fym plant–1 was found to be ideal for improving soil health in terms of microbial population, and biochemical reaction compared to other treatments. key words: papaya, organic practices, fruit yield, quality, shelf life 1 division of soil science and agricultural chemistry available nitrogen/ha, 13 kg phosphorus/ha and 196 kg potash/ha. there were 8 treatments details of which are as follows; t 1 : recommended dose of npk fertilizers (250g n + 250 g p 2 o 5 + 500 g k 2 o plant-1year-1), t 2 : 10 kg fym plant-1 year-1 t 3 : 7 kg urban compost plant-1 year-1 t 4 : 20 kg sun hemp + 150 g rock phosphate plant-1 year-1 t 5 : 2 kg neem cake + 0.5 kg wood ash plant-1 year-1 t 6 : 18 kg rural compost plant-1 year-1 t 7 : 2.5 kg vermi compost + 12.5 kg sun hemp plant-1 year-1 t 8 : no manure or fertilizer nutrient content of organic manures used in the experiment is as follows: organic manure used percentage n p k fym 0.91 0.166 0.88 rural compost 1.22 0.304 0.98 urban compost 0.86 0.284 0.80 vermicompost 1.41 0.299 0.55 j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 124-127, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 125 standard procedures soil samples were collected at 2 years from experimentation for nutrient and microbial analysis. microbial properties and soil enzymes were estimated as per standard procedures. vegetative parameters such as plant height, plant girth and number of leaves were recorded at 6 month intervals. fruit yield was recorded periodically. fruit quality attributes such as tss and keeping quality of fruits were also recorded as per standard procedures. statistical analysis of data was done based on methods given by panse and sukhatme (1985). plant spacing was 1.8 m×1.8 m in the trial. results and discussion vegetative characters : vegetative parameters such as plant height, plant girth and number of leaves at 24 months from planting were affected by various nutrient treatments (table 1). maximum plant height, girth and number of leaves were recorded in the recommended dose of fertilizer treatment, whereas, no manure or fertilizer treatment recorded the least. similar results were reported by singh and sharma (1996) reddy et al (1986), purohit (1977), awada and long (1978), jauhari and singh (1971), and kumar et al (2006). increased growth in recommended fertilizer dose treatment was mainly attributed to sufficient availability of all the nutrients during different growth stages of the plant, compared to other treatments fruit yield: fruit yield in terms of number of fruits and their weight were found to be significantly different among various treatments (table 2). maximum fruit yield was table 1. vegetative characters, fruit yield and quality of ‘surya’ papaya as influenced by various treatments (24 months after planting) treatment plant plant no. of height girth leaves (m) (cm) plant-1 t 1 : recommended 2.49 52.0 25.8 dose of npk fertilizers (250 g n + 250 g p 2 o 5 + 500g k 2 o plant-1year-1) t 2 : 10 kg fym 2.27 40.6 19.9 plant-1 year-1 t 3 : 7 kg urban 2.32 46.5 23.9 compost plant-1 year-1 t 4 : 20 kg sun hemp + 2.27 47.9 20.5 150 g rock phosphate plant-1 year-1 t 5 : 2 kg neem cake + 2.10 36.0 20.3 0.5 kg wood ash plant-1 year-1 t 6 : 18 kg rural 2.24 44.6 21.5 compost plant-1 year-1 t 7 : 2.5 kg vermin 2.06 42.4 19.7 compost + 12.5 kg sun hemp plant-1 year-1 t 8 : no manure 1.68 33.3 16.1 or fertilizer sem ± 0.01 0.30 0.38 cd (p=0.05) 0.04 0.90 1.12 table 2. fruit yield and quality of ‘surya‘ papaya as affected by various treatments treatment fruit yield fruit quality no. of fruit no. of fruit average tss shelf fruits yield fruits yield fruit (obrix) life plant-1 (kg plant-1) ha-1(000) (t ha-1) weight (g) (days) t 1 : recommended dose of npk fertilizers 37.9 17.8 116.8 55.0 472.6 11.1 5.1 (250 g n + 250 g p 2 o 5 + 500 g k 2 o plant-1year-1) t 2 : 10 kg fym plant-1 year-1 19.9 9.7 61.3 30.0 498.2 11.4 7.6 t 3 : 7 kg urban compost plant-1 year-1 25.2 11.8 77.7 36.5 476.5 11.3 6.6 t 4 : 20 kg sun hemp + 150g rock phosphate 30.0 12.6 92.5 38.7 427.7 12.2 7.1 plant-1 year-1 t 5 : 2 kg neem cake + 0.5 kg wood ash 20.0 9.9 61.6 30.6 495.3 11.3 6.2 plant-1 year-1 t 6 : 18 kg rural compost plant-1 year-1 27.0 11.5 83.2 35.5 430.0 11.6 6.6 t 7 : 2.5 kg vermi compost + 12.5 kg sun 18.7 8.7 57.7 26.9 473.8 11.4 7.0 hemp plant-1 year-1 t 8 : no manure or fertilizer 12.0 5.7 39.4 17.5 441.3 12.2 7.9 sem ± 4.6 1.9 14.4 5.9 28.5 0.28 0.66 cd (p=0.05) 13.7 5.6 42.4 17.3 ns ns 0.91 recorded under recommended dose of fertilizer treatment, and the least with control treatment. similar results were reported by kumar et al (2006), reddy et al (1986) and singh & sharma (1996). the increased fruit yield was attributed to better plant growth compared to that in other effect of organic practices on papaya j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 124-127, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 126 organic treatments or control. although yield was higher in inorganic treatment (recommended dose of fertilizer) soil quality improvement was not noticed in terms of soil microflora and soil enzymes. fruit yield reduction was 3051% in organic treatments as compared to inorganic treatment at two years from experimentation. this may be due mainly to higher and quick availability of nutrients for growth and development under inorganic fertilizer treatment. in addition, pest and disease problem too may have resulted in reduced fruit yield in organic treatments (although progressive nutrient built up was seen in the soil due to addition of organic manures). fruit quality attributes: fruit quality attributes like average fruit weight and tss were found to be non significant but shelf life was found to be significantly different among various treatments (table 2). maximum shelf life was (7.9 days) seen in control, whereas, minimum shelf life (5.1 days) was noticed in recommended dose of fertilizer treatment. the finding is quite interesting but needs to be confirmed at different locations. soil health: results on soil microbial population indicated that in general bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes and total diazotrophos were significantly higher in all the organic treatments compared to no manure and recommended dose of fertilizers (table 3). the organic treatments recorded significantly higher soil respiration and mineralizable nitrogen content compared to recommended dose of fertilizer and table 3. microbial population, soil respiration and mineralizable nitrogen in organic papaya (c.v.surya field treatment bacteria fungi actionomycetes total soilrespiration soil (108cfug-1) (104 cfug1) (105 cfug-1) diazotrophs (mg c kg-1soilhr-1) mineralizable (104 cfu g-1) nitrogen (mg n kg-1 of soil) t 1 : recommended dose 98.4 6.0 8.3 6.3 7.19 10.5 of npk fertilizers (250 g n + 250 g p 2 o5 + 500 g k 2 o plant-1 year-1) t 2 : 10 kg fym plant-1 year-1 141.8 18.3 16.0 21.0 8.57 46.25 t 3 : 7 kg urban compost 139.6 16.4 17.8 19.4 7.26 47.25 plant-1 year-1 t 4 : 20 kg sun hemp + 116.4 8.4 14.0 16.5 10.10 42.00 150 g rock phosphate plant-1 year-1 t 5 : 2 kg neem cake + 0.5 kg 119.6 11.0 14.8 15.0 9.70 45.50 wood ash plant-1 year-1 t 6 : 18 kg rural compost 136.4 18.0 16.4 23.2 8.70 56.00 plant-1 year-1 t 7 : 2.5 kg vermi 127.3 11.6 13.6 19.1 9.85 43.75 compost + 12.5 kg sun hemp plant-1 year-1 t 8 : no manure or fertilizer 80.2 5.4 9.2 7.9 5.60 14.00 sem ± 5.70 0.61 0.66 0.79 0.40 3.55 cd (p=0.05) 11.67 1.25 1.34 1.63 0.81 7.28 control treatment. the finding clearly indicated an increase in microbial population in organic treatments, which may have improved soil respiration and mineralizable nitrogen content. reduction in soil microorganisms in inorganic fertilizer treatment could be due to toxicity from metal contaminants found in inorganic fertilizers (marschner et al, 2004), in the present study, treatments that resulted in higher organic carbon content in soil had higher microbial population. similar results were reported by chang et al (2007). the results on soil enzyme activity (table 4) indicated that among various treatments, dehydrogenase and glusosidase activity was significantly higher in 7 kg urban compost plant–1 treatment, whereas acid phosphatase and urease were significantly higher in 20 kg sunhemp plus 150 g rock phosphate plant-1 treatment compared to control and inorganic fertilizer applied treatments. these results reveal that treatments that received fym or compost had greater microbial population, which may have increased soil enzyme activity compared to inorganic fertilizers alone or control. higher levels of enzyme activity have been reported by many researchers in soils treated with vermicompost and organic manure compared to inorganic fertilizers (krishna kumar et al, 2005; chang et al, 2007). results clearly revealed that organic nutrition practices in papaya production significantly improve soil health in terms of soil microbial and biochemical properties j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 124-127, 2010 reddy et al prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 127 table 4. soil enzyme activity in organic papaya field (24 months after planting) treatment soil enzyme activity urease4 dehydroβglucoacid.phosgenase1 sidase2 phatase3 t 1 : recommended 27.4 69.2 86.1 29.4 dose of npk fertilizers (250g n + 250 g p 2 o 5 + 500 g k 2 o plant-1year-1) t 2 : 10 kg fym 83.5 169.3 106.8 66.5 plant-1 year t 3 : 7 kg urban 102.4 226.2 109.2 60.2 compost plant-1 year-1 t 4 : 20 kg sun hemp + 78.9 147.7 121.0 79.8 150 g rock phosphate plant-1 year-1 t 5 : 2 kg neem cake + 69.6 141.1 112.1 63.0 0.5 kg wood ash plant-1 year-1 t 6 : 18 kg rural 83.7 225.4 107.5 46.9 compost plant-1 year-1 t 7 : 2.5 kg vermicompost + 74.7 177.5 112.3 39.9 12.5 kg sun hemp plant-1 year-1 t 8 : no manure 39.8 68.7 94.4 28.6 or fertilizer sem 3.39 7.32 4.96 2.50 cd (p=0.05) 6.95 14.98 10.15 5.12 1. µg tpf released g-1 of soil h-1, 2. µg g-1 soil h-1, 3. µg p-nitrophenol released g-1 soil h-1 4. µg nh 4 formed g-1 soil h-1 compared to application of inorganic fertilizers alone. among the treatments, application of 7 kg urban compost plant-1 or 10 kg fym plant-1 was found to be ideal for improving soil qualities, but fruit yield was significantly higher under recommended dose of fertilizers compared to that under organic treatments. references anonymous, 2009. indian horticulture, database 2009, national horticulture board pp 6 awada, m. and long, c. 1978. relation of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization to fruiting and petiole composition of ‘solo’ papaya. j. amer, soc. hortl. sci., 103:217–219 chang, e.h., chung, r.s. and tsai, y.h. 2007. effect of different application rates of organic fertilizer on soil enzyme activity and microbial population. soil sci. pl. nutrition, 53:132–140 jauhari, o.s. and singh. d.v. 1971. effect of n, p and k on growth, yield and quality of papaya var. coorg honey dew, prog. hort., 2:81–89 kumar, n., meenakshi, n., suresh, j. and nosov, v. 2006. effect of potassium nutrition on growth, yield and quality of papaya. ind. j. fert., 2:43–47 krishnakumar, n., saravanan, a., natarajan, s.k., veerabadran, y. and mani, s. 2005. microbial population and enzymatic activity as influenced by organic farming. res. j. agril. biol. sci., 1:85-88 marschner, p., crowley, d. and yang, c.h. 2004. development of specific rhizosphere bacterial communities in relation to plant species, nutrition and soil type. pl. and soil, 261:199–208 panse, y.g. and sukhatme, p.v. 1985 statistical methods for agricultural workers. iv edn, icar, new delhi, p 327 purohit, a.g. 1977. response of papaya to nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. ind. j. hort., 34:350– 353 reddy, y.t.n., kohli, r.r. and bhargava b.s. 1986. effect of n, p and k on growth, yield and petiole composition in papaya cv. coorg honey dew. singapore j. primary industries, 14:118–123 singh, i.p. and sharma. c.k. 1996. response of papaya to n and p applications on tilla land, tripura. j. hill. res., 9:96–98 (ms received 15 february 2010, revised 13 august 2010) j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 124-127, 2010 effect of organic practices on papaya prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no focus j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 85-93, 2010 statistical genomics and bioinformatics prem narain 29278 glen oaks blvd. w. farmington hills, mi 48334 usa e-mail: narainprem@hotmail.com abstract some important and interesting topics in the newly emerging disciplines of statistical genomics and bioinformatics have been discussed briefly in relation to plants with possible references to fruit crops. this paper is therefore divided into two parts relating to the two disciplines, respectively. in the first part, mapping of quantitative trait loci (qtl), association mapping, mapping of gene expression transcripts (eqtl), marker-assisted selection, and a systems approach to quantitative genetics have been dealt with. in the second part, generation of databases, annotation, annotated sequence databases, and sequence similarity search have been described. key words: statistical genomics, bioinformatics, fruit crops, eqtl, annotated sequence databases, sequence similarity search i. statistical genomics introduction most of the traits of economic importance in plants have an underlying genetic basis involving several genes, and, are subject to modification by environmental factors. statistical considerations have been predominant in dissecting such complex traits into estimable components (narain, 1990). heritability of a trait, as a proportion of the phenotypic variation that is attributed to genetic causes, has been a prime indicator helpful in taking decisions for genetic improvement of economic traits. prediction of response to artificial selection (based on intensity and accuracy of selection) and the existence of genetic variability have been successful across several crop plants. however, relationship between the phenotype and the genotype has been like a black box where inferential approach has been the only way to look into it. this scenario is now changing with advent of the modern technologies of gene sequencing, microarray experiments and the enormous advances made in attempts to understand gene and protein expression within the cell of an organism. in this context, information on molecular markers has been extremely helpful in identifying regions on chromosomes (qtl) that bring about variation in a trait, thereby providing tools that can lead to far more accurate selection procedures for genetic improvement. saturated genetic maps of markers, giving their order along a chromosome and relative distances between them, have been developed. gene transcript data from microarray experiments can be integrated with molecular marker information to map expression traits (eqtl) that can possibly lead to causal networks. the network approach connecting data on genes, transcripts, proteins, metabolites, etc. indicates emergence of a systems quantitative genetics (narain, 2009, 2010). mapping of quantitative trait loci (qtl) genomic techniques like restriction fragment length polymorphism (rflp), random amplified polymorphic dna (rapd), amplified fragment length polymorphism (aflp), variable number of tandem repeats (vntr) that consist of micro satellites (short sequences) termed as short tandem repeats (str) or simple sequence repeats (ssr) and mini satellites (long sequences) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (snp) have been developed that help in identification of qtls by correlation between a trait and its specific dna markers (narain, 2000). the first problem is, therefore, to construct a linkage map that indicates the position and relative genetic distances between markers along the chromosomes. map distance is based on the total number of cross-overs between the two markers, whereas, physical distance between them is denoted in terms of nucleotide base pairs (bp). a centi-morgan (cm), corresponding to a cross-over of 1%, may span 10 kbs to 1,000 kbs and can vary across species. prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 86 since marker genotypes can be followed for their inheritance through generations, these can serve as molecular tags for following the qtl, provided they are linked to the qtl. this requires detecting the marker-qtl linkage and, if established, estimating the qtl map position on the chromosome. however, these problems depend on whether we have data on experimental populations obtained from controlled crosses, as in plants, or on natural populations like humans where controlled crosses cannot be made. the most popular method, given by lander and botstein (1989), is that of simple interval mapping (sim). it involves formation of intervals by pairing of adjacent markers and treating them as a single unit of analysis for detection and estimation purposes. it is based on joint frequencies of a pair of adjacent markers and a putative qtl flanked by the two markers. suppose markers a and b are linked with recombination fraction r and qtl q is located between them with r 1 recombination from a and r 2 from b. then, r = r 1 +r 2 -2r 1 r 2 ≅ r 1 +r 2 , on the assumption of no interference and r so small that no double cross-overs can be assumed. in the classical back-cross design with three loci each with two alleles, a-a, b-b, and q-q, the expected frequencies for the eight marker-qtl genotypes can be used to obtain conditional probabilities of the qtl genotypes, given the marker genotypes. by setting up a linear regression model between the trait (y) and the indicator variable (x) taking the value 1 if the qtl is qq and –1 if it is qq, one can estimate a regression coefficient that defines the allelic substitution effect of this qtl. in such a model, the qtl genotype for a given individual is unknown. x is then a random indicator variable with conditional probabilities of obtaining qq or qq at the qtl. this means the observed value is modelled as a mixturedistribution with mixture ratios as the conditional probabilities. we have, therefore, a situation often referred to as a linear regression with missing data. the problem of estimation then involves the use of em algorithm. by assuming that the character is normally distributed within each of the eight marker-qtl classes with equal variance σ2, one can set up a likelihood function in terms of unknown parameters, and develop a log likelihood ratio ( λ ) for testing the hypothesis that the qtl is not located in the interval where the log likelihoods are evaluated using the maximum likelihood estimates of the genotypic values for the two qtl genotypes, the variance σ2 and the recombination fraction r 1 between marker a and the putative qtl using iterative procedures based on em algorithm. this statistic is distributed as χ2 with 1 d.f. the associated lod score for the interval mapping is then (½) (log 10 e) λ. this statistic is evaluated at regularly-spaced points; say 1 or 2 cm distance, covering the interval as a function of the presumed qtl position. repeating this procedure for each interval along the chromosome and plotting the lod score curve against the interval gives a qtl likelihood map that presents evidence for the qtl at any position in the genome. presence of a putative qtl is assumed if lod score exceeds a certain threshold t and the maximum of the lod score function in the map gives an estimate of the qtl position and gene effects. mapping of qtl by interval method is widely used in practice. analysis is done through the software mapmaker/qtl. although sim is the method for qtl mapping most widely used with advantage in several practical situations, it ignores the fact that most quantitative traits are influenced by numerous qtls. this is overcome either by adopting a model of multiple qtl mapping (mqm) or by combining sim with the method of multiple linear regression, a procedure known as composite interval mapping (cim). in all these methods, one uses the approach of maximum likelihood that produces only point estimates of the parameters such as the number of qtls, their location, and effects. the corresponding confidence intervals are required to be determined separately by re-sampling methods. further, the correct number of qtls is difficult to determine using traditional methods. their incorrect specification leads to distortion of the estimates of locations and effects of qtls. to address these problems, a bayesian approach is often adopted wherein the joint posterior distribution of all the unknown parameters given their prior distributions and the observed data is computed. for details of these various aspects, one can refer narain (2003a, 2005). the first application of interval mapping in plant breeding was to an inter-specific backcross in tomato. the parents for the back-cross were the domestic tomato lycopersicon esculentum (e) with fruit mass 65 g and a wild south american green-fruited tomoto l. chmielewskii (cl) with fruit mass 5 g. a total of 237 back-cross plants were assayed for continuously varying characters like fruit mass, soluble-solids concentration and ph, and, 63 rflp and 20 isozyme markers spaced at approximately 20 cm intervals were selected for qtl mapping. a threshold t=2.4, giving a probability of under 5% that even a single falsepositive will occur anywhere in the genome, was used. this corresponds approximately to significance level for any single test as 0.001. the resulting qtl likelihood maps revealed multiple qtls for each trait (6 for fruit weight, 4 j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 85-93, 2010 prem narain prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 87 for concentration of soluble solids and 5 for fruit ph) and estimated their location to within 20-30 cm. fruit crops fruit crops differ from most of the agronomic/forest crops in that they have large plant size, long intergeneration period due to their extended juvenile phase, asexual propagation, high heterozygosity and polyploidy. these practice outcrossing and have a long life. they are mostly woody perennials and their products are usually perishable. the major temperate fruit crops belong to rosaceae family. the most important genera of this family are prunus, malus, pyrus, fragaria, and rosa. important members of the genus prunus are peach, cherry, plum, apricot, almond and of the genus malus is apple. they have been slow to respond to new technologies in breeding, until recently. characters like yield, blooming, harvesting time and fruit quality have been studied with the help of molecular markers in several fruit crops. long period from seed to fruiting in such crops is a major problem in breeding studies involving crosses. vegetative reproduction, on the other hand, allows every population to be immortalized and one can study a given character for as many years and in as many different environments as one wants. interspecies crosses are possible and most of them have small genomes. for instance peach, the best characterized among prunus species, has a haploid genome size of 164 mbp only. most of the prunus species are diploid, with 8 pairs of chromosomes whereas, apple and pear are allotetraploid with 17 pairs of chromosomes. saturated linkage maps with transferable markers, rflps, and microsatellites have been developed to provide basic tools for studies on qtls and marker-assisted selection in fruit tree breeding. as a result of a european project, a saturated linkage map of 246 markers (235 rflps and 11 isozymes) constructed from an f 2 progeny derived from almond (cv. texas) x peach (cv. earlygold) cross – termed txe mapindicated 8 linkage groups (g1 to g8) with a total distance of 491 cm. this led to a prunus reference map with 652 markers and a further set of 13 maps constructed with a sub-set of these markers has enabled genome comparisons among seven prunus diploid species (almond, peach, apricot, cherry, prunus ferganensis, prunus davidiana, and prunus cerasifera). these have helped establish the position of 28 major genes affecting various agronomic characters in different species of prunus crops (dirlewanger et al., 2004). the first linkage map in apples was constructed by a european consortium based on f 1 progeny derived from the cross cv. prima x cv. fiesta (fxf map). there were a total of 290 markers consisting of rflps, ssrs, isozymes, rapd etc., distributed over 17 linkage groups. a more saturated map was constructed with the f 1 progeny derived from the cross cv. fiesta x cv. discovery (fxd map) using 840 markers that included 129 ssrs. these maps have been helpful in qtl studies on apple. a comparison between apple and prunus maps suggests a high degree of synteny between these two genera. qtls for blooming, ripening and fruit quality have been found in peach and apple. some of these qtls were found to be located in regions of the genome where major genes were earlier mapped. for instance, in peach a major gene responsible for low fruit acidity was in the same region as qtls affecting fruit quality, a quantitative trait. in apple too, a major gene coding for malic acid content is located in the same region as qtls for fruit quality. various populations of peach x prunus davidiana crosses with different levels of introgression of the prunus davidiana genome into the cultivated peach viz. f 1 , f 2 or bc2 were used to discover the positions of respective qtls. about 13 qtls explained up to 65% of the total phenotypic variation for powdery mildew resistance in plants exposed to the disease in different times and environments. candidate gene approaches have been adopted for finding associations between genes involved in relevant metabolic pathways and major genes or qtls in fruit trees. several resistance gene analogs (rgas) were mapped in prunus that are at similar genomic positions as genes or qtls which determine ‘sharka‘ resistance in apricot or rootknot nematode resistance in peach and plum. linkage disequilibrium or association mapping the mapping of qtls in plants based on data collected from pedigrees of populations formed by crossing inbred lines is on a coarser scale, so that a qtl detected is likely to refer to several genes in a chromosomal region. the approach of population-based association mapping that involves linkage disequilibrium (ld) between markers and the genes underlying complex traits leads, on the other hand, to more accurate mapping of genes. the key idea is that a disease mutation assumed to have arisen once on the ancestral haplotype of a single chromosome in past history of the population of interest is passed on from generation to generation, together with markers at tightly linked loci, resulting in ld. the use of this approach in horticultural crops, though widely prevalent in human genetics, is limited. j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 85-93, 2010 statistical genomics and bioinformatics prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 88 advantages of the two approaches can be combined by detecting qtl initially using linkage mapping with moderate number of markers, followed by a second-stage of highresolution association mapping in qtl regions that capitalizes on a high-density marker map. benefits of linkage and association mapping have recently been combined in a single population of maize by adopting a nested association mapping (nam) approach. the maize nam population was derived by crossing a common reference sequence strain to 25 different maize lines. individuals resulting from each of the 25 crosses were self-fertilized for four further generations to produce 5,000 nam recombinant inbred lines (rils). this population was first used for initial detection of qtl using the linkage mapping approach. subsequently, within each diverse strain, high-resolution association mapping was adopted with a high-density marker map. it is significant to note that within each ril, all individuals are genetically nearly identical. this means we can estimate true breeding value of each line far more accurately by averaging phenotypic measurements of a given trait taken on several individuals with the same genotype. in a recent experiment, genetic architecture of flowering time in zea mays (maize) was dissected using nam. about 1 million plants were assayed in eight environments to map the qtls. about 29 to 56 qtls were found to affect flowering time. these were small-effect qtls shared among the diverse families. the analysis showed, surprisingly, absence of any single large-effect qtl. moreover, no evidence was found of epistasis or environmental interactions. flowering time controls adaptation of plants to their local environment in an outcrossing species like zea mays. a simple, additive genetic model predicting accurately flowering time in this species is, thus, in sharp contrast to that observed in several plant species which practice self-fertilization (buckler et al., 2009). mapping qtls for gene expression profile (eqtl) the advent of dna chip technology in the form of cdna and oligonucleotide microarrays has provided huge and complex data-sets on gene expression profiles of different cell lines from various organisms. such gene expression profiles have recently been combined with linkage analysis, based on qtl mapping, through molecular markers in what has been termed ‘genetical genomics’ (jansen and nap, 2001). gene expression, in terms of transcript levels, for each individual of a segregating population are phenotypes that are correlated with markers, genotyped for that individual, to identify qtls and their location on the genome to which the expression trait is linked. such expression quantitative trait loci (eqtl) studies are similar to traditional multi-trait qtl studies, but with thousands of phenotypes. it is also important to note that, underlying the gene expression differences, there are two types of regulatory sequence variation. one is cis-regulatory that affects its own expression and the other is trans-acting or protein coding that affects expression of other genes. the first attempt where transcript abundance was used to study the linkage with qtls was on budding yeast (brem et al, 2002) based on a cross between a laboratory strain and a wild strain, the parents being haploid derivatives. heritability estimation was based on haploid segregants and the linkage with a marker was tested by partitioning the segregants into two groups, according to marker genotypes, and comparing expression levels between groups, with wilcoxon-mannwhitney test. they found 8 trans-acting loci, each affecting expression of a group of 7 to 94 genes of related function. since then, several eqtl studies have been published in species like mice, maize, humans, rats and arabidopsis thaliana. apart from study of the eqtl in yeast, foss et al. (2007) investigated protein qtl in the same population of the yeast using mass spectrometry. comparison between genetic regulation of proteins and that of the transcripts revealed that loci that influenced protein abundance differed from those that influenced transcript levels, much against expectations. marker–assisted selection (mas) molecular markers such as those provided by rflp have not only made it possible to detect and estimate effects of qtls, but can also be used as a criterion of indirect selection for genetic improvement of a given quantitative trait – a procedure of selection which has come to be known as marker-assisted selection (mas). the underlying basis of mas is the correlation between a trait and the marker genotype, which gets generated due to linkage disequilibria between the qtl and marker loci. the fact that such information can be integrated with those of artificial selection on individual and/or collateral basis, to increase the efficiency of selection, was demonstrated by the work of lande and thompson (1990). they showed that relative efficiency of the selection index, combining phenotypic and molecular information optimally, is a function of heritability (h2) of the trait and the proportion (p) of additive genetic variance of j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 85-93, 2010 prem narain prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 89 the trait that is associated with marker loci. this efficiency is always one when h2=1, the phenotype being a perfect indicator of its breeding value. but, for a character with low heritability, the efficiency can be substantially high, provided p is high. this means the value of maker information can be very great if a larger proportion of additive genetic variance is associated with the markers. efficiency is maximum when p=1 and is (1/h), that becomes infinitely large for extremely small h. in that case, all of the weight in selection index is put on molecular information. if we select only on the basis of marker information, the efficiency, relative to individual selection with the same intensity, would be. this shows that when p>h2, selection based on marker information alone would be more efficient than individual phenotypic selection. increased efficiency of mas, however, is accompanied by increased cost involved in sample collection, dna extraction and typing of individuals in the sample, compared to that involved in taking simple measurements of the trait. cost reduction for mas can be achieved in several ways. marker technologies such as those based on polymerase chain reaction (pcr) may reduce the cost of mas. selective genotyping of the extreme progeny, as advocated by lander and botstein (1989), is another way. yet another way could be to bring in auxiliary information from other traits that are correlated with the main trait, and are cheaper to measure. this idea has been used in the past by several workers to increase the efficiency of individual and family selection itself, by including in the index one or more auxiliary traits in conjunction with the main trait. as a matter of fact, molecular information in mas is itself a sort of auxiliary information, but obtained at a higher cost. narain (2003b), therefore, showed how the efficiency of mas behaved if information on one or more auxiliary traits with the corresponding molecular scores was combined with that on the main trait, in an optimal manner. fruit crops in fruit crops, molecular markers are used for screening and selecting the best seedlings several years before the characters are evaluated in the field. it saves space and time so important in woody perennials. markerassisted selection in such crops is, however, mostly based on major genes, since several characters like disease resistance, flower/fruit/nut quality are found to be controlled by major genes that follow a simple inheritance pattern. markers tightly linked to such genes are searched for early selection. they are primarily used for characters that cannot be evaluated till the plant has reached the adult stage, such as fruit characters or self-incompatible genotypes. for instance, gametophytic self-incompatibility in almond, apricot and cherry is one such trait that is encoded by a highly polymorphic locus (s/s) located in the distal part of g6 linkage group. with determination of the sequences of the polymorphic s-rnase gene at this locus, a number of species-specific and allele-specific dna markers were discovered that were used for early and more accurate selection of self-incompatibility or self-compatibility alleles. markers close to the two genes of resistance to root-knot nematodes are used for selection of resistant prunus rootstocks. the resistance gene ma/ma from myrobalan plum and located on g7 linkage group, and another one from peach cv. nemared (mi/mi) located on g2 linkage group, have been screened with markers in a search for rootstocks that pyramid both resistance genes in a three-way progeny obtained from peach, almond and myrobalan plum. marker-assisted selection for disease resistance is quite widespread in apple as a means of early selection, and, to pyramid resistance genes. systems approach as we know, the central dogma of molecular biology stipulates that sequence information flows from dna to rna to protein but not in the reverse direction. but, kimchi-sarfaty et al (2007) reported data that indicate that a protein’s three-dimensional structure is not necessarily determined by its amino acid sequence that has been specified by the dna sequence. an mrna, if subjected to translational braking, can generate a protein with a structure different from that specified by the dna sequence. this has been termed ‘translation-dependent folding’ (tdf) hypothesis (newman and bhat, 2007). differential gene expression resulting in transcripts as sub-phenotypes could, then, lead to different proteins and give results similar to those obtained in the yeast experiment, as reported by foss et al (2007). genes and proteins are, therefore, required to be considered simultaneously to unravel the complex molecular circuitry operating within a cell. one has to have a global perspective of genotype-phenotype relationship, instead of individual components like dna or protein in a cellular system. it seems the interplay of genotype-phenotype relationship for quantitative variation is not only complex but also needs a closer look at how we view this relationship – whether purely at the dna-rna level (as in the reductionist approach) or at the level of cell as a whole j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 85-93, 2010 statistical genomics and bioinformatics prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 90 (where dna-rna are just parts of the cellular system with other contextual forces present in the micro-environments of the cell, also playing their own important roles). such situations have also been noticed in agricultural experimentation where a dialectical approach has been advocated (narain, 2006, 2008). in the grain production process, it is also important to study how this process affects soil health and the ecosystem surrounding the plant, as is studying the effect of inputs on production. in the dialectical approach, this relationship between the plant and its environment is studied both ways – input to output as well as output to input, a sort of feedback. a similar possibility seems to exist in the genotype and phenotype relationship within a cell. the protein as a phenotype is determined by a dna sequence as the genotype, but the reverse phenomenon of protein affecting the dna could also take place at the expense of violating central dogma. in fact, studies are on to explore biochemical signaling pathways that regulate function of living cells through regulatory networks having positive and negative feedback loops, though it is unclear how genetics can be incorporated into it. these feedback loops are basically cybernetic concepts that are inherent in the dialectical approach. this approach takes into account dynamics of the system over time as well, in which, development is a consequence of opposing forces. this is based on the concept of contradiction inherent in the meaning of dialectics. things change because of the action of opposing forces on them, and things remain what they are because of temporary balance of the opposing forces. opposing forces are seen as contradictory in the sense that each taken separately would have an opposite effect, but their joint action may be different from result of either acting alone. these forces are, however, part of selfregulation and development of the object is regarded as a network of positive and negative feedback loops, incorporation of which (in the genetic context) would violate the central dogma. genes, transcripts, proteins, metabolites, physical components, etc., can be regarded as ‘parts’ of the cellular system and the ‘whole’ is regarded as a relation of these parts that acquire properties by virtue of being parts of a particular whole. as soon as the parts acquire properties by being together, they impart to the whole new properties that are, in turn, reflected in changes in the parts, and so on. parts and whole, therefore, evolve as a consequence of their relationship, and the relationship itself evolves. genes are fixed, but their expression-the transcript-is not. at any given moment of time, genes are expressed as per requirement of the cell and through information contained in its dna. at this moment of time, the cellular system is said to have a particular state of the system. at the next moment of time, the same genes may be expressed, but differently, depending upon the then requirement of the cell and based on the feedback, if any, from the system’s state at the previous time point, assuming that the process is markovian. this gives the next state of the system, which might or might not be different from the previous state. and, the process goes on continually, modifying the relationship between different parts of the system based on interactions and feedbacks. it seems that a dialectical approach could provide the clue for understanding how ‘parts’ of a system and the ‘whole’ system behave in the context of genetics. ii. bioinformatics introduction genomic research is creating quantities of data at unprecedented scales by looking at either all genes in a genome, or all transcripts in a cell, or else all metabolic processes in a tissue in several species, in general, and in agriculture in particular. very soon new genomic technologies will enable individual laboratories to generate terabyte or even petabyte scales of data. to handle these data, to make sense of them and render them accessible to biologists, is the task of a newly emerging field of bioinformatics existing at the interface of biological and computational sciences computer based analysis of large biological data sets. the data sets usually pertain to macromolecular sequences (dna, rna and protein sequences), protein structures, gene expression profiles and biochemical pathways. it has three components. firstly, it involves development of databases to store and search data. secondly, it deals with statistical tools and algorithms to analyze and determine relationships between data sets. lastly, it involves application of the tools for analysis and interpretation of various types of genomic data. for a brief discussion on these aspects, reference may be made to narain (2005). here, we discuss primarily those aspects that relate to plant genomes. generation of databases dna sequences stored in databases are of three types: genomic dna, cdna and recombinant dna. genomic dna, taken directly from the genome, contains genes in their natural state which, in eukaryotes, include introns, regulatory elements and a large amount of surrounding inter-genic dna. cdna is reverse-transcribed from mrna and corresponds to only expressed parts of the genome, there being no introns. it gives direct access to genes that represent only a small percentage of the entire sequence. recombinant dna comes from the laboratory, j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 85-93, 2010 prem narain prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 91 being artificial dna molecules – sequence of vectors such as plasmids, modified viruses and other genetic elements used in the laboratory. high quality sequence data is generated by performing multiple reads on both dna strands. sequence data of lower quality can, however, be generated by single reads – single pass sequencing on a much larger scale, quickly and cheaply. expressed sequence tags (ests) are generated by single-pass sequencing of random clones from cdna libraries and are used to identify genes in genomic dna as well as to prepare large clone sets for dna microarrays. most rna sequences are deduced from the corresponding dna sequences, or, from a cdna sequence. the latter is more informative due to it being extensively processed during synthesis. for example, introns are spliced out of a primary transcript to generate mature mrna. plant sequence data are generated through (i) whole genome sequencing, (ii) sample sequencing of bacterial artificial chromosomes (bacs), (iii) genome survey sequencing (gss), and (iv) sequencing of expressed sequence tags (ests). an integrated database and suite of analytical tools to organize and interpret these data, has been developed and is known as plantgdb (vide the website http://www.plantgdb.org/). annotation annotation means obtaining useful biological information (structure and function of genes and other genetic elements) from raw sequence data. since prokaryotes and eukaryotes differ in their structure and genome organization, their annotations involve different problems. prokaryotes have high gene-density with virtually no introns, but in eukaryotes, gene-density is low and the genome has greater complexity. we have two groups of annotation structural annotation and functional annotation. in the former, we are concerned with finding genes and other genetic elements in genomic dna. in the latter, we assign functions to the discovered sequences. annotated sequence databases the following three repositories and resources for primary sequence data are available where each entry is extensively annotated. they can be accessed freely over the world wide web (www). (i) gene bank of the national centre for biotechnology information (ncbi) (ii) nucleotide sequence database of european molecular biology laboratory (embl) (iii) dna databank of japan (ddbj). new sequences can be deposited in any of the databases, since, these exchange data on a daily basis. the main sequence databases have a number of subsidiaries for storage of particular types of sequence data. for example, dbest is a division of gen bank which is used to store expressed sequence tags (ests). other divisions of gen bank include dbgss, dbsts used to store sequence tagged sites (stss) and several others. these large database providers, however, do not give non-redundant and curated records, so that detailed analysis cannot be performed at the resource site by the user. a database like plantgdb, which downloads raw plant genomic data from gen bank, overcomes such difficulties and provides curated records with detailed and updated information. it organizes est sequences into contigs that represent tentative unique genes. they are duly annotated and linked to their respective genomic dna. the data-base gives the basis for identifying genes common to particular species by integrating a number of bioinformatics tools that help in gene prediction and cross-species comparison the goal of comparative genomics. besides plantgdb database, there are speciesspecific databases like the arabidopsis information resource (tair), maizegdb, gramene, a tool for grass genomics, and the stanford microarray database. the plantgdb genome browsing capabilities for arabidopsis are made possible by a. thaliana genome database (atgdb; http://www.plantgdb.org/atgdb/). this database stores est and cdna spliced alignments along with current arabidopsis genome annotation. as we know arabidopsis thaliana, which is a small mustard species – eukaryotic and self-pollinating – is already playing an important role as a model organism in development of plant molecular biology, by way of providing increased knowledge and understanding of the plant’s functional and developmental processes. it has a rapid life cycle and can be easily grown in laboratory in large numbers. its entire genome, that is highly compact and consists of about 130 mb with little interspersed repetitive dna, has been sequenced. many thousands of arabidopsis plants can be grown on a bench to search for particular mutants which can then be isolated and genes cloned for use in other crops. it is related to many food plants like rice, wheat, maize, sorghum, millets, etc., and can, therefore, provide a j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 85-93, 2010 statistical genomics and bioinformatics prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 92 focus from which genome content of other higher plants can be extrapolated. fruit crops in regard to horticultural crops, an international consortium led by albert abbott at clemson university (clemson, sc), developed databases on prunus genome. using rflps on the txe map and a bac library of peach cv. nemared, a physical map was assembled. a growing collection of ests from peach and almond, based on cdna libraries, was released to public databases and more than 3,800 peach putative unigenes were detected. about 2,000 of these unigenes were assigned to specific bac that contain them. recently, a rosaceae database (www.genome.clemson.edu/gdr) has been developed that includes apple, peach, cherry, plum, apricot, pear, etc. sequence similarity searches due to molecular evolution, macromolecule sequences share a common ancestor resulting in similarity in their sequences, structure and biological functions. on the other hand, any pair of sequences will share a certain degree of similarity, due to chance alone. for example, dna sequences are constructed from an alphabet of only four letters, viz., a, t g and c. any sequence that consists of a mixture of these letters will show some similarity to any other similarly-constructed sequence. we need to distinguish between such a chance similarity and similarity resulting from real evolutionary and/or functional relationship. this requires use of appropriate statistical methods. sequences are first aligned in terms of their letters. when identical letters get aligned, we say that these letters were part of the ancestral sequence and have remained unchanged. when non-identical letters get aligned, we say that a mutation has occurred in one of the sequences. it may also happen that some letters in a particular sequence lack an equivalent in the other sequence, resulting in a gap. this could be due to insertion or deletion of letter/s in one of the sequences, with respect to the ancestral sequence. dynamic programming algorithms – computational methods can calculate the best alignment of two sequences. the algorithm takes two input sequences and produces the best alignment between them as the output. well-known algorithms are smith-waterman algorithm (local alignment) and needleman-wunsch algorithm (global alignment). to quantify similarity, a simple alignment score measures the number or proportion of identically matching residues. gap penalties are subtracted from such scores to ensure that alignment algorithms produce biologically sensible alignments, without too many gaps. gap penalties may be constant, i.e., independent of the length of the gap or be proportional to the length of the gap, or else may be affine, i.e., containing gap-opening and gap-extension contributions. we have often a query sequence about which we need to predict the structure and/or the function. we perform sequence similarity searches of databases in which the query sequence is aligned (compared) to each database sequence in turn and then rank the database sequences with the highest scoring (most similar) at the top. this can be achieved by the dynamic programming method with smith-waterman algorithm but the procedure is very slow, taking hours, for searching large databases. on the other hand, algorithms like blast (best local alignment search tool) and fasta provide very fast (about five to fifty times faster) searches of sequence databases. they are however less accurate than the dynamic programming method which provides the best possible alignment to each database sequence. each of the blast and fasta operates by first locating short stretches of identically or near-identically matching letters (words) –assumed to lead to high scoring alignment that are eventually extended into longer alignments. acknowledgements this work was supported by the indian national science academy, new delhi, under their programme “insa honorary scientist”. references brem, r.b., yvert, g., clinton, r. and kruglyak, l. 2002. genetic dissection of transcriptional regulation in budding yeast. science, 296: 752-755 buckler, e.s., holland, j.b., bradbury, p.j., acharya, c.b., brown, p.j., browne, c., ersoz, e., flint-garcia, s., garcia, a., glaubitz, j.c., goodman, m.m., harjes, c., guill, k., kroon, d.e., larsson, s., lepak, n.k., li, h., mitchell, s.e., pressoir, g., peiffer, j.a., rosas, m.o., rocheford, t.r., romaij, m.c., romero, s., salvo, s., villeda, h.s., da silva, h.s., sun, q., tian, f., upadyayula, n., ware, d., yates, h., yu, j., zhang, z., kresovich, s. and mcmullen, m.d. 2009. the genetic architecture of maize flowering time. science, 325: 714-718 dirlewanger, e., graziano, e., joobeur, t., garriga-caldere, f., cosson, p., howad, w. and arus, p. 2004. comparative mapping and marker-assisted selection j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 85-93, 2010 prem narain prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 93 in rosaceae fruit crops. pnas, 101: 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hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 85-93, 2010 statistical genomics and bioinformatics prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no final sph -jhs coverpage 16-2 jan 2021 single c o n t e n t s journal of horticultural sciences volume 16 issue 2 june 2021 in this issue i-ii review phytoremediation of indoor air pollutants: harnessing the potential of 131-143 plants beyond aesthetics shalini jhanji and u.k.dhatt research articles response of fruit yield and quality to foliar application of micro-nutrients in 144-151 lemon [citrus limon (l.) burm.] cv. assam lemon sheikh k.h.a., singh b., haokip s.w., shankar k., debbarma r. studies on high density planting and nutrient requirement of banana in 152-163 different states of india debnath sanjit bauri f.k., swain s., patel a.n., patel a.r., shaikh n.b., bhalerao v.p., baruah k., manju p.r., suma a., menon r., gutam s. and p. patil mineral nutrient composition in leaf and root tissues of fifteen polyembryonic 164-176 mango genotypes grown under varying levels of salinity nimbolkar p.k., kurian r.m., varalakshmi l.r., upreti k.k., laxman r.h. and d. kalaivanan optimization of ga3 concentration for improved bunch and berry quality in 177-184 grape cv. crimson seedless (vitis vinifera l) satisha j., kumar sampath p. and upreti k.k. rgap molecular marker for resistance against yellow mosaic disease in 185-192 ridge gourd [luffa acutangula (l.) roxb.] kaur m., varalakshmi b., kumar m., lakshmana reddy d.c., mahesha b. and pitchaimuthu m. genetic divergence study in bitter gourd (momordica charantia l.) 193-198 nithinkumar k.r., kumar j.s.a., varalakshmi b, mushrif s.k., ramachandra r.k. , prashanth s.j. combining ability studies to develop superior hybrids in bell pepper 199-205 (capsicum annuum var. grossum l.) varsha v., smaranika mishra, lingaiah h.b., venugopalan r., rao k.v. kattegoudar j. and madhavi reddy k. ssr marker development in abelmoschus esculentus (l.) moench 206-214 using transcriptome sequencing and genetic diversity studies gayathri m., pitchaimuthu m. and k.v. ravishankar generation mean analysis of important yield traits in bitter gourd 215-221 (momordica charantia) swamini bhoi, varalakshmi b., rao e.s., pitchaimuthu m. and hima bindu k. influence of phenophase based irrigation and fertigation schedule on vegetative 222-233 performance of chrysanthemum (dendranthema grandiflora tzelev.) var. marigold vijayakumar s., sujatha a. nair, nair a.k., laxman r.h. and kalaivanan d. performance evaluation of double type tuberose iihr-4 (ic-0633777) for 234-240 flower yield, quality and biotic stress response bharathi t.u., meenakshi srinivas, umamaheswari r. and sonavane, p. anti-fungal activity of trichoderma atroviride against fusarium oxysporum f. sp. 241-250 lycopersici causing wilt disease of tomato yogalakshmi s., thiruvudainambi s., kalpana k., thamizh vendan r. and oviya r. seed transmission of bean common mosaic virus-blackeye cowpea mosaic strain 251-260 (bcmv-blcm) threaten cowpea seed health in the ashanti and brong-ahafo regions of ghana adams f.k., kumar p.l., kwoseh c., ogunsanya p., akromah r. and tetteh r. effect of container size and types on the root phenotypic characters of capsicum 261-270 raviteja m.s.v., laxman r.h., rashmi k., kannan s., namratha m.r. and madhavi reddy k. physio-morphological and mechanical properties of chillies for 271-279 mechanical harvesting yella swami c., senthil kumaran g., naik r.k., reddy b.s. and rathina kumari a.c. assessment of soil and water quality status of rose growing areas of 280-286 rajasthan and uttar pradesh in india varalakshmi lr., tejaswini p., rajendiran s. and k.k. upreti qualitative and organoleptic evaluation of immature cashew kernels under storage 287-291 sharon jacob and sobhana a. physical quality of coffee bean (coffea arabica l.) as affected by harvesting and 292-300 drying methods chala t., lamessa k. and jalata z vegetative vigour, yield and field tolerance to leaf rust in four f1 hybrids of 301-308 coffee (coffea arabica l.) in india divya k. das, shivanna m.b. and prakash n.s. limonene extraction from the zest of citrus sinensis, citrus limon, vitis vinifera 309-314 and evaluation of its antimicrobial activity wani a.k., singh r., mir t.g. and akhtar n. event report 315-318 national horticultural fair 2021 a success story dhananjaya m.v., upreti k.k. and dinesh m.r. subject index 319-321 author index 322-323 215 j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 215-221, 2021 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction bitter gourd is an economically important vegetable crop and considered as one of the most nutritious gourds, grown for its fruit and leaves. it is a good source of phytonutrients like carbohydrates, minerals like iron, calcium, phosphorus and vitamin b, vitamin c, and also contains vitamin a (behera et al., 2010). the primary centre of diversity is india, and china is considered as the secondary centre of diversity. it is grown widely throughout india. the primary breeding goal for bitter gourd is to increase fruit yield and qua lity. t his gynoecious sex for m ha s been commercially exploited worldwide in cucumber for increased number of fruits, earliness, uniformity and mechanical harvesting. it is mostly useful for hybrid development as it avoids manual emasculation and pollination. so simply by isolating from other genotypes and with a desirable parent we can go for hybrid development. yield is a complicated trait influenced by polygenes with small but cumulative effects. therefore, detailed understanding of the genetics and inheritance that underpins yield and its component traits is required in order to achieve the actual yield potential by adopting appropriate breeding and selection strategies. generation mean analysis has proven to be a useful tool for estimating various genetic parameters. hayman (1960) proposed the concept of generation mean analysis for estimating various genetic components. this method gives data on several genetic parameters as well as epistatic inter actions. it is beneficia l to ha ve a pr ecise understanding of the nature and magnitude of gene action of various characters to maximise the use of genetic potential by choosing of effective breeding methods. generation mean analysis of important yield traits in bitter gourd (momordica charantia) swamini bhoi1, varalakshmi b.1, rao e.s.1, pitchaimuthu m.1 and hima bindu k.2 division of vegetable crops, division of flower and medicinal crops, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru 560089, karnataka, india. corresponding author email : swaminibhoi29@gmail.com abstract generation mean analysis study in bitter gourd was undertaken using six basic generations viz. p1, p2, f1, f2, b1 and b2 population were developed from gynoecious (iihrbtgy491) × monoecious (iihr sel -19 -1 and iihr sel-78-4) crosses. the gynoecious parent was superior for node for first female flowering, number of fruits and yield/plant whereas the monoecious parents were superior for fruit length, fruit diameter and fruit weight. f1 showed superior performance over mid parent for number of fruits, fruit length, fruit weight and yield per plant. f2 plants were significantly diverse. b1 and b2 population exhibited mean value closer to their recurrent parents. significance of one or more scaling tests, i.e. a, b, c and d in most of the traits revealed the presence of epistasis in both the crosses except for node bearing 1st male flower. days to 1st female flower opening, node bearing 1st female flower, fruit diameter and yield showed presence of duplicate epistasis whereas days to 1st male flower opening, number of fruits per plant, fruit length and fruit weight showed complimentary epistasis in iihrbtgy 491 × iihr sel -19 -1 cross. node bearing 1st female flower, fruit length, fruit diameter and yield showed presence of duplicate epistasis whereas days to 1st female flower opening, days to 1st male flower opening, number of fruits and fruit weight showed complimentary epistasis in iihrbtgy 491× iihr sel-78-4 cross. additive gene action may be predominant for inheritance of node bearing 1st male flower. key words: bitter gourd, epistatic interactions. gene action and scaling test. 216 swamini et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 215-221, 2021 materials and methods the sib-mated seeds of gynoecious bitter gourd germplasm, iihrbtgy–491 and two monoecious lines iihr sel -19 -1 and iihr sel-78-4 used as parents to develop, f1, f2 and back cross generations during 2018–2021 at vegetable research block viii of division of vegetable crops, icar–indian institute of hor ticultur a l resea r ch, benga lur u. t he iihrbtgy–491gynoecious plant was maintained by sib matting and through the pollens from silver nitrate 250 ppm induced hermaphrodite flower s in the gynoecious plant. the data was recorded on 10 competitive plants in parents and f1, 100 plants in f2 and 20 plants in backcrosses laid out in a randomized complete block design in three replications. the obser va tions wer e r ecor ded for 9 economica l characters viz., days to first female flower opening, character cross p1 p2 mp f1 f2 b1 b2 days to 1 29.10 ± 37.23 ± 33.16 37.96 ± 35.25 ± 33.66 ± 38.00 ± 1st female 0.73 0.93 0.84 0.43 1.62 0.90 flower 2 28.93 ± 38.13 ± 33.53 39.10 ± 34.47 ± 30.10 ± 36.66 ± opening 0.67 0.85 0.71 0.43 0.67 1.02 days to 1 0.00 ± 29.23 ± 14.61 27.53 ± 24.25 ± 17.63 ± 31.06 ± 1st male 0.00 0.68 0.75 1.49 5.71 0.60 flower 2 0.00 ± 28.93 ± 14.46 25.20 ± 25.07 ± 15.56 ± 33.16 ± opening 0.00 0.83 0.48 1.46 5.03 0.75 node 1 0.00 ± 5.80 ± 2.90 4.33 ± 3.77 ± 2.50 ± 5.26 ± bearing 0.00 0.47 0.26 0.24 0.82 0.32 1st male 2 0.00 ± 6.96 ± 3.48 5.33 ± 4.25 ± 2.60 ± 5.83 ± flower 0.00 0.30 0.24 0.26 0.85 0.26 node 1 4.26 ± 12.40 ± 8.33 9.83 ± 9.40 ± 8.46 ± 13.00 ± bearing 0.31 0.74 0.72 0.37 1.09 0.53 1st female 2 4.26 ± 13.26 ± 8.76 11.86 ± 9.95 ± 7.73 ± 13.33 ± flower 0.31 0.86 0.44 0.38 1.20 0.50 number 1 42.10 ± 26.56 ± 34.33 37.73 ± 37.57 ± 41.96 ± 29.56 ± of fruits 1.53 1.03 1.19 0.77 3.11 0.85 per 2 42.10 ± 24.49 ± 33.29 35.43 ± 38.01 ± 46.26 ± 30.56 ± plant 1.53 0.83 1.09 0.78 1.83 0.94 fruit 1 12.23 ± 22.91 ± 17.57 17.70 ± 14.42 ± 13.53 ± 21.15 ± length 0.33 0.28 0.26 0.47 0.21 0.37 (cm) 2 12.23 ± 17.89 ± 15.06 16.57 ± 12.14 ± 13.13 ± 18.52 ± 0.33 0.30 0.47 0.46 0.38 0.30 fruit 1 4.18 ± 4.57 ± 4.37 4.31 ± 4.26 ± 4.09 ± 4.63 ± diameter 0.11 0.15 0.15 0.04 0.14 0.15 (cm) 2 4.18 ± 5.02 ± 4.61 4.39 ± 4.39 ± 4.12 ± 4.72 ± 0.11 0.08 0.12 0.04 0.11 0.13 fruit 1 79.56 ± 106.00 ± 92.78 96.63 ± 98.19 ± 77.93 ± 103.46 ± weight 1.38 2.04 3.55 3.39 1.82 1.27 (g) 2 79.56 ± 117.34 ± 98.36 109.43 ± 103.21 ± 83.69 ± 120.63 ± 1.38 3.18 3.81 3.41 1.24 1.42 yield/ 1 3.54 ± 2.72 ± 3.13 3.26 ± 3.10 ± 3.28 ± 2.18 ± plant 0.12 0.13 0.21 0.16 0.26 0.11 (kg) 2 3.54 ± 2.87 ± 3.18 3.22 ± 3.06 ± 3.31 ± 2.37 ± 0.12 0.18 0.21 0.16 0.35 0.29 1: iihrbtgy 491× iihr sel -19 -1; 2: iihrbtgy 491× iihr sel -78-4 table 1. generation means for different characters 217 generation mean analysis of important yield traits in bitter gourd days to 1st male flower opening, node bearing 1st male flower, node bearing 1st female flower, number of fruits per plant, fruit length (cm), fruit diameter (cm), single fruit weight (g) and fruit yield/ plant (g). data from three replications was pooled to calculate mean values for all of the attributes investigated for the parents (p1 and p2), f1’s (p1 × p2), f2’s (f1’s selfed) and their firstgeneration backcrosses (b1’s = f1 ×p1 and b2’s = f1 ×p2). the abcd scaling tests of mather and jinks (1982) were employed to detect the presence of nonallelic interactions before calculating the different parameters. in addition to scaling test data was further subjected to joint scaling (deb and khaleque 2009). the parameters for the various gene effects employed in this investigation are the same as those used by hayman (1960) namely, mean (m), additive (d), dominance (h), additive × additive (i), additive × dominance (j) and dominance × dominance (l). the opstat software was used to perform the generation mean analysis. result and discussion the information regarding gene action, interaction and inheritance study is the key factor for designing appropriate breeding strategy for improvement of any crop. the gynoecious parent iihrbtgy – 491 was superior for node for first female flowering, number of fruits and yield/plant whereas the monoecious parents were superior for fruit length, fruit diameter and fruit weight. the mean performance of f 1 surpassed the mid parent for number of fruits, fruit length, fruit weight and yield per plant (table 1) in both the crosses (iihrbtgy 491 × iihr sel -19 1 and iihrbtgy 491× iihr sel-78-4). the superior performance of f1 over mid parent indicated that these traits can be exploited through heterosis breeding. these findings are consistent with the findings of dey et al. (2012) and mishra et al (2015). the reduction in mean performance of f2 population than f1 for fruit length and yield in both crosses was observed, implying influence of inbreeding depression. rathod et al. (2021) also obtained similar results in bitter gourd. days to 1st female flower opening in iihrbtgy 491 × iihr sel -19 -1cross, c scale was significant (4.25) (table 2) and dominance component (h ) was also significant (7.12) (table 3). the opposite sign of h (7.12) and l (-3.38) indicates presence of duplicate epistasis. mishra et al (2015) reported similar gene interaction for the trait days to first flowering in the cross of dbgy 201 × pusa do mausami indicating selection at later generation. however, in iihrbtgy 491× iihr sel-78-4 all four scales were significant which indicate the inadequacy of simple additive-dominance model to estimate the gene effects. the similar sign of h (2.20) and l (16.09) indicates presence of complementary epistasis. kumari et al. (2015) reported additive gene effect and rani et al. (2014) reported presence of dominance and epistasis for the trait. days to 1st male flower opening in iihrbtgy 491 × iihr sel-19-1 cross, b (2.63) and c (3.27) scale and dominance component (21.29) were significant. the similar sign of h (21.29) and l (2.52) indicates presence of complementary epistasis. similarly, in iihrbtgy 491× iihr sel-78-4 cross, a (4.06) and b (-2.20) scales were significant which indicate the inadequacy of simple additive-dominance model to estimate the gene effects. the similar sign of h (17.89) and l (4. 70) indicate presence of complementary epistasis. kumari et al. (2015) and thangamani (2016) reported additive gene effect for days to 1st male flowering. node bearing 1st male flower in both the crosses all the scaling tests, namely, a, b, c and d were insignificant for node bearing 1st male flower. it was determined that the additive–dominance model is sufficient to expla in the effects. the sufficiency of the simple additive–dominance model implies that nonallelic interaction is absent and generation means are solely dependent on the additive– dominance effect of the gene. additive gene action may be predominant for inheritance and selection should be delayed to later generations for this trait. similar result reported by thangamani (2016). node bearing 1st female flower in iihrbtgy 491 × iihr sel -19 -1 cross, c (4.72) and d (-2.66) scale and dominance (9.82) component were significant. non-additive component has a significant role in the inheritance of this trait. the opposite sign of h (9.82) and l (-5.92) indicates pr esence of duplica te epista sis. simila r ly, in iihrbtgy 491× iihr sel-78-4 cross, c (3.44) and d (-2.15) scales were significant. the opposite sign of h (8.40) and l (-5.17) indicates presence of duplicate j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 215-221, 2021 218 table 2. scaling test character cross a b c d days to 1st 1 -0.26 ± 1.98 -0.80 ± 1.27 4.25 ± 1.54** -1.16 ± 1.18 female flower opening 2 7.83 ± 0.96** 3.90 ± 1.34** 7.37 ± 1.44** 2.18 ± 0.86** days to 1st 1 0.26 ± 6.61 2.63 ± 0.91** 3.27 ± 3.57** -0.18 ± 3.73 male flower opening 2 4.06 ± 5.81** -2.20 ± 1.03** -0.97 ± 3.47 1.42 ± 3.39 node bearing 1 -0.66 ± 0.96 -0.40 ± 0.48 -0.61 ± 0.70 -0.22 ± 0.58 1st male flower 2 0.13 ± 0.99 0.63 ± 0.37 0.63 ± 0.69 0.06 ± 0.59 node bearing 1 0.16 ± 1.34 -0.76 ± 0.86 4.72 ± 1.29** -2.66 ± 0.82* 1st female flower 2 -0.33 ± 1.42 -0.53 ± 0.81 3.44 ± 1.14** -2.15 ± 0.87* number 1 8.90 ± 3.76** 8.16 ± 1.34** 13.82 ± 2.50** 1.62 ± 2.06 of fruits per plant 2 1.00 ± 2.38 11.76 ± 1.35** 14.36 ± 2.42** -0.80 ± 1.49 fruit 1 2.75 ± 0.34* 6.19 ± 0.48** 12.63 ± 1.17** -2.84 ± 0.60* length (cm) 2 2.54 ± 0.55* 1.52 ± 0.47 10.79 ± 1.22** -3.36 ± 0.60** fruit 1 -0.02 ± 0.20 -2.10 ± 0.21* -3.15 ± 0.23** 0.01 ± 0.13 diameter (cm) 2 0.04 ± 0.16 2.49 ± 0.17* 4.66 ± 0.19** -0.06 ± 0.11 fruit 1 47.32 ± 3.04** -11.63 ± 2.88** 24.03 ± 8.95** 5.82 ± 4.13** weight (g) 2 43.12 ± 3.15** -5.00 ± 3.30** 30.41± 9.25** 3.85 ± 4.16** yield/ 1 2.61 ± 0.34* 0.63 ± 0.20 2.79 ± 0.46* 0.73 ± 0.25 plant (kg) 2 2.44 ± 0.34* 0.80 ± 0.21 3.93 ± 0.46** 0.65 ± 0.25 *, ** significant at 5 and 1% probability respectively 1: iihrbtgy 491 × iihr sel 19 1; 2: iihrbtgy 491 × iihr sel 78 4 epistasis. similar result obtained by mishra et al. (2015) and additive gene action for the trait reported by thangamani (2016). number of fruits per plant in both the crosses, b and c scales were significant and dominance component, dominance × dominance components were significantly higher compared to additive component which indicate the inadequacy of simple additive-dominance model to estimate the gene effects. the similar sign of h and l indicates presence of complementary epistasis in both the cross. similar result reported by mishra et al. (2015) in dbgy 201 × pusa do mausami cross and complementary epistasis observed in dbgy 201 × s-2 cross. shukla et al. (2014) reported insignificant 2 value for number of fruits/plant, internodal length, seeds/fruit and yield/ plant in gy333 × drar-1 cross indicating the absence of non-allelic interaction. fruit length in iihrbtgy 491 × iihr sel -19 -1 cross, all the scaling tests, namely, a, b, c and d were significant and dominance component was higher compared to additive component. the similar sign of h (3.71) and l (5.26) indicates presence of complementary epistasis. however, in iihrbtgy 491× iihr sel-78-4cross, a, c and d scales were significant and dominance, additive × additive components were in positive direction indicating their significant role in inheritance swamini et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 215-221, 2021 219 table 3. estimates of components of generation mean for different yield related character in bitter gourd character cross m d h i j l epistasis days to 1 35.25 ± -4.33 ± 7.12 ± 2.32 ± -0.53 ± -3.38 ± d 1st female 0.24 1.07** 2.44** 2.36* 2.25 4.56** d flower 2 34.47 ± -6.56 ± 2.20 ± -4.36 ± -3.93 ± 16.09 ± c opening 0.25 0.70** 1.81* 1.73** 1.55** 3.18** c days to 1 24.25 ± -13.43 ± 21.29 ± 0.37 ± 2.36 ± 2.52 ± c 1st male 0.87 3.31** 7.49** 7.43 6.64* 13.74* c flower 2 25.07 ± -17.60 ± 17.89 ± -2.84 ± -6.26 ± 4.70 ± c opening 0.84 2.93** 6.79** 6.78* 5.89** 12.24** c node 1 3.77 ± 2.77 ± 1.89 ± 0.45 ± 0.27 ± -1.52 ± bearing 0.14 0.50* 1.18 1.16 1.05 1.09 1st male 2 4.25 ± 3.23 ± 1.72 ± -0.13 ± 0.50 ± 0.90 ± flower 0.15 0.51* 1.20 1.19 2.17 2.15 node 1 9.40 ± -4.53 ± 9.82 ± 5.32 ± -0.93 ± -5.92 ± d bearing 0.21 0.70** 1.72** 1.65** 1.48 3.10** d 1st female 2 9.95 ± -4.60 ± 8.40 ± 4.30 ± -0.20 ± -5.17 ± d flower 0.21 0.75** 1.78** 1.74** 1.59 3.22** d number 1 37.57 ± 3.82 ± 10.40 ± -3.24 ± -0.73 ± 20.30 ± c of fruits 0.44 1.86** 4.22** 4.13** 3.87 7.85** c per 2 38.01 ± 4.25 ± 15.70 ± 1.60 ± 10.76 ± 11.16 ± c plant 0.45 1.19** 3.10** 2.99 2.59** 5.35** c fruit 1 14.42 ± -3.62 ± 3.71 ± 3.68 ± 3.44 ± 5.26 ± c length 0.27 0.24** 1.22** 1.21** 0.55** 1.53** c (cm) 2 14.14 ± -5.39 ± 6.19 ± 6.73 ± -1.02 ± -2.66 ± d 0.26 0.28** 1.24** 1.20** 0.62 1.66* d fruit 1 4.26 ± 2.05 ± 2.26 ± -1.02 ± -2.07 ± -5.10 ± d diameter 0.02 0.12* 0.28* 0.26 0.27* 0.54** d (cm) 2 4.35± -1.20 ± -3.15 ± 2.13 ± 4.44 ± 11.40 ± d 0.71 0.10 0.24** 0.23* 0.21** 0.44** d fruit 1 108.19 ± -48.21 ± 7.19 ± -11.65 ± -58.96 ± 47.34 ± c weight 1.95 1.33** 8.55** 8.27** 3.03** 10.43** c (g) 2 107.21 ± -54.70 ± 1.52 ± -7.71 ± -48.12 ± 45.84 ± c 1.97 1.33** 8.67 8.32** 3.34** 10.68** c yield/ 1 4.10 ± -0.90 ± -4.48 ± -1.46 ± -1.97 ± 4.71 ± d plant 0.09 0.17 0.52** 0.50 0.35 0.82** d (kg) 2 4.06 ± -0.90 ± -3.67 ± -1.31 ± -1.63 ± 4.56 ± d 0.09 0.17 0.52** 0.50 0.36 0.82** d *, ** significant at 5 and 1% probability respectively 1: iihrbtgy 491× iihr sel -19 -1; 2: iihrbtgy 491× iihr sel -78-4 c: complementary epistasis, d: duplicate epistasis of the trait. presence of duplicate epistasis is noticed. similar result obtained by mishra et al. 2015 for fruit length in both dbgy 201 × s-2 and dbgy 201 × pusa do mausami) whereas incomplete dominance effect for fruit length reported by kumari et al. (2015). fruit diameter in both the crosses, b and c scale were significant. in iihrbtgy 491× iihr sel -19 -1 cross additive (2.05) and dominance (2.26) components were significant while in iihrbtgy 491× iihr sel -78generation mean analysis of important yield traits in bitter gourd j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 215-221, 2021 220 4 cross dominance × dominance (11.40) component was significant. the opposite sign of h and l indicates presence of duplicate epistasis in both the crosses. in such circumstances, available populations must be carried to future generations in order to arrive at the best-fit model (mather and jinks 1982). the opposite signs of h and l neutralize each other, resulting in reduced heterosis for the trait. similar result obtained by mishra et al. (2015). fruit weight in both the crosses, all the scaling tests, namely, a, b, c, d were significant and dominance × dominance (l) component was significantly higher. non-additive component has significant role in the inheritance of this trait. the similar sign of h and l indicates presence of complementary epistasis. in contrary to the result, duplicate epistasis with predominance of additive × dominance gene action reported by mishra et al. (2015) in both the crosses i.e dbgy 201 × s-2 and dbgy 201 × pusa do mausami and thangamani (2016) reported presence of additive gene action for fruit weight. yield/plant in both the crosses, a and c scales were significant and dominance × dominance (l) component was higher a nd in positive dir ection. non-a dditive component has a significant role in the inheritance for yield per plant. the opposite sign of h and l indicates presence of duplicate epistasis. similar result obtained by mishra et al. (2015) in both the crosses namely dbgy 201 × s-2 and dbgy 201 × pusa do mausami and shukla et al. (2014) in cross gy323 × drar-1. the opposite signs neutralize each other. it also shows reduced variability in segregating generations, which prevents the selection and makes them challenging to use in breeding programmes (parihar et al. 2016). conclusion the mean performance of f1 surpassed the mid parent for number of fruits, fruit length, fruit weight and yield per plant in both the crosses indicating that these traits can be exploited through heterosis breeding. the reduction in mean performance of f2 population than f1 for fruit length and yield in both crosses was observed which apparently indicated influence of inbreeding depression. significance of one or more scaling tests, i.e. a, b, c and d in most of the traits revealed the presence of epistasis in both the crosses except for node bearing 1st male flower where additive gene action was predominant. characters showing complimentary epistasis have the possibility of considerable amount of heterosis for the trait and characters showing duplicate epistasis have the possibilities of obtaining transgressive segregants in later generations in the particular cross. reference behera, t. k., behera, s., bharathi, l. k., john, k. j., simon, p. w., and staub, j. e. 2010. bitter gourd: botany, horticulture, breeding. horticultural reviews, 37, 101. deb, a. c. and khaleque, m. a. 2009. nature of gene action of some quantitative traits in c hic kp ea ( c i c e r a r i e t i n u m l . ) . wo r l d journal of agricultural sciences, 5(3), 361368. dey, s. s., behera, t. k., munshi, a. d., rakshit, s. and bhatia, r. 2012. utility of gynoecious sex form in heterosis breeding of bitter gourd and genetics of associated vegetative and f lower ing t r a it s . i n d i a n j o u r n a l o f horticulture 69(4): 523–29. hayman, b. i. 1960. the separation of epistatic from additive and dominance variation in generation means. heredity 12: 371–90. kumari, m., behera, t. k., munshi, a. d., and talukadar, a. 2015. inheritance of fruit traits and generation mean analysis for estimation of horticultural traits in bitter gourd. indian journal of horticulture, 72(1), 43-48. mather, k. and jinks, j. l. 1982. introduction to biometrical genetics. 3rd edition. chapman and hall ltd., london, 396pp. mishra, s., behera, t. k., munshi, a. d., bharadwaj, c. , & ra o, a. r. 2015. inher ita nce of gynoecism and genetics of yield and yield contributing traits through generation mean analysis in bitter gourd. indian journal of horticulture, 72(2), 218-222. parihar, a. k., dixit, g. p. and singh, d. 2016. gene interactions and genetics for yield and its attributes in grass pea (lathyrus sativus l.). journal of genetics, 95(4), 947-956. swamini et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 215-221, 2021 221 rani, k. r., reddy, k. r. and raju, c. s. 2014. inheritance of yield and its related traits in bitter gourd (momordica charantia l.). molecular plant breeding, 5. rathod, v., behera, t. k. and munshi, a. d. 2021. genetic analysis for yield and its attributes in bitter gourd (momordica charantia l.). indian journal of agricultural sciences, 91(1), 68-73. (received on 05.11.2021, revised on 06.01.2022 and accepted on 18.01.2022) shukla, a., singh, u., rai, a. k., bharadwaj, d. r. and singh, m. 2014. genetic analysis of yield a nd yield a ttr ibuting tr a its in bitter gourd. vegetable science, 41(1), 37-41. thangamani, c. 2016. genetic analysis in bitter gourd (momordica charantia l. ) for yield and component cha ra cter s. asian journal of horticulture, 11(2), 313-318. generation mean analysis of important yield traits in bitter gourd j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 215-221, 2021 00 contents.pdf 10 swamini.pdf 19 lamesssa.pdf 20 divya.pdf 21 wani.pdf 23 index and last pages.pdf c o n t e n t s journal of horticultural sciences volume 16 issue 1 june 2021 in this issue i-ii review moringa (moringa oleifera l.): an underutilized and traditionally valued 1-13 tree holding remarkable potential jattan m., kumari n., raj kumar, kumar a., rani b., phogat d.s., kumar, s. and kumar, p. original research in papers characterization and evaluation of mountain sweet thorn 14-25 (flacourtia montana j. grah) collections tripathi p.c., ganeshan s., radhika v. and shetti d.l. optimization of methodology for the extraction of polyphenolic compounds 26-35 with antioxidant potential and á-glucosidase inhibitory activity from jamun (syzygium cumini l.) seeds arivalagan m., priyanka d.r. and rekha a. genetic variability studies in amaranthus (amaranthus spp.) 36-44 agadi a.h., kolakar s., lakshmana d., nadukeri s. and hanumanthappa m. morpho-physiological parameters associated with chlorosis resistance to 45-52 iron deficiency and their effect on yield and related attributes in potato (solanum tuberosum l.) challam c., dutt s., sharma j., raveendran m. and sudhakar d. responses of different okra (abelmoschus esculentus) cultivars to water 53-63 deficit conditions ayub q., khan s.m., hussain i., naveed k., ali s., mehmood a., khan m.j., haq n.u., shehzad q. induced variability for yield and its attributing traits in cluster bean 64-68 [cyamopsis tetragonoloba (l. ) taub] through gamma irradiation lavanya h.n., mishra s., sood m., aghora t.s., anjanappa m., rao v.k. and reddy a.b. in vitro multiplication protocol for curcuma mangga : studies on carbon, 69-76 cytokinin source and explant size waman a.a., bohra p., karthika devi r. and pixy j. effect of fungicide and essential oils amended wax coating on quality and shelf life 77-90 of sweet orange (citrus sinensis osbeck) bhandari m., bhandari n. and dhital m. post-harvest quality and quantification of betalains, phenolic compounds and 91-102 antioxidant activity in fruits of three cultivars of prickly pear (opuntia ficus-indica l. mill) gonzalez f.p.h., saucedo v.c., guerra r.d., suarez e.j., soto h.r.m. lopez j.a., garcia c.e. and hernandez r.g. soil microbial community dynamics as influenced by integrated nutrient 103-113 management practices in sweet basil (ocimum basilicum l.) cultivation baraa al-mansour and d. kalaivanan effect of spectral manipulation and seasonal variations on cut foliage production 114-120 and quality of philodendron (philodendron ‘xanadu’) sujatha a. nair, laxman r.h. and sangama short communications studies on mutagenic sensitivity of seeds of pummelo (citrus maxima merr.) 121-124 sankaran m., kalaivanan d. and sunil gowda d.c. isolation and characterization of microsatellite markers from 125-129 garcinia indica and cross species amplification ravishankar k.v., vasudeva r., hemanth b., nischita p., sthapit b.r., parthasarathy v.a. and rao v.r. 125 j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 125-129, 2021 short communication garcinia indica choisy (thouars; family clusiaceae), is a perennial tree. g. indica is commonly known as a br indonia tallow tr ee or ‘kokum butter ’ tree in english. kokum has many uses in cuisines a nd an important ingr edient in locally prepared medicines. the seeds are a rich source of kokum butter, which is nutritive, demulcent, agent for smoothening, softening a nd used for cosmetic, confectionery, culinary purposes. raw fruits, young lea ves and bark are also used as medications against several disorders. the fruit rind is a rich source of hydroxy citric acid (hca) that prevents accumulation of fat in the human body cells. therefore, g. indica has become the natural source for production of anti-obesity drugs. (ba liga et a l. , 20 11) . ga rc in ia s pecies a r e endemic and distributed in tropical rain forests of the western ghats. perceiving the threat of over exploitation, frlht (foundation for revitalization of l oc a l h ea lt h tr a dit ions ) a nd i uc n (international union for conservation of nature) have recognized this species as ‘vulnerable’ and ‘threatened’ category respectively (hareesh and vasudeva, 2010). a few studies examined diversity in this species using general dna markers like rapd and issr markers (thatte et al. 2012; palkar and sellappan, 2019). however, so far there are no efforts to develop species specific, highly r epr odu cib le micr os a tellite ma r ker s or s sr markers in this species. keeping this in view, an attempt has been made to develop microsatellite or ssr markers using next generation sequencing this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. isolation and characterization of microsatellite markers from garcinia indica and cross species amplification ravishankar k.v.*1, vasudeva r.2, , hemanth b.1, nischita p., sthapit b.r.3 parthasarathy v.a.4 and rao v.r.5 1icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru 560 089 india 2department of forest biology and tree improvement, college of forestry sirsi 581 401 university of agricultural sciences (dharwad), india, 3 regional project coordinator (unep-gef), bioversity international, pokhara, nepal, 4 national project coordinator (unep-gef), icar-indian institute of horticultural research , bengaluru, india 5bioversity international, rome *corresponding author e-mail : kv_ravishankar@yahoo.co.in, ravishankar.kv@icar.gov.in abstract garcinia indica popularly known as ‘kokum’ or murugalu”, is a medium sized evergreen tree found in western-ghats of india. this tree species is highly exploited to produce anti-obesity drugs and culinary purposes. its population is threatened by over exploitation and loss of habitat. development of microsatellite markers would help in understanding genetic structure and further to develop appropriate conservation strategies. in this study, using next generation sequencing platform illumina hiseq 2000, we have sequenced partial genome of g. indica and identified 3725 microsatellites. forty-eight microsatellite markers were analyzed using 30 accessions. polymorphism information content (pic) values ranged from 0.718 to 0.968 with a mean value of 0.922. allele per locus ranged from 3 to 33 per locus. probability of identity values ranged from 0.00329 to 0.30489. cross species amplification ssr primers in the related species, showed a moderate transferability from 12.5 % (for g. morella) to 18.7%(for g. gummigutta) key words : cross-species amplification garcinia indica; microsatellite markers and next-generation sequencing (ngs) 126 ravishankar et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 125-129, 2021 t ec hnology. t he develop ment of molec u la r mar kers would help in studying its diver sity, analyzing the genetics of traits, and further help in evolving conservation strategies and improvement. t he p la nt ma t er ia l wa s ob t a ine d f r om t he germplasm collection of the college of forestry, s ir s i ( univer s it y of agr icu lt u r a l s c ienc es , dharwad), karnataka state, india. total genomic dna was isolated from the leaves of g. indica genot yp es u s ing modif ied c ta b met hod (ravishankar et al., 2000). genomic dna was sequenced using illumina hiseq2000 platform at m/ s genotypic pvt. ltd, bengaluru facility following manufactures instructions. high quality sequence data was used for assembly into contigs. de novo assembly of reads into contigs was per formed using soapdenovo2-src-r240 software (luo et al., 2012). this has resulted in 92125 contigs. the total assembled size of the contigs is approximately 25.6 mbp. an ssr survey of genomic sequences u s ing m i s a s of t wa r e ( ht t p :/ / p gr c . ip kgatersleban.de/misa), showed that 3590 contigs contained at least one microsatellite (ravishankar et al. 2015). a total of 3725 microsatellite was identified. a total of 1374 microsatellites (esm1) pr imers wer e designed using pr imer3 softwa re (http://bioinfo.ut.ee/primer3-0.4.0/; untergrasser et al., 2012). from these, randomly 50 loci were selected for initial scr eening. fina lly, 48 ssr primers were selected for genetic analysis based on c lea r a mp lif ic a tion of p cr pr odu cts . we employed thirty genotypes of garcinia indica for assessing polymorphism at each locus. the fluorescence based m13 ta iled pcr method of schuelke (2000) wa s followed to amplify the microsatellites in a quick, accurate and efficient manner. pcr was carried out in the 20µl reaction volume containing 2µl of 10x reaction buffer, 2.0µl of 1 mm dntps, 0.9µl (5 pmol) of forward, 0.9µl reverse primers (5 pmol), labeled m13 probe 1.2µl (5 pmol), 5.0 µl (50-75 ng) of template genomic dna, 0.8 µl (2 u) of taq dna polymerase and 7.2 µl of nuclease free water. the pcr cycling profile was: initial denaturation at 94°c for 2 min, followed by 35 cycles of 94°c for 30sec., 55°c for 30 sec., 72°c for 1 min and a final extension at 7 2 ° c f or 5 min. amp lif ied p r o du c t s wer e s ep a r a t ed on 9 6 c a p illa r y au t oma t ed d n a sequencer (applied biosystems, abi 3730 dna analyzer) at m/s eurofin facility, bengaluru. t he r a w da t a gener a t ed wa s a n a lyz ed a nd comp iled us ing pea k sc a nner v1. 0 soft wa r e (applied biosystems, usa) for estimating the allele size in bp. the allele size data was used for genetic analysis using cervus 3.0 software (kalinowski et a l . 2 0 0 7 ) . we ha ve c a lc u la t ed ob s er ved het er oz ygo s it y, ex p ec t ed het er oz ygos it y, p olymor p hic inf or ma t i on c ont ent ( p i c ) . t he probability of identity (pi) was calculated using identity1.0 software (http://www.uni-graz.at/ ~sefck/: wagner and sefc, 1999). genetic analysis of 48 ssr loci, showed pic values ranging from 0.718 to 0.968 with a mean value of 0.922. the mea n va lu es of ob s er ved a nd ex p ec t ed heter ozygosity are 0.2813 (table 1) and 0.933 respectively (table 1 and 2). the allele per locus ranged from 13 to 41 with a mean of 16.395. the probability of identity (pi) values ranged from 0.00329 to 0.304896 with a mean of 0.03506. the total probability of identity is 8.132729x 10-80. in cross species amplification, out of 48 ssr primers, 6 amplified in g. morella , accounting 12.5 per cent transferability and 9 amplified in g. gummigutta accounting 18.8 percent transferability (esm2). this relatively low cross-species transferability c omp a r ed t o wha t ha s been obs er ved in g. gummigutta species (ravishankar et al., 2017). t his is t he f ir s t r ep or t of s s r ma r ker s f or garcinia indica, where 3725 microsatellites were identified and pr imers were designed for 1374 microsatellites. the genetic analysis showed that the majority of the ssr primers developed have high pic values indicating high heterozygosity in the species. the low probability of identity values of ma ny s s r loc i is u s ef u l f or molec u la r characterization. finally, the ssr developed will be useful in studying genetic diversity, mapping and finger pr inting of garcinia indica a nd r ela ted species. 127 microsatellite markers from garcinia indica l oc us f or w ar d se qu en ce r ev er se s eq ue nc e r ep ea t n um be r a lle le s iz e o bs er ve d e xp ec te d p ol ym or ph ic p ro ba bi lit y 5i  3i 5i  3i ty pe of a ll el e ra ng e h et er oz yg os it y h et er oz yg os it y in fo rm at io n of i de nt it y (k ) (b p) (h o) (h e) c on te nt ( p ic ) (p i) g i_ k v r a5 77 t t t g g c g a g g g t g t t g g t g a g t a c a c g t g ta g g c t g a c a c c a a c c (g t )6 20 14 023 0 0. 34 5 0. 92 4 0. 90 2 0. 01 28 28 g i_ k v r a6 14 t g t g a g t t g t t t g g c at g g g t g a g g a g g g t g a g c a a a t c a c a g c t c a (t g )2 2 26 19 729 0 0. 18 5 0. 96 2 0. 94 1 0. 00 52 54 g i_ k v r a6 15 t g t g a g g g g t g a g g t t g a g g c t a c a a a c g c at c c c c a c t c t c g g (a t )6 27 28 337 9 0. 25 9 0. 95 3 0. 93 3 0. 00 68 29 g i_ k v r a6 51 t g g g t g g c a a a t t t g g g a g g a a a t g c c g c c c a a g g a g a g a g g a a a (a c )8 24 18 527 7 0. 2 0. 97 1 0. 95 0. 00 66 22 g i_ k v r a7 23 t g c a c c a g g a g g g t c a c a g a c t a c a a c g a g g c c t t c c a a c a g g a (a c )1 0 21 41 248 8 0. 14 3 0. 92 6 0. 90 4 0. 01 19 16 g i_ k v r a7 47 t g a c a g a t c g a c a g g c ta g a c t c g a a t c g c c c c c g tc ta t g ta tc a g t c (a t )6 25 43 253 1 0. 19 2 0. 96 2 0. 94 1 0. 00 65 35 g i_ k v r a7 48 t g a a t g c c g a g a g c a a t t g t g c c t c a c a t c a c a a g g c t t g c t c a a a c a (t a )6 33 14 021 4 0. 51 9 0. 97 9 0. 96 0. 00 32 90 g i_ k v r a8 34 g t g c a c a t g t c g c c a ta a a g at g g a a c c ta c c c c tc c at a a c at g c c t t (a t )6 16 10 518 0 0. 13 3 0. 85 3 0. 82 8 0. 03 68 97 g i_ k v r a8 61 g g c c c at g g c c t c c t c t c at a c a a t g g g g a a g g a c a a t ta a g t c g g g a (t a )6 15 10 318 5 0. 13 8 0. 72 1 0. 69 5 0. 08 74 01 g i_ k v r a8 62 g g c a c a t g t g t c ta c a c c g c a c t g t g g a c a g g ta g g g t c a c a g g t (a t )7 9 23 329 4 0. 14 3 0. 85 5 0. 81 9 0. 03 73 16 g i_ k v r a9 61 c c a c a c a c a a a at g c c a c a a t t c c a t g t g c g t g t g t g g t t g a c a g g t (c a )6 14 99 -1 24 0. 28 6 0. 84 7 0. 81 6 0. 03 62 13 g i_ k v r b0 69 a g a c a t c c g t c a c c g g g c t c at t g c c at t tg ta t g tg t tg t tg g c g g (c a )7 10 99 -1 25 0. 21 4 0. 87 3 0. 84 1 0. 02 98 37 g i_ k v r b1 30 a c c c g c at t c a c a at g c a c at a c a g t g g c g c ta t t g g g a a at g a g ta c a (c a )7 8 23 334 1 0. 00 0 0. 86 0. 82 3 0. 03 36 81 g i_ k v r b1 31 a c c c c ta a c g g t g g g t t c g t c a t c g a g g g t c c t t g a g t t c t c c c c t (a t )6 13 99 -1 90 0. 14 8 0. 90 5 0. 87 9 0. 01 76 89 g i_ k v r b1 32 a c c c c ta a c g g t g g g t t c g t c a t g g c c t tc g g tt g a g t t g tc c c (a t )6 10 11 715 7 0. 42 9 0. 77 4 0. 73 3 0. 06 76 68 g i_ k v r b1 74 a c a c c g g ta a g g t g g t g a g a a g g a a c a c a c a g a g ta c c c c at at a c g c a c a (t g )7 12 10 114 8 0. 25 0. 78 3 0. 74 9 0. 05 49 54 g i_ k v r b1 75 a c a c c g g ta a g g t g g t g a g a a g g a a c a c a g a g ta c c t c a c at a c g c a c a (t g )7 18 10 016 5 0. 51 7 0. 91 5 0. 89 1 0. 01 63 65 g i_ k v r b1 76 a c a c c c g at c c c at t c c g a c c t a c a c c a a c c a c g c t c c c t t c c t (t a )7 24 45 352 4 0. 27 6 0. 94 5 0. 92 5 0. 00 82 23 g i_ k v r b2 00 a a c ta c c a t c a a a c a t c a c c a a c a c g a t g g a a g g t g t t g a g g t c g g c c a (c a )6 22 43 051 4 0. 32 0. 95 7 0. 93 4 0. 00 90 77 g i_ k v r b2 01 a a c g g c ta g c t tt t c a a c t g a c t g t t g g ta a g t c g at t g t t g g g c t t c g (t a )6 17 11 617 9 0. 16 0. 91 3 0. 88 7 0. 01 78 50 g i_ k v r a9 75 c a c c c c at a c a c a a c c a c at t c c c g g t g ta t g t g c c t g g at a a a t g a a g g t (c a )6 23 20 128 5 0. 10 3 0. 93 8 0. 91 8 0. 00 92 12 g i_ k v r a9 76 c a c at c c t ta c at g ta c a c g g t c c a c c t g a c c g g c ta a a c a ta c a a g t t c c a (t a )7 20 31 639 7 0. 08 3 0. 92 6 0. 90 1 0. 01 67 75 g i_ k v r a9 77 c a c a ta a g g a a c a a c a a c a a g g c c t c a g c c g g a g g c c g ta c a at t g t g t t (a t )7 24 99 -1 71 0. 43 3 0. 85 6 0. 83 5 0. 03 19 96 g i_ k v r a9 78 c a at c t c at t c c ta g a c a a c c t g c a c a a g t t g a t c c a g g a t t t g g c g a g g g t (a c )6 20 99 -1 48 0. 41 4 0. 93 3 0. 91 2 0. 01 12 02 g i_ k v r a9 79 c a a g g c t g c t c g g a c g t c g a a t a t c c c a c c g g c t c g a g c a a g a a (c t )6 23 42 858 2 0. 28 6 0. 90 5 0. 88 3 0. 01 55 18 g i_ k v r a9 80 c a a c at g c t t c a a c c a a g c a c a ta c a a t g c ta c ta c c t ta g g a g a c a t g c at c a (t g )1 1 21 11 219 8 0. 44 4 0. 94 2 0. 92 0. 00 92 96 g i_ k v r a9 81 c a a c a a a g g g c a t t c a t g c a c a c a t t g g g g g a g g a a c c a a g c a a g t (a t )6 24 31 339 9 0. 63 3 0. 95 5 0. 93 6 0. 00 68 17 g i_ k v r b0 47 a g c g a g g a c a a g g g a a a g g a c g t g g c g g at at g t g t g c t t g g c g (t a )7 19 32 336 5 0. 36 0. 91 1 0. 88 5 0. 01 81 87 t ab le 1 : g en et ic a na ly si s of m ic ro sa te lli te m ar ke rs d ev el op ed f or g ar ci ni a in di ca j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 125-129, 2021 128 ravishankar et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 125-129, 2021 g i_ k v r b0 48 a g c g a a t g c a t g c g t g ta g c g a a c g a t c a c c t t g g g g a c g c t c a (a t )6 19 47 252 7 0. 26 1 0. 87 1 0. 84 6 0. 03 17 85 g i_ k v r b2 04 a a c c c a g t g a g t g ta a t g c g a at t g t t g t t g t t g g c t ta ta g c c g a at g t g a (c a )7 21 10 219 5 0. 10 7 0. 94 8 0. 92 7 0. 00 77 28 g i_ k v r b2 05 a a c c c a at g a g t g ta at g c c a g t t g t a c t g t g g t t g g c t ta t g g c c t g a (c a )6 21 10 319 7 0. 5 0. 91 9 0. 89 8 0. 01 52 33 g i_ k v r b2 06 a a c a g g a c c g g t g t g c g g t t g a t c c g c a c at g t g t c c a c a c c a a (t a )8 21 20 134 1 0. 42 3 0. 90 9 0. 88 5 0. 01 63 89 g i_ k v r b2 07 a a c a c g t g g c a g a c g c t c a a g g t g g t g a g g t c g g t c c a a a c a g g a (a t )6 8 11 717 8 0. 23 3 0. 79 3 0. 75 7 0. 07 08 82 g i_ k v r b2 08 a a c a c g c g c g a g g a c a ta c t g c c c a a g c c tc c tc tc c c at tt g tg c (t a )6 7 15 417 1 0. 67 9 0. 77 4 0. 72 0. 07 75 86 g i_ k v r b2 09 a a c a c c t g c a c g g g t t t c g t g g a c t t t c c at c tc g a c c a c g c c g (t a )7 10 33 041 3 0. 00 0 0. 89 0. 86 0. 02 37 26 g i_ k v r b2 13 a a a g g a c c g g c g a a g a a a g c g g c c c a g c t c a a a c c g a t g c c c a a (a g )6 10 13 425 0 00 .0 00 0. 88 1 0. 85 0. 02 60 89 g i_ k v r b2 14 a a a g a g a g g t c a t c t ta g t g a g g g g g t g t t g g c t t g g t c g ta a c g g c t (g t )6 6 15 025 1 0. 14 8 0. 79 2 0. 74 2 0. 06 27 89 g i_ k v r b2 19 t g t t g g g a a g ta a a a g g a g g g a g c a t g a c c ta g g c at c c at c t c c c c t (t g t) 5 7 11 317 8 0. 5 0. 78 5 0. 73 3 0. 06 31 97 g i_ k v r b2 20 t g t g g g g a t g g c a a a t g a g g t g a t g c c at t c g g t t g g g g c at a c t (c a c )5 10 14 317 3 0. 11 5 0. 82 9 0. 78 8 0. 04 43 38 g i_ k v r b2 34 t g g c g t g c a g tt c t tc c t c c c a g g g at c g c at c c a a c at t c at t t c c a (c a a )5 3 17 321 5 0. 15 4 0. 33 5 0. 30 3 0. 30 48 96 g i_ k v r b2 42 t g c a a c a a c a g g c t c a g g c a c a t g g t g g a g g c a c g g g t t g a a c a (c c a )5 15 18 921 5 0. 5 0. 90 7 0. 88 1 0. 01 80 89 g i_ k v r b2 43 t g a g c g a c c g t g c c t g at g t t g a g g g c tc c c tc a c c c t c ta c c tt a (c a g )5 13 14 117 1 0. 36 0. 86 4 0. 83 0. 03 20 98 g i_ k v r b3 41 a c a a g c a t g c c a a a c g ta g c c g a t g a a g a a g t g c c c a a c c c c a c t (t g g )5 12 13 617 0 0. 51 7 0. 78 0. 74 1 0. 07 12 13 g i_ k v r b3 52 a a g a c g g g t g g c g g t g g a g a a a a g a a g c g a a c c c t c t c c t c c t g a (t ct )8 13 36 240 3 0. 55 2 0. 86 6 0. 83 5 0. 03 36 09 g i_ k v r b3 57 t g a c a at a c g t g g g g a g a t c c g t t g t t c a g g c tc a at c c c tt c g tg c (a at a )7 16 11 519 1 0. 00 0 0. 88 6 0. 86 1 0. 02 13 33 g i_ k v r b3 68 t c c g t g c c a at t c c c t g g c a a c t g a c c t g t c g c c tt a g c ta c c c t (a a a a t )5 17 24 931 0 0. 19 2 0. 92 5 0. 9 0. 01 40 54 g i_ k v r b3 73 a g c ta g g g g g c a a c c t g ta c c a t g c ta t t g a at t c g t g t t g g t g g t g a (c a at a c )5 8 15 116 8 0. 48 1 0. 81 8 0. 77 8 0. 04 80 49 g i_ k v r a0 11 tc c g tc c at c c g t tc g tc c g tt a c c g g a t g g g a t c c a g c g a t g t (c g tc ) 12 10 013 6 0. 17 2 0. 75 0. 72 2 0. 07 46 75 6c gt t (c g t c )7 t ab le 1 c on td ... . t ab le 2 : su m m ar y of g en et ic a na ly si s m ea n r an ge po ly m or ph ic in fo rm at io n c on te nt (p ic ) 0. 84 16 0. 30 3 0 .9 6 o bs er ve d h et er oz yg os ity ( h o) 0. 28 13 0. 00 0 0 .6 79 e xp ec te d h et er oz yg os ity (h e) 0. 87 01 0. 33 5 0 .9 79 a lle le p er lo cu s 16 .3 95 3 3 3 pr ob ab ili ty o f i de nt ity ( pi ) 0. 03 50 6 0. 00 32 9 0 .3 04 89 6 to ta l n um be r of a lle le s : 7 87 to ta l p ro ba bi lit y of id en tit y : 8 .1 32 72 9e -0 80 129 baliga, m. s., bhat, h. p., pai, r. j., boloor, r., and palatty, p. l. 2011. the chemistry and medicinal uses of the underutilized indian fruit tree garcinia indica choisy (kokum): a review. food res. inter., 44:1790-1799. hareesh, t. s. and vasudeva, r. 2010. regeneration pattern of garcinia indica choisy. in the western ghats of uttara kannada. national symposium on garcinia genetic resources: linking diversity, livelihood and management (eds.) vasudeva, r., b.s. janagoudar, b.m.c. reddy, bhuwon 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40: e115 wagner, h.w. and sefc k.m., 1999. identity 1.0 centre for applied genetics. university of agricultural sciences, vienna. austria. http://www.boku.ac.at/zag/forsch/identity.htm. microsatellite markers from garcinia indica j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 125-129, 2021 (received on 12.02.2020, revised on 15.04.2020, accepted on 14.05.2021) references acknowledgement au thor s a cknowledge fina ncia l s upp or t fr om unep/gef regional project “conservation and sustainable use of cultivated and wild tropical fruit diversity: promoting sustainable livelihoods, food security and ecosystem services” final sph -jhs coverpage 17-1 jan 2022 single j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 174-183, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper comparative effect of different sugars instigating non-enzymatic browning and maillard reaction products in guava fruit leather nayaka v.s.k.1*, tiwari r.b.4, narayana c.k.1, ranjitha k.1, shamina azeez3, vasugi c.2, venugopalan r.4, bhuvaneswari s.1 and sujayasree o.j.1 1division of post-harvest technology & agricultural engineering, icar-iihr, bengaluru 2division of fruit crops, icar-iihr, bengaluru 3division of basic sciences, icar-iihr, bengaluru 4division of social sciences & training, icar-iihr, bengaluru *corresponding author email: karthiknayaka1@gmail.com abstract browning is a major quality deterioration process affecting both visual colour and nutritional value of guava leather. the aim of the study was to determine the role of different sugars viz., sucrose, fructose, glucose and sorbitol in non-enzymatic browning and antioxidant activity of guava fruit leather. the total free amino acids, ascorbic acid and antioxidant activities were at significantly lower levels in glucose and fructose treated guava leather, while the sorbitol added samples had all of above parameters at the highest level; while a reverse trend was observed in browning index and non-enzymatic browning. among the browning intermediate products, hydroxymethylfurfural was present at higher concentration (12.80-32.32 ng/g) than furfural (0.29-0.95 ng/g) in guava leather samples. among the treatments, hydroxymethylfurfural was found lowest in sorbitol (12.8 ng/g) and highest in fructose (32.3 ng/g). in brief, this paper describes a novel effort in bringing the in-vitro studies related to sugars and total free amino acids, influencing the biochemical and nutritional attributes which are responsible for browning in guava fruit leather. keywords: total free amino acids, ascorbic acid, browning, furfural, hydroxymethylfurfural, non-enzymatic and sugars introduction guava (psidium gujava l.) a species of myrtaceae family is cultivated widely around tropical and subtropical regions. it is known for pleasant flavour, refreshing taste and nutritional value. guava is abundant in vitamins, especially vitamin c (ascorbic acid) other vitamins include vitamin a, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, and pyridoxine (kumari et al., 2017). dietary fibres a nd bioa ctive compound contribute to prevention of chronic degenerative diseases (blancas-benitez et al., 2015). the fruit is also rich in considerable amounts of minerals i.e., phosphorus, calcium, iron (kumari et al., 2017). guava fruits are often consumed fresh and are also suitable for processing into jelly, jam, juice, nectar, wine a nd fr uit lea ther a mong other pr oducts (kumari et al., 2017). guava fruit leather is one among the popular processed products. fruit leather is a dehydrated fruit-based confectionery dietary product which is often eaten as a snack or dessert. fruit leathers are made by combining fruit puree with other ingredients such as sugar, pectin, acid, glucose syrup, colour, and potassium metabisulphite, then dehydrating them under controlled conditions. browning is an important biochemical reactions taking place during processing and storage of fruit leather. browning not only affects the sensory attributes (colour; off flavour) but also deplete the nutritional quality. decline in quality and color due to browning was the major hindrance in production of guava fruit leather (singh et al., 2019). similar claims were done for apple leather (demarchi et al., 2013). nonenzymatic browning is primarily caused by the maillard reaction, caramelization, and ascorbic acid degradation at the product development stage by production of hydroxymethylfurfural (hmf) and 175 effect of sugars on non-enzymatic browning in guava j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 174-183, 2022 furfural (fur) (akyildiz et al., 2021). hmf and fur could be used as the non-enzymatic br owning indicators in dehydrated products (kus et al., 2005). specific sugars and amino acids, as well as their concentrations, play an important role in the maillard reaction, determining the severity of browning, which is a reflection of the product’s nutritional quality (murata, 2021). in this regard, the role of different sugars (sucrose, fructose, glucose, and sorbitol) and their interactions with biomolecules in determining non-enzymatic browning in guava fruit leather was investigated. materials and methods raw material this study employed firm ripe guava (cv. arka poorna) fruits produced from a guava plantation at the icar-indian institute of horticultural research in bengaluru. preparation of leather the selected guava fruits were washed thoroughly using potable water. fruits were subjected to manual peeling, cut into halves, pulp was extracted in a laboratory grade pulper and seeds were removed by passing the pulp through a sieve. the extracted pulp without pasteurizing was incorporated directly with 15% sugars viz., sucrose, fructose, glucose and sorbitol in separate lots (treatments) followed by addition of 0.3 % citric acid and 700 ppm potassium metabisulphite to maintain the desirable acidity and as a preservative respectively. further, the mixture was stirred gently for five minutes. the mixtures were spread on a tray and dried at 60 ± 5 °c in a cabinet dryer. the drying process continued till the moisture content reached ~15%. the guava leather sheets were cut into 8 x 4 cm bars and later subjected to various analyses. physico-chemical analysis moisture content was analyzed in a thermo-ventilated oven gravimetrically to obtain a consistent weight consecutively in three measurements at 12 h interval. water activity was measured using an electric water activity meter (rotronic hydrolab, uk) at 25±2 °c. titratable acidity was estimated by titrating against 0.1n naoh with phenolphthalein as an indicator (aoac,1990). reducing and total sugars were estimated as suggested by lane and eynon (1923) as reported by ranganna (1986). nonreducing sugars was calculated from the difference between of total sugars and reducing sugars. total free amino acid was estimated using ninhydrin reagent (moore and stein, 1948) and expressed as mg leucine/100g. the 2, 6dichlorophenol indophenol dye technique was used to determine the vitamin c content suggested by johnson (1948) and described by ranganna (1986). the total phenolic content was estimated as per folin ciocalteu spectrophotometric method and expressed in gallic acid equivalent (mg gae/100g) (yilmaz et al., 2017). ferric reducing antioxidant potential (frap) was used to determine antioxidant activity (ndou et al., 2019) and expressed in ascorbic acid equivalents (mg aae/100g). non-enzymatic browning was recorded by submerging the samples in 60 per cent ethanol overnight and reading the od values at 440 nm (ranganna, 1986). color the color (l* a* b* c* h°) was measured using colorimeter (model: colour reader, cr-10, konica minolta, japan). browning index was calculated based on l*a*b* co-ordinates. the browning index is generated using the following equation to capture this variance in a single index that is associated to a brown color. (pathare et al., 2013) bi = 100 x = furfural and hydroxymethylfurfural to extract furfural (fur) and hydroxymethylfurfural (hmf), 2g of material was homogenized in 15 ml of hplc grade water. the extract was filtered using 0.45 µm nylon filters. the hplc studies were carried out on a shimadzu series lc-20at system (shimadzu, kyoto, japan), which included a liquid chromatograph coupled to a uv-vis detector (spd-10a), binary pump (lc-10at), auto sampler (sil-20a ht), and lc solution workstation software, kinetex, column of dimension 250 x 4.6 mm, 5m c18 (phenomenex, usa) was used, along with a security guard column made of the same material. samples were injected using the auto sampler. at 32°c, the column and guard column were thermostatically controlled. the flow rate was 1 ml/min, and the mobile phase was 0.3 176 nayaka et al percent tetrahydrofuran. the instrument was operated in isocratic mode and elutants were detected at 280 nm. the retention time for hmf was 10.80 minutes, whereas the retention time for fur was 11.64 minutes (zhong-fu et al., 2016). the values were expressed in ng/g. statistical analysis the analysis was done in triplicates and the results were presented in mean ± se (standard error). oneway anova was used to determine the cd of means and variance among different sugars. duncan multiple range test (dmrt) was performed at α = 0.05 level of significance of using r software. results and discussion physico-chemical composition of guava pulp the moisture content and water activity did not show any significant (p>0.05) difference among guava leather developed using different sugars (table 2). the moisture content and water activity was ~15 and ~0.6 respectively. moisture content in guava leather was in agreement with food safety and standards regulations, 2011 i.e., not more than 20%. that moisture contents at15% and water activity of 0.6 is found to be safe with respect to microbiological activity and adverse biochemical and deteriorative reactions (suna et al., 2014). in this regard the guava leather developed had acceptable moisture content and water activity levels. titratable acidity the titratable acidity in guava leathers did not vary significantly among different sugars (p > 0.05). the values ranged from 1.62 ± 0.02 % to 1.70 ± 0.03% (table 2). sugar the sugar composition of guava leather is presented in table 2. total sugars values in guava leather ranged from 29.15 ± 0.31 to71.30± 1.19%. the highest total sugar was on par in sucrose (71.12 ± 0.84%), fructose (70.26 ± 0.57%) and glucose (71.30 ± 1.19%), and the lowest was found in sorbitol (29.15± 0.31%). as sorbitol is a sugar alcohol its addition even at 15% did not contribute to the total sugar content (choi et al. , 2013). reducing suga r s content va r ied significantly (p > 0.05) in guava leather as the base material used was different sugars. guava leather with fructose (41.99± 0.86%) reported to have a highest reducing sugar which was statistically on par with glucose (41.21± 0.21%) and the lowest was recorded in sorbitol (13.07 ± 0.60%). reducing sugars are capable of producing reactive carbonyl species (rcs) which aid in development of maillard reactions products (picouet et al., 2009) which further cause non-enzymatic browning. the highest non-reducing sugar was found in guava leather with sucrose (53.79 ± 0.49%) and the lowest in sorbitol (16.08± 0.51%). sucrose has an acetal structure with anomeric carbons combined together by a glycosidic bond. this is a stable structure that cannot be oxidised. total free amino acids incorporation of different sugar in guava leather had a significant (p>0.05) impact on total free amino acids (tfaa) (table 2). guava leather with sorbitol (2.91± 0.02 mg/100g), which was on par with sucrose l* 57.07 a* 3.20 colour b* 12.48 c* 12.89 h° 75.61 moisture (%) 84.15 water activity 0.824 tss (°brix) 12.5 titratable acidity (%) 0.4 reducing sugar (%) 5.53 total sugar (%) 9.77 non-reducing sugar (%) 4.24 total free amino acids (mg leu/100g) 1.06 ascorbic acid (mg/100g) 206.62 total phenols (mg gae/100g) 591.67 antioxidant activity (mg aae/100g) 1574.19 table 1. physico-chemical composition of fresh guava pulp the physico-chemical composition of the fresh guava (cv. arka poorna) pulp is given in table 1. effect of different sugars on the properties of guava leather moisture content and water activity j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 174-183, 2022 177 (2.86±0.05mg leu/100g), had the highest tfaa, while fructose (2.26± 0.02 mg leu/100g), which was on par with glucose (2.32± 0.09 mg leu/100g), had the lowest. the decline in tfaa was found to be higher in guava leather incorporated with fructose and glucose; this is due to differential reaction between amino acids and rcs, resulting in the production of a variety of maillard reaction products depending on the affinity and reactivity of individual amino acids. among the amino acids, leucine, glutamic acid, tryptophan and lysine contributed more for maillard reaction. leucine, alanine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid and glycine was comparatively found high in guava fruit (chen et al., 2007). ascorbic acid ascorbic acid (vitamin-c) plays an important role in human nutrition due to its antioxidant nature (cruz et al., 2009). it is thermo-labile and considered as a quality indicator in dehydration process (ali et al., 2016). guava leather developed using different sugars showed significant (p>0.05) difference in of ascorbic acid levels (table 3.) the highest ascorbic acid level was found in sorbitol (136.13 ± 3.27mg/100g) which was statistically on par with sucrose (132.47± 2.38 mg/100g), while the lowest was found in fructose (116.7± 1.50mg/100g) and glucose (119.64± 0.60 mg/ 100g). ascorbic acid would have been degraded to dehydroascor bic acid, then hydr olyzed to 2,3diketogulonic acid, and lastly polymerized as a result of the maillard reaction product, which is catalysed by multiple oxidation and reduction pr ocesses involving reducing sugars (chuah et al., 2008) mango juices with the highest glucose: fructose ratio showed decreased ascorbic acid concentration (pithava and pandey, 2018). furthermore, amino acids have the ability to act as catalytic agents in the decomposition of ascorbic acid (shinoda et al., 2005). according to yu et al. (2017), the interaction of ascorbic acid with lysine, arginine, and histidine was more important in the synthesis of browning pigments. total phenols the total phenols content of guava fruit leathers showed significant (p >0. 05) difference among different sugar source (table 3). the highest total phenols were found in sorbitol (436.23 ± 12.2 % mg gae/100 g) and sucrose (427.95 ± 6.61 mg gae/ 100g). whereas, fructose, and glucose significantly reported low values for total phenol content of 392.09 ± 2.85and 410.87 ± 2.11mg gae/100g respectively. the degradation of total phenols was high in samples with fructose and glucose. phenols are also common substrates for maillard reaction (amaya-farfan and rodriguez-amaya, 2021). this browning reaction also involves various oxidation and reduction process which will degraded the total phenol content severely. in addition to this, the rcs formed by reducing sugars bind to phenols a nd ma ke them biologica lly unavailable. antioxidant activity varying the sugar forms had significantly different antioxidant activity in guava fruit leathers (p>0.05) (table 3). sorbitol (1,146.20± 41.02 mg aae/100g) had the highest antioxidant activity, which was on par with sucrose (1,086.35 ± 35.13 mg aae/100g). the samples with fructose (935.97 ± 9.81 mg aae/100g) a nd glucose (949. 36 ± 6. 30mg aae/100g) significantly deprived the antioxidant activity. ascorbic acid and phenolics contr ibute the lion share of antioxidant activity (eyiz et al., 2020). it can be inferred that guava leather processed using fructose and glucose resulted in highest degradation of ascorbic acid and loss of phenols and thus adversely affected the antioxidant activity of the guava leather. color: l* a* b* the colour values of guava fruit leather are presented in ta ble 4. t he lightness (l*) va lues va r ied significantly among the different guava lea ther developed using different sugar sources. the highest lightness was reported in samples containing sorbitol (61.40± 0.78) and the lowest values were reported in sucrose (58.90±0.72), which was on par with glucose (58.70 ± 0.66), and fructose (58.27± 0.35). the decrease in the l* values indicates the product is comparatively darker, this occurred in the samples with reducing sugars (fructose and glucose) and the highest luminance was reported in guava leather containing sorbitol. the redness (a*) values varied significantly among the different guava lea ther developed using different sugar sources. redness indicates the occurrence of browning in the product. t he highest r edness wa s r epor ted in sa mples containing fructose (4.63± 0.46) and the lowest values were reported in sorbitol (3.13 ± 0.12). the highest yellowness (b*) was reported samples containing fructose (34.37± 0.25) which was found on par with effect of sugars on non-enzymatic browning in guava j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 174-183, 2022 178 ta bl e 2. p hy si co -c he m ic al c om po si tio n of g ua va le at he r t re at m en t m oi st ur e w at er r ed uc in g su ga r n on r ed uc in g to ta l s ug ar t it ra ta bl e to ta l fr ee a m in o (% ) ac ti vi ty (% ) su ga r (% ) (% ) ac id it y (% ) ac id s (m g l eu /1 00 g) su cr os e 15 .2 3a ± 0 .2 2 0. 67 2a ± 0 .0 1 17 .3 2b ± 0 .1 3 53 .7 9a ± 0 .8 6 71 .1 2a ± 0 .8 4 1. 62 a ± 0. 04 2. 86 a ± 0. 05 f ru ct os e 15 .3 8a ± 0 .1 2 0. 67 7a ± 0 .0 1 41 .9 9a ± 0 .8 6 28 .2 7b ± 1 .4 3 70 .2 6a ± 0 .5 7 1. 65 a ± 0. 02 2. 26 b ± 0. 02 g lu co se 15 .0 8a ± 0 .1 7 0. 66 5a ± 0 .0 1 41 .2 1a ± 0 .3 6 30 .0 9b ± 1 .1 9 71 .3 0a ± 1 .1 9 1. 70 a ± 0. 05 2. 32 b ± 0. 09 so rb it ol 15 .2 8a ± 0 .0 3 0. 67 5a ± 0. 01 13 .0 7c ± 0 .6 0 16 .0 8c ± 0 .5 1 29 .1 5b ± 0 .3 1 1. 65 a ± 0. 35 2. 91 a ± 0. 02 c .d . n s n s 1. 07 2. 01 1. 52 n s 0. 18 se (m ) 0. 09 0. 00 4 0. 32 0. 61 0. 46 0. 10 0. 05 n ot e:  m ea n  va lu es  f ol lo w ed  b y  di ff er en t  le tte rs  i n  th e  sa m e  co lu m n  di ff er s  si gn if ic an tly  ( α  =  0 .0 5  le ve l) . ta bl e 3. f un ct io na l a tt ri bu te s of g ua va le at he r t re at m en t a sc or bi c a ci d (m g/ 10 0g ) to ta l p he no ls ( m g g a e /1 00 g) a nt io xi da nt a ct iv it y (m g a a e /1 00 g) su cr os e 13 2. 47 a ± 2. 38 42 7. 95 a ± 6. 61 1, 08 6. 35 b ± 35 .1 3 f ru ct os e 11 6. 70 b ± 1. 50 39 2. 09 c ± 2. 85 93 5. 97 c ± 9 .8 1 g lu co se 11 9. 64 b ± 0. 60 41 0. 87 b ± 2. 11 94 9. 36 c ± 6. 30 so rb it ol 13 6. 13 a ± 3. 27 43 6. 23 a ± 12 .2 1, 14 6. 20 a ± 4 1. 02 c .d . 4. 16 13 .7 2 52 .7 1 se (m ) 1. 26 4. 14 15 .9 2 n ot e:  m ea n  va lu es  f ol lo w ed  b y  di ff er en t  le tte rs  i n  th e  sa m e  co lu m n  di ff er s  si gn if ic an tly  ( α  =  0 .0 5  le ve l) . t re at m en t c ol or n e b l a b c h b ro w ni ng i nd ex su cr os e 58 .9 0a ±0 .7 2 3. 43 b ± 0 .1 5 34 .2 0a ± 0. 26 34 .0 0a ± 1. 75 84 .5 3a ± 0. 47 84 .6 1b ± 1 .9 7 0. 19 3c ± 0 .0 1 f ru ct os e 58 .2 7a ± 0 .3 5 4. 63 a ± 0. 46 34 .3 7a ± 0 .2 5 34 .4 3a ± 0. 58 83 .0 0b ± 0. 36 90 .5 8a ± 0 .8 2 0. 23 2a ± 0 .0 1 g lu co se 58 .7 0a ± 0. 66 3. 83 b ± 0 .0 6 34 .1 3a ± 0. 41 34 .2 7a ± 0 .4 6 84 .0 7a ± 0. 25 89 .4 0a ± 0 .9 8 0. 21 1b ± 0 .0 1 so rb it ol 61 .4 0b ± 0. 78 3. 13 bc ± 0. 12 33 .0 7b ± 0. 15 32 .9 3b ± 0. 21 84 .4 7a ± 0. 23 77 .7 2c ± 1 .7 4 0. 18 1d ± 0 .0 1 c .d . 1. 24 0. 48 0. 54 1. 01 0. 66 1. 99 0. 01 1 se (m ) 0. 37 0. 15 0. 16 0. 30 0. 20 0. 60 0. 00 3 n ot e: m ea n va lu es f ol lo w ed  b y  di ff er en t  le tte rs  i n  th e  sa m e  co lu m n  di ff er s  si gn if ic an tly  ( α  =  0. 05  l ev el );  b ro w ni ng  i nd ex  w as  e st im at ed  u si ng  a ve ra ge  v al ue s  of  l *,  a *,  b * ta bl e 4. c ol or ( l * a* b * c * h° ) an d no nen zy m at ic b ro w ni ng ( n e b ) in g ua va le at he r nayaka et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 174-183, 2022 179 sucrose (34.20 ± 0.26) and glucose (34.13 ± 0.41) and lowest values were reported in sorbitol (33.07 ± 0.15). lower l* values and high a* and b* values will indicate the intensity of browning. decreasing l* values in combination with decreasing b* values, indicating the occurrence of mild browning due to nonenzymatic browning (korley et al., 2015). in guava leather yellowness indicate the undesirable colour change towards browning. in addition to it a* values a lso significa ntly contribute to non-enzyma tic browning. c*and h° chroma values indicate the purity of color, in guava leather fructose had the highest value indicating more browning attributes (low-lightness; high-redness; highyellowness). t he chr oma (c*) va lues va r ied significantly among the different guava lea ther developed using different sugar sources (table 4). the highest chroma was reported samples containing fructose (34.43±0.58) which was found on par with sucrose (34.00 ±1.75) and glucose (34.27± 0.46) and lowest values were reported in sorbitol (32.93±0.21). the hue (h°) values varied significantly among the different guava leather developed using different sugar sources. the highest hue value was reported in samples containing sucrose (84.53±0.47) which was found on par with sorbitol (84.47±0.23) and glucose (84.07±0.25) and lowest values were reported in fructose (83.00± 0.36). lower hue value indicates redder colour of the product (korley et al., 2015). the shift in hue values from 90 to 0° indicate change in color from yellow to red, which was predominant in fructose followed by glucose containing samples. hue a ngle ~90°suggests tha t the product has mor e yellowness than redness (pedisic et al., 2009) browning index (bi) to determine the change in visual quality, colour coordinates (l* a* b*) were utilized to derive browning index. bi aid in determining the degree of brown colour occurred during dehydration. bi changed between 77.72 ± 1.74and 90.58 ± 0.82 with different sugars (table 4). the highest bi in leather was recorded in sample containing fructose (90.58 ±0.82) and glucose (89.40 ± 0.98). as discussed earlier and supported by literature, reducing sugars play an important role in determining the colour of the final product as they are the potential source of reactive carbonyl species which contribute significantly to maillard reaction (fu et al., 2020; calin-sanchez et al., 2020). the total free amino acids also decreased in guava leather containing fructose (2.26 ± 0.02) and glucose (2.32 ± 0.09) (table 3). as a result, these reactive carbonyl species and amino acids are likely to have interacted to form various maillard reaction products, resulting in greater bi in fructose and glucose sa mples. fur ther mor e, a scor bic a cid degradation in guava leather has contributed to the creation of hmf, which in turn produces maillard reaction product which caused the browning. yu et al. (2017) reported that the degree of browning was only related to the total amount of l-ascorbic acid in the reaction system. similar results were observed in citrus and apple juices (burdurlu et al., 2006). non-enzymatic browning (neb) the absorbance at 440 nm is commonly used to determine the degree of browning in a non-enzymatic browning reaction, often caused by maillard reaction (paravisini and peterson, 2016). neb indicates the intensity of browning in processed product through spectrometric od values. neb values were reported between 0.232 ± 0.01 and 0.181± 0.01in guava fruit leather (table 4). among different sugars investigated, highest neb values wer e recor ded in fr uctose (0.232±0.01) and glucose (0.211±0.01) treated samples and the lowest was reported in sorbitol (0.181±0.01) and sucrose (0.193±0.01). degradation of ascorbic acid (table 3) and production of reactive carbonyl groups from the reducing sugars (table 2) contributed to higher neb values in guava leather. browning is complex biochemical reaction which involves numerous biological compounds to take part in the reaction to yield varied degree of browning in processed products. our results were in confirmation with, paravisini and peterson, (2016) who reported decomposition of sugars under acidic conditions to form reactive intermediates. major mechanisms, being ascorbic acid degradation, acid-catalyzed sugar degradation, and mailla rd reactions, have been identified as the main reaction pathways responsible for neb (bharate and bharate, 2014). maillard reaction rate is highest in intermediate moisture foods with water activity range of 0.5 0.7 (malec et al., 2002). the physico chemical composition of guava leather mentioned in table 2, 3 and 4 shows that in this pr oduct a ll a bove mentioned fa vor a ble environment for browning reactions were present. effect of sugars on non-enzymatic browning in guava j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 174-183, 2022 180 furfural and hydroxymethylfurfural maillard reaction products such as furfural (fur) and hydroxymethylfurfural (hmf) are considered as the biochemica l ma rker s for non-enzymatic browning (ertekinfiliz and seydim, 2018). among the two maillard products, hmf (32.3 -12.8 ng/g) content was found to be higher than fur (0.950.29 ng/g) in all guava leather samples (fig. 1; table 5). hmf production occur in product high in r edu cing suga r i. e. , fr u ctos e a nd glucos e, wher ea s fur pr oduction occur in xylose a nd arabinose rich product (machado et al., 2016). among the treatments, guava leather with fructose and glucose reported remarked higher hmf of 32.3 and 29.3 ng/g respectively than sucrose (14.32 ng/ g) and sorbitol (12.8 ng/g) treated samples. the ascorbic acid degradation in guava fruit leather containing fr uctose and glucose (table 3) a nd production of rcs for maillard reaction has also contributed to hmf formation (chen et al., 2022). similar results were found in apple leather (ruiz et al., 2012) reporting degradation of ascorbic acid c a us ed higher levels of h m f whic h in tu r n produced brown pigments (helyes et al., 2006). besides being identified a s therma l processing indicator, hmf is instrumental in imparting certain typical flavors to the food products. however, the toxicity of compound has been much discussed as a carcinogen (severin et al., 2010). the estimates of hmf for human daily intake range from 2 to 150 mg/person (capuano and fogliano, 2011). it is understood from this study that hmf generation couples with loss of nutrients such as ascorbic acid and so the antioxidant activity of the guava leather. t her efor e, it is a dvis a ble to t r ea t hmf a s a nutritional quality indicator in guava leather and to la y down a p er mis s ib le limit a s a p a r t of implementation of food standards. conclusion this study revealed the effects of different sugars (fructose, glucose, sucrose and sorbitol) and their role in non-enzymatic browning and antioxidant activity in guava leather. the application of different sugars during the product development affected the colour (l*, a*, b*, c*, h°, browning index), total free amino acids, ascorbic acid, total phenols, antioxidant activity, neb, furfural and hydroxymethylfurfural. highest losses in nutritional attributes such as total free amino acids, ascorbic acid, total phenol and antioxidant activity was found in guava leather incorporated with fructose and glucose and the least in sorbitol which wasfollowed by sucrose. while, the colour values i.e., highest l*and h°, lowest a* b*, and c*values, lowest browning index and lowest neb were found superior in sorbitol and sucrose followed by fructose and glucose. among the biochemical markers for neb, hmf was found to be predominant than fur and was found in high level in fructose followed by glucose, sucrose and sorbitol. therefore, from this study it was evident that sugar composition and its concentration nayaka et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 174-183, 2022 table 5. biochemical markers of non-enzymatic browning in guava leather treatment furfural hydroxymethylfurfural (ng/g) (ng/g) sucrose 0.33 14.32 fructose 0.95 32.3 glucose 0.73 29.3 sorbitol 0.29 12.8 note: the values presented are mean values of two replicates fig. 1. chromatogram showing hydroxymethylfurfural (10.32) and furfural (11.38) as biochemical markers in neb in guava leather 181 effect of sugars on non-enzymatic browning in guava j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 174-183, 2022 in guava leather play a significant role in nonenzymatic browning. use of optimal non reducing sugar, least reducing sugar and their combinations will aid in minimizing the browning and pr eserving functional attributes of dehydrated product. acknowledgments the support received from ministry of tribal affairs, goi through nfst for carrying out the work is duly acknowledged. authors are also thankful for the support and guidance received from dr. v.k. rao, principal scientist, division of 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(received: 24.03.; revised: 21.04.2022; accepted: 26.04.2022) 00 a final sph -jhs coverpage first 2 pages.pdf 00 content and in this issue.pdf 01 mohan kumar g n.pdf 02 meera pandey.pdf 03 biradar c.pdf 04 varalakshmi b.pdf 05 vijayakumari n.pdf 06 barik s.pdf 07 sajid m b.pdf 08 ranga d.pdf 09 usha s.pdf 10 manisha.pdf 11 amulya r n.pdf 12 akshatha h j.pdf 13 adak t.pdf 14 sujatha s.pdf 15 gowda p p.pdf 16 subba s.pdf 17 dhayalan v.pdf 19 ahmed s.pdf 20 vishwakarma p k.pdf 21 deep lata.pdf 22 udaykumar k p.pdf 23 nayaka v s k.pdf 24 sahel n a.pdf 25 bayogan e r v.pdf 26 rathinakumari a c.pdf 27 yella swami c.pdf 28 saidulu y.pdf 29 sindhu s.pdf 30 neeraj.pdf 31 sivaranjani r.pdf 32 rashied tetteh.pdf 34 sangeetha g.pdf 35 shareefa m.pdf 36 last pages.pdf introduction with rapid pace of urbanization, the percentage of india’s population living in cities almost doubled to 27.8 % in 2001 from 14% at the time of independence. this is expected to accelerate even further and, by 2021, over 40 % of all indians will be living in urban areas. the scale of urbanization in india can be seen in 6 mega cities (>5 million), 29 metro cities (>1 million), 500 cities (>100,000). by 2011, urban india will contribute over 65% to indian gdp. indian cities provide a setting for economic growth and, at the same time, face enormous challenges, particularly, environmental pollution and health-related problems. pollution is defined as “introduction by man into the environment of substances or energy liable to cause focus j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 environmental risks associated with heavy metal contamination in soil, water and plants in urban and periurban agriculture a. n. ganeshamurthy, l. r. varalakshmi and h. p. sumangala1 division of soil science and agricultural chemistry indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bangalore-560 089, india e-mail: angmurthy@rediffmail.com abstract the india’s population living in cities and urban areas has doubled to 27.8% since independence. our cities face enormous challenges of environmental pollution and health related problems. city authorities have often been reluctant to accept urban and periurban agriculture because of perceived health risks. nevertheless, in most cities the world over, periurban agriculture is practiced on a substantial scale, despite prohibitive laws and regulations. non-degradable pollutants added to the system through anthropogenic activities like heavy metals in air, soil, water and crops bother us more than others as these tend to bioaccumulate. throughout history, heavy metal contamination has long plagued mankind undermining intelligence and causing debasing behaviour. toxicity of some of the heavy metals even leads to deficiency of essential metals like zn, cu, etc. in both human and animals. climate, nutritional status, genetic predisposition, type of work and exposure level influence the intensity of impact on health. permissible levels prescribed by different organizations differ because of differences in tolerance levels of people of different origins and differences in threat perception of the people. with our current level of knowledge a permanent and foolproof method to stop entry of heavy metals into the food chain is impossible. however, methods are available to reduce intensity of the effects. alternative land use with crops not directly consumed by humanbeings and animals offers a better remedy to contain heavy metal entry into food chain. india has a wide ranging set of environmental laws that lay down norms for air, water, soil, wastes, etc. legislative frame work has been developed in the belief that a policing model is sufficient. it does not go beyond that. regulatory mechanisms may not be effective in isolated cases but are essential drivers to augment other approaches, by putting a “cap” on the level of degradation that is socially acceptable, as well as creating space for other, cleaner and more acceptable alternatives to be “viable”. key words: environmental risk, heavy metal contamination, periurban agriculture. 1division of ornamental crops hazards to human and animal health, living resources and ecological systems, damage to structures or amenity or interference with the legitimate use of environment” (holdgate, 1979). contamination, on the other hand, refers to anthropogenic accumulation of substances which may or may not inflict harm. thus, pollution is an extreme case of contamination where toxicity-damage has already occurred. pollution in cities and other industrial pockets has a profound influence on agricultural lands in urban and periurban areas and consequential effect on the health of human residing in such areas. several pollutants affect human and animal health. however, non-degradable pollutants like heavy metals bother us much more than others. throughout history, heavy metal contamination has plagued mankind undermining page 1 2 intelligence and inducing debasing behaviour. only now we are beginning to understand how heavy metals damage the brain. toxicity of some of the heavy metals leads to deficiency of essential metals like zn, cu, etc. in both human and animals. for example excess molybdenum induces cu deficiency in animals. this paper reviews the current status of heavy metal pollution in urban and periurban areas. urban and periurban agriculture (upa) upa refers to the production of a range of food crops, fodder, vegetables, aromatic plants, medicinal plants, flowers, ornamental plants, fruit trees and mushrooms, rearing of fish, poultry, meat and dairy animals grown mainly in intensive production systems with high levels of inputs located in the city or at its close periphery where there is competition for access to land between agricultural and other human activities, the products of which are consumed in the city (ganeshamurthy, 2007). the acute shortage of water for irrigation gives rise to use of alternative sources in upa. in urban areas, city wastewater is the main source for irrigating upa lands. city solid wastes and sewage sludge are often used as manure in upa. effluents and sludge contain concentrations of metals and other organic toxic substances that may impact human health, due to ingestion of food produced in areas receiving sewage sludge and irrigated with waste-water or contaminated surface waters. there are many studies on the possible effects of chemical substances on human through laboratory experiments in animals and information is available on incidence of cancer by prolonged exposure to toxic substances. experiments in plants and insects (drosophila), demonstrate that toxic substances of chemical origin induce genetic mutations and chromosome aberrations (maria luisa de esparza, 1998). these experiments demonstrate that there does exist a risk, which is not simple to extrapolate to human beings. theoretically, waste-water of industrial origin should not be used for this purpose, but in many countries, formal and clandestine industries dispose off effluents into municipal sewerage with or without authorization and without any treatment. this exposes the population, perpetually to relatively small quantities of metals, chemical compounds and may produce chronic intoxication with serious consequences. another health hazard posed by inadequate disposal of waste-water is that sediments are used for soil improvement and these may contain toxic elements which may accumulate. environmental impact of chemical residues in waste-water and solid wastes used in upa and the prediction of their effects on human health is a very complex matter. in addition, it should be recognized that standards of safe levels in developed countries do not apply to areas with different characteristics. factors that influence nature and intensity of the impact on health are: climate, nutritional status, genetic predisposition, type of work and exposure level. racial differences in tolerance are anybody’s guess. identification/confirmation of adverse effects of upa is difficult because epidemiological studies last long, populations migrate, and exposure time is unknown. in addition, chronic diseases can have various causes and, in many cases, these are not classified correctly. unfortunately, there is no statistical information on trends and causes of diseases owing to ingestion of chemical substances from agricultural and livestock products. however, several studies have demonstrated absorption of heavy metals by plants and these can affect the consumer (who, 1992). the nature of human health hazards caused by exposure to heavy metals and other toxic chemical compounds varies considerably. it is long known that heavy metal contamination has plagued mankind, undermining intelligence and causing debasing behaviour. in general, it increases birth defects, abortions and some forms of cancer and decreases average weight of children at birth. only now we are beginning to understand how heavy metals damage the brain. the relationship between the so called life style diseases (cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, fatigue to small physical work, hair loss, etc) in urban populations and consumption of contaminated vegetables and fruits produced in upa is an area that has not received adequate attention of researchers. it is essential to address health risks associated with upa for two main reasons (flynn 1999): i) to protect consumers from contaminated foods and farm workers from occupational hazards; and ii) to secure support of municipal and national authorities for sustainable urban food production. city authorities have often been reluctant to accept upa because of perceived health risks. nevertheless, in most cities the world over, urban agriculture is practiced on a substantial scale despite prohibitive laws and regulations. rather than general laws that prohibit upa and which are largely ineffective, policies are needed to actively manage health risks related to upa. health risks associated with upa birley and lock (1999) extensively reviewed literature on health issues related to upa. the main health risks associated with urban agriculture can be grouped into following categories: ganeshamurthy et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 3 a. contamination of crops by uptake of heavy metals from contaminated soil, air or water b. occupational health risks to farmers in upa and workers in the food-production and food-processing industries c. contamination of crops and/or drinking water by residues of agrochemicals d. contamination of crops with pathogenic organisms (e.g. bacteria, protozoa, viruses or helminthes) due to irrigation water drawn from polluted streams, or, inadequately treated waste-water or organic, solid waste products e. human diseases transferred from disease vectors attracted by agricultural activity f. transmission of disease from domestic animals to people (zoonosis) during animal husbandry, processing or meat consumption g. human diseases associated with unsanitary postharvest processing, marketing and preparation of locally produced food review of available literature indicates that although insight into potential health risks of upa is growing, detailed information on actual health impact of upa is scant. this review concentrates only on issues of heavy metal pollution. unlike other contaminants, contamination of crops by uptake of heavy metals from contaminated soils, air or water is of special interest because once these heavy metals enter the system, these remain forever without undergoing any change. these are further dangerous as they tend to bioaccumulate. bioaccumulation refers to an increase in concentration of a metal in a biological organism over time, compared to its concentration in the environment. metals accumulate in living beings any time they are ingested and stored faster than they are excreted, and, are reported to be exceptionally toxic (ellen et al, 1990). heavy metals these are generally defined as “a group of toxic metals and metalloids associated with pollution and toxicity, having density of more than 6 mg m-3 and having atomic weight more than that of iron (alloway, 1990). there are 35 metals that concern us because of occupational or residential exposure; 23 of these are heavy elements or “heavy metals”: antimony, arsenic, bismuth, cadmium, cerium, chromium, cobalt, copper, gallium, gold, iron, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel, platinum, silver, tellurium, thallium, tin, uranium, vanadium, and zinc. interestingly, small amounts of these elements are common in our environment and diet and are actually necessary for good health, but large amounts of any of them may cause acute or chronic toxicity (poisoning). health hazards associated with heavy metals by definition, many of the human and plant essential elements fall under the group of heavy metals. all the micronutrient cations zn, cu, fe, mn and ni are classed as heavy metals and, depending upon their levels in plant and animals, they exhibit either deficiency or toxicity. in addition pb, cd, cr, hg, se and as are the other heavy metals and metalloids which exhibit only toxicity (not deficiency) in human beings, animals and plants. heavy metals become toxic when they are not metabolized by the body and accumulate in soft tissues. oliver (1997) compiled data (table 1) on permissible levels of heavy metals in human diet, along with impact of both deficiency and toxicity on human health. the danger lies in the fact that once heavy metals enter into the soil-plantanimal continuum, their removal is extremely difficult and expensive. lead (pb) lead accounts for most of cases of pediatric heavy metal poisoning (roberts, 1999). it is a very soft metal and was used in pipes, drains, and soldering materials for many years. millions of homes still contain lead (e.g., in painted surfaces), leading to chronic exposure from weathering, flaking, chalking and dust. vegetables and fruits grown in areas adjacent to highways and in periurban areas and those receiving pb containing pesticides accumulate pb. target organs are bones, brain, blood, kidneys and thyroid gland. chronic exposure to pb may result in birth defects, mental retardation, autism, psychosis, allergies, dyslexia, hyperactivity, weight loss, shaky hands, muscular weakness and paralysis (beginning in the forearms). children are particularly sensitive to lead (absorbing as much as 50% of the ingested dose). mercury (hg) mercury is generated naturally in the environment from degassing of earth’s crust from volcanic emissions. it exists in three forms: elemental, organic and inorganic mercury. mining operations, chloralkali plants and paper industries are significant producers of mercury (goyer, 1996). atmospheric mercury is dispersed across the globe by winds and returns to the earth in rainfall, accumulating heavy metal contamination in urban and periurban agriculture j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 4 in soil, aquatic food chains and fish in lakes (clarkson, 1990). mercury compounds were added to paint as a fungicide until 1990. these compounds are now banned; however, surfaces painted with these old supplies still exist. the organic form is readily absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract (90-100%); lesser but still significant amounts of inorganic mercury are absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract (7-15%). target organs are brain and kidneys (asami 1981, roberts 1999). symptoms of acute exposure are cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, metallic taste in the mouth, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, headache, weakness, visual disturbance, tachycardia and hypertension. chronic exposure to mercury may result in permanent damage to the central nervous system (ewan et al, 1996) and kidneys. mercury can also cross the placenta from the mother’s body to the fetus (levels in the fetus are often double those in the mother) and accumulate, resulting in mental retardation, brain damage, cerebral palsy, blindness, seizures and inability to speak. symptoms in adults and children include tremors, anxiety, forgetfulness, emotional instability, insomnia, fatigue, weakness, anorexia, cognitive and motor dysfunction and kidney damage. those who consume more than two fish meals a week have been known to show very high levels of mercury in serum. cadmium (cd) cadmium is a by-product of mining and smelting of lead and zinc. it is used in nickel cadmium batteries, pvc plastics and paint pigments. it can be found in soils because insecticides, fungicides, sludge and commercial fertilizers containing cadmium are used in agriculture. cadmium may be found in reservoirs containing shellfish. cigarettes also contain cadmium. lesser-known sources of exposure are dental alloys, electroplating, motor oil and exhaust. inhalation accounts for 15-50% of absorption through the respiratory system; 2-7% of ingested cadmium is absorbed in the gastrointestinal system. target organs are liver, placenta, kidneys, lungs, brain and bones (roberts, 1999). symptoms of acute cadmium exposure include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and breathing difficulty. chronic exposure to cadmium can result in chronic obstructive lung disease, renal disease, fragile bones, table 1. limits of deficiency and toxicity of metals in human and their impact on human health element recommended safe impact on health toxic limits impact on health due to intake due to deficiency toxicity arsenic 15-25 µg d-1 (adult) 3 mg d-1 for 2-3 weeks cancer of skin and internal organs, hyperkeratosis, hyperpigmentation, black foot, rashes cadmium maximum tolerable intake — 220 µg kg-1 renal tubular disfunction, 70 µg d-1 fresh weight proteinuria, glucosuria, aminoaciduria, itai-itai children 2-25 µg d-1 disease adults 15-50 µg d-1 chromium 50-200 µg d-1 cardiovascular disease — — copper children 40µg d-1 hypocupremic anaemia children 150 mg d-1 — neutropenea, leucopenia infants 80 µg d-1 hypopigmentation of hair and adults 12 mg d-1 adults 2 µg d-1 skin, coronary heart disease, arthritis lead children 9278 µg d-1 — ≥500 µg d-1 encephalopathy(damage to brain), failure in adults 20-282 µg d-1 concentration in blood in reproduction, metabolic children 250-500 µg l-1 disorder, neurophysical deficit in children, affects the haematologic and renal systems selenium 100-200 µg d-1 kashin beck disease 9 mg d-1 persistant adverse clinical keshan disease signs developed with as high as 50% morbidity zinc deficient 0.2-0.3 mg d-1 hypogonadism, dwarfism, 150 µg d-1 interference with safe intake 15 µg d-1 hepatosplenomegaly, reproduction, growth of recommended upper geophagia, anaemia, embryo impaired limit 45 µg d-1 premature birth, anorexia ganeshamurthy et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 5 alopecia, anemia, arthritis, learning disorders, migraines, growth impairment, emphysema, osteoporosis, loss of taste and smell, poor appetite and cardiovascular disease. chromium (cr) cr (vi) compounds are emitted into the air, water and soil by a number of different industries. in the air, chromium compounds are present mainly as fine dust particles that eventually settle over the land and water and finally enter the plants. workers who breathe hexavalent chromium compounds at their jobs for many years may be at increased risk of developing lung cancer. breathing high levels of hexavalent chromium can irritate or damage the nose, throat and lungs. irritation or damage to the eyes and skin can occur if hexavalent chromium contacts these organs in high concentrations or for a prolonged period of time. nickel (ni) it enters the human body through inhalation, ingestion of drinking-water and food, and through skin contact. tobacco smoking is also an important source of nickel exposure. the relative amounts of nickel absorbed by an organism are determined not only by the quantities inhaled, ingested, or administrated, but also by physical and chemical characteristics of the nickel compound. solubility is an important factor in all routes of absorption, following the general relationships: nickel carbonyl absorption> soluble nickel compounds absorption> insoluble nickel compounds absorption. nickel carbonyl is the most rapidly and completely absorbed nickel compound in both animals and human. nickel and nickel compounds have a strong sensitizing potential on the skin, which is manifested by irritation, eczema and allergic contact dermatitis. oral intake of low doses of nickel may provoke allergic dermatitis in sensitized individuals. besides the carcinogenic effect on lung and nasal cavities associated with an exposure to nickel, many other respiratory effects have been described. frequent clinical findings include fever with leukocytosis, electrocardiographic abnormalities suggestive of myocarditis and chest x-ray changes (atsdr, 1997). iron (fe) consuming food containing toxic levels of iron or ingesting dietary iron supplements may acutely poison young children (e.g., as few as five to nine 30-mg iron tablets for a 30-lb child). ingestion accounts for most of the toxic effects of iron because iron is absorbed rapidly in the gastrointestinal tract. the corrosive nature of iron seems to further increase absorption. other sources of iron are drinking water, food, iron pipes and cookware. target organs are liver, the cardiovascular system and kidneys (roberts, 1999). arsenic (as) though not a heavy metal, it is the most common cause of acute poisoning in adults. it is released into the environment by smelting process of copper, zinc and lead as well as by manufacture of chemicals and glass. arsenic gas is a common by product in manufacture of pesticides that contain arsenic. arsenic may also be found in water supplies worldwide. other sources are food produced on water containing high ‘as’, paints, rat poisoning, fungicides and wood preservatives. target organs are blood, kidneys and central nervous, digestive and skin systems (roberts, 1999). exposure to ‘as’ occurs mostly in the workplace, near hazardouswaste sites, or, in areas with high natural levels. symptoms of acute ‘as’ poisoning are sore throat from breathing, red skin at contact point, or severe abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea, often within 1h after ingestion. other symptoms are anorexia, fever, mucosal irritation and arrhythmia. cardiovascular changes are often subtle in the early stages but can progress to cardiovascular collapse. chronic or low levels of exposure can lead to progressive peripheral and central nervous changes, such as sensory changes, numbness/tingling and muscle tenderness. a symptom typically described is a burning sensation (“needles and pins”) in hands and feet. neuropathy (inflammation and wasting of the nerves) is usually gradual and occurs over several years. there may also be excessive darkening of the skin (hyper pigmentation) in areas that are not exposed to sunlight, excessive formation of skin on the palms and soles (hyperkeratosis), or white bands of ‘as’ deposits across the bed of the fingernails (usually 4-6 weeks after exposure). birth defects, liver injury and malignancy are possible. (‘as’ has also been used in homicides and suicides). aluminum (al) it is not a heavy metal and the information on entry of al through foods grown on contaminated soils is not available. studies on effect of al on human health are relatively new (two decades) and are inconclusive. a possible connection with development of alzheimer’s disease is proposed as researchers found, what they considered to be significant amounts of, aluminum in the brain tissue of alzheimer’s patients. although aluminum was also found in the brain tissue of people who did not have alzheimer ’s disease, recommendations to avoid heavy metal contamination in urban and periurban agriculture j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 6 sources of aluminum received widespread public attention. as a result, many organizations and individuals reached a level of concern that prompted them to dispose of all their aluminum cookware and storage containers and to become wary of other possible sources of aluminum, such as soda cans, personal care products and even their drinking water (anon., 1992). however, who (1998) concluded that although there were studies that demonstrated a positive relationship between aluminum in drinking water and alzheimer’s disease, who had reservations about a causal relationship (because the studies did not account for total aluminum intake from all possible sources). although there is no conclusive evidence for or against aluminum as a primary cause of alzheimer’s disease, most researchers agree that it is an important factor in the dementia component and most certainly deserves continuing research efforts. therefore, at this time, reducing exposure to aluminum is a personal decision. target organs for aluminum are the central nervous system, kidney and digestive system. in the home, we are in constant contact with aluminum in foods and in water; from cookware and soft drink cans; from consuming items with high levels of aluminum (e.g., antacids, buffered aspirin, or treated drinking water; or even by using nasal sprays, toothpaste and antiperspirants) (anon.,1992). citric acid (e.g., in orange juice) may increase aluminum levels by its leaching activity. interestingly, aluminum-based coagulants are used in purification of water. however, beneficial effects of using aluminum in water treatment have been balanced against potential health concerns. water purification facilities follow a number of approaches to minimize level of al in “finished” water (who, 1998). symptoms of aluminum toxicity include memory loss, learning difficulty, loss of coordination, disorientation, mental confusion, colic, heartburn, flatulence and headache. classical examples of heavy metal toxicity epidemiological evidence was found in toyama, japan, where the population was affected by ingestion of cadmium contained in rice; the origin of this element lay in a nearby mine that contaminated irrigation water. typical examples of heavy metal toxicity to human beings include itai-itai disease and minamata disease reported again from japan, due to excessive dietary intake of cd and hg by human (de and anil kumar, 2000). among animals, a typical example is excess cu induced mo deficiency in fodder. animals feeding on such plants suffer from molybdenosis. hence, heavy metals are classified as dreaded pollutants, which have the potential of affecting human and animal health via soil solid soil solution plant roots edible parts animal continuum. a typical diagram of heavy metal cycle in the environment is shown in figure 1. some of the other, most important disasters with heavy metals are given below: * 1932 minamata: sewage containing mercury is released by chisso’s chemical works into the minimata bay in japan. mercury accumulated in sea creatures, leading eventually to mercury poisoning in the population. * 1952 minamata syndrome: in 1952, the first incidents of mercury poisoning appear in the population of minimata bay in japan, caused by consumption of fish polluted with mercury, bringing over 500 fatalities. since then, japan has had the strictest environmental laws in the industrialized world. * 1986 sandoz: water used to extinguish a major fire carried 30 t fungicide containing mercury into the upper rhine. fish were killed over a stretch of 100 km. the shock drew many fea projects forward. * 1998-2004 spanish nature reserve contaminated after environmental disaster. toxic chemicals in water from a burst dam belonging to a mine contaminated the coto de donana nature reserve in southern spain. 5 million mt of mud containing sulphur, lead, copper, zinc and cadmium flew down the rio guadimar. experts estimate that europe’s largest bird sanctuary, as well as spain’s agriculture and fisheries, will suffer permanent damage from the pollution. potential sources of heavy metals in upa there are two major sources of heavy metals in upa: anthropogenic and geogenic. while geogenic cases are rare in upa (not discussed in this review), anthropogenic cases are common in cities all over the world. fig 1. heavy metal cycle in the environment ganeshamurthy et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 7 anthropogenic accumulation air, water and soils are polluted with heavy metals through several anthropogenic activities like smokegenerating industries, effluent-generating industries, sewage, sludge, municipal solid and liquid wastes, fossil fuel burning, etc. nriagu (1998) made an estimate of global emission of trace metals into the atmosphere, water and soil (table 2). he measured it in terms of quantity of water needed to dilute such waters to drinking water standards and stated that toxicity of all the metals being released annually into the environment far exceeded the combined total toxicity of all radioactive and organic wastes. this emphasizes the seriousness of heavy metal pollution compared to other pollutants and needs special attention to prevent or minimize entry of heavy metals into the environment. soil the natural variability of heavy metal content in soils is very high. to ascertain contamination of any soil with heavy metals, one should have a reference level of each metal beyond which soil can be considered as contaminated. unfortunately, reference levels for different soils are not available, or rather, are not feasible. the normal range of some of the heavy metals in soils reported by two different authors shows a very high degree of variability (table 3). however, the extent of contamination due to anthropogenic activities can be judged far better by comparison with adjacent, non-polluted soils. accumulation in soil the ultimate destination of pollutants is the soil, where they accumulate. pollutants so accumulated are disseminated through plants or ground water into the food chain. soils are highly buffered. hence, any small and shortterm application of sewage sludge and effluents containing heavy metals in low concentrations may not cause serious accumulation of heavy metals in bio-available forms. therefore, plants grown on such soils may not absorb dangerous levels of heavy metals. however, long-term applications, as it happens in urban and periurban areas, river beds, industrial pockets and other such areas, may lead to accumulation of heavy metals in soil to levels exceeding permissible limits. levels of heavy metal accumulation in soils of upa in different cities of india are summarized in table 4. variability in the content of heavy metals in these soils is so wide that it is difficult to draw any conclusion from this information, as, their initial levels are not available. the variability is due to several factors like i) amount and period of addition of wastes ii) heterogeneity in the type of material added to the soil, like industrial effluents, sewage effluent, sludge, city garbage iii) type of soil like, light-textured or heavy soil and iv) climate (heavy rainfall or low rainfall, extreme temperatures or moderate temperatures). however, one conclusion that can be drawn from these data is that in many such cases, the levels of heavy metals have not exceeded permissible levels for soils, proposed by pfa (tables 4 and 5). once heavy metals enter the soil system, they may undergo several changes depending upon physical, chemical and biological properties of the soils. bioavailability of these heavy metals is very important as this is a gateway for entry of heavy metals into the food chain. current information on the effect of long term application of sewage and industrial effluents, sludge, garbage etc on the available heavy metal status of soils in different upa areas is presented in table 6. again there is wide variability in the bioavailable fractions of heavy metals in these soils attributed mainly to the nature of waste material applied, period of application and soil type. however, one point that emerged from these data is that application of domestic origin sewage water which contains low concentration of table 2. global emission of trace metals into atmosphere, water and soil (000 metric tones/ year) element air water soil zinc 132 226 1372 copper 35 112 954 manganese 38 262 1670 molybdenum 3.3 11 88 cadmium 7.6 9.4 22 lead 332 138 796 nickel 56 113 325 mercury 3.6 4.6 8.3 arsenic 18.8 41 82 antimony 3.5 18 26 selenium 3.8 41 41 vanadium 86 12 132 table 3. normal range of heavy metals in soil author pb cd ni as se zn cu mo bowie and 10-150 <1-2 2-100 <5-40 <1-2 25-200 2-60 <1-5 thornton, 1985 jorgensen, 1979 <10 <0.06 na na na <5 <20 na na = not analysed/not available heavy metal contamination in urban and periurban agriculture j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 8 micronutrients and very low concentration of heavy metals may not lead to accumulation of these metals in soils. build up in soil receiving heavy metals from different sources depends upon the period of its application. longer the period, greater is the accumulation. however, information on relationship between initial concentration of heavy metals in the source, period of application and rate of build-up in soils receiving different kinds of waste material are very scanty. in one such study, bansal et al. (1992) reported that build-up was more in soils, which received industrial effluent from ludhiana city for a period of five years as compared to only two years. whereas, palaniswami and sriramulu (1996) reported build-up of fe in 15 year effluent treated plots as compared to 2 year irrigated plots (fig 2). zn content remained unaltered and cu increased only marginally. one general point that emerged from such studies is that mn content of soil depleted with increase in table 4. heavy metal content (total) in soils of upa in different cities in india source zn cu fe mn cd pb co ni cr bangalore(varalakshmi, 2005) 71.8 3.52 na na 0.35 35.2 na na na kolkata (adhikari et al, 1997) 1300 160 212 16 4.0 170 na na 126 durgapur (barman and lal, 309 41.5 na na 6.11 180 na na na 1994 ) varanasi (sharma et al, 2007) 87.9 33.5 na 145.7 2.7 18.3 na 15.6 79.3 ludhiana (azad et al,1986) na na na na 1.1 na 24.1 43.9 na coimbatore (malarkodi 397.4 157.1 na na 8.1 175.5 na 171.4 114.9 et al, 2007) hyderabad (jeevanrao and 2.9 4.3 386 39 0.4 8.1 5.0 1.4 6.0 shantaram, 1993) pfa standard 300-600 135-270 na na 3-6 25-50 na 75-150 na na = not analysed/not available table 5. permissible level of heavy metals (mg l-1) in water, soil and plants as recommended by various organizations fe mn cu zn ni cr co cd pb as drinking water usph standards 0.3 0.05 1.0 na na 0.05 na 0.01 0.05 0.05 who standards 1.0 0.50 1.5 na na 0.05 na 0.01 0.10 0.05 sewage water pes cod,1992 na 0.2 0.2 2.0 2.0 0.1 na 0.01 0.5 na fao,1979 na na na na 2.0 1.0 na 0.05 2.0 na the environmental 3.0 2.0 3.0 5.0 3.0 2.0 na 2.0 2.0 na protection rules, 1986, india soil pfa, india na na 13530075na na 3-6 250na 270 600 150 500 austria na na 100 300 100 100 50 5 10 na canada na na 100 400 100 75 25 8 200 na poland na na 100 300 100 100 50 3 100 na japan na na 125 250 100 na na na 400 na great britain na na 100 300 50 50 na 3 100 na germany na na 50 300 100 200 na 2 500 na vegetables and food pfa na na 30 50 1.5 0.2 na 1.5 2.5 1.1 na = not analysed / not available fig 2. effect of period of application of effluents on accumulation of heavy metals ganeshamurthy et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 9 table 6. bioavailable heavy metal status of soils treated with different sources of wastes source zn cu fe mn cd pb co ni cr as hg indo-gangetic plain-alluvial soils iari (newdelhi) 5.0 3.3 23.3 12.1 na 2.2 na 0.4 na na na (datta et al, 2000) 2.2 1.1 6.7 9.8 na 1.7 na 0.2 na na na domestic sewage tubewell jalanandhar (delhi) (rattan et al, 2002) 14.7 4.20 39.7 18.9 na na na 1.27 1.72 2.09 na sewage effluents 2.9 0.99 13.8 14.3 na na na 0.56 0.81 1.87 na tubewell keshopur(delhi) 6.77 5.42 40.30 5.17 0.15 2.34 na 0.91 na na na (rattan et al, 2002) 1.92 1.79 9.22 5.69 0.14 1.65 na 0.36 na na na sewage effluents tubewell ludhiana( punjab) sewage effluents (arora et al, 1985) 4.38 5.5 36 10.9 0.07 1.88 na 0.37 0.57 1.02 0.51 malerkotla(punjab) (arora et al, 1985) sewage effluents 5.56 2.5 11 7.9 0.04 1.41 na 0.32 0.36 0.56 0.38 samrala(punjab) (brar et al, 2000) non-sewage effluents 1.67 2.2 17 8.9 0.06 1.24 na 0.42 0.39 0.77 0.61 varanasi (u.p.) (singh and singh 1994) sewage effluents 15.63 30.41 82.79 229.3 3.8 22.48 na na 4.25 na na patna (bihar) (sakal et al, 1992) sewage sludge 11.4 14.5 54.9 19.4 0.21 10.2 na na na na na ganga delta-alluvial soils howrah (som et al, 1994) sewage effluents 19.4 na na na 0.02 0.18 na na 0.60 na na kolkata (mitra and gupta, 1999) sewage effluents 281 36 115 24 0.45 104.3 1.8 9.45 12.5 na na non-sewage effluents 3.5 2.25 53.5 21.6 0.006 4.25 0.9 4.40 3.15 na na deccan plateau-red soils bangalore (varalakshmi and ganeshamurthy, 2007) sewage effluents 0.03 0.101 na na tr 0.73 na 0.01 0.10 na na hyderabad (rao et al, 1994) fresh garbage 6.8 10.9 16.2 16.0 0.14 10.5 0.40 0.46 0.34 na na control 1.0 0.9 6.5 9.0 nd 0.04 0.04 0.05 nd na na avaniyapuram (tamilnadu) (jayabaskaran and sriramulu, 1996) sewage effluents 10.6 6.9 32.3 37.0 0.20 5.7 0.4 6.9 2.7 na na sakkimangalam (tamilnadu) (jayabaskaran and sriramulu, 1996) sewage effluents 5.9 5.7 32.3 39.0 0.10 3.7 0.20 4.9 2.9 na na ukkadam (jayabaskaran and sriramulu, 1996) sewage effluents 10.4 9.7 28.5 37.0 0.20 6.30 0.50 14.6 3.8 na na na = not analysed/not available, nd = not detected, tr = traces heavy metal contamination in urban and periurban agriculture j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 10 duration of irrigation. perhaps this is due to leaching of reduced forms of mn from such soils. texture of soil has profound influence on the pattern of heavy metal accumulation. light textured soils accumulated lower levels of heavy metals than heavy soils under similar conditions. however, no direct study on such effects has been conducted anywhere. it has been found that bioavailability of heavy metals in light-textured soils of sakkimangalam and avanigapuram were more or less similar in sites that received sewage water for eight years or 50 years (jayabaskaran and sriramulu, 1996). but, ukkadam sewage farm on clay soils contained higher bioavailable heavy metals after 40 years of sewage water irrigation than the silty clay loam soils of avanigapuram after 50 years of sewage irrigation (table 6). heavy metals are immobile in soil. as a result, these accumulate mainly in surface soils which are, unfortunately, the zone of prime root activity in crops. profile analysis of soils collected from sewage and effluent irrigated areas showed no build-up of heavy metals below 45 cm depth (table 7). a majority of the cities and towns in india is located on the banks of rivers, rivulets and streams. the number of cities on the banks of ganga alone is 27. river beds in all these cities and towns are put under cultivation of vegetables and fodders. unfortunately, these river bed soils are among the most polluted soils because of their frequent inundation with heavy metal rich water during monsoon. the most worrying feature of such sites is that a large proportion of accumulated heavy metals remains in highly mobile and leachable form, which is directly available for absorption by plants. dry river beds of kharaai river in the industrial city of jemshedpur had 8400 ppm fe, 10 ppm ni, 7 ppm pb, 200 ppm cu, 90 ppm cr and 5 ppm co, all above permissible levels (sinha et al, 2002). analysis of dry river bed soils of periurban kanpur, where the ganga flows through the heart of the city, showed (fig. 3) that a major part of accumulated heavy metals was in the leachable form (farooq et al, 1999). leafy and succulent vegetables of short duration mainly are grown on such soils, as they find immediate market in the adjacent urban areas. this is a matter of serious concern as these crops are heavy accumulators (varalakshmi and ganeshamurthy, 2007) favoured by high availability of heavy metals in soils and short duration crops. protected cultivation of vegetables in periurban areas is on the increase. cultivation in polyhouses is generally done on artificial beds created within by dumping organic manures of varying types. the source of such organic manures may vary but, being in the vicinity of cities, organic manures are likely to get mixed with sewage sludge and other city solid wastes. data on extent of heavy metals in the bed material and in crops grown in such polyhouses are not available. this is a point which calls for attention of researchers. water source of heavy metals in water urban and industrial waste-water acts both as source and carrier of heavy metals in the upa. rapid industrialization and urbanization have been generating huge amounts of effluents and other urban liquid wastes in india and the situation is likely to worsen further. a population of 6 million in bangalore city alone is generating about 800 million liters of waste-water a day. the total waste-water generated in urban india is of the order of 200 table 7. profile distribution of heavy metals in soils treated with industrial effluents soil ukkadam farm, tamil nadu periurban patna depth (jeyabaskaran and sriramulu,1996) (mean of 11 sites)(sakal et al, 1992) (cm) zn cu fe mn zn cu fe mn pb cd 0-15 15 16 50 70 4.19 5.21 40.98 13.93 3.95 0.075 15-30 11 9 25 40 2.30 1.85 24.36 9.94 2.50 0.047 30-45 5 3 9 15 1.87 1.08 15.76 8.89 2.20 0.043 45-60 2 1 2 3 1.75 0.88 14.17 8.06 1.99 0.038 fig 3. proportion of various heavy metals in river bed soils present in soluble form ganeshamurthy et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 11 mm3d-1. these waste-water contain a wide spectrum of inorganic and organic material and heavy metals (chonkar et al, 2000a, 2000b; ganeshamurthy, 2007). the major contributors of heavy metals in these wastes include leather tanneries (cr), distilleries, paper mills, refineries, textile industries, thermal plants, smelters (zn, fe), automobiles (pb, cd), paints (pb, cr), metalliferrous mines, electroplating industries (zn, sn, ni, cr), ceramic industry (pb, cd), lignitebased power plants, aluminum industry, electronics industry (pb, hg, cd, cr), metallurgical industry, etc. india produces about 80 million pieces of hides and 133 million pieces of skins annually. these are handled by about 3000 tanneries and 680 leather finishing industries located in various cities for producing semi-finished and finished leather goods. a kg of skin or hide needs about 40 l of water for the process. in the case of finished leather it is about 50 l kg-1. both vegetable and chrome tanning is used in india. while vegetable tanning is relatively safer, effluent from chrome tanning contains dangerous levels of chromium and other heavy metals (table 8). effluents from tanneries are mainly discharged into nearby rivers, streams or other water bodies. jajmau tannery near kanpur, in uttar pradesh, discharges about 9000 m3 of effluent per day directly into the river ganga. it contains high concentrations of chromium (chandalia and rajagopal, 1992). tanneries are concentrated on the banks of palar, periyar and cauvery rivers in tamil nadu. untreated effluents from these tanneries are discharged into neighboring fields, irrigation tanks which finally reach palar, periyar and cauvery rivers. there are, at present, about 515 units engaged in manufacture of paper, paperboards and newsprint in india. present production of paper and paperboard is six million tonnes and is expected to go up to eight million tonnes by 2010 (business line, 2005). at present, about 60.8 % of the total production is based on non-wood raw material and 39.2 % is based on wood. a ton of paper produces approximately 6000 gallons of effluent. at this rate, effluent discharged by paper mills is approximately 36000 million gallons. a sample data on heavy metal content in paper mill waste-water and sediments from russia (labunska et al, 2001) is presented in table 9. although patel et al (2004) reported lower concentration of heavy metals in paper mill effluents (table 8) from gujarat authenticated data on heavy metal content of paper mill effluents from india are not table 8. heavy metal concentration in waste-waters from different sources (ppm) type of waste-water zn cu fe mn cd pb co ni cr reference tannery effluent,vegetable 2.56 tr tr 0.67 na 0.23 na na na karunyal et tanning,chrome tanning na na na na na na na na 97-5125 al.,1972; sakthivel and sampath 1990 distillery effluent 4.61 3.65 34.8 12.7 0.48 na 0.08 na 0.64 patil, 1994 paper mill efluent 0.48 0.34 7.50 0.27 0.01 0.17 0.04 0.11 0.67 patel et al,2004 textile industry na tr tr tr na na na na tr mohmed and ashan, 1985 refinery effluent 0.33 0.23 3.77 0.55 na 0.86 na 0.23 na singh et al,1991 zinc smelting effluent 10.6 0.05 0.68 na na 0.05 na na na totawat 1991 electro plating industry na na na na na na na 3.0 2.5 tiwana et al, 1987 sugar industry-spent wash 1.17 0.78 61.3 4.0 0.06 0.68 na 0.70 na zalawadia et al,1997 fertilizer industry 0.25 0.12 6.34 0.29 0.03 0.17 0.15 0.55 1.10 patel et al,2004 tr = traces, na = not analysed/not available table 9. heavy metal analysis results in cepruss pulp and paper mill, kaliningrad area, russia, 2001 sample waste-water waste-water waste-water sediments sediments number bt01010 bt01011 bt01008 bt01009 bt01012 concentration µg/l µg/l µg/l µg/kg dry weight µg/kg dry weight cadmium <10 <10 <10 1 2 chromium <20 <20 <20 19 17 cobalt <20 <20 <20 10 7 copper <20 <20 <20 356 108 lead 59 <30 <30 143 30 manganese 298 325 476 541 154 mercury <1 <1 <1 0.928 0.1 nickel <20 <20 <20 12 13 zinc 14 16 23 557 212 heavy metal contamination in urban and periurban agriculture j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 12 available. however, concentration of heavy metals like cu, pb, zn, ni, co, and cd in coconut water, root and leaf irrigated with effluents from paper mills, was higher than limits suggested by world health organization (sharif fazeli, 1991) giving an indication that effluents contained heavy metals above permissible levels. textile industries also generate huge quantities of waste-water containing heavy metals. these industries, including both mechanized and hand processing units, are distributed throughout the country in small and medium towns, but, mechanized units are mainly located in ahmedabad, mumbai, surat, coimbatore and chennai. for example, buckingham and carnatic textile mills in tamil nadu produce about 20,000m3 d-1 of waste-water while 760 hand processing units in pali town in rajasthan produce about 18000 m3 d-1 (gupta et al, 1992). untreated effluents from textile units in pali, jodhpur and badmer are discharged into seasonal rivers bundi, jojri and luni, respectively. pali has been identified as one of the most polluted cities in india. data on heavy metal content of these waste-waters are not available. mohmed and ashanullah (1985) reported that the effluent from modi textile industry in u.p. was below detectable limits (table 8). however, various chemicals and dyes used in textile industries contain both heavy metals and harmful chemical which ultimately reach irrigation water and soil. distilleries are another major source of waste-water containing heavy metals. india produces 2.7 billion liters of alcohol annually from 285 distilleries, mostly concentrated in the three sugarcane producing states of maharashtra, uttar pradesh and karnataka (aida 1995, joshi et al, 1996). the proportion of alcohol to spent wash (waste-water) is 1:15. at this rate, spent wash produced in india is estimated at 4050 m m3(40.5 billion liters). an example of heavy metal content of the distillery waste-water is given in table 8. effluents from refineries, smelting industries, paint industries, plating industries and many such sources contain heavy metals to varying degrees (table 8). data on heavy metal content of such small but potential sources of heavy metals are scanty. in the fertilizer industry sector, total chrome content in the effluent of nh 3 -urea unit was assessed at 43 t y-1, in addition to 256 t of chrome sludge and 19.5 t of as sludge. however, due care is taken by these units before discharging wastes into the environment (swaminathan, 1993). accumulation of heavy metals in water city sewage effluents are generally a mixture of industrial and domestic waste-waters. they are potential sources of heavy metals in upa. typical concentrations of heavy metals in city sewage effluents and tube wells are presented (table 10). lower concentration of heavy metals table 10. heavy metal content in sewage effluents and wells from different cities in india source zn cu fe mn cd pb co ni cr reference agra sewage 560 450 4770 660 na 750 na 190 na tubewell tr 50 1790 90 na 190 na tr na singh et al, 1991 howrah sewage 61.6 na na na 22.0 35.6 na na 7.2 adhikari, 1993 jalandhar sewage 1990 400 16400 350 na na na 190 2720 brar et al, 2000 sewage+leather 2510 420 24200 440 na na na 350 14030 ground water 70 10 130 4 na na na 50 6 kolkata sewage 356 85.2 449 68.3 4.9 7.0 10.5 11.3 20.3 mitra and gupta, tubewell 17.6 3.6 80.6 22.5 <1 <2 <2 2.6 2.0 1999 ludhiana sewage 710 6412 307 307 2.3 53.1 357 132 na arora et al, 1985 control 260 70 140 140 0.55 9.3 75 1.5 na ahmedabad sewage 6.0 0.13 3.77 0.18 0.01 0.13 0.02 0.09 0.13 patel et al, 2004 bangalore sewage 179 17 1305 tr 0.2 13 tr 18 7 lokeshwari, and chandrappa,2006 coimbatore sewage 4.13 1.87 38.73 11.90 2.77 35.42 tr 8.76 8.42 doraisami et al, 2003 varanasi sewage 0.23 0.04 na 0.15 0.01 0.08 na 0.03 0.04 rajendra prasad et al, 1985 udaipur sewage 39.1 11.1 48.0 81.8 33 943 na 410 na malla and totawat, 2006 na = not analysed/not available ganeshamurthy et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 13 table 11. seasonal variability in heavy metal content in city sewage water source zn cu fe mn cd pb co ni cr reference bangalore monsoon na na na na 0.001 tr na 0.101 0.272 varalakshmi and winter na na na na 0.004 0.030 na 0.016 0.114 ganeshamurthy, summer na na na na 0.04 0.136 na 0.045 0.096 2007 kolkata monsoon 321 70.9 656 45.2 1.3 2.9 6.0 57.8 11.7 winter 356 85.2 449 68.3 4.9 7.0 10.5 113 20.3 coimbatore monsoon 2.5 2.68 30.1 16.2 2.15 23.65 na 6.35 1.46 duraisamy et al, winter 9.75 1.97 56.0 11.6 4.25 55.25 na 17.12 7.08 2000 summer 4.83 1.50 33.8 8.58 3.25 45.70 na 9.66 9.80 na = not analysed/not available in ground water indicated that metals accumulated mostly in the surface soils and only a small proportion leached down and reached the ground water (jayabaskaran and sriramulu, 1996; sakal et al, 1992). the concentrations of metals varied with source of their origin and with season. varalakshmi and ganeshamurthy (2007) reported lower concentrations of cd and pb during monsoon in bangalore city sewage and attributed it to dilution effect. higher concentration of cr and ni in monsoon season is attributed to run off and erosion caused by rainfall and the consequent entry of contaminated soil and silt from nearby plating industries which otherwise do not reach the main drains during summer (table 11). in some cases, there is no significant relationship between concentrations of heavy metals in different seasons i.e., winter, summer or monsoon, as heavy metals in waste-water have a continuous anthropogenic source from industries. however, higher concentration of metals in a particular season, besides seasonal factors, may be due to intensity of an industrial activity in a particular season. it may also be due to the fact that samples were gathered from drains in industrial premises, a direct anthropogenic discharge resulting from industrial activity. surface water bodies like rivers, rivulets, streams and lakes are the first to receive heavy metals generated by various industries and waste producing sources. they act as transporters disseminating pollutants into the environment. both treated and untreated effluents from industries and city municipal wastes are directly discharged into rivers and other water bodies. data available on heavy metal concentration of some rivers and water bodies are presented in table 12. variability in concentration of heavy metals in different rivers, and within a river, at different locations was directly related to the amount of heavy metal containing wastes added at different locations. however, most of these river waters contained heavy metals well above permissible levels both for drinking and irrigation purposes (table 5). drinking water bodies and other aquifers near agricultural lands receiving irrigation from polluted waters of rivers and streams get contaminated. surface water contains higher concentrations than ground water. analysis of water samples within a radius of 1 km from the carpet industry in gopalgunj and bhadoni in uttar pradesh varied from 0.11 to 0.84 ppm cr (singh et al, 2001). similarly, well waters adjoining streams around zinc smelters in dabari (discharge rate = 4000 m3 d-1) contained 0.0-0.72 ppm zn, 0.0-0.93 ppm cd, 0.1-0.6 ppm fe (totawat, 1993). coimbatore city having more than 30,000 small, medium and large industries does not have a facility for treatment of industrial, municipal, hospital and domestic waters. the open type drainage lets these waters into lakes, wetlands and the river noyyal. analysis of water from different lakes (table 12) in coimbatore city showed heavy metal concentrations above permissible levels for drinking and irrigation. although water here is not for drinking, livestock, poultry, fish and other aquatic species do depend on these waters, and wetlands around these water bodies accelerate bioaccumulation of heavy metals in crops. similarly, water of hussain sagar lake and ground water in nearby areas in hyderabad (400 units of industries including paints, drugs, chemicals, etc. on its bank) also contain, a high degree of metal contamination. electronic waste (e-waste) as a source of heavy metals e-waste comprises of waste electronic goods which are no longer fit for their originally intended use. these range from household appliances such as, cellular phone, personal stereo and consumer electronics to computer, refrigerator, air conditioner, etc. e-waste contains several different substances and chemicals, many of which are toxic and likely to create adverse impact on the environment and heavy metal contamination in urban and periurban agriculture j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 14 table 12. heavy metal concentration in some rivers and water bodies in india river/sampling site zn cu fe mn cd pb co ni cr reference rivers brahmani 180 40 1170 40 na na na na 290 panda et al, 1991 ganga sinha et al, 2002 rishikesh 72 3.5 40 35 nd 0.92 1.5 1.5 5.2 haridwar 61 7.8 150 54.9 nd 0.98 2.9 3.5 7.5 sultanpur 69.5 9.8 175 89.7 nd 1.30 2.5 5.8 10.5 bhopa 68.3 11.5 189 135.9 0.15 1.20 1.9 5.3 12.2 parichhatgarh 270 30.2 414 198 0.6 4.5 9.5 9.0 27.5 garhmukteshwar 311 49.5 721 211 0.75 6.5 12.5 10.2 32.5 anupshahr 135 8.5 209 98.5 0.12 2.7 6.5 3.0 11.5 ramgarh 140 9.5 195 109 0.17 2.5 5.7 3.2 15.9 kharkal jamshedpur 16 3.0 64 24 na 16 na na na som et al, 1994 other water bodies lake gopalgunj na na na na na na na na 0.11-0.84 singh et al, 2001 lake bhopal 0.03 0.012 0.413 0.156 0.087 0.041 0.087 0.07 0.011 srivastava et al, 2003 lake (coimbatore) 493 177 8080 1257 10 375 na 6.94 387 mohanraj et al, selvachintamani 95 44 520 255 1 26 na 23 52 2000 singanallur 34 18 1425 55.2 0.5 10.5 6.4 29.8 ukkadam 53 30.3 1736 71 0.5 4.5 na 8.6 43 perur 99.5 24.5 640 346.2 2 25.5 24.9 48.5 valankulam 101 44.1 3285 63.6 0.5 4.5 na 11.8 42.4 ammankulam 52.5 26 3405 82.9 0 15.5 na 11.5 37.4 selvampatti 69 28.2 1165 54.5 0 14.5 na 6.1 61.9 kumaraswamy na = not analysed/not available health, if not handled properly. however, classification of e-waste as a hazard or otherwise depends upon the extent of presence of hazardous constituents in it. chemicals such as beryllium, found in computer motherboards, and cadmium in chip resistors and semiconductors, are poisonous and can lead to cancer. chromium in floppy disks, lead in batteries and computer monitors, and, mercury in alkaline batteries and fluorescent lamps also pose severe health risks. the end effects of electronic junk (generated from obsolete computers and discarded electronic components) are disastrous to our environment and populace. second-hand computers from the west are dumped in india, most of it done illegally, by gray market operators. home to more than 1,200 foreign and domestic technology firms, bangalore figures prominently in the danger list of cities faced with e-waste hazards. as many as 1,000 tons of plastics, 300 tons of lead, 0.23 tons of mercury, 43 tons of nickel and 350 tons of copper are annually generated in bangalore through e-wastes. more than 300 small industrial units operate in metal extraction from waste and dumped computers. the waste generated from metal extraction is mostly let into sewage or stormwater drains. most of the industries, especially the information technology companies, are only vaguely aware of the problems caused by e-waste heavy metal content in crops plants absorb nutrients from soil through several mechanisms like mass flow from soil solution along with water, through exchange of ions on root surface with those adsorbed on the soil exchange complex etc. generally while absorbing, plants do not differentiate between nutrient and non-nutrient elements. because of this, crop plants grown on polluted soils become major sinks and become a gateway for entry of heavy metals into the food chain. the magnitude of absorption is largely decided by their concentration in soil, physico-chemical condition in soil and ability of plant roots to absorb. in upa, the general trend in selection of crops is in the following order: vegetables, fodder, cereals and millets, ornamental crops and fruits, of which, vegetables and fodders occupy a major area. among vegetables, shortduration leafy and succulent vegetables, root vegetables occupy the first place followed by fruit vegetables. however, food crops are least accumulators and vegetables and fodders are the highest accumulators of heavy metals. another paradox is that a major part of nutrient absorption ganeshamurthy et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 15 by crop plants is in the first half of their life cycle. hence, leafy vegetables that are harvested in the first half of their life cycle pose a potential danger with respect to heavy metal circulation in the food chain (ganeshamurthy, 2007). there is a wide variability in heavy metal content in vegetable and other crops grown on polluted soils in urban and periurban areas. the content of heavy metals in vegetables depends mainly upon concentration in soil and water, type of vegetable, season, soil type, etc. permissible levels of heavy metals in different vegetables prescribed by different agencies are given in table 5. there are significant differences in permissible levels prescribed by various organizations. reasons for such differences are not clear. however, this may be due to differences in tolerance levels of people of different origin, differences in threat perception of people, racial differences in tolerance levels, etc. levels of heavy metals generally found in common vegetables grown on different sources of wastewaters are presented in table 13. the content of metals varied with source of sewage water. city sewage and dry river bed soils helped in absorption of higher concentration of metals than did domestic sewage. however, vegetables grown using any of these waters accumulated heavy metals above the permissible levels prescribed by pfa. factual data on heavy metal content of vegetables grown on domestic sewage water are not available. the domestic source data presented in table 13 is not really of domestic campus waste-water in indian agricultural research institute, new delhi, as it might contain the waste-water generated from some labouratories of iari. hence content of heavy metals here was higher than expected. however, true domestic sewage water may not result in higher heavy metal content in vegetables. therefore, waste-water generated in small towns, if industrial activities are not high, may be used for cultivation of vegetables and other crops. among the crops grown, vegetables and fodders accumulated more heavy metals than cereals, pulses and fruits (table 14). among vegetables, leafy and root vegetables accumulated higher concentrations of metals than fruit vegetables. further data suggest that no crops grown for direct consumption by human are safe. there is a need to generate data on crops other than those eaten by human like flowers, bio-fuel plants, mulberry, timbers, etc. this would enable us to develop an entirely different land-use strategy for contaminated areas that is economically viable and socially acceptable so that entry of heavy metals into the food chain may be contained (ganeshamurthy, 2007). table 13. heavy metal content in vegetables grown on soil irrigated with various sources of waste-water vegetable kolkata sewage bangalore sewage dry river bed domestic sewage (mitra and gupta, 1954) (varalakshmi and (farroq et al, 1999) (datta et al, 2000) ganeshamurthy, 2007) cd pb ni cr cd pb ni cr cd pb ni cr cd pb ni cr cauliflower tr 70.0 tr na na na na na na na na na na na na brinjal 0.76 1.20 2.40 13.52 15.1 9.26 chilli 0.96 0.52 2.36 22.60 10.7 8.90 palak tr 68.8 9.4 2.20 4.12 6.92 28.32 5.2 34.5 13.2 13.0 radish 1.2 12.5 1.2 1.20 3.40 3.64 10.40 1.7 3.7 10.1 11.7 2.5 7.8 bottlegourd tr 0.4 na tr 0.44 2.08 4.36 9.64 8.2 107.8 1.1 2.9 19.2 8.7 pfa standard: cd = 1.5, pb = 2.5, ni = 1.5, cr = 0.1 na = not analysed/not available; tr=traces table 14. heavy metal content in different vegetable, fodder, cereal and fruit crops grown on sewage water irrigated areas of periurban bangalore metal vegetable fodder cereal `pulse fruit leafy root fruit napier rice ragi redgram citrus fe 62 1828.0 1288.0 1115 116 189 480 280 mn 38 284.0 15.0 33 35 29 150 25 cu 318 190.0 19.0 20 8 10 128 1 zn 35.0 48.0 27.0 10 26 58 28 2 pb 29 28.0 10.9 32 nd 0.5 54 98 cd 2.40 1.72 1.8 nd nd 16 nd nd cr 17.12 108.0 5.0 2 nd nd nd nd ni 5.16 12.0 56.0 15 nd 18 16 22 nd = not detected heavy metal contamination in urban and periurban agriculture j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 16 analysis of vegetables grown in different seasons showed that pb, ni and cr content was higher in the rainy season (table 15). this was due to a higher concentration of these metals in the sewage water of bangalore during the rainy season (table 15). several species of gourd and melon are grown on dry river beds along the length and breadth of the country during the dry season. the frequency and quantum of irrigation in these crops on sandy river beds is very high. if the river water near the cities is contaminated with heavy metals, as in the case of the ganga river beds (table 12), these crops accumulate very high concentrations of heavy metals, and, special attention should be paid to monitor heavy metal content in vegetables and fruits coming to the market from such sources. just as crop species differ in their capacity to absorb heavy metals, cultivars within a given crop also differ in their ability to absorb heavy metals. this difference can be exploited to identify cultivars having low absorption capacity. however, work done in this field is very limited. varalakshmi and ganeshamurthy (2007) found that the local cultivar of amaranth accumulated lower level of cd (table 16) than did cv. arka arunima. similarly, cv. arka nishanth of radish accumulated lower level of cd than cultivar pusa chatki. there is a need to intensify work to find out donor plants with lower heavy metal absorption capacity which can then be used for breeding. remediation with our current level of knowledge a permanent and foolproof method to stop entry of heavy metals into the food chain is impossible. however, methods are available to reduce intensity of the effects. heavy metal pollution can be tackled at two stages: i. treating the pollutants before their entry into the environment. ii. treating the pollutants after their entry into the environment. however, primary and secondary treatment of waste material before disposal/discharge drastically reduces the content of heavy metals in waste. raw sewage emanating from howrah was analysed before and after primary and secondary treatments (som et al, 1994) and has been found that secondary treatment considerably reduced the toxic hazards (fig 4). options are limited for containing heavy metals after their entry into the environment. pockets of highly contaminated sites like large dumpings in a small area or accidental spillage sites, childrens’ playgrounds, etc. can be cleaned up through physical excavation of soil, washing with a suitable method to remove heavy metals and by table 15. seasonal average heavy metal content of vegetables collected from periurban bangalore vegetable summer rainy season cd pb cr ni cd pb cr ni amaranth 12.52 9.04 7.96 5.40 1.12 11.60 20.68 11.32 palak 9.56 11.04 9.52 6.20 0.76 8.28 22.52 13.20 coriander 12.80 4.24 10.10 5.68 1.00 11.68 25.72 14.36 fenugreek 9.68 7.89 6.98 5.12 0.68 7.32 19.13 12.15 carrot 10.60 5.04 5.28 7.28 0.76 4.69 18.36 10.24 radish 11.40 4.92 10.56 3.08 1.00 8.80 17.64 9.92 tomato 4.52 2.72 2.52 2.72 0.36 3.52 12.20 7.16 beans 6.16 3.40 11.80 5.20 0.52 6.96 16.20 13.08 pfa standard 1.5 2.5 1.5 0.2 na na na na na = not analysed/not available table 16. cultivar differences in cd absorption capacity in some vegetables cultivar cadmium concentration (ppm) amaranth arka arunima 0.74 arka suguna 0.36 local 0.29 radish pusa chatki 1.19 japanese white long 0.93 arka nishanth 0.90 fig 4. reduction in concentration of heavy metals after primary and secondary treatment ganeshamurthy et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 17 replacement or disposal after making these areas fit for re use (usepa, 1991). use of such technologies for cleaning polluted urban and periurban agricultural soils is impossible as the volume of soil or water involved is too big and prohibitively expensive. in situ technologies would be suitable for remediation to improve soil health, contain heavy metal levels to satisfy compliance requirements and / render heavy metals unavailable for plant uptake. thus, plants grown on such soils (after treatment) would be fit for human / animal consumption, socially acceptable and economically feasible. certain amendments that alter soil ph or chelate heavy metals or precipitate/transform heavy metals into insoluble/unavailable/non-toxic form may be effective in preventing heavy metal entry into the food chain. application of lime, organic amendments like use of fym, vermicompost and heavy doses of phosphatic fertilizers and oxides of mn and fe would reduce transfer of heavy metals from the soil into plant. this lowers the concentration of heavy metals in the food and reduces phytotoxic effect on plants (hyun et al, 1998 ; impens et al, 1991; singh et al, 1989). such work is rarely found in the indian context (rattan et al, 2002). in a field study liming proved effective in decreasing the concentration of cd from 10.9 to 5.0, cu from 11.7 to 4.6, ni from 20 to 0.8 and zn from 408 to 2.8 mg kg-1 in soils that has received a one-time heavy application of sewage sludge 16 years earlier (brallier et al, 1996). liming reduced the uptake of cd, ni and zn in plants grown on such treated soils and was also useful in improving crop yield. effectiveness of liming depends upon initial soil ph, soil type and crop species. heavy metals react with phosphorus from applied phosphatic fertilizers, forming insoluble phosphates. for example, added p precipitates cd as cd 3 (po 4 ) 2 (lindsay, 1979). using this concept, phosphate rock has been used to immobilize pb on several pb contaminated soils (ma and rao, 1999). however, the quantity of phosphate rock required is abnormally high and, more so, as the ph of the soil increases. as an alternative, they suggested field application of a mixture of water soluble p with phosphate rock to reduce the requirement. mench et al (1994) showed that application of hydrous manganese oxides was more effective than lime, basic slag and hydrous iron oxides in reducing the transfer of cd and pb from contaminated soil to soil-solution and further restricted their entry into food chain via plant uptake. in a greenhouse experiment, singh et al (1989) showed that addition of lime and fym together significantly reduced dtpa extractable cd in a fatehpur loamy sand alkaline soil (table 17). this resulted in reducing the toxic effect of cd and improved the yield of wheat. two points emerge from these studies: i) as seen from the work of singh et al (1989), there is limit beyond which application of lime or fym or a combination is not effective in containing cd level to a safe limit. ii) since heavy metals remain in the system in an inactive form, it is a temporary relief and, sooner or later, the immobilized heavy metals become available for plant uptake. in the absence of data on long-term effects of such amendments, it is difficult to suggest such remedies for containing heavy metals in soils. alteration in the ratio of different cations in soil may help reduce uptake of heavy metals by plants. for example, lepp (1981) suggested that maintenance of zn : cd ratio of 100:1 in cd containing wastes helped in exclusion of cd from the food chain. garai (2000) further showed that application of zn to boro rice drastically reduced cd uptake by rice. however, care should be taken to see that while altering the ratio to reduce the uptake of one heavy metal, it should not lead to accumulation of the other. utilization of less water to produce unit biomass would reduce heavy metal input into the soil-water system from heavy metals contaminated waste-waters and their subsequent uptake by crop plants. hence, increasing water use efficiency of crops will reduce heavy metal content in crops. garai (2000) showed that judicious, intermittent pounding rather than continuous flooding injected less ‘as’ in soil because less water was used for raising the crop on ‘as’ contaminated soils in west bengal. bioremediation in recent times, interest has stirred up for finding a biological solution to the problem of heavy metal pollution. certain organisms and plants have the ability to absorb heavy metals in exceptionally large proportions compared to others. utilization of such organisms/plants to remove accumulated heavy metals from soil, water and other growth table 17. effect of lime and fym on dtpa extractable cd on alkaline soil applied cd soil amendment mg kg-1 control caco 3 fym caco 3 +fym mean 0 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.3 0.3 12.5 8.1 3.5 6.4 5.5 5.9 25 13.9 9.3 13.8 12.6 12.4 50 25.3 18.0 31.6 21.6 24.1 100 61.7 43.3 60.6 47.1 53.2 mean 21.9 14.9 22.6 17.4 cd(p = 0.05)cd = 2.6, amendment= 2.3, cd x amendment = 5.2 heavy metal contamination in urban and periurban agriculture j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 18 media is termed bioremediation. this phytotechnology using plants for clean-up of contaminated site, soil or water is known as phytoremediation. some aquatic plants absorb heavy metals from contaminated waste-waters and marshy lands (chigago et al, 1982; selvapathi and sreedhar, 1991; wolverton and mcdonald, 1978). panda (1996) showed accumulation of 5320 and 7850 mg ni kg-1 in water hyacinth and water lettuce, respectively. the corresponding values for zn were 14420 and 18040 mg kg-1(fig 5). zinc is preferentially absorbed by both the plants, with water hyacinth being more effective. vajpayee et al (1995) showed that cr rich tannery effluents can be treated with mixed cultures of some aquatics to reduce the load of cr in the effluent before discharge. some examples of aquatics that are super absorbers of cr are bacopa monnieri, hydrilla verticillata, nymphaea albahave and spirodela polirrhiza. monocultures were able to remove cr to an extent of 50 % from cr rich effluent. mixed cultures of hydrilla verticillata and spirodela polirrhiza removed 40.2, 43.0 and 45.0% from 75, 50 and 25% diluted tannery effluents in a period of 14 days (vajpayee et al,1995). if we calculate the removal of cr in absolute terms, the mixed cultures removed more cr than monocultures. phytoremediation of contaminated soils reclamation through removal of heavy metals from contaminated soils using accumulator plants is the goal of phytoremediation. as already stated, phytoremediation depends upon the ability of certain plants to absorb heavy metals in larger proportions than other plants, such that their cultivation on contaminated soils should remove heavy metals (baker et al, 1994, brown et al, 1994, 1995a, 1995b; blaylock et al, 1997; carey, 1996; chaney et al, 1997; cunningham and ow, 1996; cunningham et al, 1996; dushenkov et al, 1995; moffat, 1995; nanda kumar et al, 1995; raskin et al, 1994; rouhi, 1997; salt et al, 1995). phytoremediation requires that the target metal must be (1) available to the plant root, (2) absorbed by the roots, and (3) translocated from the root to the shoot. the metal is removed from the site by harvesting the plant material. after harvesting, the biomass is processed to either recover the metal or further concentrate the metal to facilitate disposal. plants absorb heavy metals by the same mechanisms as they absorb nutrient elements. characteristically, plants exhibit a remarkable capacity to absorb what they need and exclude what they don’t need. but most vascular plants absorb toxic and heavy metals through their roots to some extent, though to varying degrees ranging from negligible to substantial. sometimes, absorption occurs because of chemical similarities between nutrient and toxic metals. some plants utilize exclusion mechanisms, where there is a reduced uptake by the roots or restricted transport of the metal from root to shoot. but, hyperaccumulator plants absorb and concentrate metals in both roots and shoots (baker, 1981). some plant species endemic to metalliferrous soils accumulate metals in % concentrations in the leaf dry matter (brooks et al, 1977). the term ‘hyperaccumulator’ was introduced by brooks et al (1977) for plants growing on serpentine sites that are capable of concentrating ni to more than 1000 ìg g-1 (0.1 %) in their leaves on a dry matter basis. a concentration of 1000 ìg g-1 has also been used to delineate exceptional uptake of cu, co, and pb. the delineation level is raised to 10,000 ìg g-1 (1.0 %) for zn and mn because of greater background concentrations of these metals in soil. chaney et al, (1995) proposed that a viable phytoremediation technology would require breeding for improved cultivars of hyperaccumulators and development of improved agronomic practices. for species like thlaspi, for which yield is too low to support phytoremediation, bioengineering may be necessary to develop high biomass hyperaccumulating plants. they concluded that hyperaccumulator fig 5. removal of zn and ni from solution culture by water hyacinth and water lettuce ganeshamurthy et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 19 plants could be developed to remedy soils contaminated with heavy metals, and that in the near future, commercial phytoremediation will compete with engineering approaches for remediation of contaminated soils. entry et al (1996) proposed that the concentration of radionuclides in the ash of incinerated hyperaccumulators would be a more desirable outcome than mechanical methods currently employed. the concept of using hyperaccumulator plants to decontaminate industrially zinc contaminated soil was first tested at a farm managed by rothamsted experiment station in england (mcgrath et al, 1993). ten plant species were tested over four seasons. these were: thlaspi careulescens, thlaspi achroleucum, cadominopsis halleri, reynoutria sachalinense, cochlearia pyrenaica, alyssum lesbiacum, alyssum murale, raphanus sativus (radish), and brassica napus (spring rape). highest zn uptake was obtained with thlaspi careulescens, which had the potential to remove equivalent of over 40 kg zn ha-1 yr-1. baker et al (1991) conducted a pot study with soils from long-term field plots, using metal-tolerant (including hyperaccumulators) and normal plants. they concluded that phytoremediation using certain species could offer a low cost, low technology alternative to current clean-up technologies. ernst (1988) harvested plants from natural stands on several contaminated sites and came to a different conclusion. he measured relative abundance in and metal uptake by various plant species and concluded that phytoremediation was not a viable remediation technology. although hyperaccumulator plants were present on contaminated sites, these were not harvested because of their low growth and rosette characteristics. hyperaccumulation is often associated with plants with relatively slow growth rate. some plant species have lower shoot concentrations of metals but greater biomass production. for example, the natural growth pattern of thlaspi is problematic for mechanical harvesting. but silene, which accumulates metals less than thlaspi, grows more rapidly and vigorously. silene is also more capable of colonizing a contaminated site because of its seed and rhizome production. these factors would favour establishment and harvesting of silene over thlaspi (baker et al, 1994). fundamental to the environmental and economic success of phytoremediation is existence of plant genotypes that hyperaccumulate metals. to maximize metal concentration in the biomass, it will be necessary to use a combination of improved soil management inputs (e.g., optimized soil ph and mineral nutrition, minimal concentrations of interfering elements, introduction of agents that increase concentration and diffusion of metals in the soil), improved genotypes with optimized metal uptake, translocation and tolerance, and improved biomass yield (e.g., > 20 t ha-1). individualized (customized) practices may need to be developed for specific sites. distribution of hyperaccumulator plants hyperaccumulator plants are geographically distributed, are found throughout the plant kingdom and approximately 400 taxa (table 18) include representatives of many families, ranging in growth habit from annual herbs to perennial shrubs and trees. hyperaccumulator plants have been identified on all the continents, both in temperate and tropical environments. natural occurrence of hyperaccumulators for ni is recorded in new caledonia, cuba, southeast asia, brazil, southern europe and asia minor; for zn and pb in northwest europe; and cu and co in south-central africa. some families and genera are particularly well documented for ni accumlation [brassicaceae (alyssum and thlaspi), euphorbiaceae (phyllanthus and leucocroton) and asterceae (seeio and pentacalia)], for zn brassicaceae (thlaspi), and for cu and co (lamiaceae, scrophulariaceae) (baker et al, 1991; baker and brooks, 1989). there are not many cr hyperaccumulators in nature, but there are numerous ni hyperaccumulators (table 18). few cr hyperaccumulators have been identified, partly, because in nature, cr exists predominantly in the +3 oxidation state and is very insoluble, much less available for plant uptake. multi-metal accumulators the ability of a plant to hyperaccumulate any one metal may confer some ability to that plant to accumulate other metals (reeves and baker, 1984; baker et al, 1994). some metals may interact competitively for accumulation (e.g., zn and ni in calamine and serpentine soils). the number of ni hyperaccumulator taxa are over 300 in 35 table18. number of metal hyper accumulator plants metal concentration no. of taxa no. of families (% in leaf dry matter) cd >0.01 1 1 co >0.1 26 12 cu >0.1 24 11 pb >0.1 5 3 ni >0.1 >300 35 mn >1.0 8 5 zn >1.0 18 5 source: baker and brooks, 1989; hossner et al., 1998 heavy metal contamination in urban and periurban agriculture j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 20 families. these commonly have 3-4% ni in leaf dry matter but this may range as high as 25%. alyssum betolonii, which is endemic to serpentine soils, is known for its high concentration of ni (> 10,000 mg kg-1 in leaf). the fact that serpentine (ultramafic) soils also contain other elements such as cr has led to the assumption that preferential accumulation of ni in many species of alyssum is due to a selective uptake mechanism. gabbrielli et al, (1991) showed, in controlled experiments, that excised roots of alyssum bertolonii seedlings did not show selectivity for uptake of any specific metal. plant roots tend to accumulate ni, co and zn without discrimination and with the same saturation trend, demonstrating absence of competitive action between these three elements. clones of salix viminalis were also found to have high concentrations of heavy metals (cd, cu and zn) in their shoots. baker et al (1994) suggested common mechanisms of absorption and transport of several metals by thlaspi species. they observed high uptake by roots for all the metals studied. zn, cd, co, mn and ni were readily transported to the shoot, whereas, aluminum (al), cr, cu, iron (fe) and pb were predominantly immobilized in the root. reeves and baker (1984) showed that hyperaccumulator plants growing naturally in calcareous soils were able to tolerate serpentine soil and absorb elements other than ni. it was observed that when a population of thlaspi goesingense ‘halacsy’, taken from a calcareous soil, was grown on a serpentine soil, extremely high concentrations of ni, zn, co, and mn accumulated in its above-ground dry matter. absorbed metal concentrations were similar to those observed in thlaspi growing naturally in serpentine soils. indian mustard has been identified as one of the super accumulators and is extensively tested for phytoremediation (ebbs and kochian,1997; su dc wong, 2004). a large number of brassica species are grown in india. these species are of short duration and put forth a large biomass in a short period. screening of brassica species for phytoremedial properties showed that toria (brassica sp) is better than indian mustard (sumangala et al, 2007). using toria as an example we hypothetically calculated the time required for cleaning up a soil contaminated with cd and pb (table 19). the time required to reduce the cd level in the soil to safe level as recommended by pfa (5ppm cd kg-1 soil) varied from 284 years for soil having initial cd level of 50 mg kg1 soil to 2036 years in soil having initial cd level of 1000 mg kg-1 soil. similarly, it requires 50 years to clean up a soil contaminated with pb to a level of 500 mg kg-1 soil to 138 years in soil having pb concentration of 1000 mg kg-1 soil. thus, a very long period is required to clean up contaminated soils with this technology. further, the time required may still be more than estimated because uptake of metals by a plant may not remain constant as the elemental concentration keeps getting reduced. in the present calculation, moreover, only surface soil was taken into account. if subsurface soil were also to be considered, the time taken would increase further. pierzysnski et al (2000) reported that a period of 100 years was required to remove 202.5 kg ni from surface soil alone. if subsurface is also considered, the time needed would be 2-3 folds higher. moreover, handling of such a large biomass and its safe disposal, economic and social considerations will all come in the way of implementing these recommendations. hence, with the present level of knowledge and plant type available, phytoremediation is not a practical way of reducing heavy metal levels in contaminated soils. biotechnological interventions are required to tailor plants for phytoremediation to make it a viable technology. table 19. time required (years) for cleaning cd and pb contaminated soils using toria (brassica sp) level of concentration dry matter no of crops time required concentration dry matter no of crops time cd/pb in of cd in toria yield (t ha-1) to be grown to reduce soil of pb in toria yield (t ha-1) to be grown required soil to reduce soil cd to below to reduce soil to reduce cd to below permissible pb to below soil pb permissible limit permissible to below limit limit permissible limit 50 44.7 2.36 853 284 103 2.44 100 82.2 2.41 959 320 119 2.40 200 122.4 2.03 1570 523 120 2.40 500 357.9 1.18 2344 781 122 2.06 151 50 1000 407.2 0.80 6109 2036 137 1.89 414 138 safe level in soil for cd = 5ppm and pb = 200 ppm ganeshamurthy et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 21 remediation through meat animals use of biomass produced on contaminated soils to feed meat animals is reported to be a moderately effective screen against entry of heavy metals into the food chain. in a study (johnson et al, 1981), beef animals fed on a diet containing 11.5% (dry matter basis) of moderately high cd sewage sludge was fed to six hertford steers for 106 days to simulate a high sludge intake from sludge-amended soils. the sludge metal content (ppm, dry basis) was: cd, 98; hg, 18; pb, 466; cu, 1,733, and zn, 1,733. addition of sludge increased metal content of the feedlot diet to 30 to 100 times that of the control. retention of heavy metals in the total animal from sludge ingestion averaged 0.09%, 0.06% and 0.3% for cd, hg and pb; no retention was noted from cu and zn. these low fractional retentions increased tissue cd, hg and pb concentrations of liver and kidney by five to 20-fold. estimates of levels that would enter the human diet from average beef tissue consumption, if all feedlot steers were fed with sludge, are presented for cd, hg and pb (table 20). these data indicate that if all feedlot cattle in the united states ingested 1 kg of sludge containing 98 ppm cd every day for 100 days, the average daily cd intake per capita would increase by approximately 2.4 micrograms. present intake estimates, as reviewed by underwood (1977), vary from 26 mg/day from a 1969 united states survey, or 67mg /day from a 1971 canadian survey, to 50 to 15mg / day from a who report on world cd intake. some segments of the population, such as vegetarians, probably consume considerably greater amounts (braude and jelinek, 1977). pb was the only metal (of the five assayed) showing accumulations in both bone and brain tissue. the tissue with the greatest concentration of pb in the control animals was bone, with 5.0 ppm, which agrees with the general values in literature (underwood, 1977). in the sludge-fed cattle, pb concentrations were highest in kidney tissue, averaging 10.8 ppm. nevertheless, total retention or increased body content was still found overwhelmingly (>90%) in the skeleton. entry into the human diet would occur largely through liver and kidney consumption and, on an “all beef fed sludge” basis, would be expected to increase dietary pb by approximately 1.5mg/person/day. underwood (1977) has reported that long-term intake of 100mg/day would be necessary before the first clinical sign would be expected to appear in human. longer and (or) multiple exposure of the united states cow herd could result in greater body burdens than found in these experiments, and it might be argued that concentrations of even 2mg of cd may be of concern. however, data generally indicate that cattle are a moderately effective screen against entry of cd, hg and pb into the human diet. since beef is not the major meat in asian countries, there is need to generate such information for common meat sources like sheep, goat, rabbit, poultry, etc. alternative land use with the current level of knowledge, use of upa land to grow crops that supply food/fodder/vegetables or any other edible crop using any of the remediation methods available today cannot assure prevention of heavy metal entry into the food chain. as the rate of urbanization keeps increasing day after day, so does generation of waste material and pollution becomes aggravated. hence, we must look at other alternatives of using upa lands. several nonfood crops can fit well into the upa and generate remunerative income to farmers and, possibly, reduce entry of heavy metals and other toxic chemicals into the food chain. there is a huge demand for loose flowers like chrysanthemum, marigold, aster, crossandra, jasmine etc in the cities of india. all these flowers can be grown extremely well using city sewage waters and sludges as manures. sumangala et al (2007) evaluated some annual flowers for their performance in heavy metal contaminated soils and found that these plants performed well, even at soil concentrations exceeding 500 ppm of cd and pb, in terms of flower quality and yield. results on marigold crop are presented in table 21. in periurban bangalore, mulberry is grown by several farmers, the leaves of which fed to the silkworm. this has not had any adverse effect on growth of silkworms or quality of silk produced. this is a viable alternative to many indian upa areas as the climate in most of the cities is suitable for sericulture. cultivation of crops like maize, sugarcane, tapioca and others exclusively for alcohol production using effluents and sewage sludge can be promoted as an economically viable alternative to table 20. accumulation of ingested sludge cd, hg and pb in body tissue (milligrams per steer) content above control tissue cd (ppm) hg (ppm) pb (ppm) liver 5.5 0.31 4.74 kidney 2.3 0.34 1.73 bone 0.0 0.00 124.0 spleen 0.09 0.01 0.75 lung 0.35 0.03 0.11 brain 0.0 0.00 0.03 lean separable 1.23 0.47 0.00 total 9.36 1.16 131.5 % retained in tissue 0.09 0.06 0.30 heavy metal contamination in urban and periurban agriculture j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 22 increase biodiesel production. other biodiesel plants like jatropha, cimaruba and pongamia also perform well on such soils. however, there is a need to evaluate the performance of such crops in polluted soils. many timber species like sheesham, rosewood, teak, arjuna, neem, etc. can also be grown in periurban polluted soils. these can also serve as multipurpose crops like a green belt to the city, prevention of dust, creating congenial atmosphere for many animals and birds, a study spot for school children and a recreation centre for the urban lot. a detailed scientific investigation is required to evaluate crops that are suitable for upa lands, economically viable, environmentally safe and socially acceptable. environmental policies india has a wide ranging set of environmental laws that lay down norms for air, water, soil, wastes, etc. a dramatic shift in perception and approach to environment from the traditional ways of dealing with problems under various types of nuisance and municipal laws has occurred in the past two decades. people are realizing that the environment is under severe pressure, especially in the current economic development phase. the society has become an important driver and is proactive, despite having little access to information. the mass media is helping citizens to access information. the courts have also interpreted environmental protection as part of fundamental rights besides being very progressive in and cutting through embroiled political process. besides legislation of several new laws, environmental activism has been high with increasing general awareness. interpreting article 21 of the indian constitution on “right to life” to include “right to a clean and healthy environment”, the supreme court has enunciated and activated several other fundamental principles of environmental management, including “polluter pays” and the “precautionary principles” in its various judgments. soon after the stockholm convention of 1972, india embarked upon passing various acts of parliament dealing with environment. beginning with the water act in 1974, and the air act in 1981, the subsequent bhopal gas disaster led to adoption of a broad-based environment protection act (epa) of 1986 that gave the government powers not only to prosecute offenders but also to frame laws and notify standards, as and when required, for environmental conservation and preservation. some attempts at enunciating policy were also made. for example, in 1992, government of india issued the “national policy on pollution abatement” that read more like a wish-list rather than a practicable, actionable document. alongside, under the provisions of epa, several new legislations (dealing with various aspects of environment, both urban and rural ,including coastal regions, forests, industry, urban areas waste, noise) have been notified over the years. several new source standards have been made as minimum national standards, applicable throughout the country without exception. prevention of food adulteration (pfa,1954) is under revision and a revised version will be available in 2008. efforts are on to ratify multilateral environmental treaties to bring national legislation in line with international laws. effectiveness of regulations: the legislative framework is developed on the belief that a policing model is sufficient. however, it does not automatically go beyond that. despite stringent laws, it is commonly felt and accepted that environmental degradation is on the increase, contamination of soil, water and air is rising. contamination of food and ground water with heavy metals and other chemicals is alarming. in a nutshell, citizens feel that despite legislative efforts, environment of the country is in sorry state owing to “lack of implementation” of the laws. our environmental interventions are limited mainly to technical standards and compliance requirements. this approach does not help environmental improvement. table 21. performance of marigold in heavy metal treated soils concentration cadmium (cd) lead (pb) of heavy metal (ppm) no. of flower diameter yield/plant no. of flower diameter yield/plant flowers (mm) (g) flowers (mm) (g) 0 5.10 8.25 23.2 4.60 8.89 24.8 50 4.88 7.13 24.3 4.31 7.75 22.7 100 5.15 7.81 24.3 4.85 7.31 24.3 250 4.32 9.38 25.8 4.77 8.93 22.9 500 4.10 7.81 23.9 4.42 8.25 24.3 1000 5.03 7.50 23.5 4.83 9.75 21.8 ganeshamurthy et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 23 it needs to be backed up by governance, house-keeping, and education and involvement of the citizens. there is enormous need for capacity-building in this area. involvement of citizenry: environmental decision-making should involve citizenry at every step. however, little effort is made on sharing information, emphasizing transparency and access. the “right to information” act is a step forward in this direction. through this, environmental information may be more accessible, but it is still to be tested out enough. even now, it is extremely difficult for anyone to obtain information on extent and type of pollution from a neighborhood industrial unit. this demonstrates lack of recognition on the part of policy makers on impact of pollution on health of people and also their role in protecting the environment. in developed societies, where strong regulatory approach has been successful, there is a simultaneous information access and availability, which in itself has a salutary effect on keeping pollution in check. hence, in the absence of continuous data generation, monitoring and no voices of citizens being heard by the state, the issue of environmental compliance has become an arbitrary business between the regulator and the regulated leading to corruption and increased judicial and citizens activism to protect themselves from the breakdown. on the ground environmental degradation is the order of the day. new paradigm: in the light of rapid economic development, the state is trying almost literally to do away with the regulatory framework and replace it solely with a system of voluntary action and other instruments like economic and market-based incentives. the draft national policy of august 2004 on environment, which reads more like an environmental economic document, using cost-benefit as the raison d’ etre rather than what has been the trend until now, of environmental protection as an objective in itself, is a reflection of the government’s intention. key legislations which came up for review, like the coastal regulation zone act (crz) and environmental impact assessment (eia) notifications, restrict the land on which industrial activities are banned, severely controlled, or at least need to go through elaborate environmental justification and procedures for clearance. in 2003, the central pollution control board drew up a new charter of social responsibility in an attempt to woo industries to take up environmental measures more “voluntarily” since regulation was impossible. these reviews are being watched by the environmental community with horror. such moves are a reflection of the state’s intention about the industry, environmental protection and its own role in this interaction. in short, this is being read as a dismantling of the existing regulatory framework. regulatory mechanisms may not be effective in isolated cases but are essential drivers to augment other approaches, both by putting a “cap” on the level of degradation that is socially acceptable, as well as creating space for other, cleaner and more acceptable alternatives to be “viable”. they need to be augmented with other instruments and approaches, not discarded. this would imply integrating environmental policies in other sectoral and developmental policies, as well as moving towards more grass root level inputs and guidance into decision making. for example, if vegetables consumed have a high level of heavy metal concentration or pesticide residue, the remedy lies in prevention of contamination of water and soil at source by treating water before it is let into rivers, streams and drains; changing land-use in periurban areas or influencing pesticide spray practices in agriculture, improving food marketing, making hygienic retailing outlets as well as raising consumer awareness, and not in stand-alone environmental policies. also, if local panchayats have a say in such practices, the farmer can be more effectively addressed. the following case study of a problem of recent origin, briefly stated, argues the case: import of second hand computers: computerization is a part of the ‘new economy’ and is lauded as a key to development in the region. the current computer density of <5 per 1000 is likely to rise over >20 per 1000 under the new it policy of 2008. all measures to make this happen, including import of second-hand computers, are being explored and allowed in legislation and policies. as already mentioned earlier, end-of-life computers and electronic products, a major component of e-wastes, are becoming a worrying source of heavy metals and other harmful toxic substances. looking at the danger from e-wastes, europe and other developed countries have taken several policy measures calling for a change in material and ‘producer responsibility’ for recycling and final disposal. utilizing this opportunity, india is becoming a dumping ground for second-hand computers, favoured by governmental policies. regulations in the developed countries are becoming more demanding. added to it, an extremely high obsolescence rate of computers (due to new technology and softwares), falling prices and new features, old computers are sold at the price of junk and grabbed by india, whereas china has banned imports. heavy metal contamination in urban and periurban agriculture j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 24 in any legislation to follow, the effort should be to include both a regulatory framework and other objectives. there is also a need to lay special emphasis on inclusion of the existing recycling sector as another factor. such legislation must go beyond mere standards. it must encompass management practices, take back targets which are progressively increasing, efficient collection system and norms and to involve the existing informal recycling sector. such a law may have to be augmented with financial advantage and disadvantages and information transparency mandate for it to be workable. alongside, it must recognize that the role of the municipality is a key in an efficient collection system, such as has been seen in several countries. no doubt this process will take more time to evolve than a purely standard-driven system, and it also needs more negotiations. but as past experience demonstrates, it would have a higher likelihood of success (agarwal, 2006; the hindu, 2008). the key will be to balance ‘standards’ with other options. looking ahead increase in population and maintaining a cleaner environment cannot go together. pollution is bound to increase with increase in population. this is a reality and we must learn to live with it. like survival of the fittest, it is human intelligence which has to show ways to survive such adverse situations. with the present level of knowledge, a foolproof method to contain heavy metal pollution is not available. but the search for remedial measures should not stop. 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soil sci., 45: 767-769 heavy metal contamination in urban and periurban agriculture j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 1-29, 2008 48 j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 48-57, 2019 original research paper heterosis and combining ability for yield and its related traits in ridge gourd [luffa acutangula (l.)roxb.] b. varalakshmi*, m. pitchaimuthu and e. sreenivasa rao division of vegetable crops icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru 560 089, karnataka, india *e-mail: varalakshmi.b@icar.gov.in abstract line × tester analysis involving three lines and four testers was carried out in ridge gourd [luffa acutangula (roxb.) l.]. significant variation was noticed in the mean performance of the parents and hybrids for all the characters studied except for vine length and fruit girth. the results from gca and sca variance indicated the predominance of non-additive gene action for all the traits except fruit girth. significant heterosis of 177.78% over standard check, arka sumeet for fruit weight per plant was expressed by the cross garg-1 × co-1. the best general combiners were garg-1 and pusa nutan among the lines, and jaipur long and co-1 among testers. best specific combining ability effects for fruit length and yield (t/ ha) were recorded by the crosses pusa nasdar × arka sumeet and garg-1 × co-1. key words: heterosis, combining ability, gca, sca, ridge gourd. introduction ridge gourd [luffa acutangula (l.) roxb.] is a commercially important vegetable crop because it ha s good yield p otentia l a nd good medicina l pr oper ties a s well. ridge gour d ca n be grown throughout the year. it is cultivated from central and eastern asia to south-eastern asia. of late, exploita tion of hybr id vigour a nd selection of par ents on the ba sis of combining a bility ha s become c r uc ia l in cr op imp r ovement. it is a monoecious and cross pollinated crop, thus exhibits considerable heterozygosity, but does not have inbreeding depression. this results in the presence of na tur a l va r ia bility in the popula tion. t his provides sufficient scope for utilization of heterosis on c ommer c ia l s c a le whic h inc r ea s es t he production potential and productivity of ridge gourd. combining ability helps in identifying the best general and specific combiners for yield and yield contributing characters. hence the present study wa s u nder ta ken t o es tima te t he het er os is of different cross combinations and also to estimate the general and specific combining ability to identify t he b es t p er f or ming p a r ent s a nd hyb r ids respectively in ridge gourd. material and methods the experimental material comprised of 7 parents (3 lines and 4 testers) viz; garg-1, pusa nutan, pusa nasdar used as lines and four testers namely arka sumeet, arka sujat, jaipur long and co-1 and twelve f1s produced during 2013 by crossing these parents in line × tester mating design. these hybrids along with seven parents were evaluated for yield and yield related traits in randomized block design with three replications in the vegetable farm, icar-iihr, bengaluru during summer and kharif seasons of 2014-15 and 2015-16. plant to plant spacing was maintained at 50 cm and row to row was 150 cm. data were recorded on five randomly selected plants in each treatment (hybrids and parents) for ten characters viz; node number for first female flower appeara nce, days ta ken for first female flower appearance, vine length, number of branches, fruit length, fruit girth, fruit number/plant, fruit weight, fruit weight/plant and fruit yield/ha. heterosis over better parent and standard check, arka sumeet was calculated for each character and significance was tested. the covariance of half-sibs and full-sibs were used for obtaining the estimates of general and specific combining ability effects as per the procedure outlined by kempthorne (1957). 49 heterosis and combining ability in ridge gourd j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 48-57, 2019 result and discussion the mean performance of parents and hybrids for various traits has been presented in table 1. the analysis of var iance showed highly significa nt differences for all the characters studied except for vine length and fruit girth (table 2). similarly variance due to parents was also highly significant for a ll t he cha r a ct er s exc ept f or vine length indicating presence of sufficient variability among t he p a r ent s f or t he c ha r a c t er s s t u died. t he variance due to parents versus crosses differed significantly for most of the characters except for vine length, fruit girth and per fruit weight indicating the pr esence of het er osis for t he cha r a ct er s. significant differences were observed among the crosses and line × tester for all the characters except for vine length, fruit length and fruit girth. similarly narasannavar et al (2014b) observed a non-significant variance due to line × tester for vine length in r idge gourd. t he ma gnitude of variance due to sca was higher than the gca variance and also the gca : sca was less than a unity for all the characters except for fruit girth, confirming the predominance of non additive gene action indicating the exploitation of heterosis for all these characters. the findings are in conformation with ladom et al., (2009) and narasannavar et al (2014b). but the gca variance was higher than that of sca variance and also negative for fruit girth. among all the crosses it has been observed that ten crosses for node to first female flower appearance and nine crosses for days to flowering showed negative and significant heterosis over the better parent, similarly kantharaj (2003) and sarkar et al (2015) also reported the negative and significant heterosis for these characters. only one cross each for fruit length, fruit girth and fruit weight showed significant positive heterosis over the better parent value. whereas 11 crosses for number of fruits per plant and all crosses for fruit weight per plant and yield (t/ha) showed significantly positive heterosis over the better parent. these results are in confirmation with narasannavar et al (2014a), mole et al (2001), kumar et al (1999) for number of fruits per plant and fruit weight per plant. however, for vine length and number of branches there is no significant favorable heterosis over the better parent. previously kumar et al (1999) also reported non-significant heterosis for number of branches in bottle gourd. significant heterosis has been observed over the standard check, arka sumeet in ten crosses for node to first female flower appearance, eight crosses for days to first female flower appearance and all crosses for fruit number per plant, fruit weight per plant and yield (t/ha) (table 3) in the favorable direction. for fruit weight per plant and yield (t/ha) the cross garg-1 x co-1 has recorded significant standard heterosis i.e. 177.78% for fruit weight per plant and 173.22% for yield (t/ha) over the standard check arka sumeet (table 4). for node to first female flower appearance (70.61%) and days to first female flower appearance (24.48%) the cross pusa nutan x arka sujat recorded significant heterosis in favorable direction. hence, these hybrids can be exploited for commercial purpose. similarly mole et al (2001) in ridge gourd and kumar et al.,(1999) in bottle gourd reported standard heterosis for node to first female flower appearance, number of fruits per plant and fruit yield per plant. the perusal of the data on gca effects of lines indicated that garg-1 and pusa nutan were found to be best general combiner for node to first female flower appea rance, da ys to fir st female flower appearance, vine length, fruit length, fruit number per plant, per fruit weight and yield (t/ha) (table 5). t hese lines can be utilized in evolving highly productive hybrids. the significant heterotic crosses for various characters in the present study had these lines as one of the parents. among the testers jaipur long and co-1 were proved to be good general combiners for days to first female flower appearance, vine length, number of fruits per plant, per fruit weight and yield (t/ha). heterosis study also indicated the impor ta nce of these tester s beca use of their involvement in majority of the significant heterotic crosses for various characters. promising crosses based on significant sca effects and per se performance revealed that the cross pusa nutan x arka sujat was most promising for days taken for first female flower appearance. the cross garg-1 x jaipur long was promising for vine length (table 6). pusa nasdar x arka sumeet had the high sca along with superior performance for fruit length and per fruit weight (table 6 & 7). for fr uit number per plant only the cr oss 50 varalakshmi et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 48-57, 2019 v in e n um be r of fr ui t fr ui t n um be r fr ui t y ie ld / pa re nt s / h yb ri ds n ff d ff le ng th br an ch es / le ng th gi rt h of fr ui ts / w ei gh t pl an t (c m ) pl an t (c m ) (c m ) pl an t (g ) (k g) g a r g -1 5. 83 54 .3 0 33 5. 00 8. 00 28 .3 0 15 .9 7 3. 33 18 0. 80 0. 60 pu sa n ut an 3. 80 50 .4 0 18 0. 67 7. 67 27 .9 3 15 .2 7 3. 50 15 1. 27 0. 50 pu sa n as da r 10 .8 7 62 .1 0 30 8. 33 7. 00 27 .2 0 13 .2 7 3. 33 18 4. 37 0. 60 a rk a su m ee t 11 .0 0 58 .0 0 28 3. 00 9. 33 34 .8 0 15 .6 0 3. 43 26 7. 90 0. 90 a rk a su ja t 12 .3 3 73 .3 3 28 2. 67 9. 00 27 .3 3 14 .9 3 5. 27 18 3. 10 0. 97 ja ip ur l on g 6. 10 56 .8 3 29 4. 00 11 .0 0 23 .3 3 12 .4 0 6. 93 15 7. 07 1. 13 c o -1 13 .8 3 62 .5 0 32 2. 33 7. 00 28 .6 0 13 .2 0 5. 77 22 4. 53 1. 27 g a r g -1 × a rk a su m ee t 6. 37 49 .8 3 26 4. 67 5. 33 30 .6 0 15 .4 0 14 .4 0 14 9. 87 2. 10 g a r g -1 × a rk a su ja t 6. 17 53 .3 3 28 2. 67 7. 00 26 .8 7 14 .5 3 8. 17 16 5. 90 1. 33 g a r g -1 × j ai pu r l on g 7. 10 53 .6 7 34 9. 00 8. 33 27 .9 3 13 .0 7 11 .0 0 19 2. 70 2. 10 g a r g -1 × c o -1 6. 33 56 .6 0 28 5. 00 6. 33 30 .5 3 14 .5 3 11 .7 3 21 4. 73 2. 50 pu sa n ut an × a rk a su m ee t 5. 77 49 .1 0 23 3. 00 5. 00 32 .5 3 13 .2 7 9. 00 21 1. 07 1. 90 pu sa n ut an × a rk a su ja t 3. 23 43 .8 0 21 7. 00 6. 33 34 .7 3 13 .9 3 10 .2 3 17 6. 73 1. 80 pu sa n ut an × j ai pu r l on g 7. 60 52 .9 7 25 6. 67 7. 67 32 .3 3 14 .1 3 12 .2 7 17 1. 77 2. 10 pu sa n ut an × c o -1 7. 20 53 .0 7 18 3. 33 4. 00 32 .0 0 14 .1 3 9. 87 19 6. 73 1. 93 pu sa n as da r × a rk a su m ee t 7. 90 53 .6 0 25 1. 33 8. 33 36 .8 7 15 .0 7 5. 57 26 1. 77 1. 50 pu sa n as da r × a rk a su ja t 9. 60 58 .8 3 32 4. 33 6. 33 29 .9 3 14 .6 3 6. 07 21 8. 30 1. 30 pu sa n as da r × j ai pu r l on g 7. 53 56 .0 7 26 7. 00 7. 67 29 .7 3 15 .1 7 10 .5 0 18 6. 73 1. 97 pu sa n as da r × c o -1 9. 70 59 .8 3 28 2. 33 8. 33 31 .2 0 15 .7 3 8. 30 22 2. 30 1. 83 m ea n va lu e of p ar en ts 9. 11 59 .6 4 28 6. 57 8. 43 28 .2 1 14 .3 8 4. 51 19 2. 72 0. 85 m ea n va lu e of h yb ri ds 7. 04 53 .3 9 26 6. 36 6. 72 31 .2 7 14 .4 7 9. 76 19 7. 38 1. 86 s. e m + /1. 02 1. 93 40 .0 1 0. 90 2. 19 0. 92 0. 68 13 .4 1 0. 13 c d ( p= 0. 05 ) 2. 92 5. 55 11 4. 75 2. 58 6. 28 2. 63 1. 94 38 .4 8 0. 37 n ot e: n ff : no de n um be r fo r fi rs t fe m al e flo w er a pp ea ra nc e, d ff : da ys t ak en f or f irs t fe m al e fl ow er a pp ea ra nc e ta bl e 1. p er s e pe rf or m an ce o f pa re nt s, t he ir h yb ri ds f or y ie ld a nd r el at ed t ra its 51 j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 48-57, 2019 heterosis and combining ability in ridge gourd ta bl e 2. m ea n su m o f sq ua re s fo r te n qu an tit at iv e ch ar ac te rs i n l × t a na ly si s in r id ge g ou rd   c ha ra ct er s r ep lic at io ns g en ot yp e c ro ss es pa re nt s pa re nt s v s l in es te st er s l x t e rr or c ro ss es   df 2 18 11 6 1 2 3 6 36 1 n ff 0. 56 23 .1 7* * 8. 94 ** 43 .6 7* * 56 .7 1* * 25 .1 3* * 3. 79 n s 6. 12 * 3. 10 2 d ff 21 .8 5 11 8. 45 ** 57 .8 3* * 16 3. 10 ** 51 7. 43 ** 16 2. 08 ** 56 .4 8* * 23 .7 6* 11 .2 3 3 v ei n le ng th ( cm ) 45 11 .9 1 65 04 .5 3n s 59 52 .1 5n s 76 98 .4 1n s 54 17 .4 3n s 17 90 9. 19 ** 36 29 .2 9n s 31 27 .9 0n s 48 01 .6 5 4 n um be r of b ra nc h 1. 91 7. 98 ** 6. 11 ** 6. 30 ** 38 .6 2* * 11 .0 3* * 5. 67 * 4. 69 * 2. 43 5 fr ui t l en gt h (c m ) 30 .4 8 32 .1 4* 22 .4 3n s 34 .6 2* 12 4. 04 ** 49 .9 6* * 19 .3 4n s 14 .8 0n s 14 .3 6 6 fr ui t g ir th (c m ) 6. 82 3. 16 n s 1. 98 n s 5. 82 * 0. 11 n s 5. 00 * 0. 76 n s 1. 59 n s 2. 53 7 fr ui t n um be r/ pl an t 0. 89 34 .2 1* * 19 .2 3* * 6. 49 ** 36 5. 40 ** 44 .5 0* * 14 .5 9* * 13 .1 2* * 1. 38 8 fr ui t w ei gh t ( g) 10 92 .4 3 33 68 .9 3* * 27 70 .7 3* * 49 79 .0 2* * 28 8. 54 n s 57 81 .8 7* * 17 72 .2 6* * 22 66 .2 4* * 53 9. 88 9 fr ui t w ei gh t/p la nt 0. 09 1. 06 ** 0. 36 ** 0. 26 ** 13 .5 7* * 0. 43 ** 0. 71 ** 0. 16 ** 0. 05 10 fr ui t y ie ld ( t/h a) 15 .2 2 18 5. 92 ** 65 .0 1* * 43 .4 2* * 23 70 .9 6* * 76 .3 0* * 12 6. 01 ** 30 .7 4* * 8. 47 n ot e: n ff : no de n um be r fo r fi rs t fe m al e flo w er a pp ea ra nc e, d ff : da ys t ak en f or f ir st f em al e flo w er a pp ea ra nc e 52 j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 48-57, 2019 varalakshmi et al ta bl e 3. h et er ob el ti os is o f th e pr om is in g cr os se s in r id ge g ou rd v in e n um be r of fr ui t fr ui t n um be r of fr ui t y ie ld / fr ui t c ro ss n ff d ff le ng th br an ch es / le ng th gi rt h fr ui ts / w ei gh t pl an t yi el d (c m ) p la nt (c m ) (c m ) p la nt (g ) (k g) (t /h a) g a r g -1 × a rk a su m ee t -4 2. 12 ** -1 4. 08 ** -2 1 -4 2. 86 ** -1 2. 07 -3 .5 5 31 9. 42 ** -4 4. 06 ** 13 3. 33 ** 13 0. 06 ** g a r g -1 × a rk a su ja t -5 0* * -2 7. 27 ** -1 5. 62 -2 2. 22 * -5 .0 7 -8 .9 8 55 .0 6* * -9 .3 9 37 .9 3* 36 .8 8* g a r g -1 × j ai pu r l on g 16 .3 9 -5 .5 7 4. 18 -2 4. 24 ** -1 .3 -1 8. 16 ** 58 .6 5* * 6. 58 85 .2 9* * 91 .5 3* * g a r g -1 × c o -1 -5 4. 22 ** -9 .4 4* * -1 4. 93 -2 0. 83 6. 76 -8 .9 8 10 3. 47 ** -4 .3 7 97 .3 7* * 93 .0 5* * pu sa n ut an × a s um ee t -4 7. 58 ** -1 5. 35 ** -1 7. 67 -4 6. 43 ** -6 .5 1 -1 4. 96 * 15 7. 14 ** -2 1. 21 ** 11 1. 11 ** 10 7. 38 ** pu sa n ut an × a rk a su ja t -7 3. 78 ** -4 0. 27 ** -2 3. 23 -2 9. 63 ** 24 .3 4* * -8 .7 3 94 .3 ** -3 .4 8 86 .2 1* * 87 .5 3* * pu sa n ut an × j ai pu r l on g 24 .5 9 -6 .8 -1 2. 7 -3 0. 3* * 15 .7 5 -7 .4 2 76 .9 2* * 9. 36 85 .2 9* * 92 .9 1* * pu sa n ut an × c o 1 -4 7. 95 ** -1 5. 09 ** -4 3. 12 ** -4 7. 83 ** 11 .8 9 -7 .4 2 71 .1 ** -1 2. 38 52 .6 3* * 49 .8 1* * pu sa n as da r × a rk a su m ee t -2 8. 18 ** -1 3. 69 ** -1 8. 49 -1 0. 71 5. 94 -3 .4 2 62 .1 4* * -2 .2 9 66 .6 7* * 60 .6 6* * pu sa n as da r × a rk a su ja t -2 2. 16 * -1 9. 77 ** 5. 19 -2 9. 63 ** 9. 51 -2 .0 1 15 .1 9 18 .4 1* 34 .4 8* 37 .4 * pu sa n as da r × ja ip ur l on g -3 0. 68 ** -9 .7 2* * -1 3. 41 -3 0. 3* * 9. 31 14 .3 2 51 .4 4* * 1. 28 73 .5 3* * 79 .1 8* * pu sa n as da r × c o -1 -2 9. 88 ** -4 .2 7 -1 2. 41 19 .0 5 9. 09 18 .5 9* 43 .9 3* * -1 44 .7 4* * 42 .2 8* * n ot e: n ff : no de n um be r fo r fi rs t fe m al e flo w er a pp ea ra nc e, d ff : da ys t ak en f or f irs t fe m al e fl ow er a pp ea ra nc e 53 j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 48-57, 2019 heterosis and combining ability in ridge gourd ta bl e 4. s ta nd ar d he te ro si s of t he p ro m is in g cr os se s in r id ge g ou rd v in e n um be r of fr ui t fr ui t n um be r of fr ui t y ie ld / fr ui t c ro ss n ff d ff le ng th br an ch es / le ng th gi rt h fr ui ts / w ei gh t pl an t yi el d (c m ) p la nt (c m ) (c m ) p la nt (g ) (k g) (t /h a) g a r g -1 × a rk a su m ee t -4 2. 12 ** -1 4. 08 ** -6 .4 8 -4 2. 86 ** -1 2. 07 -1 .2 8 31 9. 42 ** -4 4. 06 ** 13 3. 33 ** 13 0. 06 ** g a r g -1 × a rk a su ja t -4 3. 94 ** -8 .0 5* -0 .1 2 -2 5* -2 2. 8* * -6 .8 4 13 7. 86 ** -3 8. 07 ** 48 .1 5* * 43 .9 9* * g a r g -1 × j ai pu r l on g -3 5. 46 ** -7 .4 7* 23 .3 2 -1 0. 71 -1 9. 73 ** -1 6. 24 * 22 0. 39 ** -2 8. 07 ** 13 3. 33 ** 12 8. 69 ** g a r g -1 × c o -1 -4 2. 42 ** -2 .4 1 0. 71 -3 2. 14 ** -1 2. 26 -6 .8 4 24 1. 75 ** -1 9. 85 ** 17 7. 78 ** 17 3. 22 ** pu sa n ut an × a s um ee t -4 7. 58 ** -1 5. 35 ** -1 7. 67 -4 6. 43 ** -6 .5 1 -1 4. 96 * 16 2. 14 ** -2 1. 21 ** 11 1. 11 ** 10 7. 38 ** pu sa n ut an × a rk a su ja t -7 0. 61 ** -2 4. 48 ** -2 3. 32 -3 2. 14 ** -0 .1 9 -1 0. 68 19 8. 06 ** -3 4. 03 ** 10 0* * 97 .2 7* * pu sa n ut an × j ai pu r l on g -3 0. 91 ** -8 .6 8* -9 .3 1 -1 7. 86 -7 .0 9 -9 .4 25 7. 28 ** -3 5. 88 ** 13 3. 33 ** 13 0. 33 ** pu sa n ut an × c o 1 -3 4. 55 ** -8 .5 1* -3 5. 22 * -5 7. 14 ** -8 .0 5 -9 .4 18 7. 38 ** -2 6. 57 ** 11 4. 82 ** 11 2. 02 ** pu sa n as da r × a rk a su m ee t -2 8. 18 ** -7 .5 9* -1 1. 19 -1 0. 71 5. 94 -3 .4 2 62 .1 4* * -2 .2 9 66 .6 7* * 60 .6 6* * pu sa n as da r × a rk a su ja t -1 2. 73 1. 44 14 .6 1 -3 2. 14 ** -1 3. 99 * -6 .2 76 .7 ** -1 8. 51 ** 44 .4 4* * 44 .5 4* * pu sa n as da r × ja ip ur l on g -3 1. 52 ** -3 .3 3 -5 .6 5 -1 7. 86 -1 4. 56 * -2 .7 8 20 5. 83 ** -3 0. 3* * 11 8. 52 ** 11 3. 93 ** pu sa n as da r × c o -1 -1 1. 82 3. 16 -0 .2 4 -1 0. 71 -1 0. 35 0. 86 14 1. 75 ** -1 7. 02 ** 10 3. 7* * 10 1. 37 ** n ot e: n ff : no de n um be r fo r fi rs t fe m al e flo w er a pp ea ra nc e, d ff : da ys t ak en f or f irs t fe m al e fl ow er a pp ea ra nc e 54 j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 48-57, 2019 varalakshmi et al ta bl e 5. e st im at es o f ge ne ra l co m bi ni ng a bi lit y ef fe ct s of s ev en p ar en ts f or 1 0 qu an tit at iv e ch ar ac te rs i n l × t a na ly si s v in e n um be r of fr ui t fr ui t n um be r of fr ui t y ie ld / fr ui t pa re nt s n ff d ff le ng th br an ch es / le ng th gi rt h fr ui ts / w ei gh t pl an t yi el d (c m ) p la nt (c m ) (c m ) p la nt (g ) (k g) (t /h a) l in es g a r g -1 -0 .5 5 -0 .0 3 28 .9 7* * 0. 03 -2 .2 9* * -0 .0 8 1. 57 ** -1 6. 58 ** 0. 14 1. 88 ** pu sa n ut an -1 .0 9* -3 .6 6* * -4 3. 86 ** -0 .9 7 1. 63 ** -0 .6 0 .5 8 -8 .3 1* * 0. 07 0 .9 9 pu sa n as da r 1. 64 ** 3. 69 ** 14 .8 9* * 0. 94 0. 66 0. 68 -2 .1 5* * 24 .8 9* * -0 .2 1 -2 .8 7* * se m ± 0. 51 0. 97 20 .0 0 0. 45 1. 09 0. 46 0 .3 4 6. 71 0. 06 0 .8 4 te st er s a rk a su m ee t -0 .3 6 -2 .5 5* * -1 6. 69 ** -0 .5 2. 06 ** 0. 11 -0 .1 10 .1 8* * -0 .0 3 0. 52 a rk a su ja t -0 .7 1 -1 .4 0* 8. 31 ** -0 .1 7 -0 .7 6 -0 .1 -1 .6 ** -1 0. 41 ** -0 .3 9 -5 .0 9* * ja ip ur l on g 0. 37 0. 84 24 .5 3* * 1. 17 -1 .2 7* -0 .3 4 1. 5* -1 3. 65 ** 0. 19 2. 53 ** c o -1 0. 70 3. 11 ** -1 6. 14 ** -0 .5 -0 .0 3 0. 33 0. 21 13 .8 7* * 0. 23 3. 08 ** se m ± 0 .5 9 1. 12 23 .1 0 0. 52 1. 26 0. 53 0. 39 7 .7 5 0. 07 0. 97 n ot e: n ff : no de n um be r fo r fi rs t fe m al e flo w er a pp ea ra nc e, d ff : da ys t ak en f or f irs t fe m al e fl ow er a pp ea ra nc e 55 j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 48-57, 2019 heterosis and combining ability in ridge gourd ta bl e 6. e st im at es o f sp ec ifi c co m bi ni ng a bi lit y ef fe ct s of 1 2 cr os se s fo r 10 q ua nt ita tiv e ch ar ac te rs i n l × t a na ly si s v in e n um be r of fr ui t fr ui t n um be r of fr ui t y ie ld / fr ui t c ro ss n ff d ff le ng th br an ch es / le ng th gi rt h fr ui ts / w ei gh t pl an t yi el d (c m ) p la nt (c m ) (c m ) p la nt (g ) (k g) (t /h a) g a r g -1 × a rk a su m ee t 0. 24 -0 .9 8 -1 3. 97 ** -0 .9 2 -0 .4 4 0. 91 3. 18 ** -4 1. 12 ** 0. 12 1. 87 g a r g -1 × a rk a su ja t 0. 38 1. 38 -2 0. 97 ** 0. 42 -1 .3 6 0. 25 -1 .5 6 -4 .4 9* * -0 .2 9 -4 .0 6* * g a r g -1 × j ai pu r l on g 0. 24 -0 .5 3 29 .1 4* * 0. 42 0. 22 -0 .9 7 -1 .8 2 25 .5 5* * -0 .1 -1 .3 4 g a r g -1 × c o -1 -0 .8 6 0. 13 5. 81 ** 0. 08 1. 58 -0 .1 8 0. 2 20 .0 6* * 0. 27 3. 54 ** pu sa n ut an × a s um ee t 0. 18 1. 91 27 .1 9* * -0 .2 5 -2 .4 3* -0 .7 1 -1 .2 4 11 .8 1* * 0 -0 .0 1 pu sa n ut an × a rk a su ja t -2 .0 1 -4 .5 3* * -1 3. 81 ** 0. 75 2. 59 * 0. 17 1. 49 -1 .9 4 0. 25 3. 32 ** pu sa n ut an × j ai pu r l on g 1. 28 2. 39 * 9. 64 ** 0. 75 0. 71 0. 61 0. 43 -3 .6 6* * -0 .0 3 -0 .2 6 pu sa n ut an × c o 1 0. 55 0. 23 -2 3. 03 ** -1 .2 5 -0 .8 7 -0 .0 7 -0 .6 8 -6 .2 1* * -0 .2 3 -3 .0 5* * pu sa n as da r × a rk a su m ee t -0 .4 2 -0 .9 4 -1 3. 22 ** 1. 17 2. 87 ** -0 .1 9 -1 .9 4 29 .3 1* * -0 .1 2 -1 .8 6 pu sa n as da r × a rk a su ja t 1. 63 3. 15 ** 34 .7 8* * -1 .1 7 -1 .2 4 -0 .4 2 0. 06 6. 43 ** 0. 04 0. 74 pu sa n as da r × ja ip ur l on g -1 .5 2 -1 .8 6 -3 8. 78 ** -1 .1 7 -0 .9 3 0. 36 1. 39 -2 1. 89 ** 0. 13 1. 6 pu sa n as da r × c o -1 0. 31 -0 .3 6 17 .2 2* * 1. 17 -0 .7 1 0. 25 0. 48 -1 3. 85 ** -0 .0 4 -0 .4 9 se m ± 1. 02 1. 93 40 .0 1 0. 90 2. 19 0. 92 0. 68 13 .4 1 0. 13 1. 68 n ot e: n ff : no de n um be r fo r fi rs t fe m al e flo w er a pp ea ra nc e, d ff : da ys t ak en f or f ir st f em al e flo w er a pp ea ra nc e 56 j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 48-57, 2019 varalakshmi et al ta bl e 7. b es t cr os se s ba se d on s c a e ff ec ts a nd p er s e pe rf or m an ce i n ri dg e go ur d   c ro ss sc a pe r se p er fo rm an ce ( m ea n) d ay s to f lo w er in g pu sa n ut an × a rk a su ja t -4 .5 3* * 43 .8 0 v ei n le ng th ( cm ) g a r g -1 × j ai pu r l on g 29 .1 4* * 34 9. 00 pu sa n as da r × a rk a su ja t 34 .7 8* * 32 4. 33 g a r g -1 × c o -1 5. 81 ** 28 5. 00 fr ui t l en gt h (c m ) pu sa n as da r × a rk a su m ee t 2. 87 ** 36 .8 7 pu sa n ut an × a rk a su ja t 2. 59 * 34 .7 3 fr ui t n um be r/ pl an t g a r g -1 × a rk a su m ee t 3. 18 ** 14 .4 0 fr ui t w ei gh t ( g) pu sa n as da r × a rk a su m ee t 29 .3 1* * 26 1. 77 g a r g -1 × c o -1 20 .0 6* * 21 4. 73 pu sa n ut an × a s um ee t 11 .8 1* * 21 1. 07 g a r g -1 × j ai pu r l on g 25 .5 5* * 19 2. 70 fr ui t y ie ld ( t/h a) g a r g -1 × c o -1 3. 54 ** 33 .3 3 pu sa n ut an × a rk a su ja t 3. 32 ** 24 .0 7 57 (ms received 19 march 2019, revised 18 june 2019, accepted 25 june 2019) j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 48-57, 2019 heterosis and combining ability in ridge gourd g ar g 1 x c o 1 ha d high s c a a long wit h superior performance for the yield (t/ha). these crosses can be directly utilized for improvement of t hes e c ha r a c ter s t hr ough t he exp loita t ion of heterosis or can be exploited for the development of bett er t r a nsgr ess ive s egr ega nt s , sinc e the parents pusa nutan, garg-1, jaipur long and co-1 involved in these crosses also exhibited high g c a. s imil a r r es u lt s wer e r e p or t ed b y narasannavar et al (2014b), niyaria and bhalala (2001), mole et al (2001), sarkar et al (2015), lodam et al (2009) and tyagi et al (2010). references kantharaj, n. m., 2003, studies on heterosis and combining a bility in r idge gour d (luffa acutangula (roxb. ) l. ). m. sc. (hort. ) thesis, univ. agr ic. sci. , dha r wa d (india).­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ kempthorne, o., 1957, an introduction to genetic statistics. john wiley and sons., inc., new york, 458-471. kumar, s., singh, s.p. and jaiswal, r. c., 1999. heterosis over mid and top parent under the line x tester fashion in bottle gourd (lagenaria siceraria (molina) standl.). vegetable science 26(1): 30-32. lodam, v.a., desai, d.t., khandelwal, v. and patil, p.p. 2009. combining ability analysis in ridge gourd (luffa acutangula l.). vegetable science 36(1): 113-115 mole, t. j. , nir ma la devi s. , ra ja n, s. a nd sadha nkuma r, p. g. , 2001. heter osis and combining a bility in r idge gour d (luffa acutangula roxb.). vegetable science 28(2): 165-167 narasannavar, a. r., gasti, v. d., shantappa, t., mulge, r., allolli, t. b. and thammaiah, n., 2014. heterosis studies in ridge gourd [luffa acutangula (l.) roxb.]. karnataka journal of agricultural sciences, 27 (1): 47-51 narasannavar, a., gasti, v. d., sridhar, sheela malghan, & kumara b. r. 2014. gene action and combining ability analysis for yield and yield-related traits in ridge gourd [luffa acutangula (l.) roxb.]. global journal of science frontier research (d). 14 (10) version 1, online issn: 2249-4626 & print issn: 0975-5896 (page 21-26). niyaria, r. and bhalala, m. k. 2001. heterosis and combining ability in ridge gourd. indian j. plant genet. resour. 14: 101-102. sarkar, m., dinesh kumar singh, mani lohani, abhijit kuma r da s a nd sa nka lpa ojha , 2015. exploitation of heterosis and combining ability for earliness and vegetative traits in ridge gour d [luffa acutangula (roxb. ) l. ]. international journal of agriculture, environment and biotechnology . 8 (1): 153161 tyagi, s. v. s., pankaj sharma, siddiqui, s. a. and khandelwal, r. c., 2010. combining ability for yield a nd fr uit qua lity in luffa. international journal of vegetable science 16:3, 267-277 00 contents.pdf 01. rms copy 62(17) gauva.marketing & phl-pinflesh.pdf 02. rms copy 63(17) soft wood grafting – a novel and rapid multiplication technique in coorg mandarin (citrus reticulata blanco).pdf 03. rms copy 25(18) evaluation of solanum species and eggplant cultivated varieties for bacterial wilt resistance.pdf 04. rms 18(18).pdf 05. rms_ii _24_18.pdf 06. rms copy 26 (18) metabolite paper-edited_04.05.2019.pdf 07. rms copy 1(19).pdf 08. rms copy 2(19) revised heterosi and combining effects ridge gourd 2019.pdf 09. rms copy 5(19) digital repository revised.pdf s1. rms 45(17) effect of trichomes in cowpea on infestation by spotted pod borer.pdf s2. rms copy 65(17) performance of anthurium (anthurium andreanum lind) cultivars in hill zone of.pdf s3. rms copy 2(18) langsat paper revised.pdf s4. rms 3(19) mineral content of red skinned potatoes of eastern india-revised.pdf sph -jhs coverpage jun 2019 issue 14(1).pdf page 3 page 4 sph -jhs coverpage jun 2019 issue 14(1).pdf page 1 page 2 tomato (lycopersicon esculentum mill.) is one of the most popular vegetables grown all over the world. it is a rich source of minerals, vitamins and organic acids and is universally treated as “protective food”. for realizing higher yields and quality produce, soil health is a critical factor. therefore, chemical fertilizers must be integrated with organic manures such as, fym, crop residues and green manures which are renewable and eco friendly to achieve sustainable productivity with minimum deleterious effects of chemical fertilizers on soil health and environment. the yield per unit area can be increased along with the improvement of its quality through the balanced application of organic and inorganic fertilizers in proper combination. therefore the present investigation was undertaken to find out the optimum dose and best combination of organic manures and inorganic fertilizers for obtaining higher yield of tomato. the field experiment was conducted at the vegetable experimental farm of the division of olericulture, sher-e-kashmir university of agricultural sciences and technology of kashmir, shalimar during kharif 2002 and 2003.the climate at the experimental site is temperate characterized by mild summers and very cold winters. the soil is clay loam having organic carbon (1.724%), ph (7.0), available n (228.0 kg/ ha), available p effect of organic manures and inorganic fertilizers on fruit yield of tomato s. narayan, n. ahmed, r. narayan, shahnaz mufti and rakshanda bhat division of olericulture s. k. university of agricultural sciences and technology of kashmir shalimar, srinagar-191 121 (j&k), india abstract treatments with organic manure, inorganic fertilizers and their combinations showed significant differences for fruit yield and yield attributing traits. among the treatments, application of 20 t fym/ ha along with full dose of recommended npk i.e. 150:60:60 kg npk / ha recorded the highest fruit yield of 428.32 and 530.55 q/ ha during the year 2002 and 2003, respectively with grand mean fruit yield of 479.43 q/ ha. this treatment was on par with 40 tonnes fym + ½ dose of recommended npk during 2002 and 2003, which recorded mean fruit yield of 456.17 q/ ha. both these treatments were significantly superior to recommended inorganic npk fertilizer treatment (435.57 q/ ha) as well as to application of different doses of organic manure alone such as fym and green manure, indicating that integration of both organic manures and inorganic fertilizers are important for obtaining higher fruit yield in tomato. addition of organic manure besides having favourable effect on crop yield was also found to be better in maintaining soil health and growth of succeeding crop. key words: fruit yield, inorganic fertilizers, organic manures, tomato short communication (20.67 kg/ ha), available k (156.8 kg/ ha) and electric conductivity (0.16 dsm-1). the experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications at a spacing of 60 x 30cm. nine treatments of organic manures, inorganic fertilizers and their combinations i.e. fym 40t / ha, fym 20t / ha, green manures with cowpea @ 5t / ha, recommended npk (150:60:60kg / ha), ½ recommended npk, fym 40t / ha + ½ recommended npk, fym 20t / ha + ½ recommended npk, fym 20t / ha + full recommended npk and green manuring + ½ recommended npk were tried on tomato cv. shalimar –ii. the data on growth and yield were recorded from 10 randomly selected plants of each treatment and data analyzed statistically as per standard procedures. treatments exhibited significant differences for fruit yield and yield attributing traits. among the treatments, application of 20t fym along with full dose of recommended npk (150:60:60 kg/ ha) recorded the highest fruit yield of 428.32 and 530.55 q/ ha during the year 2002 and 2003, respectively with the grand mean fruit yield of 479.43q / ha. this treatment was at par with 40t fym + ½ dose of recommended npk during 2002 and 2003 which recorded mean fruit yield of 456.17q / ha. both these treatments were significantly superior to recommended inorganic npk fertilizer treatment (435.57q / ha) as well j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 72-74, 2008 page 72 73 t ab le 1 . r es p on se o f or ga n ic m an u re s v/ s in or ga n ic f er ti li ze rs o n f ru it y ie ld o f to m at o cv . s h al im ar -i i s .n o t re at m en ts p la n t h ei g h t( cm ) n o . o f fr u it s/ p la n t a v. f ru it w ei g h t (g ) y ie ld ( q / h a) t .s .s 0 b ri x 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 2 m ea n 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 2 m ea n 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 2 m ea n 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 2 m ea n 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 2 m ea n 0 2 0 3 0 2 0 3 0 2 0 3 0 2 0 3 0 2 0 3 1 . a p p li ca ti o n 3 8 .4 0 3 7 .8 0 3 8 .1 0 2 1 .1 3 1 8 .1 0 1 9 .6 1 3 0 .1 1 3 9 .5 9 3 4 .8 5 3 5 3 .3 5 3 9 8 .1 4 3 7 5 .7 4 4 .1 7 3 .6 6 3 .9 1 o f f y m @ 4 0 t h a1 2 . a p p li ca ti o n 3 7 .4 0 3 4 .0 6 3 5 .7 3 1 9 .9 3 1 0 .8 7 1 5 .4 0 2 9 .1 6 5 3 .0 5 4 1 .1 0 3 2 2 .8 0 3 2 0 .3 7 3 2 1 .5 8 4 .1 7 3 .6 6 3 .9 1 o f f y m @ 2 0 t h a1 3 . g re en m an u ri n g 3 8 .3 7 3 6 .9 3 3 7 .6 5 1 9 .4 7 1 6 .8 7 1 8 .1 7 3 1 .7 1 3 8 .5 3 3 5 .1 2 3 4 2 .9 3 3 6 1 .1 1 3 5 2 .0 2 4 .3 3 4 .0 0 4 .1 6 4 . a p p li ca ti o n 4 1 .2 0 4 7 .4 6 4 4 .3 3 2 1 .4 0 2 0 .2 7 2 0 .8 3 3 3 .8 8 4 1 .6 0 3 7 .7 4 4 0 2 .6 3 4 6 8 .5 2 4 3 5 .5 7 4 .3 3 4 .3 3 4 .3 3 o f r f d n p k (1 5 0 :6 0 :6 0 ) h a1 5 . a p p li ca ti o n 3 9 .2 7 4 0 .3 3 3 9 .8 0 1 8 .9 3 1 4 .1 3 1 6 .5 3 3 0 .0 4 3 6 .3 3 3 3 .1 8 3 1 5 .8 6 2 8 5 .1 8 3 1 8 .5 2 4 .1 7 3 .6 6 3 .9 1 o f ½ r f d n p k 6 . a p p li ca ti o n o f 3 9 .5 3 4 0 .8 0 4 0 .1 6 2 2 .4 0 2 2 .6 7 2 2 .5 3 3 4 .0 4 3 8 .8 2 3 6 .4 3 4 2 3 .4 6 4 8 8 .8 8 4 5 6 .1 7 4 .0 0 4 .0 0 4 .0 0 f y m @ 4 0 t h a1 + ½ r f d o f n p k 7 . a p p li ca ti o n o f 3 9 .0 3 4 0 .0 0 3 9 .5 1 2 1 .2 7 1 9 .4 0 2 0 .3 3 3 2 .1 5 3 8 .3 2 3 5 .2 3 3 7 9 .7 3 4 1 2 .9 6 3 9 6 .3 4 4 .3 3 3 .3 3 3 .8 3 f y m @ 2 0 t h a1 + ½ ½ r f d o f n p k 8 . a p p li ca ti o n o f 4 3 .2 7 5 0 .8 6 4 7 .0 6 2 4 .0 0 2 3 .8 7 2 3 .9 3 3 2 .1 3 4 0 .0 1 3 6 .0 7 4 2 8 .3 2 5 3 0 .5 5 4 7 9 .4 3 4 .1 7 3 .3 3 3 .7 5 f y m @ 2 0 t h a1 + fu ll r f d o f n p k 9 . g re en m an u ri n g + 4 0 .2 0 4 4 .4 6 4 2 .3 3 2 1 .0 0 1 7 .3 3 1 9 .1 6 3 0 .1 8 4 3 .2 8 3 6 .7 3 3 5 1 .9 6 4 1 6 .6 6 3 8 4 .3 1 4 .1 7 3 .3 3 3 .7 5 ap p li ca ti o n o f ½ r f d o f n p k c d ( p = 0 .0 5 ) 0 .8 5 1 n s 0 .8 5 2 .0 2 2 .0 7 2 .0 4 1 .7 6 2 .3 7 2 .0 6 3 7 .4 9 3 7 .1 4 3 7 .3 1 0 .3 3 0 .4 7 0 .4 0 j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 72-74, 2008 effect of sources of nutrients on yield of tomato 74 as to application of different doses of organic manures i.e. fym or green manure, indicating that integration of both organic manures and inorganic fertilizers is important for obtaining higher yield in tomato. the results are in line with the findings of abusaleha and shanmugavelu (1998) in bhindi, and malewar et al (1998) in chillies. organic manures when applied with inorganic fertilizers increases the effectiveness of inorganic manures (robert and stephen, 1953). similarly maximum number of fruits per plant and plant height were recorded with the application of 20t fym / ha and full recommended dose of npk followed by 40t fym / ha and ½ recommended dose of npk. it is obvious that organic form in combination with inorganic form proved better in increasing the number of fruits / plant, plant height and average fruit weight. this could be attributed to a higher c/n ratio and increased plant metabolism. these results are in conformity with abusaleha and shanmugavelu (1988) in bhindi and mellengouda et al (1995) in chillies. the increased vegetative growth and balanced c/n ratio could lead to increased synthesis of carbohydrates which ultimately promoted greater yield. the highest value of total soluble solids in tomato fruit (4.330 b) was observed with the treatment combination of 20t fym / ha + ½ recommended dose of npk during the year 2002, whereas during the year 2003, maximum of 4.330 b was found with the application of recommended npk i.e. 150:60:60 kg npk /ha. these results are in agreement with the earlier findings of mohd rafi et al (2002). from the present study it can be inferred that the application of 20t fym / ha along with full dose of recommended npk (150:60:60 kg / ha) produce higher yields. therefore, the results show that the combination of organic manure and inorganic fertilizers helps to improve yield of tomato. references abusaleha and shanmugavelu, k. g. 1988. studies on the effect of organic v/s inorganic source of nitrogen on growth, yield and quality of okra (abelmoschus esculentus). ind. j. hortl., 45: 312-318. malewar, g. u., ismail, s. and rudraksha, g. b. 1998. integrated nitrogen management in chilli (capsicum annum l.). bull. ind. instt. soil sci., 2: 156-163. mallengouda, b., sulikeri, g. s., murthy, b. g. and prathiba, n. c. 1995. effect of npk, fym and companion crops on growth, yield and yield components of chilli (capsicum annum l.). adv. agril. res. india., 3: 5859. mohd rafi., narwadkar, p. r., prabu, t. and sajindranath, a. k. 2002. effect of organic and i n o r g a n i c fertilizers on growth and yield of tomato (lycopersicon esculentum mill.). south ind. hortl., 50: 522-526. robert, a. n. and stephen, r. e. 1953. saw dust and other wood waste as mulch for horticultural crops. tech. pap. orc. agri. expt. stat., 276, pp.8. (ms received 5 february 2007, revised 7 december 2007) j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 72-74, 2008 narayan et al ginger (zingiber officinale rose) and coriander (coriandrum sativum l.) are important crops in indian farming. root-knot nematodes, meloidogyne spp., infest several agricultural and horticultural crops all over the world. the estimated overall annual yield loss in the world’s major crops to damage by plant parasitic nematodes is reported to be 12.3% (sasser and freckman, 1987). various species of meloidogyne attack nearly every crop sown where, not only are yields greatly affected but quality is also compromised (sasser, 1980). nematode infestation is one of the most important factors contributing to low productivity of crops (dabur and nandal, 2009). root-knot nematode was observed on the local ginger crop in the field, of mr. manjeet of gharana village located at 300m amsl, and on coriander (cv. khushbu) from the experimental field of chatha farm, located at 296m amsl of jammu district of jammu and kashmir. symptoms included root galling, leaf chlorosis and stunting. on uprooting these plants, numerous, small to very big sized galls/knots were noticed on the roots, resulting in a very poorly developed root system. specific identity of the nematode was determined by the perineal pattern of the females (goodey, 1963). the galled root system from affected plants was washed in water and immersed in a beaker containing boiling 0.1% cotton blue and left overnight for clearing. female nematodes were teased out from the galls and transferred to a drop of lactophenol taken on a clean glass slide. the posterior portion of the females was carefully cut with a sharp razor blade and the body contents were cleaned. the perineal pattern first report of meloidogyne javanica on ginger and meloidogyne incognita on coriander in jammu and kashmir (india) v.k. singh and r.k. gupta* division of plant pathology, s.k. university of agricultural sciences and technology dhiansar 181133, jammu, india e-mail: virendra_singh16@yahoo.com abstract heavy infestation of root-knot nematode was observed on ginger and coriander grown in gharana village and skuast-j chattha farm of jammu district of jammu and kashmir state. identification of the species revealed that this is the first observed occurrence of meloidogyne javanica on ginger and m. incognita on coriander from jammu and kashmir. key words: root-knot nematode, meloidogyne javanica, meloidogyne incognita, coriander, ginger of the females was trimmed and mounted for observation as per taylor et al (1955). for each observation, ten slides containing the perineal pattern were prepared. stylet length, head shape and length of the juvenile nematode were recorded. meloidogyne javanica: female body pear-shaped, without posterior protuberance. perineal pattern rounded, with distinct lateral lines. stylet length ranging from 14.5 to 18.2 µm; knobs ovoid and offset; male head not offset from the body, head cap rounded and set off, usually labial disc not elevated and lateral lips not present; second stage juvenile body 403.5 to 565.6 µm long; tail slender, 48.3 to 61.5 µm in length; hyaline tail part 10.2 to 20.1µm long and tail-tip finely rounded. meloidogyne incognita: female body pear-shaped, without posterior protuberance; perineal pattern usually with relatively high dorsal arch and without lateral lines; stylet ranging in length from 15.3 to 17.1 µm, knobs rounded and offset; male head not offset from the body; head cap with elevated labial disc, usually without lateral lips, head region often with incomplete head annulations; second stage juveniles’ body 352.5 to 452.2 µm long; tail slender, 44.5 to 66.2 µm in length, hyaline tail part 7.1 to 15.2 µm long, anterior regions clearly delimitated, tail-tip rounded. identification of the species was made by comparing characteristics observed in the perineal region with description given by eisenback et a, (1980). thus, based on *division of vegetable science and floriculture short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 6(1):74-75, 2011 75 the perineal pattern, stylet length, head shape, and juvenile length studies, the said root-knot nematode species were identified as meloidogyne javanica and. meloidogyne incognita. to our knowledge, this is the first report of m. javanica on ginger and m. incognita on coriander in jammu and kashmir (india). references chitwood, b.g. 1949. root-knot nematode part 1. a revision of the genus meloidogyne goeldi, 1887. proc. helm. soc. wash., 16:90-104 dabur, k.r. and nandal, s.n. 2009.assessment of yield losses due to phytonematodes in india. ind. j. nematol., 39:237 eisenback, j.d., hirshchmann, h. and triantaphyllon, a.c. 1980. morphological comparison of meloidogyne female head structures, perineal patterns and stylets. j. nematol., 12:300-313 goodey, j.b. 1963. laboratory methods for work with soil and plant nematodes. technical bulletin, ministry of agriculture, london, p. 72 jain, r.k., mathur, k.n. and singh, r.v. 2007. estimation of losses due to plant parasitic nematodes on different crops in india. ind. j. nematol., 37:219221 sasser, j.n. 1980. root-knot nematodes: a global menace to crop production. pl. dis., 64:38-41 sasser, j.n. and freckman, d.w. 1987. a world perspective of nematology. the role of society. in: vistas on nematology (veech, j.a. and diskson, d.w. eds.), published. by society of nematologists, u.s.a., pp. 7-14 taylor, a.h., dropkin, v.h. and martin, g.c. 1955. perineal patterns of root-knot nematodes. phytopath., 45: 26-34 fig 1. root-knot nematode infested ginger fig 2. root-knot nematode infested coriander plant roots (ms received 04 august 2010, revised 10 may 2011) meloidogyne spp. on ginger and coriander in j&k j. hortl. sci. vol. 6(1):74-75, 2011 gerbera (gerbera jamesonii bolus ex. hooker f.), of the family asteraceae, is one of the important cut-flowers grown for domestic and export markets. total area under floriculture in india is 255,000 ha, of which cut-flower production stands at 543,000 mt. gerbera is grown under 820 ha with productivity of 17,500 t/ha, amounting to the fourth most important cut-flower in india. demand for gerbera is great, particularly in european markets during the winter season, and almost around the year in india. in view of the importance of the crop, two novel hybrids of gerbera, iihr 3-34 and iihr 8-45 (along with their parents and the check variety) were evaluated for flower quality traits under naturally-ventilated polyhouse. for developing novel gerbera hybrids, hybridization was carried out during the year 2011-12 using the half-sib method of breeding where superior lines, iihr-3 and iihr1, were crossed with pollen mixed from different varieties. during the year 2012-13, f1 hybrids seeds obtained from theses crosses were germinated in vitro on suitable media. during 2013-14, a large number of plants were obtained through tissue culture to initially evaluate for novel traits and flower quality. two hybrids, iihr 3-34 and iihr 8-45, were selected on this basis. both the hybrids, along with their parents and the check variety elite, were evaluated in evaluation of novel gerbera (gerbera jamesonii bolus ex. hooker f.) hybrids for flower quality traits under naturally-ventilated polyhouse c. aswath*, rajiv kumar, t. manjunatha rao and m.v. dhananjaya division of ornamental crops icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru 560 089, karnataka, india *e-mail: aswath@iihr.res.in abstract the present study was carried out to evaluate performance of two gerbera hybrids iihr 3-34 and iihr 8-45 along with their parents and check, for flower quality traits under naturally-ventilated polyhouse in randomized block design, in the years 2014-15 and 2015-16. both the hybrids had been developed through the half-sib method of breeding with iihr-3 and iihr-1, respectively, as parents. data for the two years were pooled and analyzed statistically. significant differences were observed in the quality traits studied. in the case of both hybrids iihr 3-34 and iihr 8-45, most of the quantitative traits were found to be on par with the check variety, elite. they had novel flower colour (68d as per rhs colour chart), red purple group (iihr 3-34) and 50a red group (iihr 8-45), with double type of flowers. these are suitable for cut-flower and flower arrangement purposes. these hybrids will prove useful for developing more gerbera hybrids with novel traits. key words: gerbera, evaluation, novel hybrids, cut-flower, polyhouse j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):88-89, 2016 short communication replicated trial under naturally-ventilated polyhouse for two consecutive years 2014-15 and 2015-16. observations were recorded on flower diameter (cm), flower-stalk length (cm), flower-stalk diameter (mm), number of flowers/ month, vase life (days), damage from thrips (% flowers damaged), white fly (fly number on the 3rd leaf), damage from mites (number/ leaf), and rhs colour chart. data for both the years were pooled and analyzed statistically. data presented in table 1 shows that hybrid/ genotype showed significant variation in flower quality traits in iihr 3-34. it recorded flower diameter of 10.85cm, which was on par with the check variety, elite (10.91cm); flower-stalk length (61.06cm) which was significantly higher than the check variety, elite, or the parent; flower-stalk diameter (6.42mm) and number of flowers/ month (3.23) recorded were on par with the check variety, elite. however, data on vase life, damage from thrips, white fly and mites was on par with the parent and the check variety. hybrid iihr 334 recorded novel flower colour (rhs colour chart) 68d, red purple group, with double type of flowers. earlier, rajiv kumar (2013) evaluated 10 gerbera genotypes for flower quality traits under naturally-ventilated polyhouse and found that genotypes ‘kyllian’ and ‘vilassar’ were suitable for cut-flower purpose under bangalore conditions. 89 aswath et al (1997) also studied genetic divergence in gerbera and found wide variation among genotypes. data presented in table 2 indicates that hybrid iihr 8-45 also showed significant variation in flower quality traits. this hybrid recorded flower diameter of 10.43cm, which was on par with its parent and the check variety, elite; flower-stalk length (61.11cm) was significantly higher than in the check variety, and the parent (iihr-1); flowerstalk diameter (5.63mm) was significantly higher than in the parent; and, number of flowers/ month (2.89) recorded was on par with the check variety. however, data on vase life, damage from thrips, white fly and mites was on par with the parent and check. hybrid 8-45 recorded novel flower colour (rhs colour chart) 50a red group, with double type of flowers. aswath and rao (2006), chobe et al (2010) and patil and kulkarni (2015) also studied performance of nine gerbera cultivars under naturallyventilated polyhouse and concluded that the genotypes ‘sunway’ and ‘blessing’ were promising for flower quality traits. patil and kulkarni (2015) also studied performance of nine gerbera cultivars under naturally-ventilated polyhouse. on the basis of two years of evaluation under naturally-ventilated polyhouse, gerbera hybrids iihr 3-34 and iihr 8-45 were found to be promising for novel flower colour and flower quality traits. references aswath, c. and rao, t.m. 2006. breeding of gerbera (gerbera jamesonii bolus ex. hooker f.) lines suitable for open field cultivation. j. ornam. hort., 8(4):260-263 aswath, c., parthasarathy, v.a. and bhowmik, g. 1997. genetic divergence in gerbera. j. maharashtra agri. univ., 22:61-63 chobe, r.r., pachankar, p.b. and warade, s.d. 2010. performance of different cultivars of gerbera under polyhouse condition. asian j. hort., 5(2):333-335 kumar, r. and deka, b.c. 2012. evaluation of gerbera (gerbera jamesonii bolus ex. hooker f.) for vegetative and flowering character sunder cost effective polyhouse. prog. agric., 12(1):180-185 kumar, r., deka, b.c., war, m. and venugopalan, r. 2012. response of exotic gerbera (gerbera jamesonii) under low cost polyhouse and shade net house in subtropical mid hills of meghalaya. indian j. agril. sci., 82(6):543–547 patil, s.r. and kulkarni, b.s. 2015. performance of gerbera cultivars under naturally ventilated polyhouse. acta hort., 1104:63-66 rajiv kumar. 2013. evaluation of gerbera (gerbera jamesonii bolus ex. hooker f.) genotypes for flower quality traits under naturally ventilated polyhouse. asian j. hort., 8(2):680-682 table 1. evaluation of gerbera hybrid iihr 3-34 for flower quality traits under polyhouse hybrid/ genotype flower flower-stalk flower-stalk no. of vase life damage white fly mite rhs diameter length diameter flowers/ (days) from thrips (nos. on damage colour (cm) (cm) (mm) month (% flower 3rd leaf) (no./ leaf) chart damaged) iihr 3-34 10.85 61.06 6.42 3.23 7.30 17.75 7.15 5.35 68d, red purple group iihr-3 (parent) 11.41 49.75 6.74 2.83 7.05 17.05 7.30 5.67 52a, red group elite (check) 10.91 60.38 6.62 2.96 7.47 18.85 7.40 5.27 24a, orange group sem± 0.18 1.85 0.04 0.12 cd (p=0.05) 0.55 5.55 0.16 0.36 ns ns ns ns table 2. evaluation of gerbera hybrid iihr 8-45 for flower quality traits under polyhouse hybrid/ genotype flower flower-stalk flower-stalk no. of vase life damage white fly mite rhs diameter length diameter flowers/ (days) from thrips (nos. on damage colour (cm) (cm) (mm) month (% flower 3rd leaf) (no./ leaf) chart damaged) iihr 8-45 10.43 61.11 5.63 2.89 7.15 17.89 7.31 5.15 50a red group iihr-1 (parent) 10.25 51.98 4.69 2.49 7.00 17.62 7.42 5.35 30a, orange red elite (check) 10.91 61.38 6.63 2.96 7.25 18.85 7.41 5.25 24a, orange group sem± 0.93 0.06 0.14 cd (p=0.05) ns 2.79 0.18 0.39 ns ns ns ns evaluation of novel gerbera hybrids for quality j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):88-89, 2016 (ms received 02 april 2016, revised 22 may 2016, accepted 01 june 2016) analysis of variability for qualitative and quantitative traits in coleus forskohlii briq. c. kavitha, e. vadivel1, k. rajamani and c. thangamani horticultural college and research institute tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore-641 003, india e-mail: ckavi_2k@yahoo.com abstract thirty seven coleus forskohlii genotypes collected from different regions of tamil nadu and karnataka were subjected to diversity analysis based on nbpgr descriptors. eleven qualitative and fourteen quantitative traits of c. forskohlii were evaluated to assess the morphological variations available among the collected genotypes. for qualitative traits, a large number of genotypes out of 37 clustered together at 74 % similarity in four different groups. the dendrogram contract based on fourteen quantitative traits for the same set of genotypes did not reveal a clear pattern in grouping and the genotypes were grouped into ten different clusters. cluster analysis of various sets of data revealed different groups of genotypes for each of the data set. a poor congruence observed among data sets of qualitative and quantitative traits in the comparison indicated that the morphological traits are not suitable for precise discrimination of closely related genotypes in c. forskohlii. key words: coleus forskohlii, morphological traits, cluster analysis 1 directorate of extension education, tnau, coimbatore – 641 003 introduction coleus forskohlii briq is a root medicinal crop recorded in ancient ayurvedic materia medica under the sanskrit name ‘makandi’ and ‘mayani” (shah, 1996). it belongs to the mint family of plants, lamiaceae. in ayurveda, the tuberous roots of coleus are used as drug for heart diseases, abdominal colic, respiratory disorder, insomnia and convulsions (ammon and muller, 1985). the roots of the plant are a natural source of forskolin, a labdane diterpenoid that increases cellular levels of cyclic adenosine mono-phosphate (camp) thereby influencing several aspects of metabolism.the therapeutic properties of forskolin contributed to the emergence of c. forskohlii as a taxon of importance in modern medicine. the exclusive presence of forskolin and the current recognition of its status as a unique plant species with high medicinal importance internationally, render a high profile for this particular crop. in this indigenous medicinal plant, knowledge on genetic variability within species will greatly help in direct exploitation of variability as cultivars and indirectly as base materials for various breeding programmes. material and methods thirty seven genotypes collected from different regions of tamil nadu (17 genotypes) and karnataka (20 genotypes) were grown in the field in a randomized block design with two replications at the botanical garden, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore. the diversity in terms of morphological variations among the collected genotypes was documented following singh et al (2003). observations were taken on five randomly selected plants from each genotype for qualitative and quantitative traits. qualitative traits that depict an array of characters were converted into binary characters (sneath and sokal, 1973) based on the variations present in each trait. the presence or absence of phenotypes was given the score of 1 and 0, receptively. the quantitative data gathered on different traits were standardized to zero mean and a unit variance. sequential agglomerative hierarchical nonoverlapping (sahn) clustering was performed on squared euclidean distance matrix and similarity matrix using dice coefficient for quantitative and binary data respectively utilizing the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic averages (upgma) method. analysis of data was done using ntsyspc version 2.02 (rohlf, 1994). results and discussion observations for eleven qualitative traits from five randomly selected plants of 37 different c. forskohlii genotypes indicated that two traits viz., plant habit and lamina margin did not show any difference between genotypes. the distribution of 37 genotypes based on their phenotype variants for qualitative traits observed is furnished in table 1. for qualitative traits, a large number of genotypes clustered together at 74% similarity in four different groups (fig 1). the extent of genetic diversity assessed based on these eleven qualitative traits with the minimum set of nbpgr descriptors of c. forskohlii revealed no satisfactory measures of diversity. j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 44-46, 2007 table 1. number of phenotype variants observed for various qualitative traits across 37 coleus forskohlii genotypes character score phenotype no. of genotypes plant habit 1 annual stem 37 with perennial rootstock 2 biennial 3 perennial mode of reproduction 1 asexual 19 2 sexual 18 plant growth habit 1 erect 16 2 sub erect 21 root/tuber branching 1 profuse 22 2 sparse 15 root/tuber shape 1 straight 18 2 fusiform 19 stem pubescence 0 glabrous 2 3 sparse 16 5 medium 7 dense 19 lamina margin 1 crenate 37 lamina pubescence 3 sparse 2 5 medium 34 7 dense 1 lamina colour 1 pale green 2 2 purple green 3 dark green 35 flower colour* 1 pink-purple 2 pale-purple 2 3 lilac 4 violet 16 susceptibility 1 very low or 34 to biotic stress no visible sign of susceptibility 3 low 4 5 intermediate 7 high 1 9 very high *only flowering genotypes were scored an additional 14 phenotypic quantitative characters were evaluated to enable diversity comparisons. the percentage of variation for individual traits varied from 4.41 (number of roots/tubers per plant) to 10.37 (root/tuber diameter) (table 2). in the fourteen traits observed, the root/ tuber diameter showed the highest variation ranging from 0.38 cm (cf 3) to 0.90 cm (cf 30). leaf yield per plant, number of branches per plant and root/tuber length also showed considerable variation. a minimum of 130.41 g and a maximum of 291.20 g leaf yield per plant were observed in cf 8 and cf 14, respectively. the number of branches was maximum in cf 23 (14.97) and minimum in cf 16 (7.62). the root/tuber length was 5.08 cm and 38.27 cm in cf 15 and cf 13, respectively. the dendrogram construction based on fourteen quantitative traits for 37 c. coefficient fig 1. dendrogram of coleus forskohlii genotypes for qualitative traits using upgma based on dice coefficient table 2. mean, range, coefficient of variation and standard deviation for each of the 14 quantitative traits trait mean range cv (%) sd number of roots/tubers per plant 25.36 16.12 45.77 4.41 1.12 root/tuber length (cm) 23.60 5.08 38.27 7.46 1.76 root/tuber diameter (cm) 0.63 0.38 0.96 10.37 0.07 number of branches per plant 9.55 7.62 14.97 8.57 0.82 stem diameter 1.53 1.05 2.06 7.25 0.11 number of leaves per plant 172.28 94.00 -368.68 6.26 10.79 lamina length (cm) 6.06 4.61 7.62 7.10 0.43 lamina width (cm) 3.76 2.43 5.12 7.18 0.27 petiole length (cm) 1.20 0.86 1.61 4.17 0.05 leaf yield per plant (g) 202.21 130.41 -291.20 8.63 17.45 *days to 50% flowering 84.73 65.00 95.00 7.20 8.49 plant height(cm) 31.07 24.12 49.26 5.86 1.82 *days to fruit maturity 106.25 95 115 8.72 9.27 **forskolin / coleonol content in roots (%) 1.25 1.14 1.40 7.03 0.09 * only flowering genotypes were scored ** only non-flowering (tuberous) genotypes were scored j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 44-46, 2007 45 exploitation of genetic variability in coleus forskohlii forskohlii genotypes did not reveal a clear pattern in grouping and the genotypes were grouped into ten different clusters (fig 2). morphological description can provide unique identification of genotypes, and are being used as descriptors for initial screening (troyer, 1986). however they are not reliable us they reflect not only the genetic constitution of the cultivar, but also the interaction of the genotypes with the environment (patterson and weatherup, 1984). in the present study, cluster analysis of various sets of data revealed dissimilarity in groups of genotypes for each of the data set. a poor congruence among data sets of qualitative and quantitative traits showed in that the morphological traits alone may not be appropriate to assess fig 2. dendrogram of coleus forskohlii genotypes for quantitative traits using upgma based on squared euclidean distance of standardised data mean the genetic diversity in c. forskohli as it is known that multiple genotypes can give phenotypes of similar outward appearance (ravi, 2000).. in the present study, surveys failed to confirm similar patterns of diversity among combinations of qualitative and quantitative traits. g x e interaction effects were found to cause aberrant means for morphological traits. though morphological traits have been used in assessing the genetic diversity of a species, the accuracy of the assessment is questionable. the availability of a limited number of morphological traits, their poor or unknown genetic control, environmental influence on the phenotypic expression, and difficulties in stage-specific identification are major impediments in using these as genetic traits for genetic diversity analysis. thus morphological traits are inexpensive useful indicators for a preliminary, varietal identification. they can be used as a fast and simple general tool for assessing genetic diversity among phenotypically distinguishable cultivars, although they are inefficient on account of the time and cost involved. references ammon, h. p. t. and muller, a. b. 1985. forskolin: from an ayurvedic remedy to a modern agent. planta medica, 46: 473-477. patterson, h. d. and weatherup, s. t. c. 1984. statistical criteria for distinctness between varieties of herbage crops. j. agril. sci., 102: 57-68. ravi, m. 2000. molecular markers based varietal profiling and monitoring in rice (oryza sativa l.). m.sc. thesis, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore. rohlf, f. j. 1994. ntsys-pc: numerical taxonomy and multivariate analysis system version 2.2. state university of new york, stonybrook, new york. shah, v. 1996. cultivation and utilization of medicinal plants (supplement), rrl, csir, jammu tawi, pp 385-411. singh, b. m., mahajan, r. k., umesh srivastava and pareek, s. k. 2003. minimal descriptors of agrihorticultural crops. part iv: medicinal and aromatic plants. national bureau of plant genetic resources, pusa campus, new delhi, pp 59-64. sneath, p. h. a. and sokal, r. r. 1973. numerical taxonomy. freeman, san francisco and london. troyer, a. f. 1986. united states patent: inbred corn line. patent no.45948110. u.s.patent office, washington, dc. j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 44-46, 2007 46 kavitha et al (ms received 28 october 2006, revised 14 may 2007) organic farming practices for double-sucker planted banana k.r. sheela, r. pushpakumari, g.j. shimi and v.l. geethakumari department of agronomy, college of agriculture vellayani, thiruvananthapuram-695522, india e-mail: kumarsheela58@gmail.com abstract an experiment was conducted at college of agriculture, vellayani, kerala, during december 2009 to september 2012 to standardize organic farming practices for double-sucker planted tissue-culture raised banana var. nendran. treatments included three nutrient levels, (m1-133, m2-100 and m3-75% of recommended dose for tissue culture banana as *organic), two times of application viz., t1in two splits(basal and 2map), and t2 in three splits (basal, 2 and 4 map) along with the control (integrated nutrient management for double-sucker planted banana, i.e., fym + 250:150:400g npk pit-1). the experiment was laid out in factorial rbd with three replications. results of the study indicated that though 33% of additional nutrients were required for double-sucker planting along with inm, 100% of the dose was sufficient under organic farming for realizing a reasonable yield. pooled analysis of gross income and net income revealed that organic production practices are also profitable in double-sucker planted banana. key words: double-sucker, organic farming, banana, yield short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):233-236, 2015 banana is widely cultivated in india under varying agro-climatic regions and different systems of production. nendran (musa aab) is the most popular commercial cultivar in kerala owing to its adaptability to various environments, its yield stability, excellent fruit quality attributes and for fetching a sustained income. the fruit has multiple uses ranging from that as a valued food for infants and invalids, to culinary and table purposes, besides a diverse range of processed products. high productivity, disease-free nature and uniform harvest in tissue-culture raised plants has enhanced its acceptability among farmers. high-density planting is considered a viable proposition for improving productivity of tissue-culture raised plants. planting two suckers per pit, with wider spacing, enhances total yield and economic returns. double-sucker planting is one of the approaches for reducing cost of cultivation and for increasing productivity without affecting quality of the fruit. an imbalanced and unscientific use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has aggravated environment degradation, making it imperative to focus on ecologically sound, viable and sustainable crop production practices. long-term field experiments in various crops have brought to light the negative impact of continuous use of chemicals on soil health (yadav, 2003). sustainable crop husbandry approaches like organic farming are very important in crops like banana where farmers use a high quantity of fertilizers and plant protection chemicals for yield improvement. banana is grown extensively in the erstwhile paddy fields of kerala. in this context, an experiment was undertaken to standardize organic farming practices for double-sucker planted tissue-culture raised banana variety nendran. the experiment was conducted during december 2009 to september 2012 at the organic farm attached to department of agronomy, college of agriculture, vellayani, kerala. the treatments included three nutrient levels (m1133, m2-100 and m3-75% of recommended dose for tissue culture raised banana as *organic), two times application, viz., t1two splits(basal and 2map) and t2 three splits (basal, 2 and 4 map), along with the control (integrated nutrient management for double-sucker planted banana (fym + 250:150:400g npk pit-1). the experiment was laid out in factorial rbd, with three replications. general practices like use of uniform tissue-culture raised plants, basal application of neem cake @ 1kg pit-1, in situ green manuring with cowpea, and application of fym @ 20kg pit-1 at planting along with 20g azospirillum, were followed irrespective of the treatment. as this is an experiment in organic farming pest and 234 disease management was done organically. prophylatic application of neem oil-garlic mixture (5%) to the pseudostem and leaf axil during third and fourth month was made to manage pseudostem borer. organic treatments were applied through a common organic source: 50% as farm yard manure + 25% as poultry manure + 25% as vermicompost. additional k requirement was met using ash as the source of k. for double-sucker planting, pits were dug at 3m x 2m spacing, and two suckers were planted in each pit with a distance of 15-20cm between suckers in a pit. soil analysis of the experimental site revealed the soil to be moderately acidic, with ph 5.8, high in organic carbon, medium in n and p, and low in k. observations were recorded on yield and yield attributes and economics were worked out. based on results of the first year trial, 133% of the recommended nutrient-level was deleted and the treatments were modified table 1. yield attributes and yield in double-sucker planted organic banana as influenced by nutrient levels and time of application i year treatment no. of hands no. of fingers bunch weight yield (t ha-1) bunch-1 bunch-1 (kg plant-1) m1 (133% rd) 4.42 44.25 7.08 23.58 m2 (100% rd) 4.50 44.42 7.42 24.69 m3 (75% rd) 4.50 45.00 7.71 25.72 f 0.07 0.09 0.89 0.92 cd (p=0.05) ns ns ns ns t1 (2 times) 4.33 44.50 7.14 23.77 t2 (3 times) 4.61 44.61 7.67 25.56 f 1.86 0.01 1.90 1.94 cd (p=0.05) ns ns ns ns m1 t1 4.33 44.67 6.92 23.03 m 1t 2 4.50 43.83 7.25 24.14 m2 t1 4.33 43.83 7.08 23.59 m 2t 2 4.67 45.00 7.75 25.80 m 3t 1 4.33 45.00 7.42 24.70 m 3t 2 4.67 45.00 8.00 26.74 treatment mean 4.47 44.56 7.40 24.67 f 0.07 0.14 0.07 0.07 cd (p=0.05) ns ns ns ns inm (control) 5.00 48.00 8.82 29.36 f (treatment vs. control) 3.84 2.91 7.78 7.61 cd (p=0.05) s ns. s s ii year iii year treatment no. of no. of bunch yield no. of no. of bunch yield hands fingers weight (t ha-1) hands fingers weight (t ha-1) bunch-1 bunch-1 (kg plant-1) bunch-1 bunch-1 (kg plant-1) m1 (100% rd) 4.00 41.17 66.80 22.25 4.67 46.17 7.33 24.42 m2 (75% rd) 3.50 33.67 4.92 16.40 4.33 41.83 6.33 21.09 m3 (50% rd) 3.33 28.00 4.63 15.40 4.00 34.67 4.97 16.54 cd (p=0.05) 0.555 3.802 0.445 1.481 ns 4.077 0.464 1.544 t1 (2 times) 3.56 34.00 5.30 17.65 4.33 40.11 6.32 21.05 t2 (3 times) 3.67 34.56 5.52 18.39 4.33 39.67 6.10 20.31 cd (p=0.05) ns ns ns ns ns ns ns ns m1 t1 4.00 41.33 6.97 23.20 4.67 47.33 7.47 24.86 m 1t 2 4.00 41.00 6.40 21.31 4.67 45.00 7.20 23.98 m2 t1 3.33 32.67 4.60 15.32 4.33 41.67 6.33 21.09 m 2t 2 3.67 34.67 5.25 17.48 4.33 42.00 6.33 21.09 m 3t 1 3.33 28.00 4.33 14.43 4.00 31.33 5.17 17.21 m 3t 2 3.33 28.00 4.92 16.37 4.00 32.00 4.77 15.88 inm (control) 4.33 46.00 9.00 29.97 5.00 51.33 10.37 20.68 cd (p=0.05) ns ns 0.629 2.095 ns ns ns ns f (treatment vs. control) 6.89 38.68 264.38 264.94 5.76 32.08 326.79 326.76 cd (p=0.05) s s s s s s s s sheela et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):233-236, 2015 235 as 100%, 75% and 50% of the recommended dose for the second and third years of study. first year (2009) yield data revealed no significant variation among treatments. soil analysis made after the first crop indicated high organic carbon (1.9-2.3%), high available n (288-301kg ha-1) and medium p (18-22kg ha-1) and k content (170-190kg ha -1); ph also showed improvement, increasing from 5.8 to 6.2. organic nutrition @ 133% of the recommended dose enhanced the ph to 6.2. based on these results, nutrient levels were modified as 100%, 75% and 50% of the recommended dose, and, the experiment was continued in the second (2010) and third year (2011). results of this two-year study (table 1) revealed that nutrient level had a significant influence on number of fingers bunch-1, bunch weight plant-1, and total bunch yield. 100% of the recommended dose was significantly superior to the other two levels tested. application of manure in two or three splits had no influence on yield parameters and yield. interaction between nutrient level and the number of times of application was found to be significant in the first year only (2010). a comparison of inm and organic practices showed that yield attributes and yield were significantly influenced in both the years, with inm registering the highest value. most of the earlier studies on organic farming have showed such a decline in yield over inm during the initial years. effect of treatments on marketable yield, worked out as 75% of the actual yield, followed the same trend as that in the yield. pooled analysis of marketable yield indicated that 100% of the recommended dose, applied as the organic component, had a definite edge over the other two levels, while, time of application and interaction between nutrient levels and time of application, was observed to be insignificant. pooled analysis (table 2) of economic aspects like gross income and net income revealed that 100% of recommended dose as the organic component was more economical in double-sucker planted banana. the organic sources (farm yard manure, poultry manure and vermicompost) tested at 100% recommended dose can effectively supply nutrients required for the two banana plants in a pit, along with in situ green manuring. a slow release of nutrients from the organic sources, without any nutrient loss, can supply sufficiently to substitute chemical nutrients. use of vermicompost as the organic source, along with incorporation of cowpea as the in situ green manure, table 2. marketable yield and economic returns in double-sucker planted organic banana as influenced by nutrient level and time of application treatment marketable marketable marketable gross net b:c b:c yield (t/ha) yield (t/ha) yield (t/ha) income (rs) income (rs) ratio ratio ii yr iii yr pooled mean pooled mean pooled mean ii yr iii yr m1 (100%rd) 16.69 18.31 17.50 840080 469725 2.17 2.38 m2 (75%rd) 12.30 15.82 14.06 674880 321519 1.67 2.15 m3 (50%rd) 11.55 12.41 11.97 575000 262985 1.67 1.79 cd (0.05) 1.086 1.0693 0.593 28670 428670 0.152 0.147 t1 (2 times) 13.24 15.79 14.51 696667 350803 1.84 2.18 t2 (3 times) 13.79 15.23 14.51 696640 338307 1.83 2.03 cd (p=0.05) ns ns ns ns ns ns 0.120 m1 t1 17.40 18.65 18.02 865040 502182 2.30 2.47 m1 t2 15.98 17.98 16.98 815120 437268 2.03 2.28 m2 t1 11.49 15.82 13.68 655440 309576 1.59 2.19 m2 t2 13.11 15.82 14.46 694320 333462 1.74 2.10 m3 t1 10.82 12.91 11.86 569520 240650 1.58 1.88 m3 t2 12.28 11.91 12.09 580480 244280 1.75 1.70 inm (control) 22.48 25.96 24.22 968133 656591 2.89 3.33 cd (p=0.05) 0.887 ns 0.629 ns ns ns ns f (treatment vs. control) 6.89 38.68 264.38 264.94 5.76 32.08 326.79 cd (p=0.05) s s s s s s s cost of cultivation in different treatments (rs ha-1) treatment cost of cultivation treatment cost of cultivation sale price of banana m 1t 1 3,54,858 m 1t 2 3,69,852 inm: rs. 40kg -1 m 2t 1 3,39,864 m 2t 2 3,54,858 organic: rs. 48ha -1 m 3t 1 3,24,870 m 3t 2 3,32,200 inm 3,11,542 organic farming practices for double-sucker planted banana j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):233-236, 2015 236 for enhancing yield in banana was reported earlier by geetha and nair (2000). although economic returns in organically-grown banana may be less than that in inm, application of 100% recommended dose can yield a b:c ratio of >2 considering that the price of organic produce is accounted as 20% extra over the inm produce. moreover, all the inputs were considered as purchased, for calculating the economics. an organic farmer can be expected to have adequate organic inputs generated in his farm which, in turn, can enhance profit. profitability of organic farming in single-sucker planted nendran banana has already been reported by pushpakumari et al (2009). from our study, it is concluded that although 33% of additional nutrients are required for double-sucker planting with inm, 100% of the dose is sufficient under organic farming. similar to that in inm, organic production practices are seen to be profitable in double-sucker planted banana in our study. references geetha, k. and nair, r.r. 2000. integrated plant nutrition systems (ipns) for banana. ann. agril. res., 21:499-503 pushpakumari, r., sheela, k.r., nandakumar, c. and george, a. 2009. standardization of organic farming practices for banana var. nendran. national seminar on ‘organic farming in horticultural crops’, cpcri, 15-18 october, 2008, kasargod, kerala, india yadav, j.s.p. 2003. managing soil health for sustained high productivity. j. indian soc. soil sci., 51:448-465 (ms received 04 february 2014, revised 19 june 2015, accepted 02 july 2015) sheela et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):233-236, 2015 in recent years, the green shield scale chloropulvinaria psidii (green), has become a serious pest of several medicinal plants in india. severe infestation of c. psidii was observed in june 2003 on withania somnifera and in february 2004 on madhuca longifolia, mimusops elengi and wrightia tinctoria at the iihr farm. the scale insects suck cell sap resulting in loss of vigour in medicinal plants. nymphs and adults excrete ‘honeydew’ resulting in development of sooty mold, thereby hindering photosynthetic activity of the scale-infested plants. although some insecticides have been recommended for control of c. psidii (pawar et al, 1981; visalakshi et al, 1981), it is difficult to achieve perfect control of the green shield scales with conventional insecticides, mainly due to the mealy covering over their bodies (chatterji and datta, 1974). eggs of the scales, protected by a waxy filamentous secretion of the ovisac, are almost impossible to reach with insecticides. on the other hand, scale insects (being sessile in nature) are more amenable to biological control. the australian ladybird beetle, cryptolaemus montrouzieri mulsant, has been reported to the effective against various species of green shield scales (mani and krishnamoorthy, 1997a). the present study was conducted to evaluate the impact of c. montrouzieri in suppression of c. psidii on evaluation of australian ladybird beetle cryptolaemus montrouzieri mulsant against green shield scale chloropulvinaria psidii (maskell) on some medicinal plants m. mani* and a. krishnamoorthy division of entomology and nematology indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore -560 089, india e-mail: mmani1949@yahoo.co.in abstract severe infestation of green shield scale chloropulvinaria psidii (green) was observed during 2003-04 on the medicinal plants namely withania somnifera, madhuca longifolia, mimusops elengi and wrightia tinctoria. the australian ladybird beetle cryptolaemus montrouzieri mulsant was released @ 20 larvae/plant. following the release of c. montrouzieri , the scale population declined from 173.48 to 4.35 /plant on w. somnifera, 30.49 to 1.20/plant on m. longifolia, 90.20 to 3.57/plant on m. elengi and 240.86 to 4.92/plant on w. tinctoria. there was 89.13 to 97.96% reduction in scale population 45-75 days after release of c. montrouzieri on the above medicinal plants. no other natural enemy, except c. montrouzieri, was recorded on c. psidii. there was no correlation between temperature, relative humidity or rainfall and scale population. hence, the reduction in population of green shield scale was attributed mainly to the action of c. montrouzieri. key words: chloropulvinaria psidii, cryptolaemus montrouzieri, withania somnifera, madhuca longifolia, mimusops elengi, wrightia tinctoria the above mentioned four medicinal plants. culture of cryptolaemus montrouzieri cryptolaemus montrouzieri was multiplied on mealy bug infested pumpkin fruits (cucurbita moschata linn.) as described by chacko et al (1978) at 26+2oc and 60-70% rh in the laboratory. selection of experimental area the study was conducted at the iihr farm, bangalore rural district, on four medicinal plants during 2003-04. only plants infested with the green shield scale were selected for the study. field release of c. montrouzieri ants afforded protection to the green shield scale from natural enemies, resulting in increase in the scale population (briese, 1982). in the present study, ants were controlled by applying chlorpyriphos @ 0.05% in the ant holes, as suggested by tumminelli et al (1997). application of insecticides on the medicinal plants was arrested a fortnight prior to the release of c. montrouzieri. larvae of c. montrouzieri @ 20 /plant were released on scaleinfested plants. *present address: national research centre for grapes, pune-412307. short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 176-179, 2008 177 sampling and evaluation scale population was recorded at fortnightly intervals on 10 randomly selected plants infested with scales during the study. in each plant, five shoots were selected for counting the green shield scales. activity of locally occurring natural enemies, if any, was studied by collecting the scale infested shoots and keeping the same in cages for emergence. data on weather parameters, viz., maximum and minimum temperature (oc), relative humidity (%) and rainfall (mm) were collected during the period of study. correlation between the green shield scale and weather factors was worked out to determine influence of weather on green shield scale population present on these medicinal plants. results on population trend in green shield scale c. psidii on w. somnifera are presented in table1. prerelease count of 173.48 scales / plant was observed on 22nd june, 2003. the scale population declined to 110.50/plant one month after the release of c. montrouzieri. the population of c. montrouzieri ranged from 4.68 to 9.46 per plant during the study period. plants released with the predator had 4.35 scale insects in the last week of august 2003 as compared to 214.66 on check plants. the coccinellid predator c. montrouzieri was found preying on c. psidii on w. somnifera plants throughout the study period. the trend of scale population on m. longifolia is presented in table 2. pre-release count of 30.49 scales/ plant was observed on 12th february, 2004. the scale population declined to 10.40/plant one month after the release of c.montrouzieri. the population of c. montrouzieri ranged from 2.46 to 6.89 /plant during the study period. plants released with the predator had 1.20 scale insects in the third week of march 2004 as compared to 80.69 on check plants. similar results were obtained on m. elengi. plants released with the predator had 3.57 scales as compared to 172.64 on check plants, two months from release of cryptolaemus (table 3). on w. tinctoria also, the scale population was effectively reduced to 4.92 as compared to 265.40 scales on check plants (table 4). table 1. population of chloropulvinaria psidii and cryptolaemus montrouzieri on w. somnifera date mean population/plant ± s.d. % reduction check biocontrol in scale population c. psidii c. psidii c. montrouzieri in biocontrol 22-06-2003 150.48 ±6.56 173.48±10.24 —— —— 08-07-2003 164.16 ±5.96 162.84±8.64 4.68±3.40 6.16 23-07-2003 185.74± 9.82 110.50±7.80 6.62±2.02 36.30 07-08-2003 180.88 ± 6.43 60.25± 5.94 9.46±5.60 65.27 22-08-2003 214.66±12.38 4.35±2.87 4.28±2.65 97.49 s.d = standard deviation table 3. population of chloropulvinaria psidii and cryptolaemus montrouzieri on mimusops elengi date mean population/plant ± s.d. % reduction check biocontrol in scale population c. psidii c. psidii c. montrouzieri in biocontrol 12-02-2004 80.45 ± 6.24 90.20 ± 10.42 —— —— 27-02-2004 96.17 ± 7.94 86.83 ± 8.45 3.58±2.40 3.74 11-032004 125.65 ± 10.42 65.32 ± 5.28 6.82±3.80 27.58 22-03-2004 158.90 ± 12.94 30.54 ± 4.82 5.50±3.50 66.14 12-04-2004 172.64 ± 10.68 3.57 ± 0.94 4.78±0.95 89.13 s.d = standard deviation table 2. population of chloropulvinaria psidii and cryptolaemus montrouzieri on madhuca longifolia date mean population/plant ± s.d. % reduction check biocontrol in scale population c. psidii c. psidii c. montrouzieri in biocontrol 12-02-2004 42.14 ± 6.36 30.49 ± 6.32 —— —— 27-02-2004 53.85 ± 7.28 26.64 ± 4.64 2.46±1.84 12.62 11-032004 65.27 ± 5.83 10. 40 ± 3.80 6.89±2.85 65.89 22-03-2004 80.69 ± 6.28 1.20 ± 0.68 4.64±1.96 96.06 s.d = standard deviation j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 176-179, 2008 australian ladybird beetle against green shield scale 178 in the present investigation, there was a reduction of 97.49%, 96.06%, 89.13% and 97.96% in the green shield scale population after 60, 45, 60 and 75 days of cryptolaemus release on w. somnifera, m. longifolia, m. elengi and w. tinctoria, respectively. there was no correlation between weather factors like temperature, humidity and rainfall and population of the green shield scale. no other natural enemy, except c. montrouzieri was recorded on c. psidiii during the study period and reduction in the population of green shield scale was attributed mainly to action of the predator c. montrouzieri on all the four medicinal plants studied. cryptolaemus montrouzieri gave control of several species of chloropulvinaria on many crops. cryptolaemus montrouzieri was found to be effective in suppressing chloropulvinaria aurantii (ckll.) and chloropulvinaria floccifera (westw.) (kolotov, 1939), chloropulvinaria polygonata (ckll.) on mango (mani and krishnamoorthy, 1998) and c. psidii on lemon, guava, sapota and fig (mani and krishnamoorthy, 1999; mani and krishnamoorthy, 1990; mani and krishnamoorthy, 1997b; kumar and prakasam, 1984) and chloropulvinaria maxima (valt.) on neem (tirumala rao and david, 1958). acknowledgement the authors are grateful to director, iihr, for providing facilities to conduct the study. technical help rendered by mr. g.l. pattar is also gratefully acknowledged. references briese, d.t. 1982. damage to saltbush by the coccid pulvinaria maskelli olliff and the role played by an attendant. j. austr. entomol. soc., 21:293-294 chacko, m.j., bhat, p.k., rao, l.v.a., deepak singh, m.b., ramanarayan, e.p. and sreedharan, k. 1978. the use of the ladybird beetle cryptolaemus montrouzieri for the control of coffee mealybugs. j. coffee res., 88:14-19 chatterji, a. and datta, a.d. 1974. bionomics and control of mango mealy scale, chloropulvinaria (pulvinaria) polygonata (cockerell) (hemiptera: coccidae) ind. j. agril. sci., 44:791-795 kolotov, d.g. 1939. results of the experiment with the application of cryptolaemus for the control of the mealybug in abkhazia. rept. sci. meet. leningrade institute of agriculture, cf rae (1939) p. 454 kumar, m.g. and prakasam, c.b. 1984. the recovery of cryptolaemus montrouzieri muls. on the coffee green scale, coccus viridis (green), on the shevroy hills. ind. j. agril. sci., 14:34-35 mani, m. and krishnamoorthy, a. 1990. evaluation of the exotic predator cryptolaemus montrouzieri muls. (coccinellidae, coleoptera) in the suppression of green shield scale chloropulvinaria psidii (maskell) (coccidae, homoptera) on guava. entomon, 15:45-48 mani, m. and krishnamoorthy, a. 1997a. australian ladybird beetle, cryptolaemus montrouzieri. madras agri. j., 84:237-249 mani, m. and krishnamoorthy, a. 1997b. biological suppression of the soft green scale, coccus viridis (green), and the green shield scale, chloropulvinaria psidii (maskell), on sapota. pest mgt. hortl. ecosyst., 3:114-116 mani, m. and krishnamoorthy, a. 1998. biological control studies on the mango green shield scale, chloropulvinaria polygonata (ckll.) (homoptera: coccidae), in india. entomon, 23:105-110 mani, m. and krishnamoorthy, a. 1999. suppression of green shield scale, chloropulvinaria psidii (maskell), with australian ladybird beetle on lemon. insect envir. 4:116-117 pawar, m.b., teli, u.s. ambekar, j.s. and kalbhoor, s.e. table 4. population of chloropulvinaria psidii and cryptolaemus montrouzieri on wrightia tinctoria date mean population/plant ± s.d. % reduction check biocontrol in scale population c. psidii c. psidii c. montrouzieri in biocontrol 12-02-2004 194.27 ± 8.56 240.86 ± 14.57 —— —— 27-02-2004 210.86 ± 9.46 154.25 ± 7.64 5.00±3.40 35.96 11-032004 234.84 ± 12.60 124.63 ± 8.0 9.40±4.80 48.26 22-03-2004 256.80 ± 10.58 73.24 ± 6.94 8.40±3.86 69.59 12-04-2004 248.95 ± 9.80 43.64 ± 4.26 8.62±3.02 81.88 27-04-2004 265.40 ± 14.40 4.92 ± 1.46 3.68±0.86 97.96 s.d = standard deviation j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 176-179, 2008 mani and krishnamoorthy 179 1981. efficacy of some o r g a n o p h o s p h o r u s insecticides of guava scale pulvinaria psidii maskell on guava. pestology, 5:21-29 tirumala rao, v. and david, l.a. 1958. the biological control of a coccid pest in south india by the use of beetle, cryptolaemus montrouzieri muls. ind. j. agril. sci., 28:545-552 tumminelli, r., saraceno, f. and conti, d. 1997. ants in citrus groves. inform. agrar., 53:57-60 visalakshi, a., beevi, s.n., mathai, s. and nair, m.r.g.k. 1981. on the occurrence of pulvinaria psidii maskell (coccidae: hemiptera) as pest of clove. entomon, 6:180 (ms received 16 june 2008, revised 6 november 2008) australian ladybird beetle against green shield scale j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 176-179, 2008 introduction ber (zizyphus mauritiana lamk.) grows excellently in arid and semi-arid regions of the world and is considered the poor man’s apple, being an excellent source of several polyphenols including caffeic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, ferulic acid and p-coumaric acid (dahiru and obidoa, 2008). as phenolics are known for their wide ranging healthprotecting properties as anti-atherogenic, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial, commercial processing of ber into juice rich in phenolics could prove useful. however, extraction of juice from ber is difficult and protracted because of its pulpy nature and high pectin content. enzyme-assisted processing using pectinolytic enzyme is an effective approach for degrading pectineous material to yield freeflowing juice. in addition, the enzyme-catalyzed degradation also helps release phenolics and flavonoids that would otherwise be lost in press residues (sowbhagya and chitra, 2010). several researchers have reported pectinase and cellulase enzyme treatments to significantly enhance recovery of phenolics and to improve functional properties of the juice. in view of the enormous potential of ber as a source of phenolics, the current study was undertaken to examine the effect of enzyme-assisted processing on nutraceutical composition of ber juice. j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):54-56, 2015 nutraceutical composition of ber (zizyphus mauritiana lamk.) juice: effect of enzyme-assisted processing v.s. khandare, d.p. waskar, b.m. kalalbandi and t.j. pawar department of horticulture vasantrao naik marathwada krishi vidyapeeth parbhani – 431 402, india e-mail: khandarevs@rediffmail.com abstract an investigation was undertaken to study the effect of pre-press maceration treatment with cell-wall degrading enzyme, pectinase, on antioxidant composition of ber juice, during 2011-2012. enzyme-assisted processing significantly (p<0.05) improved antioxidant composition of ber juice. ber juice extracted using pectinase had richer nutraceutical composition than in the control. there was an overall increase of 43% in juice yield, 30% in total phenolics and 37% in total flavonoids with use of pectinase. in vitro total antioxidant activity (aox) in ber juice was 19.58μmol trolox/ml in ferric reducing antioxidant power (frap) and 13.44μmol trolox/ml in cupric reducing antioxidant capacity (cuprac) assay. there was 41-65% increase in total aox of ber juice extracted with the enzyme overstraight pressed juice. results indicated that tailoring of the enzyme can yield antioxidant-rich juice products. key words: ber, enzyme assisted processing, pectinase and antioxidant activity material and methods the present study was carried out on antioxidant composition of ber juice as affected by enzyme-assisted processing, during the year 2010-2011. mature, ripe fruits of ber (cv. umran), free from blemishes and mechanical injury were obtained from the local market of parbhani and processed at post harvest technology laboratory of department of horticulture, vasantrao naik marathwada krishi vidyapeeth, parbhani. fruits were washed thoroughly in tap water to remove any adhering dirt or dust. whole fruits were then subjected to hot-breaking at 90oc for 20 min to soften them. these were then macerated in a waring blender and, subsequently, passed through a laboratory-scale pulper for extracting a homogeneous pulp and to separate seeds. pulp samples were weighed out into 500ml glass bottles and the enzyme preparation (pectinase ec 3.2.1.1 from aspergillus niger, 1 u/mg from aspergillus sp.) was added at four levels of dose: 0.10, 0.15, 0.20 and 0.25% e/ s. control (straight-pressed) juice samples were incubated without the enzyme under the same conditions. for each concentration, 500ml pulp was taken in three replicates. the bottles were capped and incubated at 50 oc in a thermostatically controlled water bath for 1 h. the macerate was then pressed using a hydraulic press with a nylon filter 55 nutraceutical composition of ber juice bag to extract the juice. juice yield was determined by weighing the juice extracted, which was subsequently heatprocessed at 90oc for 1min, and packed in clean, sterilized glass bottles, upturned and sealed. this juice was then used for analysis. determination of total amount of phenolics, flavonoids and total antioxidant activity total phenolic content of the juice (80% ethanol extract) was estimated spectrophotometrically using folin– ciocalteu reagent, as per singleton et al (1999). results were expressed as mg gallic acid equivalents (gae/100ml). total amount of flavonoids was estimated by the method of zhishen et al (1999) and the results were expressed as catechin equivalents/100 ml. antioxidant activity was measured using two in vitro assays: ferric-reducing antioxidant power (frap), and cupric-reducing antioxidant capacity (cuprac). frap assay was performed as per benzie and strain (1996), and cuprac assay was performed as per apak et al (2004). results were expressed in mmol trolox/ml (te/ml). statistical analysis each experimental unit was replicated three times. data were subjected to analysis of variance, using completely randomized design. results and discussion juice yield data on effect of pectinase enzymes at different doses (0.1–0.25%) on ber juice yield is presented in fig. 1. the pulpy macerate of ber was highly viscous and difficult to press. with conventional straight-pressing (control), the yield averaged 27%, while, with increasing concentrations of pectinase enzyme, juice-yield increased to 70%. enzymeassisted processing accelerated liquefaction of the pulpy macerate, resulting in an 43% increase in juice yield. total amount of phenolics, flavonoids and antioxidant (aox) composition of ber juice enzyme-assisted processing had a significant impact on recovery of total phenolics and flavonoids too in ber juice. compared to the control, percentage increase in recovery of total phenolics was higher in pectinase treatments. total phenolics content increased to 314.36mg gae/100ml at 0.25% pectinase, from an initial 240.48mg gae/100ml (fig. 2). phenolics contained in the vegetable and fruit matrix appear to be entangled with the plant cell wall polysaccharides via tight hydrophilic and hydrophobic bonds. the release of those phenolics can be enhanced via enzyme catalyzed degradation of the cell wall polysaccharides. enzyme facilitated polysaccharide helps in exposing possible cell wall sites for phenolics, resulting in enhanced recovery (pinelo and meyer, 2008). fig 1. effect of pectinase treatment on juice yield in ber cv. umran fig 2. effect of pectinase treatment on total phenol content in ber juice cv. umran fig 3. effect of pectinase treatment on total flavonids in juice of ber cv. umran j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):54-56, 2015 56 total flavonoids content in juice also showed progressive increase with various pectinase treatments (fig. 3). antioxidant activity of ber juice, too, improved dramatically upon enzyme-assisted processing. values for this ranged from 14.47 to 19.82mmol/ml, respectively, in the control and in the juice treated with the enzyme pectinase (fig. 4). overall, there was a significant increase in total aox in the juice over control. an almost identical trend was observed in cuprac assay (fig. 4). high aox in enzyme-assisted juice may be attributed to a high recovery of phenolic compounds observed in the juice. similar results on high phenolic content and antioxidant activity have been reported in bilberry by previous workers (puupponen-pimia et al, 2008). enzyme-assisted processing of ber significantly enhanced nutraceutical composition of the juice, in contrast to straight-pressing. these results could lead to tailoring of the enzyme for obtaining optimum levels of antioxidants in the juice products. the study also indicated that ber, a fruit fig 4. effect of pectinase treatment on antioxidant activity in juice of ber cv. umran rich in nutrceuticals, can be commercially processed into juice rich in phenolics. references apak, r., guclu, k., ozyurek, m. and karademir, s.e. 2004. novel total antioxidant capacity index for dietary polyphenols and vitamins c and e using their cupric ion reducing capabilities in the presence of neocuproine: cuprac method. j. agri. food chem., 52:7970-7981 benzie, i.e.f. and strain, j.j. 1996. the ferric reducing ability of plasma (frap) as a measure of antioxidant power, the frap assay. anal. biochem., 239:70– 76 dahiru, d. and obidoa, o. 2008. evaluation of the antioxidant effects of zizyphus mauritiana lamk. leaf extracts against chronic ethanol induced hepatotoxicity in rat liver. african j. traditition complement altern. med., 5:39–45 pinelo, m. and meyer, a.s. 2008. enzyme-assisted extraction of antioxidants: release of phenols from vegetal matrices. elect. j. env., agri. food chem., 7:3217-3220 puupponen-pimia, r., nohynek, l., ammann, s., oksmancaldentey, k.m. and buchert, j. 2008. enzymeassisted processing increases antimicrobial and antioxidant activity of bilberry. j. agri. food chem., 56:681-688 singleton, v.l., orthofer, r. and lamuela-ranventos, r.m. 1999. analysis of total phenols, other oxidation substrates and antioxidants by means of folinciocalteu reagent. methods enzymol., 299:152-178 sowbhagya, h.b. and chitra, v.n. 2010. enzyme-assisted extraction of flavorings and colorants from plant materials. crit. rev. food nutr., 50:146–161 zhishen, j., mengcheng, t. and jianming, w. 1999. the determination of flavonoid contents in mulberry and their scavenging effects on superoxide radicals. food chem., 64:555-559 (ms received 07 march 2014, revised 29 april 2015, accepted 20 may 2015) khandare et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):54-56, 2015 short communication studies on combining ability in bitter gourd (momordica charantia l.) k. sundharaiya and k. venkatesan department of vegetable crops horticultural college and research institute tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore-641 003, india e-mail: aiya_hort@rediffmail.com abstract combining ability study in eight bitter gourd lines, to identify suitable parents and crosses for further exploitation, indicated that the lines mc 13 (l 1 ) and panruti local (l 2 ) were good general combiners for yield per vine. the lines ayakudi local (l 3 ) and mithipagal (l 5 ) recorded negative general combining ability and lower per se for days to first female flowering and days to fruit maturity. this can be utilized in breeding programme to develop earliness in bitter gourd. the hybrids mc 13 x arka harit (l 1 x t 3 ), panruti local x vk 1 priya (l 2 x t 2 ) and mc 13 x co 1 (l 1 x t 1 ) registered higher per se and specific combining ability for fruit length, individual fruit weight and yield per vine. the study revealed that additive x additive and additive x dominance type of interactions played a major role for days to first female flowering, days to fruit maturity, number of fruits per vine, fruit length, fruit size index, cavity size index, single fruit weight and yield per vine. the lines l 1 , l 2 , l 3 and l 5 expressed higher per se and general combining ability for most of the characters can successfully be utilized for developing superior hybrids in bitter gourd hybridization programmes. key words: line x tester analysis, combining ability, bitter gourd bitter gourd (momordica charantia l.) is one of the most important, nutritious vegetables known for its bitter principle. in india, it is grown throughout the country as rainy and summer season vegetable. it is a highly crosspollinated crop and its monoecious nature has resulted in wider variation in several qualitative and quantitative characters. however, it does not suffer from inbreeding depression and it seems that the population structure is similar to that of inbreeders than outbreeders (allard, 1960). in breeding programmes, the common approach of selecting parents on the basis of per se performance dose not lead to fruitful results. hence, potential parents need to be selected based on their genetic architecture and combining ability. the experiment consisted of line x tester analysis involving five lines, viz., mc 13 (l 1 ), panruti local (l 2 ), ayakudi local (l 3 ), long green (l 4 ) and mithipagal (l 5 ) and three testers, viz., co-1 (t 1 ), vk-1 priya (t 2 ) and arka harit (t 3 ). the seeds of the selected parents were selfed for five generations to obtain homozygosity. the selfed seeds were raised in a crossing block and crossing was made in line x tester mating system. in all, 15 f 1 hybrids and eight parental lines were raised for evaluation in a randomized block design (rbd) with three replications. biometrical observations, viz., days to first female flowering, days to fruit maturity, number of fruits per vine, fruit length, fruit size index, cavity size index, individual fruit weight and yield per vine were made on randomly selected plants. data were subjected to statistical analysis, and, general and specific combining ability study for eight characters was carried out as per the model of kempthrone (1957). analysis of variance (anova), due to parents and hybrids, showed significant differences for all the characters studied, and further, indicated presence of sufficient diversity in the lines and testers. parental lines recorded higher significant variance for all the characters (table 1). mean square due to testers recorded significant variance for most of the characters except days to fruit maturity, cavity size index, single fruit weight and yield per vine, while variance due to interaction effect (line x tester) was significant for all the characters. significance of parents can be judged through per se performance and general combining ability (gca) of parents to obtain a desirable recombinant. in the present investigation, among the five lines used, the line l 1 recorded higher per se performance for the characters, namely, fruit j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1):63-66, 2007 length, fruit size index, cavity size index, individual fruit weight and yield per vine. the line l 5 showed lower per se performance for days to first female flowering, days to fruit maturity and it ranked first in the number of fruits per vine. this was followed by line l 3 . higher number of fruits per vine observed in l 5 and l 3 may be due to early flowering and small size of fruits as suggested by richard kennedy et al (1995). among the three testers, t 1 expressed the best per se performance for number of fruits per vine, individual fruit weight and yield per vine, and, lower per se for days to first female flowering and days to fruit maturity. the tester t 2 ranked first for fruit length, fruit size index and cavity size index and second for days to first female flowering, days to fruit maturity, individual fruit weight and yield per vine (table 2). the line l 1 expressed the best gca for fruit length, fruit size index, cavity size index, individual fruit weight and yield per vine. this was followed by the lines l 4 and l 2 . the line l 5 recorded negative significant gca for days to first female flowering and days to fruit maturity and ranked first for number of fruits per vine and was followed by the line l 3 . the tester t 1 recorded negative significant gca for days to first female flowering and days to fruit maturity and higher gca for fruit length, fruit size index, cavity size index and individual fruit weight. the results assumed that a good combiner for any economic character need not be a good combiner for all other characters (haripriya, 1991). high general combining ability effects observed for different characters may be helpful in identifying sorting out outstanding parents with favourable table 1. analysis of variance(anova) source d.f days days to number of fruit fruit cavity individual yield to first female fruit fruits length size index size index fruit per flowering maturity per vine (cm) (cm) (cm) weight(g) vine(g) replication 2 9.17 1.101 13.22 1.56 252.68 33.43 3.63 30812 parent 7 97.33** 52.99** 195.9** 85.47** 14365.76** 1127.62** 2295.94** 412152.9** lines 4 62.56** 78.51** 315.2** 135.9** 33621.44** 281.31** 5958.55** 901694.5** testers 2 84.78** 3.68 34.98** 3.16* 1063.81** 26.86 39.89 36927 line x tester 8 28.87** 4.68* 23.46** 16.33** 3806.5** 225.83** 383.92** 208599.3** hybrid 14 46.49** 25.63** 108.46** 48.45 11993.24** 1231.68** 1927.52** 382101.9** error 44 3.95 1.04 1.95 0.53 126.79 13.67 32.13 11607.2 *significant at 5%, **significant at 1% table 2. per se performance and general combining ability effects (gca) of parents parent days days to number of fruit fruit cavity individual yield to first female fruit fruits length size index size index fruit per flowering maturity per vine (cm) (cm) (cm) weight(g) vine(g) l 1 47.99 23.55 14.89 16.89 213.67 63.24 86.66 1286.11 0.15 2.40 -3.53 4.20 74.19 19.85 21.97 327.77 l 2 47.44 15.00 13.33 12.89 146.66 50.12 56.11 776.66 1.22 2.22 -3.97 1.43 24.83 8.54 21.97 269.73 l 3 38.11 10.55 24.33 5.42 58.01 20.83 17.22 416.66 -1.22 -2.99 4.18 -4.39 -51.19 -18.42 -26.51 -331.01 l 4 50.77 16.66 13.89 13.78 121.22 44.53 45.55 641.66 3.45 1.51 -5.01 2.57 26.37 15.67 11.64 61.03 l 5 36.66 10.00 36.44 5.02 53.08 14.89 11.55 431.99 -3.59 -3.45 8.33 -3.81 -74.19 -25.64 -29.07 -327.53 t 1 46.22 15.99 18.77 17.994 161.65 59.66 78.89 1433.33 -1.95 -0.19 1.76 -0.2 -8.43 -0.48 0.29 48.90 t 2 46.33 16.11 13.33 19.00 249.05 68.94 74.44 952.99 2.65 -0.37 -0.81 -0.29 0.01 -1.03 -1.76 -50.79 t 3 52.99 16.88 14.78 14.33 179.33 45.33 58.89 912.22 -0.70 0.56 -0.95 0.53 8.42 1.51 1.45 1.39 se cd (p=0.05) 1.406 0.724 0.988 0.519 7.963 2.164 4.008 76.175 0.198 0.102 0.139 0.078 1.126 0.369 0.566 10.772 se(gi)+se (gi-gj) + 0.662 0.341 0.460 0.204 3.750 1.232 1.880 35.910 0.513 0.264 0.360 0.189 2.900 0.954 1.460 27.810 *general combining ability values are in italics sundharaiya and venkatesan 64j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 63-66, 2007 alleles for different components of yield. therefore, high general combining ability of the parents seems to be a reliable criterion for prediction of specific combining ability (brar and sidhu, 1977). the negative estimates of gca for days to first female flowering and days to fruit maturity registered by lines l 5 , l 3 and t 1 indicate that these can be utilized in hybridization programmes for developing earliness in bitter gourd it being monoecious with earliness as an important trait (pal et al, 1983). the lines l 1 and l 2 expressing higher per se and gca for most of the yield attributing characters can be successfully utilized for developing superior hybrids where heterosis in the cross involving low x high combiners may be due to dominant x additive type of interaction, which is partially fixable and crosses involving both poor combining parents showing high sca might be due to intra and interallelic interactions. among the 15 f 1 hybrids, l 1 x t 3 , l 2 x t 2 and l 1 x t 1 recorded higher per se performance for fruit length, fruit size index, cavity size index, individual fruit weight and yield per vine. the cross l 5 x t 1 proved to be the best per se performer for days to first female flowering and number of fruits per vine. results indicated the crosses l 1 x t 3 and l 2 x t 2 to be products of high x low combination, and, l 1 x t 1 and l 5 x t 1 to be products of high x high combination, suggesting the role of additive x dominance and additive x additive type of interactions, respectively. it is evident that the best performance of hybrids for specific characters may be due to either one or both parents having high gca for the respective character (choudhury, 1987). the same hybrids also exhibited higher specific combining ability effects for individual fruit weight and yield per vine. l 1 x t 3 was a product of good x good combiner for individual fruit weight. table 3. per se performance and specific combining ability effects (sca) hybrid days days to number of fruit fruit cavity individual yield to first female fruit fruits length size index size index fruit per flowering maturity per vine (cm) (cm) (cm) weight(g) vine(g) l 1 xt 1 49.44 18.11 15.66 19.22 257.44 66.88 71.11 1125.55 2.87* 1.64* -2.32* 1.27* 23.94* -1.07 1.77 75.45* l 1 xt 2 50.33 15.55 14.99 15.55 194.88 59.33 48.77 756.89 -0.83 -0.74* -0.41 -2.34* -47.10* -8.07* -18.50* -344.92* l 1 xt 3 45.33 16.33 17.99 19.77 273.49 79.09 87.22 1573.89 -2.04* -0.89* 2.73* 1.06* 23.16* 9.14* 16.72* 420.38* l 2 xt 1 44.44 15.99 16.66 14.55 176.16 58.79 61.11 1014.99 -3.20* -0.29* -0.88 -0.67* -7.98* 2.15* -8.21* -127.97* l 2 xt 2 57.44 17.11 17.44 15.66 195.37 51.90 82.21 1418.33 5.20* 0.99* 2.48* 0.55* 2.80 -4.19* 14.94* 374.55* l 2 xt 3 46.89 16.33 13.22 15.99 206.15 60.68 63.78 848.88 -2.00* -0.71* -1.61* 0.06 5.17 2.04 -6.72* -246.57* l 3 xt 1 45.33 9.89 25.11 6.22 67.11 20.68 24.44 611.11 0.14 -1.81* -0.56 -3.13* -41.00* -8.99* 3.59* 68.87* l 3 xt 2 46.98 9.99 22.99x 10.88 128.51 35.08 18.33 426.11 -2.31* -0.88* 0.69 1.59* 11.96* 5.95* -0.46 -16.92 l 3 xt 3 49.11 13.89 23.66 11.66 153.99 34.72 18.89 442.78 2.67* 2.07* 0.69 1.55* 29.04* 3.05* -3.13 -51.94 l 4 xt 1 50.99 15.89 15.32 15.66 197.55 63.41 61.11 950.55 1.13* 0.01 -1.18* -0.65* 11.87* -0.35 2.12 16.28 l 4 xt 2 53.89 16.11 14.11 18.11 230.44 73.33 57.77 817.77 -0.56 0.41 0.19 1.85* 36.32* 10.11* 0.83 -17.29 l 4 xt 3 50.55 16.22 14.78 15.88 154.33 55.99 57.22 887.77 -0.56 -0.41 0.99* -1.19* -48.19* -9.76* -2.95 1.01 l 5 xt 1 41.88 10.44 34.78 13.05 98.27 30.72 18.99 663.99 -0.94 -0.18 4.94* -3.13* 13.17* 8.26* 0.71 18.28* l 5 xt 2 46.44 10.66 25.11 8.22 89.55 18.11 19.44 451.11 -0.98 0.22 -2.15* -1.65* -3.99 -3.79* 3.20 4.59 l 5 xt 3 45.99 11.33 24.33 9.22 92.77 19.98 15.55 375.33 1.03* -0.04 -2.79* -1.47* -9.18* -4.47* -3.91* -128.87* se (l x t) 1.406 0.723 0.988 0.519 7.960 2.610 4.008 76.175 cd(p=0.05) 0.198 0.102 0.139 0.078 1.126 0.360 0.566 10.772 se (sca) 1.148 0.591 0.807 0.424 6.501 2.134 3.272 62.200 *significant at 5% **specific combining ability values are in italics combining ability in bitter 65j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 63-66, 2007 this mean that per se performance was reflected in their respective sca effects (munshi, and sirohi, 1991). the hybrid l 5 x t 1 was the best specific combiner for number of fruits per vine, days to fruit maturity and days to first female flower. the cross was a product of good x good combiner for the respective traits. higher gca effect of the parent involved in a cross also confirms superiority of the cross. the above results suggest that crosses with high sca effects for particular traits generally involved one of the parents which had either good or medium combining ability. similar result was also reported by arora et al (1996) in summer squash. perusal of the data on sca effects shows that no specific hybrid combination had significant sca effect for all the characters studied. of the 15 f 1 hybrid combinations, four hybrids recorded significant positive sca for yield per vine. highest sca for yield per vine showed by the crosses l 1 x t 3 and l 2 x t 2 could be exploited for hybrid vigour in bitter gourd. however, this needs further testing before these combinations can be recommended for large scale commercial exploitation. references allard, r. w. 1960. principles of plant breeding. john wiley and sons, inc., new york. arora, s. k., balwant singh and ghat, t. r. 1996. combining ability studies in summer squash. punjab veg. grower, 31: 14-17. brar, j. a. and sidhu, a. s. 1977. heterosis and combining ability for earliness and quality characters in watermelon (citrullus lanatus thumb. mansf.). part ii. j. res., (pau), 14: 272-278. choudhury, s. m. 1987. studies on heterosis, combining ability and correlation in bitter gourd. ph.d. thesis, mahathma phule agricultural university, rahuri, maharastra. haripriya, k. 1991. heterosis and combining ability in watermelon (citrullus lanatus thumb. mansf.). m.sc.(agri.) thesis, tamilnadu agricultural university, coimbatore. kempthrone, o. 1957. an introduction of genetical statistics. john wiley and sons, inc., new york. munshi, a. d. and sirohi, p. s. 1991. genetical studies in bitter gourd (momordica charantia l.). ph.d. thesis, faculty of horticulture, i.a.r.i., new delhi. pal, a. b., doijode, s. d. and biswas, s. r. 1983. line x tester analysis of combining ability in bitter gourd. south ind. hort., 3: 72-76. richard kennedy, r., arumugam, r. kandasamy g. and suresh, s. 1995. heterosis studies in bitter gourd. madras agril. j., 82: 121-123. (ms received 24 april 2007, revised 27 june 2007) 66j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 63-66, 2007 sundharaiya and venkatesan introduction mango (mangifera indica l.) popularly known as ‘king of fruits’ is the most important native fruit crop of india, showing high heterozygosity and wide genetic variability. the large number of about 1000 varieties available in india has not been fully exploited. brined raw mango slices, various types of pickles and chutneys are the major products commonly made from raw mango (maneepun and yunchalad, 2004). canned slices, beverages, fruit bars, nectars, syrups and aseptically packed pulp are the important processed products of ripe mango fruits (doreyappa gowda and huddar, 2004). currently, various forms of mango products have good export market in south-east-asia, europe and u.s.a. raw tender mango is best suited for pickle production due to its high acidity, texture and characteristic typical mango flavour. several formulated recipes with diversified taste, flavour, aroma and texture have been developed in india both for domestic and international markets. pruthi (1992) summarized the technological developments in unripe mango products. the quality of raw mango pickle depends mainly on the raw material and hence, varietal suitability and maturity stage play an important role in pickling. studies on physicochemical characteristics of some important mango varieties with respect to pickling have been carried out by many workers (jha et al, 2003, kambale et al, 2004; shinde evaluation of unique mango accessions for whole-fruit pickle c. vasugi, k. sekar1, m.r. dinesh and e.r. suresh indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bangalore-560089, india e-mail: vasuc@iihr.ernet.in abstract studies conducted to evaluate the suitability of nineteen unique mango accessions for preparation of tender whole mango pickles revealed that these varieties were characterized by their acidic taste and rich raw mango flavour, which are most prefered for pickle production. the physical and quality parameters viz. fruit shape, weight, raw mango flavour, firmness, titrable acidity, latex flow, ph, dry matter and vitamin c which are important in pickle quality, showed wide variations among different varieties. based on the sensory evaluation of whole immature green mango pickle prepared by standard fermentation and curing method, the accessions viz., kashimidi, isagoor appe, malange, appemidi, dantimamidi and jeerige were considered to be most suitable for preparation of tender mango pickles. key words: germplasm, raw tender mango, pickle, variability, sensory evaluation, unique accession et al, 2002). suresh et al (1999) studied the suitability of a few acidic mango varieties for brining preservation and recommended ‘kolanka goa and ‘karanjio’ as the most suitable varieties for preparation of pickles. mango germplasm collection at iihr, bangalore has some unique indigenous types from the western ghats and peninsular regions of our country, which are the hot spots for mango industry. these unique types are gaining importance in export market because of its suitability for pickling as whole fruit (tender mangoes) called ‘midi’ in local language (radhakrishna holla, 2007). in order to identify suitable varieties for pickling, nineteen accessions from the germplasm of pickling type mango were evaluated and the results are presented in this paper. material and methods the study was carried out during mango season of 2007 using 19 accessions viz., kana appe 1, isagoor appe, appemidi, kashimidi, adderi jeerige, aruna gowda appe, gaddalalli appe, jeerige, mani bhatta appe, malange, anantha bhatta appe, balekoppa appe, halasage, holekoppada appe, kalkuni, kovesara, muregeer, tatimidi and dantimamidi, maintained in the institute’s field gene bank. fruits were harvested 75 days after flowering at tender green stage before formation of stony endocarp. the fruits were washed thoroughly with tap water and shade dried to remove surface water. physical and quality 1 department of horticulture, annamalai university, annamalai nagar, tamil nadu j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 156-160, 2008 157 parameters were recorded using 10 fruits per accession. the quality parameters like ph, titrable acidity, vitamin c and dry matter content were analysed as described by ranganna (1986). the shape of fruits, raw mango flavour and quantity of latex flow from fruits were also recorded based on visual observations. the firmness was measured using instron universal testing machine model 4201 with 3 mm dia. probe and was expressed as kg/cm2. standard dry salting process was adopted for pickling of raw tender whole mango, about 500g fruits from each variety in triplicate lots were mixed with common salt at the rate of 250g/ kg fruits. tender whole mango and salt were spread in alternate layers in wide mouthed plastic jars of 750 ml capacity and allowed to undergo natural fermentation. at the end of 4 weeks of fermentation period, mango pickle was prepared using a standard spice recipe (anon., 1999) for quality. the quality of freshly prepared pickle was judged by sensory evaluation as described by ranganna (1986). a panel of ten judges evaluated the quality of the finished product with respect to colour, flavour, texture and overall quality using a rating scale of 1 to 5 for individual characters, (5-very good, 4-good, 3average, 2-bad, 1-very bad). statistical analysis was carried out by following standard analysis of variance as described by panse and sukhatme (1985). the accession with maximum overall score was rated as the best. results and discussion the physical and quality characteristics of different mango accessions are presented in table 1. significant differences were observed in these quality parameters. physical characteristics the fruit weight ranged from 17.43 g in kanappe 1 to 191.75g in gaddalalli appe which is attributed to the inherent nature of different accessions and are heritable under all environments. the fruit firmness was in the range of 3.59 to 5.65 kg/cm2 in kashimidi and malange respectively. the accessions mani bhatta appe, isagoor appe and balekoppa appe had better firmness (>5.0) which is a desirable trait for pickling. the fruit shapes recorded were elliptic, oblong and round in various accessions. the raw mango flavour is one of the most reliable traits for preparation of pickle. nine accessions were found to possess rich raw mango flavour (table 1). the latex flow which is also a preferable trait for pickle production was found to be medium to high in all the midi types except kalkuni, kovesara and tatamidi. quality characteristics the acidity in raw mango is one of the most important quality parameters which decides the taste and stability of pickled product. in the present study, wide table 1. physical and quality parameters of mango accessions evaluated for whole fruit pickle sl.no accession fruit raw mango latex fruit firmness titrable shape flavour flow weight of fruit acidity ph dry vit. (g) kg/cm2 (%) matter(%) c (mg/100 g) 1 adderi jeerige oblong medium medium 45.37 3.62 2.72 2.54 17.60 36.60 2 anantha bhatta appe elliptic medium high 61.53 3.95 2.55 2.52 16.82 68.93 3 appemidi elliptic strong high 25.23 4.32 2.67 2.98 14.19 101.30 4 aruna gowda appe elliptic strong medium 57.67 3.68 3.05 2.80 16.20 42.70 5 balekoppa appe oblong strong high 33.41 5.21 3.34 2.32 14.60 54.94 6 danti mamidi round medium medium 149.87 4.75 2.56 2.41 14.62 50.63 7 gaddalahalli appe round medium medium 191.75 4.84 2.45 2.51 19.24 54.92 8 halasage oblong strong medium 34.54 4.19 2.73 2.41 13.85 106.43 9 holekoppada appe oblong medium medium 55.93 4.59 2.42 2.38 15.22 87.23 10 isagoor appe oblong strong high 36.47 5.16 2.85 2.90 18.94 109.6 11 jeerige oblong strong high 36.30 4.86 3.26 2.26 18.88 45.75 12 kalkuni oblong low low 43.32 3.88 2.75 2.75 19.95 51.85 13 kana appe 1 oblong medium high 17.43 3.67 2.32 2.67 15.76 90.28 14 kashimidi oblong strong medium 26.07 3.59 2.66 3.00 17.80 114.10 15 kovesara round low low 54.01 4.42 2.56 2.85 18.98 76.86 16 malange round strong high 30.77 5.65 3.14 2.28 17.94 36.65 17 mani bhatta appe round strong high 173.97 5.57 3.07 2.24 18.65 64.15 18 muregeer oblong medium medium 26.94 4.16 2.89 2.95 20.08 75.03 19 tatamidi oblong low low 31.51 4.08 1.95 3.20 16.00 88.52 cd (p=0.05) 4.65 0.49 0.39 0.38 3.67 13.11 mangoes for whole-fruit pickle j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2):156-160, 2008 158 variations in titrable acidity ranging from 1.95% in tatamidi to 3.34% in balekoppa appe was observed (table 1). the accessions viz., jeerige, malange, mani bhatta appe and aruna gowda appe also recorded higher acidity of above 3%. the ph value ranged from 2.24 in mani bhatta appe to 3.2 in tatamidi. the accessions malange, jeerige, balekoppa appe and holekoppada appe also recorded a ph in the range of 2.26 to 2.38, which is on par with mani bhatta appe (2.24). the dry matter content was in the range of 13.85% in halasage to 20.08% in muregeer, which is on par with kalkuni, gaddalalli appe, mani bhatta appe, kovesara, jeerige, isagoor appe and anantha bhatta appe. the vitamin c content was high (114.1 mg/100g) in kashimidi to low (36.6 mg/100g) in malange and adderi jeerige. all these variations observed in the quality parameters were attributed to the genetic make up of these accessions expressed with respect to their environment where they are grown. based on the above data, it is presumed that the accessions in general possessed desirable traits for preparation of tender mango pickle. the physical and quality parameters of mango accessions after dry salting and fermentation are presented in table 2. significant variations were observed for physical and quality characters among different accessions. the firmness ranged from 1.57 to 3.96 (kg/cm2) in halasage and isagoor appe respectively. maximum retention of firmness (kg/cm2) was recorded in the accessions appemidi (3.94), jeerige (3.40), muregeer (3.22) and kalkuni (3.0). dry salting is the primary step in traditional mango pickling process (bhatnagar and subramanyam, 1973). during the process of fermentation, the fruit firmness reduced significantly among various accessions. the osmotic effect of salt on mango results in shriveling and moisture loss. the softening phenomenon during this process makes the variety unsuitable for pickle making. after fermentation, there was a slight increase in the acidity, decrease in ph and vitamin c content of fruits while the dry matter content increased to a greater extent. the vitamin c content ranged from 14 mg/ 100g in tatamidi to 52.7mg/100g in kashimidi. the loss in vitamin c is attributed to the decomposition by hydrolysis producing fructose (adsule and roy, 1974). since vitamin c is known to possess antioxidant property, its presence is useful in the prevention of browning and colour retention in pickles. the dry matter content was in the range of 36.28% in dantimamidi to 58.4% in mani bhatta appe. these variations could be attributed to the differential response of accessions to salt absorption during fermentation. sensory quality of tender mango pickle the sensory quality scores of tender mango pickles made from different accessions indicated that the accession, malange recorded the highest score for colour (4.17), which is on par with isagoor appe, danti mamidi, mani bhatta appe, etc. this could be attributed to the lower amount of tannins and other oxidizing compounds. the accession mani table 2. physical and quality parameters of mango accessions after dry salting sl.no accession firmness of fruit titrable p h dry vit. c (kg/cm2) acidity(%) weight(%) (mg/100 g) 1 adderi jeerige 2.85 2.91 2.44 47.46 16.50 2 anantha bhatta appe 2.86 2.69 2.38 42.40 22.10 3 appemidi 3.94 2.91 2.45 42.40 40.73 4 aruna gowda appe 2.61 3.28 2.56 46.56 23.40 5 balekoppa appe 2.35 3.53 2.25 39.26 33.50 6 danti mamidi 2.63 2.65 2.32 36.28 17.10 7 gaddalalli appe 2.35 2.57 2.14 47.00 14.80 8 halasage 1.57 2.48 2.36 46.86 34.70 9 holekoppada appe 2.68 2.65 2.24 38.18 39.72 10 isagoor appe 3.96 2.96 2.30 49.44 43.51 11 jeerige 3.40 3.44 2.18 48.86 26.43 12 kalkuni 3.00 2.88 2.41 39.86 37.54 13 kana appe 1 2.57 2.41 2.12 47.56 37.22 14 kashimidi 2.90 2.75 2.63 55.42 52.70 15 kovesara 2.62 2.88 2.55 46.41 19.74 16 malange 1.63 3.20 2.14 45.96 17.74 17 mani bhatta appe 2.46 3.28 2.09 58.40 38.15 18 muregeer 3.22 2.97 2.39 48.20 20.72 19 tatamidi 2.97 2.08 2.65 43.46 14.00 cd (p=0.05) 0.55 0.36 0.34 5.86 7.66 vasugi et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2):156-160, 2008 159 bhatta appe recorded the highest score for texture (4.08) and flavour (4.5) mainly due to the presence of higher number of flavouring compounds as indicated by intensive characteristic raw mango flavour. the overall acceptability score (4.16) and average score out of five (4.19) was higher for the accession mani bhatta appe. based on this study it is concluded that high acid mango accession mani bhatta appe produces best quality pickle with better colour, texture and flavour. the accessions viz., kashimidi, isagoor appe, malange, appemidi, dantimamidi and jeerige were also on par with mani bhatta appe. hence, these accessions are considered to be most suitable for preparation of tender whole mango pickles. acknowledgement the authors are thankful to the director, iihr, bangalore for providing facilities. the help rendered by mr. dasappa, technician, mr. n. ramachandra, lab. technician and mrs. sarojini jalali, technical officer is gratefully acknowledged. the first author acknowledges the department of horticulture, annamalai university, chidambaram for providing an opportunity to register for doctoral work. references adsule, p.g. and roy, s.k. 1974. studies on some important commercial varieties of mango of north india in relation to canning, freezing and chemical preservation of pulp. j. fd. sci. technol., 11: 257-260 anonymous. 1999. home scale processing and preservation of fruits and vegetables. cftri, mysore, pp 27-28 bhatnagar, h.c. and subramanyam, h. 1973. some aspects of preservation, processing and export of mango and its products. ind. fd. packer, 27: 33-52 doreyappa gowda, i.n. and huddar, a.g. 2004. investigations on processing quality of some mango varieties, hybrids and their blends. j. fd. sci. technol., 41: 154-159 jha, k.k., dwivedi, a.k. and jain, b.p. 2003. association study for pickle purpose mangoes (mangifera indica l.). j. res., 15: 135-136 kamble, a.b., karale, a.r., garad, b.v., shirsath, h.k. and more, t.a., 2004. selection of seedling mango types for pickling characters. j. maharashtra agril. uni., 29: 348-349 maneepun, s. and yunchalad, m. 2004. developing processed mango products for international markets. acta hort., 645: 93-106 panse, v.g. and sukhatme, p.v 1985. statistical methods for agricultural workers. fourth edition, icar, new delhi pruthi, j.s. and badekar, s.v., 1963. studies on varietal trials in salting and brining of raw mango slices for subsequent use in chutney and pickle manufacture. punjab hortl. j., 3: 264-271 table 3. sensory evaluation of tender mango pickle sl.no accession colour texture taste overall average score (appearance) (flavour) quality out of 5 1 adderi jeerige 3.50 3.15 3.75 3.45 3.46 2 anantha bhatta appe 3.35 2.55 3.45 3.25 3.15 3 appemidi 3.90 3.75 4.12 3.95 3.93 4 aruna gowda appe 3.90 3.80 3.60 3.83 3.78 5 holekoppada appe 3.30 2.95 3.60 3.21 3.27 6 danti mamidi 4.10 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.03 7 gaddalalli appe 3.48 3.71 3.85 3.81 3.71 8 halasage 3.60 3.10 2.95 3.12 3.19 9 balekoppa appe 3.95 3.42 4.00 3.75 3.78 10 isagoor appe 4.15 3.85 4.25 4.05 4.08 11 jeerige 4.00 3.70 3.85 3.95 3.88 12 kalkuni 3.20 3.70 3.85 3.50 3.56 13 kana appe 1 3.70 3.10 3.80 3.45 3.51 14 kashimidi 4.00 3.90 4.00 4.13 4.01 15 kovesara 3.50 3.51 3.94 3.60 3.64 16 malange 4.17 4.00 4.04 4.04 4.06 17 mani bhatta appe 4.00 4.08 4.51 4.16 4.19 18 muregeer 3.51 3.17 3.44 3.26 3.35 19 tatamidi 4.00 3.55 3.00 3.75 3.58 cd (p=0.05) 0.42 0.33 0.32 0.34 j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2):156-160, 2008 mangoes for whole-fruit pickle 160 pruthi, j.s. 1992. simple innovations in mango processing technology. ind. fd. packer, 46: 45-55 radhakrishna holla, 2007. guna, vaishistathegala khajane vanya jaathiya maavu thaligalu-sujatha sanchike, may pp. 17-23 ranganna, s. 1986. handbook of analysis and quality control for fruit and vegetable products, second edition, tata mc graw hill publishing company ltd., new delhi p. 1 -1112 shinde, a.k., joshi, g.d., waghmare, g.m. and patil, b.p. 2002. development of pickle purpose mango varieties cv. konkan ruchi. maharashtra agril. uni., 26: 300-302 suresh, e.r., rajashekhara, e., yadav, i.s. and dinesh, m.r. 1999. evaluation of high acid mango varieties for brining preservation. beverage fd. world, 26: 41-42 (ms received 15 november, 2007, revised 21 july 2008) vasugi et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2):156-160, 2008 introduction onion is the most important bulbous crop grown in india, besides garlic. though it is a vegetable, onion also serves as a spice and provides an aromatic flavour to the dish. onion is a basic flavouring agent / ingredient in the kitchen. when used as a vegetable or spice, it brings out the flavour of other dishes without overpowering them. fresh onion has a pungent, persistent, even irritating taste; but, when sauted, onion becomes sweet and less pungent. minimally processed onion is a ready-to-use onion commodity which offers the consumer a fully usable product with high nutritive value and increased shelf-life without effecting much change in freshness of the produce. use of fresh-cut onion saves labour and time, as, cutting onions is labour-intensive and time-consuming. fresh-cut products are freshly cut, washed, packaged and held under low temperature. even though minimally processed, these remain in a fresh state, ready to eat or cook. preparation of fresh-cut onion involves trimming, peeling, cutting, sanitizing and packing conveniently to offer the consumer 100% usable product, with high nutritive value effect of packaging and storage temperature on shelf-life of minimally processed onion (allium cepa l.) s. bhuvaneswari, c.k. narayana, r. udhayakumar1 and r. veere gowda2 division of post harvest technology icar-indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bengaluru – 560 089, india email: bhuvana@iihr.ernet.in abstract minimally processed onion is a ready-to-use onion product offering the consumer a fully usable commodity, without much change to freshness of the produce. effect of packaging and storage temperature on shelf-life in minimally processed onion was studied. packaging and temperature play an important role in determining shelf-life in minimally processed onion. onion pieces approx. 8-10mm thick were cut with a plain, sharp knife and subjected to dip-treatment with the firming agent, calcium lactate (2%), for 5 minutes. the samples were surface-dried and packaged in polypropylene bags of size 250 x 125mm, of variable thicknesses (25, 50 or 75μm) and stored at low temperatures and high rh:8±1oc and 83±2% rh; 10±1oc and 82±2% rh; and, 12±1oc and 80 ±2% rh. it was found that onion cv. arka sona sliced with a plain, sharp knife, pre-treated with 2% calcium lactate, surface-dried and packaged in polypropylene bags sized 250x125mm (50μm thick), and stored at 8+1oc and 83±2% rh retained freshness and nutritive value, were microbially safe and acceptable, with a shelf-life of 14 days at storage. key words: minimal processing, onion, calcium lactate, polypropylene bags, shelf-life j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):216-219, 2015 and increased shelf life, without causing much change in freshness. these are prepared for restaurants and massdining functions such as marriages, parties and have gained popularity in urban india in the recent past. due to urbanization and with most of the families having working women, lack of time for cutting onion for cooking is a constraint, and packaged onions fit this need perfectly. mostly, minimally-processed vegetables are stored at low temperatures. packaging and temperature play an important role in the shelf-life of minimally-processed vegetables. with this in view, studies on the effect of packaging and storage temperature on shelf-life in minimally processed onion were made. material and methods onion cv. arka sona, grown at icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, india, was used in the study. onion was harvested from the field, cured and sorted to remove injured bulbs, and to obtain bulbs of uniform size and colour. the onions were peeled and cut into pieces of approximately 10g each, thickness 8-10mm (approx.) using a sterilized, sharp stainless-steel knife. 1agricultural engineering, faculty of agrl and ah, gandhigram rural institute, gandhigram, tamil nadu, india 2division of vegetable crops, icar-iihr, bengaluru, india 217 shelf-life of minimally processed onion onion pieces approx. 8-10mm thick were cut with a plain, sharp knife and subjected to dip-treatment with the firming agent, calcium lactate (2%), for 5 minutes. the samples were surface-dried and packaged in polypropylene (pp) bags of 250mm x 125mm size, differing in thicknesses, viz., 25µm, 50µm or 75µm thick, and stored at variable low temperatures: 8±1oc and 83±2% rh; 10±1oc and 82±2% rh; and, 12±1 oc and 80 ±2% rh. though the recommended storage temperature is 2-6oc, ready-to-use products are often stored at higher temperatures in normal retail-distribution (carlin et al, 1990) subjective measurements such as visual quality (including freshness, browning, shelf-life decay, aroma and discoloration) measurements were made at regular intervals (every two days) to determine shelf-life of the sample. discolouration, dryness and separation of rings indicated the end of shelf-life of a sample. visual quality was studied as per camelo and cantwell (1999). at end of the shelf-life for each sample, quality parameters such as weight-loss, moisture content, firmness, respiration rate, total and reducing sugars, pyruvic acid content, acidity and total soluble solids, were measured and analyzed. the best package and storage temperature combination, in terms of maximum shelf-life of minimally processed onion, was subjected to microbial analysis by the pour plate technique (downes and lto, 2001). completely randomized design was used in all the experiments and data analyzed statistically using wasp 2.0 software. results and discussion effect of packaging and storage conditions on physicchemical qualities in minimally processed onion at the end of storage a) shelf-life samples packed in polypropylene (pp) bags of 50µm thickness, stored at 8±1°c and 83±2% rh, showed lower dryness, intact rings and less browning at the end of the storage period (14 days) compared to samples packed in pp bags 25µm thick, which showed more browning, had detached rings (due to moisture-loss in the sample), whereas, spoilage occurred in samples packaged in 75µm pp bags, due to moisture condensation. in samples stored at 10±1°c and 82±2% rh, and, 12±1°c and 80 ±2% rh, shelf-life of the samples ended in 11 days and 8 days, respectively. however, as found in 8±1°c and 83±2% rh, observations made were similar in samples packaged in bags 25µm, 50µm or 75µm thick. this shows that lower storage-temperature extended the shelf-life of a product. product degradation intensified with increase in storage temperature, as observed by berno et al (2014) in stored minimally-processed onion. b) weight-loss at the end of storage period, samples packaged at 8±1°c had lower weight-loss in packages of all the three thicknesses (2.75% 2.00%) compared to samples packaged at 10±1°c (3.78% 2.92%) or 12±1°c (4.83% 4.29% ) (table 1). higher the storage temperature, greater the weight-loss in the sample, irrespective of thickness of the film. moreover, it was observed that at all the three storage temperatures, samples packaged in pp bags 25µm thick showed greater dryness due to moisture-loss. samples packaged in 75µm thick bags showed lower weight-loss due to higher film thickness. it was observed that samples packaged in 50µm thick bags superior owing to lower weight-loss and were fresher. c) firmness it is observed from the table 1 that firmness increased with increased storage temperature irrespective of packaging treatment. firmness value was minimum at 8±1°c and 85% rh, which means that the sample had not lost its cell-integrity. further, at 8±1°c and 85% rh, firmness value in 50µm was higher than in 25µm, and lesser than in 75µm pp bag throughout the storage period. however samples packaged in 50µm pp bag were preferred, based on lower dryness and presence of intact rings at the end of the storage period (14 days). d) biochemical parameters biochemical properties of minimally processed onion samples packaged in pp bags of different thicknesses were measured and are presented in tables 2 and 3. samples packaged in pp bag of 50µm thickness had higher tss and acidity to those packaged in pp bag of 25µm thickness (table 2). total sugar content in samples packaged table 1. effect of packaging and storage conditions on weight loss and firmness in minimally processed onion at the end of storage (14 days) treatment weight loss (%) firmness (kgf/cm 2) 8±1°c 10±1°c 12±1°c 8±1°c 10±1°c 12±1°c initial 0 0 0 1.65 1.65 1.65 pp* bag 25µm 2.75 3.78 4.83 1.38 1.48 1.52 pp bag 50µm 2.51 3.35 4.79 1.50 1.59 1.64 pp bag 75µm 2.00 2.92 4.29 1.57 1.68 1.81 cd (1%) 0.56 ns 0.09 0.13 0.12 0.12 *pp: polypropylene; ns: non-significant j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):216-219, 2015 218 in pp bags of all the thicknesses decreased compared to that in before bagging samples. similar observations were made by carlin et al (1990) in ready-to-use grated carrot during storage. chunyang et al (2010) observed that onion slices packaged in 70µm thick, high-barrier film, had increased acidity and decreased total soluble solids (tss) during storage. decrease in tss at the end of storage at 10oc in diced onion was observed by hong et al (2000). pyruvic acid content was found to be high in samples packaged in pp bag 50µm thick (7.61µmol/g) at 8±1oc, compared to that in the other treatments (table 3). higher pyruvic acid content helped retain pungency in onion till the end of storage period (14 days). pyruvic acid content was lower in samples stored at 12±1oc, perhaps due to their higher water content which, in turn, leached out pyruvic acid. total sugars were found to decrease with increasing storage temperature, irrespective of the treatment. as storage temperature increased, retention of nutrients decreased. thus, samples packaged in 50µm thick polypropylene bags and stored at low temperature (8±1oc) were found suitable for retaining desirable biochemical qualities in minimally processed onion. e) respiration in minimally processed onion respiration rate in onion cv. arka sona samples packaged in polypropylene bags of 25, 50 and 75µm thickness, stored at 8±1°c and 83±2% rh, which recorded a maximum shelf-life of 14 days, was studied. in fig. 1, it is observed that there is a steep increase in co2 evolution; after reaching a peak over a period of time, the increase was constant until the end of the storage period (14 days) in the sample in all the three types of package. respiration rate may increase gradually over time, until a maximum value is attained and, then, start decreasing again to either a value before wounding, or, to a higher value (gorny 1997; fonseca et al, 1999). similar findings were reported by lakakul et al (1999) where respiration rate in apple slices was found to be 2-3 times that in a whole-fruit. increase in co2 evolution was lower in samples packaged in polypropylene bags of 50µm thickness, compared to samples packed in 25µm thick polypropylene bags. lower the respiration rate, higher was the shelf-life of a sample. shredded iceberg lettuce showed 35-40% increase in respiration rate compared to a quartered lettuce-head (o’beirne, 1995). respiration rate and other characteristics of any produce during storage change over a period of storage or any change in temperature (dash et al, 2013). table 2. effect of packaging and storage conditions on biochemical quality of minimally processed onion at the end of storage (14 days) treatment tss (obrix) acidity (%) 8±1°c 10±1°c 12±1°c 8±1°c 10±1°c 12±1°c initial 10.40 10.40 10.40 0.052 0.052 0.052 pp* bag 25µm 8.90 7.00 6.73 0.050 0.042 0.036 pp bag 50µm 9.50 8.33 7.67 0.042 0.044 0.043 pp bag 75µm 9.80 8.73 8.25 0.047 0.045 0.046 cd (1%) 0.04 ns 0.35 0.001 ns ns *pp: polypropylene; ns: non-significant table 3. effect of packaging and storage conditions on biochemical quality of minimally processed onion at the end of storage (14 days) treatment pyruvic acid (µmol/g) reducing sugars (%) total sugars (%) 8±1°c 10±1°c 12±1°c 8±1°c 10±1°c 12±1°c 8±1°c 10±1°c 12±1°c initial 7.94 7.94 7.94 4.50 4.50 4.50 7.79 7.79 7.79 pp* bag 25µm 6.46 5.49 3.73 2.05 3.76 3.43 7.09 5.14 4.08 pp bag 50µm 7.61 6.48 4.87 2.18 3.92 3.59 7.20 5.45 4.23 pp bag 75µm 6.78 5.77 4.11 2.21 3.94 4.20 7.14 5.46 4.27 cd (1%) 0.13 0.12 0.71 0.07 ns 0.27 ns 0.10 ns *pp: polypropylene; ns: non-significant *pp: polypropylene bags fig. 1. effect of packaging and storage conditions on respiration in minimally processed onion stored at 8±1°c and 83±2% rh bhuvaneswari et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):216-219, 2015 219 f) microbial quality in minimally processed onion microbial analysis showed that samples dipped in a solution of calcium lactate were microbially safe, as, the total colony forming units in 102 dilution were found to be nil at the end of a storage period of 14 days at 8±1°c and 83±2% rh. these findings are similar to those of finn and upton (1997) who observed no pathogens in shredded carrot or cabbage packaged in polypropylene film (35µm thick) stored at 7oc. it was found from our studies that onion cv. arka sona sliced with a plain, sharp knife and pre-treated with 2% calcium lactate; surface-dried and packaged in polypropylene bag sized 250x125mm (50µm thick) stored at 8±1°c and 83±2% rh, retained freshness and nutritive value, was microbially safe and acceptable, with a shelflife of 14 days. references berno, n.d., uliana, j.v.t., dias, c.t.s. and kluge, r.a. 2014. storage temperature and type of cut affect the biochemical and physiological characteristics of freshcut purple onions. post harvest biol. technol., 93:91-96 camelo, a.f.l. and cantwell, m. 1999. quality deterioration of fresh cut onion. hort’l. sci., 34:505 carlin, f., nguyen-the, g.c., hilbert. and chambroy, y. 1990. fig. 2. microbial quality of minimally processed onion at the end of storage at 8±1°c and 83±2% rh modified atmospheric packaging of fresh, ready-touse grated carrots in polymeric films. j. food sci., 55:1033-1038 chunyang, h., yuexiqing, l.f. and sun binxin. 2010. effect of high oxygen modified atmosphere packaging of fresh cut onion quality. in: proceedings of the 17th iapri world conference on packaging, tianjin, china, 10.12-10.15, 2010, e-book pp.124-128 dash, s., abhijit kar. and kalyani gorrepati. 2013. modified atmosphere packaging of minimally processed fruits and vegetables. trends post harvest tech., 1:1-19 downes, f.p. and lto, k. 2001. pour plate technique. in: compendium of methods for microbiological examination of foods. american public health association, washington dc, p. 7.62 finn, m.j. and upton, m.e. 1997. survival of pathogens on modified atmosphere packaged shredded carrot and cabbage. j. food protection, 60:1347-1350 fonseca, s.c., oliveira, f.a.r., brecht, j.k. and chan, k.v. 1999. development of perforation mediated modified atmosphere packaging for fresh cut vegetables. in: f.a.r. oliveira and j.c. oliveira (eds). processing of foods. quality optimization and process assessment. boco ratan, usa, crc press, pp. 389404 gorny, j.r. 1997. modified atmosphere packaging and the fresh cut revolution. perishables handl. newslett., 90:4-5 hong, g., peiser, g. and cantwell, m.i. 2000. use of controlled atmospheres and heat treatment to maintain quality of intact and minimally processed green onions. post harvest biol. technol., 20:53-61 lakakul, r., beaudry, r.m. and hernanadez, r.j. 1999. modelling respiration of apple slices in modified atmosphere packages. j. food sci., 64:105-110 o’beirne, d. 1995. influence of raw material and processing on quality of minimally processed vegetables. in: progress highlight c/95, improvement of the safety and quality of refrigerated ready-to-eat foods using novel mild preservation techniques. air 1-ct92-0125 project group (ms received 17 june 2015, revised 28 september 2015, accepted 03 october 2015) shelf-life of minimally processed onion j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):216-219, 2015 j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (1): 71-75, 2006 marketing and post-harvest loss assessment in sapota t. m. gajanana, m. sudha and v. dakshinamoorthy section of economics and statistics indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bangalore-560 089, india e-mail: gajanana@iihr.emet.in abstract a study was undertaken in the kolar district of karnataka to assess tlie losses in post tiarvest handling and marketing of sapota. the analysis of data collected at the field level, market level, procurement centre of hopcoms and at the retail level indicated post harvest loss (phl) of 15.98% in the wholesale marketing channel (wsm) and about 14.07 per cent in the hopcoms channel. marketing system for sapota was found to be inefficient as the efficiency index was found to be less than 1. however, between wsm and hopcoms, the latter was found to be more efficient in terms of lower marketing cost, higher price realization by farmers and lower margin of the intermediaries. use of mechanical harvester, pre harvest management of fruits against fruit borer and opening of procurement centres of hopcoms in the producing region are suggested in order to reduce the phl and also to improve the efficiency of the marketing system. key words: efficiency, marketing, post harvest loss, sapota introduction sapota is an important fruit crop accounting for about 2% each of area and production of fruits in the country (anon, 2004). the production at national level has been increasing at a compound rate of 6.14% annually. karnataka is one of the major sapota growing states with an area of 21,274 ha. and a production of 2,26,512 (anon, 2(x)5) accounting for about 25% each of area and production of sapota in india. like in other fruits, production of sapota is also subject to losses at different stages of post harvest handling. not much information is available on the marketing and post harvest handling or assessment of post harvest loss (phl) in this fruit crop. very few studies, mainly under experimental conditions have reported the phl in sapota (jagtap and katrodia, 1998). hence, a study was taken up to examine the marketing practices and to assess phl in sapota with the following specific objectives: i) to examine the existing marketing practices for sapota, ii) to assess post harvest losses and to identify causal factors at different stages of handling in different marketing channels and iii) to suggest strategies to reduce phl and to improve the marketing system in sapota. material and methods selection of the study area multistage random sampling was used to select the study area and the sample respondents were selected randomly. in the first stage, kolar district was selected, as, it is the major sapota growing area of the state accounting for about 15% each of area and production in karnataka (anon, 2005). in the second stage, bangarpet, malur and kolar taluks were selected as these are the major sapota growing taluks of the district. a total of 21 respondents/ farmers' fields were randomly selected from among 5 villages. depending upon the marketing channels followed, bangalore wholesale market and the horticultural producers' cooperative marketing and processing society ltd. (hopcoms) were selected for examining the marketing practices and to assess phl at the market level. private retail outlets and hopcoms retail outlets in bangalore city were selected for assessing retail level losses in sapota. details of sampling are given in table 1. estimation of phl keeping in view the stakeholders involved in post harvest handling operations, three stages, viz, field level, market level and retail level were identified for phl assessment. losses at the field level were estimated in 21 sample lots drawn from the harvesting fields at the time of harvest. at the field level, normally, no grading is done but fruits damaged due to mechanical injury, borer attack and bird attack are sorted out and discarded. this category of discarded fruits was treated as loss at the field level. at the mailto:gajanana@iihr.emet.in gajanana et al market level, samples were drawn from the wholesale market at agricultural produce market committee (apmc), singena agrahara and from the procurement centre of hopcoms, bangalore. the loss was assessed at the time of auctioning in the wholesale market and at the time of purchase at hopcoms procurement centre. at the market level, very small and immature fruits, and fruits damaged due to crushing/bruising during transit, are discarded. these discarded fruits were considered to be loss at the market level. the retail level losses were assessed from the sample lots of private and hopcoms outlets. at the retail level, overripe and rotten fruits are discarded and the quantity of such fruits was taken as loss at the retail level. simple averages and percentages were used as analytical tools. estimation of marketing efficiency efficiency of the marketing system is normally analysed using the standard formula of acharya and agarwal (2001). this formula was later modified by sreenivasa murthy et. al. (2004) by including phl as an item of cost. the modified formula used in our study is given below: npp ^ ^ ^ ^ mc + mm + phl where me = marketing efficiency index npp = farmer's net price npp = gpp-{cp+(lpxgpp)}or npp={gpp}-{cp}-{lpxgpp} where npp is the net price received by the farmer (rs/kg) gpp is the gross price received by the farmer (rs/ kg) cp is the cost incurred by the farmer during marketing (rs/kg) lp is the physical loss of produce at field level (kg) mc = marketing cost of the intermediaries mc = c p + c ^ + c ^ where cp is the cost of the farmer in marketing (rs/kg) c^ is the cost of the wholesaler in marketing (rs/ kg) c^ is the cost of the retailer in marketing (rs/kg) mm = marketing margin of the intermediaries mm = mm^+mm^ where mm^ is the marketing margin of the wholesaler mm^ is the marketing margin of the retailer phl = post harvest loss during marketing phl = {lp x gpp}+ {l^ x gp^}+{l^ x gp,} where l^ and gp^ are same as indicated above f f l^ is the physical loss during wholesaling (kg) l^ is the physical loss during retailing (kg) gp^ is the gross wholesale price (rs/kg) gp^ is the gross retail price (rs/kg) results and discussion marketing channels there were three important channels used by the farmers in the study area for marketing sapota: • producer-contractor-distant market wholesalerretailer consumer • producer-commission agent/wholesaler-retailerconsumer • producer-cooperative society (hopcoms) consumer the above channels could briefly be called 1) field sale, 2) wholesale marketing (wsm) channel and 3) hopcoms channel. in all, 66.67% of the farmers marketed 66.48% of the total quantity of sapota at the field level itself (field sale). about 20% of the farmers marketed 19.23% through wholesale market in bangalore and 13.33% of the farmers marketed 14.33% of sapota through hopcoms. marketing practices after harvest, fruits damaged due to injury, bird attack or borer attack are discarded, good fruits are packed in gunny bags @ 75 kg /bag and brought to the wholesale market in tempos (motorized vehicles). sapota is then auctioned off in the wholesale market through commission agents and it then reaches the retailer. in the case of hopcoms, after harvest, sapota is packed in plastic bags @ 35 kg/bag and is brought to the hopcoms procurement centre. bangalore, in tempos. the produce is purchased by hopcoms after careful sorting and discarding very small and immature fruits; ripe, crushed and broken fruits. it is then sent to retail outlets in hopcoms' own vehicle where care is taken while loading and unloading the produce. j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (1): 71-75,2006 72 post harvest loss assessment in sapota post harvest loss assessment phl assessment and marketing of sapota was confined to channel ii and channel iii only'. total post harvest loss was observed to be 15.98% consisting of 5.73% at the farmers' field level, 3.15% at the wholesale market level and 7.10% at the retail level in the wholesale marketing channel. in hopcoms channel, the phl was observed to be slightly less at 14.07 per cent consisting of 5.73% at the filed level, 3.92% at the procurement centre level and 4.42% at the retail level. analysis of data collected from farmers' fields at the time of harvest revealed that phl in sapota was around 5.73% (table 2). the main causes of loss were observed to be mechanical (physical) injury (4.15%) due to faulty harvest practices, borer attack (1.35%) and bird attack (0.23%). manual harvesting of sapota caused injury to fruits as some fruits fell to the ground while picking. besides mechanical injury, fruit borer also caused damage to the fruits. it may be observed from table 3 that phl was 3.15% at the bangalore wholesale market. the main causes of loss at the market level were observed to be very small fruits (1.35%), bruises (0.82%), broken fruits (0.49%) crushed fruits (0.37%) and overripe fruits (0.12%). at the hopcoms procurement centre, phl was observed to be 3.92 per cent owing to small and immature fruits (1.02%), bruises (1.14%), crushed fruits (0.55%), overripe fruits (0.41%), borer attack (0.32%) and malformed fruits (0.52%). in the case of hopcoms, careful initial screening and sorting of fruits was the reason for higher phl at this level. the harvested fruits are packed in gunny bags and loaded into the tempos without much cushioning except with leaves. hence, during transit, fruits are bruised and ripe fruits are crushed and broken. the phl at the retail level was 7.10% and 4.42%, respectively, in channel ii and channel iii. loss at this level was mainly due to overripe and rotten fruits in these outlets. careful sorting of ripe, borer attacked and malformed fruits at the time of table 1. sampling details si. no. stages of no. of sample avg. weight of the sample lot (kg) 20.15 73.88 30.60 15.66 10.00 procurement by hopcoms resulted in less loss during the retailing stage as over ripened and rotting fruits are avoided. table 2. post harvest loss assessment at field level 1 2 (i) (ii) 3 (i) (ii) handling field level market level wholesale market hopcoms procurement centre retail level private retail outlets hopcoms outlets lots 21 18 5 14 5 si. no. 1 2 3 (i) (ii) (iii) particulars total quantity of sample fruits quantity of good fruits damaged fruits mechanical injury borer attack bird attack total phl quantity (kg) 422.65 398.46 17.55 5.69 0.95 24.19 percentage (%) 100.00 94.27 4.15 1.35 0.23 5.73 it may be observed from table 4 that field level loss accounted for maximum loss in the hopcoms channel (41%), while, in the wsm channel, retail level losses accounted for 44% of the total phl. mechanical injury, borer attack at the field level and overripe and rotting fruits were the causal factors in both the channels. this calls for development and use of sapota harvester and pre harvest management of sapota for control of fruit borer at the field level. further, rotting of fruits was mainly due to secondary infection caused by borer and compression damage during transit. proper packaging and transportation would reduce this loss. marketing costs and returns in different channels it may be noted from tables 5 and 6 that the producer's share was higher in hopcoms channel compared to wsm channel. further, the farmer could get higher net price (rs.8.64/kg) in this channel than in wsm table 3. post harvest loss (phl) at the market level si. no particulars phl (kg) ws market hopcoms 1 total quantity of sample fruits 2 good fruits 3 damaged fruits (i) small/immature fruits (ii) bruised fruits (iii) broken fruits (iv) crushed fruits (v) ripe fruits (vi) fruits with borer attack (vii) malformed fruits total 1330.00 (100.00) 1228.16 (96.85) 18.00 (1.35) 10.87 (0.82) 6.55 (0.49) 4.86 (0.37) 1.56 (0.12) 41.84 (3.15) 153.00 (100.00) 146.99 (96.08) 1.50 (1.02) 1.74 (1.14) 0.85 (0.55) 0.63 (0.41) 0.49 (0.32) 0.80 (0.52) 6.01 (3.92) note: figures in parentheses are percentages of total 'in channel i (field sale), the movement of the harvested produce could not be traced to its destination due to want of time, resources and non-cooperation of contractor. / hort. sci. vol. 1 (1): 71-75,2006 73 gajanana et al table 4. total post harvest loss in sapota particulars field level market level retail level total phl (%) 5.73 3.15 7.10 15.98 wsm share in total 35.79 19.71 44.43 100.00 hopcoms phl (%) 5.73 3.92 4.42 14.07 share in total 40.65 27.86 31.41 100.00 channel (rs.7.08/kg). marketing cost appears to be the same for both the channels. however, the intermediaries' margin was more than the producer's share in case of wsm channel and was much higher (43.65%) than the margin in the case of hopcoms channel.(32.86%). post harvest loss in hopcoms channel was slightly less (14.07%) than the wsm channel (15.98%). it is interesting to note that the marketing system for sapota does not appear to be efficient as the efficiency index was less than 1.00 in both the channels (table 6). however, of the two, hopcoms channel was better than wsm channel. this may be attributed to the higher price realization by farmers, lower intermediary's margin and better handling of the produce. for farmers, the marketing cost was observed to be rs.l.88/kg in hopcoms channel and rs.2.24/kg when sold through commission agents. the marketing cost consisted of harvesting and packing (3137%), transport (25-28%) and deduction towards spoilage in the case of hopcoms (33.51%) and commission in the case of sale through commission agent in wholesale market table 5. price spread in sapota in different channels price spread net price received by farmers marketing cost of farmers phl at field level cost of wholesaler phl margin of wholesaler retailer's cost phl retailer's margin consumer's price wsm rs/kg 7.08 2.24 0.57 0.24 0.52 5.89 0.44 1.63 3.96 22.57 table 6: efficiency of the channels in si. no. efficiency parameters 1 producer's share (%) 2 marketing cost (rs/kg) 4 intermediaries margin (%) 5 post harvest loss (phl) (%) 3 marketing efficiency index % 31.37 9.92 2.53 1.06 2.30 26.10 1.95 7.22 17.55 100.00 hopcoms rs/kg 8.64 1.88 0.64 1.32 1.84 7.01 21.33 marketing sapota wsm 31.37 2.92 (5.64)^ 43.65 15.98 0.60 % 40.51 8.81 3.00 6.19 8.63 32.86 100.00 hopcoms (0.46)** 40.51 3.20 (5.68)* 32.86 14.07 0.91 (0.68)** * indicates marketing cost after inclusion of phl as an item of cost ** indicates marketing efficiency (me) after inclusion of phl as an item of marketing cost (44.20%). marketing of sapota through hopcoms was found to be efficient both in terms of cost (16% less compared to wholesale market sale) and 13 and 29 per cent higher price realization (rs.ll.l6/kg) compared to selling in the wholesale market (rs.9.89/kg) and field sale (rs.8.62/ kg), respectively. further, the net returns realized by the farmers were 31 per cent higher in hopcoms channel (rs.36,909/ha) compared to sale of sapota through commission agent in the wholesale market (rs.28,264/ha). post harvest joss, price spread and efficiency post harvest loss accounts for 11 percent of the consumer's price in case of hopcoms channel and about 12% in case of wsm channel. as phl increases cost of marketing, it also has an impact on marketing efficiency. price spread was observed to be 59.49% which, without the phl, would have been 50.77% in hopcoms channel. in wsm channel the price spread has increased to 68.63% from 61.47% due to inclusion of phl as an item of cost in the marketing system. if phl is also included as a cost of marketing, efficiency of the already inefficient marketing system is further reduced by about 33.82% in hopcoms channel and by 30.43% in wsm channel. hence, it may be inferred that inclusion of phl in the calculation of marketing efficiency will reduce the efficiency. this calls for efforts to reduce loss during post harvest handling of sapota to improve efficiency of the marketing system. based on the foregoing discussion, it may be concluded that development and use of mechanical harvesters, and, suitable pre-harvest management practices for control of fruit borer at the field level, sorting of damaged/borer attacked fruits at an early stage, would reduce the loss at later stages by avoiding secondary infection. use of proper packing material with cushioning could reduce loss in transit due to bruises, compression and crushing of fruits. marketing system for sapota was found to be inefficient due to higher costs and margins of the intermediaries. however, between wsm and hopcoms, the latter was observed to be better and hence, procurement centre of hopcoms at the production regions may be started. this would reduce transport costs and loss in transit. this would also improve the efficiency of the marketing system by reducing the number of handlings and the associated loss. efforts need to be made to reduce phl to increase efficiency index of the marketing system. acknowledgements the authors wish to thank director, iihr, bangalore for providing facility to carry out the work. useful comments of the anonymous referees are gratefully acknowledged. j. hon. sci. vol. 1 (1): 71-75, 2006 74 post harvest loss assessment in sapota references acharya, s.s. and agarwal, n.l., 2001. agricultural marketing in india, third edition, oxford & ibh publishing company, new delhi. anonymous 2004. horticultural data base 2002-03, national horticulture board, gurgaon, india. anonymous 2005. horticultural crops statistics of karnataka at a glance 2002-03, department of horticulture, lai bagh, government of kamtaka. jagtap, k.b. and katrodia, j.s. 1998. post harvest losses in packaging and transportation of sapota, indian j. hort., 55:48-51. sreenivasa murthy, d., gajanana t.m. and sudha, m. 2004. post harvest loss and its impact on marketing cost, margin and efficiency: a study on grapes in karnataka, indian j. agril. econ., 59:772-786. {ms received 10 april 2006 revised 13, june 2006) j. hon. sci. vol. 1 (1): 71-75,2006 75 introduction sapota, manilkara achras (mill.) is an important fruit crop belonging to the family sapotaceae. deficiency of major and micronutrients causes considerable yield reduction in sapota cv. kalipatti resulting in economic loss. in order to avoid yield loss, its nutrient requirements need to be carefully monitored through soil or leaf analysis for evolving nutrient management strategies. leaf analysis is considered a more direct method of plant nutritional status evaluation than soil analysis, especially, for fruit crops as these differ from seasonal crops in nutrient requirement due to their size, population density, rate of growth and rooting pattern. among several approaches adopted for interpretation of leaf analysis data, diagnosis and recommendation integrated system (dris) is considered the best as it uses nutrient ratios and simultaneously development of leaf nutrient norms and identification of yield-limiting nutrients using dris in sapota cv. kalipatti b. savita and k. anjaneyulu division of soil science and agricultural chemistry indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore560 089, india e-mail: anjaney@iihr.ernet.in abstract a survey was conducted in 106 orchards growing sapota cv. kalipatti in raichur, dharwad and belgaum districts of northern karnataka for developing leaf nutrient norms through diagnosis and recommendation integrated system (dris) for nutrient management. leaf samples collected were processed and analyzed for macro-and micronutrient status and a data bank was established. the entire population was divided into two sub-groups, namely, low-and high-yielding types to derive the norms. fifty-five nutrient expressions were chosen as diagnostic norms using dris, which have shown higher variance and lower coefficient of variation that are found to have greater diagnostic precision viz., n/k (1.731), n/ca (0.928), mg/n (0.360), fe/n (99.89), n/cu (0.104), n/b (0.037), mg/ca (0.329), ca/b (0.040), mg/s (1.103), fe/mg (278.6), mg/zn (0.037), mg/b (0.013), fe/zn (10.39) etc. the nutritional balance index (nbi) indicated an overall imbalance of nutrients based on sum of the indices, irrespective of sign. diagnosis of nutrient imbalance through dris indices indicated that potassium, boron and zinc to be the most common yield-limiting nutrients in the orchards. in addition, five nutrient ranges/ standards were derived using mean and standard deviation as deficient, low, optimum, high and excess for each nutrient, to serve as a guide for diagnostics. optimum leaf n ranged from 1.51 to 2.09%, p from 0.06 to 0.15% and k from 0.83 to 1.44%. the optimum concentration ranged from 1.36 to 2.34% for ca, 0.54 to 0.68% for mg and 0.48 to 0.80 for s. among the micronutrients, optimum fe, mn, zn, cu and b concentrations ranged from 109 to 206 mg kg-1, 49 to 99 mg kg-1, 13.3 to 21.9 mg kg-1, 3.76 to 9.10 mg kg-1 and 34.8 to 66.8 mg kg-1, respectively, for sapota cv. kalipatti. key words: dris, norms, indices, nutrients, sapota, kalipatti identifies imbalances, deficiencies and excesses in crop nutrients, and, ranks them in the order of importance (beaufils, 1973). this methodology has been successfully used to interpret results of foliar analysis in crops such as grape (bhargava and raghupathi, 1995) and papaya (anjaneyulu, 2007). as no established standards are available for sapota cv. kalipatti, an attempt was made to develop leaf nutrient norms/standards using diagnosis and recommendation integration system (dris). material and methods sapota orchards in raichur, dharwad and belgaum districts of karnataka state were surveyed during 2007-08 and leaf samples were collected for developing dris norms from 106 orchards by selecting the 10th leaf from apex, which is an index leaf (recently matured leaf), as outlined j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 136-140, 2008 137 by bhargava (2002). from each orchard, 25 to 30 trees were selected and 50 leaves were collected randomly to form a composite and representative sample. samples were decontaminated by sequential wash with tap water, followed by 0.2% detergent solution and n/10 hcl solution, to remove residues of chemical spray on the leaf. this was followed by washes in single and double distilled water. excess water was removed by pressing the leaves between folds of blotting paper and the samples dried in an oven at 750 c for 72 h. after complete drying, the samples were powdered in cyclotec mill and were analyzed for p, k, ca, mg, s, fe, mn, zn, and cu by taking one-gram of the sample and digesting it in di-acid mixture (9:4 ratio of nitric and perchloric acids) using standard analytical methods (jackson, 1973). nitrogen was estimated by microkjeldhal method, whereas p, k and s were analyzed by vanado-molybdate, flame-photometer and turbidity methods, respectively. calcium, magnesium and the micronutrients, viz., fe, mn, cu and zn were analyzed using atomic absorption spectrophotometer (perkin-elmer-aanalyst-200). boron was estimated by ashing one-gram of leaf sample in a muffle furnace and its extraction using dilute hcl. the analysis was carried out by curcumin method. thus, a data bank was established for the entire population. computation of dris norms dris norms were calculated as described by beaufils (1973). the whole population was divided into two sub-groups, namely low-and high-yielding types, taking 10 tonnes ha-1 as the cut-off yield. the cut-off yield was positioned in such a way that the high-yielding subpopulation reflected conditions that are deemed desirable (beaufils, 1973). nutrient ratios whose variance ratios (variance of low yielding/variance of high yielding population) varied significantly were selected as dris norms. individual nutrients were also considered for computation of dris norms in the same way as the nutrient ratios. altogether, fifty-five ratios involving two nutrients were selected for the eleven nutrients. computation of dris indices and nutritional balance index (nbi) dris provides a means of ordering nutrient ratios into meaningful expressions in the form of indices. the dris indices were calculated as described by walworth and sumner (1987) using the following formula. an example for one nutrient is given below: n = 1/10[f (n/p)-f (k/n) +f (n/ca) +f (n/mg) +f (n/s)-f (fe/n) +f (n/mn)-f (zn/n)+f (n/cu)-f (b/n)] n/p 1000 f (n/p) = —— 1 ——— n/p cv where n/p > n/p n/p 1000 f (n/p) = 1 —— ——— n/p cv where, n/p< n/p where n/p is the actual value of the ratio of n and p in the plant under diagnosis and n/p is the value of the norm, and cv is the co-efficient of variation. similarly, indices for other nutrients were calculated using appropriate formulae. the absolute sum values of nutrient indices generated an additional index called ‘nutritional balance index’ (nbi). this was worked out by taking the actual sum of the dris indices irrespective of sign. leaf nutrient guides/ranges five leaf nutrients guide/ ranges have been derived using mean and standard deviation (sd) as deficient, low, optimum, high and excess for each nutrient. the ‘optimum’ nutrient range is the value derived from “mean – 4/3 sd to mean + 4/3 sd”. the range ‘low’ was obtained by calculating “mean – 4/3 sd to mean – 8/3 sd” and the value below “mean – 8/3 sd” was considered as ‘deficient’. the value from “mean + 4/3 sd to mean + 8/3 sd” was taken as ‘high’ and the value above “mean + 8/3 sd” was taken as ‘excessive’ (bhargava and chadha, 1993). results and discussion leaf nutrients status of the entire population leaf n ranged from 1.36 to 2.31% with a mean value of 1.79% in the whole population but k ranged from 0.65 to 1.55% indicating, that, variation in leaf n concentration was much higher compared to k in sapota. however, leaf p ranged from 0.064 to 0.229%, which is much lower to either n or k. similarly, the concentration dris leaf nutrient norms in sapota j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 136-140, 2008 138 range of ca was much higher than that of k indicating dominance of the divalent calcium over monovalent potassium and, thus, possible antagonism between the two nutrients. wide variation was observed in s concentration ranging from 0.27 to 0.86%. among micronutrients, leaf cu concentration ranged from 4.20 to 15.9 mg kg-1 and wide range was noticed for leaf fe, mn, zn and b (table 1). dris ratio norms for sapota fifty-five nutrient ratio expressions were chosen as diagnostic norms from highyielding population and were presented along with their co-efficient of variations (table 2). as suggested by walworth and sumner (1987), nutrient ratios with lower co-efficient of variation and higher variance were selected as diagnostic norms, as these were found to have greater diagnostic precision. important nutrient ratio expressions were n/k (1.731), n/ca (0.928), mg/n (0.360), fe/n (99.89), n/cu (0.104), n/b (0.037), mg/ca (0.329), ca/b (0.040), mg/s (1.103), fe/mg (278.6), mg/zn (0.037), mg/b (0.013), fe/zn (10.39), etc. maintaining ratios of some expressions at an optimum, when these were with large coefficient of variation, is much less critical for performance of the crop (anjaneyulu, 2007). therefore, nutrients considered as yield-building components need to be kept in a state of relative balance to achieve maximum efficiency of dry matter production. dris indices and nutritional balance index (nbi) dris provides a means of ordering nutrient ratios into meaningful expressions in the form of indices. relative abundance of each nutrient was evaluated by comparing all ratios containing that particular nutrient with dris norms. thus, nutrients were arranged in the order of importance in which they limit yield (table 3). dris simultaneously identified imbalances, deficiencies and excesses in crop nutrients and ranked them in order of importance (walworth and sumner, 1987). as the value of each ratio function was added to one index sub-total, and subtracted from another prior to averaging, all indices were balanced around zero. therefore, nutrient indices summed up to zero indicating an optimum level, negative values showing a relative deficiency and positive values a relative excess of that nutrient (mourao filho, 2004). the absolute sum values of nutrient indices generated an additional index called the “nutritional balance index” (nbi). this indicated an overall imbalance of nutrients in each low-yielding orchard, based on the sum of indices, irrespective of sign. higher the nbi, larger is the plant nutritional imbalance and, thus, lower the yield (mourao filho, 2004). yield-limiting nutrients differed from orchard to orchard, though some nutrients were more prominent. thus, diagnosis of nutrient imbalance through dris indices showed that k was the most common yieldtable 2. dris ratio norms for sapota selected dris cv (%) selected dris cv (%) ratio norm ratio norm n/p 18.55 28 ca/s 3.432 26 n/k 1.731 23 fe/ca 92.080 25 n/ca 0.928 20 mn/ca 26.540 38 mg/n 0.360 11 ca/zn 0.116 23 n/s 3.112 25 cu/ca 3.656 36 fe/n 99.89 19 ca/b 0.040 22 n/mn 0.038 26 mg/s 1.103 19 n/cu 0.104 18 fe/mg 278.600 19 zn/n 3.963 30 mg/mn 0.013 28 n/b 0.037 23 mg/zn 0.037 16 p/k 0.102 40 cu/mg 10.980 28 p/ca 0.055 44 mg/b 0.013 20 p/mg 0.166 37 fe/s 307.300 27 p/s 0.183 42 mn/s 88.590 39 p/fe 0.0006 41 zn/s 30.540 29 p/mn 0.002 42 cu/s 11.990 28 p/zn 0.006 38 s/b 0.012 27 p/cu 0.015 27 mn/fe 0.300 41 p/b 0.002 42 fe/zn 10.390 22 ca/k 1.943 30 cu/fe 0.040 26 mg/k 0.621 23 fe/b 3.667 28 s/k 0.585 31 mn/zn 3.045 40 fe/k 170.5 24 cu/mn 0.149 38 mn/k 49.72 41 mn/b 1.062 40 zn/k 16.72 22 cu/zn 0.407 30 cu/k 6.728 32 zn/b 0.362 27 b/k 49.36 32 cu/b 0.145 37 mg/ca 0.329 14 — — — cv = co-efficient of variation expressed as per cent table 1. range and mean of leaf nutrient concentration in the entire population nutrient unit range mean n % 1.36 2.31 1.79 p % 0.064 0.229 0.109 k % 0.65 1.55 0.99 ca % 1.11 2.89 1.96 mg % 0.46 0.73 0.64 s % 0.27 0.86 0.58 fe mg kg-1 100 278 178 m n mg kg-1 18.4 97.4 51.7 zn mg kg-1 10.0 43.0 17.1 cu mg kg-1 4.2 15.9 7.26 b mg kg-1 21.6 82.7 48.8 savita and anjaneyulu j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 136-140, 2008 139 limiting nutrient among macronutrients, and, b and zn among micronutrients. low availability of micronutrients may be attributed to high ph and presence of high amounts of calcium carbonate in soil in many of the orchards (raghupathi and bhargava, 1998). leaf nutrient standards for sapota optimum n ranged from 1.51 to 2.09% indicating that a minimum of 1.51 % n needs to be maintained in the leaf for better growth and production in sapota (table 4). optimum k concentration ranged from 0.83 to 1.44%, reflecting a wide variation. calcium content in sapota leaves was higher compared to n, p and k nutrients, indicating higher root activity and adequate absorption of ca from a soil rich in ca. physiological role of ca in vital functions of a plant is well-known. it appears that calcium concentration in the plant is largely governed by new flushes and flowering pattern in the case of sapota. optimum leaf mg norms for sapota were 0.54 to 0.68%. raghupathi and bhargava (1998) noticed a similar range for ca and mg in pomegranate growing in bijapur district of karnataka. sulphur content was higher compared that in other fruit crops, and optimum s concentration ranged from 0.48 to 0.80%. optimum fe and mn concentration ranged from 109 to 206 mg kg-1and 49 to 99 mg kg-1, respectively. wider optimum ranges observed might be due to larger variations in available fe and mn in the orchards surveyed. optimum zn, cu and b concentration ranged from 13.3 to 21.9 and 3.76 to 9.10 and 34.8 to 66.8 mg kg-1, respectively. similar, wider optimum ranges have been observed in other fruit crops like papaya and pomegranate (anjaneyulu, 2007; raghupathi and bhargava, 1998). classification of low-yielding orchards classification of the orchards based on leaf nutrient norms is presented in table 5. classification of the orchards indicated that leaf n was at an optimum in 92 % of the orchards surveyed. potassium was found to be the major yield-limiting nutrient as leaf k was optimum only in 31 % of the orchards. among micronutrients, b and zn were the major yield-limiting nutrients as b was optimum only in 33 % of the orchards, whereas zn was optimum in 51 % of the orchards. similar type of classification was reported in papaya (anjaneyulu, 2007). thus, the study indicates that dris system, which is a holistic approach, identified nutrient imbalances in sapota crop and, therefore, proved to be an important technique for evolving nutrient management strategies for realizing higher yields. optimum ranges developed will serve as a guide for quick and routine diagnostic advisory purpose in sapota. table 4. leaf nutrient standards for sapota cv. kalipatti nutrient unit deficient low optimum high excessive n % <1.22 1.22 1.50 1.5 2.09 2.10 2.37 >2.37 p % <0.008 0.008 0.060 0.061 0.150 0.151 0.210 >0.21 k % <0.51 0.51 0.82 0.83 1.44 1.45 1.82 >1.82 ca % <0.87 0.87 1.35 1.36 2.34 2.35 2.83 >2.83 mg % <0.47 0.47 0.53 0.54 0.68 0.69 0.75 >0.75 s % <0.32 0.32 0.47 0.48 0.80 0.81 0.96 >0.96 fe mg kg-1 <61 61.00 108 109 206 207 254 >254 m n mg kg-1 <23 23.00 48 49 99 100 135 >135 zn mg kg-1 <9.00 9.10 13.2 13.3 21.9 22.0 26.2 >26.2 cu mg kg-1 <1.09 1.09 3.75 3.76 9.10 10.0 11.7 >11.7 b mg kg-1 <18.7 18.70 34.7 34.8 66.8 66.9 82.9 >82.9 table 3. dris indices, order of nutrient requirement and nutritional balance index (nbi) for selected low-yielding sapota orchards sl. no. n p k ca mg s fe mn zn cu b nbi order of limiting nutrients 1 -48 1 116 188 121 111 -88 -87 -147 68 -235 1210 b>zn>fe>mn 2 76 252 -109 24 61 -65 87 -14 -103 217 -426 1434 b>k> zn>s 3 19 -25 -183 -105 45 97 -54 -110 39 117 159 952 k>mn>ca>fe 4 -8 51 -145 -2 45 131 126 25 -109 64 -178 884 b>k>zn>n 5 68 -16 -108 -52 -105 135 150 337 -198 -27 -184 1380 zn>b>k>mg 6 -46 10 -125 141 61 84 138 163 -1 -23 -402 1194 b>k>n>cu 7 107 -18 -117 98 95 -14 2 29 -203 -30 51 764 zn>k>cu>p 8 90 -70 -111 77 42 -28 -45 12 -22 -6 62 566 k>p>fe>s 9 142 -54 -92 102 73 -52 -61 -6 -88 -3 39 712 k>zn>fe>p 10 33 -57 -167 149 39 -91 68 -114 -12 18 134 882 k>mn>s>p dris leaf nutrient norms in sapota j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 136-140, 2008 140 (ms received 16 september 2008, revised 28 october 2008) table 5. classification of low-yielding sapota orchards (%) based on leaf nutrient standards element deficient low optimum high excessive n 0 6 92 2 0 p 0 0 81 14 5 k 0 69 31 0 0 ca 0 14 67 19 0 mg 3 3 75 19 0 s 3 31 66 0 0 fe 0 3 72 19 6 m n 3 41 56 0 0 zn 0 49 51 0 0 cu 0 0 81 13 6 b 0 56 33 11 0 references anjaneyulu, k. 2007. diagnostic petiole nutrient norms and identification of yield limiting nutrients in papaya (carica papaya) using diagnosis and recommendation integrated system. ind. j. agril. sci., 77:711-714 beaufils, e. r. 1973. diagnosis and recommendation integrated system (dris): a general scheme for experimentation and calibration based on principle developed from research in plant nutrition, south african soil sci., bulletin no.1 bhargava, b.s. 2002. leaf analysis for nutrient diagnosis, recommendation and management in fruit crops. j. ind. soc. soil sci., 50:362-373 bhargava, b.s. and chadha, k.l. 1993. leaf nutrient guide for fruit crops. adv. hort., 2: 973-1030 bhargava, b.s. and raghupathi, h.b. 1995. current status and new norms of nitrogen nutrition for grapevine (vitis vinifera). ind. j. agril. sci., 65:165-169 jackson, m.l. 1973. soil chemical analysis, prentice hall of india pvt ltd., new delhi mourao filho, a.a. 2004. dris: concepts and applications on nutritional diagnosis in fruit crops. sci. agri. (piracicaba, braz.), 61: 550-560 raghupathi, h.b. and bhargava, b.s. 1998. leaf and soil nutrient diagnostic norms for pomegranate. j. ind. soc. soil sci., 46: 412-416 walworth, j.l. and sumner, m.e. 1987. the diagnosis and recommendation integrated system (dris). adv. soil sci., 6:149-187 savita and anjaneyulu j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 136-140, 2008 the genus epidendrum was named so by carolus linnaeus in the year 1763, referring to its epiphytic growth habit (meaning derived from the greek words, epi-”on” and dendron-”tree”). epidendrum is often considered a mega-genus consisting of around 1500 species from the neotropical. origin (hagsater and arenas, 2005), similar to the genus dendrobium from the old world tropical origin asia and largely spreading from carolina, north louisiana to south argentina, mexico, throughout west indies, andes and brazil. however, many species synonymous with epidendrum have been segregated out and resurrected into more than seventeen genera. these species are generally characterized by their reed-stem, growing like tufts, floriferous, bearing flowers with free and spreading sepals, slit rostellum, fringed lip adnate to the column with colour ranging from white, red, orange, green to yellow. this genus, exceptionally, also consists of a few terrestrials and lithophytes by habitat. epidendrums are popularly called ‘crucifix orchid’ and also ‘poor man’s orchid’, as they are one of the easiest growing orchids and need little attention, unlike the popular cymbidium and phalaenopsis hybrids. need for interspecific hybrids in epidendrum orchids: orchid breeding is carried out mainly by commercial firms and is still in its infancy in india. acclimatization and interspecific hybrid developed in epidendrum orchid from the cross e. radicans pav. ex. lindl. x e. xanthinum lindl. r. devadas, r.p. medhi and s.p. das nrc for orchids, icar, pakyong, sikkim-737 016, india e-mail: r.devdas@gmail.com abstract an interspecific epidendrum hybrid was developed using e. radicans (known as ‘fire star orchid’, ‘ground-rooted orchid’) as female parent and e. xanthinum known as ‘yellow orchid’ as male parent. the selected line (nrcoepidendrum cross/2005-01) was characterized for morphological and floral traits. flower size (3.5 cm x 3.4 cm) of selected line was bigger than both parents, with bright saffron-orange colour (rhs 44a). dorsal sepal size (1.8 cm x 0.6 cm), lateral sepal size (1.9 cm x 0.7 cm), petal size (1.8 cm x 0.6 cm), lip size (2.3 cm x 2 cm) and column size (1.1 cm x 0.2 cm) were bigger than in parents. shape and fimbriated side lobes of lip with deep cleft of anterior margins was similar to the male parent (e. xanthinum), except colour. the f 1 progeny of ‘nrco-epidendrum cross/2005-01’ flowered with different red-orange to yellow shades is categorized broadly into three types: red-orange, orangeyellow and yellow. epidendrums are popularly known as ‘crucifix orchid’ and ‘poor man’s orchid’, have a long flowering period with 2-3 flowerings in a year, and are easy to multiply. these attributes are ideal for popularizing this plant in india as a potted plant as well garden plant. key words: epidendrum hybrids, interspecific hybridization, epiphytes, fimbriated lip, clefted anterior lobe introductions do not suffice for improving plant wealth in india (randhawa and mukhopadhyaya, 1986). epidendrums are easy to multiply, have a long flowering period with 2-3 flowering spells in a year, suited to tropical & sub-tropical conditions. these attributes are ideal for popularizing these orchids in india as potted garden plants. synthesis of hybrids using rare and endangered species for commercial purposes will reduce the pressure on their wild relatives (kishor and sharma, 2009). orchids can also be introduced from other countries for commercial use for developing hybrids, as there is no restriction on this at present as per ‘convention on international trade in endangered of wild flora and fauna’ (cites). variability in commercial epidendrum varieties is very low. with an objective to create variability, hybridization was carried out using e. radicans pav. ex. lindl. and e. xanthinum lindl. as parents, in 1999-2000. the exact origin and collection details of these species were not recorded at this center and there are no scientific reports on introduction of these species in to india, except for a report on e. radicans as an alien species by rao and mohanan (1983). this species, e. radicans, is grown for cut flower and as a potted plant (teob, 1989). hence, attempts have been made j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 144-147, 2010 short communication prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 145 earlier to develop an efficient micropropagation method (chen et al, 2002). hybridization and in-vitro programme: epidendrum radicans, popularly known as the ‘fire star orchid’ and ‘ground-root’ orchid, was used as the female parent (fig. 1) and e. xanthinum (syn. e. secundum, now called e. ellipticum var. flavum lindl.) (fig. 2) known as the yellow orchid, was used as the male parent. hybridization was done by emasculating flowers of the female parent by removing the anther cap and pollinia (that are four in number, with two clusters). then, fresh pollinia collected from the male parent were attached to the stigma of the column for pollination. even though the stigmatic surface is highly sticky pollen bags were used for covering the inflorescence to avoid cross pollination by insects. flower colour turned dark and the floral lip dried up in 3-4 days, when pollination was successful. mature, ellipsoid capsules harvested at 4-5 months. seedlings were raised invitro from seeds contained in capsules, and, flowering was observed after two years planting. observations on flower colour variations among the progeny and clones selected are described below and presented intable 1. morphological characters were recorded at the full bloom stage and colour of flowers was recorded with the help of ‘royal horticultural society colour chart’. description of selected f 1 progeny of ‘nrcoepidendrum cross/2005-01’: the f 1 progeny of ‘nrco-epidendrum cross/2005’ has flowers of red-orange to yellow shades (fig. 3). flower colour variation was categorized broadly into three types: red-orange, orange-yellow and yellow (fig 6 & 7). the data of the selected f 1 line ( n r c o e p i d e n d r u m cross/2005-01) along with it parents are presented in table 1. flower size (3.5 cm x 3.4 cm) of selected line was larger than in both parents, with bright saffron-orange colour (rhs 44a). floral characters like dorsal sepal size (1.8 cm x 0.6 cm), lateral sepal size (1.9 cm x 0.7 cm), petal size (1.8 cm x 0.6 cm), lip size (2.3 cm x 2 cm) and column size (1.1 cm x 0.2 cm) were relatively larger than in either parent, except the width of the dorsal sepal and petal. however, the shape and fimbriated side lobes of the lip and deep cleft of the anterior margins of selected f 1 line were similar to that of the male parent (e. xanthinum) excepting colour. flower colour of the f 1 selected line fell in between colour of the female parent (e. radicans) with orange (rhs 28a/25a) and red colour (rhs 53b) being that of the male parent (e. xanthinum). the mid lobe and disc colour of f 1 hybrid line was similar to that of the female parent with yellow colour (rhs n25d). but, in the male parent, the disc was of the same colour as sepals and petals, except the colour of crested teeth. in the selected line and e. radicans, inflorescence was observed to be a corymbose racemose (fig. 4) and flowers were closely paniculated, whereas in e. xanthinum, the peduncle was as long as the stem recurving and pendulous with sparse flowers (fig. 5). a hybrid, e. xobrienianum (natural cross), derived from e. evectum x e. radicans reported by john veich and sons, (1884-1894) has been recognized by the royal horticultural society, uk, an internationally recognized orchid registration authority. but, e. evectum, shown as e. fig 1. flower of epidendrum radicans fig 2. flower of epidendrum xanthinum fig 3. flower of nrcoepidendrum cross-2005-01 fig 4. corymbose racemose inflorescence of epidendrum radicans interspecific hybrid developed in epidendrum j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 144-147, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 146 fig 5. inflorescence of epidendrum xanthinum e. radicans (female parent) plant height : 24-58 cm, leaves : green, flat & concave, 6-11, 11 cm x 2.7 cm, ovate-oblong, acute-emarginate, less pigmented flower peduncle:slender, terminating into corymbose racemose inflorescence, pedicel straight, yellow in colour; flowers: 20-25, size 3.4 x 3.15 cm, resupinate, dorsal sepal:1.8 x 0.65 cm, orange (rhs 28a/25a), lateral sepals : orange (rhs 28a/25a), 1.75 x 0.68 cm, petals – smaller than sepals, 1.3 x 0.7 cm, orange; lip : 3 lobed, 1.8 x 1.6 cm, yellow (rhs n25d), side lobes fimbriated & slightly darker at margins, mid lobe disc crested with 03 bright yellow teeth, anterior lob moderately clefted, column : short, 2 auricles, semi-terete, 0.8 x 0.2 cm, anthers : 4, yellow & cap yellowish green e. xanthinum (male parent) plant height 41:74 cm; leaves : medium green, 8-12, 8.7 cm x 2.6 cm, oblong-lanceolate, obtuse tip flower peduncle : as long as the stem, curving, terminating into curving and pendulous racemose & loosely paniculated, flowers: 13-15, size 3.5 x 3.3 cm, red (rhs 46b), dorsal sepal:1.8 x 0.6 cm, red (rhs 46b); lateral sepals: 1.6 x 0.6 cm, red (rhs 46b); petals : 1.6 x 0.8 cm, red (rhs 53b); lip : 1.9 x 1.8 cm, flat, 3 lobed, side lobes deeply fimbriated & red, mid lobe crested with 03 bright prominent bright yellow teeth, anterior lob deeply clefted & reflexed; column : moderately long, 0.9 x 0.2 cm;, anthers : 4, yellow & cap yellowish green nrco-epidendrum cross/2005-01 plant height: 32-51 cm; leaves : 9.2 cm x 2.4 cm, dark green colour, more pigmented, ovate oblong, acuteemarginate, flower peduncle:slender, terminating into corymbose racemose inflorescence (fig. 6), pedicel straight, yellow colour; flowers: 15-23, size 3.5 x 3.4 cm, resupinate; dorsal sepal-1.8 x 0.6 cm, orange (rhs 44a); lateral sepals : 1.9 x 0.7 cm, orange (rhs 44a); petals : smaller than sepals, 1.8 x 0.6 cm, orange (rhs 44a); lip : 3 lobed, 2.3 x 2 cm, orange (rhs 44a), side lobes tripartite, fimbriated & colour similar to sepal colour, mid lobe disc yellow (rhs n25d) crested with 03 bright yellow teeth, anterior lobe deeply clefted; column : long with auricles, semi-terete, 1.1 x 0.2 cm, darker orange (rhs 47 b); anthers: – 4, yellow & cap yellowish green * at the time of flowering and based on two years’ data (2005-06 & 2008-09) fig 6. inflorescence of nrcoepidendrum cross-2005-01 fig 7. flower colour variation among f 1 progeny of nrcoepidendrum cross-2005 (from right: 1-maroon-red group, 2 & 3–orange group, 4-yellow group) table 1. morphological characters* of e. radicans, e. xanthinum and their hybrid (selected clone) devadas et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 144-147, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 147 jamiesonis, is a synonym for the former (rhs, uk). however, epidendrum hybrids developed through systematic breeding were not reported after this and efforts in this direction are lacking. hence, this new line developed by us can be useful as germplasm stock, and further improvement can be made through mutation breeding, introgression and by hybridization with its close relatives like cattleya, oncidium etc. acknowledgement the authors thank ms. geetamani chhetri, technical person (under ‘dus testing on orchids’) and shri. k.b. gupta (nrc for orchids, sikkim) for field assistance. references chen, l.r., chen, j.t. and chang, w.c. 2002. efficient production of protocorm like bodies and plant regeneration from flower stalk explants of the sympodial orchid epidendrum radicans. in vitro cell. dev. biol. plant., 38: 441-445 james veich & sons (1887-1994) a manual of orchidaceous plants cultivated under glass in great britain, part vi coelogyne and epidendrum. james veitch & sons, royal exotic nursery, 544, king’s raod, chulesa, s.w. kishor, r. and sharma, g.j. 2009. intergeneric hybrid of two rare and endangered orchids, renanthera imschootiana rolfe and vanda coerulea griff. ex (orchidaceae): synthesis and characterization. euphytica, 165:247-256 (doi 10.1007/s10681-0089755-9) hagsater, e. and arenas, m.a.s. 2005. epidendrum. in: genera orchidaceum. pridgeon a m, cribb p, chase m.w. and rasmussen (eds). v. 4. oxford university press, oxford, pp 236-251 rao, a.v.n. and mohanan, m. 1983. alien orchids in south india. 1. cultivation of epidendrum-radicans in the national orchidarium, yercaud, tamilnadu, india. j. econ. taxon. bot., 4:343-346 royal horticultural society, united kingdom (http:// w w w . r h s . o r g . u k / p l a n t s / r e g i s t e r p a g e s / orchiddetails.asp? id=126444) teoh, e.s. 1989. orchids of asia. times books international publishers, singapore. (ms received 22 september 2009, revised 8 september 2010) j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 144-147, 2010 interspecific hybrid developed in epidendrum prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no introduction crop losses in bananas caused by nematodes are very high, with an average annual yield loss estimated at about 20 per cent worldwide (sasser and freckman, 1987). two of the most widespread and important nematode species associated with bananas and plantains are the burrowing nematode radopholus similis and the lesion nematode pratylenchus coffeae. these lesion-inducing nematodes feed, multiply and migrate inside the roots and corm and cause a necrotic and reduced root system. hence, it is important to screen the cultivars or hybrids for their reaction to nematodes. in light of the above, the present study was undertaken at horticultural college and research institute, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore, india. material and methods banana hybrids used in the present study were evolved in the institute with the main objective of breeding for resistance/ tolerance to nematodes along with good yield traits. the hybrids were assessed for their reaction to lesion nematode, pratylenchus coffeae. the experiments were conducted in a glass house in potted plants which were inoculated artificially. the experiment was laid out in randomised block design and replicated thrice. the hybrids were evaluated along with the reference cultivars viz., rasthali (aab, syn.silk) as the susceptible reference cultivar and pisang lilin (aa) as the resistant reference cultivar. the screening was done based on the root and corm screening of banana hybrids for resistance to pratylenchus coffeae p. s. kavitha, t. n. balamohan, k. poornima , i. van den bergh1 and d. de waele2 department of fruit crops horticultural college and research institute tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore-641 003, india e-mail: oviya232@yahoo.com abstract the reaction of twenty-four new synthetic banana hybrids to pratylenchus coffeae was studied under artificially inoculated pot conditions. two banana hybrids, h-04-05 and h-04-06 were found to be resistant and ten hybrids, h-04-01, h-04-03, h-04-04, h-04-07, h-04-09, h-04-11, h-04-16, h-04-19, h-04-21 and h-04-24 were found to be tolerant to the lesion nematode, pratylenchus coffeae and the remaining were rated as susceptible. keywords : resistance, banana, hybrids, pratylenchus coffeae 1 international network for the improvement of banana and plantain asia and the pacific,c/o irri khush hall, los baños, laguna 4031, philippines 2 laboratory of tropical crop improvement, catholic university leuven (k.u. leuven), kasteelpark, arenberg 13, 3001 leuven, belgium damage assessment as followed in inibap technical guidelines 7 (carlier et al, 2003). preparation of plant material suckers of uniform size were pared immediately after detaching from the mother plant, and planted in pots filled with sterilized pot mixture. the soil was watered upto field capacity. four weeks after planting, 8-10 plants of each genotype were inoculated with lesion nematodes (1 nematode per gram of soil), while another set of 8-10 plants were kept as nematode-free control. culturing and extraction of nematodes carrot disc culture surface sterilized carrot was cut into discs and placed in sterile petri dishes. nematodes extracted from the infected roots through baermann-funnel method were surface sterilized and transferred to the carrot discs with a sterile micropipette. small drops of nematode suspension were placed on the margin of the carrot discs. the petri dishes were sealed with parafilm, labelled and stored in an incubator at 28°c. sub-culturing of nematodes on fresh carrot discs was done periodically and the extracted nematodes were used for inoculation in pot culture experiments (carlier et al, 2003). inoculation of nematodes in pots nematode suspension obtained from the above method, containing infective juveniles of pratylenchus coffeae, were inoculated into the pots, forty five days after j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 57-61, 2008 page 57 58 planting, @ 1n/ g of soil, by making three deep holes around each sucker. another set of pots was maintained as uninoculated control. observations on nematode population in soil and root were made on 45th and 90th day after inoculation. the lesion index in roots and corm were observed while terminating the trial, i.e., at 90th day of inoculation (dai). observations in pot culture the plant biometric observations viz., pseudostem height, girth, number of leaves, root fresh weight, number of roots, root length and girth, population of nematodes in both soil and roots, root lesion index and corm grade were assessed while screening the banana hybrids. nematode population in soil was assessed using cobb’s sieving and decanting technique followed by modified baermann funnel technique (cobb, 1918; schindler, 1961). nematode population in roots was determined by the method of carlier et al, 2003. results and discussion significant differences were observed in the root characters of phase i hybrids namely, number of roots, root length, root girth and root weight under pot culture at 90th dai (table 1). among hybrids the maximum reduction of 46.33% was observed in the number of roots in h-04-10 and the lowest reduction of 7.24% was recorded in h-0422 as compared to control. the interaction effect between the genotypes and treatments for number of roots was found to be highly significant. the hybrid h-04-20 registered the maximum reduction of 36.28% for root length and h-0406 registered the minimum of 6.63% among the hybrids. the hybrid h-04-10 recorded the maximum reduction of 33.85% in root weight and h-04-21 recorded the minimum of 5% among the hybrids. there was no significant variation in the interaction of genotype and treatments for both root girth and root weight. table 1. effect of p. coffeae on root characters of phase i hybrids on 90 dai under pot culture s.no. hybrid number of roots root length (cm) root girth (cm) root weight (g) c i % diff c i % diff c i % diff c i % diff. 1. h-04-01 37.00 30.20 -18.38 44.50 39.00 -12.36 1.56 1.40 -10.26 91.00 82.75 -9.07 2. h-04-02 38.16 21.56 -43.50 35.20 26.70 -24.15 1.12 0.75 -33.04 85.50 68.60 -19.77 3. h-04-03 30.45 24.38 -19.93 47.56 44.00 -7.49 1.65 1.51 -8.48 78.00 70.25 -9.94 4. h-04-04 34.74 28.66 -17.50 50.25 46.60 -7.26 1.86 1.70 -8.60 95.40 88.33 -7.41 5. h-04-05 32.00 28.20 -11.88 45.55 41.40 -9.11 1.70 1.61 -5.29 87.66 80.45 -8.22 6. h-04-06 49.40 42.55 -13.87 56.42 52.68 -6.63 1.95 1.88 -3.59 118.00 106.52 -9.73 7. h-04-07 38.25 30.75 -19.61 49.00 44.72 -8.73 1.35 1.22 -9.63 89.08 78.65 -11.71 8. h-04-08 41.49 26.58 -35.94 45.00 34.65 -23.00 1.12 0.76 -32.14 102.72 72.35 -29.57 9. h-04-09 56.50 50.67 -10.32 36.37 31.26 -14.05 1.25 1.16 -7.20 128.44 115.66 -9.95 10. h-04-10 24.00 12.88 -46.33 30.33 22.11 -27.10 1.06 0.70 -33.96 64.25 42.50 -33.85 11. h-04-11 28.25 22.50 -20.35 40.45 35.00 -13.47 1.36 1.28 -5.88 72.00 62.75 -12.85 12. h-04-12 30.75 25.00 -18.70 44.60 40.20 -9.87 1.58 1.46 -7.59 84.90 76.52 -9.87 13. h-04-13 38.62 27.73 -28.20 38.75 30.25 -21.94 1.14 0.70 -38.60 80.63 66.47 -17.56 14. h-04-14 40.00 26.00 -35.00 40.00 32.86 -17.85 1.00 0.65 -35.00 92.40 75.63 -18.15 15. h-04-15 37.75 23.70 -37.22 34.50 25.72 -25.45 0.98 0.60 -38.78 85.29 70.45 -17.40 16. h-04-16 26.20 19.40 -25.95 45.00 42.00 -6.67 1.20 1.05 -12.50 68.50 58.00 -15.33 17. h-04-17 46.10 34.30 -25.60 39.20 30.67 -21.76 1.05 0.78 -25.71 96.00 72.75 -24.22 18. h-04-18 32.65 20.82 -36.23 41.00 34.80 -15.12 1.00 0.74 -26.00 88.60 67.55 -23.76 19. h-04-19 39.23 33.45 -14.73 45.75 40.50 -11.48 1.39 1.28 -7.91 90.64 79.39 -12.41 20. h-04-20 35.00 23.50 -32.86 28.25 18.00 -36.28 1.10 0.68 -38.18 94.36 70.74 -25.03 21. h-04-21 42.75 38.60 -9.71 44.58 40.69 -8.73 1.78 1.70 -4.49 110.00 104.50 -5.00 22. h-04-22 38.00 35.25 -7.24 38.14 35.00 -8.23 1.35 1.25 -7.41 93.18 86.60 -7.06 23. h-04-23 35.33 32.46 -8.12 34.00 30.67 -9.79 1.40 1.32 -5.71 84.00 75.75 -9.82 24. h-04-24 48.70 43.00 -11.70 55.44 49.90 -9.99 1.88 1.79 -4.79 126.50 116.25 -8.10 reference cultivars 1. pisang lilin 30.16 27.37 -9.25 45.08 42.46 -5.81 1.24 1.18 -4.84 62.36 56.44 -9.49 2. rasthali 32.62 20.00 -38.69 37.04 29.63 -20.01 1.00 0.56 -44.00 68.09 42.32 -37.85 sources g t gt g t gt g t gt g t gt sed 1.631 0.452 2.307 1.978 0.548 2.798 0.067 0.018 0.095 4.155 1.152 5.877 cd (p=0.05) 3.236 0.897 4.576 3.923 1.088 ns 0.134 0.037 0.189 8.241 2.285 ns cd (p=0.01) 4.281 1.187 6.055 5.191 1.439 ns 0.177 0.049 0.250 10.904 3.024 ns dai day after inoculation; c control; i – inoculated; % diff – per cent difference over control; ns – non significant. kavitha et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 57-61, 2008 59 significant differences were observed among the hybrids for root population, soil population and total population of p. coffeae at 90th dai (table 3). the lowest root population of 142 nematodes per 5 g of root was recorded in hybrid h-04-23, which was lower than the reference cultivar pisang lilin (145) and the highest was in h-04-10 (387). the same trend was noticed in soil population also. however, the soil population varied significantly among the hybrids ranging from 100 to 246 in 250 cc of soil. total final root population was found to vary significantly among the hybrids. the hybrid h-04-23 registered the minimum number of 3751 nematodes while a maximum of 8407 nematodes was recorded by the hybrid h-04-13 which was found to be a susceptible one. the resistant hybrid h-04-06 registered lesser number of nematodes than the susceptible hybrids. in some of the tolerant hybrids, the nematode population was higher but the growth of plant was not affected. this could be because, these plants allowed entry of the nematodes and their reproduction, but did not support further growth. this is in line with the findings of janarthani (2002). binks and gowen (1997) also found higher weight in primary roots if resistant cultivars as compared to susceptible cultivars. based on the intensity of lesions on roots and corm, they were assessed for their level of resistance. the per cent necrosis of roots ranged from 6.00 (h-04-06) to 56.00 (h-04-10) (table 3). the hybrids, h-04-05, h-04-06, h04-22 and h-04-23 had no dead roots while 35% of roots were dead in h-04-10. the highest root lesion index scale of 5 was noticed in the hybrids h-04-02, h-04-08, h-0410, h-04-13 and also in rasthali. however, the hybrids h04-05, h-04-06, h-04-12, h-04-21, h-04-22 and h-04-23 recorded the lowest lesion index scale of 1 similar to that of the resistant reference cultivar pisang lilin. the highest corm grade of 4 was found in hybrids. h-04-02, h-04-08, h-04-10 and h-04-13 and the lowest corm grade of 0 was recorded by h-04-06 and h-04-22. among the hybrids, 5 exhibited resistance, 10 exhibited tolerance, 5 were moderately susceptible and 4 were highly susceptible to nematode infestation. among the resistant hybrids, h-04-06 recorded more number of functional roots besides bunch yield. root spread and root thickness was found to be more in h-04-06 than in the other hybrids. this is an important character considered by the breeders in selecting parent materials while breeding for nematode resistance (gowen, 1993). regarding the root fresh weight also, the hybrids h-04-09, h-04-06 and h-04-24 weighed more than the susceptible hybrids. similar findings were reported in field trials conducted by janarthani (2002). though the hybrid h-0405 registered less number of roots, root length and root girth as compared to resistant hybrids, it exhibited tolerance to nematodes due to its higher phenolic content and lignified cells as also confirmed by histological studies. vilchez rojas (1991) observed a negative correlation between radopholus similis population and percentage of functional roots. some resistant cultivars were found to have higher root weights with greater number of primary roots than those which were susceptible (binks and gowen, 1997). jean et al (2002) reported that assessment of root and corm damage will give a better understanding of resistance (or) tolerance of the cultivars under both field and glass house conditions. resistance can be considered as the ability of the plant to suppress development of pests or pathogens, table 2. population build-up of p. coffeae in phase i hybrids on 90th dai under pot culture s.no. hybrid root soil total population population root (5 g) (250 cc) population 1 h-04-01 220 (2.344)* 140 (2.146) 5881 (3.791) 2 h-04-02 356 (2.551) 212 (2.326) 8276 (3.917) 3 h-04-03 235 (2.371) 150 (2.167) 5702 (3.756) 4 h-04-04 165 (2.213) 114 (2.057) 4739 (3.675) 5 h-04-05 148 (2.170) 100 (2.000) 3981 (3.600) 6 h-04-06 156 (2.193) 108 (2.092) 5051 (3.703) 7 h-04-07 227 (2.382) 132 (2.120) 5683 (3.746) 8 h-04-08 344 (2.536) 204 (2.309) 8242 (3.916) 9 h-04-09 256 (2.408) 125 (2.097) 7922 (3.950) 10 h-04-10 387 (2.578) 246 (2.391) 7226 (3.859) 11 h-04-11 272 (2.434) 165 (2.217) 6054 (3.782) 12 h-04-12 174 (2.240) 128 (2.107) 4711 (3.665) 13 h-04-13 370 (2.568) 218 (2.291) 8407 (3.924) 14 h-04-14 298 (2.474) 142 (2.152) 6780 (3.831) 15 h-04-15 316 (2.499) 177 (2.248) 7284 (3.862) 16 h-04-16 238 (2.376) 126 (2.085) 4777 (3.679) 17 h-04-17 283 (2.446) 137 (2.137) 6310 (3.800) 18 h-04-18 295 (2.470) 143 (2.155) 6273 (3.799) 19 h-04-19 230 (2.361) 111 (2.045) 5428 (3.734) 20 h-04-20 273 (2.430) 122 (2.086) 5814 (3.764) 21 h-04-21 149 (2.173) 102 (2.008) 4746 (3.676) 22 h-04-22 157 (2.196) 117 (2.057) 4591 (3.662) 23 h-04-23 142 (2.148) 100 (2.000) 3751 (3.558) 24 h-04-24 234 (2.369) 139 (2.177) 7665 (3.884) reference cultivars 1 pisang lilin 145 (2.161) 98 (1.991) 3205 (3.505) 2 rasthali 382 (2.582) 243 (2.385) 7121 (3.852) sed 10.194 9.877 467.615 cd (p=0.05) 20.457 19.821 938.342 cd (p=0.01) 27.258 26.411 1250.324 analysis done after log 10 (x+1) transformation * values in paranthes are transformed values screening of banana hybrids for resistance to nematode j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 57-61, 2008 60 table 3. root and corm damage assessment in banana hybrids (phase i) on 90th dai caused by p. coffeae under pot culture s.no. hybrids % root necrosis (rn) total total roots de % root lesion corm reaction 1 2 3 4 5 rn % de ok index grade status 1. h-04-01 3 2 3 3 2 13 3 40 6.98 2 2 t 2. h-04-02 10 8 9 7 12 46 8 35 18.60 5 4 hs 3. h-04-03 4 3 2 3 4 16 2 30 6.25 2 2 t 4. h-04-04 2 3 4 1 2 12 2 36 5.26 2 2 t 5. h-04-05 2 3 2 1 8 0 30 0.00 1 1 r 6. h-04-06 2 2 2 6 0 42 0.00 1 0 r 7. h-04-07 4 2 4 4 4 18 2 38 5.00 2 2 t 8. h-04-08 8 11 13 5 6 42 8 41 16.33 5 4 hs 9. h-04-09 5 4 1 5 5 20 3 58 4.92 2 1 t 10. h-04-10 14 12 10 12 8 56 14 26 35.00 5 4 hs 11. h-04-11 3 2 3 4 2 14 2 34 5.56 2 2 t 12. h-04-12 3 2 2 3 10 1 36 2.70 1 1 r 13. h-04-13 10 9 7 8 14 48 10 44 18.52 5 4 hs 14. h-04-14 5 10 12 8 5 40 7 40 14.89 4 3 s 15. h-04-15 13 8 7 6 4 38 8 46 14.81 4 3 s 16. h-04-16 3 4 2 5 5 19 1 28 3.45 2 2 t 17. h-04-17 8 7 6 11 6 38 16 52 23.53 4 3 s 18. h-04-18 6 8 9 12 5 40 6 34 15.00 4 3 s 19. h-04-19 6 5 4 3 18 2 43 4.44 2 2 t 20. h-04-20 11 9 8 4 3 35 7 49 12.50 2 3 s 21. h-04-21 2 2 3 3 10 1 56 1.75 1 1 t 22. h-04-22 2 3 2 1 8 0 27 0.00 1 0 r 23. h-04-23 2 1 2 2 7 0 34 0.00 1 1 r 24. h-04-24 4 4 2 3 5 18 2 54 3.57 2 2 t reference cultivars 1. pisang lilin 1 2 3 2 2 9 1 45 2.17 1 0 r 2. rasthali 10 14 12 9 13 58 12 37 24.49 5 4 hs de dead roots; r resistant; ttolerant; ok functional roots; s-susceptible; hs highly susceptible; whereas tolerance is the ability of the plant to grow well despite infection by a pathogen (bos and parlevliet, 1995). hybrids h-04-05 and h-04-06 were found to be resistant as they suppressed nematode populations both in the soil and in the roots and had relatively low root lesion indices. hybrids h-04-01, h-04-03, h-04-04, h-04-07, h-04-09, h04-11, h-04-16, h-04-19, h-04-21 and h-04-24 were found to be tolerant and not resistant because their population levels in the roots were higher. banana hybrids h-04-05 and h-04-06 were thus found to be resistant and hybrids h-04-01, h-04-03, h-0404, h-04-07, h-04-09, h-04-11, h-04-16, h-04-19, h-0421 and h-04-24 were found to be tolerant to the lesion nematode, pratylenchus coffeae, when screened under artificially inoculated conditions. after assessing the performance of these hybrids for yield and quality parameters under field condition, they can be used either as useful breeding material for further breeding programmes or evaluated in multi-location trials before considering for varietal release. acknowledgement the authors wish to thank and acknowledge the financial support of the flemish office for development cooperation and technical assistance (vvob), belgium and the international network for the improvement of banana and plantain (inibap) obtained through nrc for banana, thiruchirapalli. references binks, r. h. and gowen s. r. 1997. early screening of banana and plantain varieties for resistance to radopholus similis. int’l. nemat. , 7: 57-61. bos, l. and parlevliet j. e. 1995. concepts and terminology on plant / part relationships toward consensus in plant pathology and crop protection. ann. rev. phytopathol., 33: 69-102. carlier, j., de waele d.and escalant, j. v. 2003. global evaluation of musa germplasm for resistance to fusarium wilt, mycosphaerella leaf spot disease and nematodes. performance evaluation (a. vegine and j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 57-61, 2008 kavitha et al 61 c. pig, eds). inibap technical guide lines 7. the international network for the improvement of banana and plantain, montpellier, france. cobb, n. a. 1918. estimating the nematode population of soil. u. s. d. a., agri. tech. circ., 1:1-48. gowen, s. r. 1993. possible approaches for developing nematode resistance in bananas and plantains. in: breeding banana and plantain for resistance to diseases and pests. (j. ganry. ed.), inibap, montpellier, france, pp. 123-128 janarthani, d. 2002. studies on mechanism of resistance in certain banana cultivars (musa spp.) to burrowing and root knot nematodes. m.sc.(hort.,) thesis, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore. jean carlier, dirk de waele and jean-vincent escalant. 2002. inibap technical guidelines on global evaluation of musa germplasm for resistance to fusarium wilt and mycosphaerella leaf spot diseases and nematodes. edited by anne vézina and claudine picq. publ. by inibap. sasser, j. n. and freckman, d. w. 1987. a world perspective on nematology: the role of the society. pp. 7-14 in : vistas on nematology (veech, j.a. and dickson, d.w., eds). society of nematologists , inc, hyattsville, usa. schindler, a. f. 1961. a simple substitute for a baermann funnel. pl. dis. rept., 45 : 747-748. vilchez rojas, h. 1991. behavioural study of the radopholus similis population in a commercial banana farm in the atlantic zone of costa rica. corbana. ann. rep., 1991-1992, pp.77-70. (ms received 3 july 2007, revised 11 december 2007) j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 57-61, 2008 screening of banana hybrids for resistance to nematode page 95 introduction india is the largest producer of banana in the world. it is estimated that 1.5 million tonnes of banana fibre could be potentially extracted from 30 million tonnes of pseudostem waste produced annually each year across the country. the value of banana as a source of fibre has remained grossly underexploited due to lack of systematic research on structural and physical properties of its fibre. as the banana is cultivated round the year, it can provide uninterrupted flow of raw material for industry for production of a range of products like paper, cardboard, tea bags, fibre lining for car interiors, high quality dress material, currency notes, etc. being natural and completely biodegradable, products developed from banana fibre can be expected to be in great demand in the international market. keeping these points in view, the present work was initiated to study the properties of banana fibre extracted from different varieties under commercial cultivationd, and the results are presented. material and methods biomass generation and composition of pseudostem fibre total biomass waste generated and yield of fibre from five commercial varieties of banana, viz., poovan nendran, rasthali, karpuravalli and robusta were determined by destructive analysis upon harvest of bunch. composition and properties of fibre extracted from pseudostem of banana (musa sp.) s. shivashankar, r. p. nachane1 and s. kalpana2 division of plant physiology and biochemistry indian institute of horticultural research, hessaraghatta lake post, bangalore 560089, india e-mail: siva@iihr.ernet.in abstract pseudostem waste from five commercial cultivars of banana was used to extract fibre in order to study its properties. fibre was extracted by decortification of sheath either manually or using raspador machine. yield of fibre in cultivars varied from 0.548% to 0.891%. there was no significant difference in the yield of fibre from different layers of sheath although differences among cultivars were significant. cellulose was the major component of the fibre at about 60% while lignin levels were nearly 20%. the strength characteristics of nendran fibre like, mean breaking load, mean breaking extension and tenacity were comparable to those reported for other naturally occurring plant fibres such as pineapple, jute and sisal. the study highlighted the importance of exploiting banana pseudostem after harvest of banana bunch for fibre production on a commercial scale. key words: banana cultivars, pseudostem fibre, mechanical properties cellulose in the sheath and fibre was converted into acetylated cellodextrins by acetolysis with acetic/nitric reagent (4:1) followed by acid hydrolysis into glucose and was estimated following sadasivam and manickam (1996). lignin was determined gravimetrically (aoac, 1975). extraction of fibre fibre was extracted from the pseudostem using manual extractor or semi-automatic machine, raspador, having a drum speed of 700-800 rpm. fibres were freed from non-fibrous material by two methods, namely anaerobic retting and enzymatic retting. in anaerobic retting, fibres were tied at one end and suspended in a drum containing standard slurry (circot, 2003) containing more than one microbe type for two days to undergo degradation. the fibres were then removed, washed thoroughly under running tap water and dried in air. the strands of lustrous fibre with pale grey colour were separated out and stored for analysis. retting of fibre enzymatic retting of fibre was done with two sets of enzymes as described earlier (circot, 2004) in the first set, the fibre was incubated with the enzyme mixture containing pulpzyme and alcalase in a buffered medium at ph of 8.0 for 2 h at 50°c. one ml each of both the enzymes was added to 5g of sample, maintaining the fibre to liquor ratio at 1:25. at the end of incubation period, enzyme j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 95-98, 2006 1 central institute for research on cotton technology, matunga, mumbai 400 019. 2 national research centre for banana, thogamalai main road, thayanur post, podavur, trichy 620 102. page 96 activity was arrested by transferring the fibres to boiling water bath for 10 min. the fibre was washed thoroughly with water and dried (method a). in the second set, retting was carried out at a ph 5.0 using a mixture of three enzymes, namely aquazyme, pectinex and cellulase. one ml each of aquazyme and pectinex and 0.1ml of cellulase were added to 5g of sample and the fibre to liquor ratio was maintained at 1:25. incubation of the fibre was done at 55°c for 2 h. the fibre was washed with excess water and dried in air (method b). testing tensile properties measurement on single fibre tensile tests were carried out on anaerobically retted as well as enzymatically retted fibres as described earlier (circot, 1999). the instron tensile tester (model 1122) was employed to carry out the tests. the gauge length used was 50 mm. the crosshead speed was adjusted such that the fibres split in 20-25 sec. about 50 strands of fibre were randomly chosen irrespective of thickness. these were individually mounted between the jaws of instron tensile tester. distance between jaws was adjusted to 50 mm, which was the gauge length of the fibres tested. one of the jaws was stationary, while, the other jaw moved at a speed of 5 mm/min. extension of fibre was carried out till fibre ruptured. the load developed and corresponding extension at the point of rupture were recorded as the breaking load and breaking extension respectively, using dedicated computer software. then, fibre pieces held in the two jaws were cut out at the jaws and collected. weight of all the fibre pieces so collected was measured. since each fibre was of 50 mm length and 50 such fibres were collected, the weight measured corresponded to fibres of 2500 mm or 2.5 m total length. from this value, weight of 1000m length of fibre, expressed in grams was calculated and expressed as tex of fibre. tex is a measure of linear density of fibres. tenacity, which is a measure of material strength, is defined as the ratio of breaking load by linear density expressed in tex. accordingly, average tenacity of fibres was determined. the mean and cv (%) for all these parameters were worked out. the broken bits were placed between two glass slides and viewed under a projection microscope (magnification 500 x) for measuring diameter. measurements on fibre bundles bundle tenacity was measured at 3.2 mm gauge length using uster stelometer employing standard procedure as described below. a parallelised bundle of about 15 to 20 fibres was clamped in the stelometer jaws with a spacer of 0.32 mm (1/8th of an inch). this bundle was then tested on the stelometer for strength. maximum load developed in breaking the bundle was measured. six bundles per sample were tested. weight of each bundle broken on the stelometer was measured. from the values of breaking load of bundle and its weight, tenacity of the fibre was calculated. results and discussion data on biomass production and fibre yield in five commercial cultivars of banana (table 1) showed that the quantum of biomass left over after harves of bunch varied from 32.75 t/ha in ‘rasthali’ to 38.61t/ha in ‘karpuravalli’. of this, about 40% of pseudostem sheath comprising the outer 3-4 layers could be utilized to extract the fibre. the outer sheath is composed of tightly covered layers of fibre. among the cultivars tested, the variety poovan gave maximum fibre yield of 0.891%, while, ‘karpooravalli’ registered the lowest at 0.548%. fibre content of the outermost three layers of pseudostem sheath did not differ significantly, but, the yield of extractable fibre was significantly different among varieties (table 1). the total quantum of fibre production in these cultivars varied from a low of 15.8 kg/ ha in ‘karpuravalli’ to a high of 32.7 kg/ ha in ‘poovan’ showing, thereby, that it is possible to exploit the pseudostem of all these commercial cultivars for production of fibre, these cultivars being cultivated extensively in different parts of india. banana pseudostem contained 93.2-94.6% moisture. there were significant differences in potassium table 1. biomass generation and fibre yield in commercial cultivars of banana commercial cultivar biomass after whole plant pseudostem fibre extractable fibre bunch harvest(t/ha) weight (kg) weight (kg/plant) sheath weight (kg/plant) yield (%) poovan 37.12 20.4 14.0 8.06 0.891 nendran 36.48 20.1 13.2 7.62 0.758 rasthali 32.75 18.0 13.1 5.88 0.697 karpuravalli 38.61 21.1 13.5 8.13 0.548 robusta 36.01 21.4 14.0 8.40 0.721 c.d (p=0.05) 1.342 0.992 0.314 0.406 0.001 j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 95-98, 2006 shivashankar et al 96 page 97 and sodium levels among the cultivars (table 2). high moisture content of the fresh pseudostem actually favoured fibre extraction, and, both the yield and quality of fibre decreased with decrease in the moisture level in the pseudostem during storage. the juice extracted by crushing the sheath was slightly acidic showing significant differences in ph ranging from 5.85-6.69 and acidity values of 0.016-0.019%. ph values ranging from neutral to slightly alkaline are known to be ideal for obtaining fibre of high quality and durability. sikdar et al (1993) reported that slightly alkaline ph of plant sap helped dissolve noncellulosic matter resulting in better fibre quality in jute. due to the slightly acidic ph of banana pseudostem, pre– treatment with dilute alkali was necessary to obtain high quality fibre as shown in sisal by padmavathy and venkata naidu (1998). acidic ph of abaca (musa textiles)) pseudostem was shown to reduce the strength and durability of its fibre (kirby, 1963). lignin content of different varieties did not show significant variation although it ranged from 18.55% in ‘poovan’ to 22.46% in ‘rasthali’. these results showed that banana fibre is more lignified than other soft fibres such as flax, ramie, jute and hemp (kirby, 1963). banana fibre is known to belong to the group of leaf fibres which are in general coarser than bast fibres. cellulose content in banana sheath among accessions belonging to different genomic groups was found to differ significantly (table 3). aab group had mean cellulose content of 22%, while, it was 27.2% in ab, 26.5% in aaa, 28% in bb and 26% in abb groups. the cellulose content of fibre in commercial varieties also varied significantly, from a low of 53.17% in ‘poovan’, to a high of 66.57% in ‘nendran’ (table 3), similar to those reported in jute (60.7%) and mesta (61.6%). cotton fibre is reported to have the highest cellulose content (82.7%), followed by ramie (68.6%), hemp (67.0%) and sisal (65.8%). the cellulose/ lignin content (%) obtained in this study were also found to be similar to that reported for jute, sisal and pineapple fibres (al qureshi, 1999). several studies on fibre composition and morphology have revealed that cellulose content and microfibril angle tend to control mechanical properties of cellulosic fibres (biswas et al, 2001). cellulose is a natural polymer with high strength and stiffness per unit weight and is the building material of long fibrous cells. higher cellulose content and lower microfibrilar angle lead to higher work of fracture in impact testing. being celluloserich, banana fibre is reported to compare favourably with fibres of jute and flax in tensile strength, modulus and failure strain (biswas et al, 2001). data on strength characteristics of banana fibre extracted from cv. nendran are presented in (table 4) and relate to measurements made on single fibre. significant differences were observed in the tenacity of fibre obtained by anaerobic and enzymatic retting methods. other parameters of fibre too differed significantly among fibres extracted by different methods thereby, showing that, anaerobically retted fibre was superior to the enzymatically retted fibre. the bundle tenacity of anaerobically retted fibres showed values of 4.098 kg for breaking load, 2.425% for breaking extension, 1.812 mg for weight of tuft with a tenacity of 34.35 g/tex. the values of tenacity obtained in this study matched favourably with those reported earlier on some cultivars of banana grown in the philippines. it has been reported that the quality of matrix composed mainly of lignin and hemicellulose exerts a strong influence on tenacity (mukherjee and satyanarayana, 1986). results from the present study show that mechanical properties of the fibre extracted from pseudostem of variety nendran of banana compare favourably with that of other natural fibres like that of pineapple, sisal and jute. it may be inferred that fibre from different varieties of banana is also likely to behave similarly table 2. composition of pseudostem in commercial cultivars of banana commercial cultivar moisture (%) ph acidity (%) sodium (mg %) potassium (mg %) poovan 93.4 6.21 0.018 0.20 7.33 nendran 94.6 6.19 0.019 0.30 6.06 rasthali 93.2 6.37 0.017 0.75 5.33 karpuravalli 94.6 6.69 0.017 0.35 6.76 robusta 94.1 5.85 0.016 0.50 6.15 c.d (p=0.05) ns 0.0156 0.005 0.022 0.120 table 3. cellulose and lignin content in commercial cultivars of banana commercial cultivar lignin content (%) cellulose content(%) poovan 18.33 53.17 nendran 20.80 66.57 rasthali 22.40 62.83 karpuravalli 22.03 65.00 robusta 20.23 56.83 c.d ( p= 0.05 ) ns 1.56 j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 95-98, 2006 properties of banana fibre 97 page 98 and the extent of differences, if any, could vary depending upon its cellulose and lignin content. thus, variations in cellulose and lignin content among cultivars, which are determinants of fibre quality, could be of value in assigning fibre to specific end uses. it follows, therefore, that it is possible to utilize banana fibre profitably for preparation of several valueadded byproducts. although, traditionally, banana fibre has been used for making ropes, cords and packaging material, it can also be used as reinforcement in polymer composites, replacing more expensive and non-renewable synthetic fibres such as glass. these composites can be a cost effective material for the building and construction industry, for packaging, automobiles, railway coach interiors and storage devices. the use of banana cellulosic fibre in its native condition for reinforcement of different thermoplastic and thermonetting materials like phenol-formaldehyde, unsaturated polyester, epoxy, polyethylene, cement, natural rubber, etc., has also been reported. banana fibre shows better reinforcing efficiency than coir and specific strength properties of the composites are comparable to those of glass-fibre reinforced plastics (al qureshi, 1999). due to the high cost of synthetic fibres like glass, carbon or plastics used in fibre –reinforced composites and the health hazards caused by asbestos fibres, it is important to explore natural fibres like that of banana as possible substitutes. more detailed studies on the properties of banana fibre would help find many value-added applications which could directly contribute to better utilisation of banana pseudostem which would be otherwise wasted. acknowledgements the authors wish to thank the director, nrc for banana, trichy, for providing facilities. encouragement and support provided by the director, iihr, bangalore, is gratefully acknowledged. references al qureshi, h.a. 1999. the use of banana fibre reinforced composites for the development of a truck body. in: proc. 2nd international wood and natural fibre composites symp. june 28-29, 1999, kassel, germany. aoac 1975. official methods of analysis (1975), 12th ed. p. 138. biswas, s., srikanth, g and sangeeta nangia. 2001. development of natural fibre composites in india. in: proc. ann. convention & trade show, composites 2001, held at composites fabricators’ association, tampa, florida, usa , 3-6 oct, 2001. circot 1999. tensile properties of fibres, an insight into ligno-cellulosic fibres structure and properties, technical bulletin published by the central institute for research on cotton technology, matunga, mumbai 400 019, india, pp.11-24. circot 2003. annual report. physicochemical and structural characteristics of banana pseudostem fibre, circot annual report 2002-03, published by the director, central institute for research on cotton technology, matunga, mumbai 400 019, india, p.42. circot 2004. annual report. physicochemical and structural characteristics of banana pseudostem fibre, circot annual report 2003-04, published by the director, central institute for research on cotton technology, matunga, mumbai 400 019, india, p. 53. kirby, r.h.1963. vegetable fibres: world crop series. leonard hill, london, and interscience, new york, usa. mukherjee, p.s. and satyanarayana, k.g. 1986. an empirical evaluation of structure-property relationships in natural fibres and their fracture behaviour. j. materials sci., 21 : 4162-4168. padmavathy, t. and venkata naidu,s. 1998. chemical resistance and tensile properties of sisal fibres. ind. j. fibre and textile res., 23 : 128-129. sadasivam, s. and manickam. a. 1996. biochemical methods. second edition, new age international publishers, p.13. sikdar,b., mukhopadhyay, a.k. and mitra, b.c. 1993. action of weak alkali on jute. ind. j. fibre and textile res., 18 : 139-144. table 4. mechanical properties of single fibre of cv. nendran method of fibre extraction mean breaking mean breaking mean tex tenacity load (kg) extension (%) diameter (mm) (g/tex) anaerobic retting 0.282 2.772 0.110 4.636 60.828 enzymatic retting (method a) 0.281 2.464 0.166 7.984 35.195 enzymatic retting (method b) 0.160 1.818 0.114 4.398 36.380 c.d ( p=0.05) 0.008 0.038 0.008 0.675 1.887 j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 95-98, 2006 shivashankar et al 98 (ms received 22 may 2006, revised 16 october 2006) introduction kiwifruit (actinidia deliciosa chev.) is a dioecious and deciduous vine, native to china (ferguson, 1984). the kiwifruit has gained enormous popularity in the recent past due to its wide climatic-adaptability, unique blend of taste, and high medicinal value. availability of quality planting material is the first and foremost priority for commercializing any fruit crop. an increasing demand for kiwifruit plants has necessitated development of easier, quicker and economic methods of propagation. although there are various methods of propagation for multiplying fruit crops such as grafting, budding or tissue culture, most are expensive, time-consuming, laborious, and require skill. the most rapid and suitable method of multiplication of fruit crops is through cuttings, especially hardwood and semi-hardwood cuttings. in general, semi-hardwood cuttings in kiwifruit are known to yield higher rooting-success than hardwood cuttings. higher rooting potential of semi-hardwood cuttings is attributed to production of endogenous auxins (hartmann et al, 1983). effect of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and iba on rooting of cuttings in kiwifruit (actinidia deliciosa chev.) neha sharma, babita* and vishal s. rana department of fruit science dr. yashwant singh parmar university of horticulture and forestry nauni-173230, solan, india *e-mail: babitasoniuhf@gmail.com abstract the present study was conducted under a polyhouse with kiwifruit cuttings. the entire programme of the study was divided into two experiments comprising hardwood and semi-hardwood cuttings. the experiments were laid out in randomized block design, with three replications per treatment. experiment i was carried out on hardwood cuttings of kiwifruit cultivar allison and comprised of nine treatments, viz., t1 (iba 5000ppm), t2 (bacillus subtilis), t3 (bacillus licheniformis), t4 (bacillus subtilis + iba 4000ppm), t5 (bacillus licheniformis + iba 4000ppm), t6 (bacillus subtilis + iba 3000ppm), t7 (bacillus licheniformis + iba 3000ppm), t8 (bacillus subtilis + iba 2000ppm) and t9 (bacillus licheniformis + iba 2000ppm). in experiment ii, all the above-mentioned nine treatments were imposed on semi-hardwood cuttings of kiwifruit. ttreatment iba 5000ppm recorded best root characteristics (per cent rooted cuttings, number of primary roots secondary roots, length of roots total root length, root biomass); shoot characteristics (shoot length, shoot diameter, shoot biomass) and leaf characteristics (number of leaves and leaf area) in both hardwood and semi-hardwood cuttings. this treatment also resulted in maximum net benefit per 100 cuttings in comparison to other treatments. among the two types of cuttings studied, hardwood cuttings showed better results on root characteristics. however, semi-hardwood cuttings gave better results on shoot and leaf characteristics. key words: pgpr, kiwifruit, actinidia deliciosa, iba, cuttings j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):159-164, 2015 use of exogenous plant growth regulators for enhancing success rate in cuttings is a very commonly used method in fruit crops (polat and kamiloglu, 2007). indole3-butyric acid (iba) is the best auxin for this purpose, as, it is non-toxic to plants over a wide range of concentrations, and effectively in promotes rooting in a large number of plant species (hartmann et al, 2002). plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (pgpr) is another option for enhancing per cent success in rooted cuttings. pgpr are naturallyoccurring soil bacteria that aggressively colonize plant roots, and benefit plants by providing them growth promotion (cleyet-marel et al, 2001). inoculation of crop plants with certain strains of pgpr at an early stage of development improves biomass production through their direct effect on root and shoot growth. one of the most characteristic effects of pgpr is increased elongation rate, and consequently, enhanced initiation rate of lateral roots, resulting in a more branched root-architecture (kapulnik et al, 1985; lifshitz et al, 1987). with this in view, the present investigation was undertaken to evaluate the effect of plant growth promoting 160 rhizobacteria, alone and in combination with iba, on rooting and growth in kiwifruit cuttings. material and methods the experiments were conducted in the kiwifruit block of department of fruit science, dr. yashwant singh parmar university of horticulture and forestry, nauni, solan (h.p.), during 2011-2012. the entire study was carried out in two experiments comprising hardwood and semihardwood cuttings. cuttings, with uniform vigour and size were taken from 27-year-old vines of ‘allison’ cultivar of kiwifruit. experiments were laid out in randomized block design, with three replications per treatment. experiment i was carried out on hardwood cuttings and comprised nine treatments, viz., t1 (iba 5000ppm), t2 (bacillus subtilis), t3 (bacillus licheniformis), t4 (bacillus subtilis + iba 4000ppm), t5 (bacillus licheniformis + iba 4000ppm), t6 (bacillus subtilis + iba 3000ppm), t7 (bacillus licheniformis + iba 3000ppm), t8 (bacillus subtilis + iba 2000ppm), and t9 (bacillus licheniformis + iba 2000ppm). experiment ii, all the above-mentioned nine treatments were imposed on the semi-hardwood cuttings. plant growth promoting rhizobateria pgpr (500ml each of bacillus subtilis and bacillus licheniformis) were used for treating kiwifruit cuttings. bacterial cell suspension (o.d. value 2.0 at 540nm) of 48-hour old culture grown on nutrient agar medium plates @10% was used as the inoculums, which contained viable cells upto a dilution of 108cfu/ml. these cuttings were dipped in pgpr solution for 4 hours, and, were thereafter planted in the experimental field. for combined treatment of iba and pgpr, the cuttings were first treated with iba solution as a quick dip, and then again dipped in pgpr solution for upto 2cm length, for 4 hours. the cuttings were then removed from the solution and planted under a polyhouse. in both the experiments, mature dormant shoots 2530cm long, 0.5-1.0cm thick having at least three healthy, bold buds were selected during mid-january and mid july, respectively. the cuttings were taken from plants under shade. the base of the cutting was given a round cut near the bud, whereas, a slanting cut was made at the top of the cutting to prevent water accumulation and rotting. two to three leaves were retained in semi-hardwood cuttings to reduce transpiration loss and overlapping of leaves during planting of the cuttings in beds. leaf area was reduced by cutting leaves to half their size. the cuttings, after dipping in different solutions as per experimental details, were planted in a bed at 2m x 1m, containing sand, forest soil and fym in 1:1:1 ratio, under polyhouse conditions with shade, ventilation and irrigation arrangement. rooted cuttings obtained from both the experiments were uprooted in the last week of december. data from the present investigation were subjected to statistical analysis as per gomez and gomez (1984). results and discussion root characteristics results revealed that iba alone or in combination with plant growth promoting rhizobacteria exerted significant influence on various root characteristics of cuttings in kiwifruit (table 1). highest percentage of rooted cuttings, i.e., 46.3% and 62.4%, in the case of hardwood and semi-hardwood cuttings, respectively, was recorded with iba 5000ppm (t1). this treatment also resulted in the highest number of primary roots (8.5 and 12.6), number of secondary roots (18.3 and 23.7), longest root (20.5cm and 24.6cm), total root length (135.7cm and 141.4cm), fresh weight of roots (12.0g and 13.3g), and dry weight of roots (6.0g and 11.3g) in hardwood and semi-hardwood cuttings, respectively, followed by the treatment bacillus subtilis + iba 4000ppm (t4). hartmann et al (2002) opined that as the annual growth-cycle progresses, endogenous auxin production begins to decrease and, therefore, high levels of exogenous auxins are needed to promote rooting. application of auxin is the most common treatment for enhancing rooting in stem cuttings. in addition to this, auxin affects cell differentiation, table 1. effect of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and iba on rooting of cuttings in kiwifruit treatment treatment per cent rooted cuttings code hardwood semi-hardwood t 1 iba 5000ppm 46.3 (42.9)* 62.4 (52.2) t 2 bacillus subtilis 7.7 (16.1) 11.5 (19.8) t 3 bacillus licheniformis 5.5 (13.6) 8.5 (16.9) t 4 bacillus subtilis + 44.5 (41.8) 59.7 (50.6) iba 4000ppm t 5 bacillus licheniformis + 38.3 (38.2) 50.5 (42.3) iba 4000ppm t 6 bacillus subtilis + 42.5 (40.6) 54.4 (47.5) iba 3000ppm t 7 bacillus licheniformis + 30.5 (33.5) 42.2 (40.5) iba 3000ppm t 8 bacillus subtilis + 35.2 (36.4) 47.3 (43.5) iba 2000ppm t 9 bacillus licheniformis + 26.7 (31.1) 38.5 (38.4) iba 2000ppm cd (p=0.05) 2.0 1.7 sem (+) 0.67 0.58 cv (%) 3.75 2.40 *figures in parentheses are arc sine transformed values neha sharma et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):159-164, 2015 161 and promotes starch hydrolysis and mobilization of sugars / nutrients to the base of the cutting (das et al, 1997). highest per cent rooted cuttings and number of primary and secondary roots obtained with iba 5000ppm treatment in the present study are supported by rana et al (1999) who reported dormant cuttings treated with iba 5000ppm to express better rooting and survival percentage in five kiwifruit cultivars, namely, monty, bruno, hayward, abbott and allison. data presented in table 2 reveals that the highest (8.5 and 12.6) number of primary roots were recorded with the treatment iba 5000ppm (t1), and this was statistically at par with the treatment bacillus subtilis + iba 4000ppm (t4), exhibiting 7.9 and 10.8 number of primary roots; the lowest (3.5 and 4.4) number of primary roots were recorded with the treatment bacillus licheniformis (t3), followed by bacillus subtilis (t2), recording on average 4.1 and 4.7 primary roots in hardwood and semi-hardwood cuttings, respectively. highest number of secondary roots both in hardwood and semi-hardwood cuttings was also recorded with iba 5000ppm (t1), which was statistically at par with bacillus subtilis + iba 4000ppm (t4). in hardwood cuttings, length of the longest root per cutting ranged between 4.1cm and 20.5cm, whereas, it varied between 6.5cm and 24.6cm in semi-hardwood cuttings. the longest (20.5cm) root was recorded in the treatment iba 5000ppm (t1) in hardwood cuttings, which was followed by the treatment bacillus subtilis + iba 4000ppm (t4). in the case of semi-hardwood cuttings also, the longest (24.6cm) root was recorded with the treatment iba 5000ppm (t1) (table 2). in the present study, the lowest rooting performance obtained with application of solely bacillus subtilis or bacillus licheniformis may be because strains of the bacteria used under the study were not able to colonize the cuttings of kiwifruit. kapulnik et al (1985) and lifshitz et al (1987) also reported that plant growth promoting rhizobacteria could not initiate rooting, but could only colonize developed roots, and promote their growth. the mechanism of root induction by pgpr is, however, not completely understood; but, it is thought to be due to production of phytohormones, inhibition of ethylene synthesis, and mineralization of nutrients by pgpr (goto, 1990; steenhoudt and vanderlayden, 2000). in hardwood and semi-hardwood cuttings, the highest (135.7cm and 141.4cm) value for total root length was recorded with the treatment iba 5000ppm (t1), followed by the treatment bacillus subtilis + iba 4000ppm (t4) which recorded 127.2cm and 132.4cm total root length per cutting, respectively. it is evident from figures 1 & 2 that the highest fresh and dry weight of roots per cutting was recorded with the treatment iba 5000ppm (t1) in both the hardwood and semi-hardwood cuttings. these results are in line with siddiqui and hussain (2007) who reported maximum root length in cuttings of ficus hawaii with iba 4000ppm. they also speculated that the higher root length was due to an effect of iba on carbohydrate metabolism and translocation. table 2. effect of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and iba on root characteristics of cuttings in kiwifruit treatment treatment primaryroots secondary roots longest root (cm) total root length (cm) code hardwood semihardwood semihardwood semihardwood semihardwood hardwood hardwood hardwood t 1 iba 5000ppm 8.5 12.6 18.3 23.7 20.5 24.6 135.7 141.4 t 2 bacillus subtilis 4.1 4.7 6.5 11.2 6.5 10.7 37.4 43.6 t 3 bacillus licheniformis 3.5 4.4 5.3 8.5 4.1 6.5 29.6 34.1 t 4 bacillus subtilis + 7.9 10.8 16.7 21.8 17.9 22.0 127.2 132.4 iba 4000ppm t 5 bacillus licheniformis + 6.8 9.6 12.1 15.7 12.5 16.5 105.7 109.5 iba 4000ppm t 6 bacillus subtilis + 7.3 8.8 13.3 17.4 15.2 18.7 120.9 123.8 iba 3000ppm t 7 bacillus licheniformis + 6.2 6.9 8.3 13.7 9.5 14.5 86.3 92.6 iba 3000ppm t 8 bacillus subtilis + 6.6 7.2 10.0 14.4 11.5 15.9 94.6 96.3 iba 2000ppm t 9 bacillus licheniformis + 5.9 6.8 7.3 12.0 8.0 11.6 77.5 80.7 iba 2000ppm cd (p=0.05) 2.0 2.1 2.3 2.1 1.7 2.8 1.2 1.5 sem (+) 0.68 0.69 0.77 0.71 0.58 0.93 0.39 0.51 cv (%) 18.55 16.24 12.16 7.98 8.65 10.58 0.74 0.93 effect of pgpr and iba on rooting of kiwifruit cuttings j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):159-164, 2015 162 shoot and leaf characteristics highest (23.8cm and 20.5cm) shoot length in both hardwood and semi hardwood cuttings was recorded with the treatment iba 5000ppm (t1), which was statistically at par with bacillus subtilis + iba 4000ppm (t4), resulting in shoot length of 22.5cm and 19.0cm, respectively. data presented in table 3 shows that the highest (10.6mm and 8.5mm) shoot diameter in hardwood and semi-hardwood cuttings was recorded with the treatment iba 5000ppm (t1), which was statistically at par with bacillus subtilis + iba 4000ppm (t4), respectively. better shoot characteristics seen in cuttings treated with different concentrations of iba alone or in combination with pgpr may be attributed to better rooting performance perhaps consequent to higher carbohydrate production and assimilation. fresh weight of shoot ranged from 8.4g to 25.8g in hardwood cuttings, and from 6.5g to 21.3g in semi-hardwood cuttings in kiwifruit cv. ‘allison’. dry weight of shoot ranged from 3.4g to 15.3g in hardwood cuttings, and from 2.6g to 10.7g in semi-hardwood cuttings. perusal of data presented in figures 3 and 4 reveals that the highest fresh and dry weight of shoots per cutting was recorded in the treatment iba 5000ppm (t1) in both types of cuttings, viz., hardwood and semi-hardwood. it is also evident from table 3 that the highest (15.6 and 12.4) leaf number in both hardwood and semi-hardwood cuttings was recorded with iba 5000ppm (t1), respectively. the highest (168.9cm 2 and 166.7cm2) leaf area in both types of cutting was attained with the treatment iba 5000ppm (t1), followed by the treatment bacillus subtilis + iba 4000ppm (t4) exhibiting leaf area of 155.6cm2 and 150.0cm2, respectively. these results are in conformity with investigations of alam et al (2007) who obtained maximum number of leaves fig. 1. effect of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and iba on fresh weight of roots per cutting in kiwifruit fig. 2. effect of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and iba on the dry weight of roots per cutting in kiwifruit table 3. effect of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and iba on shoot and leaf characteristics in kiwifruit cuttings treatment treatment shoot length (cm) shoot diameter (mm) average leaf area (cm2) leaf number code hardwood semihardwood semihardwood semihardwood semihardwood hardwood hardwood hardwood t 1 iba 5000ppm 23.8 20.5 10.6 8.5 168.9 166.7 15.6 12.4 t 2 bacillus subtilis 8.6 6.5 4.6 3.9 19.8 17.6 7.0 4.9 t 3 bacillus licheniformis 6.0 4.9 3.7 2.6 16.3 15.6 6.0 3.9 t 4 bacillus subtilis + 22.5 19.0 8.8 7.2 155.6 150.0 13.3 10.6 iba 4000ppm t 5 bacillus licheniformis + 16.5 12.1 8.2 4.6 113.4 110.7 9.8 6.1 iba 4000ppm t 6 bacillus subtilis + 20.4 16.7 8.5 5.5 145.6 143.0 11.5 7.2 iba 3000ppm t 7 bacillus licheniformis + 16.7 12.8 7.7 4.4 96.4 90.2 11.0 6.7 iba 3000ppm t 8 bacillus subtilis + 12.5 10.5 7.5 4.3 89.5 87.0 9.8 5.8 iba 2000ppm t 9 bacillus licheniformis+ 12.0 9.5 7.0 4.0 77.5 73.3 9.4 5.0 iba 2000ppm cd (p=0.05) 1.7 2.1 2.1 1.2 1.5 1.8 2.4 1.8 sem (+) 0.58 0.71 0.69 0.38 1.54 0.60 0.80 0.59 cv (%) 6.49 9.79 16.24 13.31 0.89 1.09 13.44 14.57 neha sharma et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):159-164, 2015 163 in kiwi cuttings treated with iba 4000ppm. they attributed their results to development of a better root system which may have played an active role in development of leaves by facilitating supply of water and nutrients to the cuttings from the soil. similar trend was observed with application of auxins in semi-hardwood cuttings of guava, with enhanced leaf number (taiz and zeiger, 2006). effect of season on hardwood and semi-hardwood cuttings results in the present study indicated that the season in which cuttings were made also had a significant influence on root, shoot and leaf characteristics in kiwifruit. the best rooting performance in terms of per cent rooted cuttings, number of primary and secondary roots, length of the longest root, total root length, fresh and dry weight of roots and shoots per cutting were recorded in semi-hardwood cuttings prepared in mid-july, whereas, the best results for various shoot and leaf characteristics, viz., shoot length, shoot diameter, shoot biomass, leaf number and leaf area, were noticed with hardwood cuttings prepared in mid-january. the type of wood, stage of growth and the time of year when cuttings are taken are some of the important factors for obtaining satisfactory rooting pattern in plants (hartmann et al, 2002). fouad et al (1990) studied seasonal fluctuations in rooting ability in eight olive cultivars. they reported that the date of cuttings had a great influence on their rooting ability. cuttings prepared in summer, especially in august, gave the highest rooting percentage, while those prepared in january rooted the least. singh et al (2008) also reported that cuttings prepared during the active growthstage gave better results in respect of rooting percentage and number of roots per cutting in olive. results obtained in the present study showed that iba 5000ppm gave the best results in root, shoot and leaf characteristics in both hardwood and semi-hardwood cuttings. however, results obtained on different root characteristics of cuttings treated with bacillus subtilis + iba 4000ppm were statistically non-significant with results obtained with iba 5000ppm. application of bacillus subtilis or bacillus licheniformis solely recorded the lowest values for various root, shoot or leaf characteristics. among the two types of cuttings tested, superior root characteristics were recorded in semi-hardwood cuttings. references alam, r., khalil, u.r., muhammad ilyas, muhammad ibrahim and muhammad, a.r. 2007. effect of iba concentrations on the rooting of kiwi cuttings. sarhad j. agri., 23:293-295 cleyet-marel, j.c., larcher, m., bertrand, h., rapior, s. and ponichet, x. 2001. plant growth enhancement by rhizobacteria. in: nitrogen assimilation by plants: physiological, biochemical and molecular aspects. science publishers, en field (nh, usa), plymouth (uk) pp. 184-197 das, p., basak, u.c. and das, a.b. 1997. metabolic changes during rooting in pre-girdled stem cuttings and airlayers of heritiera. botanical bulletin of academia sinica, 38:91-95 ferguson, a.r. 1984. kiwifruit: a botanical review. hort. rev., 6:1-64 fouad, m.m., fayek, m.a., selin, h.h. and el-sayed, m.e. 1990. rooting of eight olive cultivars under mist. acta hort., 286:57-60 gomez, k.a. and gomez, a.a. 1984. in: statistical procedure for agricultural research, 2nd ed., wiley interscience, new york, pp. 304-309 goto, m. 1990. fundamentals of bacterial plant pathology. academic press inc., san diego, usa, 339 p fig. 3. effect of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and iba on fresh weight of shoots per cutting in kiwifruit fig. 4. effect of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and iba on dry weight of shoots per cutting in kiwifruit effect of pgpr and iba on rooting of kiwifruit cuttings j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):159-164, 2015 164 hartmann, h.t., kester, d.e. and davies, jr. f.t. 1983. anatomical and physiological basis of propagation by cuttings. in: plant propagation: principles and practices. 5th edition, prentice hall of india pvt. ltd., 242 p. hartmann, h.t., kester, d.e., davies, jr. f.t. and geneve, r.l. 2002. principles of propagation by cuttings. in: plant propagation: principles and practices. 8th edition, prentice hall of india pvt. ltd., pp. 280-414 kapulnik, y., okon, y. and henis, y. 1985. changes in root morphology of wheat caused by azospirillum inoculation. canadian j. microbiol., 31:881-887 lifshitz, r., kloepper, j.w., kozlowski, m., simonson, c., carlson, j., tipping, e.m. and zaleska, i. 1987. growth promotion of canola (rapeseed) seedlings by a strain of pseudomonas putida under gnotobiotic conditions. canadian j. microbiol., 33:390-395 polat, a.a. and kamiloglu, o. 2007. experiment on propagation with cuttings of quince-a andb a 2 9 rootstocks and on budding with loquat cultivar. turkey v. in: the proceedings of national horticulture congress, 4-7 september, erzurum, turkey, 1:169173 rana, h.s., rana, v.s. and bhardwaj, d.r. 1999. vegetative multiplication of kiwifruit (actinidia deliciosa chev.) through dormant cuttings. annal. for.,7:56-59 siddiqui, m.i. and hussain, s.a. 2007. effect of indole butyric acid and types of cuttings on root initiation of ficus hawaii. sarhad j. agri., 23:919-925 singh, a., patell, r.k., de, l.c. and babu, k.d. 2008. effect of cutting types, indole butyric acid and shoot pinching on rooting of kiwifruit (actinidia deliciosa). indian j. agril. sci., 78:695-698 steenhoudt, o. and vanderleyden, j. 2000. azospirillum, a free-living nitrogen-fixing bacterium closely associated with grasses: genetics, biochemical and ecological aspect. microbiol. rev., 24:487-506 taiz, l. and zeiger, e. 2006. plant physiology, 4th edition, sinauer associates inc. publisher, sunderland, massachusetts, u.s.a., 286p (ms received 26 february 2015, revised 18 august 2015, accepted 23 september 2015) neha sharma et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):159-164, 2015 baccaurea courtallensis (muell.) arg., a member of euphorbiaceae family, is endemic to the western ghats of india. it is popularly known as burmese grape or khattaphal. the plant is a medium-sized tree growing to a height of 8-10m and produces crimson-red edible fruits, sour to sweet in taste when fully ripe. village folk of western ghats of india eat the fruits, and use them in folk medicine besides making pickles out of them (srinivasa mohan, 2009; ratheesh narayanan et al, 2011). the fruit is reported to be a good source of vitamin c and antioxidants. presence of palmitic and oleic acids in the seed oil makes it useful as a lubricant and an additive in industrial preparations (srinivasa mohan, 2009). this tree species has ornamental value as well,as, at full bloom it is a treat to watch. blooms occur during february-march, and fruits mature in mayjune. cauliflory is seen (production of flowers and fruits on the main trunk). when the tree attains maturity, floral primordia appear on the main trunk, from which crimsonred flowers emerge. male and female flowers are produced on separate stalks of the same tree (monoecea). crimsonj. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):76-79, 2016 short communication fruit/seed morphology, seed drying and germination studies in baccaurea courtallensis (muell.) arg., a threatened under-utilized fruit species of western ghats in india h.s. yogeesha*, s. ganeshan, k.s. shivashankara, d.l. shetty and c. anil kumar1 icar-indian institute of horticultural research hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru – 560 089, karnataka, india *e-mail: hsy@iihr.ernet.in abstract a study was under taken on fruit and seed morphology, seed drying, seed germination and storage behavior in baccaurea courtallensis, as, this plant is propagated mainly through seeds. its fruit is a berry consisting of an outer, semi-hard but fleshy rind 2-3 mm thick. the cavity inside the rind is normally occupied by a single, arillate seed, but, two seeds are also seen occasionally. fresh rind was found to be rich in antioxidants, with 237mg total phenols and 93mg flavonoids per 100 gram fresh weight, but was poor in vitamin c. a thick, fleshy endosperm is surrounded by the inner seed-coat. the endosperm surrounds the embryo consisting of two papery-thin cotyledons and a minute embryonic axis. germination was highest (96.7%) when seeds were sown immediately after extraction, with moisture content of about 50%. reduction in moisture to below 34% showed a drastic decrease in germination. dried seeds took longer to germinate than did the fresh ones. seeds with 21% moisture recorded about 60% germination whereas, seeds with 10.2% or 8% moisture failed to germinate, indicating a recalcitrant seed. temperature in the range of 25-30°c was found to be optimum. of the two media tested for raising the seedlings, cocopeat medium was superior as, it induced faster growth of the seedlings. seedling root and shoot were considerably longer, with higher seedling survival rate in cocopeat than in the soil-mix medium. seedling establishment was poor when planted out of their natural habitat. key words: baccaurea courtallensis, seed morphology, seed moisture, seed germination red fruits are arranged in racemose type of inflorescence and hang in symmetric clusters. fruit clusters are seen all around the trunk from base upwards. fruits can be seen even on exposed roots. bunches of fruits hang downwards, even touching the ground, hence the name, moottilkkaippan in malayalam. international union for conservation of nature and natural recourses (iucn) has listed this as a threatened species in its red data book, and the tree requires special conservation measures. though propagation of this plant is mainly through seeds, no information whatsoever is available on seed viability or storage. the present investigation was made to study fruit and seed morphology in this species, and also the seed structure, seed germination and storage behaviour. fully mature fruits of baccaurea courtallensis were collected from jawaharlal nehru tropical botanic garden and research institute (jntbgri), palode, trivandrum, in june 2012. the fruits were kept in closed polythene covers at 12°c for 2 days when fruit characters were recorded, 1tbgri, palode, thiruvananthapuram, kerala, india 77 fruit and seed studies in ‘khattaphal’, baccaurea courtallensis viz., shape, size, colour, number of seeds per fruit, internal fruit texture and seed morphology. the rind of the fruit used for making pickles was analyzed for total phenols, flavonoids (kavitha et al, 2014) and vitamin c. seeds were extracted from the fleshy fruits, and, the fleshy tissue surrounding was removed by rubbing between fingers and repeated washings under running water. seeds with no or underdeveloped embryo were removed by the floatation technique. the sinkers were collected and soaked in carbendazim (2.0%) for 15 minutes, and surface-dried. the seeds were further dried for different durations under shade to raise seed lots with varying moisture levels, viz., 51.01% (fresh seed), 34.19% (after 20h of drying), 21.00% (after 26h of drying), 10.37% (after 48h of drying), and 8.00% (after 6 days of drying). these dried seeds (with varying moisture content) were placed in polybags containing moist cocopeat and held at room temperature (ranging between 24-28°c) for germination. seeds that showed radical protrusion of 5mm and more were assumed as germinated, and were transferred to plastic protrays containing cocopeat, for further establishment. at two-leaf stage, the seedlings were transferred to polythene bags containing cocopeat alone. in another experiment fresh (undried) seeds (with 51-53% moisture) were subjected to germination at different temperature regimes. five replications of 25 seeds each were placed between two germination paper towels and subjected to alternate temperatures of 20-30°c, (16h at 20°c and 8 h at 30°c), and constant temperatures of 30°c and 35°c using germinators. one set of seeds was also kept at ambient temperature, fluctuating between 24°c and 28°c. seeds were observed for germination rate at regular intervals. data was analyzed using simple crd and means were compared using critical difference at 1% level of significance. fruits are round, with crimson-red skin colour (plate 1) at an average berry diameter of 2.5cm. the fruit is a berry, consisting of an outer semi-hard but fleshy rind 2-3mm thick and used for pickle making (fresh or dried). the cavity inside the rind is normally occupied by a single, arillate seed (plate 2). two seeds could also be seen in a few fruits bigger in size. the seed is covered completely with a white, juicy, soft tissue called aril. the all is edible and sour to taste. fresh rind was found to be rich in antioxidants, with 237mg total phenols and 93mg flavonoids per 100g fresh-weight. abhishek et al (2011) also reported presence of phenols and flavonoids in the fruit rind. vitamin c content was found to be 2.93mg which is very low, and corroborates with the findings of nazaruddin (2010) who also observed traces of vitamin c in the fruit rind. the seed is broad and flat, ovate and white. it consists of a leathery outer seed-coat and a thin, brown inner seed-coat. outer seed-coat is surrounded by fuzz which can be removed by rubbing against any rough surface. the thick, fleshy endosperm is surrounded by the inner seed-coat. the endosperm surrounds the embryo consisting of two thin, papery cotyledons and a minute embryonic-axis (plate 3). plate 1. crimson-red fruit of baccaurea courtallensis plate 2. various parts of baccaurea courtallensis fruit plate 3. various parts of baccaurea courtallensis seed j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):76-79, 2016 78 germination was highest (96.7%) when seeds were sown immediately after extraction, having a moisture content of about 50% (fig.1). reduction in moisture content from an initial 50% to 34% showed a little decrease in germination (7.5%), but further drying resulted in a drastic reduction in germination. dried seeds took longer to germinate than did fresh seeds. seeds with 50% moisture showed more than 60% germination by the 12th day, whereas, seeds with 34% and 21% moisture took more than 24 and 43 days, respectively, to attain this rate (60%) of germination. seeds with 21% moisture recorded about 60% germination whereas seeds with 10.2% and 8% moisture failed to germinate. this indicates that baccaurea courtallensis seeds are recalcitrant in nature and, thus cannot withstand drying to low moisture, unlike orthodox seeds. critical moisture level below which there is no germination probably around 20% moisture, as, seeds with 21% moisture recorded just above 50% germination. hence, to raise seedlings of baccaurea courtallensis, fresh seeds should be sown, as, seeds with high moisture content cannot be stored for long. results on effect of temperature on seed germination showed that temperatures in the range of 25-30°c registered higher and rapid germination, compared to the alternate temperatures of 20-30°c or a constant 35°c (fig. 2). seeds exposed to room temperature of 24-28°c or a constant 30°c took only 20 days to germinate @ 84-85%, whereas, at the other two temperature regimes, germination was only 5159% at 20 days. however, the final germination count at 43 days from sowing was almost the same across different temperature regimes. accordingly, the speed of germination was higher (7) at room temperatures of 24-28°c and a constant 30°c, than at the alternate temperature of 20-30°c (4.5) or a constant 35°c (4.9) (fig. 3). of the two media tested for raising seedlings, cocopeat medium was found to be ideal, as, it led to faster growth of seedlings. root and shoot were considerably longer in cocopeat than in the soil mix, as also survival rate of the seedlings. at the 80th day from sowing, root length plate 4. baccaurea courtallensis seedlings grown on cocopeat (left) and soil mixture (right) fig 1. effect of seed moisture on germination in baccaurea courtellensis fig 2. effect of temperature on seed germination in baccaurea courtellensis fig 3. effect of temperature on speed of germination in baccaurea courtellensis was 16cm in cocopeat and 12cm in the soil-mix (plate 4). establishment of seedlings was poor when these were planted outside their natural habitat. a preliminary attempt to establish the species outside its niche was partially yogeesha et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):76-79, 2016 79 successful and indicated that, with retirement, it may be amenable to conservation, domestication and development as a multi-purpose tree in the tropics (john et al, 2003). references ratheesh narayanan m.k., anilkumar, n., balakrishnan, v., sivadasan, m. ahmed, alfarhan, h. and alatar, a.a. 2011. wild edible plants used by the kattunaikka, paniya and kuruma tribes of wayanad district, kerala, indian j. med. pl. res., 5:3520-3529 http://www.academicjournals.org/journal/jmpr/ article abstract/e590bc120048 srinivasa mohan. 2009. fatty acid composition of baccaurea courtallensis muell. arg. seed oil: an endemic species of western ghats, india. j. amer. oil chem. soc., 86 :1017-1019 https:// www.deepdyve.com/lp/springer-journals/fatty-acidcomposition of-baccaurea courtallensis-muell-argseed-oil-eo3h8q8od4 nazaruddin, a. 2010. nutritional composition of some lesser known fruits used by the ethnic communities and local folks of kerala. indian j. traditional knowledge, 9:398-402 abhishek, r.u., ashwin, r. and mahesh, t.p. 2011. phytochemical analysis and antibacterial efficacy of fruit rind of baccaurea courtallensis muell. arg. medicinal plants, 3:327-330 doi 10.5958/j.09754261.3.4.056 john, k.j., nizar, m.a., velayudhan, k.c., unnikrishnan, m. and abraham, z. 2003. a note on baccaurea courtallensis (muell.) arg., (moottipotti), a wild edible fruit of western ghats. indian j. pl. genetic resources, 16:114-116 kavitha, p., shivashankara, k.s., rao. v.k., sadashiva, a.t., ravishankar, k.v. and sathish, g.j. 2014. genotypic variability for antioxidant and quality parameters among tomato cultivars, hybrids, cherry tomatoes and wild species. j. sci. food agri., 94:993-999, doi: 10.1002/jsfa.6359 fruit and seed studies in ‘khattaphal’, baccaurea courtallensis j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):76-79, 2016 (ms received 12 october 2015, revised 16 march 2016, accepted 24 march 2016) page 148 the spiralling whitefly, aleurodicus dispersus russell (homoptera: aleyrodidae), native to the caribbean islands and central america was first discovered in the city of thiruvananthapuram, south india, in november 1993 (palaniswami et al, 1995). the spiralling whitefly may have been introduced into india from neighbouring countries such as maldives (muniappan, 1993) and sri lanka (ranjith et al, 1996) through plant material. since then, it has been reported from other parts of kerala, karnataka, andhra pradesh, tamil nadu and maharashtra (david and regu, 1995; prathapan, 1996; mani and krishnamoorthy, 1996; sathe, 1999) and lakshadweep islands (ramani, 2000). the spiralling whitefly is a polyphagous pest known to attack about 500 plant species including several ornamentals (srinivasa, 2000). chemical control of a. dispersus is almost impossible owing to its wide host range and heavy wax coating (kajita et al, 1991). however, the natural enemies, chiefly the aphelinid parasitoids encarsia guadeloupae viggiani and encarsia (?) haitiensis dozier, have proved useful in suppressing the spiralling whitefly in the pacific islands and african countries (waterhouse and norris, 1989; d’almeida et al, 1998). the present study was conducted to colonise the parasitoid, e. guadeloupae, on spiralling whitefly infesting ornamentals like rose, poinsettia, hibiscus and acalypha. cassia leaves containing parasitised nymphs (black) were kept in glass vials (15 cm x 2.5cm). adult parasitoids that emerged were collected and the identity of e. guadeloupae was ascertained in the laboratory. these were fed on 50% honey in glass vials prior to release in the field. field releases made on hibiscus rosasinensis l. at u.a.s. farm, hebbal, acalypha hispida burm.f and euphorbia (= poinsettia) pulcherrima willd. at the iihr farm, hessaraghatta and rosa indica lindl. at hessaraghatta village, all located in bangalore north. a colonization of introduced parasitoid, encarsia guadeloupae viggiani, on the exotic spiralling whitefly, aleurodicus dispersus russell, infesting ornamentals m. mani 1 and a. krishnamoorthy division of entomology and nematology indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bangalore 560 089, india e-mail : mmani1949@ yahoo.co.in abstract the exotic spiralling whitefly, aleurodicus dispersus russell, was observed to infest several ornamentals including rose, hibiscus, poinsettia and acalypha in and around bangalore. efforts were made to colonize the aphelinid parasitoid, encarsia guadeloupae viggiani, during 2002 2003 on the above ornamentals infested with the spiralling whitefly. a total of five predators, namely, axinoscymnus puttarudriahi kapur and munshi, cryptolaemus montrouzieri muls., anegleis cardoni (weise), mallada astur (banks) and cybocephalus sp. were observed on the spiralling whitefly on these ornamentals during the study but their impact on the spiralling whitefly was negligible. inoculative releases of e. guadeloupae were made on rose (156 adults), hibiscus (179 adults), poinsettia (124 adults) and acalypha (247 adults). encarsia guadeloupae was recovered within a month after its release with 3.43 32.94% parasitism. a steady decline in the population of spiralling whitefly was observed on these ornamentals. encarsia guadeloupae was found to be the only parasitoid encountered throughout the study and the total parasitism steadily increased up to 96.00% on rose, 86.40% on hibiscus, 90.40% on poinsettia and 39.86% on acalypha at six months from release. parasitism by e. guadeloupae was significant and negatively correlated with the population of spiralling whitefly on all the four ornamentals. key words: aleurodicus dispersus, encarsia guadeloupae, biological control, spiralling whitefly, rose, hibiscus, poinsettia, acalypha j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 148-151, 2006 1 present address : national research centre for grapes, p.b. no. 3, manjari farm, solapur road, pune 412 307. short communication page 149 total of 156 adults of e. guadeloupae on r. indica in august 2002, 179 adults on h. rosasinensis during may 2003, 124 adults on p. pulcherrima in july 1998, and 247 adults on a. hispida infested with spiralling whitefly in june 2003, were released. sampling was done for six months on the ornamental plants from the month of release. populations of the whitefly and its natural enemies were estimated at monthly intervals. ten plants infested with spiralling whitefly were randomly chosen for recording observations. in each plant, four shoots were selected and in each shoot, ten leaves (beginning 6 th leaf from top) were collected and populations of adult whiteflies, healthy and parasitised nymphs and the predators if any were recorded on each leaf. the leaves were kept in plastic jars (16 cm x11 cm) and the emergence of natural enemies was recorded. parasitoids emerged making an irregular hole, while, the whiteflies emerged through a ‘t’ shaped slit. correlation analysis was carried out to determine relationship between parasitism and spiralling whitefly population. although more than 40 indigenous predators were found to feed on spiralling whitefly in india (ramani et al, 2002), a total of five species of predators, namely, axinoscymnus puttarudriahi kapur and munishi, cryptolaemus montrouzieri muls., anegleis cardoni (weise), cybocephalus sp. and mallada astur banks were recorded on the spiralling whitefly infesting rose, hibiscus, poinsettia and acalypha during the study period. local predators, observed in negligible numbers did not have any impact on the population of spiralling whitefly as observed in indonesia by kajita et al (1991). results on colonization of e.guadeloupae on the spiralling whitefly infesting different ornamentals are presented in figures 14. rose the population of spiralling whitefly declined from 30.50/ leaf in august 2002 to 2.57 / leaf in february 2003. encarsia guadeloupae was first recovered in september 2002 and found to be causing 21.74% parasitism, which went up to 96.00% in february 2003 (fig 1). correlation analysis revealed that there was significant influence of parasitism (r = -0.943) on the population of spiralling whitefly. fig 1. parasitism by encarsia guadeloupae on rose hibiscus spiralling whitefly incidence was observed in may 2003 on hibiscus at hebbal. the population declined from 52.40 /leaf in may 2003 to 2.90 in november 2003 (fig 2). encarsia guadeloupae was first recovered in june 2003 causing 18.96 % parasitism, which later increased to 86.40% in november 2003. correlation analysis revealed that there was significant influence of parasitism (r = -0.979) on the population of spiralling whitefly. fig 2. parasitism by encarsia guadeloupae on hibiscus poinsettia the spiralling whitefly was observed in severe form in june 2003 on poinsettia at the iihr farm. the parasitoid was recovered in july and recorded a parasitism of 32.94 %. the parasitism went up to 90.40 % in december 2003. the colonization of parasitoid on spiralling whitefly 149j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 148-151, 2006 page 150 population of whitefly declined from 105.42/leaf in june 2003 to 1.52 / leaf in december 2003 (fig 3). correlation analysis revealed that there was significant influence of parasitism (r = -0.954) on the population of spiralling whitefly. fig 3. parasitism by encarsia guadeloupae on poinsettia acalypha on acalypha, the population of whitefly declined from 23.45/leaf in june 2003 to 9.66 / leaf in december 2003 following the release of e. guadeloupae in june 2003. parasitism level increased gradually from 3.43% to 39.86% (fig 4). correlation analysis revealed that there was significant influence of parasitism (r = -0.948) on the population of spiralling whitefly. fig 4. parasitism by encarsia guadeloupae on acalypha very high level of parasitism of 86.40 96.00% by e. guadeloupae was observed on the above ornamental crops, except on acalypha, in the present study. even in acalypha, if observations had been continued for some more months, higher level of parasitism could probably have been observed. geetha (2000) and mani et al (2004) reported 80 % parasitism by e. (?) haitiensis (encarsia meritoria sp. nr.) on spiralling whitefly infesting guava. the activity of parasitoids was observed throughout the study period. parasitism by e. guadeloupae was significant and negatively correlated with the population of whitefly (r = -0.943 to -0.979) in the present study. similar significant correlations between abundance of spiralling whitefly and natural enemies, chiefly e. (?) haitiensis in hawaii, was reported (kumashiro et al, 1983). similarly, chandrasekar (1990) and d’almeida et al (1998) reported that the decline in spiralling whitefly population was mainly due to the action of e. (?) haitiensis and e. guadeloupae in sri lanka and benin, west africa. according to kumashiro et al (1983), a single release of e. (?) haitiensis in 1980 reduced the population of the spiralling whitefly by 7898% around honolulu in hawaii. the population of a dispersus in malaysia remained low mainly due to the presence of e.guadeloupae (h.kajita, pers. commun., 1996). the efficacy of e. guadeloupae in controlling spiralling whitefly (as observed in the present study on ornamental crops) in hawaii, malaysia, india, philippines, togo, ghana, nigeria, tenerife (canary islands) and taiwan (waterhouse and norris, 1989; neuenschwander, 1994; chien et al, 2000; nijhof et al, 2000; mani and krishnamoorthy, 2002) has also been reported on other crops. acknowledgements the authors acknowledge director, iihr, for providing facilities to conduct the study and mr. g.l.pattar for technical assistance in the present investigation. references chandrasekara, d.1990. effect of weather and natural enemies on population variation of the spiralling whitefly (swf), aleurodicus dispersus russell (homoptera, aleyrodidae). research report submitted to the degree of b.sc., university of peradeniya, sri lanka, 26 p. j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 148-151, 2006 mani & krishnamoorthy 150 page 151 chien, c. c., chou, l.y. and chang, s.c. 2000. introduction, propagation and liberation of two parasitoids for the control of spiralling whitefly, (homoptera: aleyrodidae), in taiwan. chinese j. ent., 20: 163-178. david, b.v. and regu, k. 1995. aleurodicus dispersus russell (aleyrodidae: homoptera), a whitefly pest new to india. pestology, 19: 5-7. d’almeida y.a., lys, j.a, neuenschwander, p. and ajounu,o. 1998. impact of two accidentally introduced encarsia species (hymenoptera: aphelinidae) and other biotic and abiotic factors on the spiralling whitefly aleurodicus dispersus russell (homoptera: aleyrodidae) in benin, west africa. biocontrol sci. tech., 8: 163-173. geetha, b. 2000. biology and management of spiralling whitefly aleurodicus dispersus(russell) (homoptera: aleurodidae). ph.d thesis, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore, india, 196 p. kajita, h., samudra, i.m. and naito, a 1991. discovery of the spiralling whitefly aleurodicus dispersus russell (homoptera: aleyrodidae) from indonesia, with notes on its host plants and natural enemies. appl. ent. zoology, 26: 397-400. kumashiro, b.r., lai, p.y., funasaki, g.y. and. teramoto, k.k. 1983. efficacy of nephaspis amnicola and encarsia (?) haitiensis in controlling aleurodicus dispersus in hawaii. procs. hawaiian ent. soc., 24:8. mani, m. and krishnamoorthy, a. 1996. spiralling whitefly and its natural enemies on guava in karnataka. insect environ. 2: 12. mani, m. and krishnamoorthy, a. 2002. classical biological control of spiralling whitefly, aleurodicus dispersus russell – an appraisal. insect sci. applic., 22:263-273. mani,m., krishnamoorthy,a.,venugopalan,r. and pattar, g.l. 2004. biological control of exotic spiralling whitefly aleurodicus dispersus russell on guava by encarsia haitiensis dozier and encarsia guadeloupae viggiani in india. pest management in horticultural ecosystems, 10: 29-39. muniappan, r., 1993. spiralling whitefly, the hindu dated august 11, 1993, p.28. neuenschwander, p., 1994. spiralling whitefly aleurodicus dispersus, a recent invader and new cassava pest in africa. african crop sci. j., 2: 419-421 nijhof, b.w., oudman, l.,torres, r and. garrido, c 2000. the introduction of encarsia guadeloupae (hymenoptera: aphelinidae) for control of aleurodicus dispersus and lecanoideus floccissimus (homoptera: aleurodidae) on tenerife. proceedings of the section experimental and applied entomology of the netherlands entomological society, 11: 4147. palaniswami, m.s., pillai, k.s., nair, r.r. and. mohandas, c 1995. a new cassava pest in india. cassava newslett., 19: 6-7. prathapan, k.d.1996. outbreak of the spiralling whitefly, aleurodicus dispersus russell (aleyrodidae, homoptera), in kerala. insect environ., 12 : 36-37. ramani, s. 2000. fortuitous introduction of an aphelinid parasitoid of the spiralling whitefly, aleurodicus dispersus russell (homoptera: aleyrodidae), into the lakshadweep islands with notes on host plants and other natural enemies. j. biol. control. 14: 55-60. ramani, s., poorani, j. and bhumannavar,b.s. 2002.spiralling whitefly, aleurodicus dispersus russell in india. biocontrol news and information, 23: 55-62. ranjith, a.m., rao, d.s. and thomas, j.1996. new host records of the mealy whitefly, aleurodicus dispersus russell, in kerala. insect environ., 2: 35. sathe, t.v. 1999. whitefly, aleurodicus dispersus, a new pest of guava, psidium guajava in kolhapur, maharashtra. ind. j. ent., 61: 195-196. srinivasa, m.v.2000. host plants of the spiralling whitefly, aleurodicus dispersus (hemiptera: aleyrodidae). pest mgt. in hortl. ecosystems, 6:79-105. waterhouse, d.f. and norris, k.r.1989. biological control. pacific prospects supplement 1, aciar monograph, 12,125 p. j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 148-151, 2006 colonization of parasitoid on spiralling whitefly 151 (ms received 26 june 2006, revised 22 november 2006) introduction colocasia ( colocasia esculenta l. schott.), commonly known as arvi or taro, is a member of the family araceae and sub-family colocasioidae. it is a wetland herbaceous, monocotyledonous plant and is an important tuber crop. it is believed to have originated in the indomalayan region, but ethno-botanical evidence favours india as its place of origin (plucknett, 1979). it is cultivated throughout the tropics and sub-tropics. it is also called ‘potato of the tropics’. it is believed that the origin of domesticated taro can be traced to the wild type c. esculenta var. aquatilis, either in north east india or south east asia (matthews, 1991). colocasia is popular for its high nutritive value, delicious taste and good flavour. it contains a considerable amount of carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals (like ca, fe and p). tubers are rich in starch; leaves contain provitamin a and vitamin c. (chopra et al, 1956). quality of the corms and cormels depends on their acridity and presence of fibre. good quality colocasia corms are without any raphides, are fibreless, and soft like butter upon cooking. in north-eastern region, it is an important source evaluation of taro (colocasia esculenta l.) cultivars for growth, yield and quality attributes t. angami, a.k. jha, juri buragohain, bidyut c. deka, v.k. verma and amit nath division of horticulture icar research complex for neh region, umiam-793103, india e-mail: thejaangami@yahoo.com abstract a study on varietal evaluation in taro for growth, yield and quality attributes was carried out in a replicated experiment and morphological and chemical analysis was done. significant differences were recorded for all the characteristics studied. ‘panchmukhi’ recorded highest plant height (179.33cm), petiole length (153.11cm), petiole breadth (13.87mm) and leaf size (3095.67cm2), lai (1.14), corm length (152.41mm) and breadth (107.77mm), average corm weight (1500.00g) and corm yield (20.00t/ha). ‘c-3’ recorded maximum (15.00) petiole number and cormel length (85.93mm). cormel yield (15.29t/ha), total yield (25.92t/ha) and number of cormels per plant (30.33) was found to be maximum in cv. white gouriya. ‘ml-2’ recorded maximum (7.33) number of side shoots. highest average cormel weight (72.85g) was maximum in cv. arcol-7, and ‘arcol-5’ recorded maximum (67.43mm) cormel breadth; the least blight incidence percentage (8.00) was recorded in ‘nayabungalow’. as for biochemical constituents, ‘nainital’ recorded the highest (5.85%) total sugars, ‘kandha-5’ exhibited the highest (34.67%) starch content and ‘nadia local’ with showed highest levels of oxalic acid (1.05mg/100g). highest dry matter content (27.50%) was recorded in cvs. kca-1 and panchmukhi, while the highest moisture percentage (82.83) was recorded in ‘ig coll-5’. key words: colocasia, taro cultivars, growth, yield, quality j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):183-189, 2015 of food during the lean period, and constitutes feed for livestock. all the plant parts, i.e., leaves, petiole, corms and cormels of taro are eaten in some or the other part of the region. in its raw form, however, the plant is unpalatable from the presence of calcium oxalate crystals in the corm, cormel and leaf. this is the main cause for its acridity, and can be removed by cooking or steeping in cold water overnight. the north-eastern region of india is known for a diversity of flora and fauna. wide variability can be seen among colocasia cultivars grown in the region (sarma, 2001). this variation among the cultivated types of taro in the region, available in the form of one or the other vegetable, offers a great scope for commercial exploitation. also, it has an immense potential and a good future as raw material for convenience foods (flour), animal feed, and commodity chemicals like starch, vitamins, proteins etc. although colocasia has multiple uses with a great diversity present in the cultivars, it has not been exploited in both new and old world aroids in a range of environments, thus indicating a vast and largely untapped potential for research in this crop. 184 malnutrition and food shortage among the poor rural population is conspicuous. cultivation of crops like colocasia will not only increase food production, but also provide balanced nutrition to the deprived sections of the region. therefore, popularizing taro cultivation and identifying suitable cultivars for nutritional value is important. little work has been done on qualitative evaluation of physico-chemical properties of taro in this part with the above points in view, the present investigation was planned to evaluate and study comparative performance of the cultivar and screen out superior ones for yield and quality, as also to identify suitable cultivars for providing a balanced diet. some colocasia cultivars were collected from various parts of the north-eastern region, while some promising varieties were collected from outside the region, and evaluated under meghalaya conditions. material and methods forty cultivars of colocasia from the north-eastern region, and some promising varieties from outside the region, were collected and planted in march 2009 and march 2010 at the experimental farm, division of horticulture, icar (rc) for neh region, umiam, meghalaya, to evaluate for various physical parameters, corm and cormel characteristics, yield attributes and its chemical properties, under rainfed conditions. morphological parameters were recorded at 120 days after planting, while corm and cormel characteristics and physico-chemical properties were recorded/ analyzed at harvest, i.e., 240 days after planting. the experimental design was rbd, with three replications, in a plot sized 2mx2m. sprouted corms/ cormels were planted 5-7cm deep, at a spacing of 45cm between and within rows, in pits. uniform package of practices was applied throughout the experiment. morphological parameters included plant height (cm), leaf size (cm2), number of side shoots, petiole length (cm) and breadth (mm), number of petioles, leaf blight incidence (percentage), leaf area index (lai), corm length and breadth (mm), average corm weight (g), corm yield (t/ha), cormel length and breadth (mm), average cormel weight (g), cormel yield (t/ha), total yield (t/ha) and number of cormels per plant. moisture and dry-matter content in a sample was determined by oven-drying 10g of the sample at 60°c, till a constant weight was obtained (rangana, 1997). total sugars were estimated by titration, using fehling’s solution and methylene blue indicator (rangana, 1997). amount of starch present in the samples was determined as per rangana (1997). after the sugars present in a sample leached out, the starch was hydrolyzed using acid, and estimated as invert-sugar. % starch = % reducing sugar x 0.9 oxalic acid content (dry weight basis) was determined as per ctcri manual (1979). observations on growth, yield and chemical constituents were recorded and subjected to statistical analysis as per panse and sukhatme (1978). results and discussion morphological traits showed a wide variation among cultivars (table 1). highest plant height (179.33cm) was recorded in var. panchmukhi, followed by ‘bcc1a’ (161.44cm); while, the lowest (96.33cm) was observed in ‘ascol-1’. data on petiole length showed a significant variation among cultivars. ‘panchmukhi’ recorded significantly higher petiole length (153.11cm), followed by bcc1a (137.56cm); lowest (77.89cm) petiole length was observed in ‘ascol-1’, which was statistically at par with ‘c-149’ (78.22cm). in petiole breadth, significant difference was seen among cultivars. maximum petiole breadth (13.87mm) was recorded in ‘panchmukhi’, followed by ‘ml-9’ and ‘bcc1a’ (13.27mm and 13.15mm, respectively). ‘ascol-1’ recorded the lowest (7.60mm) petiole breadth, followed by cv. gouriya (8.68mm). maximum vegetative growth, viz., plant height (cm), petiole length (cm) and petiole breadth (mm) seen in ‘panchmukhi’ may be due to a greater leaf size and leaf area index (lai), leading to higher photosynthesis. this may have resulted in accumulation of more amounts of assimilates, thus increasing plant height (mili, 2001). data on leaf size revealed significant differences among cultivars. ‘panchmukhi’ recorded maximum (3095.67cm2) leaf size, followed by bcc1a (2349.22cm2) and nayabungalow (2345.67cm2), which were statistically at par. the lowest leaf size (549.11cm2) was observed in ‘ascol-1’. greater leaf size (3095.67cm2) in ‘panchmukhi’ may be due to its genetic make-up, geared to produce larger leaves (bora and das, 1998). significant differences were recorded in number of side shoots among cultivars. highest number of side shoots angami et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):183-189, 2015 185 (7.33) was recorded in ‘ml-2’, followed by ‘c-3’ (6.83) and ‘bcc-1’ (6.50), which were statistically at par. the lowest number (1.67) was recorded in ‘meghalaya local’. significant differences in the number of petioles were recorded among cultivars. highest petiole number (15.00) was recorded in ‘c-3; followed by ‘ml-2’ (13.50); whereas, the lowest number of petioles (4.67) was seen in ‘b.k. coll-2’. significant differences were found in terms of disease incidence (percentage) among cultivars. ‘c-137’ was found to exhibit the highest disease percentage (28.00), followed by ‘bcc1a’ (24.00); while, the lowest (8.00) was observed in nayabungalow, followed by ‘ml-2’ and ‘kandha local’ (10.67). data also indicated a significant difference in lai among cultivars. highest lai (1.14) was recorded in ‘panchmukhi’, followed by ‘c-137’ and ‘bcc1a’ (1.09 and 1.08, respectively). the lowest lai (0.62) was recorded in ‘c-149’, which was statistically at par with ‘telia’ (0.63). higher lai in ‘panchmukhi’ indicates that canopy table 1. comparative performance of some colocasia cultivars with regard to morphological traits (2009-2010) cultivar plant leaf no. of petiole petiole number of blight lai height (cm) size (cm2) side shoots length (cm) breadth (mm) petioles incidence (%) ml-1 154.83 1548.83 5.67 119.50 10.37 11.83 12.00 1.02 ml-2 127.50 1132.33 7.33 97.17 10.42 13.50 10.67 0.84 ml-9 130.17 1067.00 5.33 101.83 13.27 12.50 13.33 0.91 arcol-2 130.33 1271.83 5.67 103.00 12.69 11.50 20.00 0.96 arcol-5 126.17 1140.67 3.67 99.83 9.98 11.33 13.33 0.92 arcol-6 122.17 958.50 4.17 93.17 10.81 11.33 20.00 0.90 arcol-8 131.33 1248.33 5.67 105.67 9.86 11.00 12.00 0.93 muktakeshi 111.67 883.33 5.50 89.33 11.95 11.17 12.00 0.83 meghalaya local 135.00 998.17 1.67 108.33 12.15 5.17 20.00 0.95 kandha local 121.00 840.50 4.50 94.83 12.07 10.83 10.67 0.84 bcc-1 117.33 902.67 6.50 93.83 11.98 12.33 12.00 0.87 kca-1 112.00 909.33 3.17 90.33 12.87 7.83 16.00 0.74 c-3 148.50 1546.17 6.83 112.00 10.84 15.00 17.33 0.93 arcol-1 119.44 654.22 5.11 102.44 9.90 10.44 12.00 0.75 arcol-7 137.78 643.00 5.33 119.11 10.69 7.67 16.00 0.97 kandha 140.56 1267.45 3.11 117.11 10.75 7.44 12.00 0.96 kandha-5 147.56 1705.00 4.22 125.11 11.49 9.56 12.00 1.04 b.k. coll-1 116.33 1046.55 4.22 96.33 9.07 9.55 16.00 0.76 b.k. coll-2 111.11 752.45 2.55 88.11 9.42 4.67 12.00 0.73 meghalaya coll-1 138.11 1910.55 3.89 114.22 11.64 7.56 12.00 1.00 meghalaya coll-2 136.78 1640.67 3.33 114.11 10.86 8.11 16.00 0.98 c-137 151.89 1482.89 5.11 128.89 12.51 10.11 28.00 1.09 c-149 100.67 1002.67 4.44 78.22 9.68 8.00 12.00 0.62 nayabungalow 155.00 2345.67 4.89 132.55 12.20 9.22 8.00 1.02 panchmukhi 179.33 3095.67 1.89 153.11 13.87 7.00 12.00 1.14 sunajuli 120.67 1133.45 3.56 98.78 9.64 7.22 16.00 0.72 nainital 128.89 668.78 2.78 107.33 9.69 9.56 16.00 0.91 suryamukhi 133.67 1102.22 3.44 113.89 9.07 9.00 16.00 0.90 gouriya 110.55 1376.22 3.89 87.78 8.68 8.00 12.00 0.84 white gouriya 151.33 1691.00 4.33 128.89 9.56 8.44 12.00 1.02 nadia local 139.22 1185.22 3.78 117.44 11.35 10.22 12.00 0.99 kadina local 140.66 1330.44 5.00 117.55 10.41 11.00 16.00 1.00 telia 129.34 657.78 2.67 106.11 9.53 8.00 16.00 0.63 bcc1a 161.44 2349.22 5.33 137.56 13.15 9.67 24.00 1.08 bcc 11 138.56 1567.22 2.89 114.89 10.95 9.56 12.00 0.91 ascol-1 96.33 549.11 3.55 77.89 7.60 6.56 12.00 0.71 ascol-2 139.22 1413.56 3.56 113.89 10.05 7.00 16.00 0.96 ig coll-5 148.22 2012.22 2.89 126.22 11.72 6.55 16.00 1.04 sj-1 122.89 946.00 4.55 91.67 10.08 8.11 12.00 0.88 tmv-293 123.78 980.33 4.00 102.00 9.70 8.56 16.00 0.78 sem + 3.62 106.33 0.40 3.72 0.98 0.90 2.40 0.08 cd (p=0.05) 11.71 344.35 1.30 12.04 3.19 2.90 7.79 0.26 evaluation of taro cultivars for growth and yield j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):183-189, 2015 186 development in taro is subject more to internal plant-control, and suggests that the capacity of a variety at attaining a certain lai depends on its ability to express its potential leaf area (pardales, 1986). data on corm length revealed significant difference among cultivars. highest corm length (152.41mm) was seen in ‘panchmukhi’, followed by ‘arcol-7’ (107.91mm); while, the lowest (43.37mm) was observed in ‘bcc1’. data furnished in table 2 reveal that corm breadth varied significantly among cultivars. ‘panchmukhi’ recorded the highest (107.77mm) corm breadth, followed by ‘white gauriya’ and ‘kandha-5’ (83.53mm and 83.36mm, respectively); whereas, the lowest (31.73mm) was recorded in ‘bcc1’. as for average corm weight, significant differences were seen among cultivars. highest average corm weight (1500.00g) was observed in cv. panchmukhi, followed by ‘arcol-7’ (983.33g), while, the lowest (33.33g) was found table 2. corm and cormel characteristics, total yield and number of cormels per plant (2009-2010) cultivar corm cormel total no. of length breadth average yield length breadth average yield yield cormels (mm) (mm) wt. (g) (t/ha) (mm) (mm) wt.(g) (t/ha) (t/ha) per plant ml-1 101.73 46.40 237.50 15.25 85.08 30.39 53.17 6.88 22.13 15.67 ml-2 85.22 43.95 236.67 12.00 60.08 29.83 33.78 6.67 18.67 17.22 ml-9 84.92 61.76 229.17 9.08 64.35 37.19 36.39 10.05 19.13 20.78 arcol-2 71.01 50.23 243.33 5.00 61.88 34.70 43.17 2.75 7.75 11.00 arcol-5 74.40 66.26 232.50 5.63 77.39 67.43 45.23 9.75 15.38 19.33 arcol-6 100.66 66.55 626.67 17.00 62.67 40.55 65.31 5.25 22.25 7.33 arcol-8 64.36 40.11 90.00 8.75 59.50 26.88 17.35 3.00 11.75 7.67 muktakeshi 64.85 62.24 136.50 3.88 60.48 35.73 30.21 9.88 13.76 23.83 meghalaya local 80.53 43.48 481.67 4.25 68.33 18.94 12.04 2.75 7.00 9.67 kandha local 68.35 70.86 153.11 4.08 68.66 37.25 34.00 10.58 14.66 17.56 bcc-1 43.37 31.73 36.11 5.83 30.79 21.00 15.89 6.67 12.50 8.67 kca-1 71.93 73.63 326.67 5.00 71.25 28.36 14.58 6.25 11.25 23.33 c-3 69.61 45.47 773.33 17.33 85.93 33.58 43.11 3.50 20.83 5.00 arcol-1 92.81 72.94 308.33 5.00 50.32 34.84 32.04 0.75 5.75 4.67 arcol-7 107.91 45.98 983.33 17.00 63.91 31.53 72.85 2.50 19.50 5.33 kandha 90.63 65.96 310.83 9.25 65.10 35.04 39.77 10.75 20.00 22.83 kandha-5 78.90 83.36 763.33 8.75 59.71 34.74 27.85 3.75 12.50 13.00 b.k. coll-1 68.04 45.46 122.67 1.50 54.05 35.64 29.08 2.50 4.00 11.00 b.k. coll-2 60.64 48.61 179.33 1.75 68.91 30.14 30.83 3.00 4.75 19.33 meghalaya coll-1 102.07 62.76 399.17 12.38 66.22 28.17 25.75 5.13 17.51 20.00 meghalaya coll-2 66.10 61.51 259.00 5.38 61.70 27.08 32.67 10.38 15.76 23.33 c-137 78.12 61.36 233.33 10.00 58.63 32.49 45.97 5.00 15.00 13.33 c-149 62.50 47.07 160.00 3.00 61.51 27.66 29.95 8.00 11.00 17.00 nayabungalow 73.41 65.40 933.33 17.00 83.79 25.34 17.50 8.50 25.50 16.67 panchmukhi 152.41 107.77 1500.00 20.00 61.99 35.36 17.33 1.75 21.75 9.33 sunajuli 72.74 60.41 173.33 8.75 62.77 33.04 35.50 15.00 23.75 24.33 nainital 63.24 64.36 265.67 6.75 69.48 34.14 29.92 9.25 16.00 21.00 suryamukhi 75.03 62.72 212.17 4.13 53.63 29.30 26.40 10.00 14.13 22.17 gouriya 58.05 43.09 33.33 0.25 59.40 29.06 21.00 3.25 3.50 17.67 white gouriya 93.53 83.53 344.17 10.63 59.48 31.72 31.30 15.29 25.92 30.33 nadia local 78.94 58.18 226.67 4.88 62.88 36.93 42.55 3.63 8.51 17.33 kadina local 62.22 57.47 225.00 7.50 72.64 34.18 56.53 14.00 21.50 22.33 telia 74.51 60.36 224.33 4.25 65.97 39.62 34.20 13.50 17.75 23.33 bcc1a 78.00 35.20 66.67 0.50 53.80 23.78 14.00 1.00 1.50 3.67 bcc 11 90.85 48.22 275.33 2.20 46.98 29.32 20.22 5.00 7.00 26.00 ascol-1 54.09 33.00 41.67 0.25 52.80 18.40 13.34 1.25 1.50 9.33 ascol-2 72.64 55.95 211.00 5.63 68.62 32.07 24.63 8.88 14.51 14.50 ig coll-5 94.67 52.67 362.00 5.75 46.31 29.74 21.67 6.25 12.00 12.00 sj-1 74.41 48.41 241.93 5.25 63.62 29.13 39.07 13.25 18.50 25.03 tmv 66.60 54.13 171.67 3.63 55.32 31.43 37.07 6.88 10.51 15.83 sem + 9.65 5.41 119.40 1.35 6.34 3.24 4.49 1.08 1.92 3.36 cd (p=0.05) 31.25 17.52 386.69 4.36 20.53 10.51 14.55 3.51 6.21 10.96 angami et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):183-189, 2015 187 table 3. comparative performance of some colocasia cultivars with regards to chemical parameters (2009-2010) cultivar total sugars starch oxalic acid dry matter (%) moisture (%) (%) (%) (%) in cormel in cormel ml-1 2.26 18.50 0.69 23.50 76.50 ml-2 4.10 27.96 0.41 25.50 74.50 ml-9 3.95 14.70 0.83 22.33 77.67 arcol-2 5.12 20.56 0.50 20.67 79.33 arcol-5 1.91 16.20 0.72 24.50 75.50 arcol-6 2.85 22.45 0.47 25.50 74.50 arcol-8 2.58 19.19 0.57 21.67 78.33 muktakeshi 5.12 18.09 0.53 25.50 74.50 meghalaya local 2.69 22.68 0.81 21.50 78.50 kandha local 3.04 21.89 0.72 24.83 75.17 bcc-1 2.76 20.03 0.81 21.83 78.17 kca-1 1.79 13.64 0.66 27.50 78.17 c-3 2.77 16.40 0.57 25.67 74.33 arcol-1 2.19 26.89 0.86 21.67 78.33 arcol-7 3.30 20.36 0.68 18.67 81.33 kandha 2.50 17.63 0.63 22.17 77.83 kandha-5 4.31 34.67 0.83 20.17 79.83 b.k. coll-1 2.77 19.47 0.80 20.67 79.33 b.k. coll-2 2.97 14.22 0.44 17.83 82.17 meghalaya coll-1 1.96 17.81 0.84 21.00 79.00 meghalaya coll-2 2.98 16.51 0.75 18.50 81.50 c-137 2.00 27.92 0.56 22.67 77.33 c-149 4.28 21.21 0.75 19.33 80.67 nayabungalow 3.64 30.04 0.80 23.50 77.50 panchmukhi 3.85 21.17 0.71 27.50 72.50 sunajuli 2.15 27.25 0.63 22.83 77.17 nainital 5.85 20.94 0.77 25.50 74.50 suryamukhi 4.20 18.77 0.62 23.67 76.33 gouriya 1.93 17.57 0.93 19.33 80.67 white gouriya 1.92 31.03 0.72 24.33 75.67 nadia local 2.78 24.56 1.05 21.17 78.83 kadina local 1.61 20.44 0.75 20.00 80.00 telia 2.44 21.00 0.77 18.83 81.17 bcc 1a 1.60 21.04 0.74 19.00 81.00 bcc 11 3.55 14.21 0.92 19.17 80.83 ascol-1 2.77 13.81 0.92 18.50 81.50 ascol-2 3.02 13.03 1.04 19.67 80.33 ig coll-5 2.57 24.01 0.95 17.17 82.83 sj-1 2.19 29.61 0.36 20.83 79.19 tmv-293 3.66 14.64 0.74 22.50 77.50 sem + 0.51 2.90 0.12 2.00 2.00 cd (p=0.05) 1.65 9.38 0.39 6.48 6.48 in cv. gauriya, followed by ‘bcc1’ (36.11g). highest average corm weight was recorded in ‘panchmukhi’ which could be due to a greater quantity of dry matter having been translocated to the corm, combined with a higher rate of yield-attributing characters, viz., plant height, lai, etc. throughout growth. similar results were reported by onwueme (1978) and parthasarthy et al (1989) in taro. there was a significant variation in corm yield among cultivars. ‘panchmukhi’ recorded significantly higher corm yield (20.00 t/ha), followed by ‘c-3; (17.33 t/ha). the lowest yield (0.25 t/ha) was recorded in ‘ascol-1’ and ‘gauriya’, which was statistically at par with that in ‘bcc-1a’ (0.50 t/ ha). high corm-yield in ‘panchmukhi’ may be attributed to a better utilization of photosynthates (due to maximum plant height and leaf number), resulting in better sized tubers; it could also be due to higher corm-weight. similar result was obtained by sarmah (1997). there was a significant variation in cormel length among cultivars. ‘c-3’ recorded maximum (85.93mm) cormel length, which was statistically at par with ‘ml-1’ (85.08mm). the lowest (30.79mm) was recorded in ‘bcc1’. evaluation of taro cultivars for growth and yield j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):183-189, 2015 188 significant variation was seen in cormel breadth among cultivars. ‘arcol-5’ recorded maximum (67.43mm) cormel breadth, followed by ‘arcol-6’ (40.55mm); while, ‘ascol-1’ recorded the lowest (18.40mm) cormel breadth, which was statistically at par with meghalaya local (18.94mm). data presented on average cormel weight, evidently shows a significant difference among cultivars. maximum average cormel weight (72.85g) was recordrd in ‘arcol-7’, followed by arcol-6 (65.31g). the lowest average weight (12.04g) was recorded in ‘meghalaya local’. data on cormel yield show significant differences among cultivars. highest cormel yield (15.29 t/ha) was recorded in ‘white gouriya’, which was statistically at par with ‘sunajuli’ (15.00 t/ha). the lowest yield (0.75 t/ha) was recorded in ‘arcol-1’. significant variation was observed in total yield. highest (25.92 t/ha) total yield was observed in ‘white gouriya’, followed by ‘nayabungalow’ (25.50 t/ha). the lowest yield (1.50 t/ha) was recorded in ‘ascol-1’ and ‘bcc1a’. the high total yield obtained in ‘white gouriya’ may have resulted from rainfed and flooding conditions. similar finding was observed by de la pena and plucknett (1967). data on the number of cormels per plant showed significant difference among cultivars. highest number of side-tubers (30.33) was observed in ‘white gouriya’, followed by ‘bcc-2’ (26.00); the lowest number (3.67) was found in ‘bcc-1a’, followed by ‘arcol-1’ (4.67). higher number of cormels per plant in ‘white gouriya’ may be due to accumulated storage foods, which have a direct bearing on crop yield (bhuiyan and quadir, 1989). data on moisture percentage in tubers shows a significant variation among cultivars. at harvest, cv. cultivar ig coll-5 recorded the highest (82.83) moisture percentage, followed by ‘b.k coll-11’ (82.17%). lowest moisture percentage (72.50) was recorded in cvs. ml-9 and kca1. ‘ig coll-5’ recorded highest moisture percentage which could be due to a combination of factors. moisture content is not a fixed property, and is dependent upon several factors such as cultivar, yield, proportionate amount of chemical constituents, and, environmental factors such as temperature, relative humidity, etc. (sarmah, 1997). as for dry matter content in tuber, there was significant variation among cultivars. ‘panchmukhi’ and ‘kca-1’ recorded maximum dry-matter content (27.50%), followed by ‘c-3’ (25.67%). ‘ig coll-5’ recorded the lowest dry-matter content (17.17%), followed by ‘bk coll-11’ (17.83%). there were significant differences in starch content too, among different cultivars. highest starch percentage (34.67) was recorded in ‘kandha-5’, followed by ‘white gauriya’ (31.03%); while the lowest (13.05%) was found in ‘ascol-2’. ‘panchmukhi’ accumulated the highest amount of dry-matter, whereas ‘ig coll-5’ recorded the lowest. ‘kandha-5’ had the highest starch content, while cv. ascol-2 recorded the lowest. wills et al (1983) also reported varietal variation in starch and dry-matter content in taro. cv. nainital recorded highest total sugars (5.85%), followed by ‘muktakeshi’ and ‘arcol-2’ (5.12%). the lowest value (1.60%) was recorded in cv. bcc-1a, which was statistically at par with ‘kadina local’ (1.61%). significant differences were found in oxalic acid content among cultivars. ‘nadia local’ recorded highest amounts of calcium oxalate (1.05%), followed by ‘ascol-2’ (1.04%); whereas, the lowest (0.36%) was recorded in cv. sj-1. oxalic acid percentage was maximum in cv. nadia local, whereas ‘sj-1’ recorded minimal oxalic acid content. oxalate content is of interest because of its alleged adverse effect on nutrient bio-availability (libert and franceschi, 1987). huang chien-chun et al (2007) also reported variation in calcium oxalate concentration among taro cultivars. further, oxalates do not pose a hazard, since, these are leached out during cooking (taro is not consumed raw/ uncooked). a cultivar may contain higher amounts of calcium oxalate, which causes physical irritation, as may be due to the presence of some other, complex chemical compound/s (tang and sakai, 1983). the wide variations observed in chemical composition of different colocasia cultivars may be due primarily to varietal differences, which ultimately determine nutritional value of a particular crop, since, all the cultivars were grown under similar climate and soil type, under uniform cultivation practices (barooah, 1982). similar observations were made by wills et al (1983) for taro cultivars grown in the highlands of papua new guinea. references barooah, h. 1982. collection, screening and evaluation of some local colocasia (colocasia esculenta l. schott.) and xanthosoma (xanthosoma sagittifolium l. schott.) cultivars of assam. m.sc. 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(agri.) thesis, assam agricultural university, jorhat, assam, india onwueme, i.c. 1978. the tropical tuber crops. john wiley and sons, new york, usa, 199 p. panse, v.g. and sukhatme, p.v. 1978. statistical methods for agricultural workers. icar, new delhi, india pardales, j.r. 1986. characteristics of growth and development of taro (colocasia esculenta l. schott.) under upland environment. philipp. j. crop sci., 11:209-212 parthasarthy, v.a., medhi, r.p. and rao, v.s. 1989. genotypic and environmental interaction in taro. south indian hort., 31:201-205 plucknett, d.l. 1979. edible aroids. in: evolution of crop plants. simmond, n.w. (ed.), longmans, london, uk, pp.10-12 rangana, s. 1997. handbook of analysis and quality control of fruit and vegetable products, 2nd edition. tata mcgraw hill publ. co. ltd., new delhi, india sarma, b.k. 2001. underutilized crops for hills and mountain ecosystems. in: summer school on agriculture for hills and mountain ecosystem, gb pant institute of himalayan environment and development, almora, uttarakhand, india, pp. 308-314 sarmah, i. 1997. performance of some colocasia under different spacings. m.sc. (agri.) thesis, aau, jorhat, assam, india tang, c.s. and sakai, w.s. 1983. acridity of taro and related plants. in: taro wang, j.k. (ed.), univ. of hawaii press, honolulu, hawaii, pp. 148-163 wills ron, b.h., lim jessie, s.k., greenfield heather and bayliss-smith tim. 1983. nutrient composition of taro (colocasia esculenta l.) cultivars from the papua new guinea highlands. j. sci. food & agri., 34:1137-1142 (ms received 27 august 2014, revised 20 april 2015, accepted 05 may 2015) evaluation of taro cultivars for growth and yield j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):183-189, 2015 morphological characterization and genetic barcoding of kuttiatoor mango accessions m.r. dinesh*1, k.v. ravishankar2, d.c. sunil gowda1 and m. sankaran1 1division of fruit crops, 2division of biotechnology, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru-560089. *e-mail: drmrdinesh@gmail.com absract a survey conducted during 2013-14 to collect and characterize the kuttiattoor mango accessions from kerala, revealed large unique variability in morphological, biochemical and dna barcode data. all the accessions were polyembryonic with fruit maturity during february-march. the mature fruit length (cm), width (cm) and leaf length (cm) ranged from 5.10 – 9.60 (cm), 4.60 – 8.40 (cm) and 12.4730.40 (cm) respectively. key words: polyembryony, dna barcode, mango, characterization short communication introduction mango (mangifera indica l.) originated from the indo-burma region and the genus mangifera has more than 60 species world-wide, the highest diversity being found in the malayan peninsula, borneo and sumatra (bompard,1993). mango has enormous variability at the levels of wild types and cultivars in india. the updated list now contains the names of 1682 cultivars (pandey and dinesh, 2010). among the seven centres of mango variability including wild and seedling types of m. indica l. in india, humid tropical southern peninsular india is an important one (yadav, & rajan, 1993). a survey was carried out in this region at kuttiattoor, thaliparamba tehsil, kannur district, kerala, during 2013-14 to collect, characterize and document the unique mango grown by the farmers of this village. during the survey, 10 unique mango a ccessions wer e selected r a ndomly ba sed morphological and fruit chara cters which were recorded as per the bioversity international descriptors (1989, table1). large variability was observed to exist among the accessions for 9 leaf characters and 19 fruit characters. the fruits were medium fibrous, juicy and having thin peel. the mature fruit length (cm), width (cm) and leaf length (cm) ranged from 5.10 – 9.60 (cm), 4.60 – 8.40 (cm) and 12.4730.40 (cm) respectively (table 1). all the kuttiatoor accessions were polyembryonic as it is common in mango varieties derived from southeast asian ancestry (iyer, 1991), which bear fruits more heavily and more consistently than monoembryonic varieties. dna barcoding is considered to be a useful tool for identification of plant species and also to study the evolutionary relationship among the species within the genera. the dna barcodes of 10 accessions (fig 1) were different from one another as reported by li et al., (2015). kuttiattoor mango accessions were thus unique with early harvesting and qualify for registration with the protection of plant varieties & farmers’ rights authority. j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 122-125, 2018 122 123 j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 122-125, 2018 dinesh et al ta bl e 1. m in im um d es cr ip to rs o f k ut tia tt oo r m an go a cc es si on s f ar m er n am e su re nd ra k ar th ya ya ni g op al an g op al an k ut ti at to or p ra bh ak ar an d ee pa k a bd ul a ir r it i k ut ti at to or (p la nt -1 ) (p la nt 2) (p la nt 1) sc ho ol ri sh al ka ya ch ec k po st k ar th ay an i a u p sa m pl e -1 (p la nt 2) (p la nt 1 ) c ha ra ct er is tic s k ut tia tto or -2 ku tti at to or -3 ku tti at to or -4 k ut tia tto or -5 ku tti at to or -7 k ut tia tto or -8 ku tti at to or -9 k ut tia tt oo r10 k ut tia tto or -1 1 k ut tia tt oo r12 y ou ng l ea f: in te ns ity o f an th oc ya ni n co lo ra tio n 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 (b ef or e fu ll ex pa ns io n of o ld es t le af o f th e ne w f lu sh ): 1 a bs en t l ea f bl ad e: l en gt h (c m ) 19 .2 0 19 .2 7 12 .4 7 16 .7 0 12 .9 7 15 .4 7 12 .9 0 14 .1 7 30 .4 0 16 .2 7 l ea f bl ad e: w id th ( cm ) 5. 87 7. 67 4. 17 5. 47 3. 23 4. 43 4. 10 5. 20 8. 97 5. 60 l ea f bl ad e: r at io l en gt h/ w id th : 5 3 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 3 3 sm al l & 5 m ed iu m l ea f bl ad e: s ha pe : 3 o va te & 7 o bl on g 7 3 7 3 3 3 7 7 7 3 l ea f bl ad e: c ol ou r1 l ig ht g re en , 2 m ed iu m 3 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 gr ee n, 3 d ar k gr ee n l ea f bl ad e: t w is tin g: 1 a bs en t 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 l ea f bl ad e: s ha pe o f ba se : 2 o bt us e an d 3 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 2 3 r ou nd ed l ea f bl ad e: s ha pe o f ap ex : 3 a cu te 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 pe tio le : le ng th ( cm ) 3. 5 2. 17 1. 67 2. 30 3. 73 3. 00 1. 63 1. 27 5. 50 3. 37 m at ur e fr ui t ch ar ac te ri st ic s l en gt h (c m ) 9. 4 8. 10 7. 40 8. 00 6. 00 5. 10 8. 50 9. 60 6. 10 8. 30 w id th ( cm ) 8. 4 7. 30 6. 80 6. 60 5. 30 4. 60 7. 70 8. 00 5. 50 7. 00 c ol ou r of s ki n: 2 o nl y gr ee n & 3 g re en 2 3 3 2 2 2 2 3 3 2 an d ye llo w d en si ty o f le nt ic el s: 3 s pa rs e, 5 m ed iu m , 5 5 5 7 3 7 5 5 7 3 7 d en se c ol ou r co nt ra st b et w ee n le nt ic el s an d sk in : 5 5 5 7 5 7 5 5 7 5 5 m ed iu m , 7 s tr on g si ze o f le nt ic el s: 5 m ed iu m 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 r ou gh ne ss o f su rf ac e (c or ki ne ss ) ca us ed b y 9 9 9 9 1 9 1 1 9 9 le nt ic el s: 1 a bs en t, 9 pr es en t pr es en ce o f ca vi ty a t st al k: 1 a bs en t , 9 p re se nt 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 d ep th o f ca vi ty a t st al k: 1 sh al lo w 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 pr es en ce o f ne ck :1 a bs en t, 9 pr es en t 1 1 1 1 1 9 9 1 1 1 124 characterization of kuttiatoor mango accessions sh ap e of v en tr al s ho ul de r: 1 r ou nd ed u pw ar d 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 sh ap e of d or sa l sh ou ld er : 1 r ou nd ed u pw ar d 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 pr es en ce o f gr oo ve i n ve nt ra l sh ou ld er : 1 a bs en t 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 b ul gi ng o n ve nt ra l sh ou ld er : 1 a bs en t 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 pr es en ce o f si nu s: 9 p re se nt 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 d ep th o f si nu s: ( 3 sh al lo w ) 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 b ul gi ng p ro xi m al o f st yl ar s ca r: 1 a bs en t 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 po in t a t st yl ar s ca r: 1 a bs en t 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 t im e of f ru it m at ur ity : 1 v er y ea rl y 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 (* a s pe r th e d u s g ui de lin es o n m an go , p pv & f r a , 2 00 8) j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 122-125, 2018 f ig .1 . d n a b ar co de s of k ut tia tto or m an go a cc es si on s 125 references bompar d, j. m. (1993). t he genus mangifera rediscovered: the potential contribution of wild species to mango cultivation. acta horti.341, 69-77. iyer, c.p.a. (1991). recent advances in varietal impr ovement in mango. acta hor t. 291, 109–32. li, x., yang yang, robert j. henry, maurizio rossetto, yitao wang and shilin chen.2015. plant dna barcoding: from gene to genome. biol. rev. 90: 157–166.pp doi: 10.1111/brv.12104 (ms received 02 april 2018, revised 24 may 2018, accepted 30 june 2018) pandey, s.n., & and dinesh, m.r. (2010). mango, indian council of agricultural research, new delhi, pp. 30-97. ppv & fra (2008).guidelines for conduct of test for dus mango (mangifera indica l.), protection of plant varieties and farmers right authority, goi, nasc complex, dps marg, new delhi110012, p.17 yadav, i. s., & and rajan, s. (1993). genetic resources of mango. advances in horticulture, vol. 1. fruit, part1, (eds) k.l. chadha and o.p. pareek, eds. malhotra publishing house, new delhi, p.77-93. dinesh et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 122-125, 2018 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 124-132, 2017 seasonal influence on volatile aroma constituents of two banana cultivars (grand naine and nendran) under kerala conditions k.s. shivashankara*1, k.c. pavithra1, g.a. geetha1, t.k. roy1, prakash patil2 and rema menon3 1division of plant physiology and biochemistry, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hessaraghatta lake post, bengaluru 560 089, karnataka, india 2project coordinator (fruits), icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hessaraghatta lake post, bengaluru 560 089, karnataka, india 3icar-aicrp (fruits), banana research station, kerala agricultural university, marakkal, thrissur 680 652, kerala, india *e-mail: shiva@iihr.res.in, shivaiihr@yahoo.com abstract banana is a tropical fruit with a pleasant flavour, widely consumed throughout the world. volatile aroma compounds are responsible for olfactory flavor of banana. however, the development of aroma flavors is affected by the atmospheric temperatures during fruit growth period. in order to get good quality fruits in terms of aroma it is essential to understand the optimum temperature for maximum aroma production. the approach used in this study was to alter the dates of harvest to understand the optimum temperature required for maximum production of volatile compounds under kerala conditions. the results revealed that with increased temperature volatile aroma compounds decreased in cvs. grand naine and nendran. total volatile compounds were higher in cv. grand naine compared to cv. nendran. cultivar nendran recorded increased concentrations of esters, alcohols and decreased aldehydes, ketones, hydrocarbons and acids at high temperatures. phenols and other constituents did not show much variation with respect to the temperature variation in both the cultivars. among esters, isoamyl butanoate and 3-methylbutyl-3-methylbutyrate esters were the most abundant in both the cultivars. ketones, especially 4-methyl-1-penten-3-one was higher in cv. nendran whereas esters were lower compared to cv. grand naine. total area of aroma constituents in cultivars grand naine and nendran were high in october followed by february with mean atmospheric temperature of 30.5ºc and 32.6ºc respectively. in case of cv. nendran, total area of esters and alcohols were maximum at high temperature (34.5ºc) but in cv. grand naine, esters and alcohols decreased with high temperature. results indicated that fruits harvested in october were better in terms of volatile aroma quantity in both the cultivars due to lower atmospheric temperature. seasonal variations affected the two cultivars differentially in terms of percentage of groups of volatile compounds. key words: banana, volatile compounds, atmospheric temperature, spme, gc-ms introduction banana (musa spp.) is one of the most widely distributed and consumed fruits in the world. it is grown extensively in tropical and subtropical regions and is an economically important fruit crop (selli et al, 2012). the fruit aroma is one of the most important factors, which determines the consumer acceptability and the quality of bananas. more than 350 aroma compounds ha ve been identified in ba na na s. most of the components a re ester s, alcohols, and ca rbonyl compounds (berger, 1991). the biosynthetic pathways for production of aroma compounds involved βoxidation, hydroxyacid cleavage (leading to lactones), and lipoxygenase to form aldehydes, ketones, acids, alcohols, lactones, and esters from lipids (heath and original research paper 124 125 reineccius, 1986; dixon and hewett, 2000). esters of acetate and butyrate have been reported to play an important role in the aroma of fully ripe banana fruit; however, isoamyl acetate and isobutyl acetate have generally been regarded as the key characteristic compound in the aroma of banana fruit (marriot, 1980; el hadi et al, 2013). other researchers have also investigated a roma compounds of banana. t he concentrations of acetates and butanoates increased during ripening of banana fruit (jayanty et al, 2002). in addition, isoamyl alcohol, isoamyl acetate, butyl acetate, and elemicine were detected by olfactometric analyses as characteristics of banana odor (boudhrioua et al, 2003). volatile esters, such as 3-methylbutylacetate and 2-methylbutyl-acetate, also contribute to the characteristic banana flavor of the fruits. fatty acids are major precursors of aroma volatiles in most fruit (sanz et al, 1997). aroma volatiles are affected by abiotic factors such as temperature and humidity (takabayashi et al, 1994; gouinguene a nd tur lings, 2002). high temperatures influence the biosynthesis of volatiles in banana fruit at the transcriptional level and confirm the findings that high temperatures cause stress in bana na fr uit dur ing ripening. in ba nana , high temperature resulted in elevated levels of ethanol, ethyl acetate and other acetate esters. higher expression level of ban bcat was found in pulp which correlated well to volatile production in banana fruit, indicating the role of ban bcat in regulating the formation of branched aroma compounds during banana fruit ripening (yang et al, 2011). wills and mcglasson (1971) concluded that volatile concentrations increase as temperature increases, although production rate is reduced above 32°c. high temperature can cause a dramatic increase in the production of off-flavour aroma compounds during the storage of fruits (liu and yang, 2002; petracek et al, 2002). t he main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of seasonal temperature during fruit growth period on the volatile aroma quality of banana fruits of cvs. grand naine and nendran under kerala conditions. material and methods effect of seasonal temperature on volatile aroma constituents in banana varieties [cv. grand naine (gn), and nendran] grown in kerala region were studied. fruit samples were collected at full maturity stage at quarterly intervals during the period october 2013 to february 2015 from kerala region along with the data on temperature from shooting to harvest period (table 1). harvested fruits were ripened at room temperature. the room temperature during fruit ripening period was recorded and is given in table 2. volatile aroma constituents were analyzed in the fruit biochemistry laboratory of icar-iihr, bengaluru, by headspace-solid phase micro-extraction (hsspme) technique using capillary gc and gc-ms/ms. seasonal influence on banana volatiles in kerala months of harvest region varieties 2013-oct 2014-feb 2014-jun 2014-oct 2015-feb kerala grand naine 33.3 34.5 33.8 30.5 32.6 nendran 33.3 34.5 33.8 30.5 32.6 table 1. mean maximum temperature (°c) from shooting to harvest period table 2. mean room temperature (°c) from harvest to ripe period months of harvest region varieties 2013-oct 2014-feb 2014-jun 2014-oct 2015-feb kerala grand naine 28.0 27.2 30.5 29.5 29.4 nendran 28.0 27.2 30.5 29.5 30.0 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 124-132, 2017 126 shivashankara et al spme extraction of volatiles earlier studies have reported the extraction and analysis of head space volatiles of banana fruits by using spme fiber (facundo et al, 2012; pino and febles, 2013). spme fiber device coated with dvb/ car/pdms (50/30 μm, highly crossed linked) was first conditioned at 250°c for 2 hours. the extraction process for head space volatiles from fresh banana fruit pulp was followed as described by (facundo et al, 2013) with slight modification. a known quantity (50 g) of fresh cut ripe banana fruits was macerated to slurry by using a pre-chilled homogenizer, the slurry was transferred with 100 ml of double distilled water and 0.5 g of solid nacl to the 250 ml flasks with silicon rubber caps. the flasks with slurry were kept on a magnetic stirrer after an incubation period of 20 minutes. the solid phase micro-extraction fibre was inserted into the flask through the silicon rubber stopper and was allowed to adsorb all the volatiles for 2 hrs with continuous stirring. later the fibre was removed a nd injected into a ga s chroma togr a phy-ma ss spectrometry for separation and identification of compounds. gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis subsequently, the spme device was injected into the injector port for gc analysis and was remained in the inlet for 15 min. the gc/ms analysis was carried out using a varian-3800 gas chromatograph coupled to a varian-4000 ion-trap mass spectrometer. the ms column vf-5ms (factor four) (varian, usa) fusedsilica capillary column of 30 m x 0.25 mm id, 0.25 mm film thickness was used for the analysis. the injector temperature was set at 250ºc and all injections were made initially in split (1:20) mode for 0.5 min followed by split-less. the detector temperature was 270°c, and the temperature programmes for column was as follows: 40°c for 3 min at an increment 3°c/min to 190°c, hold for 1 min, then 5°c/min to 220°c and maintaining the constant temperature for 5 min. the mass spectrometer was operated in the external electron ionization mode with the carrier gas helium 1 ml/min; injector temperature, 250°c; trap temperature 180°c, ion source-heating at 190°c, transfer line temperature 260°c, ei-mode was 70 ev, with full scan-range 50-350 amu was used. the total volatile production was estimated by the sum of all gc peak areas in the chromatogram and individual compounds was quantified as relative percent area and the compounds were identified by comparing the retention index which was determined by using homologous series of n-alkanes (c5 to c32) as standard (kovats, 1965) and comparing the spectra using two spectral libraries available as wiley and nist-2007. results and discussion more than 50 major volatile compounds were identified in both the cultivars irrespective of the seasons (table 3). the results revealed that with increased temperature, the quantity of volatile aroma compounds decreased in cvs. grand na ine and nendran. total area of aroma constituents in cultivars grand naine and nendran were high in october month followed by febr uar y with mea n a tmospher ic temperature of 30.5ºc and 32.6ºc respectively (table 4). the various groups of aroma compounds found in banana cultivars were esters, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, acids, phenols, hydrocarbons and few others (table 3). j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 124-132, 2017 table 3. volatile components identified in banana cvs. grand naine and nendran by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis 2013-october 2014-february 2014-june 2014-october 2015-february volatile components ki grand grand grand grand grand naine nendran naine nendran naine nendran naine nendran naine nendran (%)* (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) esters ethyl acetate 614 0.17 0.52 0.07 0.68 0.18 0.51 0.18 0.22 0.04 0.22 ethyl butanoate 799 0.06 0.08 0.06 0.11 0.14 methyl 2-propenoate 812 7.45 8.53 7.99 4.45 4.92 1-butyl acetate 813 0.05 0.02 0.27 0.12 0.03 127 seasonal influence on banana volatiles in kerala j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 124-132, 2017 2013-october 2014-february 2014-june 2014-october 2015-february volatile components ki grand grand grand grand grand naine nendran naine nendran naine nendran naine nendran naine nendran (%)* (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)3methyl-2-butenyl formate 867 0.12 0.26 0.22 0.32 0.13 isoamyl acetate 876 0.09 0.05 0.09 0.24 0.04 0.07 0.13 4.54 0.04 0.92 propyl butanoate 897 0.63 0.13 0.91 1.21 0.68 0.79 1.46 0.26 1.65 0.43 propyl pivalate 899 0.29 2.82 0.12 3.80 0.11 3.52 0.03 0.83 0.08 0.74 isopentyl acrylate 910 0.89 1.82 1.73 2.56 0.93 0.76 0.30 0.84 0.39 1.78 propyl isovalerate 949 0.15 0.71 0.54 0.19 0.32 1-butyl butyrate 994 1.22 0.55 2.94 1.62 1.27 0.51 1.14 0.40 0.06 1.06 2-methylpropyl 3-methylbutyrate 1003 0.51 0.25 0.91 1.41 0.46 1.02 0.67 0.99 0.24 0.11 1-butyl isovalerate 1010 0.92 0.84 1.96 1.39 0.80 0.76 0.54 0.76 0.15 0.78 isoamylbutanoate 1056 20.39 9.64 23.02 9.57 22.60 8.47 18.71 5.03 18.90 5.74 1-pentyl butyrate 1094 2.21 1.96 2.26 0.28 2.11 0.59 4.81 0.18 4.47 0.93 3-methylbutyl 3-methylbutyrate 1094 17.74 10.34 18.02 8.97 16.98 9.20 11.58 2.12 10.57 3.75 iso-amyl 2-methyl butyrate 1102 0.53 9.34 0.63 10.32 0.53 9.66 0.50 3.75 0.46 4.15 1-methylbutyl pentanoate 1118 0.06 0.10 0.06 0.08 0.23 amyl valerate 1183 0.37 1.43 0.39 0.50 0.41 butyl hexanoate 1186 1.03 0.50 0.16 0.15 0.95 0.76 1.22 0.06 0.38 0.34 hexyl butyrate 1190 0.13 0.15 0.14 4.71 4.85 butyl sorbate 1199 0.12 0.36 0.06 0.80 0.13 0.41 0.40 0.19 0.14 0.05 isopentylhexanoate 1208 0.77 0.44 0.02 0.01 0.01 heptyiisobutyrate 1218 1.79 0.15 0.83 0.53 1.80 0.13 1.63 0.12 3.32 0.12 cis-3-hexenyl-α-methylbutyrate 1226 5.80 1.24 6.38 1.21 5.77 1.36 2.20 1.01 1.38 0.96 cyclopentylpentanoate 1226 0.17 0.81 0.09 0.17 0.21 hexyl 3-methylbutanoate 1245 5.56 1.80 5.99 1.37 5.81 1.37 2.03 0.83 1.18 0.28 linalyl acetate 1256 0.12 0.35 0.02 0.38 0.10 0.16 0.13 0.16 0.27 0.17 4-pentenyl hexanoate 1272 3.49 1.01 3.50 2.75 3.50 heptylbutanoate 1282 3.17 0.17 1.78 0.13 3.13 0.44 7.28 0.12 9.52 0.15 1-cyclohexyl pentanoate 1345 0.78 0.51 0.88 0.10 0.21 isobutyl decanoate 1545 0.46 0.43 0.30 0.26 0.43 ethyl dodecanoate 1597 0.53 0.67 0.34 0.26 0.72 isoamyllaurate 1844 2.30 0.86 0.89 0.74 0.93 acetic acid,1,4-dimethylpent-4 -enyl esters 0.17 0.20 0.36 0.94 0.14 0.17 0.62 0.37 0.23 0.34 n-hexyl-trans-hexen-2-oate 0.16 0.34 0.01 0.41 0.15 0.48 0.01 0.37 0.04 0.29 alcohols hexynol 778 0.12 0.16 0.29 0.14 0.12 2,3-dimethyl-1-pentanol 832 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.03 0.03 1-hexanol 841 0.09 1.85 0.15 2.74 0.07 1.74 0.04 0.61 0.04 0.50 1-methyl-2-cyclohexen-1-ol 913 0.63 0.78 0.84 0.18 0.21 (3e,6e)-3,6-nonadien-1-ol 1175 0.38 0.24 0.25 0.47 0.82 citronellol 1223 0.47 0.22 0.45 0.29 0.41 10-undecyn-1-ol 1355 1.00 0.16 0.83 0.66 0.22 (8e,10e)-8,10-dodecadien-1-ol 1473 0.95 1.28 2.01 7.14 3.45 1-dodecanol 1473 0.15 1.22 0.40 0.42 0.72 128 shivashankara et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 124-132, 2017 2013-october 2014-february 2014-june 2014-october 2015-february volatile components ki grand grand grand grand grand naine nendran naine nendran naine nendran naine nendran naine nendran (%)* (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)1tridecanol 1569 0.14 0.15 0.22 0.03 0.13 (3z,6z)-dodeca-3,6-dien-1-ol 0.46 0.17 0.44 0.95 0.65 (e)-5-decen-2-ol 0.89 1.78 1.15 0.25 0.35 aldehydes and ketones 3-methylbutanal 654 0.25 1.12 0.34 1.40 0.26 1.31 0.11 1.67 0.06 2.06 4-methyl-1-penten-3-one 680 0.18 11.82 0.24 6.15 0.20 12.31 1.31 22.57 0.76 15.47 (e)-2-hexenal 848 0.55 0.05 0.65 0.16 1.02 2-heptanone 891 0.12 0.11 0.11 0.09 0.03 pulegone 1176 1.24 0.27 1.21 1.43 1.32 0.94 1.16 0.03 0.94 0.08 1-(3-cyclohexen-1-yl)2,2-dimethyl-1-propanone 1212 0.84 0.07 0.67 0.04 0.86 0.06 1.45 1.57 1.48 1.14 6-dodecanone 1350 0.15 1.45 1.54 2.20 1.80 dodecanal 1409 0.44 0.33 0.44 0.33 0.29 7-tridecanone 1449 0.41 0.24 0.02 0.27 0.13 0.51 0.02 1.15 0.16 1.54 trans-β-ionone 1482 1.02 0.68 0.66 0.81 1.45 2-tetradecanone 1597 0.80 0.53 1.01 2.20 2.42 (9z)-9,17-octadecadienal 1997 0.09 5.35 0.03 0.61 0.03 3.07 0.03 1.00 0.02 1.36 acids 4-butoxybutanoic acid 1249 0.53 0.41 0.47 0.17 0.47 0.30 0.43 0.45 0.45 1.72 8-nonenoic acid 1262 2.14 0.34 1.37 0.54 1.77 0.55 5.41 0.54 5.03 1.09 phenols eugenol 1356 0.22 0.35 0.68 0.41 1.19 0.91 0.49 0.20 2.18 0.25 hydrocarbons decane 1015 0.02 2.97 0.02 2.30 0.04 3.29 0.05 6.19 0.01 6.29 cis-1,2-dichlorocyclohexane 1052 0.99 0.66 0.25 0.40 0.28 0.21 0.54 0.30 0.75 0.12 (±)-dictyopterene a 1076 1.41 1.11 1.08 3.76 3.61 3-hexyl-1-cyclopentene 1140 0.54 0.60 0.58 0.69 1.04 naphthalene 1179 0.51 0.04 0.04 0.08 0.06 tetradecane 1214 0.80 2.43 2.19 1.53 1.07 (5e,7e)-5,7-dodecadiene 1230 3.39 0.32 4.10 0.22 3.10 1.10 1.32 0.41 2.92 0.29 (2e,4z)-2,4-dodecadiene 1230 0.42 0.27 0.29 0.09 0.26 (2z)-2-dodecen-4-yne 1239 0.36 0.33 0.18 0.05 0.90 (3z)-3-tetradecen-5-yne 1438 1.00 1.05 0.98 0.28 0.99 α-selinene 1478 1.15 0.61 0.61 0.46 0.69 pentadecane 1512 1.44 1.75 1.28 14.92 14.78 δ-selinene 1532 0.79 0.78 0.69 0.90 1.27 c16 hydrocarbon 1.02 1.75 0.76 0.86 1.10 others 2-amyl furan 989 0.99 0.24 0.53 0.74 0.81 isoelemicin 1568 0.35 2.60 0.36 1.46 0.39 3.11 0.08 1.52 0.15 1.06 2,2-diisopropyltetrahydrofuran 2.59 0.71 1.60 0.18 1.46 0.56 2.29 0.13 2.05 1.62 cis-epoxy ocimeme 4.45 0.66 7.03 0.58 5.51 0.90 2.16 0.52 2.43 1.43 is the relative percentage of compounds 129 seasonal influence on banana volatiles in kerala j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 124-132, 2017 esters were the most abundant volatile aroma constituents in both the cultivars compared to other group of volatiles (table 4). among esters, isoamyl butanoate and 3-methylbutyl-3-methylbutyrate esters were found most abundant in both the cultivars. similarly, esters were quantitatively the dominant group of volatiles in ripe banana fruits (wyllie and fellman, 2000). esters account for about 70% of the volatile compounds and acetates and butyrates predominate (seymour, 1993). esters were produced from the enzymatic actions on alcohols and acyl coa’s derived from both fatty acid and amino acid metabolism (wyllie and fellman, 2000). berger (1991) reported that 3methylbutyl acetate was considered to be the dominate 2013-october 2014-february 2014-june 2014-october 2015-february volatile components grand grand grand grand grand naine nendran naine nendran naine nendran naine nendran naine nendran (%)* (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) esters 6511854 471 511 6275480 503 442 6456552 444 040 12559920 391 141 11799107 333 602 (-48.2) (+20.5) (-50.0) (+28.7) (-48.6) (+13.5) (-6.1) (-14.7) alcohols 295 804 345 34 191 349 565 61 376 514 399 58 1808978 270 13 932 449 288 87 (-83.6) (+27.8) (-89.4) (+109.4) (-79.2) (+47.9) (-48.5) (+6.9) aldehydes and ketones 389 894 178 910 264 420 102 606 371 524 183 175 923 857 432 140 897 960 290 595 (-57.8) (-58.6) (-71.4) (-76.3) (-59.8) (-57.6) (-2.8) (-32.8) acids 251 960 64 78 163 553 58 33 208 115 72 62 1155835 129 45 1034967 299 24 (-78.2) (-50.0) (-85.8) (-54.9) (-82.0) (-43.9) (-10.5) (+131.2) phenol s 208 36 30 12 601 84 33 47 110 434 78 21 963 73 25 43 411 324 26 54 (-78.4) (+18.4) (-37.6) (+31.6) (-14.6) (+207.6) (+326.8) (+4.4) hydrocarbons 818 419 784 54 691 594 835 93 609 114 867 07 1358478 332 830 1989832 272 279 (-39.8) (-76.4) (-49.1) (-74.9) (-55.2) (-73.9) (+46.5) (-18.2) others 698 792 425 68 798 430 201 68 683 019 436 23 895 284 379 15 874 552 523 58 (-21.9) (+12.3) (-10.8) (-46.8) (-23.7) (+15.1) (-2.3) (+38.1) total area 8987559 815 467 8445010 775 550 8815272 812 586 18798725 1236527 17940191 1010299 (-52.2) (-34.1) (-55.1) (-37.3) (-53.1) (-34.3) (-4.6) (-18.3) *values mentioned in the parenthesis are percent reduction in volatile components over october 2014 indicates the decrease in volatiles + indicated the increase in volatiles table 4. percent change in area under curve of volatile components when compared to fruits (cvs. grand naine and nendran) harvested during october 2014 which showed maximum area under curve. banana flavor and it was the key odor-impact volatile in ba nana fr uit followed by buta noa te a nd 3methylbutanoate. in our study, with increased seasonal temperature, total area of volatile aroma compounds decr ea sed in cvs. gr a nd na ine a nd nendr a n. isoamylbutanoate (23.02%) and 3-methylbutyl-3methylbutyrate (18.02%) esters were the major esters found high at high temperature (34.5ºc) in cv. grand naine. hexyl butyrate and heptyl butanoate esters were found high at low temperature of 30.5ºc and 32.6ºc where as least was observed during low temperature in both the cultivars. cultivar nendran recorded increased concentrations of esters at high temperatures. wills and mcglasson (1971) concluded that volatile concentrations increase as temperature increases, although production rate is reduced above 32°c. ester concentrations and rates of production of ‘jonathan’ apples increased as temperature increased. the biosynthetic pathway for the formation of volatile esters in ripening climacteric fruits is well-established (arvanitoyannis and mavromatis, 2009). nogueira et al (2003) investigated that the ester (57.2-89.8 mg/ kg) a ppear ed to pla y an importa nt r ole in the characteristics of the composition of volatiles of dwarf cavendish, giant cavendish and robusta banana cultivars. methyl-2-propenoate (8.53%) and iso-amyl2-methyl butyrate (10.32%) were recorded highest in cv. nendran whereas least in cv. grand naine at high 130 shivashankara et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 124-132, 2017 temperatures. in case of cv. nendran, esters were maximum at high temperature (34.5ºc) but in cv. grand naine, esters decreased with high temperature. results indicated that fruits harvested during october month followed by february were better in terms of esters volatile aroma quantity in both the cultivars due to lower growth temperature. guactagni et al (1971) concluded that the ‘red delicious’ apples had maximum ester production at low temperature; it decreased at 32°c and was inhibited at 46°c indicating that temperature inhibit or inactivate enzymes responsible for producing volatiles. cultiva r nendr a n r ecor ded incr ea sed concentrations of alcohols at high temperatures (34.5ºc) whereas least in cv. grand naine. nogueira et al (2003) recorded that the alcoholic fractions (19.047.7 mg/kg) appeared to play a significant role in the sensorial characteristics of banana fruit. variation in volatiles was affected by abiotic factors such as temperature and humidity (vallat et al, 2005). in our study, 1-hexanol followed by (e)-5-decen-2-ol were found maximum in cv. nendran; similarly, (8e,10e)8,10-dodecadien-1-ol was higher in cv. grand naine irrespective of the seasons (table 3). results indicated that fruits harvested at february month followed by october were better in terms of alcohols volatile aroma quantity in both the cultivars due to lower growth temperature. alcohol concentrations and rates of pr oduction of ‘jona tha n’ a pples incr ea sed a s temperature increased (wills and mcglasson, 1971). volatile production is considered to be proportional to temperature, the higher the temperature, the greater the production of volatiles (fallik et al, 1997). however, the volatile aroma production seems to increase only up to a certain temperature beyond that the production decreases. fatty acids serve as the precursor for alcohols which could be generated through lipoxygenase pathway of unsaturated linoleic and linolenic acids (perez et al, 1999). in many types of fruits, through the action of lipoxygenase isozymes, linoleic and linolenic acids are degraded and produce fatty acid hydroperoxides. hydroperoxide lyase converts these fatty acid hydroperoxides to aldehydes and oxoacids, while alcohol dehydrogenase acts on them to produce the corresponding alcohols (sanz et al, 1997). increased temperature resulted in decreased aldehydes and ketones in cvs. grand naine and nendran. total concentrations of aldehydes and ketones were maximum in cv. nendran (table 4). ketones, especially 4-methyl-1-penten-3-one followed by (9z)-9,17-octadecadienal and 3-methylbutanal were higher in cv. nendran whereas these compounds were lower in cv. grand naine. total concentrations of aldehydes and ketones in cultivars grand naine and nendran were high in october followed by february with mean growth temperature of 30.5ºc and 32.6ºc respectively (table 4). hexanal concentrations of ‘cortland’ and ‘mclntosh’ apples had the same pattern of change, irrespective of temperature (yahia et al, 1990b; yahia et al, 1991). a few hydrocarbons were also identified in the present study (table 4). hydrocarbons were present in high proportions in cv. nendran compared to cv. grand naine. varieties of hydrocarbons have been detected in banana cultivars (shiota, 1991). total concentration of hydrocarbons especially, pentadecane was high in october month (14.92%) followed by february (14.78%) in cv. nendran with mean growth temperature of 30.5ºc and 32.6ºc respectively. but in cv. grand naine, pentadecane was totally absent. decane and tetradecane were also present in high proportions in cv. nendran. similarly, in cv. grand naine, hydrocarbons were high in october with mean growth temperature of 30.5ºc. the concentrations of (5e, 7e)-5, 7-dodeca diene followed by (±)dictyopterene were maximum in cv. grand naine. temperature may also affect production of specific volatiles with some compounds only being produced at certain temperatures by affecting rates of substrate supply and volatile biosynthesis. if this is so then the different biosynthetic pathways producing volatiles may be active at different rates according to temperature (dixon and hewett, 2000). there were two kinds of acids namely; 4butoxybutanoic acid and 8-nonenoic acid were found in cultivars grand naine and nendran (table 3). maximum concentrations of acids were found in cv. gra nd naine compar ed to cv. nendr an a t low temperature where as minimum were recorded at high temperature. fallik et al (1997) concluded that the high temperature (38°c) reduced volatile production in ‘golden delicious’ a pples compa r ed to low temperature. most of the acids were probably derived from β-oxidation of fatty acids. during fruit ripening, fatty acids, more precisely acyl-coa derivatives, are 131 seasonal influence on banana volatiles in kerala arvanitoyannis, i. s. and mavromatis a. 2009. banana cultiva r s, cultiva tion pr a ctices, a nd physicochemical properties. crit. rev. food sci. nutr.,49(2):113-135 berger, r. g. 1991. fruits. in: volatile compounds in foods and beverages (eds, maarse, h.) marcel dekker, ny, pp. 283-304 boudhrioua, n., giampaoli, p. and bonazzi, c. 2003. changes in aromatic components of banana during ripening and air-drying. lebensmwiss technol., 36:633-642 dixon, j. and hewett, e. w. 2000. factors affecting apple aroma/flavour volatile concentration: a review. new zeal. j. crop. hort. sci.,28(3):155-173 el hadi, m. a. m., zhang, f. j., wu, f. f., zhou, c. h. and tao, j. 2013. advances in fruit aroma volatile research. molecules., 18:8200-8229 facundo, h. v. de v., garruti, d. s., dias, c. t. dos s., cordenunsi, b. r. and lajolo, f. m. 2012. influence of different banana cultivars on volatile compounds during ripening in cold storage. food res. int.,49:626-633 facundo, h. v. de v., garruti, d. s., cordenunsi, b. r. and lajolo, f. m. 2013. isolation of volatiles compounds in ba na na by hs-spme: optimization for the whole fruit and pulp. int. j. biosci. biochem. bioinforma., 3(2):110-115 fallik, e., archbold, d. d., hamilton-kemp, t. r., loughrin, j. h. and collins, r. w. 1997. heat treatment temporarily inhibits aroma volatile compound emission from golden delicious apples. j. agri. food chem., 45:4038-404 gouinguene, s. p. and turlings, t. c. j. 2002. the effects of abiotic factors on induced volatile emissions in cor n plants. plant physiol., 129:1296-1307 guactagni, d. g., bomben, j. l. and hudson, j. s. 1971. factors influencing the development of aroma in apple peel. j. sci. food agri., 22:110114 heath, h. b. and reineccius, g. 1986. flavour chemistry and technology. springer, netherlands, pp 442 jayanty, s., song, j., rubinstein, n. m., chong, a. and beaudry, r.m. 2002. temporal relationship between ester biosynthesis and ripening events in bananas. j. am. soc. hort. sci., 127:9981005 kovats, e. 1965. gas chromatographic characterization of organic substances in the retention index system. adv. chrom., 1:229-247 liu, t. t. and yang, t. s. 2002. optimization of solidphase micro extraction analysis for studying change of headspace flavor compounds of ba na na dur ing r ipening. j. agri. food chem.,50:653-657 marriot, j. 1980. banana physiology and biochemistry of storage and ripening for optimum quality. crit. rev. food sci. nutr.,13:41-88 nogueira, j. m. f., fernandes, p. j. p. and nascimento, a. m. d. 2003. composition of volatiles of j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 124-132, 2017 metabolized to shorter-chain acyl-coas by sequentially losing 2 carbons during each round of the β-oxidation cycle (sanz et al, 1997). a phenol such as eugenol was present in both the cultivars and did not show much variation with respect to the temperature in both the cultivars. other constituents such as isoelemicin were found maximum in cv. nendran similarly cis-epoxy ocimime followed by 2,2-diisopropyltetrahydrofuran were found maximum in cv. grand naine. at high temperature (34.5ºc), other constituents were recorded high in cv. grand naine but in cv. nendran, did not show much variation with respect to the temperature. acknowledgement this work was carried out under the project on “national initiative on climate resilient agriculture (nicra)”, indian council of agricultural research (icar), new delhi. the authors are grateful to the director, iihr, bengaluru for providing the necessary facilities. references 132 ba na na cultiva r s fr om ma deir a isla nd. phytochem. anal.,14:87-90 perez, a. g., sanz, c., olias, r. and olia, j. m. 1999. lipoxygenase and hydroperoxidelyase activities in ripening strawberry fruits. j. agric. food. chem.,47(1):249-53 petracek, p. d., joles, d. w., shirazi, a. and cameron, a. c. 2002. modified atmosphere packaging of sweet cherry (prunusaviuml., ev. ‘sams’) fruit: metabolic responses to oxygen, carbon dioxide, and temperature. postharvest biol. tech., 24:259-270 pino, j. a. a nd febles, y. 2013. odour-active compounds in banana fruit cv. giant cavendish. food chem.,141:795-801 sanz, c., olia,s j. and perez, a. 1997. aroma biochemistry of fruits and vegetables. in: phytochemistry of fruit and vegetables (eds, tomás-barberán, f. a, and robins, r. j.) oxford univ. press, new york. pp 12-55 selli, s., gubbuk, h., kafkas, e. and gunes, e. 2012. comparison of aroma compounds in dwarf cavendish banana (musa spp. aaa) grown from open-field and protected cultivation area. sci. hort.,141:76-82 seymour, g. b. 1993. banana. in:biochemistry of fruit ripening (eds, seymour, g. b., taylor, j. e. and tucker, g. a.), chapman and hall, ny, pp. 83106 shiota, h. 1991. new esteric components in the volatiles of banana fruit (musa sapientum l.). j. agri. food chem.,41:2056-2062 takabayashi, j., dicke, m. and posthumus, m. a. 1994. volatile herbivore-induced terpenoids in plantmite interactions: variation caused by biotic and abiotic factors. j. chem. ecol.,20: 1329-1354 vallat, a., gu, h. and dorn, s. 2005. how rainfall, relative humidity and temperature influence volatile emissions from apple trees in situ. phytochem., 66:1540-1550 wills, r. b. h. and mcglasson, w. b. 1971. effect of storage temperature on apple volatiles associated with low temperature breakdown. j. hort. sci., 46:115-120 wyllie, s. g. and fellman, j. k. 2000. formation of volatile branched chain esters in bananas (musa sapientum l.). j. agric. food chem., 48:3493-3496 yahia, e. m., liu, f. w. and acree, t. e. 1991. changes of some odour-active volatiles in low-ethylene contr olled a tmospher e stor ed a pples. lebensmittel-wissenschaft und technologie., 24:145-151 yahia, e. m., liu, f. w., and acree, t. e. 1990b. cha nges of some odor-a ctive vola tiles in controlled atmospherestored apples. j. food qual., 13:185-202 yang, x., song, j., fillmore, s., pang, x. and zhang, z. 2011. effect of high temperature on color, chlorophyll fluorescence and volatile biosynthesis in green-ripe banana fruit. postharvest biol. tech., 62:246-257 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 124-132, 2017 shivashankara et al (ms received 18 august 2017, revised 22 october 2017, accepted 15 december 2017) j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 152-158, 2018 effect of post harvest ripening on bioactive secondary metabolites and antioxidant activity in mango cv. amrapali *b.m. muralidhara, g.l.veena1, s. rajan2, a.k. bhattacherjee3 and pavan kumar malav4 icar-central institute for sub-tropical horticulture, lucknow, india-226 101 *e-mail: muralidhara.bm@gmail.com abstract mango possesses many bioactive phytonutrients at ripe stage which boost our immune system against many diseases. post harvest ripening plays a major role in changes in those bioactive phytochemicals and their antioxidant activity. hence, the present study was undertaken to assess the changes in bioactive phytonutrients and total antioxidant activity during ripening of mango cv. amrapali. the fruits were analyzed for total antioxidants, total phenols, total flavonoids and total carotenoids from the day of harvest to its deterioration. fruit peel and pulp color was measured with sph850 spectrophotometer on the basis of the cie lab color system (l*, a* and b*). the results revealed that total phenols (36.11 to 66.53mg gae 100g-1), total flavonoids (14.33 to 34.67mg qe 100g-1), total carotenoids (2.23 to 11.47mg 100g-1) and total antioxidant (0.37 to 0.76 mmol trolox 100g-1) activity increased gradually from day one to ninth day after harvest and decreased slightly thereafter up to eleventh day of harvest except total carotenoids, which remained constant. strong correlations between total phenols (0.94), total flavonoids (0.86) and total carotenoids (0.97) with total antioxidant activity were noticed. positive relationship between total carotenoids and l*, a*, b* values in mango peel and pulp during ripening was also observed. it can be concluded that ripening affected the composition of bioactive phytonutrients and their antioxidant activity in mango andmaximum nutraceuticals contents were noticed from seven to nine days after harvest. key words: antioxidant activity, bioactive phytonutrients, mango, ripening, total carotenoids introduction mango (mangifera indica l.) is one of the most popular subtropical fruit which is well known for its nutritional quality due the rich source of many dietary antioxidants like ascorbic acid, carotenoids and phenolic compounds. india is the leading contributor in global mango production (around 40% of worlds production) followed by china, kenya, thailand, indonesia, pakistan, mexico, brazil, bangladesh and nigeria (saxena and gandhi, 2014). indian horticulture database, 2014). mango is a climacteric fruit and its ripening process occurs rapidly after harvest, depending on cultivar, stage of maturity at harvest, and postharvest conditions (v´azquez-caicedo et al, 2004). several biochemical changes occur during mango ripening, among which carotenoids biosynthesis is the most important one (v´azquez-caicedo et al, 2005). carotenoids have been noted as one of the most abundant micronutrients found in cancer-preventative foods (cano and ancos 1994). carotenoids have very diverse roles in biological functions of animals and plants including provitamin a activity, antioxidant activity, cell communication and protection against photo-oxidative damage (van de berg et al, 2000). carotenoids are mainly synthesized during fruit ripening through conversion of chlorophyll (fennema 1996). the edible portion turns from pale yellow to deep or orange yellow during ripening due to the synthesis of carotenoid pigments, which are responsible for imparting yelloworange color of mango mesocarp (v´azquez-caicedo et al, 2005). phenolic compounds possess antiinflammatory, anti-microbial, cardio-protective activities and protect against neurodegenerative diseases and diabetes mellitus (kris-etherton et al, 2002; scalbert et al, 2005). the most commonly occurring polyphenols in fruit include flavonoids and phenolic acids, which are capable of reducing the risks of cardiovascular diseases and atherosclerosis through the prevention of cellular oxidative damage (kelly et al, 2001). original research paper 152 153 j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 152-158, 2018 post harvest biochemical changes in mango in the present study revealed that mango variety amr apali ha d higher tota l ca rotenoids content compared to other commercial varieties. it contains approximately 2.5–3.0 times more β-carotene with deep orange red flesh. measurement of color has earlier been correlated with carotenoids estimation in mango cultivars like manila and alphonso (v´azquezcaicedo et al, 2005; ornelas-paz et al, 2008). the fruit color is the first visible quality attribute assessed by the consumer and critical determinant in the a ccepta nce of the fr esh ma ngo fr uit pr ior to consumption. therefore, colorimetric value is an important parameter for ripe fruits. however, the changes in total carotenoids and total phenols during ripening of cultivar ‘amrapali’ mango are unknown. therefor e, the present work was under taken to eva lua te the effect of r ipening sta ge on tota l car otenoids content, total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of the cultivar ‘amrapali’ and to work out the relationship of fruit color with total carotenoids content. material and methods collection of fruit sample fully matured mango fruits were harvested from icar-cish mango orchard. fruits were selected for uniform size (200-300 g) and free from blemishes and defects. fruits were washed with water to remove field heat and other dust particles adhered on the surface. fruits are stored in cfb boxes for ripening gr ouped into 11 treatments (15 fruits for ea ch treatment/box with 3 replications). each day fifteen fr uits/one box of fruits was analyzed for total antioxidants, total phenols, total flavonoids and total carotenoids from the day of harvest (1st day) to its deterior ation (11th da y). the fr uits maintained acceptable quality up to 11 days at normal room temperature from the day of harvest. therefore the analysis was carried out up to 11 days. color measurement in each treatment three fruits were used for recording peel and pulp color. fruit peel and pulp color was measured with sph850 spectrophotometer (colorlite, germany) on the basis of the cie lab color system (l*, a* and b*). in this system l*, a* and b* describe a three dimensional space, where l* is the vertical axis and its value varies from 100 (perfect white) to zero (complete black). values of a* and b* specify the gr een-r ed a nd blue-yellow a xis, respectively. peel color was longitudinally determined on three points of each flat side of the fruit and recorded for six points for each fruit. pulp color was determined longitudinally at three equidistant points on each slice. chemical analysis the content of total phenolics in mango pulp was estimated as per the method suggested by singleton et al, (1999) using folin-cioca lteu r ea gent. the absorbance was recorded at 750 nm in a double beam uv-vis spectrophotometer (labomed inc., usa). gallic acid was used to prepare the standard curve and result was expressed as mg gallic acid equivalent (gae) 100 g-1 fresh weight. the flavonoids concentration was determined colorimetrically according to the method reported by dewa nto et al, (2002). t he a na lysis of tota l carotenoids was conducted with the help of a modified method of ranganna (1997) using acetone and petroleum ether as extraction solvents. total antioxidant activity was analyzed by cuprac (cupric reducing antioxidant capacity) assay developed by apak et al, (2004), which measures the copper (ii) ion reducing ability of polyphenols, vitamin c and vitamin e. statistical analysis da ta were expr essed a s mea ns sta nda r d deviation of three replications. anova (spss version 16.0) and turkey’s post hoc test wer e used to determine the mean difference of different variables at different days after harvest. pearson’s correlation test was used to determine the correlation between different biochemical compounds and color values of pulp and peel. relationship between color of peel and pulp on content of carotenoids was worked out by using regression. results and discussion on the day of harvest the fruits were hard and green in color while pulp was light yellow in color. the fruits started ripening and attained consumable stage on fifth day after harvest with good pulp texture and peel color. the fruits are in good condition up to 9 days after harvest but in 10th and 11th day the firmness 154 muralidhara et al of fruits become weak and black spots were visible on the surface. the fruits were analyzed for different biochemical compounds from the day of harvest to day of fruit deterioration. a significant increase in the contents of total phenols, total flavonoids and total carotenoids along with total antioxidant activity was noticed up to ninth day of ripening (table 1). thereafter these amounts decreased in tenth and eleventh day of ripening when the condition of fruits deteriorated except in total carotenoids content which remained constant. the content of total phenols increased from 36.11 to 66.53 mg gae 100 g-1 during nine days of ripening and then decreased to 54.72 mg gae 100 g-1 at eleventh day after harvest. similarly, total flavonoids content increased gradually from 14.33 mg qe 100 g-1 on the day of harvest to 34.67 mg qe j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 152-158, 2018 table 1. effect of postharvest ripening on bioactive phytonutrients and antioxidants in mango cv. amrapali days after total antioxidants total phenols mg total flavonoids carotenoids harvest µmoltrolox100 g-1 gae mg 100 g-1 mg 100 g-1 mg 100 g-1 1 0.37 36.11 14.33 2.23 2 0.39 38.47 22.33 4.37 3 0.43 41.39 24.33 5.77 4 0.49 47.08 24.67 6.80 5 0.53 48.89 25.00 8.40 6 0.58 58.75 26.00 9.00 7 0.69 62.22 27.33 10.87 8 0.74 64.03 28.67 11.43 9 0.76 66.53 34.67 11.47 10 0.73 56.67 28.67 11.47 11 0.71 54.72 28.33 11.47 cd (p=0.01) 0.01 1.72 1.20 0.11 100 g-1 on ninth day after harvest, when fruits were fully ripen, and then decreased to 28.33 mg qe 100 g1 on eleventh day after harvest. however, the content of total carotenoids increased continuously during nine days of ripening (from 2.23 mg 100 g-1 at first day to 11.47 mg 100 g-1at ninth day) and remained constant thereafter (table 1). the antioxidant activity was minimum (0.37 µmoltrolox 100 g-1) on the day of harvest and maximum on 9th day after harvest (0.76 µmoltrolox 100 g-1). after 9th day of harvest the content was declined non significantly (p=0.01). as the fruit starts ripening, antioxidant activity also increased up to complete ripening of fruit but started decreasing at over ripe stage. an increase or no change of total phenolic content during ripening of mango cultivars alphonso and tommy atkins have also been reported (roblessánchez et al, 2009; kim et al, 2009). the gradual increase in total soluble phenolics during ripening of mango might be due to the conversion of starch to simple soluble sugars by amylase enzyme as reported by gil et al,(2000). the decline in total phenols at later stages of ripening might be related to the senescence or over-ripening of fruits as reported by palafox-carlos et al (2012). another possible reason for the decrease in the total phenols content during over-ripening might be due to the increase in polyphenol oxidase (ppo) activity, which catalyses the oxidation of mono and di-phenols to o-quinones. increase in ppo activity from harvest maturity to half-ripe stage and then decline has been reported in banganpalli, dashehari, fazri and langra varieties of mango (selvaraj and kumar 1989). palafox-carlos et al, (2012) have concluded that ripening does not affect the content of total flavonoids in mango (cv. alphonso) since they were similar in fruits of all four ripeness stages. the increase in total carotenoids and its major constituent -carotene during ripening has been reported in many mango varieties viz. dashehari (kalra and tandon, 1983; verma et al, 1986), chausa, neelam and amrapali (sahni and khurdia, 1989), keitt and tommy atkins (mercadante and rodriguez-amaya, 1998). saltveit (1999) has 155 observed that carotenoids biosynthesis increases in most mango varieties during ripening and is associated with the climacteric increase in respiration initiated by ethylene activity. the carotenoid composition in mango can be affected by many factors such as growth conditions, maturity, cultivar, geographical origin and processing conditions (chen et al, 2007). palafoxcarlos et al (2012) has also reported that in mango variety alphonso, the antioxidant activity has increased up to ripening stage-3 (70 – 80% fruit is yellow in color) and decreased in ripening stage-4 (100% fruit is yellow in color). the authors concluded that total phenolics and total flavonoids contents had greater relationship with total antioxidant activity in mango during ripening. similar observations regarding higher relationship between total phenolics and antioxidant activity have also been reported by kim et al, (2009). colorimetric values the l*, a* and b* values were recorded for pulp and peel colour up to 11 days after harvest (table 2). l* is the measure of lightness, the positive values of a* are in direction of redness and positive values of b* are the vector of yellowness. the negative values of a* is towards greenness and negative values of b* depicts blueness (higby, 1962). the results showed that l* (66.48) values of pulp was maximum at 1st day of harvest and it gradually decreased as the fruit ripens (43.85) but in peel l* values are increased up to complete ripening and little reduction was observed at over-ripe condition. the a* values were increased from day one (8.15 and -6.43) to 11 (19.67 and 10.12) in both peel and pulp, but negative values were observed up to 3 days in case of fruit peel due to greenness in the peel. the b* values were shown increasing trend in both the cases of pulp and peel j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 152-158, 2018 post harvest biochemical changes in mango days after pulp peel harvest l* a* b* l* a* b* 1 66.48 8.15 39.38 44.00 -6.43 15.25 2 59.47 12.52 41.55 46.90 -6.05 16.36 3 49.50 15.35 42.84 51.73 -3.86 21.19 4 47.96 19.2 43.60 53.51 1.93 28.79 5 43.55 20.2 43.83 55.54 3.55 32.75 6 43.91 20.29 44.05 57.00 7.54 32.32 7 42.88 20.68 45.73 57.17 8.10 34.49 8 43.00 20.75 47.22 58.84 8.53 37.35 9 43.85 20.88 47.39 58.30 8.98 37.60 10 45.38 20.62 49.68 57.10 9.07 42.13 11 49.32 19.67 49.11 56.87 10.12 44.22 cd (p=0.01) 3.46 2.29 ns 4.39 2.05 5.09 table 2. effect of post harvest ripening on l*, a* and b* values of mango pulp and peel from day one (39.38 and 15.25) to 11 (49.11 and 44.22) after harvest. it is the indication of increase in yellowness in both fruit peel and pulp, which symbolizes the synthesis of total carotenoids content. there is no significant difference among the treatments for the b* values of pulp. correlation matrix for different biochemical compounds and l*, a* and b* values of mango fruit peel and pulp was analyzed. among the biochemical compounds analyzed, the total antioxidants have positive correlation with total carotenoids (0.973), total phenols (0.939) and total flavonoids (0.857). the correlation between total carotenoids with peel and pulp b* values were 0.96 and 0.94, which indicated that the higher the b* values in peel and pulp, the higher the total carotenoids content. gradual increase in b* values during ethephon induced ripening of dusehari fruits due to the increase in carotenoids biosynthesis has also been reported by gill et al, (2015). relationship between the total carotenoids content of fruit pulp on l*, a* and b* values of fruit peel and pulp on post-harvest ripening was also worked out (fig. 1). the results revealed that the positive relationship was obtained for total carotenoids content 156 j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 152-158, 2018 muralidhara et al fig. 1. relationship between carotenoids and l*, a*, b* values of fruit peel and pulp during post harvest ripening of mango cv. amrapali. and peel l* (r2 = 0.916), a* (r2 = 0.941) and b* (r2 = 0.92) values compared to pulp l* (r2 = 0.712), a* (r2 = 0.735) and b* (r2 = 0.886) values. fruit ripening processes influence the content of total carotenoids in cv. amrapali and the fruits were best to consume within 9 days of ripening. the completely ripened fruits have higher amount of antioxidant activity, total phenols and total carotenoids contents as compared to mature and over-ripe fruits. the peel color is the best indicator for estimating total carotenoids content compared to pulp colour. acknowledgment financial assistance from indian council of agricultural research, new delhi is gratefully acknowledged. authors are thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions and comments. 157 j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 152-158, 2018 post harvest biochemical changes in mango references apak, r., guclu, k., ozyurek, m. and karademir,s.e. 2004. novel total antioxidant capacity index for dietary polyphenols and vitamin c and e, using their cupric ion reducing capability in the presence of neocuprine: cuprac method. j. agric. food chem.,52:7970-81 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neidhart,s. 2005. accumulation of all-transcarotene and its 9-cis and 13-cis stereoisomers during postharvest ripening of nine thai mango cultivars. j. agric. food chem., 53:4827-4835 verma, r.a., tripathi,m.p.and srivastava,r.k.1986. studies on development of carotenoids during r ipening of ma ngo cv. dasheha ri. prog. hort.,18:39-44 a market survey of vegetables in bangalore for heavy metal contamination in relation to human health l. r. varalakshmi and a. n. ganeshamurthy division of soil science and agricultural chemistry indian institute of horticultural research hessaragtatta lake post, bangalore 560 089, india e-mail: lrvaral @iihr.ernet.in abstract vegetable samples from one of the main whole sale markets of bangalore city were collected over two years and analysed for heavy metals such as cd, pb, cr and ni. heavy metal content of vegetables ranged from 0.24 to 2.54 mg cd kg-1, 2.16 to 10.40 mg pb kg-1 , 3.08 to 16.2 mg cr kg-1and 1.66 to 11.52 mg ni kg-1. leafy vegetables accumulated higher concentration of heavy metals followed by root vegetables. fruit vegetables accumulated the lowest content of heavy metals. but the heavy metal content of all the vegetables crossed the safe limits permitted for human consumption to a far greater extent except that cd content of root and fruit vegetables were within the safe levels. among leafy vegetables, amaranthus and palak accumulated the highest content of all the four heavy metals studied. key words: heavy metals, contamination, market samples and vegetables j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 75-78, 2008 food chain contamination by heavy metals (cd, pb, as, hg, cr, ni, co etc.) is a major cause for concern in recent years from human health point of view since heavy metals as such are stable elements, cannot be metabolized by the body and are bio-accumulative. industrialization, urbanization, improper use of city waste waters and industrial effluents for crop growth, application of sludge and other solid municipal wastes in agricultural lands, indiscriminate application of agro chemicals and pesticides are common in periurban cultivation. the growth rate of bangalore city in the p a s t t w o d e c a d e s i n c r e a s e d g e o m e t r i c a l l y a n d industrialization was very rapid. this led to generation of both industrial effluents and domestic sewage containing several heavy metals and other pollutants. these effluents and pollutants are being led to streams, which carried these wastes out of city limits where these are being continuously used mostly for cultivating vegetables and fodders. because of proximity to the city and great demand for fresh vegetables, the produce is sold in the city. the present study was conducted to identify the type and content of heavy metals (cd, pb, cr and ni) in vegetables produced from a bangalore market to determine their levels with reference to human health. to assess the quality of vegetables consumed by public, regularly sold vegetables from krishna rajendra market (k. r. market), one of the main wholesale markets of bangalore city, have been collected. the following vegetables were collected: stem amaranth (amaranthus tricolor), palak (beta vulgaris var bengalensis), fenugreek (trigonella foenumgraecum), coriander (coriander sativum), dill (anethum graveolens), mint (mentha piperita), chakota (atriflex hotensis), brinjal (solanum melangina), tomato (lycopersicum esculentum), french beans (phaseolus vulgaris), cluster beans (cyamopsis tetragonaloba) bhendi (abelmoschus esculentus), cucumber (cucumis sativus), capsicum (capsicum longifolia), ridge gourd (luffa acutangula), coccinia (momardica charantia), carrot (daucus carota), radish (raphanus sativus), beetroot (beta vulgaris), knolkhol (brassica gongylodes),cabbage (brassica capitata) , cauliflower (brassica botrytis) and potato (solanum tuberosum). three sets of each vegetable sample were collected at random at the arrival point of the k. r. market in bangalore city over two years (2005 and 2006). from the information given by vendors it was understood that vegetables were produced mainly from nearby towns, villages and peri urban areas of the city and are being regularly sold in the market. short communication page 75 76 the collected vegetable samples were washed thoroughly with mild detergent water, 0.1% hcl, distilled water and double distilled water. they were then cut into small pieces, dried at room temperatures for 2 days and later at 65 ±1 °c in an hot air oven. the dried samples were ground in warm condition, 2.5 g of this powdered sample was taken in to a 100 ml conical flask and predigested by adding 10 ml of conc. nitric acid at room temperature, later on digested in a hot plate by adding 10 ml of diacid mixture until the contents of the flask was colourless. after digestion the contents in the flask were made up to 100 ml using double distilled water and filtered with whatman no. 1 filter paper. the heavy metal concentration in this extract was analysed with the help of perkin elmer (model aa analyst 200) atomic absorption spectrophotometer. three replicates of each sample were used for confirmation of quantitative estimation of the metals. the average values for all the heavy metal contents were taken. standard deviation values were calculated for all the results. the heavy metal content of different vegetables is given in tables 1 to 3. the safe limits of heavy metals for human consumption recommended by pfa (1954) are 1.5ppm for cd, 2.5 ppm for pb, 0.1 ppm for cr and 1.5 ppm for ni. cadmium the content of cd in the collected vegetables ranged from 0.24 mg kg-1 in cluster beans to 2.54 mg kg-1 in stem amaranth. among different kinds of vegetables, leafy vegetables accumulated very high concentrations of cd followed by root, fruit and other vegetables. among leafy vegetables (table 1) stem amaranth, palak and fenugreek recorded very high cd concentrations and were crossing safe limits recommended for human consumption. mint recorded the lowest content of cd (0.88 mg kg-1). none of the root, fruit and other vegetables crossed the safe level of cd recommended for human consumption (table 2). among root vegetables, carrot contained maxiumum cd concentration (1.40mg kg-1). among the fruit vegetables (table 3) cluster bean contained lowest cd content (0.24 mg kg-1), whereas tomato and beans recorded the highest content. cauliflower, cabbage and potato recorded 0.64, 0.48 and 0.52 mg kg -1, respectively. cadmium contamination of vegetables occurs in different ways. cadmium is used in nickel-cadmium batteries, pvc plastics, and paint pigments. indiscriminate disposal of these plastics and batteries by public and use of insecticides, fungicides, sludge, and commercial fertilizers containing cadmium particularly continuous use of single super phosphate containing high levels of cd cause soil contamination, which in turn lead to absorption of cd by plants grown on such soils and ultimately lead to food chain contamination (atsdr, 1999a,). low level chronic exposure to cd can cause adverse health effects including gastro-intestinal, hematological, musculoskeletal, renal, neurological and reproductive effects. the main target organ for cd following chronic oral exposure is the kidney (jarup et al, 1998). table 1. heavy metals content of leaf vegetables from bangalore market leaf vegetables **heavy metal content (mg kg-1) cd pb cr ni stem amaranth 2.54 (±0.38) 10.48 (±0.78) 13.44 (±1.14) 9.40 (±1.09) palak 1.76 (±0.57) 6.08 (±0.97) 16.20 (±1.18) 11.52 (±0.80) fenugreek 1.44 (±0.34) 4.80 (±0.43) 9.40 (±0.90) 6.46 (±1.02) coriander 1.12 (±0.23) 6.08 (±0.95) 9.88 (±0.58) 5.40 (±0.95) dill 1.16 (±0.29) 6.00 (±1.05) 9.48 (±1.00) 6.52 (±0.75) mint 0.88 (±0.15) 7.12 (±0.97) 8.60 (±1.32) 6.36 (±0.89) atriflex sps 1.08 (±0.25) 9.20 (±0.91) 15.40 (±0.80) 10.32 (±1.06) values in parentheses are standard deviations. **mean of two years table 2. heavy metals content of root vegetables from bangalore market root vegetables **heavy metal content (mg kg-1) cd pb cr ni carrot 1.40 (±0.42) 5.46 (±0.51) 9.58 (±1.47) 4.50 (±0.65) radish 1.00 (±0.20) 6.80 (±0.74) 10.02 (±0.97) 9.92 (±1.22) beetroot 0.88 (±0.18) 5.64 (±0.49) 14.32 (±1.31) 9.34 (±1.39) knolkhol 0.72 (±0.19) 5.08 (±0.24) 12.72 (±0.82) 8.12 (±0.22) values in parentheses are standard deviations **mean of two years varalakshmi and ganeshamurthy j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 75-78, 2008 77 lead except for coccenia, capsicum and cluster bean, all the vegetables crossed pfa safe limit of 2.5 mg kg-1 for pb content to a far greater extent. all the leafy vegetables accumulated very high concentration of pb, 3-4 folds higher than the safe limits recommended for human consumption. (table1). among root vegetables, radish, beetroot and carrot showed considerable amounts (table 2). among fruit vegetables okra contained highest pb content (5.00 mg kg1) and capsicum contained lowest pb content (2.16 mg kg-1) (table 3). the high concentration of lead in all the vegetables especially leafy and root vegetables are a great cause for concern with regard to human health. naturally the soils contain pb in very low concentrations in the range of 2-200 mg kg-1 (kabata and pendias, 1984). but some soils get contaminated due to addition of lead from industries such as paints, pollution by automobile emissions due to use of leaded fuel etc. similarly the soils near highways and busy road sides contain higher amounts of lead than the soils away from the main roads. the vegetables grown in these contaminated soils accumulate heavy metals to a considerable extent. it is alarming that the pb content in all the vegetables of present study crossed safe levels and it will have adverse effects on health especially of children and pregnant women (atsdr, 1999b). lead gets deposited in the soft tissues of the body and can cause musculoskeletal, renal occular, immunological, neurological, reproductive and developmental effects. (todd et al, 1996). the symptoms like poor memory, irritability, distractibility, lethargy, stomach aches, diarrhoea etc. usually go unnoticed. chromium all the vegetables accumulated cr to a greater extent compared to other heavy metals and cr contents were above safe levels recommended for human consumption. cr accumulation in different vegetables was in the range from 3.08 to 16.2 mg kg-1. the highest concentration of 16.2 mg kg-1 cr was recorded in palak. (table1). mint showed 8.60 mg kg-1 of cr, the lowest among all the leafy vegetables. root vegetables (table 2) such as beetroot, radish and carrot also recorded considerable amounts. among fruit vegetables brinjal (10.3 mg kg-1) and tomato (9.9 mg kg-1) recorded higher concentrations compared to other fruit vegetables (table 3). cr contamination comes from the industries of chrome plating, leather tanning, wood preserving, etc. chromium compounds are known carcinogens. long term exposure to high or moderate levels of cr cause damage to the nose and lungs and may cause lung cancer. skin contact with cr may cause skin ulcers. over exposure may also damage liver and kidneys (dayan and paine, 2001). city sewage waters also contain cr to a considerable extent (sorme and lagerkvist, 2002). nickel nickel (ni) was the second heavy metal that was present in higher concentrations in vegetables after chromium. the concentration ranged from 1.66 mg kg-1 to 11.52 mg kg-1 in different vegetables. palak contained higher concentration of ni followed by atriflex sps and stem amaranth among leafy vegetables (table 1). in root vegetables, radish and beetroot accumulated higher ni content. among root vegetables (table 2) carrot contained table 3. heavy metal content of fruit and other vegetables from bangalore market fruit and other vegetables **heavy metal content (mg kg-1) cd pb cr ni tomato 0.60 (±0.17) 3.64 (±1.32) 9.90 (±1.35) 5.63 (±0.26) brinjal 0.44 (±0.17) 4.56 (±0.80) 10.30 (±1.16) 3.42 (±0.20) okra 0.48 (±0.10) 5.00 (±1.18) 7.40 (±1.11) 3.51 (±0.12) french beans 0.60 (±0.11) 4.00 (±1.12) 7.76 (±1.20) 8.02 (±0.14) cluster beans 0.24 (±0.08) 2.32 (±1.01) 6.00 (±1.09) 3.91 (±0.21) cucumber 0.56 (±0.16) 3.36 (±0.99) 6.32 (±0.92) 3.45 (±0.23) capsicum 0.48 (±0.12) 2.16 (±0.93) 5.20 (±0.98) 8.63 (±0.34) ridge gourd 0.56 (±0.13) 3.48 (±1.26) 6.04 (±1.36) 5.62 (±0.37) coccinia 0.53 (±0.12) 2.24 (±0.70) 3.08 (±0.66) 2.88 (±0.26) cabbage 0.48 (±0.14) 3.65 (±1.73) 5.64 (±1.58) 1.66 (±0.10) cauliflower 0.64 (±0.10) 6.13 (±1.23) 4.76 (±0.57) 8.21 (±0.54) potato 0.52 (±0.06) 3.19 (±0.51) 3.32 (±0.71) 6.32 (±0.27) values in parentheses are standard deviations **mean of two years a market survey of vegetables in bangalore for heavy metal contamination j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 75-78, 2008 78 lowest ni content. in fruit vegetables (table 3) coccinia recorded lowest ni content and capsicum recorded highest ni content. nickel is found in all soils. auto exhausts, fertilizers especially super phosphate, industrial waste, etc. cause nickel contamination of soils. domestic and industrial sewage waters also contain ni, which when applied to agricultural soils, enter food chain. the most common adverse health effect of nickel in humans is an allergic reaction. it also affects the activity of alpha –tocopherol, the common antioxidant of the body (chen et al, 2002). the results of the study showed that vegetables supplied to bangalore market are contaminated with heavy metals such as cd, pb, cr and ni. rahul chakraborthy et al (2004) reported contamination of pb and ni in market samples of shillong city. accumulation pattern of heavy metals were different for leafy, root and fruit vegetables. irrespective of the heavy metal, leafy vegetables accumulated greater amounts of heavy metals than root and fruit vegetables above recommended levels for human consumption. therefore, the farmers should avoid use of road side fields and reduce the use of city generated composts for vegetable cultivation. further, when farmers do not have fresh water sources for cultivating vegetables and if they were to use sewage waters for irrigation, they better grow non-edible crops like flower crops and mulberry. references atsdr. 1999a. toxocological profile for cadmium. united states department of health and human services. public health service. 205-93-0606. atsdr. 1999b. toxocological profile for lead. united states department of health and human services. public health service, 205-93-0606. chen, c. y., su, y. j., wu, o. f. and shyn, m. m. 2002. nickel induced plasma lipid peroxidation and ef f e c t o f a n t i o x i d a n t s i n h u m a n b l o o d : involvement of hydroxyl radical formation and depletion of tocopherol. j. toxicol. environ. health., 28:843-852 dayan, a. d. and paine, a. j. 2001. mechanisms of chromium toxicity, carcinogenicity and allergenicity: review of the literature from 1985 to 2000. hum. exp. toxicol., 42:35-36. jarup, l. berglund, m., elinder, c. g., nordberg, g. and vahter, m. 1998. health effects of cadmium exposurea review of the literature and a risk estimate. scandinavian j. work. environ. health , 24:1-51. kabata-pendias, a and pendias, h. 1984. trace elements in soils and plants. 2nd edition, boca raton, florida, p.365. pfa, 1954. prevention of food adulteration act, 1954 with prevention of food adulteration rules, 1955. international law book company, delhi, 2003, pp.168-174. rahul chakraborthy, sudip dey, dkhar paul, s., clarice thabah, r., myrboh, b., ghosh, d. and sharma, d. k. 2004. determination of few heavy metals in some vegetables from north eastern region of india in relation to human health. poll res., 23:537-542. sorme, l. and lagervist, r. 2002. sources of heavy metals in urban waste in stockholm. sci. total environ., 298:131-145. todd a. c., wetmur j. g., moline j. m., godbold, j. h., levin, s. m. and landrigan, p. j, 1996. unravelling the chronic toxicity of lead; an essential priority for environmental health. environ. health perspect., 104 :141-146. (ms received 12 september 2007, revised 7 june, 2008) varalakshmi and ganeshamurthy j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 75-78, 2008 studies on parental synchronization in flowering for hybrid seed production in onion (allium cepa l.) k. padmini, r.veere gowda1 and l. b. naik section of seed science and technology indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bangalore-560 089, india e-mail: kpadmini@iihr.ernet.in abstract an experiment was conducted at the indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore, in rabi season during 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 to study the flowering of cytoplasmic male sterile lines cms (a) and pollinator lines (c) of onion cv. arka lalima for working out effective synchrony in hybrid seed production. results indicated that days to 100% flowering and days to complete flowering in a plant varied significantly in the parental lines and c line was found to be earlier than a line by 12 days and 25 days, respectively. the duration of flowering in a plant was also less in c line (23 days) than in a line (29 days). due to lack of floral synchrony between parental lines, pollen availability becomes a limiting factor in hybrid seed production in cv. arka lalima. delay in planting of c lines by a week after planting a lines resulted in synchronised flowering of parental lines at peak flowering stage. this also resulted in higher fruit set (80%) and hybrid seed yield (15g/ plant) as against planting of a and c lines simultaneously (29.54% and 0.38g, respectively). key words: cytoplasmic male sterility, flowering, hybrid seed production, onion, synchronization introduction onion is one of the important vegetable crops grown in india under 42 million hectares with a production of 4.21 million tonnes and productivity of 9.9 million tons/ hectare (national horticulture database, 2003). onion is one of the pioneering crops in which heterosis was commercially exploited since early 1930’s (jones and emsweller,1933). in india, cytoplasmic male sterile (cms) based hybrids were developed in onion. synchronisation of flowering of parental lines is absolutely essential in onion hybrid seed production for effecting natural crossing in cms lines (a line ) by pollinators from pollinator lines (c line) ( peters,1990). in any hybrid seed production system using cms hybrids, supply of adequate amount of pollen and its continuous supply by the pollen parent until male sterile lines are in bloom, is important (peters,1990). lack of synchrony in flowering in parental lines of onion hybrids has been reported even under simultaneous planting and identical storage conditions (currah,1981). flowering of onion is initiated by environmental factors (pike,1986). in the light of the above, the present study was undertaken to obtain information on the extent of synchronization possible in respect of various floral traits of male sterile and pollinator lines in hybrid seed production of cms-based onion hybrid arka lalima. material and methods a field experiment was conducted to study flowering behavior in parental lines of onion hybrid arka lalima during the rabi season (december) at the experimental farm of indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore, in 2001-2002. the seed parent of hybrid arka lalima, namely, cms line (a line) ms-48 and pollinator line (c line), sel-14-1-1 were raised for the study. a bulb-to-seed method of seed production by annual method was followed (yawalkar, 1989). three plots of twenty plants each were maintained in both the parents. onion bulbs weighing 10-20 g and equatorial diameter of 2.5 to 3.5 cm were cut transversely at the top to one third to expose the inner scales for early and uniform flowering. cut bulbs were smeared with copper oxychloride to avoid microbial infection. cut bulbs of both the parental lines were planted simultaneously in 4:1 ratio such that four rows of a line alternated with one row of c line (swarup,1991). closer planting of 30x30 cm between rows j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 47-49, 2007 and plants was adopted as recommended for medium sized onion bulbs. observations were recorded on the number of days taken for first flowering, days to 50% and 100% flowering (to start flowering). for observations on days to complete flowering, duration of flowering in a plant and the number of scapes/plant, twenty plants in each of the parents were selected at random. five umbels from both the parents were randomly selected to record within an umbel, on number of flowers/umbel, duration of flowering in an umbel, days to 5%, 30%, 50%, 80%, and 100% flowering. in addition to this, an experiment was conducted on manipulating date of planting of parental bulbs for effecting floral synchrony (atkin and davis,1954).the methods employed were: t1simultaneous planting of parental bulbs, and, t2delayed planting of c line by one week after planting a line. three plots of twenty plants each were maintained in each parent. observations on per cent plants in flowering (with opened flowers to effect natural crossing of a lines from pollen of c line) at the same time, per cent fruit-set / umbel and hybrid seed yield / plant were recorded. recommended package of practices was followed to raise the seed crop. statistical analysis using a ‘student-t’ test was performed to test the significance between the parental lines of onion hybrid and between the two planting dates of parental bulbs. results and discussion flowering behaviour pooled data on flowering behavior of parental lines of onion hybrid arka lalima (on simultaneous planting of a and c lines) in a population and plant is presented in table 1. perusal of results revealed that there were no significant differences between a and c lines up to 50% flowering from planting. there were also no significant differences in respect of number of scapes / plant and number of flowers / umbel between the parents. however, days to 100% flowering and in the days to complete flowering in a plant varied significantly between the parental lines, which has led to problems in synchronized flowering. the duration of flowering in a plant was also less in c line (23 days) compared to a line (29 days). data on flowering in an umbel in the parental lines of onion are presented in table 2. differences between a and c lines for duration of flowering in an umbel were significant. hence, it is concluded that lack of floral synchrony between parental lines of onion hybrid arka lalima observed at peak flowering stages of a line limited natural crossing in a lines in a situation where onion parental bulbs were planted simultaneously. effect of date of planting of parental bulbs on synchronisation in flowering and hybrid seed yield the effect of planting dates of parental bulbs on synchronisation of flowering and hybrid seed yield has been presented in tables 3 and 4, respectively. synchronisation of flowering at peak flowering was observed in t2: delayed planting of c bulbs by one week after planting a bulbs compared to t1: simultaneous planting of parental bulbs. table 1. flowering behavior of cms and male fertile parental lines in onion cv. arka lalima for hybrid seed production character 2001-2002 2002-2003 pooled mean difference t-test value a c a c a c between a and c days to first flowering ** 64 64 69 84 66.50 74.00 7.50 ns days to 50%flowering ** 92 87 80 86 86.00 86.50 0.50 ns days to 100% flowering ** 140 136 111 88 126 114 12.00 11.03* days to complete flowering in the plant 140 96.54 122 116 131 106 24.73 5.91* duration of flowering in the plant 19.11 21.80 39.06 24.14 29.09 22.97 6.12 3.03* number of scapes/plant 4.50 2.86 2.84 2.55 3.67 2.71 0.96 ns number of flowers/umbel 166 133 314 265 240 199 41 ns ** from planting of bulbs (simultaneously) * p<0.05 ns= non significant table 2. flowering pattern in onion umbel character a line c line difference t-test value days to 5% 5 3 2 2.66* flowering days to 30% 7 5 2 ns flowering days to 50% 9 7 2 ns flowering days to 80% 14 11 3 ns flowering days to 100% 17 14 3 ns flowering duration of 20 25 5 3.47* flowering in the umbel(days) * p <0.05 padmini et al 48j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 47-49, 2007 percentage of plants with open flowers was 100 in both a and c lines at 108 days from planting of a line( peak flowering of both the parental lines) in delayed planting of c bulbs by one week after planting a bulbs. thus, there was lack of flowering synchrony in simultaneous planting of parental bulbs to effect natural cross pollination. similar observation of poor co-ordination of flowering time in synchronous planted bulbs was also table 3. effect of date of planting of parental bulbs on synchronisation of flowering in onion days percentage of plants flowering (with open flowers) from at the same time planting simultaneous planting of delayed planting of parental bulbs c bulbs by one week after planting a bulbs a line c line a line c line 73 23.08 18.18 6.67 0 81 7.69 0 63.33 0 88 7.69 36.36 73.33 0 95 30.76 18.18 81.25 100 108 0 0 100* 100* 115 0 0 62.5 100 122 0 0 0 57.14 129 0 0 0 28.6 136 15.39 9.09 0 28.6 140 15.39 18.18 0 0 * perfect synchronization of flowering in a and c lines table 4. effect of date of planting of parental bulbs on hybrid seed yield in onion planting date fruit set/ hybrid seed yield/ umbel (%) plant (g) t1simultaneous planting 29.54 0.38 of parental bulbs t2delayed planting of 80.00 15.00 c bulbs by one week after planting a bulbs t test value 6.25* 11.12* * p <0.05 reported by currah (1981). with regard to fruit-set per umbel, higher fruit-set was observed in delayed planting of c lines by one week after planting a lines (80%) as against simultaneous planting of parental bulbs (29.54%). hybrid seed yield per plant was also highest in delayed planting of c lines by one week after planting a lines (15g) as against simultaneous planting of parental bulbs (0.38g). the superiority of delayed planting of c lines by one week after planting a lines results in higher fruit-set and seed yield per plant and calls for planned dates of planting and flowering of parental lines for ensuring synchrony at peak flowering time. references atkin, j. d. and davis, g. n. 1954. altering onion flowering dates to facilitate hybrid seed production. bull. calif. agril. exptl. stn., 746:16 currah, l. 1981. onion flowering and hybrid seed production. scientific horticulture, 32: 26-46. jones, h. a . and emsweller, s. l. 1933. methods of breeding onions. hilgardia,7: 625-642. national horticulture database, 2003. www. hortibizindia. org peters, r. 1990. seed production in onions and other allium species. in: onions & allied crops. vol. i. botany, physiology & genetics, pp162-174. pike, l. m. 1986. onion breeding. in m.j. bassett (ed). breeding vegetable crops, avi publishing co. inc. west port, connecticut, pp 357-394. swarup, v. 1991. breeding procedures for cross-pollinated vegetable crops. icar, new delhi, india, p118. yawalkar, k. s. 1989. bulb vegetables. in: vegetable crops of india, second edition, agri. hort. publ. house, nagpur, india, p 370. (ms received 24 november 2006, revised 25 april 2007) hybrid seed production in onion 49j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 47-49, 2007 introduction guava (psidium guajava l.) is an important nutritious fruit marketed in india and accounts for about 4% each of area and production among fruit crops grown in india. like other fruits ( (srinivas et al, 1997; jagtap and katrodia, 1998; wanjari et al, 2002; gajanana et al., 2011), guava is also subject to losses at various stages of handling after harvest. information on economic aspects of marketing, associated costs and returns, and losses that occur at different stages of handling in guava in india is not available at present. therefore, a study was undertaken to examine marketing arrangements and assess post-harvest losses in guava at different stages of handling in karnataka, one of the major guava producing states of india. material and methods karnataka is one of the major guava-producing states in the country producing 135,100 tonnes (5.4%) from an area of 7100 ha (3.23%). allahabad safeda is the most popular variety of guava grown in karnataka. bengaluru (rural & urban) district produces the largest quantity of guava in the state, accounting for 19.7% area and 18.7% production in karnataka (2011-12). therefore, bengaluru district was selected for the study at the first stage of sampling. at the second stage, three taluks, namely, economic analysis of post-harvest loss and marketing efficiency in guava (cv. allahabad safeda) in karnataka t.m. gajanana, d. sreenivasa murthy, a.k. saxena1, d.v. sudhakar rao2, m. sudha and v. dakshinamoorthy section of economics and statistics icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru – 560 089, india e-mail: tmgajanana@yahoo.com abstract post-harvest losses (phl) in guava (cv. allahabad safeda) were estimated at the field and retail levels in karnataka, and impact of this loss on marketing efficiency was studied. results indicated that the total phl was 13.29% consisting of field-level loss (9.17%) and retail level loss (4.12%). the producer’s share was 51.52% and phl, when included as an item of cost, reduced the share to 45.80%. phl also reduced marketing efficiency index from 1.06 to 0.88, thereby indicating the importance of phl and scope for minimizing it to improve the efficiency of the marketing system in guava. key words: guava, post-harvest losses, allahabad safeda, economic analysis, marketing efficiency doddaballapur, devanahalli and bengaluru north, were selected and field-level loss was assessed from harvest at 39 sample-farmers’ fields located in the three taluks. retaillevel loss was estimated from 31 retailers spread over the city of bengaluru sourcing their material from k.r. market. estimating marketing efficiency: efficiency of a marketing system is normally analyzed using the standard formula of acharya and agarwal (2001) which was later modified by sreenivasa murthy et al (2004) by including phl as an item under the cost. the modified formula used in our study is given below: npf me = ————————— mc + mm + phl where, me = marketing efficiency index npf = farmer’s net price npf = gpf-{cf + (lf x gpf)} or npf = {gpf}-{cf}-{lf x gpf} where, npf represents the net price received by the farmer (rs./kg) gpf represents the gross price received by the farmer (rs./kg) 1division of plant pathology, 2division of post harvest technology, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru – 560 089, karnataka, india j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):70-73, 2015 71 economics of post-harvest loss and marketing efficiency in guava cf represents the cost incurred by the farmer in the course of marketing (rs./kg) lf represents the physical loss of produce at field-level (kg) mc = marketing-cost to the intermediaries mc = cf + cr where, cf represents the cost to the farmer in marketing (rs./kg) cr represents the cost to the retailer in marketing (rs./kg) mm = marketing margin of the intermediary mm = mmr where, mmr represents the marketing margin of the retailer phl = post-harvest loss in the course of marketing phl = {lf x gpf} + {lr x gpr} where, lf and gpf are the same as indicated above lr represents the physical loss during retailing (kg) gpr represents the gross retail price (rs./kg) results and discussion marketing practices in guava guava fields under harvest in bengaluru district were visited. marketing practices followed and losses incurred at the field-level were studied. the main marketing channels followed by the guava growers in bengaluru district were: self marketing in the auction at k.r. market, bengaluru, and field sale of guava to contractors besides leasing out the orchard to the pre-harvest contractor (phc). ● producer – commission agent – retailer – consumer (self marketing) ● producer – contractor – commission agent – retailer – consumer (field sale) ● producer – phc – ca – retailer – consumer (phc) after harvest, ripe and green (mature) fruits were graded as large, medium or small. fruits are then packed in bags of 20-22kg or 32-35kg (with a bamboo base) and brought to the market in tempos (vans) or mini-trucks. sale in bengaluru wholesale market, field-level sale and sale to pre-harvest contractors (phc) were the main channels used by guava farmers in the area under study. in all, 56.67% of the farmers marketed 62.95% of the produce through the self-marketing channel. about 20% of the farmers sold 37.05% of their guava product at the field itself. another 23.33% of the farmers leased out guava fields to the phc. marketing cost and price realization farmers were found to incur an expenditure of rs. 2.40/kg towards marketing of guava, which consisted of harvesting, grading and packing (15.19%), packing-material cost (1.26%), transportation (30.38%), unloading (2.53%) and commission (50.63%). farmers realized a net price of rs. 11.34/kg. the retailers realized a gross price of rs. 22.01/kg and, after deducting the cost incurred, their margin worked out to rs. 8.04/kg. in the process, the producer’s share worked out to 51.52% (table 1). post harvest loss (phl) in guava losses during different stages of handling in the selfmarketing channel were assessed in 39 guava fields under harvest and from 31 retailers of guava in bengaluru. total phl was 13.29% which included field-level loss (9.17%) and retail-level loss (4.12%) (table 2). field level loss field level loss in guava consisted of over-ripe fruits (2.93%), bird attack (0.24%), mealy bug (0.54%) and diseases like stylar-end rot (1.32%) and canker (1.29%). further, scratches on surface fruit due to thrips, friction, etc. working out to 2.71% were also observed in our study. over-ripe fruits accounted for 2.93% of field-level loss. table 1. marketing cost, price realized and producer’s share in guava sl. no. particulars amount or % 1 marketing cost of producers rs. 2.4 /kg harvesting, grading and packing 15.19 % packing-material cost 1.26 % transportation 30.38 % unloading 2.53 % commission 50.63 % 2 net price producer rs.11.34 /kg retailer rs. 8.04 /kg 3 producer’s share 51.52 % table 2. post-harvest loss in guava at different levels of handling sl. no. stage/level loss (%) 1 field level (after harvest and before 9.17 marketing grading, sorting for damages) over-ripe fruits, discards 2.93 damage due to bird attack 0.24 damage due to blossom (stylar) end rot 1.32 damage due to canker 1.29 damage due to mealy bug 0.54 others (scratches due to thrips, friction, etc.) 2.71 2 retail market level (damage due to 4.12 pressing & fruits crushed during transit & loading/ unloading) 3 total phl in guava 13.29 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):70-73, 2015 72 hence, select harvest of fruits can reduce the loss due to over-ripe fruits. further, losses occurring at different stages of handling guava due to stylar-end rot, anthracnose, canker, thrips’ attack, etc. need to be addressed. retail-level loss loss at the retail-level was 4.12% and was due mainly to press-damage and fruits crushed in transit, unloading and loading. farmers currently use gunny/plastic bags with a bamboo basket at the base. instead, they could use plastic crates to reduce losses in transit. pathological investigation guava fruits collected from orchards in 12 different localities of bengaluru district were assessed for infection with various diseases. fruits were found to be seriously infected by diseases. disease incidence percentage ranged from 36.67 (locality 4) to 63.33 (locality 6). stylar end rot (phomopsis psidi) was the major disease, causing maximum spoilage of fruits, and varied from 20 % (locality 4) to 33.33 % (locality 10). canker (pestaliopsis psidi) incidence varied from 8.33% (locality 4) to 16.67% (locality 5 & 6). anthracnose (colletotrichum table 3. incidence of disease on guava fruits collected from various localities fruit status locality 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 healthy (%) 50.00 56.67 43.33 63.33 43.33 36.67 56.67 60.00 46.67 40.00 53.33 56.67 diseased (%) 50.00 43.33 56.67 36.67 56.67 63.33 43.33 40.00 53.33 60.00 46.67 43.33 disease (%) canker 13.33 13.33 15.00 8.33 16.67 16.67 13.33 8.33 11.67 15.00 10.00 11.67 (pestaliopsis psidi) stylar end rot 28.33 23.33 30.00 20.00 30.00 31.67 21.67 25.00 28.33 33.33 30.00 23.33 (phomopsis psidi) anthracnose 8.33 6.67 11.67 8.33 10.00 15.00 8.33 6.67 13.33 11.67 6.67 8.33 (collectotrichum gloeosporioides) table 4. post-harvest storage losses in allahabad safeda guava fruits stored at rt & at 12°c plw (%) spoilage (%) days after harvest days after harvest at rt 2 3 5 6 2 3 5 6 2.51 3.53 6.35 8.16 0.00 0.00 7.29 17.28 at 12°c 3 7 10 14 3 7 10 14 2.52 4.70 6.29 8.37 0.00 0.00 0.45 1.36 table 5. valuation of post-harvest loss in guava (allahabad safeda) sl. no. stage phl value loss (%) (rs./kg) 1 field level 9.17 1.26 2 retail level 4.12 0.91 total 13.29 2.17 gloeosporioides) incidence varied from 6.67% (locality 2) to 15.00% (locality 6). appropriate, timely or effective pre-harvest disease management schedule was not practiced in these orchards (table 3). post-harvest storage losses in allahabd safeda guava fruits storage losses in allahabd safeda guava were estimated as 3.53 % at 3 days storage at room temperature (24-32°c). this was mainly due to physiological loss in weight (plw). spoilage started after 5 days of storage (7.29%), and reached 17.28% by 6th day of storage. by storing the fruits at low temperature (12°c), total losses at 10 days of storage were reduced to 6.74%. this was due to plw 6.29% and 0.45% to spoilage loss. the total storage losses at 12°c increased to 9.73% when storage was prolonged to 14 days. spoilage in storage at room temperature as well as at 12°c was found to be mainly due to blossom-end rot in allahabad safeda guava variety (table 4). it was observed that at 3 days of storage, guava fruits lost 3-4% weight and, after 5 days, spoilage set in. therefore, care should be taken to dispose of the fruits within five days from harvesting. however, it is possible to delay spoilage by storing the guava fruits at 12oc. valuation of post-harvest loss, price spread and marketing efficiency post-harvest loss is calculated from the price prevalent at different levels of handling, and is presented in table 5. post-harvest loss accounts for 9.85% of the price to the consumer in a marketing channel (table 6 & 7). as phl escalates the cost of marketing, it has an impact on marketing efficiency. price-spread was observed to be 54.2% which, minus the phl, would be 48.48%. if phl is to be included as an item under cost of marketing, efficiency of the marketing system would be reduced (table 7). the producer’s share in the consumer rupee is 51.52% indicating, gajanana et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):70-73, 2015 73 that, a scope exists for improving the marketing system. therefore, it is inferred that inclusion of phl in calculating marketing efficiency reduces the system’s efficiency. this calls for efforts to reduce losses during post-harvest handling of guava, to help improve the efficiency of the marketing system. references acharya, s.s. and agarwal, n.l. 2001. agricultural marketing in india, third edition, oxford & ibh publishing company, new delhi gajanana, t.m., sreenivasa murthy, d. and sudha, m. 2011. field-level loss in guavaguava harvest, sorting and packing in bengaluru guava retailing in bengaluru table 6. price-spread in marketing of guava particulars price spread rs./kg % net price received by the farmer 10.08 45.80 marketing cost of the farmer 2.40 10.90 phl at field level 1.26 5.72 retailer’s cost 0.23 1.04 phl at retail level 0.91 4.13 retailer’s margin 7.13 32.39 consumer price 22.01 100.00 table 7. efficiency in marketing guava and impact of post-harvest loss (phl) sl. no. efficiency efficiency parameter parameter value 1 producer’s share (%) 51.52 (48.8)* 2 marketing-cost (rs./kg) 2.63 (4.80)* 4 intermediary’s margin (%) 36.53 (32.39)* 5 post-harvest loss (phl) (%) 9.85 3 marketing-efficiency index 1.06 (0.88)** *producer’s share, marketing-cost and margin after inclusion of phl as an item of cost ** indicates marketing efficiency (me) after inclusion of phl as an item of marketing-cost post harvest losses in fruits and vegetables in south india – a review of concepts and quantification of losses. indian food packer, 65:178-187 jagtap, k.b. and katrodia, j.s. 1998. post harvest losses in packaging and transportation of sapota, indian j. hort., 55:48-51 sreenivasa murthy, d., gajanana t.m. and sudha, m. 2004. post harvest loss and its impact on marketing cost, margin and efficiency: a study on grapes in karnataka, indian j. agril. econ., 59:772-786 srinivas, r.n., venkatesha reddy, t., ravi, p.c., lalith achoth and chinnappa reddy, b.v. 1997. post harvest losses assessment in totapuri and alphonso mangoes. j of food sci. and tech., xxxiv:70-71 wanjari,v., ladaniya, m.s. and gajanana, t.m. 2002. marketing and post harvest losses of acid lime in andhra pradesh, indian j. agril. marketing, 16:32-39 (ms received 04 june 2014, revised 24 march 2015, accepted 04 april 2015) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):70-73, 2015 economics of post-harvest loss and marketing efficiency in guava final sph -jhs coverpage 17-1 jan 2022 single 83 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 83-87, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction carrot (daucus carota subsp. sativus), an important root tuber vegetable crop of apiaceace family is a diploid species (2n = 2x =18) grown globally for its rich nutritional contents of vitamin a and carotenes. other members of this family include celery, dill, parsley, fennel, cumin, coriander, cilantro and many other vegetables and spices. the objective of carrot breeding programmes is to evolve high yielding and well adapted cultivar with desirable economic traits. edible carrots are thought to have originated in afghanistan before the ninth century, according to historical evidence. eastern carrots, as they were known to ha ve yellow or pur ple r oots. t heir cultivation extended throughout central and north asia, as well as japan (17th century). the near east is often regarded as the second-largest source of variation for cultivated carrot variation. western carrots differ from eastern carrots in that they have fewer pubescent leaves and a reduced tendency to flower early. during the middle ages, yellow and purple carrots were widely grown in europe, but they were gradually replaced by white and then orangerooted varieties, which first appeared in the early seventeenth century, presumably as a result of selection from yellow carrot and hybridization of cultivated carrot and its wild relatives (rubatzky et al. 1999). carrots with orange roots expanded from europe to other continents, eventually becoming the most common commercial crop in the world. carrots with different root colours are more regularly grown in asia, and they have just lately been reintroduced to specialist markets in europe and america (simon et al. 2008). a long history of carrot selection and the use of diver se pa r enta l ma ter ia ls in br eeding programmes throughout the world have resulted in considerable variation in available cultivars. an understanding of the extent and nature of genetic variation within a crop species is required for efficient breeding effort. better understanding of genetic diversity or genetic similarity might aid in the maintenance of long-term selection gain in plants (chowdhury et al. 2002). therefore, the present study was study in tropical carrot genotypes genetic diversity and cluster analysis. materials and methods the present study was conducted a t vegetable research block of division of vegetable crops, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, genetic diversity study in tropical carrot (daucus carota l.) manisha*, padmini k., veere gowda r. and dhananjaya m.v. division of vegetable crops, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru 560089, karnataka, india. *corresponding author e-mail: mmanisha366@gmail.com abstract genetic diversity study was conducted at icarindian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru during 2018-19. in this study, 80 accessions were evaluated for 16 yield and yield attributing traits. the mahalanobis’ d2 analysis grouped these accessions into seven clusters. cluster i was the largest with 69 genotypes followed by cluster iii comprising six genotypes while, the clusters ii, iv, v, vi and vii contained one genotype each. among the traits studied, yield contributed maximum (38.04 %) towards diversity, followed by root weight (26.58%), root color (9.18%) and plant height (6.7%). as far as root weight (g) [d1], leaf weight (g), root weight (g), number of leaves, tss(°brix), leaf weight (g), root diameter (mm), core diameter (mm), and root cracking are concerned, they contributed 3.45, 2.09, 1.77, 1.71, 1.55, 1.52, 1.46, 1.33, 1.01 and 0.82 percent respectively. diversity analysis has given an indication about the genetic variation among the carrot accessions which will prove useful in selection of diverse parents in crop improvement programme. keywords: carrot, cluster analysis, genetic diversity, root weight and yield 84 manisha et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 83-87, 2022 hesaraghatta, bengaluru (latitude 13°58' north and longitude 78°45' east and an altitude of 890 meters above mean sea level) during rabi, 2018. eighty accessions were used to study the genetic diversity. the experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with three replications and observations were recorded on a single plant basis for the following characters viz., plant height (cm), number of leaves, leaf length (cm), root length (cm), root diameter (mm), root weight (g), core diameter (mm), root core color, tss (°brix), root cracking, root color, root fresh weight (g), root dry weight (g), leaf fresh weight (g), leaf dry weight (g) and yield (t ha-1). multivariate analysis was done utilising mahalanobis d2 statistic (mahalanobis, 1936) and genotypes were grouped into different clusters following tocher’s method. results and discussion using the pivotal condensation method, the mean va lues of genotypes wer e tr a nsfor med into standardized uncorrelated mean values. the relative percent contribution of different characters included in the study towards diversity is presented in table 1 and figure 1. yield contributed maximum (38.04 %) towards diversity, followed by root weight (26.58%), root colour (9.18%) and plant height (6.77%). root fresh weight, leaf fresh weight, root dry weight, number of leaves, leaf dry weight, root length, leaf length, root diameter, core diameter and root cracking percent contribution showed 3.45,2.09,1.77,1.74,1.55, 1.52, 1.46,1.33, 1.01 and 0.82 respectively. similar finding was reported by jain et al., (2010) amin and singla (2010), nayak and nagre (2013), madavi et al., (2015), reshmika et al., (2015) tripathy et al., (2017) and tirkey et al., (2018). table 1. relative contribution of 16 characters to genetic diversity in 80 accessions of carrot sl. no. character contribution % times ranked first 1 plant height(cm) 6.77 214 2 number of leaves 1.74 55 3 leaf length 1.46 46 4 root length(cm) 1.52 48 5 root diameter(mm) 1.33 42 6 root weight(g) 26.82 840 7 core diameter(mm) 1.01 32 8 root core color 0.98 31 9 root cracking 0.82 26 10 tss(°brix) 1.71 54 11 root color 9.18 290 12 root fresh weight(g) 3.45 109 13 root dry weight(g) 1.77 56 14 leaf fresh weight(g) 2.09 66 15 leaf dry weight(g) 1.55 49 16 yield (t/ha) 38.04 1202 fig 1. per cent contribution of 16 characters towards diversity in carrot 85 genetic diversity study in tropical carrot characters group no.of list of accessionsaccessions 1 cluster 69 acc-63, acc -69, acc -163b, acc -52b, acc -148, acc -22b, acc -52c, acc -87, acc -56b, acc -77b, acc -21a, acc-72, acc -76b, acc -152b, acc -76c, acc -60a, acc -155, acc -50, acc -22a, acc -40, acc -154a, acc -140, acc -77, acc -777a, acc -21c, acc -54, acc -113a, acc 76a, acc -72, acc -76, acc -70, acc -84, acc -22d, acc -01, acc -135, acc -102, acc -135, acc -88, acc -21, acc -21b, acc -60b, acc -68, acc -106a, acc -153, acc -02, acc -77c, acc -101, acc -113b, acc -144c, acc -56, acc -146, acc -41, acc -152a, acc -145, acc -06, acc -105, acc -54b, acc -85, acc -88, acc -106b, acc -144a, acc -144b, acc 54a, acc -113b, acc -105, acc -20, acc -80, acc -164, acc -156 2 cluster 1 acc -154b 3 cluster 6 acc -52a, acc -163a, acc -51, acc -173, acc -147, acc -63 4 cluster 1 acc -75 5 cluster 1 acc -50 6 cluster 1 acc -150 7 cluster 1 acc -56a the genetic diver sity among 80 genotypes was measured by employing d2 statistics and grouped into six clusters using tocher ’s method given as by rao (1952). distribution of accessions in each cluster is presented in table 2 and figure 2. cluster i was found largest with 69 accessions followed by cluster iii comprising six accessions, cluster ii and iv, v, vi and vii comprising one accessions in each cluster. simila r genetic diver sity studies wer e carried out by many workers in this crop viz., amin et al., 2010, kumar et al., 2021 and meghashree et al., 2018. cluster mean of 16 yield and yield contributing characters were assessed and presented in table 3. along with supplementary data (table s1 and fig. s 1 ) . t he me a n c omp a r is on of t he diff er ent characters indicated considerable differences among the clusters for all the characters. maximum mean f or pla nt height wa s ob s er ved in c lus t er ii i (85.9cm) followed by cluster ii (85.1cm), while minimum cluster means of 53.8 cm were observed in cluster v. there were maximum number of leaves observed in cluster vii which recorded 18.3, followed by cluster iv which recorded 9.6, and c lu s t er i i r ec or ded a minimu m o f 6 . 5 . t he ma ximum mea n for lea f length (72.3 cm) was observed in cluster vii followed by cluster iii ( 6 9 . 5 c m) a nd minimu m mea n ( 47 . 0 c m) wa s observed in cluster v. table 2. clustering pattern of 80 accessions of carrot by d2 analysis the highest mean for the root length was recorded in cluster vii (19.3cm) followed by cluster v (16.3cm) while, lowest mean of 13.0 cm was shown by cluster vi. the highest mean for root diameter was observed in cluster vii (5.3mm) followed by cluster vi (4.7mm) while the lowest mean of 2.6 mm was shown by cluster iv. root weight recorded a maximum mean in cluster iii of 123.7g followed by cluster ii of 116.8g while the minimum mean of 33.3g was observed in cluster iv. the core diameter recorded a maximum mean in cluster vii of 3.7mm followed by ii of 2.7mm while, the minimum mean of 1.5mm was observed in cluster iv. the root core color that is self-core color was yellow (2) in cluster v followed by orange in other vi clusters. root cracking was either obsent or rarely observed in cluster v, i and cluster iii having mean 0, 0.1 and 0.6 percent respectively while other clusters was having root cracking having mean of 1.0 percent. the cluster mean observed in tss (°brix) was highest for cluster vi (14.2) followed by cluster ii (13.8) and it was lowest for genotypes under cluster vii (11.17). root color was very dark in cluster vii, iii. iv and ii having mean of 4.3, 4.0, 4.0 and 4.0 while dark orange color observed in cluster i having a mean of 3.6 and cluster vi was having orange root color with a mean of 2.0. root fresh weight recorded maximum cluster mean in cluster ii (96.6g) followed by cluster iii (95.0g) while j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 83-87, 2022 86 cluster iv depicted minimum mean of 63.3g. cluster iv recorded a maximum mean of 11.3g of root dry weight followed by 10.9 g observed in cluster iii. whereas, minimum mean of 8.0 g was observed in genotypes under cluster ii. the maximum mean for leaf fresh weight (213.3g) was observed in cluster vii followed by cluster iii (59.6g) while minimum mean of 18.5 g was observed in cluster v. with regard to leaf dry weight cluster vii recorded a maximum mean of (leaf dry weight) 40.6g followed by 14.6g observed in cluster ii while minimum mean of 2.2g was observed in genotypes under cluster v. the highest mean for yield was recorded in cluster iv (12.9t ha-1) followed by cluster vi and vii (12.0 t ha-1) while, the lowest mean of 9.0 t ha-1 was shown by cluster iii. similar reports were made by amin et al., 2010, kumar et al., 2021 and meghashree et al., 2018. based on these results, mahalanobis d2 was found t o b e a u s e f u l t ool in gr ou p ing genot yp es p henot ypic a lly a nd geogr a phica lly. f indings revealed that in carrot, there is a vast scope for developing new varieties with greater yield potential a nd t o b et t er ot her a t t r ib u t es of ec onomic importance, using this elite germplasm. in crop improvement programmes, intercrossing among genotypes with outstanding mean performance for these characters would prove to be effective. conclusion genetic divergence has been consider ed a s a n important factor in selecting the genetically diverse parents for efficient and successful hybridization programme in order to get potential transgressive segregants and also provide new recombination of genes in the gene pool. it is desirable to select genotypes from clusters showing high inter-cluster distance cluster vi (acc -150) and cluster vii (acc -56a) for further crop improvement programme. references amin, a. and singla, j. 2010. genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance studies in carrot (daucus carota var. sativa l.). electr. j. pl. breed. 1(6):1504-1508. chowdhury, m. a., vandenberg, v and warkentin, t. 2002. cultivar identification and genetic relationship among selected breeding lines and cultivars in chick pea (cicer arietinum l). euphytica. 127(3): 317-325. jain, v. p., dod, v. n., nagare, p. k. and kale, v.k. 2010. genetic va ria bility in ca r rot (daucus carota l.). tajh. 5(2):514-516. kumar, n., nigam, a. and pathak, a. k. 2021. studies on genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance in some cultivated genotypes of car rot (daucus carota l.) under two different seasons. j. pharm. innov. 10(1): 324-335 madhavi, n., mishra, a.c., om prasad, j. and bahuguna n. 2015. studies on variability, heritability and genetic advance in brinjal (s o l a n u m m e l o n g e n a l . ) . pl a n t a rc h . 15(1):277-281. ma ha lonobis, p. c . 193 6. on the gener a liz ed distance in statistics. proc. natl. acad. sci. 2:55-79. meghashree, j.r, hanchinamani, c.n, hadimani, h.p, sandhyarani, n., ramanagouda, s.h. a nd c ha nd r a ka nt , k . 2 0 1 8 . g enet ic variability studies for different attributes in carrot genotypes (daucus carota l.) under k ha r if s ea son. int. j. curr. microbiol. 7(12):3419-3426. n a ya k, b. r a nd n a gr e, p. k . 2 0 1 3. g enet ic variability and correlation studies in brinjal (solanum melongena l.). int. j appl. biol. & pharmaceut. technol. 4(4):211-215. rao, c.r. 1952. advanced statistical methods in biometrical research. johan willy and sons. new york. reshmika, p.k., gasti, v.d., evoor, s., jayappa, j.and mujge, r. 2015. genetic variability studies for gr owth, ea r lines s, yield a nd qu a lity pa r a met er s in br inja l (so lan um melongena l.). ecol. environ 33(2):761766. rubatzky, v.e., quiros c.f. and simon p.w.1999. carrots and related vegetable umbelliferae. cabi, new york manisha et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 83-87, 2022 87 genetic diversity study in tropical carrot j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 83-87, 2022 simon, p.w, freeman, r.e, vieira, j.v, boiteux, l.s, briard, m, nothnagel, t, michalik, m. and kwon, y.s. 2008. carrot. in: prohens j, n uez f ( eds ) veget a bles i i : f a ba c ea e, liliaceae, solanaceae, a nd umbellifera e. handbook of plant breeding, vol 2. springer, new york, pp 327–357. tirkey, m., saravana, s. and puspa lata. 2018. studies on variability, heritability and genetic advance for yield and its attributes in brinjal (solanum melongena l.). j. pharmacogn. phytochem. 1181-1183. tripa thy, b., dha na njay, s., jangde, b.p. and bairwa, p.l. 2017. genetic variability and her ita bility studies in br inja l (so lan um melongena l.). j. pharmacogn. phytochem. 10:109-116. (received: 25.03.2022; revised: 19.05.2022; accepted 07.06.2022) 00 a final sph -jhs coverpage first 2 pages.pdf 00 content and in this issue.pdf 01 mohan kumar g n.pdf 02 meera pandey.pdf 03 biradar c.pdf 04 varalakshmi b.pdf 05 vijayakumari n.pdf 06 barik s.pdf 07 sajid m b.pdf 08 ranga d.pdf 09 usha s.pdf 10 manisha.pdf 11 amulya r n.pdf 12 akshatha h j.pdf 13 adak t.pdf 14 sujatha s.pdf 15 gowda p p.pdf 16 subba s.pdf 17 dhayalan v.pdf 19 ahmed s.pdf 20 vishwakarma p k.pdf 21 deep lata.pdf 22 udaykumar k p.pdf 23 nayaka v s k.pdf 24 sahel n a.pdf 25 bayogan e r v.pdf 26 rathinakumari a c.pdf 27 yella swami c.pdf 28 saidulu y.pdf 29 sindhu s.pdf 30 neeraj.pdf 31 sivaranjani r.pdf 32 rashied tetteh.pdf 34 sangeetha g.pdf 35 shareefa m.pdf 36 last pages.pdf 49 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 49-53, 2017 effect of n and k fertilizers on growth, yield and quality of pear (pyrus pyrifolia) pps gill, sharanjit kaur and navprem singh punjab agricultural university, ludhiana 141004, india, department of fruit science pau ludhiana, punjab, india 141 004 e-mail: parmpalgill@pau.edu abstract the effect of different combined doses of n and k fertilizers on plant growth, fruit quality and foliar elemental composition of pear cv. patharnakh was investigated. experimental plants were supplied with different levels of n (460, 690 and 920 g n /plant) and k (600, 900, 1200 and 1500 g k2o/plant) in the form of urea and muriate of potash (mop) fertilizers. from the results, it was found that nitrogen application increased number of fruits/plant, trunk cross-sectional area (tcsa), shoot length and leaf n content, whereas, k application improved fruit firmness, total soluble solids (tss), and leaf k content. fruits harvested from t4 (460 g n:1500 g k2o /plant) treatment recorded maximum firmness. plants under t9 (920 g n: 600 g k2o /plant) treatment showed the maximum increase in shoot length, and tcsa, whereas, t6 (690 g n : 900 g k2o /plant) resulted in maximum fruit yield. leaf n and k concentrations improved with applications of the respective fertilizer. keywords: pear, fertilization, growth, fruit quality, leaf nutrient content introduction among temperate fruits grown in north western sub-tropics of india, pear occupies maximum acreage with ‘patharnakh’ as the leading cultivar due to its high yield potential. however, fully grown-up plants of this cultivar show variability in fruit yield with small sized fruits which fetch poor market price. improving the marketable yield of good quality fruits has always been a challenge for growers. balanced nutrition of plants along with good cultural practices can help in improving quality fruit with high yields. nitrogen is one of the most important elements for high productivity and growth of fruit plants (titus and kang, 1982) and also promotes fruit and seed development (marschner, 1995). similarly, potassium is considered as a quality improving element in fruit crops. imbalanced use of nutrients or widespread use of n fertilizers alone leads to poor quality of fruits (ganeshamurthy et al, 2011). high rates of n can be utilized by plant only in the presence of required k levels. similarly, potassium (k) is the most aboundant nutrient in the fruit, where it influences the size, firmness, skin color, tss and acidity (brunetto et al, 2015). however, little information is available on the effect of combined application of nitrogen and potassium fertilizers on yield and quality in sub-tropical pears (gill et al, 2012). keeping in view the above, the present experiment was designed to study the effect of different combined doses of n and k fertilizers on growth, fruit yield and fruit quality and leaf nutrient content of patharnakh pear plants. material and methods the present research was carried out at fruit research farm and leaf analysis laboratory of t he d ep a r t ment of f r u it s c ien c e, p u nja b agricultural university, ludhiana during the year 2013-14. the study was conducted on commercially bearing patharnakh pear plants grafted on kainth (pyrus pashia), spaced at a distance of 7x7 m. the experiment was laid out in randomized block d es ign ( r b d ) a nd a ll t he t r ea t ment s wer e replicated thrice. plants were applied with different combined doses of n (urea) as n1460, n2690 and n3-920 g/plant and k (mop) , as k1-600, k2900, k31200 and k4-1500 g k2o/plant. twelve fertilizers combinations include: t1n1k1, t2-n1k2, original research paper 50 table 1. effect of different combined doses of n and k fertilization on fruit yield, number of fruits, increase in tcsa and increase in shoot length of pear cv. patharnakh j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 49-53, 2017 gill et al t3-n1k3, t4-n1k4, t5-n2k1, t6-n2k2, t7-n2k3, t8n2k4, t9-n3k1, t10-n3k2, t11-n3k3 and t12-n3k4. potash fertilizer was applied in december while nitrogen was applied in two split doses; before and after fruit set. a uniform dose of 320 g of p2o5 using single super phosphate (ssp) was applied to all experimental trees. fruit yield per plant was calculated as the average weight of fruits multiplied by the number of fruits and expressed in kg per plant. number of fruits per plant at harvest time were manually counted. the annual increase in t c s a ( c m) wa s r ec or ded wit h t he help of measuring tape at the height of 15 cm above the graft union. for determination of an increase in shoot length, four shoots were tagged around the plant in the dormant season. the increase in shoot length wa s mea s ur ed using a mea sur ing ta p e in the following dormant season and expressed in cm. at harvest, ten randomly selected fruits from each treatment were weighed on the electronic balance and expressed as mean fruit weight in ‘g’. tss ( 0br ix) wa s estima t ed with ha nd held digit a l refractometer (atago, pal -1, japan). titratable acidity (ta) (%) of juice wa s determined by titrating against 0.1 n naoh using phenolphthalein as an indicator. fruit firmness (lbf) was measured with stand mounted penetrometer (model ft-327, usa) as the maximum force required to plunge a spher ical tip into the peeled skin of fruit. for estimation of nutrient content, leaf samples were collected in the month of july, washed with tap water and 0.1 n hcl, rinsed with distilled water, and dried in an oven at 60oc for 72 hours. the dried samples were ground and stored in butter paper bags for further a na lysis of nutrients. for nitrogen estimation kel plus nitrogen estimation system (pelican equipments, india) was used. phosphorus was estimated by vanado-molybdo phosphoric yellow colour method as described by chapman and pratt (1961) and expressed as %. for determination of leaf k%, the flame photometer method (aoac, 1990) was followed. statistical analysis of the experimental data was done using statistical package sas 9.3 (the sas s ys tem for windows, ver sion 9 . 3 , s as institute, cary, nc). data was analyzed for analysis of va ria nce (anova) using the fischer lsd (p<0.05) for significant difference test. results and discussion differ ent combined doses of n a nd k significantly affected the fruit yield of pear plants (table 1). the highest fruit yield was recorded in the t6 (n2k2) treatment which registered a value of 94.5 and 101.2 kg/plant during the years 2013 and 2014, respectively. at higher levels of n, the high yield might be due to increased availability and uptake of nutrients 51 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 49-53, 2017 effect of n and k on pear (dhillon et al, 2011). the minimum fruit yield of 75.3 kg/plant during the year 2013 was recorded from plants under t12 treatment, while, for the year 2014, it was 78.9 kg /plant in t1 (n1k1) treatment. the intermediate levels of n and k dose resulted in better fruit yield of pear plants as compared to lower and higher levels of n and k fertilizers. number of fruits per plant varied with different combined doses of n and k. treatment t10 (n3k2) recorded the maximum of 643 and 691 fruits per plant, whereas, a minimum of 547 and 560 fruits/plant was registered for treatment t8 (n2k4) during the year 2013 and 2014, respectively (table 1). higher dose of n contributes to the greater number of fruits per plant (dhillon et al, 2011). the effect of n and k applications on tcsa is presented in table 1. the maximum increase in tcsa (2.25 cm) of plants was registered in fertilizer combination of the highest dose of n and the lowest dose of k, whereas, minimum tcsa (1.29 cm) was observed for t4 treatment. the maximum increase in shoot length (14.58 cm) during table 2. effect of different combined doses of n and k fertilization on fruit weight, tss, ta and fruit firmness of pear cv. patharnakh table 3. effect of different combined doses of n and k fertilization on leaf nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content of pear cv. patharnakh 52 gill et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 49-53, 2017 the year 2013 was observed for t9 (n3k1) and was statistically at par with treatments t10, t11 and t12 (table 1). similarly, bennewitz et al (2011) reported that potassium application did not have a significant effect on the trunk cross-sectional area of apple trees. however, kumar and chandel (2004) reported that the girth of pear tree cv. red bartlet was significantly increased by both nitrogen and potassium application. higher doses of n resulted in an increase in shoot length, whereas, with the higher dose of k, a slow increment in shoot length was recorded. similar observation of an increase in lateral and terminal shoots of pear was reported by yadav and bist, 2003. fruit weight was significantly affected by dosage of applied n and k fertilizers (table 2). maximum fruit weight of 155.7g and 150.2g was recorded for treatment t7 (n2k3) during the year 2013 and 2014, respectively. increased fruit size in guava fruits with potassium applications was also reported by gill and bal (2010). plants applied with n3k2 fertilizer combination registered minimum fruit weight of 133.7 g during 2013, whereas, for the year 2014, the minimum fruit weight (131.7 g) was observed for t9. different nutrient levels of n and k significantly affected tss content with the maximum of 13.48% registered for treatment t4 (n1k4) during the year 2013, while during following year, fruits from treatment t 3 (n1k3) registered maximum (12.77%) tss content (table 2). similar increase in tss with potassium application was observed in patharnakh pear fruit (prasad et al, 2015). minimum tss content of 11.14% and 11.23% was recorded in t9 (n3k1) treatment during the year 2013 and 2014, respectively. maximum tss was recorded in the fruits of plants applied with the lowest dose of n and higher dose of k. fruits from higher n dose rate had lower soluble solids content in apple cv. ‘golden delicious’ (raese et al, 2007). during the year 2013, ta of fruit juice showed a declining trend with an increase in levels of n and k fertilizers (table 2). raese et al (2007) reported similar results of decreased acid content with increasing n dose in apple. maximum fruit juice acidity recorded for the year 2013 and 2014 was 0.352% and 0.360%, respectively for t1 (n1k1) treatment wherein the applied dosage of n and k was minimum. during 2013, minimum fruit firmness of 14.83 lbf was recorded in plants with the highest dose of n and the lowest dose of k while, during the year 2014 it was recorded as 15 lbf for treatment t 5 (n2k1) treatment. similar decrease in fruit firmness with higher doses of n was reported by okamoto et al (2001). in contrast, maximum fruit firmness of 17.14 lbf and 16.8 lbf, during 2013 and 2014 respectively, was retained by fruits harvested from t4 (n1k4) treatment. a linear increase in fruit firmness with increase in dose of k in combination with different n doses was observed (table 2). a similar increase was observed by gill et al (2012). the effect of n and k fertilizer combinations on leaf nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content of pear cv. patharnakh is presented in table 3. it was observed that the highest dose of n in combination with the lowest dose of k resulted in maximum leaf n content (2.14%). the minimum content of leaf n (1.83%) was recorded for treatment t4 (n1k4) which is a combination of lowest n and highest k dose. higher rates of n fertilizer frequently increased concentrations of leaf n in ‘fuji’ apples (raese and drake, 1997). maximum leaf phosphorus content (0.130%) was observed in the leaf of plants treated with t4 (n1k4) treatment. the highest dose of k result in high potassium content (1.31%) of leaf in treatment t8 (n2k4) and the minimum (0.91%) was recorded in t1 (n1k1) treated plant leaves, where k dosage applied was lowest. the higher leaf n and k contents may be due to enhanced accumulation and translocation of nitrogen (walsch et al, 1989) and potassium (smith, 1962) under higher supply from roots to leaves. thus, it can be concluded that application of 690g of nitrogen and 900g of k2o was effective in improving fruit yield and quality of pear cv. patharnakh. 53 a.o.a.c. 1990. official and tentative methods of analysis. in: association of official agric chemists. 15th eds., washington, dc, usa bennewitz,c.v., cooper,t., benavides, c.,losak, j. and hlusek, j 2011. response of ‘junagold’ apple trees to ca, k and mg fertilization in an andisol in south chile. j soil sci. and plant nutri., 11: 71-81 brunetto, g., melo, g.w.b.d., toselli, m., quartieri, m. and tagliavini, m. 2015. the role of mineral nutrition on yields and fruit quality in grapevine, pear and apple. rev. bras. frutic., 37:1089-1104 chapman, h.d. and pratt, p.f. 1961. methods of analysis for soils, plants and water. university of california, division of agriculture science, berkeley, usa dhillon, w.s., gill, p.p.s. and singh, n.p. 2011. effect of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilization on growth, yield and quality of pomegranate ‘kandhari’. acta hort., 890:327-332 ganeshamurthy, a.n., satisha, g.c. and patil, p. 2011. potassium nutrition on yield and quality of fruit crops with special emphasis on banana and grapes. karnataka j. agric. sci., 24:29-38 gill, p.p.s. and bal, j.s. 2010. effect of pre-harvest applications of nutrient and growth regulators on quality of sardar guava. haryana j. hort. sci. 39 : 193-194 gill, p.p.s., ganaie, m.y., dhillon, w.s. and singh, n.p. 2012. effect of foliar sprays of potassium on fruit size and quality of ‘patharnakh’ pear. ind. j. hort., 69:512-516 kumar, j. and chandel, j. s. 2004. effect of different levels of n, p and k on growth and yield of pear cv. red bartlett. prog. hort., 36: 202-206 references marschner, h. 1995. mineral nutrition of higher plants. 2nd (eds.). academic press, london, pp 889 okamoto, g., jia, h., kitamura, a. and hirano, k. 2001. effect of different fertilizer application levels on texture of ‘hakuho’ peach (prunus persica batsch). j. jpn. soc. hortic. sci., 70:533-538 prasad b., dimri, d.c. and bora, l. 2015. effect of pre-harvest foliar spray of calcium and potassium on fruit quality of pear cv. pathernakh. scientific research and essays, 10:376-380 raese, j.t. and drake, s.r. 1997. nitrogen fertilization and elemental composition effects fruit quality of ‘fuji’ apples. j. plant nutr., 20:1797-1809 raese, j.t., drake, s.r. and curry, e.a. 2007. nitrogen fertilizers influences fruit quality, soil nutrients and cover crops, leaf colour and nitrogen content, biennial bearing and cold hardiness of golden delicious. j. plant nutr., 30:1585-1604 smith, c. b. 1962. mineral analysis of plant tissues. plant physiol., 13: 81-108. titus, j.s. and kang, s.m. 1982. nitrogen metabolism, translocation, and recycling in apple plants. hort. rev., 4:204-246 walsch, c.s., allnutt, f.j., miller, a.n. and thompson, a.h. 1989. nitrogen level and time of mechanized summer shearing influence long term performance of a high density red skin peach orchard. j. amer. soc. hort. sci., 114: 373-377 yadav, a. and bist, l.d. 2003. effect of nitrogen on shoot growth, flowering, fruiting and fruit quality in pear cv. bagugosha. ind. j. hort., 60:40-44 (ms received 04 january 2017, revised 05 april 2017, accepted 27 may 2017) effect of n and k on pear j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 49-53, 2017 00 content jh june 2017.pdf 00 sph-journal november new 12.pdf 01 sph-journal november new 01.pdf 02 sph-journal november new 04.pdf 03 sph-journal november new 05.pdf 04 sph-journal november new 07.pdf 05 sph-journal november new 09.pdf 06 sph-journal november new 10.pdf 07 sph-journal november new 11.pdf 08 sph-journal november new 13.pdf 09 sph-journal november new 03.pdf 10 sph-journal november new 06.pdf 11 sph-journal november new 08.pdf 91 j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 91-96, 2018 short communication studies on factors influencing the vegetative propagation in walnut (juglans regia l. ) s. r. singh*, n. ahmed, k. k. srivastava and p. a. shagoo central institute of temperate horticulture, k. d. farm, old air field, p. o. rangreth srinagar, j&k 190 007, india *e-mail: srajparmar@gmail.com abstract the experiment was carried out to examine the effect ofdifferent status of physiologically resting scion wood,environment and grafting time for maximum graft success in walnut. three status of physiologically resting scion wood (apical, subapical and basal), were subjected to grafting on four different grafting time (15th february, 1st march, 15th march and 1st april)placed under three environmental conditions(open field,poly trench and polyhouse).sub-apical portion of resting scion wood resulted in highest sprouting, graft success and plant growth, whereas grafting on 15th march manifested highest graft success. poly house environmental conditions recorded maximum grafting success and plant growth. sub apical status of scion wood with 15th march grafting under poly house conditions recorded highest sprouting, graft success and plant growth of walnut and found ideal for clonal propagation of walnut. keywords: juglans regia l, physiologically resting scion, environmental conditions, grafting time introduction wa lnu t ( j u gl a n s reg i a l . )is one of t he important temperate nut fruit praised for its high proteins, fiber, vitamin-b, minerals and anti-oxidants such as vitamin e and omega-3 fatty acids which helps in lowering the cholesterol levels in human body. due to higher dema nd in domestic a nd international market it plays an important role in national economy with earnings of more than rs. 300 crores annually by exporting to more than 44 countries of the world. most of the walnut orchards of the country are seedling origin and growers are facing the problems of low price of their produce due to the large variability in quality, color, shape and size of nuts and kernels. besides long juvenile period,low productivity and unmanageable size of these plantations are a great concern for walnut growing community of the nation. thus varieties with high nutritive values with superior quality and yield have to be propagated, to make our walnut industry competitive in the international market. the clonal propagation of walnut is a difficult process due to low rate of callus formation in this fruit species (kruniyuki and ford, 1985). this is due to the p r es enc e of high c onc ent r a t ion of p henolic compounds in its tissues and their oxidation by wounding (rangting and pinghai, 1993, coggeshall and beineke,1997).different degree of success in walnut propagation has been achieved by different propa ga tion techniques throughout wor ld with repeatable results at different places (gandev,2007). var ious fa ctors like, envir onmenta l condition, physiological status of scion wood and time of gr a f t ing a ff ec t gr a f t s u c c es s ( g a ndev, 2007).optimum temperature for maximum graft success is 26-27oc (langerstedt, 1979., millikean, 1984) with 80-85% humidity. in walnut grafting, scion woods are prepared from resting single shoots by sectioning the different physiological positions i.e. apical, sub-apical and basal portion. nutrient contents especially carbon nitrogen ratio plays an important role in callusing and union of scion and rootstock of a plant, which varied at different p or t ion even in sa me s c ion shoots . op t ima l carbohydrate helps in new callus development and gr a f t su ccess , wher ea s su pr a opt ima l a mou nt restricts the activities of new callus generation. on other hand optimal threshold of nitrogen is essential for a protein and nucleic acid synthesis which is an essential constituent for cell r egener ation and callusing. thus standardization of ideal physiological 92 resting status of scion wood, optimum environment, and time of grafting is of most importance for maximum graft success of walnut for a particular region. keeping in view the above facts, an attempt has been made to find out the ideal physiological status of resting of scion woods, environmental conditions and grafting time for maximum graft success of walnut. t he ex p e r iment wa s c ond u c t ed a t experimental farm of central institute of temperate horticulture, rangreth, srinagar (j&k) in three factor factorial randomized block designs with three replications.geographic position of the experimental site lies between latitude of 340 05 n and longitude of 74050 e at an altitude of 1640 m above the sea level. t he a ver a ge ma ximu m 19 . 6 3 æ%c a nd minimum 6.52 æ%c temperature, amount of rainfall 1 6 0 . 7 2 mm a nd r ela t ive hu midit y 58 . 3 5 % , evapora tion 2. 45 mm wa s recor ded dur ing the experimentation. there were three physiological status of resting scion wood (apical, subapical and basal), three environmental conditions (open field, poly trench and polyhouse),with four grafting times (15th february, 1st march, 15th march and 1st april). two years old seedling rootstock of juglans regia l. with uniform growth and thickness (1.5-2.0 cm in diameter at 15 cm above the ground level) were selecting for wedge grafting. 400 alkathine strips were used as tying material of graft union which has specialties of gas exchange for respiration but conserves the moisture to keep tissues live for long time. physiologically resting scion woods (apical, sub-apical and basal), taken from one year old shoots with four to five dormant buds were used for wedge grafting. the male flower(catkins) buds were removed at the time of grafting to avoid the loss of nutrient reserves from the scion wood. 100 p la nt s wer e u s ed f or ea c h t r ea t ment . t he exper imenta l a r ea wa s pr ovided with unifor m cultural operations. the temperature under poly house and poly trench was maintained at (25+2oc) with intermittent misting and using 50% shade net during extreme temperature , which also helped in maintaining the humidity level to more than 80%. sprouting percentage was recorded after 45 days of grafting, whereas graft success percentage, plant height and number of leaves/plant were recorded when plants started recessing their growth at the end of growing season. the pooled data of two years was analyzed as method suggested by gomez and gomez (1984) using r software. physiological status of resting scion wood significantly influenced sprouting percentage, graft success a nd pla nt growth irr espective of other factors. subapical portion of resting scion recorded highest sprouting per centage (68.56), gra fting success (56.39%) and plant height (154.86 cm) and number of leaves per plant (121.61). this may be due to better c/n ratio, which is responsible for ma x imum pa r enc hyma cell pr olifer a t ion a nd intermingling of union, which ultimately resulted in better graft union and plant growth (hartmann et al. , 1997). differ ent environmental conditions significantly influenced the graft sprouting, graft success and plant growth success. environment in polyhouse recorded highest sprouting (65.50 %) graft success (54.46%) plant height ( 168.75 cm) and number of leaves per plant (120.06 ) closely followed by poly trench with 61.94% sprouting, 52.17% graft success, 145.56 cm plant height and 119.19 leaves per plant. maximum graft success under polyhouse conditions may be due to the congenial temperature (25+2) and humidity 80-90 % which helps in new pa r enchyma tous ca llus p r olif er a t i on b et ween r oot s t oc k a nd s c ion (hartmann et al.,1997). the active callus formation b et ween r o ot s t oc k a nd s c ion in wa lnu t is temperature specific. grafting time significantly affected the graft sprouting success, graft success and plant growth. g r a f t ing on 1 5 th m a r c h r ec or ded ma x imu m sprouting 71.10% irrespective of other factors. this might due to rapid regeneration cambium tissues of scion and rootstock and their intermingling with a c t iva t ion of s c ion a nd r oot s t o c k on idea l temperature (25+2 oc) which occurs from second for tnight of ma r ch in polyhouse. results a r e corroborative with the findings of porebsiki et al. 2002. interaction effect of physiologically resting scion and grafting time significantly influenced the graft success and plant growth. sub-apical scion with 15th march grafting recorded highest sprouting (80.55%), graft success (64.62%) plant height (171.17cm)and number of leaves /plant (147.67). this may be due to better c/n ratio in sub-apical vegetative propagation in walnut j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 91-96, 2018 93 scion which permits ma ximum r egenera tion of parenchymatous cells in the graft union. interaction of environment and grafting time influenced the graft sprouting percentage graft success and plant growth significantly. highest sprouting (76.48%) graft success (61.80%) was r ec or ded wit h 1 5 t h m a r c h u nder p ol yhou s e conditions. however, maximum plant height (188.94 cm) and maximum number of leaves per pla nt (144.33) was found under open field which was grafted on 15th march and poly trench grafted on 15th of march respectively (table 2). this may be due to naturally active state of scion and stock tissues especially cambium during this period with the ideal temperature and humidity under polyhouse, which permits maximum regeneration of cells in cambium region and maintain their high degree of hydration level resulting the high graft success by permitting the active graft area for large period. these are inconformity with the finding of ebrahimi et al., 2006 who obtained better success under polyhouse condition in walnut grafting. interaction effect of environment conditions and physiological status of resting scion on graft s u c c es s a nd p la nt gr owt h wa s s t a t is t ic a lly significant. sub-apical scion wood recorded highest graft sprouting and success under all environmental conditions. interaction effect of physiological status of scion, environment conditions and grafting time on graft success and plant growth was significant. sub-apical scion under polyhouse condition grafted on 15th march recorded highest sprouting 88.33%, graft success 70.85%, plant height 195.33 cm and number of leaves per plant 174.83. this may be due to better carbohydrate and nitrogen ratio and ideal bud maturity in sub-apical portion of scion, active cell regeneration stage in mid of march, c ondu c ive t emp er a t u r e a nd hu mi dit y u nder polyhouse environment which activates maximum pa r enchyma cell of c a mbiu m la yer a t higher humidity resulting in better union in scion and rootstock and higher growth (bayazit et al. 2005). t he r esults ar e inconfor mity with findings of (ozakan and giimmis 2001). sub-apical status of resting scion wood grafted on 15th of march under polyhouse condition recorded highest success and p la nt gr owt h. t he s t u dies c u lmi na t ed wit h standardization of protocol for clonal propagation of walnut. singh et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 91-96, 2018 scion type x grafting time sprouting (%) graft success ( % ) plant height (cm ) number of leaves/plant apical x 15th feb 47.40 43.50 132.61 98.39 apical x 1st march 60.37 51.04 144.78 110.39 apical x 15th march 65.18 53.94 154.67 117.61 apical x 1st april 52.59 46.52 146.06 111.56 sub-apical x15th feb 58.89 50.17 143.00 105.22 sub-apical x1st march 71.85 58.14 152.00 115.61 sub-apical x15th march 80.55 64.62 171.17 147.67 sub-apical x1st april 62.96 52.67 153.28 117.94 basal x15th feb 49.26 44.58 144.44 110.11 basal x1st march 60.00 50.84 153.22 116.39 basal x15th march 67.59 55.43 165.50 134.44 basal x1st april 52.59 46.53 149.33 112.17 sem +_ 1.34 0.81 1.68 1.59 cd p= (0.05) 4.03 2.44 5.03 4.78 table 1. interaction effect of physiologically resting scions and grafting times on graft success and plant growth of walnut. 94 environment x scion status sprouting ( %) graft success ( % ) plant height ( cm ) number of leaves/plant poly trench x apical scion 57.10 49.66 123.79 111.00 poly trench x sub apical scion 70.41 57.47 131.92 127.71 poly trench x basal scion 57.50 49.39 131.88 121.46 open field x apical 50.97 45.57 159.29 111.21 open field x sub – apical 61.94 52.03 173.63 122.50 open field x basal 51.66 45.98 173.33 123.88 poly house x apical 60.28 51.01 150.50 106.25 poly house x sub – apical 73.33 59.70 159.03 114.63 poly house x basal 62.91 52.67 154.17 109.50 sem +_ 1.16 0.70 1.68 1.59 cd p= (0.05) 3.49 2.11 5.03 4.78 table 2. interaction effect of environment and of physiologically resting scions on graft success and plant growth of walnut vegetative propagation in walnut j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 91-96, 2018 interaction effect of sprouting (%) graft success (%) plant height (cm) number leaves/plant environment and grafting time poly trench x15th feb 52.22 46.31 119.06 109.00 poly trench x1st march 67.22 55.24 128.00 117.50 poly trench x15th march 72.59 58.79 146.00 144.33 poly trench x1st april 55.74 48.35 123.72 109.39 open field x15th feb 48.33 44.03 152.78 102.39 open field x1st march 57.22 49.20 166.94 116.89 open field x15th march 64.26 53.40 188.94 138.50 open field x1st april 49.63 44.79 166.33 119.00 poly house x15th feb 55.00 47.91 148.22 102.33 poly house x1st march 67.77 55.57 155.06 108.00 poly house x15th march 76.48 61.80 156.39 116.89 poly house x1st april 62.77 52.57 158.61 113.28 sem +_ 1.34 0.81 1.94 1.84 cd p= (0.05) 4.03 2.44 5.81 5.52 table3.interaction effects of environmental conditions and grafting time on sprouting (%), graft success (%), plant height (cm) and number of leaves per plant. 95 singh et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 91-96, 2018 table 4.interaction effect of physiologically resting scions, environmental conditions and grafting times on sprouting,graft success and plant growth of walnut. treatments sprouting (%) graft success(%) plant height (cm) number of leaves/plant apical scion x poly trench x 15th feb 46.11 42.76 137.83 97.50 apical scion x poly trench x 1st march 65.55 54.09 152.33 109.33 apical scion x poly trench x 15th march 68.33 55.84 152.83 124.33 apical scion x poly trench x 1st april 51.66 45.96 158.00 113.66 sub-apical scion x poly trench x 15th feb 61.66 51.79 150.33 101.66 sub-apical scion x poly trench x 1st march 74.44 59.83 157.00 118.33 sub-apical scion x poly trench x 15th march 81.66 65.08 171.16 145.83 sub-apical scion x poly trench x 1st april 63.88 53.15 157.66 124.16 basal scion x poly trench x 15th feb 48.88 44.37 156.50 108.00 basal scion x poly trench x 1st march 61.66 51.79 155.83 123.00 basal scion x poly trench x 15th march 67.77 55.41 144.16 145.33 basal scion x poly trench x 1st april 51.66 45.95 160.16 119.16 apical scion x open field x 15th feb 45.55 42.42 118.16 104.66 apical scion x open field x 1st march 52.77 46.59 123.50 107.00 apical scion x open field x 15th march 59.44 50.49 131.66 112.00 apical scion x open field x 1st april 46.11 42.76 120.83 113.00 sub-apical x open field x 15th feb 53.33 46.91 120.66 107.83 sub-apical x open field x 1st march 65.55 54.09 132.16 111.00 sub-apical x open field x 15th march 71.66 57.91 147.00 122.33 sub-apical x open field x 1st april 57.22 49.18 127.83 117.33 basal scion x open field x 1st feb 46.12 42.76 118.33 106.16 basal scion x open field x 1st march 53.33 46.92 128.33 106.00 basal scion x open field x 15th march 61.66 51.79 159.33 116.33 basal scion x open field x 1st april 45.55 42.43 121.50 109.50 apical scion x polyhouse x 15th feb 50.55 45.32 141.83 107.56 apical scion x polyhouse x 1st march 62.77 52.43 158.50 114.83 apical scion x polyhouse x 15th march 67.77 55.48 178.50 116.50 apical scion x polyhouse x 1st april 59.99 50.82 158.33 108.00 sub-apical x polyhouse x 15th feb 61.66 51.79 158.00 106.16 sub-apical x polyhouse x 1st march 75.55 60.48 166.83 117.50 sub-apical x polyhouse x 15th march 88.32 70.85 195.33 174.83 sub-apical x polyhouse x 1st april 67.77 55.67 174.33 112.33 basal scion x polyhouse x 1st feb 52.77 46.61 158.50 116.16 basal scion x polyhouse x 1st march 64.99 53.81 175.50 120.16 basal scion x polyhouse x 15th march 73.33 59.06 193.00 141.66 basal scion x polyhouse x 1st april 60.55 51.21 166.33 107.83 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(ms received 19 september 2016, revised 20 march 2018, accepted 21 april 2018) final sph -jhs coverpage 16-2 jan 2021 single c o n t e n t s journal of horticultural sciences volume 16 issue 2 june 2021 in this issue i-ii review phytoremediation of indoor air pollutants: harnessing the potential of 131-143 plants beyond aesthetics shalini jhanji and u.k.dhatt research articles response of fruit yield and quality to foliar application of micro-nutrients in 144-151 lemon [citrus limon (l.) burm.] cv. assam lemon sheikh k.h.a., singh b., haokip s.w., shankar k., debbarma r. studies on high density planting and nutrient requirement of banana in 152-163 different states of india debnath sanjit bauri f.k., swain s., patel a.n., patel a.r., shaikh n.b., bhalerao v.p., baruah k., manju p.r., suma a., menon r., gutam s. and p. patil mineral nutrient composition in leaf and root tissues of fifteen polyembryonic 164-176 mango genotypes grown under varying levels of salinity nimbolkar p.k., kurian r.m., varalakshmi l.r., upreti k.k., laxman r.h. and d. kalaivanan optimization of ga3 concentration for improved bunch and berry quality in 177-184 grape cv. crimson seedless (vitis vinifera l) satisha j., kumar sampath p. and upreti k.k. rgap molecular marker for resistance against yellow mosaic disease in 185-192 ridge gourd [luffa acutangula (l.) roxb.] kaur m., varalakshmi b., kumar m., lakshmana reddy d.c., mahesha b. and pitchaimuthu m. genetic divergence study in bitter gourd (momordica charantia l.) 193-198 nithinkumar k.r., kumar j.s.a., varalakshmi b, mushrif s.k., ramachandra r.k. , prashanth s.j. combining ability studies to develop superior hybrids in bell pepper 199-205 (capsicum annuum var. grossum l.) varsha v., smaranika mishra, lingaiah h.b., venugopalan r., rao k.v. kattegoudar j. and madhavi reddy k. ssr marker development in abelmoschus esculentus (l.) moench 206-214 using transcriptome sequencing and genetic diversity studies gayathri m., pitchaimuthu m. and k.v. ravishankar generation mean analysis of important yield traits in bitter gourd 215-221 (momordica charantia) swamini bhoi, varalakshmi b., rao e.s., pitchaimuthu m. and hima bindu k. influence of phenophase based irrigation and fertigation schedule on vegetative 222-233 performance of chrysanthemum (dendranthema grandiflora tzelev.) var. marigold vijayakumar s., sujatha a. nair, nair a.k., laxman r.h. and kalaivanan d. performance evaluation of double type tuberose iihr-4 (ic-0633777) for 234-240 flower yield, quality and biotic stress response bharathi t.u., meenakshi srinivas, umamaheswari r. and sonavane, p. anti-fungal activity of trichoderma atroviride against fusarium oxysporum f. sp. 241-250 lycopersici causing wilt disease of tomato yogalakshmi s., thiruvudainambi s., kalpana k., thamizh vendan r. and oviya r. seed transmission of bean common mosaic virus-blackeye cowpea mosaic strain 251-260 (bcmv-blcm) threaten cowpea seed health in the ashanti and brong-ahafo regions of ghana adams f.k., kumar p.l., kwoseh c., ogunsanya p., akromah r. and tetteh r. effect of container size and types on the root phenotypic characters of capsicum 261-270 raviteja m.s.v., laxman r.h., rashmi k., kannan s., namratha m.r. and madhavi reddy k. physio-morphological and mechanical properties of chillies for 271-279 mechanical harvesting yella swami c., senthil kumaran g., naik r.k., reddy b.s. and rathina kumari a.c. assessment of soil and water quality status of rose growing areas of 280-286 rajasthan and uttar pradesh in india varalakshmi lr., tejaswini p., rajendiran s. and k.k. upreti qualitative and organoleptic evaluation of immature cashew kernels under storage 287-291 sharon jacob and sobhana a. physical quality of coffee bean (coffea arabica l.) as affected by harvesting and 292-300 drying methods chala t., lamessa k. and jalata z vegetative vigour, yield and field tolerance to leaf rust in four f1 hybrids of 301-308 coffee (coffea arabica l.) in india divya k. das, shivanna m.b. and prakash n.s. limonene extraction from the zest of citrus sinensis, citrus limon, vitis vinifera 309-314 and evaluation of its antimicrobial activity wani a.k., singh r., mir t.g. and akhtar n. event report 315-318 national horticultural fair 2021 a success story dhananjaya m.v., upreti k.k. and dinesh m.r. subject index 319-321 author index 322-323 j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 206-214, 2021 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper okra [abelmoschus esculentus (l.) moench] also known as bhendi or lady’s finger is an important vegetable crop in india, west africa, south africa, brazil, usa and turkey. it belongs to the family malvaceae a nd is mainly gr own in tropics and subtropics of the world (priyavathi et al. 2018). the total okra production in the world was found to be 9.8 million-ton pods with an area of around 2.0 million ha and in india it is 6.1 million ton with an area of around 5.14 lakhs ha followed by nigeria (faostat, 2018). the chromosome number is reported variously for this species as 2n=130 and also 2n=72, invariably the chromosome number was found to be 2n=130 with the genome size of 1.6 gb (joshi and hardas 1956). it was reported that there are two kinds of a. esculentus l. as diploid 2n=60-70 and as a tetraploids 2n=120130, this could be due to ir r egula rities in the chromosome movement during the cell division of mitotic phase (nwangburuka et al. 2011). further this polyploidy level was assessed through the chloroplast dna (cpdna) intronic spacer and revealed that a. esculentus are the closest relatives of two wild species that is a. ficulneus and a. moschatus (ramya and bhat 2012). molecular markers have paved way for the assessment of genetic variations and genetic relationships among and within the species (chakravarthi and naravaneni 2006; yuan et al. 2014, 2015). molecular marker techniques like rflp, rapd, aflp and ssr are ssr marker development in abelmoschus esculentus (l.) moench using transcriptome sequencing and genetic diversity studies gayathri m.1,3, pitchaimuthu m.2 and ravishankar k.v.1* 1division of basic sciences, 2division of vegetable crops, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hessaraghatta lake post bangalore 560089, india 3department of biotechnology, centre for post-graduate studies, jain university, bangalore, india *corresponding author email : kv_ravishankar@yahoo.co.in, ravishankar.kv@icar.gov.in abstract okra [abelmoschus esculentus (l.) moench] also known as bhindi or lady’s finger is an important vegetable crop in india, west africa, south africa, brazil, usa and turkey. it belongs to the family malvaceae. okra is mainly grown in tropics and subtropics of the world. the studies regarding the molecular marker development are very limited; still there is no ssr marker development from comprehensive transcriptome data in this crop. this study presents the first comprehensive transcriptome data, using rna from different parts of okra such as root, stem, leaf, bud, flower, different stages of developing pod and from twenty days old plantlets of heat, drought and salt stressed. a total of 10,492 ssrs were identified in this study. among these tri repeats (2112) were found to be predominant followed by di (1285), tetra (149), penta (24) and hexa repeats. thirty-four ssrs were standardized for pcr and screened in 36 okra genotypes and accessions. among these, 18 ssr primers were found to be highly polymorphic with the pic values more than 0.5. and the overall results of analysis showed that expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.125 to 0.971 with a mean of 0.593; the values for observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.000 to 0.839 with the mean of 0.203; the number of allele per locus ranged from 1 to 30 and the polymorphic information content (pic) ranged from 0.119 to 0.955 with the mean value of 0.554. the genic ssr markers developed will help in germplasm characterization mapping, genetic diversity studies, molecular assisted breeding and also in gene discovery. key words: abelmoschus esculentus, microsatellite markers, next generation sequencing, rna sequencing and transcriptome introduction 207 ssr marker development in abelmoschus esculentus (l.) j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 206-214, 2021 widely used for genetic characterization and crop improvement (sawadogo et al. 2009). especially in the less researched species, transcriptome analysis plays a vital role for the development of molecular markers (strickler et al. 2012). recently, the first report on genomic ssr marker in okra were developed using next-generation sequencing technology (ngs) which wa s used for the a ssessment of genetic r ela tedness a nd cr oss species tr a nsfer a bility (ravishankar et al. 2018). ssr markers play a key role in many applications of plant genetics and breeding due to its codominant inheritance, multiallelic nature, high reproducibility and good genome coverage (bertini et al. 2006). there are some studies reported on ssr developed using transcriptome through ngs in okra (schafleitner et al. 2013; zhang et al. 2017) and transcriptome data on m. balbisiana and m. acuminate ssp. using illumina ga ii x technology (ravishankar et al. 2015). with the advent of sequencing technology, rna sequencing has become an efficient and convenient technique for the ssr detection (ronoh et al. 2018; xu et al. 2017). however, these studies used transcriptome from one or very few tissues, which may not completely cover genic ssrs in the okra genome. keeping this in view in this study, we present the first comprehensive characterization of combined okra transcriptome from root, stem, leaf, bud and flower, different stages of developing pods and from the abiotic stressed plantlets (drought, heat and salt). here we also report ssr markers which would greatly help in mapping genes and linkage map development. materials and methods plant material and dna isolation thirty-six okra genotypes including, a few varieties from germplasm collection were used in this study (table 1). young leaves were collected from the okra plants which were maintained at indian council of agricultural researchindian institute of horticultural research bengaluru india (icar-iihr), and the total genomic dna was isolated by using the modified ctab method (ravishankar et al. 2000) with the repetition of chloroform: isoamylalcohol (24:1) for three to five times till the mucilage was removed. finally. sdna concentration was determined using nano drop (nabi micro digita l) by taking the absorption at 260 and 280nm. rna isolation and sequencing for the transcriptome sequencing we isolated rna from tissues of root, stem, leaf, bud, flower, different stages of developing pod and from twenty days old seedlings were stressed for heat (400c for 4h), salt (200mm nacl) for two days and drought (five days of dehydration) of accession iihr-299 using by trizol method where 30 mg of the sample were ground into fine powder using liquid nitrogen and 1ml of trizol (takara bio inc. japan) was added to it and centr ifuged a t 12, 500 r pm for 20 min, to the supernatant equal amount of chloroform was added and centrifuged at 12,500 rpm for 15 min and equal amount of isopropanol was added to the supernatant a nd precipita ted at -80 0c for 1hr followed by centrifugation at 12,500 rpm for 15 min and the pellet was washed using 75% ethanol and dried pellet was dissolved using depc water and the rna integrity was examined by gel electrophoresis. rna purity was examined using nano drop (nabi micro digital) and the equal amount of rna from each samples were pooled and sent for rna sequencing. sequencing, quality control and de novo assembly rnaseq was done at sandoor speciality diagnostics pvt. ltd. hyderabad facility using illumina hiseq table 1. genotypes and the accessions used in the study genotypes /accessions 1. pule vimukha 2. azad bendi 3. punjab 7 4. kashi kranthi 5. varsha upahar 6. parbhani kranthi 7. kashi leela 8. pusa sawani 9. shakthi 10. punjab padmini 11. azad bendi 3 12. kashi vibhuthi 13. ic-0600808 14. ic-0602363 15. ic-0128888 16. ic-0282274 17. ic-0469655 18. ic-0043752 19. ic-0282266 20. ic-0128903 21. ic-0128885 22. ic-0085595 23. ic-0397980 24. ic-0282296 25. ic-0282232 26. ic-0128891 27. ic-0069242 28. ic-0433743 29. ic-0069302 30. ic-0433628 31. ic-0043750 32. ic-0600832 33. ic-0397271 34. ic-0560493 35. ic-0282233 36. ic-0600256 208 gayathri et al platform following manufactures instructions. paired end cdna library are from the pooled sample (root, stem, leaf, bud, flower, different parts of developing pods, drought stress, heat stress and salt stress plantlets) to get comprehensive okra transcriptome. then quality control were carried out to filter out the adaptors low quality reads >20% of bases and the unknown nucleotides with >5% reads. the clean reads was used for calculating the proportion of nucleotides with quality value larger than 20 (q20). de-novo assembly was done using trinity software assembly with the default parameters for generating contigs and transcripts (grabherr et al. 2011). the ngs data was submitted to ncbi (srr 13451946). mining of ssr primer and designing the assembled unigenes were further examined for the presence of microsatellites using misa software (suping et al. 2013). a total of 10492 ssr primers were identified and 2532 ssr primers were designed using primer 3.0 software (untergasser et al. 2012). a total of 51 ssr primers were randomly selected and these were used for pcr standa r diza tion a nd amplification of 36 okra genotypes. pcr conditions and genotyping for the amplification of mined ssrs, fluorescent based m13 tailed pcr assay was performed (oetting et al. 1995). and all the primers at 5’ end were labelled with standard m13 tail (schuelke 2000). a total of 51 ssr markers were initially synthesised and screened with pooled okra dna. further the primers which amplified, clear bands were screened over 36 okra genotypes. the pcr conditions employed are as follows initial denaturation at 94oc for 3 min, followed by 35 cycles of dena tur a tion, a nnea ling a nd polymerization steps (94oc for 30s, 50-60oc and 72oc for 1 min) and a final extension of 72oc for 8 min. pcr amplification was carried out in 20 μl volume containing 75-100 ng of okra dna, 2 μl of 10x taq buffer (tris ph with 15mm mgcl2), 1.5 μl of mgcl2 (25mm of mgcl2), 0.5μl of dntps (10mm), 0.5 μl of forward primer m13 tail (5 pm), 1 μl of reverse primer m13 tail (5 pm), 0.5 μl of probes fam,vic, ned and pet (5 pm), 0.2 μl of taq polymerase (5 units per μl) (genei. pvt. ltd bengaluru) and 9.8 μl of nuclease free water. all the pcr reactions were carried out using bio-rad thermal cycler (bio-rad, us). the amplified pcr products were separated on abi3730 genetic analyzer (applied biosystem, usa), at m/s eurofins facility bengaluru. the obtained data were further analysed using peak scanner software (applied biosystems, usa) for determining the exact fragment size in base pair. statistical analysis the fragment size in base pair of the pcr products were used for calculating the expected heterozygosity (he), observed heterozygosity (ho), polymorphic information content (pic) and number of alleles per locus employing cervus 3.0 software (kalinowski et al. 2007). and the dendrogram analysis was performed using neighbour-joining method (nj) employing da r win softwar e (per rier et al. 2003; http:// darwin.cirad.fr/darwin). results sequencing and de novo assembly a total of 3.8gb raw data were obtained using illumina-hiseq platform from comprehensive okra transcriptome analysis (root, stem, leaf, bud, flower, different parts of developing pods, drought stress, heat stress and salt stress plantlets). quality control analysis was performed in order to filter out the reads containing adaptor s, low qua lity reads and the unknown nucleotides. the total number of generated transcripts was 112597 with maximum transcripts length of 20701bp and minimum transcripts length of 201bp and total length of transcripts generated was 72314062bp. the size distributions of the transcripts are given in the table 2. and the sequencing analysis of gc content was found to be 47.1% and at content as 53.9%. table 2. de novo assembly statistics transcriptome assembly transcripts generated : 112597 maximum transcript length : 20701bp minimum transcript length : 201bp average transcript length : 642.2bp total transcripts length : 72314062bp transcripts > 100 bp : 112597 transcripts > 500 bp : 47905 transcripts > 1 kbp : 21670 transcripts > 10 kbp : 722369251 number of reads used total number of reads : 24885138 percentage of reads used : 89.9% j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 206-214, 2021 209 assembly statistics and designing primers all the obta ined unigenes wer e scr eened for identification of ssrs using misa software. the total number of examined sequence was 112597 with a total of 72314062bp and the total number of identified ssrs was found to be 10492 and the number of ssr designed using primer 3.0 software were 2532 (untergasser et al. 2012). number of ssr containing sequence were 9849 and the number of sequence containing more than one ssr is 568 and the number of ssr present in compound formation is found to be 783 (table 3). further the identified ssrs were screened for di, tri, tetra, penta and hexa nucleotide repeat motifs (a total of 1285 di-repeats, 2112 trirepeats, 149 tetra-repeats, 24 penta-repeats, 9 hexarepeats and 783 complex repeats were observed). trirepeats were found to be more predominant class of microsatellite than any other classes like di, tetra, penta and hexrepeats (fig 1). the kind of repeats observed in high frequency among tri was found to be (agt)10 and (cca)10 and di-repeats as (ta)22 and tetra as (tttc)18 and among hexa all repeats were found to present once. table 3. assembly statistics of ssrs total number of sequences examined 112597 total size of examined sequences (bp) 72314062 total number of identified ssrs 10492 number of ssr containing sequences 9849 number of sequences containing more than 1 ssr 568 number of ssrs present in compound formation 783 fig. 1. distribution to different repeat type classes of ssr repeats genetic analysis the allelic data regarding the expected heterozygosity, observed heterozygosity and number of alleles per locus were examined using cervus 3.0 software. and the values for expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.125 to 0.971 with the mean value of 0.593; the values for observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.000 to 0.839 with a mean value of 0.203; the number of a llele per locus r a nged fr om 1 to 30 a nd the polymorphic information content (pic) ranged from 0.119 to 0.955 with the mean pic value of 0.554 and pi (probability of identity) values ranged from 0.0036 to 1.0000 with a mean value of 0.263 (table 4). dendrogram analysis showed that the genotypes used in the study were classified into three major clusters (fig 2). fig. 2. dendrogram analysis showing the genetic relationship among abelmoschus esculentus l. accessions using transcriptome ssr marker data ssr marker development in abelmoschus esculentus (l.) j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 206-214, 2021 210 table 4. genetic analysis of microsatellite loci using 34 ssrs sl. primer primers tm allele no. of ho he pic pino. name size allele/locus value 1 iihr-2434 f: agcttccgtatattttggatt r: ccaaactatccaactatgctt 55 160 18 0.156 0.884 0.861 0.0265 2 iihr-1877 f: tgagattcgtttgatcgttta r: ctttgggtcaaagctgtc 55 151 4 0.200 0.444 0.408 0.3464 3 iihr-817 f: taaatatgcttctcaggcatt r: cgtcttgttacgatttatatgc 55 163 1 0.000 0.324 0.307 1.0000 4 iihr-518 f: tccctcgtactagatcattca r: gtaacaaggatgagcaaaaga 55 150 5 0.143 0.508 0.457 0.2935 5 iihr-205 f: gggaagattttgctaaacttatt r: ccaataggatgtctcagtcaa 57 151 5 0.200 0.414 0.386 0.3727 6 iihr-91 f: tgatcttcgattcatccttat r: agaatggcagcgccaaaag 55 151 3 0.030 0.287 0.250 0.5472 7 iihr-30 f: taaaattttcccatcaatcc r: ggtgtttgttttgtggtgata 60 172 4 0.094 0.424 0.371 0.3861 8 iihr-18 f: tctctttaaaatcaccgctaa r: tttagcaaggaagggagaa 57 152 19 0.152 0.908 0.887 0.0187 9 iihr-353 f: taaaaatcagagccttccttt r: cagatttctgagagcaaagag 55 174 6 0.457 0.701 0.644 0.1429 10 iihr-343 f: gatatgggatggttgaaatc r: gagaaaaccaacggatgat 57 152 5 0.171 0.472 0.439 0.3122 11 iihr-328 f: taggaaaactacagcaaggatt r: ggacttggttctgcaatct 60 150 3 0.000 0.125 0.119 0.7731 12 iihr-319 f: gcacttgatattgcattacatt r: ccaaatcattatcagggagt 55 150 3 0.156 0.347 0.311 0.4641 13 iihr-303 f: taggaggacaatcacagaaaa r: ggtaacccaagtgttgttctt 57 151 22 0.176 0.921 0.902 0.0139 14 iihr-277 f: gctcaagtaagcattaaaacag r: gtcgtgcaaaacttgtctaag 55 162 11 0.000 0.869 0.839 0.0370 15 iihr-267 f: taaggagtccaaactccaact r: tggttgtttaggttccaattt 55 160 11 0.313 0.760 0.724 0.0881 16 iihr-254 f: tgtctgtagtctcgcaacttt r: atacattgacggtacaagtgg 57 152 13 0.794 0.679 0.620 0.1590 17 iihr-244 f: tggggcctaagtaaatacaat r: aaagttagttcaatgcagttttc 57 180 11 0.030 0.759 0.732 0.0792 18 iihr-221 f: acaggtccataaatgctatga r: ccctaatattattgtttttaccc 58 161 7 0.000 0.673 0.605 0.1713 19 iihr-195 f: tcacttaaccccatgaaaaat r: gtttctgagaatccttgctg 55 158 28 0.324 0.957 0.940 0.0060 20 iihr-165 f: ggatgaccaaaacgaagtg r: ctgtcattttctttccttctg 57 151 2 0.000 0.507 0.375 0.3752 21 iihr-154 f: cgccgtagtacctcaatctt r: gcaattaacggtgacgac 55 153 30 0.333 0.971 0.955 0.0036 22 iihr-99 f: tgaaaagaacatgaaagccta r: ccttccttcctagtcatcatc 57 160 15 0.156 0.742 0.707 0.0958 23 iihr-94 f: tatatttgcagcatttgtctgt r: aacagtcggtacttagacagc 57 151 18 0.545 0.891 0.870 0.0228 24 iihr-68 f: gaacttttggaatttgtgtca r: ttcttggagtaggagcttgat 60 153 11 0.061 0.822 0.791 0.0543 25 iihr-50 f: gttcaggatcagagtcgag r: gcggcctcaatattcact 55 150 8 0.032 0.589 0.544 0.2118 26 iihr-36 f: gggacagagttgaaaatgac r: ggatcaggaatgttatcgact 55 150 7 0.065 0.396 0.377 0.3856 27 iihr-27 f: ggaactccggtggagaag r: aagctttatctcaaaaatcc 57 150 7 0.188 0.624 0.589 0.1738 gayathri et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 206-214, 2021 211 28 iihr-11 f: tggaagagaagaagaacaaca r: ttcacgatgaactgacc 55 151 6 0.645 0.556 0.478 0.2741 29 iihr-02 f: aacaacaacaacaacagtcg r: cataaaaagtgtttgcgtctc 55 158 18 0.147 0.879 0.855 0.0295 30 iihr-1463 f: tgacgatcttcacaggctagta r: aagtgaaccaggtagcatgt 57 153 4 0.219 0.584 0.521 0.2342 31 iihr-1506 f: ttgaaactcccactatcaaaa r: taattatggaggtggaggtg 55 150 4 0.839 0.543 0.447 0.3042 32 iihr-1896 f: caatgccagatttctttgtag r: ttccttgctttagttttcctt 55 163 3 0.029 0.140 0.132 0.7494 33 iihr-1835 f: ccattatatcttatccgttcg r: catacacgtcaaaaacatcaa 55 214 5 0.286 0.505 0.467 0.2825 34 iihr-1680 f: ggtggcaacattatccat r: ggaggtggctataacagaaat 55 168 3 0.031 0.294 0.256 0.5386 mean 9.412 0.2037 0.5933 0.5546 0.2639 discussion okra is an important vegetable crop in india, africa and other asian countries and is considered as a minor crop at the genome studies until recently, very little attention was paid towards its genetic improvement and generation of genomic resources. the studies regarding the molecular marker development are very limited, and there is a still no compr ehensive transcriptome data for this crop. this study presents the first comprehensive transcriptome data from different parts of okra such as from root, stem, leaf, bud, flower, different stages of developing pod and from twenty days old plantlets of heat, drought and salt stressed by rna sequencing. rna sequencing is considered as an effective way for obtaining the gene sequences of a non-model crop (strickler et al. 2012) and for developing the ssr markers (zhang et al., 2010; guo et al., 2016& ravishankar et al. 2015). the application and development of molecular marker technology as it detects the genetic differences at the dna level and is commonly used in the evaluation of genetic diversity and mapping (yoder et al. 2018; niemandt et al. 2018 & pan et al. 2017). ssrs are considered as an important marker for application in plant genetics and breeding studies, because of its high reproducibility, codominant, multi allelic nature and good genome coverage. genic ssrs developed from transcriptome data are highly useful as they reflect functional variability. on an average 112,597 unigenes were with an maximum length of 20,701 were obtained through comprehensive okra transcriptome which was little lesser than a study on combined lea f and pod transcriptome of okra which yielded a total of 150,000 unigenes (schafleitner et al. 2013) and higher than studies on okra by ngs using rna sequencing from the lea f sa mples which yielded a total 66, 382 assembled unigenes (priyavathi et al. 2018); 94,769 unigenes with an length of 1921bp were obtained through ngs of transcriptome sequencing in okra to drought stress (shi et al. 2020) and 293971 unigenes with okra transcriptome sequencing of five organs (roots, stem, leaves, flower and fruits) (zhang et al. 2018). in our present study though a large number of unigenes have been produced compound than a study by (schafleitner et al. 2013) and higher than the other studies which indicates that the sequencing depth was not sufficient to represent the whole transcriptome. deeper and increased sequencing would have reduced the redundancy of unigenes annotation. however, r edunda ncy a t cer tain level is a lso due to the allopolyploid of abelmoschus, where the transcripts from different genomes with slightly differ ent sequences a r e pr esent in the tr a nscr iptome (schafleitner et al. 2013). the number of ssrs identified in this study are 10, 492 which is high compared to earlier studies on abelmoschus esculentus 9,574 (priyavathi et al. 2018) and clerodendrum trichotomum which is 6,444 (chen et al. 2019) and among the mined ssrs the tri repeats (2112) are more predominant followed by di (1285), tetra (149), penta (24) and hexa (9) this pattern is similar in earlier studies in abelmoschus esculentus (shi et al. 2020; priyavathi et al. 2018 & schafleitner et al. 2013). the frequency of tri repeats are higher in transcriptome sequencing (schafleitner et al. 2013) because of the shortening or the extension of amino acid in proteins may not cause much alteration in ssr marker development in abelmoschus esculentus (l.) j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 206-214, 2021 212 functions and other type of repeats cause frame shift mutation. but the mechanisms behind the evolution and origin of microsatellite repeats are not very clear. so, the relative dominant occurrence of repeats motifs may be due to their evolution through various selection pressures. it was assumed that replication slippage and unequal crossing over are the few common mutation mechanisms which might come addition or removal of motifs leading to the variation in length (buschiazzo and gemmell 2006; sonah et al. 2011). in the present study, we successfully identified 10,492 ssrs and 34 ssrs were standardized for pcr and screened over 36 okra genotypes and accessions. among these 18 ssr primers were found to be highly polymorphic with the pic values more than 0.5. and the overall statistical analysis revealed that expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.125 to 0.971 with the mean 0.593; the values for observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.000 to 0.839 with the mean of 0.203; the number of allele per locus ranged from 1 to 30 and the polymorphic information content (pic) ranged from 0.119 to 0.955 with the mean value of 0.554. similar kind of work were performed on okra reported polymorphic information content (pic) across all 50 loci values ranged from 0.000 to 0.865 with a mean value of 0.519. the observed and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.000 to 0.750, and 0.000 to 0.972, respectively. alleles per locus ranged from 1 to 27 (ravishankar et al. 2018). a study for the development and characterization of ssr in cotton with the mean pic of 0.65 (john et al., 2012) and a genetic diversity in cotton with the mean pic of 0.8 (muhammad et al. 2013). dendrogram analysis depicted that all the genotypes used in the study were classified into three major clusters with most of the accessions grouped to cluster i, and the cluster ii & iii with the mixture of genotypes and accessions. the ssr markers developed here will help in genetic diversity studies, mapping, marker assisted breeding and helpful in gene discovery. being gene based ssr markers, these markers would be great help in tagging genes for various traits. acknowledgements we thank the rkvy (rashtriya krishi vikas yojana) for the financial assistance. bertini, c. d., schuster, i., sediyama, t., barros, e. g. and moreira, m. a. 2006. characterization and genetic diversity analysis of cotton cultivars using microsatellites. genet. mol. biol, 29: 321–329. 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(received on 24.08.2021, revised on 27.11.2021 and accepted on 18.01.2022) gayathri et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 206-214, 2021 00 contents.pdf 09 ravishankar.pdf 19 lamesssa.pdf 20 divya.pdf 21 wani.pdf 23 index and last pages.pdf micrornas (mirnas) are non-coding rnas (1922 nt) molecules that are derived from one arm of the precursor mirna sequences. these are produced from the non-coding portion of dna and are generally transcribed as independent units. in plants, mirnas bind to proteincoding regions of mrnas and cause mrna degradation (llave et al, 2002) and translational repression at the ‘seed region’ (i.e., 2-8 nts at 5’ end of a mature mirna). in plants, mirnas are processed from transcripts that can fold into a stable hairpin (llave et al, 2002). several mirna sequences have been found to be highly conserved in different species, and, pre-mirnas have a unique secondary structure, which helps identify them through in silico approaches. nomenclature predicted mirnas are named as per mirbase guidelines (griffiths–jones, 2006). name of the microrna consists of the prefix ‘mir’, followed by a dash. for example, osa-mir444 is a mirna where ‘osa’ indicates the name of the species, oriza sativa, ‘mir’ indicates mature sequences, and ‘444’ indicates the order of its discovery. sometimes, both mir444a and mir444b are present. here ‘444a’ indicates that it was discovered before mir444b. sometimes, micrornas are denoted as mir-444-5p or mir-444-3p, which indicates the origin of micrornas from the 3’ and 5’ end, respectively. short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):90-93, 2015 a guide to in silico identification of mirnas and their targets v. radhika, kanupriya, r. rashmi and c. aswath division of biotechnology icar-indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bengaluru – 560 089, india e-mail: vr@iihr.ernet.in abstract micrornas (mirna) are non-coding rna molecules that play a critical role in gene regulation including translational repression in animals and mrna cleavage in plants. micrornas control various cellular, metabolic and physiological processes in living organisms. in this paper, we provide an overview on the significance of mirna, nomenclature, their biogenesis and the pipelines for prediction of mirna and their targets. these tools are important for identification of conserved mirnas in crops where mirnas have not been previously discovered. the newlyidentified mirnas and their targets play an important role in understanding regulation of growth, development and gene silencing in various life forms. key words: mirna, bioinformatics, mirna targets, structure, software tools biogenesis of micrornas microrna genes are found in the intergenic regions of dna sequences. the process of mirna biogenesis starts from the nucleus, and is completed in the cytoplasm. in the nucleus, sequences that contain mature mirna sequences are transcribed by rna polymerase ii (polu ii) into a primary rna. the primary mirna is then processed in the nucleus by endonuclease into a precursor mirna sequence, containing 60-100nts long stem loop structure. the pre-mirna is then cleaved into a mirna:mirna* duplex by a dicer-like enzyme (dcl-1) in the nucleus, and, these sequences are exported from nucleus to the cytoplasm. in the cytoplasm, one of these strands of precursor mirna produces the mature mirna, which is approximately 22nts. this gets associated with the rna-induced silencing complex (risc) to interact with its mrna targets. source of sequences for mirna prediction microirna can be predicted from different sequences, viz., expressed sequence tags (ests) (reddy et al, 2012), genomic survey sequences (gss), new generation sequences (ngs) (kanupriya et al, 2013), or unigenes. these sequences can be generated or extracted from any public repository database and used for the prediction of mirna. known mirna sequences are available in mirbase database (http://www.mirbase.org). 91 a guide to in silico identification of mirnas and their targets prediction of conserved mirnas blastx/ blastn tools help identify query sequences that contain mirna homologs. precursor mirna sequences are extracted from sequences containing mirna homologs by taking into consideration 50 nucleotides upstream and 50 nucleotides downstream from the mature mirna position. secondary structure and mature microrna prediction secondary structure of these pre-mirna sequences is then predicted and the minimum free energy is computed. identification of mature mirna depends on the following parameters (reddy et al, 2012): 1. rna sequences should fold into a complete stemloop hairpin 2. length of mature mirnas should be between 19 and 21 nts 3. predicted mirnas should have ≤ 2 nt mismatches 4. minimum free-energy of the secondary structure should be ≥ 18 kcal mole-1 5. a+u content should be in the range of 30-70% target prediction mirna target genes control biological, metabolic and physiological processes in plants and, hence, identification of their targets is important. they help understand the role and functional importance of mirnas. it has been shown that one mirna can target more than one regulatory gene. functional characterization of a mirna target is essential for providing a biological insight into each mirna-mediated pathway (reddy et al, 2012). in plants, mirnas are important in regulating plant growth and development. a flow-chart depicting various steps in the prediction of mirna and their targets is presented in fig. 1. functional annotation of mirna targets identification of biological information of the coding portion of a sequence is an important aspect. micrornas play an important role in regulating gene expression in a variety of manners, including translational repression, mrna cleavage and deadenylation, in both plants and animals. the role of individual mirnas in an organism, namely biochemical, biological, metabolic, gene expression, and physiological function, can be predicted using gene ontology (go) and kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (kegg) tools. tools for mirna and target prediction various tools, both online and offline, are available for predicting mirna, their secondary structures and targets (table 1); mirauto (lee et al, 2013) is a comprehensible tool for mirna prediction from small rna sequencing data in plant species. mirauto software analyzes the expression retrieval of known mirnas from mirbase retrieval of query sequences from repository database blastx/ blastn query sequences with 0-2 mismatches to known mirnas selection of precursor mirna secondary structure prediction of pre-mirnas selection of potential mature mirnas target prediction functional annotation of targets ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ fig. 1. flowchart for the prediction of mirna and their targets table 1. tools for mirna analysis tool website tools for mirna and target prediction. mirauto http://nature.snu.ac.kr/software/mirauto.htm maturepred http://nclab.hit.edu.cn/maturepred/ mirpara http://www.whiov.ac.cn/bioinformatics/mirpara mirdeep www.australianprostatecentre.org/research/software/ mirdeep-star micropc http://www.biotec.or.th/isl/micropc c-mii http://www.biotec.or.th/isl/c-mii/documentation.php mirtour http://bio2server.bioinfo.uni-plovdiv.bg/mirtour/ psrnatarget http://plantgrn.noble.org/psrnatarget/ tapir http://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/webtools/tapir tools for structure prediction rnafold subtiliswiki.net/wiki/index.php/rnafold_webserver unafold http://www.bioinfo.rpi.edu/applications/hybrid/ download.php mfold http://www.bioinfo.rpi.edu/applications/mfold tools for functional annotation go www.geneontology.org kegg www.genome.jp/kegg j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):90-93, 2015 92 of 5’ -end position of compared rnas in reference sequences, to candidate mirnas, for the possibility of presence of mirna fragments. maturepred tool, based on machine learning method, is used for accurately predicting plant mirnas. using this tool, we can extract the position, structure and energy related information from real/ pseudo mirna:mirna* duplex; mirpara (wu et al, 2011) is based on svm, and predicts mature mirna coding regions from genome-scale sequences. in this tool, sequences are classified from mirbase into animal, plant and overall categories, and it uses a support vector machine to train the three models based on an initial set of 77 parameters related to physical properties of the pre-mirna and its mirnas; mirdeep is a non-comparative computational method developed for identification of mirnas from a pool of sequenced rna transcripts, obtained by deep-sequencing experiments (an et al, 2013). this method at first aligns the transcript reads to genomic locations, and selects genomic sequences from locations that can form hairpin secondary structures. micropc (μpc) (mhuantong et al, 2009) is an online tool for predicting and comparing plant mirnas and their targets. it offers three, main interactive pages for comparing, searching and predicting plant mirnas. target-align was proposed for plant mirna target identification, and developed as both web and command line versions. c-mii (numark et al, 2012) is a stand-alone software package, with graphical user interface for identifying, manipulating and analyzing plant mirnas and targets. c-mii tool performs sequence-similarity search, secondary-structure folding, automatic stem-loop identification and manipulation, and, functional and gene ontology (go) annotation. it can be used for plant mirna and target prediction only; mirtour (milev et al, 2011), based on comparative approach, is used for both mirna and target prediction. all the steps of mirna and target prediction like homolog search, mirna precursor, target prediction and annotation, are performed by the same set of input sequences. psrnatarget (dai et al, 2011) is a plant small rna target analysis server, which consists of two important functions: (i) reverse complementary matching between small rna and target transcript using a proven scoring schema, and (ii) targetsite accessibility evaluation by calculating unpaired energy (upe) required to ‘open’ secondary structure around small rna’s target site on mrna. the psrna target incorporates recent discoveries in plant mirna target recognition. tapir (bonnet et al, 2010) is a web server designed for the prediction of plant microrna targets. the server offers a possibility of searching for plant mirna targets, using a fast and a precise algorithm. tools for mirna structure prediction rnafold (zuker and stiegler, 1981) is a tool which reads rna sequences, calculates their minimum free energy and structure, and, returns the structure in bracket notation and its free energy. unafold software (markham et al, 2008) is a collection of several programs that simulate folding, hybridization, and melting pathways for one or two singlestranded nucleic acid sequences. secondary structure prediction for single-stranded rna or dna combines free energy minimization, partition function calculations and stochastic sampling. it is an offline tool. mfold is a web server for prediction of secondary structure of singlestranded nucleic acids. micrornas regulate gene expression in a variety of ways such as translational repression, mrna cleavage and deadenylation in plants. a number of computational tools based on comparative and non-comparative algorithms are available for identification of mature mirna and their targets. in this study, an algorithm for prediction and analysis of mirnas through bioinformatics tools has been presented. references an, j., lai, j., lehman, m.l. and nelson, c.c. 2013. mirdeep: an integrated application tool for mirna identification from rna sequencing data. nucleic acids res., 41:727-37 bonnet, e., he, y., billiau, k. and peer, y.v. 2010. tapir, a web server for the prediction of plant microrna targets, including target mimics. bioinformatics, 26:1566-1568 dai, x. and zhao, p.x. 2011. psrnatarget: a plant small rna target analysis server. nucleic acids res., 39:155-159 griffiths-jones, s. 2006. mirbase: the microrna sequence database. methods mol. biol., 342:129–138 kanupriya, c., radhika v. and ravishankar, k.v. 2013. ‘mining of mirnas in pomegranate (punica granatum l.) by pyrosequencing of part of the genome.’ j. hort’l. sci. biotech., 88:735-742 lee, j., kim, d., park, j.h., choi, i. and shin, c. 2013. mirauto: an automated user-friendly microrna prediction tool utilizing plant small rna sequencing data. molecules and cells, 35:342-347 llave, c., kasschau, k.d., rector, m. and carrington, j.c. 2002. endogeneous and silencing-associated small rnas in plants. pl. cell, 14:1605–1619 radhika et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):90-93, 2015 93 markham, n.r. and zuker, m. 2008. unafold: software for nucleic acid folding and hybridization. methods mol. biol., 453:3-31 mhuantong, w. and wichadakul, d. 2009. micropc (ìpc): a comprehensive resource for predicting and comparing plant micrornas. bmc genomics, 10:366 milev, i., yahubyan, g., minkov, i. and baev, v. 2011. mirtour: plant mirna and target prediction tool. bioinformation, 6:248-249 numnark, s., mhuantong, w., ingsriswang, s. and wichadakul, d. 2012. c-mii: a tool for plant mirna and target identification. bmc genomics, 13:7-16 reddy, d.c.l., radhika, v., bhardwaj, a., khandagalek, s. and aswath, c. 2012. mirnas in brinjal (solanum melongena) mined through an in silico approach. j. hort’l. sci. biotech., 87:186-192 rhoades, m.w., reinhart, b.j., lim, l.p., burge, c.b., bartel, b. and bartel, d.p. 2002. prediction of plant microrna targets. cell, 110:513–520 wu, y., wei, b., liu, h., li, t. and rayner, s. 2011. mirpara: a svm-based software tool for prediction of most probable microrna coding regions in genome scale sequences. bmc bioinformatics, 12:107 zuker, m. and stiegler, p. 1981. optimal computer folding of large rna sequences using thermodynamic and auxiliary information. nucl acid res, 9:133-148 (ms received 07 june 2014, revised 31 march 2015, accepted 07 april 2015) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):90-93, 2015 a guide to in silico identification of mirnas and their targets page 124 impact of gamma rays on turmeric crop (curcuma longa l.) h. usha nandhini devi and n. chezhiyan department of vegetable crops horticultural college & research institute tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore 641 003, india e-mail : drushajana@rediffmail.com abstract experiments were carried out during 2000-2003 at the department of spices and plantation crops, horticultural college and research institute, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore, to assess the impact of gamma irradiation on days to maturity, yield and curing per cent in turmeric (curcuma longa l.). the experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design with two replications. three genotypes namely, salem local g 1 (cl144), alleppy finger turmeric g 2 (cl146) and pts 43 g 3 (cl147) were treated with seven doses of gamma rays (1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 kr) along with control. the plants matured earlier and yield per plant and curing percentage improved at 2.0 kr, followed by 2.5 kr, whereas, higher doses of gamma rays had a negative effect on yield and curing percentage and these higher doses prolonged maturity. among the genotypes used, g 1 (cl144) was found to show a good response to gamma irradiation. key words : gamma rays, turmeric crop, irradiation, yield, curing percentage introduction turmeric (curcuma longa l.) is one of the important spices grown in india and plays an important role in the national economy. turmeric types can be grouped into three, based on the time taken to harvest, as short, medium and long-duration types. short -duration types are known as kasturi. they mature in seven months. mediumduration kesari types (bontha) mature in eight months. long-duration types mature in nine months and are superior to the above two groups in rhizome yield and other quality parameters. flowering is rare in these types (rao et al, 1975). cultivated turmeric, c. longa is considered to be a sterile triploid with somatic chromosome number of sixty three (2n= 3x=63), while, c. aromatica is a tetraploid (2n=4x=84) and sets seeds. curcuma langa being a sterile triploid, it is flowers fail to set seed. the variable success rate of seed set in ‘prabha’ and ‘prathiba’ (which are open pollinated progenies in turmeric under kerala conditions) by recombination breeding programme has been reported by sasikumar et al (1994). turmeric is asexually propagated with no seed production under tamil nadu conditions, restricting the breeder to rely on clonal selection, which is the major mode for its improvement. the first step in improvement of this clonally propagated crop is to exploit the variability existing among the land races and to create more variability through mutation and somaclonal variation. it being a polyploid (amphidiploid), use of mutagens in turmeric for inducing variability assumes greater significance. success in mutation breeding depends largely on understanding the process of induction and recovery of mutants and screening methods for evaluating desired mutants. in turmeric, systematic attempts for induction of mutation are scanty and methodologies for induction and recovery of mutants are yet to be standardized. an attempt was therefore made to induce variability for days to maturity, yield and curing percentage by irradiation with gamma rays. material and methods the present investigation was carried out during 2000 2003 at the department of spices and plantation crops, horticultural college and research institute, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore. the experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design and replicated twice under open field condition. three genotypes, namely, salem local g 1 (cl144), alleppy finger turmeric g 2 (cl146) and pts 43 g 3 (cl147) were used. gamma ray source was cobalt 60 in 1000 ci, j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 124-128, 2006 page 125 emitting 5000 rads per minute at the time of irradiation. uniform sized finger rhizomes (approximately 10g each) were selected and cut into pieces, having 3 nodes per cutting. these rhizome bits, subjected to seven doses of gamma rays (1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 kr) along with control, were used as the planting material. treated rhizome bits were planted on one side of the ridge at 5 cm depth at 45 x 15 cm spacing. after planting, a basal manurial dose comprising 25 kg n, 60 kg p and 18 kg k ha-1 was applied. it received a top dressing of 25 kg n and 18 kg k ha-1 at 30, 60, 90 and 120 days after planting. the field was irrigated before planting. life irrigation was given on the third day of planting. thereafter, irrigation was given at weekly intervals depending on weather and soil conditions. ten plants in each genotype per replication were tagged randomly for recording observations and mean values were subjected to statistical scrutiny. days to maturity the period from planting to harvest was recorded as the days taken to maturity. yellowing and drying of the leaves as well as cracking of the soil were considered as indications of maturity. yield per plant fresh rhizomes harvested from each plant were weighed and the mean was expressed as grame (g) per plant. curing per cent one hundred grames of fresh rhizomes from each treatment plot (comprising 30% mother rhizomes and 70% primary and secondary rhizomes) were boiled in pure water for 45-60 minutes till the rhizomes became soft and emitted the typical turmeric odour (natarajan and lewis, 1980). after boiling, the rhizomes were dried under sun until attaining 8% moisture content (philip and sethumadhavan, 1980). curing per cent of the rhizomes was calculated using the following formula and was expressed as per cent: weight of the cured rhizome curing per cent = ——————————— x 100 fresh weight of the rhizome results and discussion days to maturity vm 0 generation among the different treatments in genotype g 1 (cl144), treatment t 3 (2.0 kr) exhibited earliness in days to maturity (223.11), followed by t 4 (2.5 kr) with 230.92 days. delayed maturity (282.02 days) was seen in t 7 (4.0 kr), whereas, the control (t 0 ) took 235.23 days to mature. in g 2 (cl146), treatment t 3 (2.0 kr), followed by t 4 (2.5 kr), expressed earliness in days taken to mature (219.02 and 221.53, respectively) and t 7 (4.0 kr) showed delayed maturity (268.65 days), while, the control (t 0 ) registered 260.06 days. similarly, in g 3 (cl147), treatment t 3 (2.0 kr) showed earliness in days to maturity (221.83) and t 7 (4.0 kr) recorded delayed maturity (288.10 days), whereas, the control (t 0 ) registered 246.13 days.the treatment combination g 2 t 3 (cl146, 2.0 kr) exhibited earliness in days to maturity (219.02), followed by g 2 t 4 (cl146, 2.5 kr) which required 221.53 days. delayed maturity (288.10 days) was observed in g 3 t 7 (cl147, 4. 0 kr) (table 1) vm 1 generation among the different treatments, t 3 (2.0 kr) of the genotype g 1 (cl144) showed earliness in days to maturity (232.99). this was followed by t 3 (2.0 kr) of g 2 (cl146) which required 233.00 days. delayed maturity (269.97 days) was expressed in t 7 (4.0 kr) of g 3 (cl147) followed by t 7 (4.0 kr) of g 1 (cl144) with 268.00 days, whereas the days to maturity exhibited in the control (to) of g 2 (cl146) was 248.17 days. the treatment combination g 1 t 3 (cl144, 2.0 kr) showed earliness in days to maturity (232.99 days), followed by g 2 t 3 (cl146, 2.0 kr) which required 233.42 days. delayed maturity (269.97 days) was observed in g 3 t 7 (cl147, 4.0 kr) (table 1). yield per plant vmo generation among the different treatments of g 1 (cl144), treatment t 3 (2.0 kr) produced the highest yield per plant (373.75 g) and the lowest yield (137.50 g) was recorded in t 7 (4.0 kr), whereas, the control (t 0 ) registered 301.50 g. in g 2 (cl146), treatment t 3 (2.0 kr) registered increased yield (266.25 g) and t 7 (4.0 kr) obtained decreased yield (63.75 g), while, the yield per plant observed in the control (t 0 ) was 97.88 g. similarly, in g 3 (cl147), higher yield (241.25g) was expressed in t 3 (2.0 kr) and lower yield (127.50g) was seen in t 7 (4.0 kr), while, yield per plant obtained in the control (t 0 ) was 135.00 g. genotype g 1 (cl144) exhibited higher yield per plant (373.75 g), followed by g 2 (cl146) and g 3 (cl147) with 266.25 and 241.25 g, respectively, in t 3 (2.0 kr). increased yield (373.75 g) was noticed in the treatment combination g 1 t 3 (cl144, 2.0 kr), whereas, decreased yield (63.75 g) was observed in g 2 t 7 (cl146, 4.0 kr) (table 2). j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 124-128, 2006 impact of gamma rays on turmeric crop 125 page 126 vm 1 generation among the treatments, t 3 (2.0 kr), t 4 (2.5 kr) and t 5 (3.0 kr) of g 1 (cl144) registered higher yield per plant (381.13, 360.00 and 330.12 g, respectively), whereas, a lower yield of 153.38g was obtained in t 7 (4.0 kr) as against the control (t 0 ) with 300.15 g. in g 2 (cl146), treatment t 3 (2.0 kr) produced the highest yield (260.19 g) and t 7 (4.0 kr) registered the lowest yield (73.15g) as against the control (t 0 ), with 100.02g. in g 3 (cl147), higher yield (250.12g) and lower yield (121.02g) were recorded in t 3 (2.0 kr) and t 7 (4.0 kr), respectively, as against the control (t 0 ) with 130.00g. among the three genotypes, g 1 (cl144) produced an increase in yield (381.13 g), followed by g 2 (cl146) with 260.19 g and g 3 (cl147) with 250.12g in t 3 (2.0 kr), whereas, the control (t 0 ) of g 1 (cl144) obtained 300.15g. the treatment combination g 1 t 3 (cl144, 2.0 kr) produced the highest yield (381.13 g), whereas, the lowest yield (73.15 g) was registered in g 2 t 7 (cl146, 4.0 kr) (table 3). curing percentage vmo generation among the different treatments of g 1 (cl144), t 3 (2.0 kr) followed by t 4 (2.5 kr) registered higher curing percent of 19.44 and 19.00, respectively and t 7 (4.0 kr) expressed a lower curing per cent of 15.22, whereas, the control (t 0 ) recorded 17.45 curing percent of. in g 2 (cl146), the highest curing per cent (19.00) was observed in t 3 (2.0 kr) and the lowest curing per cent (15.54) was obtained in t 7 (4.0 kr), while, curing percentage recorded in the control (t 0 ) was 17.05. in g 3 (cl147), treatment t 3 (2.0 kr) exhibited greater curing per cent (8.21) and t 7 (4.0 kr) showed lesser curing per cent (14.92), whereas, the control (t 0 ) expressed curing percent of 16.00 percent. increased curing per cent (19.44) was obtained in g 1 (cl144), followed by g 2 (cl146) and g 3 (cl 147) with curing percent of 19.00 and 18.21, respectively in t 3 (2.0 kr) (table 2). vm 1 generation among the treatments, t 3 (2.0 kr), followed by t 4 (2.5 kr) of g 1 (cl144) obtained a higher curing per cent of 20.41 and 19.95, respectively. a lower curing per cent of 15.07 was exhibited in t 7 (4.0 kr) of g 3 (cl147). among the three genotypes, g 1 (cl144) exhibited the highest curing per cent (20.41) followed by g 2 (cl146) and g 3 (cl 147) with curing percent of 19.57 and 18.39, respectively, in t 3 (2.0 kr), whereas, the control of g 1 (cl144) registered 18.32 curing percent of (table 3). in the present investigation, treatment combination g 2 with 2.0 kr showed earliness in days to maturity compared to the other combinations. delay in maturity was observed with increase in the dose of gamma rays. delayed maturity at higher doses in the present investigation could be attributed to delay in plant growth caused by gamma rays. physiological damage from gamma rays is generally higher in the initial stages of plant growth than at later stages. induction of mutation generally occurs when dna synthesis and chromosomal reproduction are in progress. table 1. effect of gamma irradiation in turmeric genotypes on days to maturity in vm 0 and vm 1 generation genotype treatment days to maturity vm 0 generation vm 1 generation g 1 (cl144) t 1 (1.0kr) 270.20 251.32 t 2 (1.5kr) 260.88 245.59 t 3 (2.0kr) 223.11 232.99 t 4 (2.5kr) 230.92 233.42 t 5 (3.0kr) 234.13 239.98 t 6 (3.5kr) 271.08 261.88 t 7 (4.0kr) 282.02 268.00 t 0 (control) 235.23 256.63 mean 250.95 248.73 g 2 (cl146) t 1 (1.0kr) 257.11 245.00 t 2 (1.5kr) 249.69 240.09 t 3 (2.0kr) 219.02 233.00 t 4 (2.5kr) 221.53 235.15 t 5(3.0kr) 227.09 235.00 t 6 (3.5kr) 264.09 250.13 t 7 (4.0kr) 268.65 253.88 t 0 (control) 260.06 245.99 mean 245.91 242.03 g 3 (cl147) t 1 (1.0kr) 266.80 263.82 t 2 (1.5kr) 246.01 250.01 t 3 (2.0kr) 221.83 241.97 t 4 (2.5kr) 227.28 242.00 t 5 (3.0kr) 242.28 244.22 t 6 (3.5kr) 269.72 268.12 t 7 (4.0kr) 288.10 269.97 t 0 (control) 246.13 255.93 mean 251.02 254.51 grand mean 249.30 248.17 cv(%) 5.92 4.51 vm 0 generation sed cd(p=0.05) cd(p=0.01) t 8.38 17.33 23.51 g 5.13 10.61 14.40 gxt 14.51 30.01 40.73 vm 1 generation t 6.66 13.78 18.70 g 4.08 8.44 11.45 gxt 11.54 23.87 32.39 t-treatment ; g-genotype ; gxtgenotype x treatment j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 124-128, 2006 usha nandhini devi & chezhiyan 126 page 127 mature or differentiated cells are incapable of responding to mutagenic treatments. earliness in maturity may be attributed to the triggering of metabolic activities by lower doses of gamma rays. the trigger in metabolism would have resulted in changing the source – sink relationship, thereby, breaking the vegetative state at an advanced phase. the fact could be well understood from a study of the anatomy. the rhizome consists of multilayered, thin–walled cells in radial rows forming the cork tissue, with tangential epidermal cells, oblong in shape on the outside and thin walled parenchymatous cells of the cortex on the inside. the central cylinder of parenchymatous cells is separated from the cortex by a thin layer of oblong cells of the endoderm. scattered throughout the parenchymatous tissue are starch granules (the dominant constituent) which are 15 to 30 mm in size, flat or disc shaped bodies, oleoresin cells containing oil and scattered particles of an orange– yellow component. all the important steps involved in the process of growth and development of turmeric rhizome were seriously influenced by growth period (maturity) which, in turn, was affected by an increase in the dose of gamma rays. this is in concordance with earlier reports by jayachandran (1989) in ginger. yield obtained on per plant basis was the highest at 2.0 kr, followed by 2.5 kr. increased yield was noticed in the treatment combination g 1 with 2.0 kr. increased yield at lower doses of gamma rays may be due to an increase in table 2. effect of gamma irradiation in turmeric genotypes on yield per plant (g) and curing per cent in vm 0 generation genotype treatment yield per plant (g) curing per cent g 1 (cl144) t 1 (1.0kr) 302.50 16.23 (23.75) t 2 (1.5kr) 325.00 18.00 (25.10) t 3 (2.0kr) 373.75 19.44 (26.16) t 4 (2.5kr) 353.75 19.00 (25.84) t 5 (3.0kr) 336.25 18.73 (25.64) t 6 (3.5kr) 226.25 15.75 (22.96) t 7 (4.0kr) 137.50 15.22 (23.38) t 0 (control) 301.50 17.45 (24.69) mean 294.56 17.48 (24.69) g 2 (cl146) t 1 (1.0kr) 111.25 16.73 (24.14) t 2 (1.5kr) 130.00 17.54 (24.75) t 3 (2.0kr) 266.25 19.00 (25.84) t 4 (2.5kr) 240.00 18.33 (25.34) t 5(3.0kr) 181.25 17.92 (25.04) t 6 (3.5kr) 93.75 16.02 (23.59) t 7 (4.0kr) 63.75 15.54 (23.21) t 0 (control) 97.88 17.05 (24.38) mean 148.02 17.27 (24.54) g 3 (cl147) t 1 (1.0kr) 160.00 15.67 (23.31) t 2 (1.5kr) 173.75 16.73 (24.14) t 3 (2.0kr) 241.25 18.21 (25.20) t 4 (2.5kr) 221.25 17.83 (24.97) t 5 (3.0kr) 216.25 16.92 (24.28) t 6 (3.5kr) 136.25 15.00 (22.78) t 7 (4.0kr) 127.50 14.92 (22.72) t 0 (control) 135.00 16.00 (23.57) mean 176.41 16.41 (23.87) grand mean 206.33 17.05 (24.37) cv(%) 13.08 4.04 yield per plant (g) curing per cent sed c.d c.d sed c.d c.d (p=0.05) (p=0.01) (p=0.05) (p=0.01) t 14.99 31.01 42.08 0.54 1.12 1.52 g 9.18 18.99 25.77 0.33 0.69 0.93 gxt 25.96 53.71 72.89 0.94 1.94 2.64 t : treatment g : genotype, gxt : genotype x treatment figures in parentheses indicate arc sine transformed values table 3. effect of gamma irradiation in turmeric genotypes on yield per plant (g) and curing per cent in vm 1 generation genotype treatment yield per plant (g) curing per cent g 1 (cl144) t 1 (1.0kr) 312.62 17.04 (24.37) t 2 (1.5kr) 321.43 18.90 (25.77) t 3 (2.0kr) 381.13 20.41 (26.85) t 4 (2.5kr) 360.00 19.95 (26.52) t 5 (3.0kr) 330.12 19.67 (26.32) t 6 (3.5kr) 253.17 16.54 (23.99) t 7 (4.0kr) 153.38 15.98 (23.56) t 0 (control) 300.15 18.32 (25.34) mean 301.50 18.35 (25.34) g 2 (cl146) t 1 (1.0kr) 123.00 17.23 (24.52) t 2 (1.5kr) 142.29 18.07 (25.15) t 3 (2.0kr) 260.19 19.57 (26.25) t 4 (2.5kr) 243.35 18.88 (25.75) t 5(3.0kr) 200.42 18.46 (25.44) t 6 (3.5kr) 98.83 16.50 (23.96) t 7 (4.0kr) 73.15 16.01 (23.58) t 0 (control) 100.02 17.56 (24.77) mean 155.16 17.79 (24.93) g 3 (cl147) t 1 (1.0kr) 171.11 15.83 (23.44) t 2 (1.5kr) 194.22 16.90 (24.27) t 3 (2.0kr) 250.12 18.39 (25.39) t 4 (2.5kr) 248.00 18.01 (25.11) t 5 (3.0kr) 220.73 17.09 (24.41) t 6 (3.5kr) 152.00 15.15 (22.90) t 7 (4.0kr) 121.02 15.07 (22.84) t 0 (control) 130.00 16.16 (23.70) mean 185.90 16.45 (20.96) grand mean 225.90 17.57 (24.76) cv(%) 13.00 4.04 yield per plant (g) curing per cent sed c.d c.d sed c.d c.d (p=0.05) (p=0.01) (p=0.05) (p=0.01) t 15.43 31.93 43.33 0.55 1.14 1.55 g 9.45 19.55 26.53 0.34 0.70 0.95 gxt 26.73 55.30 75.05 0.96 1.98 2.68 t : treatment g : genotype, gxt : genotype x treatment figures in parentheses indicate arc sine transformed values j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 124-128, 2006 impact of gamma rays on turmeric crop 127 page 128 the level of enzymes, which activate metabolism of the cells responsible for translocation of metabolites from source to sink. lower doses of gamma rays may have enhanced the enzymatic processes involved in plant growth and development such as proper stomatal functioning, photosynthetic efficiency in terms of net assimilation rate and partitioning efficiency from the source to the sink, and, in related biochemical reactions. yield per plant decreased as the dose of gamma rays increased. low yield at increased dose obtained in the present investigation can be attributed to reduction plant in growth, leaf area and size and growth of rhizomes, particularly, secondary rhizomes by gamma rays. increased dose adversely affected tiller and leaf production and height of the plant, especially, during the early stages of growth. as the growth period advanced, the plants could, more or less, recover from the adverse effects during early stages noted in the above characters. however, recovery in growth achieved during the later stages of growth did not appear to have sufficient contribution to rhizome development. this may be the reason for the yield that resulted at higher doses of gamma rays, irrespective of the fact that the plants could recover from the shock of gamma ray treatments later in their growth period. similar line of work had been reported by raju et al (1980) who reported weaker and elongated underground rhizomes in ginger with application of 2.0 kr gamma rays. in costus speciosus, gupta et al (1982) observed increased rhizome production at 1.5 kr gamma ray treatment. however, the yield of rhizomes decreased at higher doses of 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 kr. shah et al (1982) observed high yields in turmeric as a result of x-ray irradiation. significant variation was noticed in curing percentage among treatments. curing per cent was higher in the treatment 2.0 kr, followed by 2.5 kr and was found to decrease with increase in the dose of gamma rays. variation in curing percentage among the treatments was chiefly due to genetic factors rather than the type of processing used. expression of low curing per cent at higher doses of gamma rays may be attributed to lesser resource utilization by the rhizomes at the rhizome bulking stage as a result of gamma irradiation. resource utilization was affected due to a lower net assimilation rate, which was mainly characterized by enhanced physiological parameters such as crop growth rate, relative growth rate, photosynthetically active radiation (par) and higher net assimilation rate during the early stages of plant growth and rhizome development upto seven months after planting. present findings are in corroboration with earlier work carried out by subramanian et al (2002) in co 1 and bsr 1 clones of turmeric. higher curing per cent was mainly due to production of slender rhizomes, perhaps due to lower moisture retention at harvest. low curing per cent was mainly due to the fact that feeder roots are present near the soil surface under irrigated conditions, and these absorb more water and ought to have higher moisture content. as a result, the rhizome becomes plump and after curing, the yield gets reduced. this is in accordance with previous work of philip (1983) and reddy et al (1989) in turmeric. references gupta, m.n., lakshmi.v, dixitv. s and srivastava. s.n 1982. gamma ray induced variability in costus speciosus. prog. hort., 14: 193-197. jayachandran, b.k. 1989. induced mutations in ginger. ph.d. thesis submitted to kerala a g r i c u l t u r a l university, vellanikara, trissur. natarajan, c.p. and lewis. y. s. 1980. technology of ginger and turmeric. proc. natl. sem. on ginger and turmeric, calicut, pp. 143-146. philip, j. 1983. studies on growth, yield and quality component in different turmeric types. indian cocoa, arecanut and spices j., 6: 93-97. philip, j. and sethumadhavan. 1980. curing of turmeric. proc. nat’l. sem. on ginger and turmeric, calicut. pp. 198-201. rao, r.m., reddy r. c. k and subbarayudu.m 1975. promising turmeric types of andhra pradesh. ind. spices 12: 2-5. raju, e.c., patel. j. d and shah. j.j 1980. effects of gamma irradiation in morphology of leaf and shoot apex of ginger, turmeric and mango ginger. procs. indian acad. sci., 89: 173-178. reddy, m.l.n., rao. d. v. r and reddy.s.a 1989. screening of short duration turmeric varieties/cultures suitable for andhra pradesh. indian cocoa, arecanut and spices j., 12: 87-89. sasikumar, b., george. j.k and ravindran.p.n 1994. breeding ginger and turmeric. ind. cocoa, arecanut and spices j., 18:10-12. shah, h.a., seemanthini,r, arumugam.r muthuswamy.s and khader.j.b.m 1982. co1 turmeric a high yielding mutant turmeric. south ind. hort., 30: 276-277. subramanian, s., subbiah.a, vijayakumar.m and saraswathy.s 2002. growth and physiological attributes of turmeric varieties (curcuma longa l.) bsr-1 and co1 under coimbatore conditions. in: proceedings of seminar on strategies for production and export of spices, oct’ 24-27. iisr, calicut. p. 18. j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 124-128, 2006 usha nandhini devi & chezhiyan 128 (ms received 12 april 2006 , revised 21 september 2006) effect of pheromone lure-distance and direction in trapping brinjal fruit and shoot borer (leucinodes orbonalis guen.) male moths h. s. singh, n. k. krishna kumar1 and b. krishnakumari2 central horticultural experiment station (iihr) p. o. aiginia, bhubaneswar-751 001, india e-mail: singhhs21@rediffmail.com abstract an experiment was conducted at bhubaneshwar, orissa, to study the presence of male brinjal shoot and fruit borer (bsfb) outside cropping area and the effect of wind direction on male bsfb trap catches. water traps with 4 mg of synthetic bsfb pheromone lure in rubber septa were placed at 0, 50, 100, 150 and 350 m away from a brinjal field in all four directions i.e., north, south, east and west. water level in the traps was maintained constant and lures were changed at 20 days interval. count of bsfb trapped males and record of wind direction was made every 24 h for 61 days. results indicated that the number of male bsfb moths in distantly located traps (350 m from the brinjal field) was at par with the numbers observed in traps placed in the main brinjal field. traps located at 50 and 100 m from brinjal field attracted less male bsfb moths than those at 0, 150 and 350 m indicating the feasibility of trapping male bsfb moths even in non-brinjal area. trap direction did not significantly influence trap catch. nearly 60% of bsfb male moths were observed in traps placed against direction of the wind. key words: leucinodes orbonalis, pheromone, trap distance, wind direction short communication 1division of entomology and nematology, indian institute of horticultural research, hessaraghatta, bangalore-560 089, india 2division of organic chemistry, indian institute of chemical technology, hyderabad-500 001, india eggplant (solanum melongena l.) or brinjal is among the most important vegetables in many parts of the world. the shoot and fruit borer (leucinodes orbonalis guen. lepidoptera: pyralidae), is a major pest on brinjal and can destroy entire crop (atwal, 1976). several insecticides were reported to be effective (kuppuswamy and balasubramanian, 1980; singh, 1983; tewari and krishna moorthy, 1983) against l. orbonalis. recently it has been observed that chemical control measures are less effective (krishna kumar et al, 2006) possibly because of development of insecticide resistance. no viable resistance is observed within cultivated s. melongena (dhankar, 1988). natural parasitism is low (srinivasan, 1994) and other alternative control measures such as barrier cropping, use of botanicals (ansari and nair, 1972; ansari and thomos, 1974; peter and govindarajalu, 1994) and bioagents (bustamantae et al, 1994) were not always economically effective. after identifying the major component of female sex pheromone of brinjal shoot and fruit borer (bsfb) (zhu et al, 1987; attygalle et al, 1988), pheromone lure was integrated as a component in the ipm of bsfb (cork et al, 2001). results indicated that more trap catches of male bsfb moths were observed when the traps were placed at the crop canopy level (talekar, 2002). the use of pheromone technology for management of bsfb ipm was evaluated on a large scale in south-east asia (alam et al, 2003). despite its effectiveness in attracting a number of male moths, no significant reduction in fruit borer damage was observed (krishna kumar et al, 2004). the extent of male trapping is influenced by a number of factors. krishna kumar et al (2004) indicated that the orientation of moths to the pheromone lure greatly depended on prevailing weather conditions and is affected by pesticides such as cypermethrin. thus, there is a need to find ways for need-based application of chemical pesticides for management of insect pests without affecting the efficacy of bsfb pheromone. placement of pheromone traps away from the brinjal field is one such method, as, this will also facilitate a community approach to bsfb management. experiments were therefore initiated to study the effect of pheromone luredistance and direction on trapping male bsfb. an experiment was laid out at the central j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1):67-70, 2007 horticultural experiment station, bhubaneswar, a regional station of the indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore. a local cultivar, long green was raised in the field nursery in september and planted in october, 2004 in 1500 m2 area. all the recommended cultural practices were followed except application of the insecticide. water traps (pest control india ltd.) containing 4 mg of bsfb lure in rubber septa were placed in all four directions of the field at a distance of 0, 50, 100, 150 and 350 m from the crop zone. traps were adjusted periodically to the height of the crop. composition of the vegetation as recorded in the trapping grid is presented in table 1. inside the trapping grid, no brinjal crop was raised except in the experimental plot. outside the grid, there was no brinjal crop up to a distance of 1000 m. water traps with bsfb pheromone lures [synthesized indigenously at the indian institute of chemical technology (iict), hyderabad] were placed in december, 2004. the pheromone vials were changed every 20 days. water level in the traps was regularly maintained and the number of male moths trapped was recorded at every 24 h for 61 days. similarly, direction of the wind was recorded daily at 5 p.m. data on total number of moths trapped were sub-grouped into two categories: windpositive (those trapped in the direction of wind on any particular day) and wind-negative (male moths flying towards the trap against direction of the wind). trap catch data were subjected to analysis of variance (anova) (little and jackson, 1977) after square root transformation. vegetation recorded inside the trapping grid comprised of fruit plants (banana, sapota, mango, cashew, litchi, lime and aonla), bitter gourd and weeds. none of these plants is a host for bsfb (table 2). the synthetic sex pheromone was effective in trapping male bsfb moths. however, number of moths trapped varied form trap to trap and within a trap over time. interestingly, males were seen to be trapped not only within the cropped area but also 350 m away. data indicated that the mean number of moths trapped in traps located at 150m and 350 m from the experimental field (non-host area) was at par with the number trapped within the field (p=0.05), which indicates the possibility of trapping bsfb male moths in non-host area. a possible reason for moths trapped in the non-host area might be influx of males into the trapping grid or their outflux from the brinjal field. either way, this gives an indication that presence or absence of a brinjal crop is of less significance for the orientation of bsfb male moths towards the pheromone lure. this information can be utilized to successfully trap bsfb male moths to implement a community based, area-wide pheromone technology. our results indicating the attraction of male moths to the chemical lure, irrespective of the presence or absence of host plant, provides a window of opportunity to lure the pest, all through the year. furthermore, trapping a significant number of male bsfb moths, especially during the lean season, limits the biotic potential of the pest significantly. table 1. vegetation in trapping grid direction distance (m) of traps (from brinjal crop) and flora in trapping grid 0 50 100 150 300 east brinjal fruit crop nursery plants, lime and weeds aonla and weeds bitter gourd and weeds 500 guava and weeds west brinjal banana, sapota and weeds sapota and weeds litchi and weeds cashew and weeds 1000 north brinjal mango and weeds mango and weeds mango and weeds forest plants and weeds 800 south brinjal fallow, weeds and forest plants guava and weeds guava and weeds forest plants and weeds 900 distance from nearest brinjal field outside the grid (m) table 2. bsfb trap catch in relation to distance from brinjal field and wind direction direction distance(m) direction effect 0 50 100 150 350 north 0.5376(0.6589) 0.0612(0.2019) 0.0952(0.1781) 0.1925(0.4324) 0.6426(0.7819) 0.3050 (0.4506) south 0.6081(0.7444) 0.2027(0.3674) 0.1920(0.3577) 0.2817(0.4871) 0.2159(0.3776) 0.3061 (0.4669) east 0.3798(0.5926) 0.0729(0.2554) 0.1167(0.2628) 0.4039(0.5071) 0.4991(0.6956) 0.2945 (0.4627) west 0.1995(0.4348) 0.0504(0.1829) 0.1419(0.3513) 0.3638(0.5596) 0.1841(0.4136) 0.1878 (0.3884) distance effect 0.4310(0.6077) 0.0968(0.2519) 0.1364(0.2875) 0.3164(0.4965) 0.3854(0.5672) direction effect distance effect interaction s em (±) 0.0574 0.0642 0.1285 cd (p=0.05) ns 0.1840 ns ·figures in parentheses are square root transformed values 68j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 67-70, 2007 singh et al the number of male bsfb moths trapped at 50 m and 100 m from the experimental brinjal field was significantly less (p=0.05) compared to traps placed at 0 m, 150 m and 350 m. the possibly large influx of bsfb males from far and wide may be a reason for increased catches in traps placed at 150 m and 350 m, also indicating that the bsfb males are good fliers. similarly, traps placed at 0 m recorded significantly more moths, possibly as a direct result of fruit infestation, continuously breeding and emerging adult population within the brinjal field. results indicated that male trapping can be done without presence of the host plant, which, in turn, points to the fact that sex stimulus, is the primary factor (though environmental influences can not be ignored). by this, immigrant males could be trapped in the non-host area itself (before these could reach the host area). by placing traps near/ around the brinjal field for targeting the moths, interference from cypermethrin could be avoided. however, results show that trapping of males is required in both brinjal and non-brinjal areas if area-wide management is to be successful. data on trap catches in the four directions are presented in table 3. wind direction for 26 days was from south to north, 10 days from west to east, 16 days from east to west and 9 days from north to south. proportion of the wind negative trap catches (male moths flying towards the trap against the direction of wind) was more than 64 %. this indicate that placement of pheromone traps against wind direction enhanced bsfb trap catches. references alam, s. n, rashid, m. a., rouf , f. m. a., jhala, r. c., patel, j. r., satpathy, s., shivalingaswamy, t. m., rai , s., wahundeniya , i., cork , a., ammaranan, c., talekar, n. s. 2003. ipm strategy for eggplant fruit and shoot borer-final technical report of a dfid-funded project r7465 (c): development of an integrated pest management strategy for the control of eggplant fruit and shoot borer (leucinodes orbonalis) in south asia, asian vegetable research centre, taiwan. pp 1-66 ansari, p. a. r. and thomos, m. j. 1974. on the use of lemon grass leaf infusion for the control of brinjal aphid. agril. res. j. kerala, 12: 77 ansari, p. a. r. and nair, m. r. g. k. 1972. on the control of brinjal pests using deterrents. agril. res. j. kerala, 10: 133-135 attygalle, a. b., schwaraz, j. and gunawardena, n. e. 1988. sex pheromone of brinjal fruit and shoot borer leucinodes orbonalis guenee (lepidoptera: pyralidae). zeitschrift fur naturforschung, 43: 790792 atwal, a. s. 1976. agricultural pests of india and south east asia. kalyani publishers, new delhi, p. 527 bustamantae, r. c, luzaran, p.b., gruber, l.t. and villanueva, e., 1994. field evaluation of different control measures against eggplant shoot and fruit borer. the philippines j. pl. industry, 59: 119-125 cork, a., alam, s. n., das, a., das, c. s., ghosh, g. c., farman, d .i., hall, d. r., maslen, n. r., vedham, k., phythian, s. j., roue, f. m. a. and srinivasan, k. 2001. female sex pheromone of brinjal shoot and fruit borer, leucinodes orbonalis (lepidoptera : pyralidae), blend optimization. j. chem. ecol., 27: 1867-1877. dhankar, b. s. 1988. progress in resistance studies in the eggplant (solanum melongena l.) against shoot and fruit borer (leucinodes orbonalis guen.) infestation. tropical pest management, 34: 343-345 krishna kumar, n. k., venugopalan, r., krishna moorthy, p. n., shiva kumara, b. and ranganath, h. r. 2004. influence of weather factors on the attraction of male eggplant shoot and fruit borer, leucinodes orbonalis guenee to synthetic sex pheromone in south india. pest mgt. hortl. ecosys., 10: 161-167 krishna kumar, n. k., krishna kumari, b., singh, h. s., ranganath, h. r., shiva kumara, b. and kalleshwarswamy, c. m. 2006. pheromone trapping protocols for brinjal fruit and shoot borer, leucinodes table 3. effect of wind direction on orientation of male bsfb moths and trap catch number of days the wind mean wind positive mean wind negative % trapped as blew in a specific direction population population wind negative direction of wind wind blow days (location of trap) negative positive s n (south) 26 9 0.08 0.23 74.19 n s (north) 9 26 0.11 0.20 64.52 e w (east) 16 10 0.10 0.19 65.52 w e (west) 10 16 0.06 0.12 66.67 mean 67.72 pheromone distance and direction in trapping brinjal fruit borer 69j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 67-70, 2007 orbonalis guenee (lepidoptera: pyralidae): evaluation of trap design, quantity and dispenser. j. hort. sci., 1: 39-42 kuppuswamy, s and balasubramanian, m. 1980. efficacy of synthetic pyrethroids against brinjal fruit borer, leucinodes orbonalis guen. south ind. hort., 28: 91-93 little, t. m. and jackson, h. f. 1977. agricultural experimentation design and analysis: anova, john wiley and sons, inc. canada, pp-44 peter, c. and govindarajalu, v. 1994. efficacy and persistence toxicity of certain new insecticides against brinjal pest complex. pestology, 18: 27-30 singh, d. 1983. control of brinjal fruit borer, leucinodes orbonalis, with synthetic pyrethroids. pesticide, 17: 14-15 srinivasan, k. 1994. recent trends in insect pest management in vegetable crops. in: g. s. dhaliwal and arora (eds.) trends in agricultural insect pest management. commonwealth publishers, new delhi, pp-345-372. talekar, n. s. 2002. controlling eggplant fruit and shoot borer. international co-operators guide. avrdc publication no. 02:534, taiwan. tewari, g. c. and krishna moorthy, p. n. 1983. effectiveness of synthetic pyrethroids against the pest complex of brinjal. entomon, 8: 365-368. zhu. p., kong. f, yu, n. s., hu, x. and xu, j. 1987. identification of the sex pheromone of egg plant borer, leucinodes orbonalis guenee (lepidoptera: pyralidae). zeitschrift fur naturforschung, 42:13471348. (ms received 25 june 2006, revised 8 may 2007) 70j. hort. sci. vol. 2 (1): 67-70, 2007 singh et al final sph -jhs coverpage 17-1 jan 2022 single 255 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 255-259, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. short communication the coconut palm (cocos nucifera l.) is one of the most beautiful and useful trees in the world and all parts of this ‘wonder palm’ are useful in one way or other. coconut, an out-breeding perennial tree, is seed propagated, exhibits great variation in morphological and agronomic characters. vegetative multiplication of elite coconut palms is a promising possibility for producing uniform planting material with high yield a nd disea se-r esista nce. pr otocols for coconut micropropagation have been developed in various laboratories using different explant sources (nguyen et al., 2015). among various explants, the most extensively studied are the rachillae from inflorescence and plumule from zygotic embryos. flowering is a complex phenomena regulated by both internal and external factors and induction of in vitro flowering is very rare in most of the crops. under natura l conditions, flower forma tion norma lly commences when a plant attains maturity. juvenile phase of a plant is genetically controlled and is species specific which means that a plant flowers only when genetic factors including photoperiodic response are congenial. however, these conditions can often be altered so that the plant can be induced to undergo an early reproductive phase. such an attempt to induce flowering in vitro has been attempted in many plant systems. in vitro cultur e pr ovides a n idea l experimental system for studying the molecular mechanism of flowering. in vitro flowering studies has been conducted in many perennial crops e.g., bamboo (joshi and nadgauda, 1997), red hot pokers (taylor et al., 2005), date palm (allouche et al., 2010), oil palm (nizam and te-chato, 2012) etc. however, in vitro flowering in coconut has not yet been reported. reducing duration of juvenile phase is an advantage especially in coconut with long pre-bearing period of 6-10 years. here, in the process of establishing in vitro regeneration of coconut using immature inflorescence explants, strikingly, a few cases of in vitro flowering in coconut plantlets was observed. this paper aims occurrence of in vitro flowering in coconut (cocos nucifera l.) shareefa m.*, thomas r.j., sreelekshmi j.s. and anitha k* icar-central plantation crops research institute, regional station, kayamkulam, alappuzha-690533, kerala, india icar-cpcri, kudlu p.o., kasaragod-671124, kerala *corresponding author e-mail : hishareefa@gmail.com abstract immature inflorescence with outer spathe length of 5.5 cm size collected from west coast tall cultivar of coconut was used as the explant and rachillae bits were inoculated in y3 media supplemented with 2, 4-d (1 mg l-1). the cultures were incubated in dark for eight months and sub-cultured into the same media at monthly interval. the white shoot like outgrowths formed were sub cultured to ½ ms media fortified with 1 mg l-1 each of naa and bap and subsequently transferred to light condition. after three months, the emerging shoot like structure was transferred to y3 media fortified with naa and bap. upon developing 3 4 leaves, the cultures were transferred to rooting media and root initiation was observed after two months. the transition of vegetative shoot to reproductive state was accompanied by some morphological changes including rapid emergence of long and thin leaves followed by emergence of pearly white inflorescence. unlike normal inflorescence, the inflorescence emerged was terminal and was devoid of spathe. prolonged subculture in the same media might have resulted in ph variation and subsequent reduction in organic and inorganic constituents of the media. the chemical stress experienced by the plantlet might have induced in vitro flowering. key words: cocos nucifera, immature inflorescence, hapaxanthic, prolonged subculture 256 shareefa et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 255-259, 2022 to present some observations connected with in vitro flowering of coconut palm and also tries to explain the possible factors involved. the procedure followed by shareefa et al. (2019) was used for immature inflorescence culture of coconut. immature inflor escence expla nts with outer spathe length of 5.5 cm size were collected fr om 25 yea r old west coast tall var iety a nd rachillae bits of 1 mm which were inoculated in y3 media s u p p lement ed wit h 1 mg l -1 2 , 4 dichlor ophenoxya cetic acid (2,4-d). the basal media also contained sucrose 40 g l-1, charcoal 1 g l-1 and agar 6 g l-1. the cultures were incubated in dark condition at 27° ± 2°c and sub cultured in same media. after eight months, cultures were tr a nsf er r ed to ½ mur a shige a nd skoog (ms) medium with 1mg l-1 each of α-naphthaleneacetic acid (naa) and 6-benzylaminopurine (bap). the cultures were initially kept in diffused light for one month followed by incubation in light condition for about 16 hours light (45-60 µmol m-2 s-1 ppfd) provided by white light emitting diode (led) tubes. after 4-6 months in light, the multiple shoots wer e sepa r a ted f r om t he pa r enta l clump a nd transferred for shoot regeneration to y3 media with 1 mg l-1 each naa and bap. after developing 34 leaves, the cultures were transferred to rooting media containing y3 with naa (2 mg l-1) and bap (2 mg l-1) and indole 3-acetic acid (2 mg l-1) along with sucrose 30 g l-1 for root initiation. within one month of dark incubation, the rachillae ex pla nts s welled a nd whit e out gr owths wer e observed in culture initiation media. the cultures when tr ansferr ed to light conditions gr adua lly turned green and developed multiple shoots which could be easily detached from parental clump. the s ep a r a t ed s hoot s wer e t r a ns f er r ed t o s hoot regeneration media for formation of well developed leaves. root initia tion was obser ved a fter two months in the rooting media. in vitro flowering was observed in few plantlets cultured in the rooting media and such plantlets developed had four leaves and few root initials. in order to develop secondary roots, the plantlets were kept in the same media for a period of six months. the onset of in vitro flowering was accompanied by some morphological changes in the plantlets which include rapid emergence of long and thin lea ves befor e the a ppea r a nce of pea r ly white inflorescence. unlike normal inflorescence, the emergence of inflorescence was terminal in the in vitro raised plantlets and the inflorescence was devoid of spathe (figure.1). the ability of explants to form flowers in vitro depends on nu mer ou s inter na l a nd ext er na l, physical and chemical factors and virtually all these factors interact in various complex ways (compton and vielleux, 1992). in the present study, induction of flowering was observed in plantlet cultured on y3 media fortified with naa (2 mg l-1) and bap (2 mg l-1) and iaa (2 mg l-1). the combined effect of auxin and cytokinin on in vitro flower induction has also described in a number of previous studies (handro, 1983; wang et al., 2002; ammar et al., 1987; jeyachandran and bastin, 2013; lin et al. 2005; saritha and naidu, 2007a; sudhakaran and s iva s a n ka r i, 2 0 0 2 ; ta ylor e t a l . 2 0 0 5 ; thiruvengadam and jayabalan, 2001). the role of cytokinins on in vitro flowering has been well documented (wang et al., 2001; saritha and naidu, 2007b). cytokinins alone do not a ppea r to be responsible for floral initiation. it is reported that cytokinins are known to interact with sucrose to cause the shift in the apical mer istem fr om a vegetative phase to a reproductive one (bernier et al. 2002; bernier and pe´rilleux, 2005). sugars are primary sources known for reliable induction and development of flowers in many plant species such as r ose (vu et al. 2006), passiflora suberosa ( s c or z a a nd j a nic k, 1 9 8 0 ) , vi g n a m u n g o (ignacimuthu et al., 1997) indicating that presence of ca r bon s ou r ces on the c ult ur e medium is necessary for floral stimulation. there are many other physico-chemical factors which affected the in vitro flowering mechanism. kolar and senkova (2008) reported that reduced mineral nutrient availability accelerated in vitro flowering in arabidopsis thaliana. the effect of paclobutrazole, leds and sucrose on flowering of euphorbia milli plantlets in vitro was studied by dewir et al. (2007). in tobacco, important factors influencing in vitro flowering were light, growth regulators, carbohydrates and ph of the culture medium (heylen and vendrig, 1988). the most essential part of plant tissue culture is the media which supplies hormones a nd necessa ry nutrients for growth and development. in the present investigation, maintaining cultures for six months in 257 same media resulted in good root growth in plantlets, which also resulted in floral initiation. prolonged culture of rooted shoots in media containing naa and pbz together with higher concentration of sucrose at 7% was reported to induce floral development in oil pa lm (niza m a nd te-cha to, 2012). dela ying subculture may lead to hormone alternation and depletion of nutrients in the culture media. therefore the altered chemical composition might have created a stress due to the increa sed passage time for subculturing. it was interesting to note that in vitro flowering did not r esemble flower ing ex vitro, in tha t the inflorescences in vitro never matur ed a nd they subsequently senesced indicating that other factors, excluding cytokinins and a carbohydrate source, are required for continued normal development of the inflorescences. cytokinins and sucrose therefore seem to act in the initial stages of floral initiation and development, however, full differentiation and maturation of the resulting flower bud requires involvement of other physiological factors. the results of the current study revealed that contrary to natural flower formation, in vitro neoformed inflorescences were completely uncovered, ie., lacking spa the. t her e a re two types of developmenta l processes namely hapaxanthic and pleonanthic, in palms (tomlinson, 1990). in hapaxanthic type, the growth of the axis of palm is determinate due to conversion of the vegetative shoot apical meristem (sam) to the reproductive state, resulting in a short flowering phase and this phenomenon is observed only in less than 5% of palm species. the rest of the palm species are pleonanthic, with an indeterminate sam, in which the vegetative growth continues while producing a reproductive meristem at each leaf axil. according to the tomlinson model, under in vivo conditions, flower ing in coconut is nor ma lly pleonanthic. however, in the present study, in vitro flowering was hapaxanthic as the inflorescence emergence wa s ter mina l r esulting fr om the development of the apical bud which was devoid of any bract, which consequently gave rise to uncovered inflorescences. the flowers were malformed and never matured indicating that optimum interaction of light, temperature, plant growth regulators and nutrients are essential for flowering and normal maturation of flowers. similarly, undersized and malformed flowers have been observed previously in other species (ramanayake et al. , 2001). t he malformation occurrence of in vitro flowering in coconut j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 255-259, 2022 fig.1a. initial stage of in vitro flowering in coconut (arrow) fig. 1b. fully emerged in vitro inflorescence 258 occasionally observed in the flowers produced in vitro may have been partially due to competition and or nutritional deficiencies as reported in pentanema indicum (sivanesan and jeong, 2007). summary in the present study, prolonged subculture in the same media might have resulted in changes in the ph and reduction in concentration of organic and inorganic constituents of the media. the resulting chemical stress might have induced in vitro flowering in coconut. the interesting observation was that in vitro neoformed inflorescences were completely uncovered, lacking spathe and were terminal. the flowers were malformed and never matured indicating that optimum interaction of light, temperature, plant growth regulators and nutrients are essential for flowering and normal maturation of flowers. however, in vitro flowering can be efficiently used to understand the snapshots of physiological, hormonal and molecular regulation of flowering and such information gathered can be used to save time in future genetic improvement programs. acknowledgements we thank indian council of agricultural research, new delhi for supporting the work which was carried out as a part of the institute funded research project. we also thank dr. george v. thomas (former director, icar-cpcri), dr p. chowdappa (former director, icar-cpcri), dr. v. krishnakumar (former head, icar-cpcri, regional station, kayamkulam) and dr. s. kalavathy (acting head, icar-cpcri, regional station, kayamkulam) for providing the necessary facilities for carrying out this study. references allouche, f. m, meziou. b., kriaa, w., gargouri, r., drira, n. 2010. in vitro flowering induction in date palm (phoenix dactylifera l.). j. plant growth regul.,29: 35-43. ammar, s., benbadis, a., tripathi, b. k. 1987. floral induction in date palm seedling (phoenix dactylifera l. var. deglet nour) cultured in vitro. can. j. bot., 65: 137-142. 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and in vitro fruiting of vigna mungo l. hepper. curr. sci., 73: 733735. jeyachandran, r. and bastin, m. 2013. an efficient protocol for in vitro flowering and fruiting in micrococca mercurialis (l.) benth. int. j. appl. nat. sci., 2: 18-22. joshi, m. s. and nadgauda, r. s. 1997. cytokinin and in vitro induction of flowering in bamboo: bambusa arundinacea (retz.) willd. curr. sci., 73: 523-526. kolar, j. and senkova, j. 2008. reduction of mineral nutrient availability accelerates flowering of arabidopsis thaliana, j. plant physiol., 165: 1601-1609. lin, c. s., chen, c. t., hisao, h. w., chang, w. c. 2005. effects of growth regulators on direct flowering of isolated ginseng buds in vitro. plant cell tissue organ cult., 83: 241-244. nguyen, q. t., bandupriya, h. d., lopez, v. a., sisunandar, s., foale, m., adkins, s. w. 2015. tissue culture and associated biotechnological interventions for the improvement of coconut (cocos nucifera l.): a review. planta, 242: 1059-1076. shareefa et al j. 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(received: 01.10.202; revised:06.05.2022; accepted: 02.08.2022) 00 a final sph -jhs coverpage first 2 pages.pdf 00 content and in this issue.pdf 01 mohan kumar g n.pdf 02 meera pandey.pdf 03 biradar c.pdf 04 varalakshmi b.pdf 05 vijayakumari n.pdf 06 barik s.pdf 07 sajid m b.pdf 08 ranga d.pdf 09 usha s.pdf 10 manisha.pdf 11 amulya r n.pdf 12 akshatha h j.pdf 13 adak t.pdf 14 sujatha s.pdf 15 gowda p p.pdf 16 subba s.pdf 17 dhayalan v.pdf 19 ahmed s.pdf 20 vishwakarma p k.pdf 21 deep lata.pdf 22 udaykumar k p.pdf 23 nayaka v s k.pdf 24 sahel n a.pdf 25 bayogan e r v.pdf 26 rathinakumari a c.pdf 27 yella swami c.pdf 28 saidulu y.pdf 29 sindhu s.pdf 30 neeraj.pdf 31 sivaranjani r.pdf 32 rashied tetteh.pdf 34 sangeetha g.pdf 35 shareefa m.pdf 36 last pages.pdf short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):107-108, 2015 manipulation of bunch development in banana to ensure uniformity in fruit size and high yield was achieved in different varieties of banana by kotur et al (2012) using direct nutrient-feeding to the de-navelled distal end of rachis after fruit set. using 15n-labelled urea, it was demonstrated earlier (kotur and keshava murthy, 2008) that over 42% of n blended in cow-dung slurry enriched with urea and sulphate of potash (sop) could be mobilized into the bunch, with concomitant inflow of other nutrients present in the enriched cow-dung. improvement in fe and mn content from 53 and 4.8µg g-1, respectively, in the whole banana fruit (pulp + peel) under ‘control’, to 115 and 14.9µg g-1, respectively, was obtained in direct nutrient-feeding with a blend of 7.5g each urea and sop in cow-dung in ‘robusta’ banana (kotur and keshava murthy, 2010). therefore, further enhancement in bunch weight, and fruit biofortification with these micronutrients important for human nutrition (nair and iyengar, 2009; insa, 2011) was attempted by enriching the blend with feso4 (heptahydrate) and mnso4 (monohydrate). ‘control’ bunches retained the male flower until harvest, while, other treatments involved direct nutrient-feeding of the de-navelled distal end of rachis (after shed of 15-18 spathes) with 500g fresh cow-dung enriched with 7.5g each of urea and sop dissolved in 100ml of water. uniform bunches carrying 10 hands (with average number of fingers at 132 ± 6.8) were selected for receiving bio-fortification with iron and manganese for enhanced bunch yield in ‘robusta’ banana through direct nutrient-feeding s.c. kotur division of soil science and agricultural chemistry icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru 560089, india e-mail: sckotur@gmail.com abstract enhancement of bunch weight together with bio-fortification with fe and mn was attempted in ‘robusta’ banana by enriching with 0-1.25g bunch-1 each of feso4 (heptahydrate) and mnso4 (monohydrate). bunch yield and content of fe and mn in the pulp substantially increased by direct nutrient feeding of bunches with 7.5g each of urea and sop besides 0.75g each of feso4 and mnso4. the improved technique holds promise for combating anemia in humans by bio-fortification of banana with fe besides supplemental mn in diet. key words: bunch size, direct nutrient feeding, ‘robusta’ banana, musa sp., bio-fortification, fe and mn content of pulp the treatments. the blend was further enriched with feso4 and mnso4 in the range of 0-1.25g each (table 1) used in 3 replications. after harvest, fruit and bunch weight was recorded. pulp from fruits ripening at ambient conditions was sampled, sliced, held in on oven at 70oc to dryness, and powdered. the powder was digested in 9:4 nitric:perchloric acid mixture. iron and manganese in the digest were determined using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer. data was analyzed taking the experiment design as a completely randomized unit. table 1. effect of de-navelling and direct feeding of fe and mn blended with urea, sop and cow-dung in ‘robusta’ banana bunch treatment fruit bunch fe m n weight weight content content (kg/bunch) (kg) (μg g-1) (μg g-1) control 13.934 14.685 25.8 1.1 cow dung + urea + sop 19.551 20.621 31.8 2.4 cow dung + urea + sop + 20.702 21.833 35.2 2.8 0.25g each of feso4 and mnso4 cow dung + urea + sop + 22.329 23.496 48.5 3.0 0.50g each of feso4 and mnso4 cow dung + urea + sop + 24.466 25.806 59.9 3.8 0.75g each of feso4 and mnso4 cow dung + urea + sop + 19.413 20.465 58.9 4.3 1.00g each of feso4 and mnso4 cow dung + urea + sop + 17.246 18.194 43.5 3.2 1.25g each of feso4 and mnso4 sem (±) 0.4459 0.4730 1.74 0.21 cd (p=0.05) 1.3013 1.3803 5.08 0.35 108 direct nutrient feeding using cow-dung enriched with urea and sop increased fruit and bunch weight by 40% to 76% over the ‘control’ owing to enrichment with feso4 and mnso4 (table 1). this accounted for 25% enhancement over application of cow-dung enriched with only urea and sop. significant decline in fruit and bunch weight occurred at 1.00 and 1.25g each of feso4 and mnso4, but, fruit and bunch weight was similar to that obtained in just urea + sop blended with cow-dung. with regard to fe and mn content of pulp, significant increase was observed in enriched cow-dung with up to 1.0g each of feso4 and mnso4 per bunch, declining significantly at 1.25g each of the two nutrients. however, these values were smaller than reported earlier (kotur and keshava murthy, 2010), as, only the pulp was studied which has much lower nutrient content relative to the fruit peel. these results indicate that it is possible to increase bunch yield further as also the content of fe and mn in pulp substantially, by direct nutrient-feeding of ‘robusta’ bunches with 7.5g each urea and sop along with 0.75 each of feso4 and mnso4. there is also a scope for adding nutrients other than n, k, s, fe and mn to the blend of cow-dung to optimize the use of direct nutrient-feeding of banana bunch. this can help maximize bunch yield and improve nutrient status in the pulp, to boost the food-value of banana fruit. however, neutraceutical implication in terms of bio-availability of fe and mn to humans remains to be seen through suitable clinical trials. this improved technique holds promise for combating anemia among humans besides supplementing mn in their diet. nair and iyengar (2009) opined that food-based approaches for increasing iron and other haematopoietic nutrient content are important for correction of iron deficiency anemia in humans. references insa. 2011. micronutrient security for india – priorities for research and action. indian national science academy, new delhi, pp. 1-19 nair, m.k. and iyengar, v. 2009. iron content, bioavailability and factors affecting iron status of indians. indian j. med. res., 130:634-645 kotur, s.c. and keshava murthy, s.v. 2008. enhancing the fruit yield of ‘robusta’ banana (musa×paradisiaca l.) by de-navelling and feeding nitrogen, potassium and sulphur through the distal-end of the bunch. indian j. agril. sci., 78:109-115 kotur, s.c. and keshava murthy, s.v. 2010. influence of de-navelling and stalk-end nutrient application on nutrient composition of ‘robusta’ banana fruits. j. hortl. sci., 5:148-150 kotur, s.c., ramesh, p.r. and venugopalan, r. 2012. evaluating direct feeding of de-navelled banana bunch with nutrients for enhancing fruit quality yield and nutrient contents. j. hortl. sci., 9:166-171 (ms received 07 december 2013, revised 17 november 2014, accepted 20 november 2014) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):107-108, 2015 kotur guava (psidium guajava l.) is one of the most important commercial fruit crops of india (tandon et al, 1983). the guava fruit is an excellent source of vitamin c ranging from 70 to 350 mg/100 g, and a rich source of minerals like calcium, phosphorus and iron. the fruit also contains substantial quantity of vitamin a, pantothenic acid, riboflavin, thiamin and niacin. the fruits can be processed into various products like jam, jelly, cheese, ketchup, clarified juice, powder, toffee, flakes, nectar and butter paste for domestic market as well as export. the present study deals with the evaluation of four guava varieties for nectar preparation. firm ripe fruits of four guava varieties were selected for the preparation of guava nectar. the fruits were washed, sliced blended with equal amount of warm water in a waring blender and sieved to obtain a fine fruit pulp free from seeds and epicarp. for nectar preparation, 20% pulp was used. the total soluble solids of pulp was adjusted to15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20o brix with the addition of calculated amount of sugar and the acidity at 0.3% in the final product by the addition of required amount of citric acid. the nectar was filtered and the filtrate was filled in to hot sterilized crown bottles of 250 ml capacity with air tight corking. the bottles were pasteurized in boiling water till the temperature of product reached 1000 c and stored at ambient condition for 150 days. tss was determined by hand refractometer. total sugar, reducing and non-reducing sugar, acidity and ascorbic acid were estimated as described evaluation of guava (psidium guajava l.) varieties and standardization of recipe for nectar preparation madan lal choudhary1, s.n. dikshit2, neeraj shukla and r.r. saxena3 department of horticulture college of agriculture, igau, raipur 492006 (c.g.), india e-mail: sndikshit@rediffmail.com abstract the nectar prepared from guava variety l-49 had highest ascorbic acid, ph and non-reducing sugar. the recipe with 20 per cent pulp, 0.3 per cent acidity and 170brix (tss) recorded highest organoleptic score. the acidity, tss, total and reducing sugar of nectar showed an increasing trend during the progress of storage upto five months under ambient conditions. however, these chemical constituents did not change markedly until five months of storage as compared to fresh nectar at the time of preparation. key words: guava varieties, nectar, recipe, storage, ambient condition, organoleptic score 1 college of agriculture, rau, bikaner (rajasthan) 2 corresponding author’s e-mail 3 department of statistics and computer science by ranganna (1997). the ph was measured using digital ph meter. organoleptic scoring was done by a panel of five judges using 9 point hedonic scale (amerine et al, 1965). the data were statistically analysed using completely randomized design with factorial arrangement. the chemical composition of guava varieties is presented in table1. data revealed that among four varieties of guava, the fruits of lucknow-49 had maximum tss, total sugar, reducing and non-reducing sugars as well as ascorbic acid (366.50 mg/100 g). however, the acidity was found medium (0.76%) having slightly acidic ph (5.51). the data pertaining to biochemical changes in guava nectar prepared from the recipe with 20% pulp, 170 brix (tss) and 0.3% acidity during storage of five months are presented in table 2. ascorbic acid the ascorbic acid content in guava nectar showed a decreasing trend during storage period from the time of preparation (0 day) to five months at ambient condition. the nectar of variety l-49 had significantly higher ascorbic acid followed by allahabad safeda, apple colour and r72 in fresh samples at the time of preparation (0 day) to five months of storage. the decrease in ascorbic acid in nectar during storage might be due to oxidation or irreversible conversion of l-ascorbic acid into dehydro ascorbic acid in the presence of enzyme ascorbic acid short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 161-163, 2008 162 oxidase caused by trapped or residual oxygen in the glass bottles. similar reductions in ascorbic acid content have also been reported in guava beverages (baramanray et al, 1995; pandey and singh, 1998; pandey, 2004). acidity the acidity in guava nectar increased in all the varieties during storage. at the end of five months, the nectar of variety l-49 had an acidity of 0.49% followed by allahabad safeda, apple colour and r-72 (0.90%). the increased acidity in nectar during storage may be due to formation of organic acids as well as progressive decrease in pectin content. similar findings have also been reported in the beverages of papaya (kumar, 1990), mango (rabbani, 1992) and guava (baramanray et al, 1995; pandey and singh, 1998; pandey, 2004). total soluble solids (tss) the tss content in guava nectar showed an increasing trend in all the varieties at increasing period of storage upto five months at ambient condition. the nectar of variety r-72 had a higher tss (17.40obrix) followed by apple colour, allahabad safeda and l-49 after five months of storage period. the increased tss in nectar during storage was probably due to conversion of left over polysaccharides into soluble sugars. similar results have been reported in date juice rts (godara and pareek, 1985) and guava beverages (baramanray et al, 1995; pandey and singh, 1998; pandey, 2004). ph of nectar the ph of guava nectar showed a decreasing trend in all the varieties with increasing period of storage from the time of preparation to five months under room temperature. in fresh nectar, the variety l-49 had the maximum ph of 5.89 followed by allahabad safeda, apple colour and r-72. after five months of storage period, the nectar of variety l-49 recorded the maximum ph of 4.65 followed by allahabad safeda. the reduction in ph could be attributed to simultaneous increase in acidity and tss of nectar at storage temperature as reported by sethi (1993) and prasad and mali (2000) in litchi and pomegranate squash, respectively. total and reducing sugars the total and reducing sugar content in guava nectar showed an increasing trend in all the varieties with increasing period of storage upto five months under ambient conditions. the nectar of variety r-72 contained maximum total and reducing sugar followed by apple colour, allahabad safeda and l-49 in fresh samples at the time of preparation as well as at five months of storage. however, the levels of total and reducing sugars in nectar of variety l-49 did not increase much during storage period in comparison to fresh samples. the increased level of total sugar was probably due to conversion of starch and pectin into simple sugars. the increase in reducing sugar as well as total sugar corresponded to the increase in total soluble table 1. chemical composition of guava fruits used for nectar characters tss totalsugar reducing sugar non-reducing sugar ascorbic acid (obrix) (%) (%) (%) (mg/100g) acidity (%) ph varieties apple colour 11.32 9.32 4.73 4.49 241.40 0.64 4.87 allahabad safeda 13.49 10.24 6.46 3.77 332.10 0.49 5.52 lucknow-49 14.52 11.63 6.62 5.05 366.50 0.76 5.51 rewa-72 13.09 10.06 6.52 3.53 135.25 0.94 4.25 table 2. compositional changes in guava nectar with recipe of 20% pulp, 170 brix (tss) and 0.3% acidity during storage parameters fresh sample (0 day) after 5 months (150 days) ac as l-49 r-72 ac as l-49 r-72 tss (0brix) 17.03 17.02 17.00 17.00 17.30 17.15 17.10 17.40 acidity (%) 0.32 0.32 0.32 0.32 0.77 0.65 0.49 0.90 ph 4.41 5.43 5.89 4.31 3.42 4.25 4.65 3.44 total sugar (%) 16.25 16.15 16.05 16.35 16.52 16.45 16.35 16.64 reducing sugar (%) 6.17 5.85 5.75 6.35 8.63 8.40 7.24 10.40 nonreducing sugar (%) 10.07 10.30 10.36 10.03 7.99 8.05 9.11 6.24 ascorbic acid (mg/100g) 6.58 6.92 7.58 5.25 4.33 5.08 5.67 4.00 organoleptic score 8.40 8.99 9.00 8.09 6.55 7.21 7.81 6.71 ac: apple colour; as: allahabad safeda; l-49: lucknow-49; r-72: rewa-72 choudhary et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 161-163, 2008 163 solids and ultimate decrease in non-reducing sugar in the nectar during storage period (murari and verma, 1989). non-reducing sugar the non-reducing sugar in nectar showed a decreasing trend in all the varieties with increasing period of storage upto five months. the variation in different fractions of sugar might be due to hydrolysis of polysaccharides like starch, pectin and inversion of nonreducing sugar into reducing sugar, as increase in reducing sugar could be correlated with the decrease in non -reducing sugar (baramanray et al, 1995; shrivastava, 1998). organoleptic evaluation the organoleptic score of guava nectar of all the varieties decreased during storage. the nectar prepared from variety l-49 had a higher score followed by allahabad safeda, apple colour and r-72 in fresh samples and the products of l-49 and allahabad safeda were found to be acceptable upto five months of storage. loss of volatile aromatic substances responsible for flavour and taste of nectar might have decreased organoleptic score as well as acceptability of nectar during storage at ambient condition as reported by baramanray et al (1995) in guava nectar and thakur and barwal (1998) in kiwi fruit squash. references amerine, m.a., pangborn, r.m. and rosseler, e.b. 1965. principle of sensory evaluation of food. academic press, london baramanray, a., gupta, o.p. and dhawan, s.s. 1995. evaluation of guava (psidium guajava l.) hybrids for making nectar. haryana j. hortl. sci., 24: 102-109 godara, r.k. and pareek, o.p. 1985. effect of temperature on storage life of ready to serve date juice beverages. ind. j. agri. sci., 55: 347-349 kumar, s.1990. studies on post harvest technology of papaya fruits. ph.d. thesis, ndua&t, faizabad (u.p.) murari, k. and verma, r.a. 1989. studies on the effect of varieties and pulp extraction methods on the quality of guava nectar. ind. food packer, 42: 11-15 pandey, a.k. and singh, i.s. 1998. studies on preparation and preservation of guava squash. prog. hort., 30: 190-193 pandey, a.k. 2004. study about the storage stability of guava beverages. prog. hort., 36: 142-145. prasad, r.n. and mali, p.c. 2000. changes in physicochemical characteristics of pomegranate squash during storage. ind. j. hort., 57: 18-20 rabbani, a. 1992. studies of post harvest technology of sucking mangoes. ph.d. thesis, ndua&t, faizabad (u.p.) ranganna, s. 1997. handbook of analysis and quality control for fruits and vegetablesp r o d u c t . t a t a mcgraw hill publishing co. ltd., new delhi sethi, v. 1993. changes in physico-chemical characteristics of litchi squash during storage at different temperatures. ind. j. hort., 50: 327-332 shrivastava, j.s. 1998. comparative study of rts drinks prepared from dashehari and banganpalli mangoes. ind. food packer, 52: 38-42 tandon, d.k., kalra, s.k., singh, h. and chadha, k.l. 1983. physico-chemical characteristics of some guava varieties. prog. hort., 15: 42-44 thakur, k.s. and barwal, v.s. 1998. studies on preparation and evaluation of squash from unmarketable kiwi fruit. ind. food packer, 52: 26-29 (ms received 12 march, 2007, revised 4 august 2008) standardization of guava recipe for nectar preparation j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 161-163, 2008 final sph -jhs coverpage 17-1 jan 2022 single j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 220-226, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction mushrooms have been identified as an excellent food source to alleviate malnutrition in developing c ou nt r ies . o ys t er mu s hr oom ha s p r ot eins , carbohydrates, vitamins, calcium, and iron (hilal et al., 2012). it is a good dietary supplements which ca n lower cholester ol (kha tun et al. , 2007). globally, pleurotus is the second largest cultivated mushroom after shiita ke (royse et al., 2017). pleurotus species are popular and widely cultivated throughout the world especially in asia, america a nd europe beca use of their simple, low-cost p r odu c t ion t ec hnology a nd high b iologic a l efficiency. pleurotus species are efficient lignin degraders which can grow on a wide variety of agricultural wastes and acclimatize a wide range of temperatures. the productivity and quality of cultivated edible mushrooms mainly depend on the genetic makeup of the strain (kaur and sodhi 2012). the improvement of pleurotus mushroom production primarily utilizes natural selection. the productivity of the mushroom strain can be improved to some extent by manipulating the environmental and physiological conditions during cultivation. however, genetic manipulation of the ruling mushroom variety can enhance the productivity and quality of the mushroom. genetic manipulation of mushroom can be done by hybridization, protoplast fusion and genetic engineering for strain improvement. selection and mating of genetically diverse parents is an important approach to exploit heterosis through hybridization. the objectives of mushroom breeding are to obtain pleurotus strain with desirable agronomic traits such as high yield, wider substrate utilisation, spore lessness, wide temperature tolerance, good cropping duration and non-rhizomorphic mycelial phenotype of pleurotus djamor woody1 co-segregate in the hybrid progenies sindhu s.1, theradimani m.1, samundeeswari s.1, sobanbabu g.1, renuka r2. and ramamoorthy v.1* department of plant pathology, agricultural college and research institute, madurai tamil nadu agricultural university, tamil nadu, india *corresponding author e-mail : rvrmoorthy@yahoo.com abstract crop duration of the cultivated pleurotus spp. is 45 to 50 days. p. djamor isolate woody-1 was collected as natural selection and was found to be short cropping duration variety with total cropping duration of 30 days but it is less palatable. it produced very thin, loose and non-rhizomorphic mycelia appearing light white color. whereas, other commercial pleurotus varieties such as p. florida and p. djamor mdu1 are long crop duration varieties and palatable producing thick, compact and rhizomorphic mycelia with bright white color. co-segregation of non-rhizomorphic mycelial phenotype and short cropping duration trait of p. djamor woody1 in hybrid progenies was evaluated. hybrid strains viz., h2w12 and h2w14 have thin, loose and non-rhizomorphic mycelium and they produced primordia in 9-10 days after spawning with total cropping duration of 29-32 days. whereas, hybrid strain namely pf1w2 has thick, compact and rhizomorphic mycelial phenotype and it produced primordia in 20 days after spawning with the total cropping duration of 47 days. this study indicated that genes governing short cropping duration and non-rhizomorphic mycelial pattern were tightly linked and co-segregated in the progenies. thus, non-rhizomorphic mycelial phenotype of p. djamor woody1 can be used as a phenotypic marker for selection of hybrid cultivar having short cropping duration with other desired agronomic traits in future breeding strategy. keywords: basidiocarp, hybridization, mycelium and pleurotus 221 cropping duration and non-rhizomorphic mycelial phenotype j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 220-226, 2022 palatability, good texture of the fruiting body and resistance to pest and diseases. recently, p. djamor isolate woody1 was collected as natural selection process and it has short crop duration (30 days) and high biological efficiency. however, it is leathery in sensory while eating, contains less plectenchymatous tissue in the pileus. thus, it is less palatable (praveen et al., 2017). but several ruling pleurotus spp. including p. florida and p. djamor mdu1 are long crop duration varieties with good palatability. in order to transfer the short cropping duration trait into the commercially ruling mushroom cultivar, p. djamor woody1 need to be crossed with any of the ruling oyster mushroom and the suitable hybrid possessing short cropping duration along with desired agronomic traits such as good palatability and high yielding potential has to be selected. there are some sequential steps followed for carrying out successful breeding process (hybridization) between two pleurotus spp. starting with collection and culturing of basidiospores; crossing monokaryotic mycelia and evaluation of successful crosses and finally analysis of the hybrid strain for desired agronomic traits in comparison with parental strains (bar h et al., 2019). pleurotus ha s tetrapolar / bifactorial mating system and requires two compatible mating type for dikaryotic mycelial formation and basidiocarp initiation and need to carry out several crosses to get the dikaryons for obtaining hybrid with desired agronomic traits (raper and raper, 1966; casselton and olesnicky, 1998). several crosses need to be made to find a hybrid ha ving shor t cr op dur a tion tr a it with desir ed agronomic trait or a hybrid with several desirable traits. thus, it would be wise to have additional phenotypic marker that could co-segregate with any one of the desirable trait for screening the hybrid having other desired traits. in our previous studies conducted during 2018 and 2020 on breeding between p. djamor woody1 and p. djamor mdu1 or p. florida resulted in several hybrids having both short cropping duration and long cropping duration (reihana et al., 2018; samundeeswari, 2020). we speculated that short cropping dura tion a nd non-r hizomorphic mycelial phenotypes could co-segregate in the hybrid progenies. keeping these points in mind, cropping duration and mycelial phenotypic characters of three selected hybrid progenies (h2w12, h2w14 and pf1w2) of p. djamor woody1 were analysed upon crossing with p. florida. in this study it was found that non-rhizomorphic phenotypic character co-segregate with the short cropping duration in hybrid progenies. material and methods pleurotus culture and growth medium dikaryotic mycelia isolated from the basidiocarps of different pleurotus spp. viz., p. djamor woody1, p. florida, p. djamor mdu1 and hybrids strains viz., h2w12, h2w14 and pf1w2 (obtained upon crossing between p. djamor woody1 and p. florida) were used in this study. mycelial cultures were cultured on pda medium. spawn production was carried out on sorghum/paddy grains. mushroom cultivation for analysing the primordial formation and cropping duration was carried out on paddy straw. somatic hybridization of different pleurotus spp. collection of basidiospores was carried out by placing healthy pileus in sterilized petri plate in such a way that gills were facing down the bottom plate for an hour to allow shedding of basidiospore from the pileus. then, the basidiospores were collected by adding 10 ml of ster ilized wa ter a nd counted using haemocytometer. the basidiospore stock suspension was serially diluted to the concentration of 300 spores /ml and about 30 to 100 basidiospores were spread plated using sterilized glass l rod and incubated at 28! for 4 to 6 days or until individual small white mycelial colonies appear with the diameter of 3-5 mm. markedly fast growing monokaryotic colonies with typical radial growth were identified and sub cultured on fresh pda plate in a grid form at equi-distance. somatic hybridization was carried out between p. florida and p. djamor isolate woody 1. dual culture technique was employed for pairing monokaryons of two parental strains at possible combinations. small discs of monokaryons from two parental strains were cut and inoculated at two centimeters apart from each other on pda medium at the center of the plate and incubated at 28oc the plates were incubated until two monokaryotic mycelia grow towards each other and the hyphae of two monokaryons were interwoven or fused with each other. a compatible mating consisted of formation of fluffy and vigorous mycelia (with thick and bright white color) at the confrontation zone/merger region of anastomosis/ junction point of two monokaryotic mycelia. from this junction point, the fluffy putative dikaryotic mycelium was taken and 222 sindhu et al sub-cultured onto the new pda plate and incubated for five days. dikaryotic mycelia (crossed/hybrid/ paired mycelia) were further confirmed by the presence of clamp connection under light microscope. assessment of mycelial growth of different pleurotus spp. to assess the radial growth of mycelium and mycelial growth pattern, the dikaryotic mycelia of p. djamor woody1, p. florida, p. djamor mdu1 and hybrid strains viz., h2w12, h2w14 and pf1w2 were inoculated onto the pda medium. the cultures were incubated at 28°c. three replications were maintained for each culture. the radial growth of the mycelium was recorded when anyone of the isolates completely covered the petri plate. mycelial growth patterns such as fluffiness, color and rhizomorphic pattern were noted. spawn preparation the spawn preparation was carried out as described by krishnamoorthy et al. (2005). the paddy or sorghum grains were washed in water thoroughly to remove chaffy and damaged grains. the grains were cooked in vessel for 30 minutes just to soften them. then, the excess water from the cooked grains was drained off and grains were spread evenly over a hessian cloth on a platform to remove the excess water. at 50% moisture level, calcium carbonate (caco3) was applied on the grains (dried grains) @ 40 g /kg of grains. then, the grains were filled in polythene bags up to 3/4th height (approximately 300-330 g / bag), pvc ring was inserted, edges were folded down and the mouth of the bag was plugged tightly with non-absorbent cotton. after plugging with cotton plug, the bag was covered with a piece of paper and tied tightly around the neck with a jute thread or a rubber band. the bags were arranged inside an autoclave and sterilized at 20 lbs for 2 hours. then, the bags were taken after cooling and kept inside the laminar air flow chamber for inoculation. the mycelial culture (10 mm diameter disc) of pleurotus spp. was cut and transferred to a bag. the inoculated bags were incubated in a clean room under room temperature (28±2°c). the spawn running period was recorded. bed preparation paddy straw was used as a substrate for the bed preparation. the substrate was cut into 5 cm long bits, soaked in cold water for 4 hours and pasteurized in hot water for 30 min at 80°c. the transparent polythene bags (30 x 60 cm length and 80-gauge thickness) were used for the cultivation of oyster mushroom. initially, hands were thoroughly washed with alcohol. the bottom end of the bag was tied with a thread and the bag was turned inside out. then, the dried straw was mixed thoroughly to get a uniform moisture level in all areas. the well-grown bed spawn was taken out, squeezed thoroughly and divided into two halves. (two beds are prepared from the single spawn bag). bits of chopped straw (5 cm long) were placed at the bottom of polythene bag to make a layer (10 cm height) on which 40 g of spawn was sprinkled. second layer of straw to a height of 10 cm was placed and 40 g of spawn was sprinkled on top of the second layer. in the same way, five layers of straw and four layers of spawn were kept in the polythene bag and finally the bag was tied at the top. six ventilation holes of one-cm diameter were made at random in the polythene bag. then, these beds were kept in spawn running room where the temperature was maintained at 28oc. the fully spawn run beds were taken to the cr opping r oom in which the temper a tur e wa s maintained at 25±2°c and rh> 80% for initiation of basidiocarp (krishnamoorthy et al., 2005). primordia formation and cropping duration assessment the days required for the primordia formation were recorded after spawning and the days required for the harvest of the first, second and third flushes and total cropping duration of each variety were recorded. the yield and biological efficiency were recorded. results and discussion assessment of mycelial growth pattern of different pleurotus spp. to assess which pleurotus spp. grow actively on the culture media, six isolates of pleurotus spp. viz., p. djamor woody1, p. florida, p. djamor mdu1 and hybrid strains viz., h2w12, h2w14 and pf1w2 were cultured on pda medium. among the various pleurotus spp. tested, p. djamor isolate woody1 grew to the maximum level of 88.67 mm followed by the hybrid strains pf1w2 (86.33), h2w12 (85.67 mm), h2w14 (85.33 mm) and p. djamor isolate mdu1 (77.67 mm). whereas, the minimum mycelia l gr owth wa s r ecor ded by p. florida on pda medium (75 mm) (fig. 1 and table 1). j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 220-226, 2022 223 table 1: phenotypic characters of different pleurotus spp. pleurotus strains radial mycelial mycelial growth pattern growth (mm)* p. djamor woody1 88.67a thin, loose and non-rhizomorphic growth; dull white in color hybrid h2w12 85.67c thin, loose and non-rhizomorphic growth; dull white in color hybrid h2w14 85.33c thin, loose and non-rhizomorphic growth; dull white in color hybrid pf1w2 86.33b thick, compact and rhizomorphic growth; bright white in color p. florida 75.00d thick, compact and rhizomorphic growth; bright white in color p. djamor mdu1 77.67e thick, compact and rhizomorphic growth; bright white in color *mean of three replications in the column, mean values followed by a common letter are not significantly different (pd”0.05, dmrt analysis). fig. 1. colony characters of different pleurotus spp. mycelia of p. djamor woody1 (one of the parental strains used for hybridization) appeared as thin, loose and non-rhizomorphic filament and light white in color. similarly, the hybrid strains such as h2w12 and h2w14 a lso pr oduced thin, loose a nd nonrhizomorphic filament and light white in color. whereas, hybrid strain namely pf1w2 produced thick, compact and rhizomorphic mycelium and appeared bright white in color as that of other parental strain p. florida (fig. 1 and table 1). mostly, the mycelial gr owth phenotype of pleurotus a ppea r s a s rhizomorphic like radial growth with thick and white in color. but, mycelial growth characters of p. djamor woody1 and some of its hybrid progeny appeared as loose, thin and non-rhizomorphic type. this is the important phenotypic and distinguishing character for the identification of this isolate during culturing time. similar type of varied mycelial phenotypic characters in different pleurotus spp. was noticed in different pleurotus spp. mycelia of p. sajor-caju and p. platypus were compact. whereas, mycelia of p. citrinopileatus were highly fluffy. similarly, mycelial pattern in p. fossulatus, p. flabellatus, p. sapidus and p. ostreatus was slightly fluffy (mishra et al., 2015). spawn running period and mycelial pattern days required for spawn development was analysed for different pleurotus cultivars such as viz., p. djamor woody1, p. florida, p. djamor mdu1 and hybrid strains viz., h2w12, h2w14 and pf1w2. days required for spawn development for p. djamor woody1 a nd hyb r id str a ins viz. , h2 w1 2 a nd h2w14 were ranged from12 to 15 days and that for hybrid strain namely pf1w2 and p. florida were 16 to 17 da ys. mycelia l growth pa tter n of p. djamor woody1 and hybrid strains such as h2w12 a nd h2w14 a ppear ed a s thin, loose a nd nonrhizomorphic filament and light white in color on sp a wn s ub st r a t es (s or ghum/ pa ddy gr a ins ) a s observed on pda medium. whereas, hybrid strain namely pf1w2 and other parental strain namely. florida produced thick, compact and rhizomorphic mycelium and appeared bright white in color on spawn substrates as grown on pda medium (table 2). in other studies, it was reported that p. eous covered the spawn within 7 to 20 days on different grains used as spawn substrate (sahu et al., 2014). blue oyster mushroom took spawn 18.5 days for the spawn production when paddy grain was used as a substrate (sumi and geetha, 2017). days required for primordia formation d a ys r equ ir ed f or p r imor dia f or ma tion wa s analysed for different pleurotus cultivars such as p. djamor woody1, p. florida, p. djamor mdu1 a nd hybr id str ains viz. , h2w12, h2w14 a nd pf1w2. days required for primordia formation for cropping duration and non-rhizomorphic mycelial phenotype j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 220-226, 2022 224 p le ur ot us sp aw n d ay s fo r d ay s fo r ha rv es t y ie ld b io lo gi ca l p ile us st ra in s ru nn in g pr im or di a 1s t 2n d 3r d /c ro p (g / be d) e ff ic ie nc y ch ar ac te rs pe ri od fo rm at io n ha rv es t ha rv es t du ra ti on * (% )* (d ay s) * (d ay s) * (d ay s) * (d ay s) * (d ay s) * p. d ja m or w oo dy 1 12 .6 7a 9. 33 a 13 .0 0a 19 .0 0a 30 .0 0a 47 5. 00 ab 95 .0 0a b w av y m ar gi n h yb ri d h 2w 12 14 .3 3b 10 .6 7a b 14 .3 3a b 21 .6 7b 32 .6 7b 45 6. 67 bc 91 .3 3b c sl ig ht ly w av y m ar gi n h yb ri d h 2w 14 14 .6 7b 11 .6 7b 15 .3 3b 22 .0 0b 32 .0 0b 49 9. 33 a 99 .8 7a w av y m ar gi n h yb ri d pf 1w 2 16 .3 3c 20 .0 0c 24 .6 7c 36 .3 3c 47 .0 0c 45 0. 00 bc 90 .0 0b c sm oo th m ar gi n p. f lo ri da 16 .0 0c 21 .0 0c 25 .0 0c 36 .0 0c 48 .0 0c 43 3. 00 c 86 .6 0c sm oo th m ar gi n p. d ja m or m d u 1 17 .0 0c 20 .0 0c 24 .0 0c 35 .0 0c 47 .6 7c 44 0. 00 c 88 .0 0c sm oo th m ar gi n *m ea n of t hr ee r ep lic at io ns in t he c ol um n, m ea n va lu es f ol lo w ed b y a co m m on l et te r ar e no t si gn if ic an tly d iff er en t (p d” 0. 05 , d m r t a na ly si s) . ta bl e 2. a gr on om ic t ra its f or t he d iff er en t p le ur ot us s pp . sindhu et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 220-226, 2022 p. djamor woody1 and that for hybrid strains viz., h2w12 and h2w14 were ranged between 9 to 12 days and that for hybrid strain pf1w2, parental strain p. florida were 20 to 21 days. in general, pr imor dia (p in hea d for ma tion) for ma tion of pleurotus spp. occurs at 20 days after spawning (table 2). ahmed (1998) reported that pinhead formation of oyster mushroom occurred between 23 and 27 days from spawning in different substrates. fan et al. (2000) observed that pinhead formation took place between 20-23 days. patra and pani (1995) also recorded 20-24 da ys ta ken for the pinhead formation on paddy straw substrate. days required for basidiocarp production and total crop duration da ys r equir ed for the f ir st flu sh ba sidioca r p production for p. djamor woody1 and hybrid strains viz., h2w12 and h2w14 were between 13 to 15 days and that for hybrid strain pf1w2 and parental strain p. florida was 24 to 25 days after spawning. simila r ly, da ys r equir ed for the second flush basidiocarp production for p. djamor woody1 and hybrid strains viz., h2w12 and h2w14 ranged between 19 to 23 days and that for hybrid strain pf1w2, parental strains viz., p. florida and p. djamor mdu1 was 35 to 36 days. total cropping duration for the p. djamor woody 1 and hybrid strains viz., h2w12 and h2w14 ranged between 30 to 33 days and that for p. florida and p. djamor mdu1 wa s 47 to 48 days. ma rgin a nd outer surface of basidiocarps of p. djamor woody1 and hybrid h2w14 a ppea red wavy and the hybrid h2w12 appeared slightly wavy. whereas, margin and outer surface of basidiocarps of hybrid pf1w2, p. florida and p. djamor mdu1 appeared smooth. the hybrid h2w14 gave the highest yield of 499.33 g with biological efficiency of 99.87 % followed by p. djamor isolate woody 1 (475.00 g and 95 %), fig. 2. basidiocarp phenotypic characters of different pleurotus spp. 225 hybrids h2w12 (456.67 g and 91.33 %), pf1w2 (450.00g and 90.00 %) and p. djamor var mdu 1 (440.0 g and 88.00 %) and p. florida (433.00 g and 86.60 %). (fig. 2; table 2). baral et al. (2017) developed an intraspecific hybrid of p. flabellatus showing better nutr itional quality, ear liness in pr oduction and higher yield compar ed to their parental strains. interspecific hybrids viz., p1xc9 a nd p 3xc8, ob ta ined b y cr ossing between p. c it ri n op i le at u s a nd p. p ul mo n ar i us , s howed desirable traits such as higher productivity and biological efficiency a nd less offensive ar oma compared to their parental strains (rosnina et al., 2016). thus, this study clearly showed that hybrid strains viz., h2w12 and h2w14 are short crop duration va rieties with non-r hizomorphic mycelial type. whereas, hybrid strain pf1w2 is long cropping duration variety with rhizomorphic mycelial type. the present study clearly showed that short crop du r a t ion p henot yp e a nd nonr h iz omor p hic phenotype co-segregate together in the hybrid strains. thus, from this study, it was concluded that non-rhizomorphic mycelium character can be used as a phenotypic marker to screen and select the shor t dur a tion hybr id str a ins with a dditiona l desirable agronomic traits in the breeding program. pleurotus breeding program involves five steps such as 1. collection of basidiospores 2. culturing of individual basidiospore to form monokaryotic myc eliu m. 3 . c r os s ing/ ma t in g b et ween monokaryotic mycelia of two pleurotus spp. 4. evaluation of successful cross/dikaryon by checking clamp connection and 5. analysis of the hybrid strain for desired agronomic traits by mushroom cultivation (petersen and ridley, 1996). this study showed that only puta tive dika r yotic cr osses/ hybrids having non-rhizomorphic phenotype at the fourth step of breeding program could be further evaluated in the fifth step for screeding/analysis of the hybrid progenies having short crop duration with other desir ed agr onomic traits. t hus, cosegregating phenotypic marker saves the time and speed up the screening process of development of hybrid strain having short cropping duration with desired agronomic traits such as good palatability and high yielding potentia l. hence, having cosegregating phenotypic marker (non-rhizomorphic phenotype) with short cropping duration traits of p. djamor woody1 would facilitate in speeding up b r eeding p r ogr a m wit h ot her c o mmer c ia lly cultivated ruling pleurotus cultivar. acknowledgement the authors are thankful to tamil nadu agriculture university for giving facility and technical help rendered by r. reihana is highly appreciated. references ahmad, i., fuad, i. and khan, z. k. 2015. mycelia growth of pink oyster (pleurotus djamor) mushroom in different culture media & environmental factors. agriculture and food sciences research, 2(1): 6-11. barh, a., sharma, v.p., annepu, s.k., kamal, s., sha r ma , s. a nd p bha tt. 2019. genetic improvement in pleurotus (oyster mushroom): a review. 3 biotech, 9 (9):322. baral, d., roy, a. and thapa, s. 2018. strain improvement in oyster mushroom (pleurotus sp. ) thr ough hybr idization. the pharma innovation journa,l, 7(4): 286-289 casselton, l. a. and olesnicky, n. s. 1998. molecular genetics of mating recognition in basidiomycete fungi. microbiology and molecular biology reviews, 62(1): 55-70. fan, l., pandey, a., mohan, r. and soccol, c. 2000. use of various coffee industry residues for the cultivation of pleurotus ostreatus in solid state fermentation. engineering in life sciences, 20(1), 41-52. hilal, a., dunder, a. and yildiz, a. 2012. effect of using differ ent lignocellulosic wa stes for cultivation of pleurotus ostreatus (jacq.) p. kmm. on mushr oom yield, chemica l composition and nutritional value. afr. j. biotechnol., 8(4): 662-666. ka ur, j, a nd sodhi, h. s. 2012. molecula r characterization of mutant strains of calocybe indica using rapd-pcr. cme 2:4. khatun, k., mahtab, h., khanam, p., sayeed, m. and khan, k. 2007. oyster mushroom reduced blood glucose a nd cholesterol in diabetic subjects. mymensingh medical journal: mmj, 16(1): 94-99. cropping duration and non-rhizomorphic mycelial phenotype j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 220-226, 2022 226 sindhu et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 220-226, 2022 krishnamoorthy, a. s., marimuthu, t. and nakkeeran, s. 2005. mushroom biotechnology. department of plant pathology, tamil nadu agriculture university, coimbatore, p.82. patra, a. and pani, b. 1995. yield response of different species of oyster mushroom to paddy straw. curr agric res, 8(suppl): 11-14. petersen, r.h. and ridley, g.s. 1996. a new zealand pleurotus with multiple-species sexua l compatibility. mycologia, 88 (2):198-207. pr aveen, t., reihana , r., pa rthiban, v.k. a nd ra ma moor thy, v. 2018. “ molecula r characterization and phenotypic study of new pleurotus djamor isolate kkm.” int. j. curr. microbiol. appl. sci. 7 (8):3574-3582. raper, c. a. and raper, j. r. 1966. mutations modifying sexua l mor phogenesis in schizophyllum. genetics, 54(5): 1151-1168. reihana , r., pr aveen, t., pa rthiban, v.k. a nd 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(received: 17.09.2021; revised:04.12.2021; accepted: 15.03.2022) 00 a final sph -jhs coverpage first 2 pages.pdf 00 content and in this issue.pdf 01 mohan kumar g n.pdf 02 meera pandey.pdf 03 biradar c.pdf 04 varalakshmi b.pdf 05 vijayakumari n.pdf 06 barik s.pdf 07 sajid m b.pdf 08 ranga d.pdf 09 usha s.pdf 10 manisha.pdf 11 amulya r n.pdf 12 akshatha h j.pdf 13 adak t.pdf 14 sujatha s.pdf 15 gowda p p.pdf 16 subba s.pdf 17 dhayalan v.pdf 19 ahmed s.pdf 20 vishwakarma p k.pdf 21 deep lata.pdf 22 udaykumar k p.pdf 23 nayaka v s k.pdf 24 sahel n a.pdf 25 bayogan e r v.pdf 26 rathinakumari a c.pdf 27 yella swami c.pdf 28 saidulu y.pdf 29 sindhu s.pdf 30 neeraj.pdf 31 sivaranjani r.pdf 32 rashied tetteh.pdf 34 sangeetha g.pdf 35 shareefa m.pdf 36 last pages.pdf introduction potato (solanum tuberosum l.) is one of the most important food crops both in the developing and the developed countries. potato processing is well advanced in developed countries, but now processing industry in the developing countries is also growing fast. in india, there is an increase in processing activity due to an increase in urban population, preference of the new generation for fast foods, rise in per capita income, and increase in the number of working women (preferring ready-to-cook foods) and an expanding tourism (marwaha, 1997). processing of potatoes solves the problem of storing large quantities of this commodity during periods of glut. a large number of companies, including multinationals, have stepped into the field of potato processing. the processing industry needs potatoes with high dry matter (over 20%), low amounts of reducing sugars (below 0.25% on fresh weight basis), and low amounts of phenols (gaur et al, 1999). in the state of punjab, the main-season crop is grown under short-day conditions beginning in october, and is evaluation of potato genotypes for processing traits in late autumn prabhjot kaur, v.k. vashist and ajay kumar1 department of vegetable science punjab agricultural university, ludhiana 141 001, india 1e-mail: ajaykpau@gmail.com abstract the present study was undertaken to evaluate potato genotypes for their suitability for processing when grown under different crop durations, i.e., e1 (80 days’ crop duration), e2 (100 days’ crop duration) and e3 (120 days’ crop duration). among the three durations studied, e3 yielded the highest processing-grade yield (q/ha), followed by e2 and e1. the crop in e3 also exhibited high dry-matter content and low levels of reducing sugars compared to that in the other crop durations, which is desirable for processing. among the cultivars under study, kufri badshah, kufri anand, kufri bahar, kufri chipsona-1, kufri chipsona-2, kufri ashoka and kufri jawahar gave the highest total tuber-yield. however, for processing-grade yield, cvs. kufri badshah, kufri chipsona-1 and kufri jawahar yielded significantly better than the mean, but cv. kufri chipsona-1 was the one found suitable for processing due to its high dry-matter content (22.07%), while, the other cultivars were found suitable for table purpose alone. though cv. kufri chipsona-1 yielded higher (309.39 q/ha), its performance could not be predicted under various conditions owing to the data on regression coefficient (being less than one), and a significant deviation from regression. cultivars kufri chipsona-1 and kufri chipsona-2 were found to be suitable for processing, with high tuberand processing-grade yield, high dry-matter content, low amount of reducing sugars and phenols in the crop durations e2 and e3. both these cultivars produced chips of acceptable colour in all three crop durations. key words: potato, genotypes, autumn season, processing quality j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):57-63, 2015 harvested in january/ february. during crop maturation, the average minimum temperature is 4.5°c, which results in relatively low dry-matter content and high levels of reducing sugars (ezekiel et al, 1999). days to harvest also affect processing quality in potato, viz., its dry matter content, sugar content, reducing sugars, phenolic compounds, and specific gravity (marwaha and sandhu, 2002). therefore, identifying suitable varieties for late-autumn planting in the northwestern plains will not only ensure supply of fresh potatoes to the processing industry of north india for a longer period, but also minimize transportation charges, and save on the storage cost of tubers (pandey et al, 2003). material and methods the experimental material comprised ten genetically diverse potato genotypes, viz., kufri badshah, kufri anand, kufri chandramukhi, kufri bahar, kufri lauvkar, kufri chipsona-1, kufri chipsona-2, kufri ashoka, kufri jawahar and russet nor x 97-es-33, obtained from central potato research institute (cpri), shimla. these were multiplied at vegetable research farm of department of vegetable 1farm advisory service scheme, amritsar-143001, punjab, india 58 science, pau, ludhiana. all the ten cultivars were evaluated in randomized block design (rbd), with three replications. each plot measured 3.2m x 1.2m, and consisted of 16 plants in each row. seed-sized tubers were planted at row-to-row and plant-to-plant spacing of 60cm and 20cm, respectively. the crop was planted on 16th november 2005. three experiments were laid out for different crop durations, viz., 80, 100 and 120 days. various crop durations are symbolized below: environment-i (e1) – haulm cutting 80 days after planting environment-ii (e2)– haulm cutting 100 days after planting environment-iii (e3)– haulm cutting 120 days after planting each crop was harvested at 10-15 days at haulm cutting. the crop was raised following a package of practices for potato recommended by punjab agricultural university, ludhiana. processing characters like dry-matter content (%), total amount of sugars (yemm and willis, 1954), reducing sugars (mg/100g fresh weight) (nelson, 1944), total amount of phenols (swain and hillis, 1959) and polyphenol oxidase chip colour (score), were all studied. statistical analysis of variance was carried out for randomized block design for each character separately, in each of the three environments (crop duration cycles). phenotypic stability analysis of genotypes was assessed for their stability of performance over environments, using a model suggested by eberhart and russell (1966). the following model was used for describing performance of a variety over a series of environments: yij = μi + βiij + δij where, yij = variety mean of the i th variety at the jth environment (where i=1, 2 …….g, j=1, 2 ……….n) μi = overall mean of the ith genotype over all the environments βi = regression coefficient of i th variety to the varying environments ij = environmental index obtained as the mean of all genotypes at the jth environment minus the grand mean, i.e., ij = where, σj ij = 0 δij = deviation from regression of the i th variety in jth environment g = number of genotypes n = number of environments stability parameters of individual genotypes were calculated as per eberhart and russell (1966). results and discussion cultivars kufri chipsona-1 (161.47 q/ha), kufri chipsona-2 (209.23 q/ha) and kufri ashoka (151.03 q/ha) had significantly higher processing-grade yield than the mean value (124.49 q/ha) in e1. however, in the case of e2, cvs. kufri badshah (200.70 q/a), kufri bahar (169.30 q/ ha), kufri lauvkar (180.57 q/ha), kufri chipsona-1 (174.50 q/ha) and kufri chipsona-2 (189.57 q/ha) yielded significantly higher than the mean (152.85 q/ha). in the third environment (e3), cvs. kufri badshah (325.03 q/ha), kufri chipsona-1 (224.50 q/ha) and kufri jawahar (224.87 q/ha) gave significantly better yield than the mean value (196.16 q/ha) (table 1). analysis of pooled data revealed that cvs kufri badshah and kufri chipsona-2 had significantly higher processing-grade yield (215.47 q/ha and 196.02 q/ha, respectively) than the pooled mean (157.83 q/ha). in the case of environment e1, cvs. kufri chipsona1 and kufri chipsona-2 showed significantly higher drymatter content than the mean value. however, in the case of e2, cvs. kufri anand, kufri chipsona-1, kufri chipsona2 and russet nor x 97-es-33 showed significantly higher dry-matter content than the mean. in e3, cv. kufri chipsona1 alone had significantly higher dry-matter content than the mean value. pooled data analysis indicated that cvs. kufri anand, kufri chipsona-1, kufri chipsona-2 and russet nor x 97-es-33 had significantly higher mean value than the pooled mean. kufri chipsona-1 had the highest dry-matter (20.69%), followed by kufri chipsona-2 (19.93%), russet nor x 97-es-33 (19.83%) and kufri anand (19.74%) (table 2). cultivars kufri chipsona-1, kufri chipsona-2 and russet nor x 97-es-33 had a high mean dry-matter content, with regression coefficient less than one (0.74, 0.22 and 0.90, respectively) and a non-significant deviation from regression, showing their suitability for cultivation under diverse environmental conditions. studies of patel et al (2003) and pandey et al (2005) also support the above findings. in environments e1 and e2, cvs. kufri chandramukhi, kufri lauvkar, kufri chipsona-1, kufri chipsona-2 and j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):57-63, 2015 prabhjot kaur et al 59 table 2. mean , regression coefficient (bi) and deviation from regression (s2di) for dry matter content (%) in potato during the autumn season 2005-2006 sl. genotype e1 e2 e3 overall bi s 2di no. mean 1. kufri badshah 15.21 17.49 18.96 17.22 1.04 0.03 2. kufri anand 18.58 20.29 20.36 19.74 1.04 0.09 3. kufri chandramukhi 16.04 18.54 21.27 18.62 1.44 0.10 4. kufri bahar 16.25 19.04 18.98 18.09 0.78 1.08* 5. kufri lauvkar 16.81 17.02 18.72 1752 0.51 0.47 6. kufri chipsona-1 19.37 20.63 22.07 20.69 0.74 0.04 7. kufri chipsona-2 19.17 20.74 19.87 19.93 0.22 0.93 8. kufri ashoka 14.44 17.10 21.29 17.61 1.87 0.85 9. kufri jawahar 14.53 17.44 19.87 17.28 1.47 0.00 10. russet nor x 97-es-33 18.04 20.19 21.26 19.83 0.90 0.09 mean 16.84 18.85 20.26 18.65 cd (5%) 1.86 1.32 1.10 0.90 se of bi = 0.24 cv 5.78 4.14 3.41 *significant at 5% table 3. mean , regression coefficient (bi) and deviation from regression (s2di) for total amount of sugars (mg/100g fresh weight) in potato during the autumn season 2005-2006 sl. genotype e1 e2 e3 overall bi s 2di no. mean 1. kufri badshah 975.67 816.33 571.67 787.89 1.59 9435.81* 2. kufri anand 692.67 477.00 369.33 513.00 1.37 56.93 3. kufri chandramukhi 494.67 371.33 326.00 397.33 0.72 21.95 4. kufri bahar 736.67 467.00 356.67 520.11 1.62 16.19 5. kufri lauvkar 487.67 334.00 293.00 371.56 0.85 208.03* 6. kufri chipsona-1 347.67 288.67 268.67 301.67 0.34 10.07 7. kufri chipsona-2 304.67 270.00 232.33 269.00 0.29 156.36* 8. kufri ashoka 748.33 483.33 432.00 554.56 1.39 1268.33* 9. kufri jawahar 668.33 405.67 375.67 483.22 1.31 2197.54* 10. russet nor x 97-es-33 511.00 416.67 390.67 439.44 0.52 70.49 mean 596.73 433.00 361.60 463.78 cd (5%) 16.57 12.10 12.39 54.43 se of bi = 25.92 cv 2.08 1.52 1.56 *significant at 1% table 1. mean , regression coefficient (bi) and deviation from regression (s2di) for processing-grade yield (q/ha) in potato during the autumn season 2005-2006 sl. genotype e1 e2 e3 overall bi s 2di no. mean 1. kufri badshah 120.67 200.70 325.03 215.47 2.85 0.55 2. kufri anand 90.30 147.47 212.70 150.16 1.69 50.02 3. kufri chandramukhi 93.78 48.57 87.68 76.67 0.00 1203.67* 4. kufri bahar 133.68 169.30 197.93 166.97 0.88 68.23 5. kufri lauvkar 105.03 180.57 140.60 142.07 0.38 2482.04* 6. kufri chipsona-1 161.47 174.50 224.50 186.82 0.90 93.30 7. kufri chipsona-2 209.23 189.57 189.26 196.02 -0.26 90.91 8. kufri ashoka 151.03 153.63 219.30 174.66 1.00 391.86* 9. kufri jawahar 69.45 164.07 224.87 152.80 2.11 720.22* 10. russet nor x 97-es-33 110.27 100.20 139.73 116.73 0.45 310.28* mean 124.49 152.85 196.16 157.83 cd (5%) 16.11 14.64 23.73 34.52 se of bi = 0.45 cv 5.95 5.40 8.76 *significant at 1% j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):57-63, 2015 evaluation of potato genotypes for processing traits in late autumn 60 russet nor x 97-es-33, had significantly less amount of total sugars than the mean. cultivars kufri anand, kufri chandramukhi, kufri lauvkar, kufri chipsona-1 and kufri chipsona-2 had significantly lower amount of total sugars than the mean in e3 (table 3). in pooled analysis of data, four cultivars, viz., kufri chandramukhi, kufri lauvkar, kufri chipsona-1 and kufri chipsona-2, had significantly lower mean of total level of sugars than did the pooled mean. ‘kufri chipsona-2’ had the lowest mean of total level of sugars (269.00mg), followed by kufri chipsona-1 (301.67mg), kufri lauvkar (371.56mg) and kufri chandramukhi (397.33mg) per 100g on fresh-weight basis. cultivars kufri chandramukhi, kufri chipsona-1, kufri chipsona-2 and russet nor x 97-es-33 had lower mean values for total amount of sugars as less than one regression coefficient (0.72, 0.34, 0.29 and 0.52, respectively), and nonsignificant deviation from regression, indicating that performance of these cultivars could not be predicted under unfavourable environments. in this study, none of the cultivars showed regression coefficient equal to one or significant deviation from regression, indicating that no cultivar had average stability for this trait in all the three environments studied. the high amount of total sugars in environments e1 and e2 in our investigation could be attributed to low temperature (4.4°c), along with occurrence of frost during the vegetative phase and tuber development. studies by uppal et al (2003) also indicated that cvs. kufri chipsona-1and kufri chipsona-2 contained the lowest amount of total sugars (362 and 367mg/ 100g fresh weight, respectively). cultivars kufri lauvkar, kufri chipsona-1, kufri chipsona-2 and russet nor x 97-es-33 had lesser amount of reducing sugars than the mean in all the three environments (table 4). persual of pooled data also showed that cvs. kufri lauvkar, kufri chipsona-1, kufri chipsona2 and russet nor x 97-es-33 had significantly lower quantities of reducing sugars than the pooled mean. ‘kufri chipsona-1’ had the lowest amount of reducing sugars (75.74mg/100g fresh weight), followed by ‘kufri chipsona2’ (81.94mg/100g fresh weight), ‘russet nor x 97-es-33’ (165.88mg/100g fresh weight) and ‘kufri lauvkar ’ (202.90mg/100g fresh weight). kumar et al, (2003) also reported reducing sugars to vary from season to season, and cool weather (1-5°c) led to an increase in sugar levels. this variation could be attributed to variation in crop durations under different environments. cultivars kufri chipsona-1 and kufri lauvkar showed the content of reducing sugars within permissible limits, regression coefficient of less than one, and a non-significant deviation from regression, indicating suitability of these genotypes for cultivation under unfavorable environmental conditions. gaur et al (1999) reported that potatoes grown in north-western plains contained relatively low dry-matter and higher amounts of reducing sugars (which were attributed to the comparatively low temperature prevalent during crop maturation). ‘kufri chipsona-1’ had significantly less amounts of total phenols than the mean value under environment e1. however, in the case of e2, cvs. kufri lauvkar and kufri chipsona-1 showed significantly lower amounts of total phenols than the mean value. in the case of e3, cvs. kufri anand, kufri lauvkar, kufri chipsona-2 and kufri ashoka table 4. mean , regression coefficient (bi) and deviation from regression (s2di) for levels of reducing sugars (mg/100g fresh weight) in potato during the autumn season 2005-2006 sl. genotype e1 e2 e3 overall bi s 2di no. mean 1. kufri badshah 456.47 433.22 403.48 431.05 0.52 263.99 2. kufri anand 340.54 234.52 238.95 271.34 1.29 240.20 3. kufri chandramukhi 341.08 230.29 212.57 261.31 1.52 3.61 4. kufri bahar 473.99 307.78 312.98 364.92 2.03 537.60* 5. kufri lauvkar 211.36 202.72 194.62 202.90 0.17 17.22 6. kufri chipsona-1 103.22 77.76 46.24 75.74 0.56 293.18 7. kufri chipsona-2 102.08 94.92 48.81 81.94 0.45 820.55** 8. kufri ashoka 320.86 282.79 308.91 304.19 0.27 451.78* 9. kufri jawahar 402.15 298.87 267.36 322.79 1.53 61.12 10. russet nor x 97-es-33 253.82 124.50 119.33 165.88 1.65 147.58 mean 300.56 228.74 215.35 248.21 cd (5%) 30.60 24.99 21.08 24.99 se of bi = 0.26 cv 7.19 5.87 4.95 *significant at 5%; **significant at 1% j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):57-63, 2015 prabhjot kaur et al 61 showed significantly less amounts of total phenols than the mean value (table 5). from pooled analysis, cv. kufri lauvkar alone had a lower mean of total phenols (37.56mg/ 100g fresh weight) than the pooled mean. though some of the cultivars showed a regression coefficient close to one (kufri anand, kufri ashoka and kufri jawahar), deviation from regression in their case was significant, thereby indicating poor stability of these cultivars for this trait. however, these values are higher than those reported by marwaha (1999) in hybrids mp/90-94 (25.6mg), mp/91-g (27.1mg) and mp/90-83 (30.1mg) on per 100g fresh weight basis. in the environment e1, cv. kufri anand (0.06) alone had significantly less activity of polyphenol oxidase than the mean value (0.08). in the case of e2, cvs. kufri badshah and kufri chipsona-2 had significantly less value for polyphenol oxidase activity than the mean value (0.08). however, none of the cultivars showed significantly less value of polyphenol oxidase than the mean value in environment e3 (table 6). analysis of pooled data indicated that cv. kufri chipsona-2 alone had on overall mean (0.06) of polyphenol oxidase similar to the pooled mean (0.06). however, uppal (1999) reported that polyphenol oxidase activity was the highest in tubers of cv. kufri sutlej, and lowest in cv. kufri jawahar. in the environment e1, cvs. kufri chipsona-1 and kufri chipsona-2 produced chips of acceptable colour (each having a colour score of 2). in environment e2, cvs. kufri chipsona-1, kufri chipsona-2 and russet nor x 97-es-33 produced chips of acceptable colour (2.00, 2.00 and 2.67 score, respectively). however, cvs. kufri lauvkar, kufri chipsona-1, kufri chipsona-2 and russet nor x 97-es-33 table 6. mean , regression coefficient (bi) and deviation from regression (s2di) for polyphenol oxidase (iu) in potato during autumn season, 2005-06 sl. genotype e1 e2 e3 overall bi s 2di no. mean 1. kufri badshah 0.08 0.04 0.05 0.06 1.47 0.00 2. kufri anand 0.06 0.05 0.07 0.06 -0.22 0.00 3. kufri chandramukhi 0.07 0.06 0.05 0.06 0.96 0.00 4. kufri bahar 0.09 0.06 0.06 0.07 1.13 0.00 5. kufri lauvkar 0.09 0.08 0.05 0.07 1.43 0.00 6. kufri chipsona-1 0.09 0.08 0.06 0.08 0.92 0.00 7. kufri chipsona-2 0.08 0.04 0.05 0.06 1.32 0.00 8. kufri ashoka 0.09 0.08 0.05 0.07 1.58 0.00 9. kufri jawahar 0.08 0.09 0.05 0.07 1.39 0.00 10. russet nor x 97-es-33 0.08 0.07 0.07 0.07 0.02 0.00 mean 0.08 0.06 0.05 0.06 cd (5%) 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.01 se of bi = 0.67 cv 19.16 27.53 36.70 *significant at 5%; **significant at 1% table 5. mean , regression coefficient (bi) and deviation from regression (s2di) for total amount of phenols (mg/100g fresh weight) in potato during the autumn season 2005-2006 sl. genotype e1 e2 e3 overall bi s 2di no. mean 1. kufri badshah 64.00 39.67 35.00 46.22 1.12 0.86 2. kufri anand 59.33 44.33 27.67 43.78 1.07 62.77** 3. kufri chandramukhi 58.33 38.00 37.33 44.56 0.85 7.65* 4. kufri bahar 74.00 50.00 40.33 54.78 1.25 4.86 5. kufri lauvkar 56.33 26.33 30.00 37.56 1.13 48.22** 6. kufri chipsona-1 54.33 34.33 38.00 42.22 0.72 28.67** 7. kufri chipsona-2 59.67 38.33 29.00 42.33 1.13 5.84* 8. kufri ashoka 59.00 41.67 28.33 43.00 1.07 30.31** 9. kufri jawahar 57.67 40.33 33.33 43.78 0.90 2.57 10. russet nor x 97-es-33 56.00 36.67 37.67 43.44 0.76 13.22** mean 59.86 38.96 33.66 44.16 cd (5%) 4.00 3.00 2.67 6.72 se of bi = 0.23 cv 5.28 3.97 3.53 *significant at 5%; **significant at 1% j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):57-63, 2015 evaluation of potato genotypes for processing traits in late autumn 62 table 7. mean , regression coefficient (bi) and deviation from regression (s2di) for chip colour (score) in potato during the autumn season 2005-2006 sl. genotype e1 e2 e3 overall bi s 2di no. mean 1. kufri badshah 6.33 5.67 5.00 5.67 1.25 0.00 2. kufri anand 5.67 4.67 4.33 4.89 1.25 0.07 3. kufri chandramukhi 5.33 4.67 3.67 4.56 1.56 0.02 4. kufri bahar 5.33 5.67 4.67 5.22 0.62 0.30 5. kufri lauvkar 4.67 3.67 3.00 3.78 1.56 0.02 6. kufri chipsona-1 2.00 2.00 1.33 1.78 0.62 0.07 7. kufri chipsona-2 2.00 2.00 1.33 1.78 0.62 0.07 8. kufri ashoka 5.33 5.33 5.67 5.44 -0.31 0.02 9. kufri jawahar 5.33 4.67 4.00 4.67 1.25 0.00 10. russet nor x 97-es-33 4.33 2.67 2.67 3.22 1.56 0.46* mean 4.30 4.10 3.57 4.10 cd (5%) 1.81 0.92 1.07 0.48 se of bi = 0.43 cv 11.59 13.02 11.77 *significant at 5% produced chips of acceptable colour (score ≤ 3.0) in environment e3 (table 7). potatoes grown in a cool climate, particularly in areas where night-temperature drops below 10°c during the last month before harvest, are found not suitable for processing (ezekiel et al, 1999). pooled data analysis indicated that cvs. kufri chipsona-1 and kufri chipsona-2 produced chips of acceptable colour. ‘kufri chipsona-1’ and ‘kufri chipsona-2’ produced chips of excellent quality and light colour (score of 1.78 each). pandey et al (2005) reported that in a late-planted crop at modipuram, acceptable quality chips were produced only in cv. kufri chipsona-1. this cultivar produced lightcoloured chips at all the stages of harvest and locations in north-western and west-central indian plains (pandey et al, 2005). among the three environments studied, 120 days’ crop duration (e3) yielded the highest total tuber-yield (q/ ha) and processing-grade yield (q/ha), followed by e2 (100 days’ crop duration) and e1 (80 days’ crop duration) (table 1). besides total tuber-yield, most genotypes in group e3 exhibited high dry-matter content and low levels of reducing sugars, compared to that in the other environments, and, these are desirable attributes for processing. though in the environment e1, cv. kufri ashoka yielded significantly higher (151.03 q/ha) than mean, it had low dry-matter content. therefore, this was unsuitable for processing purposes, but was suitable for table-purpose. in e2, cv. kufri chipsona-1 and kufri chipsona-2 had high yield, high dry-matter content and low amounts of reducing sugars. therefore, these cultivars are suitable for processing. in the environment e3, cvs. kufri chipsona-1 and kufri chipsona-2 were found to have high tuber-yield, high dry-matter content, low levels of reducing sugars, and low amounts of total phenols. also, both of these cultivars produced chips of acceptable colour in all the three environments. the potential of cvs. kufri chipsona-1 and kufri chipsona-2 is not fully exploited due to occurrence of frost at the vegetative stage of the crop. kumar et al (2004) documented that 120 days’ crop duration was most suitable for kufri chipsona-1 and kufri chipsona2 in the spring season crop. from stability analysis data, it is concluded that cv. kufri chipsona-2 was stable for total tuber-yield in all the three environments. therefore, cv. kufri chipsona-2 is recommended for cultivation for all the three crop durations to produce potatoes for the processing industry. references eberhart, s.a. and russel, w.a. 1966. stability parameters for comparing varieties. crop sci., 6:36-41 ezekiel, r., verma, s.c., sukumaran, n.p. and shekhawat, g.s. 1999. a guide to potato processors in india. tech. bull., 48, pp. 1-39, central potato research institute, shimla, h.p., india gaur, p.c., singh, s.v., pandey, s.k., marwaha, r.s. and kumar, d. 1999. kufri chipsona-2: a new, high drymatter potato variety for chipping. curr. sci., 76:722724 kumar, d., singh, s.v. and kumar, d. 2003. chemical maturity of potato processing cultivars grown in western uttar pradesh. j. indian potato assoc., 30:225-232 kumar, r., pandey, s.k., uppal, d.s. and marwaha, r.s. 2004. evaluation of potato (solanum tuberosum) varieties for production of chips. indian j. agril. sci., 74:578-582 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):57-63, 2015 prabhjot kaur et al 63 marwaha, r.s. 1997. processing of potatoes: current status, needs, future potential and suitability of indian varieties a critical appraisal. j. food. sci. technol., 34:457-471 marwaha, r.s. and sandhu, s.k. 2002. yield, growth components and processing quality of potatoes as influenced by crop maturity under short and long days. adv. hortl. sci., 16:7987 nelson, n.a. 1944. a photometric adaptation of somogyi method for determination of glucose. j. biol chem., 153:375-380 patel, n.h., patel, r.n., singh, s.v., pandey, s.k., khurana, s.m.p. and kanbi, v.h. 2003. assessment of processing potato varieties for dry matter, yield and storage behaviour at deesa (gujarat). j. indian potato assoc., 30:167-168 pandey, s. k., kumar, d., singh, s.v. and tomar, t.p.s. 2003. staggerered planting a solution for producing chipping potatoes for north-western plains. j. indian potato assoc., 30:89-90 pandey, s.k., marwaha, r.s., singh, s.v. and kumar, d. 2005. sustaining potato processing in india: impact of indigenous varieties. veg. sci., 32:109-113 swain, t. and hillis, w.e. 1959. the phenolic constituents of prunus domestica l.: the quantitative analysis of phenolic constituents. j. food sci. agri., 10:63-68 uppal, d.s. 1999. quality traits and chipping performance of newly released potato varieties. j. indian potato assoc., 26:139-142 uppal, d.s. and khurana, s.m.p. 2003. processing performance of indian and exotic potato cultivars grown in rajasthan. j. indian potato assoc., 30:181182 yemm, e.w. and willis, a.j. 1954. the estimation of carbohydrate in plant extracts by anthrone. biochem. j., 57:508-514 (ms received 11 november 2013, revised 07 february 2015, accepted 16 february 2015) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):57-63, 2015 evaluation of potato genotypes for processing traits in late autumn 63 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 63-72, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction okra or ladies’ finger (abelmoschus esculentus l.) belongs to the mallow family i.e., malvaceae. it is a flowering, hairy, herbaceous annual plant grown for its edible pods. its origin is considered to be at western regions of africa because of the presence of diverse wild species (de candolle, 1886). the development of better-quality vegetables, has a lot higher export potential not only in india but has recently discovered a way to the african and southeastern nations as compared to other field crops (ankita et al., 2021). okra is one of the major vegetable crops grown for its high nutritive content, high export potential and a nt iox ida nt va lu e. o kr a f r u it s a r e edib le constituting a high source of protein and minerals with about 88% moisture, 7.7% carbohydrate, 2.2% protein, 1. 5% ir on, 1. 1% fibr e, 0. 7% minera l ma t t er, 0 . 0 9 % c a lc iu m, 0 . 2 % f a t , 0 . 0 8 % phosphorous and 41 (kcal) calorific values (bhat and bisht, 2006). the vitamin content is 58 iu of vitamin a, 0.06 mg vitamin b, 0.06 mg nicotinic acid, 0.06 mg riboflavin and 16 mg vitamin c per 100 grams of raw okra fruits (usda, 2019). the yield potential is a limiting factor because of poor yielding varieties and the incidence of different pests and diseases (tripathi et al., 2011). crop improvement in okra focuses on plant height, higher yield, early flowering, fruit length and biotic and abiotic stress r esista nce (ranga et al. , 2019). assessment of genotypes for estimating genetic diversity for yield and yield contributing attributes is very essential and the information about the variation present in accessible breeding materials helps in successful selection of parents for further use in crop improvement. the current investigation was undertaken to assess the nature and magnitude of genetic divergence and to identify the potential okra genotypes towards yield and its association with other morphological traits. diversity analysis of phenotypic traits in okra (abelmoschus esculentus l. moench) ranga a.d.1* and darvhankar m.s.2 1department of vegetable science, college of horticulture, dr. yashwant singh parmar university of horticulture and forestry, nauni, solan, himachal pradesh 173230. 2department of genetics and plant breeding, school of agriculture, lovely professional university, phagwara, punjab 144411. *corresponding author e-mail: aman_ranga94@yahoo.com abstract it is necessary to obtain cultivars which provide high yield by exploiting desirable traits from wild genotypes of okra (abelmoschus esculentus l. moench). okra genotypes were evaluated for phenotypic traits during 2018. high genotypic coefficient of variation (gcv) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (pcv) occurred for nine traits and narrow differences between gcv and pcv indicated the influence of environment was negligible. high estimates of heritability, coupled with moderate to high genetic advance as a percent over mean, were recorded for nine traits. thousand seed weight had a positive, significant, correlation with yield per hectare. plant height and number of fruits per plant had direct and positive effects towards the yield per hectare the principal component analysis indicated the first 3 principal components contributed 80.517% of total variation among traits describing genotypes. cluster analysis indicated hybridization of genotypes among inter-cluster i and ii could be used to develop stable, uniform varieties in diverse climatic conditions. ec359637 and iari selection 2 are distantly placed and can be used for overall improvement in further crop breeding. keywords: cluster analysis, gcv, heritability, okra, pcv, principal component analysis and yield. 64 ranga and darvhankar j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 63-72, 2022 materials and methods planting material the field experiment was at the experimental farm of the department of genetics and plant breeding, school of agriculture, lovely professional university, phagwara, punjab, india, during february – may 2018. the accessions were sourced from the indian council of agricultural research – national bureau of plant genetic resources, new delhi and their details are represented in table 1. field evaluation and data collection the soil of the experimental site was loamy in origin and was ploughed before sowing. the climate of the area represents a tropical condition with semi-arid, hot and subtropical monsoon types. before sowing, farmyard manure and urea were applied as basal doses. the recommended package of practices and plant protection measures to raise a good crop were timely and uniformly applied. the experiment was carried out in a completely randomized block design with three replications. each accession was soaked in water for 8 hours and sown at a spacing of 45×30 cm of 5 m length. the following observations were recorded during plant growth and development stages viz., days to 50% flowering [df], days to 80% maturity [dm], plant height [ph (cm)], first flowering node [ffn], fruit diameter [fd (cm)], fruit length [fl (cm)], number of fruit per plant [fp], number of seed per fruit [sf], 1000 seed weight [tsw (g)], yield per plant [yp (g)] and yield per hectare [yh (t/ha)] from 5 representative plants of each genotype. data analysis data collected were subjected to anova (analysis of variance) to evaluate the presence of statistically significant differences among genotypes for the traits studied (panse and sukhatme, 1954). genotypic coefficient of var iation (gcv) a nd phenotypic coefficient of variation (pcv) was calculated as per the formula suggested by burton, 1952. genetic advance and heritability were calculated by using the for mula of lush, (1949) a nd alla r d (1960). heritability of more than 80% is considered high. genotypic correlation coefficients, path analysis, principal component analysis (pca) and cluster analysis were calculated using op-stat (sheoran et al., 1998) and past (hammer et al., 2001). yield per hectare was taken as a dependent variable whereas, all other traits were consider ed as independent variables. table 1: fifteen okra (abelmoschus esculentus l. moench) genotypes repatriated from nbpgr used in the study. sl. no. genotype country acquired on cultivar name 1. ec305615 bangladesh 28/05/90 t/b-78/2. ec305740 italy 29/05/90 ors-773/3. ec305768 italy 29/05/90 ors-202/4. ec306696 singapore 08/06/90 ors-1106/esc 5. ec359637 6. ic003769 india 7. ic010265 gujarat, india 09/01/63 8. ic013356 india 9. ic013664 tamil nadu, india 14/09/67 10. ic014018 india 11. ic014026 india 12. ic014600 himachal pradesh, india 31/08/70 13. akola-bahar maharashtra, india 14. iari selection 2 delhi, india 15. ako107 maharashtra, india 65 diversity analysis of phenotypic traits in okra results and discussion analysis of variance and variability parameters the genotypes showed high positive and significant variations for all the traits (table s1). yield per hectare obtained the highest positive and significant variation (73394588.940**) and the lowest was obtained for fruit diameter (0.280**). gondane and lal (1994) a nd alam and hossain (2008) a lso obtained similar results in okra. yield per hectare ranged from 5313.870-33714.430 kg/hectare with a mean of 20056.945 grams per genotype. profitable yield i.e., production of 2500030000 kg per hectare was achieved by ec305615, ec305740, ic013356 a nd ic0104018. in the genetic variability studies (table 2), the phenotypic coefficient of variation (pcv) was higher than the comparing genotypic coefficient of variation (gcv) for every trait with the close relationship between them, therefore, the environment has low impact and subsequently, the phenotypic performance of traits ought to be utilized for selection. moderate and high gcv values were observed for most of the tr a its except fr uit dia meter, da ys to 80% ma t u r it y a nd da ys t o 5 0 % f lowe r ing whic h exhibited the pr esence of a high magnitude of genetic diversity in the population examined. the previous workers also observed a similar trend of greater magnitude of pcv and gcv (ranga et al., 2021; shanthakumar and salimath, 2010; prakash et al. , 2011). nar row differ ences between the phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation in mos t of t he t r a it s indic a t ed t ha t t hey wer e comparatively stable to environmental variation (majumdar et al., 1969). however, fruit diameter and yield per hectare registered wider variation between pcv and gcv. heritability is a good index of transmission of traits from parents to their off-springs (falconer, 1981). among t en tr a its , nine tr a it s disp la yed high heritability (low <30%, moderate 31% to 60% and high >60%) coupled with high genetic advance (low <10%, moderate 11% to 20% and high >20%) as p er c ent ov er mea n. t his f oc u s es on t he predominance of additive gene effects for these traits; thus, crop improvement through selection based on these traits would be beneficial. fruit girth showed low heritability accompanied with moderate genetic advance over mean portraying the role of non-additive effects and hence selection based on table 2. estimates of variability parameters for various traits of okra genotypes. ga as traits mean range gcv pcv h2 ga % of mean df 37.71 28.67-50.33 17.63 18.92 86.79 12.76 33.83 dm 76.60 54.67-100.00 16.17 16.42 97.01 25.14 32.82 ph (cm) 86.39 42.27-154.50 39.10 39.16 99.70 69.49 80.43 ffn 6.01 2.70-11.13 36.88 38.55 91.56 4.37 72.70 fd (cm) 2.00 1.50-2.43 11.35 21.00 29.21 0.25 12.64 fl (g) 14.05 7.90-18.80 21.65 22.23 94.85 6.10 43.44 fp 21.23 6.40-40.60 54.41 56.56 92.56 22.90 107.84 sf 51.24 34.00-89.60 27.31 27.56 98.19 28.57 55.75 tsw (g) 212.33 61.44-422.64 40.93 52.67 60.38 139.11 65.51 yp (g) 271.31 73.37-453.10 38.72 39.01 98.54 214.84 79.19 yh (kg/ha) 20056.94 5313.87-33714.43 17.34 34.96 24.61 3556.47 17.73 (df = days to 50% flowering, dm = days to 80% maturity, ph = plant height, ffn = first flowering node, fd = fruit diameter, fl = fruit length, fp = number of fruit per plant, sf = number of seed per fruit, tsw = 1000 seed weight, yp = yield per plant and yh = yield per hectare, h2: heritability, gcv: genotypic coefficient of variation, pcv: phenotypic coefficient of variation, ga: genetic advance) j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 63-72, 2022 66 this trait may not be rewarding. high estimates of heritability and genetic advance were also reported by nwangburuka et al, (2012) and hazra and basu (2000). correlation coefficient analysis the correlation is the overall or net impact of the segregating genes; few genes may increase both the traits leading to the positive correlation whereas, the others might increase the one and decrease the other causing the negative correlation (falconer, 1981). thus, to accumulate an optimum combination of yield contributing traits in a single genotype, it is essential to know the implication of the interrelationship of various traits (ranga et al., 2019). in the present investigation, the genotypic a nd phenotypic cor r ela tion coefficient a na lysis is represented in table 3 and fig.1. days to 80% maturity showed a highly significant and positive correlation with days to 50% flowering (0.488**, 0.427**). plant height showed a significant and positive correlation with days to 50% flowering (0.346*, 0.318*). fruit diameter showed a highly significant and positive genotypic correlation with days to 80% maturity (0.517**, 0.314*) and plant height (0.714**, 0.393**), and only genotypic correlation was positive and significant for day to 50% maturity (0.707**). number of fruits per plant showed a highly significant and positive correlation with first flowering node (0.602**, 0.550**). number of seeds per fruit showed a highly significant and positive correlation with plant height (0.693**, 0.684**) and fruit length (0.580**, 0.564**). 1000 seed weight showed a highly significant and positive correlation with fruit length (0.453**, 0.309*). yield per plant showed a highly significant and positive correlation with first flowering node (0.459**, 0.442**), fruit length (0.357*, 0.355*), number of fruits per plant (0.417**, 0.395**) and number of seed per fruit (0.421**, 0.411**). yield per hectare showed a highly significant and positive correlation with 1000 seed weight (0.391**, 0.340*). comparable results for okra yield having a positive relationship were proposed by ranga et al. (2021), reddy et al. (2012), raval et al. (2019) and duggi et al. (2013). yield per pla nt showed a highly significant and negative correlation with days to 80% maturity (-0.635**, -0.627**). yield per hectare showed a significant and positive genotypic correlation with days to 50% flowering (-0.379*). path coefficient analysis path analysis provides information about the cause and effect in understanding the association between two variables. it allows the assessment of the direct effects of different traits on crop yield just as their indirect effects by means of other component traits. hence, it gives a premise for the selection of predominant genotypes from diverse populations (komolafe et al., 2021). the genotypic and phenotypic path coefficient analysis is represented in table 4 and the data revealed that plant height (3.893, 0.239) had the highest direct positive effect towards the yield per hectare and other traits such as days to 80% maturity (0.811, 0.053), number of fruits per plant (2.871, 0.174) had direct effects. traits such as days to 50% maturity (-0.575, -0.267), and yield per plant (-1.868, -0.197) had a direct effect with a negative sign. residual effect (0.475, 0.800) indicated the effect of other possible independent traits, which were not included in the study, on the dependent variable i.e., yield per hectare. the results are in accordance with the findings of ranga et al., (2021); dwivedi and sharma (2017); das et al. (2012). principal component analysis principal component analysis (pca) reflects the importance of the largest contributor to the total variations at each axis of differentiation (sharma, ranga and darvhankar j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 63-72, 2022 fig. 1. correlation coefficient studies in okra genotypes (df = days to 50% flowering, dm = days to 80% maturity, ph = plant height, ffn = first flowering node, fd = fruit diameter, fl = fruit length, fp = number of fruit per plant, sf = number of seed per fruit, tsw = 1000 seed weight, yp = yield per plant and yh = yield per hectare) 67 t ra it s d f d m p h ( cm ) f f n f d ( cm ) f l (c m ) f p sf t sw ( g) y p (g ) y h ( kg /h a) d f rg 1. 00 0 rp 1. 00 0 d m rg 0. 48 8* * 1. 00 0 rp 0. 42 7* * 1. 00 0 ph rg 0. 34 6* 0. 14 1n s 1. 00 0 (c m ) rp 0. 31 8* 0. 14 1n s 1. 00 0 ff n rg -0 .2 05 n s -0 .2 94 * -0 .2 15 n s 1. 00 0 rp -0 .2 18 n s -0 .2 90 n s -0 .2 05 n s 1. 00 0 fd rg 0. 70 7* * 0. 51 7* * 0. 71 4* * 0. 00 9n s 1. 00 0 (c m ) rp 0. 28 5n s 0. 31 4* 0. 39 3* * -0 .0 85 n s 1. 00 0 fl rg -0 .2 53 n s -0 .4 62 ** 0. 24 4n s -0 .3 53 * -0 .1 50 n s 1. 00 0 (c m ) rp -0 .2 18 n s -0 .4 43 ** 0. 23 7n s -0 .3 40 * -0 .0 64 n s 1. 00 0 fp rg -0 .2 26 n s -0 .4 15 ** -0 .6 27 ** 0. 60 2* * -0 .3 70 * -0 .0 93 n s 1. 00 0 rp -0 .2 10 n s -0 .3 89 ** -0 .6 03 ** 0. 55 0* * -0 .2 08 n s -0 .0 89 n s 1. 00 0 sf rg 0. 08 0n s -0 .0 44 n s 0. 69 3* * -0 .3 23 * 0. 18 3n s 0. 58 0* * -0 .2 95 * 1. 00 0 rp 0. 07 8n s -0 .0 40 n s 0. 68 4* * -0 .3 05 * 0. 11 3n s 0. 56 4* * -0 .2 93 n s 1. 00 0 t sw rg -0 .1 71 n s -0 .0 90 n s 0. 03 6n s -0 .2 44 n s -0 .2 06 n s 0. 45 3* * 0. 06 6n s 0. 11 0n s 1. 00 0 (g ) rp -0 .1 12 n s -0 .0 52 n s 0. 02 2n s -0 .2 49 n s 0. 02 2n s 0. 30 9* 0. 02 6n s 0. 09 8n s 1. 00 0 y p rg -0 .0 64 n s -0 .6 35 ** 0. 26 2n s 0. 45 9* * 0. 09 9n s 0. 35 7* 0. 41 7* * 0. 42 1* * -0 .1 62 n s 1. 00 0 (g ) rp -0 .0 50 n s -0 .6 27 ** 0. 25 9n s 0. 44 2* * -0 .0 02 n s 0. 35 5* 0. 39 5* * 0. 41 1* * -0 .1 44 n s 1. 00 0 y h rg -0 .3 79 * 0. 04 7n s 0. 10 8n s 0. 05 4n s 0. 25 8n s 0. 11 6n s 0. 02 1n s 0. 06 7n s 0. 39 1* * -0 .1 94 n s 1. 00 0 (k g/ ha ) rp -0 .2 01 n s 0. 04 5n s 0. 04 7n s -0 .0 13 n s 0. 10 9n s 0. 04 4n s 0. 00 4n s 0. 03 3n s 0. 34 0* -0 .1 07 n s 1. 00 0 (d f = d ay s to 5 0% f lo w er in g, d m = d ay s to 8 0% m at ur ity , ph = p la nt h ei gh t, ff n = f irs t fl ow er in g no de , fd = f ru it di am et er , fl = f ru it le ng th , fp = n um be r of f ru it pe r pl an t, sf = n um be r of s ee d pe r fr ui t, t sw = 1 00 0 se ed w ei gh t, y p = y ie ld p er p la nt a nd y h = y ie ld p er h ec ta re ; rg = g en ot yp ic c or re la tio n co ef fi ci en t, rp = p he no ty pi c co rr el at io n co ef fi ci en t) ta bl e 3. g en ot yp ic a nd p he no ty pi c co rr el at io n co ef fic ie nt s tu di es i n ok ra g en ot yp es . (b ol d nu m be rs i nd ic at ed p os iti ve a nd s ig ni fi ca nt c or re la tio n be tw ee n tw o tr ai ts ) diversity analysis of phenotypic traits in okra j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 63-72, 2022 68 1998). pca (table 5 and table s2) was performed to provide partial visualization of the data set in a r edu c ed dimens ion a nd f ir s t t hr ee p r inc ip a l components have eigenvalues>1 and contributed to 80.517 percent variation. from the loading of the variables in pc i, it was found that days to 50% flowering, days to 80% maturity and plant height wer e the dominant fea tures tha t contributed to 36.662 percent of the total variation. in pca ii, plant height, fruit length, number of seed per fruit, yield per plant and yield per hectare exer ted a maximum influence which accounts for 27.862 percent of the total variation. days to 50 percent flowering, days to 80% maturity, first flowering node and fruit diameter were the dominant features in pca iii which accounted for 15.993 percent of the total variation. ranga et al. (2021), ahiakpa et al. (2013) a nd amoa tey et al. (2015) a lso indicated high genetic diversity using pca. few traits viz., fruit length, 1000 seed weight, number of seed per fruit and fruit yield per plant offered mor e towa r ds va r ia t ion a s a c count ed f or b y different scientists in okra (bhardwaj et al., 2021; ahia kpa et a l. , 2 013; amoa tey et a l. , 20 15; nwangburuka et al., 2012). ranga and darvhankar j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 63-72, 2022 table 4. genotypic and phenotypic path coefficient analysis for various okra genotypes. (diagonal and bold values indicate direct effect of traits on yield per plant) traits df dm ph ffn fd fl fp sf tsw yp correlation (cm) (cm) (cm) (g) (g) of yh (kg/ha) df gp -0.575 0.395 1.347 0.011 -0.701 -0.375 -0.650 -0.120 0.169 0.119 -0.379* pp -0.267 0.023 0.076 -0.013 0.029 0.009 -0.037 0.002 -0.033 0.010 -0.201ns dm gp -0.281 0.811 0.547 0.016 -0.512 -0.683 -1.191 0.065 0.089 1.186 0.047ns pp -0.114 0.053 0.034 -0.018 0.032 0.018 -0.068 -0.001 -0.015 0.123 0.045ns ph gp -0.199 0.114 3.893 0.011 -0.708 0.361 -1.800 -1.038 -0.035 -0.490 0.108ns (cm) pp -0.085 0.008 0.239 -0.012 0.040 -0.010 -0.105 0.017 0.007 -0.051 0.047ns ffn gp 0.118 -0.239 -0.838 -0.053 -0.009 -0.522 1.728 0.484 0.242 -0.858 0.054ns pp 0.058 -0.016 -0.049 0.061 -0.009 0.014 0.096 -0.007 -0.074 -0.087 -0.013ns fd gp -0.407 0.419 2.779 0.000 -0.991 -0.222 -1.064 -0.274 0.203 -0.186 0.258ns (cm) pp -0.076 0.017 0.094 -0.005 0.103 0.003 -0.036 0.003 0.006 0.000 0.109ns fl gp 0.146 -0.374 0.948 0.019 0.148 1.480 -0.267 -0.869 -0.448 -0.666 0.116ns (cm) pp 0.058 -0.024 0.057 -0.021 -0.007 -0.040 -0.015 0.014 0.092 -0.070 0.044ns fp gp 0.130 -0.336 -2.440 -0.032 0.367 -0.138 2.871 0.442 -0.065 -0.778 0.021ns pp 0.056 -0.021 -0.144 0.034 -0.021 0.004 0.174 -0.007 0.008 -0.078 0.004ns sf gp -0.046 -0.035 2.696 0.017 -0.181 0.858 -0.847 -1.499 -0.109 -0.787 0.067ns pp -0.021 -0.002 0.163 -0.019 0.012 -0.023 -0.051 0.024 0.029 -0.081 0.033ns tsw gp 0.098 -0.073 0.140 0.013 0.204 0.670 0.189 -0.165 -0.988 0.303 0.391** (g) pp 0.030 -0.003 0.005 -0.015 0.002 -0.012 0.005 0.002 0.297 0.028 0.340* yp gp 0.037 -0.515 1.021 -0.024 -0.099 0.528 1.197 -0.631 0.160 -1.868 -0.194ns (g) pp 0.013 -0.034 0.062 0.027 0.000 -0.014 0.069 0.010 -0.043 -0.197 -0.107ns gp residual effect: 0.475 pp residual effect: 0.800 (df = days to 50% flowering, dm = days to 80% maturity, ph = plant height, ffn = first flowering node, fd = fruit diameter, fl = fruit length, fp = number of fruit per plant, sf = number of seed per fruit, tsw = 10 00 seed weight, yp = yield per plant and yh = yield per hectare); gp = genotypic path coefficient, pp = phenotypic path coefficient) 69 a biplot was drawn using the values of pc i and pc ii (figure 2). the greater the angle between the traits, the lesser the association between them. placement of genotypes in quadrants signifies variability. accessions are placed in quadrants using vector scores of pc i a nd pc ii. however, no obvious gr ouping of genotypes was observed, and some overlapping occurr ed a mong gr oups the r ela tedness of the genotypes across the collection. in the biplot graph of pca, quadrant i (+,+) consists of zero accessions formed the cluster 1 which were highly influenced by three traits characters viz. fruit length, yield per plant and yield per hectare through genotypes spread towards midway through x and y-planes of quadranti. the cluster ii corresponding to the quadrant ii (,+) contained 5 genotypes, which were influenced by number of seeds per plant, plant height, fruit diameter and days to 50% maturity. similarly, the cluster iii corresponding to quadrant iii (-,-) consisted also of 3 genotypes which were influenced by days to 80% maturity only whereas the cluster iv corresponding to quadrant iv (+,-) also consisted of 7 genotypes which were influenced by first flowering node, number of fruits per plant and 1000 seed weight, respectively. cluster analysis the hierarchical cluster analysis among genotypes for yield and yield contributing traits grouped genotypes into 2 major clusters (figure 3). clustering was not based on a similar geographical origin. cluster i accommodated 5 genotypes (ec359637, ic013664, ec306696, ec305768, ic003768) and cluster ii comprised 10 genotypes (ec305615, ec305740, ic014018, ic010265, ic014600, ic013356, table 5. eigen value and percent variation explained by first 5 principal components and correlations between pc scores and quantitative traits. (bold values indicate traits which are heavy contributors in the particular principal component) sr. no. traits pc i pc ii pc iii pc iv pc v eigen value 1. df 0.221 0.061 0.472 0.528 0.446 4.033 2. dm 0.365 -0.188 0.265 0.168 -0.072 3.065 3. ph (cm) 0.237 0.443 0.173 -0.256 0.077 1.759 4. ffn -0.338 -0.076 0.360 -0.506 0.026 0.781 5. fd (cm) 0.205 0.170 0.499 -0.013 -0.746 0.501 6. fl (cm) -0.056 0.375 -0.430 0.301 -0.383 0.476 7. fp -0.436 -0.148 0.141 0.349 -0.142 0.190 8. sf 0.084 0.484 -0.102 0.187 0.114 0.131 9. tsw (g) -0.436 -0.148 0.141 0.349 -0.142 0.064 10. yp (g) -0.328 0.394 0.177 -0.030 0.127 0.000 11. yh (kg/ha) -0.328 0.394 0.177 -0.030 0.127 0.000 percent of total variance explained 36.662 27.862 15.993 7.100 4.552 cumulative variation 36.662 64.524 80.517 87.617 92.169 (df = days to 50% flowering, dm = days to 80% maturity, ph = plant height, ffn = first flowering node, fd = fruit diameter, fl = fruit length, fp = number of fruit per plant, sf = number of seed per fruit, tsw = 1000 seed weight, yp = yield per plant and yh = yield per hectare) diversity analysis of phenotypic traits in okra j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 63-72, 2022 fig. 2. biplot between pc1 and pc2 showing contribution of various traits responsible for variability in okra. 70 ranga and darvhankar j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 63-72, 2022 ic014026, ako107, akola-bahar and iari selection 2). in order to determine diversity among genotypes, and verify genotypes by distance, cluster analysis placed the genotypes in a single group (sokal and sneath, 1973). genotypes that are located far from each other have more variation between them and can be used to obtain improved cultivars. genotypes which distantly placed are more diverse; those which are closer are similar morphologically. the maximum intra-cluster distance was observed for ec359637 and ic003769 in sub-cluster 1 and ec305615 and iari selection 2 in sub-cluster 2 while maximum intercluster distance was observed for ec359637 and iari selection 2. conclusion higher variations were observed for number of fruits per plant, yield per plant, yield per hectare and 1000 seed weight displaying a wide range showing the distinction of genotypes in breeding programs. yield per hectare showed a highly significant and positive correlation with 1000 seed weight. hence, it can be used for developing high-yielding and bold seeded cultivars resistant to biotic and biotic stress. plant height and number of fruits per plant had direct and positive effects on the yield per hectare. the first three principal components accounted for a cumulative variance to be 80.517 % of the total variation and traits viz. fruit length, plant height, days to 80% maturity and days to 50% flowering assorted for more than 50 % phenotypic variations. since ec359637 and iari selection 2 are distantly placed, therefore, they can be used for overall improvement in further breeding programs. acknowledgement the authors are grateful to the department of genetics and plant breeding, school of agriculture, lovely professional university, phagwara, punjab for their suppor t of the study a nd india n council of agricultural research national bureau of plant genetic resources, new delhi, for providing planting material. references ahiakpa, j.k., kaledzi, p.d., adi, e.b., peprah, s. and dapaah, h.k. 2013. genetic diversity, c or r ela t io n a nd p a t h a na lys e s of okr a (abelmoschus spp. (l.) moench) germplasm collected in ghana. international journal of development and sustainability, 2 (2): 13961415. ala m, a. k . m . a. a nd h os s a in, m . m . 2 0 0 8 . variability of different growth contributing pa r a meter s of some okr a (abe lmosc hus e s c u l e n t u s l . ) a c c es s io ns a nd t heir interr ela tion effects on yield. journal of ag ric ult ure a nd rur al dev el opm ent , 6 (1&2): 25-35. allard, r.w. 1960. principles of plant breeding. john wiley and sons, inc, new york. 885. amoatey, h.m., klu, g.y.p., quartey, e.k., doku, h.a., sossa h, f. l. , segbefia, m.m. and ahiakpa, j.k. 2015. genetic diversity studies in 29 accessions of okra (abelmoschus spp l.) using 13 quantitative traits. american journal of experimental agriculture, 5 (3): 217-225. ankita, s.p. and guleria, a. 2021. value chain analysis of tomato in himachal pradesh: a case study of kullu district. indian journal of ecology, 48 (2): 411-417. fig. 3. dendrogram showing the genetic relationship among fiteen orka genotypes based on quantitative traits (df = days to 50% flowering, dm = days to 80% maturity, ph = plant height, ffn = first flowering node, fd = fruit diameter, fl = fruit length, fp = number of fruit per plant, sf = number of seed per fruit, tsw = 1000 seed weight, yp = yield per plant and yh = yield per hectare) 71 diversity analysis of phenotypic traits in okra j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 63-72, 2022 bhat, k. and i. bisht. 2006. okra (abelmoschus spp. ), p. 147-183. in: singh, r. j. 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(okra). series of crop specific b iology doc u ment s . h t t p s :/ / biosafety.icar.gov.in/biology-of-abelmoschusesculentus-s-okra/ united states department of agriculture. 2019. okra, raw (sr legacy, 169260). food data central. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdcapp.html#/food-details/169260/nutrients  (received: 05.11.2021; revised:09.03.2022; accepted:10.03.2022) page 99 effect of soil moisture stress on physiological response in grape (vitis vinifera l.) varieties j. satisha, g. s. prakash1, r. m. bhatt2 and p. sampathkumar1 national research centre for grapes p.b. # 3, manjari farm, solapur road pune – 412 307, india e-mail: j.satisha@nrcgrapes.res.in abstract four varieties of grape namely flame seedless, thompson seedless, sharad seedless and tas-a-ganesh were subjected to different levels of moisture stress to study their physiological response. stress was imposed for 14 days by withholding irrigation. observations on relative water content, leaf water potential, leaf osmotic potential and gas exchange parameters like photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance and water use efficiency (wue) were recorded. none of the varieties could survive for 14 days without irrigation (100% stress). flame seedless and thompson seedless at 50% moisture stress maintained higher turgidity as indicated by lesser reduction in relative water content and water potential attributed to better osmotic adjustment. marginal reduction in photosynthesis and greater reduction in transpiration rate in the variety flame seedless may have resulted in higher wue under moisture stress. higher photosynthetic rate, lower transpiration rate, higher water relation parameters and high wue in flame seedless under soil moisture stress indicated its better tolerance to drought. key words: grape varieties, soil moisture stress, water potential, water use efficiency introduction grape is an important fruit crop in india, cultivated in an area of about 60, 000 ha across the country. major grape growing areas are concentrated in maharashtra, andhra pradesh, and karnataka regions. the major constraints in these dry regions are water scarcity and soil salinity. severe drought results in plant water deficit that reduces cell turgor causing stomatal closure and reduction in cell enlargement, thus, reducing both leaf surface and photosynthesis per unit area. among the several adaptive strategies, increasing the efficiency of water use for biomass production is perhaps the most relevant mechanism in drought tolerance (lincoln and eduardo, 2002). though the use of rootstocks to combat adverse effects of soil and water salinity is a common practice in major grape growing regions of the country, raising vineyards their on own roots in commercial varieties, where assured source of irrigation water and excellent soil condition exist, is in practice in some regions. hence, it was considered appropriate to screen grape genotypes for drought tolerance taking into account physiological aspects like photosynthesis rate, transpiration rate, water use efficiency (wue), stomatal conductance, relative water content (rwc), etc. at different levels of soil moisture stress. material and methods experiments were conducted at the experimental plots of indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore, under open conditions. rooted cuttings of four grape genotypes, viz., flame seedless, thompson seedless, sharad seedless (selection from kishmish chernyi) and tasa-ganesh (selection from thompson seedless) were transplanted into pots of 14" diameter filled with standard potting mixture consisting of farm yard manure (fym), red earth and sand (1:2:1). the potting mixture was porous with water holding capacity of 30%. plants were subjected to uniform cultural practices like irrigation, fertilizer application, weeding and plant protection measures for six months. at six months, the plants were irrigated to field capacity before imposing soil moisture stress. in order to calculate field capacity, pots filled with a known volume of potting mixture were placed in large plastic buckets and irrigated with a known quantity of water and left to stand for six hours to attain field capacity. at six hours, the volume of water drained into the plastic bucket was measured and subtracted from the total amount of water applied. the difference in volume was treated as the quantum of irrigation water needed to be applied to attain field capacity j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 99-103, 2006 1division of fruit crops, 2division of plant physiology & biochemistry, indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore 560 089, india page 100 (100% irrigation). half the amount of this was considered as 50% irrigation. one set of plants was maintained without irrigation (0% irrigation i.e.,, 100% moisture stem). the above treatments were applied for 14 days and periodic observations recorded for various physiological parameters on the 4th, 9th and 14th day of the stress cycle. irrigation was done manually. relative water content was determined as per the procedure of barrs and weatherly (1962), leaf water potential was measured using water potential system cr7, campbell scientific inc, usa, and leaf osmotic potential was measured using vapor pressure osmometer model 5100 c, wescor. gas exchange parameters, namely, photosynthetic rate (pn), transpiration rate (e) and stomatal conductance (gs) were measured using portable, open photosynthesis system (model lca-3, adc, uk). water use efficiency at the single leaf level (a/e) was calculated using photosynthesis and transpiration rate values. data were computed for statistical analysis taking three replications for each measurement. results and discussion relative water content (rwc) of leaves under controlled conditions (100% irrigation) varied from 90.96 to 79.86% among the varieties on 4th day of stress cycle, while under 50% and 100% moisture stress, it ranged from 83.74 to 79.74% and 76.87 to 52.24%, respectively. considerable reduction in rwc was observed among the varieties at 50% stress. ‘flame seedless’ and ‘thompson seedless’ maintained a higher rwc of 71% at the end of the stress cycle at 50% moisture stress (table 1). water potential varied significantly among the varieties (table 2). at 50% moisture stress, the water potential ranged from –1.66 to –1.99 mpa on the 4th day of stress cycle. as the moisture stress progressed, there was a pronounced decrease table 1. influence of moisture stress on relative water content (rwc, %) in grape varieties variety (v) days after initiation of stress cycle at different levels of stress (s) 4th day 9th day 14th day s1 s2 s3 s1 s2 s3 s1 s2 s3 flame seedless 90.96 82.54 76.73 90.27 81.27 * 87.36 71.94 * thompson seedless 88.74 83.74 76.87 88.26 81.27 * 87.39 71.17 * sharad seedless 87.01 75.70 62.97 87.59 71.63 * 81.98 67.04 * tas-a-ganesh 79.86 70.74 55.24 78.61 65.97 * 80.25 61.64 * v s vxs v s vxs v s vxs s em ± 1.293 1.113 2.231 0.956 0.676 1.356 1.681 5.041 6.954 c.d (p=0.05) 3.772 3.267 6.532 5.867 2.027 4.054 5.041 3.564 ns s1: control (100% irrigation); s2: 50% stress (50% irrigation); s3: 100% stress (no irrigation) table 2. influence of moisture stress on leaf water potential (-mpa) and leaf osmotic potential (-mpa) in grape varieties days after initiation of stress cycle at different levels of stress (s) 4th day 9th day 14th day s1 s2 s3 s1 s2 s3 s1 s2 s3 leaf water potential (-mpa) flame seedless 1.20 1.30 1.66 1.21 1.32 * 1.15 1.31 * thompson seedless 1.34 1.45 1.99 1.38 1.51 * 1.21 1.48 * sharad seedless 1.45 1.51 1.81 1.21 1.29 * 1.28 1.51 * tas-a-ganesh 1.21 1.66 1.85 1.30 1.67 * 1.23 1.64 * v s vxs v s vxs v s vxs s em ± 0.009 0.008 0.166 0.221 0.106 0.323 0.240 0.169 0.332 c.d (p=0.05) ns 0.203 ns ns ns ns ns ns ns leaf osmotic potential (-mpa) flame seedless 1.16 1.23 1.66 0.97 1.30 * 1.48 1.38 * thompson seedless 1.30 1.23 1.67 1.47 1.35 * 1.76 1.48 * sharad seedless 1.06 1.29 1.53 1.19 1.49 * 1.38 1.81 * tas-a-ganesh 1.13 1.46 1.75 1.31 1.59 * 1.25 1.90 * v s vxs v s vxs v s vxs s em ± 0.209 0.002 0.005 0.005 0.003 0.007 0.007 0.050 0.103 c.d (p=0.05) 0.008 0.075 0.450 0.163 0.115 0.230 0.218 0.514 ns s1: control (100% irrigation); s2: 50% stress (50% irrigation); s3: 100% stress (no irrigation) plants died and observations were not recorded j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 99-103, 2006 satisha et al 100 variety (v) page 101 in water potential among the varieties. ‘flame seedless’ recorded maximum leaf water potential of –1.31 mpa at the end of the stress cycle at 50% moisture stress, while, in tas-a-ganesh recorded the least (-1.64 mpa). similarly, considerable reduction in leaf osmotic potential was also such among the varieties as stress progressed. on the 4th day of stress cycle, at no stress, osmotic potential ranged from –1.06 to –1.30 mpa, while, at 50% stress it ranged from –1.53 to –1.75 mpa. on both the 9th and 14th day of stress cycle, ‘flame seedless’ and ‘thompson seedless’ recorded maximum osmotic potential at 50% moisture stress (table 2). none of the varieties survived 14 days without irrigation (100% stress). the rwc data for all the varieties indicated that varieties flame seedless and thompson seedless maintained higher rwc at 50% moisture stress until the 14th day. this indicated their capacity to maintain turgidity even under stress. lowering of leaf osmotic potential in response to soil moistures stress may help maintain the required water relations (during, 1985). in the present study, strong positive correlation was observed between water potential and water use efficiency (r = 0.93) under 50% moisture stress on the 14th day of stress cycle (fig 1). this relationship suggests that water potential of the tissue during stress period a better indicator of its water fig 1. relation between water potential (-mpa) and wue (µ(µ(µ(µ(µ mole / m mole) in grape varieties under 50% moisture stress fig 2. relation between wue (µµµµµ mole / m mole) and rwc (%) in grape varieties under 50% moisture stress table 3. photosynthetic rate and transpiration rate of grape varieties at different levels of moisture stress variety (v) days after initiation of stress cycle at different levels of stress (s) 4th day 9th day 14th day s1 s2 s3 s1 s2 s3 s1 s2 s3 photosynthetic rate (m moles/m2/sec) flame seedless 9.26 8.16 1.00 8.90 7.60 * 10.00 9.10 * thompson seedless 8.86 8.23 1.13 9.33 8.20 * 9.63 8.00 * sharad seedless 9.20 7.56 * 7.86 7.53 * 7.50 7.06 * tas-a-ganesh 7.63 5.70 * 7.80 6.66 * 7.83 5.73 * v s vxs v s vxs v s vxs s em ± 0.365 0.316 0.632 0.238 0.696 0.943 0.348 0.302 0.604 c.d (p=0.05) 1.060 0.923 ns 0.696 0.602 ns 1.080 1.380 ns transpiration rate (m moles /m2/sec) flame seedless 9.60 8.06 7.23 10.40 7.73 * 10.50 6.90 * thompson seedless 9.60 8.63 7.16 10.16 8.23 * 10.40 7.80 * sharad seedless 11.80 10.00 * 10.06 9.03 * 10.33 8.90 * tas-a-ganesh 12.26 9.63 * 11.10 9.59 * 10.76 9.50 * v s vxs v s vxs v s vxs s em ± 0.162 0.140 0.281 0.128 0.111 0.223 0.123 0.110 0.220 c.d (p=0.05) 0.474 0.410 0.821 0.376 0.325 0.651 0.371 0.321 0.643 s1: control (100% irrigation); s2: 50% stress (50% irrigation); s3: 100% stress (no irrigation) plants died and observations were not recorded j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 99-103, 2006 effect of soil moisture stress on grape varieties 101 page 102 status than rwc, as, the correlation coefficient of rwc and wue is 0.58 even though the relation between the two parameters is of a positive nature (fig 2). the reduction in osmotic potential indicates osmotic adjustment and the varies from variety to variety. zhang and archbold (1993) also reported maintenance of higher turgor potential and lower osmotic potential in stressed plants of fragaria chiloensis than in non-stressed plants, but no such reduction was reported in f. verginiana, suggesting cultivar difference in osmotic adjustment. osmotic adjustment was better in ‘flame seedless’ and ‘thompson seedless’ than in ‘sharad seedless’ and ‘tas-a-ganesh’ as indicated by leaf water potential. increased osmotic adjustment has been attributed to increased sugar and other compatible solutes (rodrigues et al, 1993). in the present investigation, it was observed that the increased osmotic adjustment in ‘flame seedless’ could be due to a high potassium content in this variety (data not shown) as it is an effective inorganic osmolyte. morgan et al (1977) also reported that the spectrum and relative contribution of different solutes to osmotic adjustment varied with plant species and leaf age. turgid leaves with high moisture could have helped in normal functioning of ‘flame seedless’ and ‘thompson seedless’ under moisture stress. photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate and instantaneous wue recorded significant difference among the varieties and in stress levels on all days of the stress cycle (table 3 and 4). both ‘sharad seedless’ and ‘tas-a-ganesh’ did not show any photosynthetic activity on the 4th day of stress cycle at 100 % stress. on the 14th day of stress cycle, maximum reduction in photosynthesis was recorded in ‘tas-a-ganesh’ from non-stress to stress conditions. among the varieties, flame seedless recorded maximum photosynthesis of 9.10 mmole / m2/sec at 50% moisture stress. considerable reduction in transpiration rate was recorded on the 14th day of stress cycle from non-stress to 100% stress conditions. on the 14th day of stress cycle, reduction in transpiration rate was higher in ‘flame seedless’ and ‘thompson seedless’ and was least in ‘tas-a-ganesh’. though there was considerable reduction in stomatal conductance with increased soil moisture stress among varieties, ‘flame seedless’ maintained the highest stomatal conductance of 0.41 mmole / m2/sec at 50% moisture stress on the 14th day and it was least in ‘tas-a-ganesh’ (0.36 mmole / m2/sec). water use efficiency increased with increased soil moisture stress on 9th and 14th day of the stress cycle in all the varieties. but, on 4th day of the stress cycle, there was reduction in wue at 100% stress compared to 50% stress. ‘flame seedless’ recorded maximum wue on 9th and 14th day of the stress cycle at 50% stress, while, it was least in ‘tas-aganesh’. the marginal reduction recorded in photosynthesis and greater reduction in transpiration rate may be due to reduced stomatal conductance under moisture stress conditions. lakso (1985) also reported marginal reduction in photosynthesis and maximum reduction in transpiration table 4. stomatal conductance and instantaneous water use efficiency of grape varieties at different levels of moisture stress variety (v) days after initiation of stress cycle at different levels of stress (s) 4th day 9th day 14th day s1 s2 s3 s1 s2 s3 s1 s2 s3 stomatal conductance (ì moles/m2/sec) flame seedless 0.59 0.37 0.19 0.54 0.34 * 0.57 0.41 * thompson seedless 0.50 0.42 0.19 0.50 0.42 * 0.52 0.40 * sharad seedless 0.62 0.46 * 0.53 0.47 * 0.42 0.39 * tas-a-ganesh 0.55 0.41 * 0.43 0.39 * 0.43 0.36 * v s vxs v s vxs v s vxs s em ± 0.003 0.002 0.052 0.013 0.018 0.023 0.014 0.012 0.025 c.d (p=0.05) ns 0.076 0.014 0.013 0.034 0.069 0.042 0.037 0.074 instantaneous water use efficiency (ì mole / m mole) flame seedless 0.96 1.01 0.13 0.84 0.98 * 0.96 1.33 * thompson seedless 0.92 0.97 0.15 0.91 0.99 * 0.91 1.02 * sharad seedless 0.77 0.75 * 0.77 0.52 * 0.72 0.78 * tas-a-ganesh 0.61 0.59 * 0.70 0.69 * 0.72 0.60 * v s vxs v s vxs v s vxs s em ± 0.003 0.030 0.060 0.042 0.036 0.072 0.046 0.039 0.079 c.d (p=0.05) 0.108 0.008 ns 0.121 0.105 0.210 0.134 0.116 0.232 s1: control (100% irrigation); s2: 50% stress (50% irrigation); s3: 100% stress (no irrigation) plants died and observations were not recorded j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 99-103, 2006 satisha et al 102 page 103 in stressed grapevines. maintenance of high wue under moisture stress in ‘flame seedless’ and ‘thompson seedless’ indicated higher reduction in transpiration and maintenance of photosynthesis even under moisture stress. studies on photosynthesis under drought conditions in fieldgrown grapes by flexas et al (1998) revealed no photoinhibition even when stomatal conductance was reduced. the increased wue in these two varieties may be due to larger reduction in transpiration rate and marginal reduction in photosynthesis. this also confirms the findings of allweldt and ruhl (1982) who observed 33-48% reduction in photosynthesis and 45-57% reduction in transpiration rate under stress conditions. similar increase in wue at decreased water potential was reported by behaboudian et al (1986) in pistachio varieties. the increased photosynthetic rate in flame seedless at 50% moisture stress may be due also to increased chlorophyll content (data not shown) in this variety which might have absorbed large spectrum of sunlight to carry out photosynthesis. maintenance of marginal reduction in photosynthesis, lower transpiration rate, better water relations and increased wue suggests the distinction and differential sensitivity levels among varieties under moisture stress. finally, it is concluded that a slight reduction in photosynthetic rate, lower transpiration rate and better water relation in terms of water potential and osmotic adjustment under mild water stress in the varieties flame seedless and thompson seedless suggests their uniqueness and differential sensitivity to soil moisture stress. the other two varieties, viz., sharad seedless and tas-a-ganesh, both being clonal selections (mutants) from ‘kishmish chernyi’ and ‘thompson seedless’ respectively did not respond positively under moisture stress conditions. references allweldt, g. and ruhl, e. 1982. unterschungen zum gaswechcel der rebe. ii. einfluss, ianganhaltemder bodentrockheit auf die leistungsfhig-vrshienender robertson. vitis. 21: 312-324. barrs, h.d. and weatherly, p.e. 1962. a re-examination of the relative turgidity technique for estimating water deficit in leaves. agri. j. biol. sci., 15: 413-428. behboudian, m.h., walker, r.r. and torokfalvy. 1986. effect of water stress and salinity on photosynthesis of pistachio. sci. hort., 29: 251-261. during, h. 1985. osmotic adjustment in grape vines. int’l. symp. on water relation in fruit crops, pisa. acta hort. 171: 315-22. flexas, j.j., escalona, m. and medrano. h. 1998. down regulation of photosynthesis by drought under field conditions in grapevine leaves. aust. j. pl. physiol., 25: 893-900. lakso, a.n. 1985. the effect of water stress on physiological processes in fruit crops. acta hort., 171: 275-90. lincoln, t and eduardo, z. (2002). plant physiology (ii edn.) sinauer associates publishers, sunderband, massachusettes. pp: 792. morgan, j.m. 1977. differences in osmoregulation between wheat cultivars. nature, 270: 234-235. rodrigues, m.l., chaves, m..m, wendler. r, david.m, quick, w.p., leegood, r.c., stitt m. and peretra, p.s. 1993. osmotic adjustment in water stressed grapevine leaves in relation to carbon isotope assimilation. aust. j. pl. physiol., 20: 309-21. zhang, b. and archbold, d.d. 1993. water relations of fragaria chiloensis and f. verginiana selection during and after water deficit stress. j. amer. soc. hortl. sci., 118: 274-279. j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 99-103, 2006 effect of soil moisture stress on grape varieties 103 (ms received 29 june 2006 , revised 26 september 2006) introduction a large number of chemical compounds including fragrances, flavours, pigments, natural sweeteners, antimicrobials and pharmaceuticals are obtained from plants. in most cases, these compounds belong to a broad metabolic group, collectively referred to as secondary products. plant cell cultures can be established from an array of plant species, including most that produce secondary products of commercial value (berlin, 1984). phyllanthus amarus (euphorbiaceae) finds a reputed place, especially, in the indian pharmacopoeia (kamboj, 2000). it has been traditionally used in the treatment of a variety of ailments, including hepatic disorders (nadkarni, 1976). it is a potential diuretic, hypotensive and hypoglycaemic drug (raphael, 2002). it has immense medicinal properties by virtue of containing several phytochemicals, viz., securinine, norsecurinine, epibubbialine and isobbubialine (foo and wang, 1992), lignans like phyllanthin and hypophyllanthin (row et al, 1966), phenolics like gallic acid; polyphenolics like ellagic acid, phenazine and phenazine derivatives (foo, 1995). about 300 million people worldwide are estimated to be carriers of the hepatitis b virus. the plant has therapeutic potential for treating hepatitis b virus by inhibiting polymerase activity and decreased episomal dna content. it has also been shown to exhibit antihepatotoxic activity against carbon tetrachloride and galactosamine in estimation of anti-hepatic viral compounds in phyllanthus amarus in vitro cultures r. chitra, e.vadivel1 and k. rajamani horticulture college and research institute tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore 641 003, india e-mail: chitra.varadharaj@gmail.com abstract phyllanthus amarus schum. and thonn (euphorbiaceae) is recognized commonly as ‘bhumyamlaki’ in the indian system of medicine and has been traditionally used for treating a variety of ailments, including hepatic disorders. anti-hepatic viral compounds such as phyllanthin and hypophyllanthin were evaluated in different types of in vitro cultures of phyllanthus amarus by high performance liquid chromatography (hplc). among the cultures, in vitro plantlets regenerating from the nodal segment recorded higher amounts of phyllanthin and hypophyllanthin. key words: phyllanthus amarus, hplc, phyllanthin and hypophyllanthin 1directorate of extension education, tnau, coimbatore 641 003 primary cultured rat hepatocytes (syamasunder et al, 1985). knowledge about phyllanthus amarus especially on its antiviral property, has elicited a great interest in this plant, and has triggered its large-scale collection from natural flora. availability of this plant is subject to seasonal variations, which leads to uncertainty in supply of the plant material when required (rajasubramanian and pardha saradhi, 1997). in vitro secondary metabolite extraction has been a precision tool for studying organic compounds in plants even when present in trace quantities. the study of cell suspension culture, hairy root culture and other in vitro cultures is an ideal method to investigate the rare compounds and, especially, many active, unknown compounds within a short period. in this background, the study was taken up to explore a lignans from in vitro culture of phyllanthus amarus. in field grown crops, it takes about six months for extraction of these lignans whereas this time lag is just three months in in vitro cultured plantlets. material and methods indirect organogenesis murashige and skoog (1962) medium was used for induction of callus from leaf bits, stem pieces, shoot tips and nodal segments of phyllanthus amarus. sucrose (3.0%), agar (0.8%), cytokinins, viz., kinetin (3.0 mgl-1) j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 62-65, 2008 page 62 63 and bap (3.0 mgl-1) and auxins, viz., 2, 4-d (4.0 mgl-1) and naa (0.4 mgl-1) were added to the medium. cultures containing 2, 4-d was inoculated under darkness by covering culture racks with a black cloth and the remaining cultures were incubated at 25±2oc in light: dark cycle of 16:8 h, respectively. direct organogenesis for direct organogenesis by axillary shoot proliferation or by adventitious shoot formation, the explants, viz., shoot tip and nodal segments, were inoculated onto ms basal medium supplemented with bap (2.0 mgl-1) along with ga 3 (1.0 mgl-1). after separating the multiple shoots, each individual shoot was sub-cultured onto half strength ms medium containing two auxins, iaa (0.5 mgl-1) and iba (0.5 mgl-1). the cultures were maintained in a growth room at 24±2oc under 16 h light and 8 h dark photoperiodic regime. estimation of anti-hepatic viral compounds for estimation of lignans, different types of cultures were used as follows: cultures used for estimation of anti-hepatic viral compounds treatment source of culture culture medium on which (nature of culture) the culture was initiated t 1 (multiple shoot shoot tip ms + bap (2.0 mgl-1) + clumps with ga 3 (1.0 mgl-1) basal callus) t 2 (multiple shoot nodal segment ms + bap (3.0 mgl-1) + clumps with ga 3 (1.0 mgl-1) basal callus) t 3 (micro shoots shoot tip ½ ms + iba (0.5 mgl-1) + with roots) iaa (0.5 mgl-1) t 4 (micro shoots nodal segment ½ ms + iba (0.5 mgl-1) + with roots) iaa (0.5 mgl-1) t 5 (green callus) shoot tip ms + bap (3.0 mgl-1) + kin (3.0 mgl-1) t 6 (green callus) nodal segment ms + bap (3.0 mgl-1) + kin (3.0 mgl-1) t 7 (white callus) stem pieces ms + 2,4-d (4.0 mgl-1) + naa (0.4 mgl-1) t 8 (white callus) leaf bits ms + 2,4-d (4.0 mgl-1) + naa (0.4 mgl-1) analysis of anti-hepatic viral compounds the above in vitro grown materials were dried and ground to a fine powder using a mortar and pestle. each powdered sample (1 g) was macerated with lime (300 mg) and hplc grade water (2.5 ml) at room temperature and kept in a shaker for 18 hours. thirty ml of methanol containing 3% potassium hydroxide was added to the macerated material and kept in boiling water-bath for 30 min. the material was filtered the residue washed 3 times with 5 ml methanol and the volume of the combined filtrate and washings was made up to 50 ml. a sample (10 µl) of this solution was injected in to hplc column and the lignans were estimated. a varian chromatographic system comprising of l.c.8a model dual pump and uv detector was employed. a µ bondapak c 18 column (30 cm x 3.9 mm) with isocratic run of solvent system of methanol: water (66:4), v/v at the rate of 1.8 ml/min flow rate and uv detection at 230 nm was used for resolving and analysing phyllanthin and hypophyllanthin. the quantification was carried out using external standards of phyllanthin and hypophyllanthin (sigma aldrich chemicals) and values were expressed as percentage. results and discussion the lignans were detected and quantified in the in vitro cultures of phyllanthus amarus. among the various cultures, in vitro grown plants recorded highest phyllanthin (0.921%) and hypophyllanthin (0.396 %) on ½ ms medium containing iba (0.5 mgl-1) and iaa (0.5 mgl-1) as compared to the field grown plants. phyllanthin (0.709 w/w dry basis) and hypophyllanthin (0.271 w/w dry basis) content was estimated by the method of anupum sharma et al (1993) in fieldgrown phyllanthus niruri. similar finding was also reported by mahalakshmi et al (2006) in phyllanthus amarus genotypes. this was supported by the findings of ara kirakosyan (2003) in hypericum perforatum and sharma tripti, (2006) in artemisia annua. the contents of phyllanthin (0.714 %) and hypophyllanthin (0.261%) was low in leaf-bit derived white callus on ms medium supplemented with 2,4-d (4.0 mg l-1) and naa (0.4 mgl-1). the level of hypericin in hypericum perforatum callus was very low, representing only 0.11% of that found in fieldgrown plants (kirakosayan, 2003). callus initiated from stamens of h. perforatum showed only traces of hypericin or pseudohypericin (kirakosyan et al, 2000). in general, an increase in the level, of auxins such as 2, 4-d in the medium stimulates dedifferentiation of cells and consequently diminishes the level of secondary metabolites. this is the reason that auxins are commonly added to the medium for callus induction, but used at low concentrations or omitted altogether for production of metabolites. zenk et al (1977) reported that cytokinins stimulated alkaloid synthesis which was induced by removing auxin from the medium of a cell line of catharanthus roseus. this was j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 62-65, 2008 estimation of anti-hepatic viral compounds 64 supported by the findings of shiio and ohta (1973) along with takahashi and yamada (1973). they reported that lower concentrations of auxins viz., iaa, naa and 2,4-d promoted nicotine synthesis in tobacco cell cultures while higher concentrations inhibited nicotine synthesis. in the present study, the quantity of phyllanthin and hypophyllanthin was found to be higher in in-vitro grown plants than in the callus. thus, it seems that in many cases morphological differentiation may be necessary to obtain higher yields of secondary metabolites. hiraoka and tabata (1974) investigated the correlation between stage of morphological differentiation and tropane alkaloid producing ability in datura meteloides, and found that roots forming shoots produced higher amounts of tropane alkaloids. dhar and pal (1988) demonstrated that more pyrethrin was being synthesized in chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium in vitro shoots than the roots and its content was even lower in undifferentiated callus culture. chromatographic analysis of the regenerated plants of phyllanthus amarus showed antiviral content higher than that found in field-grown plants, suggesting that an in vitro culture system could be used for this plant which may significantly reduce the cost, time and resources required for field-production of antiviral compounds, as well as enable growers to produce high quality, standard antiviral products. references anupum sharma, r., singh, s., sukhdev, s. handa.,1993. estimation of phyllanthin and hypophyllanthin by hplc in phyllanthus amarus. phytochem. anal., 4: 226-229 berlin, j.1984. plant cell cultures – a future source of natural products. endeavour 8: 5-8 table 1. estimation of anti-hepatic viral compounds from different types of cultures sl.no nature of culture & phyllanthin hypophyllanthin source of culture (%) (%) 1. multiple shoot clumps with 0.745 0.298 basalcallus (shoot tip) 2. multiple shoot clumps with 0.723 0.289 basal callus (nodal segment) 3. microshoots with roots 0.892 0.325 (shoot tip) 4. microshoots with roots 0.921 0.396 (nodal segment) 5. green callus (shoot tip) 0.716 0.294 6. green callus 0.731 0.309 (nodal segment) 7. white callus (stem bit) 0.728 0.314 8. white callus (leaf bit) 0.714 0.261 mean 0.771 0.311 sed 0.027 0.016 cd (0.05) 0.054 0.034 3rd peak hypophyllanthin (retention time 54.33 minutes) 4th peak phyllanthin (retention time 56.87 minutes) fig 1. hplc chromatogram of phyllanthus amarus dhar, k, pal a. 1988. pyrethrin content in unorganized and organized callus cultures of chrysanthemum cineraraefolium vis. fitoterapia lxiv., 336-340 foo, l. y. 1995. amariinic acid and related ellagi tannins from phyllanthus amarus. phytochem., 39: 217-224 foo, l. y., wong, h. 1992. phyllanthusiin d, unusual hydrolysable tannin from phyllanthus amarus. phytochem., 31: 711-713 hiraoka, n., tabata, m. 1974. studies on relationship between productivity of tropane alkaloids and differentiations in datura meteloides. phytochem., 13: 1671 kamboj, v. p. 2000. herbal medicine. curr. sci., 78: 35-39 kirakosayan. a 2003. a comparative study of hypericum perforatum plants of hypericins and hyperforins. j. herbs, spices & medicinal plants., 10: 73-88 kirakosyan, a., vardapetyan, r. r., charchoglyan, a. g., 2000. the content of hypericin and pseudohypericin in cell cultures of hypericum perforatum. russ. j. pl. physiol., 47: 270-273 mahalakshmi, r and rajamani, k. 2006. studies on genetic diversity in phyllanthus amarus. m.sc (hort) thesis submitted in tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore murashige, t., skoog, f. 1962. a revised medium for rapid growth and bioassays with tobacco tissue cultures. physiol. plant., 15: 437-497 nadkarni, k. m. 1976. in indian materia medica. popular prakashan, bombay : 947-949 rajasubramanian, s., paradha saradhi, p. 1997. rapid multiplication of phyllanthus fraternus: a plant with antihepatis viral activity. industrial crops and products., 6: 35 j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 62-65, 2008 chitra et al 65 raphael, k. r. 2002. antimutagenic activity of phyllanthus amarus in vitro as well as in vivo. terarog. carcinog. mutagen., 22: 285-291 row, l. c., srinivasulu, c., samantaray, s., das, p., 1966. crstalline constituents of euphorbiaceae.v. new lignans from phyllanthus niruri linn: the constitution of phyllanthin. tetrahedron., 22: 2899-2908 sharma tripti, dixit. 2006. studies on ti-mediated transformed cultures of artemisia annua l. ind. j. pharm. sci., 68: 448-455 shiio, i., ohta, s., 1973. nicotine production by tobacco callus tissues and effect of plant growth regulators. agr. bio. chem., 37: 1857-1864 syamasunder, k. v., singh, b., thakur, r. s., husain, a., kiso, y., hikino, h. 1985 antihepatotoxic principles of phyllanthus niruri herbs. j. ethnopharmacol., 14: 41-44 takahashi, m. and yamada, y. 1973. regulation of nicotine production by auxins in tobacco cultured cells in vitro. agr. bio. chem., 37: 1755-1757 zenk, m. h. 1977. in “plant tissue culture and its biotechnological application”, eds. barz, w., reinhard, e., zenk, m.h., p. 27, springer-verlag, berlin, heidelberg, new york (ms received 24 december 2007, revised 2 april 2008) j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 62-65, 2008 estimation of anti-hepatic viral compounds 42 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 42-48, 2017 genetic divergence assessment in kale (brassica oleracea l var. acephala (dc.) alef.) by using the multivariate analysis s r singh, n ahamed, dinesh kumar, k k srivatsava, sabeena yousuf and abid mir icar-central institute of temperate horticulture, old air field rangregth srinagar 190 007, j&k e-mail: srajparmar@gmail.com abstract a total of 87 genotypes collected from different geographical areas of kashmir valley evaluated at one site to determinate genetic variability. considerable diversity was found in different traits of horticultural importance. high coefficient of variation and wide range and mean differences of studied traits indicated the existence of wide genetic variability. three principal component having eigen value more than one and cumulatively accounted for 84.85 percent of total variability of evaluated horticultural traits. the leaf weight, leaf length, leaf width, leaf yield / plant and yield (q/ha) were major contributing traits towards the first principal component. similarly number of number of leaves/plant was impotent contributed traits toward principal component -ii, whereas plant height was main contributing traits to principal component -iii. the maximum inter cluster d2 value (731.04) was observed between cluster iv and cluster -i and followed by between cluster -v and clusteri (677.29) and between cluster ii and i (430.13).it indicated that genotypes belongings with these groups were genetically most divergent and may be use for hybridization to get better segregants. key words: kale, genetic diversity, principal component analysis, single linkage cluster analysis. introduction kale (brassica oleracea l) is one of important leafy vegetable grouped into cooked greens belongs to cole group. this is a preferred and widely grown vegetable of kashmir valley due to cold hardiness, higher yield and better nutritive value. it is only available as a fresh vegetable in valley during extreme cold temperature and snowing period when the area is cut off with rest of the country due to heavy snowfall. the crop is grown in valley since long and have been improved by growers through a selection. some genotypes have become popular in the valley either by the name of grower or by the name of growing locality such as g m dari, khaniyari and cowdari. a wide range of genetic diversity exists due to cross pollinating nature of crop and long growing history. large succulent and curly leaves are characteristics of consumer preference. however, no such commercial variety is available in the region. thus development of high yielding variety with preferable quality is the need of the region.improvement in yield and quality is normally achieved by selecting the genotype with desirable character combinations existing in the nature or by creating the diversity with hybridization. selection of genetically diverse parents in any purposeful breeding programme on basis of divergence would be more promising to get the heterotic f1,s and broad spectrum of variability in segregating generation ( meena and bahadur, 2015). in a varietal breeding for a particular growing conditions, it is essential to know about the local genetic population since their the relationship among the yield component are balanced and are in harmony with climatic and edaphic factors. multiva ria te a nalysis is an effective tool for characterization and classification of plant genetic resources when a large number of accessions are assessed for several traits. principal component analysis (pca), one of multivariate analysis methods, depicts the tr a its which wer e decisive in genotype differentiation(kovacic,1994). it enables an easier *icar-central institute of subtropical horticulture, remankhera, kakori lucknow. original research paper 43 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 42-48, 2017 understanding of impact and relationship among the different traits. however pca alone would not give an adequate character representation in term of relative importance when multiple characters are considered simultaneously (shalini et al,2003). to complement the results of such multivariate analysis, single linkage cluster analysis(slca) is employed to classify the variation. slca is an agglomerative technique which shows the patterns of exact genotype position in population (ariyo and odulaja,1991) by sorting them in distinct groups. t hus, present investigation was undertaken to assess the nature and magnitude of genetic diversity in kale accessions of kashmir valley for different morphological traits which could be utilized in further improvement programme. material and methods eighty seven ka le a ccessions (brassica oleracea l var. acephala) collected from growing spots of kashmir valley and some heterotic selection from kale lines bred at icar-cith were evaluated (table-1) . seeds were sown in nursery in mid of august in each year and 30 days old seedling was transplanted at 45x 60 cm2 apart in 3.0x2.70m2 bed. the experiment was carried out during 2012 and 2013 at experimental farm of icarcentral institute of temperate horticulture, srinagar jammu and kashmir in randomized block design with three replications. geographical position of the experimental site lies between latitude of 34005 n and longitude of 74050 e at an altitude of 1640 m amsl. the average maximum 19.63%c and minimum 6.52%c temperature, annual precipitation 160.72 mm and relative humidity 58.35%, evaporation 2.45mm and soil characteristics viz. ph= 6.81 and ec = 0.36 dsm”1 recorded during the cropping season. recommended uniform agronomic and cultural practices were adopted to obtain better phenotypic expression of the characters. a total of seven quantitative traits representing to vegetative characteristics of plants related to yield and yield table 1. accession used in study along with code number genetic diversity in kale 44 attributes were measured. data collected on the quantitative characters were analysed using the sas microsoft windows 9.2 (sas institute, 2011). genetic diversity was studied following the mahalanobis (1936) generalised distance (d2) extended by rao (1952). average intra cluster distance was calculated by following formula as suggested by singh and choudhry (1985). pca a nd slca wer e used for the determination of genetic variation and percentage similarity within the genotypes. the pca produce eigen – vectors and principal component score were used to assess the relative discriminatory power of its axis and their associated characters. the cluster procedure was used to produce a distinct group of 87 genotypes on the basis of genetic relationship while using the character variation. slca summarized the position of accessions analysed the position of accessions into a dendogramme at an interval of 5% level of dissimilarity starting from 100 % of level of dissimilarity. results and discussion the eighty seven genotypes evaluated varied significantly for all horticultural traits except to average leaf weight (table 2). the phenotypic variability revealed by coefficient variation (%) was highest for average leaf weight followed by leaf yield /plant and q/ha, number of leaves per plant which was also substantiated by wider range and mean difference values. the coefficient of variation varied from 15.12 for leaf length to 33.45 for average leaf weight. high coefficient of variation and wide range and mean differences of studied traits indicated a wide range of genetic variability, which reflects the potential of improvement in kale. similar type of variability in germplasm of kale has been reported by maria et al., 2002. to extract principal factors which do not require the assumption of normal distribution of proportion, principal component analysis was used a nd 8 7 ka le genot yp es b a s ed on degr ee of divergence of seven morphological traits were grouped into three principal components having eigen va lue mor e t ha n one a nd cumu la tively accounted for 84.85 percent of total variability (table 3). the first principal component contributed 44.59 % of total variation and was positively loaded with impotent horticultural traits viz., average leaf weight, leaf length, leaf width, leaf yield /plant and yield (q/ha), where as negatively loaded with number of leaves /plants. the second principal component responsible for 26.93 percent of total multivariate variation was positively loaded with number of leaves/plant, leaf yield per plant and yield (q/ha) where as negatively loaded with pla nt height, number of leaves and leaf width. the principal component iii accounted for 13.32 % of total variation and was positively loaded with plant height ,number of leaves /plant and yield per plant where as negatively loaded with leaf weight, leaf length and leaf width. the positive and negative loading of quantitative characters reflect the positive and negative correlation trend between the components and variables and suggesting that theses principal component may be used to summarize the variables. the characters with largest absolute value closer to unit within the first component influencing the clustering than those to lower absolute value closer table 2.variability for different metric traits in kale genotypes j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 42-48, 2017 singh et al 45 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 42-48, 2017 table 3. latent vectors for seven traits of 87 genotypes of kale to zero. thus in present study the differentiation of genotypes in different principal component was because of high contribution of few characters rather than small contribution of each characters. the characters positively in first three principal component could be in consideration while selecting the genotype with appr opriate tr aits a nd yield potential. the principal component analysis has also been used for studying the genetic variability in germplasm of many species (ahmed et al.,2015, singh et al., 2013). the plot of pci versus pc ii indica ted the that some groups of isola ted genotypes clearly define the diversity among the evaluated germplasm. the genotypes cith-kc23, cith-kc-25, cith-sag-24, 2011 klvr-12, new sag27(5), kashmiri local, kc-12, cith kc-6, cith-kc-14, cith-44, and 2011/klvr-5 were most divergent (fig-1). usually it is customary to use one importent variable from theses identified groups for improvement programme. hence pc-i for leaf length , leaf width and leaf yield per plant should be first choice which has a largest positive loadings for these traits. number of leaves per plant for second principal component and plant height for third principal component. the results of study are useful as it furnish the information about the groups where certain traits are more important, allowing to breeder to execute the breeding programme for specific tar get. the biologica l implica tion of principal component analysis can be quantified by contribution of different variables in each pc as revealed by eigen vector. the clustering score a mong the component a xes suggest that some relationship exist among the individuals within the cluster but do not provides the clear position of genotypes . based on single linkage cluster analysis, the genotypes were grouped into five clusters quantifying the share genotypes and cluster mean of all traits (table 4). the maximum number of genotypes (81 nos) were accommodated in cluster i followed by cluster ii (3nos) and cluster iii, iv and v (1 no. in each) contributing 93.24, 3.4, 1.41, 1.14 and 1.14 % respectively. on basis of cluster mean the cluster -iv was important for maximum number of leaves per plant, leaf yield per plant and yield (q/ha) clusterii was important for average leaf weight ,clusteriii, cluster three for plant height and cluster v for leaf length and leaf width. the cluster having high mean values of traits would contribute more positively in their offsprings if used as a parent. rehman and mansur (2009) and ahmad et al, 2015 also suggested that the cluster having highest mean values may be used for hybridization programme to get better segregants. genetic diversity in kale 46 table 4. cluster means values for 7 important horticultural traits along with number and proportion genotypes falling in each cluster singh et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 42-48, 2017 fig. 1 bi-plot for 1st and 2nd pc for genotypes of kale in relation horticultural traits d 2 va lue estima te of genetic diver gence suggested the resolution for 87 kale genotypes in distinct five clusters with wide range of diversity in experimental material for a majority of traits (table5). the maximum inter cluster d2 value (731.04) was observed between cluster iv and cluster -i and followed by between cluster -v and clusteri (677.29) and between cluster ii and i (430.13). it indicates that genotypes belongings with these gr oups wer e genetically most divergent. the selection of divergent parents based on theses cluster distance may be used in selecting the parents for the hybridization and formulating a comprehensive strategy to get a superior hybrid or superior segregants in kale. the findings are 47 genetic diversity in kale j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 42-48, 2017 in conformity with finding of maria, et al., 2002, singh, et al., 2013 and ahmed et al.,2015 who had also indicated the accessions among the cluster separated by high d2 cluster values used in hybridization programme to obtain a wide spectrum of variation among the segregants. dendogram drawn from the single linkage cluster analysis by using the euclidian distance depicted the relationship and exact position of genotype in the cluster (fig.2) all the genotypes were distinct from each other at 100 % of dissimilarity and farmed 17 cluster at 75% of dissimilarity and farmed 3 cluster at 50% of dissimilarity . the dissimilarity range from 50 to 100 % among the delineated genotypes large enough to suggest the variability for cr op impr ovement (denton and nwangburuka,2011) cith-kc-23,cith-kc-45, cit h-sag-24, 2011 klvr-12, new sag27(5),kashmiri local,kc-12, cith -kc-6, cithkc-14, cithsag-3 and 2011/klvr-5 were most divergent in cluster position and may be use for hybridization to get better segregants. ahmed et al.,2015 also reported such variability by using the single linkage cluster analysis. this genetic diversity analysis would be useful to avoid the selecting parents from genetically homogenous cluster and maintain a broad genetic base for future breeding programme. table 5. average intra and inter cluster distances (d2) of kale genotypes fig 2. dendogram depicting the genetic relationship among the kale genotypes based horticultural traits produced by ash analysis (scale-euclidian distance) 48 (ms received 11 september 2016, revised 20 may 2017, accepted 24 june 2017) j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 42-48, 2017 references ahmed,n.,singh,s.r., lal s., mir k. a., asima, a.,habib, k. and salmani, m. 2015. assessment of genetic diversity in brinjal (solanum melongena l.) genotypes using multivariate analysis. indian j. hort. 71:494-498. ario, o. j. and odulaza, a. 1991. numerical analysis of variation among accessions of okra. (a. esculentus l. moench). malvaceae. ann. bot. 67:527-531 denton, o. a. and nwangburuka, c. c. 2011.genetic variability in eighteen cultivars of solanum anguiviam l. using principal component analysis (pca) and single linkage cluster analysis (slca). an of biol. res. 2 :62-67 kovacic, z. 1994. multivariate analysis. faculty of economics, university of belgrade (in serbian) 293 p. mahalanobis, p. c. 1936. on the generalized distance in statistics. proc. nati. inst. sci. india. 2: 49-55. maria, e.c., ana, p., soengas, p. and amando. o . 2002. morphlogical characterization of kale population from north western spain. euphytica: 129:25-32. meena, o. p. and bahadur, v. 2015. breeding potential of indeterminate tomato (solanum lycopersicum l) accessions using d2 analysis. sarrao j. bree. and gen 47(1)49-59. rahman. m. m. and mansur. a. m. 2009. genetic divergence analysis of lime. j. ban. agri. univ. 7: 33–37. rao, c. r. 1952. advanced statistical methods in biometrics research. john wiley and sons, new york, pp. 35769 sas istitute.2011.sas enterprise guide.version9.2sas, institute,cary nc,usa. shalini, m., sharma. s., gupta, m. m., shashi, k. 2003.evaluation of an indian germ plasm collection of medicinal plants bacopa monnieri (l) pennell by use of multivariate aprochess.euphytica.133:255-65. singh, r. k. and choudhry, b. d. 1985. biometrical methods i n quant i tat i ve gene t ic a nal y si s . ka l ya n i publishers, new delhi, p. 318. singh, s. r., ahmed, n., lal, s., ganaie, s. a., mudasir, a., nusarat, j. and asima, a. 2013. determination of genetic diversity in onion (allium cepa l) by multivariate analysis under long day conditions. afri. j. agri. res. 8: 5599-606. singh et al 00 content jh june 2017.pdf 00 sph-journal november new 12.pdf 01 sph-journal november new 01.pdf 02 sph-journal november new 04.pdf 03 sph-journal november new 05.pdf 04 sph-journal november new 07.pdf 05 sph-journal november new 09.pdf 06 sph-journal november new 10.pdf 07 sph-journal november new 11.pdf 08 sph-journal november new 13.pdf 09 sph-journal november new 03.pdf 10 sph-journal november new 06.pdf 11 sph-journal november new 08.pdf introduction the primary cause of low productivity is an imbalanced use of plant nutrients which may deplete mineral elements in the soil (ganeshamurthy and hegde, 1980). nambiar and abrol (1989) reported that application of n alone increased soil-depletion of other nutrients including ca, mg and s. secondary and micronutrient deficiency in soil increases due to increased application of n, p and k fertilizers (shukla et al, 2009). further, soil factors like organic matter content, texture, ph, ec and drainage, and, interaction of mineral elements, limit the availability of nutrients. to meet the dietary requirements of a growing indian population, efforts have been made to increase crop yields per unit area through release of new varieties/hybrids: these require better nutrition management to obtain optimal yields. tomato is an important vegetable crop cultivated under open or controlled conditions. it serves as a daily component of our diet and is also an important source of minerals, vitamins, iron and antioxidants (grierson and kader, 1986). to obtain high yield levels in new tomato hybrids, advanced precision-farming practices need to be standardized, including nutrient management. tomato is one of the main crops grown in recent years in peninsular india, j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):190-193, 2015 effect of magnesium on plant growth, dry matter and yield in tomato (lycipersicon esculentum l.) b.l. kasinath, a.n. ganeshamurthy and n.s. nagegowda icar-indian institute of horticultural research hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru 560 089, india e-mail: kasnath@iihr.ernet.in abstract a field experiment was conducted on magnesium nutrition in tomato hybrid arka ananya at icar-iihr, bengaluru, for two years. graded application of magnesium produced significant difference in fruit yield in tomato among treatments. the yield increased upto 50kg mg ha-1 application, and decreased beyond this dose. yield parameters like number of fruits per plant and fruit weight recorded results similar as that of yield. growth parameters like number of branches and plant-height followed a similar trend. growth and yield parameters were found to be well correlated with yield. treatment t3 (50kg mg ha-1) recorded significantly higher plant height, number of branches, fruit number, fruit weight and fruit yield over the control, t1, where no magnesium was applied. yield increase of 29% can be achieved with magnesium application (50kg mg ha-1) in tomato during winter season. key words: tomato, growth parameters, magnesium, dry matter, fruit yield where, alfisols are predominant and are low in ph. lately, in this region, magnesium deficiency in commercial hybrids of tomato has been found to be a major constraint in achieving desirable yields and quality. hybrid tomatoes with a high yield potential have a very high demand for magnesium, and, are vulnerable to magnesium deficiency in soil. reduction in productivity may be due to a reduced biomass production, and lesser biomass allocation to the fruit. effects of mineral nutrients on biomass partitioning help understand the mechanism of their influence on fruit yield. efforts have been made to increase quality and yield through adequate supply of secondary nutrients, especially, magnesium and calcium. in general, greenhouse grown tomatoes with 0.4% mg in leaf dry-matter indicate a critical concentration of this nutrient. mg deficiency in tomato is first noticed in older leaves (which become abnormally thin), and inter-venal chlorosis starts appearing. in advanced stages of deficiency, leaves become purplish-red and brittle, with a tendency to curl upward. rockwool grown tomato (50-80 ppm of mg in the nutrient solution) results in the best yield and quality. in a field experiment, 54kg mg ha-1 increased tomato yield by 27.9% (osman and wilcox, 1985). in soils with exchangeable mg of lower than 0.5c mol (p+) kg-1, magnesium application to soil elicited a good response in many crops (ganeshamurthy and hegde, 1980). so as to 191 magnesium in growth, dry matter and yield in tomato achieve the high yield potential in tomato hybrids, an attempt has been made in the present study, to assess magnesium requirement in the hybrid ‘arka ananya’. material and methods the experiment was conducted at icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hesaraghatta, bengaluru, for two years during the winter season of 201011 and 2011-12. initial soil-chemical properties and available nutrient status in the field selected for conducting the experiment were: ph 6.14, ec 0.74 dsm-1, oc 0.74, n 119.88 ppm, p 3.51 ppm, k 731.20, ca 158 ppm and mg 61.6 ppm. the experiment was laid out in randomized block design, with three replications and five treatments, viz., t1 control (rdf), t2rdf+mgso4 (25kg ha -1), t3 rdf+mgso4 (50kg ha-1), t4 rdf+mgso4 (75kg ha -1) and t5 rdf+mgso4 (100kg ha -1). the recommended dose of fertilizer (rdf) for tomato, 180:150:120 kg npk kg ha-1, was applied to all the treatments in the form of ammonium sulphate, single super-phosphate (ssp) and muriate of potash, respectively. full dose of p and k was applied as soil application. only nitrogen was applied in three splits, viz., 50% rdf at planting, 25% at 25 days after transplanting, and the remaining 25% rdf at 50 days after transplanting. magnesium dose was applied in the form of magnesium sulphate (mgso4.7h2o) (table 1). tomato hybrid arka ananya was transplanted at a spacing of 100cm x 60cm. fruits were harvested in 10 pickings, and weight of the fruits from each plant was recorded separately. growth and yield parameters, viz., plant height, number of branches plant-1, total number of fruits, mean fruit-weight (g fruit-1) and fruit yield (t/ha-1) were recorded. total dry matter production was determined by collecting the entire plant; fruits were collected separately at the final harvest-stage. fresh weight was evaluated and the samples were sun-dried, and then again dried in a hot air oven at 65-700c. dry weights of the entire plant and the fruit were recorded individually and expressed as total fresh/ dry matter produced (kg ha-1). data on yield and quality parameters were subjected to statistical analysis as per sundaraja et al (1972). results and discussion growth parameters plant height and number of branches application of different levels of magnesium during the two-year field experiment to tomato resulted in significant changes in plant height and number of branches during all stages of the crop (table 2). at pre-flowering stage, tallest plants (53.45cm) and maximum number of branches per plant (6.43) were found in t3 (50kg mg ha -1), while, the shortest plants (48.98cm) and fewest branches (5.73) were seen in the control (0kg mg ha-1) at pre-flowering. lowest numbers of branches plant-1 (5.54) were observed in the control plot where no magnesium was applied during the flowing stage. at flowering, maximum plant height (67.88cm) was observed in t4 (75kg mg ha -1), and the highest number of branches plant-1 (6.10) was found in t3 (50kg mg ha-1); lowest values were recorded in the control table 2. effect of magnesium in tomato hybrid arka ananya on two-year mean plant height (cm), number of branches and dry matter (kg ha-1) accumulation at various stages of plant growth treatment pre-flowering stage flowering stage harvest stage total biomass (kg ha-1) plant number of plant number of plant number of fresh dry height branches/ height branches height (cm) branches weight weight (cm) plant (cm) t1 (control) (0kg mg ha -1) 48.98 5.73 62.45 5.54 66.00 4.73 5853.34 958.84 t2 (25kg mg ha -1) 51.03 6.05 63.53 5.69 67.20 4.88 6752.17 1225.34 t3 (50kg mg ha -1) 53.45 6.43 66.85 6.10 70.12 5.30 7541.51 1337.50 t4 (75kg mg ha -1) 50.83 6.08 67.88 6.00 69.12 5.22 6666.67 995.50 t5 (100kg mg ha -1) 50.054 6.13 67.43 5.97 69.28 4.96 7373.50 1156.34 s.em± 1.24 0.27 1.77 0.29 1.62 0.29 461.99 100.32 c.d. (p=0.05) 4.03 0.89 5.77 0.95 5.30 0.95 1506.94 325.52 table 1. quantity of mgso4 applied for supplying different doses of magnesium treatment treatment levels of quantity of mgso4.7h2o magnesium (kg ha-1) applied (kg ha-1) t1 (control) 0 0 t 2 25 257 t 3 50 514 t 4 75 771 t 5 100 1028 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):190-193, 2015 192 plot. at harvest, control plot recorded minimum plant height (66cm) and number of branches (4.73). on the other hand, t4 treatment (75kg mg ha -1) showed maximum plant height (70.12cm) and number of branches (5.30). in general, it was application of magnesium increased plant height and number of branches per plant up to 75kg mg ha-1, and these were positively correlated to fruit yield. in a pot culture experiment, agbede and aduayi (1980) found application of 80ppm mg as recording maximum plant height. similar results were found by jean aghofack nguemezi and tatchago (2010) too (table 2). dry matter production (kg/ha) application of graded magnesium to the tomato crop resulted in significant difference in dry matter production (table 2). highest dry matter content (7541.51kg ha-1) was found in t3 (50kg mg ha -1) while, the lowest (5853.34kg ha-1) was observed in the control, t1 (0kg mg ha -1). magnesium application recorded increased dry matter production at all the levels over the control. similar results in tomato were reported by xiuming hao and papadopoulos (2004). yield and yield parameters number of fruits and mean fruit-weight pooled analysis of data for the two years showed that applied mg content significantly increased per plant (table 3). maximum number of fruits per plant was harvested in t3 (50kg mg ha -1) (47.42), while, the lowest number of fruits was harvested in t5 (100kg mg ha -1) (39.53). this indicates that with increase in level of mg up to 50kg mg ha-1, number of fruits per plant increased significantly. further increases in mg level did not influence number of fruits. pooled analysis of data for the two years on mean fruitweight showed that applied mg significantly influenced fruitweight. maximum fruit weight was found in t3 (50kg mg ha-1) (78.91g fruit-1), while, the ccontrol (0kg mg ha-1) recorded lowest fruit weight (60.63g fruit-1). table 3. effect of various levels of magnesium in cultivation of tomato hybrid arka ananya on pooled mean yield attributes treatment total no. mean fruit fruit of fruits weight yield plant-1 (g fruit-1) (t ha-1) t1 (control) (0kg mg ha -1) 39.66 66.63 60.09 t2 (25kg mg ha -1) 42.14 75.93 73.92 t3 (50kg mg ha -1) 47.42 78.91 78.01 t4(75kg mg ha -1) 41.68 77.80 68.12 t5 (100kg mg ha -1) 39.53 76.45 67.80 s.em± 2.41 1.15 1.93 c.d. (p=0.05) 7.86 3.78 6.310 fig. 1. two-year mean yield in tomato as influenced by magnesium levels in soil y = 61.624 +0.5217 x – 0.0048 x2 r2 = 0.8598 kasinath et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):190-193, 2015 number of fruits and fruit-weight increased upto application of 50kg mg ha-1, and then, decreased. these yield parameters correlated well with fruit-yield. bombita nzanza (2006) too in a study on ca , k and mg nutrition in tomato observed that the number of fruits decreased at a high ca:mg ratio, with similar results in fruit-weight as well. micaela carvajal et al (1999), in a study on mg nutrition in tomato, also found yield reduction to be associated with number of fruits per plant. similar results were reported by cerda et al (1970). fruit yield total mean-yield of tomato fruits differed significantly among treatments during the two years of experimentation (table 3). mg applied as mgso4 @ 50kg ha -1 significantly enhanced fruit yield. application of higher levels of mg decreased fruit yield, but yield levels here were significantly higher than in plots without mg application (t1-control). lowest tomato yield was observed in the control treatment (60.09t ha-1). on the other hand, highest yield was observed in t3rdf+mgso4 50kg ha -1 (78.01t ha-1), which was on par with t2-rdf+mgso4 25kg ha -1 (73.92t ha-1), followed by t4-rdf+mgso4 75kg ha -1 (68.12t ha -1) and t5rdf+mgso4 100kg ha -1 (67.80t ha-1). tomato responded significantly to mg applied in terms of fruit yield, number of fruits and fruit-weight. as the level of mg applied increased, total yield, number of fruits plant-1 and mean fruit-weight increased, attaining a maximum 193 at 50kg mg ha-1. it then declined. regression equations were developed between mg applied and yield. the best fit equation (y = 61.624 +0.5217 x – 0.0048 x2, r2 = 0.8598) is presented in fig. 1. from this regression equation, it is found that the tomato crop yields maximum at 54.2kg ha-1 applied mg @ 75.6t ha-1. from this study, it is found that application of 50kg mg ha-1 results in increase of tomato fruit yield up to 29% in low-ph sandy soils. upendra et al (2003) observed that application of mg was essential, along with other major nutrients, to obtain economic yields in tomato. osman and wilcox (1985) also obtained significantly higher yields at 56kg mg ha-1 on acidic soil. bose et al (2006) reported tomato yield to increase when potassium and magnesium sulphate (k2so4 and mgso4) were applied, compared to the use of just potassium chloride. hao and papadopoulos (2004) found that for greenhouse grown tomatoes to attain higher yields, application of 80ppm mg was essential. from our present study, it is found that application of 50kg mg ha-1 results in an increase in tomato fruit yield up to 29% in low-ph sandy soils. application of magnesium to tomato increased the yield significantly over the control. further, it was observed that yield of tomato increased up to 50kg mg ha-1. application of higher levels diminished growth parameters like plant height, and number of branches per plant. dry matter showed a similar trend and was very well correlated with fruit yield. yield parameters, viz., number of fruits per plant and fruit weight, also showed a similar trend. it can be concluded, therefore, that magnesium application @ 50kg ha-1 to low acidic alfisols can enhance fruit yield in tomato significantly. references agbede, o.o. and aduayi, e.a. 1980. role of phosphorus and magnesium on some growth components and yield of potted life plum tomato plants in low soil series of south-western nigeria. east african agri. & for. j., 43:246-257 bombita nzanza. 2006. yield and quality of tomato as influenced by differential ca, mg and k nutrition. m.sc. thesis, department of plant production and soil science, university of pretoria, south africa bose, p., sanyal, d. and majumdar, k. 2006. balancing potassium, sulfur and magnesium for tomato and chilli grown on red lateritic soil. better crops, 90:84-89 cerda, a., bingham, f. and labanauskas, c. 1970. blossomend rot of tomato fruit as influenced by osmotic potential and phosphorus concentration of nutrient solution media. j. amer. soc. hortl. sci., 104:236239 ganeshamurthy, a.n. and hegde, d.m. 1980. soil health and nutritional security: secondary nutrients. indian society of soil science platinum jubilee symposiumproceedings, pp. 1-20 grierson, d. and kader, a.a. 1986. fruit ripening and quality of tomato crop. chapman and hall, london, pp. 240280 hao, x. and papadopoulos, a.p. 2004. effects of calcium and magnesium on plant growth, biomass partition and fruit yield of winter greenhouse tomato. hort. sci., 39:512-515 jean aghofack–nguemezi and valere tatchago. 2010. effects of fertilizers containing calcium and / or magnesium on the growth, development of plants and quality of tomato fruits in the western highlands. cameroon int’l. j. agril. res., 5:821-831 micaela carvajal, vicente martinez and antonio cerda. 1999. influence of magnesium and salinity on tomato plants grown in hydroponic culture. j. pl. nutr., 22:177-190 nambiar, k.k.m. and abrol, i.p. 1989. long-term fertilizer experiments in india: an overview. fert. news, 34: 11-26 osman m. elamin and gerald e. wilcox. 1985. effect of magnesium fertilization on yield and leaf composition of tomato plants. j. pl. nutr., 8:999-1012 shukla, a.k., dwivedi, b.s., singh, v.k. and gill, m.s. 2009. macro-role of micronutrients. indian j. fert., 5:11-30 sundaraja, n., nagaraju, venkataramu, m.n. and jaganath, m.k. 1972. design and analysis of field experiments, u.a.s., bengaluru, karnataka, india upendra, m., sainju, ramdane dris and singh, b. 2003. mineral nutrition of tomato (training report), thailand, pp. 325-327 xiuming hao and athanasios p. papadopoulos. 2004. effects of calcium and magnesium on plant growth, biomass partitioning and fruit yield of winter greenhouse tomato. hort. sci., 39:512-515 (ms received 21 may 2015, revised 14 september 2015, accepted 7 october 2015) magnesium in growth, dry matter and yield in tomato j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):190-193, 2015 chrysanthemum (chrysanthemum morifolium ramat.) is one of the most widely cultivated herbaceous perennial flowering plants belonging to family asteraceae. it is commonly known as autumn queen or queen of east, and is extensively grown all over the world for its beautiful, charming flowers having excellent vase life. in india, chrysanthemum cultivation covers 20.14 thousand hectare, with loose flower production of 202.63 million tonnes and cut-flower production of 1415.79 lakh flowers (anon., 2013). it is one of the most widely cultivated garden flowers with diverse and beautiful range of colours, shades, widely variable flower shapes and range of height (swaroop et al, 2008). these characters make it highly suitable for pot culture, bedding purposes and for production of loose flowers for use in garland making, in worship and for decoration purposes. it also produces long, sturdy stems with good keeping quality, thus making it most suitable for cut-flower and exhibition purposes. loose flower types are more popular in india for as these are used for making venis, garlands, bouquets and for religious offerings. though a large number of chrysanthemum varieties are available in the market, novelty in commercial traits like flower colour, shape, size, growth habit, post-harvest life of the flower, etc., are always valued and preferred by the consumer. there is a perpetual demand for superior varieties evaluation of chrysanthemum (chrysanthemum morifolium ramat.) genotypes for morphological traits madhu bala department of floriculture and landscaping punjab agricultural university, ludhiana-141004, india e-mail: madhu-flori@pau.edu abstract thirty small-flowered genotypes of chrysanthemum (chrysanthemum morifolium ramat.) were evaluated for various morphological and floral characters at research farm, department of floriculture and landscaping, pau, ludhiana, during 2013-14. all the varieties suitable for different purposes like pot culture, garden decoration, cut flower, loose flower and bedding purposes were evaluated. results revealed that the genotypes differed significantly with each other with respect to plant growth and flowering parameters like plant height, number of branches per plant, plant spread, days taken to bud appearance, and, floral traits like number of flowers per plant, diameter of flower, flowering duration, flower colour and flower type. on the basis of morphological traits, the varieties were grouped into various categories for different purposes, viz., cut flower, loose flower, bedding/garden decoration and pot culture. key words: chrysanthemum, cultivars, quantitative traits, variability over the existing ones. it, thus, becomes necessary to evaluate and categorize available chrysanthemum varieties on the basis of their use. with this in view, investigations were undertaken to evaluate chrysanthemum varieties for various uses. the present study was carried out at research farm, department of floriculture and landscaping, punjab agricultural university, ludhiana, in the year 2012-13. ludhiana is situated between 33º55’ north latitude and 75º54’ east longitude at 247m above mean sea level. the soil at the experimental site was sandy-loam with ph 8.3 and good water-holding capacity besides medium fertility. for evaluation, 30 spray-type chrysanthemum varieties were used: ajay, apsara, autumn joy, baggi, banglori, birbal sahni, chidori, crystal fall, garden beauty, kelvin mandarin, kotai-na-katori, naintara, obsession, olympia, otome pink, purnima, ratlam selection, ravi kiran, reagan emperor, reagan white, santi, punjab gold, white bouquet, white staphour, winter queen , wiron, yellow bonsai, yellow chram, yellow delight and yukari. rooted cuttings were transplanted to the main field during the 4th week of july, at a spacing of 30 x 30cm in beds 1.0m wide. recommended package of practices was employed to obtain satisfactory plant growth. the varieties were planted in three replications, and five plants were short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):242-244, 2015 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):237-241, 2015 243 evaluation of chrysanthemum genotypes for morphological traits selected in each variety / replication for making observations. data were analyzed using randomized block design (rbd). pinching operation was performed at two stages – the first at four weeks after transplanting, and the second at seven weeks after transplanting, to encourage emergence of lateral shoots. adequate measures were taken to prevent lodging by staking the plants. data on growth and floral parameters, viz., plant height at first bud appearance (cm), number of branches per plant, plant spread (cm), days taken to first bud appearance, number of flowers per plant, flower diameter (cm), flowering duration (days), flower colour and type, were recorded. data presented in table 1 on plant height at appearance of the first bud shows a difference among varieties. results revealed that reagan white was the tallest at the time of first-bud appearance (88.1cm), followed by reagan emperor (73.13cm), whereas, the variety ‘chidori’ was dwarf compared to all other varieties tested, with the lowest plant height (12.7cm). similar variations among different varieties of chrysanthemum for plant height have table 1. evaluation of chrysanthemum varieties for various morphological and floral attributes variety plant height at number of plant days taken to number flower flowering flower flower first-bud branches spread first-bud of flowers diameter duration colour type appearance (cm) per plant (cm) appearance per plant (cm) (days) ajay 45.06 3.33 39.86 67.33 54.00 4.73 32.00 yellow pompom apsara 55.50 7.66 44.10 71.76 75.33 4.80 30.00 creamish, decorative with purple margins autumn joy 45.93 6.00 40.53 74.80 128.33 9.67 30.00 pink decorative baggi 72.40 10.66 57.10 72.46 123.33 6.40 26.00 white pompom banglori 59.23 6.66 45.60 73.70 82.33 5.40 30.00 yellow pompom birbal sahni 58.20 3.66 36.60 70.49 27.33 5.53 23.00 white pompom chidori 12.70 7.00 20.26 73.36 75.66 2.36 36.67 white and single korean yellow crystal fall 17.13 4.66 14.23 58.34 21.66 3.83 32.00 red decorative garden beauty 65.20 4.33 40.10 70.07 85.00 10.36 32.67 maroon spoon type kelvin mandarin 49.13 5.66 39.53 70.03 54.00 4.60 28.80 deep orange pompom kotoi-na-kaori 16.23 4.66 30.33 61.32 159.33 3.30 41.00 goldenanemone bronze naintara 66.26 6.00 46.96 65.19 187.33 4.46 37.00 yellow decorative obsession 38.86 5.33 24.83 66.67 14.33 7.26 35.80 pink decorative olympia 54.00 5.00 42.10 74.67 61.33 4.70 37.40 orange pompom otome pink 63.10 4.66 39.80 63.73 36.33 8.26 33.40 pink, with double korean deep pink centre punjab gold 37.66 5.00 35.90 69.69 164.33 4.50 36.00 yellow double korean purnima 46.80 5.66 40.70 72.24 46.00 7.60 34.00 white decorative ratlam selection 70.66 11.33 61.20 75.41 150.00 8.83 24.40 creamishdecorative white ravi kiran 58.37 5.33 49.76 65.42 45.33 9.63 30.00 maroon decorative reagan white 88.10 6.66 53.73 55.18 51.66 7.50 36.33 white single korean reagan emperor 73.13 6.33 48.93 75.74 54.66 7.40 29.33 purple-pink single korean santi 46.23 4.66 36.73 72.93 33.66 6.40 39.00 cream decorative white bouquet 38.83 6.33 33.23 62.40 62.66 4.66 38.00 white pompom white staphour 57.00 5.66 45.13 69.93 66.66 8.70 34.00 white anemone winter queen 59.00 5.00 50.90 76.88 78.00 9.76 35.67 pink spoon type wiron 58.03 5.33 40.60 67.34 42.33 5.23 30.00 yellow, with single korean chocolate center yellow bonsai 32.66 5.66 45.33 76.82 319.33 4.33 38.60 yellow single korean yellow chram 15.16 8.00 32.66 59.01 290.00 3.30 25.33 yellow anemone yellow delight 53.16 4.00 37.16 51.68 61.33 4.96 32.20 yellow pompom yukari 16.33 6.33 23.13 65.34 179.33 2.70 34.00 pink single korean cd (p=0.05) 1.84 1.04 4.21 10.69 11.92 0.35 1.49 — — c.v. (%) 2.31 11.00 6.46 9.57 7.73 3.72 2.78 — — sem± 0.79 0.44 1.82 4.62 5.15 0.48 0.64 — — j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):242-244, 2015 244 been recorded earlier by various workers (gaikwad and dumbre patil, 2001; chahal, 2011). highest number of branches per plant (11.33) was recorded in ‘ratlam selection’, followed by baggi (10.66). least number of branches per plant (3.33) was obseved in ‘ajay’ (kumar and chattopadhyay, 2002). swaroop et al (2008) also reported variation among varieties of chrysanthemum for number of branches. maximum plant spread (61.2cm) was observed in ‘ratlam selection’, followed by baggi (57.1cm). minimum plant spread (14.23cm) was recorded in the variety ‘crystal fall’. seventeen chrysanthemum genotypes were also evaluated for vegetative growth, flowering and yield parameters by kulkarni and reddy (2004) who concluded that among the various accessions, harvest home, mutant no. 9, selection-5, kurnool, saraval and chandrika were superior in terms of having fairly good plant-spread, number of branches, leaf area and good flower-yield, compared to the other genotypes. days taken for appearance of the first bud is an important character signifying early or late flowering habit. both these traits are helpful in ascertaining availability of flowers for a longer period. maximum days taken to first bud appearance (76.82) was recorded in ‘yellow bonsai’. ‘yellow delight’ recorded minimum number of days (51.68) to first bud appearance. variation for early and late flowering appears to be a genetically controlled trait in the varieties. similar observations were made by kanamadi & patil (1993) in chrysanthemum. number of flowers per plant was recorded as highest (319) in ‘yellow bonsai’, followed by ‘yellow charm’ (290), while, minimum number of flowers (14.33) were recorded in ‘obsession’. as for flower diameter, ‘garden beauty’ recorded maximum flower diameter (10.36cm), while, ‘chidori’ recorded minimum flower diameter (2.36cm). longest flowering-duration was observed in ‘kotoi-nakaori’ (41.00 days), while the shortest duration of flowering (23 days) was observed in the variety ‘birbal sahni’. flowers of varied hues and shades, along with various flower-type, were observed among the varieties. dilta et al (2005) also reported a wide range of diversity in the number of flowers, flower size and flowering duration in different varieties of chrysanthemum. differences among chrysanthemum varieties have also been reported for several morphological and floral characters by anuradha et al (2000) and rao and pratap (2006). cultivars studied by us can be grouped as per morphological variation in plant height, flower size, and other characters. these varieties can also be categorized for different uses, like, cut-flower, (reagan emperor, reagan white, yellow delight and kelvin mandarin); garden decoration and bedding purpose (garden beauty and winter queen); for loose flower production (birbal sahni, baggi and ratlam selection) and the varieties chidori, yellow charm and punjab gold for pot culture. references anonymous. 2013. http://www.indiastat.com/area and production of chrysanthemum anuradha, m., arora, j.s. and sidhu, g.s. 2000. evaluation of chrysanthemum varieties for pot culture. j. orn. hort., 3:79-82 chahal, s.s. 2011. evaluation of varieties and standardization of media for pot culture of chrysanthemum (dendranthema grandiflorum tzevlev). m.sc. thesis, punjab agricultural university, ludhiana, punjab, india dilta, b.s., sharma, y.d. and verma, v.k. 2005. evaluation of chrysanthemum cultivars under sub-tropical region of himachal pradesh. j. orn. hort., 8:149-151 gaikwad, a.m. and dumbre-patil, s.s. 2001. evaluation of chrysanthemum varieties under open and polyhouse conditions. j. orn. hort., 40:95-97 kanamadi, v.c. and patil, a.a. 1993. performance of chrysanthemum varieties in the transitional tract of karnataka. s. indian hort., 41:58-60 kulkarni, b.s. and reddy, b.s. 2004. vegetative growth, flower yield and quality of different chrysanthemum cultivars. j. orn. hort., 7:32-36 kumar, m.a.r. and chattopadhyay, t.k. 2002, evaluation of chrysanthemum varieties for commercial cultivation. environ. ecol., 20:48-51 rao, a.m. and pratap, m. 2006. evaluation of varieties and variability studies on chrysanthemum (dendranthema grandiflora tzevlev.). j. orn. hort., 9:221-223 swaroop, k., prasad, k.v. and raju, d.v.s. 2008. evaluation of chrysanthemum (dendranthema grandiflora tzvelev.) germplasm in winter season under delhi conditions. j. orn. hort., 11:58-61 (ms received 10 march 2015, revised 20 july 2015, accepted 27 july 2015) madhu bala j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):242-244, 2015 introduction cassava cultivation is amenable for growing intercrops as it is a long duration crop. like many other crops, cassava crop also suffers from competition by weeds for space, light, water and nutrients (davis and gardner, 1985). the early stages of growth are normally susceptible for competition by weeds and hence keeping the crops weed free during this phase is the pre-condition for higher productivity. however, control of weeds in intercropping systems through cultural or mechanical methods is difficult due to narrow inter-row spacing. therefore, the present investigation was undertaken to assess the production potential of intercropping system of cassava with various methods of weed control under rainfed condition. material and methods a field experiment on cassava intercropping in the garden land conditions was conducted in the month of august during 2003-04 and 2004-05 at agricultural college and research institute, madurai. the parameters regarding the soil fertility status of the experimental area were recorded. the ph and ec of the soil were 7.4 and 0.42 m mho/cm respectively. the physical parameters including clay– 25.1%, silt -11.5%, fine sand -37.4%, coarse sand22.8% and bulk density -1.48 g / cc and the chemical weed management studies in cassava (manihot esculenta l.) intercropping systems under irrigated conditions s. padmapriya, r. balasubramanian1 and v.a. sathiyamurthy horticultural college and research institute tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore-641 003, india e-mail: spadmapriyaa@yahoo.co.in abstract a field experiment was conducted during 2003-04 and 2004-05 to asses the production potential of intercropping of cassava (manihot esculenta l.) with groundnut (arachis hypogea), vegetable cowpea (vigna sinensis) and black gram (vigna mungo) in relation to various weed control practices. intercropping influenced the population of grasses, sedges, blw and total dry matter production of weeds. weed management caused significant improvement in growth, yield and economic returns of cassava system. best results were achieved with intercropping of vegetable cowpea with pre-emergence application of fluchloralin 0.75 kg/ha + one hand weeding 4 weeks after planting followed by application of alachlor @ 1.5 kg/ha + one hand weeding 4 weeks after planting. key words: cassava, intercropping, weed control, yield, economics characters such as available n – 218.3 kg/ha, available p 2 o 5 – 12.74 kg/ha, available k 2 o – 271.82 kg /ha and organic carbon – 0.49% were also recorded. the experiment was conducted in split plot design replicated thrice. the treatments consisted of six intercropping systems, groundnut (i 1 ), vegetable cowpea (i 2 ), blackgram (i 3 ), groundnut followed by blackgram (i 4 ), cowpea followed by blackgram (i 5 ) and pure crop (i 6 ) as main plot and six weed control measures viz., pre-emergence application of pendimethalin 0.75 kg/ha + one hand weeding during 4 wap (w 1 ), pre-emergence application of alachlor 1.5 kg/ ha + one hand weeding during 4th week after planting (w 2 ), pre-emergence application of fluchloralin 0.75 kg/ha + one hand weeding during 4 wap (w 3 ), hand weeding twice during 4 and 15 wap (w 4 ), hand weeding thrice during 4, 12 and 20 wap (w 5 ) and hand weeding four times during 4, 8, 12 and 20 wap (w 6 ) as sub-plot treatments. disease free setts of 20 cm length of cassava variety sree vijaya were prepared and planted at a spacing of 90 x 90 cm and planted at the onset of monsoon. seeds of groundnut, cowpea and black gram were dibbled in lines at a spacing of 30 x 20 cm accommodating two rows of intercrops between the rows of cassava. a fertilizer dose of 90:90:240 npk kg ha-1 was uniformly applied to all the plots. the entire dose of phosphorus, 50% of recommended 1 present address: department of agronomy, ac & ri, madurai-625 104 j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 141-145, 2008 142 dose of nitrogen and 50% of k were applied basally at the time of planting and the remaining 50% of the recommended dose of nitrogen and potassium were top dressed in two equal splits at third and fifth month, respectively. the preemergence herbicides used in the study viz., pendimathalin, fluchloralin and alachlor are highly selective in nature to control most annual grasses and certain broadleaf weeds in field corn, potatoes, rice, cotton, soybeans, tobacco, peanuts and sunflowers. incorporated into the soil by cultivation or irrigation is recommended within 7 days following application. cultural operations pertaining to crop production and protection were followed. results and discussion weed flora the weed flora in the experimental field consisted of a mixed population of grasses, viz., cynodon dactylon (l.) pers., sedges cyperus rotundus l. and broad leaved weeds, viz., euphorbia hirta, trianthema portulacastrum and achyranthus aspera as the most dominant species in the experimental plot. weed density, dry matter production and weed control efficiency in general, weed infestation was higher in 200304 than in 2004-05. this was mainly because of even distribution of rainfall over entire period of cropping season in 2003-04 as compared to 2004-05 (fig 1). the results revealed that sedges were found to be dominant followed by grasses and broad leaved weeds. integrated weed management had noticeable effect on population of of weeds compared to hand weeding alone. among the different weed management practices, the lowest weed density of grasses (8.25 no/m2), sedges (14.67 no/m2), blw (7.09 no/m2) and total weed dmp (23.32 g/m2) was recorded with application of fluchloralin (0.75kg/ha) + 1hw (table.1). regarding the weed control efficiency, intercropping with cowpea registered the highest value of 44.5%. similarly, application of fluchloralin (0.75kg/ha) + 1hw resulted in the highest weed control efficiency of 44.6%. panwar et al (1985) also reported that application of fluchloralin at 1 and 2 kg/ha were more effective than two hand weeding on 15 and 30 das. the mode of action and selective mechanism of fluchloralin affects the germination of the weed seeds and physiological growth process thereby reducing the weed population (matsunaka, 1979). with regard to the intercropping practices, significant reduction in the dry matter production (24.80g/m2) was observed with vegetable cowpea compared to other intercrops. the next best treatment was intercropping of cowpea followed by blackgram with the total weed dmp of 25.07g/m2 (table 1). wilson and adeniran (1976) reported that intercropping with legumes ensured better coverage of soil thereby diminishing the light penetration to the soil thus reducing the weed growth. growth and yield attributes of cassava growth attributes of cassava, viz., plant height and dmp revealed highly significant differences due to different weed management and intercropping practices. it could be inferred that the intercrops had definite role on the growth and development of cassava main crop. the mean plant height was the highest (264.95 cm) when vegetable cowpea was sown as intercrop and fluchloralin herbicide combined with one hand weeding at 4 wap registered increased mean plant height (267.25 cm) (table 2). intercropping of cassava fig 1. details of rainfall received during the cropping period padmapriya et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 141-145, 2008 143 with cowpea enhanced the plant height and growth attributes of cassava as the quantity of n fixed from the atmosphere by cowpea through microbial symbiosis would have met at least a part of the requirement of cassava which agreed with the results of sheela and mohammed kunju (1988). cassava intercropped with cowpea produced higher dmp, which was comparable to sole cassava. this effect could be attributed to the complementarity of companion crop of cowpea and the better utilization of biologically fixed n by cassava base crop during latter part of its growth. the work of chittapur et al (1994) on maize-legume-intercropping system extends support to the present finding. the application of herbicides viz., fluchloralin combined with hand weeding caused significant improvement of yield attributes. this may be due to their effect on reducing crop-weed competition and hence better utilization by crop plants. the treatment fluchloralin (0.75 kg/ha) +1hw increased tuber length (31.5 cm), tuber circumference (25.7 cm) and mean tuber weight (447.9 g) (table 2). regarding the different intercrops studied, vegetable cowpea increased tuber length, tuber circumference and mean tuber weight. kaushik and gautam (1984) and verma and kumar (1985) also reported improvement in yield components due to elimination of severe crop-weed competition. table 2. effect of intercropping and weed management practices on agronomic traits of cassava treatments plant height dm tuber length tuber mean tuber tuber (cm) p(t/ha) (cm) circumference (cm) weight/ plant (g) yield(t/ha) intercropping groundnut 258.30 13.45 28.7 22.4 434.6 22.8 cowpea 264.95 13.55 30.5 23.7 434.1 23.7 blackgram 254.00 13.30 29.6 20.3 434.1 18.4 groundnut fb blackgram 238.80 13.40 26.2 20.7 431.2 18.6 cowpea fb blackgram 262.55 13.40 29.6 22.6 435.7 23.6 pure crop 262.00 13.80 29.9 24.9 444.1 24.4 cd (p=0.05) 5.40 0.05 0.6 0.5 9.5 0.3 weed management pendi.(0.75kg/ha)+1hw 257.45 14.75 30.2 23.7 438.5 23.8 ala.(1.5kg/ha)+1hw 256.55 14.15 30.1 22.8 439.1 22.4 flu.(0.75kg/ha)+1hw 267.25 15.25 31.5 25.7 447.9 25.4 hw twice 228.85 11.35 26.0 19.4 424.6 18.4 hw thrice 239.85 11.90 27.3 21.0 431.5 20.0 hw four times 248.00 13.45 29.3 22.0 432.1 21.0 cd (p=0.05) 6.20 0.35 0.7 0.6 10.7 0.2 table 1. effect of intercropping and weed management practices on weed density, weed dry matter production and weed control efficiency at 60 days treatments weed density ( / m2) total weed weed control dmp(g/m2) efficiency (%) grasses sedges broad leaved weeds grasses sedges intercropping groundnut 11.75(3.50) 16.58(4.13) 7.75(2.87) 27.37(5.28) 40.1 vegetable cowpea 9.58(3.18) 13.59(3.75) 10.25(3.28) 24.80(5.03) 44.5 blackgram 11.59(3.48) 17.00(4.18) 10.00(3.24) 28.85(5.42) 35.9 groundnut fb blackgram 11.58(3.48) 16.92(4.17) 9.25(3.12) 28.00(5.34) 37.3 veg. cowpea fb blackgram 9.63(3.19) 13.75(3.78) 10.33(3.29) 25.07(5.06) 43.9 pure crop 18.83(4.40) 19.83(4.51) 13.09(3.69) 39.20(6.30) 14.0 cd (p=0.05) 0.05 0.05 0.21 0.10 0.1 weed management pendi.(0.75kg/ha) + 1hw 11.00(3.39) 13.75(3.77) 8.08(2.93) 23.29(4.88) 39.1 ala.(1.5kg/ha)+1hw 10.67(3.34) 11.75(3.50) 7.50(2.83) 22.45(4.79) 44.1 flu.(0.75kg/ha) +1hw 8.25(2.96) 14.67(3.90) 7.09(2.76) 23.32(4.88) 44.6 hw twice 13.92(3.80) 20.34(4.57) 12.42(3.60) 34.17(5.89) 13.5 hw thrice 14.92(3.93) 19.84(4.51) 12.92(3.66) 36.10(6.05) 11.7 hw four times 13.92(3.80) 17.34(4.22) 12.67(3.63) 33.96(5.87) 18.8 cd (p=0.05) 0.07 0.05 0.17 0.12 0.1 transformed values (square root) are within parentheses weed management in cassava j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 141-145, 2008 144 there was a significant influence of weed management and intercropping practices on the tuber yield. the tuber yield per plant ranged from 18.4 to 25.4 t/ha. the highest tuber yield was recorded in sole cassava (24.4 t/ha) followed by cassava intercropped with cowpea, which was comparable with sole cassava. in sole cassava, there was no competition for resources except intra-species competition, which explains the increase in growth and yield parameters and yield. savithri and alexander (1995) reported that there was no significant difference in yield of cassava when intercropped with cowpea which is in agreement with the present findings. pre-emergence application of fluchloralin @ 0.75 kg/ ha + one hand weeding at 4 wap increased the tuber yield of cassava (25.4 t/ha) compared to other weed management practices (table 2). the results are in accordance with the findings of sankaran and balasubramanian (1981) who reported that the pre-emergence application of fluchloralin reduced the weed population leading to reduced crop-weed competition ultimately increasing the crop yield. intercrop yield cassava is usually wide spaced and has slow initial development. hence, intercropping at early stages of crop growth is feasible and usually results in higher total income and reduces soil erosion. the different weed management practices markedly improved the yield of intercrops. increased yield (0.82 t/ha) of groundnut was recorded in the treatment fluchloralin @ 0.75 kg/ha+ one hand weeding at 4 wap (i 1 w 3 ). similarly, in cowpea and blackgram, the same weed management practice resulted in the highest yield of 4.78 t/ha (i 2 w 3 ) and 0.73 t/ha (i 3 w 3 ), respectively (table 3). intercropping with groundnut or cowpea has been used as smother crop in cassava + maize mixture to give good weed control, high mixture yield and land equivalent ratio. (abate, 1992). economics among the different intercropping and weed management treatments, the highest net income (rs.62,165) and benefit cost ratio (3.31) was recorded with cowpea as intercrop combined with spraying of pre emergence application of fluchloralin @ 0.75 kg/ha + one hand weeding at 4 wap (i 2 w 3 ) (table.3). this was closely followed by the treatment i 5 w 3 with a net income of rs.57,765 and a benefit cost ratio of 3.08. the lowest benefit cost ratio (1.58) was recorded in the pure cropping of cassava with hand weeding thrice on 4, 12 and 20 wap (i 6 w 5 ). hence, it could be concluded that among the different intercropping and weed management practices, growing vegetable cowpea along with pre-emergence herbicide application of fluchloralin @ 0.75 kg/ha + one hand weeding at 4 weeks after planting significantly reduced the weed growth, increased the crop growth, yield attributes, yield and economic returns of cassava with high benefit cost ratio. references abate, 1992. effects of groundnut, cowpea and melon on weed control and yields of intercropped cassava and maize. field crops res., 28:309-314 chittapur, b.m., hiremath, s.m. and meli, s.s. 1994. performance of maize and green forage yield of table 3. economics of intercropping and weed management practices in cassava treatments intercrop net income cost benefit yield (t/ha) (rs.) ratio i 1 w 1 0.77 36143 2.21 i 1 w 2 0.72 30462 2.01 i 1 w 3 0.82 41060 2.38 i 1 w 4 0.58 21427 1.70 i 1 w 5 0.54 23188 1.74 i 1 w 6 0.62 22023 1.68 i 2 w 1 4.66 49214 2.82 i 2 w 2 4.54 45465 2.67 i 2 w 3 4.78 62165 3.31 i 2 w 4 3.80 33167 2.20 i 2 w 5 3.56 33330 2.16 i 2 w 6 4.21 34775 2.17 i 3 w 1 0.73 26604 1.97 i 3 w 2 0.61 26738 1.97 i 3 w 3 0.73 33033 2.21 i 3 w 4 0.49 19047 1.68 i 3 w 5 0.45 17301 1.60 i 3 w 6 0.55 19650 1.65 i 4 w 1 0.71 26561 1.87 i 4 w 2 0.68 28271 1.91 i 4 w 3 0.75 38807 2.27 i 4 w 4 0.54 21914 1.70 i 4 w 5 0.49 18894 1.59 i 4 w 6 0.59 20462 1.61 i 5 w 1 4.67 54874 2.97 i 5 w 2 4.51 46382 2.65 i 5 w 3 4.73 57765 3.08 i 5 w 4 3.78 37871 2.34 i 5 w 5 3.39 33519 2.13 i 5 w 6 4.17 36548 2.20 i 6 w 1 30566 2.23 i 6 w 2 28205 2.12 i 6 w 3 42055 2.69 i 6 w 4 19747 1.77 i 6 w 5 15371 1.58 i 6 w 6 21863 1.79 padmapriya et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 141-145, 2008 145 legumes in maize + forage legume intercropping system in northern transitional tract of karnataka. fmg. systems, 10:11-15 kaushik, s.k. and gautam, r.c. 1987. effect of nitrogen and phosphorus on the production potential of pearl millet-cowpea on green gram intercropping systems under rainfed conditions. j. agril. sci., cambridge, 108: 361-364 matsunaka, s. 1979. mode of action and selectivity mechanism of herbicides. sixth asian pacific weed sci. soc. conf., jarkarta, 2. pp.525-536 panwar, r.s, bhanand, v.m. and malik, r.k. 1985. weed management studies in summer moong. ind. soc. weed sci., annual conference held at hissar, p.53 sankaran, s and balasubramanian, n. 1981. weed control in pulses. ind. soc. weed sci.,weed science conference held at bangalore, pp. 27-28 savithri, k.e. and alexander, d. 1995. performance of cowpea varieties in cassava-cowpea intercropping system. legume res., 18: 59-60 sheela, k.r. and kunju, u.m. 1988. growth and yield of cassava as influenced by intercropping with cowpea and groundnut under different nutrient levels. j. root crops, 14: 67-69 verma, r.s. and kumar, v. 1985. effect of different tillage practices and weed control measures on growth, yield and weed flora in bajra (pennisetum americanum l.). abstract of paper, annual conference of indian society of weed science. p.31 wilson, g.f and adeniran, m.o. 1976. intercropping of cassava with vegetables. in: intercropping in semiarid areas. monyo, j.h., ker, a.d.r. and campbell, m. (eds.) idrc076 e., int’l. dev. res. centre, ottawa, canada (ms received 25 september 2008, revised 19 november 2008) j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (2): 141-145, 2008 weed management in cassava introduction bananas a figure among the ancient fruits cultivated by man. it could be assumed that the fruit has evolved with civilization (krishnamurthi and seshadri 1958). apart from its mention in valmiki’s ramayana, kautilya’s arthashastra and the ancient tamil classic silappadikaram, it also figures in the indus valley as early as 327 b.c. these evidences suggest an early existence of banana in india. edible bananas were considered to be hybrids from two main species: musa acuminata and m. balbisiana (dodds and simmonds, 1948). edibility of mature fruits of diploid m. acuminata (aa) might have come about as a result of two mutation events, female sterility and parthenocarpy (simmonds, 1962). with regard to cytological studies, meiotic data on 17 south indian banana varieties by agrawal (1983) revealed cytological abnormalities. however, meiotic studies in male sterile triploids did not exhibit chromosomal irregularities. (agrawal, 1987). chromosome counts of 20 bihar banana cultivars were reported by roy and sharma (1951). valsala kumari and nair (1990) reported chromosome number of 98 cultivars. somatic chromosomes of 53 musa land races and hybrids were reported by osuji et al (1996) and 16 musa species and land races by dolezel et al (1998). chromosome count and ploidy level was determined in 60 chromosome studies and karyotype analysis of some triploid banana (musa species) cultivars of aaa genomic group a. rekha and s. c. hiremath1 division of fruit crops indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bangalore-560 089, india email: arekha@iihr.ernet.in abstract bananas are the highly evolved, oldest fruits known to mankind. the cavendish group cultivars are popular commercial varieties. aaa genomic group cultivars are said to have evolved from the wild aa musa acuminata species by natural hybridization and polyploidization and these vigorous triploids were selected by man for cultivation. basic cytological studies on banana are comparatively few due to the plant’s complex nature. in this report, karyo-morphological studies on five aaa cavendish group cultivars i.e. robusta, dwarf cavendish, grand naine, gros michel and red banana are reported. all the five cultivars had similar karyotype, except cv. robusta. total chromosome length was highest in red banana and lowest in cv. gros michel. key words: cavendish banana, triploid, karyo-morphology musa accesssions, including plantains and somaclonal variants by osuji et al (1996). however chromosome structure and morphology is not reported in any of these studies. efforts have been made in the present study to understand karyo-morphology of aaa triploid cultivars. material and methods plant material triploid aaa cultivars were derived from diploids which, in turn, could be the result of crosses between edible diploids and wild m. acuminata sub-species, resulting in a wide range of aaa phenotypes. these triploids are most vigorous, have larger fruits, and thus replaced the commercial aa diploids of asia. robusta (giant cavendish): also called harichal, bombay green, barjahaji, peddapacha arti, etc., is similar to dwarf cavendish except for its height, bunch shape and fruit curvature. it is an important commercial banana variety. robusta is semi-dwarf. the plants are about 2 2.5m tall, with blackish brown blotches on the pseudostem with a diameter of about 19 20 cm. bunches are fairly large, with a length of 50-75 cm bearing 80-100 fruits in 7-10 hands. female flowers (fruits) are sterile, whereas male flowers have partially fertile pollen. j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 30-34, 2008 1 department of botany, karnataka university, dharwad 580 003 page 30 31 dwarf cavendish: indian synonyms are basrai and jahaji. basrai is cultivated for its dwarf stature and high yield, and is also less susceptible to wind damage. as per simmonds (1962), it was introduced from south china to mauritius in 1826 from where it would have come to the indian subcontinent. dwarf cavendish is said to be a dwarf mutant of robusta. the plants are short, with a height of 1 1.5m. the pseudostem has dark brown blotches. the girth of pseudostem varies between 17 and 19 cm diameter. bunches are smaller than in robusta, with 80-100 fruits per bunch. the bunch length was 40-45cm. the fruits are slightly curved, 60-80 fruits in 6-8 hands. fruits are similar to robusta but smaller. grand naine: this cultivar is intermediate in height between dwarf cavendish and robusta. it has increased commercial importance because of lower height, uniform bunch, finger shape and high yield. the cultivar grand naine is currently leading commercial highyielding cultivar allover the world. red banana: it is also known as lalkela or chen kadali and is called red banana because of its very distinctive colour. the plants too have magenta red pigmentation on the pseudostem and leaf petioles. they are vigorous but poor yielders with a long crop-duration, take about eighteen months from planting to harvest, are tall with 2.5 3 m height. the pseudostem has a diameter of 20-25cm. bunches are small, 30-35 cm long with fewer fruits of about 40-45 per bunch of 4-5 hands. the pulp is deep yellow in colour. the male axis is long and anthers have very little, but fertile, pollen. gros michel: big, very vigorous plants, bear heavy bunches with large fruits. it differs from other cavendish group bananas in strong colouration of its upper sheaths and midribs. it was the most popular clone in central and south america. due to its high susceptibility to fusarium wilt disease, it was replaced by other cavendish cultivars in mid 1960’s. the plants were tall, with a height of 2.5 3 m. the pseudostem had a few blotches of brownish black colour, bunches were of medium size with a length of 4045cm with 70-80 fruits in 6-7 hands. it was found to be both male and female fertile and was widely used in breeding programs. cytological studies root apices of all the accessions were collected from healthy suckers planted in pots. root tips were washed thoroughly and pre-treated with 0.003m 8-hydroxyquinone for two hours at 14-16oc. the pre-treated root tips were fixed in carnoy’s-ii fixative viz., 6:3:1 of absolute alcohol : glacial acetic acid : chloroform. the fixed materials were transferred to 70% alcohol after 24 hours of fixation, and stored. the stored root tips were rinsed with distilled water and hydrolysed with 1 n hcl at 60o c for 5 minutes. the hydrolysed root tips were transferred to lilee’s (1951) or schiff’s reagent after a rinse in distilled water, and stored in the dark for 11/ 2 to 2 hours. schiff’s reagent stains actively dividing meristematic tissue to a deep magenta colour. the stained tips were squashed with a drop of 1% aceto-carmine after removing the root cap. the slides were sealed with gum mastic, and observed under microscope on the same day or the next day. the slides were scanned for well spread metaphase chromosomes; such cells were selected for karyo-morphological studies. three to five slides per accession were prepared and several cells were observed to ascertain chromosome number. it was observed that chromosomes were very small in size, sticky in nature and needed hard tapping to obtain better chromosome spread. hence, it was difficult to obtain good picture of wellspread plates. increase in hydrolysis time resulted in poor staining and moderate quality pictures. chromosomes were measured manually from camera lucida drawings. the measurements were recorded in millimeters (mm) and converted to micrometers (mm), using a conversion factor. observations were recorded on short arm, long arm and satellites separately. homologus chromosomes were paired based on their arm length and arranged in decreasing order of total chromosomal length. the total length of the complement was calculated in microns by adding the average length of each chromosome pair. levan’s (1964) system was followed for description of karyotypes and their classification, which was done based on the arm ratio (long arm/short arm). the chromosomes were categorized as follows: 1. sat-m : chromosome with median centromere having satellite 2. sat-sm : chromosome with sub-median centromere having a satellite 3. sat-st : chromosome with sub-terminal centromere having a satellite 4. m : chromosome with median centromere j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 30-34, 2008 chromosomes of aaa cavendish banana 32 5. sm : chromosomewith sub-median centromere 6. st : chromosomewith sub-terminal centromere in aaa triploids (autopolyploids), the pairing was done in triplets, i.e., a set of three chromosomes formed a complex. results and discussion the present investigations included five cultivars of the genomic group aaa, viz robusta, dwarf cavendish, gros michel, grand naine, and red banana. the chromosome number in all the cultivars was found to be 2n=3x=33 and reported to be triploid in nature (dolezel, 2004). the karyotypic formula of robusta was 2n=3x=3sat-m+21m+9sm. it consisted of three types of chromosomes. there were 3 chromosomes with the median centromere and satellite of 0.42 mm length. twenty-one chromosomes (7 triplets) had the median centromere and 9 chromosomes had the sub-median centromere. the range of chromosome length was 1.47 to 2.49 mm. absolute chromosome length was 21.87 mm (table 1). the karyotypic formula of cultivar dwarf cavendish was 2n=3x=3sat-m+27m+3sm. it consisted of three types of chromosomes. there were three chromosomes with the median centromere and satellite of 0.42 m. the 27 chromosomes had median centromere and 4 chromosomes had sub-median centromere. the length of chromosomes measured 1.54 to 2.31 mm and absolute length was 20.56 mm (table 2). the karyotypic formula of gros michel was 2n=3x=3sat-m+27m+3sm. it consisted of three types of chromosomes. there were 3 chromosomes with satellite measuring 0.42 mm in length and median a centromere. also 27 chromosomes had the median centromere. length of the chromosomes was 1.16 to 2.11 mm. the absolute length was 17.71 mm (table 3). the karyotypic formula of cv. cultivar grand naine was found to be 2n=3x=3sat-m+27m+3sm. it consisted of three types of chromosomes. there were three chromosomes with satellite of 0.42 mm length and a median centromere. it had 27 chromosomes with a median centromere and three chromosomes with a sub-median centromere. the length of chromosomes varied between 1.26 and 2.52 mm and the absolute length was 21.23 mm (table 4). cultivar red banana had karyotypic formula of 2n=3x=3sat-m+27m+3sm. it had three types of chromosomes. one set of three chromosomes had satellite of 0.42 mm and a median centromere. twenty-seven chromosomes had a median centromere and three chromosomes were with a sub-median centromere. chromosomes varied in their length between 1.55 and 2.52 mm. the absolute length was 23.04 mm (table 5). table 1. somatic chromosome measurement in cv. robusta (aaa) chromolong short total position of arm some arm arm length centromere ratio pair (µm) (µm) (µm) 1 1.61 0.88 2.49 sub-median 1.83 2 1.16+0.42 0.84 2.42 sat-median 1.28 3 1.30 1.05 2.35 median 1.24 4 1.09 1.01 2.10 median 1.08 5 1.40 0.67 2.07 sub-median 2.09 6 1.26 0.74 2.00 sub-median 1.70 7 1.05 0.84 1.89 median 1.25 8 0.95 0.84 1.79 median 1.13 9 1.05 0.70 1.75 median 1.50 10 0.95 0.59 1.54 median 1.61 11 0.84 0.63 1.47 median 1.33 table 2. somatic chromosome measurement in cv. dwarf cavendish (aaa) chromolong short total position of arm some arm arm length centromere ratio pair (µm) (µm) (µm) 1 1.40 0.91 2.31 median 1.54 2 1.05 1.05 2.10 median 1.00 3 1.26 0.84 2.10 median 1.50 4 1.33 0.67 2.00 sub-median 1.99 5 1.05 0.84 1.89 median 1.25 6 0.80+0.42 0.63 1.85 sat-median 1.27 7 0.95 0.84 1.79 median 1.13 8 0.91 0.84 1.75 median 1.08 9 0.95 0.67 1.62 median 1.42 10 0.91 0.70 1.61 median 1.30 11 0.84 0.70 1.54 median 1.20 table 3. somatic chromosome measurement in cv. gros michel (aaa) chromolong short total position of arm some arm arm length centromere ratio pair (µm) (µm) (µm) 1 1.37 0.74 2.11 sub-median 1.85 2 0.80 +0.42 0.77 1.99 sat-median 1.04 3 1.05 0.91 1.96 median 1.15 4 0.84 0.84 1.68 median 1.00 5 0.84 0.74 1.58 median 1.14 6 0.88 0.67 1.55 median 1.31 7 0.88 0.63 1.51 median 1.40 8 0.84 0.63 1.47 median 1.33 9 0.84 0.63 1.47 median 1.33 10 0.74 0.49 1.23 median 1.51 11 0.67 0.49 1.16 median 1.37 j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 30-34, 2008 rekha and hiremath 33 comparative karyo-morphological data on five aaa group cultivars are given in table 6. all the 4 cultivars except robusta, had similar karyotypes but varied in their absolute length. robusta differed from the others in having 9 chromosomes with a sub-median centromere. cultivar red banana had the highest absolute length of 23.04 mm and cultivar gros michel had lowest absolute length of 17.71 mm. all the cultivars differed in their morphology and also showed variations in molecular profiles (rekha et.al, 2001). differences in the absolute chromosome size between related species or genera might reflect different amounts of gene duplication. other differences are generally due to structural changes, as stated by stebbins (1971). stebbins (1950) also opined that polyploidy, combined with hybridization had a major influence on evolution of higher plants, its effects being conservation. polyploidy stabilizes new genotypes evolved through hybridization by reducing the amount of genetic segregation. such a phenomenon would have taken place in the evolution of bananas, which are able to tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions. wang et.al(1993) studied the karyotypes of banana group aaa and reported that three sets of chromosomes of group aaa were all that homologous. in table 4. somatic chromosome measurement in cv. grand naine (aaa) chromolong short total position of arm some arm arm length centromere ratio pair (µm) (µm) (µm) 1 1.37 1.16 2.53 median 1.18 2 1.64 0.88 2.52 sub-median 1.86 3 1.09 1.05 2.14 median 1.04 4 0.84+0.42 0.84 2.10 sat-median 1.00 5 1.09 0.91 2.00 median 1.20 6 1.22 0.77 1.99 median 1.58 7 1.05 0.84 1.89 median 1.25 8 0.91 0.80 1.71 median 1.14 9 0.95 0.67 1.62 median 1.42 10 0.84 0.63 1.47 median 1.33 11 0.63 0.63 1.26 median 1.00 table 5. somatic chromosome measurement in cv. red banana (aaa) chromolong short total position of arm some arm arm length centromere ratio pair (µm) (µm) (µm) 1 1.75 0.77 2.52 sub-median 2.72 2 1.26 1.22 2.48 median 1.03 3 1.05+0.42 0.91 2.38 sat-median 1.16 4 1.26 1.05 2.31 median 1.20 5 1.26 0.91 2.17 median 1.38 6 1.26 0.88 2.14 median 1.43 7 1.09 1.01 2.10 median 1.08 8 1.09 0.84 1.93 median 1.30 9 1.01 0.84 1.85 median 1.20 10 0.91 0.70 1.61 median 1.30 11 0.88 0.67 1.55 median 1.31 table 6. comparative karyo-morphological data of five cultivars of aaa group bananas sl. acc. name karyotypic formula sat-size range of absolute no (mm) chromosome length (mm) length (mm) 1 robusta 3sat-m+21m+9sm 0.42 1.47-2.49 21.87 2 dwarf 3sat-m+27m+3sm 0.42 1.54-2.31 20.56 cavendish 3 gros michel 3sat-m+27m+3sm 0.42 1.17-2.32 20.24 4 grand naine 3sat-m+27m+3sm 0.42 1.26-2.53 21.23 5 red banana 3sat-m+27m+3sm 0.42 1.55-2.52 23.04 robusta dwarf cavendish gros michel grand naine red banana j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 30-34, 2008 chromosomes of aaa cavendish banana 34 (ms received 15 november 2007, revised 17 april 2008) the present studies, chromosomes were paired based on arm length and centromere position where high similarity was observed. the chromosomes were found to be highly homologous and, also, there was no set pattern of chromosome complement. variations were observed within and between groups which could also be due to structural differences in the chromosome complement, and may have resulted in the evolution of new cultivars. to conclude, morphological variations observed in the above cultivars appears to be a part of the evolutionary process in this important, vegetatively propagated crop. acknowledgement the authors are thankful to head and the staff of department of botany, karnatak university, dharwad, for their kind help during the above study. references agrawal, p. k. 1983. cytogenetical investigations in musaceae i meiotic studies in south indian bananas. cytologia, 48 : 847-852. agrawal, p. k. 1987. cytogenetical investigations in musaceae ii meiotic studies in eight male sterile triploid banana varieties of india. cytologi, 52: 451-454. dodds, k. s. and simmonds. n. w. 1948. genetical and cytological studies of musa. ix. the origin of an edible diploid and the significance of interspecific hybridization in the banana complex: an addendum on the nomenclature of edible banana. e.e. cheesman (ed). j. genetics. 48: 285-296. dolezel, j. 2004. cytogenetic and cytometric analysis of nuclear genome in musa. www.fao.org. dolezel, j., dolezelova, m., roux n. and vanden hourve. i. 1998. a novel method to prepare slides for highresolution chromosome studies in musa spp. infomusa 7: 3-4. krishnamurthi, s. and seshadri, v. s. 1958. origin and evolution of cultivated bananas. 15: 135-45. levan, a. k., fredga and sandberg. a. a. 1964. nomenclature for centromeric positions on chromosomes. heriditas, 52:201-220. lilee, r. d. 1951. to prepare schiff ’s reagent. stain technology. 26: 163. osuji, j.o., okoli, b.e. and oritz. r. 1996. an improved procedure for mitotic studies of the eumusa section of the genus musa l (musaceae). infomusa 5: 12-14. rekha. a., ravishankar, k.v., anand. l and hiremath, s. c. 2001. genetic and genomic diversity in banana (musa species and cultivars) based on d2 analysis and rapd markers. infomusa, 10: 29-34. roy, r. s. and sharma. g. 1951. chromosome studies of bihar bananas. ind. j. genetics pl. breeding, 11: 211-214. shepherd, k. 1999. cytogenetics of the genus musa. inibap, montpellier. simmonds n. w. 1962. evolution of bananas. longman publications, london. stebbins, g. l. 1950. variation and evolution in plants. columbia university press, n.y. stebbins, g. l. 1971. chromosomal evolution in higher plants. edward arnold, london. valsala kumari, p. k. and nair, p. c. s. 1990. cytotaxonomical studies on banana cultivars. south indian. hortl., 38: 177-182. wang, z., lin, z. and pan, k. 1993. cytogenetical studies in musa (eumusa). in current banana research and development in china (scau), south china agril. univ. p 29-43 j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 30-34, 2008 rekha and hiremath manipulation of bunch size of banana to suit market demands is pratcised in south east asian countries. banana plant is supplied with nutrients through soil and foliage, denavelling (removal of male inflorescence for nutrient diversion) and post-shooting feeding nutrients through the distal stalk-end of rachis (venkatarayappa et al, 1976, prasanna kumari amma et al, 1986, ancy et al, 1998 and ancy and kurien, 2000) to achieve high yields. de-navelling serves dual purposes of saving mobilization of food into unwanted sink of banana plant as well as earning additional income when excised male bud is used as a vegetable (singh, 2001). therefore, an attempt was made to enhance the bunch yield by feeding n, k and s through the excised distal stalk-end of rachis after de-navelling and to determine influence of treatments on composition of mineral nutrients in fruits of “robusta” banana. a field experiment was taken-up during 1998-2002 on healthy ‘robusta’ banana (musa sp. aaa) plants at flowering stage. the crop was raised on a red clay loam having ph of 6.5, electrical conductivity of 0.3 ds/m, organic carbon of 1.2%, cation exchange capacity influence of de-navelling and stalk-end nutrient application on nutrient composition of ‘robusta’ banana fruits s.c. kotur and s.v. keshava murthy division of soil science and agricultural chemistry indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore-560 089, india e-mail: sckotur@gmail.com abstract the contents of n, p, mg, s, fe and mn in banana fruit increased significantly due to denavelling from 0.32%, 0.086%, 0.12%, 0.024%, 52 ppm and 4.8 ppm, under ‘control’ to 0.37%, 0.085%, 0.13%, 0.027%, 59 ppm and 6.7 ppm, respectively. dipping stalk end of the bunch in fresh cow dung enhanced these above nutrients to 0.40%, 0.086%, 0.14%. 0.028%, 63 ppm and 7.6 ppm, respectively. when cow dung was enriched with ammonium sulphate, the fruits showed 0.50-0.51% of n, 0.081-0.090% of p, 0.16-0.23% of mg, 0.032-0.040% of s, 59-111 ppm of fe and 8.1-17.8 ppm of mn. addition of potassium sulphate further enhanced this effect in respect of k (2.11-2.44%) and fe (74-115 ppm) in fruit. increasing level of ammonium sulphate in the blend significantly decreased ca content of the fruit from 0.24% at 5 g to 0.10% at 25 g. when potassium sulphate was included in the blend, ca content showed further reduction (0.19% at 5 g to 0.10% at 25g). at 15 g of ammonium sulphate and 7.5 g of potassium sulphate the maximum bunch weight of 27.993 kg was obtained (as against 16.724kg under retention of male bud throughout) corresponding to the enhanced nutrient composition of 2.44% of k, 0.12% of ca, 0.18% of mg, 0.033% of s, 115ppm of fe and 14.9ppm of mn that may have nutraceutical implications. key words: de-navelling, external feeding, nitrogen, potassium, sulphur, ‘robusta’ banana, musa sp. (aaa), composition of fruit of 21.4 cmol (p+)/kg, exchangeable k of 1.3 cmol (p+)/kg, 1n kcl exchangeable acidity of 0.5 cmol (p+)/kg and available s of 38 ppm. rachis at distal end of the bunch was excised along with male bud giving a slanted cut immediately after all the pistillate (female) flowers had set fruits and after 4 bracts were shed (about 15 days of flower emergence). half a kilogram aliquots of fresh cow dung were blended to form slurry with required quantity of fertilizer [5-25 g of ammonium sulphate (as) / 2.5 to 12.5 g of potassium sulphate (sop)] and 100 ml of water. cow dung contained about 1.4% of n, 0.5% of p, 0.9% of k, 1.8% of ca, 0.8% of mg, 0.4% of s, 250 ppm of fe, 80 ppm of mn, 64 ppm of zn and 38 ppm of cu. the blend was placed in a polythene bag and tied securely to dip the excised rachis into the slurry. the treatments were: control-1 (the male bud retained till harvest along with the male bud); control-2 (de-navelling by excision of rachis 10 cm after the last hand); control-3 (de-navelling and dipping excised distal end of rachis in the slurry of cow dung and 100 ml water); other 5 treatments receiving 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 g of as blended with cow dung (applied as in control-3); and short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 148-150, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 149 another 5 treatments receiving 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10.0 and 12.5 g sop in addition to 5 to 25 g of as blended in cow dung as above (applied as in control-3), respectively. the treatments were arranged in a completely randomized design with 3 replications. the cow dung applied was retained till harvest. uniform bunches carrying 10 hands (having an average number of fingers = 122 ± 2.57) were selected to receive treatments. harvesting was taken-up at maturity (about 100 days after flowering). at harvest the fruit was sampled, cut into pieces, dried in oven at 70oc and powdered for n analysis by kjeldahl method. contents of other nutrients in the digest of the fruit sample in the di-acid (9:4 nitric: perchloric acid) were determined using standard analytical methods (jackson, 1967). the contents of n, p, mg, s, fe and mn increased significantly due to denavelling (‘control 2’) from 0.32%, 0.086%, 0.12%, 0.024%, 53ppm and 4.8ppm, under ‘control 1’ to 0.37%, 0.085%, 0.13%, 0.027%, 59 ppm and 6.7 ppm, respectively (table 1). dipping the stalk end of the bunch in cow dung (‘control 3’) enhanced the contents of these nutrients to 0.40%, 0.086%, 0.14%. 0.028%, 63 ppm and 7.6 ppm, respectively. this effect was pronounced when the cow dung was enriched with ammonium sulphate and the fruits showed 0.50-0.51% of n, 0.080-0.090% of p, 0.160.23% of mg, 0.032-0.040% of s, 59-111ppm of fe and 8.1-17.8ppm of mn. addition of sop further enhanced this effect in respect of k (2.11-2.44%) and fe by showing 74115ppm in fruit. increasing level of ammonium sulphate in the blend significantly decreased ca content of the fruit from 0.24% at 5g to 0.10% at 25 g. between enrichment of cow dung with ammonium sulphate and ammonium sulphate + potassium sulphate, the latter appeared to enhance the composition of p, k, ca, fe and mn. in the case of p and ca the differences were not significant. no changes were discernible for cu and zn as the content of these nutrients in fruit was in traces. in respect of n content of fruit, the improvement was fairly uniform at 0.50-0.51% when ammonium sulphate was blended in the cow dung and at 0.49-0.50% when ammonium sulphate + potassium sulphate were used for enrichment of the cow dung in the entire range of these additions. the highest p content of 0.090% was observed when 10g of ammonium sulphate or 5 g of ammonium sulphate + 5 g of potassium sulphate were added to cow dung. in both ca and mg, the addition of 5 g of ammonium sulphate to cow dung produced the maximum increase of 0.24% and 0.23%, respectively, while these contents were reduced to 0.15% and 0.19% in the presence of potassium sulphate. sulphur content was the highest at 20 g of ammonium sulphate (0.04%) followed by 20 g of ammonium sulphate + 10 g of potassium sulphate (0.038%) addition to cow dung. similarly, the contents of fe and mn peaked at 15 g of ammonium sulphate and/or potassium sulphate (111 and 115 ppm), respectively. no changes were discernible for cu and zn as the content of these nutrients in fruit was in traces. substantial enhancement of bunch weight resulted by de-navelling (19.041 kg) and dipping the stalk end in cow dung only (19.904 kg) and enriched cow dung (21.948-27.993 kg). when 15 g of ammonium sulphate and 7.5 g of potassium sulphate were blended in cow dung and applied the maximum bunch weight of 27.993kg was obtained (as against 16.724 kg under ‘control 1’). table 1. effect of de-navelling and feeding ammonium sulphate and potassium sulphate on composition of ‘robusta’ banana fruit treatment n p k ca mg s fe m n bunch % mg/kg yield (kg) control 1 0.32 0.086 1.73 0.09 0.12 0.024 53 4.8 16.724 control 2 0.37 0.085 1.87 0.10 0.13 0.027 59 6.7 19.041 control 3 0.40 0.086 1.98 0.10 0.14 0.028 63 7.6 19.904 5g as* 0.51 0.081 2.00 0.24 0.23 0.031 87 8.1 23.600 10g as 0.51 0.090 2.19 0.10 0.16 0.034 74 10.4 25.403 15g as 0.51 0.080 2.30 0.14 0.19 0.032 111 17.8 25.791 20g as 0.50 0.082 2.12 0.13 0.17 0.040 73 9.6 24.166 25g as 0.51 0.086 2.10 0.10 0.16 0.034 59 8.2 22.484 5g as + 2.5g sop** 0.49 0.090 2.11 0.15 0.19 0.034 103 13.1 25.545 10 g as + 5.0g sop 0.50 0.081 2.17 0.12 0.15 0.036 86 12.1 25.824 15 g as + 7.5g sop 0.49 0.086 2.44 0.12 0.18 0.033 115 14.9 27.993 20 g as + 10.0g sop 0.50 0.080 2.14 0.10 0.16 0.038 84 12.1 24.837 25 g as + 12.5g sop 0.49 0.085 2.13 0.10 0.15 0.029 74 10.6 21.948 sem (±) 0.005 0.0011 0.028 0.003 0.002 0.0004 1.6 0.021 0.5492 cd ( p = 0.05 ) 0.015 0.0030 0.082 0.010 0.005 0.0012 4.6 0.060 1.6027 *as – ammonium sulphate; ** sop – sulphate of potash nutrient application on de-navelling banana bunch j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 148-150, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 150 removal of male bud caused an increase in the nutrient composition of fruits as also of the weight of the bunch because of: (i) conservation and utilization of energy of nutrients for finger development which would be otherwise lost for opening of the remainder of the flower and (ii) removal of a strong and active competing sink for photosynthates and mineral nutrients despite its smaller size relative to the bunch (kurien et al, 2000; ancy and kurien, 2000; singh, 2001). further, the translocation of nutrients into the infructescence from such exogenous feeding in ‘poovan (ab)’, ‘monthan (aab)’ and ‘nendran (aab)’ varieties has been reported by buragohain and shanmugavelu (1986), sobhana and arvindakshan (1989). substantial response of yield of banana fruits as well as the composition of the fruit may be attributed to the presence of other mineral and bio-chemical ingredients of cow dung. the ripening of the fruits after harvest was normal and the fruit quality was not affected by the treatments. the results indicate that de-navelling and feeding nutrients using enriched cow dung enhanced the mineral composition of banana fruits which can have nutraceutical implications. there is also scope to manipulate the nutrient composition of the fruit further by appropriately modifying the composition of the cow dung blend since the nutrient translocation into the fruits has been demonstrated in this study. acknowledgement the authors are grateful to the director, indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore for encouragement and facilities provided and to shri n.k. kacker, technical officer for technical support rendered. references ancy t.k, kurien, s., augustin, a. and balachandran p.v. 1998. urease activity in banana fruit. j. plt nutr., 21:2127-2140 ancy t.k. and kurien, s. 2000. bunch stalk feeding of urea in banana musa (aab group) ‘nendran’. sci. hort., 84:205-212 buragohain, r. and shanmugavelu, k.g. 1986. studies on the effect of post-shooting application of urea in ‘vayal vazhai’ banana (abb). banana newslett., 9:16-18 jackson, m.l. 1967. soil chemical analysis. prentice hall of india, new delhi kurien, s., anil b.k., rajeevan, r.k., bharathan and krishnan, s. 2000. phosphorus mobilization to uneconomic tissues and effects of bunch trimming regimes in banana. sci. hort., 82:25-35 prasanna kumari amma. s., babylatha, a.k., pushkaran, k. and kurien, t.k. 1986. studies on the effect of removing terminal hands and male bud on the yield and fruit size of banana, musa (aab group) ‘palayankodan’. south ind. hort., 34:204-209 singh, h.p. 2001. banana. in: handbook of horticulture, chadha, k.l. (ed.). p.152, indian council of agricultural research, new delhi sobhana, a. and aravindakshan, m. 1989.translocation of banana after shooting. j. nucl. agril. biol., 18:243245 venkatarayappa, t., narasham, b. and venkatesan, c. 1976. effect of post-shooting application of urea on development and composition of banana fruit. south ind. hort., 19:109-117 (ms received 5 july 2010, revised 29 november 2010) kotur and keshava murthy j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 148-150, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 69 j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 69-72, 2019 short communication effect of trichomes in cowpea on infestation by spotted pod borer, maruca vitrata (fab.) (lepidoptera: crambidae) *nasiya-beegum a.n. and madhu subramanian department of agricultural entomology kerala agricultural university, thrissur *email : nasiyakau@gmail.com abstract trichomes are the morphological features present on the surface of plants, which provide resistance to several insect pests. a pot culture experiment with 48 cowpea accessions were conducted to evaluate the effect of trichomes in cowpea on infestation by spotted pod borer, maruca vitrata. significant variation in terms of damage to pods due to spotted pod borer was observed. the number of trichomes per unit area was significantly and negatively correlated (-0.441) with per cent damage. however, the length of trichomes on pods has no significant correlation with per cent damage. key words: trichomes, resistant, cowpea, pod, maruca vitrata cowpea is an important leguminous crop cultivated throughout the tropics and subtropics. the legume pod borer, maruca (testulalis) vitrata (geyer) is a serious pest of grain legumes. this insect is a major constraint in increasing the production and productivity of grain legumes.the pod borer larvae feed on buds, flowers and pods by webbing them. tr ichomes a r e the one of the most impor ta nt morphological characters associated with insect resistance across the plant kingdom. it is a special c ha r a c t er, involving sever a l f a ct or s s uc h a s distribution of the hairs, the density of hair cover, t he lengt h of t he ha ir s , t yp e of ha ir s et c . ovipositional and feeding non-preference, due to t he p r es enc e of s imp le t r ic homes , ha s b een reported to be one of the mechanisms of resistance in c owpea a ga inst m. v it ra ta . tr ichomes on cowpea pods can affect the activity of insects by mechanical means. pubescence or trichome density is one of the most impor ta nt physical cha r acters a ssocia ted with insect resistance across the plant kingdom. it is a complex character, involving several factors like the distribution of the hairs, the length of the hairs, the density of hair cover, disposition of hairs and the t yp e of ha ir s ( ver ma a nd af z a l, 1 9 4 0 ) . ovipositional non-preference, due to the presence of trichomes, has been reported to be one of the mechanisms of resistance of cowpea to m. vitrata. forty eight accessions of cowpea comprising of twenty nine accessions from national bureau of p la nt g ene t ic r es ou r c es ( i c a r n bp g r ) r egiona l st a t ion, j odhp u r, r a ja s t ha n, f ive a c c es s ions f r om univer s it y of a gr ic u lt u r a l sciences (uas), bengaluru, ten varieties released from kau and one accession each from vegetable and fruits promotion council keralam (vfpck), thiruvananthapuram, indian institute of vegetable resea rch (icar iivr), va ra nasi as well a s hor t ic ult ur e c ollege a nd r es ea r ch i nst it ut e, per iya kula m wer e eva lua ted for r esista nce to spotted pod borer. all agronomic practices were f ollowed a s p er p a c ka ge of p r a c t ic es recommendations (kau, 2011). these genotypes constituted the treatments in the experiment. the experiment was laid out in completely randomized d es ign ( c r d ) wit h 4 8 t r ea t me nt s a nd 1 0 replications, with one polybag containing one plant constituting one replication. 70 nasiya-beegum and madhu subramanian j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 69-72, 2019 table 1. extent of damage by maruca vitrata in cowpea accessions accessions per cent damaged pods trichome length trichome density ic 39922 1.54 0.06 74.67 ic 52107 a 2.67 0.05 185.34 km – 5 8.06 0.06 48.00 c – 152 42.65 0.07 88.60 kanakamony 8.24 0.07 235.34 pkm – 1 15.00 0.07 16.34 ec 100092 0.00 0.04 123.34 ic 2196 1.25 0.08 180.67 ic 39916 2.38 0.18 82.34 ic 26029 5.88 0.12 113.67 palakkadanthandanpayar 0.00 0.23 89.34 ic 26048 0.00 0.11 96.34 anaswara 31.90 0.05 67.34 ic 2196 9.02 0.09 213.00 ic 10810 13.64 0.06 185.00 ic 39870 3.70 0.15 17.67 tvx – 944 2.08 0.07 255.34 ec 300039 1.12 0.09 127.34 ic 52094 15.56 0.08 31.00 ic 39945 0.00 0.08 108.67 it – 3895 – 1 16.42 0.25 72.34 vyjayanthi 17.43 0.11 15.00 ic 20431 5.26 0.04 33.00 sreya 6.25 0.07 186.00 ic 9883 1.34 0.07 114.34 hridya 0.65 0.06 147.67 ic 20720 2.35 0.07 91.00 ic 2918 0.00 0.06 96.34 kbc – 2 0.00 0.07 130.34 ic 19797 10.34 0.05 51.00 mysore local 12.00 0.05 212.00 ic 7832 10.53 0.08 96.67 ic 39921 3.70 0.06 155.00 ic 52105 5.83 0.07 88.67 71 trichomes and borer infestation in maruca kashikanchan 21.84 0.06 66.00 ic 52128 1.09 0.06 50.34 ec 98668 0.00 0.13 123.45 ic 39947 0.00 0.07 91.67 ic 20645 0.00 0.06 32.00 ic 19778 12.99 0.10 31.67 vellayanijyothika 18.28 0.10 39.34 malika 26.61 0.00 0.00 sharika 35.16 0.09 21.67 bhagyalakshmy 47.95 0.07 15.00 ec 101216 1.03 0.07 224.34 ic 52110 0.00 0.05 135.34 ic 52118 0.00 0.07 154.67 lola 47.47 0.25 18.34 correlation 0.183 -0.441* *correlation is significant at 0.05 level (2-tailed) trichome length was measured by leica-ez stereo microscope equipped with leica application suite (las) image analysing software. length of ten trichomes on pods selected at random, the average was worked out. the counts of trichomes on the pod surface was made from an area of 6.25 mm2 using a radical stereo zoom microscope at 35x magnification, after marking out an area of 2.5 x 2.5 mm2 over the excised pod. counts were taken from three different points on each pod and the average was worked out and presented in table 1. based on the density of trichomes, the accessions were classified into: 1. glabrous 0 to 50 trichomes per 6.25 mm2 unit ar ea 2. sparsely pubescent 51 to 100 trichomes per 6.25 mm2 unit area 3. pubescent 101 to 150 trichomes per 6.25 mm2 unit area 4. densely pubescent more than 15 trichomes per 6.25 mm2 unit area t he va riety lola r ecor ded maximum tr ichome lengt h of 0 . 2 5 mm a nd wa s on p a r wit h palakkadanthandanpayar with a mean trichome lengt h of 0 . 2 5 mm a nd 0 . 2 3 mm. bot h t he a cc essions wer e significa ntly super ior to the r ema ining a c c es s ions whic h r ec or ded mea n trichome length of ranging from 0.04 to 0.01mm. the accessions varied significantly in terms of trichome density. the number of trichomes varied from 16.34 per 6.25 mm2 in pkm 1 to 288.67 per 6.25 mm2 in tvx – 944. high trichome density was also observed in kanakamony, mysore local, sreya and anaswara, with 235.34, 212, 186 and 167.34 trichomes per 6.25 mm2 respectively. all these accessions were sta tistically on pa r with ea ch other but differ ed significa ntly fr om the remaining genotypes. pkm 1, which recorded the lowest trichome density of 16.34 per 6.25 mm2 was followed by bhagyalakshmy, lola, ic 52105, ec 300039, ic 20645, ic 20431, vellayani jyothika and palakkadanthandanpayar with trichome density of 17.34, 18.34, 18.67, 27.34, 32, 33, 39.34 and 49.34 trichomes per 6.25 mm2 respectively. all these nine accessions were statistically on par with each other but differed significantly from the remaining genotypes. the remaining accessions except malika had trichome density ranging from 66. 00 to 147. 67 per 6. 25 mm2. ba sed on the j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 69-72, 2019 72 dens it y of t r ic homes , t he a c c es s ions wer e cla ssified into: densely pubescent, pubescent, sparsely pubescent and glabrous. the length of the trichomes had positive correlation (0 . 18 3) with per c ent da ma ge. however, t he c or r ela t ion wa s not s ignif ic a nt . n u mb er of t r ic homes o n p ods ha d s ignif ic a nt nega t ive correlation (-0.441) with per cent damage due to spotted pod borer. the length of trichomes, which ranged from 0.04 mm in ec 100092 to 0.25 mm in lola, did not show a ny significa nt va r ia tion a mong the dif fer ent a ccessions. a significa nt cor r ela t ion bet ween trichome length and per cent pod damage could not be observed in the study. sunitha et al (2006) however, ha d ob s er ved s ignif ic a nt nega t ive correlation (-0.097) between trichome length on pods and pod borer damage in pigeon pea. trichome density varied from 16.34 per 6.25 mm2 in pkm-1 to 288.67 per6.25 mm2 in tvx – 944. high trichome density ra nging from 167. 34 to 235.34 trichomes per 6.25 mm2 was also observed in k a na ka mony, m ys or e loc a l, s hr eya a nd ana swa r a . t he lowes t t r ichome dens it y wa s recorded in pkm-1 (16.34/6.25 mm2), followed by bhagyalekshmi, lola, ic 52105, ec 300039, ic 2 0 6 4 5 , i c 2 0 4 3 1 , vella ya nij y ot hika a nd palakkadanthandanpayar with 17.34, 18.34, 18.67, 27.34, 32, 33, 39.34 and 49.34 trichomes per 6.25 mm2, r es p ec t ively. a c c es s ions s u c h a s kanakamony, sreya, hridya, mysore local etc., wit h higher p u b es c enc e s u ff er ed lower p es t inc idenc e. i t wa s a ls o not ew or t hy t ha t bhagyalakshmy and lola, with lowest values for trichome density also observed per cent damage 41.04 and 28.99 per cent, the highest in the present study. tr ichomes ar e important components of plant defense against insect attackand contribute to a nt ix enosis in cr op p la nts s uc h a s cott on (dhaliwal and arora, 2001). this was observed in the present instance a lso, with the number of trichomes on pods being negatively correlated with total damage. oghiakhe (1995) also had reported that pubescence in wild and cultiva ted cowpea a dver sely a ffected oviposition, mobility, food consumption and utilization by the legume pod borer. nasiya-beegum and madhu subramanian j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 69-72, 2019 (ms received 10 september 2017, revised 09 september 2018, accepted 21 february 2019) references dhaliwal, g. s. and arora, r. (2001). integrated pe s t m a n a g e m e n t : c o n c e p t s a n d approaches. kalyani publ., new delhi. sunitha, v., rao g.v.r., lakshmi k.v., saxena, k.b., rao, v.r. and reddy, y.v.r. 2006. m or phologica l f a c tor s a s s oc ia t ed wit h r es is t a n c e t o m a r u c a v i t r a t a ( g eyer ) (lepidoptera: pyralidae) in short duration pigeon. icrisat. 22p. kau (kera la agr icultur al univer sity) (2011). package of practices recommendations: c rop s ( 1 4 t h e d. ) . k er a la agr ic u lt u r a l university, thrissur, 360p. oghiakhe, s.(1995). trichomes and resistance to ma jor insect pests in cowpea , vignaung uiculata(l.) walp. : a r eview. discovery and innovation 9(3/4): 173-178. verma, p.m. and m. afzal. (1940). studies on the cotton jassid (empoasca devastansdistant) in p unja b , iva r ieta l sus cept ib ility a nd development of pest on different varieties of cotton. indian j. agric. sci.10: 914-956. 00 contents.pdf 01. rms copy 62(17) gauva.marketing & phl-pinflesh.pdf 02. rms copy 63(17) soft wood grafting – a novel and rapid multiplication technique in coorg mandarin (citrus reticulata blanco).pdf 03. rms copy 25(18) evaluation of solanum species and eggplant cultivated varieties for bacterial wilt resistance.pdf 04. rms 18(18).pdf 05. rms_ii _24_18.pdf 06. rms copy 26 (18) metabolite paper-edited_04.05.2019.pdf 07. rms copy 1(19).pdf 08. rms copy 2(19) revised heterosi and combining effects ridge gourd 2019.pdf 09. rms copy 5(19) digital repository revised.pdf s1. rms 45(17) effect of trichomes in cowpea on infestation by spotted pod borer.pdf s2. rms copy 65(17) performance of anthurium (anthurium andreanum lind) cultivars in hill zone of.pdf s3. rms copy 2(18) langsat paper revised.pdf s4. rms 3(19) mineral content of red skinned potatoes of eastern india-revised.pdf sph -jhs coverpage jun 2019 issue 14(1).pdf page 3 page 4 sph -jhs coverpage jun 2019 issue 14(1).pdf page 1 page 2 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):220-225, 2015 effect of plant growth regulators on corm production and vase life in gladiolus t. padmalatha, g. satyanarayana reddy1 and r. chandrasekhar college of horticulture, dr. y.s.r. horticultural university rajendranagar, hyderabad500030, india e-mail: gandhamlatha@yahoo.com abstract influence of plant growth regulator sprays on corm production and post-harvest life of two gladiolus cultivars, darshan and dhiraj, was investigated for two consecutive years, 2008-09 and 2009-10. growth regulators, viz., gibberellic acid (100 and 150ppm), tri-iodo benzoic acid (tiba) (50 and 100ppm), 2-chloro, 4-pyridyl phenyl urea (cppu) (2.5 and 5ppm) and brassinosteroid (br) (5 and 10ppm) were sprayed at the 3rd and 6th leaf stage. cv. darshan recorded maximum number of large cormels per plant and cormel weight, while, cv. dhiraj recorded maximum number of small cormels per plant in treatments of pre-harvest foliar sprays with plant growth regulators. foliar sprays of br (10ppm) and ga3 (150ppm) significantly increased number of corms produced per plant, corm size, corm weight, and propagation coefficient. number of large cormels and total number of cormels per plant were significantly higher in br (10ppm), followed by tiba (100ppm). br (10ppm) and tiba (100ppm) produced maximum number of small cormels per plant. weight of cormels per plant was maximum in br (10ppm) and ga3 (150ppm). post-harvest studies revealed that cv. darshan recorded maximum diameter of second fully-opened floret and higher vase-life than cv. dhiraj with pre-harvest foliar spray of plant growth regulators. pre-harvest foliar spray of ga3 (150ppm), br (10ppm) and cppu (5ppm) induced earliest first-floret opening and recorded maximum value for number-of-floretsopen-at-a-time per spike, diameter of second fully-opened floret, and vase-life. foliar spray of br (10ppm) and ga3 (150ppm) at 3rd and 6th leaf stage can be recommended for large-scale multiplication of quality planting material and longer vase-life of flower spikes, respectively, in gladiolus. key words: gladiolus, corm, vase-life, ga3, brassinosteroids, cppu introduction floricultural experts on various occasions have stated that there is a severe dearth of planting material of elite ornamental cultivars in the country for commercial cultivation, and that there is an acute need to develop comprehensive protocols for clonal multiplication of all such crops. use of quality planting material or seed is the foundation for successful cultivation of all flowers. shortage of quality planting material is a major constraint hindering the progress of floriculture industry in india (choudhury and prasad, 2004). gladiolus, one of the important bulbous cut-flower crops, is commercially propagated using corms. profitability in gladiolus flower-spike production and export is closely linked to cost of the corms. poor multiplication rate of corms and cormels (with each corm producing just 1-2 corms) in gladiolus results in a high cost of the corms, often higher than the sale-price of the flower spike produced by that corm. for many years, achieving a high rate of multiplication and good corm-enlargement under various soil and climatic conditions has been the chief objective in breeding gladioli for corm production. micropropagation protocols, although standardized for gladiolus (hussain et al, 1997), are not followed commercially as the plantlets take 2-3 seasons for producing flower-grade corms. various approaches were tried for increasing the rate of corm multiplication in gladiolus. although leaf and spike removal increases corm and cormel production to some extent (das, 1998), it results in a decrease in spike yield and quality. research on the effect of traditional plant growth regulators like gibberellins and tri-iodo benzoic acid (tiba) for improving corm multiplication rate and corm enlargement in gladiolus has been reported by various workers from different parts of the country (tawar et al, 2007; devi et al, 2007). however, there has been no organized research on the effect of new classes of plant growth regulators, viz., brassinosteroids (br) and 2-chloro 4-pyridyl phenyl urea (cppu) on corm multiplication in gladiolus from india or abroad. 1herbal garden, hyderabad-500030, telangana, india 221 pgrs in corm production and vase life in gladiolus claims have been made that 30-70% of the potential lasting-quality in several flower crops is predetermined at harvest. in gladiolus, pre-harvest application of chemicals and plant growth regulators was found to extend vase-life of cut spikes (raju et al, 2008). similarly, for extending vaselife in gladiolus, use of sucrose in combination with aluminium sulphate [al2(so4)3] as the holding solution is reported by various workers (namita et al, 2006; nelofar and paul, 2008). hence, an investigation for ascertaining the effect of foliar spray of brassinosteroids (br), 2-chloro, 4-pyridyl phenyl urea (cppu) along with gibberellic acid (ga) and tri-iodo benzoic acid (tiba) on corm multiplication and postharvest life in two gladiolus cultivars, darshan and dhiraj, was made at herbal garden, hyderabad, for two consecutive years, 2008-09 and 2009-10. material and methods corms of gladiolus cultivars darshan and dhiraj, resistant to fusarium wilt disease and suitable for growing in and around hyderabad, were used in the study. nine growth regulator treatments were imposed, viz., ga3 (100 and 150ppm), tiba (50 and 100ppm), cppu (2.5 and 5.0ppm), br (5.0 and 10.0ppm) and control (water spray), each replicated thrice in factorial randomized block design. corms were planted at a spacing of 30cm x 20cm and at a depth of 5cm in 1m x 1m size plots, during the month of september, 2008 and 2009. treatments were imposed as foliar sprays at the 3rd and 6th leaf stage. welldecomposed farmyard manure at 10t ha-1 was incorporated into all the experimental plots, uniformly, as basal application. n, p, and k @ 200:200:300 kg/ha were applied in the form of urea, single super phosphate and muriate of potash, respectively. urea was applied in 3 splits, the first dose as basal application and the other two split doses at 30 and 60 days after planting. the entire dose of single super phosphate and muriate of potash was applied at the time of planting, as the basal dose. standard cultural practices were followed during the entire crop period in all the experimental plots. observations on corm attributes, viz., number of corms per plant, corm size (cm), corm weight (g), number of large and small cormels per plant, total number of cormels per plant, weight of cormels per plant (g) and propagation coefficient (%) were recorded. data were subjected to analysis of variance (anova) as applicable to factorial randomized block design. for post-harvest studies, uniform-sized spikes were harvested from all the experimental plots early in the morning (when the basal 1-2 florets showed color-break) and brought immediately to the laboratory in a bucket of water. lowermost leaves of the spikes were removed, and the basal 2cm portion was re cut under water before placing in the holding solution. a solution containing sucrose (4%) in combination with al2(so4)3 (300ppm) was used as the holding solution. the experiment was laid out in completely randomized block design (crd) with factorial concept. three replications comprised three spikes per replication. observations on days-to-first-floret-opening, number of florets-open-at-a-time per spike, diameter of the second fully-open floret (cm), and vase-life were recorded. data were subjected to analysis of variance (anova) as applicable to factorial completely randomized block design. results and discussion results in the present study (tables 1, 2, 3 and 4) indicated that the two cultivars used did not differ significantly in respect of number, size or weight of corms during the two years of study. however, the varieties differed significantly in respect of number of large and small cormels per plant, weight of the cormels per plant, and propagation coefficient. cv. darshan produced a higher number of large cormels and weight of cormels per plant, whereas, cv. dhiraj was efficient in terms of producing higher number of small cormels, and, a higher propagation coefficient. variation in cultivars on individual gladiolus corm characteristics was earlier reported by several workers (seenivasan, 2001; umadevi, 2002). br (10ppm), followed by ga3 (150ppm) significantly increased number of corms per plant, size and weight of corms per plant and weight of cormels, and thereby, propagation coefficient during both the years of investigation. br (10ppm) also recorded a high number of large and small cormels per plant. these results represent the first demonstration of a clear, favorable effect of br at 10ppm on corm and cormel induction in gladiolus cvs. darshan and dhiraj. this also indicates a potential of br in increasing the number of corms significantly, without impairing quality of the corms, i.e., size and weight of the corms. results obtained with br treatment in respect of corm and cormel production are in line with ramraj et al (1997) who reported a significant increase in potato tuber yield with foliar application of br, and, nunez et al (1998) in onion. thus, it can be concluded that two foliar sprays of br (10ppm) at 3rd and 6th leaf stage increases number of corms and cormels in gladiolus. the increase in corm size and weight of corms/ cormels with application of ga3 (150ppm) can be attributed j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):220-225, 2015 222 table 1. effect of foliar spray of plant growth regulators on number of corms per plant and corm size in gladiolus cvs. darshan and dhiraj treatment number of corms per plant corm size (cm) 2008-09 2009-10 2008-09 2009-10 darshan dhiraj mean darshan dhiraj mean darshan dhiraj mean darshan dhiraj mean ga3 (100ppm) 1.67 1.60 1.64 1.67 1.60 1.64 4.43 4.51 4.47 4.26 4.54 4.40 ga3 (150ppm) 1.87 1.67 1.77 1.93 1.67 1.80 5.00 4.86 4.93 4.81 4.85 4.83 tiba (50ppm) 1.53 1.37 1.45 1.53 1.40 1.47 4.15 4.68 4.42 4.28 4.72 4.50 tiba (100ppm) 1.47 1.27 1.37 1.43 1.30 1.37 3.84 3.86 3.85 3.91 3.80 3.86 cppu (2.5ppm) 1.53 1.47 1.50 1.60 1.43 1.52 4.30 4.71 4.51 4.37 4.58 4.48 cppu (5ppm) 1.60 1.60 1.60 1.63 1.67 1.65 4.59 4.83 4.71 4.55 4.74 4.65 br (5ppm) 1.63 1.53 1.58 1.53 1.60 1.57 4.39 4.94 4.67 4.52 4.73 4.63 br (10ppm) 1.93 1.72 1.83 1.80 1.85 1.83 4.98 5.17 5.08 4.73 5.30 5.02 control (water) 1.47 1.37 1.42 1.47 1.33 1.40 4.26 4.40 4.33 4.30 4.31 4.31 mean 1.64 1.50 1.65 1.54 4.44 4.66 4.41 4.62 cd (p=0.05) cultivars (c) n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. treatments (t) 0.16 0.19 0.44 0.47 interaction (cxt) n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.: non-significant table 2. effect of foliar spray of plant growth regulators on corm weight and number of large cormels per plant in gladiolus cvs. darshan and dhiraj treatment corm weight (g) number of big cormels per plant 2008-09 2009-10 2008-09 2009-10 darshan dhiraj mean darshan dhiraj mean darshan dhiraj mean darshan dhiraj mean ga3 (100ppm) 30.23 33.91 32.07 29.56 36.55 33.06 3.33 2.87 3.10 3.00 2.07 2.54 ga3 (150ppm) 33.80 35.81 34.81 32.89 36.95 34.92 3.67 2.87 3.27 3.67 3.33 3.50 tiba (50ppm) 30.99 32.87 31.93 29.15 33.54 31.34 3.07 2.07 2.57 2.47 2.00 2.23 tiba (100ppm) 27.45 31.05 29.25 27.80 29.72 28.76 4.87 3.53 4.20 5.00 3.00 4.00 cppu (2.5ppm) 31.62 34.55 33.09 30.67 33.60 32.14 3.00 2.40 2.70 3.33 2.00 2.67 cppu (5ppm) 32.75 35.18 33.97 31.99 35.01 33.50 3.67 3.20 3.44 4.33 3.40 3.87 br (5ppm) 33.15 33.49 33.32 32.79 32.37 32.58 3.00 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.33 3.17 br (10ppm) 34.11 36.66 35.39 35.04 36.76 35.90 6.07 4.80 5.44 5.00 4.33 4.67 control (water) 31.46 32.33 31.90 31.94 31.10 31.52 2.67 1.87 2.27 3.27 1.53 2.40 mean 31.73 33.98 31.31 33.96 3.70 2.84 3.66 2.78 cd (p=0.05) cultivars (c) n.s. n.s. 0.34 0.32 treatments (t) 1.28 1.08 0.72 0.66 interaction (cxt) n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.: non-significant to the growth regulator’s ability to improve growth which, in turn, increased the amount of photosynthetic assimilates. these assimilates may have been transported to the developing daughter-corms and cormels, thereby effecting an increasing in their size and weight. similar results were reported by vijai kumar and umrao (2007). except in the case of number of large and small cormels per plant, tiba (100ppm) treatment recorded significantly low values for all the corm and cormel characters under study. cppu at 5ppm increased the number of corms per plant and corm size significantly, and was on par with br (10ppm) and ga3 (150ppm). variation in the number of corms per plant may be attributed to a variation in the number of buds sprouted per corm, a parameter governed by the presence of number of active buds in a corm. gladiolus has two sources, corm or cormel, used for planting and these serve as reserve food material in the initial stages of plant development and photosynthesizing leaves take over this function in the later stages. likewise, gladiolus has two competing sinks: flower spike or inflorescence, and the developing corm and cormel. tiba (100ppm) treatment promoted sink activity in developing cormels (devi et al, 2007) which could be the reason for an increase in number of large and small cormels. as for post-harvest attributes (tables 5 and 6), cv. darshan recorded higher diameter in second fully-open floret padmalatha et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):220-225, 2015 223 table 3. effect of foliar spray of plant growth regulators on number of small cormels and total number of cormels per plant in gladiolus cvs. darshan and dhiraj treatment number of small cormels per plant total number of cormels per plant 2008-09 2009-10 2008-09 2009-10 darshan dhiraj mean darshan dhiraj mean darshan dhiraj mean darshan dhiraj mean ga3 (100ppm) 4.67 3.33 4.00 4.87 3.00 3.94 8.00 6.20 7.10 7.87 5.07 6.48 ga3 (150ppm) 3.67 4.67 4.17 3.80 5.33 4.57 7.34 7.54 7.44 7.47 8.66 8.07 tiba (50ppm) 3.00 3.67 3.33 3.07 4.33 3.70 6.07 5.74 5.90 5.54 6.33 5.93 tiba (100ppm) 5.67 6.33 6.00 5.53 6.07 5.80 10.54 9.86 10.20 10.53 9.07 9.80 cppu (2.5ppm) 2.00 3.33 2.67 1.93 3.93 2.93 5.00 5.73 5.37 5.26 5.93 5.60 cppu (5ppm) 4.33 4.00 4.17 4.33 4.20 4.27 8.00 7.20 7.60 8.66 7.60 8.14 br (5ppm) 5.00 6.67 5.84 4.80 6.33 5.57 8.00 8.67 8.33 7.80 9.66 8.74 br (10ppm) 6.00 8.20 7.10 5.93 8.00 6.97 12.07 13.00 12.54 10.93 12.33 11.64 control (water) 3.67 4.33 4.00 4.33 5.07 4.70 6.34 6.20 6.27 7.60 6.60 7.10 mean 4.22 4.95 4.29 5.14 7.92 7.79 7.95 7.92 cd (p=0.05) cultivars (c) 0.59 0.76 n.s. n.s. treatments (t) 1.23 1.28 1.28 1.33 interaction (cxt) n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.: non-significant table 4. effect of foliar spray of plant growth regulators on weight of cormels per plant and propagation coefficient in gladiolus cvs. darshan and dhiraj treatment weight of cormels per plant (g) propagation coefficient (%) 2008-09 2009-10 2008-09 2009-10 darshan dhiraj mean darshan dhiraj mean darshan dhiraj mean darshan dhiraj mean ga3 (100ppm) 4.57 4.45 4.51 5.83 4.36 5.10 131.34 144.78 138.06 133.58 154.37 143.97 ga3 (150ppm) 7.06 4.91 5.99 6.80 4.94 5.87 154.21 153.64 153.93 149.77 158.08 153.92 tiba (50ppm) 5.17 4.82 5.00 5.03 4.78 4.91 136.50 142.22 139.36 128.98 144.58 136.78 tiba (100ppm) 5.94 4.40 5.17 5.86 4.93 5.40 126.08 133.77 129.92 127.02 130.78 128.90 cppu (2.5ppm) 4.00 3.85 3.93 3.77 3.78 3.78 134.44 144.92 139.68 129.95 141.06 135.50 cppu (5ppm) 4.63 4.61 4.62 5.52 4.94 5.23 141.07 150.16 145.61 141.56 150.78 146.17 br (5ppm) 4.89 3.78 4.34 4.86 3.99 4.43 143.53 140.63 142.08 142.08 137.21 139.64 br (10ppm) 6.86 5.19 6.03 7.02 5.55 6.29 154.63 157.93 156.28 158.74 159.64 159.19 control (water) 4.23 4.03 4.13 4.40 3.80 4.10 134.68 137.20 135.94 137.14 131.69 134.41 mean 5.37 4.45 5.44 4.57 139.61 145.03 138.76 145.35 cd (p=0.05) cultivars (c) 0.23 0.32 3.85 4.71 treatments (t) 0.48 0.66 8.08 9.88 interaction (cxt) n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.: non-significant and longer vase-life than cv. dhiraj. variation in vase-life among cultivars may be attributed to a differential accumulation of carbohydrates due to dissimilar leaf production profiles and sensitivity of the cultivars to ethylene (kalasareddi et al, 1997). in turn, variations in these aspects may be due to the genetic make-up of the plant (kamble et al, 2004). ga3 (150ppm), followed by br (10ppm) and cppu (5ppm), induced significantly earlier first-floret opening, with greater number of florets-open-at-a-time per spike. perhaps spikes from these treatments had sufficient food material for opening of the florets. diameter of the second fully-opened floret and vase-life were also influenced significantly by pre-harvest spray of plant growth regulators in both the years of investigation. ga3 (150ppm), br (10ppm) and cppu (5ppm) registered maximum diameter of second floret, and longest vase-life. all the post-harvest parameters had the least values with tiba at 100 or 50ppm. increased vase-life with foliar spray of ga3 has been reported by pal and choudhury (1998) in gladiolus. improvement in floret-size by foliar spray of ga3 was reported by nagarjuna et al (1988) in chrysanthemum. halevy and shild (1970) observed that ga3 increased photosynthetic and metabolic activity, resulting in greater transport and utilization of photosynthesis products necessary for growth and development of a flower. maximum diameter of second-floret with foliar application of ga3 can be pgrs in corm production and vase life in gladiolus j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):220-225, 2015 224 table 6. effect of foliar spray of plant growth regulators on diameter of second fully-opened floret (cm) and vase life (days) in gladiolus cvs. darshan and dhiraj treatment diameter of second fully-opened floret (cm) vase life (days) 2008-09 2009-10 2008-09 2009-10 darshan dhiraj mean darshan dhiraj mean darshan dhiraj mean darshan dhiraj mean ga3 (100ppm) 1.67 2.22 1.95 1.67 2.11 1.89 2.56 2.11 2.33 2.45 2.22 2.34 ga3 (100ppm) 8.74 8.31 8.53 8.71 8.35 8.53 9.00 8.44 8.72 8.89 8.55 8.72 ga3 (150ppm) 9.24 8.83 9.04 9.32 8.87 9.10 9.44 9.33 9.39 9.56 9.33 9.45 tiba (50ppm) 8.43 7.38 7.91 8.38 7.63 8.00 8.50 7.83 8.17 8.39 8.06 8.23 tiba (100ppm) 7.60 7.20 7.40 7.61 7.17 7.39 8.00 7.61 7.81 7.78 7.50 7.64 cppu (2.5ppm) 8.65 8.30 8.48 8.70 8.30 8.50 9.11 8.28 8.70 9.00 8.17 8.59 cppu (5ppm) 8.86 8.55 8.71 8.93 8.54 8.74 9.00 9.11 9.06 9.22 9.11 9.17 br (5ppm) 8.72 8.31 8.52 8.70 8.33 8.52 8.78 8.56 8.67 8.67 8.56 8.62 br (10ppm) 8.94 8.67 8.81 9.04 8.69 8.87 9.22 9.11 9.17 9.44 9.00 9.22 control (water) 8.67 8.00 8.33 8.71 8.03 8.37 8.72 8.11 8.42 8.67 7.78 8.23 mean 8.65 8.17 8.68 8.21 8.86 8.49 8.85 8.45 cd (p=0.05) cultivars (c) 0.28 0.30 0.28 0.32 treatments (t) 0.61 0.65 0.60 0.68 interaction (cxt) n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.: non-significant table 5. effect of foliar spray of plant growth regulators on days to first-floret-opening and number of florets-open-at-any-time per spike in gladiolus cvs. darshan and dhiraj treatment days to first-floret opening number of florets-open-at-any-time per spike 2008-09 2009-10 2008-09 2009-10 darshan dhiraj mean darshan dhiraj mean darshan dhiraj mean darshan dhiraj mean ga3 (100ppm) 1.67 2.22 1.95 1.67 2.11 1.89 2.56 2.11 2.33 2.45 2.22 2.34 ga3 (150ppm) 1.45 1.56 1.51 1.44 1.56 1.50 3.22 2.67 2.95 3.11 2.89 3.00 tiba (50ppm) 2.44 2.22 2.33 2.33 2.45 2.39 2.22 1.89 2.06 2.11 2.00 2.06 tiba (100ppm) 2.45 2.44 2.45 2.45 2.44 2.45 2.00 1.78 1.89 2.11 1.78 1.95 cppu (2.5ppm) 2.11 2.33 2.22 2.22 2.44 2.33 2.11 2.22 2.17 2.33 2.00 2.17 cppu (5ppm) 1.56 1.89 1.73 1.56 2.11 1.84 2.89 2.33 2.61 2.78 2.33 2.56 br (5ppm) 2.00 2.33 2.17 2.00 2.33 2.17 2.33 2.22 2.28 2.44 2.00 2.22 br (10ppm) 1.44 1.78 1.61 1.44 1.78 1.61 2.67 2.56 2.62 2.78 2.67 2.73 control (water) 2.22 2.33 2.28 2.33 2.33 2.33 2.11 2.33 2.22 2.34 2.22 2.28 mean 1.93 2.12 1.95 2.17 2.48 2.24 2.49 2.24 cd (p=0.05) cultivars (c) n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. treatments (t) 0.43 0.51 0.50 0.50 interaction (cxt) n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.: non-significant attributed to increased drawal of photosynthates by the flower as a consequence of intensification of the sink (zieslin et al, 1974). padmapriya and chezhiyan (2002) reported that higher flower diameter in chrysanthemum cv. indira with foliar spray of br could be due to a synergism between br and auxins. br may have altered bio-physical properties of the cell wall, leading to a high energy-conversion for expanding flower diameter. an increase in floret diameter with cppu (5ppm) treatment is perhaps be due to a trigger for cell division and cell enlargement. reduction in floret-size caused by application of tiba is probably due to its anti-auxin activity (preventing the transport of naturally-produced auxins) and, thereby, reduced cell elongation. these results are in line with nanjan and muthuswamy (1975) in rose. reduction in vase-life due to tiba application was reported by umadevi (2002) in gladiolus. in addition to pre-harvest foliar spray of ga3 (150ppm) or br (10ppm) or cppu (5ppm), exogenous supply of sucrose in the holding solution balanced the depletion in carbohydrates, and improved vase-life and quality of the spikes. sucrose also maintained the water balance and osmotic potential, since; sugar has been observed to decrease padmalatha et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):220-225, 2015 225 moisture stress in cut-flowers by affecting stomatal closure and preventing water-loss (ranvir singh and sashikala, 2002). al2(so4)3 present in the holding solution helped improve keeping-quality owing to its antimicrobial action. from this study, it can be concluded that foliar spray of br (10ppm) and ga3 (150ppm) at the 3 rd and 6th leaf stage can be recommended for large-scale multiplication of quality planting-material and for longer vase-life in flower spikes, respectively, in gladiolus. references choudhury, m.l. and prasad, k.v. 2004. strategies for improving productivity, post harvest quality of floriculture crops. souvenir, first indian horticulture congress-2004, organized by horticultural society of india, new delhi das, t.k. 1998. corm and cormel production of gladiolus as affected by spike removal and k application. indian j. hort., 55:327-331 devi, d.u., sekhar, r.c. and babu, j.d. 2007. effect of growth regulators on flowering and corm production in gladiolus cv. jacksonville gold. j. res., (angrau), 35:6-14 halevy, a.h. and shild, r. 1970. promotion of growth and flowering of plants with endogenous ga3 in gladiolus plants treated with ccc. physiol. plant., 23:820827 hussain, s.c., geetha, t.c.k., rajeevan, p.k. and valsala kumari, c.k. 1997. plant regeneration from root derived callus in gladiolus. j. orn. hort., 2:36-40 kamble, b.s., reddy, b.s., patil, r.t. and kulkarni, b.s. 2004. performance of gladiolus cultivars on flowering and flower quality. j. orn. hort., 7:51-56 kalasareddi, p.t., reddy, b.s., patil, p.r. and kulkarni, b.s. 1997. effect of time of planting on performance of two cultivars of gladiolus. ii. flowering, flower quality, vase and field life. adv. agril. res. india, 8:45-51 nagarjuna, b., reddy, v.p., rao, m.r. and reddy, e.n. 1988. effect of growth regulators and potassium nitrate on growth, flowering and yield of chrysanthemum. south indian hort., 36:136-140 namita, ramesh kumar and kushal singh. 2006. response of vase solution on keeping quality of cut spikes of gladiolus. j. orn. hort., 9:296-297 nanjan, k. and muthuswamy, s. 1975. growth and flowering responses of edward rose (rosa bouboriana desp.) to certain growth retardant sprays. south indian hort., 23:94-99 nelofar and paul, t.m. 2008. post harvest management of gladiolus. j. orn. hort., 11:69-71 nunez, m., sosa, j.l., alfonso, j.l. and coll, f. 1998. influence of two new cuban bioregulators on plant yield of onion cv. red creole. cultivos tropicales, 19:21-24 padmapriya, s. and chezhiyan, n. 2002. influence of gibberellic acid and certain other chemicals on flowering characters of chrysanthemum (dendranthema grandiflora tzeled.) cultivars. south indian hort., 50:437-443 pal, p. and choudhury, t. 1998. effect of growth regulators and duration of soaking on sprouting growth, flowering and corm yield of gladiolus cv. tropic sea. hort. j., 11:69-77 raju, d.v.s., misra, r.l. and singh, v.p. 2008. effect of pre-harvest spray of thiol compounds on post-harvest life of gladiolus spikes. j. orn. hort., 11:75-76 ramraj, v.m., vyas, b.n., godrej, n.b., mistry, k.b., swami, b.n. and singh, n. 1997. effects of 28homobrassinolide on yields of wheat, rice, groundnut, mustard, potato and cotton. j. agril. sci., 128:405413 ranvir singh and sashikala, b. 2002. post-harvest life of gladiolus as influenced by floral preservatives. j. orn. hort., 8:115-118 seenivasan, n. 2001. effect of plant growth regulators on dormancy and growth of gladiolus. m.sc. (hort.) thesis, acharya n.g. ranga agricultural university, hyderabad, a.p., india tawar, r.v., sable, a.s., kakad, g.j., hage n.d. and ingle, m.b. 2007. effect of growth regulators on corms and cormels production of gladiolus cv. jester. ann. pl. physiol., 21:257-258 umadevi, d. 2002. effect of growth regulators application at three stages of crop growth on production of flowers, propagules and vase life of cut spikes in three cultivars of gladiolus (gladiolus grandiflorus l.). m.sc. (hort.) thesis, acharya n.g. ranga agricultural university, hyderabad, a.p., india vijai kumar and umrao, v. 2007. effect of gibberellic acid on gladiolus. south indian hort., 55:303-305 zieslin, n., brian, i. and halevy, a.h. 1974. the effect of growth regulators on growth and pigmentation of ‘baccara’ rose flowers. pl. cell physiol., 15:341349 (ms received 24 june 2014, revised 17 may 2015, accepted 22 june 2015) pgrs in corm production and vase life in gladiolus j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):220-225, 2015 focus cashew research in india m.g. bhat, k.v. nagaraja and t.r. rupa directorate of cashew research puttur-574 202, india e-mail: dircajures@gamil.com abstract cashew, after its introduction from brazil during the16th century, has established very well in india. a total of 40 high-yielding varieties have been released so far by the directorate of cashew research, puttur, and various agricultural universities, for cultivation. of these, 13 are hybrids and 27 are selections. research achievements in the area of crop improvement, management, protection and post-harvest technology over the last six decades are reviewed and documented here. as india has been importing raw nuts to the tune of 6.5 lakh tons annually to cater the demand of established processing factories, research priorities have been identified to meet the challenges of enhancing production and productivity of cashew in the country. key words : cashew, research achievements, research priorities introduction cashew is native to brazil. it was introduced into india by portuguese travellers in the 16th century for afforestation and soil conservation. india was the first country in the world to exploit international trade in cashew kernels in the early part of 20th century. cashew is presently grown in an area of 8,93,000 ha. with annual production of 6,95,000 tons of raw cashewnuts. most of the area under cashew is the in east-coast and west-coast regions of the country. in india cashew is grown mainly in maharashtra, goa, karnataka and kerala along the west coast and tamil nadu, andhra pradesh, orissa and west bengal along the east coast. it is also grown to a limited extent in nontraditional areas such as the bastar region of chattisgarh and kolar (plains) region of karnataka, in gujarat, jharkhand and neh region. although andhra pradesh has the largest area under cashew, maharashtra ranks first in production and productivity (table 1). india requires about 12-13 lakh tons of raw cashewnuts to feed the large number of cashew processing units (1800 medium to large, and 1850 on-farm processing units) engaging over 5 lakh workers, especially women. as india produces just 6.95 lakh tons of raw cashewnuts annually, the balance of 6.0 lakh tons of raw cashewnuts is imported annually by india from the african and south east asian countries. india exports 1.1 lakh tons of cashew kernel to over 65 countries in the world. about rs.2,906 crore is earned as foreign exchange through export of cashew kernel, and an additional rs. 24 crore by export of the cashew nut shell liquid (cnsl) (table 2). there is an ever-increasing demand for cashew kernel both in international and domestic markets. countries such as vietnam and brazil compete with india in the international market. since african countries have started processing raw cashewnuts themselves, availability of raw cashewnuts for import by india may gradually decline or altogether stop. a few african countries have already taken steps to ban export of raw cashewnuts. hence, there is an urgent need to increase domestic raw cashewnut production and become self-sufficient. table 1. area, production and productivity of cashew in india in 2008-09 state area production productivity (ha) (tons) (kg/ha) kerala 70,000 75,000 900 karnataka 1,07,000 60,000 720 goa 55,000 30,000 700 maharashtra 1,70,000 2,25,000 1,500 tamil nadu 1,31,000 68,000 710 andhra pradesh 1,82,000 1,12,000 920 orissa 1,37,000 95,000 865 west bengal 11,000 11,000 1,000 gujarat 6,000 4,000 700 ne states 16,000 12,000 750 others 8,000 3,000 460 total 8,93,000 6,95,000 average 900 j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (1): 1-16, 2010 2 table 2. trade analysis in cashew produced during – 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 particulars 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 import of raw cashewnut (quantity) 6.06 lakh tons 6.06 lakh tons 7.53 lakh tons import of raw cashewnut (value) rs.1746.80 crore rs.2631.78 crore rs.3,037.35 crore export of cashew kernel (quantity) 1.14 lakh tons 1.08 lakh tons 1.08 lakh tons export of cashew kernel (value) rs.2288.89 crore rs. 2950.24 crore rs.2905.82 crore export of cnsl* (quantity) 7813 tons 6976 tons 9748 tons export of cnsl* (value) rs.11.97 crore 16.79 crores 24.11 crore foreign exchange earning (kernel + cnsl*) rs.2300.86 crore rs.2967.03 crore rs.2929.93 crore *cnsl: cashew nut shell liquid traditionally, cashew has been an important crop in the coastal region (western and eastern) of the country but has been recently spreading to non-traditional areas as well. there is great scope for expanding area under cashew in the plains of karnataka, chattisgarh and non-traditional areas of gujarat, jharkhand, north eastern hilly region and andaman and nicobar islands (table 3). cashew research in india started way back in 1950s through launch of ad-hoc schemes sanctioned by indian council of agricultural research (icar). cashew research got further impetus through formation of central plantation crops research institute and, later, establishment of an independent national research centre for cashew (nrcc), puttur, in karnataka in 1986. location-specific research programmes in the eight cashew growing states are conducted through all india coordinated research project on cashew (aicrp on cashew) whose headquarters are also located at the directorate of cashew research (dcr) (formerly national research centre for cashew), puttur. there were eight centres and one subcentre under aicrp on cashew, located all over the country till the end of 10th five year plan. in the year 2009 during 11th plan, one centre each in gujarat and jharkand and 3 co-operating centres (arabhavi in karnataka, goa and tura – barapani in meghalaya) were included under aicrp on cashew. table 3. potential area available for expansion of cashew state area(ha) bihar 25,000 goa 10,000 jharkhand 25,000 chhattisgarh 50,000 kerala 25,000 west bengal 25,000 gujarat 25,000 tamil nadu 25,000 neh region 50,000 andhra pradesh 1,00,000 karnataka 1,00,000 orissa 1,00,000 maharashtra 1,50,000 total 7,10,000 with combined efforts of the directorate of cashew research, centres of the aicrp-cashew and saus, over 40 high yielding cashew varieties have been developed and released in the country (table 4). crop production and improvement as cashew is a cross-pollinated crop, propagation by vegetative means was attempted. among the various methods tested, softwood grafting was found to be the best for vegetative propagation (swamy et al, 1993). it has also been shown that softwood grafting is feasible for commercial multiplication. based on these results, india has been producing over 15 million grafts annually under both government and private sectors. germplasm collection and characterization attempts have been made to collect, conserve, evaluate and catalogue all cashew germplasm available in the country. regional cashew germplasm centres have been established, both at dcr and various aicrp cashew centres spread out over the country. germplasm-holding at dcr, cashew, and aicrp cashew centres is presented table 4. cashew varieties released in india centre number variety east coast bapatla 7 bpp-1 to bpp-6 and bpp-8 vridhachalam 4 vri-1, vri-2, vri-3 and vri (cw) 5 bhubaneswar 1 bhubaneswar-1 jhargram 1 jhargram-1 west coast vengurla 7 vengurla-1 to vengurla-7 goa 2 goa-1 and goa-2 madakkathara 8 anakkayam-1, madak-1 (bla-39-4), madak-2 (ndr-2-1), k-22-1, kanaka, dhana, priyanka and amrutha ullal 5 ullal-1, ullal-2, ullal-3, ullal-4, un-50 dcr puttur 3 nrcc selection-1, nrcc selection-2 and bhaskara maidan area chintamani 2 chintamani-1 and chintamani-2 total 40 bhat et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (1): 1-16, 2010 3 in table 5. cashew germplasm collection in national cashew field gene bank (ncfgb) at dcr, puttur has 527 accessions (fig. 1). a total of 433 cashew accessions have been assigned national collection numbers. a total of 285 accessions have been characterized as per ipgri descriptors. three germplasm catalogues for 255 accessions have been brought out (swamy et al, 1997; 1998 and 2000). further, over 1200 cashew accessions are conserved in regional cashew field gene bank in various centres under aicrp on cashew (fig. 2). hybridization hybridization techniques for breeding varieties in cashew have been standardized by various workers and 13 hybrids have been developed and released for commercial cultivation in the country. bhat et al (1998) showed that the paper-roll method of hybridization was better than other methods. of the 40 improved clones released so far, 13 are hybrids and 27 are selections. screening of cashew varieties for drought, high-density planting (salam, 1997), and for nutrient-deficient soils, has been reported (latha, 2000; latha table 5. cashew germplasm-holding centre number dcr, puttur 527 aicrpcashew centres : bapatla 132 bhubaneswar 98 jhargram 119 vridhachalam 208 madakkathara 130 pilicode 43 vengurla 302 chintamani 128 jagdalpur 65 total 1225 and salam, 2001). anakkayam-1, k-22-1, madakkathara-1 madakkathara-2, kanaka, dhana, priyanka, sulabha, dharasree, amrutha, akshaya, anagha, vengurla-1 to vengurla-7, bpp-01 to bpp-8, vridhachalam-1, 2, 3 and 5, ullal-1 to ullal-4, un-50, nrcc selection-1 and 2, bhaskara, jhargram-1, bhubaneswar-1, goa-1 and 2, chintamani-1 and 2 are some of the improved varieties of cashew in india (abdul salam and peter, 2010). pruning and training pruning provides a definite form and shape to the tree. pruning of dead wood and criss-cross branches can increase yield by 30-40% (khan et al, 1987). training indirectly assists in ease of other operations such as weeding, manuring and hoeing (satpathy, 1988). results of pruning on 28-year old trees revealed that trees with three branches pruned recorded the highest number of panicles/sq.m (39), highest number of flowers/panicle (588.70) and fruit-set to an extent of 14.42%, while unpruned trees recorded only 7.75% increase in yield (panda, 1990). under jhargram conditions, pruning of leader-shoots during july enhanced the number of productive laterals, increased the number of bisexual flowers per panicle, fruits per panicle and yield per tree (chattopadhyay and ghose, 1994). leader-shoot pruning doubled the yield in cashew (mohan and room singh, 1988). pruning treatment increased the number of laterals/leader but did not affect duration of flowering and harvest (mohan and rao, 1995). leader-shoot pruning at least once every 2-3 years helps boost nut yield (nayak, 1996). top-working the technique of rejuvenation of existing, unthrifty cashew plantations by top-working boosts cashew production 3-4 fold in a short span (fig. 3). this technology can also be adopted for mass production of scions since, production can be expected to be almost five times that by conventional methods (khan et al, 1988). top-working trials in red and laterite zone of west bengal showed that beheading of trees (fig. 4) at 1.0 m height was ideal cashew research in india fig 1. bunch-bearing accession at dcr, puttur fig 2. variability in cashewnut and apple fig 3. flush emergence after topworking fig 4. rejuvenation upon beheading j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (1): 1-16, 2010 4 from the paint of view of sprouting, growth of sprouted shoots and graft success. the month of october was most suitable for beheading and february for grafting, irrespective of age of the tree (ghose, 1991). whereas, under ullal conditions of karnataka, december to february was found to be suitable for beheading and, february to april for grafting (khan et al, 1985). uneconomical cashew trees top-worked with high-yielding ullal-1 variety resulted in a four-fold increase in nut yield per tree within five years (kumar, 1990). wherever populations of cashew stem and root borer (csrb) are maximum, top-working technology may not be suitable, unless regular follow-up action is taken to manage the incidence of csrb (swamy, 1995). biotechnology in cashew work on cashew tissue culture has been in progress on developing multiplication protocols from cashew explants. however, regeneration protocols from mature explants are yet to be developed, although, reports are available on multiplication and field establishment of cashew regenerated from young nodal cuttings (philip, 1984; d’silva and d’souza, 1992; lievens et al, 1989; keshavachandran and khader, 1990; leva and falcone, 1990; nair and mohanakumar, 1993; das et al, 1996; thimmappaiah and shirly, 1999). somatic embryogenesis was induced from nucellar tissue cultured from 2-3 week old immature nuts. so far nucellar tissues from 14 varieties have been tested for embryogenesis. embryogenesis and germination of somatic embryos was achieved in two varieties (thimmappiah, 1997; shirly and thimmappaiah, 2005). attempts have been made to fingerprint cashew using rapd markers. twenty tanzanian accessions (mneney et al, 2001), 90 germplasm accessions at dcr, puttur (dhanaraj et al, 2002) and 19 germplasm accessions (archak et al, 2002) have been fingerprinted. based on this analysis, a moderate range of genetic variability among the accessions analysed in india. about 239 accessions at dcr have been fingerprinted by thimmappaiah et al (2009a). low-level diversity has been observed in 40 elite varieties using rapd, issr and ssr markers at dcr, puttur. moderate diversity has been reported in cashew population using protein isoenzyme electrophoretic analysis (aliyu and awopetu, 2007; maranan and mendiore, 2008; thimmappaiah et al (2009a, b). cashew microsatellites from non-enriched genomic library and sequences of 21 polymorphic ssr markers have been detected and used for multiplex analysis in cashew (croxford et al, 2005). gene cloning studies have been reported (wang et al, 2002). transformation in cashew using agrobacterium tumefasciens strain eha-105 has been reported by kiran et al (2007). neto et al (1995) showed utility of rapd markers in distinguishing dwarf seedlings in cashew. bulk segregant analysis (bsa) in germplasm bulks at dcr, puttur, could identify four rapd markers linked to economic characters like nut weight and plant stature. regeneration from explants of mature origin has met with difficulties due to a high rate of contamination and poor response (thimmappaiah and shirly, 2000; thimmappaiah et al, 2002a, c). micrografting technique was standardised in cashew (mantell et al, 1997; ramanayake and kovoor, 1999, thimmappiah et al, 2002b). embryogenesis was induced in immature cotyledonary segments (hegde et al, 1994; nair and mohanakumar, 1993; sy et al, 1991; thimmappiah, 1997) and nucellar tissue (nair and mohanakumar, 1993; ananthakrishnan et al, 1999; gogate and nadgauda, 2000; cardoza and d’souza, 2002). crop management nutrient studies cashew is often grown on marginal soils and on wastelands mostly unsuitable for other economic crops. nitrogen and p were found to be the most important nutrients during pre-bearing stage. at the bearing stage, k, together with n, is important. application of fertilizers, their dosage, time and schedule under different agroclimatic zones has been standardized (veeraraghavan et al, 1985; sawke et al, 1985; harishu kumar and sreedharan, 1986; ghosh and bose, 1986; kumar et al, 1997; latha et al, 1994; lenka et al, 1998; grundon, 1999; grundon, 2001; shingre et al, 2001; patrick et al, 2002; vishnuvardhana and thirumalaraju, 2002; yadukumar et al, 2003; prasanna kumar et al, 2006; salam et al, 2008; yadukumar et al, 2008; aikpokpodion et al, 2009; o’farrell et al 2010). rootstocks and grafts of cashew supplied with 150:20:100 ppm of n:p:k at the rate of 100 ml/plant/week had higher plant-height, stem-girth and number of leaves (manjunatha, 2001). the ratio 2:1 of n:p is ideal for young cashew trees (shi-wenge et al, 2005). application of mineral nutrients in combination with organic fertilizers significantly increased plant height, dry weight of aerial parts and number of leaves in cashew seedlings (lima et al, 2001). a 30-year old cashew tree removes 2.85 kg of n, 0.75 kg of p 2 o 5 and 1.27 kg of k 2 o (mohapatra et al, 1973) from the soil. leaf n content of 1.51% in the month of april is considered optimum for high nut yield (ghose and bose, 1986). macronutrient removal by cashew nuts and the cashew apple was n > k > mg > p > s > ca and j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (1): 1-16, 2010 bhat et al 5 k > n > mg > p > s > ca, respectively (fragoso, 1999). use-efficiency of n and k in cashew was 24.7% and 12.37%, respectively (latha, 2000; latha and salam, 2001). foliar sprays of nutrients (urea 2 to 4%; dap 1%; orthophosphoric acid; znso 4 4%; cu 0.3 to 0.6%), at emergence of the flush, panicle initiation and fruit-set stages, ensure better fruit-set and enhanced nut yield (ghose, 1988; ankaiah and rao, 1987; sapkal, 2000). yellow leaf spot occurrence in low soil ph (4.5 – 5.0) could be corrected by foliar sprays of mo salts (subbaiah et al, 1986). foliar spray of growth regulators planofix, nutron, iaa, iba, naa, 2,4-d and ethrel were effective in increasing total number of flowers, hermaphrodite flowers, sex ratio, fruit and yield per panicle and, also improved physico-chemical composition of apples and nuts (ghosh, 1988; singh et al, 1992 and kumar et al, 1994). biofertilizers application of azospirillum, azotobacter and vam increased germination percentage of nuts and plant growth, and reduced the incidence of fungal diseases in the nursery (kumar et al, 1998; ramesh et al, 1999). inoculation of azotobacter resulted in higher root growth (oblisami et al, 1985) and yield (singh, 1997) in cashew. among vam, acaulospora laevis and gigaspora mosseae were better symbionts for inoculating cashew with (lakshmipathy, 2000). anantha krishnan et al (2004) reported that among vam, glomus fasciculatum was superior in terms of increased shoot-length, internode number, number of leaves, stem diameter, root length and root number, under nursery conditions. sivaprasad et al (1992) also reported that gomus fasciculatum to be more effective at enhancing growth and p uptake of cashew plants. vam (25 g/bag) was helpful for better graft-uptake at the time of grafting (sridhar et al, 1990). organic recycling cashew plantations have a vast potential for organic biomass for recycling. availability of cashew leaf-litter from plantations of different age groups (10 to 40 years) ranged from 1.38 to 5.20 t ha-1 (guruprasad et al, 2009). about 5.5 t ha-1 available cashewbiomass waste can be converted into 3.5 tonnes of compost or vermicompost and helps to meet nutrient requirement of cashew plants 50% (yadukumar and nandan, 2005; yadukumar, 2007). abiotic stress cashew cannot grow and yield well in saline soils (marlos et al, 2007). electrical conductivity of irrigation water at 1.48 dsm-1 is threshold tolerance for precocious cashew during its initial growth (carneiro et al, 2002). higher soil-temperature and density resulted in reduction of plant growth and roots (oliveira et al, 2003). flowering in cashew requires mild winters and availability of soilmoisture plays a key role in kernel development (rao et al, 2001). relative humidity during pre-flowering is a key factor in explaining yield variation in cashew (haldankar et al, 2003). cashew can tolerate mild to moderate levels of moisture stress and growth of seedlings is unaffected (latha, 2003; souza et al, 2004). strong and severe water stress resulted in 20 and 22% reduction in the number of scions produced respectively (shingre et al, 2003). soil and water conservation techniques u n d e r medium to steep slopes, ‘terrace with crescent bund’ (fig. 5) and application of 20 kg poultry manure in cashew is beneficial for improving soil moisture content, yield and also reduced runoff and soilloss (yadukumar and rejani, 2006; rejani and yadukumar, 2006; yadukumar and rejani, 2008; asogwa et al, 2008). reduction in peak runoff and increase in recession time and groundwater recharge due to soil and water conservation practices have been reported by several workers (sastry and druvanarayana, 1984; singh et al, 1989; deshmukh et al, 1992). black polythene mulch was helpful in conserving soil moisture (nawale et al, 1985). using coconut coir pith as soil mulch in cashew plantations resulted in 14.15% higher water retention and suppression of weeds upto 73.52% (kumar et al, 1989). badhe and mayar (2004) reported that trapezoidal shaped staggered trenches (230 ha-1) of 4.5 m length, 0.60 m top-width, 0.30 m bottom-width and 0.30 m depth were effective in reducing runoff and for conservation of soil and nutrients. mane et al (2009) demonstrated that continuous contour trench (0.5 m x 0.6 m) was the best soil-conservation practice for cashew on hands with 7 to 8% slope. high density planting it has been reported that high-density planting fig 5. crescent bund for soil and water conservation j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (1): 1-16, 2010 cashew research in india 6 system in cashew is economical (salam, 1997 and ghosh et al, 2000). maintaining tree-density of 625 ha-1 (4 m x 4 m) for the first 11 years, and diagonal thinning thereafter to reduce the population to 50%, resulted in maximum yield (yadukumar et al, 2001). high-density planting system in cashew doubled nut-yield during the first 10 years of planting (yadukumar et al, 2002). salam (1999) reported that the varieties ‘44/3’, ‘anakkayam-1’ and ‘h-1608’ were suitable for high-density planting. intercropping intercrops like cowpea, french bean, cluster bean, rice bean, red bean, mung bean, soybean and groundnut could be grown along with cashew to get additional profit (gupta, 1999). maize and groundnut can be grown successfully as intercrops in newly-planted and two year-old cashew orchards (abeysinghe et al, 2003). intercropping cashew with pineapple, turmeric or elephant foot yam under normaldensity planting system during the first five years increased net benefit from cashew gardens (yadukumar et al, 2003; fig. 6). weed-suppression was best in plots carrying cashew / cassava and cashew / plantation / cassava mixtures with 50-60% reduction in frequency of weeding per annum (adeyemi, 1998). irrigation it was reported that fertigation saved 50% fertilizer requirement and doubled cashew yield (richards, 1993; yadukumar and mandal, 1994; mishra et al, 2008). irrigation at 200 litres of water tree-1 once in every 15 days after flowering during summer months increased cashew yield. irrigating cashew with 60-80 litres of water tree-1 every four days through drip after flowering until fruit-set and development, in combination with application of 750:187.5: 187.5 g npk tree-1 led to significantly higher yields (yadukumar and rejani, 2008; yadukumar et al, 2009). several researchers have reported superiority of fertigation in terms of higher scion production and nut yield (nawale et al, 1985; yadukumar and mandal, 1994; kumar et al, 1998; blaikie et al, 2001, ingle et al, 2005). response to irrigation varied among cashew genotypes (oliveira et al, 2006). dwarf clones did not respond well to irrigation (oliveira et al, 2003). crop protection cashew is attacked by around 180 species of insect and non-insect pests in india resulting in substantial yield loss (sundararaju, 1993b). the most important pests that limit production are the cashew stem and borer (csrb) and the tea mosquito bug (tmb). in addition, leaf and blossom webber, shoot tip caterpillar, and, apple and nut borer cause damage. cashew stem and root borers csrb (plocaederus ferrugineus l.) (coleoptera: cerambycidae) is the primary species, infesting cashew in all parts of india, and, two other species, viz., p. obesus g. and batocera rufomaculata deg. were also reported in association with p. ferrugineus (abraham, 1958; uthaiah et al, 1989 and rai,1984). symptoms of damage include extrusion of frass, occurrence of gummosis, premature yellowing and shedding of leaves, drying of twigs and, finally, death of the tree. it is essential to adopt two important approaches, viz., a) phytosanitation, to achieve reduction of pest population in a given location, and b) saving the infested trees in the initial stages of infestation itself. to minimize csrb infestation in the plantations, dead trees and trees beyond recovery (those with over 50% damaged barkcircumference and / or showing yellowing of the canopy) should be uprooted and removed from the plantation immediately before and after the monsoon, since these serve as natural inoculum for multiplication and spread of the pest (raviprasad et al, 2009 and sundararaju and bakthavatsalam, 1990). all the trees in the plantation should be examined for csrb at the tree base at monthly intervals, especially, during harvest (january-may). if external infestation is observed, csrb grubs should be removed mechanically by carefully chipping the bark. the injured portion and base of the tree, and any exposed root should be swabbed with / drenched in chlorpyriphos 0.2% solution (raviprasad et al, 2009 and sundararaju and bakthavatsalam, 1994). fig 6. cashew intercropped with pineapple and gooseberry (top), elephant foot yam (left) and brinjal (bottom) j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (1): 1-16, 2010 bhat et al 7 in brazil, progression of gummosis in cashew trunks could be mitigated by application of benomyl either alone, or, in combination with copper oxychloride (cardoso and freire, 1998). entomopathogens like metarhizium anisopliae and beauveria bassiana are known to cause mycosis in grubs of csrb (bhat and raviprasad, 1996). spores of m. anisopliae survive for three months under field conditions. mixing the spawn with organic matter like fym, neem cake and cashew apple, can enhance spore load under field condition. newly-planted grafts should be trained to bear branches at a height of 0.75m to 1.00m from ground level for facilitating inspection and pest management techniques effectively. tea mosquito bug (tmb) under the west coast conditions, three species of tea mosquito bug helopeltis (h. antonii s., h. theivora w. and h. bradyi w.) infest cashew, whereas, in other regions, only one species (h. antonii) attack cashew. however, in all the regions, h. antonii is the dominant species infesting cashew, causing severe damage. both nymphs and adults suck sap from tender shoots and leaves, floral branches and from developing nuts and apples by making a number of feeding lesions. during outbreaks of the pest, the entire flush dries up and trees present a scorched appearance. this pest has a potential to cause 100% loss in yield. however, on an average, yield loss of about 30% is caused as a result of damage by this pest (fig. 7). all the recommended cashew varieties are susceptible to this pest. however, mid season/late season flowering cashew varieties are able to escape from the severity of the pest to some extent. cashew accession, goa 11/6, showed consistent performance with yield of 2 t ha-1 under unsprayed situations, under moderate level of pestincidence. recently this accession has been released as variety ‘bhaskara’ from the directorate of cashew research, puttur (sundararaju et al, 2006). erythmelus helopeltidis gahan (hymenoptera: mymaridae) telenomus sp. (laricis group) (scelionidae) chaetostricha sp. (trichogrammatidae) and gonatocerus sp. nr. bialbifuniculatus subba rao are the egg parasitoids reported on this pest from west coast regions, while, ufens sp is an egg parasitoid reported from the east coast (vridhachalam). the build-up of tmb is naturally regulated through these egg-parasitoids (devashayam, 1989; and sundararaju, 1993a and sundararaju, 1996). however, their activities are naturally promoted under favourable weather conditions (increased minimum temperature and relative humidity) during vulnerable period (november-february). crematogaster wroughtonii forel (formicidae) has been recorded as a predator on nymphs of tmb. several species of spider, hyllus sp., oxyopes sehireta, phidippus patch and matidia sp., five species of reduviid bugs (sycanus collaris (fab), sphedanolestes signatus dist. and endochus inornatus stal., irantha armipes stal. and occamus typicus dist., have also been recorded as predators of the tea mosquito bug. aspergillus flavus and a. tamarii were confirmed to be pathogenic to h. antoni (ambika and abraham, 1979; devashayam and nair; 1986 and sundararaju, 1984). even though all groups of insecticides and several plant products (botanicals) were evaluated against this pest, none exhibited any ovicidal action (raviprasad et al, 2005). however, λ-cyhalothrin (0.003%) and carbaryl (0.1%) showed longest residual action against nymphs and adults (sundararaju et al, 1993). in the endemic areas, it is appropriate to spray three times with any of these insecticides during the most vulnerable periods of crop coinciding with flushing, flowering and fruiting of the crop, based on pest-incidence. spraying recommended insecticides is remunerative if the trees bear economical yield (>2.0 kg tree-1). although cashew is an insect-pollinated crop, spraying these insecticides during the flowering season did not influence fruit-set (pillai et al, 1984; rai, 1984 and sundararaju et al, 1993) leaf and blossom webber, shoot tip caterpillar and cashew apple and nut borer the other insect pests causing considerable damage to cashew are leaf and blossom webbers, shoot tip caterpillars and apple and nut borers, which damage shoots and blossoms, shoot tips, and, apple and immature nuts, respectively. leaf and blossom webber cashew shoots bearing fresh flushes and flowers are attacked by two species of leaf and shoot webbing fig 7. adult tmb (top) and damage caused by it (bottom) j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (1): 1-16, 2010 cashew research in india 8 caterpillars, lamida (= macalla) moncusalis wlk. (lepidoptera: pyralidae) and orthaga exvinaceae hamps. (lepidoptera: noctuidae). of these, moncusalis is a major pest in east coast tracts. symptoms of infestation are presence of webs on terminal portions, with clumped appearance, and drying of webbed shoot/ inflorescences. galleries of silken webs reinforced with plant scraps, and castings, indicate presence of caterpillars. shoot tip caterpillar the tiny, yellowish to greenish-brown larvae of the moth hypotima (=chelaria) haligramma m. (lepidoptera: gelechidae) damage shoot tips and inflorescences. tender shoot tips are bored occasionally upto 25-35 mm, leading to drying-up of shoot tips. this pest is regularly reported from the east coast tracts (mohapatra et al, 1998). apple and nut borers usually, these borers tunnel near the joint of the apple and the nut, and cause shrivelling and premature fall of fruits. damaged fruits can be easily located as the infested fruits have frass at the damaged portion. several lepidopteran species have been recorded as apple and nut borers of cashew. variable degree of damage by the most common species, thylocoptila paurosema m. (pyralidae), has been reported from different cashew-growing tracts. panerotoma sp. (braconidae) and trathala sp. (ichneumonidae), have been recorded as hymenopteran larval parasitoids of t. paurosema. even though incidence of shoot tip caterpillars and apple and nut borers was observed in all the recommended varieties of cashew, fruit-set was only partially affected in varieties that showed early mixed-phase of flowering, with male and hermaphrodite flowers; whereas, in varieties with an early male-phase, damage was severe, resulting in poor fruit-set. three rounds of insecticidal sprays recommended against tea mosquito bug also manage all these minor foliage pests, if infestation levels are low to medium (pillai et al, 1984). however, indiscriminate spraying must be avoided as the above mentioned pests are parasitised by a number of larval parasitoids. repeated spraying can also induce outbreak of secondary pests like mealy bug (ferrisia virgata) and aphids (toxoptera odinae). post-harvest technology cashew requires to be processed to get an edible kernel. various methods such as drum roasting, steam boiling and oil bath roasting have been employed for commercial processing. in recent times, drum roasting and steam roasting methods have been employed for processing. commercial processing by steam roasting involves drying of raw nuts, steam roasting them for 18-20 min, shelling the raw nuts, peeling, grading and packing the kernels under vacuum (ohler, 1979). equilibrium moisture content of cashew kernels has been shown to decrease with increasing temperature, at constant water activity (balasubramanian and narayanan, 2006). physical properties of raw cashew nuts as a function of moisture content has been studied (balasubramanian, 2001). equilibrium moisture content of raw cashewnuts at different levels of relative humidity has been determined. increase in the moisture content with relative humidity exhibits desorption isotherm up to 74.12%, but at 81.33% it follows adsorption isotherm. mould-growth and nut-deterioration took place after 28 days at 81.33% from commencement of the experiment. the data were fitted in the henderson’s equation and, by solving simultaneous equations, values of the constants were found to be 7.09 x 10-4 and 0.865 for c and n, respectively (balsubramanian, 1998). cavalcanti-junior et al (2004) reported that cashew nuts, after harvest, retained high water content. the water content should be reduced to values close to that of the hygroscopic balance. in this study, samples of dried and humid nuts were stored in airy and humid conditions for determining the hygroscopic curve. it was verified that more than 70% of the cashew nut humidity can be explained by relative humidity of the air and that the degree of humidity at the equilibrium points assumes two different values during the year: 11.4% in the dry season, and 13.6% in the rainy season, with an annual average of 12.5%. the device developed by tropical product institute (tpi) has a capacity of 11.5 kg kernels day-1 using cutting and sawing mechanism and the turnout was 76% whole kernels. the cardoso system uses knives to cut the shell into two halves and separates them by a push using a pin. the capacity with this is 240 nuts minute-1. the italian type sima process is based on a shelling machine for each size of graded nuts, with capacity of about 70 kg nuts hr-1. the nuts are cut with semicircular knives that have the same curves as the nut on the longitudinal section. the outturn of whole kernel was 53%. in oltremare system, the shells are cut longitudinally and separated by a pair of gripers, freeing the kernel, with an outturn of 80% whole kernel (hall, 1965). hand-operated shelling units used in thailand has a lever to lower the upper blade to cut the raw nut placed at j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (1): 1-16, 2010 bhat et al 9 the bottom and, also, to pry open the cut shells. the kernels are then extracted manually using a pin. however, it was found that use of hand for cutting was strenuous and was changed over to the pedal system, as reported by mathew (1995). centrifugal cracking is done in the sicol system (also called tonelli or albators), the jur system and the barbieri system. the nuts are placed in a certain position on a rotating disc and thrown with a speed of 250 km hr-1 against vertical placed knives. the capacity is 870-1200 kg nuts hr-1. the outturn of whole kernels is 67%. design considerations on the manually operated sheller used the new principle of press-twist action of the sheller’s blade, resulting in two versions, viz., manually operated sheller and semi-automatic sheller. cashew kernel packaging has evolved from the days of wooden cases to flexipackaging (fernandez et al, 2003). a comparative analysis was made of packaging of cashew kernels in tin containers and flexi-bags, in terms of cost-effectiveness and eco-friendliness. the additional investment involved in changing over from tin packaging to flexi packaging works out to an amount ranging from rs.4.57 lakh to 11.66 lakh, depending upon capacity of the machine installed. this investment can be recovered within a span of 56 to 96 days, based on the type of machine installed. flexi-packaging is cost-effective to both processor-exported and the importer, and is eco-friendly. lima et al (2004) investigated the effect of packaging and salting on cashew nut kernel stability during storage. cashew kernels with and without salt treatment were packed in flexible plastic bags laminated with aluminium foil, polypropylene (pp) vessels and low density polythylene bags (ldpe) and stored at room temperature (28°c). peroxide and acid values were evaluated on the lipid fraction, while, water activity, sensory acceptance and microbiological quality were evaluated for the kernels. peroxide showed high values at 150 days. microorganism count was lower than 105 for all treatments. salmonella sp., 45°c coliforms and staphylococcus aureus were not detected. sensory changes were observed under pp vessel packaging at 100 days and under ldpe packaging at 200 days. kernels packed in plastic/ aluminium foil laminate did not show sensory changes up to 250 days of storage, indicating higher stability. salting did not affect kernel quality during storage. cashew apple, the pseudo-fruit, is quite nutritious and rich in vitamin c. for every ton of raw-nut produced, 10 tons of apples are produced, which are not commercially exploited. various products such as juice, jam, jelly, pickle, etc. can be prepared from cashew apple. the technology for these has been developed by cftri (mysore), uas (bangalore), kau (madakkathara) and various other agricultural universities. various aspects such as development, nutritive value, value addition and host plant insect interaction in cashew has been reviewed recently (nagaraja, 2007, 2010). future strategies in order to face challenges within the country from other crops like rubber and mango, and to face challenges from countries like vietnam, brazil etc., research strategies need to be reoriented. areas needing emphasis in future research programmes are: crop improvement ● collection, conservation, evaluation and cataloguing of both exotic and indigenous cashew germplasm, especially dwarf and compact plant types ● development of compact and dwarf varieties suitable for high-density planting ● evolving varieties with high-yield, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, better flowering behaviour/ characters (synchronized and staggered), and, better kernel quality for domestic consumption and export ● standardization of protocol for regeneration of cashew from mature (tree) explants ● molecular characterization of germplasm through dna and isozyme markers ● identification of molecular markers linked to economic characters in cashew and construction of genpme maps crop management ● integrated plant nutrient management (ipnm) including nutrient budgeting, orchard management, weed management, irrigation management, micronutrient deficiency management and, soil and water conservation techniques, for achieving high yield ● canopy management and rejuvenation of old cashew plantations/orchards; canopy architecture and management to suit requirement for different plantdensities and system of planting ● detailed studies on high-density planting system to increase productivity of cashew ● integrated cashew-based farming systems research, j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (1): 1-16, 2010 cashew research in india 10 including cashew-based cropping system (mixed and intercropping) ● organic farming research, including biodynamic farming in cashew for producing quality nuts, especially for the international market ● physiology of flowering and off-season flowering, including studies on hormones ● studies on role of pollinators in cashew for enhancing yield crop protection ● studies on kairomones and pheromones for effective and economic control of tea mosquito bug and cashew stem and root borer ● development of eco-friendly ipm strategies, including entomo-pathogenic nematodes for control of major insect pests ● studies on pest complex at post-harvest and preprocessing stages ● investigation on panicle-drying in the absence of tea mosquito bug ● isolation of pheromones for control of tea mosquito bug ● intensification of survey, both in traditional and nontraditional cashew growing tracts, for identification of accessions with tolerance to pest attack ● conservation of natural enemies of these pests by avoiding indiscriminate use of insecticides ● development of eco-friendly pest-management practices using new molecules post-harvest technology ● development of value-added products from low grade kernels ● developing technologies for alternate use of byproducts of the cashew processing industry, such as cashew kernel rejects, cashew nut shell liquid (cnsl), cashew shell cake and cashew kernel testa ● exploring the possibility of cashew apple utilization for production of industrial alcohol / bio-fuel / syrup on commercial scale ● extraction of nutraceuticals such as natural colours, flavours, pectin and nutritionally beneficial compounds and minerals and crude fibre from cashew apple powder / pomace ● assessment of bio-availability of minerals in cashew ● refinement of on-farm processing machinery ● development of low cost mini cashew processing units, moisture meter for rawnuts ● development of dryers for drying the nuts during the rainy season transfer of technology ● development of farmer-friendly technologies through farmers’ participatory technology development programmes ● extension efforts to bridge the gap between actual yield and potential yield ● developing training methodologies for transfer of technology cashew acknowledgement authors express their sincere thanks to all the scientists of directorate of cashew research, puttur, d.k, karnataka for furnishing detailed information for preparation of this manuscript. type-setting by mr. r. muthuraju is gratefully acknowledged. references abdul salam, m. and peter, k.v. 2010. cashew a monograph. 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yadukumar, n., raviprasad, t.n., nagaraja, k.v., haldankar, p.m., godase, s.k., susanamma, k., gajendran, g., mahalingam, t., lenka, p.c., mohapatra, r.n. and bandyopadhyay, b. 2003. national agricultural technology project. final report on developing integrated production packages for enhancing productivity of cashew. national research centre for cashew, puttur, d.k., karnataka. 95pp yadukumar, n., rejani, r. and nandan, s.l. 2008. studies on green manuring in high density cashew orchards. j. plant. crops, 36:265-269 j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (1): 1-16, 2010 bhat et al introduction brinjal (solanum melongena l.) is one of the important vegetable crops of our own country and belongs to the family solanaceae. it features on the menu of virtually every household in india, irrespective of food preference, income level or social status. successful cultivation of the brinjal crop has been hindered by several insect pests and devastating diseases. among the diseases, bacterial wilt caused by ralstonia solanacearum (yabucchi et al, 1995) is a major limiting factor. this has been the most ubiquitous and serious bacterial disease throughout tropical, sub-tropical and temperate regions of the world (hayward, 1991). in india, this disease is of a major concern and is serious in parts of karnataka, kerala, orissa, maharashtra, madhya pradesh and west bengal (rao et al, 1976). yield losses ranging from 65 to 70% have been reported in brinjal (das and chattopadhyay, 1953). the disease is characterized by sudden wilting of the plant at flowering stage, by yellowing of foliage and stunted plant growth (kelman, 1953; rai et al, 1975) and an initial, brownish discoloration of vascular tissues occassionally accompanied by browning and rotting of tissues inside vascular bundles (smith, 1920). evaluation of brinjal genotypes against bacterial wilt caused by ralstonia solanacearum h.m. santhosha, k.m. indiresh, c. gopalakrishnan1 and t.h.singh1 university of horticultural sciences, bagalkot, india 1icar-indian institute of horticultural research hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru – 560089, india e-mail: san3070@gmail.com abstract forty brinjal genotypes were screened by artificial inoculation using ralstonia solanacearum inoculum at a concentration of 1.0 x 108 cfu/ml (o.d600 = 0.3). genotypes arka nidhi, haritha, swetha, surya, iihr-3, iihr-555, wcgr, r-2588, wl-2230, l-3261, l-3270, l-3272 and arka anand were found to be resistant to bacterial wilt, whereas, iihr-7, l-3263, l-3268 and l-3269 were moderately resistant. genotypes r-2584, r-2586, r2592, l-3260, l-3262, l-3264, l-3266 and l-3267 were moderately susceptible, and genotypes r-2580, r-2582, r-2587, r-2591, r2593 and r2595 were found to be susceptible. lastly, genotypes r-2581, r2594, r-2589, r-2590, wl-2232, pusa hybrid-6, arka shirish, r-2585 and r-2583 were found to be highly susceptible to bacterial wilt. resistant and moderately resistant genotypes showed longer incubation period. key words: brinjal, bacterial wilt, ralstonia solanacearum, genotypes j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):74-78, 2015 for management of bacterial wilt in the field, various control measures like crop rotation (cultural practice), use of antagonistic organisms (biological method) and application of chemicals (chemical control) are suggested. as the pathogen can survive or persist in the soil for several years, it is very difficult to control bacterial wilt by chemical applications, using antagonistic organisms or by cultural practices. therefore, mitigation of the disease using appropriate farming practices needs further development and adaptation (grimault and prior, 1990). therefore, search for resistant sources and incorporating those genes in commercial cultivars is a sound approach to the problem. material and methods the experimental material consisting of 40 genotypes was maintained in a homozygous state at the vegetable block, post-graduation centre, uhs campus, bengaluru. seeds of these genotypes were sown in protrays in the 1st week of august 2011. the experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design (rcbd), with three replications. a row consisting of 15 plants constituted a replication under each treatment. the 40 genotypes, including resistant (arka anand) and susceptible check (pusa hybrid-6) were 75 subjected to artificial inoculation which made on seedlings in portrays, a day prior to transplantation into the main field. a slight injury was made to the root with a sterile knife before inoculating while withholding irrigation for a day. three ml volume of the inoculum at a concentration of 1.0 x 108 cfu/ml (o.d600 = 0.3) was poured into the root zone. thereafter, the seedlings were transplanted into the main field. ten days after inoculation, symptoms of wilting were seen. observations were made as per the scale suggested by zakir hussain et al (2005). observations on (i) days to 50% bacterial wilt, (ii) bacterial wilt at different stages of plant growth, and (iii) cumulative bacterial wilt incidence at 50 days after inoculation were recorded. observations were recorded at intervals of 10 days, with the last observation made at 50 days after inoculation. results and discussion any breeding programme, including any that involves host-plant resistance to a pathogen, must begin with an extensive screening of germplasm. success in finding resistance to bacterial wilt is directly related to availability of resistant genotypes in the germplasm. development of varieties/ hybrids with suitable horticultural traits is a slow process, despite availability of sources of resistance. this is due to the unstable nature of resistance under different environmental conditions, which has necessitated the breeder to explore better sources of resistance in the cultivated brinjal for breeding bacterial wilt resistance. the 40 genotypes were screened against race-i, biovar 3. genotypes arka nidhi, haritha, shwetha, surya, iihr-3, iihr-7, iihr-555, wcgr, r-2588, r2592, wl2230, l-3260, l-3261, l-3262, l-3263, l-3268, l-3269, l3270, l-3272 and arka anand (resistant check) showed no 50% wilt even at 50 dai. however, most genotypes like pusa hybrid-6, l-3267, r-2581, r-2589, r2593 and r2583 took the least number of days to show 50% wilt incidence. genotypes r-2586, l-3266 and r-2584 took the maximum number of days to express 50% wilt. least number of days taken to express 50% wilt in a genotype shows occurrence of a shorter incubation period, and, such genotypes were highly susceptible to ralstonia solanacearum under field conditions; while, in some genotypes, no 50% wilt even at 50 dai shows occurrence of a longer incubation period. therefore, these genotypes are able to withstand attack from ralstonia solanacearum under field conditions, without any great loss in economic yield. results of the present study are in agreement with those of zakir hussain et al (2005) (table 1). genotypes pusa hybrid-6 (at 0-10 and 11-20 dai), followed by r2595 (at 0-10 dai), r2593 (at 11-20 dai) and r-2591 (at 11-20 dai) recorded comparatively higher wilt incidence, indicating that it was the stage that was critical for genotypes becoming susceptible to bacterial wilt. compare this to the genotypes shwetha, surya, iihr-3, iihr-7, iihr-555, wl-2230, l-3261, l-3270 and wcgr, where none, or very low, wilt-incidence was recorded. at 21-30, 31-40 and 41-50 dai, most genotypes showed medium to low level of wilt. most of the susceptible genotypes showed a susceptible reaction in their early stages of growth (0-10 and 11-20 dai). similarly, hoque et al (1981) recorded higher incidence of wilt in tomato in the early stage of crop growth, i.e., the first symptom of wilt was observed by them on the 15th day from inoculation. data on wilting collected by them at 43 days after inoculation varied from 13.3% to 100%. significant difference was observed for cumulative bacterial wilt incidence at 50 dai among the eggplant genotypes studied. highest incidence was recorded in wl2232, followed by r-2590, arka shirish and pusa hybrid-6. lowest incidence was recorded in the genotypes surya, iihr-3 and l-3270. in the present study, during screening of the genotypes, air temperature and relative humidity recorded were 19-28°c and 51-94%, respectively. these factors, together with impact from soil moisture and soil temperature, may have influenced resistance reaction of the genotypes. among the various genotypes used in this trial, only arka nidhi, haritha, shwetha, surya, iihr-3, iihr-555, wcgr, r-2588, wl-2230,l-3261, l-3270, l-3272 and arka anand were resistant to bacterial wilt; iihr-7, l-3263, l3268 and l-3269 were found to be moderately resistant. vasse et al (2005) reported that resistance exhibited by various genotypes may be due to the secondary metabolism of polyphenols, and the higher concentration of steroidal glycoalkaloids present in resistant plants, thereby preventing bacterial movement into the vicinity of the plant system (by their action as a repellent). further, prior et al (1994) reported that inhibitor extracts, tyloses and gums in resistant plants act like filters, thereby preventing bacterial movement within a plant system. among the genotypes used in our experiment, arka nidhi, haritha, shwetha, surya, iihr-3, iihr-555, wcgr, r-2588, wl-2230, l-3261, l-3270, l-3272 and arka anand graded as resistant to bacterial wilt, whereas, iihr-7, lj. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):74-78, 2015 evaluation of brinjal genotypes against bacterial wilt 76 table 1. reaction of eggplant genotypes at different stages of plant growth to bacterial wilt pathogen (%) under field conditions sl. genotype days bacterial wilt incidence (%) cumulative disease no. to 50% 0-10 dai 11-20 dai 21-30 dai 31-40 dai 41-50 dai bacterial reaction bacterial wilt wilt incidence at 50 dai (%) 1 arka 5 (12.63) 2.5 (9.09) 5 (12.92) 2.5 (9.09) 0 15.00 (22.73) resistant nidhi 2 haritha 2.5 (9.09) 0 0 12.5 (20.63) 1.66 (4.31) 16.67 (23.93) resistant 3 shwetha 0 0 0 5 (12.92) 0 5.00 (12.92) resistant 4 surya 0 0 0 0.83 (3.03) 1.66 (4.31) 2.50 (7.34) resistant 5 iihr-3 0 0 0 0 2.5 (9.09) 2.50 (9.09) resistant 6 iihr-7 0 0 0 15 (22.59) 10 (18.04) 25.00 (29.91) moderately resistant 7 arka 18 36.04 (36.86) 25 (29.97) 13.63 (21.60) 0.83 (3.03) 12.5 (20.63) 88.00 (70.17) highly shirish susceptible 8 iihr-555 0 0 0 0 20 (26.44) 20.00 (26.44) resistant 9 wcgr 2.5 (9.09) 0 2.5 (9.09) 0 0 5.00 (12.92) resistant 10 r-2580 26 5 (10.45) 25 (29.91) 25 (29.91) 15 (22.59) 2.5 (7.34) 72.50 (58.89) susceptible 11 r-2581 12 35 (36.22) 37.5 (37.74) 7.5 (15.89) 0 2.5 (9.09) 82.50 (65.59) highly susceptible 12 r-2582 24 20 (26.53) 27.5 (31.60) 15 (22.73) 1.66 (4.31) 0 64.17 (53.23) susceptible 13 r-2585 18 27.5 (31.60) 35 (36.26) 20 (26.44) 2.5 (9.09) 0.83 (3.03) 85.83 (68.63) highly susceptible 14 r-2583 15 22.62 (28.36) 33.28 (35.20) 13.79 (21.73) 12.04 (19.19) 0 81.74 (63.94) highly susceptible 15 r-2584 36 0.93 (3.20) 27.59 (31.66) 19.48 (26.15) 5.52 (13.34) 0 53.52 (47.01) moderately susceptible 16 r-2586 50 2.5 (9.09) 15 (22.73) 10 (18.43) 17.33 (24.43) 5 (12.92) 49.83 (44.89) moderately susceptible 17 r-2587 19 7.38 (15.61) 42.62 (40.73) 14.06 (21.97) 0 0 64.06 (53.15) susceptible 18 r-2588 7.5 (15.23) 5 (12.63) 0 0.83 (3.03) 0 13.33 (20.75) resistant 19 r2592 3.57 (6.36) 7.04 (15.29) 21.47 (27.57) 10.23 (18.56) 0 42.33 (40.54) moderately susceptible 20 r-2589 14 35 (36.26) 27.5 (31.60) 15 (22.78) 2.5 (9.09) 1.66 (4.31) 81.67 (64.63) highly susceptible 21 r-2590 16 26.49 (30.93) 23.18 (28.76) 26.49 (30.95) 6.29 (14.40) 5.62(13.36) 88.07 (69.88) highly susceptible 22 r-2591 19 5.29 (13.00) 47.02 (43.27) 8.77 (17.09) 0 14.73(22.50) 75.82 (60.65) susceptible 23 r2593 14 12.5 (20.70) 50.34 (45.17) 9.46 (17.81) 6.08 (14.14) 0 78.38 (62.29) susceptible 24 r2594 30 12.5 (20.63) 25.34 (30.20) 15 (22.78) 15 (22.73) 13.5 (20.63) 81.33 (63.68) highly susceptible 25 l-3261 0 5 (12.63) 0 0 0 5.00 (12.63) resistant 26 r2595 20 38.25 (38.19) 15.75 (23.37) 11.08 (19.23) 1.5 (4.08) 1.85 (4.54) 68.44 (55.84) susceptible 27 wl-2230 0 7.5 (15.74) 5 (12.63) 5 (10.45) 0 17.50 (24.07) resistant 28 wl-2232 18 28.12 (32.05) 35.09 (36.28) 11.25 (19.54) 17.54 (24.72) 0 92.09 (73.78) highly susceptible 29 l-3260 2.9 (9.80) 17.53 (24.71) 0 14.9 (22.65) 11.25(19.39) 46.59 (43.02) moderately susceptible 30 l-3262 5 (12.92) 17.5 (24.68) 10 (18.04) 10 (18.04) 5 (12.63) 47.50 (43.54) moderately susceptible 31 l-3269 2.54 (7.40) 15.4 (23.04) 7.63 (15.88) 0.86 (3.09) 5.03(12.69) 31.46 (34.10) moderately resistant 32 l-3263 5 (12.63) 20 (26.55) 0.83 (3.03) 0 0.83 (3.03) 26.67 (31.07) moderately resistant 33 l-3264 26 22.5 (28.28) 25 (29.97) 5 (12.92) 1.66 (4.31) 0.83 (3.03) 55.00 (47.85) moderately susceptible santhosha et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):74-78, 2015 77 3263, l-3268 and l-3269 graded as moderately resistant to bacterial wilt. however, further research is needed to evaluate level of resistance of the genotypes under different agro-climatic zones of the country, to study the stability of resistance to various races of ralstonia solanacearum. acknowledgement santhosha, h.m. is grateful to department of science and technology, govt. of india, new delhi, for awarding inspire fellowship (2010–2013) to pursue this work at college of horticulture (bengaluru campus), university of horticultural sciences, bagalkot references grimault, v. and prior, p. 1990. approach des mecanismes de resistance a fletrissement bactarian (pseudomonas solanacearum e.f. smith) chez la tomato. in: society franchaise de phytopahologie, zenus congress de la sfp, montpellier, pp. 28-30 das, c.r. and chattopadhyay, s.b. 1953. bacterial wilt on eggplant. indian phytopathol., 8:130-135 hayward, a.c. 1991. biology and epidemology of bacterial wilt caused by pseudomonas solanacearum. annu. rev. phytopathol., 29:65-87 hoque, m.o., ho, m.l. and chowdhury, b.c. 1981. screening tomato varieties for resistance to bacterial wilt. bangladesh j. agril. res., 6:55 kelman, a. 1953. the bacterial wilt caused by pseudomonas solanacearum: a literature review and bibliography. north carolina agril. expt. stn. technical bulletin, 99:194-197 prior, p., grimault, v. and schmit, j. 1994. resistance to bacterial wilt (pseudomonas solanacearum) in tomato: present status and prospects. in: hayward, a.c., hartman, g.l., (eds.). bacterial wilt: the disease and its causative agent, pseudomonas solanacearum. cab international, wallingford, 209 p. rai, p.v., shivappasetty, k.k.a. and vasanthasetty, k.p. 1975. bacterial wilt of petunia and its source of inoculum. curr. res., 4:173-174 rao, m.v.b., sohi, h.s. and vijay, o.p. 1976. reaction of some varieties of brinjal to pseudomonas solanacearum. veg. sci., 3:61-64 smith, e.f. 1920. brown rot of pseudomonas solanacearum. an introduction to bacterial diseases table 1. contd... sl. genotype days bacterial wilt incidence (%) cumulative disease no. to 50% 0-10 dai 11-20 dai 21-30 dai 31-40 dai 41-50 dai bacterial reaction bacterial wilt wilt incidence at 50 dai (%) 34 l-3266 42 13.38 (21.42) 26.25 (30.80) 6.52 (14.72) 4.45 (11.84) 2.39 (8.89) 52.99 (46.70) moderately susceptible 35 l-3267 12 27.5 (31.60) 31 (33.81) 0 1.13 (3.54) 0 59.63 (50.55) moderately susceptible 36 l-3268 1.94 (4.64) 14.56 (22.38) 11.58 (19.82) 0 0 28.09 (31.89) moderately resistant 37 l-3270 0 2.5 (9.09) 0 0 0 2.50 (9.09) resistant 38 l-3272 2.5 (9.09) 5 (12.92) 0.83 (3.03) 0 2.5 (9.09) 10.83 (19.18) resistant 39 arka 5 (12.63) 2.5 (9.09) 0 0 0 7.50 (15.74) resistant anand (resistant check) 40 pusa 11 47 (43.26) 38.25 (38.18) 2.56 (7.46) 0 0 87.81 (69.69) highly susceptible hybrid-6 (susceptible check) level of ** ** ** ** ** ** significance sem± 1.14 0.93 1.22 0.93 0.56 2.03 cd @ 5% 3.21 2.64 3.45 2.64 1.58 5.72 cv (%) 12.21 7.35 16.59 18.65 15.66 8.47 dai – days after inoculation; figures in parentheses are angular transformed values j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):74-78, 2015 evaluation of brinjal genotypes against bacterial wilt 78 of plants. w.b. saunder co., phildelphia, u.s.a., pp. 177-201 vasse, j., danoun, s. and trigalet, a. 2005. microscopic studies of root infection in resistant tomato cultivar hawaii 7996. in: allen, c., prior, p. and hayward, a.c. (eds.). bacterial wilt disease and the ralstonia solanacearum species complex. aps press, st. paul, minnesota, usa, 285 p. yabucchi, y., ikuya, y., hisako, h. and yukiko, n, 1995. transfer of two burkholderia and an alacaligenes species to ralstonia genome. microbiol – immunol., 39:897-904 zakir hussain, m., rahman, m.a. and bashar, m.a. 2005. screening of brinjal accessions for bacterial wilt caused by ralstonia solanacearum. bangladesh j. bot., 34:53-58 (ms received 12 april 2014, revised 18 may 2015, accepted 26 may 2015) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):74-78, 2015 santhosha et al / . hott. sci. vol. 1 (1): 61-63, 2006 influence of morphological characters on the yield of apricot {prunus armeniaca l.) a statistical approach p. k. mahajan and m. thakur department of basic sciences dr. y. s. parmar university of horticulture & forestry nauni (solan) 173230, india e-mail:pawan_uhf@yahoo.com abstract discriminate analysis was carried out to formulate the categorization rule for allocating the apricot tree to "high yielder group" and "low yielder group". factor analysis method was also applied to extract the basic factors underlying the observed morphological characters of apricot for both the high and low yielder groups. the study brought out five basic factors explaining 69.35% of the total variation in the case of high yielder population and six factors explaining 74.14% of the total variation in the case of low yielder population, respectively. the first factor in both the populations contains the same variables viz. stem girth, number of branches and leaf area which indicate that these variables play an appreciable/significant role in increasing the yield of apricot (21 % in the case of high yielder and 16.33% in the case of low yielder population). key words: apricot, morphological character, yield introduction apricot {prunus armeniaca l.) is an important fruit crop of temperate regions of the world. in india, it is one of the most remunerative fruit crops cultivated in the mid hill zone of himachal pradesh. for improvement in productivity of a crop having enriched qualitative properties, the genetic selection of desirable traits is of utmost importance. impact of morphological characters of a fruit crop on yield is desirable for its crop improvement programme and this can be achieved through multivariate statistical techniques. moore (1965), for the first time, reported the use of multivariate analysis for quantifying yield component interactions in a horticultural crop. ramachander et al (1979) used factor analysis in onion and reported two basic factors representing indices of plant vigour and flowering responsible for increasing the yield of onion. schrevens et al (1995) used principal component analysis. factor analysis and biplots to characterize the quality evaluation of tomatoes during shelf life in relation to specific treatments. in this paper, an attempt has been made to bring out the basic factors (linear combination of morphological characters) contributing significantly towards the yield by using discriminant and factor analyses. the techniques are described in detail in standard statistical books such as anderson (1958) and kendal and stuart (1968). material and methods the data for the present investigation were taken on the 'new castle' variety of apricot, growing in the research farm of the department of pomology of the dr y s parmar university, solan during the year 2003. the optimum sample size (n = 30) of trees was determined by following a two step approach proposed by stein (1945) and cox (1952). thereafter, thirty apricot trees were selected using simple random sampling technique (without replacement) from an orchard having one hundred trees of 25 years old plantation. from each of these thirty trees, four branches were chosen randomly from each of the four directions as per the practice in vogue and observations on the following characters were recorded: xj: number of spurs per branch x^: length of spurs (cm) x3 : number of flowers per branch x^: number of fruits per branch xj : fruit weight (g) x^: stem girth (cm) xg: height of tree x^: number of branches xjg : leaf area (cm) x : spread of tree xg: annual shoot extension growth (cm) discriminate analysis was carried out to define a mailto:pawan_uhf@yahoo.com mahajan and thakur systematic and statistically valid procedure for categorizing the trees as 'low' and 'high' yielder. to bring out the basic factors associated with the above referred morphological characters of apricot, the data of two populations-high yielder (population i) and low yielder (population ii)-were subjected to factor analysis. results and discussion observations were first divided into two groups on the basis of previous year's data. thereafter, a discriminant function was fitted by considering the above referred eleven characteristics and was found to be d = -5.023+0.648x,+0.016x, 4 5 this equation reveals that the characters of fruit weight (xj) and number of fruits (x )̂ play a significant role to discriminate the two groups. to test the statistical hypothesis of no difference in mean vectors {[i^ and î̂ ) of eleven characters for these two groups, the value of wilk's lambda (a) was obtained to be 0.214. in turn, the computed value of chi-square (x^) was 151.887 and hence the hypothesis of equality of group mean vectors was rejected. having found that the groups differ statistically, the table 1. rotated factor matrix population i (high yielder) individuals/trees were assigned to group i (high yielder) if d > m otherwise to group ii (low yielder), where m=0.359 is the average of groups centroids. the groups formed on the basis of this allocation rule were subjected to factor analysis and population wise the results are discussed below: population i (high yielder) the rotated factor matrix and communalities are given in table 1. this table reveals that the first five factors be retained and the sixth factor corresponding to an eigen value x = 0.945 is ignored (guttman's lower bound principle according to which any ^<1 should be ignored). ignoring the non-significant correlations, the orthogonal factors extracted can be expressed as: factor f, = 0 . 7 5 x 5 + 0 . 6 8 x ; q + 0 . 6 1 x , f, = 0 . 7 6 x , + 0 . 7 5 x , f3=0.71x,+0.57xg_+0.51x5 f^ =0.71x2+0.45x7 f5 = 0.58x3+0.39x,+0.35x5 variance explained (% of total) 21.00 14.91 13.90 09.81 09.73 variables number of spurs (x,) length of spur (x )̂ no. of flowers per branch (xj) no. of fruits per branch (x )̂ fruit weight (x^) shoot extension (x )̂ stem girth (x,) height of tree (x^) no. of branches (x,) leaf area (x^^) spread of tree (x,,) eigen values f. 0.545 -0.350 -0.354 0.234 -0.088 0.074 0.613 -0.350 0.748 0.682 0.412 2.310 *variable's highest loading is underlined table 2. rotated factor matrix variables number of spurs (x,) length of spur (x )̂ no. of flowers per branch (x3) no. of fruits per branch (x^) fruit weight (xj) shoot extension (x^) stem girth (x,) height of tree (x^) no. of branches (x,) leaf area (x ĵ) spread of tree (x^^) eigen values f. 0.383 0.243 -0.276 0.066 0.531 0.763 -0.023 -0.465 0.748 -0.181 -0.486 1.640 f, 0.042 -0.205 -0.273 0.719 0.512 0.197 0.043 0.571 -0.346 -0.343 0.376 1529.000 population ii (low yielder) f. 0.316 -0.194 -0.158 0.239 0.105 -0.162 0.715 0.326 0.544 0.781 -0.118 1.796 f, 0.439 -0.018 0.435 -0.099 -0.408 0.100 0.404 0.583 -0.507 0.201 -0.252 1.436 f, 0.350 0.248 -0.113 0.700 0.502 -0.033 -0.106 0.402 -0.100 0.044 0.406 1.396 f. -0.377 0.706 -0.152 0.267 -0.086 -0.054 0.455 -0.177 -0.220 0.214 -0.007 1.079 f. -0.346 0.533 -0.328 -0.060 0.333 0.504 0.430 0.120 -0.168 -0.025 -0.410 1.355 f, -0.389 -0.179 0.575 0.385 0.348 0.014 -0.203 -0.378 0.175 0.259 -0.005 1.069 f, -0.371 -0.445 0.388 0.362 0.269 0.142 -0.139 0.298 0.246 0.007 -0.299 1.122 f. 0.272 0.348 0.108 -0.099 0.388 -0.395 -0.091 -0.229 0.060 -0.339 0.490 0.945 f. 0.118 -0.450 -0.018 -0.197 0.144 0.767 -0.031 -0.078 -0.074 0.142 0.388 1.051 communalities 0.833 0.840 0.930 0.915 0.879 0.847 0.713 0.906 0.875 0.789 0.805 communalities 0.703 0.892 0.919 0.842 0.838 0.911 0.892 0.794 0.660 0.759 0.880 •variable's highest loading is underlined / hon. sci. vol. 1 (1): 61-63, 2006 62 morphological characters on the yield of apricot in the present case, the first factor (f,) is a combination of number of branches (x^), leaf area (xĵ ) and stem girth (x^). this factor signifies plant vigor, which indicates the general health of the plant. the second factor (f )̂ is the combination of the annual shoot extension growth (xg) and number of branches (x^). if we ignore the relative low weighting 0.53 of fruit weight, the second factor (f )̂ signifies plant growth. the third factor (f3) is the combination of number of fruits (x^), height of tree (x-^) and fruit weight (x^). this factor signifies yield factor. the fourth factor (f )̂ is the combination of length of spurs (xj) and stem girth (x^). this factor signifies volume and spur of plant and the fifth factor (f^) is combination of fruit weight (x^), number of fruits per branches (x )̂ and number of flowers per branches (x3). this factor may be regarded as fruitfiilness or fruiting. population ii (low yielder) as per eigen values (table 2), six factors extracted along with the contributing variances are given below: factors variance explained (% of total) 16.33 13.05 12.69 12.32 10.20 09.55 f, = 0.78x,„+0.72x^+0.54x5 f^ = 0.58xg+0.44x,+0.43x3 f, = 0.70x,+0.50x, 3 4 5 f, = 0.53x,+0.50x,+0.43x, 4 2 6 7 r = 0.39x,+0.36x, 5 3 4 f = 0.77x,+0.39x„ o o 11 in this case, first factor (fj) is the combination of leaf area (x^ )̂, stem girth (x )̂ and number of branches (x(,). this factor signifies the plant vigour, which indicates the general health of a plant. the second factor (f )̂ may be interpreted as the plant vigour and fruitfulness factor. third factor (fj) is the combination of the number of fruits (x )̂ and weight of fruits (x^). this factor signifies the yield factor. fourth factor (f )̂ is the combination of length of spurs (xj), annual shoot extension growth (x^), stem girth (x )̂ and spread of tree (xj,). this factor signifies the plant growth. fifth factor (f,) is the combination of the number of flower per branch (x3) and number of fruits (x^). it refers to the fruitfulness or fruiting. sixth factor (f^) is the combination of annual extension growth (x )̂ and spread of tree (xj,). this factor again signifies the plant growth. thus, the factor analysis has brought out the basic factors (after ignoring non significant correlations at 5% level of significance) associated with the morphological characters of the apricot for low yielder and high yielder populations. it is evident from the results that in the case of high yielder population stem girth, number of branches and leaf area are the variables that form part of the first factor. this factor accounts for 21 % of the total variation towards yield. the same variables were found to be responsible in forming the first factor which contributes 16.33% of the total variation towards yield in the case of low yield population. similar inference can be drawn from the remaining factors for both populations as detailed in the population wise discussion. it may be added that without resolution of the rotated orthogonal matrix to oblique axis, it would not have been possible to bring out the meaningful factors for apricot. references anderson, t.w. 1958. an introduction to multivariate statistical analysis. john wiley & co., london. 374p. cox, d.r. 1952. estimation of double sampling, biometrika, 39:217-27. kendal, m.g. and stuart, a. 1968. the advanced theory of statistics. vol. iii. charles griffin. moore, c.s. 1965. inter-relations of growth and cropping in apple trees studied by the method of component analysis. j. hort. sci.,. 40:133-49. ramchander, rr., biswas, s.r., singh, d.p. and pathak, c.s. 1979. factor analysis in onion (allium cepa l.). curr. sd.. 48:137. schrevens, e., neyens, k., verreydt, j., baerdemaeker, j.d.e., and portier, k. 1995. quality evaluation of fruit by means of multivariate analysis on nondestructive parameters. acta hort., 379:569-578. stein, c. 1945. a two sample test for a linear hypothesis whose power is independent of the variance. ann. math. statist., 16:243-258. (ms received 15 march 2006 revised 14 july 2006) j. hon sci. vol. 1(1); 61-63, 2006 63 effect of radiation interception and canopy temperature on growth, yield and quality in banana cv. grande naine (aaa) under different planting densities lanuakum, graceli i. yepthomi and c.s. maiti* department of horticulture school of agricultural sciences & rural development nagaland university, medziphema campus, medziphema-797 106, india *e-mail: csmaiti@yahoo.co.in abstract a study was made to test the effect of radiation interception and canopy temperature under different planting densities [t11.5m x 1.5m (4,444 plants/ha); t22m x 2m (2500 plants/ha); t31.5m x 2.5m (2666 plants/ha); t42m x 2.5m (2000 plants/ha); t52.5m x 2.5m (1600 plants/ha)] on growth, yield and quality in banana cv. grande naine. with an increase in planting density, plant height increased significantly. pseudostem was tallest in the closest spacing, viz., 1.5m x 1.5m (t1), and was shortest in the widest spacing, 2.5m x 2.5m (t5). t1 treatment (1.5m x 1.5m) recorded the least average-canopy-temperature (25.80oc/day) from the flowering to the harvest. t5 recorded the maximum average-radiation-interception, with a value of 432.16 lux/8 hr/day; whereas, t1 recorded minimum average-radiation-interception of 219.58 lux/8 hr/day. significant influence of spacing was seen on yield /ha. plants grown under higher density yielded comparatively higher yield (82.65 t/ha) under a spacing of 1.5m x 1.5m (t1). it is thus seen that growth parameters (pseudostem height and number of leaves) and yield/ha in banana was superior at a higher density (1.5m x 1.5m); whereas, in terms of quality of fruit (tss and total sugar content) spacing of 2.5m x 2.5m was superior. this indicates a positive influence of radiation interception and canopy temperature in banana production. key words: banana, grande naine, radiation interception, canopy temperature, high-density planting j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):172-176, 2015 introduction banana is one of the most common fruit crops in the world. its production is more highly industrialized than any other fruit crop. it is a fruit that can be planted any time excepting in the winter months (<10oc temperature), with appropriate spacing. however, choice of the right planting density is very important for bridging the gap between actual yield and potential yield per unit area in banana. effect of planting density on plant canopy temperature and light interception is crucial for vegetative growth, especially during flowering, and up to fruit maturity and harvest. this is so because banana requires abundant solar energy and light; therefore, productivity largely depends on efficient utilization of solar radiation. for optimal harvesting of solar radiation, planting density should be determined judiciously. similarly, canopy temperature in a plantation has significant effect on growth, development and production of individual plants. light is an important factor in fruit production. light plays a role in flower induction and fruit development through carbohydrate synthesis. robinson (2007) opined that radiation transmission to the floor of a plantation can be used as a good indicator of optimal planting density. however, he also concluded that the criterion for radiation transmission to the orchard floor for determining optimal plant density cannot be universal, and needs to be determined for a particular cultivar under locally prevailent conditions. as such, information is inadequate on banana cultivation under foothill conditions of the far-northeastern states of india. feasibility of different planting densities in banana needs to be worked out so that economic yield per unit area can be increased. with this view, the present investigation was made to assess the effect of radiation interception, canopy temperature, and planting density on growth, yield and quality in banana cv. grande naine. material and methods planting material used in the present study consisted of tissue culture banana cv. grande naine, planted at the four-leaf stage, at horticultural experimental farm of sasrd, nagaland university. the site is located at 173 radiation interception and canopy temperature in banana cv. grande naine 25o45’43’’n latitude and 93o53’04’’e longitude at an altitude of 310m above msl at the foothills of nagaland. it enjoys a humid, subtropical climate, with average rainfall ranging from 200cm to 250cm. mean summer temperatures range from 20oc to 35oc, and, the temperature ranges from 8oc to 15oc in the winter months. pits of 60cm3 size were dug at different spacings as per treatments, viz., t11.5m x 1.5m (4,444 plants/ha); t22m‘x 2m (2500 plants/ha); t31.5m x 2.5m (2666 plants/ha); t42m x 2.5 m (2000 plants/ha); and, t52.5m x 2.5m (1600 plants/ha). the experiment was laid out in randomized block design, consisting of five treatments with four replications. five plants from each treatment per replication were selected randomly for observations on various growth parameters. average canopy temperature was recorded (using a multi-functional infrared thermometer) at intervals of five days. average radiation intercepted by the plants was recorded using a digital light meter, calibrated at 20,000 x 10lux, in the morning (10 am) and the afternoon (3 pm) at intervals of five days. observations on yield attributes (inflorescence emergence, days to first bract-splitting, number of hands/bunch, number of fingers/bunch, number of fingers/hand; fruit weight, length of fruit, breadth of fruit, days to maturity, yield/plant and yield/ha) were recorded using standard methods. quality attributes of the fruit (total soluble solids, ascorbic acid, titratable acidity and total sugars) were determined as per aoac, 1984. mean difference and analysis of variance (anova) for the randomized block design were calculated as per panse and sukhatme (1995) to test the level of significance among treatments. all the cultural operations, fertilization, irrigation, etc. were applied as per standard recommendation for banana cultivation. results and discussion growth parameters effect of spacing on plant height was significant (table 1). this is in concordance with findings of mandal and sharma (1999). with increase in plant population (density), plant height increased significantly. pseudostem height was highest in the closest spacing (1.5m x 1.5m) (t1), and was lowest at the widest spacing (2.5m x 2.5m) (t5). results of the present findings are in conformity with observation of several workers (apshara and sathiamoorthy, 1999; nalina et al, 2000; badgujar et al, 2004; kesavan et al, 2002). increase in plant height may primarily be due to mutual shading of plants, resulting in a competitive growth for interception of available light. on the other hand, with increase in plant population (density), pseudostem girth decreased (table 1). this could be due to a competition between the closely-spaced plants for nutrients, moisture and light. noticeable, but not significant, effect of different spacings on length of the petiole at flowering was seen. number of leaves per plant varied significantly under differing planting densities. maximum number of leaves was recorded at a spacing of 1.5m x 1.5m (t1), while the minimum was seen at 2.5m x 2.5m (t5). all high-density treatments resulted in improved vegetative characters such as leaf number (nalina et al, 2000). spacing had little / minimal influence on number of suckers/plant at flowering. however, a slight increase in the number of suckers trended as the spacing increased. shading effect under close planting may have reduced the number of suckers produced, and their growth rate. effect of planting density on canopy temperature and radiation interception average canopy temperature at different densities tended to decrease with higher planting density (table 2). t1 (1.5m x 1.5m) recorded the least average canopytemperature (25.80oc/day) from flowering to the harvest; whereas, t5 (2.5m x 2.5m) recorded maximum average canopy-temperature (28.35oc/day). a similar trend was observed by robinson et al (1993). this may be due primarily to the development of a dense canopy, thereby altering the microclimate (around the canopy), leading to a table 1. effect of plant density on growth and yield in banana treatment pseudostem pseudostem length of no. of no. of fruit fruit fruit yield yield height at circumference petiole at leaves suckers at weight length breadth (kg/plant) (t/ha) flowering (cm) flowering flowering (g) (cm) (cm) (cm) (cm) t1 (1.5m x 1.5m) 87.13 27.93 26.23 11.25 3.25 120.25 15.33 12.05 18.60 82.65 t2 (2m x 2m) 79.60 30.00 25.75 11.00 3.50 128.00 16.20 12.15 18.90 47.25 t3 (1.5m x 2.5m) 85.28 28.33 25.98 11.00 3.50 126.25 15.75 12.10 18.65 49.72 t4 (2m x 2.5m) 76.88 30.08 25.65 10.75 3.50 133.00 16.43 12.25 19.13 38.05 t5 (2.5m x 2.5m) 74.90 31.70 24.55 10.25 3.75 142.75 16.73 12.65 22.53 36.04 c.d (p=0.05) 4.42 1.35 ns 0.38 ns 1.67 0.36 0.24 1.36 3.97 ns= non-significant j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):172-176, 2015 174 decrease in temperature. the negative, significant association between canopy temperature and various yield and quality attributes seen under different plant densities implies that temperature had a significant role in improving the yield in banana. average radiation-interception by the plant from flowering to harvest was markedly influenced by planting density (table 2). t5 recorded maximum average-radiationinterception (432.16 lux/8 hr/day), whereas t1 recorded the least average-radiation-interception (219.58 lux/8 hr/day). a decrease in average radiation intercepted by the plants may be due to the fact that at closer spacing, light incident at the ground level is low, with increasing size of the plantcanopy and plant age. this finding is also supported by nalina et al (2000) and ajitpal et al (2005). they reported high plant density as having a lower light-transmission-ratio than plants at a wider spacing. on the contrary, thippesha (2008) reported that solar radiation (in terms of light intensity) below the canopy, and percent light-interception by the crop canopy, were higher at higher planting density. morphological and yield traits in banana under various plant densities showed good correlation with the incident solar radiation. flowering and yield attributes t1 resulted in maximum number of days (323.50 days) taken to flowering, compared to t5 (289 days) (table 2). t5 gave maximum fruit weight (142.75g) (table 1). reduction in fruit weight under closer spacing may be a consequence of increasing planting density. it was also observed that plants grown under wider spacing resulted in maximum fruit length as well as maximum fruit breadth (16.73cm & 12.65cm, respectively). t5 also gave the highest yield/plant compared to the other treatments. significant results were obtained on influence of spacing on yield/ha: plants grown under higher population density yielded comparatively higher (82.65 t/ha) under a spacing 1.5m x1.5m (t1). several workers have shown that the highest yield per hectare in banana was obtained at the highest plant density studied (mustaffa, 1988; raveendra et al, 2004). increase in yield with increasing plant density can be ascribed to the higher number of fruits, leading to higher yield. fruit quality attributes fruit quality (tss, ascorbic acid, titratable acidity and sugar content) was significantly affected by planting density (table 3). tss was significantly influenced by plant density. plants under wider spacing (2.5x 2.5m) (t5) had maximum tss (23.73ob) compared to those grown under a closer spacing (1.5x1.5m) (t1) showing tss content of 20.98 ob. this is in concordance with findings of athani and hulamani (2000), and, nalina et al (2003) who reported tss content as decreasing with increasing plant density. experimental evidence confirmed that sugar content and ascorbic acid content in the fruit were significantly affected by plant density (table 3). a similar trend in increase in ascorbic acid content, with increasing plant density, was obtained by mustaffa (1988), and nalina et al (2003), respectively. correlation coefficient for various variables with mean canopy-temperature and average radiationinterception correlation coefficient (table 4) was higher, and either positive or negatively significant, except for number of suckers, bunch weight and tss. this indicated a strong table 2. influence of plant density on canopy temperature, radiation interception and flowering in banana treatment canopy radiation days to days to no. of no. of no. of days to temperature interception inflorescence first bract hands/ fingers/ fingers / maturity (flowering to (flowering to emergence splitting bunch bunch hand harvest) harvest) (oc/day) (lux/8hr/day) t1 (1.5m x 1.5m) 25.80 219.58 323.50 6.00 7.75 139.00 16.75 136.50 t2 (2m x 2m) 27.00 286.89 306.25 5. 25 8.25 147.00 17.25 118.50 t3 (1.5m x 2.5m) 26.70 266.28 312.00 5.50 8.25 146.75 17.25 129.25 t4 (2m x 2.5m) 27.90 385.96 297.25 5.25 8.50 154.74 17.25 110.75 t5 (2.5m x 2.5m) 28.35 432.16 289.75 5.00 8.50 158.25 18.25 101.25 c.d (p=0.05) 0.42 13.16 2.32 ns ns ns ns 2.41 ns= non-significant table 3. effect of planting density on fruit quality in banana treatment total ascorbic acidity total soluble acid (%) sugars solids (mg/100g) (%) (obrix) t1 (1.5m x 1.5m) 20.98 87.50 0.16 3.72 t2 (2m x 2m) 21.28 87.50 0.14 3.81 t3 (1.5m x 2.5m) 21.25 87.50 0.14 3.75 t4 (2m x 2.5m) 21.80 62.50 0.08 4.76 t5 (2.5m x 2.5m) 23.73 50.00 0.06 4.88 c.d (p=0.05) 0.17 17.44 0.02 0.07 lanuakum et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):172-176, 2015 175 association between the various traits studied under the influence of canopy temperature and radiation interception. canopy temperature was significantly and positively associated with number of fingers per bunch, fruit weight and fruit acidity. negative, significant association in traits like plant height, number of leaves and days to inflorescenceemergence was observed with canopy temperature and plant density. a negative association between canopy temperature and various yield attributes implies that temperature and plant density influence yield in banana. most of the economic characters were negatively correlated with the radiation intercepted. for most of the characters studied, the correlation coefficient values were higher, indicating an influence of solar radiation for enhancing various yield and quality attributes, either negatively or positively. number of fingers per bunch, and fruit weight, had a strong and positive correlation with radiation interception. this positive association suggests that influence of solar radiation can help realize higher yields. correlation of radiation interception with plant height, number of leaves, days to inflorescence emergence and fruit acidity were negatively significant, indicateing that plant density and solar radiation influence yield and quality attributes in banana cv. grande naine. table 4. correlation coefficient for various variables with mean canopy temperature and average radiation interception variables correlation correlated coefficient x y mean canopy height of the plant (cm) -0.958** temperature (oc) number of leaves -0.933* number of suckers 0.895*ns days to inflorescence emergence -0.997** number of fingers/bunch 0.995** bunch weight (g) 0.749ns fruit weight (g) 0.963** tss (obrix) -0.487ns acidity (%) 0.951** total sugars (%) -0.862ns average radiation height of the plant (cm) -0.944** interception number of leaves -0.952** (lux/8 hr/day) number of suckers 0.854ns days to inflorescence emergence -0.976** number of fingers/bunch 0.982** bunch weight (g) 0.801ns fruit weight (g) 0.968** tss (o brix) -0.547ns acidity (%) -0.987** total sugars (%) -0.824ns ns: non-significant, *significant at 5%, **significant at 1% it may be concluded that growth parameters (pseudostem height and number of leaves) and yield/ha in banana was superior at a higher density of spacing 1.5m x 1.5m (t1 treatment). in terms of fruit quality, (tss and total sugar content) a spacing of 2.5m x 2.5m (t5) was found superior, which indicated a positive influence of radiationinterception and canopy-temperature in banana production. references a.o.a.c. 1984. official methods of analysis. association of official analytical chemists, 14 th edn., washington d.c., usa ajitpal singh, dhaliwal, g.s. and hundal, s.s. 2005. effect of planting distance on radiation interception behavior of guava (psidium guajava l.) j. agrometeorology, 7:220-224 apshara, s.e. and sathiamoorthy, s. 1999. effect of planting density and spacing on growth and yield of banana cv. nendran (aab). south indian hort., 47:1-3 athani, s.i. and hulamani, n.c. 2000. influence of plant density on quality parameters and yield in rajapuri banana. karnataka j. agril. sci., 13:224-227 badgujar, c.d., dusane, s.m. and deshmukh, s.s. 2004. influence of plant spacing on growth, maturity and yield of grand naine (aaa) banana. south indian hort., 52:13-17 kesavan, v., hill, t. and morris, g. 2002. the effect of plant spacing on growth, cycling time and yield of bananas in sub-tropical western australia. in: procs. int’l. symp. trop. & sub-trop. fruits, cairns, northern territory, australia, 26th nov-1st dec 2000, acta hort., 575:851-857 mandal, b.k. and sharma, s.b. 1999. growth and yield responses of robusta banana (aaa) at high densities. progressive hort., 31:138-143 mustaffa, m.m. 1988. effect of spacing and nitrogen on growth and fruit yield of robusta banana grown under rainfed conditions. south indian hort., 36:228-231 nalina, l., kumar, n. and sathiamoorthy, s. 2003. studies on high-density planting in banana cv. robusta (aaa). ii. influence on bunch and fruit quality traits. indian j. hort., 60:307-311 nalina, l., kumar, n. and sathiamoorthy, s. 2000. effect of high-density planting on light transmission and weed growth in banana cv. robusta (aaa). south indian hort., 48:93-95 panse, v.g. and sukhatme, p.v. 1995. statistical methods for agricultural workers. icar, new delhi, india radiation interception and canopy temperature in banana cv. grande naine j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):172-176, 2015 176 raveendra, b.h., amaresh, y.s. and divatar, a.b. 2004. studies on the effect of planting density on crop duration and yield in robusta banana. adv. pl. sci., 17:725-728 robinson, j.c., fraser, c. and eckstein, k. 1993. ultrahigh densities for banana at burgershall. inlighting bulletin no. 252, pp.9-10 robinson, t.l. 2007. effect of tree density and tree shape on apple orchard performance. acta hort., 732:405414 thippesha, d. 2008. effect of high-density planting systems on light interception in banana cv. robusta (aaa) with different levels of nutrition and spacing. envir. & ecol., 26:318-321 (ms received 15 november 2014, revised 06 may 2015, accepted 02 june 2015) lanuakum et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):172-176, 2015 marigold is one of the most popular flowering annuals cultivated in india. it is one of the commonly grown flowers, and is used extensively in religious and social functions in different forms. it has gained popularity among gardeners and flower dealers on account of ease of cultivation. in the recent past, the enterprise has become highly remunerative to traditional floriculture in india on account of various commercial uses of this flower. marigold is often referred to as the versatile crop with golden harvest. flower yield is mainly dependent on the number of flower-bearing, branches which can be manipulated by arresting vertical growth of the plant and by encouraging side shoots to develop, with apical-bud pinching. such side shoots have a better chance of bearing flowers and, in turn, lead to higher flower yield. similarly, application of growth retardants in horticultural crops has a marked broad-range of effects, both morphological and physiological. effect of growth retardants varies with plant species, variety, concentration, method of application, frequency of application and various other short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):109-111, 2015 effect of pinching and growth retardants on growth and flowering in african marigold cv. pusa narangi gainda k. sasikumar, v. baskaran* and k. abirami division of floriculture and landscaping icar-indian agricultural research institute (iari) new delhi – 110012, india *e-mail: vbaski01@gmail.com abstract a study on the effect of pinching and application of growth retardants on growth and flowering in african marigold cv. ‘pusa narangi gainda’ was carried out in the experimental field of division of floriculture and landscaping, indian agricultural research institute, new delhi. treatments comprised pinching, ccc applied at 1000ppm, 1500ppm or 2000ppm, mh at 500ppm, 1500ppm or 2000ppm; b-9 at 500ppm, 750ppm or 1000ppm, and a control (no pinching). ccc at 2000ppm recorded minimum plant height (46.0cm), maximum plant-spread (56.0cm) and maximum number of branches (19.0), whereas, maximum plant height (67.0cm), minimum plant-spread (29.66cm) and minimum number of branches (5.33) were recorded in control (non-pinching). as for flowering and yield, application of ccc at 2000ppm recorded maximum flowering-duration (25.33 days), number of flowers per plant (40), single-flower weight (119.46g), flower yield per plant (408.10g), flower yield per unit area (17.83t/ha) and seed yield per plant (17.80 g), maximum flower diameter (7.93cm) was recorded with application of ccc 2000ppm, whereas, minimum was recorded with pinching (6.2cm). spray of growth retardants enhanced flower yield compared to that in control (no pinching). maximum shelf-life of flower was recorded with ccc 2000ppm (3.66 days), whereas, minimum was recorded with pinching and non-pinching (2.33 days). thus, application of ccc at 2000ppm is superior to other treatments tested for increasing flower yield in marigold. key words: marigold, pinching, non-pinching, growth retardants factors influencing uptake and translocation of nutrients. in view of its importance in commercial flower production, the present investigation was initiated with an objective to develop suitable agro-techniques for enhanced flower production in african marigold cv. pusa narangi gainda. an experiment was conducted at the research farm of division of floriculture and landscaping, icar-indian agricultural research institute, new delhi. eleven treatments were imposed viz., chloremequat chloride (ccc) at 1000ppm (t1), 1500ppm (t2), 2000 ppm (t3); malic hydrazide (mh) at 500ppm (t4), 1000ppm (t5), 1500ppm (t6); alar (b-nine) at 500ppm (t7), 750ppm (t8), 1000ppm (t9); pinching (t10), and non-pinching [control] (t11). the experiment was laid out in randomized block design, with three replications. seedlings were transplanted at a spacing of 45cm x 45cm. meristematic bud was pinched three weeks after transplant. freshly-prepared growth retardants were sprayed at different concentrations. the first spray was *present address: central island agricultural research institute (ciari), port blair, andaman and nicobar islands, india 110 applied three weeks after transplanting, while the second spray was scheduled at five weeks after transplanting. five plants were randomly selected in the net plot area and tagged with labels in each treatment to record observation on growth and yield. crop management practices like nutrient irrigation weed management and plant protection measures were included as per requirement of the crop. data on various parameters were recorded and subjected to statistical analysis. data presented in table 1 reveal that pinching and application of different growth retardants at various levels influenced growth, flowering and yield significantly in marigold. the treatments were effective in suppressing plant height compared to control. ccc at 2000ppm recorded minimum plant height (46.0cm), maximum plant-spread (56.0cm) and maximum number of branches (19.0), whereas, maximum plant height (67.0cm), minimum plantspread (29.66cm) and minimum number of branches (5.33) were recorded in the control (non-pinching). these findings are in accordance with jay et al (1991), girwani et al (1990), narayana gowda and jayanthi (1991), and dutta and ramadas (1997) in chrysanthemum. this response may be due to inhibition of ga synthesis and breakdown of apical dominance, thereby resulting in auxin balance and enhanced differentiation of branching caused by ccc, as proposed by ninnemann et al (1964). early flowering (50.33 days) was recorded in non-pinching (control). late flowering was recorded with ccc 2000ppm and mh 1000ppm (66.66 days). these results are in congruence with narayana gowda and jayanthi (1991) and parmar and singh (1989) in chrysanthemum. delay in flowering may have been due to inhibition of ga synthesis. as for flowering and yield parameters, application of ccc at 2000ppm recorded maximum flowering-duration (25.33 days), number of flowers per plant (40), single-flower weight (119.46g), flower yield per plant (408.10g), flower yield per unit area (17.83t/ha) and seed yield per plant (17.80g), whereas, minimum flowering-duration (21 days), flower number per plant (17.0), flower weight (19.55g), flower yield per plant (243.23g), flower yield per unit area (10.03 t/ha) and seed yield (7.33g) were recorded in control (non-pinching). maximum flower diameter (7.93cm) was recorded with ccc at 2000ppm. results of the present study are in agreement with leena et al (1992) in gladiolus, dutta and ramadas (1997) and takuldar and paswan (1994) in chrysanthemum, and, syamal et al (1990) in marigold and china aster. this may probably be due to suppression of apical dominance, resulting in increased number of flowers table 1. effect of pinching and growth retardants on growth and flowering in marigold treatment plant plant no. of days to flowering number of flower single flower flower seed shelf-life height spread branches first duration flowers diameter flower yield per yield per yield per of flower (cm) (cm) per plant flowering per plant (cm) weight plant unit area plant (g) (days) (g) (g) (t/ha) t1-ccc 46.83 50.00 16.67 63.66 22.61 33.33 7.56 101.27 361.66 16.50 15.61 2.00 1000ppm t2-ccc 48.00 50.66 17.00 64.33 24.33 34.33 7.60 104.60 376.10 16.96 16.86 3.00 1500ppm t3-ccc 46.00 56.00 19.00 66.66 25.33 40.00 7.93 119.46 408.10 17.83 17.80 3.66 2000ppm t4-mh 48.00 35.66 14.66 63.66 21.66 26.66 6.63 101.83 350.00 16.53 16.18 3.00 500ppm t5-mh 48.00 44.00 15.66 66.66 22.66 27.33 7.00 107.23 341.03 14.53 16.86 3.33 1000ppm t6-mh 49.00 47.33 17.66 60.00 23.33 30.33 7.46 101.73 345.70 15.03 17.03 2.66 1500ppm t7-b-nine 48.00 37.33 10.66 61.66 22.00 31.33 7.10 94.87 385.46 16.56 17.73 3.00 500ppm t8-b-nine 54.33 39.83 14.00 56.00 22.33 30.00 7.40 98.13 378.90 14.96 17.48 3.00 750ppm t9-b-nine 56.33 44.66 16.33 62.00 22.66 28.33 7.60 104.73 382.43 15.16 16.78 3.00 1000ppm t10-pinching 52.33 34.00 9.33 60.00 23.00 24.00 6.20 93.90 388.30 13.13 13.01 2.33 t11-non 67.00 29.66 5.33 50.33 21.00 17.00 6.23 90.55 243.23 10.03 7.33 2.33 pinching (control) cd (p=0.05) 16.15 6.02 2.96 4.22 2.99 5.31 0.42 10.68 38.91 1.98 0.76 0.75 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):109-111, 2015 sasikumar et al 111 per plant and, ultimately, increased flower yield per hectare. our results clearly showed that spray of growth retardants enhanced flower yield compared to that in control (nonpinching). maximum shelf life of flower was recorded in ccc 2000 ppm (3.66 days) .similar results were obtained by raju dantuluri, (2000) who reported improved shelf life of flowers in asiatic hybrid lily cv. corrida with ccc treatment. the minimum shelf life of flowers was recorded in pinching and non pinching (2.33 days). thus, the present investigation revealed that application of ccc at 2000ppm was superior among the treatments tested for increasing flower yield in marigold. references dutta, j.p. and ramdas, s. 1997. growth and flowering response of chrysanthemum (dendranthema grandiflora tzelev.) to growth regulator treatments. orissa j. hort., 25:81-86 girwani, a., srihari babu, r. and chandrasekhar, r. 1990. response of marigold (tagetes erecta) to growth regulators and zinc. indian j. agril. sci., 60:220222 jay holcomb, eorse, d. turkey and mark a. rose 1991. effect of ga on inflorescence in u n i c o n a z o l e treated chrysanthemums. hort. sci., 26:312 leena ravidas, rajeevan, p.k. and val salakumari, p.k. 1992. effect of foliar application of growth regulators on the growth, flowering and corm yield of gladiolus cv. friendship. s. indian hort., 40:329-335 narayana gowda, j.v. and jayanthi, r. 1991. effect of cycocel and maleic hydrazide on growth and flowering of african marigold (tagetes erecta l.). prog. hort., 23:114-118 ninnemann, h., zeevart, j.a.d., kendy, h. and lacy, a. 1964. the plant growth retardant ccc as an inhibitor of gibberellin synthesis in fusarium moniliformae. planta, 61:229-235 parmar, a.s. and singh, s.n. 1989. effect of plant growth regulators on growth and flowering of marigold (tagetes erecta l.). s. indian hort., 31:53-54 raju dantuluri, v.s. 2000. effect of plant growth regulators and disbudding on growth and development of asiatic hybrid lily cv. corrida. m.sc. thesis, indian agricultural research institute, new delhi, 44p syamal, m.m., rajput, c.b.s., upadhyay, r.k. and singh, j.n. 1990. effect of ga3 and mh on growth, flowering and seed yield of marigold and china aster. indian j. hort., 47:439-441 talukdar, m.c. and paswan, l. 1994. effect of ga3 and ccc on growth and flowering of chrysanthemum (dendranthezma grandiflora tzvelev.) cultivar turmvuli. hort. j., 7:141-144 (ms received 08 july 2014, revised 25 may 2015, accepted 29 may 2015) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):109-111, 2015 factors affecting growth and flowering in african marigold j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 164-171, 2018 screening of probiotic strains for development of readyto -serve probioticated mango beverage k. ranjitha, harinder singh oberoi*, k.k. upreti, k. redappa division of post harvest technology and agricultural engineering, icarindian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, india. *email: harinder.oberoi@icar.gov.in; hari_manu@yahoo.com abstract out of the thirteen probiotic strains procured from different sources or isolated from the commercially available sachets, seven isolates showed growth in the ready to serve (rts) mango beverage. among the seven strains, only three strains, i.e., lactobacillus helveticus mtcc 5463, l. rhamnosus mtcc 5946 and saccharomyces boulardii showed significant growth in the mango beverage. these three strains were further evaluated for population build-up, physico-chemical and sensory evaluation parameters in the fermented mango beverage. based on the results of sensory scores, minimum threshold population required for classification as probioticated beverage and physico-chemical characteristics, l. helveticus was used for probiotication of the rts mango beverage. mango beverage fermented with l. helveticus mtcc 5463 showed an average score of 7.34 on a hedonic scale of 9 for overall acceptability, had an acidity of 0.29%, sugar concentration of 7.6% and ph of 4.4. probioticated mango beverage also had about 20 and 13% higher phenolics and flavonoids, respectively, compared to uninoculated rts mango beverage. this study has shown that the rts mango beverage inoculated with l. helveticus mtcc 5463 has potential for developing probioticated mango beverage. key words: probiotics, mango beverage, lactobacillius helveticus, non-dairy probiotics; cell population; sensory scores introduction fruit and vegetable beverages are healthy and refreshing foods consumed globally. probiotication is a means for further value addition to these products. probiotics are microbes known to impart health benefits and probiotication refers to fortification of foods with sufficiently high population of probiotics. intake of different probiotic organisms has been shown to have clinical benefits in various physiological or pathological situations. probiotics exert a positive effect on health through modulation of intestinal microbiota and stimulation of immune system. high content of vitamins, mineral salts, dietary fibres and antioxidants together with the absence of competing starter cultures render the fruit beverages as good matrices for the addition of probiotics (antunes et al., 2013; yoon, et al 2005, yoon et al, 2006). development of fruit and vegetable-based probiotic foods also presents a great prospect for the development of low cholesterol, animal derivatives and milk allergens free foods (céspedes, et al, 2013). furthermore, the huge availability of different types of fruits and vegetables in india could permit the production of variety of beverages, satisfying the variety of consumer’s preference. because of their pleasant taste and acceptability among consumers, probioticated fruit juices hold promise in providing health benefits to the consumers in addition to their sensory attributes. research on development of nondairy based products has surged largely, because of the increase in the population of lactose intolerant individuals and allergies associated with the milk based products. india ranks first among the world’s mango producing countries, accounting for 54.2% of the total mangoes produced worldwide (tharanathan et al. 2006). it is the most important commercial fruit crop grown in india with diverse genotypes with a wide variation in the size, shape, peel colour, pulp colour, 164 original research paper 165 strain selection for mango beverage probiotication j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 164-171, 2018 ta ste fla vour a nd other physico-chemica l characteristics.  ripe fruits generally are processed into canned and frozen slices, pulp, concentrate, nectar, jam, leather, bars, juices, puree, mango cereal flakes, toffee and various osmo-dried products. however, there is only a limited literature available on development of probioticated fruit beverages (kumar et al 2015; panghal et al 2017; reddy et al 2015). although the probioticated fruit beverages have distinct health benefits mentioned previously, the major impediments in developing probiotic fruit based products are low shelf life of the product even under refrigerated conditions, largely due to r eduction in ph and accumulation of organic acids; typical organic acid flavours generally not appreciated by the consumers and maintenance of the population of probiotic strains. probiotic viability is one of the important factors affecting the maintenance of the desired population levels of the selected probiotic strain. karimi et al (2011) suggested consumption of at least 100 g/ ml of probiotic food so as to achieve a population of 109 cfu per serving. in order to improve the growth and population of the probiotics, researchers have studied the effect of addition of prebiotics, such as oat flour, brewer’s yeast autolysate and cellulose in the fruit juices (perricone et al, 2015). commercially available products from companies like pepsico and danone are generally prepared from the juice concentrates through reconstitution or the mixture of different fruit purees to combat the impediments, mentioned in this paper. therefore, an attempt was made in this study to screen different probiotic strains and evaluate the potential of the screened isolate for development of ready-to-serve (rts) mango beverage. materials and methods sixstrains used in this study (lactobacillus fermentum mtcc1745 , l. brevis mtcc 1750, l. rhamnosus mtcc 1423, l. plantarum mtcc 1407, l. plantarum 9510 and l. fermentum mtcc 8711) were procured from microbial type culture collection (mtcc), imtech, chandigarh, india. the strains were sub-cultured on the medium as per the instructions from imtech, chandigarh. four strains namely, l. helveticus mtcc 5463, l. rhamnosus mtcc 5462, l. rhamnosus mtcc 5945 and l. rhamnosus mtcc 5946 were procured from anand agricultural university, anand, gujarat, india. these four strains were maintained on the mrs medium. the yeast strain sacchharomyces boulardii was isolated from a commercial formulation (econorm), while the bacterial strain (bacillus clausii) was isolated form enterogermina sachets purchased from a medical store in bengaluru, india .the contents from the econorm sachet were suspended in the autoclaved yeast extract peptone dextrose (yepd) broth and the inoculum from the broth was plated on to the yepd medium plates, one millilitre from enterogermina vial was suspended into the sterilized nutrient broth and the inoculum was plated on to the nutrient agar medium plates. the broth and the plates used for isolating the yeast and bacterial strain were incubated at 30 °c. all the dehydrated media were procured from hi-media pvt ltd, mumbai, india while all the other chemicals used during analytical work were procured from sisco research laboratories (srl), mumbai, india. preparation of rts mango beverage ready to serve (rts) mango beverage was prepared using the mango pulp . mango pulp was extracted from the sorted, washed, ripe mango fruits (variety alphonso) harvested from the research fields of icar-indian institute of horticultural research (iihr), bengaluru, india in june 2018. small cuts were made at the top and bottom and longitudinal cuts were made on either side of the fruit for removal of the stone. the fruits after preliminary operations were subjected to pulping in the pulper having 1 hp motor (dharma technologies, tumkuru, karnataka, india), and the pulp extracted was sieved through 1/16 sieve. subsequently, the kernel along with the pulp adhering to it was subjected to pulping. pulp collected from both the operations was mixed and passed through 1/32 sieve to obtain fine pulp. ready to serve beverage was prepared using 20% pulp with total sugar concentration made to 15% (w/w) using refined sulphur free sugar (madhur sugar obtained from shree renuka sugars ltd, belgaum, karnataka, india) and potable water (treated using reverse osmosis process). initial sugar concentration in the mango pulp was estimated using the lane and eynon method as mentioned by ranganna (1995). acidity in the final beverage was adjusted to 0.2% using citric acid. the beverage was bottled in 200 ml transparent glass bottles which were cleaned with potable water, followed by detergent wash and again potable water wash. the glass bottles with cotton plugs and aluminium foil were suspended in boiling 166 ranjitha et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 164-171, 2018 water and maintained for 10 minutes in the boiling water. the crowns for the bottles were placed in a beaker which was also immersed in the same crucible as were the glass bottles. the prepared beverage was bottled in the bottles which were crowned a nd pasteurized at 85 °c for 15 minutes, cooled and stored under ambient conditions for the preparation of probiotic beverage. screening of the probiotic strains in order to ensure a uniform colony count before screening, a loopful of inoculum from all the thirteen cultures was suspended in 100 ml pre-sterilized ringer solution in 250-ml conical flasks separately. inoculum (0.1 ml) from each of the flasks was pour plated on to the pre-sterilized media plates aseptically. the flasks after inoculation were stored in the refrigerator. lactobacilli were plated on to the mrs medium plates, while the inoculum fr om the fla sks ha ving saccharomyces and bacillus cultures was plated on to the yepd and na medium plates, respectively. the plates were incubated at 30 °c in an incubator and removed from the incubator after 48h of incubation. colony count from each plate was observed using the colony counter. the strain that showed the least growth was taken as a base and the dilutions were made for the remaining 12 flasks stored in the refrigerator, so that the cfu/ml was nearly same for all the strains. thus, the inoculum from all the conical flasks having ringer solution was equilibrated and used for screening of the strains in rts mango beverage. evaluation of the population dynamics of the probiotic strainsin mango beverage ma ngo bever a ge pr epa red pr eviously a s described elsewhere in this paper was inoculated with 0.2 ml inoculum from each of the stored ringer solution flasks containing the inoculum. absorbance of the inoculated beverage at 600 nm was recorded using uv-vis spectrophotometer (shimadzu, japan) at regular intervals of two days until eight days. for preliminary screening, an increase in od was p os it ively cor r ela ted with t he gr owt h of the organism. the uninoculated mango beverage was treated as control. enumeration of probiotic population in mango beverage out of the 13 strains, only three strains showed an appreciable increase in the od600 values during incubation (mentioned elsewhere in this paper). therefore, the selected three strains based on the increase in od at 600 nm were inoculated into mango juice after equilibration using the procedure mentioned previously @ 104 cells per 200 ml beverage in triplicates. the bottles were incubated at 30 °c. the population build up was monitored at regular intervals until 8 days by serial dilution and pour plating on mrs agar for lactic acid bacteria and yeast extract peptone dextrose agar for saccharomyces boulardii and the colony forming units (cfu) were enumerated after 48 h of incubation. uninoculated mango beverage served as control. sensory analysis of the probioticated rts mango beverage the probioticated beverages which permitted the build up of >108 cfu/ml were tested for their sensory acceptance by a panel of 15 semitrained judges on a 9point hedonic scale. the parameters considered for hedonic ranking were colour, taste, flavour & overall acceptance. biochemical characteristics of probioticated rts mango beverage: the ph of uninoculated juice and probioticated beverages was analyzed using a ph meter (elico ltd, new delhi, india), and total acidity was measured by titrating against 0.1n sodium hydroxide. total sugars were estimated by nelson somogyi method (nelson, 1944). total carotenoids, ferric reducing antioxidant capacity (frap) and total phenols were estimated spectr ophotometr ica lly by sta nda r d methods (ranganna, 1986), benzie & strain, (1996) and singleton & rossi (1965), respectively. results and discussion screening of strains in the rts m ango beverage increase in absorbance is an easy method used traditionally to screen microbial growth in a medium. although seven strains showed an increase in their 167 fig 1. change in absorbance values of mango beverage after inoculation with different probiotic strains j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 164-171, 2018 strain selection for mango beverage probiotication population as is evident from the results of fig.1, only three strains showed an od of 0.15 or above. the remaining six strains did not show any growth even after eight days of incubation. it is therefore clear that out of the thirteen strains used in this study, only three could grown in the rts mango beverage, while all of the thirteen strains earlier had shown population buildup in the selective media. this could largely be due to the (i) acidity build up in the beverage during growth (ii)nutrient limitation and (iii) absence of proper evaluation of population dynamics of the screened strains as mentioned previously, three strains i.e., l. helveticus mtcc 5463, l. rhamnosus mtcc 5946 and s. boulardii were inoculated separately in the rts mango beverage. they were evaluated for population build-up, acidity, total sugar concentration and ph in the beverage. it is clear from the results presented in table 1 that l. helveticus, mtcc 5463 and l. rhamnosus mtcc 5946 attained a population level of >log 8 cfu/ml on the second day of incubation, while the yeast s. boulardii needed three days to reach a similar population level. different growth potential of bacterial strains to grow in fruit juice media conditions for growth of the cells. it is also evident from fig.1 that there was a steep fall in the od values after four days of incubation. this could be correlated with an increase in the acidity in the beverage or exhaustion of nutrients or both. similar results have been reported previously by brizuela et al (2001). on the basis of the results of fig.1, only three strains, i.e., l. helveticus mtcc 5463, l. rhamnosus mtcc 5946 and s. boulardii were used for further studies. has been reported previously and reasons for the difference in levels of survival and growth was attributed to the sensitivity of the strains to natural antimicrobials in plant based foods (sheehan et al. 2007 & sagdic et al 2011) . mango pulp is a rich source of different phytochemicals like phenolics, flavonoids, terpenoids etc (masibo and he, 2009) and phenolics and flavonoids are known for their antimicrobial characteristics. the results in table 2 suggest that the acidity build up in the beverage prepared using l. rhamnosus mtcc 5946 a nd s. boulardii wa s substantial in comparison to that in the beverage inoculated with l. helveticus mtcc 5463 after four days of incubation. it is a well established fact that higher acidity and lactic acid odour alter the sensory 168 j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 164-171, 2018 ranjitha et al parameters of the beverages. increase in acidity could also be directly correlated with the fall in the ph levels in the beverage. compared to control (uninoculated beverage), drop in the total sugar concentration ranged between 34 and 43% approximately for the three strains evaluated in this study. however, the sugar consumption by the three strains varied by about 9% among the strains (table 2). it is also clear from the results of table 2 tha t the lactobacilli str ains consumed and metabolized sugars more efficiently in comparison to s. boulardii. kumar et al (2015) reported a decrease of more than 40% in total sugar concentration and increase up to 0.66 in acidity levels after 72 h of incubation of mango juice inoculated with l. plantarum ncdc lp 20. it is noteworthy to mention here that the sugar-acid ratio is one of the important parameters having a profound effect on the sensory attributes of any beverage. therefore, it is table 1. population build up of probiotic strains in mango rts beverage strain population (cfu/ml) incubation period (days) 2 4 6 l. helveticus mtcc 5463 8.25±0.21 9.07±0.5 9.1±0.32 l. rhamnosus mtcc 5946 10.82± 0.03 10±0.20 10.11±0.12 s.boulardii 53.2±0.21 8.04±0.38 9.36±0.14 values represented are for mean ±sd for n-3 table 2. physico-chemical analysis of mango juice probioticated with two lactobacillus and a s. boulardii strains probiotic strains sensory score ph acidity (% lactic acid) total sugar (%) control 8 4.5±0.2 0.20 (as citric acid) 13.5±0.7 l. helveticus mtcc 5463 8 4.4±0.2 0.29±0.00 7.6±0.2 l. rhamnosus mtcc 5946 5 3.2±0.0 1.03±0.08 8.1±1.0 s. boulardii 5 3.4±0.1 0.68±0.03 8.9±0.6 values represented are for mean ±sd for n-3 important to maintain an ideal sugar-acid blend throughout the shelf life of the product for consumer acceptance. the results of our experiment also emphasise the need for a precise strain selection for endurance in fruit media and interaction with the different food matrices. sensory evaluation of the probioticated mango beverage organoleptic quality of a product is the stimulus to popularise a novel product in food market. mango beverage inoculated with s. boulardii showed a typical odour and flavour of ethanol and hence was not liked by any of the panelists. therefore, it was decided to carry out the comparative evaluation of the beverage probioticated with the two lactobacillus strains. the results in table 3 show a significant difference in the overall acceptance parameters among the mango bever a ge pr obiotica ted with two differ ent lactobacillus strains. though the panelists rated both the beverages comparable for the colour, scores for flavour and taste were significantly different. it is clear from the results of table 3 that the organoleptic quality of the beverage prepared using l. helveticus mtcc 5463 was acceptable, whereas, the one prepared using l. rhamnosus mtcc 5946 was mor e towar ds una ccepta blity (table 3). better orga noleptic properties may be correlated with a better balanced higher sugar –acid ratio. panghal et al (2017) obtained a score of 7 on a 9 point hedonic scale for probioticated beetroot drink prepared using l. rhamnossus, l. delburcki a nd l. plantarum. ba sed on these observations, it was decided to use l. helveticus mtcc 5463 for probiotication of rts mango beverage. antioxidant properties of the rts mango beverage inoculated with l. helveticus mtcc 5643 were compared with that of the uninoculated beverage. 169 j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 164-171, 2018 strain selection for mango beverage probiotication antioxidant properties of the probioticated mango beverage the results of ta ble 4 clear ly indicate a significant increase in the total phenol and flavonoid content in the probioticated mango beverage, compared to control. this could largely be due to the release of phenolics and flavonoids from the dietary fibre present in the complex form in the fruit juices, through the action of secondary metabolites (enzymes) and by the table 3. mean sensory scores for probioticated mango beverage prepared using lactobacilli strain colour flavour taste overall acceptability l. helveticus mtcc 5463 7.38±0.76 7.19±0.90 7.30±0.75 7.34±0.68 l. rhamnosus mtcc 5946 7.42±0.81 5.38±1.32 5.38±1.50 5.65±1.24 s.no. assay control probiotic rts (uninoculated beverage) mango beverage 1. total carotenoids (mg/100ml) 0.23 0.20 2. β-carotene (mg/100ml) 0.20 0.18 3. total phenols (µg/ml) 140.07±3.15 169±2.01 4. flavonoids (µg/ml) 45.81±1.09 51.17±2.02 5. frap (mg/ml) 0.09 0.09 6. dpph  (mg/ml) 0.17 0.15 values represented are for mean ±sd for n-3 table 4. antioxidant properties of mango beverage probioticated with lactobacillus helveticus mtcc 5463 acids produced by the fermenting microbial strains. there have been reports about the production of phenolics by the lactobacillus strains. coupled with the release of phenolic compounds due to the action of enzymes a nd acids as mentioned previously, pr oduction of phenolic compounds by the lactobacillus stra ins could have led to higher concentration of phenolics in the probioticated beverage (table 4). fras et al (2014) reported production of volatile phenolic compounds in red wine inoculated with l. plantarum. a decline in the total carotenoid and βcarotene concentration in the probioticated beverage could be due to their oxida tion a t incuba tion temperatures. chen et al (2018) also reported a decline in the car otenoid and vitamin c content in the probioticated papaya juice. no significant difference in the antioxidant concentration was observed between the control and the probioticated sample as is evident from the frap and dpph values (table 4). mousavi et al (2013) reported a significant increase in the antioxidant values for probioticated pomegranate juice, compared to uninoculated juice. panghal et al (2017) reported an increase in the dpph values in the probioticated beetroot juice. however, chen et al (2008) reported a decline in the antioxidant activity during fermentation with lactobacillus acidophilus, whereas the same authors reported an increase in the antioxidant activity during fermentation with l. plantarum. we are now evaluating the different characteristics of probioticated rts mango beverage during its storage. conclusions this study has shown that inoculation of ready to ser ve ma ngo bever a ge with lactobacillus helveticus mt cc 5463 ha s the potentia l for development of probiotica ted ma ngo beverage. compared to the other probiotic strains used in this study, lactobacillus helveticus mtcc 5463 showed an appreciable population build-up, an insignificant increase in the acidity levels and a good sugar-acid blend in the fermented beverage. mango beverage fermented with the screened l. helveticus strain showed good sensory attributes for colour, taste and 170 j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(2) : 164-171, 2018 ranjitha et al flavour. in addition to good sensory attributes, fermented beverage showed higher concentration of phenolic compounds and flavonoids after fermentation of the mango beverage, compared to control. further studies are needed to evaluate the shelf life of probioticated mango beverage prepared using l. helveticus mtcc 5463 for cell population, acidity, sugar concentration, phenolic and flavonoid profile during regular intervals during its storage. antunes, a.e.c., liserre, a.m., coelho, a.l.a., menezes, c. r., moreno, i., yotsuyanagi, k. andazambuja, n.c. 2013. acerola nectar with added microencapsulated probiotic. lwt food sci. technol., 54: 125-131 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ozturk, i., cankurt, h. and tornuk, f. 2011. interaction  between  some  phenolic c omp ou nds a nd pr obiotic b a c ter iu m in f u nc t iona l ic e c r ea m p r odu c t ion. fo o d bioproc. techol. 5: 2964–2971. sheehan, v.m.,ross, p. andfitzgerald, g.f. 2007. as s es s ing t he a c id t oler a nc e a nd t he technological robustness of probiotic cultures f or f or t i f ic a t ion in f r u i t ju ic es . innov. food sci.emerg. technol., 8: 279284 singleton, v.l. and rossi, j.a. 1965. colorimetry of totalphenolics with phosphomolybdicphosphotungsticacid reagents. am. j. enol. vitic., 16: 144-158 tharanathan, r.n,, yashoda, h.m. and prabha, t.n. 2006. mango (mangifera indica l.) , “the king of fruits” an overview. food rev int. 22: 95-123 yoon, y.k.,woodams, e.e. and hang, y.d. 2005. fer mentation of beet juice by beneficia l lactic acid bacteria. lebensm.wiss. technol. 38: 73-75. yoon, y.k., woodams, e.e. and hang, y.d. 2006. production of probiotic cabbage juice by lactic acid bacteria. bioresour. technol., 97:1 banana is the leading fruit crop of india at nearly 32.56% of the total fruit production in the country. in india, banana ranks third in terms of area (0.776 million ha) and first in terms of production (26.51 million tonnes) among fruit crops (anon., 2013). banana is a very popular fruit due to its low price, year-round availability, varietal range, taste, medicinal value and nourishment, among all the fruits. in the banana crop, it is essential to induce quick growth and produce more leaves with a larger leaf area. it is a gross feeder of nutrients and responds well to nitrogen and phosphorus. indian soils are deficient in nitrogen (n) and phosphorous (p) and these two plant nutrients, together with organic manure, play an important role in getting good crop returns (datt and sundharam, 2005). dosage and type of nutrient to be applied depends up on the cultivar, inherent soil-fertility, stage of plant growth, climate, etc. a better vegetative growth ensures better bunch development. high fertilization-requirement in banana is due mainly to its rapid and vigorous growth, and high fruit yield. banana as a crop is new to punjab, therefore, requisite information on nutrient influence of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization on fruiting and yield characteristics in ratoon crop of banana (musa spp. aaa) cv. grande naine k.s. navaneethakrishnan, h.s. dhaliwal, m.i.s. gill and j.s. brar department of fruit science, punjab agricultural university ludhiana-141 004, india e-mail: dhaliwal_mandhali@pau.edu abstract in ratoon crop of banana cv. grande naine, date of shooting could be advanced by 35 days with application of 200g n in 5 splits + 60g p2o5 (86 days), compared to 300g n in 5 splits + 60g p2o5 (121 days). subsequently, date of harvest also got advanced by 53 days, and fruits were harvested on 9th december in the same treatment. higher dose of n fertilization delayed shooting and harvesting period, taking 121 days for shooting and 145 days from shooting to harvest in the treatment 300g n (5 split doses) + 90g p2o5. various n and p treatments affected bunch weight and number of hands per bunch significantly. although n and p combination-treatments had no significant effect on bunch weight or number of hands per bunch, application of 200g n in 5 splits and 60g p2o5 per plant gave maximum bunch weight (18.11kg) and number of hands per bunch (10.61). minimum bunch weight (15.37kg) and the least number of hands per bunch (7.08) were obtained with 150g n in 5 splits + 90g p2o5. hand-weight (2.20kg), number of fingers per hand (19.75), and finger length (20.30cm) was highest with application of 200g n in 5 splits + 60g p2o5 per plant. least hand-weight (1.64kg), number of fingers per hand (15.77), and finger-length (17.92cm) was recorded with 150g n in 5 splits + 90g p2o5. bunch weight, number of hands per bunch, hand-weight and number of fingers per hand too was affected significantly with sole application of nitrogen or phosphorus. key words: banana, fertilization, nitrogen, phosphorus, yield j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):80-82, 2016 short communication management for optimal growth and fruiting needs to be generated. thus, an urgent need was felt for gathering this valuable information for optimal production of banana under the sub-tropical conditions of punjab. therefore, the present investigations were carried out to study the effect of n and p on fruiting and yield characteristics in banana cv. grande naine under punjab conditions. the investigation was carried out at fruit research farm of department of fruit science, punjab agricultural university, ludhiana. nitrogen and phosphorus-containing fertilizers were applied to the ratoon crop of banana cv. grande naine. the plants were subjected to uniform cultural practices, excepting fertilizer treatments. these included two p treatments, viz., 60g and 90g per plant and six n treatments, viz., 150g (5 split doses), 150g (4 split doses), 200g (5 split doses), 250g (4 split doses), 250g (5 split doses), 300g (5 split doses); twelve n and p combinationtreatments were also tested, viz., t1150g n (5 split doses) + 60g p2o5; t2150g n (5 split doses) + 90g p2o5; t3200g 81 effect of n and p fertilizer on yield in banana ratoon crop n (4 split doses) + 60g p2o5; t4200g n (4 split doses) + 90g p2o5; t5200g n (5 split doses) + 60g p2o5; t6200g n (5 split doses) + 90g p2o5; t7250g n (4 split doses) + 60g p2o5; t8250g n (4 split doses) + 90g p2o5; t9250g n (5 split doses) + 60g p2o5; t10250g n (5 split doses) + 90g p2o5; t11300g n (5 split doses) + 60g p2o5; and t12300g n (5 split doses) + 90g p2o5. for supplying nitrogen, urea was applied in four, and five, split doses in the months of may, june, july and august, and, in the months of may, june, july, august and september, respectively. phosphorus was applied in the form of single-super-phosphate at the time of planting, along with farm yard manure. the date of shooting, i.e., the first distinguishing feature between the vegetative and reproductive apex (involving production of the bract primordium with thinner base) was noted in each plant. number of hands per bunch was recorded, and, the average of eight plants was pooled; number of fingers per hand was recorded as an average of three hands selected randomly, i.e., upper, lower and middle, finger length of randomly selected hands was measured with a scale, weight of the 2nd and 3rd hand of the bunch was recorded in kilograms; bunch weight in each plant was recorded and date of harvest noted for each of the experimental plants as per criteria given by dhillon et al (2002). date of shooting was observed to be affected by different doses of n, p and combinations thereof. maximum number of days (121) taken to shooting was recorded in the treatment t12 (300g n in 5 split doses+ 90g p2o5), whereas, it took minimum number of days (86) in the treatment t5 (200g n in 4 split doses + 60g p2o5), thus, there was a delay of 35 days in t12 compared to t5 (table 1). similarly, table 1. effect of various combinations of n and p fertilizers on shooting and date of harvest in the ratoon crop of banana cv. grand naine treatment date of days date of days bunch no. of hand no. of finger-length shooting taken to harvest taken weight hands weight fingers (cm) shooting from (kg) per (kg) per shooting bunch hand to harvest t1-150g n(5 split doses)+60g p2o5 sept.19 98 jan. 3 106 15.88 7.19 1.66 16.51 18.25 t2-150g n(5 split doses)+90g p2o5 sept. 25 104 jan. 6 102 15.37 7.08 1.64 15.77 17.92 t3-200g n(4 split doses)+60g p2o5 sept. 10 89 dec. 14 95 17.57 10.08 2.04 19.19 19.24 t4-200g n(4 split doses)+90g p2o5 sept. 20 98 dec. 24 95 17.17 9.41 2.01 18.80 18.74 t5-200g n(5 split doses)+60g p2o5 sept. 7 86 dec. 9 92 18.11 10.61 2.20 19.75 20.30 t6-200g n(5 split doses)+90g p2o5 sept. 13 91 dec. 19 96 17.65 9.98 2.08 19.40 19.40 t7-250g n(4 split doses)+60g p2o5 sept. 23 102 jan. 5 129 16.83 9.09 1.96 18.14 19.00 t8-250g n(4 split doses)+90g p2o5 oct. 4 114 feb. 22 140 16.51 8.50 1.84 17.92 18.36 t9-250g n(5 split doses)+60g p2o5 oct. 3 113 feb. 23 142 16.08 7.51 1.76 16.98 17.85 t10-250g n(5 split doses)+90g p2o5 oct. 9 112 mar. 4 145 15.79 7.30 1.64 16.07 17.59 t11-300g n(5 split doses)+60g p2o5 oct. 9 119 mar. 2 143 16.42 8.11 1.88 17.74 18.55 t12-300g n (5 split doses) +90g p2o5 oct.11 121 mar. 6 145 16.12 7.62 1.78 17.21 17.98 cd (5%) ns ns ns ns ns table 2. effect of various doses of applied n fertilizer on bunch weight (kg) and number of hands per bunch in the ratoon crop of banana cv. grand naine treatment bunch no. of handno. of fingerweight hands weight fingers length (kg) per (kg) per (cm) bunch hand n1-150g n 15.63 7.13 1.65 16.14 18.08 (5 split doses) n2-150g n 17.37 9.75 2.02 18.99 18.99 (4 split doses) n3-200g n 17.88 10.29 2.14 19.58 19.85 (5 split doses) n4-250g n 16.67 8.80 1.90 18.03 19.68 (4 split doses) n5-250g n 15.93 7.40 1.70 16.52 17.72 (5 split doses) n6-300g n 16.27 7.86 1.83 17.47 18.26 (5 split doses) cd (p=0.05) 0.22 0.35 0.05 0.37 0.37 date of harvest was also affected by fertilizer application. maximum number of days (145) from shooting to harvest was recorded in the treatments t10 and t12 (250g n in 5 splits + 90g p2o5, and 300g n in 5 splits + 90g p2o5, respectively); whereas, harvesting was advanced by 53 days in the treatment in t5 (200g n in 5 splits + 90g p2o5) which took just 92 days to harvest. delay in harvest at higher dose of fertilization may be due to the increased vegetative growth stimulated by n application. however, babu and bujarbaruah (2001) reported that application of n stimulated early shooting and reduced the number of days taken to maturity. sole application of n (table 2) or p (table 3) influenced bunch-weight significantly as also the mean number of hands per bunch; but, in combined application, j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):80-82, 2016 82 these nutrients did not affect bunch-weight or number of hands per bunch significantly. in the case of n treatments, maximum bunch-weight (17.88kg) and number of hands per bunch (10.29) was seen in n3 treatment (200g n in 5 splits), followed by n2 treatment (200g n in 4 splits). similarly, hand-weight, number of fingers per hand, and finger-length were also significantly higher in n3 treatment (200g n in 5 splits). in p treatments, bunch-weight (16.81), number of hands per bunch (8.76), hand-weight (1.92kg) and number of fingers per hand were significantly higher in p1 treatment (60g p2o5), than in p2 (90g p2o5). increased bunch-weight with n application may be attributed to increased growth, consequently more number of fingers per hand and more number of hands per bunch (perhaps due to increased availability of the nutrient at critical stages of growth, which may have enhanced photosynthates that led to accumulation of more carbohydrates and other metabolites, and, ultimately translocation to the fruit tissue) (harold and george, 1960). phosphorus also increased growth and improved the foliar status of the plant, thus enhancing atp formation and providing physiological efficiency. this may indirectly increase the yield (parida et al, 1994). singh and suryanarayana (1999) also reported highest bunch weight, number of hands per bunch and highest number of fingers per hand with application of 200g n per plant in 4 split doses in banana cv. dwarf cavendish. yield-attributing characters like bunch weight, number of hands per bunch and number of fingers per hand markedly increased upon treatment with 300g n, 200g p2o5 and 250g k2o per plant in 5 split applications in banana cv. dwarf table 3. effect of two different doses of applied p fertilizer on handweight (kg), number of fingers per hand, and finger-length (cm) in the ratoon crop of banana cv. grand naine treatment bunch no. of handno. of fingerweight hands weight fingers length (kg) per (kg) per (cm) bunch hand p160g p2o5 16.81 8.76 1.92 18.05 18.86 p2 90g p2o5 16.43 8.31 1.83 17.53 18.33 cd (p=0.05) 0.32 0.02 0.01 0.82 ns cavendish (tirkey et al, 2003). naresh and sharma (2004) also reported an increase in the yield of banana cv. jahajee with application of 240g n. in conclusion, it can be inferred that application of 200g n in 5 split doses (may, june, july, august and september) and 60g p2o5 (in the month of may) per plant in banana cv. grande naine proved was the best among all treatments tested, in terms of bunch formation and fruit yield. references anonymous. 2013. national horticulture board database (www.nhb.gov.in) babu, n. and bujarbaruah, k.m. 2001. effect of nitrogen and potassium on growth and yield of banana. proc. national seminar on sustainable horticulture production in tribal region, ranchi, july 25-26, 2001 dhillon, w.s., kamboj, j.s. and bal, j.s. 2002. maturity indices and harvesting of fruit crops. post harvest handling of fruit and vegetables, pau, ludhian, p. 26 datt, r. and sundharam, k.p.m. 2005. indian economy. naya udyog, 1:529-30 harold, j.e. and george, g.s.1966. role of mineral elements with emphasis on univalent cations. annu. rev. pl. physiol., 17:47-76 naresh, b. and sharma, a. 2004. effect of different nitrogen doses and their split applications on growth, yield and quality of jahajee banana. south indian hort., 52:35-40 parida, g.n., ray, d.p., nath, n. and dora, d.k. 1994. effect of graded levels of npk on growth of robusta banana. indian agri., 83:43-50 singh, d.b. and suryanarayana, m.a. 1999. respone of ‘cavendish’ banana to different nitrogen levels and their split application. j. appl. hort., 1:122-24 tirkey, t., pandey, s.d. and agrawal, s. 2003. studies on the response of nitrogen levels and split application of n, p, k on growth, yield and quality of tissue culture raised banana cv. dwarf cavendish. orrisa j. hort., 31:45-50 navaneethakrishnan et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):80-82, 2016 (ms received 19 june 2014, revised 16 november 2015, accepted 08 january 2016) 93 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 93-96, 2020 short communication evaluation of novel gerbera (gerbera jamesonii bolus ex. hooker f.) hybrids for flower quality traits under polyhouse condition aswath c. and rajiv kumar division of floriculture & medicinal crops icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru 560 089, india email : aswath.c@icar.gov.in abstract the present study was carried out to evaluate the performance of two gerbera hybrids iihr15-7 and iihr16-8 along with their parents and a commercial check, for flower quality traits under polyhouse condition in completely randomized block design, during 2016-17 to 2018-19. the hybrids iihr15-7 and iihr16-8 had been developed through the half-sib method of breeding with iihr9 and arka ashwa, respectively, as parents. data for three years were pooled and analyzed statistically. in both hybrids iihr15-7 and iihr16-8, all the quantitative traits were found to be on par with the respective commercial checks. they had novel flower colour (as per rhs colour chart) i.e. nn155a, white group for iihr 15-7 and 65a red purple group for iihr16-8, with semi-double and double forms of flowers, respectively. these hybrids are suitable for cut-flower and flower arrangement purposes. further, these hybrids will be useful for developing new gerbera hybrids with novel traits. key words: cut-flower, evaluation, gerbera, novel hybrids, polyhouse introduction gerbera (gerbera jamesonii bolus ex. hooker f.),of the family asteraceae, is one of the important cutflowers grown for domestic and export markets. the total area of floriculture in india is 275000 ha and cut flower production of 783000 mt. gerbera grown under 870 ha with productivity of 21300 t/ha, and stands fourth most important cut flower in india. highest production of gerbera comes from uttarakand with 7.80 (000’ mt), while share of karnataka is 6.2 (000, mt) (anon., 2017). there is a great demand for gerbera, particularly in european markets during the winter season and almost around the year in india. in view of importance of the crop and to bring down the high cost of imported gerbera, two indigenously gerbera hybrids i.e. iihr15-7 and iihr16-8 were developed and evaluated with their parents and commercial check for flower quality traits under polyhouse condition. half sib method of crossing was employed to develop novel gerbera hybrids involving parents iihr9 and arka ashwa during 2014-15 which were crossed with mixed pollen of different varieties. the hybrid seeds thus obtained were raise in vitro. the plants obtained from these single seeds were sub-cultured many times till the sufficient suckers are produced in vitro. the hardened plants were planted in polyhouse with 50% shade for evaluation. two hybrids, iihr15-7 and iihr16-8, were selected on the basis of flower quality traits. both the hybrids, along with their parents and the respective commercial check varieties susan and bismar k, wer e eva lua ted in r eplica ted tr ia l in completely ra ndomized block design under naturally-ventilated polyhouse for three consecutive years 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19. observations were recorded on flower diameter (cm), flowerstalk length (cm), flowers talk diameter (mm), number of flowers/plant/month, vase life (days),flower colour from rhs colour chart and flower form. data of three years were pooled and analyzed statistically using opstat. da ta presented in table 1 showed tha t hybr id iihr15-7 found to be on par with parent iihr9 and this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. 94 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 93-96, 2020 commercial check susan for flower quality traits. it recorded flower diameter of 11.89 cm, which was on par with the parent iihr9 (11.46 cm), arka ashwa (11.86 cm) and commercial check susan (12.04 cm); flower stalk length (61.39 cm) which was on par with parent iihr9, arka ashwa and commercial check susan; flower stalk diameter (5.79 mm) and number of flowers/plant/month (2.87) recorded were on par with the parent iihr9 (2.43), arka ashwa (2.56) and commercial check susan (2.69). the hybrid iihr 157 recorded vase life of 7.74 days which was also on pa r with the pa r ent iihr9, ar ka ashwa a nd commercial check susan. hybrid iihr 15-7 recorded novel flower colour (rhs colour chart) nn155a, white group, with semi-double form of flowers. kumar (2013), singh et al. (2017) and soni and godara (2017) evaluated ten genotypes under naturally ventilated polyhouse at differ ent locations a nd recommended kyllian, vilassar, partrizia, szantal, feliks and dana ellen for getting better cut flower yield and quality flowers. evaluation of novel gerbera hybrids table 1. evaluation of gerbera hybrid iihr 15-7 with parent and commercial check for flower quality traits under polyhouse (pooled data of three years) hybrid/ flower flower flower no. of vase flower flower genotype diameter stalk stalk flowers/ life colour form (cm) length diameter plant/ (days) (rhs colour (cm) (mm) month chart) iihr15-7 11.89 61.39 5.79 2.87 7.74 white group seminn155a double iihr9 (parent) 11.46 61.19 5.80 2.43 7.29 red purple semigroup 69a double arka ashwa 11.86 61.10 6.64 2.56 7.42 red purple semi(check) group 68d double susan 12.04 62.81 6.62 2.69 7.59 white group semi(commercial nn155c double check) sem± 0.47 0.44 0.38 0.49 0.51 c.d. at 5% ns ns ns ns ns da ta presented in table 2 showed tha t hybr id iihr16-8 also found to be on par with parent arka ashwa and commercial check bismark for flower quality traits.the hybrid iihr 16-8 recorded flower diameter of 12.89 cm,which was on par with its parent arka ashwa (11.86 cm) and the commercial check bismark (12.12 cm); flower stalk length (65.64 cm) was also found to be on par with parent arka ashwa (61.10 cm) and commercial check bismark (62.93 cm); flower stalk diameter (5.77 mm) was on par with pa r ent ar ka ashwa (6. 64 mm) a nd the commercial check bismark (6.21 mm) and, number of flowers/plant/month (2.85) recorded was on par with the parent arka ashwa (2.56) and commercial check bismar k (2. 73). t he hybr id iihr 16-8 recorded vase life of 7.00 days which was also on par with the parent arka ashwa and commercial check bismark. the hybrid iihr16-8 also recorded novel flower colour (rhs colour chart) 65a red purple group, withdouble form of flowers. aswath et al. (2016) also evaluated two novel gerbera hybrids with check for flower quality under naturally ventilated polyhouse. mahender et al. (2017), deepa et al. (2019) and jangde et al. (2019) evaluated different gerbera varieties for flower quality traits and found that cultivars marinella, bonnie, ambra, sciella and fredi recorded more number of flowers per plant under polyhouse condition. on the ba sis of thr ee yea r s of eva lua tion undernaturally-ventilated polyhouse, gerbera hybrids iihr15-7 and iihr 16-8 were found to be promising for novel flowercolour, flower form and flower quality traits. 95 table 2. evaluation of gerbera hybrid iihr 16-8 with parent and commercial check for flower quality traits under polyhouse (pooled data of three years) hybrid/ flower flower flower no. of vase flower flower genotype diameter stalk stalk flowers/ life colour form (cm) length diameter plant/ (days) (rhs colour (cm) (mm) month chart) iihr16-8 12.89 65.64 5.77 2.85 7.00 red purple double group 65a arka ashwa 11.86 61.10 6.64 2.56 7.42 red group semi(parent and group 68d check) bismark 12.12 62.93 6.21 2.73 7.26 red purple semi(commercial 45b double check) sem± 0.50 0.47 0.43 0.41 0.52 c.d. at 5% ns ns ns ns ns j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 93-96, 2020 aswath et al. iihr 16-8 (arka pink)iihr 15-7 (arka white) references anonymous. 2017. area and production statistics of horticultural crops. national horticulture board, new delhi. aswath, c., kumar r., rao, t.m. and dhananjaya, m.v. 2016. evaluation of novel ger ber a (gerbera jamesonii bolus ex. hooker f.) hybrids for flower quality traits under naturallyventilated polyhouse. j. hortl. sci., 11(1): 8889. deepa, m.s., sudarshan, g.k. and keerthishankar, k. 2019. eva lua tion of ger ber a (gerbera jamesonii) cultivars for growth, flowering and yield under different growing structure. int. j. chem. stud., 7(1): 1138-1140. jangde, t., sharma, g., jangde, b. and banjara, n.c. 2019. eva lua tion of ger ber a (gerbera jamesonii) cultivars under naturally ventilated polyhouse in chha ttisga r h pla in. j. pharmacogn phytochem., 8(3): 2112-2114. 96 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 93-96, 2020 evaluation of novel gerbera hybrids kumar, r. 2013. evaluation of gerbera (gerbera jamesonii bolus ex. hooker f.) genotypes for flower quality traits under naturally ventilated polyhouse. asian j. hort., 8(2): 680-682. mahender, b., ashwini, d. and sreeja, k. 2017. evaluation of different cultivars of gerbera (gerbera jamesonii) under naturally ventilated polyhouse in northern telangana region. agric. update,12(techsear-3): 867-868. singh, p., bhardwaj, a., kumar r. and singh, d. 2017. evaluation of gerbera varieties for yield a nd qua lity under pr otected environment conditions in bihar. int. j. curr. microbiol. app. sci., 6(9): 112-116. soni, s.s. and godara, a.k. 2017. evaluation of ger ber a va r ieties for gr owth a nd flor a l characters grown under greenhouse condition. int. j. curr. microbiol. app. sci., 6(5): 27402745. (received on 12.12.2019 and accepted on 30.05.2020) final sph -jhs coverpage 17-1 jan 2022 single 157 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 157-165, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction dragon fruit (hylocereus sp.) also known as pitaya belongs to the family cactaceae. it has originated from mexico and spread to central and south america (britton and rose, 1963). pitaya is considered a super fruit due to its rich nutraceuticals and high economic value. a variety of colours exist in dragon fruit such as white pulp with red and yellow peel, red and violetred pulp with red peel colour (grimaldo-juarez et al., 2007). the red pulp fruit is rich in betalains which is a natural food colour and an excellent source of antioxidants (le bellec et al., 2006; baker et al., 2013; mello et al., 2015). presently, the area under dragon fruit production is expanding rapidly. vietnam is the leading producer (shares 51% of the world production) of dragon fruit followed by china india produces about 12113 metric tons of dr agon fruit a nnua lly fr om a n ar ea of approximately 3084 ha (merten, 2003; wakchaure et al., 2020). harvesting fruits at their optimum maturity provides the utmost quality to consumers and better profit to growers. fruits should be harvested at an appropriate time and developmental stage for the highest fruit quality. harvesting prior to full maturity is a common pr actice to get a n extended stor age life in the international trade of several fruit crops. this often leads to compromise on the potential quality of the concerned fruit in the interest of trade. although maturity standards exist for dragon fruit, they vary with location and growing conditions. the stage of optimum maturity can be determined using destructive and non-destructive methods. destructive methods include physiochemical and mechanical parameters such as total soluble solids (tss), titratable acidity, and tss: acid ratio. physical parameters such as fruit weight, external peel colour, days after flowering to harvest and specific gravity are extensively used as non-destructive methods for indices of maturity in many fruits (wanitchang and jarimopas, 2008; fawole and opara 2013; kapilan and anpalagan 2015). dragon fruit is a recently introduced crop in india and its demand has been increasing due to its high nutritional and economic values. harvesting fruits at optimum matur ity helps in better post-ha rvest management of fruits. the maturity of fruits depends on edaphic factors such as soil, climate, temperature, rainfall etc. the aim of this study was to understand the growth and development pattern of red and white maturity determination of red and white pulp dragon fruit deep lata1*, narayana c.k.1, karunakaran g.2, sudhakar rao d.v.1 and anuradha sane2 1division of postharvest technology and agriculture engineering, 2division of fruit crops, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hessaraghatta, bengaluru560089 *corresponding author email: deeplata21@gmail.com abstract there is a huge potential for dragon fruits grown in india but insufficient information may hamper its production and postharvest handling. the aim of this study was to investigate the right harvest time and maturity indices for red and white pulp dragon fruit. growth and developmental studies were undertaken using destructive (total soluble solids (tss), titratable acidity and tss: acid ratio) and non-destructive methods (fruit weight, specific gravity, peel colour and heat units). fruits were collected at seven intervals (7, 14, 21, 26, 31, 36 and 41 days after flowering) to assess the right maturity. all these methods were used to standardize the optimum maturity and right time for the harvest of red and white pulp dragon fruit. harvesting dragon fruits between 31-36 days after flowering (daf) was found ideal for optimum maturity and quality. both red and white pulp fruits harvested at 31 daf showed better quality in terms of physic-chemical and sensory attributes. keywords: dragon fruit, heat units, maturity and physico-chemical properties 158 lata et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 157-165, 2022 pulp dragon fruit for optimum maturity and harvest time in the region of bengaluru, karnataka, india. materials and methods w hit e ( h y l o c e re u s u n d a t u s ) a nd r ed p u lp (hylocereus polyrhizus) dragon fruit cultivars were selected from the experimental block of research f a r m, h ir eh a lli, i c ar i i h r , h es s a r gha t t a , bengaluru, karnataka, india. it is situated at the longitude 77o11’ east and latitude 28o38’ north at an altitude of 845 meters above mean sea level and about 40 km from icar-iihr campus, bengaluru in south india. it falls under a tropical humid climate and is characterized by pleasant summer, moderate rainfall and mild winter. f or t he ex p er iment , f our yea r -old a nd wellmaintained plants were selected. both cultivars were tagged at the time of bud initiation and at flowering. the fruits were harvested between the 7 and 41 days after flowering (daf) from may to june 2019.the fruit samples were collected at 7, 14, 21, 26 , 31, 36 a nd 41 daf to study the ma turity pa tter n. at each interval, fr uits were ha r ves t ed a nd immedia t ely b r ou ght t o t he laboratory for further analysis. collection of weather data weather data for growing conditions were collected fr om the wea ther sta tion of ka r na t a ka st a te natural disaster monitoring centre, yelahanka, bengaluru, karnataka. temperature, rainfall and relative humidity (rh) were taken from1st may to 30th june 2019 for calculating heat units (fig. 1). non-destructive parameters physical parameters such as average days after flowering (daf), fruit weight, specific gravity, and heat units were used for the determination of maturity. weight of each fruit was weighed by electronic balance (sartorius gpa 5202, germany). specific gravity was calculated by measuring the volume of the individual fruit by water displacement method (mohsenin, 1986). degree days accumulated were calculated using following formula given by mcmaster and wilhelm (1997) : degree days = sum of (maximum temperature + minimum temperature) / 2base temperature peel colour of fruits was recorded by colorimeter (minolta rs232c, japan) and represented by ‘l’, ‘a’ and ‘b’ values. the l value represents brightness and its value ranges between 0 (black) to 100 (white). green colour of peel is indicated by negative or smaller value of ‘a’ whereas positive or higher ‘a’ value denotes red colour. the b value represents variations from blue (-b) to yellow (+b). for each colour pa r ameter, two va lues fr om opposite sides of individual fruit were recorded and averaged. redness of peel colour was calculated using l*, a* and b* values as per minolta (2019). redness index was calculated by this formula: destructive parameters physiochemical parameters such as total soluble solids (tss), titratable acidity (ta) and tss: acid ratio was measured by destructive methods. fruits were cut into pieces and then squeezed to extract the juice. juice was used to measure tss through a digital refractometer (atago pal-3, japan). titratable acidity was estimated by juice of white pulp and titrated against 0.1 n naoh till light pink colour a s end point (aoac, 2000). red pulp extract was titrated against 0.1 n naoh till ph 8.1 using microprocessor-based ph system (esico rs232pc, india)(zahid et al., 2012). sensory properties a panel of semi-trained and trained judges was selected for the sensory evaluation. fruits harvested at 31, 36 and 41days intervals were cut into uniform pieces and served for sensory evaluation. different sensory attributes of red and white pulp dragon fruit such as fruit colour, texture or crispiness, taste and fig. 1. weather data (temperature, relative humidity and rainfall) during the study on growth, development and maturity of dragon fruit. 159 maturity determination of dragon fruit overall acceptance were taken using a nine-pointheadonic scale (1 = extremely dislike a nd 9 = extremely like) (stone et al., 2012). statistical analysis data were analysed using software windostat 9.3 version as per factorial randomized block design (frbd) with two factors (colour and interval of harvesting days) having four replication sand eight fruits in each. results and discussion non-destructive parameters growth pattern and days after flowering the growth rate increased rapidly during early stages of fruit development and slowed down after full maturity. both red and white pulp types followed a sigmoid growth pattern (fig. 2). previous studies suggested that both red and white pulp followed a sigmoid growth pattern (nerd et al., 1999; jamaludin et al., 2011; magalhaes et al., 2019). it was observed that 80% of fruit development such as fresh weight and pulp percentage was completed before colour break stage. colour break stage to full red colour stage was found crucial for development of optimum biochemical attributes (tss and acidity). after full red colour development in the peel, variation in fruit shape and size was almost stopped (nerd et al., 1999). in dragon fruit, bud initiation was started from the last week of march and continued till last week of august. both hylocereus spp. required 17-20 days for bud initiation to flowering (table 1). for optimum fruit maturity, red pulp fruits needed 29-31 daf and white pulp needed 31-33 daf. a previous study done by merten (2003) represented immature (23-27 daf), mature (28-30 daf) and over-mature (31-40 daf) stages of dragon fruit in usa condition. similar type of results were found in a study done in thailand (wanitchang et al., 2010). kishore (2016) studied the growth and development of dragon fruit in orissa (bhubaneshwar), india and found that it is a fastgrowing crop and takes only a month for attaining optimum ma tur ity. previous studies ha ve a lso confirmed the similar maturity period of pithaya (to et al., 2002; centurion-yah et al., 2008; martinezchavez, 2011). determination of optimum maturity based on daf was observed as a crucial parameter in many fruit crops (fawole and opara, 2013: patel et al., 2014; kapilan and anpalagan, 2015). heat units heat units denote the heat requirement of fruits for reaching a particular developmental stage during their growth and development (lysiak, 2012; matzneller et al. 2014). the heat units accumulated during the period from flowering to optimum maturity was 731.6 (at 29 daf, data not presented) and 782.2 heat units (31 daf) in red and white pulp types, respectively (table 2). red colour type required lesser heat units for optimum maturity than white pulp fruits. further studies are required as no reports are available on heat units required during optimum maturity of dragon fruit in india or any other country. fruit weight fig. 2. growth curve drawn using fruit weight of dragon fruit harvested at seven intervals (7,14,21,26,31,36 and 41 daf). presented values are mean± sem of four replications. table 1. days required from flower bud emergence to flowering in red and white pulp dragon fruit. days required from bud emergence to flowering red pulp white pulp days after bud emergence 18.02 19.31to flowering se (m)± 0.045 cd (0.05) 0.213 fruit weight of white pulp was more than red pulp fruit at all harvesting intervals. in white pulp, fruit weight increased from116.44 to 467.37 g and in red pulp it was 56.31 to 367.23 g. a considerable increase in fruit weight was noticed up to 31 daf in both red and white pulp. whereas rate of increase in fruit weight was least and almost constant during 36 to 41 days of harvest (table 1).therefore, both colour types j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 157-165, 2022 160 gained optimum fruit weight up to 31 daf and recorded 348.44 g in red pulp and 465.5 g in white pulp type at optimum maturity. many studies have reported a significant increase in fruit weight of dragon fruits and then growth was almost ceased after full maturity (centurion yah et al., 2008; martinez chavez, 2011; ortiz and takahashi, 2015). red pulp fruits had significantly lower fruit weight than white pulp. this result was in accordance with nerd et al. (1999). specific gravity the photosynthates (soluble solids) accumulates from source to sink during growth and development of fruits (zhang et al., 2005). the specific gravity showed a significant difference between colour types and different harvesting intervals (table 2). a sharp increase in specific gravity was recorded till 31 daf and it was almost stable during last intervals of harvest. it was maximum on 31st day for both red and white pulp types1.08 and 1.12 g/ cc, respectively. this finding was in accordance with wanitchang et al., (2010) and fawole and opara, (2013). peel colour the brightness of peel colour was shown by l*value which gradually declined up to full maturity and then somewhat constant at last harvest (table 3). the value of a* ranged from 10 (green colour) at immature stage to 46 (red colour) in over-mature red pulp fruit and 12 (immature) to 38 (over-mature) in white pulp (table 2). the b* value was relatively constant up to 26th daf and suddenly decreased on 31 daf then remained constant till over-mature stage. redness index increased significantly as maturity progressed and found higher at 31 daf and it was at par with 36 and 41 daf. these values indicated that optimum red colour development in peel occurred on 31 daf in both red and white pulp fruits. red pulp fruits had a significantly higher redness index of peel than white pulp fruits (table 3). manifestation of red colour in the peel initiated after 26 days of flowering in both pithaya species. this result was in accordance with centurion yah et al. (2008). both cultivars took 4–5 days to develop full red colour from colour break stage. fruit peel colour was found as a crucial parameter for determining the table 2. changes in fruit weight, specific gravity and heat units during growth and development of dragon fruit harvested at seven days intervals. harvest days fruit weight specific gravity heat units days intervals red pulp white pulp red pulp white pulp red pulp/white pulp 7 56.31 116.44 0.58 0.68 166.85 14 135.04 238.43 0.79 0.79 346.85 21 176.12 252.73 0.87 0.92 534.80 26 231.15 288.74 0.98 1.02 659.40 31 348.44 465.50 1.08 1.12 782.20 36 361.42 468.04 1.10 1.15 897.65 41 367.23 467.37 1.11 1.14 1015.05 c.d. (0.05) colour 28.22 0.025 days 52.78 0.046 colour*days na na s.em± colour 9.83 0.009 days 18.38 0.016 colour*days 26.00 0.023 lata et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 157-165, 2022 161 maturity in plum (usenik et al., 2009), citrus (singh et al., 2017), sweet cherry (chelpinski et al., 2019), tomato (goisser et al., 2020) and apple (pourdarbani et al., 2020). destructive parameters total soluble solids and titratable acidity a significant rise in tss was recorded during fruit maturity (table 4). tss was higher in red pulp than white pulp fruits. tss values ranged from 4.5 to 14.3ob and 4.1 to 13.4ob in red pulp and white pulp fruits during different maturity stages (7 to 41 daf). it remained increasing till optimum maturity and started decreasing during over-mature stages (table4). tss recorded highest on 31 daf in red (14.2ob) and white pulp fruits (13.2ob). rise in tss during maturity indicated that it was a suitable indicator of optimum maturity of dragon fruit (nerd et al., 1999). many studies have reported that tss ranged from 10 to 17ob in differ ent genotypes of dra gon fruits (marquez-guzman et al., 2005; livera-munoz et al., 2010). ta of both hylocereus spp. had likely to increase and reached highest on 26th daf (0.6% in red and 0.7% in white) and then suddenly decreased on 31st day. acidity was constantly decreasing in overmature fruit and reached to a minimum at 41 daf (table 4). optimum acidity (0.23% in red pulp and 0.31% in white pulp) was recorded on 31 daf. the increasing trend of ta before the colour development of immature fruits and then decline in acidity is associated with the commencement of maturity (arevalo-galarza and ortiz-hernandez, 2004;ortiz and takahashi, 2015). the optimum concentration of ta imparts a good flavor and blend in dragon fruit. similar pattern of changes in ta during fruit maturity has been reported in various studies (sornyatha and anprung, 2009; osuna-enciso et al., 2011; kienzle et al., 2011; babu et al., 2017; bakshi et al., 2018). nerd et al. (1999) had found that highest acidity was less than 1% in mature fruits of red and white pulp pithaya. tss: acid ratio for a better palatability, tss: acid ratio of fruits is important. the tss: acid ratio of both red and white pulp dragon fruit exhibited an increasing trend during fruit maturity. tss/acid ratio was lowest at immature stage (18.2 and 12.5) and significantly higher at mature (61.3 and 41.9) and over mature stages (76 and 55) in red and white pulp fruits respectively (table 4). the percentage increase in tss/acid ratio was highest at 31 daf (64 and 69%) in red and white pulp fruits, respectively. at immature stages tss was less and acidity was more while at mature stage it was vice-versa. the higher tss: acid ratio at 31 daf was harvest l* value a* value b* value redness index days intervals red white red white red white red white pulp pulp pulp pulp pulp pulp pulp pulp 7 50.71± 51.18± 10.46± 9.58± 31.18± 32.88± 0.00 0.00 2.51 1.49 1.23 0.30 1.81 1.67 14 47.19± 50.61± 10.96± 10.21± 29.01± 33.89± 4.16± 1.32± 1.21 1.05 0.38 0.76 0.92 0.28 0.12 0.07 21 46.41± 49.28± 12.23± 11.66± 27.73± 31.83± 5.57± 3.01± 0.99 1.45 0.52 0.34 1.22 1.33 0.19 0.11 26 44.73± 48.75± 13.02± 6.37± 29.37± 30.32± 5.89± 4.78± 1.72 1.67 0.83 2.07 1.34 1.93 0.14 0.15 31 36.82± 41.34± 43.70± 36.92± 9.94± 9.94± 40.02± 37.02± 1.73 0.85 3.58 3.32 2.31 0.87 2.06 1.41 36 35.03± 39.51± 44.23± 37.71± 9.79± 10.28± 42.24± 37.93± 1.80 0.89 2.47 1.20 0.71 1.03 1.42 1.33 41 36.88± 37.93± 46.08± 38.08± 9.10± 10.38± 44.13± 38.66± 0.24 0.90 1.78 2.19 0.43 1.45 1.93 2.41 table 3. changes in peel colour (l*, a*, b* value and redness of peel index) during growth and development of dragon fruit harvested at seven days intervals. maturity determination of dragon fruit j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 157-165, 2022 162 a result of decline in acidity and rise in tss (martinez chavez, 2011; osuna-enciso et al., 2011).this result concurred with the findings of centurion-yah et al. (2008), martinez chavez (2011) and ortiz and takahashi(2015). sensory properties the sensory scores given for different attributes such as fruit appearance, pulp colour, texture and taste are summarized in fig. 3. evaluation of sensory quality of red and white pulp dragon fruit indicated that fruits ha rvested on 31 daf ha d ma ximum consumer acceptance followed by 36 daf in both colour types. sensory attributes scored highest at optimum mature stage (31daf) and least at over mature stage (41 daf). sensory properties are important for deciding the optimum maturity of fruits as each attribute is related to fruit quality (shahbaz et al., 2014; taiti et al., 2017). days after flowering (daf) to optimum maturity the optimum maturity was considered to have reached when the incr ementa l fr uit gr owth r a te wa s significantly lower. all the physico-chemical and sensory parameters were considered to calculate the days required from flowering to optimum maturity. red pulp fruits required comparatively less duration for attainment of optimum maturity compared to white pulp. above parameters showed that both colour types needed 31 daf for attaining the optimum maturity. harvest tss (ob) titratable acidity (%) tss: acid ratio days intervals red white red white red white pulp pulp pulp pulp pulp pulp 7 4.55 4.15 0.25 0.33 18.20 12.57 14 5.57 5.15 0.31 0.34 17.96 15.14 21 8.85 7.90 0.43 0.55 20.58 14.36 26 11.56 10.15 0.50 0.62 23.12 16.37 31 14.20 13.20 0.23 0.31 61.30 41.93 36 14.30 13.40 0.20 0.28 68.09 47.85 41 13.70 13.20 0.18 0.24 76.11 55.00 c.d. (0.05) colour 0.12 0.019 3.32 days 0.21 0.036 6.21 colour*days 0.31 0.051 8.78 sem± colour 0.04 0.007 1.16 days 0.08 0.013 2.16 colour*days 0.11 0.018 3.06 table 4. changes in tss, titratable acidity and tss: acid ratio during growth and development of dragon fruit harvested at seven days intervals. fig. 3. changes in fruit colour, texture, taste and overall acceptability during growth and development of dragon fruit harvested at seven days intervals. presented values are mean of fifteen replications. lata et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 157-165, 2022 163 over-mature fruits were prone to cracking, postharvest losses and had lesser shelf life. fruit cracking was more prevalent in red pulp than white pulp fruits. conclusion dragon fruit is an exotic fruit crop having rich nutr aceutical properties. this crop has a great potential in both domestic and export market. harvest at optimum maturity is an important factor for improving quality and shelf life of fruits. results of the study reported that physicochemical parameters were helpful to predict the optimum maturity of red and white pulp dragon fruits. growth and development of both hylocereus spp. followed a sigmoid growth pattern. the results showed that all the parameters were highest or optimum on 31daf in both colour types. red pulp fruits needed comparatively lesser time (29-31 daf) than white pulp fruits (31-33 daf) for optimum maturity. at optimum maturity, tss was higher in red pulp and acidity, fruit weight and specific gravity was higher in white pulp fruits. sensory attributes scored highest in optimum mature fruits (31daf) and lowest in over mature fruits (41 daf). fruit weight, specific gravity, tss, acidity and days after flowering can be used as important maturity indices for determining the optimum maturity of dragon fruit. acknowledgement the authors thankfully acknowledge the icar-indian institute of horticultural research (icar-iihr), outreach campus of indian agricultural research institute, 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(received: 14.01.2022; revised: 19.03.2022; accepted: 21.03.2022) 00 a final sph -jhs coverpage first 2 pages.pdf 00 content and in this issue.pdf 01 mohan kumar g n.pdf 02 meera pandey.pdf 03 biradar c.pdf 04 varalakshmi b.pdf 05 vijayakumari n.pdf 06 barik s.pdf 07 sajid m b.pdf 08 ranga d.pdf 09 usha s.pdf 10 manisha.pdf 11 amulya r n.pdf 12 akshatha h j.pdf 13 adak t.pdf 14 sujatha s.pdf 15 gowda p p.pdf 16 subba s.pdf 17 dhayalan v.pdf 19 ahmed s.pdf 20 vishwakarma p k.pdf 21 deep lata.pdf 22 udaykumar k p.pdf 23 nayaka v s k.pdf 24 sahel n a.pdf 25 bayogan e r v.pdf 26 rathinakumari a c.pdf 27 yella swami c.pdf 28 saidulu y.pdf 29 sindhu s.pdf 30 neeraj.pdf 31 sivaranjani r.pdf 32 rashied tetteh.pdf 34 sangeetha g.pdf 35 shareefa m.pdf 36 last pages.pdf mango (mangifera indica l.) belongs to the family anacardiacea, and is native to the indo-myanmar region (mukherjee, 1953). in india, there exist hundreds of mango cultivars (chadha and pal, 1986), and gujarat figures in the mango belt of the country. in particular, the southern part of gujarat is well-suited for mango cultivation and is home to several indigenous coloured varieties, owing to a favourable tropical climate. today, there is a good demand in international markets for varieties with attractive peel colour. although numerous studies have been conducted on mango in the region, there is dearth of information on coloured mango varieties. these are distinct from each other in terms of gradation, intensity of colour and other attributes (pleguezuelo et al, 2012). in view of the popularity and importance of coloured mango varieties globally, the aim of the present study was to assess physico-chemical and other characteristics of coloured mango fruits, especially, locally grown varieties in south gujarat. this study will help identify suitable parents and potential mango varieties for further evaluation, conservation and utilization in crop improvement programmes. in the long run, this could prove important to guage consumer preference and emerging marketexpectations. the present study was carried out at germplasm evaluation block, regional horticultural research station, short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):94-98, 2015 studies on fruit and yield traits in indigenous coloured varieties of mango (mangifera indica l.) in south gujarat, india h. rymbai1, c.r. patel, t.r. ahlawat, and n.l. patel navsari agricultural university, navsari– 396 450, india e-mail: rymbaihort@gmail.com abstract an investigation on fruit descriptors and yield in twelve mango varieties was conducted under south gujarat conditions. maximum fruit length was recorded in cv. totapuri (16.23cm). vanraj showed the highest values for fruit width (11.67cm), fruit circumference (37.37cm), fruit weight (729g), fruit volume (575.59cm3) and fruit pulp (78.93%). maximum tss (21.20%), acidity (0.42%) and fruit firmness (7.00 rating) was observed in cvs. deshi-1, deshi-3 and makaram, respectively. ‘totapuri’ had maximum total shelf-life (21.33 days), number of fruits per tree (383.00) and fruit yield (236.80kg/tree). the varieties had green to yellow ground-colour of peel. all the varieties had red-blush peel colour, excepting cvs. dadamio, makaram and swarnarekha which were purplish-red. similarly, pulp colour ranged from light yellow to light orange. based on overall performance, cvs. alphonso, deshi-1, deshi-2, kesar, khandesi borasio, totapuri and vanraj proved to be superior to the other varieties. key words: colour, indigenous, varieties, mango aspee college of horticulture and forestry, nau, navsari, during the fruiting season in year 2012. varieties selected for this study were: alphonso, batli, dadamio, deshi-1, deshi-2, deshi-3, kesar, khandesi borasio, makaram, swarnarekha, totapuri and vanraj. age of the trees used in this experiment was 20-30 years. plants were maintained under uniform conditions as per the recommended package of practices of navsari agricultural university. fully mature mango fruits were harvested and collected randomly (as and when the fruits matured on the tree). after uniform ripening at room temperature, 15 fruits per variety were used in the study. fruit description, viz., fruit length, fruit width, fruit circumference, fruit weight and fruit volume were recorded as per standard methods at ready-to-eat, ripe stage. fruit pulp percentage was calculated as per peter et al (2007). total shelf-life was noted under room temperature for both preand post-ripening period in fruits starting with the day of harvest. physiological loss in fruit weight was determined at 3-day intervals using standard formulae and was expressed in percentage (aoac, 1994). fruit firmness was rated as per dus, with rating of low firmness (3), medium (5) and high firmness (7) (dus, 2008). fibre attachment to stone was observed and different ratings were given (dus, 2008). a panel of five judges scored each variety, and the average score was taken as the final rating for the variety. number of fruits per tree was recorded at 95 fruit and yield traits in indian mango varieties harvest. fruit yield in term of kg per tree was obtained by multiplying average fruit-weight with number of fruits per tree. total soluble solids (tss) were determined with a digital hand-refractometer (hi 96801) at three different points on the fruit, i.e., shoulder, middle and distal end of the fruit, after thorough mixing. the values were expressed as percentage (ranganna, 1986). titratable acidity was estimated as per ranganna (1986). fruit parameters, viz., peel and pulp colour, pulp fibre, lenticel density and nature, depth of sinus, fruit shape, fruit apex and depth of fruitstalk cavity, were determined by five judges who used dus guidelines (dus, 2008). the experiment was laid out in randomised block design (rbd), with three replications, with three trees per replication. data on various parameters were analyzed using analysis of variance (anova) employing statistical package for agricultural workers (stat op sheoran). differences among individual means were tested using least significant difference (lsd) test at p< 0.05 level. result showed that physico-chemical characteristics of the fruit were highly significant (p< 0.05) for differences among varieties (table 1). maximum fruit length was observed in cv. totapuri (16.23cm), while this was minimum in deshi-3 (9.43cm). ‘vanraj’ recorded maximum fruit-width (11.67cm), while, cv. makaram recorded the least (7.00cm). fruit circumference was highest in ‘vanraj’ (37.37cm), and lowest in makaram (23.20cm). several workers have reported mango cultivars to differ in fruit length and width, according to their genetic make-up (jilani et al, 2010). highest fruit-weight was recorded in cv. vanraj (729.03g). in contrast, ‘makaram’ had lowest fruit-weight (235.73g). the remaining varieties had fruits ranging in weight from 300 to 363g. maximum fruit volume was noted in ‘vanraj’ (739.33cm3), while, the minimum was recorded in ‘makaram’ (240.00cm3). sarkar et al (2001) also reported variation in fruit-weight among different mango cultivars, which could be due to genetic or physiological factors (uddin et al, 2006). a distinct variation was observed in pulp content in different varieties (table 1). maximum pulp percentage was obtained in ‘vanraj’ (78.93). this is in accordance with kulkarni and rameshwar (1981) among varieties evaluated by them. similarly, pulp colour ranged from light-yellow to light-orange. these findings fall in the range reported by several researchers in mango (sarkar et al, 2001; jilani et al, 2010). fruit-firmness, as indicated in table 2, rated maximum in ‘makaram’ (7.00) and minimum (3.00) in ‘alphonso’. tss content and acidity are also considered as a measure of fruit quality (shafique et al, 2006). tss recorded maximum in cv. deshi-1 (21.20%), and minimum in cv. totapuri (15.63%). highest acidity was recorded in ‘totapuri’ (0.42%), and least in ‘deshi-1’ (0.24%) and kesar (0.25%). variation in chemical constituents among varieties too has been reported by researchers earlier (syed, 2009). data on ripening behaviour in various mango varieties showed highly significant differences (table 2). maximum table 1. fruit and yield descriptors in mango variety pulp colour fruit shape fruit fruit fruit fruit fruit fruit tss acidity number yield length width circumweight volume pulp (%) (%) of fruits (kg/tree) (cm) (cm) ference (g) (cm3) (%) per tree (cm) alphonso medium yellow ovate oblique 10.53 8.30 26.77 331.34 351.00 77.18 19.67 0.27 307.67 113.22 batli light yellow ovate oblong 13.43 7.83 24.60 363.10 378.00 69.12 18.50 0.36 187.67 112.99 dadamio light yellow ovate 10.30 8.70 26.73 358.23 372.67 66.29 17.63 0.38 210.33 124.52 deshi-1 medium yellow ovate 10.93 8.77 24.27 315.90 335.67 76.15 21.20 0.24 329.33 106.07 deshi-2 medium yellow ovate 10.50 8.47 23.70 301.23 312.00 71.43 20.40 0.28 292.33 95.61 deshi-3 light orange ovate 9.43 7.83 24.17 236.27 241.00 64.46 17.50 0.42 108.33 44.78 kesar medium yellow oblong 12.13 7.97 24.80 319.67 326.33 72.23 18.80 0.25 273.33 97.80 khandesi light orange ovate oblong 9.80 7.60 24.23 302.83 340.00 76.30 20.70 0.35 311.67 113.67 borasio makaram medium yellow oblong 12.60 7.00 23.20 235.73 240.00 60.14 16.70 0.37 119.33 45.95 swarnarekha light orange ovate oblong 12.90 9.20 24.77 424.27 458.33 75.36 17.67 0.30 262.67 163.40 totapuri medium yellow oblong with 16.23 9.10 24.53 618.77 630.67 67.91 15.63 0.42 383.00 330.27 pointed tip vanraj medium yellow ovate oblique 15.07 11.67 37.37 729.03 739.33 78.93 17.23 0.33 172.67 399.39 cv 4.51 3.94 4.14 41.21 34.66 3.49 1.61 11.73 6.06 3.86 ± sem 0.32 0.19 0.62 13.96 11.74 1.18 17.00 0.20 3.06 2.03 cd (p=0.05) 0.93 0.57 1.82 6.39 5.15 2.87 0.01 0.07 8.15 5.27 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):94-98, 2015 96 number of days taken to ripen after harvest was observed in ‘totapuri’ (8.67), while this was minimum in ‘vanraj’ and ‘deshi-3’ (4.67). similarly, ‘totapuri’ recorded longest postripening life (12.67 days), the shortest was observed in ‘dadamio’ and ‘deshi-3’ (6.33 days). total post-harvest life significantly higher in ‘totapuri’ (21.33 days), and lowest in ‘deshi-3’ (11.00 days). these finding are in accordance with herianus et al (2003). variation in post-harvest life in mango varieties could be due to their unique genetic make-up. the physiological weight-loss in fruits differed significantly with variety (table 3). at three days after harvest (dah), least physiological weight-loss was noticed in ‘batli’ (5.26%), while maximum weight-loss was recorded in ‘dadamio’ (7.96 %). however, ‘totapuri’ recorded minimum physiological weight-loss. ‘deshi-3’ showed maximum physiological weight-loss at all intervals of observation, with an exception at 3 dah (7.03%). reduction in weight is attributed to physiological loss in weight due to respiration, transpiration of water through the peel tissue and due to other biological changes occurring in the fruit (rathore et al, 2007), depending upon the genetic constitution of variety (rymbai et al, 2014). good appearance of mango fruit has the highest phenotypic acceptability in consumers (uddin et al, 2006). among various varieties, green ground colour of mango peel was observed in cvs. dadamio, makaram and swarnarekha, yellow colour in cvs. alphonso, batli, deshi-1, deshi-2, deshi-3, kesar and totapuri, while, only ‘khandesi borasio’ showed greenish-yellow colour. all the varieties had redblush peel colour, except cvs. dadamio, makaram and swarnarekha, which showed purplish-red colour (table 4). pulp fibre was scarce in cvs. alphonso, deshi-1, deshi-2, kesar, khandesi borasio and totapuri medium in cvs. batli, dadamio, swarnarekha, and abundant in cvs. deshi-3 and makaram. lenticel density ranged from sparse in cvs. alphonso and swarnarekha, to dense in cvs. dadamio, deshi-1, deshi-2, kesar, khandesi borasio and totapuri. cultivars batli, deshi-3 and makaram had medium lenticelsdensity. varieties deshi-1, deshi-2, khandesi borasio and swarnarekha are the only ones with prominent lenticels. sinus was absent in ‘deshi-3’, very shallow in cvs. batli and dadamio, and shallow in all other varieties. fruit in cv. alphonso was ovate-oblique, kesar and makaram cvs. had oblong fruit, batli, khandesi borasio and swarnarekha had ovate-oblong fruits, totapuri fruit was oblong with a pointed tip, and the rest were ovate. fruit apex of all the varieties was obtuse, except in ‘dadamio’ and ‘totapuri’ where it was round and acute, respectively. depth of fruit stalk cavity was shallow in cvs. alphonso, deshi-1, deshi-2 and swarnarekha, but the cavity was absent in all other varieties. variation in external appearance among varieties may be attributed to genetic make-up, as, each genotype is unique. differences in fruit yield among varieties were highly significant (table 1). number of fruits per tree varied from as low as 108.33 in ‘deshi-3’, to as high as 383.00 in ‘totapuri’. eight of the 12 varieties studied had more than table 2. ripening and shelf-life in mango fruits after harvest variety time posttotal fruit taken to ripening postfirmness ripening life harvest (rating) (days) (days) life (days) alphonso 7.67 8.67 16.33 3.00 batli 6.67 7.67 14.33 4.33 dadamio 6.00 6.33 12.33 5.00 deshi-1 5.67 8.00 13.67 3.00 deshi-2 6.67 7.67 14.33 3.67 deshi-3 4.67 6.33 11.00 6.33 kesar 7.33 7.67 15.00 3.00 khandesi borasio 5.33 6.00 11.33 3.00 makaram 5.67 9.00 14.67 7.00 swarnarekha 7.33 7.67 15.00 5.00 totapuri 8.67 12.67 21.33 3.67 vanraj 4.67 6.67 11.33 3.67 cv 11.74 11.38 7.16 2.14 ± sem 0.43 0.51 0.56 0.35 cd. (0.05) 1.27 1.52 1.67 1.06 table 3. physiological weight loss (%) in mango fruits at various intervals after harvest variety 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 dah dah dah dah dah dah dah alphonso 5.87 10.17 14.83 17.03 19.14 batli 5. 26 11.58 16.52 18.40 20.94 dadamio 7.96 14.05 16.82 19.36 23.48 deshi-1 6.07 11.35 15.15 19.50 21.17 deshi-2 7.34 11.72 16.48 19.19 21.06 deshi-3 7.03 15.63 19.06 23.86 25.63 kesar 6.28 11.06 15.15 18.08 19.94 khandesi 6.94 15.20 18.23 21.85 23.74 borasio makaram 5.63 11.67 15.03 17.72 19.57 swarnarekha 6.00 11.38 15.33 17.27 20.13 totapuri 5.66 9.66 13.27 16.07 18.05 18.63 20.05 vanraj 6.47 12.69 18.26 21.72 23.86 cv 0.53 2.45 0.67 1.35 2.69 ± sem 0.02 0.17 0.06 0.15 0.33 c.d. (0.05) 0.06 0.5 0.19 0.44 0.98 dah: days after harvest; (-), not determined, as, 91.67% of varieties lost their post-harvest life, with exception of ‘totapuri’ rymbai et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):94-98, 2015 97 200 fruits per tree. similarly, highest fruit-yield (kg per tree) was recorded in ‘totapuri’ (236.80kg/tree), while, ‘deshi3’ had the lowest yield (25.56 kg/tree). this is in line with findings of sarkar et al (2001). exceptional results obtained in ‘totapuri’ may be attributed to unique genetic features of an individual variety. the present investigation concludes that of the 12 mango varieties studied, fruits of alphonso, deshi-1, deshi2, kesar, khandesi borasio, totapuri and vanraj were superior in various fruit parameters, as well as yield. of these, cvs. deshi-1 and deshi-2 are promising, local genotypes. these varieties can be studied in-depth for further evaluation and use in mango breeding programmes, to help assess consumer preference and emerging marketexpectations. acknowledgement the authors are highly thankful to head, department of fruit science, aspee college of horticulture & forestry, nau, for providing facilities required for the study. references aoac. 1994. association of official analytical chemists. official methods of analysis. 1111 north 19th street, suite 20, 16 edi. arlington, virginia 22209, usa chadha, k.l. and pal, r.n. 1986. mangifera indica l. in: crc handbook of flowering. halevy, a.c. (ed.). crc press, boca raton, florida. vol. 5, pp 211-230 dus. 2008. guidelines for the conduct of test for distinctness, uniformity and stability on mango (mangifera indica l.). protection of plant varieties and farmers’ rights authority (ppv & fra), table 4. secondary descriptors in mango fruits variety peel colour pulp lenticel fruit depth ground blush fibre density nature sinus apex of fruitstalk cavity alphonso yellow red scarce sparse less prominent shallow obtuse shallow batli yellow red medium medium less prominent very shallow obtuse absent dadamio green purplish-red medium dense less prominent very shallow round absent deshi-1 yellow red scarce dense prominent shallow obtuse shallow deshi-2 yellow red scarce dense prominent shallow obtuse shallow deshi-3 yellow red abundant medium less prominent absent obtuse absent kesar yellow red scarce dense less prominent shallow obtuse absent khandesi borasio greenish-yellow red scarce dense prominent shallow obtuse absent makaram green purplish-red abundant medium less prominent shallow obtuse absent swarnarekha green purplish-red medium sparse prominent shallow obtuse shallow totapuri yellow red scarce dense less prominent shallow acute absent vanraj greenish red red medium medium less prominent shallow obtuse shallow government of india, pp. 8-16 herianus, j.d., singh, l.z. and tan, s.c. 2003. aroma volatiles production during fruit ripening of ‘kensington pride’ mango. postharvest biol. & technol., 27:323-336 jilani, m.s., bibi, f., waseem, k. and khan, m.a. 2010. evaluation of physico-chemical characteristics of mango (mangifera indica l.) cultivars grown in d.i. khan. j. agril. res., 48:201-207 kulkarni, v. and rameshwar, a. 1981. biochemical and physical composition of fruits of some important indian mango cultivars. progr. hort., 13:5-8 mukherjee, s.k. 1953. origin, distribution and phylogenetic affinities of the species of mangifera indica l. j. linn. soc., 55:65–73 peter, m., leonard, f., bernard, c., joyce, k., victor, g. and kaswija, m. 2007. physical and chemical characteristics of off-vine ripened mango (mangifera indica l.) fruit (dodo). african j. biotechnol., 6:2477-2483 pleguezuelo, c.r.r., zuazo, v.h.d., fernández, j.l.m. and tarifa, d.f. 2012. physico-chemical quality parameters of mango (mangifera indica l.) fruits grown in a mediterranean subtropical climate (se spain). j. agril. sci. & technol., 14:365-374 ranganna, s. 1986. analysis and quality control for fruit and vegetable products. tata mcgraw-hill publishing company ltd., new delhi, india, pp. 1111 rathore, h.a., masud, t., sammi, s. and soomro, a.h. 2007. effect of storage on physico-chemical composition and sensory properties in mango (mangifera indica l.) variety dasehari. pakistan j. nutr., 6:143-148 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):94-98, 2015 fruit and yield traits in indian mango varieties 98 rymbai, h., laxman, r.h., dinesh, m.r., john sunoj, v.s., ravishankar, k.v. and jha, a.k. 2014. diversity in leaf morphology and physiological characteristics among mango (mangifera indica) cultivars popular in different agro-climatic regions of india. sci. hort., 176:189–193 sarkar, s.k., gautham, b., neeraja, g. and vijaya, n. 2001. evaluation of mango hybrids under telangana region of andhra pradesh. hort. j., 14:13-21 shafique, m.z., ibrahim, m., helali, m.o.h. and biswas, s.k. 2006. studies on the physiological and biochemical composition of different mango cultivars at various maturity levels. bangladesh j. sci. & indus. res., 41:101-108 syed, s.a. 2009. evaluation of mango cultivars for productive and commercial plantation under punjab conditions of pakistan. acta hort., 820:147-152 uddin, m.z., rahim, m.a., alam, m.a., barman, j.c. and wadud, m.a. 2006. a study on the physical characteristics of some mango germplasms grown in mymensingh condition. int’l. j. sustainable crop prod., 1:33-38 (ms received 03 october 2013, revised 16 april 2015, accepted 22 may 2015) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):94-98, 2015 rymbai et al focus j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(2):107-112, 2014 introduction hybrid cultivars of onion are considered to be superior to open-pollinated varieties due to higher uniformity and expressed heterosis. onion populations possess deleterious recessive alleles, and due to inbreeding depression, breeding lines can be selfed for only up to two or three generations in this biennial crop. thus, with conventional breeding it is difficult to obtain homozygous inbreds for complete genetic and phenotypic uniformity in the resultant hybrid. doubled haploid (dh) production is an alternative strategy for complete homozygosity and phenotypic uniformity to obtain inbred lines in onion (bohanec, 2002). spontaneous development of haploid plants was first described in datura stramonium (blakeslee et al, 1922), followed by tobacco, wheat and several other species (forster et al, 2007). in situ induction of maternal haploids has been possible by pollinating with pollen of the same species (maize), irradiated pollen (cucumber, melon, squash, watermelon, apple, mandarin, blackberry, european plum, sweet cherry, kiwifruit, pear, carnation, rose, petunia, sunflower and nicotiana), pollen from a wild relative (barley, potato), or unrelated species (wheat). induction of in vitro gynogenesis using un-pollinated flower parts has also been successful in several species like cucumber, squash, gerbera, production of doubled haploids in onion: a review a.s. dhatt and prerna thakur department of vegetable science punjab agricultural university, ludhiana -141 004, india e-mail : ajmerdhatt@gmail.com abstract onion suffers from high inbreeding depression and, as a result, inbreds that are developed lack genotypic and phenotypic uniformity. gynogenesis has emerged as a potential strategy to address this drawback. efforts have been made since the 1980s for identifying highly-responsive genotypes and for overall improvement of the protocol for bettering gynogenic frequency in onion. besides improving media composition, identification of responsive explants and increasing the chromosome efficiency has remained a major area of focus over the years. this article purports to review progress made thus far in the induction of gynogenic haploids in onion, and challenges / opportunities associated with it. key words: onion, allium cepa, gynogenesis, haploid, chromosome doubling sunflower, wheat, barley, onion and sugar beet (murovec and bohanec, 2012). haploidy has a great potential in onion breeding, as, hybrids are derived mainly from partial inbred lines. partial inbred lines also require 14-16 years to be developed due to the biennial life cycle of the crop. therefore, induction of di-haploids can greatly reduce the time and resources required for developing inbreds (bohanec et al, 1995). the major factors affecting haploid induction include genotype, physiological condition of donor plants, developmental stage of the gametes (microspores, megaspore), pre-treatment, composition of culture medium, and physical factors during tissue culture (murovec and bohanec, 2012). haploid plants may be obtained from male or female gametic cells. however, species differ in their ability to induce haploids via androgenesis or gynogenesis (bohanec, 2002). it has been observed that response of anther to haploid induction is not successful in onion (keller and korzum, 1996). haploid induction via un-pollinated flowers or ovaries is under practice for the last 20 years, after the first discovery by muren (1989). a high rate of success in onion through gynogenesis was observed by bohanec et al (1995), luthar and bohanec (1999) and bohanec (2009). induction of maternal haploids, called gynogenesis, can be achieved with 108 in vitro culture of various parts from un-pollinated flower such as ovules, placenta with ovules attached, ovaries, or whole flower-buds as discussed hereunder: choice of explant, developmental stage and sterilization-protocol in onion, a large number of anther culture experiments failed to generate haploids (keller and korzun, 1996). however, gynogenic haploid induction could be achieved through culture of un-pollinated ovules/ ovaries/ whole flower-buds (bohanec, 2002). keller (1990) observed that ovule culture was the most laborious and yielded the lowest number of embryo regenerants. therefore, this is no longer used for haploid induction in onion (bohanec, 2002). flower bud culture is the simplest way of inducing gynogenic haploids in onion and has been used in many recent studies by various workers. bohanec (2002) and bohanec and jakse (1999) estimated that extraction of ovaries from pre-cultured flower buds vis-a-vis whole-flower culture required more labour, while, gynogenic response of ovary vis-a-vis flower culture was often similar. also, wholeflower culture was found to have the disadvantage of growth of basal callus (not so in ovary cultures), resulting in production of low-quality haploid embryos. flower culture has been reported to show a possibility of somatic regeneration from callus, though this was genotypedependent. currently, the most efficient method is to plate whole onion flowers, without sub-culture, to induce haploid plants from cells of the female gametophyte (bohanec et al, 2003). according to muren (1989), flower buds 3-5 days prior to anthesis were superior to either older or younger ones. michalik et al (2000) concluded that small young buds of 2.8-3mm length produced significantly fewer embryos than older ones of 3.5-4.5mm length, while displaying genotype specificity. alan et al (2004) collected unopened flowers of all sizes (2-5mm) and separated them into three size groups, viz., small (<2-2.5mm), medium (2.25-4.5mm) and large (>4.5mm) before culturing them in plates. small flower buds responded poorly, whereas medium-sized buds gave the best results. musial et al (2001) reported that in onion, small and large flowers containing megaspore mother cells and mature embryo sacs, respectively, were less responsive than medium-sized flowers having 2-4 nucleate embryo sacs. before placing in culture, flowers were surfacesterilized with 96% ethanol for 1 min, followed by treatment with 10% sodium hypochlorite (60g/dm3 active chlorine) containing a few drops of tween 20 for 15 min, and then rinsed thrice in sterilized water (ponce et al, 2006). bohanec et al (1995) and jakse et al (1996) reported dissecting the flowers, followed by sterilization for 10 min in 5% (v/v) solution of sodium hypochlorite with a few drops of tween 20 added in. rinsing in sterile water followed this, after which the largest unopened flowers were selected and inoculated. geoffriau et al (1997) reported washing of the excised umbel in 96% ethanol for 1 min, sterilization in 0.5% sodium hypochlorite solution for 15 min, and rinsing thrice in sterilized distilled water. pre-treatment the principal benefits of optimizing pre-treatment for stock plants was to eliminate variation arising from external factors, thus maximizing gynogenic responsiveness in cultured flower-buds of onion across its flowering season. pre-treating the stock plant has been shown to significantly affect frequency of gynogenic embryogenesis from whole flower-bud cultures in a range of onion genotypes (puddephat, 1999). stress treatment is the most common factor affecting embryogenesis, where cold or heat shock, or starvation treatments are commonly used. without imposing stress, a change from gametophytic to the sporophytic phase is very difficult. pre-treatments can be applied to different types of explants, with varying severity and duration, resulting in different regeneration efficiencies as well (chen et al, 2010). puddephat et al (1999) observed that pre-conditioning of stock ovaries significantly influenced gynogenic embryogenesis. also, high illumination was found to be beneficial in onion. flower buds excised from stock plants maintained at 15ºc were ten times more responsive than those taken from plants raised under glasshouse conditions, or held at 10ºc. it has been established that lowering donor-plant growth temperature in the final phase/s of flower development improves the efficiency of gynogenesis in edible onion. alan et al (2004) also reported that flower buds (3-5mm) from stalks of plants stored at 10ºc remained responsive to induction of gynogenesis and were comparable to fresh, large flower-buds. bohanec et al (1995) reported the use of parafilm for sealing petri dishes and exposed them to 16-hr light/8-hr dark photoperiod at an illumination of 78µe m-2s-1 at 25±1ºc. jakse et al (1996) exposed sealed petri dishes to 16/8hr photoperiod at 23-25 ºc and illumination of 78 µmol m-2s-1. geoffriau et al (1997) cultured flowers at 20ºc night and 22ºc day temperature under a 16h photoperiod of 100 µmol/s/m2 photosynthetically active radiationpar (400-700 nm) supplied by fluorescent dhatt and thakur j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(2):107-112, 2014 109 tubes (58w). bohanec and jakse (1999) exposed parafilmsealed petri dishes to 16/8 hr photoperiod at 21-23ºc and 80µmol m-2s-1 illumination. media composition basal mineral composition: the three most-often used combinations of macroand micro-elements have been reported as b5 (gamborg et al, 1968), bds (dunstan and short, 1977) and ms (murashige and skoog, 1962). chen et al (2010) mentioned that organic-nitrogen source, carbohydrates and growth regulators are the most-often modified components. generally, gynogenesis spans two or more stages, and each stage may have distinct nutritional requirements. during induction, ovaries require low levels of growth regulators and are then transferred to a medium with higher concentrations of growth regulators. ponce et al (2006) compared regeneration of gynogenic embryos at gellan-gum concentrations of 7g/dm3 and 3 g/dm3, and, the higher concentration was found to be more effective. bohanec et al (1995) tested a 2-step culture procedure for generating gynogenic plants using flower pre-culture, followed by ovule or ovary culture method of campion and alloni (1990). further, bohanec and jakse (1999) found a single-step culture less time-consuming and three times more efficient than the two-step ovary culture. alan et al (2004) compared the single-step culture (bds medium) and twostep culture (bds/b1 medium) for induction of gynogenic plants, and concluded that, single-step strategy was more convenient for large-scale induction of haploids. use of polyamines: polyamines have been reported as essential for growth and development of living tissues, by ponce et al (2006). martinez et al (2000) showed that putrescine and spermidine induced the onset of embryogenesis in onion and enhanced the number of gynogenic embryos / plantlets obtained. embryo induction was greatest with a combined treatment of 2mm putrescine and 0.1mm spermidine. addition of putrescine alone did not give any significant effect, whereas, use of spermidine after 15 days of culture promoted further embryo maturation and plantlet formation. ebrahimi and zamani (2009) reported production of highest number of gynogenic embryos in media supplemented with 0.01 mm ba, 0.01 mm 2,4-d, 2mm putrescine and 0.1mm spermidine in onion flower buds. ponce et al (2006) found putrescine to be inhibitory at high concentration 0.16g/dm3 in all the genotypes studied. ccc (2-chloroethyltrimethyl ammonium chloride) at a concentration 0.1 g/dm3 was found to increase gynogenic embryo production rate more than thrice when compared to control. genotype-specificity of medium influencing production rate of embryos was also observed. various doses of growth regulators in different media combinations required for successful gynogenesis are tabulated below: growth concentration reference/s regulator/s in induction used medium (mg/l) 2,4-d + bap 2+2 muren,1989; campion et al, 1992; bohanec et al, 1995; jakse et al,1996; geoffriau et al, 1997 iba + bap 2.03+1.25 keller, 1990 tiba+aba 0.2+1 campion and alloni, 1990 2,4-d+bap; 2+0.12,1+0.12 campion et al, 1992 naa+bap paa+bap 100+2 jakseet al, 1996 2,4-d+bap 2+2 jakseet al, 2010; bohanec and jakse, 1999 2,4d+ba+ 0.01mm+ ebrahimi and zamani, 2009 putrescine+ 0.01mm+ spermidine 2mm+0.1mm ba+2,4-d 2+2 puddephat, 1999 growth concentration reference/s regulator/s in regeneration medium (mg/l) 2ip+ iaa, 2+1.5, 2+1 puddephat, 1999 2ip+ naa iba 1 muren, 1989 naa+2,4d+ 1+0.4+1,5+2+2 campion and alloni, 1990 iaa+bap+2ip tdz 2, 2 bohanec et al, 1995; jakse et al, 1996 naa + ga3; 1+1,1+2 campion and alloni, 1990 naa + bap naa+ 2ip 1+2 campion and alloni, 1990; bohanec et al, 1995 iaa+bap; 1,5+2; 1,5+2; campion and alloni, 1990 iaa+2ip; 1,5+1; 0,4+2; iaa+ga3; 0,4+2;1+2+1; 2,4d+bap; 2,4d 1+2+1;2+1+0.2 +2ip; naa+2ip+ aba;naa+ bap+ga3; bap+ga3+tiba iba+bap+ga3 2+0,1,2+3,5 keller, 1990; campion et al, 1992 effect of genotype genetic make-up of donor onion plant and growth conditions play the most important roles to succeed at gynogenesis. theoretically, for haploid induction in onion, a maximum of 600% frequency can be expected. however, in practice, yields are low (bohanec et al, 2001). geoffriau et al (1997) tested variable genetic material from different regions across the world. they found that only two out of production of doubled haploids in onion j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(2):107-112, 2014 110 18 onion cultivars showed a high gynogenic potential. in a similar study conducted by bohanec and jakse (1999), accessions from europe, japan and north america were analyzed, and they found the highest yield in north american cultivars. very high variability was found among cultivars, and even within inbred lines. michalik et al (2000) reported a maximum of 10% embryo yield in a breeding line out of 11 polish cultivars and 19 breeding lines studied. bohanec and jakse (1999) demonstrated that, crossing responsive with non-responsive onion lines, resulted in increased gynogenic ability in the hybrid progeny. jakse et al (2010) proposed an integrated method, wherein, the final proportion of haploid donors that regenerated dh plantlets doubled at the least, and reached up to 80%. geoffriau et al (1997) reported that among genetic structures, inbreds regenerated significantly better than synthetics. regenerants from inbreds were the most vigorous, whereas, synthetics were confirmed to be good donor material for quality embryos. determination of ploidy level and homozygosity different methods have been used for analyzing ploidy level. chromosome count was performed on root tips (muren, 1989; campion and alloni, 1990; keller, 1990; bohanec et al, 1995; campion et al, 1995) or shoot tip cells (campion et al, 1995). bohanec et al (1995) performed chromosome analysis of root tips by staining in vitro grown hydrolyzed (70ºc, 3 min) root tip cells with acetocarmine (arrested in metaphase with 45mg/ 100ml 8hydroxyquinoline). martinez et al (2000) and ebrahimi and zamani (2009) determined chromosome number in root tip cells obtained from plantlets after treatmentw thn 0.1% colchicine for 3h, fixed in 3:1 ethanol: glacial acetic acid, digested in 1n hcl at 60ºc for 8 min and squashing in 45% acetic acid. for microscopic inspection of the karyotype, root tips were stained with 1% haematoxiline or 2% acetocarmine. flow cytometry using leaf tissue has been a predominant method (cohat, 1994; bohanec et al, 1995; campion et al, 1995; jakse et al, 1996; geoffriau et al, 1997; javornick et al, 1998; bohanec and jakse, 1999; alan, 2004). a protocol for flow cytometry was developed by bohanec et al (1995) and the samples were analyzed on a fac-sort flow cytometer. bohanec and jakse (1999) used this method to analyze ploidy level of regenerants. to release the nuclei, leaves were chopped with a razor blade in 1 ml 0.1m citric acid containing 0.5% tween 20, and the suspension was filtered through 50µm nylon gauze filter. a three-fold volume of dye solution containing 5.25µg/ ml 4,6diamidino-2-phenylindole in 0.4m disodium hydrogen phosphate was added to the filtered suspension. flow cytometry measurements were performed with partec pas-iii flow cytometer equipped with a 100w high-pressure mercury lamp. partec ploidy analyzer was also used for ploidy analysis (anon., 2007). in diploid species, spontaneous diploids are very useful in plant breeding, as, these are more stable than dihaploid generation through haploids treated with colchicines. however, homozygosity of the regenerants needs to be proved (geoffriau et al, 1997). jakse et al (1996) submitted regenerated plantlets to isozyme electrophoretic analysis to establish the frequency of homozygous / heterozygous origin. bohanec et al (1995) used a modified electrophoresis technique, where, approximately 200mg fresh weight of leaf tissue (young leaves sprouted from donor plant bulbs, or, in vitro grown leaves) was crushed in 200µl of extraction buffer consisting of 15% (w/v) sucrose, 50mm tris-hcl (ph 7.1) in 0.5% (v/v) triton x-100. the extract was then centrifuged at 26500x g for 5 min at 4ºc; the supernatant was immediately loaded onto the gel. stacking gel (2cm) consisted of 24.6 g/l acrylamide and 6.15g/l bisacrylamide, 4.0g/l triton x-100, 0.7g/l ammonium persulphate, 0.6ml/l temed in 0.07m tris (ph 7.8); and, the resolving gel consisted of 57.8g/l acrylamide and 2.2g/l bisacrylamide, 0.37g/l ammonium persulphate, 0.37ml/l temed, 2.0g/l triton x-100 in 0.07m tris (ph 7.8). as electrode buffer, 1g/l tris and 5.52 g/l barbitone (ph 7.3) was used. electrophoresis was carried out at 10ºc for 3h at a constant voltage of 225 v. this method was used again by bohanec and jakse (1999), who had used another method of rapd analysis earlier (bohanec et al, 1995). genome-doubling procedures the spontaneous doubling of gynogenic plants is a rare event in the bulb-onion (bohanec, 2002). the major problem in genome doubling in onion is inaccessibility of the apical meristem of adult field-grown plants. therefore, chromosome doubling of haploid onion plantlets should be attempted during in vitro propagation. jakse et al (2003) mentioned that an efficient method for chromosome doubling should take into account survival rate and chromosomedoubling efficiency. alan et al (2004) studied various parameters in chromosome doubling experiments with 100400mg/l dose of colchicine, in liquid and solid media, for 24 and 48 hours. for high rate of recovery of diploids, exposure of basal explants from 2-4 month old in vitro haploid plants to 200-400 mg/l colchicine in liquid medium for 48h was dhatt and thakur j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(2):107-112, 2014 111 suggested, wherein, 10% survival of explants with apm (amiprofos-methyl) treatment was reported. geoffriau et al (1997) compared the efficiency of colchicine and oryzalin, and the best results were obtained with either 2.5mm colchicine (up to 65.7% diploids) or 50µm oryzalin (up to 57.1% diploids). both the chemicals induced mixoploids and affected plant regeneration, but better plant-quality was obtained with oryzalin. grzebelus et al (2004) reported oryzalin, trifluralin and apm as better agents than colchicine for in vitro chromosome doubling in onion tissue. however, apm is recommended due to its low toxicity. bohanec and jakse (1997) tested the effect of oryzalin and colchicine on halved basal shoots. diploidization with oryzalin (67%) was better than with colchicine (21%). jakse et al (2003) reported that the 2-day treatment in liquid media supplemented with 50µm apm gave the highest percentage of diploids (36.7%), but the survival rate was reduced to 52.5% that in the non-treated control. alan et al (2007) compared the efficiencies of three antimitotic agents (apm, colchicine and oryzalin) and recommended apm (100 or 150µm) due to its low toxicity and ability to yield results comparable to that with colchicine (750 or 1000µm). thus, it can be concluded that complete homozygosity through dh approach can be attained in less time than traditional 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(ed.). intech, europe, p87-106 musial, k., bohanec, b. and przywara, l. 2001. embryological study on gynogenesis in onion (allium cepa l.). sex. pl. repr., 13:335-41 ponce, m., martinez, l. and galmarini, c. 2006. influence of ccc, putrescine and gellan gum concentration on gynogenic embryo induction in allium cepa. biol. plant., 50:425-428 puddephat, i.j., robinson, h.t., smith, b.m. and lynn, j. 1999. influence of stock plant pre-treatment on gynogenic embryo induction from flower buds of onion. pl. cell tiss. org. cult., 57:145-148 (ms received 28 january 2014, revised 01 may 2014, accepted 17 june 2014) dhatt and thakur j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(2):107-112, 2014 final sph -jhs coverpage 17-1 jan 2022 single j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 73-82, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction jasmine (jasminum spp.) is one of the remuneratively prized and significant traditional flower crops of india. it belongs to the family oleaceae and is one of the aromatic flowers cultivated since times immemorial and is considered as the most revered flower in our country for its attractive and fragrant flowers. jasmine flowers are popularly used in preparation of garlands, hair adornments for women, used in religious and ceremonial occasion and also for extracting perfumery oil (sanchita et al., 2018) which is used in the cosmetic and perfumery industries. india is the largest exporter of jasmine oil in the world accounting for over 40 per cent of total world export. it has extensive application in aromatherapy as jasmine fragrance is effective in treating depression, nervous exhaustion and stress. it is also widely used in the medicinal and pharmaceutical industries (green and miller, 2009). exceptional increase in the consumption of jasmine flowers by the indian population settled in middle east countries and the united states of america has led to the augmentative export demand for flower strings of j. sambac (jawaharlal et al., 2012). the genus jasminum is reported to comprise of around 200 species (bailey 1958). the commercially cultivated jasmine species in tamil nadu, karnataka, andhra pradesh, uttar pradesh and some parts of bihar and west bengal are j. sambac, j. grandiflorum, j. auriculatum and j. multiflorum. exclusive of these commercially important species, lesser-known species namely, j. nitidum, j. calophyllum and j. flexile also acquire economic importance as they produce flowers which are suitable for use as loose flower, besides being ideal garden plants (raman, 1969; ganga et al., 2015). hybridization leads to the development of new adaptive traits allowing the expansion of new habitats (johnston et al., 2004), fitness enhancement (burke et al., 1998), or the origin of new hybrid lineages impact of pollination strategies on fruit set and fruit growth attributes in jasmine usha s.1*, ganga m.1, rajamani k.2, manonmani s.2 and gnanam r.3 1 department of floriculture and landscape architecture, 2 centre for plant breeding and genetics, 3 centre for plant molecular biology and biotechnology, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore 641 003, tamil nadu, india corresponding author e-mail: usha.annapoorna@gmail.com abstract jasmine occupies predominant position among the flower crops in india in terms of area, production and productivity. the demand for jasmine flowers is growing day by day owing to its wide range of uses and there is a pressing need for improving the crop by exploring strategies to evolve diverse genotypes. the present study focuses on the hybridization of jasminum spp with the objective of introgression of desirable traits that would aid in creation of wider genetic variability. pollination is the basis in any hybridization programme. the main aim of this research study was to determine the suitable pollination methods among self, open and cross pollination and to assess the effect of the pollination methods on the fruit set and fruit characteristics. the results of the study revealed that the overall response of j. auriculatum was found effective with maximum fruit set percentage. j. auriculatum cv parimullai yielded the highest fruit set of 76.43% under open pollination and the least fruit set rate of 2.14% under self-pollination. among the possible cross combination involving j. auriculatum and j. grandiflorum cultivars as seed parents with various pollen parents, j. flexile showed considerable results. cross combination of j. auriculatum x j. flexile recorded maximum fruit set revealing best cross compatibility while crosses involving j. sambac resulted in no fruit set indicating the prevalence of fertilization barriers that hinder hybridization. keywords: fruit set, fruit growth, jasmine and pollination 74 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 73-82, 2022 (grant, 1981; arnold, 1997). hybridization can also reinforce reproductive bar riers through natural selection for conspecific gene flow (arnold, 1992), the creation of stable hybrid zones (barton and hewitt, 1985), or the for mation of introgressive ra ces. hybridization is not the general outcome whenever congeneric species come into contact because there often are preand post-mating barriers that prevent hybridization. pollination is the result of pollen being transferred from the anther to the stigma of another flower. landing of pollen on stigma is no guarantee for seedset. failure of fertilization after self-pollination in selfsterile or self-incompatible plants may also be due to the inability of the pollen to germinate on its own stigma. pollination in many crops has manifested a major influence on the number of fruit set, fruit length, fruit girth and fruit shape (nirmalaruban et al., 2020). jasmine varieties released till date are only clonal selections and mutants. hence there is a dire necessity to evolve hybrids in jasmine using commercial and under-utilized species. prior attempts at hybridization ha ve fa iled beca use of the compa tibility a nd fertilization barriers present among the species. considering the above, the present study focuses on the method of pollination and its potency on fruit set in jasmine. materials and methods the study was carried out at the department of floriculture and landscape architecture, horticultural college a nd resea r ch institute, ta mil na du agricultural university, coimbatore during 20192021. ten-year-old plants of j. auriculatum cultivars co. 1 mullai, co.2 mulla i, pa rimullai a nd j. grandiflorum cultivars co.1 pitchi and co.2 pitchi wer e selected as female pa r ent a nd ja sminum genotypes like j. auriculatum cv co.1 mullai, j. grandiflorum cv co. 1 pitchi, j. sambac, j. multiflorum, j. nitidum, j. calophyllum and j. flexile were used as the pollen source. the experimental layout was a complete randomized design with three replications of each crossing combination. the pollen from the previously bagged flowers was collected from the male parents during 6:00 to 8:00 am in the morning of the succeeding day. similarly in the female parent, fully opened flowers and mature buds at pre anthesis stage were emasculated between 7.00 to 10.00 am. the pollen collected from the pollen source was dusted on the stigmatic surface of the respective emasculated female parent and the flowers were bagged with butter paper cover and then labelled. for the self-pollination treatment hundred flowering shoots were randomly selected on the plants and one third of the flowering bunches were bagged without any emasculation. the remaining flowering shoots (five per plant) were tagged and the flower bunches on each shoot were thinned to five buds (approx. 24 h before anthesis) for open pollination the flowers were left untreated without any bagging. the observations on days to fruit initiation, fruit set percentage, duration of fruit retention, shape of the fruit, colour of the fruit, fruit intensity and season of fruit set were recorded. colour was assessed for each fruit using rhs colour chart. for the analysis of embryo viability, the longitudinally dissected fruits were treated with 2, 3, 5 triphenyl tetrazolium chloride and after 3 hours of incubation the stained embryos were examined for viability. fruit set and fruit quality characters were evaluated by variance analysis using spss 28.0 software. results and discussion evaluation of the best possible cross combination with the varied method of pollination is the base factor that decides the success of a hybridization programme. the method of pollination plays a significant role in the fruit set of the plant and is influenced by various factors such as morphology of the flower, pollen-pistil interaction, nutrients and environmental parameters. as observed from the data (table 1), among the possible cross combinations of pollen parents with completely opened flowers of j. auriculatum cultivars, the cultivar co.1 mullai as female parent recorded good response with male parent j. flexile by recording the earliest fruit set (38 dap), highest number of fruits set at 60 dap (52), fruit set at maturity (31), highest fruit set (38.75%) and maximum fruit retention in the plant (30 days). similarly, co.2 mullai produced best results as female parent when crossed with j. flexile with maximum fruit set (46.25%) but recorded delayed fruit set (47 days). the cultivar parimullai as female parent also responded with j. flexile as pollen parent showing maximum fruit set of 48.75% and the duration of fruit retention clocked up to 33 days. the results furnished (table 1) signify the best cross combination for the bud pollination of j. auriculatum cultivars with various pollen parents. co.1 and co.2 mullai as female parents exhibited best results with usha et al 75 h an d po lli na ti on o f co m pl et el y op en f lo w er s b ud p ol lin at io n c o .1 m ul la i m al e pa re nt n o. o f in it ia ti on n o. o f n o. o f f ru it d ur at io n n o. o f in it ia ti on n o. o f n o. o f f ru it d ur at io n fl ow er s of f ru it fr ui ts fr ui ts se t of f ru it bu ds of f ru it fr ui ts s et fr ui ts se t of f ru it po lli na te d se t (d a p ) se t at at (% ) re te nt io n p ol lin at ed se t (d a p ) at 6 0 at (% ) re te nt io n 60 m at ur it y (d ay s) d a p m at ur it y (d ay s) d a p j. g ra nd ifl or um 11 5 45 93 28 24 .3 4 24 12 5 36 11 4 62 49 .6 0 32 cv . c o .1 pi tc hi j. s am ba c 60 10 0 j. m ul tif lo ru m 10 0 52 79 34 34 .1 0 30 15 0 32 12 3 52 34 .6 7 30 j. n iti du m 15 0 38 83 38 25 .3 4 24 15 0 36 11 9 58 38 .6 7 35 j. c al op hy llu m 10 0 46 64 27 27 .1 0 28 80 30 68 33 41 .2 5 30 j. f le xi le 80 38 52 31 38 .7 5 30 80 37 72 42 52 .5 0 32 c o .2 m ul la i j. g ra nd ifl or um 11 5 41 96 25 21 .7 3 27 12 5 38 11 8 67 53 .6 1 33 cv .c o .1 pi tc hi j. s am ba c 60 10 0 j. m ul tif lo ru m 10 0 55 82 36 36 .1 0 28 15 0 30 13 4 56 37 .3 4 32 j. n iti du m 15 0 49 86 40 26 .6 7 24 15 0 38 12 9 63 42 .1 3 35 j. c al op hy llu m 10 0 41 66 28 28 .1 0 30 80 32 74 38 47 .5 0 30 j. f le xi le 80 47 54 37 46 .2 5 30 80 39 78 45 56 .2 5 33 p ar im ul la i j. g ra nd ifl or um 11 5 48 10 2 27 23 .4 7 29 12 5 34 11 6 73 58 .4 0 35 cv . c o .1 pi tc hi j. s am ba c 60 10 0 j. m ul tif lo ru m 10 0 55 87 38 38 .1 0 30 15 0 30 12 7 61 40 .6 7 34 j. n iti du m 15 0 40 92 43 28 .6 7 25 15 0 34 12 2 68 45 .3 4 38 j. c al op hy llu m 10 0 49 70 30 30 .1 0 32 80 29 74 31 38 .7 5 32 j. f le xi le 80 41 57 39 48 .7 5 33 80 35 70 42 52 .5 0 35 ta bl e 1. i nt er s pe ci fic o f j. a ur ic ul at um c ul tiv ar s w ith v ar io us p ol le n pa re nt s j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 73-82, 2022 impact of pollination strategies on fruit set and fruit growth attributes in jasmine 76 h an d po lli na ti on o f co m pl et el y op en f lo w er s b ud p ol lin at io n c o .1 p it ch i m al e pa re nt n o. o f in it ia ti on n o. o f n o. o f f ru it d ur at io n n o. o f in it ia ti on n o. o f n o. o f f ru it d ur at io n fl ow er s of f ru it fr ui ts fr ui ts ` = se t of f ru it bu ds of f ru it fr ui ts s et fr ui ts se t of f ru it po lli na te d se t (d a p ) se t at at (% ) re te nt io n p ol lin at ed se t (d a p ) at 6 0 at (% ) re te nt io n 60 m at ur it y (d ay s) d a p m at ur it y (d ay s) d a p (m al fo rm ed ) j. au ri cu la tu m cv . 13 5 22 10 6 98 72 .5 9 48 15 0 25 13 8 12 4 82 .6 7 51 c o .1 m ul la i j. s am ba c 10 0 10 0 j. m ul tif lo ru m 15 0 34 13 7 11 8 57 .3 4 52 15 0 32 13 3 12 5 83 .3 4 57 j. n iti du m 12 0 28 93 86 76 .6 7 39 15 0 24 12 7 11 4 76 .1 2 45 j. c al op hy llu m 80 25 62 43 53 .7 5 41 80 24 67 57 71 .2 5 47 j. f le xi le 80 22 71 64 80 .1 0 57 80 20 74 68 85 .2 1 62 c o .2 p it ch i j. au ri cu la tu m cv . 13 5 28 12 6 10 9 80 .7 4 45 15 0 20 12 6 11 9 79 .3 4 50 c o .1 m ul la i j. s am ba c 10 0 10 0 j. m ul tif lo ru m 15 0 30 12 9 11 4 76 .1 6 58 15 0 29 13 7 13 2 88 .1 4 54 j. n iti du m 12 0 30 11 6 93 77 .5 0 45 15 0 22 13 1 11 8 78 .6 7 49 j. c al op hy llu m 80 24 66 45 56 .2 5 46 80 24 72 54 67 .5 3 53 j. f le xi le 80 22 75 67 83 .7 5 45 80 21 75 66 82 .5 4 60 d a p – d ay s af te r po lli na tio nta bl e 2. i nt er s pe ci fic h yb ri di za tio n of j . g ra nd if lo ru m c ul tiv ar s w ith v ar io us p ol le n pa re nt s j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 73-82, 2022 usha et al 77 the combination of j. flexile as pollen parent while parimullai responded well with the pollen parent j. grandiflorum co.1 pitchi. the results emphasize the fact that the pollen source and quantity influence the fruit set. aggregated results from the table 1 indicate that there is significant amount of fruit set failure from the fruit set at 60 dap till maturity. the failure in fruit development or the malformation of fruits accounts to the low fertilization rate (koubouris et al., 2010) or loss of pollen viability (deng et al., 2017) or inadequate nutrient availability (nyomora et al., 1999). competition between fruits for assimilates and growth regulators are the factors that are responsible for different fruiting behaviour of the assessed cultivars. in crosses involving j. grandiflorum cultivars as female parents, co.1 pitchi and co.2 pitchi evinced best results with j. flexile as the pollen donor. maximum fruit set (80.10 and 83.75% respectively in co.1 pitchi and co.2 pitchi) with the earliest fruit set initiation of 22 days were recorded for the crosses effected with hand pollination of open flowers. for the bud pollination, co.1 pitchi had best compatibility with j. flexile while co.2 pitchi proved the best results with the combination that entailed j. multiflorum as the pollen parent (table 2). the major drawback in the crosses involving j. grandiflorum as seed setting parent is the abnormal fruit set. the initiation of the fruit set is expressed by the bulging of the ovary proving the development of the fruit but as time progresses the ovary fails to develop completely causing misshapen fruits further arresting the growth of the embryo resulting in the loss of fruit set. existence of pre-fertilization barriers like low pollen viability, early senescence of pistil cells and low pistil receptivity are the possible barriers in hybrid set (deng et al., 2016). early and rapid senescence of pistils is harmful for pollen adhesion and germination resulting in the arrest of pollen tube growth after it enters the stigma. hybrid sterility can also be accounted due to the structural changes in the chromosomes (sharma and sharma, 1958). none of the crosses involving j. sambac as male parent resulted in fruit set both in hand pollination and bud pollination implying that prevalence of prefertilization barriers hinders the fruit set. low pollen fer tility, pistil r eceptivity a nd pollen-stigma compatibility, ovule sterility (deng et al., 2010; sua ŕez et al., 2012) have been enumerated as major reasons responsible for the hampered hybrid set. with respect to open pollination j. auriculatum cv parimullai recorded maximum fruit set of 76.43% with the earliest fruit initiation of 32 days and retained the fruits up to 28 days (table 3.) while j. grandiflorum cv co.2 pitchi proved best with the highest fruit set (83.40%), earliest initiation of fruit set (38 days) and longest duration of fruit retention(55 days) although malformation of the fruits occurred during their growth stage. the favourable fruit set in j. auriculatum may be a ttr ibuted with a s the a bsence of embr yo antagonism (veluswamy et al., 1981) and better source-sink relationship supporting the nutrient availability (keshavarz et al., 2011). failure in the fruit development and maturity can also be caused due to the abnormalities in the endosperm. irregularities in the endosperm result in embryo starvation leading to distorted embryo sac (veluswamy et al., 1981). along with pre-fertilization barriers, obstructions post fertilization also poses a threat in hybridization. data in table 3 are pertinent to self-pollination in j. auriculatum and j. grandiflorum. the cultivars co.2 mullai, co.1 mullai and parimullai of j. auriculatum recorded fruit set rates of 20.86 %, 8.16 % and 2.14 % respectively. thus, the results revealed that j. grandiflorum exhibited better self-pollina tion efficiency in comparison with j. auriculatum but the fruit malformation in j. grandiflorum stands as a stumbling block the hybridization attempts involving this species. data furnished in table 4 demonstrated that fruits evolved from crosses involving j. multiflorum and j. nitidum exhibited oblate shape while those from the crosses involving j. grandiflorum cv co.1 pitchi, j. calophyllum and j. flexile expressed spherical shape. fruit intensity was profuse for most of the cross combinations in bud pollination when compared to hand pollination of the open flowers. peak season of fruit set concurred with june to november under both the pollination methods. j. flexile and j. multiflorum as pollen parents responded well with parimullai as female parent in terms of fruit growth (table 5). colour of the fruit varied from light green to yellow green and medium green and turns black on maturity. fruits of j. auriculatum yielded from open pollination performed better in terms of growth as well as the intensity of the fruit set while self-pollinated fruits j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 73-82, 2022 impact of pollination strategies on fruit set and fruit growth attributes in jasmine 78 table 3: open and self-pollination of j. auriculatum and j. grandiflorum cultivars cultivars no. of initiation no. of no. of fruit duration flowers of fruit fruits fruits at set of fruit pollinated set set at maturity (%) retention (dap) 60 (days) dap open pollination j. auriculatum co.1 mullai 250 46 164 138 55.20 28 j. auriculatum co.2 mullai 235 41 183 169 71.91 24 j. auriculatum parimullai 250 32 217 191 76.43 28 j. grandiflorum co.1 pitchi 235 45 204 189 80.42 52 j. grandiflorum co.2 pitchi 235 38 228 196 83.40 55 self-pollination j. auriculatum co.1 mullai 150 43 38 12 8.16 26 j. auriculatum co.2 mullai 115 40 76 24 20.86 24 j. auriculatum parimullai 150 42 91 30 2.14 25 j. grandiflorum co.1 pitchi 115 42 97 74 64.34 57 j. grandiflorum co.2 pitchi 115 40 103 81 70.43 58 dapdays after pollination proved better in terms of fruit growth with bolder fruits though the fruit set was poor. the efficiency of the fruit set depends upon the flowers that have pollenladen anthers that appear to set fruit far better when crosspollinated than when fertilized with their own pollen (ortega et al., 2006). despite the lack of complete fruit development in j. grandiflorum, peak season of the fruit set was observed during february to april. the fruits were conical in shape and yellowgreen in colour (table 6). in terms of method of pollination, open pollination contributed the most for the successful fruit set followed by bud pollination (fig 1.). results pertaining to fruit growth and quality parameters (fig 2.) revealed that bud pollination followed by ha nd pollina tion of open flower s ensured significantly superior fruit set. fig. 1. effect of various pollination methods on fruit set in jasminum spp fig. 2. effect of various pollination methods on fruit intensity in jasminum spp among all the possible cross combinations j. flexile cor r esponded well with all the cultiva rs of j. auriculatum and can be considered as the best pollen donor parent for the successful hybridization of the crop. j. auriculatum cv. parimullai provided best results among all the cultivars in terms of fruit set and intensity , thus proving to be an elite female parent amongst the cross combinations. this study j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 73-82, 2022 usha et al 79 h an d po lli na ti on o f co m pl et el y op en f lo w er s b ud p ol lin at io n c o .1 m ul la i m al e pa re nt f ru it se as on sh ap e c ol ou r f ru it f ru it f ri t se as on sh ap e c ol ou r f ru it f ru it in te ns it y of f ru it of t he of t he le ng th gi rt h in te ns it y of f ru it of t he of t he le ng th gi rt h se t fr ui t fr ui t (c m ) (c m ) se t fr ui t fr ui t (c m ) (c m ) j. g ra nd ifl or um v er y sp ar se ju nn ov sp he ri ca l m ed iu m 1. 06 1. 45 m od er at e ju nn ov sp he ri ca l m ed iu m 1. 16 1. 35 cv .c o .1 pi tc hi gr ee n gr ee n j. m ul tif lo ru m m od er at e ju no ct o bl at e l ig ht 1. 12 1. 28 m od er at e ju no ct o bl at e l ig ht 1. 21 1. 38 gr ee n gr ee n j. n iti du m sp ar se ju no ct o bl at e l ig ht 1. 09 1. 31 m od er at e ju no ct o bl at e l ig ht 1. 11 1. 31 gr ee n gr ee n j. c al op hy llu m sl ig ht ly ju nn ov sp he ri ca l y el lo w 1. 04 1. 28 m od er at e ju nn ov sp he ri ca l y el lo w 1. 06 1. 28 sp ar se gr ee n gr ee n j. f le xi le m od er at e ju nn ov sp he ri ca l y el lo w 1. 17 1. 30 pr of us e ju nn ov sp he ri ca l y el lo w 1. 15 1. 32 gr ee n gr ee n c o .2 m ul la i j. g ra nd ifl or um v er y sp ar se ju nn ov sp he ri ca l m ed iu m 1. 03 1. 24 pr of us e ju nn ov sp he ri ca l m ed iu m 1. 16 1. 35 cv . c o .1 pi tc hi gr ee n gr ee n j. m ul tif lo ru m m od er at e ju no ct o bl at e l ig ht 1. 16 1. 28 m od er at e ju no ct o bl at e l ig ht 1. 21 1. 38 gr ee n gr ee n j. n iti du m sp ar se ju no ct o bl at e l ig ht 1. 08 1. 25 sl ig ht ly p ro fu se ju no ct o bl at e l ig ht 1. 11 1. 31 gr ee n gr ee n j. c al op hy llu m sp ar se ju nn ov sp he ri ca l y el lo w 1. 12 1. 28 sl ig ht ly p ro fu se ju nn ov sp he ri ca l y el lo w 1. 06 1. 28 gr ee n gr ee n j. f le xi le m od er at e ju nn ov sp he ri ca l y el lo w 1. 21 1. 42 pr of us e ju nn ov sp he ri ca l y el lo w 1. 15 1. 32 gr ee n gr ee n ta bl e 4. a na ly si s of fr ui t ch ar ac te ri st ic s fo r cr os s co m bi na tio n of j . a ur ic ul at um c o .1 a nd c o .2 m ul la i c ul tiv ar s w ith v ar io us p ol le n pa re nt s j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 73-82, 2022 impact of pollination strategies on fruit set and fruit growth attributes in jasmine 80 h an d po lli na ti on o f co m pl et el y op en f lo w er s b ud p ol lin at io n p ar im ul la i m al e pa re nt f ru it se as on sh ap e c ol ou r f ru it f ru it f ri t se as on sh ap e c ol ou r f ru it f ru it in te ns it y of f ru it of t he of t he le ng th gi rt h in te ns it y of f ru it of t he of t he le ng th gi rt h se t fr ui t fr ui t (c m ) (c m ) se t fr ui t fr ui t (c m ) (c m ) j. g ra nd ifl or um sl ig ht ly ju nn ov sp he ri ca l m ed iu m 1. 09 1. 37 pr of us e ju nn ov sp he ri ca l m ed iu m 1. 16 1. 35 cv . c o 1 p itc hi sp ar se gr ee n gr ee n j. s am ba c n il n il j. m ul tif lo ru m m od er at e ju no ct o bl at e l ig ht 1. 15 1. 47 m od er at e ju no ct o bl at e l ig ht 1. 21 1. 38 gr ee n gr ee n j. n iti du m sp ar se ju no ct o bl at e l ig ht 1. 06 1. 42 sl ig ht ly ju no ct o bl at e l ig ht 1. 11 1. 31 gr ee n pr of us e gr ee n j. c al op hy llu m sp ar se ju nn ov sp he ri ca l y el lo w 1. 12 1. 28 sl ig ht ly ju nn ov sp he ri ca l y el lo w 1. 06 1. 28 gr ee n pr of us e gr ee n j. f le xi le m od er at e ju nn ov sp he ri ca l y el lo w 1. 21 1. 42 pr of us e ju nn ov sp he ri ca l y el lo w 1. 15 1. 32 gr ee n gr ee n ta bl e 5. a na ly si s of f ru it ch ar ac te ri st ic s fo r cr os s co m bi na tio n of j . a ur ic ul at um c v. p ar im ul la i a s fe m al e pa re nt w ith v ar io us p ol le n pa re nt s j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 73-82, 2022 usha et al 81 table 6: analysis of fruit characteristics for open pollinated and self-pollinated j. auriculatum and j. grandiflorum cultivars cultivars fruit season shape colour fruit fruit intensity of fruit of the of the length girth set fruit fruit (cm) (cm) open pollination j. auriculatum co.1 mullai profuse jun-nov spherical medium green 1.09 1.31 j. auriculatum co.2 mullai profuse jun-nov spherical light green 1.12 1.35 j. auriculatum parimullai profuse jun-nov spherical medium green 1.18 1.46 j. grandiflorum co.1 pitchi highly feb-apr conical yellow green 0.53 0.31 profuse j. grandiflorum co.2 pitchi highly feb-apr conical yellow green 0.51 0.46 profuse self-pollination j. auriculatum co.1 mullai moderate jun-oct oblate light green 1.16 1.28 j. auriculatum co.2 mullai sparse jun-oct oblate light green 1.08 1.25 j. auriculatum parimullai sparse jun-nov spherical yellow green 1.12 1.28 j. grandiflorum co.1 pitchi moderate jun-nov spherical yellow green 1.21 1.42 j. grandiflorum co.2 pitchi moderate jun-oct oblate light green 1.16 1.28 indicates the failure of fruit set and fertilization barrier prevailing in jasmine upon hybridization. understanding the type of the barriers prevailing in jasmine facilitates the integration of conventional approaches with biotechnological tools to overcome the complications and obtain interspecific hybrids with desirable traits. acknowledgement the financial support extended by dus testing scheme on jasmine funded by ppv&fra, govt. of india, new delhi to ca r ry out the resea rch is obliged and also the author expresses gratitude to the staff of the department of floriculture and l a nds c a p e ar c hit ec t u r e a nd ta mil n a du agricultural university for their immense support to implement this research work. references arnold, m. l. 1992. natural hybridization as an evolutiona r y pr ocess. annual review of ecology and systematics, 24: 521-524. arnold, m. l. 1997. natural hybridization and evolution. oxford university press, new york, new york, usa. bailey, l.h. 1958. manual of cultivated plants. pub: macmillan and co., new york. bar tolini, s. , viti, r. and guerriero, r. 2000, september. observations on the fertilization process in self-pollinated flowers of cultivar “leccino”. in iv international symposium on olive growing. 586: 521-524. barton, n. h., and g. m. hewitt. 1985. analysis of hybrid zones. annual review of ecology and 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(received: 09.03.2022 ; revised:11.07.2022; accepted:09.08.2022 ) 00 a final sph -jhs coverpage first 2 pages.pdf 00 content and in this issue.pdf 01 mohan kumar g n.pdf 02 meera pandey.pdf 03 biradar c.pdf 04 varalakshmi b.pdf 05 vijayakumari n.pdf 06 barik s.pdf 07 sajid m b.pdf 08 ranga d.pdf 09 usha s.pdf 10 manisha.pdf 11 amulya r n.pdf 12 akshatha h j.pdf 13 adak t.pdf 14 sujatha s.pdf 15 gowda p p.pdf 16 subba s.pdf 17 dhayalan v.pdf 19 ahmed s.pdf 20 vishwakarma p k.pdf 21 deep lata.pdf 22 udaykumar k p.pdf 23 nayaka v s k.pdf 24 sahel n a.pdf 25 bayogan e r v.pdf 26 rathinakumari a c.pdf 27 yella swami c.pdf 28 saidulu y.pdf 29 sindhu s.pdf 30 neeraj.pdf 31 sivaranjani r.pdf 32 rashied tetteh.pdf 34 sangeetha g.pdf 35 shareefa m.pdf 36 last pages.pdf root activity distribution and inter-plant root competition in ‘robusta’ banana (musa sp., ‘aaa’) under high-density planting determined by tracer technique s.c. kotur and v. ramachandran1 isotope laboratory icar-indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bengaluru-560089, india email: sckotur@gmail.com abstract by applying soil injection technique using carrier-free 32p as a tracer in ‘robusta’ banana (musa sp. ‘aaa’) planted at 1.5m x 1.5m spacing, during the 8th leaf stage of growth, 52.04 and 62.96% of active roots were present at 25cm across and 15cm depth, respectively. at the 16th leaf stage, only 40.5% of active roots were traced at 25cm across, and root activity increased at wider distances and deeper layers. at flower-initiation stage, a significant gain in root activity was seen at 45cm depth. distance-wise distribution, however, did not change appreciably. at the shooting stage, 46.89% and 43.98% of the active roots were present closest to the pseudostem (25cm distance) and soil surface (15cm), respectively. however, the greatest depth (45cm) gained active roots (38.51%) at shooting-stage, creating an hour-glass pattern of root distribution, mainly owing to migration of roots from the surface (15cm deep) soil. however, a strong presence of active roots persisted close to the base of the plant, and in the surface-soil. a small proportion (<1%) of phosphorus applied to the main plant was absorbed by the orthogonal neighbour located at 1.5m distance, indicating practically insignificant competition with its closest neighbour. none of the diagonal neighbours located farthest (at 2.1m distance from the main plant) showed any activity of the tracer indicating that the root competition with the main plant was absent. results indicate that a spacing of 1.5m × 1.5m in high-density planting of ‘robusta’ banana raised in sandy-loam is optimum, with practically no untoward competition from the root for nutrients applied to each plant. key words: banana, high-density planting, inter-plant root competition, tracer technique, 32p short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):250-253, 2015 tracer technique has been successfully employed to determine spatial and temporal root-activity distribution in a variety of fruit crops like citrus, grape, mango and guava (kotur and keshava murthy, 1998), papaya (kotur and keshava murthy, 2001), pomegranate (kotur and keshava murthy, 2003) and annona (kotur, 2009). this information is useful for refining nutrient and water application, and planting density, to optimize input use efficiency (bojappa and singh, 1973). severe plant-to-plant competition and increased variability was observed under high-density planting in banana beyond 2,222 plants ha-1 (robinson and nel, 1989). a definite recovery of 32p applied in neighbouring banana plants was observed by kurien et al (2002) due to inter-plant root competition. therefore, root-activity distribution was studied under high-density planting (1.5m × 1.5m, at 4,444 plants/ ha) in ‘robusta’ banana (musa sp., ‘aaa’) from the early vegetative to the fruiting stage, with emphasis on inter-plant competition for root-activity among neighbouring plants. soil injection technique was applied, using carrierfree 32p as a tracer. the crop was raised on red sandyloam soil (typic haplustalf), with ph 5.9, organic carbon 0.3% and cation exchange capacity 8.4cmol (p+)/kg. the crop was planted using apparently uniform suckers, during november 2007. observations were made at four stages of growth: 8-leaf (50 days after planting, feb. 2008); 16leaf (100 days, may 2008); flower initiation (150 days, august 2008) and at shooting (210 days, november 2008). the treatment included all the combinations of three depths (15, 30 and 45cm from the surface) and three lateral distances (25, 50 and 75cm from the base of pseudostem). the isotope (1.01 to 2.07 mci/ plant, depending upon the age of plant) was injected equally into pre-installed pvc pipes placed concentrically around the plant (8 holes at 25cm, 16 holes at 50cm and 24 holes at 75cm radial distance). root-activity distribution (%) was calculated from the activity of 32p in leaf (dpm/g dry matter) as a ratio of the activity of 32p at any given location and the activity of 32p at all the locations 1division of nuclear agriculture and biotechnology, bhabha atomic research centre, trombay, mumbai-400 085, india 251 high-density planting and rooting behavior in banana was expressed as percentage. to arrive at a quantitative measure of inter-plant root competition for nutrient supplied to each plant by its neighbouring plants, the same tracer was tagged with specific activity of 0.5014, 0.8333, 0.7667 and 1.3364µci/mg of p in the solution, using potassium dihydrogen orthophosphate as a carrier in the injection given from the 1st to the 4th stage, respectively. phosphorus (the tracer) derived (pdft, %) by the orthogonal or diagonal neighbour from the phosphorus applied was calculated as a ratio of the specific activity of phosphorus at a given location, and the specific activity of phosphorus at all locations, and was expressed as percentage. activity of 32p in the lamina of the 3rd open leaf was monitored at 20 day interval upon injection of the isotope. the leaf sample was dried in an oven at 70oc, powdered and digested in a diacid mixture (9:4 nitric acid: perchloric acid). radioactivity of 32p was determined by cerenkov counting in a liquid scintillation analyzer (lsa). root activity was calculated as a ratio of radioactivity at a given location to that of the total of all the locations, and was expressed as percentage. results of the sample taken at 40 days after injecting the tracer are presented. root-activity distribution results showed that at the 8th leaf stage, active roots were predominated to an extent of 52.04 and 62.96% at 25cm lateral distance and 15cm depth, respectively (table 1). as the lateral distance and depth increased, percentage of active roots declined sharply, as, the plant was still in its early vegetative growth. there appeared to be three phases of root activity at the 8th leaf stage. high (36.26%) root activity was present closest to the base of the plant, at a lateral distance of 25cm and a surface depth of 15cm. moderate distribution of 10.69-13.78% was evident at 50cm and 75cm distances at 15cm depth, as well as at 25 and 50cm lateral distance at 30cm depth. in the rest of the locations at a farther distance/depth from the base of the plant during early stage of root growth, presence of active roots was low (2.76-5.09%). at the 16th leaf stage (which represents a vigorous stage of growth), distribution of active roots was similar to that at the 8th leaf stage, in terms of depth-wise distribution. distance-wise, however, active roots showed a definite lateral expansion. this was highly pronounced at 15cm depth, which showed a fairly uniform presence of 19.59-21.94% active roots at different distances. there was a slight gain in root-activity at 25cm distance and at 30cm depth, while, the rest of the locations at 45cm depth continued to show lower root-activity. at the flower initiation stage, root activity showed a pronounced presence at both 15cm depth (62.86%) and 25cm lateral distance (54.28%), favouring 25cm and 50cm distances at 15cm depth. a substantial gain of active roots was seen at 25cm distance and 45cm depth, but, root activity decreased concomitantly at 75cm distance and 15cm depth. remainder of the locations showed low root-activity. at the shooting stage, a change was observed in the pattern of root activity, especially in terms of soil depth. the greatest soil depth (45cm) at all the lateral distances studied, gained active roots which led to an hour-glass pattern of root activity distribution, depth-wise. this may reflect a tendency of banana roots to explore deeper layers of the soil in a quest for nutrients which may be needed at this critical stage of growth. laterally, a total of over half of the active roots were found at 50cm and 75cm distances. from the presence of over 1/3rd of the active roots closest to the trunk (25cm distance and 15cm depth) at the early vegetative stages, roots were observed to extend continuously (both sideways and deep) into the soil. table 1. root activity distribution (%) in ‘robusta’ banana plant (40 dai) during various stages of plant growth depth (cm) distance (cm) 25 50 75 total 8th leaf stage 15 36.26 13.78 12.92 62.96 30 10.69 11.73 3.46 25.88 45 5.09 3.31 2.76 11.16 total 52.04 28.82 19.14 100.00 sem (±) 0.595 c.d. (p=0.05) 1.768 16th leaf stage 15 21.94 19.59 20.14 61.67 30 13.27 7.54 4.20 25.01 45 5.32 5.24 2.76 13.32 total 40.53 32.37 27.10 100.00 sem (±) 0.410 c.d. (p=0.05) 1.226 flower initiation stage 15 30.28 20.37 12.21 62.86 30 12.49 4.31 1.40 18.20 45 11.51 2.07 5.36 18.94 total 54.28 26.75 18.97 100.00 sem (±) 0.555 c.d. (p=0.05) 1.650 shooting stage 15 17.61 13.79 12.58 43.98 30 8.57 3.38 5.56 17.51 45 20.71 8.56 9.24 38.51 total 46.89 25.73 27.38 100.00 sem (±) 0.709 c.d. (p=0.05) 2.108 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):250-253, 2015 252 however, over 50% of the active roots were concentrated close to the base of the plant (25cm distance) and to the soil surface (15cm depth), right upto the flower initiation stage of growth. at the shooting stage, however, active roots extended upto 75cm laterally and at a depth of 45cm, leading to fairly uniform root-activity distribution in the entire rooting volume. at the shooting stage, a change in the pattern was observed, especially, in terms of soil depth. the greatest depth of 45cm at all the distances gained active roots at the expense of the surface layer, at 25 and 50cm lateral distances. phosphorus uptake by neighbouring plants absorption of the tracer element was evident in the orthogonal nieghbour located closest to the main plant, at 1.5m distance (although, the tracer was not discernible in some of the replicates indicating, that, the plants did not compete for phosphorus applied to the main plant on a definite basis). similar recovery of the tracer by the neighbouring plants was reported by kurien et al (2002), although it was not quantified. however, in this study, pdft was very small (<1%), indicating that inter-plant competition for root activity was of a very small order. at all the growth stages, pdft was highest at 15cm depth, compared to that in deeper layers (table 2). at the 8th leaf stage, total pdft at different growth stages showed a decline, with increasing depth. in the rest of the growth stages, pdft at 30cm depth was lowest among the three depths studied. distance-wise, maximum pdft was observed midway at 50cm across (except at the 16th leaf stage), while, at the closest distance (25cm), least pdft was evident. none of the diagonal neighbours located the farthest (at 2.1m distance from the main plant) showed any activity of the tracer indicating that the root competition with the main plant was absent. this may be due to the reduced length of large roots under high density planting due to inter-plant competition (mohan and rao, 1984). in conclusion, it may be surmised ‘robusta’ banana under high-density planting attained fairly uniform rootactivity distribution in the soil volume studied, though a strong presence of active roots persisted close to the base of the plant and in the surface-soil. a small proportion (<1%) of phosphorus applied to the main plant was absorbed by the orthogonal neighbour, indicating practically no competition from its closet neighbour. root competition from diagonal neighbours located the farthest (at 2.1m distance from the main plant) was not evident. results indicated that a spacing of 1.5m × 1.5m in high-density planting of ‘robusta’ banana raised in sandy-loam was optimal, with no untoward root competition for nutrients applied to the plant. however, this needs to be verified in other soil types and banana cultivars where high-density planting is practiced. acknowledgement the authors are grateful to board of research in nuclear sciences (brns), department of atomic energy, govt. of india, new delhi, for financial help, and to shri n.k. kacker, technical officer, for technical assistance. references bojappa, k.m. and singh, r.n. 1973. studies on the root activity and soil feeding zone of mango (mangifera indica l.) using 32p. newsletter, indian soc. nucl. tech. agril. biol., 2:112-123 kotur, s.c. 2009. spatial and temporal distribution of root activity of annona squamosa (‘sugar apple’) and a. reticulata (‘bullock’s heart’) seedlings and their grafts with ‘arka sahan’ scion using isotopic table 2. phosphorus derived from isotope (pdft, %) applied to the main plant of the orthogonal neighbour during various stages of plant growth in ‘robusta’ banana (40 dai) depth (cm) distance (cm) 25 50 75 total 8th leaf stage 15 0.073 0.191 0.109 0.373 30 0.000 0.173 0.128 0.301 45 0.043 0.021 0.052 0.116 total 0.116 0.385 0.289 0.790 sem (±) 0.0049 c.d. (p=0.05) 0.0147 16th leaf stage 15 0.052 0.116 0.162 0.330 30 0.016 0.031 0.073 0.120 45 0.080 0.033 0.043 0.156 total 0.148 0.180 0.278 0.606 sem (±) 0.0041 c.d. (p=0.05) 0.0123 flower initiation stage 15 0.100 0.140 0.127 0.367 30 0.015 0.019 0.037 0.071 45 0.000 0.021 0.126 0.147 total 0.062 0.096 0.067 0.585 sem (±) 0.0056 c.d. (p=0.05) 0.0165 shooting stage 15 0.030 0.034 0.077 0.141 30 0.024 0.000 0.003 0.027 45 0.016 8.56 0.000 0.113 total 0.070 0.117 0.080 0.287 sem (±) 0.0071 c.d. (p=0.05) 0.0211 kotur and ramachandran j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):250-253, 2015 253 technique. indian j. agril. sci., 79:422-425 kotur, s.c. and keshava murthy, s.v. 1998. root activity distribution studies in citrus, grape, mango and guava using isotopic techniques. karnataka j. agril. sci., 11:651-657 kotur, s.c. and keshava murthy, s.v. 2001. spatial and temporal root activity distribution in papaya (carica papaya) determined by isotopic technique. indian j. agril. sci., 71:571-575 kotur, s.c. and keshava murthy, s.v. 2003. spatial distribution of root activity of ‘ganesh’ pomegranate (punica granatum) plants. j. nucl. agril. biol., 32:60-62 kurien, s., kumar, p.s., kamalan, n.v. and wahid, p.a. 2002. nutrient cycling from the musa mother plant to various physiological stages as affected by spacing and sucker retention using tracer technique. fruits, 57:143-151 mohan, n.k. and rao, v.n.m. 1984. the effect of plant density on banana root system. s. indian hort., 32:254-257 robinson, j.c. and nel, d.j. 1989. plant density studies with banana (cv. william) in a sub-tropical climate. ii. components of yield and seasonal distribution of yield. j. hortl. sci. biotech., 64:211-222 (ms received 18 january 2014, revised 21 august 2014, accepted 27 november 2014) high-density planting and rooting behavior in banana j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):250-253, 2015 sph -jhs coverpage 15-1 june 2020 single 1 9 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 9-16, 2020 review groundwater decline and prolonged drought could reduce vigour, enhance vulnerability to diseases and pests and kill perennial horticultural crops: needs urgent policy intervention ganeshamurthya.n., kalaivanan d., rupa t.r. and raghupathi h.b. division of natural resource management icar indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru 560 089. email : angmurthy@gmail.com abstract perennial horticulture in india has undergone a change from rainfed system to drip fertigation systems and from isolated hedge and bund trees to high intensity orchard systems with enhanced number of trees per unit area. in several parts, particularly in the deccan plateau, the system has now become completely dependent on water pumped from tube wells. severe competition for water from tube wells makes farmers to devote more water for cash rich annual crops and even sell water for city dwellers nearby. as a consequence, the groundwater level in the past three decades has fallen from few feet to above thousand feet. at several places it has crossed the “peak water”. frequent and prolonged exposure of fruit trees and nuts to drought coupled with ground water depletion has led to soil profile drying leading to reduced vigour and enhanced vulnerability to diseases and pests. this has led to withering of fruit and nut trees. perennial crops are likely to become increasingly maladapted to their environment, particularly in the earlier period of climate change they are more likely to be attacked by diseases and insects. coconuts, areca nuts and mango trees have died in several places and the government constituted committees have recommended compensation to the farmers. as a country, we have dramatically increased our reliance on groundwater. 175 million indians are now fed with food produced with the unsustainable use of groundwater. this increase has dried up rivers and lakes, because there is a hydrologic connection between groundwater and surface water. yet the legal rules governing water use usually ignore the link between law and science. the issue needs thorough examination and needs policy interventions to come out of this vicious circle. keywords: drought, fruit trees, groundwater depletion, peak water, perennial crops, policy issue introduction perennial horticulture in arid and semi-arid regions of india was a rainfed system since beginning. with time, the area under perennial horticulture has shown enor mous incr ea se a nd with a dva ncement in technology perennial horticulture along with annual horticultural crops and agriculture started receiving irrigation both through surface irrigation and through drip fertigation systems. also, both number of trees per unit area and the intensity of cultivation have increased. of late in arid and semiarid regions, particularly in the southern, central and north-western states, very large number of tube wells have been dug and put to use for irrigation. such tube wells were sunk in highly unscientific way and are resulting in increase in tube well depth and deteriorating quality of water. the system now has become completely dependent on water pumped from tube wells. in the past two to three decades the groundwater levels are falling steeply. occurrence of prolonged drought, early withdrawal of monsoon, and reduced number of r ainy days spr eading over short periods are exposing the trees to severe moisture stress and symptoms of declining tree vigour could be felt. in the past five years, several incidences of tr ees wither ing like coconut and ar eca nuts, mango, this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. 10 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 9-16, 2020 ganeshamurthy et al. pomegranate etc. are being reported. government has constituted committees to look into the causes and compensations are being given to the farmers for the loss of trees. there is hence a need to scientifically look and rethink on perennial horticulture in the wake of emergence of these situations. impact of prolonged drought on perennial horticultural crops distribution of trees in arid and semi-arid lands depends mainly on ra infall, sur face water, and groundwater and air moisture. change in climate of the given region (rainfall, temperatures, wind) further affects the distribution of trees. soil quality and extent of its deterioration decides the future of existing population and scope for further expansion. each tree species is adapted to certain conditions and is located in its “niche”. when optimal conditions are widely distributed, forests or shrubs may cover large areas. the natural distribution of vegetation has long been a lter ed by huma n activities like unsustaina ble cropping systems. for example, by growing fruit trees, nuts and other perennial crops by exploiting the ground water in such places where its over drawing is unsustainable and can cause havoc. conversion of forest lands to agricultural use in the past and more recently from agricultural use to unsusta inable perennial systems are among the major causes of soil degradation in arid and semi-arid areas. furthermore, global warming is expected to result in rainfall decrease throughout most of the arid and semi-arid zones, which will lead to more severe water scarcity and increased desertification risks. some of the semia r id r egions sta r ted showing symptoms of desertification like kolar and chikkaballapur districts of karnataka, anantapur and madanapalli in andhra pradesh etc. occasionally, fruit tr ees decline and often die. diseases affecting the leaves, fruit, and twigs of fruit trees usually do not cause the trees to die, with exceptions for such diseases which causes death of trees like coconut wilt and bud rot, citrus and guava wilts and recently pomegranate wilt and nodal blight, wilt in many perennial crops. leaf, fruit, or twig diseases weaken the tree, interrupt normal bearing, and reduce fruit quality, but the trees usually survive. the cause of death for most fruit trees is damage to the root, trunk, or the crown. drought, flooding, crown and root diseases, and borers, winter cold, frosts, can cause injury to these parts but not lethal to the trees. frequently, a combination of two or more of these is the cause of death. the most severity being r epor ted a nd becoming mor e common tha n exceptions is the soil profile drying in arid and semiarid regions caused due to drought coupled with over exploitation of groundwater and drought alone usually will not kill healthy fruit trees, unless the drought is prolonged and severe coupled with decline in water table due to over draft of ground water. but gradual exposure of trees to drought weakens the trees which predisposes trees to insect pests and diseases. a gradual decline in tree health as a consequence of limiting moisture is a common problem for many trees, more so, underclose spacing mono cropping, intensively managed orchard systems. symptoms may include stunted growth, premature leaf drop, late spring leaf development, sparse foliage, light green or yellow foliage, twig and branch die-back and many other abnormal symptoms like flowering but not bearing fruits to the expected crop load. as mentioned above, usually there is no single reason for tree decline. often, a combination of factors, linked to one another, reduces a tree’s vigour. stress on a tree can make it vulnerable to additional problems. diseases and insects often capitalize on the tree’s low vigour and accelerate its decline. trees survive str ess temporarily by using stored food and water reserves, but once these reserves are used up, symptoms of decline begin to appear. because trees are so efficient at storing food and water reserves, it may take 2 or 3 years after a stress episode before decline symptoms appear. one of the most common causes of stress is planting orchards tr ee species not suited for a particular site. many species have specific site requirements. site characteristics that influence tree growth in limited moisture situations include soil moisture holding capacity, soil moisture availability, soil resource base erosion, mainly the organic front and drainage. all these come under land use planning which is sur pr isingly ignor ed while pla nning perennial crops entrepreneurships. declining trees as a consequence of prolonged drought and overdraft of groundwater leading to profile dryness make trees weak and susceptible to insect pests and diseases. certain insects and diseases can cause defoliation leading to further stress. most healthy trees can survive some defoliation, but 11 groundwater decline and perennial horticultural crops defoliation year after year can cause decline and even death. mango foliage damage caused by hoppers, loppers, beetles etc. in the very initial stage of leaf emergence is a typical example in southern and western part of india. apple scab and anthracnose of shade trees are examples of diseases that cause infected leaves to fall prematurely. the stem and root borers take the opportunity of tree weakness and overtake the tree health and intensify the attack. a typical example is the spurge in the stem borers of arabica coffee in coorg and mango in south india. leaf diseases like powdery mildew and anthracnose and other diseases cause severe damage to foliage, inflor escence a nd fr uits. tr ee wilts due to ceratocystis are emerging in mango in recent years which normally happen during trees exposed to long period of moisture stress. cli mate cha nge effe cts on i nsec ts a nd pathogens under horticultural ecosystems increase in summer temperature will generally activate insect development rates. some insects may shift from completing a generation every two years (semivoltism) to completing one generation per year (univoltism), a factor that contributes to large-scale outbreaks. warmer winters could also lead to more successful survival. outbreaks may also increase in entirely new areas crossing the limits of host species due to wa rming temperatures r elative to their current distribution. the indirect effects of climate change on insects are more complex; therefore, they are more difficult to predict. because trees are likely to become incr easingly ma la dapted to their envir onment, particularly in the earlier period of climate change they are more likely to be attacked by insects. clima te change will a ffect the developmenta l sequence of insects and their predators. natural insect enemies of defoliator and borer species depend on climatic factors to maintain their life processes and synchronicity with their insect host and the habitat in which they live. key parasitoids and predatory species population may dwindle due to over use of chemicals or even as a consequence of climate change and can further be a primary driver in causing the outbreaks. however, such predictions are difficult due to their complexity and variability. in general, the projected change in climate coupled with poor tree vigour as a consequence of increasing moisture deficit conditions, will promote pest and pathogen activity due to low moisture availability following prolonged drought, higher temperature and reduced mor ta lity in winter s. however, the complex inter a ctions a mong hosts, pa thogens a nd environmental conditions make scientific prediction difficult. a warmer and dry climate may change some pathogens and pests and decline in others. emergence of stem borers as a serious pest is a consequence of progressive exposure of intensively managed orchards to drought. progressive foliage loss in mango due to complex insect damage may also be a consequence of this. however, short periods of hot, dry weather put severe stress on weak or injured trees and may cause them to die. death most frequently occurs in the early summer, during or just following the first heat wave. a heat wave puts a severe strain on a weakened tree. weak trees frequently leaf out in the spring, bloom profusely, and set a heavy crop of fruit but fail to retain the crop load. although in mango the trees leaf out, the leaves usually are smaller than normal, are pale-green to yellowish green in colourand are severely affected by foliage pests and or diseases even before the leaves turn green from the initial copper colour. consequences are seen in recent years of loss of coconut trees, arecanut trees, mango trees and other perennial trees in some of the groundwater over exploited a r ea s like chitr a durga , tumkur, chikkaballapur, bangalore, hassan, anantapur, madanapalli, solapur, theni, virudhunagar and other districts and arabica coffee in coorg and chikmagalur distr icts of ka r na ta ka . over ma tur e tr ees progressively lose their resilience to climatic stress, so that a single climatic event can destroy a whole area of those species. for example, over aged coconuts and areca nuts in southern karnataka died few years back. water and land resources degradation the united nations conference on environment and development (unced, 1992) defined desertification as “land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry subhumid areas resulting from various factors, including clima tic va r ia tions a nd huma n a ctivities”. desertification is not an advance of existing deserts but is rather the effect of localized degradation of the land. it r a pidly follows deforesta tion and soil exhaustion. exposed to the sun, the wind and the rains, exhausted soils lose their organic matter and j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 9-16, 2020 12 their structure while nutrients are leached away. fine elements are blown into dust storms and sand grains become mobile. overexploitation of forest, tree, bush, grazing land and unsustainable cropping systems by overexploitationas of soil resources and ground water has been increasing desertification. recent report of icrisat under nicra project has shown that in the past 50 years there has been a shift from dry subhumid climate of some region to semiarid climate and tr ends in semia r id r egions becoming a r id regions(nicra, 2014). fruit trees are occupying larger areas in such locations in dry sub-humid and semi-arid regions under irrigation from tube wells which are over drawn leading to a steep gradient of dry profile down from surface soil. a poor monsoon spread over short period, too low number of rainy days, early withdrawal of monsoon coupled with groundwater over draft predisposes fruit trees to wither. natural resources, particularly surface and ground water, are important for sustainable development and achieving higher economic growth. efficient and scientific utilization of these resources ensures the ecological balance of an ecosystem. the contribution of natural resources to local economy is outside the market framework, which are both its strength as well as weakness. strength in the sense of social justice, that it supports rural families. weakness lies in unsustainable exploitation of these resources, which would result in the tragedy of these resources. further, unsustainable exploitation leads to scarcity of resources that would then be beyond the reach of the poor. consequences of groundwater overexploitation groundwater depletion is by far the most widely deba ted issue in the r esour ce economics literature.groundwater depletion problems are related to the question of resource management and the coalition of powerful property owners protecting their interests, under a capitalist society. overexploitation of ground water and its social consequences are the result of certain processes of development in irrigated agriculture that occurs at the cost of depletion of aquifers and sustainable farming systems (raghupathi and ganeshamurthy, 2013). the state intervened initially through agrarian reforms, and later by providing credit facilities and supporting marginalized groups to have irrigation facilities by implementing million well schemes, ganga kalyanyojana and politically influenced free power supply etc. all these led to rise in groundwater structures, shifting cropping pattern towards water intensive crops as well as resource abuse by overexploitation of the aquifer. the distinctive impact of irrigation, in general, and groundwater irrigation, in particular, on farming begins to emerge more clearly and recognizably where irrigation permits extension of cultivation to additional seasons (rao, 1978). this allows farmers to benefit from surplus production which otherwise would not have been possible. as a result, groundwater became a chief source of irrigation primarily in dry sub-humid, semi-arid and arid areas and at the same time several problems like those mentioned above emerge due to heavy pumping. counter argument trees consume water. the more the aerial system of trees is developed, the more water they transpire. the desirability of tree planting in arid lands is debated because trees may consume more water than they provide to the water cycle. some countries, such as south africa, have imposed a tax on the water consumed by forests. in certain circumstances where trees consume all the rainwater, it may be judged better to harvest this water through a bare watershed, store it in a reservoir and use it to irrigate high-value agricultural crops. for example, in yatir, israel, where average precipitation is only 270 mm per year, more tha n 3000 ha of rainfed pinus halepensis were planted in the ea rly 1960s under a lar ge-sca le afforestation project. although the forest provides carbon sequestration benefits and contributes to the livelihoods of nearby communities (particularly through fuel wood and non-wood forest products such as resins, fodder and medicinal and aromatic plants), it uses all the precipitation water. furthermore, the forest has altered the biodiversity of the region, as new predation dynamics threaten endemic species. rueff and schwartz (2007) reported that the water that the watershed would have provided if it had not been afforested would have alleviated poverty better if it had been used for agriculture. they suggested that afforestation on a smaller scale, such as on farmers’ plots, may yield similar benefits with fewer drawbacks, as combining tree planting and agriculture is less disturbing to the environment, improves agricultural yields, conserves water and soils and provides fuel wood for farmers. j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 9-16, 2020 ganeshamurthy et al. 13 peak water and future threat groundwater contributes 42%, 36% and 27% of water used for irrigation, households and manufacturing, respectively. in regions with extensive surface water irrigation, such as indo-gangetic plain, net abstractions from groundwater are negative, i.e. groundwater is recharged by irrigation. the opposite is true for areas dominated by ground water irrigation such as southern plateau regions covering karnataka, andhra pradesh and tamil nadu where net abstraction of surface water is negative because return flow of withdrawn gr oundwa ter r echa r ges the sur fa ce wa ter compartments first and then excess flow downwards (raghupathi and ganeshamurthy, 2013). the nationa l academy of agricultural science (naas) in its meeting on phosphorus in 2013 discussed about “peak phosphorus” going to threaten future food security. but the real threat is the “peak wa ter”. we may produce some food with low phosphorus supply, but we cannot produce food without water. human beings on an average require four litres of water per day. but the water required for producing each day food per person is around 2,000 litters. this is 500 times as much compared to direct consumption of water by man. we must now understand that getting enough water to drink is relatively easy, but finding enough to produce the ever-growing quantities of food, fruits, vegetables, fodder and other requirements is a matter of serious concern. for example, it is a common scene seeing water tankers carrying water from tube wells from the farm land heading towards cities as a consequence of unplanned city expansions like those seen in bangalore, hyderabad, chennai and pune. there is concer n that the sta te of pea k water is being approached in many areas. some areas are suffering from peak renewable water, where entire renewable flows are being consumed for human use, peak nonrenewable water,  where groundwater aquifers are being over pumped (or contaminated) faster than nature recharges them and peak ecological water, where ecological and environmental constraints are overwhelming the economic benefits provided by water use (gleick and palaniappan, 2010, 2011) if present trends continue. in a short span of two to three decades the extraction of water began to exceed the recharge of aquifers from precipitation, and water tables began to fall. and then wells begin to go dry. for example, in the district of chikkaballapur in karnataka, madanapalli in andhra pradesh, the farmers draw water worth 18002000 mm rainfall for rowing tomato after tomato, whereas the average precipitation is only 750-800 mm. in effect, over pumping creates a water-based food bubble, one that will burst when the aquifer is depleted and the rate of pumping is necessarily reduced to the rate of recharge. definitely regions such a s this ha ve cr ossed the pea k nonrenewable water. a world bank study estimates that 15% of india’s food supply is produced by mining groundwater. stated otherwise, 175 million indians are now fed with grains produced with the unsustainable use of water. as early as 2004, fred pearce reported in new scientist that “half of  india’s  traditional hand-dug wells and millions of shallower tube wells have already dried up, bringing a spate of suicides among those who rely on them. electricity blackouts are reaching epidemic proportions in government where half of the electricity is used to pump water from depths of a kilo meter and above.” the excessive “mining” of our aquifers is causing environmental degradation on a potentially enormous scale (raghupathi and ganeshamurthy, 2013). as a country, we have dramatically increased our reliance on groundwater. this increase has dried up rivers and lakes, because there is a hydrologic connection between groundwater and surface water. yet the legal rules governing water use usually ignore this link. this disconnection between law and science is a major cause of the problem. so too is our refusal to recognize the unsustainability of our water use. significant reformsare necessary if we are to save our trees, prevent further degradation of our rivers, streams, lakes, wetlands, and estuaries. a final consequence of ground water pumping is its impact on surface water, including lakes, ponds, rivers, creeks, streams, springs, wetlands, and estuaries. t hese consequences r a nge fr om minima l to catastrophic. an example of the latter is the arkavati and vrishabha vatirivers and a chain of 65 lakes in bengaluru. two lakes viz., hessaraghatta lake and tippagodanahalli lake provided sufficient good qua lity dr inking wa ter to metr opolita n city “bengaluru”. it is more than two decades these very important water bodies have dried-up. once a verdant riparian system with a lush canopy provided j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 9-16, 2020 groundwater decline and perennial horticultural crops 14 by several tree species and big gardens, groundwater pumping has lowered the water table, drained the rivers and lakes of their flow, devastated vegetation and driven away the local birds and wildlife. the rivers and lakes have become an oxymoron–a dry river and lake-a pathetic desiccated sandbox. other lake cities, bhopal and udaipur are in the verge of reaching the state of bengaluru in near future if corrective measures are not taken. how do water bodies go dry? groundwater and surface water are not separate categories of water. the designations groundwater and surface water merely describe the physical location of the water in the hydrologic cycle. indeed, groundwater and surface water form a continuum. virtually all groundwater was once stream flow that seeped into the ground. the converse is also true but not obvious. groundwater pumping essentially interrupts the water cycle by removing water, directly or indirectly, that would otherwise discharge from aquifers to rivers, streams, and other surface water bodies. as groundwater pumping lowers the water table, the direction of the flow of rivers streams and lakes changes. once the water table is below the elevation of the rivers, streams and lakes, water flows from the water bodies towa rd the aquifer. t his is wha t groundwater pumping did in areas where perennial fruit and nut trees are drying. groundwater pumping literally sucked water from the rivers, streams and la kes a nd pr oduced hor r ible envir onmenta l consequences. first, of course, the flow in the rivers and streams gets reduced and lakes dried and waterdependent species like areca nut, coconuts and mangos suffered heavily and areca nut and coconut trees withered and mango trees are in the queue. in considering other examples of environmental problems caused by groundwater pumping, the first thing to note is that the impact of groundwater pumping on the environment is not confined to any given region. like karnataka and other southern states, the central indian states also have similar problems. but the peak has reached in south and may take little more time for the other regions. in the north and indo-gangetic plain, the problem is similar but for the well supplied water from himalayan river systems. we use groundwater to grow all kinds of things, even when there is no need to do so. until rather recently, many of our farms were “dryland” farmed. however, as the demand increased farmers shifted from dryland to irrigation farming. in places where only highly drought resistant crops like ragi and horse grams were grown, farmers shifted to highly water dependent crops like tomato, watermelons etc. with almost threefold increase in cropping intensities, all through exploitation of ground water. we require 200 to 225 litres of water to produce one kilogram of tomato. we export this tomato to other countries at the rate of approximately rs. 20/per kg. are we not foolish to do this and farmers suffering many a times from tomato glut? such over pumping of water irrigates the surface layers of soil in annual crops like tomato and other vegetables. but the perennial crops in the region, particularly in areas like srinivasapura in kolar district in karnataka and nuzvid area in andhra pradesh under mango and tumkur and hassan districts in coconut and areca nut undergo severe stress due to continued profile drying. another pitiable example is our newfound fascination with bottled water. it is a scene even plaguing the rural areas. the domestic bottled water market (including organised and unorganised players) is estimated at rs 8,000 crore. the bottled water market which has been growing at a cagr of 19%, is expected to continue its growth momentum and grow over four -folds to rs 36, 000 cr or e by 2020 (mukherjee, 2012). the industry is heavily dependent on ground water (onelitre bottled water = 1.8 litre of ground water) has become a competitor with the irrigation system. the urgent need for reforms the impact of groundwater pumping on agriculture in general and perennial horticulture in particular, is an example of what biologist garrett harden called “the tragedy of the commons.” the legal rules governing groundwater use is not strong and the law makers are yet to understand the ground reality. we have failed to eliminate the gap between law and science. in lieu of legal reform, we have shown limitless ingenuity in devising technological fixes for water supply problems. these so-called solutions have altered the hydrologic cycle in order to sustain existing usage. as our water use spirals upward, we must begin to rethink the economic structure by which we value our water j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 9-16, 2020 ganeshamurthy et al. 15 resources. at the same time, we must act to protect our rivers, springs, lakes, estuaries and wetlands from groundwater pumping. there is considerable urgency. because groundwater moves so slowly, it may take years or decades of groundwater pumping before the effect on the environment is apparent. the hidden tragedy is that groundwater pumping which has a lr ea dy occur r ed will ca use ir r emedia ble environmental damage. to control the impact of groundwater pumping on the environment, we must combine a command-andcontrol model of government rules and regulations with the market forces of transferable rights and price incentives. any meaningful reform must do two things: protect the rights of existing users by creating quantified water rights that are transferable and therefore valuable; and break free of the relentless cycle of increasing use by placing restrictions on individual freedom to pump groundwater. the law makers must take cognizance of the following issues to save the environment, orchards, water bodies and our future generations.  government rules and regula tions deserve a prominent place in our reform efforts as we a ttempt to pr otect the envir onment. t he government should undertake a number of very specific reforms.  even though water is a scarce commodity, most of us have not yet fa ced the condition tha t economists call scarcity, which occurs when people alter their consumption patterns in response to price increases. our habits of water use will not change until the cost of water rises sufficiently to force an alteration. therefore, we must increase water rates so that all users pay the replacement value of the water, which includes environmental impact cost. economists agree that significant price increases would create incentives for all users to conserve. all farmers, businesses, or industrial and other users could then decide which uses of water to continue and which to curtail. rate increases would encourage the elimination of marginal economic activities and the movement of water toward more essential and productive uses.  the government should carefully craft water conservation standards. however, the experience of some western government with conservation sta nda r ds sends a mixed messa ge. if the government attempt to impose elaborate and detailed conservation standards, the regulated groups will fight tooth and nail over every sentence in the proposed regulation. this process can consume enormous amounts of time, energy, and money. the lesson for government is that it is better to embrace simple conservation standards that are easy to administer and implement. they are likely to have the most practical effect in terms of actually saving water and will avoid prolonged political struggle.  the government should establish minimum stream flows and protect those flows from pumping of hydr ologica lly connected gr oundwater. t he legislature should authorize the state departments of environment and forestry, agriculture and horticulture to establish minimum water levels for streams and lakes to protect water resources. the minimum levels become appropriations within the prior appropriation system and offer protection against subsequent groundwater pumping.  the government should prohibit the drilling of new wells in areas that are hydrologically connected to surface flows. generally speaking, the farther a well is from a watercourse, the less significant the impact of groundwater pumping from that well will be. government has two options to solve this problem: they can make the ban on wells near watercourses turn on a hydrologic analysis of the particular region, or ban on drilling wells within, for example, a mile of the river.  both the state governments and panchayats should commit resources to purchasing and retiring groundwater rights to protect critical catchments, wa ter sheds a nd ha bita ts. for exa mple, the catchment a rea of cr itical water bodies like ba da ta la b of bhopa l or hessa ra ghatta a nd tippagodanahalli lakes in bengaluru, sukna lake in chandigarh, pichola, fatehsagar, jaisamand and ra jsa ma nd la kes of uda ipur, husa in a nd himayathsagar in hyderabad.  government should foster a market in water rights by allowing the easy transferability of rights from existing users to newcomers. enormous quantities of groundwater are used for extremely low-value economic activities. state law must facilitate the movement of water from these uses to highervalue ones by establishing a water rights market as the mechanism for accomplishing this shift. j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 9-16, 2020 groundwater decline and perennial horticultural crops 16  the government should impose an extraction tax on water pumped from any well within a certain distance of a river, spring, or lake. this tax would have two benefits: it would encourage existing pumpers to conserve water, and it would create an incentive for new pumpers to locate wells farther away from watercourses.  the government should not allow land developers to drill wells in an aquifer already under stress and land developers should not be allowed to source water from agricultural areas.  the government, especially through panchayats, should use financial incentives as a significant part of water policy. quite simply, we are not paying the true cost of water. when homeowners or businesses receive a monthly water bill from the utility, that bill normally includes only the extraction costs of drilling the wells, the energy costs of pumping the water, the infrastructure costs of a distr ibution a nd stor a ge system, a nd the administrative costs of the water department or company. water rates, with rare exceptions, do not include a commodity charge for the water itself. the water is free.  unplanned urbanization has forced cities to depend on rural areas for sourcing water supplies. the flow of water from rural tube wells to urban areas for meeting domestic a nd industr ia l wa ter requirements of cities must be stopped  several crops which need huge quantity of water are grown for export like sugarcane, gherkins, tomatoes, capsicum, scented rice etc. these crops are exporting water more than the produce. the actual cost of water is not calculated while working out the economics. growing crops for export purpose using groundwater is not justified when local populations are going to suffer from severe shor tage of wa ter. such a ctivities must be restricted.  the government certainly has powers to impose location specific regulations on groundwater pumpers, yet there are two good reasons why it should not do so. first, it would provoke a bruising political battle. the political capital expended to win that fight could be better spent elsewhere. second, the impa ct of groundwa ter pumping on the envir onment is nua nced a nd site-specific, depending enormously on the particular hydrologic characteristics of an aquifer. imposing a uniform template on the nation is likely to exclude some pumping that should be regulated and to include some pumping that poses no serious risk of harm.  the impact of gr oundwater pumping on the environment is enormous. and it is getting worse. as the drought that frequently grips the country, farmers, cities and individual homeowners are scrambling in search of additional water supplies. they have often focused on groundwater; indeed, well-drilling businesses around the country are booming. the drought has prompted the media to pay remarkable a ttention to water issues. a massive campaign to save water is the need of the hour. j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 9-16, 2020 ganeshamurthy et al. references gleick, p.h. and palaniappan, m. 2010. peak water: conceptual and practical limits to freshwater withdrawal and use. proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america 107(25): 11155-11162. gleick, p. h. and pala niappan, m. 2011. on the waterfront. water resources 2, 4149. nicra. 2014. annual report of national initiative on climate resilient agriculture, icrisat centre, crida, hyderabad, india. rao, v. m. 1978. linking irrigation with development: some policy issues. economic and political weekly 13 (24): 993-97. raghupathi, h.b. and ganeshamurthy, a.n. 2013. deterioration in irrigation water quality. current science 105(6): 764-766. rueff, h. and schwartz, m. 2007. the contribution of dryland forests to livelihoods the case of the yatir forest. pr esented a t theinter na tiona l conference on afforestation and sustainable forests as a means to combat desertification held during 16-19 april, 2007 at jerusalem, israel. mukherjee, r. 2012. bottled water market grows at compound annual growth rate of 19%. times of india on june 25, 2012. unced. 1992. m anaging fragile ec osyste ms : combating desertification and drought. in: report of the united na tions conference on environment and development held during 3-14 june 1992 at rio de janeiro, brazil. (received on 19.11.2019 and accepted on 17.06.2020) 02 ganeshamurthy groundwater.pdf final sph -jhs coverpage 17-1 jan 2022 single 51 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 51-62, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction squash (cucurbita pepo l.) is an economically important species of the cucurbitaceae family that r epr esents one of the most pr imitive gener a (cucurbita) in the plant kingdom (tadmor et al., 2005). squash is monoecious vegetable crop and familiar with its different traditional name like zucchini (italy); cucuzza (saudi arabia), courgette (america); marrow (ireland and britain) and baby marrow (south africa). it is grown throughout the temperate, sub-tropical, and tropical regions, native to eastern united states and mexico and also cultivated worldwide for its fruits (bisognin, 2002). the major economic value of this crop is based mainly on the culinary use of immature fruits which have relatively high nutritional and medicinal value as compared to other vegetable crops. its nutritional profile consists of various organic compounds, nutrients, vitamins and minerals, that are responsible for providing all its impressive health benefits (kulczynski and gramzamichałowska, 2019). it is also a very good source of carotenoids, important anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds (deppe, 2015) and because of its low caloric value treated as weight loss diets (fageria et al., 2012). so, keeping its importance in mind, increase the global production is one of the important ways to ensure food security. bangladesh is one of the most densely populated country in the world having over 160 million people and based on its current growth trends a projected population will be over 200 million by 2050 (usaid, 2017). to meet up the food demand for its uprated population, increasing the crop production in per unit areas of land is the most effective ways to ensure the food security. squash is one of the important vegetable crops which can assure the nutritional security from its present nutritional shortage (per capita deficiency of vegetables 158 g) in bangladesh (anon., 2018). topographically, bangladesh has diverse land area assessing the genetic diversity of squash (cucurbita pepo l.) genotypes based on agro-morphological traits and genetic analysis sajid m.b., sarker k.k., monshi f.i., sultana s., monika m.a. and bhuiyan m.s.u.* department of genetics and plant breeding, faculty of agriculture sylhet agricultural university, sylhet 3100, bangladesh *corresponding author e-mail: bhuiyanmsu.gpb@sau.ac.bd abstarct an experiment was conducted to estimate the genetic variability of 15 indigenous and exotic squash genotypes assessing 18 quantitative and 8 qualitative traits. results showed that the accessions have high variability in qualitative traits like fruit size, fruit shape, fruit skin colour, lustre and fruit productivity, which allowed selection for considerable gains in these characteristics. the quantitative traits such as fruits yield per plant, fruit weight, length, diameter and total yield per hectare showed the greater phenotypic coefficient of variation (pcv) along with higher heritability which can helps to identify desirable genotypes. the obtained significant and positive correlation between fruit yield with number of leaves, nodes, fruit length, weight and number could assist in selection to improve this crop. cluster analysis resulted in the formation of 4 groups, confirming the genetic variability among the studied genotypes. eventually, the attained pca analysis result revealed that the number of fruits per plant, fruit yield per plant, fruit length and days to first female flowering are the most discriminating traits which are accelerating the variability in squash genotypes. on the basis of the yield and its attributing traits, first runner is the best genotype suited in this environment. keywords: genetic analysis, genetic variability, heritability, morphological traits and squash 52 sajid et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 51-62, 2022 which is favorable for the crop diversification and production, however, squash can grow easily in any types of soil even in unproductive and marginal land areas. in addition, more economic growth can be achieved by producing vegetables like squash which will ultimately uplift the socio-economic condition of the farmers. thus, there is urgent need to initiate research on squash especially for its vertical expansion and var ieta l improvement. although, squash is becoming important vegetable crop in bangladesh, ther e is little infor ma tion a va ila ble a bout its improvement and till date only a single variety has been recommended for winter season. in bangladesh, few researchers have taken initiatives for studying its growth and effects of fertilizers on it (akhter et al., 2018; baby et al., 2021) but genetic variability study has not been taken up yet. breeding for high-yielding crops require information available on the germplasm and the relationship among the agronomic traits as well as the degree of environmental influence (el-hadi et al., 2014). for its crop improvement, determining the extent of genotypic and phenotypic variability among geographical areas is important (muralidhara and narasegowda, 2014). quantitative and qualitative determination (morphological characterization) of the degree of var iation of traits present in genetic resources is important for vegetable breeding programs (ba lka ya et al. , 2010; gomes et al. , 2020). morphological characterization is the first step followed by quantitative traits in the description and classification of genetic resources (balkaya et al., 2010). however, only a few studies have focused on variability analysis in relation to morphological and yield contributing quantitative traits with squash accessions. therefore, the present research has been underta ken for the impr ovement of squash by assessing its genetic variability traits. in bangladesh, squash cultivation in summer season is challenging because of the severe attack of pests and diseases, excessive light and temperature, high rainfall and high labour cost etc. meanwhile, a very few resear ch works r elating to its ada ptability a nd va riability have been conducted in bangladesh especially in sylhet region where huge amount of land has remained fallow (14% of the total land) for a long time (bbs, 2018). so, there is a great opportunity to increase squash production in this region to meet up the vegetable and nutritional requirement of the country. considering the above points of view, the present study has been under taken to know the extent of genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance for different traits of squash genotypes in sylhet region. materials and methods the experiment was conducted at the research field of the department of genetics and plant breeding, faculty of agriculture, sylhet agricultural university, bangladesh during the period october 2019 to january 2020. fifteen indigenous and exotic genotypes (table 1) of squash were used in this experiment that were collected from the different parts of bangladesh as well as from the other countries. the exper iment was laid out in a randomized complete block design (rcbd) with thr ee replications. the experiment was divided into three blocks and each consisted of 15 plots. each unit plot size was 1 x 2.3 m2. altogether, there were 45 unit plots in experiment and required 300 m2 land. both row to row and plot-to-plot distances were 0.5 m. the treatments were randomly assigned to each of the block. each unit plot had 5 pits and in each pit 2 seeds were sown. after germination only one plant was allowed to grow. the land was prepared by ploughing and cross ploughing and different inter cultural oper a tions wer e a ccomplished a ccor ding to recommended bari squash variety (bari, 2018). the data were recorded based on 18 quantitative yield contributing traits i.e. plant height in cm at first harvest (ph), stem diameter in cm at first harvest (sd), number of leaves at first harvest (nl), number of nodes at first harvest (nn), days to flower bud initia tion (dfbi), days to first male flowering (dfmf), days to first female flowering (dfff), number of male flowers from flowering to last harvest (nmf), number of female flowers from flowering to last harvest (nff), viable pollen in percentage (vp), days to first harvest (dfh), nodes at first fruit harvest (nffh), fruit length in cm (fl), fruit diameter in cm (fd), fruit weight in g (fw), number of fruits per plant (nfpp), fruit yield per plant in kg (fypp), total yield in t/ha (ty) and 8 qualitative traits i.e. plant vigor, pubescence, stem shape, flower color, fruit size, fruit shape, fruit skin color and luster. the recor ded data on various parameters were analyzed to find out the statistical significance of the experimental results. mean and standard deviation were calculated using microsoft excel software 2010. 53 assessing the genetic diversity of squash genotypes the significance of the difference between treatment means, coefficient of variation (cv) was calculated by the least significance difference (lsd) test for the interpretation of the results (gomez and gomez, 1984). then the tabulated results were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (anova) and statistical differences between the means were estimated using duncan’s multiple range test (dmrt) at 1% or 5% or 0.1% probability with the help of statistical “r” software. estimation of genetic parameters estimation of genotypic and phenotypic variances: genotypic and phenotypic variances were estimated according to the formula given by johnson et al. (1955). estimation of coefficient of variability (genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation): both phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of va riability for a ll characters w estimated using the formula of burton (1952). pcv and gcv were classified into three categories viz., low (< 10%), moderate (10-20%) and high (> 20%) as suggested by sivasubramanian and madhavamenon (1973). heritability in broad sense (h2bs): the broad sense heritability (h2bs) was estimated for all characters as table 1. name and source of the squash genotypes used in the experiment genotypes name of the genotypes origin remarks g1 first runner south korea indigenous g2 alaska australia indigenous g3 blossom house netherlands indigenous g4 balam house usa indigenous g5 cheonlima south korea indigenous g6 hungnong squash south korea indigenous g7 runner usa indigenous g8 sq-001 australia exotic g9 sq-002 australia exotic g10 sq-003 australia exotic g11 sq-004 australia exotic g12 sq-005 australia exotic g13 sq-006 australia exotic g14 sq-007 australia exotic g15 sq-008 australia exotic the ra tio of genotypic var ia nce to the total of phenotypic variance as suggested by hanson et al., (1956). heritability estimates in cultivated plants could be placed in the categories viz. as low (0-30%), moderate (30-60%) and high (>60%) as suggested by robinson (1966). genetic advance (ga): the expected genetic gain or advance for each character was estimated by using the method suggested by johnson et al., (1955). genetic advance was classified as high (>20%), moderate (1020%) and low (<10%). further the genetic advance as per cent of mean was computed by using the formula which was given by burton (1952). genetic advance as per cent mean was categorized into groups viz., low (< 10%), moderate (10-20%) and high (> 20%) as suggested by johnson et al. (1955). correlation estimation simple correlation coefficient (r) among 12 important parameters of squash accessions was estimated according to singh and chaudhury (1985). again, cluster analysis (ca) was carried out according to mahalanobis (1936). it divides genotypes into groups on the basis of a data set into some number of mutually exclusive groups. furthermore, principal component analysis (pca) was computed from j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 51-62, 2022 54 correlation matrix and genotype scores obtained for the first components with roots greater than unit (jeger et al., 1983). it provides two dimensional plots, which helps in separating different populations involved. contribution of the different characters towards variability was discussed from the latent vectors of the first three principal components. however, mean data for each character was subjected to multivariate analysis techniques viz., principal component analysis (pca), cluster analysis (ca) and also the simple correlation coefficient analysis were done by computer using the stata 14.0 software. results and discussion mean performance or genotypes for vegetative characters in this experiment, fifteen indigenous and exotic squash genotypes have been characterized according to morphological traits and genetic analysis. although morphological characteristics depends on its external factors but it is parallelly important to support these morphological variations along with their genetic studies. results of mean performance of different squash genotypes based on different agronomic and yield contributing traits indicated that there was a significant difference in mean performance among all the genotypes. this difference could be resulted from the genetic variation a mong the studied squash genotypes which is also supported with the results of other previous studies on squash (gomes et al., 2020; tsivelikas et al., 2009; villanueva-verduzco et al., 2020). a wide genetic diversity was also reported in the experimental results of egusi-melon (olaniyi et al., 2011) and cucumber (arunkumar et al., 2011). in case of vegetative characters, results showed a great significant variation for all the characters among the squash genotypes (table 2). the highest plant height at first harvest was found in sq-002 (36.05 cm) and the lowest was in balam house (32.17 cm). diameter of stem during first harvest was highest in first runner (13 cm) and the lowest was in balam house (9.21 cm). number of leaves, considered as an important parameter for fruit yield, was the maximum in two genotypes i.e., cheonlima (25) and sq-001 (25). additionally, the maximum number of nodes per plant was recorded in first runner (14.3) and the minimum was recorded from balam house (11.53). different types of leaves, flowers and fruits were observed in studied squash genotypes those are presented in figure 1. therefore, it was observed that, the squash genotypes showed a wide range of variation in their growth-related morphological traits. variation in morphological (ozturk et al., 2021) as well as anatomical features (balkaya et al., 2010) is a common phenomenon among different cucurbita species. additionally, esho and jasim (2020) found a wide range of variability for number of nodes for the first female flower in squash. moreover, considering the reproductive (flowering) characters, the results showed a significant variation on days to flower bud initiation, days to first male and female flowering, number of male and female flowers and viable pollen rate for all the squash genotypes (table 3). the genotype runner took minimum days to first flower bud initiation (19.29 days) while the genotypes first runner took the lowest day to first male flowering (30.54 days) and the genotype runner was the earliest genotypes to first female flowering (35.73 days). in most of the genotypes, female flowers were emerging before ma le flowers with some exceptions (table 3). significant difference for days to female flowering was also reported by nahar et al., (2016) in sweet gourd genotypes. in addition, the male flower numbers outnumbered the female flower numbers during the experimental period for all the genotypes. both the male and female flowers formed simultaneously right from the outset. additionally, pollen viability was of special interest to see the degree of influence it exerts upon fruit and seed setting. the percentage of pollen viability helps us in selecting the parents for crossing in a hybridization program. the mean va lues of fertile (viable) pollen showed statistically almost similar results for all the 15 genotypes (table 3). this result indicated a high possibility of cross pollination among the genotypes and this could lead a high level to of genetic variability in squash genotypes. some other yield contributing traits considering the fruiting characters i.e., days to first harvest, number of nodes at first harvest, length and diameter of fruit per plant, fruit weight, number of fruits per plant, fruit yield per plant and total yield showed a significant variation among the genotypes (table 4). the days to first harvest ranged from 54 to 62.67 days in runner and balam house respectively with a mean value of 58.3 days. low variation was observed among the genotypes with respect to number of nodes at first fruit sajid et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 51-62, 2022 55 fig. 1. variation in leaves, flowers and fruits of fifteen squash genotypes harvest (range: runner 5.03 to blossom house 6.5; mean: 5.78). the maximum fruit length was seen in the genotypes first runner (45.58 cm), hungnong squash (45.42 cm) and cheonlima (44.1 cm) while the minimum length of fruit was observed from sq007 (27.62 cm). similar findings of significant variation on days to first harvest, number of nodes at first harvest and fruit length were also reported by esho and jasim (2020) in squash, mohsin et al. (2017) in pumpkin and nahar et al. (2016) in sweet gourd. significant variation in fruit diameter (range: alaska 17.47 cm to sq-003 38.11 cm) was found among squash genotypes. significant variation was also observed by balkaya et al. (2010) in winter squash from the black sea region of turkey. the individual fruit of first runner (1165.5 g) had the highest weight followed by sq-001 (1013.03 g) and hungnong squash (1002.08 g). the lowest single fruit weight was recorded in runner (742.24 g). the variation of fruit weight could be due to the genetical, physiological and environmental influence. abdein et al. (2021) reported similar results in respect of single fruit weight in summer squash. number of fruits per plant was the maximum in case of runner (10.2) proceeded to first runner (10) and sq-001 (9.53). accession balam house produced the minimum number (6.2) of fruits per plant. rana et al. (2016) also observed significant va riation in number of fr uits per plant a mong cucumber genotypes. the yield of fruits per plant eventually contributes the total yield of fruit for each genotype. among the studied squash genotypes, total fruit yield was varied significantly. the maximum total yield of fruit was obtained in first runner (89.43 t/ ha) preceded to sq-001 (74 t/ha) and cheonlima (63.48 t/ha) which was statistically different from other accessions, whereas the minimum total yield of fruit was obtained in case of balam house (35.78 t/ ha). these results corroborated with the findings of akhter et al. (2018) in squash and abdein et al. (2017) in sweet gourd. uddain et al. (2019) also observed significant variation among the different genotypes of zucchini squash in respect of weight of fruits per plant. assessing the genetic diversity of squash genotypes j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 51-62, 2022 56 genotypes plant height stem diameter number of number of (cm) (cm) leaves nodes g1=first runner 34.13bcde 13a 24.6ab 14.3a g2=alaska 33.33def 12.13b 22cde 12.93bcd g3=blossom house 33.68cdef 11.45cde 22.2cde 11.73ef g4=balam house 32.17f 9.21j 20.27f 11.53ef g5=cheonlima 33.61cdef 11.6bcd 25a 14.27a g6=hungnong squash 32.51ef 11.63bcd 23.27bcd 12.07def g7=runner 34.69abcd 11.89bc 23.87ab 13.53abc g8=sq-001 35.11abcd 10.9efg 25a 14ab g9=sq-002 36.05a 11.29cde 21.2ef 13.93ab g10=sq-003 34.31abcde 11.36cde 21.67ef 11.87def g11=sq-004 35.92ab 10.03hi 23.47abc 11.47f g12=sq-005 34.59abcd 11.05def 21.47ef 11.87def g13=sq-006 35.23abc 10.48fgh 21.8def 12.6cde g14=sq-007 34.03cde 9.75ij 21.07ef 13.6abc g15=sq-008 34.61abcd 10.38jhi 21ef 12.93bcd mean 34.27 11.08 22.52 12.84 sd 0.99 0.32 0.75 0.54 lsd 1.81 0.66 1.57 1.09 means followed by the same letter (s) in a column do not differ significantly table 2. mean performance of squash genotypes for vegetative characters at first harvest table 3. mean performance of squash genotypes for various flowering characters days to days to days to number number viable genotypes flower bud first male first of male of female pollen initiation flowering femal flowers flowers (%) g1=first runner 20.86def 30.53f 35.80h 18.73defg 13.13b 91.1abc g2=alaska 22.20bcd 32.47ef 37.73g 18.4fg 12.87bc 89.75bc g3=blossom house 23.69ab 31.73ef 40.20cde 18.53efg 10.67ef 87.13d g4=balam house 24.58a 33.87e 41.80b 18.93defg 10.67ef 84.47e g5=cheonlima 22.70bc 32.26ef 40.33cde 19.33bcdef 12.8bc 89.89abc g6=hungnong squash 22.89abc 33.13e 41bcd 20.6a 10.6ef 89.11cd g7=runner 19.29f 37.73cd 35.73h 20.13ab 14.13a 90.28abc g8=sq-001 21.49cde 36.53d 39.93def 18.40fg 12.93bc 90.42abc g9=sq-002 20.05ef 42.87a 43.06a 20.06abc 12cd 89.88abc g10=sq-003 22.67bc 43.47a 36h 19.73abcd 11e 92.36a g11=sq-004 22.08bcd 42.33a 41.2bc 19.6abcd 12.8bc 89.99abc g12=sq-005 21.99bcd 42.40a 39.06f 19.06cdef 12.53bc 91.02abc g13=sq-006 22.59bc 39.27c 41.27bc 19.46bcde 12.8bc 91.79ab g14=sq-007 21.67cde 39.53bc 36.27h 18.73defg 9.87f 89.91abc g15=sq-008 22.48bcd 41.80ab 39.53f 17.93g 11.27de 89.86abc mean 22.08 37.33 39.26 19.18 12 89.80 sd 0.92 0.52 0.53 0.53 0.48 1.28 lsd 1.71 2.33 1.07 1.06 0.99 2.54 means followed by the same letter (s) in a column do not differ significantly sajid et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 51-62, 2022 57 table 4. mean performance of squash genotypes for various fruit characters genotypes days to nodes fruit fruit fruit no of fruit total first at first length diameter weight fruits yield yield harvest fruit (cm) (cm) (g) per per plant (t/ha) harvest plant (kg) first runner 58.47cde 5.53cde 45.58a 19.67ef 1165.50a 10.2a 11.92a 89.43a alaska 58.33cde 5.58bcd 34.43b 17.47f 797.60gh 8.90de 7.14efg 53.53ef blossom house 61.80a 6.50a 31.30de 20.06ef 816.70efg 7.00h 5.73h 42.98h balam house 62.67a 6.34ab 31.10de 19.39ef 810.10fgh 6.20i 4.77i 35.78i cheonlima 58.87cd 5.77abc 44.10a 19.72ef 948.90bc 8.90def 8.46c 63.48c hungnong squash 59.8bc 5.90abcd 45.42a 19.19ef 1002.80b 7.93g 7.99cde 59.98cd runner 54.00h 5.03e 27.62f 21.19e 742.24h 10.00ab 7.22efg 54.13ef sq-001 55.80g 5.19de 32.2cd 25.48cd 1013.00b 9.50bc 9.95b 74.00b sq-002 61.07ab 5.8abcd 34.4b 21.02e 909.30cd 9.10cd 8.31cd 62.33cd sq-003 55.93fg 6.06abc 11.84g 38.11a 921.10bcd 8.13g 7.47def 56.05de sq-004 57.73de 6.28abc 34.48b 24.59d 896.90cde 8.30fg 7.47def 56.05de sq-005 56.87efg 6.16abc 30.06e 20.99e 822.30efgh 8.27g 6.80fg 51.0fg sq-006 60.00bc 5.92abc 34.10bc 18.85ef 863.90defg 8.93d 7.90cde 58.88cd sq-007 55.60gh 5.06e 11.43g 23.77b 873.50defg 7.00h 6.34gh 47.55gh sq-008 57.53def 5.55bcd 31.7de 27.42c 987.18bc 8.50ef 8.21cd 61.55cd mean 58.29 5.78 31.97 22.93 904.74 8.46 7.71 57.78 sd 0.84 0.43 0.97 1.18 49.66 0.28 0.55 4.18 lsd 1.69 0.79 1.92 2.65 93.10 0.55 0.92 6.88 means followed by the same letter (s) in a column do not differ significantly variability of yield contributing characters the identification and utilization of an extensive germplasm is the prerequisite for improvement of a specific crop by adapting an appropr iate plant breeding program. regarding these, precise and exhaustive descriptions of the genotypes with the patterns of their genetic diversity can promote the introgression of current squash genetic base. in varia bility studies, high value of coefficient of variation (%cv) was found in number of nodes per plant at first harvest (5.11%), fruit yield per plant (7.13%), fruit diameter (6.89%), and fruit weight (6.14%). on the other hand, the lowest cv value was recorded in days to first female flowering (1.63%). the estimated genotypic variance (σ2g) was higher than their corresponding environmental variances (σ2e) for all the traits, except for plant height and number of nodes at first harvest that was very negligible (table 5). among the 15 accessions, the high magnitude of genotypic coefficient of variation (gcv) along with phenotypic coefficient of variation (pcv) were recorded for fruit diameter followed by the fruit yield per plant, total yield/ha and number of female flowers per plant. very low level of gcv along with pcv was found in case of viable pollen percentage along with plant height at first harvest. most of the characters had low gcv values than pcv values indicated consider a ble influence of envir onment in the expression of all the traits (table 6). high gcv indicates the presence of exploitable genetic variability for the tr a its, which ca n fa cilita te selection (muralidhara and narasegowda, 2014; yadav et al., 2009). heritability estimation gives an insight into the extent of genetic control to express a particular trait and phenotypic reliability in predicting its breeding value (ndukauba et al., 2015, nahar et al., 2016). the heritability in combination with genetic advance (ga) assessing the genetic diversity of squash genotypes j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 51-62, 2022 58 table 5. estimates of genetic parameters for various characteristics in squash genotypes parameters mean mss cv % σ2g σ 2 ph σ 2 e plant height (cm) 34.27 3.67** 3.16 0.83 2.01 1.17 at first harvest stem diameter (cm) 11.08 2.90*** 3.55 0.91 1.07 0.16 at first harvest number of leaves 22.52 7.26*** 4.17 2.13 3.01 0.88 at first harvest number of nodes 12.84 3.19*** 5.11 0.92 1.35 0.43 at first harvest days to flower bud 22.08 5.26*** 4.64 1.40 2.45 1.05 initiation days to first male 37.33 65.33*** 3.73 21.13 23.07 1.94 flowering days to first female 39.26 17.29*** 1.63 5.63 6.04 0.41 flowering number of male 19.18 1.71*** 3.29 0.44 0.84 0.40 flowers number of female 12.00 4.56*** 4.95 1.40 1.76 0.35 aflowers viable pollen (%) 89.80 10.80*** 1.69 2.83 5.14 2.31 days to first harvest 58.30 18.23*** 1.74 5.73 6.76 1.03 nodes at first 5.78 0.63* 8.24 0.14 0.36 0.23 fruit harvest fruit length (cm) 31.97 96.72*** 3.59 31.8 33.12 1.32 fruit diameter (cm) 22.93 92.99*** 6.89 30.17 32.67 2.50 fruit weight (g) 904.74 34814*** 6.14 10573 13668 3095 number of fruits 8.46 3.74*** 3.87 1.21 1.32 0.11 per plant fruit yield per 7.71 8.57*** 7.13 2.76 3.06 0.30 plant (kg) total yield (t/ha) 57.78 477.72*** 7.12 153.6 170.5 16.93 * significant at 5% level of probability; ** significant at 1% level of probability and; *** significant at 0.1% level of probability. increases the intensity of selection in a breeding program. high heritability indicates less environmental influence in the observed variation (abdein et al., 2017). thus, genetic advance measures the difference between the mean genotypic values of the original population from which these are selected. almost all the attributes showed high heritability except nodes at first harvest (38.89%) and plant height (41.49%). the highest estimates of genetic advance (in percent of mean) were determined for total yield/ha, fruit yield per plant, fruit weight, fruit length, fruit diameter and number of fruits per plant (table 6). correlation analysis (table s1), the trait plant height had significant positive correlation with days to first male flowering, number of female flowers, number of fruits per plant, and fruits yield per plant. other attributes such as number of leaves at first harvest was negatively and significantly correlated with the days to first male flowering. the number of nodes at first harvest showed positive and significant correlation with number of female flowers, single fruit weight, number of fruits per plant and yield of fruits ton per hectare. the number of female flowers per plant had significant and positive correlation with number of sajid et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 51-62, 2022 59 table 6. estimation of heritability and genetic advance (ga) in squash genotypes parameters gcv pcv ecv heritaga ga (% bility (5%) mean) plant height (cm) at first harvest 2.67 4.14 1.47 41.49 1.21 3.53 stem diameter (cm) at first harvest 8.61 9.34 0.73 85.05 1.81 16.34 number of leaves at first harvest 6.48 7.71 1.22 70.76 2.53 11.23 number of nodes at first harvest 7.47 9.05 1.58 68.15 1.63 12.70 days to flower bud initiation 5.36 7.10 1.73 57.14 1.84 8.33 days to first male flowering 12.31 12.87 0.56 91.58 9.07 24.28 days to first female flowering 6.04 6.26 0.22 93.21 4.72 12.02 number of male flowers 3.46 4.78 1.32 52.38 0.99 5.16 number of female flowers 9.86 11.04 1.18 79.73 2.18 18.14 viable pollen (%) 1.87 2.53 0.65 55.05 2.57 2.86 days to first harvest 4.11 4.46 0.35 84.76 4.54 7.79 nodes at first fruit harvest 6.47 10.38 3.91 38.89 0.48 8.31 fruit length (cm) 17.64 18.00 0.36 96.01 11.38 35.61 fruit diameter (cm) 23.95 24.93 0.98 92.35 10.87 47.42 fruit weight (g) 11.37 12.92 1.55 77.36 186.31 20.59 number of fruits per plant 13.00 13.58 0.58 91.67 2.17 25.64 fruit yield per plant (kg) 21.55 22.69 1.14 90.2 3.25 42.16 total yield (t/ha) 21.45 22.60 1.15 90.07 24.23 41.93 assessing the genetic diversity of squash genotypes j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 51-62, 2022 fruits per plant. fruit length had significant and positive correlation with fruit weight, number of fruits per plant and fruit yield per plant and also significantly and negatively correlated with fruit diameter. one of the most impor ta nt tr a its of fr uit weight wa s significantly and positively correlated with fruit yield per plant. highly significant and positive association of fruit yield per plant was recorded with the plant height, number of leaves per plant, number of nodes at first harvest, fruit length, fruit weight and number of fruits per plant. similar findings were noticed by gomes et al. (2020) in brazilian germplasm of winter squash and mohsin et al. (2017) in pumpkin. in cluster analysis (ca), the cluster means of 15 accessions of squash showed that the mean values of the cluster s varied in magnitude for ma ximum characters (table s2. the cluster ii showed the highest total yield value along with the second highest fruit length and fruit diameter value, the highest number of fruits per plant value and the highest yield per plant value, which could contribute to total yield. from the clustering comparison of the means, it was found that cluster ii expressed the best agronomic quantitative yield contr ibuting tr a its a nd yield potentia ls. comparing the means of all clusters it was showed that first runner from cluster i, cheonlima and sq001 from cluster ii, sq-008 from cluster iv and sq006 from cluster iii expressed the best quantitative and qualitative traits and yield potentials which could be effective for the improvement of yield of squash (fig. s1). gomes et al. (2020) reported similar results in brazilian germplasm of winter squash. ene et al. (2016) also reported similar findings in cucumber genotypes. this suggests that the genotypes of squash of the same origin have diverse and broad genetic basis. principal component analysis (pca) is an important multivariate technique used to examine associations between cha r a cter s a nd mea sur es the genetic variability of genotypes (balkaya et al., 2010; ene et al., 2016). the three principal components (pc1, pc2 and pc3) can be retained to describe the variability among the squash genotypes (table s3). the first three components explain 63% of the total genetic variation 60 sajid et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 51-62, 2022 while the first two principal components accounted for 53% and first component accounted for 32.4% of the total genetic variation among the 18 a ttributes describing 15 different genotypes. the first component (pc1) described 32.4% of the total variation, second component (pc2) explained 20.6% of the total variability and the third component (pc3) evaluated only 10.02% of the total variation. the pc1 was positively and strongly associated with the plant height (0.18), stem diameter (0.29), number of leaves (0.29), number of nodes (0.28), number of female flower (0.30), viable pollen percentage (0.25), fruit length (0.13), fruit weight (0.21), number of fruits per plant (0.39) and fruit yield per plant ( 0.36). the pc2 was positively and highly associated to days to first harvest (0.36) and fruit length (0.47). in case of pc3, it was strongly associated with plant height (0.47), days to first male flowering (0.39), days to first female flowering (0.49), number of male flower (0.31), number of female flowers (0.24) and fruit length (0. 16). wher ea s, mor phologica l (qua lita tive) characterization showed that limited variability present in the genotypes in respect of some characters viz., plant vigor, stem and leaf pubescence, and flower colour. significant variability was observed in case of fruit shape, fruit size, fruit skin color and luster respectively. this finding corroborated with the findings of el-hadi et al. (2014) in squash and partly agrees with the results by khawla et al. (2019) in tunisian squash and nahar et al. (2016) in sweet gourd. qualitative characterization selection of qualitative traits is also very important in successful crop breeding program. significant variation was found under this research in relation to different qualitative traits of squash accessions. most significant variation was found in fruit size, fruit shape and fruit skin color followed by lustre (table s4). the fruit colour, size, shape was morphologically different because of the genetic makeup present in the studied genotypes (fig. 1). a similar morphological variation of qualitative traits was reported by uddain et al. (2019) in zucchini squa sh, mur a lidha r a a nd narasegowda (2014) in pumpkin, nahar et al. (2016) in sweet gourd and ene et al. (2016) in cucumber. conclusion high heritability coupled with high genetic advance observed for total yield/ha, fruit yield per plant, fruit weight, fruit length and fruit diameter in this set of germplasm indicated that, these traits will be the main contributing factors for further crop improvement programme. significant and positive association of fruit yield per plant with number of leaves per plant, number of nodes at first harvest, fruit length, fruit weight and number of fruits per plant suggested that, these tr aits were inter-related a nd collectively contributed to the final yield of squash. the principal component analysis showed that number of fruits per plant, fruit yield per plant, fruit length and days to first female flowering were the most discriminating factors that accounted for the genetic diversity of squash and would be considered for squash improvement program. considering yield performance, it can be recommended that first runner is the highest yielding genotype 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(received: 24.112021; revised: 06.03.2022; accepted :10.03.2022) 00 a final sph -jhs coverpage first 2 pages.pdf 00 content and in this issue.pdf 01 mohan kumar g n.pdf 02 meera pandey.pdf 03 biradar c.pdf 04 varalakshmi b.pdf 05 vijayakumari n.pdf 06 barik s.pdf 07 sajid m b.pdf 08 ranga d.pdf 09 usha s.pdf 10 manisha.pdf 11 amulya r n.pdf 12 akshatha h j.pdf 13 adak t.pdf 14 sujatha s.pdf 15 gowda p p.pdf 16 subba s.pdf 17 dhayalan v.pdf 19 ahmed s.pdf 20 vishwakarma p k.pdf 21 deep lata.pdf 22 udaykumar k p.pdf 23 nayaka v s k.pdf 24 sahel n a.pdf 25 bayogan e r v.pdf 26 rathinakumari a c.pdf 27 yella swami c.pdf 28 saidulu y.pdf 29 sindhu s.pdf 30 neeraj.pdf 31 sivaranjani r.pdf 32 rashied tetteh.pdf 34 sangeetha g.pdf 35 shareefa m.pdf 36 last pages.pdf introduction papaya (carica papaya l.), belonging to the family caricaceae, is one of the important fruit crops in tropical and subtropical regions due to its economic, nutritional, industrial, pharmaceutical and medicinal values, both for local and export markets. many diseases in papaya are economically important, the most important being the papaya ring spot virus (purcifull, 1972). management of prsv by roguing out infected plants, quarantine regulation for restricting plant movement, use of insecticides against insect vectors and, cross protection, have generally not been effective in controlling the disease. naturally occurring resistance to prsv-p has not been identified in any papaya cultivar to date. thus, developing prsv resistant papaya is considered to be the best strategy for long-term control of this virus. several species from a related genus, vasconcellea, exhibit complete resistance to prsv-p, and present a valuable resource for developing new prsv-p resistant papaya varieties. crossing tolerant varieties with susceptible highyielding commercial varieties has imparted some tolerance and improved yield under infectious conditions (chan, 2004). numerous efforts have been made to incorporate resistance molecular diversity analysis in f3 intergeneric population of papaya (carica papaya l.) r. sudha1, t.n. balamohan2, k. soorianathasundaram and n. manivannan3 dept. of fruit crops, horticultural college and research institute tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore – 641003, india e-mail: rsudhahort@yahoo.co.in abstract attempts were made to estimate molecular diversity present in f3 populations of intergeneric crosses between carica papaya l. (var. pusa nanha and cp 50) and vasconcellea cauliflora. molecular studies revealed that pcr amplification using five issr primers in 40 f3 progenies yielded 53 reproducible amplified bands. of the 53 bands, 44 were polymorphic (83.02%). polymorphic information content (pic) value ranged between 0.90 (issr 807 x 810) and 0.66 (issr 834 x 810). similarity coefficients based on five issr markers ranged from 0.05 to 0.96. maximum similarity was observed for genotypes 1, 4 and 6 of pusa nanha x vasconcellea cauliflora (0.96). minimum similarity was observed between genotypes 3 and 14 of cp 50 x vasconcellea cauliflora (0.04). this higher genetic diversity of papaya progenies stands to contribute to development of new varieties and, using the data, further hybridization and selection can be planned. key words: carica papaya, vasconcellea cauliflora, intergeneric hybridization, molecular diversity j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):1-4, 2014 1central potato research station, muthorai, ooty, the nilgiris, tn. 2horticultural college and research institute for women, navalur kuttapattu, trichy, tn. 3dept. of oil seeds, centre for plant breeding and genetics, tnau, coimbatore, tn. genes from other genera present in the caricaceae family, namely, vasconcellea cauliflora, v. quercifolia, v. stipulata and v. pubescens. intergeneric hybrids between papaya and prsv resistant species have been produced by a number of investigators with the aid of embryo rescue techniques (horovitz and jimenez, 1967; khuspe et al, 1980). however, not much progress is evident in this direction. therefore, intergeneric hybridization was initiated by us between carica papaya and vasconcellea cauliflora to incorporate resistance gene from the latter into cultivars of papaya. molecular markers are a useful complement to morphological and physiological characterization of cultivars as these are plentiful, independent of tissue, age or environmental effects, and allow for cultivar identification early in plant development. thus, for genetic assessment, molecular markers are often considered advantageous over morphological markers. issrs are a versatile tool and are used extensively in plant breeding and evolutionary studies because of their high fidelity for showing diversity among cultivars (levi and roland, 1997). in the present study, attempts were made to assess molecular diversity in f3 populations of intergeneric hybrids of carica papaya and vasconcellea cauliflora using issr markers. 2 sudha et al material and methods the present study, undertaken during 2009-2010 at horticultural college and research institute, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore, india, involves evaluation of molecular diversity among f3 generation of intergeneric populations of carica papaya (vars. pusa nanha and cp50) and vasconcellea cauliflora. intergeneric hybridization was made using carica papaya as the female and vasconcellea cauliflora as the male parent, to transfer genes desirable for prsv resistance. sibmating was made in selected plants of the f2 population to develop f3 population in pusa nanha x vasconcellea cauliflora and cp50 x vasconcellea cauliflora. in all, 25 progenies of the cross pusa nanha x vasconcellea cauliflora, and 15 progenies of cp50 x vasconcellea cauliflora were used in this study. seeds obtained from selected combinations of f2 population and their parents were sown in nursery bags. screening of f3 population was done by mechanical sap inoculation, followed by observations on disease intensity as per the disease score scale developed by dhanam (2006). healthy seedlings showing uniform growth were planted at a spacing of 1.8 × 1.8m. standard package of practices was followed for the period under study. leaf samples of intergeneric hybrids were collected from the experimental field of college orchard, horticultural college and research institute, coimbatore. leaf samples collected were stored at -80oc for dna extraction. genomic dna was isolated from young leaves using hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (ctab) (aitchitt et al, 1993). quality and quantity of genomic dna extracted was determined using gel electrophoresis (0.7% agarose gel). dna concentration for pcr amplification was estimated by comparing band intensity of a sample with band intensity of known dilutions of lambda dna/ ecori+hindiii marker (fermentas, #sm0191). based on the band intensity, dna was further diluted to required concentration (25-50ng) using double-distilled water. pcr reaction was performed using five issr primers, viz., ubc 807, ubc 808, ubc 810, ubc 817 and ubc 834. pcr reaction was carried out in a total volume of 10μl in 96-tube pcr plates. the master mix of solutions for each reaction included 1.0μl of 10x taq buffer + mgcl2 (15mm), 1.0μl of dntp (2mm ), 1.0μl (0.5μl each for combination) primers 10μm, 0.1μl of taq polymerase (3 iu / μl), 4.9μl of sterile double-distilled water and 2μl of template dna10ng/μl. touchdown protocol was followed for all the primers; cycling profile was: initial denaturation at 94oc for 3 min, denaturation at 94oc for 30 sec (-0.5oc), annealing (19 cycles) at 63°c for 30 sec, extension at 72oc for 1 min, denaturation at 94°c for 15 sec, annealing (19 cycles) at 55oc for 30 sec, extension at 72oc for 1 min, final extension at 72oc for 10 min, and final hold at 4°c. electrophoresis was performed in 1.5% agarose at 120v for 2 hours. page electrophoresis was carried out using an improved staining method, a combination of different steps proposed by benbouza et al (2006). data generated for 40 genotypes with five issr primers were subjected to statistical analysis. polymorphic bands were scored visually for presence or absence for each primer. scores were obtained in the form of a matrix with ‘1’ and ‘0’, which indicates presence or absence of the bands in each genotype, respectively. it is the sum total of polymorphism information content (pic) values for all the markers generated by a particular primer. pic value was calculated using the formula pic = 1-σpi2, where pi is frequency of the ith allele (smith et al, 1997). binary data scoring was used for constructing a dendrogram. genetic association between accessions was evaluated by calculating jaccard’s similarity coefficient for-pair wise comparisons based on the proportion of shared bands produced by primers (jaccard, 1908). similarity, the matrix was generated using simqual programme of ntsyspc software, version 2.02 (rohlf, 2000). these similarity coefficients were used for cluster analysis, and the dendrogram was constructed using unweighted pair-group method (upgma) (sneath and sokal, 1973). results and discussion molecular markers are a useful complement to morphological and physiological characterization of cultivars as these are plentiful, independent of tissue, age or environmental effects, and allow for cultivar identification early in plant development. thus, for genetic assessment, molecular markers are often considered advantageous over morphological markers. molecular markers based on differences in dna sequence between individuals generally detect more polymorphisms than morphological and protein based markers, and constitute a new generation of genetic markers (mignouna et al, 1998; tanksley et al, 1989). amplification of inter simple sequence repeats (issr) is a relatively j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):1-4, 2014 3 recent technique and has proved to be a powerful, rapid, simple, reproducible and inexpensive way for assessing genetic diversity or to identify closely-related cultivars in several species. it is a dominant marker, though occasionally exhibiting codominance. this marker reveals a far larger number of fragments per primer than does rapd analysis (bajpai et al, 2008). in the present investigation, 40 f3 genotypes of pusa nanha x vasconcellea cauliflora (25 genotypes) and cp50 x vasconcellea cauliflora (15 genotypes) were used for identifying closely-related progenies, using five issr primers. pcr amplification using these five primers in 40 f3 progenies yielded 53 reproducible amplified bands. the number of bands amplified varied from 5 (issr 834) to 16 (issr 807x810). of the 53 bands, 44 were polymorphic (83.02%). average number of bands and number of polymorphic bands per primer was 10.6 and 8.8, respectively. polymorphism information content (pic) values were calculated for issr markers to characterize the capacity of each primer for revealing or detecting polymorphic loci among genotypes. pic value, as a relative measure of level of polymorphism ranged between 0.90 (issr 807 x 810) and 0.66 (issr 834 x 810). a higher pic value indicated informativeness of the primer. among the primers used in our study, two primers, viz., 808 and 807x810, exhibited pic value ranging from 0.90 to 0.87. these primers can provide a basis for papaya dna profile system (table 1). presence of 44 polymorphic bands in papaya progenies indicated a presence of genetic polymorphism in these progenies, which may be used in planning hybridization in papaya. moreover, occurrence of specific bands only in some of the progenies indicates presence of specific loci in the progenies. molecular data for 40 f3 progenies were analyzed using sequential hierarchial and nested (sahn) clustering methods of ntsys-pc program version 2.02 (rohlf, 2000) based on jaccard’s similarity coefficient, with unweighted pair group method with arithmetic average (upgma). maximum similarity was observed in genotypes 1, 4 and 6 of pusa nanha x vasconcellea cauliflora (0.96). minimum similarity was observed between genotypes 3 and 14 of cp50 x vasconcellea cauliflora (0.04). based on the similarity index, a dendrogram was constructed for 40 f3 genotypes which grouped into seven clusters at 0.56 coefficients (fig.1). cluster i was found to be the largest, with 27 genotypes. cluster ii was the second largest, with four genotypes. clusters iii and iv contained both genotypes and were observed to have close similarity. clusters v and vii had only one genotype. cluster vi contained three genotypes. the present study indicates clearly that wider variability was created using the crosses pusa nanha x vasconcellea cauliflora and cp50 x vasconcellea cauliflora in f3 populations. the present study revealed an average genetic similarity of 56% in f3 table 1. per cent polymorphism and polymorphic information content (pic) value for issr primers s. no. issr sequence (5’-3’) total number number of pic value primer no. of bands polymorphic (ubc code) bands 1 808 aga gag aga gag aga gt 15 14 0.87 2 834 aga gag aga gag aga gc 5 5 0.78 3 807 vs 810 gag aga gag aga gag at 16 15 0.90 4 834 vs 807 cac aca cac aca cac aa 8 4 0.72 5 834 vs 810 aga gag aga gag aga gyt 9 6 0.66 total no. of bands 53 44 average number of bands per primer 10.6 8.8 fig 1. molecular diversity study among f3 progenies of pusa nanha x vasconcellea cauliflora and cp 50 x vasconcellea cauliflora using issr markers molecular diversity analysis in f3 population of papaya j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):1-4, 2014 4 progenies, indicating a presence of greater genetic difference among these populations. using dna markers of different nature could help differentiate papaya progenies, and their genetic variation can be evaluated. molecular data can provide more information and clear discrimination between progenies. in addition, interspecific hybridization showed greater diversity and distinctness, providing information for prsv resistance breeding programmes for inducing genetic variation in the progeny. references aitchitt, m., ainsworth, c.c. and thangavelu, m. 1993. a rapid and efficient method for the extraction of total dna from mature leaves of the date palm (phoenix dactylifera l.). pl. mol. biol. repr., 11:317-319 bajpai, a., srivastava, n., rajan, s. and chandra, r. 2008. genetic diversity and discrimination of mango accessions using rapd and issr markers. indian j. hort., 65:377-382 benbouza, h., jacquemin, j.m., baudoin, j.p. and mergeai, g. 2006. optimization of a reliable, fast, cheap and sensitive silver staining method to detect ssr markers in polyacrylamide gels. biotechnol. agron. soc. environ., 10:77-81 chan, y.k. 2004. field performance of papaya lines selected for tolerance to ring spot virus disease. j. trop. agri. fd. sci., 31:128-137 dhanam, s. 2006. studies on papaya ring spot disease. m.sc. (plant pathology) thesis, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore horovitz, s. and jimenez, h. 1967. cruzameintos interspecificos intergenericos en caricaceas ysus implcaciones fitoecnicas. agron. trop., 17:323-343 jaccard, p. 1908. nouvelles rescerches sur la distribution florale. bull. soc. vaud. sci. nat., 44:233-270 khuspe, s.s., hendre, r.r., mascarenhas, a.f., jaganathan, v., thombre, m.v. and joshi, a.b. 1980. utilization of tissue culture to isolate intergeneric hybrids in carica l. in: rao, p.s., heble, m.r. and chadla, m.s. (eds). plant tissue culture, genetic manipulation and somatic hybridization of plant cells. bhabha atomic research centre, trombay, bombay, india, pp.198-205 levi, f.r. and roland, g.w. 1997. versatile tools used in plant breeding programme by using issr markers. agronomia-esoamericana, 8:121-125 mignouna, h.d., ikca, n.q. and thottapilly, g. 1998. genetic diversity in cowpea as revealed by random amplified polymorphic dna. j. genet. breed., 52:151-159 purcifull, d. 1972. cmi/aab descr. pl. viruses, 84:3 rohlf, j. 2000. ntsyspc: numerical taxonomy and multivariate analysis system. version 2.1. users guide, exeter software, setauket, 38, new york smith, j.s.c., chin, e.c.l., shu, h., smith, o.s., wall, s.j., senior, m.l., mitchell, s.e., kresovich, s. and zeigle, j. 1997. an evaluation of the utility of ssr loci as molecular markers in maize (zea mays l.): comparisons with data from rflps and pedigree. theor. appl. genet., 95:163-173 sneath, p.h.a. and sokal, r.r. 1973. numerical taxonomy: the principles and practice of numerical classification. w.f. freeman and co., san francisco, california, usa, p. 573 tanksley, s.d., young, n.d., paterson, a.h. and bonierbale, m.w. 1989. rflp mapping in plant breeding: new tools for an old science. biotechnol., 7:257-264 (ms received 08 january 2013, revised 26 june 2014, accepted 28 june 2014) j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):1-4, 2014 sudha et al introduction guava (psidium guajava l.) is an important fruit crop grown throughout the tropics and sub-tropics of the world. it is a very hardy plant, a prolific bearer and highly remunerative fruit crop. it can also be grown satisfactorily under adverse soil and climatic conditions. productivity of guava can be further enhanced by increasing planting density and by better canopy management. therefore, high density plantation with a managed canopy, that has balanced vegetative and reproductive growth, is the need of the hour to achieve high productivity per unit area. in the absence of dwarfing rootstocks in guava, techniques that restrict vegetative growth and promote reproductive growth are important in orchard management. therefore, apart from pruning and training of roots and shoots, certain growth retardants (alone or in combination) may be exploited. although a flowering and fruit set under normal planting system is not a problem, there is a wide scope for enhancing the productivity potential of guava plants, particularly under reduced plant spacing. as guava tree responds well to canopy modification with respect to role of paclobutrazol and ethephon in reproductive growth of ‘allahabad safeda’ guava (psidium guajava l.) plants at different spacing j.s. brar1 and j.s. bal regional research station, punjab agricultural university bathinda – 151 001 (punjab), india e–mail: jsbrar74@rediffmail.com abstract a study on 4-year ‘allahabad safeda’ guava plants was made to assess the influence of paclobutrazol (pp 333), [(2rs, 3rs)-1-(4-chlorophenyl)-4,4-dimethyl-2-(1,2,4 triazol-1-yl) pentan-3-ol], a gibberellin-inhibitor, and ethephon [(2-chloroethyl) phosphonic acid], a vegetative growth inhibitor and a ripening promoter, on reproductive growth of plants. treatments in the form of foliar application at 500 and 1000 ppm were applied consecutively during march 2007 and 2008 on plants at 6m x 2m, 6m x 3m, 6m x 4m and 6m x 5m spacing. maximum flowering and fruit set was recorded in paclobutrazol treated plants in both rainy and winter crops. ethephon reduced flower bud density (fbd) and fruit set during both the cropping seasons. however, ethephon treated plants exhibited slightly higher fruit retention. ethephon advances fruit maturity by upto a week during rainy season and two weeks during winter season. paclobutrazol treated plants exhibited significantly higher fruit number, fruit yield, yield efficiency, fruiting density compared to ethephon treated and control plants. reproductive growth of plants at wider spacing of 6m x 5m and 6m x 4m significantly improved compared to closer spacings of 6m x 2m and 6m x 3m during both cropping seasons. plants at wider spacing responded better to paclobutrazol applications with respect to flowering and fruiting. key words: guava, paclobutrazol, ethephon, flowering and fruiting vegetative and reproductive growth (singh and chanana, 2005), modification of canopy through pruning and use of certain growth regulators in high density orchards may be required to enhance production efficiency. some growth regulators like paclobutrazol and ethephon may also be very useful in high density planting, as paclobutrazol helps make the plants dwarf by a retarding effect on vegetative growth of the tree while increasing the number of flower buds. ethephon acts as a ripening hormone and enhances the ripening process besides having a growth retarding effect. paclobutrazol @ 500 ppm improved fruit set in winter season crop of guava (singh and bal, 2006). similarly, jain and dashora (2007) also recorded highest yield under 500 ppm pbz treatment. material and methods the present investigation, relating to reproductive growth of ‘allahabad safeda’ guava (psidium guajava l.) plants at different spacings with paclobutrazol and ethephon treatments, was carried out in the new orchard, department of horticulture, punjab agricultural university, ludhiana, during the years 2007-2009. plants of guava cv. 1department of horticulture, punjab agricultural university, ludhiana-141 004, india j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 128-133, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 129 ‘allahabad safeda’ were planted in march, 2003 at different spacings viz., 6m x 2m, 6m x 3m, 6m x 4m and 6m x 5m, with three replications. experimental plants were sprayed with paclobutrazol and ethephon in both the years @ 500 and 1000ppm, while control plants were sprayed with water, during the month of march. observations were recorded on fruiting characters, i.e., flower bud density, fruit set, fruit retention, fruit maturity, yield per tree and yield efficiency for both the rainy and winter season crops in may-july and september-december, during both years of study. for calculation of flower bud density, three tertiary shoots (one meter) of medium vigour each in the upper, middle and lower parts of the tree canopy of every plant were randomly selected and tagged. number of flowers on each shoot was counted and the average worked out. fruit set was recorded by counting the number of fruits that had set on tagged shoots after the petal-fall stage and per cent fruit set was calculated. similarly, fruit retention was calculated by counting the number of fruits left on each tagged shoot 8-10 days before harvest, which was expressed as per cent fruit retention. fruit maturity was recorded by noting the number of days taken from fruit set to maturity, by counting mature fruits in all the parts of the tree canopy during both the cropping seasons. maturity was judged on the basis of parameters like colour break, total soluble solids, acidity, firmness and tss/acid ratio. fruit yield per tree under each treatment was recorded at harvest and yield efficiency was determined by dividing average fruit load on a tree by canopy volume and was expressed in percentage. data were analyzed in this randomized block design with split plot. results and discussion flower bud density (fbd) : the highest flower bud density for rainy season crop was noted in plants sprayed with pbz 1000 ppm (35.87 flowers/shoot), followed by 30.74 in plants treated with pbz 500 ppm. ethephon 1000 ppm treated plants exhibited the least fbd of 26.9 flowers/meter shoot (table 1). however, in the winter season guava, fbd was found to be highest (8.53) in ethephon 500 ppm treated plants and the least (6.32) in untreated plants. reduction in fbd under higher doses of ethephon may be due to ethephon induced leaf shed, causing reduced transfer of the stimulus necessary for induction of flower buds. however, higher fbd in paclobutrazol treated plants may be due to enhancement of reproductive growth at expense of vegetative growth, reduced by the gibberellin inhibiting effect of paclobutrazol. manivannan and bharthikannan (2005) also found positive a response with respect to number of flowers produced, days to first flower bud appearance, size and yield of fruits, at 1500 ppm paclobutrazol. in earlier investigations on mango (winston, 1992, tongumpai et al, 1997, singh, 2000) and lychee (manzel and simpson, 1990), improvement was reported in flowering, with pbz application. similarly, mohammed et al (1984) and castelen and becerril (1994) reported that ethephon was appreciably effective in increasing flower bud production in guava. the mean maximum number of flower buds/1m shoot during rainy season was observed to be 35.93 at 6m x 5m, and 32.31 flowers per meter shoot at 6m x 4m spacing. plants at closer spacings of 6m x 2m and 6m x 3m produced minimum average number of flower buds/shoot, i.e., 22.44 and 29.4, respectively. during winter, the highest fbd of 14.12 was noted in plants at 6m x 5m spacing, and the least (4.38) in 6m x 3m spaced plants. fbd in the winter season was quite low due to overbearing during the rainy season, i.e., metabolic reserves required for induction of flowering may have got reduced due to heavy flowering in april-may, thereby affecting fbd in augustseptember in the winter season crop. reduction in fbd with decrease in plant spacing may be attributed to reduced radiant energy received table 1. effect of paclobutrazol and ethephon on flower bud density of ‘allahabad safeda’ guava planted at different spacings treatment (ppm) spacing (m) rainy season winter season 6x2 6x3 6x4 6x5 mean 6x2 6x3 6x4 6x5 mean paclobutrazol 500 24.18 32.45 38.28 28.06 30.74 4.10 4.75 6.44 17.48 8.19 paclobutrazol 1000 24.20 34.71 39.92 44.66 35.87 4.58 4.70 8.15 15.39 8.21 ethephon 500 22.70 27.82 23.87 38.00 28.10 4.88 4.63 8.92 15.68 8.53 ethephon 1000 21.15 28.85 29.02 28.59 26.90 5.00 3.83 6.69 11.81 6.83 control 19.96 23.19 30.47 40.36 28.50 5.37 3.97 5.69 10.26 6.32 mean 22.44 29.40 32.31 35.93 30.02 4.79 4.38 7.18 14.12 7.62 cd (p=0.05) treatment (a): 6.16 treatment (a): 1.20 spacing (b): 5.51 spacing (b) : 1.07 interaction: a x b: 9.64 interaction: a x b: 1.5 ns = non-significant paclobutrazol and ethephon in guava reproductive growth j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 128-133, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 130 and, also, reduced substrate level with a reduction in shoot growth. the present results are in conformation with those of lal et al (1996), who also found guava trees at closer spacing (2m x2m) producing lower number of flower buds compared to higher spacing (8m x 8m). similarly, singh (2003) also recorded an increase in flower bud density with increased plant spacing in guava. fruit set: fruit set in both the seasons improved significantly with pbz application (table 2). average fruit set during the rainy season was found to be maximum when plants were sprayed with pbz 1000ppm (56.89%) followed by 51.07% in pbz 500ppm treated plants. the least fruit set (47.8%) was recorded in ethephon 1000ppm treated plants. in winter season too, pbz enhanced fruit set. maximum mean fruit set was found with pbz 500ppm (71.66%), followed by 70.84% in pbz 1000ppm treated plants. minimum average fruit set (67.72%) was noted in ethephon 1000ppm sprayed plants, followed by 69.56% in untreated plants. lim and nualsri (1992) also observed improvement in fruit set of neck orange with pbz treatment. similarly, singh (2000) reported increase in fruit set in mango with pbz treatment. fruit set in plants sprayed with ethephon, particularly at higher dose, was recorded to be low; this may be due to ethephon induced leaf shed thus causing an uncongenial microclimate in the tree canopy, which may be responsible for reduced fruit set. on the other hand, pbz was found to increase fruit set, by channelizing energy available for the vegetative growth to reproductive growth. during rainy season, the maximum mean fruit set of 56.96% and 53.3% was recorded in the wider spacings of 6m x 5m and 6m x 4m, respectively. the minimum average per cent fruit set of 43.28% was recorded in the close spacing of 6m x 2m. however, in the winter season crop, fruit set was found to be higher than in the rainy season crop due the low number of flowers in winter season. maximum fruit set (76.86%) was observed in plants at 6m x 5m spacing and the least average fruit set was observed in close spacing of 6m x 2m (63.52%). low fruit set at close spacing may be due to less spread of trees, and to lower light and air penetration into the canopy. data in winter season crop are in line with observation of lal et al (1996) who reported lower fruit set in close spacing (2m x 2m) compared to a wider spacing (8m x 8m). however, results of this study are in contradiction to those of singh (2006), who recorded maximum fruit set at close spacing. fruit retention: growth regulators had significant effect on fruit retention in both rainy and winter season crops of guava. in rainy season guava fruit retention recorded in plants treated with ethephon 500 and 1000 ppm was 47.66 and 44.36%, respectively and lowest fruit retention (39.62%) was observed in pbz 500 ppm treated plants (table 3). in the winter season guava, similar trend of fruit retention was observed. maximum mean fruit retention was recorded in plants treated with ethephon 500 ppm (62.56%) and least retention was noted in pbz 500 ppm (53.73%) and untreated (53.74%) plants. higher retention in ethephon treated plants may be due to low fbd and fruit set, resulting in low fruit load on the trees, thereby, enabling plants to hold higher number of fruits owing to higher availability of translocates. average per cent fruit retention was not significantly affected by various different spacings during both seasons. however, mean fruit retention was maximum (43.5%) at 6m x 4m, and 59.11% at 6m x 5m spacing. however, the least average per cent fruit retention (41.64 and 55.17%) was observed in 6m x 2m and 6m x 3m spacings during rainy and winter crop seasons, respectively. retention of winter season fruits in both cultivars was higher than in the rainy season fruits. this may be due to very low fruit count during winter season, there by resulting in higher allocation of nutrients and translocates to fruits on the plants. fruit maturity : the treatments had significant effect on table 2. effect of paclobutrazol and ethephon on fruit set (%) of ‘allahabad safeda’ guava planted at different spacings treatment (ppm) spacing (m) rainy season winter season 6x2 6x3 6x4 6x5 mean 6x2 6x3 6x4 6x5 mean paclobutrazol 500 45.00 53.48 59.39 48.94 51.70 64.86 66.51 75.19 80.08 71.66 paclobutrazol 1000 45.00 55.75 61.03 65.78 56.89 65.49 68.26 71.38 78.21 70.84 ethephon 500 43.78 48.70 44.68 59.11 49.07 64.06 67.00 71.69 76.92 69.92 ethephon 1000 41.93 49.79 49.96 49.51 47.80 61.20 65.71 69.57 74.41 67.72 control 40.70 43.99 51.44 61.48 49.40 62.00 68.49 73.07 74.69 69.56 mean 43.28 50.34 53.3 56.96 50.97 63.52 67.19 72.18 76.86 69.94 cd (p=0.05) treatment (a): 2.68 treatment (a): 1.85 spacing (b): 3.00 spacing (b) : 2.07 interaction: a x b: ns interaction: a x b: ns ns = non-significant brar and bal j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 128-133, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 131 fruit maturity in both rainy and winter season crops. rainy season fruits took relatively less number of days to maturity (table 4) when sprayed with ethephon 500 ppm (65.9 days), followed by 66.5 days in ethephon 1000 ppm treatment. similarly, in the winter season, fruit maturity was attained earlier, i.e., 105.9 and 106.3 days, with ethephon 1000 and 500 ppm sprays, respectively. therefore, ethephon treatment induced advance maturity by approximately 5-6 days (i.e., earlier) in the rainy season and 10-12 days in the winter season compared to paclobutrazol treated and control plants. this might be due to ethephon inducing early ripening, as it is the key plant hormone responsible for fruit ripening. further, partial leaf shedding due to ethephon, particularly at the higher dose, may be another factor which enabled lightpenetration and a rise in temperature, resulting in early fruit ripening. maturity of rainy and winter season crops was not significantly affected by different spacings. however, fruit maturity in widely spaced plants was slightly earlier than in the closer spacing, probably due to higher solar radiation penetration and canopy temperature. fruit yield : per plant fruit yield was maximum (34.79 kg/ plant) in plants sprayed with pbz 1000 ppm, followed by 31.55 kg/plant in pbz 500 ppm treated plants during the rainy season. pbz 1000 ppm sprayed plants also gave the highest yield of 18.71 kg/plant during the winter season. lowest per plant yield during rainy season was 23.54 kg and 13.42 kg/plant in winter season (table 5) in untreated plants. benjawan et al (2006) also reported increase in ‘kaew’ mango fruit yield with pbz treatment. overall yield, primary crop yield and number of primary clusters were seen to be significantly reduced in ‘chenin blanc’ grapevine treated with ethephon upto two weeks after bloom (szyjewicz and kliewer, 1983). yadav et al (2001) also recorded minimum yield in ‘sardar’ guava plants treated with ethrel compared to control plants. however, suleman et al (2006) found that ethephon application during may reduced the yield of rainy season guava crop significantly over control, and subsequently increased the yield of winter season crop. highest yield was obtained from plants at the widest (6m x 5m) spacing during rainy and winter crop seasons, i.e., 35.3 and 28.65 kg/plant, and, lowest yield of 18.56 and table 3. effect of paclobutrazol and ethephon on fruit retention (%) of ‘allahabad safeda’ guava planted at different spacings treatment (ppm) spacing (m) rainy season winter season 6x2 6x3 6x4 6x5 mean 6x2 6x3 6x4 6x5 mean paclobutrazol 500 39.12 38.63 40.37 40.37 39.62 54.23 51.96 52.92 55.80 53.73 paclobutrazol 1000 38.11 39.52 41.40 41.00 40.01 51.96 51.80 54.70 57.62 54.02 ethephon 500 46.38 47.40 49.23 47.63 47.66 59.86 62.05 63.01 65.30 62.56 ethephon 1000 43.21 43.59 45.97 44.65 44.36 58.00 59.25 58.34 63.13 59.68 control 41.37 41.25 40.54 41.73 41.22 51.81 54.11 55.33 53.71 53.74 mean 41.64 42.08 43.50 43.08 42.57 55.17 55.83 56.86 59.11 56.74 cd (p=0.05) treatment (a): 3.10 treatment (a): 1.34 spacing (b): ns spacing (b) : 1.50 interaction: a x b: ns interaction: a x b: 1.90 ns = non-significant table 4. effect of paclobutrazol and ethephon on fruit maturity (days) of ‘allahabad safeda’ guava planted at different spacings treatment (ppm) spacing (m) rainy season winter season 6x2 6x3 6x4 6x5 mean 6x2 6x3 6x4 6x5 mean paclobutrazol 500 76.5 69.5 72.0 67.8 71.5 115.5 116.8 111.2 119.5 115.8 paclobutrazol 1000 72.6 72.3 70.5 68.5 71.0 114.8 114.2 110.5 113.2 113.2 ethephon 500 69.2 65.5 66.5 62.5 65.9 108.6 106.5 105.0 105.2 106.3 ethephon 1000 68.5 66.8 67.5 63.2 66.5 107.0 106.7 106.5 103.2 105.9 control 74.2 70.2 71.3 71.2 71.7 114.0 113.8 109.8 110.7 112.1 mean 72.2 68.9 69.6 66.6 69.3 112.0 111.6 108.6 110.4 110.6 cd (p=0.05) treatment (a): 0.94 treatment (a): 0.96 spacing (b): ns spacing (b) : ns interaction: a x b: ns interaction: a x b: ns ns = non-significant j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 128-133, 2010 paclobutrazol and ethephon in guava reproductive growth prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 132 9.45 kg/plant was recorded in plants at the closest spacing of 6m x 2m, respectively. similar results were reported by chundawat et al (1992), kalra et al (1994), lal et al (2000) and bal and dhaliwal (2003) in guava. however, singh et al (2007) also recorded highest yield in guava at 3m x 1.5m spacing from rainy and winter season crops, respectively, and the minimum at 6m x 6m spacing. yield efficiency : yield efficiency of plants under different treatments (table 6) was influenced significantly during both seasons. during the rainy season, maximum average yield efficiency (80.5%) was noted in pbz 500 ppm treated plants, followed by 79.6% in pbz 1000 ppm treatment. treatments with ethephon significantly reduced yield efficiency during the rainy season. lowest efficiency of yield (43.7%) was observed in untreated plants. in the winter season, ethephon 500 and pbz 1000 ppm sprays gave the highest yield efficiency of 43.3 and 42.8%, respectively, while, untreated plants exhibited the least yield efficiency of 24.9%, followed by 33.9% in ethephon 1000 ppm treated plants. yield efficiency significantly increased with increase in plant spacing. maximum average efficiency of yield (77.2%) was recorded in 6m x 4m spacing, followed by 74.8% in 6m x 5m spacing. least yield efficiency (45.4%) table 5. effect of paclobutrazol and ethephon on fruit yield (kg/tree) of ‘allahabad safeda’ guava planted at different spacings treatment (ppm) spacing (m) rainy season winter season 6x2 6x3 6x4 6x5 mean 6x2 6x3 6x4 6x5 mean paclobutrazol 500 20.47 32.06 42.88 30.77 31.55 6.83 8.95 11.93 38.00 16.43 paclobutrazol 1000 19.30 29.96 48.06 41.85 34.79 8.96 11.71 19.50 34.66 18.71 ethephon 500 19.73 23.15 23.78 40.67 26.83 12.93 10.40 16.00 33.35 18.17 ethephon 1000 18.21 24.46 27.80 28.06 24.63 11.68 7.53 16.90 21.00 14.28 control 15.07 18.05 25.87 35.15 23.54 6.83 13.36 17.25 16.22 13.42 mean 18.56 25.54 33.68 35.30 28.27 9.45 10.39 16.32 28.65 16.20 cd (p=0.05) treatment (a): 4.50 treatment (a): 2.51 spacing (b): 4.64 spacing (b) : 2.24 interaction: a x b: ns interaction: a x b: 3.17 ns = non-significant table 6. effect of paclobutrazol and ethephon on yield efficiency (%) of ‘allahabad safeda’ guava planted at different spacings treatment (ppm) spacing (m) rainy season winter season 6x2 6x3 6x4 6x5 mean 6x2 6x3 6x4 6x5 mean paclobutrazol 500 55.7 84.1 113.6 69.8 80.5 18.6 23.5 31.6 86.2 41.9 paclobutrazol 1000 50.4 71.6 95.8 94.2 79.6 23.4 28.0 38.9 78.0 42.8 ethephon 500 47.2 51.1 64.9 100.5 65.4 30.9 23.0 43.6 82.4 44.3 ethephon 1000 44.6 60.0 72.7 57.5 58.4 28.6 18.5 44.2 43.0 33.9 control 32.2 32.9 46.8 60.2 43.7 14.6 24.3 31.2 27.8 24.9 mean 45.4 57.8 77.2 74.8 64.3 23.1 23.5 37.4 60.7 36.8 cd (p=0.05) treatment (a): 26.52 treatment (a): 7.10 spacing (b): 23.88 spacing (b) : 13.92 interaction: a x b: 23.20 interaction: a x b: 5.85 ns = non-significant was obtained in plants at 6m x 2m spacing. similarly, in winter season, maximum mean yield efficiency (60.7%) was noted in 6m x 5m spacing, and the lowest average yield efficiency of 23.1% was recorded in the close spacing of 6m x 2m. references bal, j.s. and dhaliwal, g.s. 2003. high density planting studies in guava. haryana j. hortl. sci., 32:19-22 benjawan, c., chutichudat, p., boontiang, k. and chanaboon, t. 2006. effect of chemical paclobutrazol on flower development, quality and fruit yield of kaew mango in northeast thailand. pakistan j. biol. sci., 4:717-22 castelan, e.m. and becerril, r.a.e. 1994. physiology of production in psidium guajava l. procs. amer. soc. trop. hort., 38:152-55 chundawat, b.s., kikani, k.p., verma, l.r. and jadav, r.g. 1992. studies on hedge row plantation in ‘allahabad safeda’ guava. ind. j. hort., 49:134-37 jain, m.c. and dashora, l.k. 2007. growth, flowering, fruiting and yield of guava (psidium guajava l.) cv. sardar as influenced by various plant growth regulators. int‘l. j. agril sci., 3:4-7 j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 128-133, 2010 brar and bal prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 133 kalra, s.k., sidhu, p.s., dhaliwal, g.s. and singh, r. 1994. effect of different spacings on yield of guava cv. allahabad safeda. ind. j. hort., 5:272-74 lal, s., tiwari, j.p. and misra, k.k. 1996. effect of plant spacing and pruning intensity on flowering and fruiting of guava. ann agril. res., 17:83-89 lal, s., tiwari, j.p. and misra, k.k. 2000. effect of plant spacing and pruning intensity on fruit yield and quality of guava. prog. hort., 32:20-25 lim, m. and nualsri, c. 1992. effect of paclobutrazol on fruit setting and fruit quality of neck orange (citrus reticulata blanco) thai agril. res. j., 10:68-72 manivannan, k. and bharthikannan, k. 2005. influence of paclobutrazol (pp333) on growth and yield of guava (psidium guajava l.) 1 st international guava symposium, cish, lucknow p59 (abstr.) menzel, c.m. and simpson, d.r. 1990. effect of paclobutrazol on growth and flowering of lychee (litchi chinensis) australian j. exptl. agri.130:131 mohammed, s., wilson, l.a. and prendergast, n. 1984. guava meadow orchard : effect of ultra high density planting and growth regulator on growth, flowering and fruiting. trop. agri., 61:297-301 singh, a. 2003. light interception behaviour of guava and its effects on vegetative growth, fruit yield and quality. ph.d. thesis, pau, ludhiana, punjab,india singh, g. and chanana, y.r. 2005. influence of pruning intensity and pruning frequency on vegetative and reproductive attributes in guava cv. l-49 abstract: 1 st international guava symposium, cish, lucknow p52 (abstr.) singh, g., singh, a.k. and mishra, d. 2007. high density planting in guava. acta hort., 735: 2235-41 singh, h.j. and bal, j.s. 2006. effect of pruning and growth regulators on physico-chemical characters of guava during rainy season planted at different spacing. int’l. j. agril. sci., 2:533-537 singh, r. 2006. high density planting studies in sardar guava (psidium guajava l.) m.sc. thesis, pau, ludhiana, punjab,india singh, z. 2000. effect of (2rs, 3rs) paclobutrazol on tree vigour, flowering, fruit set and yield in mango. acta hort., 525:459-462 suleman, m., sharma, j.r., kumar, r., gupta, r.b. and singh, s. 2006. effect of different chemicals on cropping pattern, and quality of guava cv. sardar. haryana j. hortl. sci., 35:226-227 szyjewicz, e. and kliewer, w.m. 1983. influence of timing of ethephon application on yield and fruit composition of chenin blanc grapevines. amer. j. enol. and viticult., 34:53-56 tongumpai, p., chantakulchan, k., subhadrabandhu, s., and ogata, r. 1997. foliar application of paclobutrazol on flowering of mango. acta hort., 455:175-179 winston, e.c. 1992. evaluation of paclobutrazol on growth, flowering and yield of mango cv. kensington pride. australian j. of exptl. agri., 32:97-104 yadav, s., bhatia s.k., godara, r.k. and rana, g.s. 2001. effect of growth regulators on the yield and quality of winter season guava cv. l-49. haryana j. hortl. sci., 30:133-137 (ms received 4 february 2010, revised 28 june 2010) j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 128-133, 2010 paclobutrazol and ethephon in guava reproductive growth prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):64-69, 2015 survey of nematode-destroying fungi from selected vegetable-growing areas in kenya p.m. wachira, j.n. muindi and s.a. okoth university of nairobi, p.o. box 30197, nairobi, kenya email: pwachira@uonbi.ac.ke abstract plant-parasitic nematodes cause severe damage to a wide range of economic crops, causing upto 5% yield losses globally. in kenya, vegetables are affected, among other pests, by parasitic nematodes, causing upto 80% loss in yield. nematode control is very difficult and relies heavily on use of chemical nematicides. use of these chemical nematicides leads to biological magnification, and elimination of natural enemies of other pathogens, thus creating a need for greater application of pesticides, increased production costs, and development of insecticide-resistance. these factors have led to a growing interest in search for alternate management strategies. the objective of this study was, therefore, to document nematode-destroying fungi in selected, major vegetable-growing areas in kenya as a step towards developing a self-sustaining system for management of plant-parasitic nematodes. soil samples were collected from five vegetable-production zones, viz., kinare, kabete, athi-river, machakos and kibwezi, and transported to the laboratory for extraction of nematode-destroying fungi. the soil-sprinkle technique described by jaffee et al (1996) was used for isolating the nematode-destroying fungi from soil, while, their identification was done using identification keys described by soto barrientos et al (2001). from this study, a total of 171 fungal isolates were identified as nematodedestroying. the highest population was recorded in kabete, at 33.9% of the total, followed by machakos, kibwezi, athi-river, with the least in kinare, at 24.6, 22.2, 11.7 and 7.6% of the total population, in that order. arthrobotrys was the most frequent genus, with mean occurrence of 7.3, followed by monacrosporium with 6 and stylophage with 5.2. a. dactyloides was significantly (p=0.002) affected by the agro-ecological zone, with the highest occurrence recorded in kabete, and the least in athi-river. kibwezi recorded highest diversity index, with a mean of 1.017, while, athi-river recorded the least, with a mean of 0.333. kibwezi had the highest species richness, recording a mean of 3.4, while, the least mean of 1.6 was recorded in athi-river. mean species richness of 2.2 was recorded for both kabete and machakos, and 1.8 for kinare. from the three genera recorded, arthrobotrys was more effective at trapping nematodes compared to monocrosporium and stylopage. the genus arthrobotrys had the highest number of trapped nematodes, with a total population of 57, followed by monacrosporium, the least being stylopage, with 45 and 36, respectively, in a period of 104 hours. from the study, it is evident that agricultural practices affect occurrence and diversity of nematodedestroying fungi, and, arthrobotrys can be used as a bio-control agent for managing plant-parasitic nematodes. key words: artabotrys, biological control, plant-parasitic nematodes introduction horticultural crops, both for local consumption and export, are important in kenya. one-tenth of the vegetables in kenya are grown for export. they are recognized for their health and nutritional benefits, and provide cash income and employment for close to two million people in kenya (dobson et al, 2004). production of vegetables in kenya, especially for an expanding domestic market, is even now limited by major pests and diseases (dobson et al, 2004). plant-parasitic nematodes have been identified as a major production constraint, affecting vegetable production, resulting in reduced yield quality and quantity (nchore et al, 2010). they are responsible for upto 80%, on vegetable production (kaskavalci, 2007). vegetable production in kenya is characterized by high chemical input for pest and soil fertility management (mutsotso et al, 2005). these practices have been associated with increase in soil-borne diseases and decline in beneficial soil micro-organisms (wachira et al, 2008). specifically, vegetable damage by root-knot nematode has been reported in kenya, with infected plants rendered unacceptable to international markets (nchore et al, 2010). the root knot nematode increases wounding of the root system, thus providing points of ingress of the pathogen. the nematode may also modify the tissue in a way that it becomes more amendable to bacterial colonization (hayward, 1991). globally, it is 65 nematode-destroying fungi in vegetable farms in kenya estimated that us $ 500 million is spent on root-knot nematode control strategy (keren-zur et al, 2000; pinkerton et al, 2000), including use of nematicides, organic-manure amendment and use of resistant cultivars (akhtar & malik, 2000). overall, though nematicides are effective in managing root-knot nematode and other plant-parasitic nematodes, they are expensive and become environmental pollutants when not applied at the right time, in the right manner and in the right dosage. this increases cost of production to the farmers, reducing their profit (republic of kenya, taita district development strategies 2002-2006). use of nematicides is also curtailed by their threat to groundwater, soil biodiversity, as well as long waiting-periods between use, harvesting and marketing of a crop (bridge, 1996). alternatively, soil beneficial microorganisms can be used as an alternative, thereby helping reduce application of chemicals to the soil. this entails the use of natural enemies to control nematode pests. beneficial microorganisms are non-polluting and, thus, environmentally safe and acceptable. usually, these are species-specific to the target pest, therefore with no chances of affecting nontarget species (unlike chemicals, which are broad-spectrum in their action (hein et al, 2007). nematode-destroying fungi are one such group of beneficial microorganisms for use in control of plant-parasitic control of plant-parasitic nematodes. these micro-fungi are natural enemies of the nematodes. they naturally capture, kill and digest nematodes present in the soil (rodrigues et al, 2001; nordbring-hertz et al, 2002). they comprise three main groups: the nematode trapping fungi, the endoparasitic fungi, and the egg-and cystparasitic fungi (nordbring-hertz et al, 2002; masoomeh et al, 2004). after trapping the nematodes, the fungi penetrate their cuticle, invade their entire body-cavity and, then, digest them completely. this group of fungi has drawn much attention due to their potential as biological control agents for plant-parasitic nematodes (jansson et al, 2000; sanyal, 2000; masoomeh et al, 2004). about 70% of the fungal genera and 160 species are associated with nematodes, but, only a few can be used as biological control agents for nematodes (elshafie et al, 2006). this study was, therefore, aimed at documenting occurrence and diversity of nematodedestroying fungi and testing their efficacy on plant-parasitic nematodes, to harness their potential as bio-control agents against plant-parasitic nematodes. material and methods soil samples were collected from five different vegetable-growing areas in kenya, viz., kinare, kabete, athi-river, machakos and kibwezi, in the order of altitude and temperature. kinare was a high-altitude area and the coldest, with kibwezi being the lowest and hottest. vegetable gardens in each zone were dominated mainly by spinach, kale, tomato, cabbage and pepper, among other vegetables. from each of the study areas, five farms under intensive vegetable-production were selected randomly for this study. from each of the farms, five different vegetable gardens were sampled. from each vegetable garden in turn, five soil samples were collected and mixed together in a bucket to make a composite sample. one kilogram of soil was then re-sampled from the composite sample in the bucket, put into plastic bags, labelled and placed in a cool box. soil sampling was done using a soil auger sterilized using ethanol after every sampling, to avoid cross-contamination. all the samples were later transported to the laboratory for isolating nematode-destroying fungi. isolation of nematodes-destroying fungi was done using the soil-sprinkle technique described by jaffee et al (1996) where, tap water agar (twa) was prepared by dissolving 20g agar in one litre of tap water. the medium was autoclaved and cooled before use after amending it with 0.1g per litre of streptomycin sulfate under a laminar air flow cabinet. one gram of soil sample was sprinkled on the medium in the petri dish, and a suspension of meloidogyne species consisting of approximately 1000 nematodes, was added to the petri dishes as bait (christina et al, 1999). the plates were then incubated at room temperature and observed daily from the third week, up to the sixth week, under a dissecting microscope. the examination was focussed on trapped nematodes, trapping organs and conidia of the nematode-destroying fungi (wachira et al, 2008). taxonomic classification of the nematode-destroying fungi was done using the ‘slide culture technique’ where slides were observed under a microscope, while identification of the genus was done using identification keys described by soto barrientos et al (2001). after identification of nematode-destroying fungi, pure cultures of the three mostfrequent fungal isolates were made for the experiment on efficacy. a 5mm mycelial block was inoculated into pda in a petri dish and allowed to grow for five days, before approximately 50 plant-parasitic nematodes were added. efficacy of the fungal isolates was monitored for a period of 3-6 weeks. trapped nematodes were counted for five days after 3 weeks of incubation. all the data in this study was analyzed by analysis of variance (kindt & coe, 2005) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):64-69, 2015 66 results and discussion from this study, 171 fungal isolates were identified as nematode-destroying. they grouped into three genera and five taxa. the three genera were: arthrobotrys, monacrosporium and stylopage. arthrobotrys was a frequently-encountered genus. the genus arthrobotrys was represented by a. oligospora, a. dactyloides and a. longispora, the genus monocrosporium was represented by m. cionopagium, while the genus stylopage was represented by s. grandis. a. oligospora had the highest frequency of occurrence, followed by a. dactyloides, m. cionopagium, s. grandis; the least frequent was a. longispora with occurrence of 46.20, 45.61, 5.85, 1.17 and 1.17%, decreasing in that order (fig. 1). fungal isolates were recovered from all the vegetableproduction zones. excepting a. dactyloides, all the isolates were not significantly (p> 0.05) affected by the agroecological zone. frequency of occurrence of a. dactyloides was significantly (p=0.002) affected by the agro-ecological zone. the highest occurrence of a. dactyloides was recorded in kabete, while the least was recorded in athiriver, with a total record of 40 and 4, respectively. the species was also recorded in machakos, kibwezi and kinare, with occurrence of 19, 10 and 5, respectively, in decreasing order. among the isolates, only a. oligospora and a. dactyloides were found to occur in all the agro-ecological zones. m. cionopagium occurred in all the zones except kinare, while, s. grandis was present in both kibwezi and kinare. a. longispora was recorded in kibwezi only (table 1). the highest number of nematode-destroying fungi was recorded in kabete, followed by machakos, kiwezi, athi-river and, finally kinare, with total mean abundance of 11.6, 7.6, 7.4, 4.0, and 2.6 in that (decreasing) order. kibwezi recorded the highest diversity index, with a mean of 0.930, followed by machakos with 0.637, while kabete recorded the least diversity index mean of 0.411. mean richness and abundance varied between vegetableproduction zones. the highest mean species richness was recorded in kibwezi, while the least was recorded in athiriver. all the agro-ecological zones differed significantly (p = 9.587 x 10-4) in terms of species abundance. kabete had the highest species abundance with a mean of 11.6, and, the least was seen in kinare with species mean abundance of 2.6 (table 2). more nematode-destroying fungi were detected with increase in the number of the soil samples under study. it is evident that all the possible isolates of nematode-destroying fungi were recorded in this study, from the samples collected. collecting and processing additional samples may not have significantly increased the number of isolates (fig. 2). there was a significant (p=0.003) difference on efficacy between the three most-frequent nematodedestroying fungal species. arthrobotryrs oligospora was the most efficient nematode-destroying fungus, with a mean of 7.3, followed by monacrosporium; the least was stylopage, with mean records of 5.9 and 5.1, respectively. nematode-destroying fungi were isolated from all the selected vegetable-production zones. these occurred at different frequencies and diversity. the study demonstratedfig. 1. percentage occurrence of nematode-destroying fungi in some vegetable-producing areas of kenya table 1. occurrence of nematode-destroying fungi in major agroecological zones of kenya zone a. a. a. m. s. total dactyloides oligospora longispora cionopagium grandis kabete 20 17 0 1 0 58 machakos 19 22 0 1 0 42 kinare 5 7 0 0 1 13 kibwezi 10 20 2 5 1 38 athi-river 4 13 0 3 0 20 p value 0.002 0.395 0.062 0.165 0.062 table 2: mean shannon, species richness and abundance of nematode-destroying fungi in different vegetable-growing areas in kenya zone n mean mean mean shannon richness abundance kibwezi 5 0.930 3.4 7.6 machakos 5 0.637 2.2 7.4 athi-river 5 0.483 1.6 4.0 kinare 5 0.482 1.8 2.6 kabete 5 0.411 2.2 11.6 p value 9.587 x 10-4 wachira et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):64-69, 2015 67 the occurrence of diverse nematode-destroying fungi in nature, especially, in vegetable-production zones. these findings agree with previous reports on nematode-destroying fungi that indicate that these are wide-spread in all habitats, but, at different densities and diversities (birgit et al, 2002; wachira et al, 2008). arthrobotrys oligospora was the most abundant species of nematode-destroying fungi in the area under study. other studies on nematode-destroying fungi report the same observation. it has never been clear why this is the most frequently encountered fungus. wachira et al (2008) had suggested that farming practices like weeding could be the cause of such high occurrence. it has also been suggested that it is due to the ability of the fungus to exist both as a saprophyte and a plant-parasitic nematode feeder (sobita and anamika, 2011). due to this high occurrence, this fungus has attracted several other interesting studies (niu and zhang, 2011). it was expected that the highest divergence of fungi would be isolated from areas under low temperature (kinare). however, this was not the case. kinare had the least variety of fungi. this was attributed to the high use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, since, all the vegetables were aimed for the market. in a study on long-term effects of manures and fertilizers on soil productivity and quality, it was reported that chemically fertilized soils had lower content of organic matter and fewer numbers of microfauna than manured soils (edmeades, 2003). the highest number of nematode-destroying fungi was recovered from kabete. soils in this area had been collected from the farm at university of nairobi to which animal manure had been frequently applied. this may explain the high number of nematode-destroying fungi here, since, these are associated with increase in beneficial micro-organisms in the soil (wachira and okoth, 2009). in our study, a high fungal population was found in areas where manure had been applied, and low fungal population in areas where chemical fertilizer was applied. temperature is an important factor in regulating microbial activity and shaping soil microbial communities. it determines moisture level in the soil, which is key to fungal spore germination and growth. high temperatures lead to low soil-moisture, which leads to low fungal-spore germination. a study by haugen and smith (1992) reported that at high temperatures, there was low germination of fungal spores, leading to low fungal population, while, under low temperatures there was high fungal germination, leading to a high fungal population. this was found to be in reverse in our study. although machakos and kibwezi experience high temperatures, a high population of nematode-destroying fungi was seen here by us. this could be attributed to the irrigation activities undertaken at the farm which ensured moist conditions throughout the growth season. this soil enhanced moisture, coupled with high temperature, improved fungal spore germination (as, fungal spores germinate better under moist and warm conditions). efficacy test showed that the genus arthrobotrys was most effective in trapping plant-parasitic nematodes. previous studies on fungi of this genus have consistently showed that it is able to trap 90% of all the nematodes in petri dishes and liquid cultures in 16-40 hours (rajeswari and sivakumar, 1999). therefore, due to its high occurrence, this fungus can be used in management of plant-parasitic nematodes, and its potential for this ability should be investigated. the investigation should focus on finding suitable carrier/s for the fungus and its mode of application. this would reduce over-reliance on chemical nematicides and help develop a self-regulating system in the soil for control of soil borne pests. conclusion additional evidence has been provided by this study that nematode-destroying fungi naturally occurr in agricultural habitats. it is also evident that agricultural activities targeting high crop-production, like, application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, directly affect soil biodiversity adversely. results from this study can be used in further research for establishing the potential of nematodedestroying fungi in regulation of plant-parasitic nematode population. fig. 2. a total-species cumulative curve for nematode-destroying fungi in some vegetable production zones of kenya number of samples j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):64-69, 2015 nematode-destroying fungi in vegetable farms in kenya 68 acknowledgement university of nairobi is acknowledged for providing laboratory equipment and space. we also wish to thank the small scale farmers of five different vegetable-production zones under study for their cooperation and for providing free access to their farms. references akhtar, m. and malik, y. 2000. roles of organic soil amendments and soil organisms in the biological control of plant-parasitic nematodes: a review. bioresource tech., 74:35-47 birgit, h., hans, b.j. and anders, y. 2002. nematophagous fungi. encyclopedia life sci., 101.1038/ npg.els.0004293.nematodes. revista de biologia tropical. 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(2011). in-vitro predatory activity of nematophagous fungi from costa rica with potential use for controlling sheep and goat p a r a s i t i c nematodes. rev. biol. trop., 59:37-52 wachira, p.m and okoth, s.a. 2009. use of nematodedestroying fungi as indicators of land disturbance in taitataveta, kenya. trop subtrop agroecosystems, 11:313-321 wachira, p.m., kimenju, j.w., okoth, s., mibey, r.k. and mungatu, j. 2008. effect of land-use on occurrence and diversity of nematode-destroying fungi in taitataveta, kenya. asian j. pl. sci., 7:447-453 (ms received 29 june 2013, revised 17 march 2015, accepted 25 march 2015) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):64-69, 2015 nematode-destroying fungi in vegetable farms in kenya page 129 effect of npk and zn on growth, flowering and bulb production in tulip under polyhouse conditions in kashmir f. u. khan, a. q. jhon, f. a. khan1 and m. m. mir division of floriculture, medicinal and aromatic plants s.k. university of agricultural sciences and technology of kashmir, shalimar campus srinagar-191121 (j&k), india e-mail: fukhanskuastk@rediffmail.com abstract healthy and uniform bulbs of tulip cv. ‘apeldoorn’ were planted in two consecutive growing seasons under polyhouse conditions in frbd design to study the effect of nutrient management on growth, flowering and bulb production in tulip in the kashmir valley. experimental treatments comprised of three levels of nitrogen (0,75 and 150 kg ha-1) and two levels of phosphorus (0 and 50 kg ha-1), potassium (0 and 50 kg / ha) and zinc (0 and 5 kg ha-1). except for bulb survival, nitrogen @ 75 kg ha-1 significantly improved all the parameters. however, further increase in dose of nitrogen (150 kg ha-1) influenced only a few parameters like scape length, wrapper leaf area, vase life and bulblet weight per plant. application of phosphorus, potassium and zinc also resulted in better growth, flower quality and bulb production. application of different nutrients caused increased concentration of nutrients in leaf tissue, which resulted in better performance of the plant. combined application of n, p, k and zn @ 75, 50, 50 and 5 kg ha-1, respectively, was found to be the most suitable dose for obtaining better growth, quality flower and bulb production. key words: tulip, nutrition, flowering, bulb production, polyhouse introduction tulip (tulipa spp.) is known throughout the temperate world and is considered an aristocrat of the pot, garden, a field or forest. it is the leading ornamental bulbous plant in the world and has gained popularity due to its beauty and economic value. tulips are excellent for cut flower, garden display and pot culture. it is the top most flowering geophyte of the netherlands and occupies the fourth position among the top ten cut flowers in the global floriculture trade. the largest area under any true bulb crop in the world is that of tulipa, followed by narcissus, iris, hyacinthus and lilium (rees, 1972). in india, tulips are grown chiefly in the state of jammu and kashmir. however, there is great scope of growing tulips for various purposes in temperate zones like himachal pradesh, uttranchal and other, similar hilly regions of the country. efforts on promoting commercial floriculture in our country have started and protected cultivation of cut flowers opens up newer avenues for quality production and export to earn valuable foreign exchange. due to its high aesthetic appeal, tulips are in great demand, especially during christmas, valentine’s day, mother’s day and other festive occasions. ‘apeldoorn’ is one of the most suitable cultivars of tulip for cut flower production under polyhouse (jhon and khan, 2003). however, different aspects of production technology need to be developed for getting higher quality/yield of flower as well as bulb to fetch attractive returns. work on different aspects of production technologies, viz., planting time (jhon et al, 2004), growth environment (jhon et al, 2005a) and suitable media (jhon et al, 2005b) has been conducted. nutrients play an important role in growth and development of any plant. however, information on this aspect in tulip is scanty. therefore, the present investigation was carried out to study the effect of nutrients on growth, flower quality and bulb production in tulip cv. ‘apeldoorn’ under polyhouse conditions. material and methods the experiment was conducted at the division of floriculture, medicinal and aromatic plants, skuast (k), shalimar (located at an altitude of 1585 m amsl) during two consecutive years, 2002 to 2004, under polyhouse conditions. a polyhouse with steel pipe framework clad with twin layer uv stabilized plastic sheet of 200 µm was used to create modified environment. 10 cm dead space j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 129-134, 2006 1plant physiology section, division of post harvest technology page 130 j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 129-134, 2006 khan et al 130 t ab le 1 . e ff ec t of n u tr ie n ts o n g ro w th , f lo ra l p ro d u ct io n a n d b u lb p ro d u ct io n c h ar ac te rs i n t u li p u n d er p ol yh ou se c on d it io n s t re at m en t b u lb s u rv iv al ( % ) s te m t h ic k n es s (m m ) w ra p p er l ea f d ay s to s ca p e le n g th t ep al d ia m et er v as e li fe n o . o f b u lb s b u lb le tw ei g h t/ a re a (c m 2 ) f lo w er ( d a p ) (c m ) ( m m ) (d ay s) p er p la n t p la n t (g ) 2 0 0 2 -0 3 2 0 0 3 -0 4 2 0 0 2 -0 3 2 0 0 3 -0 4 2 0 0 2 -0 3 2 0 0 3 -0 4 2 0 0 2 -0 3 2 0 0 3 -0 4 2 0 0 2 -0 3 2 0 0 3 -0 4 2 0 0 2 -0 3 2 0 0 3 -0 4 2 0 0 2 -0 3 2 0 0 3 -0 4 2 0 0 2 -0 3 2 0 0 3 -0 4 2 0 0 2 -0 3 2 0 0 3 -0 4 n ( k g h a1 ) n 0 = 0 8 8 .2 1 9 3 .1 2 6 .3 4 6 .7 1 1 2 5 .8 6 1 3 1 .6 3 1 2 4 .6 5 1 2 1 .0 5 3 6 .0 5 3 4 .2 6 8 .2 9 8 .3 5 6 .6 3 6 5 9 0 .8 8 1 .0 3 4 .9 9 5 .3 9 n 1 = 7 5 8 5 .7 6 9 0 .8 1 6 .9 7 7 .2 9 1 3 5 .7 0 1 4 0 .7 6 1 2 7 .3 0 1 2 3 .3 1 3 8 .5 3 3 9 .2 6 8 .9 6 8 .9 8 7 .0 7 7 .2 7 1 .0 2 1 .1 9 7 .0 1 7 .0 6 n 2 = 1 5 0 8 8 .2 8 9 3 .5 4 6 .9 6 7 .2 5 1 3 4 .9 1 1 4 2 .6 0 1 2 6 .7 4 1 2 3 .7 2 4 0 .1 1 4 1 .1 7 8 .9 6 9 .0 1 6 .7 6 7 .0 2 0 .9 9 1 .1 7 6 .6 2 7 .4 0 c .d ( p = 0 .0 5 ) n s 2 .3 1 5 0 .1 3 0 .0 8 1 .5 7 0 .8 6 1 .3 8 0 .6 8 0 .5 3 0 .1 9 0 .0 7 0 .1 2 0 .2 9 0 .2 1 0 .2 1 0 .0 5 0 .0 5 0 .3 1 p ( k g h a1 ) p = 0 8 6 .4 8 9 1 .1 5 6 .5 2 6 .8 8 1 2 9 .8 0 1 3 5 .4 7 1 2 7 .1 8 1 2 3 .5 5 3 6 .9 9 3 6 .4 7 8 .5 9 8 .5 9 6 .5 9 6 .6 5 0 .8 9 1 .0 5 5 .6 6 6 .2 1 p 1 = 5 0 8 8 .3 5 9 3 .8 3 6 .9 9 7 .2 8 1 3 4 .5 1 1 4 1 .1 9 1 2 5 .2 8 1 2 1 .8 3 3 9 .4 7 3 9 .9 9 8 .8 8 8 .9 7 7 .0 5 7 .2 6 1 .0 4 1 .2 1 6 .7 6 7 .0 3 c .d ( p = 0 .0 5 ) n s 1 .8 9 0 .1 0 0 .0 6 1 .2 8 0 .7 0 1 .1 3 0 .5 5 0 .4 4 0 .1 6 0 .0 6 0 .1 0 0 .2 4 0 .1 7 0 .0 1 0 .0 5 0 .0 2 0 .2 6 k ( k g h a1 ) k 0 = 0 8 6 .8 9 9 2 .0 5 6 .6 5 7 .0 1 1 3 1 .3 9 1 3 6 .5 5 1 2 8 .4 4 1 2 4 .1 6 3 7 .0 1 3 7 .2 1 8 .6 3 8 .7 1 6 .4 4 6 .7 6 0 .9 5 1 .1 2 6 .1 2 6 .4 0 k 1 = 5 0 8 7 .9 3 9 2 .9 3 6 .8 7 7 .1 6 1 3 2 .9 2 1 4 0 .1 0 1 2 4 .0 1 1 2 1 .2 3 3 9 .4 5 3 9 .2 5 8 .8 4 8 .8 5 7 .2 0 7 .1 5 0 .9 8 1 .1 4 6 .2 9 6 .8 3 c .d ( p = 0 .0 5 ) n s n s 0 .1 0 0 .0 6 1 .2 8 0 .7 0 1 .1 3 0 .5 5 0 .4 4 0 .1 6 0 .0 6 0 .1 0 0 .2 4 0 .1 7 0 .0 1 n s 0 .0 2 0 .2 6 z n ( k g h a1 ) z 0 = 0 8 7 .0 8 9 2 .6 2 6 .6 7 7 .0 1 1 3 2 .4 4 1 3 6 .8 8 1 2 6 .8 9 1 2 2 .9 3 3 7 .2 7 3 7 .4 6 8 .6 8 8 .7 2 6 .9 7 6 .8 9 0 .9 5 1 .1 1 6 .0 5 6 .3 3 z 1 = 5 8 7 .7 5 9 2 .3 6 6 .8 5 7 .1 5 1 3 1 .8 7 1 3 9 .7 7 1 2 5 .5 7 1 2 3 .4 6 3 9 .1 9 3 9 .0 0 8 .7 9 8 .8 4 6 .8 5 6 .9 4 0 .9 8 1 .1 5 6 .3 6 6 .8 9 c .d ( p = 0 .0 5 ) n s n s 0 .1 0 0 .0 6 n s 0 .7 0 1 .1 3 n s 0 .4 4 0 .1 6 0 .0 6 0 .1 0 n s n s 0 .0 1 n s 0 .0 2 0 .2 6 n s : n o n s ig n if ic an t t re at m en t b u lb s u rv iv al (% ) s te m t h ic k n es s (m m ) w ra p p er l ea f ar ea ( cm 2 ) d ay s to fl o w er in g s ca p e le n g th (c m ) t ep al d ia m et er (m m ) v as e li fe (d ay s) n o . o f b u lb s / p la n t b u lb le t w ei g h t / p la n t (g ) page 131 was ensured between plastic layers. the polyhouse was additionally fitted with two high-pressure exhaust fans each on the east and west, whereas four ventilators each were provided on the north and south. experimental treatments comprised three levels of nitrogen (0, 75 and 150 kg ha-1) and two levels each of phosphorus (0 and 50 kg ha-1), potassium (0 and 50 kg ha-1) and zinc (0 and 5 kg ha-1). healthy and uniform bulbs of tulip cv. ‘apeldoorn’ with 10 to 12 cm circumference were planted in beds of 0.54 m2 size each year on 30th october as per the factorial rbd concept. there were two replications and eight representative plants constituted one replication unit. growth media containing soil + dal weed + sand in the ratio of 2:1:1 at ph 6.8 was used for growing the plants. uniform cultural practices were followed throughout the experimentation. observations were recorded on bulb survival (effective sprouting), stem thickness, wrapper leaf (lower most leaf) area, days to flower (days after planting), scape length, tepal diameter, vase life, bulb number and weight of bulblets per plant. leaf n, p and k analysis was done as per the method of jackson (1973). data were statistically analyzed as per procedure given by panse and sukhatme (1978). results and discussion different nutrients and their levels had significant effect on all the parameters studied (table 1). bulb survival was not affected by any individual treatment of nutrients during the first year (2002-03) of experimentation. however, it was found to be significantly influenced by increased doses of nitrogen and phosphorus during the second year (2003-04) of experimentation. the reason for the non-significant effect of nutrients on bulb survival may be absence of adequate root system at the initial stage of growth to absorb applied nutrients from soil. nonsignificant effect of nutrient application on bulb survival has earlier been reported by kumar and singh (1998) in tuberose. stem thickness was found to be significantly influenced by addition of different levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and zinc in both the years. similarly, wrapper leaf area also differed markedly with these nutrient treatments, except with zinc during the first year of experiment. similar results on vegetative growth with nitrogen have also been reported by rani et al (2005) in lilium. increased plant growth with nitrogen application table 2. interaction effect of various nutrients on growth, flower quality and bulb production in tulip treatment wrapper leaf area days to flowering scape length vase life no. of bulbs/plant bulblet (kg ha-1) (cm2) (dap) (cm) (days) weight/plant (g) 2002-03 2003-04 2002-03 2003-04 2002-03 2003-04 2002-03 2003-04 2002-03 2003-04 2002-03 2003-04 n 0 p 0 k 0 z 0 123.26 129.36 126.83 123.38 34.63 31.64 6.08 6.12 0.88 1.00 3.80 4.25 n 0 p 0 k 0 z 5 121.27 130.50 124.08 121.50 35.00 34.23 6.17 6.25 0.82 1.00 3.75 4.20 n 0 p 0 k 50 z 0 127.46 131.15 123.00 120.50 37.50 34.68 6.83 6.75 0.76 0.95 4.37 4.45 n 0 p 0 k 50 z 5 126.95 132.58 125.58 122.00 36.50 33.22 6.83 6.62 0.76 0.92 4.62 6.30 n 0 p 50 k 0 z 0 128.85 130.35 124.00 121.25 33.88 30.66 6.58 6.50 0.88 1.00 4.62 4.75 n 0 p 50 k 0 z 5 128.18 131.56 125.50 122.25 36.63 36.45 6.08 6.12 1.08 1.17 6.37 6.55 n 0 p 50 k 50 z 0 126.85 133.50 124.58 119.50 35.75 35.75 7.08 7.12 0.88 1.05 5.87 6.01 n 0 p 50 k 50 z 5 123.76 134.00 123.58 118.00 38.50 37.46 7.33 7.25 1.01 1.18 6.50 6.60 n 75 p 0 k 0 z 0 130.24 135.00 134.17 120.50 35.00 36.21 6.58 7.12 0.88 1.00 6.37 6.50 n 75 p 0 k 0 z 5 132.11 137.20 130.00 126.50 36.25 35.83 6.67 6.75 0.94 1.11 6.37 6.52 n 75 p 0 k 50 z 0 136.48 136.30 124.17 121.75 37.50 37.11 6.83 6.50 0.94 1.11 6.25 6.45 n 75 p 0 k 50 z 5 131.17 142.15 126.08 124.50 37.50 37.96 6.92 7.00 0.94 1.09 6.62 6.75 n 75 p 50 k 0 z 0 137.20 141.65 131.83 128.00 38.50 39.46 6.75 7.25 1.07 1.28 7.12 7.25 n 75 p 50 k 0 z 5 141.59 143.95 129.75 125.25 39.25 42.35 6.75 7.25 1.07 1.25 7.87 7.78 n 75 p 50 k 50 z 0 136.98 143.50 121.42 120.50 40.00 41.69 7.92 8.00 1.13 1.31 7.37 7.48 n 75 p 50 k 50 z 5 139.83 146.35 121.00 119.50 44.25 43.48 8.17 8.25 1.19 1.37 8.12 7.75 n 150 p 0 k 0 z 0 130.40 131.95 132.50 129.00 37.00 39.23 6.00 7.50 0.94 1.10 7.12 7.05 n 150 p 0 k 0 z 5 127.46 135.80 128.00 125.25 36.63 37.14 6.25 6.25 0.88 1.06 6.87 7.25 n 150 p 0 k 50 z 0 135.65 141.25 126.25 125.00 37.50 38.50 6.92 6.50 0.88 1.05 5.62 7.20 n 150 p 0 k 50 z 5 134.84 142.36 125.50 122.75 42.88 41.89 7.00 6.50 1.01 1.18 6.12 7.55 n 150 p 50 k 0 z 0 137.63 144.00 129.42 125.25 38.50 40.46 6.67 6.75 1.07 1.30 6.87 7.20 n 150 p 50 k 0 z 5 138.22 147.32 125.25 121.75 42.88 42.88 6.67 7.25 0.94 1.17 6.25 7.50 n 150 p 50 k 50 z 0 137.93 144.60 124.40 120.50 41.50 44.13 7.25 7.62 1.07 1.16 6.75 7.50 n 150 p 50 k 50 z 5 137.11 153.50 122.50 120.25 44.00 45.13 7.33 7.75 1.13 1.33 6.87 7.95 c.d (p=0.05) ns 2.43 ns 1.91 1.51 0.54 ns 0.58 0.03 ns 0.07 0.88 ns: not significant j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 129-134, 2006 mineral nutrition & growth in tulip under polyhouse 131 page 132 may be attributed to this nutrient’s role in protein synthesis. it is also an important part of chlorophylls, which are involved in photosynthesis, and thus, in promoting plant growth. phosphorus is also an important constituent of many essential compounds, and, is involved in various physiological processes including cell division, development of meristematic tissues, in photosynthesis, respiration, etc. (marschner, 1986). phosphorus also promotes root growth which, in turn, facilitates uptake of other nutrients and results in improved growth. growth accelerating effects of potassium may be attributed to its role as an activator of many enzymes and a major contributor of plant osmotic relationship, essential for stomatal movement and cellular growth (salisbury and ross, 1986). beneficial effects of zinc on physiological activities might be the reason for improved plant growth. it is an essential part of tryptophan, and thus, biosynthesis of auxin which is known to promote cell elongation and root initiation. zinc is also an important constituent of several vital enzymes that play a significant role in carbohydrate synthesis (marschner, 1986). zinc also plays an important role in the uptake of phosphorus and calcium and in the availability of nitrogen (shear, 1984). application of nitrogen caused significant increase in days taken to flower, whereas phosphorus, potassium and zinc resulted in significant decrease in days taken to flowering compared to the control in both the years. this finding is in accordance with the observation of earlier workers (sharma and singh, 2001; rani et al, 2005). higher doses of nitrogen may have caused excessive vegetative growth adversely affecting days taken to flower. in many species, days to flowering has been found to be closely associated with nitrogen and phosphorus, as excess nitrogen delays and abundant phosphorus hastens it. contribution of potassium and zinc in reducing days to may be due to faster growth of the plant with application of these nutrients and early completion of the vegetative phase (khan, 2000; talukdar et al, 2003). scape length is an important quality parameter in maintaining the post harvest life of cut flowers, whereas, flower diameter is a parameter that influences aesthetic appeal in a quality conscious world. application of different nutrients to soil individually exerted significant effects on both scape length and tepal diameter in both the years of experiment. possible reasons for these effects might be better nutrient uptake facilitated by phosphorus and zinc and higher assimilation of food reserves through an enhanced assimilatory surface. scape length and flower size have also been found to be positively correlated with nitrogen dose in tuberose (kumar and singh, 1998). kumar and arora (2000) reported higher spike length in gladiolus with zinc application. addition of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium caused significant increase in vase life in cut tulip in distilled water but zinc was unable to increase vase life in both the years of experiment. increase in vase life due to nutrient treatment may be attributed to a healthy scape and leaves which may have more food reserves to be utilized during the vase period when the natural source of food is cut off from the plant consequent to harvest. a healthy scape may also facilitate better water uptake essential for maintaining turgor, and thus, freshness of cut flowers. high potassium level in the tissue may also have contributed directly to maintaining turgor and thus resulted in increased vase life. like growth and flowering, bulb production attributes were also influenced markedly by application of various nutrients. the number of bulbs per plant was significantly influenced by all the nutrients during the first table 3. effect of n, p, k and zn interactions on leaf n, p and k content in tulip under polyhouse conditions treatment nutrient concentration (%) (kg ha-1) nitrogen phosphorus potassium 2002-03 2003-04 2002-03 2003-04 2002-03 2003-04 n 0 p 0 k 0 z 0 3.18 3.19 0.160 0.190 3.60 2.60 n 0 p 0 k 0 z 5 3.09 3.12 0.180 0.200 3.50 2.65 n 0 p 0 k 50 z 0 3.50 3.55 0.190 0.210 3.50 2.70 n 0 p 0 k 50 z 5 3.53 3.60 0.170 0.200 3.50 2.70 n 0 p 50 k 0 z 0 3.65 3.68 0.220 0.250 3.60 2.90 n 0 p 50 k 0 z 5 3.89 3.92 0.210 0.270 3.80 3.00 n 0 p 50 k 50 z 0 3.65 3.71 0.250 0.250 4.10 3.20 n 0 p 50 k 50 z 5 3.77 3.74 0.250 0.280 4.20 3.30 n 75 p 0 k 0 z 0 4.06 4.10 0.220 0.260 3.80 3.00 n 75 p 0 k 0 z 5 4.37 4.39 0.230 0.290 3.60 3.20 n 75 p 0 k 50 z 0 4.09 4.11 0.196 0.210 3.90 3.30 n 75 p 0 k 50 z 5 4.69 4.70 0.240 0.290 3.90 3.25 n 75 p 50 k 0 z 0 4.97 4.99 0.253 0.280 3.50 3.10 n 75 p 50 k 0 z 5 5.07 5.09 0.297 0.310 3.60 3.11 n 75 p 50 k 50 z 0 4.49 4.50 0.270 0.300 4.00 3.30 n 75 p 50 k 50 z 5 5.06 5.10 0.290 0.320 4.40 3.40 n 150 p 0 k 0 z 0 4.07 4.10 0.210 0.270 3.70 3.20 n 150 p 0 k 0 z 5 4.30 4.35 0.190 0.200 3.80 3.25 n 150 p 0 k 50 z 0 4.86 4.90 0.187 0.220 3.70 3.15 n 150 p 0 k 50 z 5 4.95 4.97 0.230 0.280 4.07 3.30 n 150 p 50 k 0 z 0 4.90 4.95 0.197 0.260 3.80 3.20 n 150 p 50 k 0 z 5 4.33 5.38 0.330 0.350 4.00 3.30 n 150 p 50 k 50 z 0 5.05 5.10 0.287 0.330 4.30 3.45 n 150 p 50 k 50 z 5 5.24 5.21 0.310 0.340 4.80 3.60 c.d (p=0.05) ns 0.35 0.05 ns ns ns ns : not significant j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 129-134, 2006 khan et al 132 page 133 year while, during the second year, although nitrogen and phosphorus showed significant effects, potassium and zinc did not. all the nutrients had significant influence on the weight of bulblets per plant. application of nitrogen and zinc has also been found to increase bulb production in tuberose (kumar and singh, 1998) and dahlia (khan, 2000), respectively. a marked increase in both the number of bulbs and bulblet weight per plant may be attributed to better availability of phosphorus, which is required in particularly for bulb growth. reduced bulb growth may be due to a limitation of source because most of the photosynthates tend to mobilize first towards the major sink i.e., flower. therefore, an increased assimilatory power might have resulted in greater supply of photosynthates to the bulb, thus, increasing its production. combined application of nutrients did not show any marked impact on bulb survival per cent in both the years (table 2). interaction treatments also failed to exert any significant effect on stem thickness trials in both the years, while wrapper leaf area was significantly influenced during the 2nd year. maximum wrapper leaf area (153.50 cm2) was recorded with n 150 p 50 k 50 z 5 followed by n 150 p 50 k 0 z 5 , while, minimum was observed in n 0 p 0 k 0 z 0 (129.36 cm2) . like wrapper leaf area, days taken to flowering also showed significant influence when nutrients were applied in combination, but only during the 2nd year of trial. the minimum days taken to flower was 118.0 days in treatment n 0 p 50 k 50 z 5 followed by n 75 p 50 k 50 z 5 against the maximum (129.0) number of days in n 150 p 0 k 0 z 0. combined treatments of nutrients also altered the scape length significantly in both the years but did not exert any marked influence on tepal diameter. maximum scape length was recorded in n 75 p 50 k 50 z 5 (44.25 cm) and n 150 p 50 k 50 z 5 (45.13 cm), whereas, the minimum scape length was seen with n 0 p 50 k 0 z 0 (33.88 cm and 30.66 cm) in first and second year, respectively. interaction effects of these nutrients on vase life were non-significant during the first year, whereas, there it differed significantly during the subsequent year with maximum in n 75 p 50 k 50 z 5 (8.25 days) followed by n 75 p 50 k 50 z 0 (8.00 days) and minimum in n 0 p 0 k 0 z 0 (6.12 days). combination of different nutrient treatments affected the number of bulbs per plant during the first year of trial but did not show any marked variation in the subsequent year. treatment n 75 p 50 k 50 z 5 recorded the highest number of bulbs per plant, (1.19) followed by n 75 p 50 k 50 z 0 , while, it was minimum (0.88) in n 0 p 0 k 0 z 0. however, both years of experiment recorded a significant increase in bulblet weight per plant due to combined effects of nutrients. the maximum bulblet weight per plant observed was 8.12 g (n 75 p 50 k 50 z 5 ) and 7.95 g (n 150 p 50 k 50 z 5 ), and, of 3.75 g and 4.20 g (n 0 p 0 k 0 z 5 ) during the first and second year of experiment, respectively. nutrient analysis in leaf (fig 1) revealed that addition of nitrogen to soil significantly increased leaf nitrogen content in both the years of experiment. however, significant increase in phosphorus in the first year and potassium level during the second year was observed. addition of phosphorus resulted in a marked increase in leaf nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content which indicated that phosphorus was helpful in increasing uptake of other nutrients from the soil. phosphorus promotes root growth, which in turn, facilitates improved uptake of other nutrients (marschner, 1986). potassium application to the soil also increased leaf nitrogen content significantly during the first year of trial whereas increase in leaf nitrogen due to potassium application in the subsequent year was not j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 129-134, 2006 mineral nutrition & growth in tulip under polyhouse 133 fig 1. effect of n, p, k and zn application on leaf nutrient content in tulip fig 2. month-wise relative humidity and temperature under polyhouse conditions page 134 significant. increase in leaf potassium content due to application of potassium in the soil is obvious because of greater availability and uptake. combined application of nutrients exerted significant variation in leaf nitrogen and phosphorus content during the 2nd and 1st year, respectively, whereas potassium content of leaf remained unaffected (table 3). slight variations in the results of both years’ study may be attributed to the differences in relative humidity and temperatures during the growing periods of crops in both years (fig 2). acknowledgements this research was supported by the indian council of agricultural research, new delhi, under the national agricultural technology project (code no. c21183). references jackson, m. l. 1973. soil chemical analysis. prentice hall of india pvt. ltd., new delhi. jhon, a. q. and khan, f. u. 2003. evaluation of tulips under polyhouse and open conditions. j. orn. hort., 6: 42-45. jhon, a. q., khan, f. u. and mir, m. m. 2004. standardization of planting time of tulips under polyhouse conditions. international seminar on recent trends in hi-tech. horticulture and post harvest technology, csaua&t, kanpur, feb. 4-6, 2004, p 136. jhon, a. q., khan, f. u., bhat, r.a., rouf, a. and qadri, z. a. 2005b. flowering and bulb production of tulip as influenced by media amendment under polyhouse conditions. j. orn. hort., 8 : 143-145. (ms received 20 may 2006, revised 28 september 2006) jhon, a. q., khan, f. u., rouf, a., bhat, r.a. and nazki, i. t. 2005. effect of growing environments on flowering and bulb production in tulip. j. orn. hort., 8 : 112-114. khan, f. u. 2000. effect of micronutrients on dahlia. j. orn. hort., 3 : 122-123. kumar, p. and arora, j. s. 2000. effect of micronutrients on gladiolus. j.orn. hort., 3 : 91-93. kumar, s. and singh, r. p. 1998. effect of nitrogen, bulb size and plant density on growth, flowering and yield of tuberose (polyanthes tuberosa l). j.orn. hort., 1 : 6-10. marschner, h. 1986. mineral nutrition of higher plants. academic press inc. london, uk. panse, v. g. and sukhatme, p. v. 1978. statistical methods for agricultural workers, icar, new delhi. rani, n., kumar r. and dhatt, k. k. 2005. effect of nitrogen levels and growing media on growth, flowering and bulb production of lilium cultivars. j.orn. hort., 8 : 36-40. rees a. r. 1972. the growth of bulbs. academic press, london. salisbury, f.b. and ross, c.w. 1986. plant physiology. cbs publishers & distributors, new delhi, pp. 96-113. sharma, s. and singh, d. b. 2001. response of nitrogen fertilization on gladiolus. j. orn. hort., 4 : 128. shear, g. m. 1984. zinc and boron deficiency in virginia orchard. virginia fruits, 36: 105-132. talukdar, m. c., baruah, n. and mahanta, s. 2003. response of graded levels of npk on yield and quality of tuberose (polyanthes tuberosa linn.) cv. single. j.orn. hort., 6 : 335-340. j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 129-134, 2006 khan et al 134 final sph -jhs coverpage 17-1 jan 2022 single j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 124-130, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction litchi (litchi chinensis sonn.), belonging to the family sapindaceae is an evergreen, subtropical fr uit and popula r ly known a s ‘queen of subtropical fruits’, ‘pearl of india’ for its excellent aromatic flavour and sweet aril taste (nakasone and paull, 1998). litchi flowers are of three types, st a mina t e or pu r ely ma le f lower s, f ema le or her ma p hr od it e f u nc t ioning a s f ema le a nd her ma phr odite flower functioning a s ma le or pseudo-hermaphrodite (chaudari, 1940, mustard et al., 1953 and menzel, 1984). litchi is very specific to its climatic requirement and requires seasonal temper a tur e va r ia tion for best flower ing a nd fruiting (garcia-perez and martins, 2006). it is considered as the essential sub-tropical fruit crops and requires diurnal variation for flowering and fruiting. litchi cultivation is successful in areas having average minimum temperature of 10oc from december to february and 32oc in april to june is considered more congenial. climate is the most important limiting factor in the expansion of area under this fruit. the role of growing degree days (gdd) or heat units are often used to predict the growth stages including the date when a flower will bloom or a crop will reach to the maturity. heat units or growing degree days is the number of temperature degrees above a certain threshold base temperature within consecutive 24 hours period. the heat unit varies among the crops or even within cultivars of the same crop (kanzaria et al., 2015). heat units have an important role in horticultural crops and it helps in estimating the growth stages of plants, deter mines ha rvesting index. it also assesses the suitability of a region for growing a crop to estimate the length of various phenological s t a ges a nd t o p r edic t ma t u r it y a nd qu a lit y c ha r a ct er is tics of f r u it s (k ha n et a l. , 20 07 ; shinohara, 2013; koshita, 2014). the effect of temper a tur e on the phenological development, flowering and fruiting performance was studied by the different workers for predicting the growth stages, yield and physiological maturity (swan et al.,1989, singh et al., 2007). the prevailing agroclimatic condition in the sub-hima la ya n tera i region is suitable for litchi cultivation. however, the information regarding the influence of heat units on flower bud development, panicle emergence, flowering and fruiting characteristics of litchi is very limited in literature. keeping in view the utmost importance of heat units, the present study was designed to determine the effect of heat units and performance of different litchi cultivars in the foothills of eastern indian sub-himalayan terai region of west bengal. heat unit requirement and performances of litchi under sub-himalayan terai region of west bengal subba s. and bhowmick n.* department. of pomology and post-harvest technology uttar banga krishi viswavidyalaya, pundibari, cooch behar, west bengal-736165, india *corresponding author e-mail : nilesh@ubkv.ac.in abstract to determine the heat unit requirement and assess its subsequent effects on flowering and fruiting characteristics, a field experiment was conducted during 2018-19 with seven cultivars of litchi viz., calcuttia, elaichi, bedana, bombai, china, shahi and muzaffarpur in randomized block design. bedana showed better result in terms of maximum fruit weight (17.88g), lowest seed content (10.84%), maximum fruit diameter (3.01 cm), maximum fruit volume (18.70 ml), highest tss (15.870 brix), total sugar (15.96%), reducing sugar (12.61%), and ascorbic acid (29.47 mg/100g) content. keywords: bud break, flowering, fruiting, growing degree days and panicle. 125 heat unit requirement and performances of litchi j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 124-130, 2022 materials and methods to determine the heat unit requirement and assess its subsequent effects on flowering and fruiting cha r a c ter ist ic s of litc hi, the ex per iment wa s conducted at instructional farm under the dept. of pomology and post-ha rvest technology, uttar banga krishi viswavidyalaya, pundibari, cooch behar, west bengal, situated in the foothills of ea s t er n i nd ia n h ima la ya s . s even imp or t a nt commercial litchi cultivars (t 1calcuttia, t 2 – elaichi, t3 – bedana, t4bombai, t5china, t6sha hi a nd t 7muza ffa r pur ) wer e selected a s treatments and the experiment was carried out in randomized block design with three replication and two plants per replication. heat unit was calculated by taking the average of the daily maximum and minimu m t e mp er a t u r es c omp a r ed t o a b a s e temperature, t base (usually 10°c). the formula applied for calculation of heat unit is (t max+tmin)/ 2tbase(monteith, 1984; rai et al., 2002). the heat unit s for diff er ent p honologic a l pha ses wer e recorded. the different parameters for flowering and fruiting characteristics were recorded as per the standard methodology. the bio-chemical parameters were determined following ranganna (1986) and a.o.a. c. (1984). for statistical analysis the mean separation for different parameter were performed using least significant difference (lsd) test (pd” 0.05).normality of residuals under the assumption of anova was tested using kolmogrov-smirnov, shapiro-wilk, cramer-von mises and anderson darling procedure using proc-univariate procedure of sas (version 9.3). results and discussion response of heat unit requirement on flowering of litchi the heat unit requirement of different phenological phases in litchi cultivars were recorded (table-1). the heat unit requirement for bud break to panicle appearance was maximum in cv. china (144.03oc), which was statistically at par with cvs. bombai, calcuttia, shahi and lowest in elaichi (94.580c). subsequently, it was observed (table-2a) that cv. bombai required maximum number of days (17.83 da ys ) f or b u d b r ea k t o p a nic le emer genc e, statistically at par with cv. china (17.27 days), while the cv. elaichi recorded the minimum number of days (12.47 days). for panicle appearance to flowering, the heat unit requirement was maximum in cv. bombai (400.16oc) which was statistically a t pa r with cvs. ela ic hi (37 1. 3 1 o c), beda na (340.20oc), muzaffarpur (335.26oc) and calcuttia (329.24oc), whereas, cv. shahi required lowest (312. 38 o c) heat unit (ta ble-1). however, the duration of panicle emergence was not significant a mong t he diff er ent cu ltiva r s (ta ble2a ) b ut ma x imum nu mb er of da ys (3 5. 1 0 da ys ) wa s required in cv. elaichi and lowest (29.52 days) in cv. sha hi. t her e wa s no s ignifica nt va r ia tion observed during flowering to fruit set stage for heat u nit r eq u ir ement , howev er, it wa s r e c or ded ma ximum in cv. muza ffa r pur (347.78 o c) a nd minimum (326.83oc) in cv. calcuttia. the duration of flowering to fruit set was recorded maximum in c v. m u z a ff a r p u r ( 2 8 . 9 8 da ys ) whic h wa s statistically at par with all other cultivars except for cv. bombai (23.95 days). the litchi varieties ex hibited signif ica nt va r ia tion f or hea t units requirement during fruit set to harvesting stages and cv. beda na r egister ed the ma ximum hea t unit requirement (1133.80oc) which was at par with cv. china (1076.33 oc), whereas, the cv. shahi required the minimum (950.74oc). flowering parameters it is believed that litchi needs a period of vegetative dormancy to initiate floral buds (das et al., 2004). the maximum length of panicle (19.00 cm) was observed incv. muzaffarpur, while the minimum length (16.16 cm) was recorded in cv.bedana.the flowering duration was statistically similar for different cultivars and cv. muzaffarpur exhibited the maximum flowering duration (25.83 days).the ma ximum number of flower s per pa nicle wa s produced by the cv. shahi (593.87) while it was minimum for cv. bombai (422.80). number of hermaphrodite flowers as functional male showed significa nt va ria tion and r a nged fr om 59. 19% (bomabi) to 67.18 %(muzaffarpur). the highest percentage of hermaphrodite flowers as functional female (21.26%) was recorded in the cv. bombai while china r ecor ded t he lowes t p er c enta ge (17.94%) of hermaphrodite flowers as functional female. bedana recorded the highest percentage of male flowers (19.60%) and muzaffarpur registered the lowest percentage of male flowers (14.46%) (table 2b). 126 subba and bhowmick table 1. heat unit requirement by different litchi cultivars bud break to panicle flowering fruit set to treatments panicle appearance appearance to to fruit set harvesting (oc) flowering (oc) (oc) (oc) t1 (calcuttia) 128.72 abc 329.24ab 326.83a 1012.48b t2 (elaichi) 94.58 c 371.31ab 329.67a 957.37b t3 (bedana) 104.50 bc 340.20ab 334.68a 1133.80a t4 (bombai) 136.85 ab 400.16a 336.35a 1010.06b t5 (china) 144.03 a 322.33b 347.08a 1076.33a t6 (shahi) 121.44 abc 312.38c 347.72a 950.74b t7 (muzaffarpur) 100.24 c 335.26ab 347.78a 962.54b s.em. (±) 11.80 23.94 10.54 20.41 l.s.d (pd”0.05) 36.35 73.77 ns 62.90 means followed by same alphabet are not significantly different treatments total no of hermaphrodite hermaphrodite male flowers per panicle male (%) female (%) (%) t1 (calcuttia) 476.52 cd 64.41a 19.67(4.43)ab 15.84(3.98)bcd t2 (elaichi) 457.35 de 65.70a 18.33(4.28)ab 17.20(4.15)abcd t3 (bedana) 518.92 bc 59.64b 20.09(4.47)ab 19.60(4.42)a t4 (bombai) 422.80 e 59.19b 21.26(4.61)a 18.11(4.24)abc t5 (china) 528.83 b 63.67a 17.94(4.23)b 18.96(4.35)ab t6 (shahi) 593.87 a 64.83a 19.52(4.42)ab 15.56(3.93)cd t7 (muzaffarpur) 593.83 a 67.18a 18.48(4.30)ab 14.46(3.80)d s.em.(±) 16.97 1.30 0.12 0.12 l.s.d (pd”0.05) 52.03 4.01 0.36 0.38 means followed by same alphabet are not significantly different (value in parenthesis is the square root transformed value) table 2b. flowering parameters of different litchi cultivars table 2a. flowering parameters of different litchi cultivars days taken for duration of length of duration of treatments bud break to panicle panicle flowering panicle emergence emergence (days) (cm) (days) t1 (calcuttia) 12.67 c 29.55a 17.42bc 24.48a t2 (elaichi) 12.47 c 35.10a 16.69cd 24.12a t3 (bedana) 14.83 bc 30.20a 16.16d 23.58a t4 (bombai) 17.83 a 31.47a 17.99ab 22.90a t5 (china) 17.27 ab 29.55a 16.39cd 24.13a t6 (shahi) 13.95 c 29.52a 17.32bcd 25.38a t7 (muzaffarpur) 13.65 c 30.02a 19.00a 25.83a s.em.(±) 0.84 2.41 0.40 1.21 l.s.d (pd”0.05) 2.59 ns 1.23 ns means followed by same alphabet are not significantly different j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 124-130, 2022 127 fruiting characteristics duration of fruit set, fruit set percentage and fruits per panicle was statistically similar for all the cultivars under study. calcuttia variety showed the maximum duration (11.97 days) for fruit set and was observed minimum in cv. bombai (10.68 days). t he fr u it set p er c ent a ge va r ied f r om 3 . 41 % (mu za ffa r p ur ) t o 4 . 7 9% (bomb a i), wher ea s , number of fruits per panicle was observed from 18.08 (bedana) to 23.22 (shahi). physio-chemical properties of fruits were significantly varied among the different cultivars studied under this experiment. h igher fr u it weight ( 17 . 8 8 g) , fr uit dia meter (3.01cm) and fruit volume (18.70ml) were observed in cv. bedana. small fruit of litchi was observed in cv. china (11.23g). the maximum fruit length (3.17 cm) was observed in cv. bombai; however, the higher peel content (29.94%) and seed content (27.90%) makes the variety with high waste index (1.51). the fruit pulp content was highest in cv. muzaffarpur (62.09%) and it was statistically at par with cvs. calcuttia, elaichi, bedana and shahi. seed content was lowest in cv. bedana (10.84%). the seed size (30.65%) and peel content (28.50%) were higher in cv. china resulting maximum waste index (1.66g) among the different varieties studied under this experiment. the minimum fruit length (2.71 cm) was recorded in bedana. the data on fr uit diameter showed tha t the ma ximum fr uit dia meter (3. 01 c m) wa s r ec or ded in beda na , whereas, muzaffarpur recorded the minimum fruit diameter (2.33 cm). the maximum specific gravity (1.07) was observed in elaichi while the minimum specific gra vity (0. 84) wa s recorded in shahi. highest pulp content (62.09%), and lowest waste index (0.64g) was recorded in muzaffarpur. china recorded the maximum waste index (1.66g), seed c ont ent ( 3 0 . 6 5 % ) . p er c ent a ge o f ju ic e wa s ma ximum (55. 08%) in sha hi while ma ximum peel (29.94%), minimum juice (30.03%) and was recorded in bombai (table 4b). bio-chemical characteristics litchi cv. bedana was recorded with maximum total soluble solids (tss) content (15.87 obrix), total sugar content (15.96%), reducing sugar (12.61%) a nd a s c or b ic a c id content ( 29 . 47 mg/ 10 0 g) , whereas, cvs. elaichi, china, muzaffarpur, and shahi recorded with lowest amount of tss (13.930 brix) and total sugar (11.45%), reducing sugar (9. 68 %), a nd a s cor b ic a cid (19. 72 mg/10 0g) content, respectively (table 5). there was a variation among the litchi cultivars for different parameters studied under this experiment which indicates the genotypic differences. higher heat unit requirement of cv. bedana and china for fruit set to harvesting indicates it late maturity in heat unit requirement and performances of litchi j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 124-130, 2022 table 3. fruiting characteristics of different litchi cultivars date of duration of duration of percent fruits treatments first fruit flowering to fruit setting fruit set per setting fruit set (days) (days) (%) panicle t1 (calcuttia) 22 nd march 27.08ab 11.97a 4.25 (2.06)a 19.83a t2 (elaichi) 22 nd march 26.77ab 11.53a 4.29 (2.06)a 19.03a t3 (bedana) 26 th march 26.58ab 11.02a 3.56 (1.88)a 18.08a t4 (bombai) 2 nd april 23.95b 10.68a 4.79 (2.18)a 19.83a t5 (china) 25 th march 27.55ab 11.17a 3.86 (1.97)a 20.27a t6 (shahi) 23 rd march 28.90a 11.57a 3.85 (1.95)a 23.22a t7(muzaffarpur) 22 nd march 28.98a 11.90a 3.41 (1.85)a 19.75a s.em.(±) —1.24 0.45 0.11 2.29 l.s.d (pd”0.05) —3.83 n.s. n.s. n.s. means followed by same alphabet are not significantly different (value in parenthesis is the square root transformed value) 128 table 4a. physical characteristics of fruits of different litchi cultivars treatments fruit fruit fruit fruit specific weight (g) length (cm) diameter (cm) volume (ml) gravity t1 (calcuttia) 17.30 ab 3.14ab 2.70b 17.63ab 0.99ab t2 (elaichi) 13.85 bc 2.86bcd 2.43c 13.07c 1.07a t3 (bedana) 17.88 a 2.71d 3.01a 18.70a 0.96abc t4 (bombai) 13.32 c 3.17a 2.48bc 13.87c 0.97abc t5 (china) 11.23 c 3.06ab 2.35c 13.30c 0.87bc t6 (shahi) 12.43 c 3.01abc 2.47bc 15.03bc 0.84c t7 (muzaffarpur) 11.78 c 2.78cd 2.33c 13.70c 0.88bc s.em.(±) 1.26 0.09 0.09 1.11 0.05 l.s.d (pd”0.05) 3.89 0.27 0.26 3.43 0.14 means with the same letter are not significantly different table 4b. physical composition and waste index of litchi fruits treatments juice (%) peel (%) pulp (%) seed (%) waste index (g) t1 (calcuttia) 46.12 ab 17.80c 59.98a 22.22bc 0.79bc t2 (elaichi) 44.48 b 22.16c 58.73a 19.11c 0.92bc t3 (bedana) 44.11 b 29.82a 59.34a 10.84d 0.70bc t4 (bombai) 30.03 c 29.94a 42.16b 27.90ab 1.51a t5 (china) 37.44 bc 28.50ab 40.85b 30.65a 1.66a t6 (shahi) 55.08 a 23.14bc 52.84a 24.02bc 1.19ab t7(muzaffarpur) 40.65 b 18.75c 62.09a 19.16c 0.64c s.em.(±) 3.41 1.81 3.43 2.08 0.18 l.s.d (pd”0.05) 10.50 5.58 10.57 6.42 0.54 means followed by same alphabet are not significantly different table 5. biochemical properties of litchi fruits treatments tss total reducing acidity tss:acid ascorbic acid (obrix) sugar (%) sugar (%) (%) ratio (mg/100g) t1(calcuttia) 14.63 bc 13.15abc 11.55b 0.42b 34.80bcd 23.83b t2 (elaichi) 13.93 d 14.71ab 10.87c 0.42b 33.11cd 28.82a t3 (bedana) 15.87 a 15.96a 12.61a 0.54a 29.86d 29.47a t4 (bombai) 15.20 b 12.60bcd 12.41a 0.40b 38.36bc 20.37c t5 (china) 14.37 cd 11.45b 10.62cd 0.52a 27.89d 23.62b t6 (shahi) 14.87 bc 12.30a 10.95cd 0.32c 47.41a 19.72c t7(muzaffarpur) 14.80 bc 11.72b 9.68d 0.36bc 41.34ab 23.40b s.em.(±) 0.21 0.17 1.02 0.03 2.50 0.40 l.s.d (pd”0.05) 0.63 0.53 3.16 0.08 7.71 1.24 means followed by same alphabet are not significantly different subba and bhowmick j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 124-130, 2022 129 this agro-climatic situation. the wide variation in heat unit may be due to the varied maturity period of different cultivars indicates that each genotype needs certain amounts of accumulation of heat units for completion of different phenopha ses which cause the variation in maturity period (rai et al., 2003). flowering span might be differed in case of climatic condition, but flowering span of particular variety is over only when the required heat units are accumulated (byrne and bacon, 1992). the flowering parameters result shows similar trends as obser ved by baner jee a nd cha udhar y (1944), mustard et al (1953), chadha and rajpoot (1969), pivovar o (1974) and kuma r (2000). t he data indicated that the maximum titrable acidity (0.54%) was recorded in bedana while the minimum titrable a c idit y c o nt ent ( 0 . 3 2 % ) wa s r ec or ded in shahi.tss:acid ratio was maximum (47.41) in shahi and the minimum tss:acid ratio (27.89) was recorded in china. the differences of fruit physiochemica l p r oper ties indic a te t he r ela t ionship between cultivars and heat unit requirement. conclusion there was a varietal difference regarding the heat unit requirements for different phonological phases r esult ing va r ia t ion on flower ing a nd fr uiting characteristics. bedana required maximum heat unit (1133.80oc) for attaining the harvesting stage from fruiting cultivar and it was lowest in cv. shahi (950.74oc). litchi cv. bedana exhibited promising results in terms of flowering, fruiting and quality pa r a meter s with r es pec t t o high fr u it weight (17.88g), fruit diameter (3.01cm), fruit volume (18.70 ml), tss (15.87obrix), total sugar content (1 5. 96 %) , r educ ing su ga r content ( 12 . 6 1% ), ascorbic acid content (29.47 mg/100g) and may be recommended as promising cultivar in terms of better-quality characters under the sub-himalayan terai region of west bengal condition. acknowledgement authors ar e thankful to the authority of uttar banga krishi viswavidyalaya for supporting to conduct the experiment. references a. o. a. c. 1984. official methods of analysis, 14th edition, association of official agriculture chemist, washington, d.c. banerjee, j. and chaudhary, k.l. 1944.a contribution to the life history of litchi chinensis sonn. proc. indian acad. sect, 19:19-27. byrne, d.h. and bacon, t. 1992. chilling estimation: its impor ta nce a nd estima tion. texas horticulturist, 18(8-5): 8–9. chaudari, j.k. 1940. a note on the morphology and chromosome number of litchi chinensis sonn. current science, 9: 416. chadha, k.l. and rajpoot, m.s. 1969. studies on floral biology, fruit set, and its retention and quality of some litchi varieties. indian journal of horticulture, 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kochetov. abiotic stress biology in horticultural plants. springer, japan, pp 44–58. heat unit requirement and performances of litchi j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 124-130, 2022 130 subba and bhowmick j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 124-130, 2022 kumar, a. 2000. effect of foliar spray of multi-k on yield, quality and shelf life of litchi (litchi chinensis sonn.) cv. rose scented. thesis, m . s c . ag. 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(1984): the pattern and control of reproductive development in lychee. a review sci. hort., 22(4): 333-345. monteith, j.l. 1984. consistency and convenience in the choice of units for agriculture science. exptl agric., 20: 105-117 nakasone, h.k. and paull, r.e. 1998. tropical fr u i t s . p p 4 4 5 . c ab i nt er na t iona l, wallingford uk pivovaro, s.z. 1974. studies on the floral biology and the influence of growth regulators on fruit set, size and drop of litchi chinensis sonn. thesis, m.sc. ag., hebrew university of rehovot, pp39 rai, m., nath, v. and das, b. 2002. heat unit summa tionan index for predicting fruit maturity in litchi (litchi chinensis sonn.). indian j. hort., 59 (1): 34-38. ranganna, s. 1986. handbook of a nalysis and qua lity cont r ol f or f r uit a nd veget a ble p r odu c t s ( 2 n d ed) ta t a m c g r a w h ill publishing company ltd new delhi. shinohara, t. usui, m., higa, y., igarashi, d. and i nou e, t. 20 1 3. eff ec t of a c cu mula ted minimum temperature on sugar and organic acid content in passion fruit. journal of international society for southeast asian agricultural sciences,19: 1–7. singh, i. a., rao, u. v. m., singh, d. and singh, r. 20 07. st udy on a gr omet eor ologic a l indices for soybean crop under different gr owing envir onment. jour nal of a grometeorology, 9:81-85 swa n, j. b. , schneider, e. c. , moncr ief, j. e. , pa ulson, w.h. and peterson, a. e. 1989. estima ting crop gr owth yields a nd gra in moistur e from gr owing degree da ys a nd residue cover. agronomy journal, 79:53-60. (received: 28.10.202; revised: 05.02.2022; accepted: 05.02.2022) 00 a final sph -jhs coverpage first 2 pages.pdf 00 content and in this issue.pdf 01 mohan kumar g n.pdf 02 meera pandey.pdf 03 biradar c.pdf 04 varalakshmi b.pdf 05 vijayakumari n.pdf 06 barik s.pdf 07 sajid m b.pdf 08 ranga d.pdf 09 usha s.pdf 10 manisha.pdf 11 amulya r n.pdf 12 akshatha h j.pdf 13 adak t.pdf 14 sujatha s.pdf 15 gowda p p.pdf 16 subba s.pdf 17 dhayalan v.pdf 19 ahmed s.pdf 20 vishwakarma p k.pdf 21 deep lata.pdf 22 udaykumar k p.pdf 23 nayaka v s k.pdf 24 sahel n a.pdf 25 bayogan e r v.pdf 26 rathinakumari a c.pdf 27 yella swami c.pdf 28 saidulu y.pdf 29 sindhu s.pdf 30 neeraj.pdf 31 sivaranjani r.pdf 32 rashied tetteh.pdf 34 sangeetha g.pdf 35 shareefa m.pdf 36 last pages.pdf 45 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 45-51, 2020 original research paper variability and genetic divergence in vegetable cowpea germplasm of goa thangam m.1, ramachandrudu k.2, ashok kumar j.3, safeena s.a.4 and priya devi s.1 1icar –central coastal agricultural research institute, ela, old goa 403 402, goa, india 2 icar directorate of oil palm research, pedavegi 534 450, west godavari, andhra pradesh 3 icar central institute of brackishwater aquaculture, chennai 600 028, tamil nadu 4icardirectorate of floricultural research, shivajinagar, pune, maharashtra, india email : thangamgoa@gmail.com, thangam.m@icar.gov.in abstract 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. key words: correlation coefficient, genetic divergence, quantitative character, vegetable cowpea introduction vegetable cowpea popularly known as yard long bean (vigna unguiculata va r. sesquipedalis) is a n important leguminous vegetable crop of south india. vegetable cowpea is an important vegetable grown as intercrop in different cropping systems. (khanpara et al., 2016). in vegetable cowpea, a mong the different parts analyzed shells were rich in dietary fiber. seeds were nutrient dense as compared to pods and shells, but more in antinutrients (tiwari et al., 2019). in goa, pole type cowpea with indeterminate growth habit producing long green fleshy pods are preferred and fetch premium price in the market through out the year. there are many varieties released in case of bush type of cowpea but the availa bility of impr oved va rieties in pole type vegetable cowpea is rather scanty. not much work has been carried out on the genetic improvement of pole type vegetable cowpea. there is wide variability found for different morphological and other traits in the loca l types cultivated in the state of goa . exploration of genetic variability in the available germplasm is a prerequisite for initiation of any successful br eeding programme. in spite of its popularity and importance very little effort has been this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. 46 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 45-51, 2020 thangam et al. made to upgrade the genetic makeup of this crop. hence, the present investigation was carried out systematically to evaluate the local accessions to estimate the extent of genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance and genetic divergence in the locally collected germplasm of vegetable cowpea. materials and methods twenty nine genotypes of vegetable cowpea collected from different parts of goa including three released varieties were evaluated in a randomized block design with two replications during rabi seasons starting from 2012-2016 in paddy fallow land. the soil is sandy loam with a ph of 5.1 with medium phosphorous and potassium availability. recommended package of practices were followed to raise a good crop (anon. 2004). obser vations wer e r ecor ded on twelve important quantitative characters, viz., plant height (cm), number of primary branches, leaf length (cm), leaf width (cm), days to first flowering, days to first harvest, pod length (cm), pod weight (g), pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, 100 seeds weight (g) and pod yield per plant on five randomly selected plants/genotype/replication. the analysis of variance was carried out as suggested by panse and sukhatme (1985). the genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation was calculated as per the formula suggested by comstock and robinson (1952). heritability (broad sense) and genetic advance were worked out as per the procedure given by burton and de vane (1953) and allard (1960). results and discussion among the twelve quantitative characters studied, the twenty nine vegetable cowpea genotypes exhibited highly significant differences for all the characters indicating high variability in the cowpea accessions (table 1). wide range of variation was observed for all the characters studied. highest variation was observed for pod yield/plant, number of pods/plant and pod length (table 2). such a high variability for the above characters was also reported earlier by de mooy (1985), resmi (1998) and narayanankutty et al. (2003). in the present study, all the characters exhibited narrow differences between the value of pcv and gcv. this indicated low impact of environment on the expression of all the quantitative characters. the same was reported earlier by narayanankutty et al. (2005). 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 (table 2). shobha and vahab (1998) and narayanankutty et al., (2003) reported high gcv for yield per plant and pod weight in vegetable cowpea. low gcv values for days to first flowering and number of seeds per pod has been reported by sreekumar et al., (1996). the results of analysis of variance for different traits are given in table 3. 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. similar findings have been reported by other workers (de mooy(1985), resmi (1998), shobha and vahab(1998) and narayanankutty et al.,(2005) with the help of variability and subsequent gcv alone, it is not possible to determine the amount of genetic variation that is heritable to the further generations. burton and de vane (1953) suggested that gcv combined with estimates of heritability would give the best results of genetic advance to be expected from selection. in the present study, heritability values were high (>90%) for all the characters studied except number of seeds per pod. high values of heritability for quantitative characters have also been reported by earlier workers, sobha and vahab (1998) and narayanankutty et al. (2003). the accurate value for heritable variation can be estimated when heritability is combined with genetic advance. in the present study, high heritability coupled with high genetic advance was observed for pod yield per plant (g) and pod weight (g). this may be due to the preponderance of additive gene action for these characters there by indicating the advantages of selection for their 47 variability and genetic divergence in vegetable cowpea germplasm of goa j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 45-51, 2020 s .n o. a cc es si o n p la n t n o of l ea f l ea f d ay s to d ay s to p od p od p o d s n o of 10 0 p od n u m b er h ei g h t 1o le n g th w id th 1s t 1s t le n g th w ei g h t p er se ed s p er s ee d s yi el d p er b ra n ch es fl o w er in g h ar ve st p la n t po d w ei g h t p la n t 1 v c g 1 4. 49 6. 60 13 .4 8 9. 68 43 .0 0 57 .6 0 35 .1 7 10 .5 8 77 .0 0 14 .6 1 17 .3 2 82 0. 50 2 v c g 2 5. 29 8. 25 11 .3 9 8. 25 50 .4 0 71 .1 5 40 .7 7 12 .3 6 77 .6 5 14 .7 0 27 .2 3 95 0. 50 3 v c g 3 4. 85 5. 25 10 .6 3 7. 77 51 .3 0 71 .0 0 47 .3 5 13 .9 0 74 .4 0 13 .7 6 25 .6 5 10 30 .4 5 4 v c g 4 6. 29 4. 10 12 .5 4 9. 56 46 .4 0 60 .0 0 64 .7 0 35 .5 2 58 .3 5 13 .1 9 19 .2 2 20 70 .4 5 5 v c g 5 3. 46 5. 60 9. 98 6. 47 52 .2 0 69 .7 0 40 .8 5 9. 26 54 .5 0 17 .3 4 25 .2 5 50 5. 50 6 v c g 6 4. 37 5. 85 11 .2 9 8. 67 56 .1 5 69 .9 0 39 .4 2 9. 00 50 .4 5 16 .9 7 19 .8 2 45 5. 40 7 v c g 7 3. 90 5. 25 11 .1 3 9. 33 48 .5 0 62 .9 0 37 .5 3 8. 47 67 .1 5 15 .1 5 14 .9 0 56 5. 65 8 v c g 8 4. 26 4. 60 12 .2 1 9. 14 43 .5 0 60 .0 0 37 .9 0 11 .5 8 14 7. 80 15 .6 3 18 .4 7 17 10 .6 5 9 v c g 9 4. 35 4. 85 11 .9 4 9. 34 45 .2 0 60 .9 0 36 .6 9 9. 80 92 .4 5 14 .5 2 22 .5 0 91 0. 40 1 0 v c g 10 4. 41 6. 65 10 .8 4 7. 97 50 .6 0 66 .9 0 40 .3 2 11 .1 3 72 .5 0 14 .7 7 13 .4 5 81 0. 00 1 1 v c g 11 4. 99 4. 40 11 .8 8 7. 40 46 .4 0 64 .2 0 41 .2 4 10 .8 9 78 .5 0 15 .8 8 20 .1 1 85 0. 45 1 2 v c g 12 4. 64 4. 80 11 .0 8 7. 27 51 .9 0 77 .1 0 43 .0 1 9. 60 58 .4 0 16 .5 5 15 .3 9 55 5. 40 1 3 v c g 13 3. 72 5. 05 11 .7 8 8. 29 54 .5 0 74 .3 0 40 .5 5 12 .8 4 51 .5 0 17 .9 1 20 .3 1 66 0. 25 1 4 v c g 14 4. 31 4. 15 13 .7 3 9. 93 44 .2 0 61 .2 0 41 .1 9 9. 74 65 .0 5 15 .5 1 20 .5 1 63 5. 25 1 5 v c g 15 4. 38 5. 00 12 .7 8 10 .6 6 43 .6 0 60 .0 0 39 .0 2 10 .6 8 85 .3 5 15 .9 7 19 .2 9 91 0. 45 1 6 v c g 16 4. 75 4. 85 12 .2 4 9. 58 45 .3 0 60 .7 0 27 .9 7 6. 22 83 .6 0 15 .2 6 20 .9 3 52 0. 65 1 7 v c g 17 4. 08 4. 70 13 .0 0 9. 80 51 .6 0 62 .8 0 31 .5 4 10 .6 1 59 .1 0 15 .9 9 22 .3 3 62 5. 20 1 8 v c g 18 4. 46 4. 25 13 .6 0 9. 93 55 .2 0 67 .0 0 33 .3 6 8. 66 36 .6 5 16 .1 1 20 .1 1 31 5. 25 1 9 v c g 19 3. 39 5. 05 10 .5 4 10 .3 9 42 .1 0 66 .0 0 46 .1 3 12 .0 8 44 .1 5 15 .7 5 15 .0 4 52 7. 30 2 0 v c g 20 4. 64 4. 85 11 .4 2 9. 05 44 .4 0 71 .9 0 51 .9 5 12 .0 3 52 .2 0 14 .9 7 17 .5 5 60 6. 20 2 1 v c g 21 4. 43 5. 55 11 .8 9 9. 24 44 .0 0 71 .6 0 48 .1 4 11 .1 3 86 .4 5 13 .0 3 20 .0 5 90 8. 45 2 2 v c g 22 4. 95 6. 25 12 .0 7 10 .2 1 46 .1 0 70 .2 0 59 .5 0 19 .1 3 72 .5 0 16 .8 6 22 .2 9 13 74 .1 5 2 3 v c g 23 4. 10 6. 15 11 .7 4 9. 87 44 .0 0 65 .6 0 55 .6 4 10 .5 7 10 5. 50 16 .0 4 20 .3 9 11 83 .5 5 2 4 v c g 24 4. 72 5. 30 11 .1 4 9. 61 51 .8 0 78 .4 0 46 .8 7 13 .3 1 91 .6 0 13 .0 6 23 .5 6 12 62 .4 5 2 5 v c g 25 4. 86 4. 95 12 .3 3 9. 10 51 .0 0 77 .6 0 48 .7 7 14 .0 9 48 .8 0 13 .6 1 20 .6 1 69 7. 50 2 6 v c g 26 3. 95 4. 65 13 .1 3 11 .2 0 48 .7 0 62 .5 0 51 .0 1 13 .9 4 64 .1 0 13 .6 1 19 .8 4 78 3. 10 2 7 v ij ay an th i 2. 90 6. 15 11 .1 3 10 .9 5 50 .7 0 72 .0 0 47 .2 3 10 .7 5 50 .7 0 12 .9 4 23 .2 1 40 8. 60 2 8 a g ar im a 1. 00 5. 20 10 .0 0 10 .8 9 42 .9 0 64 .6 0 51 .4 0 10 .9 5 71 .3 0 12 .2 0 21 .9 6 70 7. 80 2 9 a s um an 1. 05 5. 10 9. 39 10 .0 9 45 .9 0 65 .0 0 54 .2 8 12 .0 7 65 .2 0 13 .0 5 19 .9 4 63 5. 45 c d (0 .0 5) 0. 61 6. 60 0. 82 0. 71 3. 06 3. 98 3. 36 1. 63 7. 36 1. 92 1. 62 12 3. 72 t ab le 1 . m ea n pe rf or m an ce o f ve ge ta bl e co w pe a ge rm pl as m o f g oa 48 thangam et al. j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 45-51, 2020 ta bl e 2. r an ge , m ea n, p c v , g c v, h er it ab ili ty a nd g en et ic a dv an ce f or t w el ve q ua nt it at iv e ch ar ac te rs i n ve ge ta bl e co w pe a c ha ra ct er s m ea n ± se m r an ge p he no ty pi c g en ot yp ic pc v g c v h er it ab ili ty g en et ic va ri an ce va ri an ce (% ) ad va nc e (% ) pl an t he ig ht 4. 17 0± 0. 21 0 1. 00 6 .2 9 2. 31 2. 22 36 .4 5 35 .7 4 96 .1 9 72 .2 1 n o of 1 o br an ch es 5. 29 ±0 .2 4 4. 10 8 .2 5 1. 59 1. 47 23 .8 1 22 .9 5 92 .9 2 45 .5 8 l ea f le ng th 11 .7 3± 0. 29 9. 39 1 3. 73 2. 41 2. 25 13 .2 4 12 .7 9 93 .2 8 25 .4 4 l ea f w id th 9. 29 ±0 .2 5 6. 46 1 1. 19 2. 69 2. 57 17 .6 4 17 .2 5 95 .5 5 34 .7 3 d ay s to 1 st f lo w er in g 47 .9 8± 1. 06 42 .1 0 56 .1 5 33 .8 8 31 .6 4 12 .1 3 11 .7 2 93 .4 0 23 .3 4 d ay s to 1 st h ar ve st 66 .9 9± 1. 38 57 .6 0 78 .4 0 67 .7 2 63 .9 5 12 .2 8 11 .9 4 94 .4 3 23 .8 9 po d le ng th 44 .1 2± 1. 16 27 .9 7 64 .6 9 14 2. 48 13 9. 79 27 .0 6 26 .8 0 98 .1 2 54 .6 9 po d w ei gh t 12 .0 9± 0. 56 6. 22 3 5. 52 51 .4 8 50 .8 5 59 .3 1 58 .9 4 98 .7 7 12 0. 67 n o of p od s/ pl an t 70 .4 5± 2. 54 36 .6 5 14 7. 80 96 7. 57 95 4. 66 44 .1 7 43 .8 6 98 .6 7 89 .7 5 n o of s ee ds /p od 14 .9 9± 0. 66 12 .2 0 17 .9 1 4. 48 3. 60 14 .1 1 12 .6 6 80 .4 3 23 .3 8 10 0 se ed w ei gh t 20 .2 5± 0. 56 13 .4 5 27 .2 3 20 .5 0 19 .8 8 22 .3 6 22 .0 2 96 .9 6 44 .6 7 y ie ld p er p la nt 82 7. 48 ±4 2. 72 31 5. 25 2 07 0. 45 30 34 98 .4 5 29 98 49 .3 8 66 .5 8 66 .1 8 98 .7 9 13 5. 49 ta bl e 3. a na ly si s of v ar ia nc e fo r d if fe re nt t ra it s in v eg et ab le c ow pe a ge rm pl as m o f g oa so ur ce s of d. f. m ea n su n of s qu ar es v ar ia ti on p la nt n o of l ea f l ea f d ay s to d ay s to po d po d p od s n o of 10 0 po d he ig ht br an ch es le ng th w id th 1s t 1s t le ng th w ei gh t pe r se ed s se ed s yi el d pe r fl ow er in g ha rv es t p la nt pe r po d w ei gh t pl an t t re at m en ts 28 .0 0 64 .6 7* 44 .4 2 67 .5 3 75 .3 1 94 8. 59 * 18 96 .2 4 39 89 .5 5* 14 41 .3 9* 27 09 1. 81 12 5. 41 97 95 6. 69 57 4. 08 * r ep lic at io ns 1. 00 0. 47 0. 08 0. 07 0. 05 0. 03 0. 38 1. 32 0. 65 0. 02 1. 07 13 83 .7 7 0. 21 r es id ua l 28 .0 0 2. 47 3. 15 4. 54 3. 35 62 .5 8 10 5. 70 75 .1 9 17 .7 2 36 1. 41 24 .5 5 21 74 .0 8 17 .4 8 *s ig ni fic an t at 1 % l ev el 49 variability and genetic divergence in vegetable cowpea germplasm of goa j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 45-51, 2020 ta bl e 4. c lu st er in g pa tt er n of v eg et ab le c ow pe a ge no ty pe s t ra it s p la nt n o of 1 o l ea f l ea f d ay s to d ay s to po d po d n o of n o of 10 0 y ie ld he ig ht br an ch es le ng th w id th 1s t 1s t le ng th w ei gh t po ds / se ed s/ se ed pe r fl ow er in g ha rv es t pl an t po d w ei gh t pl an t pl an t he ig ht 1. 00 0 -0 .1 76 * 0. 68 8* * 0. 34 5* 0. 15 0* * 0. 06 0 -0 .0 76 0. 36 0* 0. 10 4 0. 23 9 0. 00 8 0. 42 3* n o of 1 o br an ch es 1. 00 0 -0 .3 73 -0 .2 86 0. 06 1 0. 20 1 0. 08 4 -0 .1 30 0. 08 3* -0 .0 93 0. 21 9 -0 .0 46 l ea f le ng th 1. 00 0 0. 82 9 0. 03 3 -0 .1 41 -0 .2 97 0. 04 7 0. 06 4 0. 25 8* * -0 .0 22 0. 13 5 l ea f w id th 1. 00 0 -0 .1 64 -0 .1 57 -0 .0 73 0. 06 3 0. 05 0 -0 .0 22 -0 .0 24 0. 10 9 d ay s to 1 st f lo w er in g 1. 00 0 0. 56 7* * -0 .2 29 -0 .0 80 -0 .4 69 0. 28 0* 0. 24 2* -0 .3 18 * d ay s to 1 st h ar ve st 1. 00 0 0. 23 7* -0 .0 39 -0 .3 26 0. 01 3 0. 22 0* -0 .1 95 po d le ng th 1. 00 0 0. 70 0* * -0 .0 77 -0 .3 90 ** 0. 05 5 0. 48 9* po d w ei gh t 1. 00 0 -0 .0 83 * -0 .2 67 0. 04 4 0. 73 7* * n o of p od s/ pl an t 1. 00 0 -0 .0 99 0. 07 2* 0. 59 6* * n o of s ee ds /p od 1. 00 0 -0 .1 39 ** -0 .2 03 * 10 0 se ed w ei gh t 1. 00 0 0. 09 6 * si gn ifi ca nt a t 5 % l ev el ; ** s ig ni fic an t at 1 % l ev el ta bl e 5. p he no ty pi c co rr el at io n co ef fi ci en t am on g di ff er en t qu an ti ta ti ve c ha ra ct er s in v eg et ab le c ow pe a c lu st er n o. n um be r of g en ot yp es c on st it ue nt g en ot yp es i 5 v c g 1, v c g 2, v c g 3, v c g 9, v c g 15 ii 2 a s um an , a g ar im a ii i 2 v c g 6, v c g 13 iv 2 v c g 18 , v c g 17 v 2 v c g 11 , v c g 14 v i 2 v c g 25 , v c g 20 v ii 2 v c g 10 , v c g 12 v ii i 2 v c g 7, v c g 19 ix 2 v c g 24 , v c g 21 x 2 v ija ya nt hi , v c g 26 x i 2 v c g 23 , v c g 22 x ii 2 v c g 5, v c g 16 x ii i 1 v c g 4 x iv 1 v c g 8 50 thangam et al. j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 45-51, 2020 improvement. high heritability coupled with high genetic advance for above characters in vegetable cowpea has been reported by resmi (1998) and narayanankutty et al. (2003). other characters viz., days to first flowering, days to first harvest, number of seeds per pod and leaf length has recorded high heritability of more than 90 per cent but their genetic advance is very low (<30%) indicating the non additive gene action for these traits. this implies improvement of above traits by pyramiding desirable genes through suitable hybridization programmes. the success of any hybridization programme depends on the genetic diversity present in the parents. in the present study, the twenty nine genotypes could be grouped in to fourteen clusters based on genetic distance (table 4). the cluster i was the largest comprising of five genotypes and remaining clusters had two genotypes each except thirteen and fourteen that had one genotype each. the clustering pattern in the present study did not follow any uniform pattern. the clustering pattern was irregular and the same type of distribution was earlier r epor ted by pa til a nd bha pka r (1987) a nd narayanankutty et al. (2005). the correlation studies provide reliable information on the nature and extent of relationship for bringing about improvement in yield and other traits. the estimates of correlation coefficients is presented in table 5. characters showing positive and highly significant correlation with yield per plant were pod weight (0.737) and number of pods per plant (0.596). on the other hand, yield ha d nega tive and significant correlation with days to first flowering (-0.318) and number of seeds per pod (-0. 203). t his is in accordance with the results of narayanankutty et al. (2005). in the present study, 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. hence, selection of parents differing in traits such as pod weight, pod yield per plant , number of pods/plant and pod length will be more useful in future breeding programmes. references allard, r.w. 1960. principles of plant breeding. john willey and sons; inc., new york. pp. 83-108. anon 2004. crop varieties developed by dbs konkan krishi vidyapeeth, dapoli. directorate of research, dr.b.s.konkan krishi vidyapeeth, dapoli, ratnagiri (m.s.), india. burton, g.w and de vane, e.h. 1953. estimating her ita bility in ta ll fescue (festuca arundinaceae) from replicated clonal material. agron. j. 43: 478-81. comstock, r.e and robinson, h.f.1952. genetic parameters, their estimation and significance. proc. vi intl. grassland congress. 1: 284-91. de mooy. 1985. variability of different characteristics in botswana cowpea germplasm. tropical grain legume bull. 31: 1-4. tiwari d., dutta a., singh y.v., raghuvanshi r.s., shukla p. , kha n r. , tila r a s. (2019) physicochemica l a nd or ga noleptic characteristics of different parts of vegetable cowpea [vigna unguiculata(l. ) wa lp]. indian j.of agri. res. 53 (6) : 662-668. khanpara s.v., jivani l.l., vachanni j.h. and kachchadia h. (2016) genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance studies in vegetable cowpea [vigna unguiculata (l.) walp.]. electronic journal of plant breeding 7(2) : 408-413 narayanankutty c., mill r. and jaikumaran u. 2003. variability and genetic divergence in vegetable cowpea. j. maharashtra agric. univ., 28: 2629. narayanankutty c., sunanda c.k and jaikumaran u. 2005. genetic diver gence in pole type vegetable cowpea. indian j. hort. 62: 354-57. panse v.g and sukhatme p.v. 1985. statistical methods for agricultural workers. fourth 51 variability and genetic divergence in vegetable cowpea germplasm of goa j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 45-51, 2020 (received on 22.11.2019 and accepted on 05.01.2020) edition, indian council of agricultural research, new delhi. patil r.b and bhapkar d.g. 1987. genetic divergence among 49 cowpea strains. j. maharashtra agric. univ. 12: 283-85. resmi p.s. 1998. genetic variability in yard long bean (vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis (l) ver dcour t). m. sc. (ag. ) thesis, ker a la agricultural university, thrissur, 116p. shobha p.p. and abdul vahab m. 1998. genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance in cowpea (vigna unguiculata (l) walp.). j. trop. agric. 36: 21-23. sreekumar k.k., inasi k.a., antony a. and nair r.r. 1996. genetic variability, heritability and correlation studies in vegetable cowpea (vigna unguiculata var. sesquipedalis). south ind. hort. 44: 15-18. introduction dolichos bean ( lablab purpureus. l.) is an important vegetable legume crop grown throughout the country. india is the centre of diversity for dolichos bean, and a large numbers of indigenous strains are available in northern india. although this crop originated in india, very little work has been done for its genetic improvement. a great range of variation exists for plant and pod characters among the accessions grown all over the country. planning and execution of a breeding programme for improving quantitative attributes depends, to a great extent, on the magnitude of genetic variability available. several of the plant traits are governed by polygenes, greatly influenced by environmental conditions. there is a need to partition the overall variability into heritable and non-heritable components. knowledge on genetic diversity, its nature, degree of variability and interrelationship between traits is useful in selecting suitable parents to initiate a j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):147-153, 2015 variability, heritability, correlation and genetic divergence studies in dolichos bean (lablab purpureus l.) t.s. dhillon and ajay kumar department of vegetable science punjab agricultural university ludhiana-141001, india e-mail: ajaykpau@gmail.com abstract variability, heritability, correlation and genetic divergence were studied in 30 strains of dolichos bean (lablab purpureus l.) for various growth and yield attributing parameters. high phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation was found in number of flowers per cluster, fresh green pod yield per plant, green pod yield per hectare, and mineral content. high heritability and expected genetic advance was found in number of flowers per cluster, vine length, weight of 10 green pods, fresh green pod yield per plant, and green pod yield per hectare. genotypic correlation was higher than phenotypic correlation. yield per plant was positively and significantly correlated with number of branches per plant, number of pods per cluster, number of pods per plant, weight of 10 green pods, number of clusters per plant, and number of flowers per cluster. for genetic divergence studies, the genotypes were grouped into 11 clusters on the basis of relative magnitude of d2 values. maximum intercluster distance was recorded between clusters vii and i, indicating a wide diversity among these two clusters. minimum intercluster distance was observed between clusters ix and viii, indicating their close relationship. thus, clusters vii and i were generally the most divergent from the other clusters. intra-cluster value was highest for cluster ix. intra-cluster distance was least for clusters vi and x. among the genotypes, sc-5, sc-7, sc-11, sc-16 and sc-17 were the best in traits related to yield compared to the check, ps-2. key words: dolichos bean, genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance, genetic divergence successful breeding programme. therefore, the present investigation was carried out to elucidate genetic variability, genetic gain, heritability and interrelationship using correlation, in a collection of strains of dolichos bean (lablab purpureus l.). material and methods the experiment was laid out in randomized block design, with three replications, at the department of vegetable science, punjab agricultural university, ludhiana. each entry comprised 20 plants, at a spacing of 1.25m from ridge-to-ridge, and 0.45m from plant-to-plant. data were recorded on all the characters pertaining to the study. five plants selected randomly from each treatment were selected for different agronomic traits, viz., days taken to 50% germination, days to flowering, days to first-pod set, days to first picking, number of branches per plant, number of flowers per cluster, number of pods per cluster, number of pods per plant, number of clusters per plant, vine length 148 (cm), length of pod (cm), breadth of pod (cm), weight of 10 green pods (g), fresh green-pod yield per plant (kg), greenpod yield per hectare (q/ha), protein content (%), and dry matter content (%). genotypic coefficient of variation was estimated as per burton and devance (1953). heritability and genetic advance were calculated as per allard (1999) and correlation was estimated as per al-jibouri et al (1958). all the biochemical parameters were determined as per a.o.a.c. (1970). mahalanobis d2 statistic, as detailed by rao (1952) was applied to assess genetic divergence between genotypes. results and discussion analysis of variance (anova) revealed significant differences among various characters under study, indicating a high degree of variability in the material (table 1). daysto-first-picking were minimum in sc-29, and maximum in sc-19. number of pods per cluster was highest in ps-2 and lowest in sc-21. highest number of pods per plant was seen in sc-11, and, the lowest in sc-24 and sc-25. length and breadth of the pod was maximum in sc-9, while, it was minimum in sc-15. least breadth of pod was seen in sc14. fresh green-pod yield was maximum in sc-17, and minimum in sc-13. crude protein content was maximum in sc-17, and minimum in sc-25. highest soluble protein content was recorded in sc-30, and lowest in sc-29. dry matter content was highest in sc-8, and the least in sc-25. genetic variability a wide range of variation was observed for all the characters under study (table 2). phenotypic coefficient of variation ranged from 17.67 to 47.37. highest phenotypic coefficient of variation existed for number of flowers per cluster (47.37), followed by fresh green-pod yield per plant (46.47) and green-pod yield per hectare (46.47). highto moderate-phenotypic variability for pod yield per plant was table 1. mean performance of some genotypes of dolichos bean sl. dolichos days number number length breadth fresh crude soluble dry mineral no. strain to first of pods of pods of pod of pod green-pod protein protein matter content (genotype) picking per per (cm) (cm) yield per (%) (%) content (%) cluster plant plant (kg) (%) 1 sc-1 119.62 6.58 196.67 11.66 1.58 0.58 14.69 17.50 12.64 1.36 2 sc-2 103.27 6.33 151.89 8.25 2.82 1.57 17.63 15.03 19.26 0.10 3 sc-3 102.93 7.25 155.00 8.72 2.32 1.38 15.67 14.30 16.80 0.74 4 sc-4 101.93 5.00 107.67 10.67 2.94 0.75 14.95 14.10 16.28 2.00 5 sc-5 103.73 9.08 240.64 6.79 2.16 1.33 21.35 20.93 23.35 2.66 6 sc-6 110.60 6.92 231.87 8.37 1.53 0.90 18.89 21.37 18.33 0.74 7 sc-7 101.60 9.13 288.56 9.29 2.03 1.30 20.54 20.97 23.36 1.36 8 sc-8 98.60 9.10 240.22 6.86 2.36 0.80 21.37 20.47 23.77 2.34 9 sc-9 108.8 4.37 109.83 12.66 3.03 0.73 13.26 12.53 12.36 2.66 10 sc-10 92.07 7.97 333.33 7.00 1.45 1.14 12.66 14.13 12.31 2.34 11 sc-11 90.20 7.72 370.42 8.44 1.52 1.35 13.27 11.93 13.32 2.66 12 sc-12 88.73 6.87 309.53 8.25 1.50 1.06 18.03 12.27 16.40 2.00 13 sc-13 87.40 7.00 115.60 6.67 1.41 0.28 13.76 18.53 12.74 1.36 14 sc-14 86.40 5.33 238.70 7.33 1.34 0.60 12.91 19.13 12.62 0.74 15 sc-15 88.87 9.48 275.20 5.74 1.52 0.91 19.08 16.17 20.65 1.36 16 sc-16 106.80 5.23 158.50 7.58 1.82 1.30 16.14 13.00 17.50 2.00 17 sc-17 116.40 5.93 253.56 8.29 2.22 2.24 21.46 15.67 22.71 1.36 18 sc-18 132.73 5.75 136.67 6.57 1.62 0.63 14.18 21.43 16.13 0.74 19 sc-19 154.60 5.77 145.25 6.65 1.90 0.57 16.11 12.10 16.87 0.74 20 sc-20 152.60 10.63 140.00 7.13 1.84 0.70 18.90 12.00 22.81 2.34 21 sc-21 148.60 2.77 100.00 6.36 1.78 0.50 17.20 14.30 17.29 0.74 22 sc-22 144.87 4.50 166.67 7.00 1.91 0.61 16.48 15.10 16.19 0.74 23 sc-23 139.20 4.08 123.33 6.57 2.04 0.67 15.67 13.37 16.57 2.66 24 sc-24 150.00 3.00 93.33 7.09 2.23 0.43 18.76 12.00 19.35 1.36 25 sc-25 151.93 4.17 93.33 7.19 2.05 0.39 12.02 12.33 11.77 1.36 26 sc-26 143.60 7.52 146.67 10.40 2.14 0.67 13.74 12.77 14.01 2.00 27 ps-2 107.40 12.57 160.00 11.23 1.99 1.19 17.13 21.13 15.47 2.66 28 sc-28 136.27 7.17 175.00 10.06 2.06 0.96 12.75 13.03 12.48 2.66 29 sc-29 51.60 10.17 271.67 9.08 1.57 1.04 16.17 11.10 15.81 2.34 30 sc-30 111.73 5.42 223.33 11.33 1.72 1.16 14.32 23.00 12.60 2.66 cd (p=0.05) 1.54 1.12 32.17 0.52 0.14 0.18 1.19 1.40 1.27 0.69 dhillon and ajay kumar j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):147-153, 2015 149 reported by kabir and subir (1987) and vashi et al (1999). phenotypic variation alone does not reveal the relative amount of variation; hence, different aspects of genetic parameters were worked out. in our experimental material, genotypic variability for characters under study ranged from 17.09 to 44.86. maximum genotypic coefficient of variation was observed for number of flowers per cluster (46.31), followed by fresh green-pod yield per plant, and green-pod yield per hectare (44.86 each). similar results were reported by borah and shadeque (1992) and uddin and newaz (1997). selection is favoured when a major proportion of the large amount of phenotypic variability is a tributable to heritable variation. burton and devance (1953) stated that heritability alone was not enough to make efficient selection in the segregating generation, unless heritability was accompanied by a substantial amount of genetic advance. in the present investigation, number of flowers per cluster, number of pods per cluster, number of pods per plant, vine length, weight of 10 green pods, fresh green-pod yield per plant, and green-pod yield per hectare accounted for higher heritability (99.45% to 92.42%) and higher genetic advance (93.26% to 75.38%). these results are in conformity with singh et al (1979), uddin and newaz (1997) and bendale et al (2004). correlation it is important to study inter-relationships between various characters. as most traits of economic importance in crop plants depend upon one or the other trait, the degree of expression of one trait increases or decreases with an increase or decrease in the other character. a trait such as yield is dependent on more than one contributing traits. it is important to learn of the association between yield and its components, as, this provides valuable information on a correlated response to selection. highly significant and positive phenotypic correlation (table 3) was observed between pod yield per plant and six other yield-related components, viz., number of branches per plant, number of pods per cluster, number of pods per plant, weight of 10 green pods, number of clusters per plant and number of flowers per cluster. also, yield per plant was significantly and positively correlated to protein content and dry matter content. therefore, selection for yield and its positivelycorrelated characters, should result in a correlated response table 2. general mean, range and components of variance for 17 characters in dolichos bean character general range genotypic phenotypic coefficient heritability h2 expected genetic mean coefficient coefficient of variation (%) genetic advance of variation of variation gain (%) days taken to 6.63 4.33 9.33 17.25 20.37 10.83 71.73 2.00 30.10 50% germination days to flowering 90.88 34.73 127.47 25.57 25.62 1.51 99.65 47.80 52.59 days to first-pod set 99.02 41.20 133.40 22.88 22.92 1.28 99.69 46.61 47.07 days to first picking 114.44 51.60 154.60 22.43 22.44 0.82 99.87 52.84 46.17 number of branches 15.16 10.87 19.27 17.30 18.22 5.71 90.19 5.13 33.85 per plant number of flowers 14.43 3.02 25.05 46.31 47.37 9.97 95.57 13.46 93.26 per cluster number of pods 7.30 2.00 12.57 38.06 39.60 10.90 92.42 4.75 75.38 per cluster number of pods 191.75 93.33 370.42 39.47 40.79 10.27 93.66 150.89 78.69 per plant number of clusters 23.72 14.08 45.58 35.15 36.66 10.41 91.93 16.47 69.43 per plant vine length (cm) 344.98 70.83 580.67 38.38 38.49 2.85 99.45 272.03 78.85 length of pod (cm) 8.31 5.74 12.66 22.01 22.34 3.87 97.00 3.71 44.65 breadth of pod (cm) 1.95 1.34 3.03 22.55 22.96 4.35 96.41 0.89 45.60 weight of 10 green 50.66 24.59 103.33 39.52 40.48 8.73 95.35 40.27 79.50 pods (g) fresh green-pod yield 0.93 0.28 2.24 44.86 46.47 12.13 93.19 0.83 89.20 per plant (kg) green-pod yield (q/ha) 157.32 48.34 380.80 44.86 46.47 12.12 93.19 140.34 89.21 protein content (%) 16.30 12.02 21.46 17.09 17.67 4.48 93.56 5.55 34.05 dry matter content (%) 16.73 11.77 23.77 22.39 22.87 4.65 95.87 7.55 45.17 variability, heritability and related studies in dolichos bean j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):147-153, 2015 150 table 3. phenotypic (rp) and genotypic (rg) correlation coefficient between various pairs of characters in dolichos lablab character days taken days days to days number of number number of number of to 50% to first-pod to first branches of flowers pods per pods per germination flowering set picking per plant per cluster cluster plant days to rg 0.0874 flowering r p 0.0773 days to rg 0.1340 0.9716 first-pod set r p 0.1193 0.9700** days to rg 0.0800 0.9598 0.9929 first picking r p 0.0706 0.9579** 0.9911** number of rg 0.0036 0.5089 0.5226 0.5329 branches r p 0.0308 0.4812** 0.4951** 0.5060** per plant number of rg -0.2768 -0.6388 -0.6539 -0.6320 0.5571 flowers per r p -0.2210* -0.6206** -0.6354** -0.6154** 0.5048** cluster number of rg -0.4606 -0.4139 -0.4094 -0.4057 0.3493 0.6984 pods per r p -0.3940** -0.3955** -0.3955** -0.3892** 0.3291** 0.6562** cluster number of rg -0.3132 -0.6856 -0.6688 -0.6398 0.6900 0.6934 0.3951 pods per r p -0.2246* -0.6622** -0.6460** -0.6174** 0.6801** 0.6490** 0.3643** plant number of rg -0.3431 0.1604 0.1380 0.1511 0.2550 -0.0178 0.2626 0.0945 clusters r p -0.2946** 0.1532 0.1321 0.1438 0.2287* -0.0019 0.2454* 0.1094 per plant vine length rg 0.0041 0.6797 0.6974 0.6780 0.2545 -0.6486 0.2852 0.4127 (cm) r p -0.0023 0.6761** 0.6935** 0.6754** 0.2404* -0.6328** 0.2758** 0.3994** length rg 0.1446 0.1618 0.1255 0.1474 -0.1582 0.0756 0.0855 -0.0407 of pod (cm) r p 0.1343 0.1587 0.1235 0.1440 -0.1586 0.0675 0.0839 -0.0252 breadth of rg 0.4004 0.2292 0.2184 0.1956 -0.0241 -0.3791 -0.125 -0.4696 pod (cm) r p 0.3186** 0.2224* 0.2127* 0.1909 -0.0267 -0.3760** 0-0.1067 -0.4509** weight of rg 0.3497 0.1634 0.1172 0.0542 0.2212 -0.1642 0.0368 -0.3042 10 green r p 0.3093** 0.1580 0.1117 0.0532 0.2118* -0.1493 0.0395 -0.2898** pods (g) fresh rg 0.0494 -0.3415 -0.3701 -0.3978 0.7318 0.4544 0.3447 0.5210 green-pod r p 0.0740 -0.3297** -0.3590** -0.3827** 0.7156** 0.4311** 0.3296** 0.5324** yield per plant (kg) green-pod rg 0.0496 -0.3413 -0.3699 -0.3976 0.7316 0.4543 0.3466 0.5208 yield (q/ha) r p 0.0743 -0.3295** -0.3588** -0.3825** 0.7154** 0.4310** 0.3294** 0.5323** protein rg -0.3419 -0.0110 -0.0767 -0.0532 -0.3503 0.3604 0.3631 0.2076 content (%) r p -0.2757** -0.0056 -0.0759 -0.0511 -0.3192** 0.3382** 0.3330** 0.1953 dry matter rg -0.2406 -0.0757 -0.0002 -0.0226 -0.2782 0.3080 0.3679 0.1323 content (%) r p -0.1784 -0.0725 -0.0013 -0.0223 -0.2500* 0.3017** 0.3350** 0.1287 characters number vine length breadth weight of fresh green-pod protein of clusters length of pod of pod 10 green green-pod yield content per plant (cm) (cm) (cm) pods (g) yield per (q/ha) (%) plant (kg) days to rg flowering r p days to rg first-pod set r p days to rg first picking r p number of rg branches r p per plant continued dhillon and ajay kumar j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):147-153, 2015 151 table 3. continued... character number vine length breadth weight of fresh green-pod protein of clusters length of pod of pod 10 green green-pod yield content per plant (cm) (cm) (cm) pods (g) yield per (q/ha) (%) plant (kg) number of rg flowers per r p cluster number of rg pods per r p cluster number of rg pods per r p plant number of rg clusters per r p plant vine length rg 0.2425 (cm) r p 0.2349* length of rg -0.1121 0.0620 pod (cm) r p -0.1021 0.0606 breadth of rg 0.2702 0.2709 0.3706 pod (cm) r p 0.2625* 0.2668* 0.3585** weight of rg -0.3444 0.1616 0.2786 0.6803 10 green r p -0.3134** 0.1580 0.2618* 0.6519** pods (g) fresh rg 0.3070 0.1823 0.1756 0.1789 0.6233 green-pod r p 0.2622* 0.1756 0.1679 0.1632 0.6198** yield per plant (kg) green-pod rg 0.3069 0.1821 0.1758 0.1791 0.6234 1.0000 yield (q/ha) r p 0.2622* 0.1754 0.1681 0.1633 0.6199** 1.0000** protein rg -0.4900 -0.2698 0.2852 0.1560 0.1881 0.4091 0.4090 content (%) r p -0.4536** -0.2581* 0.2625* 0.1423 0.1772 0.3787** 0.3785** dry matter rg -0.4097 -0.1992 0.3846 0.2307 0.2375 0.3766 0.3765 0.9600 content (%) r p -0.3905** -0.1956 0.3736** 0.2219* 0.2332* 0.3609** 0.3607** 0.9174** *significant at 5% level of significance; **significant at 1% level of significance for increase in yield. these positive correlations between yield and its contributing characters show simple, indirect selection criteria for developing high-yielding cultivars. similar results were reported by nandi et al (1997) and uddin and newaz (1997). genotypic correlation between yield and other traits was slightly higher in magnitude and similar in direction to the corresponding phenotypic correlation. other characters like vine length and length and breadth of the pod, had a positive but non-significant phenotypic correlation with pod yield. this shows that these characters cannot be treated as indices of higher pod yield. such as association could be due to environmental factors, and cannot be used on its own. pod yield was found to have a negative and significant correlation with days to flowering, days to first-pod set, and days to first picking. highest amount of phenotypic variation and coefficient of variation was recorded for mineral content. highest amount of genotypic variation was recorded in fresh greenpod yield per plant. this suggests a high variability in the material and can be exploited further in improvement programmes. lowest amount of phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation was seen in crude protein content; the lowest amount of coefficient of variation was found in days to first picking, indicating lesser variation in the material; thus, it cannot be exploited further in improvement programmes. highto moderatephenotypic variability estimate was earlier reported by joshi (1971), biju et al (2001), bhatt (1970), kabir and subir (1987), vashi et al (1999) and lal et al (2005). pandey and dubey (1972) reported a narrow range of variation in protein content there were narrow differences between phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation in all the characters studied, except mineral content, indicating a low environmental influence in expression of these characters. variability, heritability and related studies in dolichos bean j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):147-153, 2015 152 this implies that phenotypic variability is a reliable measure of genotypic variability. therefore selection for improvement in the trait is possible and effective on a phenotypic basis. genetic divergence based on d2 values, 30 genotypes of dolichos bean grouped into eleven clusters (table 4). constellation of the genotypes into clusters was done as per tocher’s method (rao, 1952). the range of d2 values obtained in the present material was 70.95 to 27774.01. the lowest end of this d2 range falls between sc-10 and sc-11, with the upper end in d2 values falling between sc-25 and sc-29. in the present study, genotypes collected from same place did not group together in the same cluster, viz., ps-2 table 4. clustering pattern in 30 genotypes of dolichos bean cluster genotype/s frequency no. i sc-21, sc-23, sc-24, sc-25, sc-26 5 ii sc-2, sc-16 2 iii sc-3, ps-2, sc-28, sc-30 4 iv sc-1, sc-15 2 v sc-5, sc-7 2 vi sc-17 1 vii sc-12, sc-29 2 viii sc-6, sc-8, sc-14 3 ix sc-4, sc-9, sc-18, sc-19, sc-20, sc-22 6 x sc-13 1 xi sc-10, sc-11 2 table 5. interand intracluster (underlined) average d2 and distance (√√√√√d2) values in 30 genotypes of dolichos bean cluster i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi no. i 337.93 (18.38) ii 326.05 68.98 (18.06) (8.30) iii 181.08 169.99 215.02 (13.46) (13.04) (14.66) iv 359.96 165.15 236.94 110.21 (18.97) (12.85) (15.39) (10.50) v 333.81 122.72 168.24 128.96 50.72 (18.27) (11.08) (12.97) (11.36) (7.12) vi 384.64 186.23 215.50 293.51 173.72 0.00 (19.61) (13.65) (14.68) (17.13) (13.18) vii 518.90 255.61 374.78 164.28 222.42 348.47 70.34 (22.78) (15.99) (19.36) (12.82) (14.91) (18.67) (8.39) viii 243.25 175.81 125.22 140.07 119.30 260.22 287.30 141.65 (15.60) (13.26) (11.19) (11.83) (10.92) (16.13) (16.95) (11.90) ix 188.28 169.79 124.53 183.95 192.47 297.00 341.69 119.17 382.42 (13.72) (13.03) (11.16) (13.56) (13.87) (17.23) (18.48) (10.92) (19.55) x 468.08 280.76 383.90 194.16 309.61 450.69 221.08 305.76 290.45 0.00 (21.63) (16.76) (19.59) (13.93) (17.60) (21.23) (14.87) (17.49) (17.04) xi 326.52 238.93 187.65 223.31 132.81 213.08 312.43 145.80 250.42 413.18 51.81 (18.07) (15.46) (13.70) (14.95) (11.52) (14.60) (17.68) (12.07) (15.82) (20.33) (7.20) and sc 29 (from new delhi) grouped into cluster iii and vii, respectively. genotype ps-2 (from new delhi) and sc-3 and sc-28 (from punjab) grouped in cluster iii; genotypes sc-12, sc-13, sc-14 and sc-15, were all from bengaluru, but grouped into different clusters. genotypes collected from punjab were scattered from cluster ii to vii. these findings suggest that the pattern of clustering of genotypes is independent of their geographical origin. the same findings (distribution of genotypes into different groups being independent of the place of their collection/ development) were reported by bhatt (1970), biju et al (2001), and lal et al (2005). this implies that genetic material from the same geographical region may provide a substantial diversity. this also indicates that forces other than ecogeographical differentiation (such as natural and human selection-pressure) can exert a considerable influence on genetic divergence. interand intracluster average d2 values and distance (√d2 values) among 30 genotypes of dolichos bean are presented in table 5. maximum inter-cluster distance was recorded between clusters vii and i (d2 value = 518.90), indicating a wide diversity between these two clusters; while, minimum inter-cluster distance (d2 value 119.17) was observed between clusters ix and viii, indicating their close relationship. thus, clusters vii and i were generally the most divergent from other clusters. intradhillon and ajay kumar j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):147-153, 2015 153 cluster values ranged from 382.42 (19.55) for cluster ix, to zero for cluster vi and x. of the clusters comprising more than one genotype, minimum intra-cluster value of 50.72 (7.12) was recorded for cluster v. genotypes sc-17, sc-2, sc-3, sc-11 and sc-5 had a high pod-yield potential and other desirable economic traits, and thus, need to be tested extensively. however, a high expression of various characters was seen in different genotypes. maximum expression for pod yield and protein content was seen in sc-17, while, that for number of branches per plant and number of pods per plant was maximum in sc-11, sc-10, sc-12, sc-7 and sc-15. genotype sc-2 outnumbered all the others in respect of green-pod weight, while, sc-9 was rated as the best on the basis of pod length and pod breadth. genotype sc-29 was the earliest to mature and of a bushy type, followed by sc12, sc-13 and sc-14; while, sc-19, sc-20 and sc-25 were late-maturing genotypes. this indicated that a high expression of all these characters in a single genotype can be achieved through hybridization and selection. among the genotypes tested, sc-5, sc-7, sc-11, sc16 and sc-17 were the best in terms of traits related to yield, over the check, ps-2. references al-jibouri, h.r., miller, p.a. and robinson, h.f. 1958. genotypic and environment variances in upland cotton crosses of interspecific origin. agron. j., 50:633-637 a.o.a.c. 1970. official methods of analysis. association of official agricultural chemists, 9th edn., prentice hall of india, washington, d.c. allard, r.w. 1999. principles of plant breeding. john wiley and sons inc., new york, usa bendale, v.w., topare, s.s., bhave, r.g., mehta, j.k. and madav, r.r. 2004. genetic analysis on yield and yield components in lablab bean (lablab purpureus l. sweet). orissa j. hort., 32:99-101 biju, m.g., prasanna, k.p. and rajan, s. 2001. genetic divergence in hyacinth bean. veg. sci., 28:163-164 bhatt, g.m. 1970. multivariate analysis approach to selection of parents for hybridization aiming at yield improvement in self-pollinated crops. aust. j. agril. res., 21:1-7 borah, p. and shadeque, a. 1992. studies on genetic variability of common dolichos bean. indian j. hort., 49:270-273 burton, g.w. and devance, c.h. 1953. estimating heritability in tall (festuca arundinacea) from replicated clonal material. agron. j., 45:514-518 joshi, s.n. 1971. studies on genetic variability for yield and its components in indian bean (dolichos lablab). madras agri. j., 58:367-371 kabir, j. and subir, s. 1987. studies on genetic variability and heritability in dolichos bean. amer. agril. res., 8:141-144 lal, h., rai, m., verma, a. and vishwanath. 2005. analysis of genetic divergence of dolichos bean (lablab purpureus) genotypes. veg. sci., 32:129-132 nandi, a., tripathy, p. and lekha, d. 1997. correlation, coheritability and path analysis studies in dolichos bean. aciar food legume newslett., 25:1-2 pandey, r.p. and dubey, k.c. 1972. studies on variability in dolichos lablab. jnkvv res. j., 6:145-148 rao, c.r. 1952. advanced statistical methods in biometric research and education. john wiley & sons, inc., new york, usa singh, s.p., singh, h.n., singh, n.p., and srivastava, j.p. 1979. genetic studies on yield components in lablab bean. indian j. agril. sci., 49:579-582 uddin, m.s. and newaz, m.a. 1997. genetic parameters and the association among flower and pod characteristics of hyacinth bean. legume res., 20:8286 vashi, r.d., prayabali, r.m. and vashi, p.s. 1999. heterosis in india (dolichos lablab l.) gujarat agri. univ. res. j., 14:36-38 (ms received 11 november 2013, revised 03 august 2015, accepted 13 august 2015) variability, heritability and related studies in dolichos bean j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):147-153, 2015 introduction guava (psidium guajava l.) is an important fruit crop of india. it has gained considerable prominence on account of its high nutritive value, availability at moderate prices, pleasant aroma and good flavour. it is one of the commonest fruits liked by the rich and the poor alike and is popularly known as ‘apple of the tropics’. it is one of the hardiest fruit trees, adaptable to a variety of soil and climatic conditions. it grows well even under neglected conditions and, in fact, is even sometimes considered of a weed in fiji and hawaii. it is the fifth most widely grown fruit crop of india. the area under guava is about 0.178 million hectares, producing 1.83 mt of fruit. popular varieties of guava in india are allahabad safeda, lucknow-49, nagpur seedless, dharwar, etc. bihar is the leading state in guava production, with 0.26 mt, followed by maharashtra, uttar pradesh, karnataka, west bengal, punjab, andhra pradesh, gujarat, orissa and tamil nadu. at present, it is grown throughout the length and breadth of the country night from sea level to 1300m altitude, and is so acclimatized that it seems like a focus j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 94-108, 2010 guava improvement in india and future needs m.r. dinesh and c. vasugi division of fruit crops indian institute of horticultural research, hessarghatta bangalore-560089, india e-mail: mrdinesh@iihr.ernet.in abstract guava (psidium guajava l; myrtaceae) is an important fruit crop of india. high heterozygosity and frequent cross pollination resulted in the present day variability in seedling populations from which promising genotypes have been selected. as of now, there are about 160 cultivars available in india, among which ‘allahabad safeda’ and ‘sardar’ varieties are widely cultivated. crop improvement work attempted in india resulted in release of several superior selections / hybrids. also, interspecific hybrids resistant to guava wilt were developed at cish, lucknow which are graft compatible with commercial varieties of p. guajava. the use of new biotechnological tools like dna fingerprinting to study the extent of genetic variation among cultivars, rapid multiplication through in vitro shoot-tip culture needs to be employed extensively. attempts need to be made to spot genetic markers for wilt resistance to improve efficiency in developing wilt resistant clones and rootstocks. survey to identify superior genotypes with allahabad safeda traits and high density planting characters like early bearing, compact plant type, favourable response to pruning, good branch angle to minimize branch breakage even under heavy bearing, and, with a high fruit : shoot ratio need to be paid due attention. work on aneuploidy breeding, development of autotetraploids and in vitro genetic manipulation of somatic cells needs to be intensified. key words: guava, improvement, varieties/hybrids, psidium sp. native of india. guava is a rich source of vitamin c and pectin. guava fruit contains 82.5% water, 2.45% acids, 4.45% reducing sugars, 5.23% non-reducing sugars, has 9.73 % tss, 0.48% ash and 260 mg vitamin c/100g fruit (which differ with cultivar, stage of maturity and season). guava fruit is relished when mature or ripe, or, when freshly plucked from the tree. it is also used in making many commercial products like jelly, fruit butter, juice, etc. origin and distribution the guava is said to have originated in tropical america (hayes, 1953). de candolle (1904) stated that it originated in mexico, while purseglove (1968) opined that it originated in brazil. it is widely distributed over equatorial regions growing in tropical and sub-tropical climates. it was introduced in to india during the 17th century. in spanish, the tree is known as guayabo or guayavo, the fruit guayaba or guyava. the french call it goyave or goyavier; the dutch, guyaba, goeajaaba; the surinamese, guave or goejaba; and the portuguese, goiaba or goaibeira. hawaiians call it guava or kuawa. in guam, it is abas. in malaya, it is generally known either as guava or prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 95 jambu batu, but has also numerous dialectal names as it does in india, tropical africa and the philippines where, the name bayabas, is often applied. various tribal names – pichi, posh, enandi, etc., are employed among indians of mexico and central & south america. species status the genus psidium belongs to the family myrtaceae and has a basic chromosome number of x=11. all the cultivars of indian guava belong to a single species, psidium guajava l. hayes (1953) reported the genus to contain about 150 species, though only a few have been studied in detail. bailey (1919) reported that the two species, pyriferum and pomiferum mentioned by linnaeus are nothing but trees with pear shaped and round shaped fruits. subsequently, other species were recognized and documented. the wild species of guava are of considerable importance in breeding programmes. p. cattleianum var.cattleianum (sabine) syn: p.littorale (raddi) var. longipes (berg.) it is a wild subtropical species closely related to guava. it can adapt to many soil types and is quite cold resistant. it is a small tree or shrub with a smooth bark. leaves are obovate elliptic and glabrous. fruits are round, about 2.5 cm in diameter and very fragrant. the skin is thin, pulp is soft with numerous seeds. it has a sweet flavour and good aroma. it is also known as ‘strawberry guava’ because of the sweet aroma reminiscent of strawberry. since this lacks muskiness of the common guava, it is preferred among certain tribals (normand, 1994). p. cattleianum (sabine) var. lucidum syn: p. littorale (raddi) var. littorale (berg). it is a relatively hardy subtropical species. the fruits are small, globose, juicy, acidic and sulphur yellow in colour. it is also called ‘lemon guava’. p. guineense (sw). syn: p. molle (bertol), p. araca (raddi), p. schiedeanum berg. it is also called brazilian or castilian guava. it is a slow growing shrub, about 1 to 3m long and withstands short periods of drought. the leaves are oblong, scantily hairy on the upper side but coated beneath with pale or rusty hairs and distinctly dotted with glands. the fruits are round with yellow skin, pale yellow pulp surrounding the white central pulp. it contains numerous hard seeds (mortan 1987). p. friedrichsthalianum (niedenzu) it is a tall tree about 7-10m high. the branches are slender and smooth. leaves are oval or oblong/oval, smooth, almost glossy above and pubescent below. fruits are globose, small and sour. the fruits are good for jelly making because of their high acidity. reported to be wilt and nematode (m. incognita) resistant, it is also called chinese guava or costa rican guava. p. montanum (swartz) it is generally found in the mountains of jamaica. the branchlets are four angled, leaves oblong to oval, glabrous, fruits are round, pulp white with more number of seeds. it produces fruits of poor quality. p. araucanum (soares-silva and proenca) a large tree with membranous leaves, brochidodromous venation, long petioles and peduncles, flowers solitary, axillary or ramiflorous or in short racemes, with two pairs of flowers. fruits globose or pear shaped, thin pericarp, fruits yellowish green when mature, seeds angular or lenticulate. p. acutangulum dc the shrub or tree ranges in height from 26 to 40 ft. its branchlets are quadrangular and winged near the leaf base and the new growth is finely hairy. leaves are elliptical with very short petioles. fruits are round to pear shaped, pale yellow to yellowish white acidic pulp but well flavored pulp containing few hard, triangular seeds. the fruits are mixed with honey and eaten or, made into acid drinks or preserves. cytology in guava, most of the commercial varieties are reported to be diploids, the chromosome number being 2n = 22, except the seedless types which are triploids (kumar and ranade, 1952). cytological studies made on structure and behavior in different varieties of p. guajava by several workers indicated that meiosis was normal with formation of 11 bivalents at diakinesis, and normal distribution of chromosomes at later stages (raman et al., 1969). the chromosome number of p. friedrichsthalianum niedenzu was reported to be 2n = 22 (srivastava, 1977). a natural triploid with somatic chromosome number of 2n = 33 was reported by kumar and ranade (1952). the same chromosome number was reported by raman et al (1971) in a seedless variety of p. guajava suggesting that triploidy is the cause of seedlessness in guava. shafaat mohammed j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 94-108, 2010 guava improvement in india prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 96 (1975) studied breeding behaviour of the aneuploids in guava (psidium guajava l.) such as trisomic, tetrasomic and higher aneuploids. he observed that reciprocal crosses between aneuploids and diploids indicated less than 100% crossability. the aneuploids, when used as the male parent, crossed less frequently than as female parents and some aneuploids crossed more readily than others. differences were observed in fruit size, fruit weight, and seed number in reciprocal crosses. the extra chromosome was found to be transmitted through both the egg cell and the pollen. however, frequency of transmission was greater through the egg cell than the pollen. as high as 26% transmission of extra chromosomes were obtained through the egg cell. there was no clear cut difference between trisomics and higher aneuploids with regard to frequency of transmission of the extra chromosomes. in guava, where large number of seeds is a disadvantage, aneuploidy breeding appears to be beneficial. floral biology the knowledge of flower bud development, time of anther dehiscence and anthesis, extent of fruit set and degree of cross pollination are a pre-requisite for planned hybridization for crop improvement. in guava, flower buds are borne in leaf axil on current season’s growth, either singly or in cymose of two or three (braganza, 1990). guava is reported to require about 30 days in northern india from flower bud differentiation to complete development upto the calyx cracking stage (singh and sehgal, 1968). however, under bangalore conditions, braganza (1990) reported that the period varied from 45 to 51 days. the flowers consist of a superior calyx with five lobes and the corolla consists of 6 to 10 petals arranged in one or two whorls. the androecium consists of 160 to 400 thin filaments carrying bilobed anthers, closely packed together. the gynoecium consists of an inferior ovary, syncarpous, with axillary placentation and subulate style. the style is smooth and bearded at the summit. three flowering seasons, viz., ‘ambe bahar’, ‘mrig bahar’ and ‘hatti or hasta bahar’ have been reported in the peninsular regions of india (cheema et al 1954). however, some workers reported only two flowering seasons (sehgal and singh, 1967; sachan et al, 1969; srivastava, 1974; syamal et al, 1980; ojha et al, 1986). in guava, it has been observed that the flowering season does vary between regions. generally, three flowering seasons are recognized in the tropical south india and only two seasons in the subtropical north india. in guava, peak anthesis was found to be between 6 and 7.30 a.m. under north indian conditions (singh and sehgal, 1968). dehiscence of anthers was observed to take place 15 to 30 minutes after anthesis and continued upto 2hrs (balasubramanyam, 1959). pollen fertility has been generally found to be high in guava (78 to 91%) in diploid varieties. balasubramanyam (1959) found 4% sucrose solution to be the best medium for artificial germination of pollen. the pollen is reported as round with large grains (srivastava, 1974). stigmatic receptivity, as studied by fruit set following controlled pollination, was observed to be maximum on the same day as anthesis. stigma was found to be receptive two days before dehiscence, extending upto 4 days (singh and sehgal, 1968). varieties varietal description and nomenclature of different guava varieties grown in india are greatly confusing. some varieties were named according to shape of the fruit, skin colour and pulp colour, while, several other varieties were named after in the place of origin. pandey (1968) made detailed studies in different cultivars of guava and classified them into the white pulp group and the red pulp group. guava is largely a self-pollinated crop, but crosspollination also does occur. this results in a large variability in the seedling population from which promising genotypes have been selected in different agro-climatic regions of the country. promising cultivars of different indian states are given below: state cultivars andhra pradesh allahabad safeda, anakapalli, banarasi, chittidar, hafsi, sardar, smooth green and smooth white assam amsophri, madhuriam, safrior payele bihar allahabad safeda, chittidar, hafsi (red fleshed), harijha, seedless gujarat nasik, seedless, sindh karnataka allahabad safeda, arka mridula, sardar, navalur maharashtra dharward, dholka, kothrud, lucknow-24, sardar tamil nadu anakapalli, banarasi, bangalore, chittidar, hafsi, nagpur seedless and allahabad safeda uttar pradesh allahabad safeda, apple colour, chittidar, red fleshed, banarasi surkha, sardar, mirzapur seedless west bengal bariampur and cvs. of uttar pradesh about 160 genotypes, including some psidum spp., are available in indian collections and are maintained at several centres within the country in field gene banks. nomenclature of the cultivars of guava grown in india is not yet well established. some of the varieties have been j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 94-108, 2010 dinesh and vasugi prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 97 named according to shape, colour, and smoothness of skin or by the place of their origin. characters like plant growth, yield and physico-chemical composition of different guava varieties were reported by several workers. varietal evaluation was carried out by many workers who reported performance of these varieties under different agro-climatic conditions (golberg and levy, 1941; teaotia et al, 1962; srivastava and srivastava, 1965; singh et al, 1979; chadha et al, 1981; dinesh and reddy, 2001). characteristic features of some of the important guava cultivars grown in india are given below: allahabad safeda : it is the most popular variety in india and has acquired large variations due to seed propagation. this is the progenitor of many indian varieties and occupies the largest area under cultivation. fruits are round, large in size, skin with smooth, light yellow on ripening, pulp white, firm, excellent in quality with high tss and vitamin c, pleasant flavour and a few, soft seeds. anakapalli: fruits are medium sized with red pulp. seeds are soft and plenty. fruits are slightly oval. apple colour: the trees are medium in vigour and are moderate yieldes. fruits are medium sized, with apple coloured skin; cool temperature is required for good colour development. the pulp is white and firm, sweet to taste. bangalore: fruits are medium to large in size, pulp is white with good taste and flavour. chittidar: this variety is very popular in western uttar pradesh. the fruits are characterized by numerous, red dots on skin. fruits are sub globose, with white pulp, high tss and vitamin c content of 240 mg /100g pulp. hafsi: fruits are spherical in shape with thin skin and medium size. the pulp is red with good taste and flavour. seeds are comparatively less in number, but hard. red fleshed: fruits are medium sized with red pulp, round, smooth skinned, seeds are plenty and medium soft. fruits possess sweet flavour, are rich in vitamin c (386 mg /100g pulp). sardar (lucknow 49): it is a selection from allahabad safeda made at poona during 1927. the plant has a spreading nature. the tree is dwarf with open, rounded crown. the fruits are medium to large and contain a crisp, soft and creamy pulp; it is a heavy bearing variety. the fruit has a slightly acidic flavour, attractive aroma, with many seeds, and good keeping quality. smooth green: fruits are round and medium sized. skin is glossy and greenish yellow when mature. pulp is white, good in taste and flavour. nasik: fruits are medium sized, round, with white pulp, sweet with good flavour. banarsi surkha : trees are medium sized (5.1m) with a broad crown, fruit shape is round and surface smooth, skin colour golden yellow, pulp colour pink, seed number very high, seed texture very hard. seedless: the plants are very vigorous. there are different varieties, like, saharanpur seedless, nagpur seedless, sringeri seedless, etc., which are nearly identical. two types of fruits, viz., long, big sized with warty surface, and yellow, thin skin with swollen calyx end and round; small, with very few seeds. the pulp is white, good to taste and has aroma, contains moderate to high levels of vitamin c (240 mg / 100g pulp). navalur: it is a variety grown in dharwad district of karnataka. it is hardy in nature, drought tolerant and resistant to canker. the important cultivars are: ciw-2 (channappa itigatti white), ciw-3, ciw-4, ciw-5, gr 1 (ghatage’s red number one), gr 3, gw-1 (ghatage’s white number), gw-4, sr-1 (shivammanavar red number one), sr-2, sw2 (shivammanavar white), swy-1 (shivammanavar white yalakki). apart from these prominent commercial cultivars, other cultivars grown in localized areas are: pear shaped, apple colour, banarasi surkha, sangam, seedless, dholka, sindh, karela, mirzapuri seedling, superior, pourtgal, spear acid, superior sour licidium, white fleshed, behat coconut, smooth white, amsophri, madhuriam, bariampur, harijha, j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 94-108, 2010 guava improvement in india prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 98 dharwar, safri or payera, soh-pryiam, am-sophri, kaffree, supreme, white supreme, bangalore, bhavnagar, gwalior27, kafri (pear shape), kafri (round shape), rewa-72, hazi sahib, kohir, etc. crop improvement in india, during the early days, guava plants were generally propagated by seeds from limited varieties available with nurserymen and pomologists. the seedling population obtained by open pollination gave rise to considerable variation in the form and size of fruit, the nature and flavour of pulp, seediness and other morphological characters such as spreading or erect growth habit of trees (naik, 1949). cheema et al., (1954) observed all the cultivars of guava to be highly heterozygous. commercial producers utilized the variation thus obtained for selection of desirable genotypes and propagated them vegetatively. assessment of genetic diversity and relationship among psidium spp was carried out by sharma et al (2007). they observed a high genetic similarity between chinese guavas grouped with psidium guajava cultivars. it has been observed that only a few named varieties are under cultivation. most of these varieties suffer from one defect or the other. hence, guava improvement by breeding was started mainly with the following objectives for developing new cultivars: i) dwarf plant habit suitable for high density planting ii) fruits with uniform shape, size, good colour, firm and thick pulp, good aroma, few and soft seeds, high tss and high pectin iii) long shelf life iv) resistance to fusarium wilt plant introduction most of the guava varieties have evolved as selections from seedling variants. variability has come about because of open pollination from highly heterozygous parents. several introductions of promising genotypes have been made in guava growing countries. in india, many introductions made from hawaii, brazil, thailand, etc. are being cultivated and used in breeding programmes. similarly, introductions of indian cultivars like allahabad safeda and sardar have given excellent results in other parts of the world (gonzaga et al, 1999). although introduction is a potential tool in any crop improvement programme as it considerably saves time, there is also the danger of new diseases getting introduced. it has been our observation that some of the introduced exotic acidic types like beaumont were prone to ‘stylar end rot’ caused by phomopsis psidii. this character was inherited even by hybrids. hence, utmost care needs to be taken while introducing varieties. unless these are observed under plant quarantine, further multiplication or usage on field scale should not be made. selection at ganeshkhind fruit experimental station, pune, india, guava improvement work was initiated in1907, primarily with collection of seeds of varieties grown in different places, to isolate superior strains. one strain from open pollinated seedlings of ‘allahabad safeda’ collected from lucknow was selected and released as ‘lucknow49’ (cheema et al, 1954) which became very popular and has now been renamed as ‘sardar’ (phadnis, 1970) after trials at saharanpur (singh,1953) and kodur (rangacharlu, 1954 ). the plant has a spreading nature. the tree is vigorous, dwarf with open rounded crown. fruits are medium to large and contain a crisp, soft and creamy pulp. it is a heavy bearing variety. fruits have a slightly acidic flavour, attractive aroma, with many seeds and good keeping quality. at the fruit research station, saharanpur, one superior selection, viz., s-1, with good fruit shape and quality, few seeds, sweet taste and high yield was isolated (singh, 1959). at faizabad, seedling selections were made from ‘allahabad safeda’ and many selections were made under ‘faizabad selection’ (pathak and dwivedi, 1988). at cish, lucknow, four seedling selections of guava, namely, cish-g-1, cish-g-2, cish-g-3 (lalit), cish-g-4 (swetha) have been released and their performance was studied by marak and mukunda (2007). cish-g-1: it is a selection from local red fleshed type, with attractive fruits having deep red skin, firm pulp with high tss, soft seeds. cish-g-2: selection from local red fleshed type, crimson colored attractive fruit, stripes in groove, seeds soft. cish-g-3 (lalit): it is a selection from a high yielding variety, responsive to primary and high density planting. fruits are round, weighing 150g, pink pulp suitable for both table and processing purposes. cish-g-4 (swetha): plants are semi vigorous, medium in height and are prolific bearers. fruits are round, weighing 225g, with white pulp with good keeping quality. j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 94-108, 2010 dinesh and vasugi prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 99 at the indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore, out of 200 open pollinated seedlings of the variety ‘allahabad safeda’ (collected from uttar pradesh), one seedling selection, ‘selection-8’, was found to be promising and was released as ‘arka mridula’. this variety has been reported to have also performed well with respect to yield and quality under rainfed conditions of bihar (ramkumar, 1998). the plants are semi-vigorous and spreading in nature. fruits are round in shape and weigh about 180g. fruit are yellow in colour with smooth skin.the pulp is white, firm, sweet with few soft seeds. the tss is 12.0ob, 100 seed weight is 1.6g. keeping quality is good. pectin content is 1.04 %. the variety is good for jelly making. at allahabad agricultural institute, allahabad, a selection from the local red pulp type has been released as ‘allahabad surkha’. the plans are vigorous, dome shaped and compact. trees are high yielding, producing upto 120kg per plant. the fruits are round with uniform, pink skin and deep pink pulp, sweet, strongly flavoured and with few seeds. at bulakihar (malihabad), lucknow, a selection has been made as ‘g. vilas pasand’. the trees are vigorous, wide spreading with bushy, low growing habit. fruits are round to ovoid, skin texture is course to smooth, fruit skin pale yellow to golden, colour of flesh is creamy white texture creamy soft, very large (400g to 800g) fruit, less seeds, very productive throughout the year. high content of vitamin c makes it stand out among guava varieties. at aurangabad and bihir districts of marathwada, three promising selections, viz., abd3, bhr3 and bhr5 were made out of the 12 strains collected (thonte and chakrawar,1981). at narendra dev university of agriculture and technology, faizabad (up), of the 23 strains collected from a survey of guava growing regions, 3 seedlings of allahabad safeda (as1, as2 and as3) and 2 of faizabad selection (fs 1 and fs 2) were found to be promising with respect of fruit quality and yield (pathak and dwivedi, 1988). at gbpua&t, pantnagar (uttaranchal), a selection was made as ‘pant prabhat’ for commercial cultivation. plant growth in this line is upright; with broad leaves, the tree is highly productive (100 -125kg). fruit skin is smooth and light yellow in colour, fruits medium sized with average fruit weight of 150-172g , pulp is white, seeds are small and medium soft, the fruit has a sweet taste with pleasant flavour, ascorbic acid content varies from 125mg (rainy season) to 300mg/ 100g fruit weight (winter season). tss varies from 10.5 to 13.50b. at the fruit research station, kuthulia, rewa, a selection from an old, seedling orchard was made as ‘dhareedar’. the trees are vigorous, medium tall with erect and upright branching and a flat crown. fruits are medium to large sized, roundish ovate in shape with 5-7 raised lines on the surface of mature fruits, the peel in greenish yellow, the pulp soft and sweet (tss 11.70 brix). hybridization technique in guava, flowers that are chosen for crossing are emasculated when at the ‘calyx break stage’, a day before opening. pollen from the pollen parent is brought from an unopened flower, at preferrably at calyx break stage. the stigmatic surface is gently smeared with the pollen and flowers are bagged. under bangalore condition pollination carried out during the morning hours between 10 am to 12 noon has given better results. intervarietal hybridization in general, intervarietal crosses in guava are successful, having no crossability barriers. however, varietal cross incompatibility in guava is reported in crosses made between ‘behat coconut’ and ‘sardar’, ‘behat coconut’ and ‘apple colour’. in india, breeding work for guava improvement has been going on at several research institutions. at hetc, basti, a number of cross combinations of ‘seedless’ x ‘allahabad safeda’, ‘seedless’ x ‘l-49’, ‘allahabad safeda’ x ‘patillo’, ‘apple colour’ x ‘red fleshed’ and ‘apple colour’ x ‘kothrud’ were made. none of the 55 hybrids obtained from these crosses were found to be promising (chadha, 1998). at the fruit research station, sangareddy, a.p., two hybrids, ‘safed jam’ and ‘kohir safeda’ were selected out of crosses of ‘allahabad safeda’ x ‘kohir’ and ‘kohir’ x ‘allahabad safeda’, respectively, and released. these hybrids are particularly recommended for semi arid tropical areas. these have also been found to be suitable for the preparation guava juice (mitra and bose, 1985; shanmugavelu et al, 1987). at the indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore, ‘arka amulya’ a hybrid was released through intervarietal hybridization involving ‘allahabad safeda’ and ‘triploid’ (subramanyam and iyer, 1998; anon., 1996). at the fruit research station, anantharajupet, andhra pradesh, out of 6 hybirds, two (h1 and h6) were j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 94-108, 2010 guava improvement in india prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 100 found promising with regard to fruit quality and precocious bearing (rama rao and dayanand, 1977). at rajendra agricultural university, sabour, bihar, 210 f 1 hybrid seedlings were raised from various intervarietal crosses. a hybrid from the cross ‘apple colour’ x ‘sardar’ had maximum fruit weight, vitamin c and pectin content (singh and hoda, 1994). chaudhary charan singh haryana agricultural university, hisar, released two guava hybrids, namely, hisar safeda (allahabad safeda x seedless) and hisar surkha (apple colour x banarasi surkha). traits of some of the guava hybrids released recently are given below: safed jam: this is a hybrid between the cross ‘allahabad safeda’ x ‘kohir’ developed at frs, sangareddy. the tree is medium in height and a heavy yielder. fruits are round in shape, large in size with a thin peel, good taste and few, soft seeds. kohir safeda: it is a cross between a selected, heavy yielding line of kohir x allahabad safeda. the tree is vigorous, fairly large in size and dome shaped. fruits are large, with few, soft seeds and white pulp. arka amulya: as stated above, this is from the cross ‘allahabad safeda’ x ‘triploid’ developed at the indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore. plants are semi-vigorous and spreading type. fruits are medium sized (180-200g), weight of 100 seed is 1.8g, pulp is white, with high tss (12.5°b), fruits have good keeping quality. arka kiran: it is from the cross ‘kamsari’ x ‘purple local’. plants are semi vigorous, amenable to high density planting. the fruits are sub globose, weighing about 200-230g .the pulp is deep pink, thick and has good flavour. the seeds are medium soft (9.0 kg cm-2), with high lycopene content (7.45 mg /100g) and tss of 12.0 to 12.5°b. hisar safeda: it is from the cross ‘allahabad safeda’ x ‘seedless’, developed at ccshau, hisar. plants are upright, trees have a compact crown. fruits are round, with a smooth surface, creamy yellow skin; average fruit weight is 92g, creamy white pulp, few soft seeds high tss (13.4%). hisar surkha: it is from the cross ‘apple color’ x ‘banarasi surkha’. the tree crown is broad to compact. fruits are round, skin yellow with red dots, average fruit weight 86g, pulp pink, seed count medium, tss high (13.6%). autopolypoloidy: from several parts of our country, seedless varieties have been reported. at poona, kumar and ranade (1952) reported a triploid guava variety with 33 chromosomes, and suggested it to be autotriploid. the chromosome status of seedless varieties available at iari and saharanpur was studied by majumder and singh (1964) and were found to be autotriploids. iyer and subramanyam (1971) were of the opinion the production of any more triploids was futile since fruit shape in triploids is highly irregular with mis-shapen fruits because of differential seed size. a natural autotetraploid in p. guajava was reported by naithani and srivastava (1966). tetraploidy in guava has been induced too with colchicine treatment (janaki ammal, 1951; ram kumar, 1975). aneuploidy: at the indian agricultural research institute, new delhi, with a view to evole a variety with fewer seeds and high yield, crosses were made between seedless (triploid) and seeded (diploid) ‘allahabad safeda’. of the 73 f 1 hybrid seedlings raised, 26 were diploids, 9 trisomics (2n+1), 5 double trisomics (2n+1+1) and 14 tetrasomics (2n+2). they showed distinct variation in tree growth habit and, leaf and fruit characters. three tetrasomic plants had dwarf habit and, normal shape and size of fruits, with less number of seeds (majumder and mukherjee, 1972a,b; mukherjee, 1977). in the progeny of open pollinated triploid, and triploid with diploid (mohammad, 1974), 30 trisomics, 2 double trisomics, 1 tetrasomic and higher aneuploids were obtained. reduction in growth and size of leaf distinguished aneuploids from diploids. aneuploids, particularly trisomics, had promising qualities and may prove useful in developing plants with reduced seediness and, possibly, in providing dwarfing rootstocks. sharma (1982) identified a promising tetrasomic dwarfing rootstock (aneuploid no. 82), through selection, out of 48 aneuploid seedlings at iari, new delhi. studies conducted on the effect of aneuploid no. 82 rootstock on growth and yield of ‘allahabad safeda’ showed that the aneuploid induced substantial dwarfing in allahabad safeda in terms of plant height, plant spread and tree volume. overall yield/unit volume of the plant was highest in aneuploid j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 94-108, 2010 dinesh and vasugi prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 101 no. 82, which indicated its strong potential for use as dwarfing rootstock on a commercial scale, for increasing production and profitability of guava orchards (sharma et al, 1992). mutation: according to cheema and deshmukh (1927), naturally occurring mutations are not rare in guava. brar and bal (2003) investigated the effect of gamma rays (1,2,3,4 and 5 kr) on buds of guava cv. sardar. after the treatment, these were budded onto lucknow-49 rootstock. variability for plant height, internodal length and stem diameter was maximum in 2 kr treatment; while, for number of branches, number of leaves and breadth of leaves, maximum variability was noted in 4, 1 and 3 kr treatments, respectively. mutagenic treatments had no significant effect on stomatal size. in vitro mutagenesis, followed by micropropagation via axillary bud proliferation of shoot tips in guava, was carried out by zamir et al (2003). shoot tips irradiated with gamma rays at 15-90 gy and cultured in murashige and skoor ’s (ms) medium containing 3% sucrose, 6benzylaminopurine (benzyladenine) (bap) and l-glutamine. optimum shoot proliferation was recorded in ms medium supplemented with 1.0mg bap and 250mg l-glutamine/litre. rooting of cultured shoots was observed in half-strength ms medium supplemented with iaa and iba. ld 50 was observed at 45 gy. rates of more than 75 gy were lethal to explants. biotechnological techniques biotechnological techniques can be useful chiefly in breeding for disease resistance and in germplasm storage using tissue culture techniques. use of tissue culture and micropropagation of superior guava cultivars has been discussed by several researchers (amin and jaiswal, 1988; jaiswal and amin, 1987; loh and rao, 1989; papadatou et al, 1990). jaiswal and amin (1992) felt that somatic cell genetics could be useful in guava breeding for specific objectives. a technique for successful in vitro propagation of guava germplasm using shoot-tip explants from mature trees was reported by jaiswal and amin (1987). these workers also demonstrated that adding activated charcoal to the medium enhanced rooting of explants and vegetative growth of established plantlets. risterucci et al, (2005) constructed a library of microsatellite-enriched (ga)n and (gt)n and, 23 nuclear simple sequence repeat (ssr) loci were characterized in the guava species psidium guajava l.). all the ssr loci were found to be polymorphic after screening for diversity in different cultivars, and acrosstaxa amplification tests showed potential transferability of most ssr markers in three other psidium species. first to be published for p. guajava, this new ssr resource will be a powerful tool for genetic studies in guava, including cultivar identification and linkage mapping, as well as potentially, for, interspecific genetic studies within the genus psidium. rapid multiplication of seedling plants of guava through in vitro shoot-tip culture and subsequent plant establishment also has been successful (papadatou et al, 1990). somaclonal variation, which normally occurs in several tissue cultures (larkin et al, 1985; evans and sharp, 1988; lee and philips, 1988) could be useful for selecting guava plants resistant to the wilt disease. an efficient protocol for plant regeneration from callus culture would also be helpful in selecting plants resistant to disease or environmental stresses. recovery of plants of haploid origin from anther/pollen culture of guava could offer advantages in breeding (jaiswal and amin, 1992). chandra et al (2004) attempted embryogenesis and plant regeneration from mesocarp of psidium guajava l. (guava) and developed a protocol for induction, maturation and germination of somatic embryos from this tissue. explants were cultured on modified ms medium fortified with 2,4-d (2.0 mg/l), ascorbic acid (100 mg/l), l-glutamine (400 mg/l) and sucrose (6%). embryogenic proliferating tissue was induced, which was found to be translucent, mucilaginous and it differentiated into many, small somatic embryos. the somatic embryos were retained in the same medium, where simultaneously differentiation of new somatic embryos and their conversion into plantlets was observed. thus, embryogenesis in guava can be perpetuated and could be used in the future for carrying out cellular selection against wilt causing organism. phylogenetic affinity, usefulness of wild species and interspecific hybridization utilization of wild species for crop improvement has been one of the ways to introduce certain gene(s) for specific purposes like hardiness, disease and pest resistance, etc. however, in perennial crops, because of the long time gap, efforts have not been made to their full potential. exploitation of wild species requires extensive knowledge of taxonomy, reproductive biology & cytogenetics, genetics, crossability barriers and fertility of the hybrids. although success obtained in fruit crops is low, many desirable traits with great potential for crop improvement are found in the j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 94-108, 2010 guava improvement in india prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 102 wild species. interspecific crosses in many fruit crops, between cultivars and species, have resulted in hybrids that are partially sterile due to ploidy level differences genomic incompatibilities and cytoplasmic imbalances. in order to develop a rootstock tolerant/resistant to guava wilt and to test the possible role of different species, studies have been initiated on interspecific hybridization, in the genus psidium. phylogenetic studies carried out in psidium species utilizing differences in flavonoid patterns showed a close affinity between p. guajava and p. molle. two species, p. molle and p. guineense were found to be morphologically similar with minute differences in their chromatographic pattern (das and prakash, 1981). these workers also found a close affinity between p. guineense, p. pumilum and p. chinensis. it was observed that p. guajava and p. chinensis were crossable. however, p. guajava and p. molle are cross incompatible when p. guajava is used as the female parent (subramanyam and iyer, 1982). leslie et al (1995) and edward & shankar (1964) reported that psidium friedrichsthalianum niedenzu to be resistant to guava wilt. the other species reported to be resistant to the wilt are p. cumuni, p. cattleianum var. lucidum, p. molle, and p. guineense. however, singh et al (1977) reported that p. cattleianum var lucidum, p. corecium, p. cajuvalis, p. guineense and p. friedrichsthalianum developed wilt infection. hence, intensive work is needed to develop useful interspecific hybrids resistant to wilt using the resistant species in breeding programmes. the contribution of wild species to crop improvement and management programmes mainly involves their utilization as rootstocks for regulation of vigour, yield, fruit quality and, disease and pest resistance. pathak and ojha (1993) enumerated their potential uses: p. cujavalis, p. molle, p. cattleianum and p. guineense can be used as rootstock. chinese guava (p. friedrichsthalianum) and philippine guava are compatible rootstocks and have been reported to be resistant to the wilt disease. ‘allahabad safeda’ trees grafted on to p. pumilum had a dwarfing influence. p. cujavallis produced the largest trees but with non-uniform and rough skinned fruits. singh et al (1976) observed that fruits of ‘allahabad safeda’ contained higher sugar content on to p. pumilum while, higher ascorbic acid content was recorded in these grafted on p. cujavallis. high yields were obtained using p. cattleianum rootstock. other species reported to be resistant to the wilt are: p. cumunii, p. cattleianum var. lucidum, p. molle and p. guineense. however, singh et al (1977) reported that p. araca, p. cattleianum var lucidum, p. corecium, p. cujavalis, p. guineense and p. friedrichsthalianum developed infection. at the central institute for subtropical horticulture, lucknow, uttar pradesh, interspecific hybridization was carried out between p. molle and p. guajava. the interspecific hybrids have been found resistant to guava wilt and are graft compatible with commercial varieties of p. guajava (anon., 2003-04). inheritance studies genetic studies conducted in guava at iihr, bangalore, indicated that red pulp colour was dominant over white and that this character was governed monogenically. many cultivated red fleshed varieties were found to be heterozygous for this character. bold seeds were found to be dominant over soft seeds and this was also found to be determined monogenically. linkage was also found between flesh colour and seed size, i.e., red flesh with bold seeds (subramanyam and iyer, 1982). mitra and bose (1985) have reported heterosis in guava. studies conducted at coimbatore by raman et al, (1969 and 1971), have shown that triploidy and genetic factor(s) are responsible for female sterility and, that; variation among triploids is due to their independent origin from a distinct diploid variety. iyer and subramanyam (1971) opined that seedless varieties of guava were triploids, grew vigorously and bore fruits that were irregular in shape with ridges, because of irregular distribution of seeds of various sizes. dinesh and yadav (1998) carried out half-sib analysis in progenies of the variety ‘apple colour’. they observed that genotypic variance was lower than the phenotypic variance, and heritability was moderately high for all the characters implying, that, selection may be practiced for improvement of fruit characters. hence, hybridization among less seeded diploids can be adopted in an improvement programme. it is our observation on inheritance pattern using ‘purple guava’ and ‘arka mridula’ as parents that hybrids segregate in a ratio of 3:1 for green leaf types and purple leaf types. characterization and evaluation cluster analysis was carried out using fifteen morphological characters in 29 varieties and 5 species. the cluster diagram showed four main clusters (fig. 1). in the first cluster, the species p. cattleianum, p. friedrichsthalianum and p.molle are placed. the second cluster consists of 8 varieties and one species, viz., bangalore local, benaras, dharwad, karela, kamsari, spear acid, surka chitti, surka chitti neputani and p. quadrangularis. j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 94-108, 2010 dinesh and vasugi prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 103 in the third cluster, 10 varieties are grouped, viz., chittidar, ec 147039, 147037, hafsi, nasik, pati, portugal, sindh, superior sour lucidum and white flesh. in the fourth cluster, behat coconut, chakaiya ruthmanagar, ec 147306, ec 147036, ec 147034, ec 162904, florida seedling, g-6, l49, mirzapur seedling, p.chinensis and smooth green are grouped together. the cluster means indicate that fruit weight, fruit volume, fruit length and width are greater more in cluster ii and low in cluster i. members of cluster i are mainly species that usually bear small sized fruits, except p. quadrangularis. the mean vitamin ‘c’ content and fruit / seed ratio was maximum in cluster iv, which indicates that hybridization involving these accessions would be expected to result in maximum hybrid vigour. mean acidity ranged over 1.00 to 1.65 % and total sugar was about 7.23 to 7.86g among different clusters. crosses between cluster i and cluster ii crosses may result in desirable combinations leading to development of varieties with good processing traits. principal component (fig. 2) analysis shows that the species p.molle, p. friedrichsthalianum and p. cattleianum var. lucidum are closely related and are away from varieties of p. guajava and the species, p. chinensis. due to the edible nature of p. chinensis, it is closely related to p. guajava. although p. quadrangularis is not placed with the species group,it is different from p. guajava varieties as well. fruits of p. quadrangularis are not edible, but because of fruit size, it is placed with the p. guajava varieties. seeds of p. quadrangularis are unusually large compared to psidium guajava varieties or any other species. the cluster analysis clearly shows that the species are different from cultivated psidium guajava varieties and considerable diversity is present for various characters within the species of p. guajava for breeding varieties with good fruit size, fewer number of seeds or for dwarfness. p. quadranqualaris superior sour lucidum florida seeding p. chinesis p. cattleianum p. friedrichsthalianum p. molle fig 1. tree diagram for 29 varieties and 5 species j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 94-108, 2010 guava improvement in india prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 104 classification of guava varieties based on fruit shape globose: allahabad safeda, apple colour, arka amulya, arka mridula, benaras, behat coconut, chittidar, dharwad, ec 147037, hafsi, local 2, mirzapur seedling, nasik, p. cattleianum var. lucidum, p. chinensis, p. friedrichsthallianum, p. molle, p. quadrangularis, phili (pink), philippine guava, red flesh, sindh, smooth green, surka chitti, superior sour lucidum, dhareedar, aneuploid 2, lalit subglobose: chakaiya ruthmanagar, 7-12 ec 147036, 935 ec 147036, ec 14089, ec 162904, kamsari, karela, local 1, lucknow 42, pati, portugal, sardar, gr-1, spear acid, abu ishakwala pyriform: bangalore local, g-6, white flesh ovate: florida seedling, surka chitti neputani oblong: oblong, aneuploid-1, 7-39 ec 147034, nagpur seedless, seedless triploid, thailand 2, lucknow 42 based on fruit weight small (16-100g) aneuploid 1, apple colour, ec 14039, ec 147037, g-6, hafsi, local 1, local 2, nagpur seedless, psidium cattleianum var. lucidum, p. chinensis, p. friedrichsthalianum, p. molle, pati, philippine guava, portugal, seedless (triploid), sindh, gr1 medium (100-140g) allahabad safeda, arka amulya, arka mridula, bangalore local, chittidar, 7-39, ec 147034, 7-12 ic 147036, 9-35 ec 147036, ec 162904, florida seedling, lucknow 42, mirzapur seedling, nasik, phili (pink), red flesh, sardar, smooth green, spear acid, surka chitti, surka chitti neputani, white flesh large (>140g) abu ishakwala, benaras, behat coconut, chakaiya ruthmanagar, dharwad, kamsari, karela, p. quadrangularis, superior sour lucidum based on skin colour white: abu ishakwala, allahabad safeda, aneupoloid 2, apple colour, arka amulya, arka mrudiula, behat coconut, benaras, chakaiya ruthmanagar, chittidar, dharwad, florida seedling, hafsi, karela, local 1, llocal 2, lucknow 42, mirzapur seedling, nagpur seedless, nasik, p. chinensis, sardar, seedless (triploid), singh, smooth green, superior sour lucidum, surka chitti, surka chitti neputani, white flesh 0. 6 0 .4 0 .2 0 -0 .2 0. 4 -0 .6 -0 .8 fig 2. principal component analysis guava varieties based on shape, colour and weight variety : lalit 0.4 0.2 0 -0.2 -0.4 -0.6 0.6 4 0.7 0 .76 0 .82 0 .88 0 .94 1 f a cto r 3 fa cto r 1 factor 2 j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 94-108, 2010 dinesh and vasugi prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 105 variety: purple local shades of red: aneuploid 1, 7-39, ec 147034, 7-12 ec 147036, 9-35 ec 147036, ec 147039, ec 163904, ec 147037, gr-6, kamsari, p. chinensis, pati, phili (pink), portugal, red flesh, gr1 shades of yellow: spear acid, bangalore local, p. cattleianum var. lucidum, p. quadrangularis purple: purple local probable gene donors probable donor parents were identified for various horticultural traits as follows: character accession name dwarfness apple colour, aneuploid, psidium molle, p. chinensis, p. friedrichsthalianum seedless seedless good yielder benaras, 7-39 ec147034, ec 162904, behat coconut, globose fruit shape smooth green, allahabad safeda, apple colour, arka amulya, arka mridula, benaras, behat coconut, hafsi, sindh, mirzapur seedling, dharwad purple pericap phillippine guava processing 7-12, ec 147036, 7-39 ec 147034 big sized fruit one kg guava, behat coconut, benaras, kamsari, dharwad, chaikaiya ruthmanagar high tss dhareedar, allahabad safeda, arka mridula, seedless, sindh, hafsi, bangalore local, surka chitti, behat coconut high vitamin c mirzapur seedling, p. chinensis, ec 162904, g-6, chakaiya ruthmanagar, dhareedar suckering habit p. chinensis the accessions were screened for their variable reactions to insect pests and the least susceptible sources were identified: pest least susceptible varieties fruitfly ec 147037, ec147039, kamsari, red flesh, superior sour lucidum tea mosquito bug ec 147036, ec 147039, hafsi, superior sour lucidum spiralling whitefly arka amulya, benaras, spear acid, psidium chinensis, p . friedrichsthalianum ,ec 147039 utilization of germplasm the accessions allahabad safeda and seedless were used in our breeding programme for developing varieties like arka amulya (allahabad safeda x seedless) and arka mridula (selection from allahabad safeda). interspecific hybridization was carried out using the wild species psidium chinensis with p. guajava cv. beaumont to produce rootstocks resistant to wilt disease. ‘apple colour’ and ‘sardar’ were also used in various combinations. ‘red flesh’ and ‘philippine guava’ are under use in the breeding programme for imparting red/purple colour to the progenies. future needs priority needs to be given to developing good fruit quality, since, there is little merit in improving yield and disease resistance if not accompanied by high quality. high quality should include high tss, good sugar-acid blend, good aroma, attractive skin pulp colour and soft seeds; processing quality, which includes juice colour, high vitamin c content, higher lycopene content, good pectin content and good flavour. while selecting new varieties, keeping quality may be accorded adequate importance. in this connection, flavour and firmness of the pulp, (that could contribute towards better keeping quality) of the ‘apple colour’ guava as the gene donor could be attempted to improve other commercial cultivars. hence, attempts to hybridize these genotypes with ‘allahabad safeda’ and other commercial cultivars should be intensified and selections may be made of progenies without apple colour, provided they have all the other desirable characteristics. in the recent past, efforts have been intensified to develop apple coloured cultivars to make them attractive for local as well as export markets. however, deep red colour has been found to be a very unstable character, the skin colour changing from deep red to yellowish white from season to season, as well as within the same tree. hence, ‘stable’ types need to be identified and great care should be taken while selecting hybrids from a large population. the cultivar ‘allahabad safeda’ possibly represents a population of guava trees grown extensively in uttar pradesh (india) rather than being descendent from a single clone. hence, enormous variation has been observed in this so-called cultivar. it is for horticulturists to make rigorous screening of the population to identify superior genotypes, keeping specific objectives in mind. a survey to locate such genotypes is certainly required, especially in uttar pradesh. while breeding or selecting superior types suitable for high density planting characters like early bearing, compact plant type, favourable response to pruning, good branch angle to minimize branch breakage even under heavy bearing, and with a high fruit-shoot ratio need to be given variety: kamsari j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 94-108, 2010 guava improvement in india prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 106 due attention. aneuploidy breeding should be intensified to develop high yielding, high quality varieties with fewer and soft seeds, and to develop dwarfing rootstocks. autotetraploids of less-seeded, superior diploid varieties may be developed. induction of mutation by physical and chemical mutagens may be attempted where improvement in a specific character is required in an otherwise acceptable variety. since guava cultivation in many locations is threatened by wilt (fusarium spp), work on interspecific hybridization to develop wilt resistant rootstocks should be intensified. efforts should also be made to develop wilt resistant scion varieties, of which, self-rooted plants could be used for commercial cultivation. the philippine guava (purple type) has shown some promise as a wilt-resistant rootstock but needs extensive experimentation. as this species segregates into the purple and white types on crossing with p. guajava cultivars, there is a need to look for possible linkages between purple leaf types and resistance to wilt. extensive screening of other related psidium species needs to be made for assessing their resistance to wilt. in this connection, reliable pathological screening techniques need to be standardized to hasten the process of disease resistance breeding in guava. varietal introduction, though, becomes an essential part of any crop improvement programme and needs to be made with great caution and with strict, customary plant quarantine measures. to quote some examples of caution, the ‘beaumont’ variety of guava, when introduced in to india, was found to be severely infected with ‘stylar end rot’ (phomopsis psidii) although it is not a severe problem in its original habitat. similarly, the ‘giant thailand guava’ when introduced in to bangladesh, was found to be highly susceptible to several insect pests. such examples are many and should be borne in mind. molecular characterization of germplasm needs to be accelerated with a view to work out genetical distance so that good recombinants can be arrived at by crossing suitable parents. biotechnological tools need to be employed extensively. dna fingerprinting and similar tools may be used to study extent of variation, even with in ‘allahabad safeda’ cultivar. attempts to spot genetic markers for wilt resistance may be made to improve efficiency for developing wilt resistant clones and rootstocks. references amin,m.n.and jaiswal,v.s. 1988. micropropagation as an aid to rapid cloning of a guava cultivar. scientia hort., 36:89-95 anonymous. 1996. research programmes and progress, indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore, pp. 10-11 anonymous. 2003-04. annual report, central institute for subtropical horticulture, lucknow, pp. 10-11. balasubramanyam, v.r. 1959. studies on blossom biology of guava (psidium guajava l.), ind. j. hort., 16:69-75 bailey, l.h. 1919. standard encyclopaedia of horticulture. macmillan, new york, usa pp. 2847-2849 braganza, m.a. 1990. floral biology studies and varietal evaluation in genus psidium. m.sc. (ag). thesis submitted to university of agricultural sciences, bangalore brar, h.s. and bal, j.s. 2003. studies on the use of gamma rays on the performance of guava budlings. ann. agribio res., 8:213-217 chadha, k.l. 1998. improvement in tree fruit and plantation crops. ind. j. hort. 55:265-296 chadha, k.l., harmail, s. and tandon, d.k. 1981. a varietal trial of guava. national symposium on tropical and sub-tropical fruit crops, bangalore, p.17 chandra., r.a., bajpai, soni gupta and tiwari, r. k. 2004. embryogenesis and plant regeneration from mesocarp of psidium guajava l. (guava) ind. j. biotech., 3:246-248 cheema, g.s. and deshmukh, g.b. 1927. culture of guava and its improvement by selection in western india. bull. dept. agri., bombay, no. 148 cheema, g.s., bhat, s.s. and naik, k.c. 1954. commercial fruits of india. macmillan & co., new york, usa. dass, h.c. and prakash, d. 1981. phylogenetic affinities in psidium spp. as studied by flavonoid patterns. national symposium on tropical and sub-tropical fruit crops, bangalore, p15 de candolle, a.p. 1904. origin of cultivated plants. kegal paul, london dinesh, m.r. and reddy, b.m.c. 2001. evaluation of psidium guajava accessions and some other psidium species for fruit characters. j. appl. hort., 3:41-43 dinesh, m.r. and yadav. i.s. 1998. half-sib analysis in guava (psidium guajava). ind. j. hort., 55:20-22 edward, j.c. and shankar, g.1964. rootstock trial for guava (psidium guajava l.). allahabad farmer, 38:249-50 evans, d.a. and sharp, w.r. 1988. somaclonal variation and its application in plant breeding. feature article. iaptc newslett. 54:2-10 golberg, l. and levy, l. 1941. the vitamin c content of fresh, canned and dried guava. nature, 148:286. (cited j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 94-108, 2010 dinesh and vasugi prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 107 from s.k.mitra and t.k.bose,1990. nature, guava. in : fruit : tropical and sub tropical. t.k.bose and s.k.mitra (eds.). nayaprokash, calcutta-6, pp:280-303) gonzaga, n. l., bezerra, j.e.f and montano, j.c. 1999. introduction and evaluation of indian varieties of guava in the region of submedio san francisco. pesquisa em andamento da embrapa semi arido, 95:3 hayes, w.b. 1953. fruit growing in india. kitabistan, allahabad iyer, c.p.a. and subramanyam, m.d. 1971. problems with triploidy in guava. sabrao newslett., 3(1):31-33. jaiswal, v.s. and amin, m.n. 1987. in vitro propagation of guava from shoot culture of mature trees. j. pl. physiol., 130:7-12 jaiswal,v.s and amin, m.n. 1992. guava and jackfruit. biotechnology of perennial fruit crops. hammerschlag, f.a., litz, r.e. eds., 421-431 janaki ammal, e.k.j. 1951. chromosomes and horticulture: tetraploids in guava. j. royal hort. soc., 76: 236-239 kumar, l.s.s. and ranade, s.g. 1952. autotriploid in guava (psidium guajava l.). curr.sci., 21:75-76 larkin, p.j., brettell, r.i.s., ryan, s.a., davis, p.v., pallotta, m.a. and scowcroft, w.r. 1985. somaclonal variation: impact on plant biology and breeding. in: biotechnology in plant science: relevance to agriculture in the eighties. zaitlin, m., day, p. & hollaender, a. eds, academic press, new york, usa, pp. 83-100 lee, m. and phillips, r.l. 1988. the chromosomal basis of somaclonal variation. ann. rev. pl. physiol. pl. mol.biol.,39:413-437 leslie, r.w. landrum, dennis clark, p. william and jeff brendecke. 1995. hybridization between psidium guajava and p. guineense (myrtaceae), econ. bot. 49:153-161 loh, c.s. and rao, a.n. 1989. clonal propagation of guava (psidium guajava l.) from seedling and grafted plants and adventitious shoot formation in vitro. sci. hort., 39:31-39 majumder, p.k. and mukherjee, s.k. 1972 a. aneuplody in guava. i. mechanism of variation in number of chromosomes. cytologia, 37:541-548 majumder, p.k. and mukherjee, s.k. 1972b. aneuplody in guava. ii. the occurrence of trisomics, tetrasomics and higher aneuploids in the progeny of triploid. nucleus, 13:42-47 majumder, p.k. and singh, r.n. 1964. seedlessness in guava (psidium guajava l.). curr. sci. 33:24-25 marak, j.k. and g.k.mukanda. 2007.studies on the performance of open pollinated seedling progenies of guava cv. ‘apple colour’. acta horti. 735 pp: 79-84 mitra, s.k. and bose, t.k., 1985, guava. fruits of indiatropical and sub-tropical ed. by bose naya prokash, calcutta mohammad, s. 1974. aneuploidy in guava. biol. plant., 16:382-388 morton, j. 1987. guava. in: fruits of warm climates. julia f. morton, miami, fl.,usa, pp. 356–363 mukherjee, s.k. 1977. improvement of mango, grapes and guava. in: fruit breeding in india. nijjar, g.s. (ed.), oxford & ibh, new delhi, pp. 15-20 naik, k.c. 1949 south indian fruits and their culture, varadachary and co., madras, 448-50 naithani, s.p. and srivastava, h.c. 1966. autotetraploidy in psidium guajava l. naturwissenchaft., 8: 205-206 normand, f. 1994. strawberry guava, relevance for reunion. fruits 49:217-27 ojha, a.p., tiwari, j.p. and mishra, k.k. 1986. studies on growth, flowering and yield of guava (psidium guajava l.) under terai condition of u.p. prog. hort., 8:205-06 pandey, s.d., 1968. the guava of uttar pradesh: a classification. hort. adv., 7:72-98 papadatou, p., pontikis, c., ephtimiadou, e and lydaki, m. 1990. rapid multiplication of guava seedlings by in vitro shoot-tip culture. sci. hort. 45:99-103 pathak, r.a. and dwivedi, r. 1988. report, fruit research workshop subtropical and temperature fruits. rajendra agricultural university, pusa,pp.76-77 pathak, r.k. and ojha, c.m. 1993. genetic resources of guava. in: advances in horticulture (vol i). chadha, k.l and 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color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no promising guava hybrids of anantharajupet. andhra agri. j. 24:53-54 raman, v.s., sri rangaswamy,s and manimekalai, f. 1971. triploidy and seedlessness in guava (psidium guajava l). cytologia, 36:392-399 raman, w.m., manimekalai,g and ramalingam, r.s. 1969. observation on seedlessness, fruit development and cytology of varieties of guava. madras agri. j., 56:255-61 rangacharlu, v.s. 1954. guava, the apple of tropics. andhra agri., j. 1:105-109 risterucci, a.m., duval, m.f., rohde, w., and billotte. n. 2005. isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci from psidium guajava l. molecular ecology notes doi:10.1111/j.1471-8286 sachan, b.p., pandey, d. and shankar, g. 1969. influence of weather on chemical composition of guava fruits (psidium guajava l.) var. allahabad safeda. punjab hort. j., 9:119-23 sehgal, o.p. and singh, r. 1967. studies on blossom biology of guava (psidium guajava l.) i. flowering season, flowering habit, floral bud development, anthesis and dehiscence. ind j. hort., 24:118-26 shafaat mohammed.1975. investigations on the breeding behaviour of aneuploids of guava. thesis submitted to the division of fruits and horticultural technology, iari, new delhi shanmugavelu, k.g. selvaraj, m. and thamburaj, s. 1987. review of research on fruit crops in tamil nadu. south ind. hort. 35:1-3 sharma, y.k. 1982. rootstock investigation in guava (psidium guajava l.). thesis submitted for the award of ph.d. degree to meerut university, meerut. sharma, y.k., goswami, a.m. and sharma, r.r. 1992 effect of dwarfing aneuploid guava rootstock in high density orcharding. ind. j.hort. 49:31-36 sharma, a.s., sehrawat, s.k. singharot, r.s. and boora, k.s. 2007 assessement of genetic diversity and relationship among psidium spp. through rapd analysis acta. horti.,735 singh, i.s., singh, h.k. and gupta, a.k., 1979. effect of post harvest application of ethephon on quality of guava (psidium guajava) cultivar lucknow 49. haryana j. hort. sci .8:12 16 singh, l.b. 1959. s1, a new promising selection of guava (psidium guajava l.). annual report, fruit research station, saharanpur, pp. 58-60. singh, r. and sehgal, o.p. 1968, studies on blossom biology of psidium guajava l. (guava). ii. pollen studies, stigma receptivity, pollen and fruit set. ind. j. hort., 25:52-59 singh, r.l. 1953. annual report, fruit research station, saharanpur, 1950-53. singh, s. and hoda, m.n. 1994. report on fruit research at sabour, rajendra agril. univ. pusa (india), pp. 74-77 singh, u.r., pandey, i.c., upadhyaya, n.p. and tripathi, b.m. 1976. effect of different rootstocks on the growth yield and quality of guava. punjab hort. j. 16:121-28 singh, v.r., dhar, l., and singh. g., 1977. note on the performance of guava cultivars and psidium species against wilt disease under natural field conditions. haryana j. hort. sci. 6(3-4): 149-50 srivastava, h.c. 1977. cytological studies in psidium friedrichsthalianum n. cytologia, 42:395-400 srivastava, o.p. 1974. studies on the flowering habit, blooming period, anthesis, dehiscence and pollen grain of psidium guajava l. varieties apple colour, chittidar and red flesh. prog. hort., 6:71-77 srivastava, r.p and srivastava, r.k. 1965. physicochemical studies on safeda allahabad and red fleshed guavas. punjab hort. j., 5:12-15 subramanyam, m.d. and iyer, c.p.a. 1982. improvement of guava by breeding. report, fruit workshop, nagpur. pp. 117-118 subramanyam, m.d. and iyer, c.p.a. 1998. report, fruit research workshop on tropical and subtropical fruits. rajendra agril. univ., pusa india, pp. 81-84. syamal, m.m., singh r.k. and chhlonkar, v.s. 1980. studies on growth and flowering in guava, psidium friedrichsthalianum 37:243-45 teaotia, s.s., pandey, i.c. and agnihotri, b.n. 1962. study of some guava varieties (psidium guajava l.) of uttar pradesh. ind. agriculuturist, 6:47-53 thonte, g.t. and chakrawar, v.r. 1981. the variablility and correlation studies of guava strains. national symposium on subtropical fruit crops, bangalore, p. 17 zamir, r., khattak, g.s.s., mohammad, t., shah, s.a., khan, a.j. and ali, n. 2003. in vitro mutagenesis in guava (psidium guajava l.). pakistan j. bot. 35: 825-828 j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 94-108, 2010 dinesh and vasugi prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no c o n t e n t s journal of horticultural sciences volume 16 issue 1 june 2021 in this issue i-ii review moringa (moringa oleifera l.): an underutilized and traditionally valued 1-13 tree holding remarkable potential jattan m., kumari n., raj kumar, kumar a., rani b., phogat d.s., kumar, s. and kumar, p. original research in papers characterization and evaluation of mountain sweet thorn 14-25 (flacourtia montana j. grah) collections tripathi p.c., ganeshan s., radhika v. and shetti d.l. optimization of methodology for the extraction of polyphenolic compounds 26-35 with antioxidant potential and á-glucosidase inhibitory activity from jamun (syzygium cumini l.) seeds arivalagan m., priyanka d.r. and rekha a. genetic variability studies in amaranthus (amaranthus spp.) 36-44 agadi a.h., kolakar s., lakshmana d., nadukeri s. and hanumanthappa m. morpho-physiological parameters associated with chlorosis resistance to 45-52 iron deficiency and their effect on yield and related attributes in potato (solanum tuberosum l.) challam c., dutt s., sharma j., raveendran m. and sudhakar d. responses of different okra (abelmoschus esculentus) cultivars to water 53-63 deficit conditions ayub q., khan s.m., hussain i., naveed k., ali s., mehmood a., khan m.j., haq n.u., shehzad q. induced variability for yield and its attributing traits in cluster bean 64-68 [cyamopsis tetragonoloba (l. ) taub] through gamma irradiation lavanya h.n., mishra s., sood m., aghora t.s., anjanappa m., rao v.k. and reddy a.b. in vitro multiplication protocol for curcuma mangga : studies on carbon, 69-76 cytokinin source and explant size waman a.a., bohra p., karthika devi r. and pixy j. effect of fungicide and essential oils amended wax coating on quality and shelf life 77-90 of sweet orange (citrus sinensis osbeck) bhandari m., bhandari n. and dhital m. post-harvest quality and quantification of betalains, phenolic compounds and 91-102 antioxidant activity in fruits of three cultivars of prickly pear (opuntia ficus-indica l. mill) gonzalez f.p.h., saucedo v.c., guerra r.d., suarez e.j., soto h.r.m. lopez j.a., garcia c.e. and hernandez r.g. soil microbial community dynamics as influenced by integrated nutrient 103-113 management practices in sweet basil (ocimum basilicum l.) cultivation baraa al-mansour and d. kalaivanan effect of spectral manipulation and seasonal variations on cut foliage production 114-120 and quality of philodendron (philodendron ‘xanadu’) sujatha a. nair, laxman r.h. and sangama short communications studies on mutagenic sensitivity of seeds of pummelo (citrus maxima merr.) 121-124 sankaran m., kalaivanan d. and sunil gowda d.c. isolation and characterization of microsatellite markers from 125-129 garcinia indica and cross species amplification ravishankar k.v., vasudeva r., hemanth b., nischita p., sthapit b.r., parthasarathy v.a. and rao v.r. 91 j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 91-102, 2021 original research paper post-harvest quality and quantification of betalains, phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity in fruits of three cultivars of prickly pear (opuntia ficus-indica l. mill) gonzalez f.p.h.*1, saucedo v.c.1, guerra r.d.2, suarez e.j.1, soto h.r.m.1, lopez j.a.1, garcia c.e.1 and hernández r.g.1 1 colegio de postgraduados. carretera méxico-texcoco km. 36.5, montecillo, texcoco 56230, estado de méxico. 2 universidad autónoma chapingo. km. 38.5 carretera méxico – texcoco chapingo, texcoco 56230, estado de méxico. *corresponding author e-mail : gonzalez.paulina@colpos.mx abstract postharvest quality, quantification of betalains, phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity of peel, pulp and juice of fruits of three prickly pears (opuntia ficus-indica l. mill.) cultivars of colegio de postgraduados in méxico, were measured. the red and orange cultivars showed outstanding features of postharvest quality (size, texture, tss and pulp and juice content), highest content of betalains and phenolic compounds. therefore, highest antioxidant activity. in general, highest content of bioactive compounds was detected in peel, besides the content in pulp and juice did not show statistically significant differences. phenolic content is very high in comparison with other fruits. antioxidant activity was measured by three assays: frap, abts and dpph. three cultivars showed high correlation between antioxidant activity and phenolic compounds. the methodologies used in this work are a very useful tool for the quantification of bioactive compounds in o. ficus-indica fruit tissues. keywords : betalains, flavonoids, opuntia ficus-indica, phenolic compounds and prickly pear introduction prickly pear (opuntia ficus-indica l. mill.) is the species of ca cti with the gr ea test economic importance in the world (bravo, 1978); (kiesling, 1999); (griffith, 2004); (feugang et al., 2006). it is cultivated in several continents, but is native to america, where, there are more than 93 species of opuntia (hunt, 1999). in the southern highlands of mexico, there are more than 243 varieties, used as fodder, vegetables and fruit. most of the prickly pear cactus is collected from the wild, since there are only approximately 20,000 commercial plantations of prickly pear cactus. the semiarid regions of central mexico hosted the greatest genetic diversity, as well as the largest cultivated area of prickly pear cactus in the world. variability is found in both cultivated and wild populations. prickly pear has become an important fruit crop in the semi-arid lands of mexico, wher e it pla ys a str a tegic r ole in subsistence agriculture (pimienta, 1994). the prickly pear has been recognized for its numerous nutritional virtues, nutritional and functional properties. recent data have r evea led the high content of some chemica l components, which can give added value to this fruit. high levels of betalains, taurine, calcium, magnesium and antioxidants stand out. in addition, some of the components show promising characteristics in terms of functionality (piga, 2004). the diversity of betalains found in these prickly pear cultivars, indicate the potential value of opuntia cactus pear fruit, as a good source of pigments, and their potential industrial exploitation for drinks and food products. therefore, consumption of cactus pear fruit may provide nutritional and health benefits (castellanos & yahia, 2008). flavonoids have been reported by several authors (feugang et al., 2006); (garcía et al., 2019). also, kuti (2000) reported about the presence of phenolic compounds in fresh prickly pear fruits. (lee et al., 2002) also reported the antioxidant effects of opuntia extracts. there is few information on the quantification of betalains and this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. 92 gonzalez et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 91-102, 2021 phenolic compounds in different fruit tissues, and juice of opuntia ficus-indica cultivars. the purpose of the following work was to evaluate the postharvest quality, quantification of betalains, phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity of fruit tissues of three prickly pears (opuntia ficus-indica l. mill.) cultivars grown at colegio de postgraduados. materials and methods plant material three o. ficus-indica cultivars colors red, white and orange developed in the fruticulture experimental field of colegio de postgr a dua dos, loca ted in montecillo, state of mexico (coordinates 19°272 513 n 98°542 153 o, altitude 2250 msnm), high altitude, temperate climate, the driest of the sub-humid, with rainfall in summer, precipitation 572. 25 mm and mean annual temperature of 15.3 ºc (garcía, 1988) were selected for the study according to flesh color, identified as cp1 (red), cp3 (white) a nd cp4 (orange). for fruit harvesting, the criteria established were the fla ttening of the floral ca vity and the moment when the glochids or thorns fell (cantwell, 1995). color characteristics the fruit color was measured by cielab system. the epicarp color was measured on two opposite sides of the equatorial zone of the fruit, with a hunter-lab model d-25 reflection color imeter (reston, virginia, usa); cielab parameters l*, a*, b* were recorded and the hue angle (°h=tan-1(b*/a*) and saturation index (chroma (c) (a2+b2) 1/2 ) were calculated (mcguire, 1992). postharvest quality a total of 50 fruits per cultivar were harvested and measured for size, structural components (peel, pulp and seeds), epicarp (peel) color, texture, juice content, total soluble solids, juice ph, betalains, flavonoids, phenols contents and antioxidant capacity. size was determined based on longitudinal and equatorial diameter, measured with a trupper-14388 digital vernier on a total of 15 fruits; data were reported in millimeter s (mm). t he str uctur a l components evaluated were the proportion of peel, pulp and seeds, determined on a weight basis with an ohaus scoutpro electronic balance with a sensitivity of 0.1 mg and the percentage of peel, pulp and seeds was calculated; in addition, the number and area (mm2) of seeds was determined using an epson scan scanner with winseedle tm 2013 software. firmness was measured based on the deformation of the fruit when a force of 1 kg was applied with a cha ntillon texturometer (wagner force five model fdv-30) with a flat strut; the results were expressed in newtons/cm2 (n/cm2). juice extraction to deter mine the juice content, the juice wa s extracted from a total of 15 fruits separately with an oster ® fpstje317 centrifugal extractor; for the calculations, the equation % juice= (juice weight/pulp weight) x100 was applied. total soluble solids (%) and ph were measured according to the methods of the (aoac, 1990) using a portable refractometer palette atago, pr-320 (0-.32%) and a corning model 12 potentiometer, ny, usa, respectively. obtaining prickly pear tissues samples of the epicarp (30g), mesocarp and endocarp (30 g), as well as juice from the pulp (15 ml) were obtained separa tely by ha nd using a n oster ® fpstje317 centrifugal extractor. all samples were kept in ultrafreeze at -65°c and subsequently freezedried for 3 days at -45°c and 1.3 × 10-3 mpa in a labconco freezone 2.5 l equipment. the freezedried samples were homogenized using a nutribullet nb-101b to obtain a fine particle. finally, they were preserved in airtight aluminum bags for storage at 18°c until analysis. extraction procedure of freeze-dried prickly pear tissues extraction was performed by placing 1 g of freezedried prickly pear sample in 50 ml of methanol: water (80/20, v/v) and mixed by vortex for 3 min, subsequently ph was adjusted to 3 with hydrochloric acid, and put in an ultrasonic bath (bransonic™ cpxh series) for 15 min. after that, the samples were rotated for 30 min at 150 rpm and 27°c. finally, they were centrifuged for 15 min (3500 rpm) and the supernatant was separated. the extracts were stored at -18°c in dark for further analysis. spectrophotometric quantification of total betalains and phenolic compounds for the determination of total betalains and phenolic compounds, the prickly pear extracts mentioned above were used. betalain content was measured 93 post-harvest quality and anti-oxidant activity in prickly pear according to the method of (castellanos & yahia, 2008) using a sinergy 2 microplate multidetector equipped with gen 5 data analysis software (biotek instr uments inc. , winoosky, vt usa). t he absorption spectrum was obtained from 200 to 700 nm to obtain the absorption maximum and an od <1. readings were obtained for each extract in triplicate. the betalain content was expressed as: µg betanin equivalents for betacyanin content (bc) and µg indicaxanthin equivalents for betaxanthin content (bx). the calculation was made using the following formula: bc or bx (mg/g) = [a(df)(mw)(vd)/ ε(l)(wd)] where a is the absorption value at the a bsor ption ma ximum of 535 a nd 483 nm for betacyanins and betaxanthins, respectively, df is the dilution factor, vd is the dried pulp solution volume (ml), wd is the dried pulp weight (g), and l is the path-length (0.38 cm) of the cuvette. the molecular weight (mw) and molar extinction coefficient (ε) of betanin [mw) 550 g/mol; ε) 60,000 l/(mol cm) in h2o] wer e a pplied in or der to qua ntify the betacyanins. quantitative equivalents of the major betaxanthins (bx) were determined by applying the mean molar extinction coefficient [ε) 48,000 l/(mol cm) in h2o]. in all cases, water extracted the highest level of pigments. the total flavonoid determination was conducted according to the colorimetric method defined by chang et al. (2002) with modifications. the prickly pear extract was mixed with 100 µl of potassium acetate, 100 µl of 10% aluminum chloride and 4.7 ml of distilled water. after incubation at room temperature for 30 min in darkness, the absorbance of the reaction mixture was measured at 415 nm in a microplate multidetector mentioned in section 2.7 placing 200 µl of sample and reagent blank in respective microwells. the amount of 10% aluminum chloride was substituted by the same amount of methanol: water (80/20, v/v) in blank. quercetin (0.4 – 1.6 µg/ml) was used to make the calibration curve and the results were expressed as mg quercetin equivalents per g dry weight (mg eq/ g dry weight). the total phenolic determination was expressed as µg gallic acid equivalents per g of dry weight (mg gae g dry weight), according to the folin-ciocalteau assay which detects electron transfer by measuring the reducing capacity of the sample and can therefore also be considered as antioxidant activity assay (cano et al. 2017). antioxidant activity the antioxidant activity of each cultivar of prickly pear was determined using three assays: frap, abts and dpph which have been widely applied in the analysis of food samples (re et al., 1999). the frap assay was performed according to the methodology (benzie & strain, 1996) with some modifications. the frap solution includes 10 ml of 300 mm acetate buffer at ph 3.6, 1 ml of 10 mm tptz and 1 ml of 20 mm fecl36h 2o. the prickly pear extracts (20 µl) were allowed to react with 180 µl of frap solution and 60 µl of distilled water for 10 minutes in dark conditions. readings were taken at 595 nm. the calibration curve was linear between 50 and 600 µm trolox. results were expr essed in µm trolox equivalents (µm te)/g dry weight. for abts assay, the procedure of (re, 1999) was followed with some modifications. the abts-+ radical solution included 7.4 mm abts-+ and 2.6 mm sodium persulfate solution. the working solution was prepared by mixing the two stock solutions in equal quantities and allowing them to react in the dark for 16 hours. the solution was then diluted by mixing 600 µl of abts-+ solution in 9.4 ml of methanol. the prickly pear extracts (20 µl) were allowed to react with 180 µl of abts solution for 10 minutes in dark conditions. readings were taken at 734 nm. the calibration curve was linear from 50 to 500 µm tr olox. results are expressed in µm trolox equivalents (µm te/g dry weight). dpph assay was done according to the method of williams et al. (1995) with some modifications. the dpph stock solution was prepared by dissolving 19.7 mg of dpph in 100 ml of 80% methanol. prickly pear extracts (200 µl) were allowed to react with 50 µl of dpph solution for 30 min in dark conditions. readings were taken at 515 nm. the calibration curve was linear from 50 to 500 µl of trolox. the results were expressed in µm trolox equivalents (µm te/g dry weight). additional dilutions were made when the values obtained from the samples were outside the linear range of the calibration curve. statistical analysis the compositional data were expressed as mean ± standa rd devia tion of at least five independent determinations. significant differences between results were calculated by one-way analysis of variance j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 91-102, 2021 94 (anova), followed by a post hoc tukey’s test. a level of p < 0. 05 was considered a significant difference. to investigate the relationship between main phytochemicals, a bilateral pearson correlation analysis was performed with a significance of p < 0.01 and p < 0.05. all statistical analyses were executed with sas institute, inc 9.4. results and discussion morphological characterization the morphological and physical characteristics of three prickly pear cultivars are directly influenced by selection (table 1). fruit length averages (mm) were significantly different among them, with cp4 and cp3 obtaining the highest and lowest values (97. 15 a nd 73.2 mm, respectively). regar ding diameter, no significant differences were found between selections with averages of 52 and 55 mm respectively. the values of both lower and upper limits are very similar to those reported by parish and felker (1997) with average ranges of 73 to 88 mm for length and 56 to 57 mm for diameter. cerezal & duarte (2005) evaluated prickly pears har vested in the andea n highla nds of the 2nd region of chile, reporting average length values of 62 t o 78 mm a nd 4 6 to 5 2 mm in dia meter. karababa et al. (2004) reported fruit length values ranging from 66 to 71 mm and diameter values from 45 to 52 mm for a variety harvested in five loca tions in tur key. on the other ha nd, singh (2003) reported length and diameter values lower than those found in this study for prickly pear clones from the usa and introduced to india with average ranges of 55 to 76 mm in length and 33 to 46 mm in diameter. cp1 and cp4 had values of epicarp firmness of 32 and 36.5 n/cm2 respectively, higher than cp3 ( 2 6 . 6 n / c m2) . we ight of f r u it of c p 3 wa s significantly lower (124 g) compared to cp1 and cp4 (160 and 164 g respectively). there are other published works about the size of fruit, weight, tss, ph and number of seeds (cerezal & duarte, 2005); (karababa et al., 2004); (parish & felker, 1997); (singh, 2003). cp1 (red) cp3 (white) cp4 (orange) size of fruit (mm) 87.18±6.64b 73.19±8.72c 97.15±6.62a diameter (mm) 55.39±2.95a 54.02±6.7a 52.22±4.24a firmness (n/cm2) 31.99±9.54a 26.63±6.94b 36.51±6.98a total weight of whole fruit (g) 159.91±23.81a 123.95±33.55b 154.26±17.67a peel content (%) 37.19±4.15b 40.9±3.33a 39.67±3.51ab pulp content (%) 62.3±4.18a 57.57±5.2b 60.54±2.93ab tss of pulp (%) 15.53±1.22a 12.59±1.73b 11.4±0.78ab juice content (%) 74.99±5.36a 66.57±7.11b 67.72±5.64b ph 7.31±0.16a 6.55±0.15c 7.03±0.13b tss of juice (%) 13.52±0.86a 12.86±2.33a 11.91±0.54a seed content (%) 2.74±0.17ab 2.08±0.61b 3.09±0.60a weight of seeds (g) 4.18±0.86a 3.11±0.39b 4.12±0.69a number of seeds 329.67±61.8a 188.11±32.65bc 231.56±50.7c average area of seeds (mm2) 15.75±0.7c 18.41±0.68b 19.592±1a *values are the mean of 15 independent determinations ± standard deviation. *different letters indicate statistically significant differences (pd” 0.05) between columns. table 1: morphological, physical and physico-chemical characteristics of fresh fruits of three prickly pear cultivars (opuntia ûcus-indica l. mill.) gonzalez et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 91-102, 2021 95 in contrast with studies of barbera et al. (1994) the biggest fruit (cp4) don´t have the high quantity of seeds, in this case the fruit of cp1 had high quantity of seeds. the cultivar with less number of seeds was cp3 (white), it has been cultivated to produce prickly pear for many years. so, it has had a selection process. el behi et al. (2015); barbera et al. (1994); mejía & cantwell (2003) mention in their studies that the relationship between fruit size and seed content is highly variable and influenced by factors such as genotype, crop load and fruit position within the canopy. firmness is a mechanical property gives post-harvest quality in fresh fruits. a loss of firmness is caused by loss of cell turgor due to aging or dehydration. both thinning and softening of the peel contribute to increased susceptibility to physical damage and deter ior ation of prickly pea rs during ha ndling (cantwell, 1995). however, this characteristic is also due to genetic and nutritional issues of the crop. guerrero (2018) reports firmness values for white prickly pear opuntia amyclaea green mature (36.28 n/cm2) and mature (26.48 n/cm2). in this study we obtained values between 23.63 n/cm2 for cp3 and 36.51 n/cm2 for cp4. red cultiva r (cp1) wa s cha r a cter ized by the significantly higher content of pulp (62.3%), tss of pulp (15.53 brix) and juice (13.52%), juice content (74.99%), and lower content of peel (37.19%). significant differences in the ph of the three cultivars were observed with values between 6.55 (cp3) and 7.31 (cp1). this values were higher than reported by andreu et al. (2018) in six cultivars of prickly pears grown in spain, who showed values of ph between 5.2 and 6.06. regarding seed content, cultivars cp1 (red) and cp4 (orange) showed higher seed weight (4.18 and 4.12 g respectively), and higher seed quantity (329 and 231 seeds respectively) tha n cp3 (white). however, cp1 (red) has significantly smaller seeds (15.75 mm) than cp3 and cp4. color table 2 shows that the three cultivars had l* values less than 50, the cp3 (white) was the closest with (l= 47.5), so it is the one with the least dark color. between cp1 (red) and cp4 (orange) cultivars, no significant differences were observed for lightness. hue values suggest that there are three types of shades; white with high hue values (112.27), red with intermediate value (25.72) and orange with low hue values (7.49). the highest chroma values were also presented by cp3 (white) (21.88), cp1 (red) and cp4 (orange) obtained very close values (16.17 and 15.32) respectively. table 2: color of fruit or three prickly pear cultivars (opuntia ficus-indica l. mill.) cp1 (red) cp3 (white) cp4 (orange) l* 35.19±2.76b 47.5±3.96a 34.33±1.86b a 6.2±2.5 b -8.3±2.3 c 9.6±2.1 a b 9.3±3.0 b 19.8±1.5 a 11.4±1.2 b hue 25.72±9.59b 112.27±5.52a 7.49±7.49c chroma 16.17±3.97b 21.88±2.4286a 15.32±1.7b * values are the mean of 15 independent determinations ± standard deviation. * different letters indicate statistically significant differences ( 0.05) between columns. quantification of betalains betalains are water soluble compounds present in a restricted number of families of plants from the caryophyllale family. they are classified in two chemical families: betacyanins and betaxanthins with 540 and 480 nm absorption maxima. betalains are powerful radical eliminators in chemical system and act as an efficient antioxidant in biological models (cano et al., 2017). betalain content was measured in cp1 (red) and cp4 (orange) cultivars, in the peel, pulp and juice of prickly pear. the cp1 cultivar showed higher betacyanins (bc) and betaxanthins (bx) content than cp4 (orange) with values of 1181 and 1137 µg/g d.w in peel, respectively for cp1 (red) and values of 161 a nd 408 µ g/g d. w in peel for cp4 (or a nge), respectively. these compounds are responsible for the red and orange shades respectively. betacyanins appear to be in higher concentration in the peels of both prickly pear cultivars (red and orange), however, betaxanthins are observed evenly distributed in both peel, pulp and juice in the cp4 (orange) cultivar. this is consistent with the findings of (cano et al., 2017). on the other hand, no significant differences are shown between bc and bx content in pulp and juice j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 91-102, 2021 post-harvest quality and anti-oxidant activity in prickly pear 96 for both selections (table 3). in this sense, we could assume that no significant betalain content is lost during the juice extraction process. table 3: betalain content in two prickly pear cultivars (opuntia ficus-indica l. mill.) cp1 (red) cp4 (orange) bc1 peel 1181.67±151.3aa 161±6.08ba pulp 496±30.51ab 69.67±0.58bb juice 472.33±12.74ab 65.67±5.69bb bx2 peel 1137.67±169.82aa 408±2.65ba pulp 552.67±26.65ab 435.33±58.77aa juice 398±19ab 457±21.07aa * values are the mean of 3 independent determinations ± standard deviation. * lowercase letters indicate statistically significant differences ( 0.05) between cultivars of the same tissue for each given compound. * uppercase letters indicate statistically significant differences ( 0.05) between cultivars of the same tissue for each given compound. bc1: betacyanins expressed as µg of betanin equivalents per gram of dry weight. bx : betaxanthins expressed as µg of indicaxanthin equivalents per gram of dry weight. castella nos & yahia (2008) reported values of betacyanins of 5290 µg/g dw in camuesa cultivar, followed by 2060 µg/g in roja pelota, 2040 µg/g dw in cardona and much lower contents in the reyna variety (50 µg/g dw). betaxanthins were f ou nd in t h e yellow p r ic kly p ea r va r iet ies naranjona, 2651 and 21441 with values of 160, 140 and 120 µg/g dry weigt, respectively. these values differ greatly from those found in this work. garcía et al. (2019) reported betacyanin values of 1670 µg/g d.w and 450 µg/g and betaxanthin values of 730 a nd 370 µg/g in the pulp of mexica n va r iet ies o f p u r p le a nd r ed p r i c kly p ea r, respectively. the values reported for red tuna are more consistent with what was found in this study. quantification of total phenols (tp) and total flavonoids (tf) some of the published wor ks on the chemica l composition of prickly pear showed information about the main compounds with antioxidant activity (fernández et al., 2010). phenolic compounds are known as bioactive or functional compounds that s er ve a s pr ot ec tor s a ga ins t c er t a in dis ea s es ( bu t er a e t a l . , 2 0 0 2 ) , whi c h a r e ma inly characterized by their antioxidant activity (andreu et al., 2018). table 4 shows the content of total phenols in the peel, pulp and juice of the three cultivars evaluated. cp1 (red) and cp3 (white) presented the highest total phenols content (tp) in peel (7225.67 and 7486.67 µg gae. g-1 dw, respectively), which was significantly differ ent for cp4 (or ange), which obtained 59.39% with respect to the cp3 (white) cultivar. no significant differences were found in the total flavonoid content in the peel of the three selections studied (2505, 2114 and 2239 µg qe g1 d.w.) respectively. the total flavonoids content (tf) in pulp and juice of the three cultiva rs did not show significa nt differences with average values of 2121, 1422.5 and 1911 µg gae. g-1 dw for cp1, cp3 and cp4, respectively). garcía et al. (2019) found values of 2067 µg gae. g-1 dw for red prickly pear fruit pulp and 3501 µg gae. g-1 dw in peel. this value is close to that we found in this study for the orange selection (4446 µg gae. g-1 p.s.). tp a nd t f were found in 70 a nd 83% higher concentrations in peel than in pulp and juice in cp1 (red). in 82 and 83% in cp3 (white) and 62 and 93% in cp4 (orange). this corresponds with the findings of several authors, giving clear evidence that the highest antioxidant contents are present in the peel of the fruit (andreu et al., 2018); (garcía et al., 2019); (morales, 2009). cp1 presented the highest content of tp and tf in pulp (2149 µg gae. g-1 dw and 558 µg qe g-1 dw respectively). in addition, cultivars cp1 and cp4 had the highest tp in juice (2092 and 2138 µg gae. g-1 dw and cp3 had the highest tf in juice (555.33 µg qe g-1 dw). the content of total phenols in prickly pear is very high compared to other fruits. the tp ranges (µg gae. g-1 dw) are 140 to 1020 in nectarines, 210 to 110 in peaches and 420 to 1090 in plums (gil et al., 2002). on the other hand, the results are close to other fruits with high antioxidant capacity such as guava, which obtained values of 1700 to 3000 µg gae. g-1 dw in a study carried out on pinkfleshed clones (thaipong et al., 2006). gonzalez et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 91-102, 2021 97 on the other hand, other species such as xoconostle (opuntia matudae) have shown higher values of these compounds (tp) with values of up to 8590 and 9180 µg gae. g-1 dw in pulp and peel (morales, 2009). similarly, values from 4950 to 9800 µg gae. g-1 dw have been reported in blueberry (wada, 2002) and from 526 to 6819 µg gae. g-1 dw at different maturity stages in garambullo (felix, 2018). antioxidant activity (aoa) antioxidant activity, is one of the main mechanisms in which vegetables and fruits provide health benefits to humans (andreu et al., 2018). several studies have established inverse correlations in the consumption of fr uits a nd vegeta bles a nd ca r diova scula r, inflammatory, cancer and age-dependent diseases (willet, 2001). the use of a single technique to determine antioxidant activity may prove to be unrealistic and not as useful, however there are a large number of published techniques that pur port to measure antioxidant a ctivity in vivo (wua ng et al. , 2005). t he measurement of antioxidant activity in prickly pear fr uits wa s eva lua ted ba sed on thr ee spectrophotometric assays; dpph, abts and frap. the results are shown in table 4. as with total phenols and flavonoids, the highest antioxidant activity was clearly observed for the three assays and three cultivars (cp1, cp3 and cp4) in the fruit peel, except in the peel and pulp of cp1 (red) by abts. for the frap assay, cp1 (red) and cp4 (orange) show higher antioxidant activity (17.6 and 19.13 µmol et g-1 dw) than cp3 (white) in peel. cp3 table 4: content of total phenols, total flavonoids and antioxidant activity (frap, abts y dpph) in three prickly pear cultivars (opuntia ficus-indica l. mill.) cp1 (red) cp3 (white) cp4 (orange) total phenols1 peel 7225.67±198.07aa 7486.67±461.24aa 4446.67±295.5ba pulp 2149.33±211.05ab 1529.67±163.09bb 1683.33±54.37bb juice 2092.67±132.08ab 1315.33±155.58bb 2138.33±127.45ab total flavonoids2 peel 2505.33±194.54aa 2114.67±78.56aa 2239.67±176.52aa pulp 558±55.51ab 249±21.52bc 168±5.57bb juice 425.67±68.38bb 555.33±25.66ab 148.67±2.08cb frap3 peel 17.68±0.74aa 14.94±0.48ba 19.13±0.35aa pulp 8.63±0.75ab 6.83±0.84ab 7.71±0.32ab juice 7.48±0.49ab 5.23±0.16bb 8.14±0.17ab abts4 peel 20.61±0.74aa 20.49±0.32aa 19.08±0.35aa pulp 18.34±1.34aa 7.39±0.45bb 7.65±0.32bb juice 14.38±1.21ab 6.09±0.19cc 8.09±0.17bb dpph5 peel 16.03±4.23ba 32.38±1.61aa 19.82±5.65aa pulp 8.96±0.74aab 6.56±0.89bb 2.41±0.24cb juice 5.05±0.37ab 2.89±0.15bc 2.38±0.22bb * values are the mean of 3 independent determinations ± standard deviation. * lowercase letters indicate statistically significant differences (p 0.05) between cultivars of the same tissue for each given compound. * uppercase letters indicate statistically significant differences (p 0.05) between cultivars of the same tissue for each given compound. 1 expressed as µg of gallic acid equivalents per gram of dry weight. 2 expresado as µg of quercetin equivalents per gram of dry weight. 3,4,5 expressed as µmol de trolox equivalents per gram of dry weight. *dpph (2,2-difenil-1-picrilhidrazilo), abts (ácido -3 etilbenzotiazolino-6-sulfónico) y frap (ferric reducing antioxidant power). j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 91-102, 2021 post-harvest quality and anti-oxidant activity in prickly pear 98 shows the lowest antioxidant activity in this assay in the three tissues (14.9, 6.8 and 5.2 µmol et g-1 dw) in peel, pulp and juice, respectively. in the abts assay, cp1 (red) showed higher antioxidant activity in pulp and juice with values of 18.34 and 14.38 µmol et g-1dw, respectively. there are no significant differences in the antioxidant activity of the three cultivars in peel. in dpph, cp3 (white) a nd cp4 (or a nge) s howed higher a nt ioxida nt activity in peel 32.3 a nd 19.8 µmol et g-1dw, respectively. on the contrary, cp1 (red) showed higher antioxidant activity in juice and pulp than the other cultivars with values of (8.96 and 5.05 µmol et g-1dw), respectively. frap technique estimates the reducing activity of fe(iii), which is not necessa r ily r eleva nt for calculating its antioxidant capacity (ou, et al., 2002). taking into account that not all antioxidants reduce fe(iii) as fast as required (pulido et al., 2 0 0 0 ) , t hei r a nt iox ida nt c a p a c i t y c ou ld b e underestimated. the abts technique is considered to be highly sensitive (kuskoski et al., 2005), however, the working solution for this technique needs to be kept in the da r k for 12 hour s to generate free radicals. as the reacting solution is not a lwa ys of the sa me a ge, this ca n lea d to dif f er enc e s in va lu es dep end ing on t he determination times (thaipong et al., 2006). the dpph assay has been a widely used method to detect the ability of compounds to scavenge free radicals or the antioxidant activity of extracts (hou, e t a l . , 2 00 3 ) . s a nchez s u ggest ed t ha t 2 , 2 diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (dpph) is an easy and a cc u r a t e method t o mea su r e t he a nt iox ida nt capacity in fruit and vegetable extracts (sánchez, 2002). as concluded by frankel and meyer, these assays differ fr om ea ch other in ter ms of substr ates, probes, r ea ction conditions a nd qua ntifica tion methods, making it very difficult to compare the results obtained between them (frankel & meyer, 2000). a single method is not sufficient to determine the antioxidant capacity of plant extracts; more than one type of aoa deter mination is r equired to r ep r es ent t he dif f er ent modes o f a c t ion of a ntioxida nts. t he methods used a re ba sica lly classified into two types: assays based on hydrogen atom transfer (hat) and assays based on electron transfer (et) (dudonné et al., 2009). in this study, aoa was determined by two hat-type assays: abts and dpph, as well as fe reduction capacity, using the frap assay. t he presence of phenolic compounds in plant extracts contributes significantly to their antioxidant potential (dudonné et al., 2009). part of this aoa comes fr om fla vonoids, low molecula r weight polyphenolic compounds distributed in fruits and vegetables (hertog et al., 1992). for their part, betalains are powerful free radical scavengers that act as efficient antioxidants in biological models (cano et al., 2017). antioxidant capacity varies considerably from one type of fruit to another. (wuang et al., 2005) and c owor ker s c ondu c t ed a s t u dy in whic h t he antioxidant capacity of 12 fruits and 5 commercial juices was measured by orac assay, resulting in st r a wb er r y ha ving the highes t ao a (1 5. 36 ), followed by plum (9.49), or ange (7. 50), gra pe (7.39), kiwi (6.02) and melon (0.97 µmol et g-1 fresh fruit). (andreu et al., 2018) and coworkers reported high levels of antioxidant capacity in prickly pear fruits of different cultivars for peel and pulp showing higher values than those found in this study in the thr ee met hods. by the abt s technique, t hey reported the lowest aoa value in peel for cultivar na (14.7) and the highest value for cultivar na (14.7 µmol et g-1 dw). in pulp, the lowest value was obtained by cultivar nj (6.4) and the highest value by nt (30 µmol et g-1 dw). by the dpph technique, the lowest aoa va lue in peel wa s obtained by cultivar ne (54.8) and the highest value in cultivar fr (60 µmol et g-1 dw). in pulp, the lowest value was obtained by cultivar no (57.4) and the highest value by nt (60 µmol et g-1 dw). finally, measured by frap, the lowest value of aoa in peel was obtained by cultivar ne (40.2) and the highest value by cultivar na (116 µmol et g-1 dw). in pulp, the lowest value was obtained by cultivar na (15) and the highest value by fr (32 µmol et g-1 dw). this exceeds the r esults found for a ntioxida nt capacity in this study for the three selections, with gonzalez et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 91-102, 2021 99 the highest values found by the dpph technique for cp3 peel (32.3) and for cp1 pulp by the abts technique (18.3 µmol et g-1 dw). some authors have reported results consistent with this study, finding a higher antioxidant capacity in fruit peel than in the pulp of pomegranate (calín et al., 2013), guava (marquina et al., 2008) and berries (oszmiański  et al., 2016). correlation between tests to determine the linear relationship between the antioxidant capacity methods performed and the phenolic compounds a nd beta la ins, pea r son’s correlation coefficient was ca lculated. ta ble 5 shows high correlations between the three methods and phenolic compounds (phenols and flavonoids). the correlation coefficient between total phenols a nd fla vonoids a nd the aoa mea sur ed by the frap assay was 0.85 and 0.93, respectively. the correlation between total phenols and flavonoids and aoa measured by abts was 0.79 and 0.81 and by dpph was 0.85 and 0.77, respectively. t he c or r ela t ion c oef f ic ient s of b et a la ins (betacyanins and betaxanthins) and aoa by frap wer e lower, wit h va lu es of 0 . 4 1 a nd 0 . 4 8 , respectively, 0.67 and 0.51 by abts and 0.50 and 0.466 by dpph. all t echniqu es used for t he deter mina tion of a nt iox ida n t c a p a c it y ( ao a) s ho wed a high correlation with tp and tf for three evaluated cultiva r s (cp1, cp3 a nd cp 4). t his ma y be because phenolic compounds, known as hydrophilic antioxida nt compounds, ar e the most abundant secondary metabolites in plants (gil et al., 2002). this corresponds with what has been found by other authors such as (thaipong et al., 2006) in guava extracts (r=0.97) using the frap technique a nd by (dudonné et al. , 2009) in pinus ba r k (r=0.96) using the abts technique. in addition, high correlations have been reported between total phenols and antioxidant activity by frap in fruit juices (gardner et al., 2000). kuti also reports similar correlations to those found in this work between t ota l fla vonoids a nd the a ntioxida nt ca pacity of four varieties of prickly pea r with values ranging from 0.76 to 0.88 using the orac technique (kuti, 2000). table 5: pearson correlation matrix frap abts dpph bc 0.415* 0.670** 0.504* bx 0.489* 0.516* 0.466* ft 0.854** 0.798** 0.853** fl 0.938** 0.811** 0.775** *,**= significant ( 0.05 y 0.01 respectively). bc: betacyanins, bx: betaxanthins. tp: total phenols, tf: total flavonoids. frap= total antioxidant capacity determined using cu (iii) complex as oxidant. abts= total antioxidant capacity determined with the 2, 2'-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline6-sulfonic radical (abts•+); dpph= total antioxidant capacity determined with the radical 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydracil (dpph •). the high correlation shown by both tp and tf, as determined by the three techniques, indicates that both compounds are important contributors to the antioxidant activity of prickly pear fruit. in the case of betalains, low correlations were found with the three techniques, ranging from 0.41 to 0.67: the lowest correlation was by the frap technique and the highest by abts. this may be attributed to the assays used, considering the fact that individual antioxidants may, in some cases, act by multiple mecha nisms depending on the reaction system (fernández et al., 2010). cano and collaborators reported a negative correlation of total betalain content and antioxidant capacity determined by the dpph technique (-0.08) (cano et al., 2017). the body’s defense system is composed of several antioxidant components. supplementation with one or few antioxidants may not be as effective. fruits contain a group of natural antioxidants that could have not only high antioxidant activity, but also a good combination or mixture of antioxidants (wuang et al., 2005). conclusions t he p r es ent s t u dy p r ovides inf o r ma t ion on physicochemical characterization and antioxidant pr oper ties of thr ee selections of pr ickly pea r (opuntia ficus-indica mill) grown at the colegio de postgraduados, mexico. the results show that prickly pear has considerable levels of phenolic compounds that play an important role against oxidation. the highest content of these compounds is found in the peel of the fruit and there are no significant differences between the content in pulp j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 91-102, 2021 post-harvest quality and anti-oxidant activity in prickly pear 100 and juice. therefore, prickly pear peel has a great potentia l for ob ta ining bioa ctive compou nds, antioxidants. these natural antioxidants can be formulated to give nutraceuticals, which can help prevent oxidative damage from occurring in the body. i n r ela t ion t o qu a lit y a nd p hys ic oc hemic a l characteristics, cp1 (red) and cp4 (orange) were outstanding in aspects of size, weight, gr eater resistance to deformation, higher total soluble solids content, greater quantity of pulp and juice, and smaller seed. all these a spects ma ke the cp1(r ed) a nd cp4(orange) selections interesting materials for both fresh and processed products. further research is needed to find alternatives to take full advantage of the compounds found in all parts of the fruit, as well as to understand the role played by betalains in the antioxidant activity of the fruit. acnowledgment author paulina haydeé gonzalez fierro wishes to a cknowledge the fina ncia l suppor t r eceived from consejo nacional de ciencia y tecnología of mexico (conacyt). references andreu, l., nuncio, j. n., carbonell, b. á., and hernández, f. 2018. antioxidant properties and chemical characterization of spanish opuntia ficus indica mill. cladodes and fruits. j. sci. food agric, 98: 1566-1573. aoac. 1990. official methods of analysis of the association of official analytical chemists. washington, dc: 2 vols. 15th ed. barbera, g., inglese, p., and la mantia, t. 1994. seed content and fruit characteristic in cactus pear (opuntia ficus indica mill. ). scientia horticulturae, 58 (1-2): 161-165. benzie, i. f., & strain, j. j. 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schuster: . williams, b. w., cuvelier, m. e. and berset, c. 1995. use of fr ee r a dica l method to eva lua te antioxidant activity. lebensmittel wissenschaft und technologie, 28:25–30. wuang, h., cao, g. and prior, r. l. 2005. the chemistry behind antioxidant capacity assays. j. agric. food chem., 53: 1841–1856. gonzalez et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(1) : 91-102, 2021 (received on 26.05.2021, revised on 20.06.2021, accepted on 28.06.2021) direct nutrient-feeding to ‘ney poovan’ banana (musa sp. ab) bunch under organic or conventional farming for yield, fruit quality and profitability s.c. kotur division of soil science and agricultural chemistry icar-indian institute of horticultural research hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru 560089, india e-mail: sckotur@gmail.com abstract three types of direct nutrient-feeding methods [applying 500g fresh cow-dung and 100ml water enriched with (i) 2.5g each of urea + sop; (ii) 100ml of panchangavya; and (iii) 100ml of cow urine] were evaluated in ‘ney poovan’ banana grown under organic or conventional farming. plants grown under conventional farming were more robust in girth and length of their pseudostem and number of leaves retained on the plant at harvest. conventional farming produced 62.6% and 59.0% higher fruit and bunch weight than plants grown under organic farming. quality-wise, fruits from organic farming were superior in pulp:peel ratio and pulp total soluble solids (tss). conventional farming significantly increased p, s, fe, mn and zn content of the pulp over organic farming. benefit:cost ratio was significantly higher at 3.61 under conventional farming, while, it was 2.15 under organic farming. all the methods of direct nutrient-feeding of banana bunch tested were significantly superior to ‘control’ where the male bud was retained on the bunch until harvest. increase in fruit and bunch weight was in the following order of blend: urea + sop > panchangavya > cow urine, with fresh cow dung. improvement in pulp:peel ratio and benefit:cost ratio was maximum when direct nutrient-feeding was done using cow-dung blended with urea + sop, while, tss of the pulp declined to 24.0ob from 25.1ob when pancahgavya was used. results indicated that conventional farming with adequate organic manuring, and, adopting direct nutrient-feeding of the banana bunch using cow-dung slurry enriched with 2.5g each of urea and sop, achieved high bunch yield, pulp:peel ratio, and was profitable. key words: bunch size, direct nutrient-feeding, ‘ney poovan’ banana, musa sp. ab, organic farming, conventional farming, fruit quality, benefit:cost ratio introduction development of uniform-sized fingers in a banana bunch is important for meeting market demands. in all varieties of banana, the lower hands invariably develop poorly, reducing the bunch weight, yield and marketability. despite nutrient supplementation through soil/ foliage, the phenomenon persists. direct nutrient-feeding of the bunch has succeeded in overcoming this shortcoming (venkatarayappa et al, 1976; prasanna kumari amma et al, 1986; ancy et al, 1998). however, the technique suffered from blackening and rotting of fruits when fed with urea at >50g (ancy and kurien, 2000), and, was therefore not accepted by growers. however, in ‘robusta’ (musa sp. aaa, kotur and keshava murthy, 2008), and in ‘ney poovan’ banana (kotur and keshava murthy, 2010), this technique was refined using enriched cow-dung slurry. this needed lesser quantity of urea and was augmented with sulphate of potash (sop). currently, the technology is widely accepted across the country. in view of the increasing market-demand for organically grown banana, it is timely to compare direct nutrient-feeding technique in banana raised under organically vis-a vis conventionally grown ‘ney poovan’ banana. material and methods ‘ney poovan’ banana (musa sp. ab) was grown on red sandy-loam (alfisol) in the farm of shri h.y. ramaiah of udarahalli village, ramanagar district, karnataka, india. the soil was maintained organically by repeated greenmanuring with horse gram and sun hemp. tissue culture grown plants of banana were planted at 1.8×1.8m spacing, with each pit receiving 10kg fym and 500g neem cake. panchagvya was prepared by mixing 500g of ghee (clarified butter), 5kg fresh cow-dung and 1kg black gur (jiggery/ molasses) in five litres of water. the blend was j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):44-47, 2015 45 direct nutrient-feeding to banana bunch stirred daily for five days and supplemented with five litres of cow-urine, 2 litres of sour curd, 2 litres of milk and tender coconut water of one nut. the slurry was stirred thrice daily and cured for a month. each plant received 1 litre of dilute panchagavya (1:40 panchagavya:water) applied at fortnightly intervals. the experiment was laid out in splitplot design, with two main treatments: (i) organic farming and (ii) conventional farming. in the latter treatment, n:p:k dose of 110:25:250g/plant was applied (in four equal splits of n and k, and two splits of p, along with 1st and 2nd split applications made at 50,100,150 days after planting, and at shooting). there were four sub-treatments: (i) ‘control’, in which the male bud was retained on the bunch until harvest; (ii) direct feeding of the bunch with nutrients using 500g fresh cow-dung and 100ml cow-urine; (iii) direct feeding of nutrients with 500g fresh cow-dung and 100ml panchagavya; and, (iv) direct feeding of nutrients with 2.5g each of urea (blended with 100ml water) and 500g fresh cow-dung. there were six replications of one plant each, forming a treatment unit. direct nutrient-feeding was done by de-navelling the bunch after 15-20 bracts/spathes dropped off in the male bud, leaving a distal rachis of about 15cm length beneath the youngest hand of the bunch. at the time of harvest (about 100 days after flowering), girth of the pseudostem at the base, height of the pseudostem, and number of green leaves, were recorded as a measure of plant vigour. pulp:peel ratio and total soluble solids in the pulp (tss, determined using a refractometer) were recorded in uniformly edible-ripe fruits. pulp samples drawn at quality-determination were sliced, dried in an oven at 70°c, and powdered for chemical analysis using standard procedures. soil samples were drawn at harvest from the top 22.5cm length and analyzed for chemical properties using standard procedures (table 1). for calculating benefit:cost ratio, all the costs (including fixed and variable costs) were taken into account (which amounted to rs. 72.50/plant under organic farming and rs. 84.50 under conventional farming) in banana. the prevailing wholesale price was rs. 26.25/ kg of fruit. results and discussion yield, fruit quality and profitability conventional farming produced distinctly robust banana plants compared to organic farming. diameter at the base, and height of the pseudostem, as also number of green leaves present at harvest, were higher (22.2 ± 1.52cm; 345.0 ± 28.42cm and 10.8 ± 1.04 leaves, respectively). corresponding values under organic farming were lower: 19.8 ± 0.72cm; 298.0 ± 18.91cm and 7.5 ± 1.16 leaves, respectively. as a result, fruit and bunch weight were significantly higher under conventional farming (by 62.6% fruit weight and 59.0% bunch weight) (table 2). qualitytable 1. composition of soil, cow dung, urine, panchagavya and their contribution in direct nutrient feeding of ‘ney poovan’ banana bunch property* soil properties cow cow panchagavya organic conventional dung urine farming farming moisture (%) 22.0 95.5 82.5 p h 7.32 7.15 5.8 5.7 5.2 organic carbon 0.65 0.45 (%) cation 13.5 12.9 exchange capacity nitrogen 348 215 1.50 3.11 2.51 phosphorus 30 28 0.089 0.076 0.058 potassium 84 86 1.10 0.32 1.20 calcium 3.6 4.06 0.211 0.156 0.194 magnesium 1.12 1.36 0.045 0.076 0.036 sulphur 41 18 0.45 0.83 0.57 iron 15 14 233 68 31 manganese 27 21 56 29 312 zinc 2.0 1.7 0.541 0.029 0.679 copper 1.6 1.4 0.149 0.077 0.141 *properties (unit): soil, ph (1:2.5 soil:water); organic carbon (%); cation exchange capacity (cmol kg-1): available n (mg kg-1); available (bray-1) p (mg kg-1); available k (mg kg-1); exchangeable ca (cmol kg-1); exchangeable mg (cmol kg-1); available s (kg ha-1); dtpa extractable fe, mn,zn and cu (ìg g-1); other materials, moisture (%); ph, whole; n, p, k, ca, mg and s (total, %), fe, mn, zn and cu (total, ìg g-1), on oven dry basis table 2. effect of direct nutrient feeding of bunch on yield and quality in ‘ney poovan’ banana raised under conventional or organic farming treatment fruit bunch pulp:peel tss benefit: weight weight ratio (brix, %) cost (kg) (kg) ratio type of farming organic farming 7.805 8.641 5.54 24.9 2.15 conventional farming 12.694 13.737 4.60 24.5 3.61 sem (±) 0.2057 0.2076 0.099 0.12 0.025 cd (p=0.05) 0.5956 0.6013 0.289 0.34 0.071 type of direct nutrient feeding control 9.200 10.074 4.23 24.8 2.52 cow dung + 10.210 11.140 4.67 24.7 2.91 cow urine cow dung + 10.412 11.347 5.32 25.1 2.98 panchagavya cow dung + 11.179 12.194 6.05 24.0 3.25 urea + sop sem (±) 0.2909 0.2940 0.140 0.17 0.028 cd (p=0.05) 0.8423 0.8503 0.406 0.48 0.080 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):44-47, 2015 46 wise, fruits from organic farming showed significantly superior pulp:peel ratio and pulp tss. benefit:cost ratio of banana cultivation under conventional farming was 3.61, which was significantly and substantially higher due to 62% increase in fruit yield under the former, compared to that in organic farming (2.15). all modes of direct nutrient feeding of the banana bunch tested caused significant increase in fruit yield and bunch weight, in the order of blend: urea + sop > panchagavya > cow-urine with cow-dung. increase observed due to blending cow-urine and panchagavya was at par, just as was blending panchagavya with urea + sop. pulp:peel ratio indicates the relative edible-portion of the banana fruit indicating fruit quality. higher value is preferred in fruits. pulp:peel ratio increased significantly owing to direct nutrient-feeding compared to ‘control’ due to enhanced pulp growth over that of the peel. best improvement in pulp:peel ratio was observed when direct nutrient-feeding was done with cow-dung blended with urea + sop. direct nutrient-feeding with cow-dung enriched with urea + sop reduced tss to 24.0°brix compared to that in the other methods. as for profitability, direct nutrient-feeding increased benefit:cost ratio significantly from 2.52 in ‘control’ to 2.91 and 2.98 under nutrient-feeding with cowdung blended with cow urine or panchagavya, respectively. blending urea + sop with cow-dung, however, showed highest benefit:cost ratio (3.25). nutrient composition of banana pulp conventional farming significantly increased s, fe mn and zn content in the pulp compared to that in organically cultivated banana fruits (table 3). among various methods of direct nutrient-feeding, two contrasting trends were observed. as for n, p, k, ca, mg and s, direct nutrientfeeding increased the content of these nutrients significantly in the pulp compared to that in ‘control’. maximum increase was seen in direct nutrient-feeding with cow-dung enriched with urea + sop. perhaps, n, k, and s contained in the fertilizers, in addition to nutrients inherently present in the cow-dung (as presented in table 1), caused this improvement. as regard micronutrients, the opposite was true, and maximum reduction was observed in the direct nutrient-feeding with urea + sop. this may be attributed to dilution of the nutrients by improved pulp development in fruits under direct nutrient-feeding. substantial response of fruit and bunch yield may be attributed to notable amounts of n, k, s and other mineral nutrients (table 1) present in cow-dung, cow-urine and panchagavya besides other biochemicals. for instance, 500g fresh cow-dung and 100ml cow-urine used in direct nutrient-feeding contained 1.79g n, 1.22g k and 0.54g s. contribution from 100ml panchagavya was 2.08g n, 1.42g k and 0.60g s. inclusion of 2.5g each of urea and sop, however, increased the levels of these nutrients to 2.8, 2.34 and 0.95g, respectively, and resulted in maximum development of fruit and bunch. unorthodox movement of nutrients from the distal stalk-end into the bunch may be attributed to the fact that a developing bunch is a strong sink for nutrients available in the cow-dung slurry acting as a source in source-sink relationships. this was conclusively demonstrated by a significant movement of 15n from the cow-dung slurry to fruits, by kotur and keshava murthy (2008). this was to an extent of 44.1% of applied n in ‘robusta’ and 41.5% in ‘ney poovan’ banana (kotur and keshava murthy, 2010). inclusion of urea in the slurry has been reported to enhance urease activity, which may facilitate hydrolysis of urea to nh3, for easy absorption and table 3. effect of different types of direct nutrient-feeding of bunch on composition of ‘ney poovan’ banana pulp under organic and conventional farming treatment n p k ca mg s fe m n zn cu (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (μg g-1) (μg g-1) (μg g-1) (μg g-1) type of farming organic farming 1.25 0.12 1..27 0.54 0.19 0.04 30.5 7.6 8.6 3.7 conventional farming 1.25 0.11 1.39 0.56 0.18 0.16 102.9 38.2 11.2 3.4 sem (±) 0.045 0.001 0.031 0.010 0.004 0.007 2.47 2.01 0.26 0.12 cd (p=0.05) ns 0.003 0.896 0.030 0.012 0.020 7.14 5.83 0.75 ns type of direct nutrient feeding control 1.19 0.10 1.16 0.29 0.15 0.14 83.3 30.7 12.0 3.2 cow dung + cow urine 1.04 0.11 1.39 0.62 0.19 0.09 81.8 19.8 10.3 3.6 cow dung + panchagavya 1.31 0.11 1.41 0.64 0.19 0.09 74.7 27.4 9.9 3.3 cow dung + urea + sop 1.46 0.12 1.37 0.65 0.21 0.07 27.1 14.0 7.3 4.1 sem (±) 0.185 0.002 0.044 0.015 0.06 0.010 3.49 2.84 0.37 0.17 cd (p=0.05) 0.398 0.005 0.127 0.042 0.016 0.029 10.11 8.24 1.06 0.50 kotur j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):44-47, 2015 47 assimilation of n, thereby enhancing bunch yield (ancy et al, 1998). de-navelling per se saves the plant from unnecessary expense of energy and nutrients when male buds are retained on plants until harvest. direct nutrient feeding through the distal-end after de-navelling adds further to bunch development (singh, 2001). improvement in the composition of fruit pulp with regard to p, k, ca and mg may be attributed to similar translocation of nutrients present in the slurry. decrease in the content of micronutrients in pulp may be due to a dilution caused by an enhanced biomass. soil used for organic farming showed a relatively high ph, organic carbon, available n and s than did soil from conventional farming, while, differences between the rest of the nutrients was negligible (table 1). however, additional nutrients from fertilizer received by the crop in conventional farming led to a significantly higher plant, fruit and bunch growth. supply of nutrients and other biochemicals contained in panchagavya besides maintenance of a good organic regime further facilitated superior crop performance under conventional farming. significance of the variation seen in tss (between 24.0 and 25.1°brix) needs to be studied organoleptically. improved nutrient content in the pulp may have beneficial nutraceutical consequences of relevance in promoting nutritional security of the fruit, in general. results show that it is remunerative to grow high quality ‘ney poovan’ banana under conventional farming by adopting green-manuring, applying adequate amount of farm yard manure and panchagavya, supplemented by fertilizer application and, above all, direct nutrient feeding of banana bunch with 2.5g each of urea and sop blended in fresh cow-dung slurry. for growers practicing organic banana production, direct nutrient-feeding by a blend of panchagavya with cow-dung slurry after de-navelling, is profitable. acknowledgement the author is grateful to director, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, for providing the facilities; shri h.y. ramaiah, progressive farmer of udarahalli village, ramanagar district, for sparing the crop for the trial, and shri n.k. kacker, technical officer, for his technical assistance in this study. references ancy, t.k., kurien, s., augustin, a. and balachandran, p.v. 1998. urease activity in banana fruit. j. pl. nut., 21:2127-2140 ancy, t.k. and kurien, s. 2000. bunch-stalk feeding of urea in banana musa (aab group) ‘nendran’. sci. hort., 84:205-212 kotur, s.c. and keshava murthy, s.v. 2008. enhancing the fruit yield of ‘robusta’ banana (musa×paradisiaca l.) by de-navelling and feeding nitrogen, potassium and sulphur through the distal-end of the bunch. indian j. agril. sci., 78:109-115 kotur, s.c. and keshava murthy, s.v. 2010. enhancing fruit yield in ‘ney poovan’ banana (musa paradisiaca l.) by de-navelling and feeding n, k and s through distal stalk-end of the bunch. j. hort. sci., 5:53-56 prasanna kumari amma, s., babylatha, a.k., pushkaran, k. and kurien, t.k. 1986. studies on the effect of removing terminal hands and male bud on the yield and fruit size of banana musa (aab group) ‘palayankodan’. south indian hort., 34:204-209 singh, h.p. 2001. banana. in: handbook of horticulture, chadha, k.l. (ed.) p. 152, indian council of agricultural research, new delhi venkatarayappa, t., narasham, b. and venkatesan, c. 1976. effect of post-shooting application of urea on development and composition of banana fruit. south indian hort., 19:109-117 (ms received 07 december 2013, revised 17 november 2014, accepted 22 november 2014) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):44-47, 2015 direct nutrient-feeding to banana bunch introduction bitter gourd fruits are highly nutritious (gopalan et al, 1982). the tender and immature fruit is a rich source of calcium (20 mg/100 g), phosphorus (55 mg/100 g), iron (1.8 mg/100 g), vitamin a (219 iu/100 g) and vitamin c (88 mg/100 g). the roots, vines, leaves, flowers and seeds of bitter gourd are also used in medicinal preparations (morton, 1967). success in plant breeding depends upon the existence of genetic variability present in the breeding materials. it is proved that larger the variability, greater is the scope for selection and improvement. it is the genotypic variability and more specifically the additive variances, which is most important for a plant breeder as, it determines the genetic gain through selection. before aiming at an improvement in yield, it is necessary to have information on genetic variability and heritability, in respect of important characters associated with yield. therefore, the present study was taken up to obtain information on the range of variability for different important economic traits. material and methods the experiment was conducted at vegetable research farm, deptt. of horticulture, allahabad agricultural institute-deemed university, allahabad during the year 2003 and 2004. twenty eight accessions were genetic variability in bitter gourd (momordica charantia l.) murlee yadav, d. b. singh, rashmi chaudhary and devi singh department of horticulture allahabad agricultural institute-deemed university allahabad, india e-mail: murli_y@yahoo.com abstract the variance analysis for 17 plant characters showed significant differences. maximum vine length was recorded in ic-85635a. significantly higher number of primary branches per vine and internodal length were observed in ic-85639. maximum number of nodes was observed in jmc-4. significantly minimum number of days for first appearance of male flower and maximum fruit length, fruit width, yield per vine, yield per plot, yield/ha were recorded in mc-84. highest number of fruits per vine was recorded in gy-i and minimum powdery mildew infestation was observed in jmc-22. key words : genetic variability, germplasm, bittergourd grown in a randomised block design with three replications at 1 x 1.5 m2 spacing. observations were recorded on five randomly selected plants for vine length (cm), number of primary branches per vine, number of nodes per vine, internodal length (cm), days to first appearance of female flower, days to appearance of male flower, first effective node, length of fruit (cm), width of fruit (cm), weight per fruit (g), number of fruits per vine, number of fruits per plot, yield per plant (kg), and yield per plot (kg), yield (q/ha). the data were analysed statistically. results and discussion significant differences were recorded among the genotypes for all the characters studied (table 1). highest vine length was recorded in ic-85635a followed by mc84, jmc-4, co-1 and minimum in tza 1 . such variation in vine length of bitter gourd have also been reported earlier (ramchandran and gopalkrishnan, 1979; mangal et al, 1981; chaudhary et al, 1967; reddy et al, 1995; yadav et al, 2004), which might be due to the specific genetic constitution, inherent character and vigour of different genotypes. highest number of primary branches per vine was noted in ic-85639 (37.67) followed by mc-84 (32.67), improved jaunpuri (37.67) and s-17 (31.00) whereas, the last number of primary branches per vine was recorded in dvbt-g-5 (10.67). maximum internodal length was j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 35-38, 2008 page 35 36 from sowing to first appearance of female flower is an important character, which helps in the occurrence of early flush of the crop. lower number of nodes was required for the formation of first effective node in vrbt-6-9 (5.33), jmc-22 (6.33), tza (7.00) and higher number of node in co-1 (35.00), ic-85648 (32.33) and ic-85612 (29.67). the first effective node plays an important role in determining the yield of the crop. maximum fruit length was recorded in mc-84 (20.50 cm) followed by jmc-4 (19.33 cm), s-17 (19.00 cm) and minimum in tza 1 and dvbt-g-5 (7.33 cm) and tza (8.33 cm). highest fruit width was found in mc-84 (9.91 cm) followed by ic-85639 (9.83 cm), s-17 (9.42 cm) and lower in ic-85648 (2.33 cm) and ic-85636 (3.08 cm) and ic-85612 (3.83 cm). these observed differences might be due to fruit length, number of fruits per vine and number of effective nodes. highest weight per fruit was found in s-17 (175.00 g), followed by ndbt15 (160.00 g), vrbt-94 (133.33 g), and minimum in tza 1 (28.33 g), tza (33.33 g) and gy-i (42.33 g). the genotype observed in ic-85639 (10.00 cm) followed by bg-11 (9.33 cm), tza (8.33 cm) and vrbt-14 (7.50 cm) and the minimum were recorded in vrbt-6-9 (4.50 cm). highest number of nodes was recorded in jmc-4 (85.33) followed by ic-85639 (84.00) and mc-84 (72.00) and the minimum number of nodes were recorded in dvbt-g-5 (30.33). the number of days recorded for first appearance of male flower was maximum in ic-85612 and pdm (35.00 days), followed by vrbt-14 (34.67 days) jmc-22 (29.33 days) and s-17 (29.67 days) and the least in mc-84 and tza 1 (27.00 days). the number of days taken for first appearance of male flower plays an important role in deciding the earliness of crops and the variation in this character might be due to internodal length, number of nodes and vigour of the crop. the number of days recorded for first appearance of female flower was the maximum in co-1 (42.33 days) followed by pdm (38.67 days), preethi (38.67 days) and minimum days in tza 1 (25.33 days), vrbt-6-9 (29.00 days), jmc22 (29.22 days) and gy-i (30.00 days). the number of days j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 35-38, 2008 murlee yadav et al table 1. performance of bitter gourd germplasm accessions genotype vine no. of no. of internodal length primary nodes length (cm) branches/ (cm) vine ic-85635a 5.65 27.33 60.33 4.67 dvbt-g-5 2.74 10.67 30.33 5.67 vrbt-89 2.59 20.33 42.33 6.00 vrbt-94 3.03 23.67 40.33 6.17 s 17 5.25 31.00 67.67 5.50 mc 84 5.42 32.67 72.00 5.00 ic-85648 4.22 26.33 66.00 6.33 pdm 3.48 35.67 60.33 6.00 vrbt 14 3.85 16.33 52.00 7.50 ic-85612 3.10 15.33 51.67 5.67 ic-85648a 2.62 16.00 40.00 6.67 ic-85636 4.12 22.00 46.33 7.00 mc 56 3.07 19.33 46.00 6.30 co 1 4.95 22.00 62.67 6.00 jmc 4 5.32 23.00 85.33 5.83 tza 3.52 16.33 60.67 5.17 mc 84 (1) 3.75 13.67 33.00 4.63 gy i 2.73 23.00 35.33 6.60 gy ii 2.50 19.00 40.00 5.83 preethi 4.72 20.33 55.33 6.50 jmc 22 3.15 21.00 61.00 5.17 immproved jaunpuri 3.50 31.67 63.67 5.33 ndbt 15 3.32 24.33 42.67 5.50 vrbt 6 9 4.22 24.00 68.00 4.50 jmc 21 3.37 26.00 66.67 6.00 bg 11 1.92 18.00 32.00 9.33 ic-85639 4.78 37.67 84.00 10.00 tza 1 1.12 17.33 20.67 8.33 s. em. ± 0.95 0.71 1.54 0.44 c. d (p=0.05) 1.92 1.43 3.01 0.90 days to first days to first first fruit appearance appearance effective length of male of female node (cm) flower flower 33.00 36.33 11.00 14.33 33.67 36.00 7.33 7.33 33.67 33.33 14.00 14.17 34.33 34.67 11.33 14.17 29.67 33.67 20.67 19.00 27.00 33.33 9.67 20.50 31.67 35.00 16.00 11.00 35.00 38.67 22.33 16.00 34.67 34.33 25.67 15.00 35.00 33.67 29.67 13.67 33.00 36.00 32.33 11.67 34.67 36.33 17.33 14.33 32.67 36.33 15.00 11.00 40.00 42.33 35.00 10.33 34.67 38.67 11.33 19.33 33.00 33.33 7.00 8.33 32.33 32.33 15.67 12.33 0.00 30.00 9.33 11.00 0.00 32.00 10.67 13.00 34.67 38.67 17.33 15.67 29.33 29.33 6.33 10.67 29.67 31.67 10.33 12.67 29.67 35.67 12.00 14.00 30.33 29.00 5.33 14.33 31.00 35.00 8.67 11.00 31.00 33.33 13.00 9.67 31.67 35.33 15.67 16.67 27.00 25.33 9.67 7.33 0.49 1.37 1.10 0.29 0.96 2.60 2.20 0.58 37 gy-i had maximum number of fruits per vine (49.67) followed by tza 1 (25.33), mc-56 (24.00), tza (21.33), mc-84 (20.33) and minimum number of fruits per vine was recorded in co-1 (6.00), ic-85639 (9.00) and ic-85648a (10.33). the variation in number of fruits per vine might be due to fruit set percentage, sex ratio and vine length. the highest number of fruits per plot were recorded in gyi (170.67) followed by tza 1 (107.33), mc-56 (96.00), tza (85.33) and mc-84 (84.33) and significantly less number of fruits per plot were noted in ic-85635a (20.00), co-1 (24.00) and ic-85639 (36.00). maximum yield per vine was recorded in mc-84 (2.68 kg) followed by s-17 (2.21 kg), vrbt-6-4 (1.95 kg) and ndbt-15 (1.89 kg). the yield per vine was lower in co-1 (0.57 kg), tza (0.71 kg), tza 1 (0.72 kg) and dvbt-g-5 (0.74 kg). the significant variation in yield per vine might be due to fruit set percentage, sexratio, fruit length, number of fruits per vine, fruit weight and fruit width. these findings were supported by shrivastava and shrivastava (1976), singh et al (1977), ramchandran and gopal krishnan (1979), indiresh (1982) table 1. (contd.) performance of bitter gourd germplasm accessions genotypes fruit fruit no. of no. of yield / width weight fruits/ fruits / vine (cm) (g) vine plot (kg) ic-85635a 7.14 80.00 11.00 20.00 0.88 dvbt-g-5 6.97 47.67 15.33 61.33 0.74 vrbt-89 6.83 95.00 15.00 53.33 1.45 vrbt-94 7.17 133.33 14.33 50.67 1.86 s – 17 9.42 175.00 12.67 50.67 2.21 mc 84 9.91 130.00 20.33 81.33 2.68 ic-85648 6.17 80.00 15.67 58.67 1.25 pdm 2.33 101.60 11.00 44.00 1.12 vrbt 14 5.33 60.00 15.33 48.00 0.92 ic-85612 3.83 80.67 11.67 42.67 0.95 ic-85648a 6.93 85.00 10.33 41.33 0.88 ic-85636 3.08 98.33 11.33 42.67 1.11 mc 56 5.67 58.33 24.00 96.00 1.39 co – 1 5.50 93.33 6.00 24.00 0.57 jmc 4 6.67 80.00 14.67 49.33 1.17 tza 5.58 33.33 21.33 85.33 0.71 mc 84 (1) 7.18 78.33 13.67 54.67 1.07 gy – i 5.50 42.33 42.67 170.67 1.81 gy – ii 6.50 46.67 17.67 70.67 0.82 preethi 4.83 118.33 11.00 48.00 1.30 jmc 22 6.17 120.00 14.33 57.33 1.70 immproved jaunpuri 6.67 98.33 13.67 54.67 1.34 ndbt 15 7.33 160.00 12.00 48.00 1.89 vrbt 6 9 6.17 90.00 19.00 76.33 1.70 jmc 21 6.67 126.67 15.33 61.00 1.95 bg – 11 7.33 130.00 11.00 44.00 1.43 ic-85639 9.83 133.33 9.00 36.00 1.28 tza 1 5.67 28.33 25.33 101.33 0.72 s. em. ± 13.29 1.90 1.50 1.50 2.63 c. d (p=0.05) 26.49 3.90 3.10 3.30 5.21 and yadav et al(2004) in bitter gourd and kadam and kale (1987) in ridge gourd. maximum yield per plot was recorded in mc-84 (10.73 kg) followed by s-17 (8.33 kg), jmc-21 (7.80 kg) and ndbt-15 (7.33 kg). significantly lower yield per plot was recorded in co-1 (2.28 kg), tza (2.84 kg) and tza 1 (2.88 kg). the variation in yield per plot might be due to variation in yield per plant, number of fruits per vine, fruit length, fruit width, fruit weight and fruit set percentage. singh et al (1977), parhi et al (1993), thakur et al (1994), and yadav et al (2004) also reported similar findings for yield per plot in bitter gourd. maximum yield was recorded in mc-84 (178.89 q/ha) followed by s-17 (117.11 q/ha), jmc-21 (130.00 q/ha) and ndbt-15 (125.78 q/ha). significantly lower yield was recorded in co-1 (38 q/ha), taz (47.33 q/ha) and tza 1 (47.56 q/ha). maximum vitamin c was found in ic-85648a (170 mg/100 g) followed by vrbt-14 (120 mg/100 g), vrbt-6-9 (99 mg/100 g) and vrbt-94 (95.33 mg/100 g). minimum vitamin c was found in taz (44.67 mg/100 g) s-17 (49.33 mg/100 g) and vrbt-89 (60.67 mg/100 g). lower powdery mildew yield/ yield vitamin c powdery plot (kg) (q/ha) (mg/100 g) mildew infestation (%) 3.51 59.45 78.67 16.33 2.98 49.67 107.67 27.33 5.81 96.89 60.67 12.00 7.45 124.22 95.33 42.67 8.83 147.11 49.33 26.67 10.73 178.89 85.00 33.00 4.99 83.11 84.67 28.67 4.47 74.44 91.00 47.00 3.68 61.33 120.00 12.33 3.79 63.11 87.33 24.33 3.52 58.67 170.00 45.00 4.45 74.22 80.00 33.00 5.57 92.89 86.00 22.67 2.28 38.00 71.67 48.33 4.69 78.22 119.00 46.33 2.84 78.33 44.67 67.33 4.27 71.11 82.67 31.00 7.24 119.00 87.67 45.67 3.29 54.67 90.62 46.33 5.20 87.33 70.00 32.67 6.79 113.11 90.33 9.00 5.37 89.55 90.00 40.00 7.55 125.78 80.33 41.00 6.81 113.56 99.00 12.67 7.80 130.00 81.00 46.33 5.73 95.55 87.67 41.67 5.13 85.55 89.33 38.67 2.88 47.56 79.33 27.67 12.52 1.10 0.75 1.89 25.80 2.20 1.50 3.79 j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 35-38, 2008 genetic variability in bitter gourd 38 infestation percentage was recorded in jmc-22, vrbt-89, vrbt-6-9, ic-85635a, mc-56, ic-85612, jmc-4, s-17 and maximum infestation was recorded in co-1 showing that jmc-22 was least susceptible and co-1 was most susceptible to powdery mildew infestation. similar results were reported by akram and khan (1971), khan and khan (1992). acknowledgement the authors are highly thankful to head, department of horticulture, allahabad agricultural institute-deemed university, allahabad for providing the facilities of research work. references akram, m. and khan, a. m. 1977. studies on the cucurbit powdery mildews varietal screening of some cultivated cucurbits to sphaerotheca fuliginea. ind. phytopath., 30:121 – 123. arnon 1985. crop production manual, tnau, coimbatore. blatter, e., caius, j. f. and mahaskar, k. s. 1935. indian medicinal plants. 2nd edn. m/s. bishan singh, dehradun, 1130 – 1132. chaudhary, b. 1967. vegetable, 2nd ed. national book trust, india, new delhi, pp. 152-154. chaudhary, m. l. and mandal, g. 1987. correlation and path analysis in cucumber (cucumis sativus l.). haryana j. hortl. sci., 16: 269-273. gopalan, c., ramashastri, b. v. and balasubramanian, s. c. 1982. nutritive value of indian foods. i. c. m. r., hyderabad p 328. indiresh, b. t. 1982. studies on genotypic and phenotypic variability in bitter gourd. univ. agril. sci, bangalore. thesis abstracts. 8: 52. kadam, p. y. and kale, p. n. 1987. genetic variability in ridge gourd. j. maharashtra agri. univ., 12: 242-243. khan, a. u. and khan, a. m. 1992. incidence and severity of cucurbit powdery mildew in uttar pradesh. ind. phytopath., 45 : 190 – 193. mangal, j. l.; dixit, j. and sidhu, a. s. 1981. genetic variability and correlation studies in bitter gourd (momordica charantia l.). ind. j. hortl. sci., 38 : 94 – 99. morton, j.f. 1967. the balsam pear-an edible medicinal and toxic plant. eco. bot., 212: 57-68. parhi g., mishra, h. n. and thipathy, p. 1993. genetic divergence in bitter gourd (momordica charantia l.). south ind. hortl, 41: 344-349. ramchandran, c. and gopalakrishnan, p.k. 1979. correlation and regression studies in bitter gourd. ind. j. agril. sci., 49:850-854. reddy, b.s.; thammaiah, n; patil, r. v. and nandihalli, b. s. 1995. studies on the performance of bitter gourd genotype. adv. agril. res. india, 4: 103-108. shrivastava, v. k. and srivastava, l. c. 1976. genetic parameter, correlation coefficient and path coefficient analysis in bitter gourd (momordica charantia l.). ind. j. hort., 33: 66-70. singh, h. n. srivastava, j. p. and prasad, r.1977. genetic variability and correlation studies in bitter gourd. ind. j. agril. sci., 47: 406-407. sreejayan and rao, m. n. a. 1991. oxygen free radical scavenging activity of m. charantia fruits. fitoterpeda, 62 : 344 – 346. thakur, j. c., khattra, a. s. and brar, k. s. 1994. genetic variability and heritability for quantitative traits and fruit fly infestation in bitter gourd. j. res. punjab agri. univ., 31: 161-166. yadav, m., chaudhary, r., chandra, a. and mehta, a. k. 2004. genetic variability of different genotypes of bitter gourd (momordica charantia l.). the allahabad farmer, 2: 70-76. (ms received 28 september 2007, revised 5 february 2008) j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 35-38, 2008 murlee yadav et al editor’s exordium giant strides to reach the memorable issue “nanos gigantum humeris insidentes” (“standing on the shoulders of giants” ) (tribe of gypsies album) “what descartes did was a good step. you have added much several ways, and especially in taking the colours of thin plates into philosophical consideration. if i have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants (sir isaac newton, 1675).” this current issue is the 25th issue. this marks the silver jubilee celebrations in terms of the remarkable sojourn undertaken by the journal. much about it in the closing remarks! in these current tumultuous days of resource crunch, maintaining and enhancing fruit crop productivity while managing the resources sustainably calls for innovative and out-of-box technological considerations. ganeshmurthy et al. have, therefore, exhaustively reviewed various such considerations. in this line, laishram and ghosh have studied nutrient management in jackfruit under rainfed conditions. thangamani et al. have screened wild and cultivated cucurbits against infestations by root knot nematodes to identify potential resistance lines for using as rootstocks for grafting. in the related aspect, sridhar and senthil kumaran have devised a simple light-trap based technique in the management of the newest indian pest guest, tuta absoluta, on tomato. sathappan has studied chemical (growth regulator-mediated) and physical brute force (pinching) methods of altering plant habit in african marigold (tagetes erecta) for improving growth and flower yield. naik et al. have similarly studied effects of pre-harvest foliar spray of growth regulators on preand post-harvest parameters in ornamental sunflower. they have also evaluated ornamental sunflower for value addition, while kavitha et al. have assessed several chilli varieties for higher productivity. in the same breath, ali et al. have continued their studies on feasibility of quality seed potato production technology advantageous to small and marginal farmers. shilpa et al. have studied the influence of bioinoculants and different levels of benzyladenine on the morphophysiological characters of dendrobium var. yellow splash. shikhamany et al. have systematically investigated the methods to increase the efficacy of gibberellic acid sprays towards cluster elongation and berry thinning in tas-aganesh variety of grapes under tropical conditions. going further, rameshkumar has attempted to standardize plants and growing media towards the current urban horticultural concept of vertical garden system. singh et al. report factors that majorly influence the much needed vegetative propagation in walnut. two papers on molecular methods appear in this issue. vidya et al. have undertaken genomewide analysis of heat responsive micrornas in banana during the typical acquired thermo tolerance trait expression while girija et al. attempted to characterize the ever-discombobulating endophytic bacteria, specially associated with phalaenopsis roots, through the use of typical 16s rrna gene-based taxonomic profiling. work by dinesh et al. focuses on the description of a unique mango accession. i j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : i-ii, 2018 there are visible changes in the composition of the journal editorial boards and additions of newer sections including success stories, this time. the journal will consider publishing outstanding new varieties and technologies of sister icar institutes and saus, in the field of horticulture. icar-iihr is conducting a national horticultural fair, during 23-25 january 2019, under the auspices of the society for promotion of horticulture, as depicted in the outer back cover page. the journal heartily invites its readers to this fair. in commemorating the publication of this 25th issue, the editorial board and the society for promotion of horticulture, recognize the selfless services rendered by many giants. in continuation of the opening quotes, we are only dwarfs standing astride on these giants; we see a little more and farther than our predecessors, not because we have a keener vision or a greater height, but because we are lifted up and borne aloft on their gigantic structure, in this pursuit of publication excellence! the cover page of this issue is, therefore, dedicated to represent, symbolically, these silver jubilee celebrations. grand merci and ciao in the fair, 2019! vageeshbabu s. hanur editor in chief journal of horticultural sciences ii j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : i-ii, 2018 introduction cherry tomato (solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme) is a botanical variety of the cultivated tomato. it is thought to be the ancestor of all the cultivated tomatoes. it is marketed at a premium price compared to the regular tomatoes. cherry tomatoes are widely cultivated in central america and are distributed in california, korea, germany, mexico and florida. it is a warm-season crop, reasonably tolerant to heat and drought, and grows under a wide range of soil and climatic conditions (anon, 2009a). cherry tomato is grown for its edible fruits which are ideal for making processed products like sauce, soup, ketchup, puree, curry, paste, powder, rasam and sandwich. these also have good nutritional and antioxidant properties. the size of cherry tomatoes ranges from thumb-tip to the size of a golf ball, and, can range from being spherical to slightly oblong in shape (anon, 2009b). hybrid vigour in cherry tomato has not been exploited fully. little attention has been paid by plant researchers on the performance for yield and yieldcomponents in the hybrids of cherry tomato. therefore, the present study was undertaken to evaluate the bestperforming parents and their f1 hybrids in cherry tomato. j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):79-82, 2015 evaluation of f1 hybrids and their parents for growth, yield and quality in cherry tomato (solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme) renuka muttappanavar1, a.t. sadashiva, t.h. singh* and k.m. indiresh2 division of vegetable crops icar-indian institute of horticultural research hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru 560 089, india *e-mail: thsingh@iihr.ernet.in abstract the present study was carried out to estimate the performance of f1 hybrids and their parents for various yield and yield-attributing traits in cherry tomato, at division of vegetable crops, indian institute of horticultural research (iihr), bengaluru, during the year 2010-11. among the seven parents used, three parents, namely, iihr-2866 (yielding 3.03kg/plant), iihr-2864 (2.87kg/plant) and iihr-2865 (2.73kg/plant) were found to be high-yielding. among the 21 f1 hybrids evaluated, three hybrids, namely, iihr-2754 x iihr-2860 (4.27kg/plant), followed by iihr2754 x iihr-2865 (3.97kg/plant) and iihr-2864 x iihr-2865 (3.40kg/plant) recorded higher yield than the check varieties, whereas, three hybrids, viz, iihr-2754 x iihr-2865 (54.38t/ha), succeeded by iihr-2863 x iihr-2866 (46.46t/ha) and iihr-2858 x iihr-2866 (44.79t/ha), recorded higher estimated yield per hectare than the check varieties. hybrid iihr-2754 x iihr-2860 was found promising for most of the traits studied. the best performing parents can be used for breeding further while, the hybrids can be exploited commercially. key words: cherry tomato, high yield, hybrids, parents, breeding material and methods the present study was undertaken at division of vegetable crops, icar-indian institute of horticultural research (iihr), hesarghatta, bengaluru. the experimental field is located at an altitude of 890 meters above msl, at 13038’ n latitude and 780e longitude. the parents and the hybrids were evaluated during july 2011 may 2012. the experimental material consisted of seven parents, viz, iihr-2754 (p1), iihr-2858 (p2), iihr-2860 (p3), iihr-2863 (p4), iihr-2864 (p5), iihr-2865 (p6) and iihr-2866 (p7), three check varieties, viz, iihr-2871 (c1), iihr-2876 (c2) and arka ashish (c3), and 21 f1 hybrids developed through half-diallele mating design, during kharif 2011. spacing between plants was 60cm, while, between rows it was 45cm. all the twenty one hybrids, along with their corresponding parents, were evaluated in randomized block design in three replications, during the summer of 2012. observations on five randomly-selected plants were recorded for various yield-attributing traits to estimate performance of the parents and hybrids. 1m.sc. student, university of horticultural sciences, bagalkot, gkvk, campus, bengaluru, india; 2dean, college of horticulture, tandavapura, nanjangud taluk, mysuru -571302, india 80 results and discussion per se performance of parental lines, check varieties and hybrids (table 1) and the three best-performing parents, and hybrids, for various growth, yield and quality parameters are presented in table 2. genotypes differed significantly in plant height which ranged from 98cm (p2) to 140cm (p6) among parents (table 1), from 57.67cm (c3) to 131.33cm (c1) among check varieties, and from 89cm (p2 xp4) to 165.67cm (p1 x p6) among hybrids (table 1). number of primary branches per plant ranged from 3 (p2 and p3 ) to 3.67 (p1 and p5) among parents, from 3 (c2) to 4.33 (c3) among check varieties, and from 3 (p1 x p7) to 3.67 (p1 x p2) among hybrids (table 1). number of secondary branches ranged from 8 (p5) to 11 (p1) among parents, from 6 (c2) to 9 (c1) among check varieties, and from 6 (p5 x p6) to 11.33 (p1 x p5) among hybrids (table 1). a higher number of branches may have resulted in production of more number of leaves and greater size of the leaf. total number of leaves on a plant could perhaps decide the efficiency of photosynthesis, thereby resulting in better growth and yield. these results are in confirmity with deepa and thakur (2008) and arun et al (2004). a significant difference was seen in the number of inflorescences per plant, ranging from 35 (p3) to 48 (p1) among parents, from 25 (c3) to 35.33 (c1) among check varieties, and from 37 (p3 x p5) to 63.33 (p2 x p3) among hybrids (table 1). parents used in the experiment differed table 1. mean performance of parents, f1 hybrids and check varieties for growth, yield and quality traits in cherry tomato sl. parent/ plant no. of no. of no. of average no. of no. of no. of yield/ yield/ no. of fruit pericarp no. f1 height primary secondary inflorefruit fruits/ fruits/ fruits/ plant ha (t) locules/ firmness thickness hybrid / (cm) branches branches scences weight kg cluster plant (kg) fruit (kg/mm2) (mm) check (g) variety parent 1 p1 130.67 3.67 11.00 48.00 10.36 96.67 10.33 498.67 2.20 21.46 2.33 4.40 2.20 2 p2 98.00 3.00 9.00 38.67 14.11 71.00 9.67 374.33 2.50 24.79 3.00 5.00 2.43 3 p3 115.67 3.00 9.33 35.00 14.66 68.33 9.33 326.33 2.20 27.92 2.33 4.20 3.87 4 p4 109.00 3.00 8.67 36.00 12.46 80.33 8.67 312.67 2.57 20.83 2.67 4.53 2.43 5 p5 131.00 3.67 8.00 38.33 31.05 32.33 7.00 269.33 2.87 33.33 2.33 7.20 4.80 6 p6 140.00 3.33 12.67 38.33 13.77 72.67 8.33 318.33 2.73 29.79 3.67 5.00 2.23 7 p7 127.67 3.33 9.67 38.00 13.41 74.67 8.33 316.00 3.03 30 2.33 4.57 4.03 f1 hybrid 1 p1 x p2 117.33 3.67 9.33 44.33 12.83 78.00 9.33 416.67 3.20 38.96 2.67 4.60 2.40 2 p1 x p3 144.67 3.67 10.33 44.67 19.15 52.33 8.00 357.33 4.27 26.46 2.67 3.33 3.10 3 p1 x p4 154.00 3.67 8.67 56.33 16.68 60.00 7.33 414.67 2.70 32.92 2.00 8.20 3.13 4 p1 x p5 140.00 3.33 11.33 38.00 15.90 63.00 6.67 253.33 3.07 44.38 2.67 7.00 4.00 5 p1 x p6 165.67 3.33 9.33 42.33 16.59 60.33 8.33 352.00 3.97 40.63 2.67 6.00 3.20 6 p1 x p7 139.33 3.00 9.67 46.67 13.98 71.67 8.33 391.67 3.33 54.38 2.33 4.40 3.13 7 p2 x p3 115.67 3.00 9.33 63.33 15.41 65.00 9.00 570.00 3.27 32.5 2.00 5.00 3.17 8 p2 x p4 89.00 3.00 8.33 38.67 15.56 64.33 8.33 323.33 2.50 35.83 2.33 5.20 4.00 9 p2 x p5 149.33 3.33 7.67 40.33 20.02 50.00 6.33 256.00 3.37 39.17 2.00 7.20 6.00 10 p2 x p6 144.33 3.00 8.33 44.67 16.68 60.00 8.33 371.00 2.60 32.5 2.33 6.80 4.07 11 p2 x p7 149.00 3.00 8.00 42.67 18.10 55.33 8.33 357.33 3.03 44.79 2.33 7.17 4.20 12 p3 x p4 105.00 3.00 9.33 42.67 18.44 54.33 8.33 355.33 2.57 35.83 2.33 7.27 3.13 13 p3 x p5 141.67 3.67 7.67 37.00 23.68 42.33 6.00 222.00 3.03 42.71 2.33 9.53 5.00 14 p3 x p6 142.33 3.67 11.00 39.33 17.98 55.67 7.33 288.00 3.30 43.75 2.67 6.00 3.20 15 p3 x p7 152.00 3.00 8.67 38.00 15.32 65.33 7.00 266.67 2.93 36.25 2.33 7.80 4.10 16 p4 x p5 156.00 3.00 9.67 50.33 19.76 50.67 6.33 318.67 3.13 37.29 2.00 6.13 3.97 17 p4 x p6 148.67 3.00 7.67 45.00 16.68 60.00 8.00 360.00 3.20 36.88 2.67 4.80 3.20 18 p4 x p7 144.00 3.00 6.67 44.00 16.43 61.00 8.33 366.00 3.00 46.46 2.33 7.97 3.93 19 p5 x p6 127.67 3.00 6.00 40.33 15.24 65.67 6.67 268.33 3.40 38.33 3.00 5.97 4.07 20 p5 x p7 131.67 3.00 7.33 42.33 18.10 55.33 7.67 325.33 3.07 36.04 2.67 6.20 4.20 21 p6 x p7 140.33 3.00 10.00 38.33 14.79 67.67 8.33 319.33 2.90 39.38 3.33 8.00 3.20 check 1 c1 131.33 3.67 9.00 35.33 17.68 56.67 8.00 282.66 2.10 23.12 2.00 5.80 3.00 2 c2 118.00 3.00 6.00 34.33 16.69 60.00 7.33 252.00 1.93 33.54 2.33 5.80 2.80 3 c3 57.67 4.33 6.33 25.00 91.41 11.00 4.67 117.67 3.10 21.46 3.33 8.20 7.40 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):79-82, 2015 renuka muttappanavar et al 81 significantly among themselves for average fruit-weight which ranged from 10.33g (p1) to 31.05g (p5). fruit weight ranged from 16.69g (c2) to 91.41g (c3) among check varieties, and from 12.83g (p1 x p2) to 23.68 (p3 x p5) among hybrids (table 1). average fruit weight contributed directly towards fruit yield per plant. this is in agreement with the findings of deepa and thakur (2008) and shivakumar (2000). the genotypes under study differed significantly among themselves for number of fruits per kg which ranged from 32.33 (p5) to 96.67 (p1) among parents, from 11 (c3) to 60 (c2) among check varieties, and from 42.33 (p3 x p5) to 70 (p1 x p2) among hybrids (table 1). number of fruits per cluster ranged from 7 (p5) to 10.33 (p1) among parents, from 4.67 (c3) to 8 (c1) among check varieties, and from 6.33 (p2 x p5 and p4 x p5) to 9.33 (p1 x p2) among hybrids (table 1). the genotypes differed significantly among themselves for number of fruits per plant which ranged from 269.33 (p5) to 498.67 (p1) among parents, from 117.67 (c3) to 282.66 (c1) among check varieties, and from 222 (p3 x p5) to 570 (p2 x p3) among hybrids (table 1). increased fruit-set observed may be due to a higher rate of anther dehiscence and better pollen viability. similar results were reported earlier by shivanand (2008). any deviation in results with the findings of others could be attributed to differences table 2. three best-performing parents (lines and check varieties) and hybrids in cherry tomato for growth, yield and quality traits trait parent (lines and check variety) f1 hybrid i ii iii i ii iii plant height p6 (140) c1(131.33) p5(131.00) p1 x p6 (165.67) p4 x p5 (156.00) p1 x p4 (154.00) (cm) no. of primary c3(4.33) p1,p5 and c1(3.67) p2, p3 and p4 (3.00) p1 xp2 (3.67) p1 x p5 (3.33) p1 x p7 (3.00) branches no. of secondary p6(12.67) p1 (11.00) p7 (9.67) p1 x p5 (11.33) p3 x p6 (11.00) p3 x p6 (10.33) branches no. of p1 (48) p2(38.67) p5 and p6(38.33) p2 x p3 (63.33) p1 xp4(56.33) p4 x p5 (50.33) inflorescences average fruit c3 (91.41) p5 (31.05) c1 (17.68) p3 x p5 (23.68) p2 x p5 (20.02) p4 x p5 (19.76) weight (g) no. of fruits/ kg p1 (96.67) p4 (80.33) p7(74.67) p1 x p2 (78.00) p1 x p7 (71.67) p5 x p6 (65.67) no. of fruits/ p1 (10.33) p2 (9.67) p3 (9.33) p1 x p2 (9.33) p2 x p3 (9.00) p1 xp6 (8.33) cluster no. of fruits/ p1 (498.67) p2 (374.33) p3 (326.33) p2 x p3 (570) p1 x p2 (416.67) p1 x p4 (414.67) plant yield/ plant (kg) c3 (3.10) p7 (3.03) p5 (2.87) p1 x p3 (4.27) p1 x p6 (3.97) p5 x p6 (3.40) yield/ ha (t) c2 (33.54) p5 (33.33) p7 (30.00) p1 x p7 (54.38) p4 x p7 (46.46) p2 x p7 (44.79) no. of locules/ p6 (3.67) c3 (3.33) p2 (3.00) p6 x p7 (3.33) p5 xp6 (3.00) p1 xp2 and p1 x p3 (2.67) fruit fruit firmness c3 (8.20) p5 (7.20) c1 and c2 (5.80) p3 x p5 (9.53) p1 x p4 (8.20) p6 x p7 (8.00) (kg/mm2) pericarp thickness c3 (7.40) p5 (4.80) p7 (4.03) p2 xp5 (6.00) p3 x p5 (5.00) p2 xp7, p5 x p7 (4.20) (mm) in genotypes under study, environmental conditions and stage of fruit harvest. as for yield per plant, genotypes differed significantly, ranging from 2.20kg (p1 and p3) to 3.03kg (p7) among parents, from 1.93kg (c2) to 3.10kg (c3) among check varieties, and from 2.50kg (p2 x p4) to 4.27kg (p1 x p3) among hybrids (table 1). genotypes differed significantly among themselves for estimated yield which ranged from 20.83 tonnes per hectare (p4) to 33.33 tonnes per hectare (p5) among parents, from 21.46 tonnes per hectare (c3) to 33.54 tonnes per hectare (c1) among check varieties, and from 26.46 tonnes per hectare (p1 x p3) to 54.38 tonnes per hectare (p1 x p7) among hybrids (table 1). hybrid p1 x p7 showed highest yield per plant and estimated yield per hectare. these results are in consonance with findings of madalageri and dharmatti (1991). genotypes differed significantly among themselves in number of locules per fruit which ranged from 2.33 (p1, p3, p5 and p7) to 3.67 (p6) among parents, from 2(c1) to 3.33(c3) among check varieties, and from 2.00 (p1 x p4, p2 x p3, p2 x p5 and p4 x p5) to 3.33 (p6 x p7) among hybrids (table 1). variation in fruit firmness depends upon stage of harvest, and at mature stage this ranged from 4.20 kg/mm2 (p3) to 7.20 kg/mm 2 (p5) among parents, from 5.8kg/mm 2 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):79-82, 2015 evaluation of cherry tomato f1 hybrids and their parents 82 (c1 and c2) to 8.20kg/mm 2 (c3) among check varieties, and from 3.33kg/mm2 (p1 x p3) to 9.53 kg/mm 2 (p3 x p5) among hybrids (table 1). thus, hybrid p3 x p5 may be best suited for long-distance transport and for processing. genotypes differed significantly among themselves for pericarp thickness (mm) which ranged from 2.20mm (p1) to 4.80mm (p5) among parents, from 2.80mm (c2) to 7.40mm (c3) among check varieties, and from 2.40mm to (p1 x p2) to 6.00 (p2 x p5) among hybrids (table 1). these results are similar to the findings of thakur et al (2005), hazarika and phookan (2005) and shivakumar (2000). fruit firmness and pericarp thickness are important fruit-quality parameters. the three best overall performing parents (lines and check varieties) and hybrids are presented in table 2 for different traits studied in cherry tomato. in this study, parents iihr-2866, iihr-2864 and iihr-2865 performed well for various traits under study. as such, these could be exploited further in various breeding programmes. promising hybrids, iihr-2754 x iihr-2866 (p1 x p7) and iihr-2754 x iihr-2860 (p1 x p3), can be subjected further to selection for isolating desirable genotypes in cherry tomato. references anonymous. 2009a. botanical classification of cherry tomato. http://www.lose-weight-with-us.com/cherrytomato-nutrition.html anonymous. 2009b. cherry tomato nutritional information. usda national nutritional database for standard reference. http://www.lose-weight-with-us.com/ cherry-tomato-nutrition.html arun, j., amit, v. and thakur, m.c. 2004. studies on genetic variability, correlation and path analysis for yield and physico-chemical traits in tomato (lycopersicon esculentum mill.). prog. hort., 36:51-58 deepa, s. and thakur, m.c. 2008. evaluation of diallele progenies for yield and its contributing traits in tomato under mid-hill conditions. indian j. hort., 65:297301 hazarika, t.k. and phookan, d.b. 2005. performance of tomato cultivars for polyhouse cultivation during spring-summer in assam. indian j. hort., 62:268271 madalageri, b.b. and dharmatti, p.r. 1991. a new tomato cv. l-15 for north karnataka. j. agril. sci., 4:150-153 shivakumar, k.c. 2000. evaluation of tomato hybrids for growth, yield and quality parameters under bengaluru condition. m.sc. thesis, uas, gkvk, bengaluru, india shivanand, v.h. 2008. evaluation of tomato (lycopersicon esculentum mill.) hybrids under eastern dry zone of karnataka, m.sc. thesis, uas, gkvk, bengaluru, india thakur, a.k. and. kohli, u.k. 2005. studies on genetics of shelf-life in tomato. indian j. hort., 62:163-167 (ms received 17 august 2013, revised 02 january 2015, accepted 28 january 2015) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):79-82, 2015 renuka muttappanavar et al guava (psidium guajava l.) is known as the apple of the tropics and is grown throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of india. it is a rich source of vitamin c and minerals, viz., calcium, phosphorus and iron, necessary for human health. the guava fruit, and its juice, is popularly consumed for its great taste, nutritional benefits and nutrient content. clarified guava juice is more acceptable and is used in the manufacture of clear guava-nectar or jelly, guava powder, or mixed-fruit juice blend. however, extraction of juice from guava is difficult and protracted owing to the gritty texture of its pulp and its pectineous nature. enzymeassisted processing with pectinolytic enzymes is an effective approach for degrading the pectinaceous material, to yield a free-flowing juice. several researchers have reported recently that pectinase and cellulase enzyme treatments can significantly enhance recovery of phenolics and improve its functional properties (collin et al, 1998). black carrot has been in the focus as a source of natural food colorants (collins et al, 1998), and high content of its anthocyanin pigments is being used for blending it with guava juice. considering the enormous potential of guava as a source of phenolics, the objective of the current study was to study the effect of enzyme-assisted processing and blending of guava rts with black-carrot juice, and to evaluate its functionality for imparting color appeal and antioxidant activity. the present study was carried out for preparation of short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):112-115, 2015 antioxidant composition of guava (psidium guajava l.) beverage blended with black-carrot juice v.s. khandare, d.p. waskar, b.m. kalalbandi and s.m. panpatil department of horticulture vasantrao naik marathwada agriculture university parbhani413 402, india e-mail: khandarevs@rediffmail.com abstract an investigation was undertaken to study guava beverage blended with black-carrot juice, during 2011-2012. enzyme-assisted processing of guava significantly improved the juice yield, total soluble solids, titratable acidity ph, ascorbic acid and sugars by using pectinase enzyme. the blending of guava beverage with black carrot juice significantly improved the functional properties of the guava rts. anthocyanin and ascorbic contents of blended guava rts with black-carrot juice decreased with advancement of storage condition and period. key words: guava, enzyme-assisted processing, functional quality, black carrot clarified guava juice using pectianase enzyme, and to utilize it for preparation of guava rts (ready-to-serve juice) blended with black-carrot juice. fully mature, ripe guava fruits (cv. l-49) free from blemishes and mechanical injury were procured from the local market. the location of the study was department of horticulture, vasantrao naik marathwada krishi vidyapeeth, parbhani. fruits of guava were washed thoroughly in tap water and cut into thin slices using a stainless-steel knife, and subjected to hot-breaking at 80oc for 20 min, for softening the fruit pieces. these were subsequently passed through a laboratory-scale pulper for extracting a homogeneous pulp without seeds. pulp samples were weighed out in 500ml glass bottles and the enzyme preparation (pectinase ec 3.2.1.1 from aspergillus niger, 1 u/mg from aspergillus sp.) was added at four concentrations: 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2% e/s. control (straightpressed) pulp samples were incubated without the enzyme under the same conditions. for each concentration, 500ml of the pulp was taken in three replicates for analysis. the bottles were capped and incubated at 50 oc in a thermostatically controlled water-bath for 1 hour. the pulp was then pressed using a hydraulic press with a nylon filterbag to extract the juice. the filtrate was centrifuged at 5000rpm for 10 min to obtain the clarified juice (whose yield was determined by weighing the juice extracted, subsequently heat-processing it at 90oc for 1 min, and packing it in clean, sterilized glass-bottles finally upturned 113 antioxidant composition of guava beverage blended with black-carrot juice and sealed). the clarified juice was then used for preparation of guava rts by adding sugar and water. the rts was standardized by conducting preliminary trials with the juice; tss, acidity and more combinations were used for preparing the rts beverage. rts was blended with black-carrot juice at 5%, 10%, 15% or 20% concentrations. the blended rts was heated at 90oc for 1 min, and packed in clean and sterilized bottles, upturned, sealed and stored under ambient conditions or at 7oc for use in analysis. anthocyanin content was determined by ph differential method (spectrophotometeric method) described by (wrolstad et al, 2005). each experimental unit was replicated thrice. data were subjected to analysis of variance, using completely randomized design. physico-chemical composition of guava fruit and pulp data presented in table 1 reveal fresh guava fruit as recording 10% tss, 4.1 ph, 0.54% titrable acidity, 200.5 mg/100g ascorbic acid, 10.6% total sugars, 6.23% reducing sugars, and 4.37% non-reducing sugars; whereas, guava pulp recorded 9% tss, 4.1ph, 0.64% titrable acidity, 198.7mg/100 ml ascorbic acid, 4.21% reducing sugars, 1.37% non-reducing sugar, and 5.58% total sugars. results on total acidity, total soluble solids, ph, ascorbic acid and sugar content in guava are in agreement with earlier findings of kumar and honda (1994), chatterjee et al (1992), tondon and kalra (1984), tiwari (2000), and gowda (1995). effect of enzyme-assisted processing on juice yield in guava data on effect of pectinase enzyme in varying concentrations (0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5% or 2.0%) for liquefication of guava juice, and enzymatically obtained clarified juice, compared to the juice in control (without enzyme) as per cent juice-yield, are presented in fig. 1. significant increase in juice-yield was seen in enzyme-assisted processing. juice yield in the control sample t0 was 71.3%, while, with increasing concentration of pectinase enzyme, the juice-yield increased to 94% in treatment t4, followed by that in t3 (88%), t2 (85.80%) and t1 (79%). overall, 22.7% increase in juice-yield was seen as a result of degradation pectinase catalyzed in the plant cell-wall matrix. these results confirm the findings of tiwari (2000) in guava. effect of enzyme-assisted processing on physicchemical composition of guava juice data presented in table 2 reveal that maximum tss percentage (12.5), ph (4.66), titrable acidity (0.72), ascorbic acid content (25.15 mg/100g) and sugar content were recorded in treatment t4, over the control. physico-chemical composition of the juice, viz., total soluble solids, ph, titrable acidity, total sugars, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars and ascorbic acid content increased with pectinase concentration over the control (untreated). physio-chemical composition of guava rts blended with black-carrot juice data presented in table 3 reveal that tss of blended guava rts ranged from 11.10% to 12.03%. lowest value (11.10%) of tss was recorded in treatment (t4) fig. 1. effect of pectinase concentration on juice yield in guava table 1. physico-chemical composition of guava fruit traits fresh fruit fruit pulp tss (%) 10.0 9.0 p h 4.10 4.1 titrable acidity (%) 0.54 0.64 ascorbic acid (mg/100g) 200.5 198.7 reducing sugars (%) 6.23 4.21 non-reducing sugars (%) 4.37 1.37 total sugars (%) 10.60 5.58 table 2. effect of enzyme-assisted processing on physico-chemical composition of guava juice treatment tss p h titrable ascorbic sugars (%) (%) acidity(%) acid (mg/100g) reducing non-reducing total t1 (0.5%) 9.40 4.06 0.65 20.02 4.23 1.37 5.60 t2 (1.0%) 11.00 4.36 0.67 22.36 4.23 1.38 5.61 t3 (1.5%) 12.00 4.50 0.70 24.94 4.25 1.40 5.66 t4 (2.0%) 12.50 4.66 0.72 25.15 4.26 1.42 5.68 t0 (control) 9.00 3.80 0.64 19.86 4.22 1.36 5.58 se m+ 0.05 0.12 0.004 0.33 0.005 0.003 0.012 cd (p=0.05) 0.16 0.37 0.015 1.05 0.018 0.012 0.038 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):112-115, 2015 114 guava rts blended with 20% black-carrot juice, compared to the t0 control (12.03%). highest titrable acidity was recorded in the control (0.32%) guava rts, while the lowest was recorded in treatment (t4) guava blended rts with 20% black carrot juice (0.25). highest ascorbic acid content was recorded in the control treatment t0 (9.76mg/100 ml), whereas, the lowest ascorbic acid content was recorded in guava rts blended with 20% black-carrot juice (8.81mg/ 100 ml). a similar trend was observed in total sugar content, reducing sugars and non-reducing sugars in guava rts blended with black-carrot juice. the highest total anthocyanin content was recorded in treatment (t4) guava rts blended with 20% black-carrot juice, followed by treatment (t3) that blended with 15% black-carrot juice, (t2) 10% black-carrot juice and (t1) 5% black-carrot juice, in that order. these results are in agreement with bhuvaneshwari and doreyappa gowda (2006), and garymain et al (2001). sensory analysis of guava rts blended with blackcarrot juice blending guava rts with black-carrot juice improved organoleptic quality remarkably in guava juice blended with 5 or 10% black-carrot juice (table 4). the highest colour score (8.25), consistency score (8.41), flavour score (7.41), aroma score (7.41) and overall acceptability score (7.86) was recorded in treatment (t1) fallowed by in treatment t2, while lowest colour (6.07), consistency (6.29), flavor (7.06), aroma (7.31) and overall acceptability (6.66) score was recorded in treatment (t0). the product developed had a preponderant flavor of the original fruit used, lack of the earthy, raw flavor or added phytochemical content. the products show a good potential for anthocyanin-rich, healthy drinks for the food industry looking for natural alternatives to synthetic drinks. results obtained by us are in agreement with bhuvaneshwari and doreyappa gowda (2006). storage of guava rts blended with black-carrot juice total anthocyanin content data on anthocyanins in guava rts blended with black-carrot juice at room temperature and at 7oc are presented in figs. 2 and 3. anthocyanin content of guava rts blended with black-carrot juice was found to decrease with advancing storage period, irrespective of the storage conditions. initially, the highest value (29.85 ml/ l) for anthocyanin was recorded in treatment (t4) 20% blackcarrot juice blended with guava rts. no anthocyanin content was found treatment (t0) in the control guava rts. table 3. physico-chemical composition of guava rts blended with black-carrot juice treatment tss p h titrable ascorbic anthocyanin sugars (%) (%) acidity (%) acid (mg/100ml) (mg/l) reducing non-reducing total t1 (5%) 11.86 5.51 0.31 9.52 20.91 2.56 8.23 10.79 t2 (10%) 11.73 5.31 0.28 9.31 24.44 2.55 8.19 10.74 t3 (15%) 11.60 5.11 0.26 9.01 26.45 2.53 8.18 10.71 t4 (20%) 11.10 4.90 0.25 8.81 29.83 2.52 8.15 10.66 t0 (control) 12.03 5.73 0.32 9.76 2.57 8.31 10.88 se m+ 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.003 0.005 0.006 0.005 cd (p=0.05) 0.018 0.018 0.018 0.018 0.011 0.016 0.019 0.018 table 4. sensory evaluation of guava rts blended with blackcarrot juice (scale 0-9) treatment colour consistency flavour aroma overall acceptability (scale 0-9) t1 (5%) 8.25 8.41 7.41 7.41 7.86 t2 (10%) 7.37 7.44 7.32 7.00 7.28 t3 (15%) 7.30 7.30 6.85 7.11 7.06 t4 (20%) 7.20 7.21 7.20 6.93 7.18 t0 (control) 6.07 6.29 7.06 7.31 6.66 se m+ 0.003 0.005 0.005 0.015 0.005 cd (p=0.05) 0.014 0.017 0.016 0.048 0.18 fig. 2. effect of storage conditions on anthocyanin content guava rts blended with black-carrot juice at ambient temperature fig. 3. effect of storage conditions on anthocyanin content in guava rts blended with black-carrot juice at 7oc khandare et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):112-115, 2015 115 similar trend was observed in 15, 30 or 45 days stored guava rts blended with black-carrot juice, at room temperature. at 60 days, the highest value (24.20ml/ l) for anthocyanin content was recorded in treatment (t4) 20% guava rts blended with black-carrot juice at 7oc. total anthocyanin content during storage at different temperatures decreased in comparison to non-stored juice. these results are in agreement with alighourchi and barzegar (2009). results indicated that use of enzymes for liquefaction prior to pressing can improve the quality of guava juice remarkably, culminating in enhanced juice-yield. blend of guava rts with black-carrot juice enhanced anthocyanin content in the juice, which is directly related to health-promoting capacity; it also contained high anthocyanin content, with a stable and attractive strawberry-red colour. blending of guava with black-carrot juice in the preparation of rts beverage resulted in a product with good organoleptic (colour) properties and can be used as a healthdrink. references alighourchi, h. and barzegar m. 2009. some physicochemical characteristics and degradation kinetics of anthocyanin of reconstituted pomegranate juice during storage. j. food engg., 90:179-185 bhuvaneswari, s. and doreyappa gowda, i.n. 2006. smallscale processing of blended grape rts. beverages food world j., 33:72-72 chatterjee, d., singh, u.p., thakur, s. and kumar, r. 1992. a note on the bearing habits of guava (psidium guajava l.). haryana j. hortl. sci., 21:69-71 collins, p., plumbly, j. and stich, e. 1998. black carrotsestablished raw materials for the manufacture of carantho food color and exberry vegetable juice color: stability and application. 3rd intl. symp. natl. colorants, hamden, sic, hamden. pp 107-120 garymain, mike faupel, justin morries and ronald mcnew. 2001. quality and stability of blueberry juice blended with apple, grape and cranberry juice. j. food qual., 24:111-125 gowda, i.n.d. 1995. studies on blending of mango and papaya pulp for ready-to-serve beverage making. proceedings of national seminar on post-harvest technology of fruits, bengaluru, august 07-09, 1995, pp. 387-494 kumar, r. and honda, m.n. 1994. fixtation of maturity standard of guava (psidium guajava l.). indian j. hortl. sci., 31:140-144 tiwari, r.b. 2000. studies on blending of guava and papaya pulp for rts beverage. indian food packer, 54:6872 tondon, d.k. and kalra, s.k. 1984. chemical evaluation of stored guava pulp in polyethylene pouches. indian food packer, pp 38:57-59 wrolstad, r.e., durst, r.w. and lee, j. 2005. tracking colour and pigment changes in anthocyanin products. trends food sci. technol., 16:423-428 (ms received 07 march 2014, revised 29 april 2015, accepted 20 may 2015) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):112-115, 2015 antioxidant composition of guava beverage blended with black-carrot juice page 104 correlation and path coefficient analysis in pomegranate (punica granatum l.) m.m. mir, a.a. sofi, d.b. singh2 and f.n. bhat2 central institute of temperate horticulture srinagar (j&k), india e-mail: mirmaqbool_05@yahoo.co.in abstract studies were carried out to find out association between different characters and magnitude of association of different characters with gross fruit yield (kg/plant) in ten cultivars of pomegranate (punica granatum l.) including one local check. data revealed that genotypic correlation coefficients were higher than their corresponding phenotypic ones for most of the characters, implying an inherent relationship among them. fruit weight, fruit diameter, fruit volume, juice content, fruit set and number of fruits/plant exhibited highly significant positive correlation. among the characters studied, number of fruits/ plant, fruit weight, fruit volume and fruit set recorded maximum positive direct effect towards gross fruit yield (kg/ plant) at both the levels. this study revealed that both the number of fruits/plant and fruit weight could form a selection criterion for yield improvement in pomegranate. key words: pomegranate, correlation, path analysis introduciton pomegranate (punica granatum l.) is an important fruit in tropical and sub-tropical countries. in india, its cultivation is scattered all over the country, especially in the states of maharashtra, gujarat, andhra pradesh, uttar pradesh, tamil nadu and karnataka. however, no systematic work has been done on improvement of the pomegranate crop. correlation studies help in finding out the degree of inter-relationship among various characters and in evolving selection criteria for improvement, and, path coefficient analysis provides a better index for selection than mere correlation coefficient by separating the correlation coefficients of yield and its components into direct and indirect effects. therefore, the present study was carried out to find out all possible component characters for improvement of this crop through character association and path-coefficient analysis. material and methods the present investigation was carried out at the research farm of central institute of temperate horticulture (cith), srinagar, during 2004. ten pomegranate cultivars, viz., kabuli kandhari, chawla, ganesh, mridula, jyoti, g-137, dholka, bedana, kandhari and one local check were used in the study. the experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications. five year old plants of uniform vigour were selected and spaced at 2.5m x 2.5m. all the recommended cultural practices were followed. observations were recorded on three randomly selected plants per replication for each cultivar for fifteen important characters, including gross fruit yield (kg/plant). correlations were worked out as per al-jibouri et al (1958) and path coefficient analysis was performed as per the method proposed by dewey and lu (1959). results and discussion in a majority of the characters studied, genotypic correlation coefficient was found to be higher in magnitude than phenotypic correlation coefficient, indicating a strong inherent association among various characters (table 1). the study revealed positive and significant correlation between plant height, plant spread and rind thickness but a negative association with days to first flower opening. plant spread exhibited positive and significant association with fruit weight, fruit diameter, fruit volume and juice content, number of fruits/ plant and gross fruit yield only at the genotypic level. highly significant correlation was observed between fruit weight, fruit diameter, fruit volume, rind weight, juice content, fruit set, number of fruits/plant and gross fruit yield and between fruit diameter with the same characters of fruit weight. positive association of plant j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 104-108, 2006 1c/o dr. a.q. jhon, emeritus scientist, division of floriculture, skuast-k, shalimar, srinagar191 121 (j&k), india 2dept. of horticulture, allahabad agricultural institute deemed university, allahabad, india page 105 correlation and path co-efficient analysis t ab le 1 . g en ot yp ic ( g ), p h en ot yp ic ( p ) a n d e n vi ro n m en ta l ( e ) c or re la ti on co ef fi ci en ts o f so m e im p or ta n t c h ar ac te rs in p om eg ra n at e cu lt iv ar s on g ro ss fr u it y ie ld u n d er t em p er at e cl im at ic c on d it io n s of k as h m ir s l. p la n t p la n t d ay s to f ru it f ru it f ru it r in d r in d t s s a ci d it y t s s / ju ic e f ru it n u m b er g ro ss n o . c h ar ac te r h ei g h t s p re ad f ir st w ei g h t d ia m et er v o lu m e th ic k n es s w ei g h t ( % ) ( % ) a ci d ( % ) se t o f fr u it s f ru it y ie ld (c m ) (c m ) fl o w er ( g ) (c m ) (c m 3 ) (m m ) ( g ) ra ti o ( % ) / p la n t ( k g /p la n t) o p en in g (1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) ( 4 ) (5 ) (6 ) (7 ) (8 ) ( 9 ) ( 1 0 ) (1 1 ) (1 2 ) (1 3 ) ( 1 4 ) (1 5 ) ( 1 6 ) p la n t h ei g h t g 1 .0 0 0 0 .6 3 2 * -0 .6 9 3 * 0 .0 6 3* 0 .0 6 7 * * 0 .0 3 2* * 0 .7 3 8 * 0 .1 3 2* * -0 .2 4 9 -0 .1 1 0 * -0 .0 11 * * 0 .0 7 8 * * 0 .0 5 9* * 0 .3 1 9 * * 0 .1 4 7 * * (c m ) p 1 .0 0 0 0 .5 9 7* -0 .6 6 5 * 0 .0 6 6* 0 .0 6 3 * * 0 .0 2 1* * 0 .6 5 0 * 0 .1 2 8* * -0 .2 1 3 -0 .1 0 4 * 0 .0 0 2* * 0 .0 7 1 * * 0 .0 4 0* * 0 .2 4 7 * * 0 .1 3 1 * * e 1 .0 0 0 0 .0 5 5* 0 .0 2 2* 0 .2 0 2* 0 .0 6 1 * * 0 .0 8 5* * 0 .0 4 5* 0 .3 1 4* * 0 .4 2 0 -0 .1 2 3 * 0 .2 8 3* * 0 .0 1 6 * * -0 .5 5 8* * -0 .0 2 1 * * 0 .0 0 5 * * p la n t sp re ad g 1 .0 0 0* -0 .6 5 5 * 0 .7 4 9 * 0 .7 0 6 ** 0 .6 7 4 ** 0 .5 5 8* 0 .7 4 5 ** -0 .0 4 9 -0 .2 1 3 * 0 .1 6 9* * 0 .7 4 1 ** 0 .4 7 6* * 0 .8 1 7 * * 0 .7 4 3 * * (c m ) p 1 .0 0 0* -0 .6 3 5 * 0 .6 3 3 * 0 .6 6 9 ** 0 .6 3 7 ** 0 .4 4 4* 0 .6 0 5* * -0 .0 7 2 -0 .1 8 7 * 0 .1 1 5* * 0 .5 8 6 * * 0 .4 6 5* * 0 .5 3 7 * * 0 .5 5 7 * * e 1 .0 0 0* -0 .4 3 1 * -0 .4 7 2 * 0 .1 2 2 * * 0 .0 9 0* * -0 .1 4 2 * 0 .0 0 3* * -0 .2 4 2 0 .2 0 2* -0 .2 2 7* * -0 .3 5 4 * * 0 .3 5 8* * -0 .3 4 3 * * -0 .5 3 1 * * d ay s to f ir st g 1 .0 0 0* 0 .0 0 1* 0 .0 2 8 * * 0 .0 5 6* * -0 .6 7 2 * -0 .2 2 6* * 0 .5 6 0 0 .6 4 4 * -0 .5 7 9* * -0 .1 1 8 * * -0 .0 2 4* * -0 .3 5 3 * * -0 .1 4 6 * * fl o w er o p en in g p 1 .0 0 0* 0 .0 1 8* 0 .0 3 1 * * 0 .0 5 8* * -0 .5 5 9 * -0 .2 2 4* * 0 .5 3 4 0 .6 1 8* -0 .5 0 8* * -0 .0 5 7 * * -0 .0 4 2* * -0 .1 8 6 * * -0 .0 6 2 * * e 1 .0 0 0* 0 .2 2 1* 0 .1 3 7 * * 0 .1 2 3* * 0 .1 1 5* -0 .2 8 1* * 0 .3 4 2 0 .1 3 7* -0 .0 0 8* * 0 .4 0 8 * * -0 .2 5 3* * 0 .4 9 8 * * 0 .5 7 2 * * f ru it w ei g h t (g ) g 1 .0 0 0* 0 .9 0 6 * * 0 .8 0 4 * * 0 .1 1 7* 0 .8 6 8 * * 0 .4 9 2 0 .3 0 5* -0 .2 4 9* * 0 .9 2 1 * * 0 .8 3 9 * * 0 .9 1 0 * * 0 .9 5 6 * * p 1 .0 0 0* 0 .8 1 3 * * 0 .7 6 0 ** 0 .1 0 8* 0 .6 6 2 ** 0 .4 3 0 0 .3 0 0* -0 .2 5 0* * 0 .7 9 0 * * 0 .7 2 7 ** 0 .6 5 1 ** 0 .8 9 4 * * e 1 .0 0 0* 0 .5 4 1 * * 0 .5 5 8* * 0 .3 11 * -0 .2 8 0* * -0 .0 4 0 0 .2 6 9* -0 .2 7 6* * -0 .0 4 5 * * -0 .4 7 2* * -0 .1 6 1 * * -0 .2 11 * * f ru it d ia m et er g 1 .0 0 0 * * 0 .9 1 0 * * 0 .0 9 3* 0 .8 7 9 * * 0 .5 1 5 0 .3 3 5* -0 .2 7 5* * 0 .9 0 1 * * 0 .7 9 4 * * 0 .8 6 3 * * 0 .9 2 4 * * (c m ) p 1 .0 0 0 * * 0 .8 2 3 * * 0 .1 1 2* 0 .7 4 2 ** 0 .4 7 3 0 .3 3 3* -0 .2 6 4* * 0 .8 0 6 * * 0 .7 4 9 ** 0 .6 4 4 ** 0 .8 2 2 * * e 1 .0 0 0 * * 0 .6 0 3* * 0 .5 4 8* -0 .0 2 5* * -0 .0 0 9 0 .4 3 2* -0 .3 2 1* * -0 .0 6 1 * * -0 .1 6 7* * -0 .3 7 9 * * -0 .1 7 8 * * f ru it v o lu m e g 1 .0 0 0* * 0 .0 7 5* 0 .8 7 1 * * 0 .5 3 9 0 .3 5 5* -0 .2 8 8* * 0 .8 7 5 * * 0 .8 2 0 * * 0 .8 7 3 * * 0 .9 4 3 * * (c m 3 ) p 1 .0 0 0* * 0 .0 5 1* 0 .7 3 4 ** 0 .4 9 6 0 .3 5 2* -0 .2 7 5* * 0 .7 8 1 * * 0 .7 7 3 * * 0 .6 4 7 ** 0 .8 3 1 * * e 1 .0 0 0* * 0 .5 3 3* -0 .0 4 4* * 0 .0 0 9 0 .4 3 8* -0 .3 1 2* * -0 .0 8 6 * * 0 .1 6 9* * -0 .4 2 0 * * -0 .2 1 3 * * r in d t h ic k n es s g 1 .0 0 0* 0 .0 5 9* * -0 .5 8 0 -0 .0 4 9 * -0 .1 4 3* * 0 .2 9 5 * * 0 .1 1 2* * 0 .1 9 9 * * 0 .0 8 5 * * (m m ) p 1 .0 0 0* 0 .0 8 6* * -0 .4 5 9 -0 .0 4 0 * -0 .0 8 8* * 0 .2 8 3 * * 0 .0 4 5* * 0 .0 8 3 * * 0 .0 5 5 * * e 1 .0 0 0* 0 .1 6 8* * 0 .0 8 2 -0 .2 8 2 * 0 .1 3 2* * 0 .2 3 8 * * -0 .3 6 1* * -0 .1 8 6 * * -0 .0 5 7 * * r in d w ei g h t (g ) g 1 .0 0 0* * 0 .4 2 5 0 .0 8 9* -0 .0 2 1* * 0 .6 6 0 ** 0 .6 1 6* * 0 .6 7 9 ** 0 .7 4 9 * * p 1 .0 0 0* * 0 .3 4 9 0 .0 4 3* 0 .0 6 1* * 0 .5 4 2 * * 0 .4 8 2* * 0 .5 4 3 * * 0 .6 1 3 * * e 1 .0 0 0* * 0 .0 7 3 -0 .3 2 9 * 0 .3 4 6* * 0 .1 5 2 * * -0 .1 2 7* * 0 .2 7 9 * * 0 .1 7 4 * * t s s ( % ) g 1 .0 0 0 0 .6 6 3 * -0 .5 0 7* * 0 .2 11 * * 0 .6 0 5* * 0 .5 1 4 * * 0 .5 6 1 * * p 1 .0 0 0 0 .5 7 5* -0 .3 0 5* * 0 .2 0 7 * * 0 .4 9 7* * 0 .3 6 9 * * 0 .4 5 7 * * e 1 .0 0 0 -0 .4 0 2 * 0 .7 4 5 ** 0 .1 9 2 * * -0 .3 4 3* * -0 .0 1 4 * * -0 .0 5 4 * * a ci d it y ( % ) g 1 .0 0 0* -0 .9 7 1 * * 0 .1 0 1 * * 0 .3 9 5* * 0 .1 6 2 * * 0 .2 6 2 * * p 1 .0 0 0* -0 .9 3 0 * * 0 .0 8 2 * * 0 .3 8 7* * 0 .1 1 8 * * 0 .2 3 2 * * e 1 .0 0 0* -0 .8 3 9 * * -0 .1 0 2 * * 0 .2 8 0* * -0 .0 6 2 * * -0 .0 1 7 * * t s s / a ci d r at io g 1 .0 0 0* * -0 .0 5 5 * * -0 .2 8 9* * -0 .0 9 5 * * -0 .1 8 7 * * p 1 .0 0 0* * -0 .0 2 7 * * -0 .2 7 5* * -0 .0 5 4 * * -0 .1 5 9 * * e 1 .0 0 0* * 0 .1 0 1 * * -0 .1 9 5* * 0 .0 5 3 * * -0 .0 3 5 * * ju ic e (% ) g 1 .0 0 0 * * 0 .7 0 5 ** 0 .6 9 4 ** 0 .7 8 1 * * p 1 .0 0 0 * * 0 .5 5 1* * 0 .6 1 8 * * 0 .7 1 0 * * e 1 .0 0 0 * * -0 .4 7 5* * 0 .4 7 6 * * 0 .4 1 4 * * f ru it s et ( % ) g 1 .0 0 0* * 0 .8 3 0 * * 0 .8 7 5 * * p 1 .0 0 0* * 0 .7 5 9 ** 0 .8 4 6 * * e 1 .0 0 0* * -0 .1 0 6 * * -0 .2 4 2 * * n u m b er o f fr u it s/ g 1 .0 0 0 * * 0 .9 1 6 * * p la n t p 1 .0 0 0 * * 0 .8 7 7 * * e 1 .0 0 0 * * 0 .8 1 8 * * g ro ss f ru it y ie ld g 1 .0 0 0 * * (k g / p la n t) p 1 .0 0 0 * * e 1 .0 0 0 * * * ,* * s ig n if ic an t at 5 % a n d 1 % l ev el , re sp ec ti v el y c h ar ac te r g ro ss fr u it y ie ld (k g /p la n t) n um be r o f fr u it s / p la n t f ru it se t ( % ) ju ic e (% ) t s s / a ci d ra ti o a ci di ty (% ) t s s (% ) r in d w ei g h t (g ) r in d th ic k n es s (m m ) f ru it v al u m e (c m 3 ) f ru it d ia m et er (c m ) f ru it w ei g h t (g ) d ay s to fi rs t fl o w er o p en in g p la n t h ei g h t (c m ) p la n t sp re ad (c m ) j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 104-108, 2006 105 page 106 mir et al t ab le 2 . d ir ec t an d i n d ir ec t ef fe ct s (a t th e ge n ot yp ic l ev el ) of i m p or ta n t ch ar ac te rs o n g ro ss f ru it y ie ld i n p om eg ra n at e cu lt iv ar s u n d er t em p er at e cl im at ic c on d it io n s of k as h m ir c h ar ac te r p la n t p la n t d ay s to f ru it f ru it f ru it r in d r in d t s s a ci d it y t s s / ju ic e f ru it n u m b er c o rr el at io n h ei g h t s p re ad fi rs t w ei g h t d ia m et er v o lu m e th ic k n es s w ei g h t (% ) ( % ) a ci d ( % ) se t o f co ef fi ci en t (c m ) (c m ) fl o w er (g ) (c m ) (c m 3 ) (m m ) (g ) r at io ( % ) fr u it s w it h g ro ss o p en in g p la n t-1 fr u it y ie ld (k g /p la n t) p la n t h ei g h t (c m ) 0. 02 8 -0 .0 7 4 -0 .0 7 2 0 .0 3 5 -0 .0 2 0 0 .0 0 6 0 .0 2 4 0 .0 0 5 0 .0 0 2 0 .0 2 0 0 .0 0 1 -0 .0 0 5 0 .0 0 8 0 .1 8 7 0 .1 4 7 p la n t s p re ad ( cm ) 0 .0 1 8 -0 .1 1 7 -0 .0 6 8 0 .4 1 4 -0 .2 0 4 0 .1 3 6 0 .0 1 8 0 .0 2 8 0 .0 0 1 0 .0 3 9 -0 .0 1 3 -0 .0 5 0 0 .0 6 2 0 .4 8 0 0 .7 4 3 * d ay s to f ir st fl o w er o p en in g -0 .0 2 0 0 .0 7 6 0. 10 4 0 .0 0 1 -0 .0 0 8 0 .0 11 -0 .0 2 2 -0 .0 0 9 -0 .0 0 5 -0 .1 1 7 0 .0 4 5 0 .0 0 8 -0 .0 0 3 -0 .2 0 7 -0 .1 4 6 f ru it w ei g h t (g ) 0 .0 0 2 -0 .1 7 0 0 .0 0 1 0. 55 2 0 .0 8 4 0 .1 11 0 .0 0 3 0 .0 2 2 -0 .0 6 4 -0 .1 3 5 0 .0 1 0 -0 .0 7 4 0 .1 0 9 0 .5 0 1 0 .9 5 6 ** f ru it d ia m et er ( cm ) 0 .0 0 4 -0 .0 8 2 0 .0 0 2 0 .5 5 5 -0 .2 89 0 .2 0 1 0 .0 0 6 0 .0 3 3 -0 .0 1 6 -0 .0 6 0 0 .0 2 1 -0 .0 6 1 0 .1 0 4 0 .5 0 7 0 .9 2 4 ** f ru it v o lu m e (c m 3 ) 0 .0 0 1 -0 .0 7 9 0 .0 0 6 0 .5 5 4 -0 .2 8 8 0. 20 2 0 .0 0 3 0 .0 3 2 -0 .0 0 6 -0 .0 6 4 0 .0 2 2 -0 .0 5 9 0 .1 0 7 0 .5 1 2 0 .9 4 3 ** r in d t h ic k n es s (m m ) 0 .0 2 1 -0 .0 6 5 -0 .0 7 0 0 .0 4 8 -0 .0 2 7 0 .0 1 0 0. 03 3 0 .0 0 2 0 .0 0 5 0 .0 0 3 0 .0 11 -0 .0 2 0 0 .0 1 5 0 .1 1 7 0 .0 8 5 r in d w ei g h t (g ) 0 .0 0 4 -0 .0 8 7 -0 .0 2 3 0 .4 7 9 -0 .2 2 1 0 .1 7 6 0 .0 0 2 0. 03 8 -0 .0 0 4 -0 .0 1 6 0 .0 0 8 -0 .0 4 5 0 .1 1 2 0 .3 9 8 0 .7 4 9 * t s s ( % ) -0 .0 0 7 0 .0 0 6 0 .0 5 8 0 .2 7 1 -0 .1 4 9 0 .1 0 9 -0 .0 1 9 0 .0 1 6 -0 .0 09 -0 .1 2 0 0 .0 3 9 -0 .0 1 4 0 .0 7 9 0 .3 0 2 0 .5 6 1 a ci d it y ( % ) -0 .0 0 3 0 .0 2 5 0 .0 6 7 0 .1 6 8 -0 .0 9 7 0 .0 7 1 -0 .0 0 1 0 .0 0 3 -0 .0 0 6 -0 .1 81 0 .0 7 5 -0 .0 0 7 0 .0 5 2 0 .0 9 5 0 .2 6 2 t s s /a ci d r at io 0 .0 0 1 -0 .0 2 0 -0 .0 6 0 -0 .1 3 7 0 .0 8 0 -0 .0 5 8 -0 .0 0 5 -0 .0 0 1 0 .0 0 5 0 .1 7 6 -0 .0 77 0 .0 0 4 -0 .0 3 8 -0 .0 5 6 -0 .1 8 7 ** ju ic e (% ) 0 .0 0 5 -0 .0 8 6 -0 .0 1 2 0 .5 0 9 -0 .2 6 1 0 .1 7 7 0 .0 1 0 0 .0 2 5 -0 .0 0 2 -0 .0 1 8 0 .0 0 4 -0 .0 68 0 .0 9 2 0 .4 0 7 0 .7 8 1 ** f ru it s et (% ) 0 .0 0 2 -0 .1 5 2 -0 .0 4 6 0 .4 1 3 0 .0 9 2 0 .1 4 1 0 .0 0 4 0 .0 1 3 -0 .0 5 2 0 .1 4 2 0 .0 2 2 -0 .0 6 0 0. 13 1 0 .5 0 9 0 .8 7 5 ** n u m b er o f fr u it s / p la n t 0 .0 0 9 -0 .1 2 0 -0 .0 3 7 0 .4 0 2 0 .1 1 0 0 .1 5 0 0 .0 0 7 0 .0 1 6 -0 .0 3 9 -0 .1 2 9 0 .0 0 7 -0 .0 4 7 0 .1 0 2 0. 58 7 0 .9 1 6 ** r es id u al e ff ec t = 0 .0 0 2 3 b o ld a n d u n d er li n ed v al u es i n d ic at e d ir ec t ef fe ct s c h ar ac te r p la n t h ei g h t (c m ) p la n t s p re ad (c m ) d ay s to fi rs t fl o w er o p en in g f ru it w ei g h t (g ) f ru it d ia m et er (c m ) f ru it v o lu m e (c m 3 ) r in d th ic k n es s (m m ) r in d w ei g h t (g ) t s s (% ) a ci d it y (% ) t s s / a ci d ra ti o ju ic e (% ) f ru it se t (% ) n u m b er o f fr u it s / p la n t c o rr el at io n co ef fi ci en t w it h g ro ss fr u it y ie ld (k g /p la n t) j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 104-108, 2006 106 page 107 correlation and path co-efficient analysis t ab le 3 . d ir ec t an d i n d ir ec t ef fe ct s (a t th e p h en ot yp ic l ev el ) of i m p or ta n t ch ar ac te rs o n g ro ss f ru it y ie ld i n p om eg ra n at e cu lt iv ar s u n d er t em p er at e cl im at ic o n d it io n s of k as h m ir c h ar ac te r p la n t p la n t d ay s to f ru it f ru it f ru it r in d r in d t s s a ci d it y t s s / ju ic e f ru it n u m b er c o rr el at io n h ei g h t s p re ad fi rs t w ei g h t d ia m et er v o lu m e th ic k n es s w ei g h t (% ) ( % ) a ci d ( % ) se t o f co ef fi ci en t (c m ) (c m ) fl o w er (g ) (c m ) (c m 3 ) (m m ) (g ) r at io ( % ) fr u it s w it h g ro ss o p en in g p la n t-1 fr u it y ie ld (k g /p la n t) p la n t h ei g h t (c m ) 0. 00 8 -0 .0 3 7 -0 .0 6 1 0 .0 3 7 -0 .0 2 4 0 .0 0 7 0 .0 1 8 0 .0 0 5 0 .0 0 3 0 .0 0 9 0 .0 0 1 -0 .0 0 4 0 .0 0 4 0 .1 6 8 0 .1 3 1 p la n t s p re ad ( cm ) 0 .0 0 5 -0 .0 62 -0 .0 5 8 0 .3 5 3 -0 .2 4 2 0 .1 4 1 0 .0 1 2 0 .0 1 8 0 .0 0 1 0 .0 1 5 -0 .0 0 2 -0 .0 3 4 0 .0 4 6 0 .3 6 4 0 .5 5 7 d ay s to f ir st fl o w er o p en in g -0 .0 0 6 0 .0 4 0 0. 09 2 0 .0 1 0 -0 .0 11 0 .0 1 3 -0 .0 1 5 -0 .0 0 7 -0 .0 0 9 -0 .0 4 9 0 .0 0 9 0 .0 0 3 -0 .0 0 4 -0 .1 2 6 -0 .0 6 2 f ru it w ei g h t (g ) 0 .0 1 0 -0 .1 6 2 0 .0 0 2 0. 55 8 0 .0 3 6 0 .1 0 5 0 .0 0 2 0 .0 2 0 -0 .0 4 7 -0 .0 8 6 0 .0 0 6 -0 .0 6 2 0 .0 7 1 0 .4 4 1 0 .8 9 4 ** f ru it d ia m et er ( cm ) 0 .0 0 2 -0 .0 4 2 0 .0 0 4 0 .5 4 4 -0 .3 61 0 .2 2 0 0 .0 0 3 0 .0 2 3 -0 .0 0 8 -0 .0 2 7 0 .0 0 5 -0 .0 4 7 0 .0 7 3 0 .4 3 4 0 .8 2 2 ** f ru it v o lu m e (c m 3 ) 0 .0 0 1 -0 .0 4 0 0 .0 0 5 0 .5 4 3 -0 .3 6 0 0. 22 1 0 .0 0 4 0 .0 2 2 -0 .0 0 9 -0 .0 2 8 0 .0 0 3 -0 .0 4 6 0 .0 7 6 0 .4 3 9 0 .8 3 1 ** r in d t h ic k n es s (m m ) 0 .0 0 6 -0 .0 2 8 -0 .0 5 1 0 .0 6 5 -0 .0 4 0 0 .0 1 7 0. 02 7 0 .0 0 3 0 .0 0 8 0 .0 0 5 -0 .0 0 2 -0 .0 1 7 0 .0 0 4 0 .0 5 3 0 .0 5 5 r in d w ei g h t (g ) 0 .0 0 1 -0 .0 3 8 -0 .0 2 1 0 .3 7 0 -0 .2 6 8 0 .1 6 2 0 .0 0 2 0. 03 1 -0 .0 0 6 -0 .0 0 3 -0 .0 0 1 -0 .0 3 2 0 .0 4 7 0 .3 6 8 0 .6 1 3 t s s ( % ) -0 .0 0 2 0 .0 0 5 0 .0 4 9 0 .2 4 0 -0 .1 7 1 0 .1 0 9 -0 .0 1 0 0 .0 11 -0 .0 18 -0 .0 4 6 0 .0 0 6 -0 .0 1 4 0 .0 5 1 0 .2 4 8 0 .4 5 7 a ci d it y ( % ) -0 .0 0 1 0 .0 1 2 0 .0 5 7 0 .1 6 8 -0 .1 1 9 0 .0 7 8 -0 .0 0 3 0 .0 0 1 -0 .0 1 0 -0 .0 80 0 .0 1 7 -0 .0 0 5 0 .0 3 8 0 .0 8 0 0 .2 3 2 t s s /a ci d r at io 0 .0 0 1 -0 .0 0 7 -0 .0 4 6 -0 .1 4 0 0 .0 9 5 -0 .0 6 1 -0 .0 0 2 0 .0 0 2 0 .0 0 5 0 .0 7 1 -0 .0 18 0 .0 0 6 -0 .0 2 7 -0 .0 3 7 -0 .1 5 9 ju ic e (% ) 0 .0 0 3 -0 .0 3 7 -0 .0 0 5 0 .4 4 1 -0 .2 9 1 0 .1 7 2 0 .0 0 8 0 .0 1 7 -0 .0 0 4 -0 .0 0 7 0 .0 0 1 -0 .0 59 0 .0 5 4 0 .4 1 7 0 .7 1 0 * f ru it s et (% ) 0 .0 11 -0 .1 2 9 -0 .0 2 4 0 .3 0 6 0 .0 7 8 0 .1 3 1 0 .0 0 1 0 .0 1 5 -0 .0 1 9 -0 .0 3 1 0 .0 0 5 -0 .0 3 2 0. 09 8 0 .5 1 4 0 .8 4 6 ** n u m b er o f fr u it s / p la n t 0 .0 0 2 -0 .1 3 4 -0 .0 1 7 0 .3 5 7 0 .1 0 3 0 .1 4 3 0 .0 0 5 0 .0 1 7 -0 .0 1 5 -0 .0 3 8 0 .0 0 4 -0 .0 3 6 0 .0 7 4 0. 61 8 0 .8 7 7 ** r es id u al e ff ec t = 0 .0 0 3 0 b o ld a n d u n d er li n ed v al u es i n d ic at e d ir ec t ef fe ct s c h ar ac te r p la n t h ei g h t (c m ) p la n t s p re ad (c m ) d ay s to fi rs t fl o w er o p en in g f ru it w ei g h t (g ) f ru it d ia m et er (c m ) f ru it v o lu m e (c m 3 ) r in d th ic k n es s (m m ) r in d w ei g h t (g ) t s s (% ) a ci d it y (% ) t s s / a ci d ra ti o ju ic e (% ) f ru it se t (% ) n u m b er o f fr u it s / p la n t c o rr el at io n co ef fi ci en t w it h g ro ss fr u it y ie ld (k g /p la n t) j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 104-108, 2006 107 page 108 (ms received 5 august 2006, revised 11 september 2006) height with spread was also noticed in earlier studies conducted by ram asrey and shukhla (2003) and fruit weight with fruit diameter reported by pandey and bist (1998), and, fruit weight with yield in ber by bisla and daulta (1987). fruit volume also exhibited highly positive significant correlation with rind weight, juice content, fruit set, number of fruits/plant and gross fruit yield. significant negative correlation was observed between acidity and tss/ acid ratio. this indicated that increase in tss/acid ratio was associated with reduction in acidity. the trait of juice content showed positive significant association with fruit set, number of fruits/plant and gross fruit yield. highly significant association was observed between fruit set and number of fruits/plant and gross fruit yield and between number of fruits/ plant and gross fruit yield. correlation studies in strawberry by verma et al (2002) showed positive association of fruit weight with fruit diameter and fruit volume. path coefficient analysis was performed to assess direct and indirect effects of different characters on gross fruit yield (table 2). even though correlation analysis can quantify the degree of association between two characters, it does not provide reasons for such an association. thus, a non-significant correlation coefficient value cannot be taken to imply absence of functional relationship between the two variables. path coefficient analysis reveals this by breaking the total correlation coefficient into components of direct and indirect effects. the maximum positive direct effect (table 2) on gross fruit yield was through number of fruits/plant (0.587) followed by fruit weight (0.552), fruit volume increase (0.202), fruit set (0.131) and days to first flower opening (0.104). these results are in consonance with those of baiyeri and ortiz (1995) who reported that yield was more closely related to number of fruits/plant in banana. direct positive effect of fruit weight on yield in ber has been reported by bisla and daulta (1987). fruit weight and rind thickness also exhibited highest and lowest positive direct effects, respectively. these results get support from earlier findings of chaudhary and singh (1998) who also reported similar effects in nut weight and nut thickness on kernel yield in apricot. fruit weight, fruit diameter, fruit volume and fruit set had the highest positive direct effects via number of fruits/plant. the traits of fruit diameter, acidity, plant spread and tss/ acid ratio imparted negative direct effect on gross fruit yield. residual effect at the genotypic level was found to be slightly lower than at the phenotypic level. high magnitude of residual effect at phenotypic level indicated limitations of characters included in the present study which needs to be supplemented by more morpho-physiological traits so as to describe the whole range of variation (table 3). keeping in view the estimation of association and path coefficient analysis towards gross fruit yield, selection should be practiced on the basis of number of fruits/plant and fruit weight as it had the highest positive direct effect. results of the present study indicate that fruit weight, fruit diameter, fruit volume, juice content, fruit set and number of fruits/plant have significant positive correlation with gross fruit yield. therefore, these main characters contributing towards gross fruit yield are ideal criteria for selection for yield in pomegranate. references al-jibouri, h.a., miller, r.a. and robinson, h.f. 1958. genotypic and environmental variances and covariances in an upland cotton cross of inter-specific origin. agron. j., 50: 633-637. baiyeri, k.p. and ortiz, r. 1995. path analysis of yield in dessert banana. musa africa, 8: 3-5. bisla, s.s. and daulta, b.s. 1987. correlation and path analysis studies on fruit and seed characters in ber (zizyphus mauritiana lamk.). agril. sci. digest india, 7: 170-172. chaudhary, v.k. and singh, n.b. 1998. investigation on variability, correlation and path analysis between kernel yield and other nut characters in wild apricot. ind. j. agril. res., 32: 149-154. dewey, d.r. and lu, k.h. 1959. correlation and path coefficient analysis of components of crested wheat grass seed production. agron. j., 51: 515-518. pandey, g. and bist, h.s. 1998. variability, correlation and path analysis in pomegranate germplasm. hort. j., 11: 7-12. ram asrey and shukhla, h.s. 2003. salt stress and correlation studies in pomegranate (punica granatum l.). ind. j. hort., 60: 330-334. verma, s.k., singh, r.k. and arya, r.r. 2002. variability and correlation studies in strawberry germplasm for quantitative traits. ind. j. hort., 59: 39-43. j. hort. sci. vol. 1 (2): 104-108, 2006 108 mir et al this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. introduction tomato (solanum lycopersicum l.), the second most important vegetable in the world after potato excels a s a good sour c e of vita min a, c, e, conta ins la rge qua ntity of water, calcium and niacin. the crop largely attracts farmers due to its short duration, low input costs and feasibility for cultivation throughout the year. in india, tomato has registered a production of 20.30 million tonnes fr om 830. 75 thousa nd ha a r ea (n hb, 2022). madhya pradesh is the leading producer of tomato with 2970.0 thousand metric tonnes from an area of 1,03,000 hectares. successful crop breeding depends on the variability and genetic diversity in the base population. yield and its components, with their polygenic inher ita nce, a r e vulner a ble to environmental sways. variability present in the base population could be segmented into heritable, and non-heritable, segments with genotypic coefficient of variation (gcv) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (pcv), heritability and genetic advance. gcv and pcv indicates the amount of variability present in the base population, while, heritability a nd genet ic a dva nc e a s s is t in d et er mining environmental influences, and the degree to which improvement is achievable (patel et al., 2013). diver se pa r ents br ing a bout hybr id vigor, consequently, examination of genetic diverseness is necessa r y to deter mine the br eeding str a tegy (ha rr ington, 1940). according to d 2 sta tistics (mahalanobis, 1936), genetic divergence helps in identifying diverse parents which on hybridization yield bumptious transgressive segregants (naveen et al., 2018). bacterial wilt caused by ralstonia solanacearum have caused havoc in the commercial cultivation of tomato leading to heavy yield losses. it causes 26% loss of fresh fruit production in hybrid tomatoes and yield losses reach up to 90.62% (dharmatti et al. 2009). development of resistant varieties can be employed as alternative to overcome bacterial wilt disease. most of the bacterial wilt resistant sources have only small fruit size due to linkage drag of wilt resistant gene with small fruit size ( wa ng e t a l. , 19 9 8 ). i dent ifying a r es is ta nt genotype with better fruit size will help in easy transfer of resistance into different background. with this foreground, the present study was carried original research paper j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 40-45, 2023 https://doi.org/10.24154/jhs.v18i1.2141 genetic diversity and screening for bacterial wilt in tomato (lycopersicon esculentum) athulya m.p.1*, anitha, p.1, pradeepkumar t.1, kutty m.s.1, kurian p.s.2 and sindhumole p.3 1department of vegetable science, 2department of plant pathology, 3department of genetics and plant breeding college of agriculture, kerala agricultural university, thrissur 680656, kerala, india *corresponding author email : athulyamp09@gmail.com abstract thirty-four tomato genotypes from different geographical locations were evaluated for genetic diversity and screened for bacterial wilt (bw) caused by ralstonia solanacearum. results revealed that plant height, fruits per cluster, fruit weight, fruit diameters, locules per fruit, fruit firmness, yield per plant, and quality parameters exhibited high heritability and genetic advance. clustering based on d2 analysis, classified genotypes into four clusters. maximum intra-cluster distance was recorded within cluster i and maximum inter-cluster distance between cluster ii and iv followed by cluster i and iv, indicating existence of wide genetic variability. genotypes in cluster iv (avto 1711, avto 1717 and avto 1718) recorded high fruit weight coupled with high yield. these may be explored as promising donors for developing large sized bacterial wilt resistant tomatoes. the large fruited genotypes in cluster iv can also contribute to the genetic improvement of existing bacterial wilt resistant varieties placed in cluster i. out of 34 genotypes screened for bw disease, 5 genotypes were classified as resistant and 7 as moderately resistant. keywords : bacterial wilt, genetic advance, heritability, humid tropics 41 genetic diversity and screening for bacterial wilt in tomato j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 40-45, 2023 out to analyse the diversity in tomato genotypes and screening for bacterial wilt disease. materials and methods t he pr esent inves tiga t ion wa s a c c omp lis hed emp loying 3 4 t oma t o genot yp es . o u t of 3 4 genotypes, 23 wer e collected from the icarnbpgr, new delhi, 3 fr om wor ld vegetable centr e, taiwa n a nd remaining 8 genotypes (3 a dva nc ed lines a nd 4 va r ieties ) f r om ker a la agricultural university, kerala. two experiments were carried out. in first experiment, 34 genotypes were planted in pots in a completely randomized block design with 2 replications. standards package of practices recommended by kerala agricultural university was followed. data on growth, yield and quality traits were subjected to statistical analysis as per comstock and robinson (1952), johnson et al., (1955), and allard (1961). mahalanobis d 2 a na lysis (ma ha la nobis, 1936) a nd euclidea n clustering (spark, 1973) was used to elucidate divergence and consequent selection of parents for hybridization. second experiment was laid out in completely randomized block design with 2 replications to screen the genotypes for bacterial wilt incidence under field conditions with one susceptible check variety pusa ruby. prior to crop establishment, the soil was tested for pathogen load by serial dilution, which recorded an inoculum load of 61 x 106 cfu/ g soil. plants were observed on daily basis during the entire crop period for bacterial wilt symptom which was confirmed by ooze test. bacterial wilt incidence was recorded and per cent wilt incidence was calculated by the following formula. the genotypes were grouped into different categories based on the per cent disease incidence (pdi) and the reaction of the genotypes to bacterial wilt as described by mew and ho (1976). reaction per cent disease incidence r (resistant) 0-20 mr (moderately resistant) 21-40 ms(moderately susceptible) 41-60 s (susceptible) 61-100 results and discussion heritability, variance components and genetic advance significant variations were recorded for growth and yield traits in the base population (table 1). the pcv was imperceptibly higher than gcv, indicating the environmental impact on the expression of these traits. estimates of gcv and pcv were high for yield per plant, fruit weight, number of fruits per plant, secondary branches per plant, fruit firmness, ascorbic acid acidity, lycopene, and beta carotene. this designated greater magnitude of phenotypic and genotypic variability in the base population. gcv a lone, cannot be depended upon to decide the magnitude of heritable variation, and hence, the knowledge on heritability also is entailed. heritability plays decisive role in breeding, expressing the reliability of phenotype as an indicator of its breeding values. heritability was high (61.31% 97.97%) for most of the traits, suggesting less influence of envir onment fa ctor s, a nd hence, effectiveness in selection. high genetic advance as percentage of mean was observed for all traits except for days to flowering, days to harvest, and total soluble solids (ara et al., 2009), suggesting the predominance of additive gene action. tss recorded high heritability with moder ate genetic a dva nce, while days to flowering and days to harvest recorded low heritability and low genetic advance implying the control by nonadditive gene action. on the basis of d2 analysis, 34 genotypes were gr ou p ed int o f ou r highly diver ge nt c lu s t er s (table 2 and fig. 1). high inter-cluster and low int r a c lu s t er va lu es highlight ed t he c lu s t er divergence. numbers of genotypes in clusters were in the order: cluster i >cluster iii >cluster ii > cluster iv. t he clustering pa tter n showed that accessions from different geographical areas were clubbed in single cluster indica ting tha t ther e existed no parallelism between genetic diversity and geographical origin (meena and bahadur, 2015). similarly, accessions from same geographical origin were distributed into different clusters, indicating that these accessions must have under gone changes for char acter s under selection which could be attributed to selection or genetic drift, creating more diversity rather than genetic distance. this clearly explained that selection of parents for hybridization must be emphasized on genetic diversity rather than geographical diversity (naveen et al., 2018). pdi = x 100 number of plants infected total number of plants observed 42 table 2 : cluster wise distribution of tomato genotypes cluster total number name of accessions no. of accessions i 19 ec-914087, ec-914094, ec-914100, ec-914107, ec-914091, ec-914096, ec-914099, ec-914093, sakthi, mukthi, anagha, manuprabha, ec-914090, ec-914103, ec-914109, ec-914098, ec-914102, ec9140107, ec-914085 ii 4 sln-2 (mukthi x iihr 2195-f2-38-5-1),sln-6 (mukthi x iihr 2195-f2-38-3-6), sln-7 (mukthi x iihr 2196f2-57-4-45),sln-9 (le-1-2 x h24-f2-59-3-20) iii 8 ec-914089, ec-914108, ec-914086, ec-914092, ec-914097, ec-914087, ec-914100, ec-914104 iv 3 avto-1718, avto-1711, avto-1717 athulya et al. table 1 : estimates of variance for yield and yield contributing traits in tomato characters range mean gv pv gcv pcv h2 ga gam (%) (%) plant height (cm) 35.25-76.5 52.9 63.00 102.55 15.00 19.14 61.43 12.82 24.23 days to flowering 47.5-59.5 55.38 4.82 19.08 3.96 7.89 25.27 2.27 4.11 days to harvest 84-98.5 89.94 8.42 19.27 4.90 3.24 43.7 3.95 4.39 primary branch 4.75-10.5 7.46 1.02 1.85 13.53 18.21 55.20 1.54 20.70 secondary branch 7.5-25.75 12.00 11.70 13.58 28.48 30.69 86.11 6.54 54.45 fruits per cluster 2.1-4.7 3.07 0.34 0.55 18.86 24.08 61.31 0.94 30.42 fruits per plant 13.38-69 24.91 191.31 198.85 56.27 57.37 96.21 27.95 113.70 fruit weight (g) 15.15-118.4 50.01 602.55 655.61 49.03 51.15 91.91 48.48 96.83 polar diameter 11.1-21.1 14.40 4.02 4.95 13.92 15.45 81.22 3.72 25.85 (cm) equatorial 9.95-21.7 13.81 4.03 4.92 14.54 16.05 81.99 3.75 27.11 diameter (cm) locules per fruit 2-5 3.67 0.40 0.47 17.17 18.70 84.31 1.19 32.48 fruit firmness 0.52-1.8 1.16 0.15 0.16 33.02 34.34 92.48 0.76 65.42 tss (ºbrix) 4.4-7.15 6.12 0.35 0.48 9.73 11.33 73.62 1.05 17.19 ascorbic acid 8.16-26.53 13.28 26.78 27.34 38.98 39.38 97.97 10.55 79.48 (mg/100g) acidity (%) 0.25-1.21 0.52 0.05 0.06 43.30 47.00 84.87 0.43 82.17 lycopene 1.49-10.74 4.97 5.46 6.14 47.00 49.83 88.97 4.54 91.33 (mg/100g) beta carotene 0.93-7.29 3.32 1.88 2.01 41.32 42.69 93.68 2.73 82.39 (mg/100g) total sugars 1.96-3.26 2.52 0.11 0.12 13.35 13.58 96.58 0.68 27.03 (mg/100g) shelf life (days) 7.25-16.5 10.29 7.19 8.58 26.06 28.47 83.76 5.05 49.13 yield (kg) 0.36-2.42 1.10 0.46 0.48 62.07 63.27 96.25 1.37 125.45 gv-genotypic variance, pv-phenotypic variance, gcv-genetic coefficient of variation, pcv-phenotypic coefficient of variation, h2-heritability, ga-genetic advance, gamgenetic advance as percentage of mean j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 40-45, 2023 43 average inter and intra cluster distance (table 3 and fig. 2) revealed that inter cluster distances were higher t ha n t ha t of int r a c lu s t er dis t a nc es , suggesting homogeneous and heterogeneous nature of the germplasm within and between the clusters, respectively (rai et al., 2017). cluster i recorded the highest intra cluster distance suggesting the p r es enc e o f ma x imu m diver s it y a mong t he genotypes in it. at inter cluster level, minimum distance was recorded between cluster i and cluster iii, while, cluster ii and cluster iv recorded the maximum inter cluster distance. minimum inter cluster distance indicated that these genotypes are closely related, and a higher inter cluster distance fig. 1 : dendrogram showing clustering of tomato genotypes fig. 2 : mahalnobis euclidean distance (not to scale) table 3 : intra and inter cluster distance in tomato genotypes cluster no. i ii iii iv i 23.65 46.93 38.49 76.47 ii 20.45 55.39 83.94 iii 23.30 48.39 iv 20.82 indic a t ed wider genetic diver s it y a mong the genotypes, hence, parents for hybridization must be selected from these clusters, to generate maximum heter otic p r ogenies a nd f or get ting desir a b le transgressive segregants (naveen et al., 2018). t he cluster mea ns of char a cter s indicated the presence of appreciable amount of genetic variation among clusters (table 4). intercrossing among the genotypes with outstanding mea n perfor ma nce (cluster mean) gives heterotic crosses (kumar et al., 2013). the genotypes in the cluster ii recorded high mean values for days to harvest, fruits per clus ter, fr u its per pla nt, t ss, a s cor bic a cid, lycopene, and beta carotene. cluster iii showed ma ximum mea n va lues for pr ima r y bra nches, secondary branches, locules per fruit, and fruit firmness. genotypes from cluster iii could give plants with more branches, and firm fruits when genetic diversity and screening for bacterial wilt in tomato j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 40-45, 2023 44 used in hybridization. plant height, fruit weight, polar diameter, equatorial diameter, yield per plant, acidity, shelf life recorded maximum cluster mean values in cluster iv, and minimum value for days to first flowering. when breeding for earliness, high fruit weight, yield, acidity, and improved shelf life, genotypes from clusters iv, could be effectively utilized (meena and bahadur, 2013). screening for bacterial wilt resistance based on the pdi, the genotypes were classified into four groups (table 5). five genotypes i.e., sakthi, mukthi, anagha, manupra bha and avto-1711 appeared as resistant, while, seven genotypes were categorized as moderately resistant to the bacterial wilt, however, five genotypes were rated as moderately susceptible and seventeen were susceptible. character i ii iii iv plant height (cm) 53.78 38.06 53.72 65.25 days to flowering 55.87 54.97 55.95 51.33 days to harvest 90.22 87.09 91.27 88.50 primary branch 7.67 5.81 7.88 7.25 secondary branch 11.51 8.88 15.09 11.08 fruits per cluster 3.13 3.35 2.91 2.77 fruits per plant 20.51 58.75 18.98 23.50 fruit weight (g) 35.92 39.93 66.76 108.03 polar diameter (cm) 13.67 12.19 15.86 18.14 equatorial diameter (cm) 13.03 12.39 14.43 19.08 locules per fruit 3.68 3.85 3.40 4.07 yield per plant (kg) 0.64 2.11 1.23 2.28 fruit firmness (kg/cm2) 1.13 0.93 1.34 1.23 tss (obrix) 6.09 6.38 6.28 5.53 ascorbic acid (mg/100g) 12.88 17.54 11.11 15.92 acidity (%) 0.51 0.59 0.48 0.60 lycopene content (mg/100 g) 4.66 7.16 5.21 3.40 beta carotene content (mg/100 g) 3.24 3.97 3.50 2.46 total sugars (%) 2.61 2.21 2.59 2.14 shelf life (days) 10.11 9.88 10.56 11.25 table 4 : cluster wise mean performance of tomato genotypes table 5 : classification of tomato genotypes based on per cent disease incidence (pdi) disease reaction genotype susceptible (61-100 pdi) ec-914085, ec-914087, ec-914088, ec-914089, ec-914092, ec-914093, ec-914095, ec-914096, ec-914097, ec-914098, ec-914099, ec-914101, e c-914102, e c-914103, e c-914105, ec-914107, e c-914109 moderately susceptible (41-60 pdi) ec-914086, ec-914100, ec-914104, ec-914108, sln-9, moderately resistant (21-40 pdi) ec-914090, ec-914091, avto-1718, avto-1717, sln-2, sln-6, sln-7 resistant (0-20 pdi) sakthi, mukthi, anagha, manuprabha, avto-1711 athulya et al. j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 40-45, 2023 45 conclusion significant diversity among tomato genotypes could be effectively exploited in developing promising and high yielding bacterial wilt resistant hybrids. high heritability and genetic advance as percentage of mean were observed for plant height, fruits per cluster, fruit weight, polar and equatorial diameter, locules per fruit, fruit firmness, yield per plant and quality parameters, referring that these traits could be focused for developing promising high yielding tomato hybrids. cluster analysis grouped the exotic large fruited genotypes in cluster iv, and the bacterial wilt resistant genotypes in cluster i, and small fruited bacterial wilt moderately resistant improved genotypes in cluster ii. maximum inter cluster distance was recorded between cluster ii and cluster iv, followed by cluster i and cluster iv, indicated that exotic genotypes from world vegetable centre could be one of the promising parents and the small fruited bacterial wilt resistant improved genotypes as the counter parent for getting maximum heterotic hybrids as they are genetically diverse. the large fruited exotic lines in cluster iv can be used for improving the fruit size of bacterial wilt resistant varieties. references ara, a., narayan, r., ahmed, n. and khan, s.h. 2009. genetic va r ia bility a nd selection parameters for yield and quality attributes in tomato. indian j. hortic., 66(1): 73-78. comstock, r. e. and robinson, h. f. 1952. genetic param­eters, their estimation and significance. proc. 6th int. grassland cong., pp. 284-291. dha r ma tti p. r. , pa til r. v. , reva na ppa a nd mannikeri, i. m. 2009. high yielding bacterial wilt resistant tomato hybrids. karnataka j. agric. sci., 22(1): 158-160. harrington, j. b. 1940. yielding capacity of wheat crosses as indicated by bulk hybrid tests. canadian j. res.,18: 578-584. johnson, h. w., robinson, h. f. and comstock, r. e. 1955. estimates of genetic and environmental variability in soybean. agron. j., 47: 314-318. mew, t. w. and ho., w. c. 1976. varietal resistance to bacterial wilt in tomato. plant. dis. reptr., 60: 264-268. kumar, m., buckseth, t., thakur, m. s. and thakur, k. s. 2013. genetic divergence and cluster a na lysis in toma to (solanum lycopersicum). prog. agric., 13(1): 114-117. mahalanobis p. c. 1936. on the generalized distance in statistics. proc. national institute of science india, 2: 49-55. meena, o. p. and bahadur, v. 2013. assessment of breeding potential of tomato (lycopersicon esculentum mill . ) ger mpla sm using d 2 analysis. the bioscan, 8(4):1145-1148. meena, o. p. and bahadur, v. 2015. breeding potential of indeterminate tomato (solanum lycopersicum l.) accessions using d2 analysis. sabrao j. breed. gen., 47(1): 49-59. naveen, b. l., reddy, k. r. and saidaiah, p. 2018. genetic divergence for yield and yield attributes in tomato (solanum lycopersicum). indian j. agric. sci., 88(7): 1018-1023. patel, s. a., kshirsagar, d. b., attar, a. v. and bhalekar, m. n. 2013. study on genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance in tomato. int. j. plant sci., 8(1): 45-47. rai, a. k., vikram, a., kumar, m., gupta, m. and dogra, r. k. 2017. genetic divergence and its implica tion in br eeding tomato (solanum lycopersicum) suita ble for mid-hills of himachal pradesh. indian j. agric. sci., 87(5): 657-62. spark, d. n. 1973. euclidean cluster analysis. algorithm ass 58. appl. stat., 22: 126-130. wang, j-f., hanson, p. and barnes, j.a. 1998. worldwide evaluation of an international set of resistance sources to bacterial wilt in tomato. in: p. prior, c. allen and j. elphinstone (eds.), ba cter ia l wilt disea se: molecula r a nd ecological aspects, springer-verlag, berlin, pp. 269-275. (received : 20.06.2022; revised : 30.03.2023; accepted 01.06.2023) genetic diversity and screening for bacterial wilt in tomato j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 40-45, 2023 varietal evaluation for yield and yield parameters of ber under semi-arid region of west bengal r.k. tarai and s.n. ghosh1 krishi vigyan kendra (nayagarh) orissa university of agriculture and technology, panipoila, balugaon e-mail: ranjan_04@rediffmail.com abstract an experiment was conducted in a private orchard 5 km away from regional research station, bidhan krishi viswavidyalaya, west bengal, during 2004-2005 to study fruit drop, retention, maturity and fruit yield of ten cultivars of ber. among ten cultivars studied, cv. kaithali took a minimum of 6 days to attain flower bud development while, in cv. jogia, it was 13 days. period from fruit-set to fruit maturity in different cultivars varied from 130 to 160 days. the time of harvest in different cultivars of ber was from third week of december to third week of march. maximum fruit-drop occurred at 15 and 30 days after fruit-set and, subsequently, decreased up to maturity. the total fruit-drop percentage varied from 66.5 (cv. gola) to 92.5 (cv. illaichi). similarly, final fruit-retention in different cultivars varied from 7.5 in cv. illaichi to 33.5% in cv. gola. cultivar jogia produced highest fruit yield (111.4 kg plant1), followed by cv. gola (90.0 kg plant-1) and cv. seb (81.5 kg plant-1). lowest average yield was recorded in cv. mundia (35.3 kg plant -1). key words: ber, zizyphus mauritiana, fruit-drop, fruit retention, maturity, yield introduction ber (zizyphus mauritiana lamk.) belongs to the family rhamnaceae, and is an ideal fruit tree for arid and semi-arid regions. the ber is valued for its nutritional qualities, prolific and regular bearing habit and adaptability to adverse soil and climatic conditions (jawanda and bal, 1978). good productivity and its ability to stand transport and storage makes ber more popular for commercial cultivation than other fruit crops (pareek, 1983). in the western part of west bengal, ber is grown commercially, as, the soil and climate are well-suited. the plant is dormant in summer and escapes the dry spell. in ber, many flowers fail to set fruit and, even among the fruits set, there is some amount of shedding. several studies on floral biology, fruitdrop, fruit retention, period required for fruit maturity and yield in various ber cultivars were made in india by different workers (sharma et al, 1990; neeraja et al, 1995; nath and bhargava, 2002; ghosh and mathew, 2002). to exploit ber for commercial cultivation in west bengal, very little information is available on fruit-set, period for maturity, retention and yield in this region. hence, an attempt was made on these aspects in the present investigation to facilitate breeding for crop improvement in future. appropriate cultural practices that may influence performance of the crop can then be formulated. material and methods the experiment was conducted during 2004-2005 in a drought-prone semi-arid zone (with average annual rainfall of 1100 to1500 mm, of which 80% occurs during julyseptember; bauri and ghosh, 1998). soil at the experimental site located 5 km away from regional research station, jhargran, bidhan chandra krishi viswvidyala, is red laterite with ph 5.4, available n 300 kg ha-1, available p 30.60 kg ha-1, available k 101.0 kg ha-1 and organic carbon 0.57%. buds of ten ber cultivars, viz., banarasi karka, chhuhara, dandan, gola, illaichi, jogia, kaithali, mundia, seb and umran, collected from r.r.s., b.c.k.v.v and top-worked during june, 2001 on 5 yearold rootstock of local ber plants (after heading-back during march, 2001) were maintained at row-to-row and plant-toplant spacing of 6 m x 6 m. randomized block design was adopted, taking three replications and two plants in each replication. the plants were pruned at 25% level during may. plants were fertilized with 40kg fym, 150 g n, 50g p 2 o 5 and 100g k 2 o plant -1 during june and, again with the same 1department of fruits and orchard management, b.c.k.v.v., mohanpur, nadia, west bengal j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (1): 17-20, 2010 18 dose during september plant-1 year-1, in the form of urea (46% n), rock phosphate (24% p 2 o 5 ) and muriate of potash 60% k 2 o), respectively. the manure and fertilizers were applied in a circular trench 30 cm wide at a radial distance of 90 and 120 cm from the trunk. all plants were irrigated thrice at monthly intervals during october, november and december at fruit growth and development stage. to record time required from emergence of flower bud to its opening, 50 flower buds were tagged soon upon their emergence. fruit-drop and fruit retention were recorded at 15-day intervals by tagging 200 just-set fruits, up to maturity, and expressed in terms of percentage. data on fruit weight and fruit size were taken from ten randomly-selected matured fruits in each replication and expressed as g and cm, respectively. the total number of fruits tree-1 was counted and the yield tree-1 was calculated by multiplying number of fruits with mean fruit weight and expressed in kg. data were statistically analyzed following standard procedures as described by panse and sukhatme (1978). angular transformation of data on percentage was done as per snedecor (1959). the significance of difference of different sources of variation was tested by error mean square by fisher-snedecor’s ‘t’ test, at probability level of 0.05. results and discussion different cultivars of ber differed significantly in fruit-set to maturity period, fruit-drop, retention and fruit yield. the period from emergence of flower buds to their opening varied from 6 to 13 days in different cultivars (table 1). ‘kaithali’ took 6 days to flower-bud development, while, it was 13 days in ‘jogia’. however, teaotia and chauhan (1963) and josan et al (1980) observed longer duration of 20-22 days for flower-bud development in different cultivars in north india. short duration of flower-bud development in the present study may be due to higher temperatures prevalent in this agro-climatic zone. cultivars chhuhara, gola and jogia required 130 days for maturity after fruit-set, while, in umran, seb and illaichi, it was 160 days. in other cultivars, viz., banarasi karka, dandan, kaithali and mundia, it was 145 days (table 1). longer period taken for fruit development in cv. seb compared to ‘gola’ under rajendranagar condition has also been reported by neeraja et al (1995). the period of harvesting of gola and chhuhara ranged from third week of december to first week of february, while, in cvs. banarasi karka, dandan, jogia, kaithali, it was from the second week of january to third week of february (table 1). in other cultivars like illaichi, seb and umran, the period of harvesting ranged from the second week of february to third week of march. this result is in line with findings of ghosh and mathew, 2002. irrespective of cultivar, the peak period of maturity fell between last week of november and first week of january (in the southern region) and between january and march (in the northern region) of india (nath and bhargava, 2002). thus, variation in the period of maturity of different cultivars in different regions of the country might be due to cultivation of these cultivars under different agro-climatic conditions. percent fruit-drop was recorded at 15-day intervals from fruit-set up to maturity (table 2). maximum fruit-drop occurred at 15 and 30 days after fruit-set and, subsequently, decreased up to maturity. at 15 days from fruit set, fruitdrop percentage varied from 18.0% (cvs. kaithali and seb) to 62.5% in ‘jogia’. similarly, at 30 days from fruit-set, fruit-drop varied from 23.5% in ‘chhuhara’ to 55% in ‘seb’. heavy fruit drop during early stages of fruit development may be attributed to unsuccessful fertilization or ovule table 1. time required for flower bud development and fruit maturity in ten cultivars of ber grown under irrigated conditions at jhargram variety period required for period required from date of first harvest date of last harvest duration of flower-bud fruit set to harvest(weeks) development (days) maturity (days) banarasi karka 10 145 2nd week, january 3rd week, february 5 chhuhara 12 130 3rd week, december 1st week, february 6 dandan 10 145 2nd week, january 3rd week, february 5 gola 9 130 3rd week, december 1st week, february 6 illaichi 8.5 160 2nd week, february 3rd week, march 5 jogia 13 130 2nd week, january 2nd week, february 5 kaithali 6 145 2nd week, january 3rd week, february 5 mundia 7 145 2nd week, january 3rd week, february 5 seb 10 160 2nd week, february 3rd week, march 5 umran 8 160 2nd week, february 3rd week, march 5 c.d. (p=0.05) 0.42 9.24 ---j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (1): 17-20, 2010 tarai and ghosh 19 degeneration. however, 120 days after fruit-set, this ranged between 0 to 13.5% in different cultivars. total fruit-drop varied from a minimum of 66.5% in ‘gola’ to a maximum of 92.5% in ‘illaichi’. however, under ludhiana conditions in punjab, cumulative fruit-drop ranged between 68.3% in ‘zg2’ to 85% in ‘kaithali’ (singh et al, 1991), while, it ranged between 82.14% in ‘gola’to 87.94% in ‘seb’ under rajendranagar, hyderabad, conditions (neeraja et al, 1995). similarly, final fruit-retention in different cultivars varied from 7.5% in ‘illaichi’ to 33.5% in ‘gola’. this result is in close proximity with findings of sharma et al 1990 who obtained final fruit-retention values in the range of 4% in ‘illaichi’to 20% in ‘tikadi’. fruit weight, which is considered to be one of the important criteria for attracting premium price, varied significantly among the ten cultivars of ber (table 3). heaviest fruit was obtained in ‘jogia’ (28.5 g), closely followed by ‘gola’ (28 g) and ‘seb’ (26.8 g). ‘illaichi’(8.3 g) recorded the lowest fruit weight. it is interesting that all the cultivars studied produced heavier fruits compared to same varieties studied by vashistha, 2001. this may be due to the growth of these varieties under different agro-climatic conditions and to providing irrigation during fruit growth and development. as for fruit length and diameter, cultivars banarasi karka, dandan and jogia produced bigger size table 2. fruit-drop and fruit retention in ten cultivars of ber grown under irrigated conditions at jhargram* variety fruit drop percentage (days after fruit-set) total final fruit 15 dafs** 30 dafs 45 dafs 60 dafs 75 dafs 90 dafs 105 dafs 120 dafs fruit retention drop (%) (%) banarasi karka 21.0 29.0 2.0 2.0 8.5 2.0 2.0 2.0 68.5 31.5 (27.35) (32.58) (8.13) (8.13) (16.95) (8.13) (8.13) (8.13) (55.86) (34.14) chhuhara 40.0 23.5 0 3.0 0 0.5 3.0 6.5 76.5 23.5 (39.23) (29.00) (0.00) (9.97) (0.00) (4.05) (9.97) (14.77) (61.00) (29.00) dandan 35.0 30.0 3.0 0 2.0 2.0 6.0 0 78.0 22.0 (36.27) (33.21) (9.97) (0.00) (8.13) (8.13) (14.18) (0.00) (62.03) (27.97) gola 29.0 26.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 4.5 2.0 0 66.5 33.5 (32.58) (30.98) (8.13) (7.03) (5.74) (12.25) (8.13) (0.00) (54.63) (35.37) illaichi 50.0 35.0 7.5 0 0 0 0 0 92.5 7.5 (45.00) (36.27) (15.89) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (74.11) (15.89) jogia 62.5 24.5 3.0 0 0 0 0 0 90.0 10.0 (52.24) (26.97) (9.97) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) (71.57) (18.43) kaithali 18.0 46.5 1.5 3.0 2.0 2.5 2.0 13.5 89.0 11.0 (25.10) (42.99) (7.03) (9.97) (8.13) (9.10) (8.13) (21.56) (70.63) (19.37) mundia 35.0 26.0 1.0 0 0 1.0 2.0 4.0 69.0 31.0 (36.27) (30.66) (5.74) (0.00) (0.00) (5.74) (8.13) (11.54) (56.17) (33.83) seb 18.0 55.0 1.0 5.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0 82.0 18.0 (25.10) (47.87) (5.74) (12.92) (5.74) (5.74) (5.74) (0.00) (64.99) (25.10) umran 18.5 50.0 1.5 2.5 1.5 1.0 2.5 0 77.5 22.5 (25.47) (45.00) (7.03) (9.10) (7.03) (5.74) (9.10) (0.00) (61.68) (28.32) c.d (p=0.05) 2.90 1.70 0.19 0.51 0.15 0.13 0.46 0.65 1.60 1.52 *figures in parentheses are angular transformed values ** dafs = days after fruit set table 3. fruit weight, fruit size, number of fruits and yield per plant in ber cultivars grown under irrigated conditions at jhargram variety average average average average average fruit fruit fruit number yield weight length diameter of fruits per plant (g) (cm) (cm) per (kg) plant banarasi karka 25.7 5.8 3.9 3069 78.7 chhuhara 21.8 4.8 3.8 2308 50.1 dandan 24.9 5.8 3.9 1634 40.5 gola 28.0 4.8 4.5 3207 90.0 illaichi 8.3 3.0 3.0 5034 46.3 jogia 28.5 5.4 3.9 3987 111.4 kaithali 23.7 5.2 4.0 2553 59.4 mundia 21.9 4.9 3.9 1605 35.3 seb 26.8 4.3 4.2 3046 81.5 umran 24.6 4.8 3.9 1791 44.6 c.d. (p=0.05) 0.29 0.29 0.34 91.6 4.56 fruits, while, ‘illaichi’produced fruits with minimum weight and size (table 3). various cultivars of ber showed significant variation in fruit production (table 3). the data showed that ‘jogia’produced highest yield (111.4 kg plant-1) followed by ‘gola’ (90.0 kg plant-1). lowest average yield was recorded in ‘mundia’ (35.3 kg plant-1). highest yield in ‘jogia’in the present study was due to production of maximum fruit number and heavier fruits. pareek and vashistha (1983), however, reported 60 and 80 kg plant-1 from 5year old j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (1): 17-20, 2010 varietal evaluation in ber for yield 20 ‘jogia’trees under irrigated conditions in rajasthan. contrary to this, gupta (1977) reported the highest yield (210 kg plant1) in 20-year old ‘umran’, followed by ‘sanaur’ no.2, zg2 and dandan, which were on par with each other (200 kg plant-1) at hoshangabad, madhya pradesh. such variation in yield could be attributed to age of the trees too. bisla et al (1980) at hissar, haryana, found ‘umran’ and ‘katha bombay’ to be the highest yielders among late cultivars. lowest yield in ‘mundia’ was due to production of lesser number of fruits plant-1 and due to fruit-drop at subsequent stages of fruit development. references bauri, f.k. and ghosh, s.n. 1998. effect of rainwater harvesting on yield and physico-chemical characters of mango fruits cv. himsagar. in: national symposium on mango production and export, june 25-27, 1998, lucknow bisla, s.s., chauhan, k.s. and godara, n.r. 1980. evaluation of late ripening germplasms of ber (zizyphus mauritiana lamk.) under semi-arid regions. haryana j. hortl. sci., 15:175-78 ghosh, s.n. and mathew, b. 2002. performance of nine ber (zizyphus mauritiana lamk.) cultivars on top working in semi-arid region of west bengal. j. applied hort., 4: 49-51 gupta, m.r. 1977. physico-chemical characters of some promising ber cultivars grown at bahadurgarh (patiala). punjab hort. j., 17:131-34 jawanda, j.s. and bal, j.s. 1978. the ber: highly paying and rich in food value. ind. hort., 23:19-21 nath, v. and bhargava, r. 2002. variation in maturity period of ber as influenced by temperature difference and morning relative humidity under arid ecosystem. prog. hort., 34:153-160 neeraja, g., reddy, s.a. and babu, r.s.h. 1995. fruit set, fruit drop and fruiting behaviour in certain ber (zizyphus mauritiana lamk.) cultivars. j. res., 23:17-21 pareek, o.p. 1983. the ber, icar, new delhi panse, v.g. and sukhatme, p.v. 1978. statistical methods for agricultural workers, icar, new delhi, pp. 145-56 sharma, v.p., raja, p.v. and kore, v.n. 1990. flowering, fruit set and fruit drop in some ber (zizyphus mauritiana lamk.) varieties. ann. agril. res., 11:1420 singh, z., dhillon, b.s. and sandhu, a.s. 1991. relationship of embryo degeneration with fruit drop and its pattern in different cultivars of ber. ind. j. hort., 48:251277 snedecor, g.w. 1959. statistical methods. iowa state college press, ames, iowa. soil under orange orchard. j. soils and crops, 11:226-28 (ms received 16 november 2009, revised 12 june 2010) j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (1): 17-20, 2010 tarai and ghosh this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. introduction sweet potato [ipomoea batatas (l.) lam] holds immense importance as a staple crop in the tropical and sub-tropical regions across the globe. it is the only domesticated species in the ipomoea genus (ravi et al., 2014). sweet potato is a highly nutritious crop due to its starch-rich storage root that provides a substantial amount of dietary energy and essential nutr ients r equir ed to meet huma n nutr itiona l requirements (van jaarsveld and faber, 2013). this versatile crop offers a range of benefits, including a high carbohydrate content, dietary fiber, bioactive compounds (such as proteins, vitamins, β-carotene, a nthocya nins, a nd miner a ls ), a nd nutr itiona l composition compar a ble to cereals a nd pulses (van jaarsveld and faber, 2013; ravi et al., 2014). additiona lly, sweet pota t o ha s emerged a s a “climate-resilient” and “famine-relief” crop, playing a crucial role in mitigating food shortages during natural calamities, saving numerous lives globally (gurmu et al., 2014; ravi et al., 2014). introduction of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, rich in β-carotene, ha s effectively a ddr essed vita min a-r ela ted malnutrition disorders in pregnant women and young children in developing nations (van jaarsveld and faber, 2013; gurmu et al., 2014). consequently, sweet potato holds immense potential as an essential dietary component for future human populations (gurmu et al., 2014). high-temperature stress has detrimental effects on sweet potato growth, development, and overall yield. studies have shown increased temperatures during early seasons result in fewer tubers and decreased yield, whereas, high temperatures during mid and late seasons promote shoot growth at the expense of root growth, ultimately affecting the final storage root yield (gaja nayake et al. , 2015). moreover, elevated temperatures have been found to impact storage root growth and yield negatively, with potential reductions in sweet potato yield (wijewardana et al., 2018). it original research paper j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 53-59, 2023 https://doi.org/10.24154/jhs.v18i1.2131 transcriptome analysis and identification of leaf, tuberous root and fibrous root tissue-specific high temperature stress-responsive genes in sweet potato senthilkumar k.m.1, saravanan r.1*, ravi v.1 and gutam s.2 1icar-central tuber crops research institute, thiruvananthapuram 695 017, kerala, india 2icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru 560 089, karnataka, india *corresponding author email : saravanan.raju@icar.gov.in abstract sweet potato is an important food crop, and its production is affected by environmental stresses, including high temperature. the gene expression patterns and molecular responses in different tissues of sweet potato under high temperature stress were studied using microarray data sets. analysis revealed that modulation in the expression of key genes and pathways associated with various proteins including enzymes under high temperature stress in leaf, fibrous root and storage root tissues. tissue-specific responses, with both common and unique cellular responses were observed among the tissues. pathway analysis revealed the differential regulation of genes involved in dna replication, metabolism, transport, signaling, and stress response during high temperature stress. six genes viz., dnaj-domain protein (ipdnaj), nuclear protein (ipelf5), heat shock protein 90.1 (iphsp90.1), abc transporter (ipabc) hydrolase (ipnudx1) and alternative oxidase 1a (ipao1a), were up-regulated in the leaf, fibrous root and tuberous root tissues. these six genes might play an important role in imparting high temperature stress tolerance in the leaf, fibrous root and tuberous root tissues of sweet potato. the information generated provides valuable insights on leaf, tuberous root and fibrous root tissue-specific high temperature stress-responsive genes in sweet potato. these datasets will be helpful in selecting candidate genes and pathways for further functional and genomic analyses, facilitating the genetic improvement of sweet potato with enhanced stress tolerance. keywords : fibrous root, high temperature stress, microarray, sweet potato, tuberous root 54 j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 53-59, 2023 senthilkumar et al. has also been observed that high temperatures can depress photosynthetic rates, further affecting yield (ravi et al., 2014). to enhance the resilience of sweet potato crops against heat stress, it is crucial to identify and understand the genes involved explicitly in heat stress responses. by studying these genes, strategies can be developed to improve the crop’s ability to with stand high temperatures and maintain optimal growth and yield. tr anscr iptome ana lysis plays a crucia l role in understanding the dynamic changes in gene expression under abiotic stress conditions (katiyar et al., 2015; sun et al., 2022). comprehensive tissue-specific transcriptome analysis by employing techniques such as microarray, rna sequencing (rna-seq) etc., provides valuable insights into the regulatory programs that govern gene expression during organ development (katiyar et al., 2015; ravi et al., 2020). this approach is particularly relevant in the context of sweet potato, as it allows for the identification and characterization of genes specifically involved in heat str ess r esponses, unveiling tissue-specific gene responses and regulatory networks that contribute to the crop’s adaptation and resilience under hightemperature conditions (sharma et al., 2021). tissuespecific transcriptome analysis has been employed in various plant species to uncover multiple responses to environmental stressors (katiyar et al., 2015; tiwari et al., 2023). transcriptome analysis has provided valuable insights into tissue-specific gene expression profiles and regulatory networks involved in heat stress responses (tao et al., 2012; sun et al., 2022). these studies have revealed specific genes and pathways that are activated or suppressed in response to high temperatures in different plant tissues. hence, in this study transcriptome analysis was performed to identify the high temperature-responsive genes in sweet potato tissues viz., leaf, fibrous root and tuberous root tissues using microarray. analysis revealed that under high temperature stress, certain key genes and pathways a ssocia ted with dna r eplication, meta bolism, transport, signaling, and stress response are modulated in lea f, fibr ous r oot, and stora ge root tissues. interestingly, tissue-specific responses were observed, with both common and unique cellular responses among the different types of tissues. materials and methods plant material and growth conditions the sweet potato var. sree arun was grown in the earthen pots in the natural sunlight conditions with 12 hours sun light per day under 1700 μ mol m2h-1at 30oc ± 2oc during day time and 23oc ± 1oc during night time as described in ravi et al. (2017). high temperature stress was imposed by exposing the plant to 40oc ± 2oc. high quality rna was extracted from the leaf, storage root and fibrous root from 30 days old sweet potato plants (ravi et al., 2017). rna processing and crna synthesis the rna samples of leaf, fibrous root and tuberous root were labeled using agilent quick amp kit as per manufacturers protocol (ravi et al., 2017). 500 ng of rna was reverse transcribed using oligodt primer tagged to t7 promoter sequence for synthesizing cdna. the in vitro transcription step was performed to convert cdna to crna using t7 rna polymerase enzyme and cy3 dye as per manufacturers protocol (ravi et al., 2017). the crna was further cleaned using qiagen rneasy columns (qiagen, cat no: 74106). t he concentra tion and amount of dye incor por a ted wa s measur ed using na no dr op spectrophotometer (thermo scientific, usa). microarray and expression analysis the agilent 60-mer oligo microarray (agilent control grid is62976-8-v2-60k x 8-gx-eqc-201000210) was used for studying the expression pattern of the genes of sweet potato (ravi et al., 2020). for these, 600 ng of labeled crna were hybridized on the array using the gene expression hybridization kit following ma nufa ctur er s instr uction using agilent sur e hybridization chambers at 65º c for 16 hours. hybridized slides were washed using agilent gene expression wash buffers (part no: 5188-5242). g2505c scanner (agilent technologies) was used to scan the slides. sample preparation and microarray expression analysis was performed at the genotypic technology pvt. ltd. , benga lur u, india . t he microarray datasets generated in this study was submitted to ncbi geo: gse51862. the raw data was processed and the expression of the probes was transformed into the log2 ratio. the gene expression with log2 fc >2 was considered as upregulated and gene expression with log2 fc < -2 was considered as downregulated. differentially expressed genes (both upregulated and downregulated) were considered for further analysis. the sequence information of the sweet potato probes were used as a query and a blast search was performed against the arabidopsis and rice genome da ta ba se to identify the r espective 55 transcriptome analysis and temperature-responsive genes in sweet potato orthologous. the gene annotated information and loc details of arabidopsis were used for predicting the gene ontology (tian et al., 2017). results and discussion the present study aimed to investigate the gene expression patterns in different tissues of sweet potato (leaf, fibrous root and tuberous root) in response to high temperature stress. transcriptome analysis using microarray technology revealed the modulation of key genes and pathways associated with various proteins and enzymes in the different tissues of sweet potato under high temperature stress. differential expression analysis differential expression analysis revealed that 967, 1461 and 109 genes were upregulated in the leaf, fibrous root and tuberous root tissues, respectively, whereas, 904, 1264 and 2701 genes were down regulated in the leaf, fibrous root and tuberous root tissues, respectively during high temperature stress (table 1 and supplementary table 1). the details of the p ro b e s / g e n e s , g e n e e x p r e s s io n (f o l d c h a n g e ) , description, etc., are presented in supplementary table 1. the present findings aligned with ravi et al. (2017, 2020), who demonstrated the use of microarray analysis in understanding the molecular responses of tuber development in sweet potato. differential expression analysis identified a substantial number of upregulated and downregulated genes in each tissue, highlighting the tissue-specific response to high temperature stress. furthermore, the study identified common and unique cellular responses among the tissues, as supported by the differential regula tion of pathway genes involved in dna replication, metabolism, transport, signaling, and stress response (tao et al., 2012; sharma et al., 2021; sun et al., 2022). high temperature stress responsive genes in the leaf, fibrous root and tuberous root tissues of sweet potato molecular chaperones viz., heat shock proteins, dnajdomain, etc., protects the native proteins from the stress induced dama ges by r eta ining its native structures (muthusamy et al., 2016). the movement of these proteins across cell organelles was regulated with the help of coordinated function of various transporters such as ran gtpase (choudhury et al., 2021). alternative oxidase (aox) protects the plant mitochondria under high temperature stress (saha et a l. , 2016). in this study, sixty genes wer e differentially regulated in all three tissues viz., leaf, fibrous root and tuberous root tissues under high temperature stress (fig. 1 and supplementary table 2). out of these sixty, six genes, dnaj-domain protein (ipdnaj), nuclear protein (ipelf5), heat shock protein 90.1 (iphsp90.1), alternative oxidase 1a (ipao1a), abc transporter (ipabc) and hydrolase (ipnudx1) were upregulated (table 2), whereas, twenty-six genes were downregulated regulated in the leaf, fibrous root and tuberous root tissues respectively during high temperature stress (fig. 1, supplementary fig. 1 and supplementary table 2). thus, these six genes might play an important functional role in protecting the cellular proteins in leaf, fibrous root and tuberous root tissues under high temperature stress in sweet potato (muthusamy et al., 2017; saha et al., 2016; choudhury et al., 2021). in the present study, 376 were differentially regulated in both leaf and fibrous r oot tissues, whereas, 148 genes wer e differentially regulated in both leaf and tuberous root tissues during high temperature stress (fig. 1 and supplementary table 1). about 250 genes were differentially regulated in both fibrous root and tuberous root tissues under high temperature stress (fig. 1 and supplementary fig. 1). several studies ha ve shown the significa nt modulation in the expression of transcriptome involving important genes/ table 1 : differentially expressed gene (degs) statistics under high temperature stress in sweet potato analysis group total degs upregulated downregulated (log2 fc>2 and log2 fc<-2) (log2 fc>2) (log2 fc<-2) leaf tissue 1871 967 904 fibrous root tissue 2725 1461 1264 tuberous root tissue 2810 109 2701 j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 53-59, 2023 56 table 2 : details of the upregulated genes in leaf, fibrous root and tuberous root tissues of sweet potato under high temperature stress gene description/ sweet potato fold change (log2 fc) arabidopsis ortholog function array probe leaf fibrous tuberous (loc id) id root root ipdnaj dnaj chaperone jp117116 3.16 2.23 2.26 at5g03030.1 ipnudx 1 cytosol-localized jp135891 3.83 3.22 2.80 at1g68760.1 nudix hydrolase ipabcc3 abc transporter jp140208 4.09 2.75 2.31 at3g13080.4 family protein ipelf5 nuclear protein jp144908 2.76 2.62 2.46 at5g62640.2 iphsp90.1 heat shock jp146862 3.73 3.14 2.92 at5g56010.1 protein 90 (hsp90) ipao1a alternative jp145717 5.45 4.26 3.90 at3g22370.1 oxidase 1a fig. 1 : venn diagram showing upregulated and downregulated genes in the leaf, fibrous root and tuberous root tissues of sweet potato under high temperature stress in comparison with control condition pathwa ys during high temper ature stress. the pathways/genes including phytohormones, molecular chaperones, signaling kinesis, ros scavenging enzymes, epigenetic modifications, transcription factors, etc., were differently expressed during high temperature stress (sharma et al., 2021; venkatesh et al., 2022). tissue specific molecula r, biochemica l a nd physiologica l r esponse pla y impor tant r ole in regula ting high tempera tur e response in plants (muthusamy et al., 2017; sharma et al., 2021; xiang and rathinasabapathi, 2022). thus, in this study, under high temperature stress, the pathway genes viz., dna replication, galactose metabolism, biosynthesis of nucleotide sugars, glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism, starch and sucrose metabolism, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, carbon metabolism, plant hormone signal transduction and biosynthesis of secondary metabolites were modulated in the leaf tissue, whereas, biosynthesis of nucleotide sugars, glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism, amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism, mrna surveillance pathway and biosynthesis of secondary metabolites were modulated in the fibrous root tissues (fig. 2). similarly, in the tuberous root tissues, ribosome, aminoacyl-trna biosynthesis, oxidative phosphorylation, protein export, abc transporters, nucleocytoplasmic transport, mrna surveillance pathway, plant hormone signal transduction, protein processing in endoplasmic reticulumplant-pathogen interaction and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway genes were modulated. additionally, previous resea rch has elucidated the molecular responses of sweet potato to other stress conditions such as low temperature stress (wijewardana et al., 2018). these studies collectively contribute to understanding of the complex molecular mechanisms underlying stress responses in sweet potato (wijewardana et al., 2018; ravi et al., 2020; j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 53-59, 2023 senthilkumar et al. 57 a. leaf b. fibrous root c. tuberous root fig. 2 : go categories of degs of sweet potato under high temperature stress. transcriptome analysis and temperature-responsive genes in sweet potato j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 53-59, 2023 58 sun et al., 2022; xiang and rathinasabapathi, 2022). thus, present study demonstrates the presence of both collective and individual cellular responses to high temperature stress in the leaf, fibrous root, and tuberous root tissues of sweet potato. conclusion t he study sheds light on the effects of high temperature stress on the gene expression profiles and molecular responses in the leaf, fibrous root, and storage root tissues of sweet potato. the study identified both common and tissue-specific responses to high temperature stress among these tissues through comparative analysis. the findings provide valuable insights for identifying key genes and pathways involved in the response to high temperature stress, facilitating further functional and genomic studies aimed at enhancing the genetic improvement. by better understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the response to high temperature stress, we can develop targeted strategies to enhance stress tolerance and improve the overall resilience of sweet potato. acknowledgement the authors acknowledge the director, icar-ctcri, thiruvananthapuram for providing the facilities. references choudhury, s., mansi, muthusamy, s.k., padaria, j. c. a nd da la l, m. 2021. genome-wide identification of ran gtpase family genes from wheat (t. aestivum) and their expression profile during developmental stages and abiotic stress conditions. funct. integr. genomics., 21: 239250. gajanayake, b., raja reddy, k., and shankle, m. w. 2015. quantifying growth and developmental responses of sweet potato to mid and late season temperature. agron. j., 107(5): 1854-1862. gurmu, f., hussein, s. and laing, m. 2014. the potential of orange-fleshed sweet potato to prevent vitamin a deficiency in africa. int. j. vitam. nutr. res., 84(1-2): 65-78. ka tiya r, a. , smita , s. , muthusa my, s. 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(received : 26.05.2023; revised : 21.06.2023; accepted 24.06.2023) transcriptome analysis and temperature-responsive genes in sweet potato j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 53-59, 2023 final sph -jhs coverpage 17-1 jan 2022 single 137 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 137-146, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction dr umstick (moringa oleifera la m. ) is a n underexploited perennial tree species that belongs to the family moringaceae. it is native to the subhimalayan tracts of india, bangladesh, afghanistan and pakistan (makkar and becker, 1997). this fastgrowing tree is a lso known a s benzolive tr ee, horseradish tree, marango, mlonge, moonga, kelor, mulangay, saijhan, sajna or ben oil tree. the crop is grown in homesteads for family use or cultivated commercially in the agriculture field for the market. india stands at first position among the drumstick growing countries with an annual production of 2.20 to 2.40 million tonnes of tender fruits from an area of 38,000 ha with productivity of around 63 tonnes per ha. among the different states, andhra pradesh leads in both area and production (15,665 ha) followed by tamil nadu (13,250 ha) and karnataka (10,280 ha) (sekhar et al., 2018). dr ying is one of the tr a ditiona l methods of preservations, which converts the leafy vegetables into a light weight, easily transportable and storable product. drumstick is used as a foodstuff in different dishes in india, but their nutritional value is not considered due to lack of information. most of the research work on the biochemical characteristics of the drumstick tree are mainly focused on the oil from the seeds due to its antioxidant properties but very little is associated to the nutritional value of other edible products of the plant as a traditional important food commodity to improve economic and health condition of the popula tion. considering the food value, utiliza tion of dried mor inga leaves need to be popularized for consumption by rural as well as urban population. in view of the above, the present study was done with the objective to evaluate the effect of dehydration on nutritive value of drumstick leaves dried under different drying methods along with different pretreatments. effect of dehydration methods on quality parameters of drumstick (moringa oleifera lam.) leaf powder ahmed s.* and langthasa s. department of horticulture, b.n. college of agriculture, aau, biswanath chariali, assam, india *corresponding author e-mail : sahinur1994@gmail.com abstract a study was undertaken to assess the suitable drying methods for retention of quality parameters of drumstick (moringa oleifera lam.) leaf powder. the experiment was laid out in factorial crd involving three methods of drying (t1: sun drying, t2: shade drying and t3: cabinet tray dryer) with three pre-treatments (b1: unblanched, b2: blanched with plain water and b3: blanched followed by kms dip) replicated three times. all the pre-treatments had significant effect on biochemical characteristics of drumstick leaves. among the pre-treatments, unblanched leaves (b1) retained higher nutrient contents compared to other pre-treatments. the results of the investigation revealed that among the three different drying methods, shade dried sample was found to retain better nutritional properties. significantly maximum values for moisture (11.18 %), ascorbic acid (156.27 mg/100g), vitamin-a (22.71 mg/100g), iron (16.54 mg/100g), oxalate (378.66 mg/100g), antioxidant activity (77.11%) and phenol (140.04 mg/100g) were recorded in shade dried sample. the interaction effect between pre-treatment and drying methods showed variation in results. however, the treatment combination t1b1 (unblanched sun dried) was found to retain high protein (26.43 g/100g), magnesium (318.70 mg/100g) and potassium (1378.79 mg/100g) whereas t2b1 (unblanched shade dried) showed higher ascorbic acid (179.47 mg/100g), saponin (3.66 %), oxalate (541.47 mg/100g) and antioxidant (80.33 %) than rest of the treatment combinations. keywords: cabinet tray, nutritional properties, pre-treatments, shade drying and sun drying 138 ahmed and langthasa j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 137-146, 2022 materials and methods preparation of sample fresh drumstick leaves were collected from the ca mpus of bishwanath college of agr icultur e, biswanath chariali. the twigs containing half matured drumstick leaves were taken to the laboratory. the leaves were separated from twigs, washed thoroughly in clean running water, drained and were spread on clean stainless-steel tray to remove surface moisture. after removal of surface moisture, equal quantity of leaves were weighed to impose different pretreatments such as blanched for 2 min, blanching + kms(0.5%) and control. pretreated drumstick leaves were dried by different drying methods, by spreading drumstick leaves on stainless steel trays under the sun, shade and cabinet tray drier (60°c) until they were crisp. biochemical nalysis biochemical analysis of the drumstick leaf powder was carried out immediately after drying following the standard estimation methods. moisture content moisture content was determined according to aoac (1980) method. the moisture content of the fresh and dried samples was measured by using the hot air oven method. at first, the weight of the crucible was measured using a digital balance. then the sample along with crucible was measured and kept in a hot air oven at 105°c for 24 hours. the crucible was then taken out from the oven and cooled in a desiccator. after attaining the room temperature, the weight of the crucible along with the sample was measured. the moisture content was computed using the following formula: where, a = sample weight before oven drying, b = final weight of the sample. protein estimation of protein was done by lowry’s method (lowry et al.,1951). for the estimation of protein, 500 mg of the sample was weighed and ground well with a pestle and mortar in 5-10 ml of the buffer. the above sample was centrifuged and the supernatant was used for estimation of protein. the working standard solutions of 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1 ml were taken in a series of test tubes. again, the sample extracts of 0.1 and 0.2 ml were taken in another 2 test tubes and the volume was made up to 1 ml in all the test tubes. a tube with 1 ml of water served as blank. five ml of alkaline copper solution as reagent was added to each test tube including blank and allowed to stand for 10 minutes. then, 0.5 ml of folin-ciocalteu reagent was added to test tubes and allowed to stand for 30 min at room temperature. the reading was taken in a spectrophotometer at 750 nm wavelength. ascorbic acid ascorbic acid content was determined by the visual titration method using 2,6 dichlorophenol indophenol dye (freed, 1966). ten grams of sample was taken in 100 ml volumetric flask and volume was made up with 4 per cent oxalic acid and filtered. ten ml of filtrate was taken and titrated against the standard dye. ascorbic acid content was calculated by the following formula: *dye factor = 0.5/titre value vitamin a vitamin a was determined in terms of beta carotene. five ml of leaf extract was taken in a separating funnel and 10 ml of acetone and petroleum ether were added and mixed thoroughly. lower layer was discarded and upper layer was collected and made up the volume to 100 ml with petroleum ether. the reading was taken at 452 nm. using petroleum ether as blank. the amount of vitamin a was calculated by the following for mula a nd expr essed in μg/100g (srivastava and kumar, 2007). mineral compositions of leaves calcium (ca) and magnesium (mg) for the estimation of ca and mg, about 1 g of sample was digested by wet ashing method (saini et al., 2012). then 5 ml aliquot was taken in a china clay dish and ph of the aliquot was adjusted to 10 by adding 15 ml nh4cl + nh3oh buffer solution. ten drops of erichrome black-t indicator was added and 139 effect of dehydration methods on quality of moringa leaf powder added and the absorbance of each was measured at 480 nm.the amount of iron present was calculated by the following formula given by saini et al (2012). anti-nutrient analysis of leaves saponin the saponin content of the samples was determined by the double extraction gravimetric method described by harborne (1973). a measured amount (5g) of powdered sample was mixed with 50 ml of 20 per cent aqueous ethanol solution in a flask. the mixture was heated with periodic agitation in water bath for 90 minutes at 55ºc; it was then filtered through whatman filter paper (no. 42). the residue was extracted with 50 ml of 20 per cent ethanol and both extracts were poured together and the combined extract was reduced to about 40 ml at 90ºc and transferred to a separating funnel. about 40 ml of diethyl ether was added to a separating funnel and shaken vigorously. re-extraction by partitioning was done repeatedly until the aqueous layer becomes clear in colour. the saponins were extracted with 60 ml of butanol. the combined extracts were washed with 5 per cent aqueous sodium chloride solution and evaporated to dryness in a preweighed evaporation dish. it was dried at 60ºc in the oven and reweighed after cooling in a desiccator. saponin content was determined by difference and calculated as below: where, w1 = weight of evaporating dish w2 = weight of evaporating dish + sample oxalate oxalate was determined by aoac (2005) method. one gram of the sample was weighed into a 100 ml conical ûask. then, 75 ml of 3m h2so4 was added and the solution was carefully stirred intermittently with a magnetic stirrer for about 1 h and then ûltered using whatman no.1 ûlter paper. the sample ûltrate (extract, 25 ml) was collected and titrated against hot (80-90°c) 0.1 n kmno4 solution to the point when a faint pink colour appeared that persisted for at least 30s. the concentration of oxalate in each sample was titrated with 0.01 n edta solution till the colour changes from red to bright blue. a blank was carried out in the same manner. five ml of naoh solution and 50 mg of murexide indicator were added to 5 ml of aliquot and titrated with 0.01n edta solution till the colour changed from pink to purple. similarly, a blank was also prepared. both the minerals were calculated by the following formula and expressed as follows, for ca + mg, meq. of (ca+mg)/100 g of plant material = (0.01 x v3) x (v/v1) x (100/1) meq. of ca/100g of plant material = (0.01 x v2) x (v/v1) x (100/1) where, v = volume of the plant digest made v1 = volume of the aliquot taken for analysis v2 = volume of edta solution in titration (titre value) v3 =volume of edta solution in titration (titre value) potassium ten ml of aliquot was taken from the pre-digested sample and 25 ml of neutral nh4oac solution was added. the content was then shaken on an electric shaker for 5 minutes and filtered. the filtrate was then fed to the atomizer of the flame photometer. the flame photometer r eading was set zero for the bla nk (nh4oac solution) and at 100 for 40 ppm k solution. a standard curve was prepared by making different concentr a tions of k fr om 5 – 40 ppm. t he concentration of k in the sample was calculated using the standard curve (ward and johnson,1962). iron three test tubes were taken viz. one for blank to which 5 ml water, 0.5ml concentrated sulphuric acid, 2 ml pota ssium per sulpha te a nd 4 ml of potassium thiocyanate were added. in the second test tube for standard, 1 ml standard solution, 4 ml water, 0.5 ml concentr a ted sulphur ic a cid, 2 ml pota ssium persulphate and 4 ml potassium thiocyanate were added and to the third test tube, 5 ml of sample, 0.5 ml concentrated sulphuric acid, 2 ml potassium persulphate and 4 ml potassium thiocyanate were j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 137-146, 2022 140 obtained from the calculation: 1 ml of 0.1n kmno4 = 0.006303 g oxalate. antioxidant and phenolic compounds antioxidant activity dpph radical scavenging activity of extracts of m. oleifera was measured by the modified method of brand-williams et al. (1995). dpph in ethanol is a stable radical, dark violet in colour. its colour is bleached by its reaction with a hydrogen donor. for analyses, 0.1 ml of each extract was added to 2 ml of 100 μm dpph solution in ethanol. the control was made of 0.1 ml ethanol in 2 ml dpph. the reaction mixture was incubated for 30 min in the dark at 25°c and the absorbance was read at 517 nm, against a r eagent bla nk. t he per centa ge of fr ee r a dica l scavenging activity was calculated according to equation. where abs. is the absorbance at 517 nm. phenolic compounds phenolic compounds were determined by using the method given by malik and singh (1980). sample of 1.0 g was taken and ground it with a pestle and mortar in 10 times volume of 80 per cent ethanol. the homogenate was then centrifuged at 10,000 rpm for 20 minutes and the supernatant was collected. the residue was re-extracted and the collected supernatants were pooled. supernatants were evaporated to dryness and the residue was dissolved in distilled water (5 ml). different aliquots of 0.2 to 2 ml were taken in a series of test tubes and volume was made up to 3 ml with water in each tube. folin-ciocalteu reagent of 0.5 ml was added and after 3 minutes, 2 ml of 20 per cent sodium carbonate solution was added in each tube. the tubes were placed in boiling water for exactly 1 minute, cooled and the absorbance was measured at 650 nm against a reagent blank. the standard curve was prepared using different concentrations of catechol. results and discussion moisture content the initial moisture content of fresh drumstick leaves was 74.50 per cent which decreased significantly from 74.50 to 7.84 per cent irrespective of the drying method. blanching significantly reduced the level of moisture as compared to unblanched sample (9.04 to 10.67%). this might be due to loss of cell wall integrity in blanched sample where bound water loss was at faster rate compared to unblanched sample as reported by waldr on et al. (2003). t he lowest moisture level was found in the treatment combination t3b3 (7.60%) (table1). protein content the protein content of drumstick leaves increased on drying from 6.09 g per 100g to maximum level in sun dried sample (25.12 g/100g) and minimum amount in shade dried sample (24.27 g/100g). removal of moisture leads to an increase in the concentration of nutrients. in the present study, the increase in protein content of dried drumstick leaves compared to fresh leaves as a result of moistur e loss might ha ve influenced dry matter content (oulai et al., 2016). the result was in agreement with the work of osum et al. (2013) who reported that the drying process increased the pr otein content due to moistur e loss. t he unbla nched lea f sample retained higher pr otein (25.67g/100g) than that of the blanched sample. the reduced protein content in blanched sample might be due to leaching loss. the treatment combination of t1b1 (unblanched sun-dried leaves) showed highest protein (26.43g/100g) from rest of the combinations (table 1). vitamins ascorbic acid content ascorbic acid being highly water soluble and heat labile vitamin, was found to decrease significantly on dehydration. however, shade dried sample retained maximum ascorbic acid (156.27 mg/100g). the unblanched sample showed higher ascorbic acid as compared to blanched sample. the reduced level of ascorbic acid might be due to oxidation of ascorbic acid. these results were well supported by gupta et al. (2008) in green leafy vegetables. among the treatment combinations, unblanched shade dried leaves (t2b1) recorded highest amount (179.47 mg/100g) of ascorbic acid (table 2). vitamin-a content vitamin-a is a fat soluble and heat stable vitamin but sensitive to light. the β-carotene content increased on drying from 6.76 mg /100g (fresh leaves) to 19.81 mg /100g in cabinet tray drying, 19.85 mg/100g in sun drying and 22.71 mg /100g in shade drying. the variation in β-carotene content due to different drying ahmed and langthasa j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 137-146, 2022 141 processes could be attributed to the length of exposure to light, oxygen and heat and also, it has been described as being labile to different drying techniques (convection, sun, vacuum or freeze drying) as reported by soria et al. (2009). thus, more loss in vitamin a was observed in sun drying than other drying methods. the drumstick leaves retained highest vitamin a content in shade dried leaves and lowest in cabinet drying. similar results were also reported by joshi and mehta (2010) that shade drying retained highest vitamin a content followed by oven drying at 60°c. blanching resulted in significant loss of β carotene content of drumstick leaves. the β carotene content of blanched leaves (21.88 mg/100g) was higher than those of their corresponding unblanched leaves (19.51 mg/100g). the carotene content on the plant is bounded with protein, the heat treatment such as steaming, cooking and blanching can release the carotene that bounded (howard et al., 1999). the treatment combination t2b2 (blanched and shade dried leaves) showed highest (23.63 mg/100g) vitamin-a content from rest of the combinations (table 2). minerals content calcium the calcium content of fresh drumstick leaves was 438 mg /100g and it was much lower than the dried lea ves . amo ng t he dr ying met hod s , highes t (2078.73 mg/100g) calcium content was noticed in ca binet tr a y dr ied lea ves t ha n the other t wo met hods . lima n et a l. ( 20 14 ) a ls o obs er ved enhanced mineral nutrients in moringa oleifera leaves dried under moisture analyzer drying method as compared to sun and oven drying. the general increase in mineral content with increase in drying temperature is attributable to concentration factor due to moisture removal, which resulted in higher table 2. effect of pre-treatment and drying methods on ascorbic acid and vitamin-acontent of drumstick leaves ascorbic acid (mg/100g) vitamin a (mg/100g) fresh leaves: 206.67 mg/100g 6.79 mg/100g drying methods pre-treatments mean pre-treatments mean b1 b2 b3 b1 b2 b3 sun dried (t1) 154.53 132.93 131.47 139.64 18.73 21.19 19.62 19.85 shade dried (t2) 179.47 145.60 143.73 156.27 22.02 23.63 22.50 22.71 cabinet tray (t3) 134.67 122.67 123.20 126.84 17.78 20.83 20.81 19.81 mean 156.22 133.73 132.80 19.51 21.88 20.98 cd (p= 0.05) t: 2.24, b: 2.24, txb: 3.87 t: 0.49, b: 0.49, txb: 0.85 b1: unblanched b2: blanched b3: blanched + kms table 1. effect of pre-treatment and drying methods on moisture and protein content of drumstick leaves moisture (%) protein (g/100g) fresh leaves: 74.50 % 6.09 g/100g drying methods pre-treatments mean pre-treatments mean b1 b2 b3 b1 b2 b3 sun dried (t1) 10.00 9.73 9.73 9.82 26.43 25.07 23.86 25.12 shade dried (t2) 13.80 9.93 9.80 11.18 24.97 24.25 23.61 24.27 cabinet tray (t3) 8.20 7.73 7.60 7.84 25.61 24.56 24.45 24.87 mean 10.67 9.13 9.04 25.67 24.62 23.97 cd (p= 0.05) t: 0.31, b: 0.31, t x b: 0.53 t: 0.19, b: 0.19, tx b: 0.32 b1: unblanched b2: blanched b3: blanched + kms effect of dehydration methods on quality of moringa leaf powder j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 137-146, 2022 142 level of total soluble solid (alakali et al., 2014). the result revealed that drumstick leaves blanched a long with kms dip ha d the highest ca lcium cont ent (20 62. 91 mg/100g) followed by only bla nched (2051.56 mg/100g) while unblanched leaves showed the lowest calcium concentration (2031.79 mg/100g) (table 3). magnesium magnesium occurs abundantly in chloroplast as a constituent of chlorophyll molecule. the fresh drumstick leaves contain 48.36 mg /100g, which increased significantly upon drying to 289.32 mg 100g in cabinet drying, 294.78 mg /100g in shade drying and 315.41 mg per 100g in sun drying. buchaillot et al.(2009) reported that magnesium c ou ld t r a n s f or m int o p yr op heo p hyt in a nd pheophytin because of high temperature. hence, magnesium might have bound in which it inhibited the mineral from leaching when structure of the leaf breaks. the amount of magnesium in drumstick leaves without blanching was found to be much higher (304 mg/100g) than the blanched leaves (table 3). potassium t he r es ult r evea led t ha t out of thr ee dr ying methods, sun dried drumstick leaves had the highest potassium content (1210.06 mg/100g) followed by s ha de dr ying a nd t he lowest p ot a s s iu m wa s observed in cabinet tray dried leaves (1099.87 mg/ 1 00 g) . pr ob a b ly t he r ea son might be due t o potassium being cationic in nature that do not polarize on heating but forms oxides when exposed to light and air. blanching significantly reduced the level of potassium content in leaves. the blanched leaves showed lowest value for potassium while highest potassium content (1242.43 mg/100g) was not ic ed in u nb la nc hed lea ves . t he r edu c ed potassium content of blanched green leafy vegetable indicated the solubility and the leaching of the minerals into the water because of their highly reactive nature of the metal that readily reacts with water (michael, 2006) (table 4). iron the iron concentration of dried drumstick leaves was higher as compared to fresh leaves. present study revealed that there was an increment of iron content dur ing drying of lea ves irrespective of drying procedure. the shade dried leaves showed 16.54 mg / 100g of iron content while cabinet tray dried and sun dried sample exhibited 13.62 and 13.52 mg/100g respectively. however, shade dried leaves significantly retained higher iron content in comparison to sun drying and cabinet tray drying. this might be due to the fact that concentration of solid increases with the removal of moisture from the leaves. a similar trend of iron content in shade dried moringa leaves was reported by emelike and ebere (2016). blanching increased the availability of iron content in leaves. the result revealed that drumstick lea ves blanched and dipped in kms solution r etained highest (16.09 mg/100g) iron content while unblanched leaves recorded the lowest amount (13.04 mg/100g) (table 4). table 3. effect of pre-treatment and drying methods on calcium and magnesium content of drumstick leaves calcium (mg/100g) magnesium (mg/100g) fresh leaves: 438 mg/100g 48.36 mg/100g drying methods pre-treatments mean pre-treatments mean b1 b2 b3 b1 b2 b3 sun dried (t1) 2044.00 2064.67 2082.07 2063.07 318.70 314.43 313.11 315.41 shade dried (t2) 1984.03 2004.57 2023.23 2003.94 298.72 294.16 291.57 294.78 cabinet tray (t3) 2067.33 2085.43 2083.43 2078.73 294.70 277.60 295.67 289.32 mean 2031.79 2051.56 2062.91 304.00 295.40 300.11 cd (p= 0.05) t: 1.87, b: 1.87, tx b: 3.25 t: 1.68, b: 1.68, tx b: 2.92 b1: unblanched b2: blanched b3: blanched + kms ahmed and langthasa j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 137-146, 2022 143 antinutritional factors saponin saponin, a naturally occurring glycoside that is widely distributed in the plants. it acts as antinutrient and also as antioxidant in human. fresh drumstick leaves contain 5.71 % of saponin, which gets reduced to 0.76 -1.76 % upon dehydration by different methods. all three drying method could reduce saponin content drastically. reduction in saponin content may be attributed to heat induced degeneration involved in drying processs (ademiluyi et al., 2018). saponin content was also influenced by pretreatments. the decrease in the saponin content upon blanching of drumstick leaves was 89.49% in only blanched and 87.74 % in blanched and dip in kms solution. wher ea s unbla nched lea ves showed 62. 87 % r eduction. t he tr ea tment combina tion t 2b 1 (unblanched shade dried leaves) recorded highest (3.66 %) amount of saponin and lowest (0.50 %) in blanched sun-dried leaves (t1b2) (table 5). oxalate the antinutritional constituent oxalate can reduce the bioavailability of some minerals, especially calcium. oxalate occurs naturally in plants. it occurs as soluble salts of potassium and sodium and as insoluble salts of calcium, magnesium and iron. the total oxalate content of drumstick leaves was found to increase on drying. the oxalate present in fresh leaves was 121.56 mg/100g and in dried sample it ranged from 299.84 to 378.66 mg /100g. the result of the present study was in accordance with aditi et al. (2017) who reported increase in oxalate content of moringa leaves. it has been observed that after drying, the oxalate content increased, which may be due to considerable table 4. effect of pre-treatment and drying methods on magnesium and iron content of drumstick leaves potassium (mg/100g) iron (mg/100g) fresh leaves: 254.71 mg/100g 1.07 mg/100g drying methods pre-treatments mean pre-treatments mean b1 b2 b3 b1 b2 b3 sun dried (t1) 1378.79 1124.69 1126.71 1210.06 12.80 13.38 14.37 12.80 shade dried (t2) 1219.79 1121.18 1194.64 1178.54 13.38 16.67 19.61 13.38 cabinet tray (t3) 1128.72 1099.03 1071.86 1099.87 12.96 13.61 14.29 12.96 mean 1242.43 1114.97 1131.07 13.04 14.56 16.09 cd (p= 0.05) t: 0.39, b: 0.39, tx b: 0.68 t: 0.96, b: 0.96, tx b: 1.67 b1: unblanched b2: blanched b3: blanched + kms table 5. effect of pre-treatment and drying methods on saponin and oxalate content of drumstick leaves saponin (%) oxalate (mg/100g) fresh leaves: 5.71% 121.56 mg/100g drying methods pre-treatments mean pre-treatments mean b1 b2 b3 b1 b2 b3 sun dried (t1) 1.54 0.50 0.62 0.89 380.14 265.21 254.16 299.84 shade dried (t2) 3.66 0.74 0.88 1.76 541.47 298.36 296.15 378.66 cabinet tray (t3) 1.15 0.55 0.59 0.76 413.29 265.21 269.63 316.04 mean 2.12 0.60 0.70 444.97 276.26 273.32 cd (p= 0.05) t: 0.10, b: 0.10, tx b: 0.18 t: 3.12, b: 3.12, tx b: 5.40 b1: unblanched b2: blanched b3: blanched + kms effect of dehydration methods on quality of moringa leaf powder j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 137-146, 2022 144 loss of moisture content, hence other compounds such as oxalate content of dehydrated sample became concentrated and their value was much greater than those of fresh sample (paul et al., 2012). blanching reduced the oxalate content because the concentration of antinutrients was highest on the superficial layer of vegetable and blanching ruptures this layer (albinhna and savage, 2001). in the present findings, oxalate content was at its minimum level in blanched sample (273.32276.26 mg/100g) compared to unblanched sample (444.97 mg/100g). among the treatment combinations, lowest oxalate was found in t1b3 (254.16 mg/100g) (table 5). antioxidant and phenolic compounds antioxidant activity the drumstick leaves were endowed with the added benefits of antioxidants such as vitamin a, c and phenolic compounds. t he result of the present findings showed that antioxidant activities of the drumstick leaves were reduced due to dehydration and blanching. antioxidant activities (dpph) of the leaves ranged from 63.76 to 77.47 % among the drying methods. the leaves dried under shade had the highest radical scavenging power (77.47%) than the other drying methods. cabinet tray dried sample showed lowest activity. the drying process lead to deterioration of antioxidants in leaves. it appears that mainly vitamin c involved in free ra dical scavenging a ctivity while ca rotenoid a nd total phenol are mostly implicated but to a lesser extent in the ion reducing power. during drying, exposure to heat, light and oxygen accelerate the rate of oxidation of vitamin a and c present in vegetables (oulai et al., 2015) blanching had significant influence on antioxidant properties. the scavenging power of drumstick leaves reduced on bla nching while unblanched leaves recorded highest activity. this may be due to leaching out and thermal degradation of heat sensitive compounds, vitamin c and a. bamidele et al. (2017) also observed similar trend in bitter lea ves ( ve r n o n i a a m y g d a l i n a ) a nd f ou nd a significant decrease in reducing power and the dpph scavenging activity of blanched sample. the highest activity was observed in t2b1.(unblanched shade dried) (80.33 %) (table 6). phenolic compounds phenolics are one of the most effective antioxidant constituents of drumstick leaves. the total phenol content of drumstick leaves varies with the drying procedure and pre-treatments. phenol content was found to decrease from 163.42 mg /100g (fresh leaves) to 140.04 mg /100g in shade dried, 136.05 mg / 100g in sun dried and 130.81 mg /100g in cabinet tr ay dr ied lea ves. the decrease in the phenolic contents of the moringa leaves exposed to dr ying processes such as sun a nd cabinet tr ay drying could be due to heat-induced degradation of phenolic compounds (oboh et al., 2010). the maximum (137.32 mg/100g) total phenol content wa s obs er ved in u nb la nched sa mp le a nd the minimum (134.20 mg/100g) was in only blanched sample. table 6. effect of pre-treatment and drying methods on antioxidant activity and phenol content of drumstick leaves antioxidant activity (%) total phenol (mg/100g) fresh leaves: 85.25 % 163.42 mg/100g drying methods pre-treatments mean pre-treatments mean b1 b2 b3 b1 b2 b3 sun dried (t1) 73.80 69.48 71.54 71.61 137.67 134.62 135.86 136.05 shade dried (t2) 80.33 73.52 77.47 77.11 141.89 138.18 140.05 140.04 cabinet tray (t3) 66.07 61.86 63.35 63.76 132.40 129.79 130.23 130.81 mean 73.40 68.29 70.79 137.32 134.20 135.38 cd (p= 0.05) t: 0.24, b: 0.24, tx b: 0.41t: 0.46, b: 0.46, tx b: ns b1: unblanched b2: blanched b3: blanched + kms ns: non-significant ahmed and langthasa j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 137-146, 2022 145 conclusion the result obtained from the present study indicated that out of three drying methods, shade drying was found to have better retention of nutrients. the pretreatments had significant effect on physiochemical characteristics of drumstick leaves. the nutrients s u c h a s vit a min a, c , ir on, a nt i nu t r ient s , a nt iox ida nt a nd p henol r et ent ion a b ilit y of drumstick leaves was better in shade dried samples while protein, calcium, magnesium and potassium r etention was more in sun dr ied samples. the combination of unblanched leaves dried under shade was found superior in terms of retention of nutrients from rest of the treatment combination. considering the above fact, both shade and sun drying may be considered best for preserving nutrient and also from the point of view of cost involvement. references ademiluyi, a. o., aladeselu, o. h., oboh, g. and boligon, a. a. 2 018 . d r ying a lter s t he phenolic constituents, antioxidant properties, α amylase and α glucosidase properties of moringa (moringa oleifera) leaf. food sci. nutr., 6:2123-2133. adit i, p. , p a ul, v. , pa ul, a. , sheikh, s. a nd chattree, a. 2017. nutritional antinutritional a nd a nt iox ida nt a c t 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(received: 25.12.2021; revised: 12.03.2022; accepted: 14.03.2022) 00 a final sph -jhs coverpage first 2 pages.pdf 00 content and in this issue.pdf 01 mohan kumar g n.pdf 02 meera pandey.pdf 03 biradar c.pdf 04 varalakshmi b.pdf 05 vijayakumari n.pdf 06 barik s.pdf 07 sajid m b.pdf 08 ranga d.pdf 09 usha s.pdf 10 manisha.pdf 11 amulya r n.pdf 12 akshatha h j.pdf 13 adak t.pdf 14 sujatha s.pdf 15 gowda p p.pdf 16 subba s.pdf 17 dhayalan v.pdf 19 ahmed s.pdf 20 vishwakarma p k.pdf 21 deep lata.pdf 22 udaykumar k p.pdf 23 nayaka v s k.pdf 24 sahel n a.pdf 25 bayogan e r v.pdf 26 rathinakumari a c.pdf 27 yella swami c.pdf 28 saidulu y.pdf 29 sindhu s.pdf 30 neeraj.pdf 31 sivaranjani r.pdf 32 rashied tetteh.pdf 34 sangeetha g.pdf 35 shareefa m.pdf 36 last pages.pdf j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 272-277, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction tamarind (tamarindus indica l.) is a multipurpose tree belonging to the family leguminosae (fabaceae). it is a tropical fruit tree used primarily for its fruits, either eaten fresh or pr ocessed. in india, it is commonly grown in karnataka, madhya pradesh, bihar, chattisgarh, andhra pradesh and tamil nadu. it is a robust tree which grows well even under different climatic conditions viz., tropical, subtropical and arid. in olden days it was grown from self sown seeds or by sowing seeds of unknown parentage. hence, they exhibit a wide range of variation for morphological and yield traits. this variation may be due to effect of genetic or environmental or both. therefore, it may be worthwhile focusing only on the very best trees in relation to neighboring ones and trees may be selected within the ecological zones. before formulating any selection programme, it is necessary to understand the extent of variation among the genotypes and apply them for an increase in the pod and pulp production (nicodemus et al., 1997). many tamarind trees have been identified which were of seedling origin and they were multiplied vegetatively and maintained in the gene bank. different genotypes which are propagated by vegetative means are being cultivated in different parts of the country. they have to be evaluated for morphological and yield attributing traits. further, the elite lines may be useful in selection programme for the development of new cultivars. materials and methods this study was carried out during 2017-18 at forest resea r ch sta tion, govinkovi, honna li ta luk, davangere district which is situated in the southern characterization and evaluation of morphological and yield traits of tamarind genotypes pooja g.k.1, nagarajappa adivappar3*, shivakumar b.s.1, lakshmana d.2 and sharanabasappa 3 1department of fruit science, 2department of crop improvement and biotechnology, college of horticulture, mudigere 577 132, karnataka, india 3keladi shivappa nayak university of agricultural and horticultural sciences, shivamogga 577 204, karnataka, india *corresponding author email : nagarajappaadivappar@gmail.com abstract the evaluation of morphological and yield traits of tamarind genotypes was carried out during 2017-18 at forest research station, govinkovi, honnali taluk, davangere district. the experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with 16 genotypes and three replications. trees were 14-years-old and of grafted origin. all the morphological and yield traits showed significant difference among the selected genotypes indicating the presence of adequate variations. the genotypes recorded morphological variation in terms of tree shape (semi-circle to irregular shape), foliage arrangement (dense to sparse), flowering time (early, mid and late), stem colour (dark brown, brown and light brown), bud colour (greenish white, pink, dark pink), petal colour (yellow and pale yellow), pod colour (greyish brown, brown, light brown and dark brown), pulp colour (light brown, brown and reddish brown), pod shape (straight, slightly curved, curved and deeply curved) and pod size (very big, big, medium and small). the analysis of variance revealed significant difference with respect to tree height, stem girth, pod traits, pod yield per tree (k-9 : 12.80 kg), number of pods per tree (nti-52 : 989.07) and pulp per cent (k-9 : 48.87). among the 16 genotypes, the genotype k-9 was found superior with respect to pod size, pod weight, pulp weight and pod yield per tree. genotype k-9 was found promising and due to perennial in nature further evaluation is required for stability. keywords: pod traits, tamarind and vegetative traits. 273 characterization and evaluation of tamarind genotypes j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 272-277, 2022 transitional zone of karnataka at a latitude of 14.165367 a nd longitude of 75.6680832. t he experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications and 16 genotypes viz., k-9, nti-52, k-11, s-7, s-8, s-14, s-3, n-6, d-2, c-4, d-9, nti-89, d-19, s-6, k-10 and k-12. the morphological traits recorded were tree height, stem girth, tree shape, foliage arrangement, flowering time, stem colour, bud colour, petal colour, pod colour, pulp colour, pod shape, pod size and shell detachability along with that yield traits were also recorded. the height of the tree was measured from base to tip of the tree by using a pole and measuring tape, it was expressed in terms of meters. the girth of the tree trunk was measured by using a measuring tape and the reading was expressed in terms of meters. tree shape, foliage arrangement, stem colour, bud colour, petal colour and pod shape were characterized based on visual observations. tree shape was categorized as dome, cone, oval, round, semi-circle and irregular shapes. foliage arrangement was categorized as dense and sparse arrangement. based on the time of flower initiation, flowering time was categorized as early, mid and late flowering. stem colour was categorized as light brown, brown and dark brown. bud colour was categorized as greenish white, pink and dark pink. petal colour was categorized as pale yellow and yellow. pod and pulp colour was classified by using colour chart of royal horticultural society (r.h.s), london. pod shape was categorized as deeply curved, curved, slightly curved and straight. based on the length, width and curvature of the pod, pod size was classified as very big, big, medium and small. based on the ease of separation of shell from the pod, shell detachability was classified as easy, slightly hard and hard. yield traits such as pod yield per tree was recorded at different intervals of harvest and expressed in kilograms. the number of pods per tree was recorded from each harvest and total yield was computed. pulp per cent was calculated by dividing weight of pulp by weight of pod and multiplied by 100. shell per cent was calculated by dividing weight of shell by weight of pod and multiplied by 100. fibre per cent was calculated by dividing the weight of fibre over weight of pod and multiplied by 100. the number of fibres per pod was counted after separating fibres from the pulp and was expressed in numbers. the beak length of each pod was measured with the help of a thread and expressed in terms of centimetres. the experimental data recorded on various traits during the investigation were analyzed statistically using the method of ana lysis of var ia nce (anova) for randomized complete block design (rcbd) as given by gomez and gomez (1984). whenever ‘f’ test was found significant for comparing the means of two treatments, the critical difference (c.d. at 5%) was worked out. results and discussion in the present study the morphological traits showed significant variation (table 1) among the selected genotypes indicating the pr esence of adequate variations. two different shapes of tree were observed viz., semicircle (k-9, s-7, n-6, d-2, d-19, k-10 and k-12) and irregular (nti-52, k-11, s-8, s-14, s-3, c-4, d-9, nti-89 and s-6). the foliage arrangements observed were dense (k-9, nti-52, s-14, n-6, d-2, c-4, d-9, nti-89, d-19, s-6, k-10 and k-12) to sparse(k-11, s-7, s-8 and s-3). early (k-9, nti-52, k-11, n-6, nti-89, k-10 and k-12), mid (s-7, s-8, s-14, s-3, c-4 and s-6) and late flowering (d-2, d9 and d-19) was recorded among the genotypes and pod beak was present in all the 16 genotypes. the variations with respect to the above characters are due to the effect of genotypic character and environmental conditions. variation in tamarind genotypes were also earlier reported by algabal et al. (2012) and bhogave et al. (2018). the colour traits among the genotypes showed wide va riations (table 2), in which the stem colour ranged from dark brown, brown and light brown. bud colour ranged from greenish white, pink and dark pink. the different petal colours recorded were yellow and pale yellow. variation with respect to petal and bud colour is due to genotypic effect. these wide range of colouration in reproductive organs that can serve as an immense breeding value and can be used not only as a morphological marker in progeny testing programme but can also enhance the fruit set by enhancing the pollinators. while, the different pod colour recor ded were greyish brown, light brown, brown and dark brown. the colour of the pulp varied from light brown, brown to reddish brown. the variation with respect to the colour tr a its is due to the distinct fea tur e of different tamarind genotypes and supported by bhogave et al. (2018). 274 pooja et al table 2 : variation in colour of the selected tamarind genotypes table 1 : variation in morphological traits and flowering time of tamarind genotypes trait category genotypes tree shape semi circle k-9, s-7, n-6, d-2, d-19, k-10 and k-12 irregular nti-52, k-11, s-8, s-14, s-3, c-4, d-9, nti-89 and s-6 foliage dense k-9, nti-52, s-14, n-6, d-2, c-4, d-9, nti-89, d-19, s-6, k-10 and k-12 arrangement sparse k-11, s-7, s-8 and s-3 flowering early k-9, nti-52, k-11, n-6, nti-89, k-10 and k-12 time mid s-7, s-8, s-14, s-3, c-4 and s-6 late d-2, d-9 and d-19 genotype stem colour bud colour petal colour pod colour pulp colour k-9 dark brown dark pink yellow brown reddish brown nti-52 brown dark pink pale yellow brown brown k-11 brown dark pink yellow grayish brown brown s-7 light brown pink pale yellow grayish brown light brown s-8 light brown pink yellow brown reddish brown s-14 brown dark pink pale yellow dark brown reddish brown s-3 brown dark pink yellow light brown brown n-6 brown dark pink yellow light brown light brown d-2 brown pink pale yellow brown brown c-4 brown greenish white pale yellow brown brown d-9 light brown pink pale yellow brown brown nti-89 brown greenish white pale yellow brown reddish brown d-19 brown dark pink pale yellow grayish brown reddish brown s-6 brown greenish white pale yellow dark brown reddish brown k-10 light brown pink pale yellow grayish brown brown k-12 light brown pink pale yellow grayish brown brown with respect to the shape of the pod viz., straight, slightly curved, curved and deeply curved were recorded. based on the length, breadth and curvature of the pod, pod size is classified as very big, big, medium and small sized pods. the variation with respect to the above traits (table 3) is due to the effect of genotypic difference among the genotypes. based on the ease of separation of shell from the pod, shell detachability was classified as easy, hard and very ha r d. t his va r ia tion (ta ble 3) is due to the compactness or attachment of seeds to the pulp or shell to the pulp. apart from this, it also depends on shell thickness. the results are also supported by sharma et al. (2015). among 16 genotypes studied, the longest tree height was recorded in k-9 (5.08 m) while, the shortest was recorded in k-10 (3.00 m) and the maximum stem girth was recorded in k-9 (1.01 m) whereas, the minimum was recorded in s-7 (0.48 m). the variation with respect to tree height and stem girth (table 4) is due to the effect of genotypic difference among the genotypes and also due to the differential utilization of resources from the soil. such factors are known to cause mor phological a nd genetic evolutionar y j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 272-277, 2022 275 table 3 : variation in pod shape, pod size and shell detachability of tamarind genotypes. genotype pod shape pod size shell detachability k-9 deeply curved very big very hard nti-52 slightly curved medium easy k-11 slightly curved small hard s-7 deeply curved big hard s-8 slightly curved medium easy s-14 slightly curved medium easy s-3 slightly curved medium easy n-6 curved big easy d-2 slightly curved medium easy c-4 slightly curved medium easy d-9 curved medium hard nti-89 slightly curved big easy d-19 curved medium easy s-6 curved medium easy k-10 straight medium very hard k-12 slightly curved medium very hard characterization and evaluation of tamarind genotypes table 4 : variation in quantitative traits of tamarind genotypes genotype tree height stem girth pod pulp per shell fibre number of (m) (m) yield per tree cent per per cent per cent fibres (kg) pod per pod per pod per pod k-9 5.08 1.01 12.80 48.87 21.47 6.17 4.03 nti-52 4.13 0.85 10.79 40.78 27.06 2.84 4.27 k-11 3.17 0.58 4.77 41.18 23.83 2.16 3.07 s-7 3.67 0.48 5.97 42.10 22.39 3.17 5.00 s-8 3.67 0.53 5.03 46.38 22.07 5.13 3.97 s-14 3.33 0.58 4.55 44.45 15.78 3.24 3.80 s-3 4.23 0.62 3.96 52.03 28.13 3.45 2.90 n-6 4.00 0.77 9.07 42.03 22.21 6.94 7.33 d-2 4.50 0.93 6.88 38.45 25.97 2.96 5.37 c-4 4.17 0.65 4.53 44.50 27.60 3.10 2.97 d-9 4.00 0.60 5.33 38.07 26.15 3.16 4.93 nti-89 4.13 0.57 8.72 42.13 26.03 3.51 4.03 d-19 3.87 0.60 6.84 44.52 17.18 3.94 4.93 s-6 4.10 0.49 4.44 42.15 16.53 4.13 4.37 k-10 3.00 0.60 8.21 40.52 27.53 4.92 7.23 k-12 3.20 0.70 7.38 35.09 28.87 5.48 5.87 s. em ± 0.35 0.06 0.45 1.24 0.75 0.31 0.30 c. d @5% 1.01 0.17 1.30 3.58 2.17 0.90 0.86 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 272-277, 2022 276 fig. 1 : variation in number of pods per tree of tamarind genotypes divergences among the population. the supporting r esults ha ve a lso been r epor ted by ra o a nd subr a ma nya m (2010) a nd diva ka r a a nd rathakrishnan (2011). significant difference in pod traits (table 4) indicates the scope of genetic improvement. the genotype k-9 recorded significantly higher pod yield (12.80 kg/tree) and pulp per cent (48.87 %). the variation is attributed due to the difference in pod length, width, circumference, thickness and difference in the rate of development of vascular tissues (pooja et al., 2018). the highest number of pods per tree was recorded in nti-52 (989.07) and the lowest number of pods per tree was recorded in s-8 (206.48) (fig. 1). the minimum pod yield per tree was recorded in s-3 (3.96 kg/tree). the variation with respect to number of pods per tree is due to the higher number of primary and secondary branches and also inherent genetic makeup of each genotype. apart from this, it also depends on environmental conditions. the highest beak length was recorded in d-19 (0.05 cm) and the lowest was observed in s-7, s-14, n-6, d-9, k-10 and k-12 (0.01 cm) (fig. 2). the maximum number of fibres per pod was recorded in n-6 (7.33) and the minimum was recorded in s-3 (2.90). the difference in fibre number is attributed to the genetic makeup of each genotype. these findings are in line with the views reported by fandohan et al. (2011) and singh and nandini (2014). the highest pulp per cent was recorded in s-3 (52.03 %) which was on par with k-9 (48.87 %) and the lowest wa s observed in k-12 (35. 09 %). t he difference in pulp per cent per pod (table 4) is clearly attributed due to the length, width, thickness and pulp content of the pod and also distinct feature of different genotypes. similar results have also been reported by prabhushankar et al. (2004) in tamarind and usha et al. (2018) in macadamia nut. a significant difference was observed among the genotypes in respect of shell per cent per pod. the maximum shell per cent was recorded in k-12 (28.87 %) which was on par with s-3 (28.13 %) and c-4 (27.60 %) and the lowest was recorded in s-14 (15.78 %) which was significantly lower than all other genotypes. the variation in shell per cent is due to the difference in pod size, shell thickness and shell weight. apart from this, it is inherent genetic makeup of each genotype. similar variations with respect to shell per cent was also observed in tamarind by sivakumar (2000) and kotecha and kadam (2002). the highest fibre per cent per pod was recorded in n-6 (6.94 %) which was on par with k-9 (6.17 %) and the lowest was observed in k-11 (2.16 %). the variation with respect to fibre per cent is due to the difference in the rate of development of vascular tissues in the pod, fibre weight per pod and also distinct feature of the different genotypes. similar variations with respect to fibre per cent were also reported by hanamashetti and sulikeri (1997), mastan et al. (1997) and divakara (2008) in tamarind. conclusion the study revealed existence of considerable variations among the genotypes for all the traits studied. the genotype k-9 was found superior compared to all other genotypes with respect to pod size, pod weight, pulp weight and pod yield per tree. t herefore, genotype k-9 found promising and subjected for further evaluation to ensure consistent results for utilization. acknowledgement authors are thankful to director of research, keladi shivappa nayak university of agricultural and horticultural sciences, shivamogga for financial pooja et al fig. 2 : variation in the beak length of tamarind genotypes j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 272-277, 2022 277 assistance through staff research project bearing the number 5.11 during 2017-18. authors are also grateful to officers of research wing of department of forest, shivamogga, karnataka. references algabal, a. q. a. y., pappanna, n., ajay, b. c. and eid, a. 2012. studies on genetic parameters and inter r ela tionships for pulp yield a nd its attributes in tamarind (tamarindus indica l.). int. j. plant breed., 6(1): 65-69. bhogave, a. f., dalal, s. r. and raut, u. a. 2018. studies on qualita tive tr aits va riation in tamarind (tamarindus indica l.). int. j. chem. stud., 6(1): 396-398. divaka ra, b. n. 2008. variation and cha racter association for various pod traits in tamarindus indica l. indian for., 134(5): 687-696. divakara, b. n. and rathakrishnan. 2011. clonal va r ia bility a nd divergence studies in tamarindus indica l.; a multipurpose fruit tree. j. biodivers. ecol. sci., 1(1): 31-41. fandohan, b., assogbadjo, a. e., kakai, r. g. and kyndt, t. 2011. quantitative morphological descriptors confirm traditionally classified morphotypes of tamarindus indica l. fruits. genet. resour. crop evol., 58: 299–309. gomez, k. a. and gomez, a. a. 1984. statistical pr ocedur es for a gr icu ltur a l r esea r ch. a wiley-inter sci., john wiley and sons, new york, pp. 680. hana ma 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sharanabasappa. 2018. evaluation of morphological and quantitative characters of tamarind genotypes. j. farm sci., 31(5): 578-580. pr a bhusha nka r, d. s. , mela nta , k. r. a nd chandregowda, m. 2004. evaluation of elite clones of tamarind. karnataka j. agric. sci., 17(3): 512-514. rao, k. d. and subramanyam, k. 2010. varietal evaluation of tamarind under scarce rainfall zone. agric. sci. digest., 30(1): 42-45. sharma, d. k. alkade, s. a. and virdia, h. m. 2015. genetic variability in tamarind tamarindus indica l. in south gujarat. curr. hortic., 3(2): 43-46. singh, t. r . a nd n a ndini, r . 20 14. g enet ic variability, character association and path analysis in tamarind (tamarindus indica l.) population of nallur tamarind grove. saarc j. agri., 12(1)l 20-25. sivakumar, p. 2000. tamarind a brown gold from dry tracts. spice india, 13(11): 2-4. usha, d. s., adivappar, n., shivakumar, b. s., thippesha, d. and lakshmana, d. 2018. e v a l u a t i o n of  exotic  macadamia ( m a c a d a m i a s p p . ) geno t yp es f or morphological and yield contributing traits. j. farm sci., 31(5): 585-587. characterization and evaluation of tamarind genotypes j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 272-277, 2022 (received : 06.12.2021; revised : 07.07.2022; accepted : 13.07.2022) final sph -jhs coverpage 17-1 jan 2022 single j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 88-94, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction bael (aegle marmelos(l) correa) belongs to the family rutaceae and is an important underutilized indigenous fruit crop of india and has high medicinal and nutritional values. since pre-historic times, it was found as wild in sub-himala yan tract and dry deciduous forests of central and southern indian region. therefore, a large number of landraces are available in different diversity regions (pandey et al., 2013) each tree is genetically different from others as most of them are of seedling origin. traditionally, morphological characters have been used to identify and characterize the bael. however, there is a high level of genetic variability which can sometimes be used accurately to distinguish each tree. when the morphological traits are used for determining diversity and relationships among plant species, they are not sufficient because of environmental influences. thus, the usefulness of molecula r ma rker s ha s been investigated as a means of cha ra cterizing and discriminating against different species more precisely (benharr ant et al., 2002). the introduction of molecular biology techniques, such as dna-based markers, allows for direct comparison of different genetic materials independent of environmental influences. the viability and purity of accessions can be analysed by utilization molecular markers. this process can increase both the quantity and quality of plant (mujeeb et al., 2017) molecular characterization would be more rewarding in terms of accurate identification and characterization of most closely related trees at the intra-specific level. the degree of similarity between the banding patterns provides information about genetic similarity and relationships between the samples studied. the application largely depends on the type of markers employed, distribution of markers in the genome, type of loci they amplify, level of polymorphism and reproducibility of the products (virk et al., 2001 and fernandez et al., 2002). among the molecular markers, rapd and issr markers have been extensively used to study genetic diversity and relationship. these markers can detect polymorphism in a single reaction. the main objective of the study was to characterise bael trees using morphological molecular markers, to evaluate the genetic diversity and relationship. studies on genetic variability and relationship of bael (aegle marmelos (l) correa) using morphological and molecular markers amulya r.n.1*, nagarajappa adivappar2, shivakumar b.s.3 and satish k.m.4 1,2zonal agricultural and horticultural research station, ksnuahs, shivamogga 577 204, karnataka, india 3department of fruit science, college of horticulture, ksnuahs, mudigere 577 132, chikkamagalur district, karnataka, india 4 department of bio-technology, college of agriculture, ksnuahs, navile, shivamogga 577 204, karnataka, india *corresponding author e-mail : amulyahiriyur@gmail.com abstract bael (aegle marmelos (l) correa) is an important underutilized fruit crop of india. a total of 25 bael trees were selected from 356 bael trees of sakharayapattana in chikkamagalur district, karnataka, india based on the fruit morphological traits (fruit weight, pulp weight, skull thickness, seed weight per fruit, no. of seeds per fruit, no. of locules per fruit, no. of seeds per locule, pulp wt. : seed wt.). these 25 trees were evaluated for phenotypic and genotypic variations using random amplified polymorphic dna (rapd) and inter-simple sequence repeats (issr) markers. rapd and issr markers showed significant polymorphism among the trees. jaccard’s genetic similarity value of rapd and issr was found in the range of 0.00–0.95 and 0.06–0.56, respectively suggesting a moderate level of genetic diversity. the present study revealed that molecular markers can be successfully utilized for determining genetic diversity and relationship of bael trees for further varietal improvement. keywords: bael, genetic variability, morphology and molecular markers 89 studies on genetic variability and relationship of bael j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 88-94, 2022 materials and methods among 356 trees, 76 fruiting trees were subjected to study of variation in fruit morphological traits like fruit weight, pulp weight, skull thickness, seed weight per fruit, no. of seeds per fruit, no. of locules per fruit, no. of seeds per locule, pulp wt. : seed wt. based on the fruit morphological traits the best 25 trees were selected for molecular marker analysis. plant material (leaves) of 25 bael trees were collected for genomic dna isolation using standardized cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (ctab) extraction protocol (benharrant et al.,2002) and thenthe dna was quantified using a spectrophotometer and the quality of the dna was checked on 0.7% agarose gel. rapd-pcr amplification twelve rapd primers were used for rapd analysis of 25 bael trees. pcr amplification was carried out using 1x taq buffer solution and 1 u taq dna polymerase (bangalore genie pvt. ltd.), 1.25 mm mgcl2, 0.8 mm dntp mix, 5 µm of a single decamer primer and 50 ng genomic dna and the volume made up to 20 µl using sterilized double-distilled water. the a mplifica tion wa s per for med in vwr peqla b thermocycler with initial pre-denaturation at 94 °c for 4 min followed by 40 cycles of denaturation at 92 °c for 2 min, at annealing temperature (table 1.) for 1 min, and extension at 72 °c for 2 min. final extension was performed for 5 min at 72 °c. amplification table 1. list of rapd primers and their annealing temperatures primer marker sequence annealing (5’ to 3’) temperature (°c) opa-02 tgccgagctg 37 opn-03 ggtactcccc 37 opn-12 cacagacacc 37 opm-05 gggaacgtgt 37 opm-06 ctgggcaact 38 opx-17 gacacggacc 36 opm-12 gggacgttgg 38 opm-15 gacctaccac 36 opm-20 aggtcttggg 38 opb-1 gtttcgctcc 36 opa-08 gtgacgtagg 36 opa-1 caggcccttc 38 products were separated by electrophoresis on 1.5 % agarose gel stained with ethidium bromide at 80 v. bands were visualized and photographed in a gel documentation unit. issr-pcr amplification sixteen primers, which gave the best amplification results with the sample dna, were selected for issrpcr analysis. pcr-amplification was carried out using 1x taq buffer solution and 1 u taq dna polymerase (bangalore genie pvt. ltd.), 1.40 mm mgcl2, 0.8 mm dntp mix, 8 µm of a single decamer primer and 50 ng genomic dna and the volume made upto 25 µl using sterilized double-distilled water. the a mplifica tion wa s per for med in vwr peqla b thermocycler 2 min at 94°c, followed by 40 cycles each of 1 min at 94°c (denaturation), 1 min at 55°c (a nnea ling for issr pr imer s), 2 min a t 72°c (extension) followed by one final extension of 7 min at 72°. amplification products were separated by electrophoresis on 1.5 % agarose gel stained with ethidium bromide at 80 v. bands were visualized and photogra phed in a gel documentation unit a nd analyzed. data analysis amplified bands generated from rapd and issrpcr amplification were scored based on the presence (1) or absence (0) of bands for each primer and used to calculate a genetic similarity matrix using software nt sys-pc ver sion 2. 1. cluster a na lysis wa s performed for molecular data using the ‘‘unweighted pair group method using arithmetic means’’ (upgma) a lgor ithm, fr om which dendr ogr ams depicting similarity among trees were drawn and plotted using ntsys-pc software. results and discussion the variations in fruit morphological traits among the trees are depicted in table 2. significant maximum fruit weight was observed in tree sb-353 (320.00 g) and minimum fruit weight was observed in tree sb115 (54.30 g). pulp weight was found significantly ma ximum in tree sb-353 (202.40 g) wher ea s, minimum pulp weight was observed in sb-71 (22.53 g) and it was on par with the tree sb-148. the difference in fruit weight might be attributed to an increase in pulp weight, seed weight, skull weight of trees. the findings are in agreement with the results of earlier researches (pandey et al., 2008, pandey et 90 amulya et al t re e n o. fr ui t w ei gh t ( g) pu lp w ei gh t ( g) sk ul l t hi ck ne ss ( m m ) se ed w ei gh t ( g) n o. o f se ed s / f ru it n o. o f lo cu le s / f ru it n o. o f se ed s / l oc ul e pu lp w t. : s ee d w t. sb -3 53 32 0. 00 20 2. 40 4. 95 19 .8 0 40 .0 0 10 .6 7 3. 75 10 .2 2 sb -3 51 13 6. 00 58 .3 7 6. 82 8. 80 16 .0 0 11 .0 0 1. 46 6. 64 sb -1 47 99 .1 0 36 .5 0 4. 40 7. 70 10 .0 0 8. 00 1. 25 4. 74 sb -9 0 11 0. 30 45 .1 0 6. 92 0. 12 1. 00 9. 00 0. 11 39 2. 17 sb -1 11 14 6. 20 48 .1 0 5. 33 8. 70 44 .0 0 10 .0 0 4. 40 5. 53 sb -3 3 15 3. 50 57 .1 0 3. 96 18 .0 0 56 .0 0 8. 00 7. 06 3. 18 sb -8 0 85 .9 0 27 .7 0 5. 54 13 .2 2 26 .0 0 9. 00 2. 90 2. 10 sb -3 50 91 .2 0 39 .5 0 3. 89 5. 40 40 .0 0 9. 00 4. 49 7. 33 sb -2 88 95 .5 0 30 .8 0 5. 51 3. 50 33 .0 0 10 .0 0 3. 32 8. 81 sb -1 61 12 3. 30 47 .3 0 5. 47 15 .3 0 34 .0 0 8. 00 4. 28 3. 09 sb -2 16 2. 00 46 .0 0 4. 09 12 .0 0 46 .0 0 10 .0 0 4. 64 3. 85 sb -1 48 65 .7 0 22 .6 0 4. 06 2. 40 15 .0 0 7. 00 2. 14 9. 40 sb -1 6 15 7. 20 48 .0 0 4. 48 20 .5 0 62 .0 0 9. 00 6. 89 2. 34 sb -9 1 12 5. 10 46 .0 7 3. 87 0. 15 1. 00 9. 00 0. 11 32 2. 12 sb -6 6 12 7. 30 35 .8 0 7. 10 9. 96 33 .0 0 9. 00 3. 67 3. 59 sb -1 19 0. 90 49 .0 0 5. 60 25 .8 0 84 .0 0 10 .0 0 8. 45 1. 90 sb -7 3 15 9. 60 65 .5 0 4. 89 15 .5 0 26 .0 0 7. 67 3. 40 4. 85 sb -9 75 .7 0 27 .7 0 4. 82 4. 71 13 .0 0 9. 00 1. 46 5. 90 sb -1 15 54 .3 0 10 .4 7 3. 99 5. 38 22 .0 0 10 .0 0 2. 24 1. 92 sb -2 73 96 .2 0 34 .0 0 6. 67 7. 00 17 .0 0 11 .0 0 1. 55 4. 92 sb -2 72 91 .9 0 33 .5 0 4. 23 7. 10 22 .0 0 9. 00 2. 46 4. 72 sb -1 46 10 5. 50 42 .3 0 5. 40 3. 60 9. 00 11 .0 0 0. 83 11 .8 6 sb -7 1 56 .0 0 22 .5 3 4. 02 5. 60 3. 00 7. 00 0. 43 4. 04 sb -3 54 15 0. 00 73 .0 0 4. 18 9. 60 34 .0 0 12 .0 0 2. 83 7. 62 sb -1 75 13 6. 00 53 .4 2 5. 93 5. 20 25 .0 0 10 .0 0 2. 50 10 .3 1 f va lu e ** ** * ** s. e m ± 5. 31 1. 14 0. 06 0. 29 0. 71 0. 43 0. 20 15 c d @ 5 % 15 .0 8 3. 24 0. 18 0. 82 2. 02 1. 21 0. 56 42 .6 1 ** s ig ni fi ca nt @ 5 % a nd 1 % , * si gn if ic an t @ 5 % , n on s ig ni fi ca nt ta bl e 2. f ru it m or ph ol og ic al t ra its o f 25 b ae l t re es j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 88-94, 2022 91 al., 2013 and mitra et al., 2010).the maximum number of seeds per fruit was found in tree sb-1 (84.00) and minimum in sb-90 and sb-91. the difference in seed weight ma y be a ttr ibuted to differences in the number and size of seeds among the trees. the results are in conformity with the earlier findings (pandey et al., 2008, pandey et al., 2013; singh and misra, 2010). pulp weight : seed weight was found maximum in sb90 (392.17) and it was minimum in sb-1 (1.90). the decrease in seed number per locule has a positive correlation with higher pulp content. findings are in agreement with the results of earlier researches (pandey et al., 2013 and singh and misra, 2010). the traits like skull thickness, seed weight per fruit, no. of locules per fruit and no. seeds per locule were observed non-significant among the trees. rapd analysis the simplicity of laboratory assay for rapd markers makes them an attractive method for obtaining intraspecific distinctions. this technique is already used for cultivar identification and genetic variability analysis of several underutilized fruit crops like tamarind (diallo et al., 2007) and bael (nayak et al., 2013). in this study, a set of rapd primers were used for distinguishing the superior trees of bael. the comparatively higher percentage of polymorphic bands detected in the present study indicated that rapd fr a gments a r e moder a tely polymor phic a nd particularly informative in the estimation of the genetic relationship of bael trees studied. the polymerase chain reaction of bael genomic dna using 12 selected rapd primers generated a total of 1,399 amplified bands (table 3.). the highest number of bands was observed with primer opx-17. the size of amplified fragments ranged between 300 and 1800 bp and the lowest number of bands was observed with primer opn-03. the size of amplified fragments ranged between 500-900 bp. comparatively, moderate level of polymorphic information content (0.39 to 0.77) value was seen in selected polymorphic primers. the highest pic value (0.77) was observed for primer opm-12 whereas, the lowest pic value (0.39) was observed for opm-06. it was observed that dna primers showed an average pic value of >0.5, which confirms that the primers are highly informative. the maximum average number of bands across trees was found for primer opx-17 (7.88) while minimum was in primer opn-03 (1.68).the highest genetic similarity coefficient of 0.95 was found between the sb-147 and sb-90 may be due to their same place of origin. the trees sb-175 and sb-66, sb-9 and sb-1 showed the lowest similarity coefficient (0.00). but the molecular diversity was not in agreement with most of the morphological diversity as reported in colocasia esculenta (singh et al., 2012). comparatively high a mplitude of the genetic similar ity coefficient esta blished in the pr esent study confir ms the table 3. list of rapd primers, their sequence and generated bands primer marker sequence range of total no. average no. of pic (5’ to 3’) amplicon size of bands across value (bp) bands trees opa-02 tgccgagctg 200-1400 102 4.08 0.74 opn-03 ggtactcccc 500-900 42 1.68 0.56 opn-12 cacagacacc 100-1000 196 7.84 0.58 opm-05 gggaacgtgt 300-1000 150 6.00 0.45 opm-06 ctgggcaact 300-900 154 6.16 0.39 opx-17 gacacggacc 300-1800 197 7.88 0.47 opm-12 gggacgttgg 300-750 78 3.12 0.77 opm-15 gacctaccac 300-1200 61 2.44 0.61 opm-20 aggtcttggg 600-1000 136 5.44 0.50 opb-1 gtttcgctcc 500-1200 111 4.44 0.58 opa-08 gtgacgtagg 600-1000 55 2.20 0.65 opa-1 caggcccttc 300-1200 117 4.68 0.50 studies on genetic variability and relationship of bael j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 88-94, 2022 92 occurrence of considerable genetic variability among bael trees. however, variation was higher than that reported for 25 cultivars of mango (range 0.69-0.89) (rajwana et al., 2008). a dendrogram (fig 1.) was constructed from values of similarity coefficients generated from rapd data. the trees were divided into six major genotypic groups at a 0.446 similarity coefficient, containing 6 clusters respectively, based on the unweighted pair group method using arithmetic average cluster analysis. the trees sb-2, sb-351, sb161, sb-353 placed in a distinct cluster while other clusters subdivided into sub-clusters. cluster ‘a’ consists of 19 trees, where these trees separated from each other at 0.57 similarity coefficients forming a distinct cluster for sb-175. this cluster was further divided at 0.614 forming a distinct cluster for sb-80. cluster ‘b’ comprised of two trees sb-123 and sb273. it was observed that sb-147 and sb-90 were placed very closely at a similarity co-efficient of 0.95. issr analysis polymerase chain reaction of bael genomic dna using 16 selected issr primers generated a total of 1,496 amplified bands (table 4.). the highest number of bands was observed with primer ubc-807 and the lowest number of bands was observed with primer ubc-890. compa r a tively higher polymor phic information content (0.83 to 0.99) was shown by selected polymorphic primers. the highest pic value (0.99) was observed in primer ubc-888 whereas, lowest pic value (0.83) was observed in ubc-815. average number of bands across trees were found maximum in primer ubc-807 (7.28) while minimum in primer ubc-890 (1.60). the highest genetic fig. 1. dendrogram deviding the 25 trees of bael based on jaccard genetic similarity coefficient from analysis. table 4. list of issr primers, their sequence and generated bands primer marker sequence total no. average no. pic value (5’ to 3’) of of bands bands across trees ubc 807 aga gag aga gag aga gt 182 7.28 0.90 ubc 810 gag aga gag aga gag at 125 5.00 0.88 ubc 811 gag aga gag aga gag ac 59 2.36 0.97 ubc 815 ctc tct ctc tct ctc tg 63 2.52 0.83 ubc 824 tct ctc tct ctc tct cg 97 3.88 0.94 ubc 825 aca cac aca cac aca ct 137 5.48 0.94 ubc 834 aga gag aga gag aga gyt 103 4.12 0.95 ubc 836 aga gag aga gag aga gya 76 3.04 0.96 ubc 840 gag aga gag aga gag ayt 65 2.60 0.98 ubc 841 gag aga gag aga gag ayc 108 4.32 0.92 ubc 842 gag aga gag aga gag ayg 117 4.68 0.94 ubc 859 tgt gtg tgt gtg tgt grc 88 3.52 0.98 ubc 888 bdb cac aca cac aca ca 56 2.24 0.99 ubc 889 dbd aca cac aca cac ac 96 3.84 0.84 ubc 890 vhv gtg tgt gtg tgt gt 40 1.60 0.97 ubc 891 hvh tgt gtg tgt gtg tg 57 2.28 0.96 amulya et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 88-94, 2022 93 similarity coefficient of 0.56 between the sb-1 and sb-73may be due to their same place of origin and occurrence of an intense gene flow between these trees. but the molecular diversity was not in agreement with most of the morphological diversity as reported in colocasia esculenta (singh et al. , 2012). comparatively high amplitude of the genetic similarity coefficient established in the present study confirms the occurrence of considerable genetic variability among bael trees. a dendrogram was constructed from values of similarity coefficients generated from issr data. according to the dendrogram (fig. 2.), the trees were divided into nine major genotypic groups at a 0.30 similarity coefficient, containing nine clusters respectively, based on unweighted pair group method using arithmetic average cluster analysis. the trees sb-354, sb-351, sb-175, sb-353 placed in a distinct cluster while other clusters sub divided in to subclusters. cluster ‘a’ consists of five trees, where these trees separated from each other at 0.57 similarity coefficients forming a distinct cluster for sb-175. this cluster was further divided at 0.33 forming a distinct the trees were divided into nine major genotypic groups at a 0.51 similarity coefficient, containing nine clusters respectively, based on unweighted pair gr oup method using arithmetic average cluster analysis. the treessb-353, sb-80, sb-175, sb123, sb-273, sb-161, sb-2, sb-351 placed in a distinct cluster while other clusters sub divided in to sub-clusters. cluster ‘a’ consists of four trees, where these trees separated from each other at 0.59 fig. 2. dendrogram of 25 trees of bael based on jaccard genetic similarity coefficient issr markers analysis. cluster for sb-147. cluster b comprised of two trees sb-350 and sb-288. cluster c comprised of three trees sb-161, sb-2 sb-148. cluster d, e, f comprised of two, six and three trees respectively. at a similarity co-efficient of 0.56, it was observed that sb-1 and sb73 were placed very closely. rapd and issr combined analysis a dendrogram was constructed using values of similarity coefficients generated from rapd and issr data. according to the dendrogram (fig. 3.), fig. 3. dendrogram of 25 trees of bael generated based on combined rapd and issr data similarity coefficients. cluster ‘b’ comprised of three trees sb-350, sb-288 and sb-148. cluster ‘c’ comprised of four trees sb-16, sb-91, sb-272 and sb-146. cluster ‘d’ and ‘e’ comprised of four and two trees respectively. at similarity co-efficient of 0.70 it was observed that sb-1 and sb-73 were placed very closely. conclusion both the molecular markers analysis showed a high degree of variation among the selected bael trees. the present study revealed that both the molecular markers can be successfully utilized for inferring genetic diversity and genetic relationship of bael tr ees. t he simila rity between sb-1 a nd sb-73 confirmed the importance of these ma rkers for distinguishing the bael trees based on environmental and genetic factors. findings of this study indicate that identification of trees from various locations mainly based on morphological characteristics may have encountered the mismatches and mistakes. this indicates the importance of characterisation of trees both at morphological and molecular level for efficient maintenance and exploitation of precious germplasm and to determine groups of high genetic similarity and dissimilarity, which is the key for studies on genetic variability and relationship of bael j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 88-94, 2022 94 es t a b lis hin g b r eeding s t r a t egies in genet ic improvement programme of bael. acknowledgement authors are thankful to the director of research, university of agricultural and horticultural sciences, shivamogga for providing financial assistance under the staff research project no. 5.20. references benha r r at, h. , ver onesi, c. , t heodet, c. a nd thalouam, p. 2002.orobanche species and population discrimination using inter simple sequence repeat (issr). weed res., 42 :470– 474. diallo, b.o., joly, h.i., mckey, d., mckey, m.h. and chevalier, m.h. 2007. genetic diversity of tamarindus indica populations: any clues on the origin from its current distribution. afr. j. biotechnol., 6: 853-860. fernandez, m.e., figueiras, a.m. and benito, c. 2002. the use of issr and rapd markers for detecting dna polymor phisms, tr ee identification and genetic diversity among barley cultivars with known origin. theor. appl. gen., 104 :845–851. mitra, s.k., maity, c.s., mani, d. and ghosh, b. 2010. genetic r esour ces of ba el (aegle marmelos correa) – a potential underutilized fruit. acta hort., 864:49-52. mujeeb, f., bajpai, p., pathak, n. and verma, s.r. 2017. genetic diversity analysis of medicinally important horticultural crop aegle marmelos by issr markers. methods mol. biol., 1620:195211. nayak, d., singh, d.r., sabarinathan, p., singh, s. a nd na ya k, t. 2013. random a mplified polymorphic dna (rapd) markers reveal genetic diversity in bael (aegle marmelos correa) trees of andaman islands, india. afr. j. biotechnol., 12:6055-6060. pa ndey, d. , shukla , s. k. a nd kuma r, a. 2008.variability in bael accessions from bihar and jharkhand. indian j. hort., 65 :226-229. pandey, d., tandon d.k., hudedamani, u. and tripathi, m. 2013.variability in bael (aegle marmelos corr.) trees from eastern uttar pradesh. indian j. hort., 70:170-178. rajwana, i.a., tabbasam, n., malik, a.u. and malik, a.s. 2008. assessment of genetic diversity among mango (mangifera indica l.) trees using rapd markers. sci. hort., 117 :297-301. singh, s., singh, d.r., faseela, f., kumar, n., damodaran, v. and srivastava, r.c. 2012. diversity of 21 taro (colocasia esculenta l. schott) trees of andaman islands. genet. resour. crop evo., 59: 821-829. singh, v.p. and misra, k.k. 2010. analysis of genetic variability and heritability in bael (aegle marmelos correa) germplasm. prog. agric., 10: 132-134. virk, p.s., zhu, j., newburg, h.j., bryan, g.j., jeckson, m.t. and ford-lloyd, b.v. 2001. effectiveness of different classes of molecular markers for classifying and revealing variation in rice germplasm. euphytica, 112: 275–284. amulya et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 88-94, 2022 (received: 16.02.2022; revised: 29.05.2022; accepted: 22.06.2022) 00 a final sph -jhs coverpage first 2 pages.pdf 00 content and in this issue.pdf 01 mohan kumar g n.pdf 02 meera pandey.pdf 03 biradar c.pdf 04 varalakshmi b.pdf 05 vijayakumari n.pdf 06 barik s.pdf 07 sajid m b.pdf 08 ranga d.pdf 09 usha s.pdf 10 manisha.pdf 11 amulya r n.pdf 12 akshatha h j.pdf 13 adak t.pdf 14 sujatha s.pdf 15 gowda p p.pdf 16 subba s.pdf 17 dhayalan v.pdf 19 ahmed s.pdf 20 vishwakarma p k.pdf 21 deep lata.pdf 22 udaykumar k p.pdf 23 nayaka v s k.pdf 24 sahel n a.pdf 25 bayogan e r v.pdf 26 rathinakumari a c.pdf 27 yella swami c.pdf 28 saidulu y.pdf 29 sindhu s.pdf 30 neeraj.pdf 31 sivaranjani r.pdf 32 rashied tetteh.pdf 34 sangeetha g.pdf 35 shareefa m.pdf 36 last pages.pdf introduction mango (mangifera indica l.) is grown widely throughout the tropics and sub-tropics of india. it has continued to play a major role in fruit production and export. most of the commercial varieties grown in india suffer from one or the other shortcoming, be it susceptibility to pests and diseases, or lack of attractive skin colour. over the past four decades, various workers have bred several hybrids using commercial varieties as parents (iyer, 1991). some of these have performed well in specific areas. diversity in mango has also been studied by attempting to correlate geographic diversity with genetic diversity. karibasappa et al (1999) reported that canonical analysis and cluster analysis using sixty-nine genotypes of mango resulted in eleven clusters. they concluded that geographic diversity was not necessarily related to genetic diversity. one of the drawbacks in mango breeding has been lack of information on inheritance of characters. deriving information on inheritance is also rendered difficult due to genetic variability in some indian mango cultivars and hybrids m.r. dinesh, c. vasugi and r. venugopalan icar-indian institute of horticultural research hesarghatta lake post, bengaluru 560089, india e-mail : mrdinesh@iihr.ernet.in abstract mango is a perennial and highly heterozygous plant. therefore, it takes a long time to breed a variety in this crop. information on genetic variability among cultivars and hybrids helps plan meaningful crop improvement programmes. due to the high heterozygosity, complexity of its flowers and poor fruit-set, the progeny population that can be raised from a cross is very meagre. hence, there is a need to choose parents that have good fruit-set and show genetic divergence. it would also be interesting to establish if the hybrids generated are truly open-pollinated progenies, or arise from controlled crossing. basic information thus obtained would help chalk out a potentially successful breeding programme. a study in this direction was carried out by using morphological characters of twelve hybrids and their respective parents. cluster analysis indicated a relationship between the parents and hybrids. two major clusters were observed from the clustering pattern. in the first cluster, varieties dashehari, banganapalli, manjeera, sindhu, janardhan pasand, ratna, rumani, amrapali, neelgoa and alphonso grouped together. the second cluster consisted of vars. arka aruna, neelum, arka puneet, neeleshan, mulgoa, mallika, arka anmol and arka neelkiran. the hybrid, sindhu was observed to be genetically closer to ratna than to alphonso. the sub-clustering pattern also showed a close relationship between parents and their hybrids. the hybrid, arka anmol, was found to distantly placed from the centre (8.54), as also the hybrid, arka neelkiran (7.05). ‘sindhu’ was also found to be closer to the centre (1.55). key words: breeding, characterization, cluster analysis, heterozygosity, genetic variability the high heterozygosity and highly cross-pollinated nature of the crop, besides a difficulty in crossing. however, it is extremely useful to generate information on genetic distance between varieties so that, based on the lineage, as regards their parentage. a programme in this direction was carried out at indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, by studying morphological characters of the hybrids and their parents. material and methods the material consisted of twelve hybrids, viz., arka anmol, arka puneet, arka neelkiran, arka aruna, amrapali, mallika, ratna, sindhu, neeluddin, neelgoa, neeleshan, manjeera; and seven parents, viz., alphonso, rumani, mulgoa, neelum, dashehari, banganapalli and janardhan pasand. these were evaluated for fruit, stone, inflorescence, leaf and petiole characteristics, viz., fruit length, fruit breadth, fruit thickness, fruit weight, tss, acidity, pulp content, stone length, stone weight, fiber length, inflorescence length, leaf length, leaf width and petiole length (table 1). observation j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(2):113-116, 2014 114 on fruit parameters were recorded on ripe fruits. observations on foliage were made with the fourth mature leaf. observations were recorded over a period of three years. the mean of all the fourteen characteristics was subjected to squared euclidean cluster analysis, and a dendrogram was drawn using ward’s method (1963). sas v 9.3 (sas, 2011) package available at iihr, bengaluru, was used for cluster analysis. this method joins up clusters to maximize likelihood at each level of the hierarchy. distance between two clusters was the anova sum of squares between the two clusters, added up over all the variables. at each generation, the within-cluster sum of squares was minimized over all partitions obtainable, by merging two clusters from the previous generation. results and discussion cluster analysis indicated relationship between the varieties (parents) and hybrids (fig. 1). two major clusters were observed in the clustering pattern. in the first cluster, varieties dashehari, banganapalli, manjeera, sindhu, janardhan pasand, arka neelkiran, ratna, rumani, amrapali, neelgoa and alphonso grouped together, based on the morphological characters evaluated. in the second cluster, vars. arka aruna, neeleshan, neelum, arka puneet, mulgoa, mallika, arka anmol figured. it can be seen that the hybrid sindhu and both its parents, alphonso and ratna, grouped under the same cluster. however, ‘sindhu’ was closer to ratna (3.73) than to alphonso (7.10). in the case of manjeera, one of its parents, rumani, grouped with it, the genetic distance being 5.30. in the case of vars. arka neelkiran and amrapali, one each of their parents (alphonso and dashehari, respectively) observed to figure in the same cluster. the hybrid, arka neelkiran, was closer to neelum (5.72). this shows that the hybrids placed closer to their table 1. fruit, floral and foliage characteristics of mango varieties / hybrids under study sl. variety / fruit fruit fruit fruit tss titrable pulp stone stone fiber infloreleaf leaf petiole no. hybrid length breadth thickness weight (ºbrix) acidity (%) length weight length scence length width length (cm) (cm) (cm) (g) (%) (cm) (g) (mm) length (cm) (cm) (cm) 1 arka anmol 11.03 7.75 7.10 350.00 18.60 0.32 78.28 9.40 34.17 15.0 25.3 16.86 3.9 3.7 2 arka aruna 13.80 10.93 9.60 765.67 21.00 0.19 83.06 8.77 35.00 10.0 22.7 14.06 3.1 3.6 3 arka 9.73 8.15 7.60 338.75 18.30 0.19 75.05 7.17 34.17 9.0 19.2 17.00 3.3 5.5 neelkiran 4 arka puneet 9.70 8.00 7,10 283.70 21.10 0.32 72.12 8.17 44.23 9.0 11.0 16.22 3.7 5.0 5 amrapali 10.00 6.10 6.00 186.00 23.20 0.38 72.10 9.03 31.87 17.0 24.5 15.26 3.2 2.1 6 mallika 13.60 8.00 6.60 347.00 27.00 0.18 65.80 9.37 29.43 12.0 28.0 14.22 3.6 2.0 7 manjeera 7.70 7.60 7.50 272.30 18.20 0.57 74.61 5.83 32.97 4.0 16.0 16.34 3.1 1.7 8 neeleshan 12.90 9.30 7.13 394.00 18.50 0.51 59.32 10.63 34.53 8.0 21.5 13.50 3.4 1.3 9 neelgoa 7.70 8.00 8.20 328.00 17.20 0.19 75.61 7.80 27.50 5.0 48.0 16.86 3.7 1.8 10 neeluddin 7.70 6.40 7.00 188.00 22.50 0.96 68.78 6.10 24.00 8.0 30.5 19.16 4.2 2.6 11 ratna 10.50 8.00 6.90 283.70 20.00 0.38 70.90 7.17 30.50 11.0 26.3 18.70 4.3 3.3 12 sindhu 9.40 6.20 6.20 167.00 27.40 0.51 84.92 7.73 7.29 20.0 42.0 24.20 5.4 6.6 13 banganapalli 10.80 8.90 7.70 440.00 18.50 0.12 61.70 7.80 33.93 6.0 25.2 12.16 2.8 1.2 14 dashehari 10.50 6.40 5.60 170.50 19.00 0.11 62.30 7.63 24.70 5.0 28.3 14.30 3.3 1.6 15 janardhan 8.90 6.60 6.60 256.20 14.60 0.44 67.50 7.15 26.00 8.0 30.8 15.10 3.9 1.9 pasand 16 neelum 7.70 6.00 6.70 256.00 20.00 0.40 57.00 6.13 21.87 13.0 26.5 14.30 3.2 1.4 17 rumani 6.90 8.00 8.60 200.00 19.20 0.25 75.40 5.00 20.80 14.0 20.3 14.66 2.8 1.4 18 alphonso 8.80 7.40 7.30 246.20 19.00 0.32 66.90 6.03 22.43 7.0 29.0 17.18 3.8 3.0 19 mulgoa 9.50 8.60 8.30 362.50 20.80 0.27 64.40 8.30 50.17 13.0 18.7 13.80 2.6 1.7 fig. 1. hierarchical clustering by fast ward method dinesh et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(2):113-116, 2014 115 parents. in the second cluster, it can be seen that among the varieties, amrapali (a hybrid itself) was close to both dashehari and neelum (5.1 and 4.1, respectively). hybrids derived from ‘neelum’ were found to be closer to ‘neelum’ (table 2 and 3). this shows that hybrids and parents, although generated from different locations, are related. the subclustering pattern also showed a close relation between parents and their hybrids, viz., grouping together of the hybrids, alphonso and ratna. ‘neelum’, as one of the parents, is seen as the dominating parent. hybrid ‘arka anmol’ was observed to be placed distantly from the centre, while the variety sindhu was observed to be the closest. hybrid ‘arka aruna’, which resembles its female parent banganapalli morphologically, was closer to the latter (4.56). ravishankar et al (2000) studied genetic diversity in eighteen commercial varieties of mango grown in india, using rapd analysis. they observed two major groups: one group consisted northern, eastern and western varieties; another of southern cultivars. their study also indicated that variety kesar from western region of india associated with neelum and rumani. in our study too, variety ratna, which is from the western region of india, grouped with rumani, a south indian commercial variety. the same result is seen in the case of dashehari, which grouped with banganapalli, along with janardhan pasand. however, in a heterozygous crop like mango, pedigree of the varieties is not clear, which is quite understandable. the present study indicates that the hybrids were closely related, even if one of the parents was common; the other parent could be from altogether a different region. the variety arka aruna, although a hybrid from the parentage banganapalli x alphonso, seemed to be genetically divergent from other varieties. the present study, thus, shows that morphological characterization can be used for working out distance between varieties and for validating parentage of the hybrids. table 2. clustering history variety number distance leader joiner of clusters sindhu 18 1.550062867 18 11 dashehari 17 1.579511642 4 3 rumani 16 2.004343454 18 15 neeluddin 15 2.113115127 19 13 amrapali 14 2.165261418 16 14 neelum 13 2.220924837 4 1 alphonso 12 2.427018483 17 7 janardhan pasand 11 2.697839538 19 8 ratna 10 2.712693496 16 5 manjeera 9 2.944699556 9· 18 arka puneet 8 3.502879488 19 6 banganapalli 7 3.514379316 9 10 neeleshan 6 3.670255392 17 9 neelgoa 5 4.222008230 17 16 mulgoa 4 4.497405724 19 4 mallika 3 4.641642925 19 2 arka neelkiran 2 7.054252685 17 12 arka anmol 1 8.542871487 17 19 table 3. cluster distance between mango varieties v/h 17 7 9 10 16 18 15 12 19 4 3 5 11 14 13 1 8 6 2 17 0.00 3.43 4.78 5.53 4.21 3.51 4.39 8.67 4.85 5.33 4.46 4.94 4.55 5.10 4.88 5.26 6.53 6.82 7.17 7 3.43 0.00 4.68 4.09 4.18 3.01 3.37 8.83 4.56 4.09 3.92 4.76 3.70 4.50 4.58 4.79 5.42 5.91 7.09 9 4.78 4.68 0.00 5.52 5.30 3.38 3.62 8.00 5.64 5.83 4.75 5.51 4.07 4.70 4.73 4.66 5.92 5.78 6.78 10 5.53 4.09 5.52 0.00 4.45 3.73 4.16 6.45 6.75 5.67 5.79 4.96 3.90 5.59 6.92 5.58 6.61 6.59 8.98 16 4.21 4.18 5.30 4.45 0.00 3.15 3.05 8.24 5.29 5.42 5.26 3.59 4.16 3.06 4.83 5.29 5.66 5.86 8.65 18 3.51 3.01 3.38 3.73 3.15 0.00 2.29 7.10 5.06 4.22 3.42 4.18 2.19 3.18 4.32 4.06 5.28 5.05 7.11 15 4.39 3.37 3.62 4.16 3.05 2.29 0.00 7.95 5.29 4.79 4.29 4.07 3.04 2.98 4.46 4.03 4.88 5.65 7.69 12 8.67 8.83 8.00 6.45 8.24 7.10 7.95 0.00 10.02 8.06 7.75 7.12 6.33 8.55 10.18 6.90 9.80 8.67 10.42 19 4.85 4.56 5.64 6.75 5.29 5.06 5.29 10.02 0.00 3.64 4.04 4.65 4.83 5.38 2.99 4.21 3.92 5.21 5.50 4 5.33 4.09 5.83 5.67 5.42 4.22 4.79 8.06 3.64 0.00 2.23 4.28 3.39 5.01 4.55 3.03 4.60 4.84 6.04 3 4.46 3.92 4.75 5.79 5.26 3.42 4.29 7.75 4.04 2.23 0.00 4.71 3.18 4.79 4.11 2.84 5.05 5.18 5.39 5 4.94 4.76 5.51 4.96 3.59 4.18 4.07 7.12 4.65 4.28 4.71 0.00 3.63 3.72 5.24 3.53 5.05 4.95 7.66 11 4.55 3.70 4.07 3.90 4.16 2.19 3.04 6.33 4.83 3.39 3.18 3.63 0.00 3.95 4.73 2.79 4.71 4.76 6.47 14 5.10 4.50 4.70 5.59 3.06 3.18 2.98 8.55 5.38 5.01 4.79 3.72 3.95 0.00 4.11 4.83 4.97 4.29 8.14 13 4.88 4.58 4.73 6.92 4.83 4.32 4.46 10.18 2.99 4.55 4.11 5.24 4.73 4.11 0.00 4.54 3.30 4.12 5.21 1 5.26 4.79 4.66 5.58 5.29 4.06 4.03 6.90 4.21 3.03 2.84 3.53 2.79 4.83 4.54 0.00 4.14 4.87 5.42 8 6.53 5.42 5.92 6.61 5.66 5.28 4.88 9.80 3.92 4.60 5.05 5.05 4.71 4.97 3.30 4.14 0.00 4.0.8 5.72 6 6.82 5.91 5.78 6.59 5.86 5.05 5.65 8.67 5.21 4.84 5.18 4.95 4.76 4.29 4.12 4.87 4.08 0.00 6.24 2 7.17 7.09 6.78 8.98 8.65 7.11 7.69 10.42 5.50 6.04 5.39 7.66 6.47 8.14 5.21 5.42 5.72 6.24 0.00 1. arka anrnol, 2. arka neelkiran, 3. mallika, 4. mulgoa, 5. neelgoa, 6. neeleshan, 7. banganapalli, 8. arka puneet, 9. manjeera, 10. ratna, l1. janardhan pasand, 12. alphonso, 13. neelum, 14. amrapali, 15. neeluddin, 16. rumani, 17. dashehari, 18. sindhu, 19. arka aruna; v/h – variety / hybrid genetic variability in indian mango cultivars and hybrids j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(2):113-116, 2014 116 references iyer, c.p.a. 1991. recent advances in varietal improvement in mango. acta hort., 291:109-132 karibasappa, g.s., nalawadi, sulikeri, g.s. and hulmani, n.c. 1999. characterization of mango gerrnplasm in north karnataka, india: cluster analysis. indian j. pl. genet. resources, 12:341-347 ravishankar, k.v., lalitha anand and dinesh, m.r., 2000. assessment of genetic relatedness among mango cultivars of india using rapd markers. j. hortl. sci. biotechnol., 13:26-28 sas v 9.3. 2011. statistical analysis system, sas institute inc., cary, north carolina, usa ward, j.h. 1963. hierarchic grouping to optimize an objective function. j. amer. stat. assoc., 58:236-239 (ms received 20 december 2013, revised 27 may 2014, accepted 23 june 2014) dinesh et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(2):113-116, 2014 introduction carnation (dianthus caryophyllus l.) is a popular cut-flower, holding an important position among the top ten cut-flowers in the international cut-flower trade. carnations are preferred to roses and chrysanthemums in several exporting countries on account of their excellent keeping quality, wide array of colour and forms, ability to withstand long distance transportation, and remarkable ability to rehydrate after continuous shipping. from the medicinal point of view, carnation flowers are considered to be cardio-tonic, diaphoretic and alexiteric (shiragur et al, 2004). in india, carnation cultivation covers over 600 ha while, in karnataka, it is grown in an area of 40 ha, with production of 51 lakh cut flowers accounting for revenue rs. 85 lakh per annum during 2008-09 (anon., 2009). a clear assessment of association and relative contribution of yield components is of utmost importance in optimizing yield for any crop. it is essential for plant breeders to estimate the type of variation available in a collection of germplasm. also, available information on variability and correlation among traits in carnation is very scanty. hence, the aim of the present investigation was to ascertain the correlation studies in carnation (dianthus caryophyllus l.) tarannum and b. hemla naik project planning & monitoring cell university of agricultural and horticultural sciences savalanga road, shimoga 577 204, india e-mail: sarasiddiquamdg@gmail.com abstract eight genotypes of carnation were evaluated for phenotypic and genotypic correlation coefficient between flower yield and 23 quantitative traits, to understand the association between these characters and their relative contribution to flower yield. the aim was to bring about rational improvement in carnation. genotypic correlation coefficients were higher than phenotypic correlation coefficients for most of the characters studied. flower yield per square meter showed highly significant association with number of branches, nodes per stalk and nodes per plant; stem girth, number of leaves, leaf area, total dry matter and duration of flowering. significant association was found with plant spread, girth of flower and flower length, and, negative correlation was seen with days taken to flower bud initiation, first harvest and peak flowering, at the genotypic level. whereas the number of nodes per plant and duration of flowering exhibited positive and highly significant correlation with yield, only significant correlation was found with plant spread, number of branches, nodes per stalk; stem girth, number of leaves and vase life, at the phenotypic level. these traits may serve as effective selection parameters for carnation improvement. key words: carnation, crop improvement, genotypic correlation, phenotypic, correlation nature and extent of correlation present in vegetative and flowering character in eight genotypes of carnation, and, to identify elite genotype to be used in hybridization programmes to bring about desired improvement in cut-flower yield in this crop. material and methods an experiment was carried out at department of floriculture and landscape architecture, college of horticulture, mudigere, karnataka, from july 2011 to june 2012. the experimental material comprised of eight genotypes of standard carnation, viz., dona, white dona, harish, big mama, soto, liber, golem and big net, procured in pro-trays with coco peat media from m/s florence flora ltd., bengaluru, grown under naturally-ventilated polyhouse. the experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design (rcbd), with three replications. carnation plants were grown on raised beds of 30cm height, one meter width and a distance of 20cm between rows and 15cm between plants, following standard cultivation practices. data was collected from five randomly selected plants, after 30 days of pinching, from each genotype in each replication on various biometrical parameters and analyzed as per panse j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):38-42, 2014 39 and sukhatme (1967). simple correlation coefficients pertaining to phenotypic and genotypic variation for various characters in carnation genotypes were computed as per singh and choudhary (1979). values for correlation coefficient (r) were calculated and the test of significance was applied as per fisher and yates (1963). observations were made on genotypic and phenotypic correlation between qualitative and quantitative traits in different genotypes of carnation. results and discussion phenotypic and genotypic correlation coefficients were computed between character pairs for all the twenty three parameters studied, i.e., flower yield v/s ten vegetative, eight qualitative and four flowering traits in eight carnation genotypes, and results are presented in tables 1, 2 and 3, respectively. correlation coefficient analysis measures mutual relationship between various plant characters, and, determines the component characters on which selection can be based for genetic improvement with reference to a particular character (robinson et al, 1949). positive correlation between desirable characters is favourable to a plant breeder, as, it helps simultaneous improvement in both the characters. in the present study, genotypic correlation coefficient was higher in magnitude than the corresponding phenotypic correlation coefficient for most of the characters studied, indicating a strong, inherent association between various characters, and was masked by the environmental component with regard to phenotypic expression, as reported by johnson et al (1955). in several cases, genotypic and phenotypic correlations were very close, indicating a lesser degree of environmental influence. genotypic correlation for flower yield per square meter exhibited positive and highly significant correlation with number of branches, nodes per stalk and nodes per plant; stem girth, number of leaves, leaf area, total dry matter and duration of flowering, and, significant association with plant spread, girth of flower and flower length, at the genotypic level; whereas, at the phenotypic level, number of nodes per plant and duration of flowering exhibited positive and highly significant association with yield, and, significant association with plant spread, number of branches, number of nodes per stalk, stem girth, number of leaves and vase life, at the phenotypic level. similar results were also obtained by lal et al (1982) in rose for flower diameter, and by sirohi and behera (2000) for vase life in chrysanthemum. hence, selection on the basis of these characters may not be effective, as, these are controlled by non-additive gene action. with respect to qualitative parameters, length of flower stalk exhibited positive and highly significant table 1. genotypic and phenotypic correlation between vegetative and flower yield parameters in different genotypes of carnation trait 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 plant height (cm) g 1 0.84** 0.67* 0.83** 0.83** 0.41 0.67* 0.88** 0.94** 0.87** 0.58 p 1 0.70* 0.59 0.69* 0.76* 0.36 0.63* 0.73* 0.71* 0.85** 0.56 plant spread (cm) g 1 0.94** 0.61 0.81** 0.66* 0.75* 0.98** 1.06** 0.90** 0.75* p 1 0.79* 0.52 0.67* 0.55 0.64* 0.65* 0.67* 0.79* 0.65* number of branches g 1 0.58 0.85** 0.64* 0.80** 0.90** 0.95** 0.89** 0.87** p 1 0.44 0.74* 0.56 0.73* 0.78** 0.76* 0.82** 0.77* number of nodes/stalk g 1 0.91** 0.66* 0.24 0.84** 0.94** 0.79** 0.80** p 1 0.74* 0.59 0.24 0.54 0.55 0.70* 0.72* number of nodes/plant g 1 0.64* 0.56 1.02** 1.10** 0.91** 0.90** p 1 0.59 0.45 0.85** 0.79** 0.85** 0.84** stem girth (mm) g 1 0.09 0.61 0.64* 0.72* 0.82** p 1 0.12 0.55 0.56 0.66* 0.72* internode length (cm) g 1 0.71* 0.66* 0.66* 0.48 p 1 0.59 0.54 0.64* 0.42 number of leaves g 1 0.99** 0.94** 0.94** p 1 0.96** 0.80** 0.72* leaf area (cm2) g 1 1.00 0.97** p 1 0.78* 0.65 total dry matter (g/plant) g 1.00 0.79** p 1.00 0.77 flower yield/m2 g 1.00 p 1.00 *significant @ 5%, **significant @1 % g = genotypic, p = phenotypic correlation studies in carnation j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):38-42, 2014 40 correlation with flower diameter, number of petals and flower length, and, significant association with flower-bud diameter and flower weight, at the genotypic level. however, there was positive and highly significant association with flower diameter and number of petals, and, significant correlation with flower length and weight, at the phenotypic level. girth of flower stalk had positive and significant association with flower length, vase-life and yield, at the genotypic level, whereas, significant association was observed with vaselife at the phenotypic level. flower-bud diameter exhibited positive and highly significant correlation with flower weight and significant correlation with flower diameter, number of petals and flower length at the genotypic level, whereas, significant association was observed with flower weight at the phenotypic level. diameter of flower had positive and highly significant association with number of petals, flower length and flower weight at the genotypic level, and the same character showed significant correlation with the above parameters at the phenotypic level too. number of petals per flower exhibited positive and highly significant association with flower length and flower weight at the genotypic level; whereas, there was positive and significant association of petal number with flower length and flower weight at the phenotypic level. flower length showed positive and highly significant association with flower weight, and significant correlation with yield at the genotypic level, while, significant association was found here with flower weight at the phenotypic level. none of the characters showed significant association with flower weight at both genotypic and phenotypic levels. vase-life exhibited positive and significant correlation with yield at the phenotypic level. these results are in line with findings of shyamal and kumar (2002) in dahlia. days to flower-bud emergence exhibited positive and highly significant association with days to flower opening and days to peak flowering at the genotypic and phenotypic levels, respectively. days to flower opening had positive and highly significant association with days to peak flowering at both genotypic and phenotypic levels. duration of table 2. genotypic and phenotypic correlation between qualitative and flower yield parameters in different genotypes of carnation trait 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 length of flower stalk (cm) g 1 0.23 0.63* 0.91** 1.04** 0.87** 0.77* -0.11 0.32 p 1 0.22 0.57 0.84** 0.81** 0.72* 0.75* -0.11 0.32 girth of flower stalk (mm) g 1 0.11 0.25 0.29 0.65* 0.52 0.75* 0.67* p 1 0.05 0.17 0.25 0.56 0.48 0.64* 0.62 flower bud diameter (cm) g 1 0.78* 0.74* 0.62* 0.85** 0.12 0.32 p 1 0.63 0.47 0.47 0.72* 0.09 0.28 flower diameter (cm) g 1 0.95** 0.90** 0.86** 0.02 0.42 p 1 0.74* 0.72* 0.78* 0.02 0.41 number of petals/flower g 1 0.95** 0.94** -0.21 0.27 p 1 0.62* 0.68* -0.16 0.11 flower length (cm) g 1 0.84** 0.41 0.77* p 1 0.68* 0.35 0.59 flower weight (cm) g 1 0.14 0.46 p 1 0.18 0.44 vase life (days) g 1 0.88 p 1 0.75* flower yield/m2 g 1 p 1 *significant @ 5%, **significant @1 %, g = genotypic, p = phenotypic table 3. genotypic and phenotypic correlation between flowering and flower yield parameters in different genotypes of carnation trait 1 2 3 4 5 days taken to g 1 0.99** -0.63 0.97** -0.83 bud initiation p 1 0.98** -0.61 0.95** -0.81 days taken to g 1 -0.67 0.99** -0.85 flower opening p 1 -0.66 0.93** -0.81 duration of g 1 -0.64 0.94** flowering (days) p 1 -0.64 0.91** days taken for g 1 -0.85 peak flowering p 1 -0.8 flower yield/m2 g 1 p 1 *significant @ 5%, **significant @1 %, g = genotypic, p = phenotypic tarannum and hemla naik j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):38-42, 2014 41 flowering showed positive and highly significant association with yield both at the genotypic and phenotypic levels. none of the characters showed significant association with days taken to peak flowering at both the genotypic and phenotypic levels. these results are in accordance with those of anuradha and narayana (2002) in gerbera. vegetative parameters like plant height exhibited positive and highly significant association with plant spread, number of nodes per stalk and per plant, number of leaves, leaf area and total dry matter; however, these exhibited significant association with number of branches and internodal length at the genotypic level; whereas, plant spread showed positive and highly significant association with number of branches, number of nodes per plant, number of leaves, leaf area, total dry matter, and, showed significant association with stem girth, internodal length and yield, at the genotypic level. number of branches exhibited positive and highly significant association with number of nodes per plant, internodal length, number of leaves, leaf area, total dry matter and yield, whereas, it showed significant association with stem girth. similar heritability estimates were reported by barigidad et al (1992) in chrysanthemum. number of nodes per stalk exhibited positive and highly significant correlation with number of nodes per plant, number of leaves, leaf area, total dry matter and yield, while, it correlated significantly with stem girth, at the genotypic level. number of nodes per plant exhibited positive and highly significant correlation with number of leaves, leaf area, total dry matter and yield at both genotypic and phenotypic levels and had significant correlation with stem girth, at the genotypic level. stem girth showed positive and highly significant association with leaf yield and was significantly correlated to leaf area and total dry matter, at the genotypic level. internodal length exhibited positive and significant correlation with number of leaves, leaf area and total dry matter. number of leaves showed positive and highly significant association with leaf area, total dry matter and yield, at the genotypic level. leaf area exhibited positive and highly significant association with yield, at the genotypic level. however, total dry matter showed highly significant relationship with yield, at the genotypic level. these results are supported by mahesh (1996) in carnation. this reveals that indirect selection for any one of these characters can lead to concomitant increase in cut-flower yield. flower yield per square meter exhibited positive and highly significant correlation for most of the characters, both at the phenotypic and genotypic levels. it had interdependent relationship with vegetative parameters like number of branches, number of nodes per stalk and per plant, stem girth, number of leaves, leaf area, total dry matter production. this may have resulted in production of superior flower quality parameters like flower length, flower girth (thereby, bud and flower diameter), and, number of petals per flower and number of flowers per plant, due to extended duration of flowering. owing to all these positive and significant interrelationships, flower yield per square meter increased. this clearly indicates, that, all the above characters were interrelated and interdependent for enhancing cut-flower yield in carnation. this is evidenced by highly positive and significant correlation observed at the phenotypic and genotypic levels (table 1, 2 and 3). these results were corroborated by findings of banupratap et al (1999) in marigold. flower yield in carnation showed good positive relationship with vegetative parameters like number of branches, nodes per stalk and nodes per plant; stem girth, number of leaves, leaf area and total dry matter production. this may have resulted in production of superior flower quality parameters like flower length and flower girth, thereby, bud and flower diameter and number of petals per flower; and, ultimately, increased number of flowers per plant. hence, selection of the above, stable characters will help improve flower yield. these characters should be accorded emphasis in selection for improvement in carnation. references anonymous. 2009. crop wise statistics of horticultural crops in karnataka state, 2008-2009, horticulture.kar.nic.in/areaprdn.htm anuradha, s. and narayana gowda, j.v. 2002. interrelationship between growth and yield parameters with flower yield in gerbera. j. orn. hort. new series, 5:35-37 banupratap, tewari, g.n. and mishra, l.n. 1999. correlation studies in marigold. j. orn. hort. new series, 2:84-88 barigidad, h., patil, a.a. and nalawadi, u.g. 1992. variability studies in chrysanthemum. prog. hort., 24:55-59 fischer, r.a. and yates, f. 1963. statistical tables for biological, agril. med. res., oliver and boyd ltd., edinburgh, uk johnson, h.w., robinson, h.f. and comstock, r.e. 1955. correlation studies in carnation j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):38-42, 2014 42 genotypic and phenotypic correlation in soyabean and their implications in selection. agron. j., 47:477-483 lal, s.d., seth, j.n., yadav, j.p. and danu, n.s. 1982. genetic variability and correlation studies in rose. prog. hort., 14:234-236 mahesh, k. 1996. variability studies in carnation (dianthus caryophyllus l.). m.sc. thesis, university of agricultural sciences, bangalore panse, v.g. and sukhatme, p.v. 1967. statistical methods for agricultural workers. indian council of agricultural research, new delhi, pp. 100-174 robinson, h.f., comstock, r.e. and harvey, p.h. 1949. estimates of heritability and degree of dominance in corn. agron. j., 41:353-359 shiragur, m., shirol, a.m., reddy, b.s. and kulkarni, b.s. 2004. performance of standard carnation (dianthus caryophyllus l.) cultivars under protected cultivation for vegetative characters. j. orn. hort., 7:212-216 shyamal, m.m. and kumar, r. 2002. genetic variability and correlation studies in dahlia. j. orn. hort. new series, 5:40-42 singh, r.h. and choudhary, b.d. 1979. biometrical methods in quantitative genetic analysis. kalyani publishers, new delhi, pp. 50-61 sirohi, p.s. and behera, t.k. 2000. genetic variability in chrysanthemum. j. orn. hort., 3:34-36 (ms received 22 october 2012, revised 30 september 2013, accepted 07 january 2014) tarannum and hemla naik j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):38-42, 2014 though considered drought-hardy, mango (mangifera indica l.) requires watering for orchard establishment and good fruiting, even in heavy rainfall zones like coastal odisha, where soil moisture deficit occurs during february-may. in situ rain-water harvest by building trenches, bunds, circular basins, etc. can increase soil water content by reducing surface runoff (panigrahi et al, 2008). mulching conserves soil moisture and controls weeds (lal et al, 2003). therefore, the present study was undertaken to assess the effect of in situ rain-water harvesting structures and mulching on performance of the mango variety ‘arka neelachal kesri’ under rain-fed conditions. the experiment was conducted at icar-iihrcentral horticultural experiment station, bhubaneswar, odisha, during 2007-2013. the soil at the experimental site is red lateritic, with poor organic matter content (0.2%) and meagre water holding capacity. the orchard of ‘arka neelachal kesri’ mango was developed in situ, on its own rootstock, by sowing seeds at 5m x 5m spacing with onset of monsoon in 2007, and top-grafting the seedlings so-raised a year later. the experiment was laid out in split-plot design, with 12 treatment combinations consisting of four in situ rain-water harvesting structures, viz., half-moon or semicircular basin, full-moon or circular basin, cup-and-plate, and trench system as the main plot, and three levels of short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):99-101, 2015 effect of in situ rainwater harvesting and mulching on growth, yield and fruit quality in mango var. arka neelachal kesri in eastern india deepa samant, s. mandal, h.s. singh, vishal nath1 and reju m. kurian2 icar-iihr-central horticultural experiment station bhubaneswar751 019, odisha, india e-mail: horti.deepa@gmail.com abstract a field study was conducted at central horticultural experiment station (icar-iihr), bhubaneswar, india, during 2007-2013 in a new mango orchard of the variety ‘arka neelachal kesri’ at 5m x 5m spacing, to conserve rain-water and to enhance soil moisture availability during dry periods for augmenting plant growth and fruit production. among the four in situ rain-water harvesting techniques (cup-and-plate, half-moon, full-moon, and trench) evaluated in combination with three types of mulch (no mulch, inorganic mulch, and organic mulch), the cup-and-plate system resulted in maximum annual increment in vegetative growth and fruit yield (4.67kg/plant), while, organic (paddy straw) and inorganic (black polythene, 100μμμμμ thickness) mulches improved vegetative growth, fruit yield and tss in fruit significantly over no mulch. key words: mango (mangifera indica l.), arka neelachal kesri, in situ rain-water harvesting, mulching present address: 1 icar-national research centre for litchi, muzaffarpur-842 002, bihar, india 2 icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru-560 089, karnataka, india mulching (no mulch, organic mulch and inorganic mulch) as sub-plot treatments (table 1) with five replications. the trees were maintained under rain-fed conditions from the inception of the experiment. initial growth parameters, i.e., plant height, canopy diameter, scion girth and primary girth, were recorded during november-december, 2009. thereafter, annual increment in growth was noted for three consecutive years, from 2010 to 2012. fruits were harvested at full maturity and observations were recorded on fruit yield and quality table 1. treatment details with specification of in situ rain-water harvesting structures and measures of mulching treatment specification four in situ rain water harvesting structures as main plot treatments: half-moon semi-circular basin at 1m distance from main trunk full-moon circular basin at 1m distance from main trunk cup-and-plate circular pit of 0.5m width and 0.5m depth around the tree at 1m distance from main trunk trench trench of 2m length, 0.5m width and 0.5m depth at 1m distance from main trunk three levels of mulch as sub-plot treatments: no mulch without cover inorganic mulch uv-stabilized black polythene (100µ thickness) around the tree at 1m radius organic mulch 10cm thick layer of paddy-straw around the tree at 1m radius 100 parameters (pulp, peel and stone details, total soluble solids and titratable acidity) when fruiting started in the year 2012. fruit and its fractions, namely, peel and stone, were weighed and their contents calculated as percentage. tss was determined using a hand-held digital refractometer. acidity was estimated by titrating fresh fruit-juice with 0.1n naoh, using phenolphthalein as an indicator, and was expressed as per cent citric acid equivalents. data generated on various parameters were tabulated and statistically analyzed. annual increase in vegetative growth for three consecutive years, along with pooled data, is presented in table 2. cup-and-plate system of in situ rain-water harvesting resulted in significant increase in plant height, canopy diameter, scion girth and primary girth. this treatment also gave the highest fruit yield (27.91 fruits weighing 4.67kg/tree) (table 3). however, no significant differences were observed with use of various in situ rainwater harvesting structures for average fruit weight and fruit quality (table 3). better growth and yield observed in the cup-and-plate system, may be due to improved rainwater harvest using this structure, and consequent increased soil-water available to the plants for longer duration than with the other structures. mulching had significant influence on vegetative growth (table 2), yield and tss (table 3). maximum annual increase in plant height, canopy diameter and primary girth were recorded in the organic mulch, followed by inorganic mulch. enhanced plant growth observed could be due to availability of sufficient moisture and enhanced lateral growth of roots in the upper layers of soil which, in turn, may have resulted in better nutrient uptake, as reported in citrus (panigrahi et al, 2008). beneficial effects of black polythene table 3. effect of in situ rain-water harvesting and mulching on fruit yield and quality in mango ‘arka neelachal kesri’ treatment fruit yield fruit quality no. of fruits/tree average fruit total weight of pulp peel stone tss acidity weight (g) fruits (kg/tree) (%) (%) (%) (°b) (%) 2012 2013 pooled 2012 2013 pooled 2012 2013 pooled in situ rain-water harvesting structures half-moon 11.33 15.91 13.62 165.72 151.97 158.85 1.87 2.41 2.14 68.32 13.59 18.10 20.01 0.25 full-moon 13.44 18.73 16.09 156.78 169.27 163.03 2.09 3.10 2.59 68.16 14.80 17.05 19.91 0.26 cup-and-plate 23.27 32.55 27.91 164.97 167.98 166.48 3.87 5.46 4.67 67.53 14.11 18.36 19.71 0.27 trench 18.22 27.18 22.7 167.01 157.70 162.35 2.94 4.28 3.61 69.20 13.92 16.89 18.80 0.28 se(m)± 1.46 2.03 1.42 4.69 5.95 3.25 0.23 0.36 0.22 0.78 0.48 0.45 0.35 0.2 cd (p=0.5) 4.54 6.31 4.42 ns ns ns 0.71 1.11 0.69 ns ns ns ns ns mulching no mulch 12.65 17.55 15.10 158.10 158.87 158.48 1.99 2.79 2.39 68.30 14.48 17.23 18.74 0.29 inorganic mulch 18.79 25.88 22.33 165.85 162.81 164.33 3.06 4.17 3.61 69.03 13.40 17.57 19.87 0.26 organic mulch 18.27 27.35 22.81 166.92 163.52 165.22 3.03 4.47 3.75 67.57 14.43 18.00 20.22 0.25 se(m)± 1.69 2.21 1.44 4.58 5.8 4.04 0.28 0.35 0.24 0.83 0.53 0.42 0.28 0.2 cd (p=0.5) 4.90 6.40 4.16 ns ns ns 0.80 1.01 0.69 ns ns ns 0.81 ns table 2. effect of in situ rain-water harvesting and mulching on annual increase in vegetative growth in mango ‘arka neelachal kesri’ treatment annual increase in vegetative growth plant height (cm) canopy diameter (cm) trunk girth (cm) primary girth (cm) 2010 2011 2012 pooled 2010 2011 2012 pooled 2010 2011 2012 pooled 2010 2011 2012 pooled in situ rain-water harvesting structures: half-moon 44.92 40.63 47.88 44.48 52.98 58.8 51.73 54.50 6.97 7.2 6.01 6.73 3.66 5.01 4.14 4.27 full-moon 46.88 40.67 49.53 45.69 52.39 60.59 53.21 55.40 7.33 7.59 6.67 7.20 3.91 5.15 4.42 4.49 cup-and-plate 50.28 54.09 64.46 56.28 60.41 79.22 71.73 70.45 7.81 10.17 9.31 9.10 4.69 7.72 6.86 6.42 trench 53.13 46.46 56.35 51.98 53.31 68.67 62.37 61.45 7.68 8.89 8.06 8.21 4.21 6.36 5.69 5.42 se(m)± 2.38 2.29 2.13 1.05 5.06 2.03 2.59 1.55 0.29 0.37 0.36 0.18 0.35 0.38 0.32 0.16 cd (p=0.5) ns 7.13 6.34 3.26 ns 6.33 8.06 4.83 ns 1.14 1.12 0.58 ns 1.18 1.00 0.51 mulch: no mulch 46.12 40.31 50.19 45.54 50.56 58.75 51.84 53.72 6.76 7.63 6.55 6.98 3.93 5.24 4.43 4.53 inorganic mulch 50.45 47.19 56.13 51.26 56.2 69.22 62.97 62.8 7.84 8.92 8.01 8.26 4.16 6.43 5.63 5.41 organic mulch 49.83 48.89 57.35 52.02 57.57 72.48 64.47 64.84 7.75 8.83 7.98 8.19 4.26 6.51 5.77 5.51 se(m) ± 2.45 1.99 1.8 1.81 3.09 2.44 3.27 1.36 0.36 0.36 0.26 0.14 0.31 0.36 0.24 0.11 cd (p=0.5) ns 5.76 5.21 3.04 ns 7.05 9.47 3.94 ns 1.04 0.74 0.39 ns 1.04 0.69 0.32 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):99-101, 2015 deepa samant et al 101 and straw mulch on plant growth have also been reported in guava by das et al (2010). use of organic mulch resulted in the highest yield, which was at par with yield recorded in the inorganic much treatment. increase in the yield under these mulches was due to a significant increase in number of fruits, over no mulch. average fruit weight under both organic and inorganic mulch was also high, although statistically at par with no mulch. higher yield under mulching due to better conservation and improved availability of soil moisture, suppression of weed growth and decrease in soil temperature (which, in turn, resulted in better fruit retention and reduced fruit-drop) have been reported by shirgure et al (2005) in acid lime, by ghosh and tarai (2007) in ber, and by sharma and kathiravan (2009) in plum. tss in the fruit was significantly influenced by application of organic and inorganic mulch, but not so for the other fruit-quality parameters. improvement in tss by use of mulch may be due to soil moisture conservation which, ultimately, may have caused mobilization of soluble carbohydrates to the fruit (nath and sharma, 1994). improvement in fruit quality with application of mulch was also observed by ghosh and tarai (2007) in ber. cup-and-plate system of in situ rain-water harvesting and mulching either with paddy-straw or black polythene (100µ thickness) could, therefore, be useful for providing better growth, fruit yield and quality in rainfed mango in the humid tropics of eastern india. references das, b.c., maji, s. and roy mulieh, s. 2010. response of soil covers on guava cv. l-49. j. crop weed, 6:1014 ghosh, s.n. and tarai, r.k. 2007. effect of mulching on soil moisture, yield and quality of ber (zyzyphus mauritiana). indian j. soil consn., 35:246-248 lal, h., samra, j.s. and arora, y.k. 2003. kinnow mandarin in doon valley: 2. effect of irrigation and mulching on water use, soil temperature, weed population and nutrient losses. indian j. soil consn., 31:281-286 nath, j.c. and sharma, r. 1994. a note on the effect of organic mulches on fruit quality of assam lemon (citrus limon burm.). haryana j. hortl. sci., 23:46-48 panigrahi, p., huchehe, a.d., srivastava, a.k. and shyam singh. 2008. effect of drip irrigation and plastic mulch on performance of nagpur mandarin (citrus reticulata) grown in central india. indian j. agril. sci., 78:1005-1009 sharma, j.c. and kathiravan, g. 2009. effect of mulches on soil hydrothermal regimes and growth of plum in mid-hill region of himachal pradesh. indian j. hort., 66:465-471 shirgure, p.s., shyam singh, panigrahi, p. and sarkar, r.k. 2005. evaluation of mulches for improving bearing in acid lime. indian j. soil consn., 33:62-66 (ms received 25 november 2014, revised 30 april 2015, accepted 11 may 2015) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):99-101, 2015 in situ rain-water harvesting and mulching in mango var. arka neelachal kesri microsatellite identification in solanaceae crops associated with nucleoside diphosphate kinase (ndk) specific to abiotic stress tolerance through in silico analysis reena rosy thomas, m.k. chandra prakash, m. krishna reddy1, sukhada mohandas2 and riaz mahmood3 section of economics & statistics indian institute of horticultural research, hessaraghatta bangalore -560089, india email : reenart@hotmail.com abstract abiotic stress often causes a series of morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular changes that affect plant growth, development and productivity. to cope with abiotic stresses, it is necessary to understand plant responses to stresses that disturb homeostatic equilibrium at the cellular and molecular level. genomic information on capsicum annuum has been explored to identify microsatellite markers associated with abiotic stress tolerance and assign them to cognate functional groups related to specific stress responses. several in silico methods have been used to identify simple sequence repeats associated with stress responsive gene candidates in capsicum annuum. in this study, a microsatellite marker has been identified in capsicum annuum associated with nucleoside diphosphate kinase (ndk) having multiple environmental stress tolerance (oxidative, high temperature and salt stress) and which is also highly conserved in crops of solanaceae. these are house-keeping enzymes that maintain intracellular levels of all nucleoside triphosphates (ntp) with the exception of adenosine triphosphate (atp). these are also involved in phytochrome a response, uv-b signaling, auxin responses and oxidative stress signaling. key words: nucleoside diphosphate kinase (ndk), microsatellite, abiotic stress, solanaceae j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):195-198, 2013 1division of plant pathology, 2division of biotechnology, indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore 560 089, india 3dept. of biotechnology, kuvempu university, shimoga 577 451 introduction stress conditions such as drought, high salinity and extreme temperatures, are major factors affecting plant growth and crop productivity (boyer, 1982) and are often inter-related. exposure to adverse abiotic environmental conditions causes oxidative stress in plants by rapid and excessive accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ros) in their cells (foyer et al, 1994). reactive oxygen species inactivate enzymes and damage important cellular components. ros are responsible for protein, lipid and nucleic acid modification. as several stress responses are mediated through ros, plants make use of common pathways that allow them to acclimatize to a range of different stresses and some changes in ros metabolism cause enhanced tolerance and sensitivity. therefore, to provide adequate protection against a hazardous environment, a common signaling system has evolved in plants and is known as cross-tolerance (bowler and fluhr, 2000). plants respond to environmental stresses by activating related genes, to increase their tolerance to the latter. however, engineering of an individual stress-response gene has not been effective because many kinds of stress responses are necessary for plants to survive under various adverse conditions. an understanding of plant responses to abiotic stresses at the genomic level provides a foundation for identifying genes, microsatellite markers and associated elements. it has been reported in plants that nucleoside diphosphate kinases (ndks) play a key role in signaling both stress and light. however, little is known about structural elements involved in their function. ndks are ubiquitous enzymes that transfer phosphate groups from triphosphate nucleosides to nucleoside diphosphates (ndps) (parks and agarwal, 1973). these enzymes play an important role in phytochromea response, uv-b signaling, heat stress, and growth (yano et al, 1995). sequence of the ndk has been highly conserved throughout evolution. a single histidine residue is conserved in all known ndk isozymes and is involved in the catalytic mechanism. ndk2 plays a 196 regulatory role in h2o2-mediated mitogen-activated protein kinase (mapk) signaling in plants, indicating that plant ndks also have a diverse array of biological functions (moon et al, 2003). among various ndks expressed in arabidopsis thaliana, ndk2 is known to be involved in phytochrome-mediated signal transduction (yang et al, 2003; im et al, 2004). meterial and methods with whole-genome sequencing initiatives, large amounts of genomic sequence data are available in the public domain that serve as an attractive source of in silico mining of microsatellite sequences. however, finding potentially useful microsatellites that occupy specific genomic regions in plants, still remains a challenge. availability of this information can facilitate discovery of microsatellites associated with abiotic stress tolerance, using in silico methods. capsicum annuum est database, consisting approximately 23000 sequences, has been explored for microsatellites having low-complexity repeats, for identification of markers associated with stress tolerance. of the 23000 est sequences, 2507 non-redundant est sequences having repeats comprising of di, tri, tetra and penta ssrs were located using repeat finder programs. these 2507 est sequences were converted to textual data in fasta format. a computer program developed in microsoft’s visual studio 2010 in windows platform has been coded specifically to read large-size of text files. potential microsatellite markers comprising single, di and tri-nucleotide repeats were located in the text file, based on input data. these sequences were further subjected to in silico analysis for classifying the markers and to assign them to cognate functional groups related to specific stress responses. results and discussion one of the 2507 non-redundant est sequences with a length of 755bp from c. annuum, found to have a marker associated with nucleoside diphosphate kinase (ndk), was subjected to blast analysis. the 755bp sequence of capsicum annuum nucleoside diphosphate kinase mrna sequence with a single nucleotide repeat sequence of 22bp of a repeats is given below: ggcacgagatttgctaactcattcagtaacatcaa agaagcaagaaatggagcaaactttcatcatgatt aagcctgatggtgtccaacgtggcctcgttggtga gattatcggcagatttgaaaagaaaggtttctctt tgaaaggtttgaagctcatcactgtggatcgcgct tttgctgagaagcattatgcagatttgtctgctaag cctttctttaatgggcttgttgagtacattgtttct ggacccgttgtctctatggtctgggaaggtaaggg tgtacttaccactggcaggaagatcattggagcaa ccaaccccttggaatctgctcctggtaccatccgtg gtgattatgctattgacattggcaggaatgtcattc atggaagtgatgctgttgagagtgcaaggaaggaga ttgctctttggttccccgaaggagttgcagagtgg cagagcagccttcactgttggatctacgagtagaaaa gttctatgaaagatttcatggccagcctctttggttg taacttatgagttttgtttgtcatttaagtccagaa gtaacttaagagttttgttcgtcatttaagtccag aagttagatgtttttaagatctactagcggttccct atttgaagaatatttaagttgtggtgttttatctgttg tgttccatgtgttgcaatttctagtaattgagcttcca caattttttagccgtcaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa blast analysis shown in fig. 1 revealed that the nucleoside diphosphate kinase (ndk) sequence is evolutionarily conserved, conferring multiple environmental stress tolerance (oxidative, high temperature and salt stress). further, the associated 22 base pair of single nucleotide ‘a’ repeat is also evolutionarily conserved in most of the solanaceae crops (shown in green colour). this could be a potential microsatellite marker associated with ndk sequence. data in table 1 indicate that c. annuum sequence with a maximum identicality of >90% and e value of 0.0 fig 1. blast analysis result shows that ndk sequence is highly conserved in crops of solanaceae; red color shows high sequence similarity and green colour shows associated marker of single nucleotide a repeats of 22 base pair length j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):195-198, 2013 reena rosy thomas et al 197 table 1. significant hit of nucleotide blast results against c. annuum 755bp ndk sequence description max total query e max accession score score coverage value identity number capsicum annuum nucleoside 1395 1395 100% 0.0 100% af108881.1 diphosphate kinase mrna, complete cds solanum chacoense cytosolic nucleoside 743 743 72% 0.0 91% dq157699.1 diphosphate kinase mrna, complete cds nicotiana tabacum nucleoside diphosphate 719 719 72% 0.0 90% ay962601.1 kinase mrna, complete cds solanum lycopersicum cdna, clone: 676 676 72% 0.0 89% ak320311.1 lefl1007ch03, htc in leaf solanum lycopersicum cdna, clone: 676 676 72% 0.0 89% ak246327.1 fc06dd10, htc in fruit lycopersicon esculentum clone 114282r, 676 676 72% 0.0 89% bt013034.1 mrna sequence solanum lycopersicum nucleoside diphosphate 636 636 68% 9e-179 89% nm_001247245. kinase (loc544095), mrna >emb|x75324.1| l. esculentum (ailsa craig) mrna for nucleoside diphosphate kinase belongs to solanaceae crops. it is also highly conserved in solanum chacoense, nicotiana tabacum, solanum lycopersicum and lycopersicon esculentum. protein sequence similarity protein sequence of ndk also blasted against protein database from ncbi, showed highest similarity with arabidopsis thaliana (fig. 2). putative conserved domains are shown as small, red triangles against c. annuum sequences. it is seen that the sequence belongs to ndpk superfamily which has been highly conserved through evolution. molecular graphic structure of ndk in arabidopsis thaliana is shown in fig. 3. ndk protein sequence of c. annuum, given below, has100% similarity to arabidopsis thaliana. >gi|7643788|gb|aaf65509.1| nucleoside diphosphate kinase [capsicum annuum] meqtfimikpdgvqrglvgeiigrfekkgfslkglkl itvdrafaekhyadlsakpffnglveyivsgpvvs mvwegkgvlttgrkiigatnplesapgtirgdyaid igrnvihgsdavesarkeialwfpegvaewqsslhc wiye fig 2. putative conserved domain and blast hits on protein sequence of c. annuum that shows high similarity with arabidopsis thaliana fig 3. molecular graphic structure of ndk in arabidopsis thaliana j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):195-198, 2013 microsatellites in solanaceae specific to abiotic stress tolerance 198 from table 2, it is evident that c. annuum ndk protein sequence has >98% query coverage and is 80% identical to arabidopsis thaliana sequences. plant ndk plays a prominent role in plant defense mechanisms and involvement of ndk is associated with various stress mechanisms. it was proved that over expression of ndk resulted in tolerance against several environmental stresses such oxidative stress, high temperature and salt stress. c. annuum 755bp sequence having the maximum identicality with nucleotide and protein sequences in solanaceae crops and arabidopsis confirms similar structural and molecular functions. as the sequence of microsatellite marker is evolutionarily conserved across solanaceae crops, this could be useful in selecting parental lines and developing abiotic-stress tolerant crops. references bowler, c. and fluhr, r. 2000. the role of calcium and activated oxygen as signals for controlling crosstolerance. trends pl. sci., 5:241–246 boyer, j.s. 1982. plant productivity and environment. science, 218:443–448 foyer, c.h., descourvieres, p. and kunert, k.j. 1994. protection against oxygen radicals: an important defense mechanism studied in transgenic plants. plant cell environ., 17:507-523 im, y.j., kim, j.i., shen, y., na, y., han, y.j., kim, s.h., song, p.s. and eom, s.h. 2004. structural analysis of arabidopsis thaliana nucleoside diphosphate kinase2 for phytochrome-mediated light signaling. j. mol. biol., 343:659-70 moon, h., lee, b., choi, g., shin, d., prasad, d.t., lee, o., kwak, s.s., kim, d.h., nam, j., bahk, j., hong, j.c., lee, s.y., cho, m.j., lim, c.o. and yun, d.j. 2003. ndp kinase 2 interacts with two oxidative stress-activated mapks to regulate cellular redox state and enhances multiple stress tolerance in transgenic plants. proc. nat’l. acad. sci., usa, 100:358–363 parks, r.e.j. and agarwal, r.p. 1973. nucleoside diphosphokinases. in: the enzymes, boyer, p.d (ed.). academic, new york, usa, pp. 307–334 yang, k.a., moon, h.j., kim, g.t., lim, c.j., hong, j.c., lim, c.o. and yun, d.j. 2003. ndp kinase 2 regulates expression of antioxidant genes in arabidopsis. proc. jpn. acad. ser., b, 79:86–91 yano, a., umeda, m. and uchimiya, h. 1995. expression of functional proteins of cdna encoding rice nucleoside diphosphate kinase (ndk) in escherichia coli and organ related alteration of ndk activities during rice seed germination (oryza sativa l.). pl. mol. biol., 27:1053–1058 table 2. protein blast result of c. annuum ndk protein sequence against arabidopsis thaliana protein sequences description max total query e max accession score score cover value indent nucleoside diphosphate kinase 1 255 255 100% 7e-87 80% np_567346.1 [arabidopsis thaliana] >gb|aee82742.1| nucleoside diphosphate kinase 1 [arabidopsis thaliana] recname: full=nucleoside diphosphate kinase 1; 254 254 100% 9e-87 80% p39207.1 altname: full=nucleoside diphosphate kinase i; short=ndk i; nucleoside diphosphate kinase [arabidopsis thaliana] 250 250 98% 3e-85 80% caa49170.1 unknown protein [arabidopsis thaliana] >gb 242 242 95% 7e-82 80% aak48956.1 |aal66933.1| unknown protein [arabidopsis thaliana] nucleoside diphosphate kinase [arabidopsis thaliana] 223 223 100% 3e-74 74% caa49173.1 chain a, crystal structure of nucleoside diphosphate 196 196 100% 1e-63 60% 1s57_a kinase 2 from arabidopsis> pdb|1s57|b chain b, crystal structure of nucleoside diphosphate kinase 2 from arabidopsis nucleoside diphosphate kinase ia [arabidopsis thaliana] 196 196 100% 1e-63 60% aac14280.1 (ms received 07 february 2013, revised 06 september 2013, accepted 24 september 2013) j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):195-198, 2013 reena rosy thomas et al onion ranks as the second highest crop in the world in terms of production, among vegetables. it is extensively used in human diet and has some medicinal properties. it is also exported from india to several countries. onion cultivation in india is at a stage where a large number of varieties and hybrids have been developed, and are under use by the farmer. onion production, productivity and prices fluctuate greatly. low keeping-quality of recently bred varieties / hybrids and their susceptibility to diseases are a major threat to onion cultivation. however, onion production, in general, is very low and unstable. systematic efforts are lacking on genetic improvement of this crop. the phenotype of an individual is determined by its genotype and the environment in which it grows, or is stored, and genotypes may respond differently to various environments. effectiveness of selection as a breeding method depends on the magnitude of genetic variability, association between various characters, and, their direct and indirect effects on yield and heritability. the relative magnitude of these parameters helps us decide upon a breeding programme for achieving maximum advance in the minimum amount of time with available resources. short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):237-241, 2015 studies on genetic variability, correlation and path analysis of yield and yield components in onion r. rajya lakshmi horticultural research station venkataramannagudem, west godavari dist. -534101, india email: rajlaxmi_vzm@rediffmail.com abstract evaluation of 11 varieties of onion, viz., n-2-4-1, b-780, aflr, afdr, aw, c-355, pusa red, l-28, arka kalyan, phule samarth and local revealed that pcv was greater than gcv for all the traits. high values for heritability, coupled with moderate-to-high gcv and genetic gain, were noticed for neck thickness, weight and diameter of the bulb and bulb yield, which can be improved by simple selection. moderate-to-high estimates for heritability accompanied by low gcv / genetic gain were observed for plant height and number of leaves, which warrant heterosis breeding for amelioration. genotypic correlation coefficients were higher than the corresponding phenotypic ones for most of the characters, reflecting a predominant role of the heritable factors. yield showed positive association with plant height, neck thickness, weight, length, equatorial diameter of the bulb, both at the phenotypic and genotypic levels. path coefficient analysis revealed a positive direct effect with regard to plant height, neck thickness, weight, length and diameter of the bulb. hence, these are the main characters contributing to yield potential of the onion plant. therefore, it is suggested to lay emphasis on these traits while imposing selection for bulb yield in the onion crop. key words: correlation, genetic advance, heritability, onion, variability yield is a complex trait influenced by several genetic factors that interact with the environment. success in any breeding programme for yield improvement depends on the existing genetic variability in the base population, and on the efficiency of selection. for successful selection, it is necessary to study the nature of association of the trait in question with other relevant traits, as also the genetic variability available for the same. path coefficient provides a better index for selection than mere correlation coefficient, as, it separates the correlation coefficients of yield and yield components into direct and indirect effects. therefore, the present study was undertaken with an objective of evaluating the nature and magnitude of variability, character-association among various traits, heritability, and expected genetic gain in onion. information on such aspects can be of great help in formulating an appropriate breeding strategy for genetic upgradation of this important commercial vegetable crop. the experiment was laid out in randomized block design, with three replications, during rabi season of 200607, 07-08 and 08-09 at agricultural research station, seethampeta. eleven cultivars of onion, viz., n-2-4-1, b238 780, aflr, afdr, aw, c-355, pusa red, l-28, arka kalyan, phule samarth and local, collected from various sources, were tested. eight-week old, healthy seedlings of each variety were transplanted on flat beds at a spacing of 15cm x 10cm in a plot size of 3.6m x 3.0m. recommended package of practices was adopted to raise the crop successfully. observations were recorded on plant height, number of leaves/plant, neck thickness, polar bulb diameter, equatorial bulb diameter, bulb weight and total soluble solids, from five randomly-selected plants in each plot. bulb yield was accounted for on per plot basis. analysis of variance (anova) was carried out as per to cochran and cox (1950). genotypic coefficient of variation (gcv) and phenotypic coefficient variation (pcv) was estimated using the formula of burton and dewane (1952). heritability in the broad sense (h2) and expected genetic advance (ga) were worked out according to allard (1960). analysis of covariance for all the combinations of traits was made and used for estimating correlations. phenotypic and genotypic correlation was worked out as per falconer (1964). path coefficient of various traits under study was calculated as per dewey and lu (1959). mean square estimates were significant for all the traits, indicating sufficient diversity among varieties. the range of variation encountered and the genetic parameters estimated are presented in table 1. the range was highest for bulb yield (165.9-241.4 q/ha), followed by bulb weight (18.33-54.63g) and plant height (29.86-40.83cm); and, this was medium-to-low for number of leaves per plant (7.110.9), tss (17.48-21.14ob), length of bulb (2.18-5.4cm), equatorial diameter of bulb (1.38-4.07cm) and neck thickness (0.32-1.67cm). substantial difference within phenotypic (pcv) and genotypic coefficient of variation (gcv) was observed for all the attributes. high pcv and gcv were noticed for neck thickness (26.04, 28.13%), bulb yield (22.4, 24.86%), bulb weight (22.1, 24.21%) and equatorial diameter of bulb (20.83, 22.12%), while, these were moderate for length of bulb (18.19, 20.12%) and number of leaves per plant (9.35, 12.81%). this explains the high phenotypic and genotypic variability among accessions, and responsiveness of the traits for planning further improvement by selection. pcv was higher than the corresponding gcv for all the traits studied, which could be due to an interaction of the varieties with their environment (to some degree) suggesting that environmental factors influence expression of these characters. a high degree of disparity between pcv and gcv for number of leaves per plant and length of bulb depicted the susceptibility of these traits to environment fluctuations. a close correspondence between pcv and gcv for the rest of the traits implied their relative resistance to environmental variation. these results are in conformity with findings of mohanty and prusti (2001). estimates for heritability indicate the effectiveness with which selection can be expected, for exploiting the existing genetic variability (burton and dewane, 1952). in the present investigation, this ranged from 26.91% for tss, to 89.54% for equatorial diameter of the bulb. a high heritability was observed for equatorial diameter of the bulb, neck thickness, weight of the bulb, bulb yield and polar bulb diameter. however, for plant height and number of leaves per plant, moderate heritability was observed. high heritability in the broad sense indicated that a large proportion of phenotypic variance was attributable to genotypic variance, and that the differences observed for these characters among genotypes were real; and, traits were less influenced by the environment, and, selection based on phenotypic performance for these traits would prove table 1. range, mean, variance, coefficients of variation, heritability and genetic advance for bulb yield and other traits in onion trait mean range genetic phenotypic genetic phenotypic heritability genetic genetic (min – max) variance variance coefficient coefficient (%) advance advance of variation of variation as % of mean plant height (cm) 36.50 29.86 40.83 9.75 12.80 8.55 9.80 76.15 5.61 15.38 no. of leaves 9.68 7.10 10.90 0.82 1.54 9.35 12.81 53.00 1.36 14.06 neck thickness (cm) 1.33 0.32 1.67 0.12 0.14 26.04 28.13 83.52 0.66 49.67 equatorial bulb 3.56 1.38 4.07 0.55 0.62 20.83 22.12 89.54 1.43 40.41 diameter (cm) bulb weight (g) 42.85 18.33 54.63 89.72 107.63 22.10 24.21 83.36 17.81 41.57 polar bulb 4.50 2.18 5.40 0.67 0.82 18.19 20.12 81.52 1.52 33.87 diameter (cm) tss (ºb) 18.91 17.48 21.14 0.48 1.80 3.66 7.09 26.91 0.73 3.89 yield q/ha 175.0 165.9 241.4 15.49 18.93 22.4 24.86 81.84 7.33 41.9 rajya lakshmi j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):237-241, 2015 239 effective. earlier workers have also obtained similar results, viz., high heritability for bulb yield (singh et al, 1995), weight of the bulb (mohanty and prusti, 2001; mahin et al, 2011), neck thickness and diameter of the bulb (gurjar and singhania, 2006; hossain et al, 2008). our study revealed a moderate heritability for number of leaves and plant height. these results are in consonance with gurjar and singhania (2006) and mohanty (2001). heritability is not an absolute parameter, as, heritability can be high even when genetic variance is low. however, the expected genetic gain can be high only if genetic variance is high (allard, 1960). burton advocated that gcv, along with heritability estimates, can furnish a better picture of the amount of progress expected by phenotypic selection. heritability estimates, in conjunction with genetic gain, are more effective and dependable in anticipating improvement through selection (johnson et al, 1955). expected genetic gain was high for neck thickness, bulb yield, bulb weight and equatorial diameter of the bulb; moderate for polar bulb diameter, and low for tss, number of leaves and plant height. similarly, patil et al (1986) and gurjar and singhania (2006) reported high genetic gain for bulb yield and low genetic gain for tss, which is in agreement with our study. high values for heritability, coupled with moderate to high gcv and genetic gain, were noticed for neck thickness, weight and diameter of the bulb, and bulb yield. this may be attributed to additive gene action controlling inheritance of these traits. phenotypic selection for their amelioration can be achieved by simple methods like mass selection or bulk method, after performing hybridization in the early generations (panse, 1957). moderate-to-high estimates for heritability, accompanied by low gcv and genetic gain, were observed for plant height and number of leaves. it can be inferred that these traits were conditioned by non-additive gene action and high genotype-environment interaction. the heritability is expressed due to a favourable influence of the environment rather than the genotype, and, simple selection would be rewarding. however, the genotypes can be improved by developing hybrid varieties or by isolation of transgressive segregates in heterosis breeding programmes. these results support the reports of gowda et al (1988), gurjar and singhania (2006) and mahin et al (2011). estimates for phenotypic and genotypic correlation coefficient (table 2) imply that genotypic correlation was of a higher magnitude than the corresponding phenotypic correlation for most of the character combinations, thereby establishing a strong inherent relationship among the attributes studied. the yield showed a positive association with plant height, neck thickness, and weight, length, equatorial diameter of the bulb, both at the phenotypic and the genotypic level (hossain et al, 2008; marey et al, 2012). table 2. phenotypic (p) and genotypic (g) correlation coefficients among various trais in onion no. of neck bulb polar bulb equatorial tss yield leaves thickness weight (g) diameter (cm) bulb diameter (ºb) (t/ha) (cm) (cm) plant height (cm) p 0.5974 0.7774** 0.7399** 0.7518** 0.7530** -0.3466 0.3980 g 0.7674** 0.8117** 0.8761** 0.8222** 0.8283** -0.6715* 0.4253 no. of leaves p 0.7162* 0.6804* 0.6553* 0.7470** -0.4960 0.0121 g 0.8777** 0.8877** 0.8896** 1.0160** -1.0975** -0.0546 neck thickness (cm) p 0.7774** 0.8298** 0.8549** -0.4416 0.1079 g 0.8542** 0.9457** 0.9693** -0.9267** 0.1445 bulb weight (g) p 0.8076** 0.8302** -0.6307* 0.4339 g 0.9310** 1.0037** -1.0263** 0.4849 polar bulb diameter (cm) p 0.8689** -0.5065 0.2822 g 0.9566** -0.8470** 0.2864 equatorial bulb p -0.5323 0.2309 diameter (cm) g -1.1355** 0.2238 tss p -0.2838 (ºb) g -0.3709 *significant at 5%; **significant at 1% genetic variability, yield and yield components in onion j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):237-241, 2015 240 inter-relationship between plant height, neck thickness, and weight, length, equatorial diameter of the bulb, was significant both at the phenotypic and the genotypic level. a negative correlation of bulb yield was observed with tss. earlier studies observed a positive association of bulb yield with plant height, neck thickness, and weight and equatorial diameter of the bulb (raghu ram and singh, 2000; mohanty and prusti, 2001) and negative association with tss (gurjar and singhania, 2006). path coefficient analysis was performed to assess direct and indirect effects of various traits on bulb yield (table 3). even though correlation analysis can quantify the degree of association between two characters, it does not provide reasons for such an association. a simple linear correlation coefficient is designed for detecting the presence of linear association between two variables; it cannot detect any other type of variable association. thus, non-significant correlation coefficient values cannot be taken to imply absence of any functional relationship between two variables. path coefficient analysis unravels this mystery by breaking the total correlation coefficient into components of direct and indirect effects. bulb-weight had the maximum direct positive effect on bulb-yield. plant height and polar bulb diameter had a direct positive effect on bulb-yield at the phenotypic level. neck thickness and equatorial diameter of the bulb showed direct positive effect on bulb-yield, at the genotypic level only. very high and positive direct effect of bulb-weight even after counter-balance by its negative indirect effects via the number of leaves per plant, registered a strong positive table 3. path coefficients in onion plant no. of neck bulb polar equatorial tss correlation height leaves thickness weight bulb bulb (ºb) with bulb (cm) (cm) (g) diameter diameter yield (cm) (cm) plant height (cm) p (0.5755) -0.2443 -0.5450 0.5170 0.0717 -0.0189 0.0420 0.3980 g (-0.4147) -1.8000 0.4929 2.8565 -0.9097 0.3954 -0.1951 0.4253 no. of leaves p 0.3438 (-0.4089) -0.5020 0.4754 0.0625 -0.0188 0.0601 0.0121 g -0.3182 (-2.3455) 0.5329 2.8943 -0.9843 0.4850 -0.3188 -0.0546 neck thickness (cm) p 0.4474 -0.2928 (-0.7010) 0.5432 0.0791 -0.0215 0.0535 0.1079 g -0.3366 -2.0586 (0.6072) 2.7853 -1.0463 0.4627 -0.2692 0.1445 bulb weight (g) p 0.4259 -0.2782 -0.5450 (0.6987) 0.0778 -0.0208 0.0764 0.4339 g -0.3633 -2.0820 0.5187 (3.2606) -1.0301 0.4791 -0.2982 0.4849 polar bulb diameter (cm) p 0.4327 -0.2679 -0.5816 0.5642 (0.0953) -0.0218 0.0613 0.2822 g -0.3409 -2.0866 0.5742 3.0356 (-1.1064) 0.4567 -0.2461 0.2864 equatorial bulb p 0.4334 -0.3054 -0.5993 0.5801 0.0828 (-0.0251) 0.0645 0.2309 diameter (cm) g -0.3435 -2.3830 0.5886 3.2727 -1.0584 (0.4774) -0.3299 0.2238 tss p -0.1995 0.2028 0.3096 -0.4407 -0.0483 0.0134 (-0.1211) -0.2838 (ºb) g 0.2784 2.5742 -0.5627 -3.3464 0.9371 -0.5421 (0.2905) -0.3709 p= phenotypic; g=genotypic (values in parentheses are direct effects) direct effect on yield. on the other hand, number of leaves per plant displayed a negative direct effect on yield at both genotypic and phenotypic levels. earlier workers have reported a direct positive effect of bulb-weight on bulb-yield (mohanty and prusti, 2001; gurjar and singhania, 2006) keeping in view the estimates for correlation coefficients and direct / indirect contribution of component traits to bulb-yield, selection should be done on the basis of bulb-weight, as, it has a positive direct effect and a high indirect effect via several other traits. results of our study indicate that plant height, neck thickness, and weight, polar and equatorial diameter of the bulb, have a positive correlation with bulb-yield. path coefficient analysis revealed a positive direct effect of plant height, neck thickness, and weight, polar and equatorial diameter of the bulb. therefore, these are the main traits, contributing to yield potential in the onion plant. thus, these characters should serve as an ideal criterion for selecting for yield in a crop of onion. this study also revealed that the wealth of variability available in onion offers good prospects for improvement of this crop in the near future. references allard, r.w. 1960. principles of plant breeding. john wiley & sons, inc., new york, pp. 89-98 burton, g.w. 1952. qualitative inheritance in grasses. procs. sixth international grassland congress, ames, iowa, usa, pp. 273-283 cochran, w.g. and cox, g.m. 1950. experimental design. john wiley & sons, inc., new york, usa, pp. 617 dewey, d.r. and lu, k.h. 1959. a correlation and path rajya lakshmi j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):237-241, 2015 241 coefficient analysis of components of crested wheat grass seed production. agronomy j., 51:515-518 falconer, d.s. 1964. introduction to quantitative genetics. oliver and boyd, edinburgh, pp. 312-324 gowda, r.v., singh, t.h. and somkumar, r.g. 1988. genetic variability in onion. pkv res. j., 22:146-148 gurjar, r.s.s. and singhania, d.l. 2006. genetic variability, correlation and path analysis of yield and yield components in onion. indian j. hort., 63:53-58 hossain, m.s., khalekuzzaman, m., rashid, m.h. and rahman, m.s. 2008. variability and interrelationship among yield and yield contributing characters in onion (allium cepa l.). j. bio-sci., 16:85-88 johnson, h.w., robinson, m.f. and comstock, r.e. 1955. estimation of genetic and environmental variability in soybeans. agronomy j., 47:314-318 marey, r.a., abo dahab, a.m.a. and karam s.s. 2012. phenotypic correlation and path coefficient analysis in some onion genotypes grown in upper egypt. j. agril. res. kafer ei-sheikh univ., 38:154-156 mahin, r., alireza, m., nasser, m., habib, d., samaneh, k. and fahimeh, y. 2011. evaluation of genetic variability of six iranian landraces of onion (allium (ms received 24 april 2014, revised 11 may 2015, accepted 29 june 2015) genetic variability, yield and yield components in onion j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):237-241, 2015 cepa l.) for seed yield and yield components. russian agril. sci., 37:385-391 mohanty, b.k. 2001. genetic variability, inter-relationship and path analysis in kharif onion. annl. agril. res., 22:349-353 mohanty, b.k and prusti, a.m. 2001. studies on variability, heritability, correlation and path coefficients in kharif onion. the orissa j. hort., 29:75-78 panse, v.g. 1957. genetics of quantitative characters in relation to plant breeding. indian j. genet, 17:318328 patil, j.d., desale, g.y. and kale, p.n. 1986. genetic variability studies in onion (allium cepa l.). j. maharashtra agril. univ., 11:281-283 raghu ram, n. and singh, n. 2000. studies on genetic variability in onion. nat’l. symp. onion-garlic production and post harvest management challenges and strategies. 19-21 november 2000, nasik, maharashtra, india, pp. 188 singh, j., pandey, u.c. and rana, m.k. 1995. stability parameters for desirable traits in onion (allium cepa l.) cultivars. haryana j. hortl. sci., 24:60-64 introduction the kiwifruit, being a perennial and winter-dormant vine, requires winter chilling for breaking bud dormancy and inducing flowering the following spring. the chilling requirement is reported to cause transition of both vegetative and floral buds of temperate or semi-deciduous subtropical fruit species, including kiwifruit (george et al, 2002). in the event of unavailability of chilling period, dormex (hydrogen cyanamide) has been successfully used for break dormancy in many crops. in addition to increasing and indusing highly synchronized bud-break, hydrogen cyanamide is also known to increase number of flowers per shoot and to synchronize the flowering period (henzell and briscoe, 1986; linsleynoakes, 1989; walton and fawke, 1993). dormex is also found to advance the date of bud-break by 10 to 15 days in kiwifruit (mcpherson et al, 1999). it is found to inhibit action of the enzyme catalase. catalase plays a very important role in plants in detoxifying hydrogen peroxide by catalyzing its breakdown to water and oxygen. when the action of catalase is inhibited by dormex, the plant detoxifies hydrogen peroxide via a sequence of reactions eventually coupled to the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway (ppp). dormex stimulates these reactions which, in turn, lead to increase in turnover rate of ppp. due to stimulation of ppp, a range of substances (rna, dna, pentose sugars etc.) responsible for new growth in a plant are produced at higher rates. j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):47-50, 2013 effect of dormex on bud-break, flowering and yield in kiwifruit cv. hayward in mid-hill zone of himachal pradesh babita and vishal s. rana department of fruit science dr. y.s. parmar university of horticulture & forestry nauni, solan 173230, india e-mail : drvishal_uhf@rediffmail.com abstract the present investigation was carried out on eight year old hayward kiwifruit vines to study the effect of dormex on bud-break, flowering and yield. treatments included spray of dormex (2 & 4%) on february 10th, 20th and march 2nd. application of 4% dormex on 10th february, i.e., 40 days prior to anticipated date of natural bud-break, resulted in advancement of bud break and floral-bud emergence by seven days, fruit-set by five days and increase in flowering period by five days. key words: kiwifruit, dormex, bud-break, yield the hayward variety of kiwifruit has highest chilling requirement among the commercial varieties (lawes, 1984). this cultivar sometimes produces a poor crop due to lack of chilling and non-synchronized of flowering of male and female cultivars. the present investigation was, therefore, carried out to study the effects of dormex on bud-break, flowering and fruit yield in ‘hayward’ kiwifruit. material and methods the experiment was conducted in dr. yashwant singh parmar university of horticulture and forestry, nauni, solan (h.p.), located at 30o51’n latitude. temperature prevailent during the experiment was 25oc. eight year old vines of ‘hayward’ kiwifruit, planted at a distance of 4m x 6m and trained on t-bar system were selected for the study which comprised seven treatments, viz., t 1 (dormex 2% on 10th february), t 2 (dormex 2% on 20th february), t 3 (dormex 2% on 2nd march), t 4 (dormex 4% on 10th february), t 5 (dormex 4% on 20th february), t 6 (dormex 4% on 2nd march) and t 7 (control). dormex was applied as foliar spray approximately 30-45 days prior to natural bud-break. the time of bud-break was recorded on ten randomly tagged shoots located at the periphery of each vine when bud-break was distinctly visible. emergence of flower buds was also recorded on these tagged shoots. date of full bloom was recorded when more than 75% flowers opened, and 48 the date of fruit set when all petals dropped after complete fruit set. total fruit yield was determined on the basis of total weight of fruits harvested from a vine under each treatment, and average yield per vine was calculated. yield was expressed as kilograms per vine (kg/vine). fruits harvested from the vines were categorized into three grades on the basis of fruit weight. these grades were: a grade (>80g), b grade (50-80g) and c grade (<50g). per cent fruits of different grades per vine was calculated using the following formula: % yield of grade ‘x’ = yield of grade ‘x’ (kg/vine) x 100 total yield (kg/vine) where, ‘x’ = grade a or b or c data obtained from the investigation were statistically analyzed for randomized block design and differences exhibited by different treatments were tested for significance as per gomez and gomez (1984). results and discussion bud break maximum advancement in time of bud-break i.e., seven days was recorded in vines sprayed with 4% dormex on 10th february, where bud-break was observed on 13th march (fig. 1). vines sprayed with 2% dormex on the same date showed bud-break on 14th march and advanced budbreak by six days over the control. bud-break in untreated vines occurred on 20th march. dormex has been shown to promote early and more uniform bud-break in kiwifruit (linsley-noakes, 1989 and schuck and petri, 1995). dormex penetrates bud scales better and gets absorbed in buds, leading to bud-break (foott, 1987). flowering characteristics it is evident from data presented in table 1 that dormex applied at various time intervals and concentrations influenced blooming characteristics, namely, floral-bud emergence, full-bloom date and duration of flowering in kiwifruit in both the years of study, viz., 2011 and 2012. among different treatments, 4% dormex on 10th february, i.e., 40 days prior to anticipated bud-break advanced flowerbud emergence by seven days, fruit set by five days and increased flowering span by five days. early bud-break, fullbloom and fruit set observed in the present study may be due to advancement of bud-break with dormex application. increase in duration of flowering may be attributed to increased bud-break and higher number of flowers, as reported by mcpherson et al (1999) in kiwifruit. chauliaras et al (1996) also observed that application of dormex 45 days before bud-break advanced blooming and fruit-set by 12 to 14 days in kiwifruit cv. hayward. similarly, pandey (1989) in grapes, powell (1997) in kiwifruit and singh and table 1. effect of dormex on blooming characteristics in hayward kiwifruit treatment details date of flower date of date of duration of bud emergence full bloom fruit set flowering (days) 2011 2012 2011 2012 2011 2012 2011 2012 t 1 (dormex 2% on 10th feb) 18/04 20/04 29/04 01/05 07/05 09/05 20 20 t 2 (dormex 2% on 20th feb) 21/04 22/04 30/04 02/05 09/05 10/05 19 19 t 3 (dormex 2% on 2nd mar) 22/02 24/04 03/05 04/05 10/05 12/05 18 18 t 4 (dormex 4% on 10th feb) 16/04 18/04 28/04 30/05 05/05 07/05 21 21 t 5 (dormex 4% on 20th feb) 20/04 21/04 29/04 01/05 06/05 08/05 16 19 t 6 (dormex 4% on 2nd mar) 22/04 23/04 01/05 03/05 09/05 10/05 17 17 t 7 (control) 24/04 25/04 03/05 04/05 10/05 12/05 16 17 fig 1. effect of dormex on date of bud-break in kiwifruit cv. ‘hayward’ table 2. effect of dormex on fruit yield (kg) in kiwifruit cv. hayward treatment details different grades total a b c t 1 (dormex 2% on 10th feb) 20.83 10.50 2.50 33.83 t 2 (dormex 2% on 20th feb) 19.50 10.17 3.17 32.83 t 3 (dormex 2% on 2nd mar) 11.33 7.67 3.33 22.33 t 4 (dormex 4% on 10th feb) 24.17 11.50 1.33 37.00 t 5 (dormex 4% on 20th feb) 19.17 11.17 3.00 33.50 t 6 (dormex 4% on 2nd mar) 11.33 9.17 2.67 23.13 t 7 (control) 8.33 5.50 3.17 17.00 cd p=0.05 5.59 3.5 ns 8.98 d at e of b u d -b re ak j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):47-50, 2013 babita and rana 49 mann (2002) in pear reported advancement in flowering by 12-13 days, and fruit set by 10 to 12 days with 4% dormex application. fruit yield highest (37kg/vine) fruit yield was recorded in treatment t 4 (dormex 4% on 10th february), and the lowest (17kg/vine) in untreated vines (table 2). these observations are supported by veloso and oliveira (1970) who observed 4% dormex to be most effective in increasing kiwifruit yield due to increase in flower-bud formation and higher fruitset. similar results were obtained by powell (1997) with application of dormex at 4% too, who recorded significantly higher total and ‘a’ grade fruit yields over control. powell et al (2000) reported that dormex at 1, 1.5 and 2% significantly increased fruit yield, recording maximum values when applied 3-4 weeks before normal bud-break. fruit size and overall fruit quality were also good. dormex performed quite well when 600-700 chilling hours were experienced in ‘hayward’ kiwifruit in the test area. huang et al (2003) conducted an experiment in portugal to determine the effect of dormex at 0, 4 and 6% on bud-break and yield of kiwifruit cv. hayward. significant differences were observed between treated and untreated vines for bud-break indices, number offertile buds, flowers and the marketable yield. economic analysis economic analyses of dormex application at various time intervals and concentrations showed that dormex @ 4% on 10th february was the most beneficial treatment. this resulted in highest total yield, with maximum proportion of of ‘a’ grade fruits. market price for ‘a’ grade fruits was higher in comparison to ‘b’ or ‘c’ grade fruits. therefore, income generated from vines treated with dormex (4%) sprayed on 10th february was maximum, thereby more remunerative. results obtained in the present study showed that application of dormex (4%) on 10th february, i.e., 40 days prior to anticipated date of bud-break in ‘hayward’ kiwifruit resulted in an advancement in bud-break and floral-bud emergence by seven days, fruit-set by five days and increased flowering period by five days too. this advancement in blooming characteristics and enhancement in flowering span may lead to better synchronization between male and female cultivars of kiwifruit. further, application of 4% dormex as spray on 10th february resulted in enhanced of fruit yield, with higher proportion of ‘a’ and ‘b’ grade fruits. this treatment resulted in maximum net benefit in comparison to untreated kiwifruit vines. references chauliaras, v., liona, k.s.m. and gerasopoulos, d. 1996. effect of hydrogen cyanamide on bud break, fruit break, fruit weight and maturation of ‘hayward’ kiwifruit. agri. medit., 126:408-411 foott, j.h. 1987. effect of hydrogen cyanamide on bud emergence in wine grapes. calif. agri., 41:19 george, a.p., broadly, r.h. and nissen, r.j. 2002. effect of new rest breaking chemicals on flowering, shoot production and yield of subtropical tree crops. acta hort., 575:835-840 gomez, k.a. and gomez, a.a. 1984. statistical procedure for agricultural research (2nd ed.), john wiley & sons, new york, usa, p. 680 henzell, l.h. and briscoe, m.r. 1986. hydrogen cyanamide: a tool for consistently high kiwifruit production. new zealand kiwifruit special publication, no 1, 8-11 table 3. effect of dormex on net benefit per vine and % increase in net benefit over control in kiwifruit cv. hayward treatment details *cost (rs.) gross chemical + net benefit benefit % increase income labour (gross returnsover in net benefit a b c cost chemicalcost) control over control (rs.) t 1 (dormex 2% on 10th feb) 1333.12 493.50 80.00 1906.62 40.00 1866.62 973.56 109.01 t 2 (dormex 2% on 20th feb) 1248.00 477.99 101.44 1827.43 40.00 1787.43 894.37 100.15 t 3 (dormex 2% on 2nd mar) 725.12 360.49 106.56 1192.17 40.00 1152.17 259.11 29.01 t 4 (dormex 4% on 10th feb) 1546.88 540.50 42.56 2129.94 70.00 2059.94 1166.88 130.66 t 5 (dormex 4% on 20th feb) 1226.88 524.99 96.00 1847.87 70.00 1777.87 884.81 99.08 t 6 (dormex 4% on 2nd mar) 725.12 430.99 85.44 1241.55 70.00 1171.55 278.49 31.18 t 7 (control) 533.12 258.50 101.44 893.06 893.06 *(cost : grade a @rs. 64/kg, grade b @rs. 47/kg and grade c @rs. 32/kg chemical cost : rs. 600/l labour cost : 30min/plant @ rs. 120/man day), other factors being constant j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):47-50, 2013 effect of dormex on bud-break, flowering and yield in kiwifruit 50 huang, h., cho, h.s., park, m.y., park, j.o., park, t.d. and shim, k.k. 2003. comparison of cppu effect on fruit development in several actinidia species. acta hort., 610: 539-541 lawes, g.s. 1984. winter temperatures and kiwifruit bud development. orchardist of n.z., april, p.110 linsley-noakes, g.c. 1989. improving flowering of kiwifruit in climatically marginal areas using hydrogen cyanamide. sci. hort., 38:247-259 mcpherson, h.g., richardson, a.c., shelgar, w.p. and corrie, m.b. 1999. effect of hydrogen cyanamide on bud break and flowering of kiwifruit. n.z. j. crop hortl. sci., 29:473-478 pandey, s.n. 1989. hastening bud-burst and ripening in pusa seedless grapes (vitis vinifera l.) with dormex. indian j. hort., 46:348-352 powell, a.a., himelrick, d.g. and tunnell, e. 2000. effect of hydrogen cyanamide (dormextm) on replacing lack of chilling in kiwifruit (actinidia deliciosa). small fruits rev., 1:79-92 powell, a.a. 1997. the effect of dormex on replacing lack of chilling in kiwifruit. hort. fruits , www.acesag.auburrn.edu/department/peachs/ kiwidormex.html schuck, e. and petri, j.l. 1995. the effect of concentrations and application of hydrogen cyanamide on kiwifruit dormancy breaking. acta hort., 395:177-184 singh, h. and mann, s.s. 2002. effect of hydrogen cyanamide and thiourea on bud burst. flowering and fruit set in pear cv. pathernakh. indian j. hort., 59:49-51 veloso, a. and oliviera, m. 1970. effect of hydrogen cyanamide on bud break and yield of kiwifruit in north-west portugal. acta hort., 444:473-478 walton, e.f. and fowke, p.j. 1993. effects of hydrogen cyanamide on kiwifruit shoot flower number and position. j. hortl. sci., 68:529-534 (ms received 13 september 2012, accepted 04 december 2012, revised 17 january 2013) j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):47-50, 2013 babita and rana introduction onion (allium cepa) is the most important commercial vegetable crop produced in india for both domestic consumption and export. india accounts for 16% of the world’s area and occupies the second position after china in production with a share of around 14%. karnataka contributes a major area in south india (84,800 ha) and produces 4,86,130 t of onion annually. productivity, however, is much lower in india than the world average. in order to increase the production and quality, its nutrient requirements have to be carefully monitored through soil analysis for efficient fertilizer management programme. as no established standards are available, it was planned to develop soil nutrient standards for onion using diagnosis and recommendation integrated system (dris), which provides a means of simultaneously identifying imbalances, deficiencies and excesses in crop nutrients and ranking them in the order of importance (beaufils, 1973). beaufils and sumner (1976) developed dris norms for p, k, ca, and mg to be applied to sugarcane culture on south african diagnostic soil nutrient standards and identification of yield limiting nutrients in onion (allium cepa) using dris k. anjaneyulu division of soil science & agricultural chemistry indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bangalore-560 089, india e-mail: anjaney@iihr.ernet.in abstract soil samples collected from a survey of fifty onion growing fields in karnataka were analyzed for various macro and micronutrients for establishing a data bank to develop soil nutrient norms. by using diagnosis and recommendation integrated system (dris), the whole population was divided into two sub-groups namely, low and high yielding and selected nutrient expressions that have shown higher variance and lower coefficient of variation as diagnostic norms, viz k/n (1.229), s/n (0.238), ca/n (20.62), p/zn (37.41), mg/k (0.6.859), fe/ mg (0.004), fe/zn (5.736) etc. in addition, five nutrient ranges have been derived using mean and standard deviation as low, deficient, optimum, high and excess for each nutrient to serve as a guide for diagnostic purpose. the optimum organic carbon ranged from 7.1 to 11.0 g kg-l, n from 115 to 178 mg kg-l, p from 26 to 38 mg kg-l , k from 163 to 217 mg kg-l ,ca from 2199 to 3398 mg kg-l , mg from 802 to 1167 mg kg-l and s from 34 to 43 mg kg-l. among dtpa extractable micronutrients, the optimum iron ranged from 3.40 to 4.34 mg kg-l, manganese from 5.84 to 6.66 mg kg-l, zinc from 0.67 to 1.01 mg kg-l and copper from 1.70 to 2.11 mg kg-l for onion. the diagnosis of nutrient imbalance identified through dris indices indicated that organic carbon, phosphorus and zinc were the most common yield limiting nutrients in onion. key words: nutrients, norms, dris indices, onion soils. similarly, this methodology has been used to interpret the results of soil analysis for fruit crops such as mango and pomegranate (raghupathi and bhargava, 1997) in india. however, there are a few reports in the literature on the use of dris for developing soil nutrient standards for crops like onion. therefore, an investigation was carried out to develop soil nutrient standards for onion using dris. material and methods a survey was conducted in major onion growing districts of karnataka (bellary and chitradurga) and soil samples were collected from fifty fields during the year 2000-01. at each site, ten sub-samples were drawn and pooled. a composite sample was used for measurement of ph, ec, organic carbon, macro and micronutrients for developing nutrient standards. the samples were air dried, processed through 2 mm sieve and analyzed for different nutrients by using standard analytical methods (jackson, 1973). soil ph and ec were measured in 1:2.5 soil:water suspension. organic carbon was estimated by wet j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 39-42, 2008 page 39 40 oxidation method while p was analyzed colorimetrically after extracting in 0.5m nahco 3 (ph 8.5) solution. the exchangeable k, ca and mg were estimated after extracting in 1n neutral ammonium acetate. micronutrients were analyzed after extracting in dtpa solution using atomic absorption spectrophotometer (jackson, 1973). thus, the data bank was established for the whole population. by using dris, the whole population was divided into two sub-groups namely low and high yielding (beaufils, 1973) based on the yield performance of the fields. from the experience of the growers, 20 t/ha was considered as the cut off yield between low and high performing fields. the cut off yield was positioned in such a way that the high yielding sub-population reflects conditions that are deemed desirable (beaufils, 1973). however, letzsch and sumner (1984) have shown that the actual cut off value used has little effect on the norms developed as long as it is not too low. each parameter was expressed in as many forms as possible, e.g. n/p, p/n, nxp etc. mean, variance and standard deviations were calculated for all forms of expressions together with the coefficient of variation. among different forms of expressions, the one showing higher variance ratio (variance of low yielding / variance of high yielding) was selected as norm (walworth and sumner, 1987). the dris indices were calculated by using the formula described elsewhere (anjaneyulu, 2006). five soil nutrient guides/ranges were derived using mean and standard deviation as deficient, low, optimum, high and excess for each nutrient. the optimum nutrient range is the value derived from “mean 4/3sd (standard deviation) to mean + 4/3sd”. the range “low” was obtained by calculating “mean 4/3 sd to mean 8/3sd” and the value below “mean 8/3 sd” was considered as deficient. the value from “mean + 4/3 sd to mean + 8/3 sd” was taken as high and the value above “mean + 8/3 sd” was taken as excessive (bhargava and chadha, 1993). results and discussion soil nutrient concentration range the soil ph for the entire population (table 1) ranged from 7.25 to 8.81, where onion is being grown successfully. the ec ranged from 0.12 to 0.54 dsm-1 and thus, the fields were in the safe range. however, the organic carbon level varied much between 3.3 to 16.8 g kg-l indicating that the content was low in many of the low yielding fields compared to the optimum value. the available p varied from 4.4 to 160.2 mg kg-l showing a wide variation among the fields. the exchangeable calcium and magnesium varied from 1658 to 4062 mg kg-land 453 to 1797 mg kg-1 respectively due to calcareous nature of the soil. among the micronutrients, fe ranged from 3.02 to 6.60 mg kg-1and manganese from 3.30 to 37.50 mg kg-1(table1) indicating a wide variation in manganese compared to iron content. dris norms, indices and nutritional balance index (nbi) a particular nutrient expression should have a high variance and low coefficient of variation to be chosen as norm for greater diagnostic precision (walworth and sumner, 1987). among the nutrient expressions, certain diagnostic norms viz. k/n (1.229), s/n (0.238), ca/n (20.62), p/zn (37.41), mg/k (0.6.859), fe/mg (0.004), fe/ zn (5.736) etc., have shown higher variance ratios compared to others and may have greater physiological rationale. in addition, maintaining the ratios of some expressions at the optimum when coefficient of variation was large was much less critical for the performance of the crop (raghupathi et al. 2004). the nutrient imbalance in plants was diagnosed through dris indices that are given in table 3 for selected low yielding orchards. as the value of each ratio function was added to one index sub-total and subtracted from another prior to averaging, all indices were balanced around zero. thus, the nutrient indices sum to zero indicated an optimum level, negative values a relative deficiency and positive values a relative excess of that nutrient (walworth and sumner, 1987). the absolute sum values of the nutrient indices generate an additional index called nutritional balance index (nbi). the overall imbalance of the nutrient was assessed based on sum of the indices irrespective of sign (table 3). higher the sum value (2644), larger is the plant nutritional imbalance and, therefore, the lower will be the yield. however, the yield cannot be predicted from sum of the indices irrespective of the sign alone, because table 1. mean and s.d. of nutrients in the onion growing soils soil property unit mean s.d. ph 8.36 0.2287 ec dsm-1 0.29 0.1391 oc g kg-l 11.0 0.2962 n mg kg-1 178.53 47.9996 p mg kg-1 38.88 9.9077 k mg kg-1 217.64 41.0786 ca mg kg-1 3398.53 899.8555 mg mg kg-1 1167.03 274.5240 s mg kg-1 43.46 7.3134 fe mg kg-1 4.34 0.7575 mn mg kg-1 6.66 0.6235 zn mg kg-1 1.01 0.2645 cu mg kg-1 2.61 0.8846 j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 39-42, 2008 anjaneyulu 41 of the influence of unmeasured factors that affect the yield (sumner, 1977). the yield limiting nutrients were differing from field to field though some of the nutrients were more prominent. the order in which the nutrients were limiting the yield indicated that most often more than one nutrient was limiting the yield. however, the diagnosis of nutrient imbalance in the soils of onion growing tracts of karnataka indicated that the most common yield limiting nutrients are organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus among the macronutrients and copper and zinc among the micronutrients. optimum soil nutrients’ guide nutrients guide/ranges have been derived using mean and standard deviation as deficient, low, optimum, high and excess for each nutrient and presented (table 4). the optimum ec ranged from 0.11 to 0.29dsm-1 indicating a safe limit for the crop. all the low yielding gardens represented low organic carbon content compared to optimum, which ranged from 7.1 to 11.0 g kg-l in the soil. the optimum p ranged from 26 to 38 mg kg-1 and the low yielding fields were deficient in p as indicated by dris indices in table-3. thus, majority of the soils representing low yielding fields were low in organic carbon and available phosphorus indicating their requirement. in onion the requirement of potassium is higher than nitrogen as it is involved not only in the production but also in improving the quality. ninety per cent of the orchards surveyed were at optimum (163 to 217 mg kg-1) level for available potassium. similarly, many fields recorded optimum to higher calcium, magnesium and sulphur contents in the soil indicating that these nutrients were not yield limiting in onion. among the micronutrients, zinc and copper were found to be low in most of the low yielding fields followed by iron. the optimum zinc concentration ranged from 0.67 to 1.01 mg kg-1 whereas copper ranged from 1.70 to 2.61mg kg-1. however, 87% of the fields recorded optimum levels of manganese indicating that manganese is not a yieldlimiting factor. thus, the possibility of making a successful diagnosis based on soil nutritional status increases as the table 2. dris ratio norms for onion growing soils selected ratios norms cv% selected ratios norms cv% p/n 0.202 46 cu/k 0.016 48 k/n 1.229 22 mg/ca 0.336 30 ca/n 20.62 29 s/ca 0.014 68 mg/n 7.087 35 fe/ca 0.001 25 s/n 0.237 30 mn/ca 0.002 63 fe/n 0.026 30 ca/zn 4673 52 mn/n 0.041 70 cu/ca 0.001 33 n/zn 233.6 42 mg/s 37.45 52 cu/n 0.016 52 fe/mg 0.004 29 k/p 10.45 68 mn/mg 0.006 50 ca/p 189.1 67 mg/zn 1626 71 mg/p 74.69 63 cu/mg 0.002 38 s/p 1.869 51 fe/s 0.139 64 fe/p 0.232 62 mn/s 0.208 70 mn/p 0.491 64 s/zn 55.66 64 p/zn 37.41 27 cu/s 0.094 61 cu/p 0.157 63 mn/fe 1.455 67 ca/k 20.91 43 fe/zn 5.736 25 mg/k 6.859 30 cu/fe 0.598 32 s/k 0.223 52 mn/zn 8.556 70 fe/k 0.025 33 mn/cu 2.456 52 mn/k 0.037 40 cu/zn 3.592 56 k/zn 274.1 43 — — — table 3. dris indices for selected onion growing fields f.no ph ec oc n p k ca mg s fe mn cu zn nbi(sum) 1 52 5 -90 15 -66 31 25 14 74 -6 103 -75 -82 638 2 -1 99 -160 -175 -137 163 204 68 28 46 58 -53 -140 1332 3 150 36 -26 34 -2 -127 206 204 105 -146 111 -241 -304 1692 4 106 28 -101 21 -128 26 104 50 65 41 152 -29 -335 1186 5 62 52 -153 41 -111 -113 195 135 90 -2 26 -2 -220 1202 6 107 -143 -267 203 -347 -347 216 114 262 108 169 143 -218 2644 j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 39-42, 2008 dris norms for onion 42 number of nutrient-related yield limiting factors that are due to nutrition is increased. as with foliar diagnosis, the use of dris with soil data also provides the advantage of taking into account nutrient balance and ranking nutrients in terms of abundance relative to optimal levels. references anjaneyulu, k. 2006. development of diagnostic leaf nutrient norms and identification of yield limiting nutrients using dris in rose grown under protected conditions. j. hortl. sci. 1: 28-32 bailey, j. s., beattie, j. a. m. and kilpatrick, d. j. 1997. the diagnosis and recommendation integrated system (dris) for diagnosis of nutrient status of grassland swords.1 model establishment. pl. and soil, 197: 127-135 beaufils, e. r. 1973. diagnosis and recommendation integrated system (dris). soil science bulletin,1: 1-132. university of natal pitermariburg, south africa beaufils and sumner. 1976. application of the dris approach for calibrating soil, plant yield and plant quality factors of sugarcane. proc. s. afr. sugar tech. assoc., 50: 118-124 bhargava, b. s. and chadha, k. l. 1993. leaf nutrient guides for fruit crops. in: advances in horticulturefruit crops, vol. 2:973-1030, chadha, k. l. and pareek, o. p. (eds), malhotra pub. house, new delhi. jackson, m. l. 1973. soil chemical analysis, prentice hall of india, new delhi. p 498 letzsch, w.s. and sumner, m. e. 1984. effect of population size and yield level in selection of dris norms. comm. soil sci. pl. anal. 15:997-1006 mourao filho, f. a. a. 2004. dris: concepts and applications on nutritional diagnosis in fruit crops, sci. agric., (piracicaba, braz.), 61: 550560 raghupathi, h. b. and bhargava, b. s. 1997. preliminary soil fertility norms for ratnagiri alphonso mango. j. ind. soc. soil sci., 45: 534-536 raghupathi, h. b., reddy,y. t. n., kurian reju and bhargava, b. s. 2004. diagnosis of nutrient imbalance in mango by dris and pca approaches. j. pl. nutr. 27:1131-1148 sumner, m. e. 1977. application of beaufils diagnostic indices to corn data published in literature irrespective of age and condition. pl. and soil, 46: 359-363 walworth, j. l. and sumner, m. f. 1987. the diagnosis and recommendation integrated system. adv. soil sci., 6:149-188 (ms received 11 october 2007, revised 10 january 2008) table 4. soil nutrient standards for onion nutrient unit deficient low optimum high excess org. carbon g kg-l <3.1 3.1-7.0 7.1-11.0 11.1-15.0 >15.1 nitrogen mg kg-l <50 51-114 115-178 179 -242 >243 phosphorous mg kg-l <12 13-25 26-38 39 -52 >53 potassium mg kg-l <108 109-162 163-217 218-272 >273 calcium mg kg-l <998 999-2198 2199-3398 3399-4598 >4599 magnesium mg kg-l <434 435-801 802-1167 1168-1533 >1534 sulphur mg kg-l <23 24-33 34-43 44 -53 >54 iron mg kg-l <2.32 2.32-3.33 3.40-4.34 4.35-5.35 >5.36 manganese mg kg-l <5.00 5.00-5.83 5.84-6.66 6.67-7.49 >7.50 zinc mg kg-l <0.31 0.31-0.66 0.67-1.01 1.02-1.36 >1.37 copper mg kg-l <0.77 0.77-1.69 1.70-2.61 2.62-3.52 >3.53 j. hortl. sci. vol. 3 (1): 39-42, 2008 anjaneyulu introduction composition, flavour and other properties characteristic of grape varieties or hybrids are extremely important in determining wine quality. varietal distinction is further strengthened by soil and microclimate the vineyard grows in (jackson and lombard, 1993). in india, remarkable success has been achieved in grape production, and productivity of fresh grapes is highest in the world. at present, grape is grown over an area of 106,000 ha, with annual production of 881,000 tonnes in india for table grape and raisin production (http://nhb.gov.in/database-2010.pdf). however, recent years have witnessed a spurt in wine making by small-scale wineries due to increasing demand in the domestic market and, also, due to liberalized taxation offered by various state governments. indian wineries have begun small-scale export of wines made from indigenous and exotic varieties cultivated in their own vineyards (http:/ /indianwine.com). intensive efforts for grape improvement over the decades have also resulted in introduction of exotic varieties and development of new hybrids in india (singh et al, 1998). earlier scientific reports based on juice-yield and must-quality parameters show that cultivars shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, zinfandel, sauvignon blanc, ugni blanc, vermentino and garganega are recommendable for commercial wine production in the maharashtra region of india (karibasappa and adsule, 2006). present paper describes the quality of wines prepared from new hybrids evaluation of new grape hybrids and french cultivars for wine production k. ranjitha, b.n.s. murthy1 and e.r. suresh division of post harvest technology icar indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bengaluru 560089, karnataka, india email: ranjitha@iihr.ernet.in abstract this study aimed at evaluating newly developed hybrids and recently introduced cultivars of french grapes grown in mild tropics of south india for quality wine production. wines produced from french grapes, viz., cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, pinot noir, sauvignon blanc, chenin blanc and ugni blanc scored 15.0 -16.8 in the davis score card for organoleptic analysis. wines from red hybrid 18/10 possessed phenolic content of 2097mg/l, had a brilliant colour and sensory score of 13.1. hybrid 23/2 gave good quality white, dry table wines with a sensory score of 13.4. key words: wine quality, grape variety, hybrid, phenolics, wine colour developed under the grape improvement research programme at indian institute of horticultural research (iihr), bengaluru, as also from the classic french wine varieties grown in bengaluru region of south india (12o58’n and 77o38’e, located 920m above msl), a region typified by mild tropical climate. material and methods dry table wines were prepared from berries of various hybrids developed at iihr and french grape cultivars grown in vineyards of the institute. harvested red grapes were washed, de-stemmed and sulfited with potassium metabisulphite (200mg/l) and hand crushed. tss was adjusted to 22°brix using cane sugar. for white wine preparation, the juice was extracted after sulphiting, followed by adjustment of tss. the resultant grape must was inoculated with 48h old starter culture of saccharomyces cerevisiae var. ellipsoides strain montrachet no. 522 @ 2%v/v. fermentation was carried out at 18°c, with occasional stirring of the must or juice, till completion as measured using a brix hydrometer. the young wines were pressed, racked and clarified using calcium bentonite (400mg/ l) and were bottled and stored at 10±2°c for aging for a year. biochemical characteristics of wine such as, ph, acidity, phenolic content, total residual sugars, volatile acidity, alcohol content, hue and chroma were analyzed. sensory attributes of the wines were evaluated on the 20-point davis score card (amerine and ough, 1982). 1division of fruit crops, icar indian institute of horticultural research, hessaraghatta lake post bengaluru 560089, karnataka, india j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):74-77, 2014 75 evaluation of grapes for wine quality results and discussion the new hybrids developed at iihr, bengaluru, and french wine grape varieties grown in mild tropics of south india, were analyzed for quality parameters like tss, ph and total acidity. data are presented in tables 1 and 2. the must from wine grapes is characterized by ph 3-3.5, titratable acidity 0.5-0.7% and tss of over than 20°brix (amerine and ough, 1982). hybrid e28/2 possessed higher must ph than required for wine grapes, while, the other varieties had an optimal must ph ranging from 3.3 to 3.5. tss of all the varieties was satisfactory, with two varieties, viz., e21/31 and e28/2 having a value as high as 24.6obrix. all the red hybrids possessed titratable acidity in the range suitable for wine grapes, while, all the white hybrids had slightly lower titratable acidity than required for wine grapes. it is worthwhile to note that all the hybrids yielded much sweeter berries with lesser acidity than their female parent ‘bangalore blue’ (a local grape cultivar in south india characterized by moderate tss of 18-19°b) and high titratable acidity (0.8-1.0%). these characteristics limit the variety’s suitability for wine production (chadha and shikhamany, 1999). all french wine grape cultivars produced quality berries as indicated by tss, ph and titratable acidity values. this points to a potential of growing these newly-introduced cultivars in south indian viticultural areas for producing high-quality wine grapes. our studies also show that titratable acidity levels in these fall just about in the optimal range. a number of parameters such as light, table 2. grape must quality in french wine grape varieties grown in mild tropical region of south india cultivar tss (obrix) p h acidity (% tartaric acid) cabernet sauvignon 21.0±1.0 3.5±0.1 0.42±0.02 shiraz 22.8±0.6 3.5±0.2 0.54±0.04 pinot noir 21.0±0.8 3.5±0.1 0.74±0.01 sauvignon blanc 24.0±0.7 3.6±0.1 0.64±0.02 chenin blanc 22.5±0.4 3.5±0.2 0.70±0.04 ugni blanc 21.0±1.0 3.4±0.2 0.56±0.09 data given are mean ± standard deviation of triplicates table 1. characteristics of grape hybrids/ french cultivars used in wine making hybrid/cultivar characteristics tss (°brix) p h acidity (% tartaric acid) hybrid 25/11 vines are medium croppers and responds to 21.6±0.8 3.3±0.1 0.53±0.02 (bangalore blue x thompson seedless) spur pruning; berries deep red in colour, seedless, round in shape hybrid18/10 vines are low to moderate in vigour, respond 23.4±0.6 3.4±0.0 0.67±0.01 (bangalore blue x beauty seedless) well to spur pruning; medium croppers; bunches small to medium in size, well filled with dark coloured, round, seeded berries; coming to harvest very early hybrid 19/29 vines are moderately vigorous and are good 23.0±0.6 3.5±0.3 0.53±0.02 (bangalore blue x cheema sahebi) croppers; respond well to spur pruning; bunches medium in size, well filled and winged; berries are round to ovoid in shape, medium sized, seeded and deep tan in colour hybrid 21/31 vines are low to moderate in vigour; a prolific 24.6±0.45 3.4±0.1 0.53± 0.03 (bangalore blue x convent large black) yielder, responding to spur pruning and double cropping; bunches small in size, well filled; berries round, tan coloured and seeded hybrid 22/10 vines are vigorous and prolific bearers; respond 21.6±0.5 3.5±0.0 0.37± 0.02 (bangalore blue x convent large black) well to spur pruning; bunches medium in size and well filled; cylindrical; berries round, seeded, greenish in colour hybrid 28/2 vines are low to moderate in vigour; medium 24.6±0.3 4.3±0.2 0.36±0.03 (black champa x queen of the vineyards) croppers; bunches small to medium in size, well filled; berries ovoid, seeded, greenish in colour; has distinct muscat flavour hybrid 23/2 vines are moderately vigorous; medium 22.4±0.3 3.4±0.1 0.46±0.05 (bangalore blue x queen of the vineyards) croppers; bunches medium in size and well filled; berries round to ovoid, seeded, greenish-yellow in colour; pulp meaty with mild muscat flavour data given are mean ± standard deviation of triplicates j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):74-77, 2014 76 temperature, location, climate, irrigation and fertilization influence wine grape quality. sugar-acid balance in the grapes, however, can be optimized by harvesting the berries at optimal ripening stage (suresh and ethiraj, 1987). acidity of the grape varieties can be improved by adjusting harvest dates. characteristic composition and sensory score of the red wines in various varieties were studied (table 3). red, dry table-wines are characterized by ph 3-3.5, 0.4-0.6% acidity, <1% residual sugar, 10-12% alcohol, 190-3800mg/l phenolics and <0.1% volatile acidity (amerine and ough, 1982). wines all possessed the characteristic composition typical of red, dry table-wines. all the wines were fermented till tss was reduced to zero and the wines devoid of acescent as indicated by alcohol, residual sugar and volatile acidity estimations. highest phenolic content (2097mg/l) was observed in the wines made from hybrid 18/10, a value higher than average phenolic content of red wines (1800mg/ l). wines made from french grapes possessed good hue values, but hybrid 25/11 had the highest value, while, hybrid 21/11 had the lowest value. intensity of colour (chroma) was highest in hybrid 18/10, followed by hybrid 25/11. high brilliance of hybrid 18/10 may be explained by high phenolic content. wine phenolics are important quality components contributing to colour, taste and mouth feel. these form stable, pigmented polymers with anthocyanins giving red wine its long-term color stability (kennedy et al, 2002). among french wines, shiraz possessed the lowest phenolic content, while, cabernet sauvignon had the highest value. among the red wines cabernet sauvignon is reported to be rich in tannic acid (amerine et al, 1980). sensory quality of wines in all french varieties was superior to that in the new hybrids. however, the new hybrids (except hybrid 19/29) too produced standard quality wines without any noticeable defect, as indicated by sensory scores. wines made from bangalore blue grapes are typified by a foxy flavour and high acidity; but, these characteristics were eliminated from wines made from hybrids. sensory panel too pointed to the unique “fruity and floral aroma” of hybrid 18/10 wines, which could be attributed to a perfect mix of the labrusca flavour of bangalore blue with the spicy flavour of ‘beauty seedless’. phenolic content of wines from this hybrid is also quite high compared to other wines. hybrid 25/11 wines possessed ‘grass-floral’ aroma notes. table 3. biochemical composition and sensory score of red, dry table-wines made from new hybrids and french grape cultivars grown in mild tropical region of south india variety wine composition *sensory score p h acidity alcohol residual phenolic volatile hue chroma (% tartaric (%) sugar content acidity value acid) (mg/l) (mg/l) (% acetic acid) hybrid 25/11 3.8 ± 0.0 0.54 ± 0.02 11.3 ± 0.6 250 ± 34 1040 ± 56 0.03 1.00 ± 0.02 0.80 ± 0.00 12.8 ± 2.5 hybrid 18/10 3.7 ± 0.1 0.42 ± 0.05 12.0 ± 0.5 650 ± 58 2097 ± 42 0.03 0.83 ± 0.03 1.14 ± 0.04 13.1 ± 2.0 hybrid 19/29 3.5 ± 0.1 0.48 ± 0.04 11.1 ± 0.1 790 ± 69 1230 ± 69 0.03 0.80 ± 0.54 0.32 ± 0.02 11.2 ± 1.3 hybrid 21/31 3.6 ± 0.2 0.53 ± 0.02 12.0 ± 0.4 190 ± 51 1245 ± 78 0.03 0.32 ± 0.01 0.75 ± 0.03 12.2 ± 1.8 cabernet sauvignon 4.2 ± 0.1 0.43 ± 0.03 12.0 ± 0.5 720 ± 47 1354 ± 25 0.01 0.88 ± 0.02 0.43 ± 0.02 16.7 ± 1.4 shiraz 3.4 ± 0.1 0.48 ± 0.04 11.4 ± 0.5 670 ± 36 735 ± 29 0.01 0.70 ± 0.04 0.30 ± 0.02 16.8 ± 1.5 pinot noir 3.5 ± 0.1 0.70 ± 0.04 11.0 ± 0.2 580 ± 18 1080 ± 36 0.05 0.96 ± 0.04 0.98 ± 0.03 16.2 ± 0.7 data given are mean ± standard deviation of triplicates; *values are mean ± standard deviation of 10 replicates table 4. composition and sensory score of white, dry table-wines prepared from new white hybrids and french cultivars grown in mild tropical region of south india variety wine composition sensory score p h acidity alcohol residual phenolic volatile od at (% tartaric (%) sugar content acidity 450nm acid) (mg/l) (mg/l) (% acetic acid) hybrid 22/10 4.0 ± 0.0 0.48 ± 0.03 11.2 ± 0.6 798 ± 39 265 ± 21 0.02 0.258 ± 0.007 12.1 ± 1.2 hybrid 28/2 4.3 ± 0.1 0.38 ± 0.02 12.0 ± 0.7 768 ± 48 317 ± 32 0.03 0.375 ± 0.008 11.1 ± 1.6 hybrid 23/2 3.8 ± 0.0 0.41 ± 0.03 11.2 ± 0.4 635 ± 24 363 ± 20 0.04 0.251 ± 0.002 13.4 ± 1.3 sauvignon blanc 3.9 ± 0.2 0.49 ± 0.03 12.0 ± 0.5 780 ± 56 460 ± 20 0.04 0.288 ± 0.003 15.9 ± 1.0 chenin blanc 3.8 ± 0.1 0.58 ± 0.04 12.0 ± 0.5 569 ± 68 320 ± 25 0.02 0.186 ± 0.004 16.2 ± 0.8 ugni blanc 4.0 ± 0.1 0.61 ± 0.02 11.3 ± 0.4 900 ± 35 400 ± 23 0.06 0.230 ± 0.002 15.0 ± 1.7 data given are mean ± standard deviation of triplicates ranjitha et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):74-77, 2014 77 characteristic composition and sensory scores of white, dry table-wines prepared from iihr hybrids and french wine grape cultivars is presented in table 4. hybrid 28/2 possessed high ph, low titratable acidity and lowest sensory score. average phenolic content of white wines is 300mg/l (amerine and ough, 1982). phenolics’ content was lowest (265mg/l) in hybrid 22/10. phenolic content of these wines can be increased by prolonging skin-juice contact time during must preparation, as reported earlier in other varieties (darias-martýìn et al, 2000). sensory scores of the hybrids were also satisfactory, but had a lower rating than in french wines. a distinct muscat flavour in wines from hybrid 23/2 and 28/2 was noted by the judges’ panel in sensory evaluation. in all, the results show a potential for newly-developed grape hybrids developed by indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, as useful in wine-making, besides their use otherwise. further research is needs for evaluating general acceptability, standardizing optimal harvest stage, pressing stage, etc., to enhance sensory properties of the finished wine. results of this study also indicate that french wine varieties produce quality berries and wine under mild tropical conditions of south india. acknowledgement the authors thank dr. a.s. sidhu, director, and dr. s.d. shikhamany, former director, indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, for their encouragement in wine research work, and mr. c. lokesh for helping in laboratory analysis. references amerine, m.a. and ough, c.s. 1982. methods for analysis of musts and wines. wiley interscience publications, new york, p 374 amerine, m.a., berg, h.w., kunkee, r.e., ough, c.s., singleton, v.l. and webb, a.d. 1980. technology of wine making. avi publishing company, connecticut, p 790 chadha, k.l. and shikhamany, s.d. 1999. the grape: improvement, production and post harvest management. s.d. malhotra publishing house, new delhi, p 580 darias-martýìn, j.j., rodrýìguez, o., dýìaz, e. and lamuela-raventós, r.m. 2000. effect of skin contact on the antioxidant phenolics in white wine. food chem., 71:483-487 http://indianwine.com/cs/blogs/about_wine/archive/2006/06/ 25/984.aspx accessed on 15.09.2011 http://nhb.gov.in/database-2010.pdf. accessed on 10.10.2011 jackson, d.i. and lombard, p.b. 1993. environmental and management practices affecting grape composition and wine quality a review. amer. j. enol. vitic., 44:4409-4430 karibasappa, g.s. and adsule, p.g. 2006. evaluation of wine grape genotypes by national research centre for grapes at their farm at pune, maharashtra, india. acta hort., 785:497-504 kennedy, j.a., matthews, m.a. and waterhouse, a.l. 2002. effect of maturity and vine water status on grape skin and wine flavonoids. amer. j. enol. vitic., 53:268-274 singh, r., murthy, b.n.s. and rama, s.t. 1998. ‘arka neelamani’, ‘arka. shweta’, ‘arka majestic’ and ‘arka chitra’: new hybrid grapes. ind. hort., 43:2829 suresh, e.r. and ethiraj, s. 1987. effect of grape maturity on the composition and quality of wines made in india. amer. j. enol. vitic., 38:329-331 (ms received 23 october 2012, revised 12 june 2013, accepted 20 july 2013) j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):74-77, 2014 evaluation of grapes for wine quality introduction tuberose (polianthes tuberosa linn., family agavaceae), native to mexico, is one of the most important bulbous ornamental crops. the genus polianthes comprises 12 species of which nine bear white flowers (rose, 1903). p. tuberosa (2n=30) is the only species used for commercial cultivation in india. the flower spikes are used as an ideal cut-flower which emiting a delightful fragrance and, flower buds are a source of tuberose oil which is one of the most sought-after, expensive perfumery raw materials. the yield of concrete from fresh flower ranges from 0.08 to 0.11 per cent, of which 18 to 23 per cent constitutes the absolute. traditionally, morphological and biochemical markers are used for diversity studies and varietal identification, but caetano et al (1991) addressed limitations associated with the morphological and biochemical processes. as in many important horticultural crops, ssrs are not available in tuberose and the cost of developing these is very high. therefore, during the last decade, rapd and issr markers j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):5-11, 2014 genetic diversity analysis and barcoding in tuberose (polianthes tuberosa l.) cultivars using rapd and issr markers k. khandagale1, b. padmakar, d.c. lakshmana reddy, anuradha sane2 and c. aswath* division of biotechnology icar-indian institute of horticultural research hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru 560 089, india *e-mail: aswath@iihr.ernet.in abstract tuberose is one of the most important bulbous ornamentals grown commercially for loose as well as cut flowers. rapd and issr markers used in the study revealed 53% and 73% polymorphism, respectively, among ten tuberose varieties. polymorphic information content (pic) and resolving power (rp) for rapd varied from 0.35 – 0.46 and 0.8 – 3.6, respectively, and that for issr was 0.36 – 0.49 and 0.91 – 4.55, respectively. the dendrogram (upgma), based on jaccards co-efficient as similarity index for rapd and issr, grouped ten varieties into two major clusters, and, combined rapd-issr cluster analysis formed three major clusters based on their genetic relatedness/variation. pca revealed that the spatial arrangement of these 10 cultivars was congruent with dendrogram analysis. mantel’s test indicated very good correlation, with r = 0.86 for combination of issr and rapd-issr. to facilitate identification of tuberose cultivars, a cultivar identification diagram (cid) was developed in which seven issr loci could differentiate all the ten cultivars used in the study. barcodes were developed for five cultivars released by iihr using 57 polymorphic loci generated by 11 issr primers. the size of these loci ranged from 252bp to 2.2kb. these barcodes can be used as a standard reference source for quick identification of cultivars. key words: issr, molecular barcode, pcr, rapd, upgma 1present address: university of pune, pune 411007, india, 2division of plant genetic resources, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru – 5600089, india have been widely exploited by horticulturists as these yield quick results besides being inexpensive. molecular markers have been successfully used for cultivar identification and diversity studies in several bulbous ornamental plants like lilium species (yamanishi, 1995), alstromeria (dobouzet et al, 1998), heliconia (kumar et al, 1998) and gladiolus (takatsu et al, 2001; pathania et al, 2001). very few studies have been reported so far on molecular characterization of bulbous ornamental crops. molecular characterization of tuberose cultivars through dna-based analysis is highly desired, as, there is much confusion in naming genetic material existing in various indian states. these are commonly referred to as ‘single’ and ‘double’ cultivars. till date, there is only one report on diversity analysis in tuberose using rapd markers (sarkar et al, 2010). indian institute of horticultural research (iihr) has released five commercial tuberose varieties; vaibhav, prajwal, shringar, suvasini and arka nirantara. 6 characterization of these cultivars has become imperative, since, it is a requisite for provision of plant breeders’ rights which is, presently, high on the government’s agenda. further, an understanding of the level of genetic variation among cultivars is crucial to hybridization programs for development of new varieties but is currently lacking. in this study, rapd and iisr markers were used for genetic analysis of ten tuberose cultivars. material and methods plant material and genomic dna isolation ten tuberose varieties maintained at indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore, india, were used in this study (table 1). total dna was isolated from the leaf by optimizing modified ctab method (kanupriya et al, 2011) and integrity of the dna isolated was determined on 0.8% agarose gel. dna quantification was carried out using gene quant uv spectrophotometer (ge health care biosciences ltd., england) and diluted as required. rapd analysis rapd amplification was performed with a total of 100 rapd primers of a, b, c, d, h and k series from operon technologies, usa. each 25µl reaction mixture contained 1x reaction buffer (bioron), 0.12mm each of dntps (genie, bangalore), 0.15pmol/µl of primer and 1 u of taq polymerase (genie, bangalore). pcr amplification was carried out using technetc5000 thermocycler with the following profile: initial denaturation at 940c for 4 min, followed by 35 cycles of denaturation at 940c of 1min each annealing at 350c for 30 sec, extension at 720c for 1min, and, final extension at 720c for 8 min. issr analysis a total of 108 issr primers (university of british columbia, uk) were screened. pcr amplification was carried out using 1x reaction buffer (bioron), 0.24 mm each of dntps (genie, bangalore), 0.2pmol/µl of primer and 1 u of taq polymerase (genie, bangalore) in 25µl reaction. pcr amplification was done using techne tc5000 thermocycler, with the following temperature profile: initial denaturation at 940c for 4 min, followed by 35 cycles of denaturation at 940c of 1min each annealing varying at 4970 0c for 45 sec, extension at 720c for 75 sec, and, final extension at 720c for 8 min. amplified products were resolved on 1.5% agarose gel with 1kb ladder (fermentas, usa) and documented through a gel documentation unit (uvpro, uk) for further analysis. statistical analysis both rapd and issr gel profiles were scored as discrete variables using ‘1’ for presence and ‘0’ for absence of a band. polymorphic information content (pic) was calculated as: 1 – [pi2 (1– pi)2 ], where pi is the frequency of ith allele in the dataset. resolving power (rp) as sum of band informativeness, marker index (mi) and diversity index (di) for both rapd and issr was also calculated. a pair wise matrix of distance between varieties was determined for rapd, issr and rapd-issr data. cluster analysis was carried out using upgma (unweighted pair group method with arithmetic averages) method, with darwin5 software. principal component analysis (pca) was done using ntsys pc 2.2 software (rohlf, 2000). estimates of differences between the dendrograms based on rapd and issr, rapd and issr-rapd, issr and rapd-issr marker analyses were obtained by constructing the relative cophenetic matrices for each marker type. product-moment correlation (r) based on mantel z-value was computed to measure the degree of relationship between similarity index matrices produced by any two-marker systems (mantel, 1967) using nysys pc 2.2 software. table 1. tuberose varieties used and their general characteristics sl. no. variety characteristics 1. prajwal single flowers on tall, stiff spikes; cross of shringar x mexican single (developed by iihr) 2. vaibhav double flowers on medium spike, cross of mexican single x iihr-2 (developed by iihr) 3. shringar single flowers on a sturdy spike, a cross between single x double, (developed by iihr) 4. suvasini multi-whorled variety developed from a cross between single x double (developed by iihr) 5. arka nirantara hybrid developed by iihr, single-flower type 6. hyderabad more than three rows of corolla double segment 7. variegated single-flowered type, with silvery white streak in the middle of leaf blade 8. pearl double flowers pure white, with more than three segments of corolla 9. swarna rekha doubled-flower type, with golden-yellow streak along the margin of leaf blade 10. mexican single florets bearing a single segment of corolla khandagale et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):5-11, 2014 7 cultivar identification diagram (cid) and fingerprinting cid was constructed using 11 issr primers which gave 57 highly reproducible polymorphic bands in ten tuberose varieties, with specific sizes to separate the varieties. molecular size of each of the fragments was estimated using uvpro software (uvtech, uk). cid construction is done based on presence (+) and absence (-) of polymorphic loci. cultivars sharing the same banding pattern were clustered into one sub-group and, subsequently, more markers were employed to distinguish cultivars within each sub-group. further, these 11 issr markers were used for developing molecular barcodes to fingerprint tuberose varieties. binary data thus produced is represented as bar for presence and absence of band was kept blank. molecular barcode was generated by using microsoft excel programme (galbacs et al, 2009). results and discussion rapd and issr analysis both rapd and issr markers were used in the study as tools for assessing genetic diversity, to fingerprint and identify different varieties of tuberose. this is the first report on use of rapd and issr markers for diversity analysis and fingerprinting in tuberose. of the 100 rapd primers used 15 gave reproducible results, repeated at least three times for confirmation. amplification of tuberose dna of ten varieties with 15 rapd primers generated 111 fragments, with an average of 7.4 bands per variety. of these, 59 were polymorphic (53.51%). the fragment size varied from 250bp to 2.0kb. pic ranged from 0.46 (opc-20) to 0.35 (opk-19), rp 0.8 (opc-2) to 3.6 (opc-3), di 0.13 (opc-2) to 0.50 (opa1), and gene diversity 0.56 (opb-4) to 0.91 (opa-1) (table 2, fig. 1a). amplification of tuberose dna from ten varieties was done with 20 issr primers. of 132 amplified fragments, 95 were polymorphic (73.53%) and the percentage of polymorphism ranged from 100% (ubc-829. 952, 850) to 33.3% (ubc-817); the fragment sizes were 250bp to 2.3kb. pic ranged from 0.36 (ubc-814) to 0.49 (ubc-836), rp 0.91 (ubc-880) to 4.55 (ubc-815), di 0.3 (ubc-901) to 0.56 (ubc-814), mi 0.45 (ubc-880) to 2.82 (ubc-814), and gene diversity 0.68 (ubc-850) to 0.92 (ubc-814) (table 3, fig. 1b.). issr markers showed a reproducible and polymorphic (73.53%) banding pattern compared to rapd markers table 2. statistics of banding pattern obtained using 15 rapd primers sl. primer no. of n.p.b. % r p pic di m i no. bands p.b. 1. opd-16 11 6 54.54 3.0 0.39 0.38 2.3 2. opc-2 8 3 37.5 0.8 0.45 0.13 0.4 3. opc-3 10 6 60.0 3.6 0.43 0.31 2.2 4. opc-20 6 3 50.0 1.4 0.46 0.23 0.7 5. opk-15 6 4 66.66 1.6 0.43 0.20 0.8 6. opk-16 7 3 42.85 1.0 0.37 0.37 1.1 7. opc-4 10 6 60.0 3.2 0.44 0.33 2.0 8. opa-18 5 4 80.0 1.2 0.36 0.35 1.4 9. opk-13 6 3 50.0 1.8 0.45 0.30 0.9 10. opb14 6 3 50.0 1.4 0.39 0.43 1.3 11. opb-4 8 5 62.50 2.0 0.39 0.17 0.69 12. opk-19 7 3 42.85 1.6 0.35 0.47 1.4 13. opd-3 7 5 71.4 2.4 0.39 0.44 2.2 14. opa-1 7 1 14.25 1.0 0.41 0.50 0.5 15. opa-2 7 4 57.14 2.4 0.45 0.30 0.6 mean 7.4 3.93 53.51 1.89 0.41 0.32 1.23 total 111 59 n.p.b number of polymorphic bands, % p.b. percentage of polymorphic bands; rp resolving power; pic polymorphic information content; di diversity index; mi marker index rapd profile of 10 tuberose varieties on 1.5% agarose using opk-13 p-prajwal, v-vaibhav, sh-sringar, su-suvasini, an-arka nirantara, hd-hyderabad double, va-variegated, pd-pearl double, sr-swarna rekha, ms mexican single, m marker fig .1 amplification profile of rapd and issr markers in 10 tuberose varieties issr profile of 10 tuberose varieties on 1.5% agarose using ubc-867 pprajwal, vvaibhav, shsringar, susuvasini, anarka nirantara, hdhyderabad double, vavariegated, pdpearl double, srswarna rekha, msmexican single, mmarker a. b. genetic diversity analysis and barcoding in tuberose j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):5-11, 2014 8 (53.51%). a possible explanation for the difference in resolution of rapd and issr is that these target different sites in the genome (zietkiewicz et al, 1994). pic, primer resolving power, marker index, diversity index, etc. were found to be greater in issr than in rapd assay. higher the value in the above analysis, better was the primer for diversity studies. therefore, issr marker system was found to be more effective in diversity analysis among closely related individuals. genetic clustering in upgma analysis with rapd, the genetic distance ranged from 0.040 to 0.293. ten tuberose varieties grouped into two clusters (fig. 2a). in the case of issr upgma analysis, the genetic distance ranged from 0.009 to 0.379, with two clusters. ‘pearl double’ and ‘variegated’ were found to be very closely related (genetic distance = 0.009), though these are morphologically distinct in leaf characters (fig. 2b). in the case of rapd+ issr primers, upgma dendrogram based on a total of 243 bands with 154 polymorphic markers, is presented in fig. 2c. the genetic distance was found to range from 0.040 to 0.293. all the 10 varieties grouped into three major clusters. principal component analysis performed with ntsys pc showed the distribution pattern to be congruent with the dendrogram (fig. 3). table 3. statistics of banding pattern obtained from 20 issr primers sl. primer no. n.p.b. % r p pic di m i no. of p.b. bands 1. ubc 813* 8 7 87.5 4.00 0.45 0.36 2.18 2. ubc 814* 6 5 83.3 3.57 0.36 0.56 2.82 3. ubc 815* 7 7 100 4.55 0.44 0.41 2.45 4. ubc 817 6 2 33.3 1.27 0.46 0.32 0.64 5. ubc 821* 7 5 71.42 1.64 0.42 0.32 1.27 6. ubc 827 6 5 83.3 2.18 0.39 0.52 1.55 7. ubc 829* 6 6 100 2.36 0.43 0.30 1.82 8. ubc 836 8 6 75 3.09 0.49 0.31 1.65 9. ubc 840* 7 4 57.14 2.18 0.39 0.32 1.91 10. ubc 841* 6 5 83.3 2.36 0.38 0.48 1.91 11. ubc 850* 6 6 100 2.91 0.44 0.24 1.45 12. ubc 852 5 5 100 2.36 0.48 0.24 1.18 13. ubc 853 4 3 75 1.45 0.45 0.24 0.73 14. ubc 861 8 6 75 4.36 0.43 0.47 2.36 15. ubc 864 5 3 60 1.82 0.41 0.45 1.36 16. ubc 867* 9 6 66.6 2.91 0.45 0.35 1.73 17. ubc 880 6 1 16.6 0.91 0.44 0.45 0.45 18. ubc 899* 10 5 50 2.91 0.41 0.45 1.82 19. ubc 901 6 3 50 1.27 0.41 0.3 0.91 20. ubc 903* 6 5 83.3 2.73 0.46 0.33 1.64 mean 6.6 4.75 72.53 2.54 0.42 0.37 1.59 total 132 95 n.p.b number of polymorphic bands, % p.b. percentage of polymorphic bands; rp resolving power; pic polymorphic information content; di diversity index; mi marker index; * primers used for cultivar identification and fingerprinting fig 2. dendrograms of ten tuberose varieties generated through upgma method of darwin software using jaccard’s coefficient as distance matrix a. rapd s-single, ddouble, m-multiwhorl, sdsingle/double b. issr s-single, ddouble, m-multiwhorl, sdsingle/double c. rapd+issr s-single, ddouble, m-multiwhorl, sdsingle/double khandagale et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):5-11, 2014 9 due to the differential genome coverage by different marker systems, variation is seen in the three dendrograms generated by rapd, issr and rapd-issr. these dendrograms provided valuable information regarding the similarity of these accessions and their genetic background. commercial value of tuberose cultivars depends on floral traits. as these varieties showed a distinct clustering pattern based on floral traits, this information may be useful in identifying molecular markers linked to flower morphology. in our study, the flower type (single, double, etc.) showed distinct clustering pattern in all the three dendrograms. in some clusters, varieties with single and double flowers grouped together. for example, ‘variegated’ is the single type, but it grouped with double type varieties. use of greater number of polymorphic markers in such analysis can throw more clarity on clustering pattern. however, compared to the results in rapd analysis, results in issr analyses were more harmonious with morphology. this distinction between the two molecular techniques has previously been indicated in studies with peanut (raina et al, 2001), astralagus (lin-kai et al, 2009), marijuana (kayis et al, 2010) and bacopa monnieri (tripathi et al, 2012). weak correlation (fig. 2a, 2b) was found between rapd and issr (r = 0.65, p < 0.003), while very good correlation (fig. 2b, 2c) was found between issr and rapd+issr combined marker system (r =0.89, p < 0.003) as per mantel’s test. archak et al (2003) also found that genetic similarity matrices based on rapd and issr markers had a low correlation (r = 0.63) among cashew accessions. cultivar identification diagram (cid) and fingerprinting compared to phylogenetic trees and fingerprints, cid can provide more comprehensive information for varietal identification. india is one of the important ornamental producing countries and has abundant genetic resources which makes the task of distinguishing plant cultivars or varieties very important. owing to a high polymorphism, issr data generated was further used in developing cultivar identification diagram and molecular barcodes. of the 57 polymorphic loci generated by 11 issrs, seven loci were used for construction of cid (fig. 4). primer ubc-850 (0.6kb) separated ten varieties in to two groups of six (+) and four (-). primer ubc-867 (0.4kb) differentiated these six varieties again into two groups, based on band presence (prajwal, shringar and fig 3. three-dimensional plots of principal component analysis (pca) in ten tuberose varieties showing their spatial distribution among three principal components a. rapd b. issr fig 4. cultivar identification diagram for 10 tuberose cultivars obtained with seven issr loci note: (+) band present; (-) band absent genetic diversity analysis and barcoding in tuberose j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):5-11, 2014 10 mexican single) and absence (vaibhav, hyderabad double and pearl double). the band of 0.8kb of ubc-867 is present in prajwal and mexican single, while, it is absent in shringar. further, ubc-901 (1.1kb) differentiated mexican single and prajwal on the basis of the presence and absence of the band, respectively. primer ubc-899 (0.5kb band) separated vaibhav (-) from hyderabad double and pearl double (+); ubc-815, 1.3kb band was present in pearl double and absent in hyderabad double. similarly, the second group of four cultivars was differentiated by primer ubc-813 (1.8kb) in variegated and swarna rekha (+); suvasini and arka nirantara (-). primer ubc-867 (0.7kb) identified variegated (+) and swarna rekha (-). a band of size 0.65kb generated by ubc-840 differentiated arka nirantara (+) and suvasini (-). eventually, all the ten tuberose varieties were successfully differentiated from each other by the combined use of seven issr markers. in molecular barcode, the size of loci ranged from 252bp to 2.208kb. overall, the chance of identification was found to be 3x10-9. it can thus be deduced that the primers employed in our study returned a high degree of confidence in identification. the polymorphic 57 loci are represented as ‘locus’ in the barcode (fig. 5). from this barcode, any two primers in combination can easily identify all the tuberose varieties, as, these gave unique banding patterns. rapd and issr techniques have been used for fingerprinting cashew (archak et al, 2003), brassica (bornet et al, 2004) and eggplant (shiro et al, 2008). the results of our study help in identifying 10 tuberose cultivars with much ease and high precision. seven issr loci, in combination, were able to identify all the ten varieties based on the size of polymorphic band. molecular barcode profile generated with 11 issr markers is a visual representation fig 5. molecular barcodes that act as unique fingerprints contain 57 different loci generated by 11 issr primers in tuberose cultivars. of data, allowing easy detection of genotypic differences. this also helps protect plant breeders’ rights and is useful in detecting fidelity when these varieties are multiplied through micropropagation. thus, this is the first report of molecular studies in tuberose employing issr and rapd markers for analyzing genetic diversity and fingerprinting. dendrogram analysis clearly showed that molecular markers used in this study may be linked to the type and number of whorls of petals, i.e., single and double, which can be further developed into specific markers such as scar or caps. these markers have extensive application in crop improvement through mas. the molecular barcode generated can be effectively utilized for ipr protection of varieties and used as a standard reference system for varietal identification in tuberose. references archak, a., ambika, b.g., diksha, g., rao, e.v.b., swamy, k.r.m. 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97 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 97-103, 2020 short communication studies on fruit development in pink and white types of wax apple (syzygium samarangense merr. & perry) in goa, india priya devi s., shejal a. porob and thangam m. horticulture section, icar central coastal agricultural research institute, goa 403 402, india. email : priyaars@yahoo.com abstract 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. key words: fruit development, goa, wax apple, white and pink types introduction wax apples (syzygium samarangense merr. & perry) (syn. s. javanicum miq.; eugenia javanica lam. in part; e. alba roxb.) are watery crunchy tropical fruits, found commonly in south east asian countries like, malaysia, indonesia, thailand etc. these fruit trees are called after many vernacular names like, samarang rose apple, djamboesemarang (indonesia); jambuayerrhio (malaya); pinijambu (ceylon); jumr ool, ja mr ul, or a mr ool (india ); chompukao, or chompukio (t hailand); makopa (philippines); cashu di surinam, or curacaoseappel (curacao); wax jambu and water apple, generally. the tree is indigenous from malaya to the andaman and nicobar islands where there are wild trees in the coastal forests. it was introduced into the philippines in prehistoric times and is widely grown throughout islands. it is common in thailand, cambodia, laos, vietnam and taiwan, frequently cultivated in india and in za nziba r a nd pemba , but pr ima r ily a s a n ornamental in earlier days. but now, realizing the scope of the processing potentialities, progressive farmers, and agro-ecotourism units of coastal india are keen in cultivating such exotic fruits. the wax apple is extra-tropical, growing only at the lower altitudes–up to 4,000 ft (1,220m) in india. the waxy fruit, usually light-red, sometimes greenish-white or cream-colored, is pear-shaped, narrow at the base, very broad, and flattened, indented and adorned with the 4 fleshy calyx lobes at the apex. the skin is very thin, the flesh, white, spongy, juicy, sub-acidic to sweet, with ild flavours. there may be 1 or 2 some what rounded seeds, or none. the fruits are reported to have total acids content varying from 0.6 % to 0.9% and tss from 5.6 to 12.8 % (moneruzzama et al. 2015 and rosnah et al, 2012), it has been reported that, in ceylon, the fruits are ripe from march to may; in india, the flowering spans from nov-dec to mar-april and fruits are available from march to june. in java, flowering occurs from april to june and fruiting from june to august (morton 1987). in tripura (north eastern part of india), these trees flower in march-april and fruit in june-july (sankaran et al, 2006). in west coast of india (goa), the trees initiate to flower in october-november and give fruits in summer (i. e.) dur ing feb-apr il. t he spans of flowering and fruiting overlap, due to continuous this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. 98 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 97-103, 2020 priya devi et al. flushes of flowering in the tree. even after the peak bearing and harvest in april, the trees put forth some flowers and yield few fruits in june, with the onset of south west monsoons of india. the pattern of fruit development with respect to morphological and biochemical changes during the growth phase has not yet been studied systematically in this r egion. therefore, this study was undertaken in order to study the growth and development of wax apple fruits right from anthesis to harvest. the study was conducted in icar-central coastal agricultural research institute, located at old goa, goa, india. well grown and yielding trees of white (variety krystal taiwan) and pink types (variety pink) of syzygium samarangense, those are twelve years old were selected for the study. the study was initiated in november, when the onset of flowering was noticed. the flower buds open in the morning hours. the freshly opened flower buds were tagged on the day of anthesis. during the fruit development, the samples of minimum ten fruits were drawn once in seven days for analyses. likewise, the samples were drawn till the harvest stage. at every stage (i.e.) on 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56, 63 and 70 daa (days after anthesis) morpho-physical parameters like, fruit weight, fruit volume, fruit diameter (as the fruit is bell shaped, diameter readings were recorded in three places viz., upper, middle and lower designated as d1, d2 and d3 respectively in the graphs) and fruit length were recorded.fruit weight was recorded using electronic balance; fruit volume was measured using water displacement method; diameter readings were measured using vernier caliper. besides, biochemical parameters like, total acids (titration against 0.1 n naoh using phenolphthalein indicator), total sugars (phenol-sulphuric acid method) and reducing sugars (nelson-somyogi method) were also estimated in every stage of development. tss was observed using digital refractometer. growth curves were generated using rgr values using the formula, rgr= (ln2-ln1)/ (tn2-t1), where ln are natural logarithmic values of readings recorded at regular time intervals and t represents the time taken (say seven days in this study) goa experiences monsoon season from june to september or mid-october. only after the complete cessation of monsoons, do the wax apple trees start showing fruit buds on the branches. during the period of study, the flowering phase in the trees under study was recorded from mid-october to mid-february. the period taken from anthesis to harvest was 63 and 70 days in pink and white wax apple respectively. it has been reported that, the formation of flower buds does not mea n ea r ly flower ing in syzygium samarangense. in the dr y sea son, wa x a pple commonly flowers early or late and even protocols have been developed by shu et al (1998) in taiwan to trigger the flowering period depending upon the site of flower panicles appearance viz., leaf axils, shoot tip, new flush etc. usually, shoot growth proceeds in flushes which a r e mor e or less synchr onous, depending on the climate. there are definite flowering seasons, often two, sometimes three in a year, but the timing varies from year to year. wax jambu commonly flowers early or late in the dry season; the flowers appear to be self-compatible and the fruit ripens 3040 days after anthesis (orwa et al. 2009). he has also reported that, flowers fall on the ground in 2-3 days, leaving behind the tiny fruits to mature and ripen in about 2 months. in favourable conditions, a healthy tree can produce abundant fruits and has two fruiting seasons annually, may-september and november to march as reported from kenya. when mature, the tree is considered a heavy bearer and can yield a crop of up to 700 fruits. sankaran et al. (2006) have reported that the wax apple trees have two flushes of flowering during march-april and june-july under climatic conditions of north eastern hill region, especially in tripura. moneruzzaman et al. (2012a), have reported after a detailed study on different varieties of wax apple, that, ‘giant green’ cultivar had creamy white flower colour,‘masammanis pink’ had white colour flower, while ‘jambumadu red’ had the creamy white to light yellow flower andthe number of days between anthesis and the harvest maturity (daa) were as 41, 46, and 55 days for ‘masammanis red’, ‘jambumadu red’ and ‘giant green’ under malaysia climatic conditions. it is observed that the pink or red types take shorter duration for attaining maturity, when compared to green or white types, which is in corroboration with the current study. in a different study moneruzzaman et al. (2015) has reported that ‘masam manis pink’ cultivar had the earliest fruit development and maturity approximately 38 days after anthesis followed by ‘jambumadu red’ cultivar with nearly 45 days. on the other hand, ‘giant green’ cultivar had late maturity with about 50 days to reach harvest stage from anthesis. it has been noted that syzygium pycnanthum required 80-89 days 99 fruit development in pink and white types of wax apple in goa after anthesis to attain harvest stage (mudiana and ariyanti, 2010). in wax apple, variety ‘pink’, the average fruit weight recorded seven daa was 1.28 g, whereas during har vest (70 daa), it was r ecor ded a s 47. 16g .the21stday average fruit weight of 5.59 g spurted to 24.05 g on 28th daa. the fruit volume was negligible on 7 and 14 daa and recorded a value of 2.55 cc on 21st daa, however, increased to 22 cc on 28 daa, in a trend similar to increase in fruit weight. the fruits harvested 70 daa recorded fruit volume of 46.60 cc. increased to 35.07 g during harvest, i.e., 63 daa. the fruit volume values were negligible on 7, 14 and 21 daa, whereas it was found to be 6.20 cc on 28 daa and increased to 34 cc during harvest. the increase in fruit weight was steady from 7 to 21 daa, and later on attained a jump size of 7.87 g. the rgr curve pattern depicting the increase in fruit weight also showed a trend similar to that in pink variety, expressing a well renowned peak 21 daa and a less pronounced peak on 35th daa. the only peak in rgr curve for fruit volume in krystal taiwan, white wax apple coincided the second peak of fruit weight rgr curve (fig. 2). it has been reported by moneruzzamanet al (2012 a) that, ‘giant green’ cultivar had the largest fruit (89 g) weight followed by ‘jambumadu red’ cultivar with a value of 85 g while‘masammanis pink’ cultivar produced the minimum fruit (78 g) weight. in another study by moneruzzaman et al (2012 b), the pink variety wax apples recorded fruit weight of 38 g. in a study conducted on different types of wax apples it was found that, the fruit weight varied significantly among 5 accessions of wax apples, ranging from 50.88 g in thered or dark pink type to 28.35 g in the light pink bell shaped type with a mean value of 35.66 g (risvy, 2013). the fruit weight values recorded in the study are in corroboration with these reports. the related species guava also showed a sigmoidal growth pattern, with one peak flanked by two slag pha ses (mukherjee a nd da tta, 1967), wher ea s salunkhe and desai (1984) have reported in guava a sigmoidal growth pattern but with an unusual behaviour of rapid increase in fruit weight in the initial phase. another fruit species eugenia stipata (hernandez et al. 2007) from the same family myrtaceae also showed single sigmoidal growth pattern similar to the cur r ent study. simila rly, the gr owth cur ve of pomegranate also showed a single sigmoidal pattern (shulman, 1984). in pink variety wax apple, the average initial length seven daa was observed to be 1.50 cm, which increased to 6.60 cm during harvest stage ie.,70 daa. the fruit equatorial diameter was measured upper side (d1), middle (d2) and lower side (d3), as the fruit is nearly pear shaped. d1 was 0.40 cm seven daa and increased to 2.80 cm 70 daa. however, the increase was from 1.03 to 4.00 cm and the rgr curve (fig 1) shows that there was a rapid development from 7th to 35th day and then, the growth rate slowed down towards the 49th daa, which later slightly increased (between 49 and 56 daa) then decreased towards the harvest. the second increase recorded can’t be considered as a peak, whereas the initial or first increase is definitely a peak, therefore depicting a sigmoid curve. in white wax apple, variety ‘krystal taiwan’, the initial fruit weight was recorded to be 0.9 g, which j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 97-103, 2020 fig. 1. rgr for fruit weight and volume in wax apple variety pink fig. 2. rgr for fruit weight and volume in white wax apple variety krystal taiwan 100 1.38 to 4.20 cm for d2 and d3 respectively from 7 to 70 daa. the fruit length increased from 1.50 cm to 6.60 cm during the development. similar previous studies also show that, fruits are pear-shaped and 1.52 inches long(orwaet al. 2009). ‘giant green’ and ‘masammanis pink’ cultivars had bell shaped fruits while ‘jambumadu red’ cultivar had a pear shaped fruit. (moneruzzamanet al, 2012 a). fruit length was 5.23 cm in pink variety wax apple and fruit diameter was nearly 3.5 cmduring harvest. (moneruzzamanet al, 2012 b) were 0.40, 1.00 cm and 1.23 cm respectively seven daa and increased to 2.85, 4.25 and 4.60 cm during harvest i.e., 63 daa.there was a single prominent peak noticed in the rgr curves for d2 and d3 during fruit development between 21 and 28 daa.however, rgr for d3 showed a less pr ominent pea k, coinciding with second less dominant peak in rgr curve for fruit length. the increase of length showed two pea ks during 7-14 daa and 35-42 daa. (fig 4) in general, fruit size is a genetic characteristic of the cultivar s a nd is a lso used for identification of cultivar s. pr evious studies show that the fruit of‘jambumadu red’ cultivar was the longest (8.2 cm) followed by ‘giant green’ cultivar with a fruit length of 6.3 cm, whilst least fruit length was observed in ‘masammanis pink’ cultivar with a value of 5.5 cm. fruit size is an inherent factor associated with different cultivars. ‘masammanis pink’ cultivar had the highest (5.5cm) fruit diameter while, ‘jambumadu red’ cultivar fruit had the least (4.6cm) diameter and ‘giant green’ cultivar was intermediate at about 5.2 cm.they also found that the number of cells per fruit was higher for large fruited cultivars than for small fruited cultivars (moneruzzaman et al. 2012b). in the evaluation study on different cultivars of wax apples conducted by risvy (2013), it was noticed that the length of observed fruits varied significantly and ranged from 7.04 cm to 4.23 cm, with a mean value of 4.92 cm. similarly, the diameter also varied from 4.23 cm to 2.67 cm, with a mean of 3.09 cm. these values are in corroboration with the current study. the length of wax apples increased from 1.5 to 5 cm, the width from 1.2 to 6 cm, fruit weight from 2 to 150 g dur ing 80 days growing per iod fr om anthesis, all following a single sigmoidal growth pattern as reported by shu et al (1998) wax a pples, both pink a nd white ar e ma jorly composed of moisture, sugars and acids. they are crunchy, sweet and relishing for table purpose. in south east asian countries, various products likejam, jelly, candy, syrup, flakes etc are prepared from these fruits. the mild sugar acid blend renders the fruits suitable for value addition. the immature fruits are mildly acrid and acidic and towards maturity, the acidity decreases and sugar concentration increases. in pink variety, the percentage of total titrable acids decreased from 0.42 (7 daa) to 0.11 per centduring fig. 3. rgr for fruit dimension parameters in wax apple variety ‘pink’ fig. 4. rgr for fruit dimension parameters in white wax apple, variety krystal taiwan the rgr curve shows that, there were pronounced peaks during increase in the polar and equatorial diameter (d1 and d3)between 21 and 28 daa. but, the peaks in rgr curves of fruit weight and fruit dia meter d2 occur between 28 a nd 35 daa.therefore, it can be concluded that the fruit growth follows a single sigmoid growth curve in wax apple variety ‘pink’. (fig. 3) in white wax apple, variety ‘krystal taiwan’, the initial average length seven daa was 1.10 cm, which increased to 4.60 cm on 63rd daa. d1, d2 and d3 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 97-103, 2020 priya devi et al. 101 harvest. the rate of decrease in total acids touched a lowest peak 28 to 35 daa and after being stable for one more week, it steadily decreased till harvest stage (70 daa).in white wax apple, the total titrable acids reduced from 1.43 per cent (7 daa) to 0.19 per cent (63 daa) during harvest. the rgr curve showed that, the decrease in acidity was steady and uniform from seven to 35 daa, whereas, it reached a negative peak during 35-42 daa, again followed by a steady decline in acidity percentage till harvest, therefore, depicting a single sigmoidal pattern (fig 5). in similar studies, it was reported that the decrease in fruit acidity coincided with an increase in sugar content of the fruits.the lowest amount of titrable acidity (0.78%) was observed in the ‘jambumadu red’ cultivar, followed by ‘giant green’ (0.83 %) and ‘masam manis pink’ (0.90%). it has also been r ecor ded tha t the soluble solids content in ‘jambumadu red’ was wide-ranging from 5.63 to 12.5% brix (moneruzzaman et al, 2015). in a different study, moneruzzaman et al (2012 c) reported that titrable acidity of wax apple was 0.78 %.while comparing chemical composition changes in two types of wax apples, rosnahet al (2012) found that, the total acidity of kristal taiwan (green white type) ranged between 0.2-0.25%, while the total acidity of semarang rose (pink type) were between 0.07-0.1%. these results are in corroboration with the results of this study. in pink variety, total soluble solids (tss) increased gradually from 5.10 to 13.90obrix (7 to 70 daa). the increase rate was gradual from 7 to 35 daa, and then, there was a spurt in increase from 35 to 49 daa. later on, the raise in tss was gradual up to 60 daa and then, there was a sharp increase towards harvest.in white wax apple, tss increased from 4.1 (seven daa) to 15.6obrix during harvest (63 daa). the rate of increase has a peak value during 35 to 42 daa, coinciding the negative peak of reduction in acidity during fruit development. therefore, it was obser ved tha t dur ing fr uit development, the significant increase in sugars and significant decrease in acids occur from 35 to 42 daa. the abovementioned peak for increase in tss was flanked by one less prominent peak during initial period of development i.e., 14-21 daa and the other one towards the harvest stage i.e., 56-63 daa (fig 6). it has been noted by orwa et al (2009) that, of the different types of wax apples, the reddest fruits are the sweetest and superior varieties of excellent quality available. total soluble solids (tss) percentage significantly varied and ranged from 10.39% to 13.96% with the mean value of 12.05% in five different types of wax apples evaluated in bangladesh (risvy, 2013). on comparing a green and pink type, rosnahet al (2012) has reported the total soluble solid (tss) in kristal taiwan (5.9-9.6obrix) and semarang rose (5.2-9.0obrix). moneruzzaman et al. (2012 b) have reported that pink wax apples have 5.6o brix tss and 3.63 mg/10 g of total sugars. in the present study, the total sugars content in pink variety wax apple increased from 2.11 (7 daa) to 5.95 (70 daa) in a gradual manner. however, the rgr curve showed a pea k in increase in total sugars,49-56 daa followed by a sharp decline in rate and then a final spurt in the concentration of total sugars towards harvest stage (70 daa) in a trend similar to that of increase in tss content of the fruit. the concentration of reducing sugars in the fruit increased from 0.18 % (seven daa) to 1.98 % (70 daa). the trend in increase of reducing sugars also had an initial peak during 35 to 42 daa, followed by a second peak during 49-56 daa, thus showing a double sigmoid curve (fig 6). fig. 5. rgr for quality characters in wax apple variety ‘pink’ fig. 6. rgr for quality characters in ‘white’ wax apple variety krystal taiwan j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 97-103, 2020 fruit development in pink and white types of wax apple in goa 102 in white wax apple variety krystal taiwan, total sugars content in fruit increased from 2.8 per cent (seven daa) to 13.87 per cent (63 daa) at harvest. the rate of increase in total sugars showed a trend just similar to that of tss with a peak during 35 to 42 daa, flanked by one less prominent peak during initial period of development i.e., 14-21 daa and the other one towards the harvest stage i.e., 56-63 daa. the reducing sugars in the white wax apple fruits increased from 0.62 per cent (seven daa) to 9.27 per cent (63 daa) at harvest. the rgr curve showed that the trend in rate of increase in reducing sugars was stable without any peak, except during the initial period i.e., seven to 14 daa. in a study on compositional changes in two cultivars of wax apple in malaysia, it was found that, the fructose content was highest in the water apple juice in the range of 7.05 to 9.15% (kristal taiwan) and 4.77 to 9.25% (semarang rose) indicating that, the fructose content is the major sugar contributing to water apple sweetness followed by glucose and sucrose. the glucose content varied between 6.74 to 8.37% (kristal taiwan) and 3.53 to 8.26% (semarang rose) while the sucrose content varied between 0.19 to 0.36% (kr istal taiwan) and 0.38 to 1.51% (semarang rose). fructose, being sweeter than sucrose and glucose, has a desirable influence on the taste of fruits. (rosnah et al, 2012) sugar concentration of the fruit increased with fruit growth with fructose and glucose as the main components; starch content reached a maximum value of 11 % and decreased towards ripening (shu et al, 1998). similarly, in pomegr anate fruit development, a significant increase in tss, total sugars and reducing sugars was observed 80 daa, with a maximum values on 140 daa. the equilibrium concentration of these biochemical on 100 daa mark optimum maturity and the further increase is during phase of ripening (kulkarni and aradhya, 2005). likewise, in both types of wax apples studied, there was a peak in increase of sugars between 30 and 40 daa and then after 50 daa. t his systema tic study, conducted in syzygium samarangense (pink and white types) indicates that the fruit development, comprising various aspects of the fruit follow sigmoid and double sigmoid growth pattern, which is in corroboration with similar studies conducted in fruits like wax apples in different places like malaysia, taiwan and bangladesh and also in strawberry and apple. hernández, m.s., martínez o., fernández-trujillo j.p. 2007. behaviour of arazá (eugenia stipitata mc vaugh) fruit quality traits during growth, development a nd r ipening. scientia horticulturae. 111(3):220–227 kulkarni a,p., aradhya s.m. 2005. chemical changes and antioxidant activity inpomegranate arils during fruit development. food chemistry. 95: 319-324 moneruzzaman k.m., alebidi a.i. and al-saif a.m. 2012a. assessment of genetic diversity in three cultivars of syzygium samarangense grown in ma la ysia by using mor phologica l a nd physiological parameters. res. j. biotech. 7(3):16-22 moneruzzaman k,m., alebidi a.i., hossain a.s., boyce. 2015. physiological and biochemical properties of three cultivars of wax apple (syzygium samarangense [blume] merrill & l.m. perry) fruits. j. sustain. sci. manage. 10(1): 66-75 moneruzzaman,k,m., boyce a.n., normaniza osman a nd sha r if hossa in abm. 2012 c. physiochemical and phytochemical properties of wax apple (syzygium samarangense [blume] merrill & l. m. perry var. jambumadu) as affected by growth regulator application. the scientific world journal. (728613). p13 moneruzzaman k.m., osman n., hossain a.s. and boyce a.n. 2012b. effects of the phloemic stress on the growth, development and quality of wax apple (syzygium samarangense) cv. jambumadu. sains malaysiana 41(5):553-560 morton, j. 1987. java apple. injulia f. morton (ed.). fruits of warm climates. miami, fl. p. 381-382. mudia na a nd ariya nti. 2010. flower and fruit development of syzygium pycnanthummerr. & l.m. perry. bio diversitas. 11(3): 124-128 references j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 97-103, 2020 priya devi et al. 103 mukher jee, s, k. and m.n.dutta. 1967. physicochemica l cha nges in india n gua va (psidiumguajava l.) during fruit development. curr sci. 36: 675-76. orwa, c., a.mutua, r.kindt, r.jamnadass and anthony, s.2009. agroforestree database: a tree reference and selection guide version 4.0. world agroforestry centre, kenya risvy. a. 2013. morphologica l a nd molecula r characterization of wax jambu (syzygium samarangense). m.sc., diss., department of hor ticultur e, ba ngla desh agr icultur a l university, mymensingh rosnah, s., w.k.wong, m.noraziah, and h.osman. 2012. chemical composition changes of two wa ter a pple (syzygium samarangense). international food research journal 19(1): 167-174 salunakhe, d. k. and b.b.desai. 1984. postharvest biotechnology of fruits. vol. 2. guava. boca raton, florida. crc. press, inc., usa, 148 pp. sa nka r a n, m. , ja i pr a ka sh, n. p. singh, a.sukhlabaidya. 2006. wild edible fruits of tripura. natural product radiance. 5(4):302305 shu, z.h., s.c.lia w, h.l.lin, k. c. lee. 1998. physica l cha r a cter istics a nd orga nic compositional changes in developing wax apple fruits. journal of the chinese society for horticultural science. 44:491-501 shulman,y., l. fainberstein. andlavee,s..1984. pomegranate fruit development of maturation. journal of horticultural science, 59 (2): 265-2740 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 97-103, 2020 fruit development in pink and white types of wax apple in goa (received on 30.07.2019 and accepted on 12.12.2019) effect of potting media on growth and quality in aglaonema s. swetha, t. padmalatha, k. dhanumjaya rao1 and a. siva shankar2 college of horticulture rajendranagar, hyderabad 500 030, india e-mail: gandhamlatha@yahoo.com abstract effect of potting media on growth and quality of ornamental foliage plant, aglaonema cv. ernesto’s favourite, was evaluated. soil, cocopeat and sphagnum peat, in combination with sand, fym and vermicompost in various proportions, were used as potting media. maximum plant height (71.36cm), number of leaves (16.00), leaf length (60.39cm), leaf width (10.13cm), leaf area (208.36cm2), plant growth index (63.37cm), fresh weight of root (45.00g), dry weight of root (8.53g), visual plant grade (4.50), colour grade (4.58), root grade (4.45), and, n (3.46 %), p (0.95 %) and k content in leaf (1.91%) were recorded with the medium containing cocopeat + sand + vermicompost in 2:1:1, (v/v) combination at 150 dap. medium containing cocopeat + sand + fym + vermicompost in 2:1:1:0.5 ratio, (v/v) was found to be on par with cocopeat + sand + vermicompost in 2:1:1, (v/v) combination with respect to leaf width, dry weight of root, visual plant grade, colour grade, root grade and k content. key words: aglaonema, sphagnum peat, cocopeat, vermicompost, plant grade, color grade, root grade, npk content foliage plants are generally grown for their attractive foliage and can be kept for longer periods under indoor conditions. there is a great demand for foliage plants for both domestic and export markets. among a large number of foliage plants available for interior decoration, aglaonema is an important and popular herbaceous, evergreen ornamental with attractive foliar variegation and tolerance to low light. it belongs to the family araceae and is native to south east asia. potting medium plays an important role in successful growth of foliage plants. though most potted tropical foliage plants are grown in peat-based media, usually sphagnum peat, this is not readily available in the tropical regions. hence, there is a need for new substratecomponents which improve growth of foliage plants or reduce production costs compared to peat-based media. with this in view, an attempt was made to evaluate the effect of different potting media on growth performance and quality in aglaonema cv. ernesto’s favourite. one-month old plants of aglaonema cv. ernesto’s favourite, obtained from a nursery located in hyderabad, were used in the experiment. nine treatments were laid out in completely randomized design, and replicated thrice [(t1 soil + sand + fym (2:1:1, v/v), t2 soil + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1, v/v), t3 soil + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5, v/v), t4 cocopeat + sand + fym short communication 1floriculture research station, rajendranagar, hyderabad-500030, 2college of agriculture, angrau, rajendranagar, hyderabad-500030 (2:1:1, v/v), t5 cocopeat + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1, v/v), t6 cocopeat + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5, v/v), t7 sphagnum peat + sand + fym (2:1:1, v/v), t8 sphagnum peat + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1, v/ v), and t9 sphagnum peat + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5, v/v)]. each component of the mixture was added on the basis of volume while preparing the potting mixture which was added to earthen pots of 12" size stopping at 2cm from the top. one-month old plants of aglaonema cv. ernesto’s favourite, were planted into the pots, and the pots were moved into partial shade. observations on growth parameters, viz., plant height, leaf number/plant, leaf length, leaf width and leaf area were recorded at monthly intervals from 30 dap to 150 dap. data recorded at 150 dap is presented in tables 1, 2 and 3. for calculating plant growth index, height (base to maximum point of canopy) and width (distance between widest two points in canopy) of plants were measured at inception, and again at the termination of the experiment (150dap). plant growth index (pgi) was calculated using the formula of net change in plant height plus net change in plant width (merrow, 1995). various plant parameters, viz., visual plant grade, visual colour grade, fresh weight of roots, dry weight of roots, visual root grade and per cent n, p and k in leaf were recorded at 150 dap. visual plant grade was j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):90-93, 2014 91 determined using 1-5 scale grade system, where 1 = dead, 2 = poor quality, 3 = fair quality, 4 = good quality and 5 = excellent quality. visual colour grade of aglaonema plants was rated according to colour and pigmentation by the grading system by henny et al (2008) as, 1= poor colour, 3= good, light green and 5= excellent dark green & silver contrast. visual root grade was determined using a grading system where 1= 20% soil ball covered with roots, 2= 2040% soil ball covered, 3= 40-60% soil ball covered, 4= 6080% soil ball covered and 5= ≥ 80% coverage. leaf nitrogen per cent was determined by kjeldhal method. phosphorus content was determined as per jackson (1973). potassium per cent was estimated by a microprocessor-based flame photometer, using specific filter and lpg flame. data were statistically analyzed as per panse and sukhatme (1985). observations on plant height, leaf number/plant, leaf length and width, leaf area, pgi and fresh and dry weight of roots recorded at 150 days after planting (dap) under various potting media are presented in table 1. maximum plant height was recorded in t5 cocopeat + sand + vermicompost in 2:1:1 ratio (v/v) (71.36cm), followed by t6 cocopeat + sand + fym + vermicompost in 2:1:1:0.5 ratio v(/v) (63.53cm). minimum plant height (51.20cm) was recorded in t1 soil + sand + fym in 2:1:1 ratio (v/v). high nitrogen content available to plants grown in cocopeat, sand and vermicompost medium (table 3) could be the reason for greatest plant height. maximum number of leaves (16.00) were recorded in treatment t5 cocopeat + sand + vermicompost in 2:1:1 ratio (v/v), followed by t6 cocopeat + sand + fym + vermicompost in 2:1:1:0.5 ratio (v/v) (14.75) which was on par with t8 sphagnum peat + sand + vermicompost in 2:1:1 ratio v/v (13.26). higher number of leaves in cocopeat + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1, v/v) medium is related to both cocopeat and vermicompost characteristics, where, cocopeat affords higher total pore space (tps) and water holding capacity (whc) and vermicompost is richer in humic compounds (sahni et al, 2008). maximumt leaf length was recorded in t5 cocopeat + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1 ratio, v/v) (60.39cm), followed by t6 cocopeat + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5 ratio, v/v) (55.15cm). minimum leaf length was recorded in t1 soil + sand + fym (2:1:1 ratio, v/v) (41.67cm). high water-holding capacity of cocopeat and high nutrient content of vermicompost may have been responsible for maximum leaf length. tilt et al (1987) demonstrated positive correlation between water-holding capacity and increased top growth in several landscape species. treatment t5 cocopeat + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1 ratio, v/v) showed maximum leaf width (10.13cm), and t6 cocopeat + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5 ratio, v/v) was on par (9.61cm) with it. plants grown in cocopeat + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1 ratio, v/v) (t5) produced leaves with maximum leaf area (208.36cm2), followed by t6 cocopeat + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5 ratio, v/v) (192.13cm2). better performance in this medium can be attributed mainly to characteristics of cocopeat and vermicompost. cocopeat has the ability to store and release nutrients to plants for an extended period of time. vermicompost has considerable amounts of humic substances and improves plant nutrition (sahni et al, 2008). maximum pgi (63.37cm) was observed in plants grown in a medium containing cocopeat + sand + table 1. effect of potting media on growth performance in aglaonema cv. ernesto’s favourite at 150 days after planting treatment plant no.of leaf leaf leaf plant fresh weight dry weight height (cm) leaves length (cm) width (cm) area (cm2) growth index of root (g) of root (g) t 1 51.20 9.00 41.67 7.26 146.86 44.42 30.07 3.26 t 2 57.50 10.22 48.48 8.95 161.40 47.39 33.00 4.08 t 3 58.23 12.71 50.70 8.83 174.00 49.17 36.66 4.45 t 4 59.63 11.71 47.36 8.64 180.46 52.42 40.83 7.45 t 5 71.36 16.00 60.39 10.13 208.36 63.37 45.00 8.53 t 6 63.53 14.75 55.15 9.61 192.13 56.72 42.04 8.08 t 7 55.80 11.38 49.28 8.11 167.20 50.08 37.12 6.81 t 8 60.63 13.26 50.34 8.95 183.20 52.25 40.16 7.65 t 9 60.76 12.24 50.44 8.62 173.50 52.71 38.68 6.61 s.em.± 0.79 0.63 0.50 0.32 2.46 0.83 0.98 0.27 c d (p=0.05) 2.36 1.89 1.49 0.95 7.31 2.49 2.90 0.81 t 1 soil + sand + fym (2:1:1, v/v) t 2 soil + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1, v/v) t 3 soil + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5, v/v) t 4 cocopeat + sand + fym (2:1:1, v/v) t 5 cocopeat + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1, v/v) t 6 cocopeat + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5, v/v) t 7 sphagnum peat + sand + fym (2:1:1, v/v) t 8 sphagnum peat + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1, v/v) t 9 sphagnum peat + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5, v/v) growth and quality studies in aglaonema j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):90-93, 2014 92 vermicompost (2:1:1 ratio, v/v) (t5), followed by t6 cocopeat + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5 ratio, v/v) (56.72cm). cocopeat allows air, nutrients and water to reach the root surface, which may be one of the reasons for the rapid and vigorous growth seen. maximum root fresh weight (45g) was recorded in t5 cocopeat + sand + vermicompost in 2:1:1 ratio (v/v), followed by t6 cocopeat + sand + fym + vermicompost in 2:1:1:0.5 ratio (v/v) (42.04 g). minimum root fresh weight was observed in t1 soil + sand + fym in 2:1:1 ratio (v/v) (30.07 g). development of more number of leaves on the plant may reflect an earlier growth of root system. thus, production of more leaves with maximum leaf area in this medium largely agrees with improved root development. maximum dry weight of roots was obtained in treatment t5 cocopeat + sand + vermicompost in 2:1:1 ratio (v/v) (8.53g), which was on par with t6 cocopeat + sand + fym + vermicompost in 2:1:1:0.5 ratio (v/v) (8.08g). cocopeat is very slow to disintegrate compared to peat (cresswell, 1992) which makes it resistant to bacterial and fungal growth. this could be one of the reasons for higher root growth. data on visual plant grade, colour grade and root grade at 150dap aglaonema cv. ernesto’s favourite grown in different potting media are presented in table 2. significantly higher plant grade was recorded in t5 cocopeat + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1 ratio, v/v) (4.50), which was on par with t6 cocopeat + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5 ratio, v/v) (4.41). cultivars growing in cocopeat-amended medium are shown to have higher production or accumulation of total protein and amino acids in their stem than plants growing in peat-amended media (scagel, 2003). this could be a reason for high visual plant grade. improved nutrition from vermicompost changes biochemical properties of a plant like chlorophyll, enzymes, and protein synthesis (tomati et al, 1995) which could be one of the reasons for high visual plant grade. significantly higher visual colour grade was recorded in t5 cocopeat + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1 ratio, v/v) (4.58), which was on par with t6 cocopeat + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5 ratio, v/v) (4.25). higher nitrogen available to plants in this medium may be the reason for higher colour intensity. these results are in accordance with scagel (2003) where leaf of the plant grown in cocopeat-amended media had higher chlorophyll content than in plants grown on peatamended media. higher visual root grade was registered in treatment t5 cocopeat + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1 ratio, v/v) (4.45), and was on par with t6 cocopeat + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5 ratio, v/v) (4.28). phenolics in cocopeat may have either promoted root development or inhibited loss of roots to disease-causing pathogens (evans and stamps, 1996), resulting in high root grade. data on nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in leaves at 150dap in aglaonema cv. ernesto’s favourite treated with different potting media (table 3) show that maximum percentage of nitrogen was recorded in treatment t5 cocopeat + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1 ratio, v/v) (3.46%), and was on par with t6 cocopeat + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5 ratio, v/v) (3.20%). high cation exchange capacity, low electrical conductivity and acceptable ph of cocopeat (jeyaseeli and samuel paul raj, 2010) could be the reason for high n uptake. maximum phosphorus table 2. effect of potting media on visual plant grade, colour grade and root grade in aglaonema cv. ernesto’s favourite at 150 days after planting treatment visual plant visual colour visual root grade* grade** grade*** t 1 soil + sand + fym (2:1:1, v/v) 3.28 3.00 3.53 t 2 soil + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1, v/v) 3.88 3.33 3.75 t 3 soil + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5, v/v) 4.15 3.58 3.91 t 4 cocopeat + sand + fym (2:1:1, v/v) 4.13 3.66 4.11 t 5 cocopeat + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1, v/v) 4.50 4.58 4.45 t 6 cocopeat + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5, v/v) 4.41 4.25 4.28 t 7 sphagnum peat + sand + fym (2:1:1, v/v) 4.16 3.66 4.03 t 8 sphagnum peat + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1, v/v) 4.20 4.00 4.20 t 9 sphagnum peat + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5, v/v) 4.08 4.00 4.13 s.em.± 0.09 0.18 0.06 c d (p=0.05) 0.28 0.54 0.18 *plant grade system where 1 = dead, 2 = poor quality, 3 = fair quality, 4 = good quality and 5=excellent quality **colour grade system where 1= poor colour, 3 = good, light green, 5 = excellent, dark green & silver contrast ***root grade system where 1= 20% soil ball covered with roots, 2 = 20-40% soil ball covered, 3 = 40-60% soil ball covered, 4 = 60-80% soil ball covered, 5 = ≥ 80% soil ball covered with roots swetha et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):90-93, 2014 93 content (0.95 %) was recorded in t5 cocopeat + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1 ratio, v/v), followed by t6 cocopeat + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5 ratio, v/v) (0.84%). higher availability of p in coir-amended medium could be a result of greater p exchange sites or due to a higher activity of p-solubilizing and acid phosphatase producing organisms. maximum potassium content (1.91%) was recorded in t5 cocopeat + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1 ratio, v/v), which was on par with t6 cocopeat + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5 ratio, v/v) (1.88%). this could be attributed to higher nutrient status provided by vermicompost, and, excellent physical (water retention and aeration) and chemical properties (acceptable ph, low electrical conductivity, high cec) of cocopeat, which would have resulted in higher nutrient uptake. these results reveal that potting media containing cocopeat + sand + vermicompost in 2:1:1 ratio result in best growth parameters and improved quality in aglaonema cv. ernesto’s favourite among the media studied. references cresswell, g.c. 1992. coir dust – a viable alternative to peat? p. 1-5. in: proc. austral. potting mix manufacturers conf., sydney evans, m.r. and stamps, r.h. 1996. growth of bedding plants in sphagnum peat and coir dust based substrates. j. environ. hort., 14:187-190 henny, r.j., chen, j. and mellich, t.a. 2008. new florida foliage plant cultivar: aglaonema ‘stripes’. university of florida, ifas extension, usa jackson, m.l. 1973. soil chemical analysis, prentice hall of india private limited, new delhi, p. 182 jeyaseeli, m.d. and samuel paul raj. 2010. chemical characteristics of coir pith as a function of its particle size to be used as soilless medium. the ecoscan., 4:163-169 merrow, a.w. 1995. growth of two tropical foliage plants using coir dust as a container medium amendment. hort. technol., 5:237-239 panse, v.g. and sukhatme, p.v. 1985. statistical methods for agricultural workers, 2nd edition icar, new delhi sahni, s., sarma, b.k., singh, d.p., singh, h.b. and singh, k.p. 2008. vermicompost enhances performance of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria in cicer arietinum rhizosphere against sclerotium rolfsii and quality of strawberry (fragaria x ananassa duch.). crop prot., 27:369–376 scagel, c.f. 2003. growth and nutrient use of ericaceous plants grown in media amended with sphagnum moss peat or coir dust. hortl. sci., 38:46-54 tilt, k.m., bilderback, t.e. and fonteno, w.c. 1987. particle size and container size effects on growth of three ornamental species. j. amer. soc. hort. sci., 112:981-984 tomati, u., grappelli, a. and galli, e. 1995. the hormonelike effect of earthworm casts on plant growth. biol. fertil. soils, 5:288–294 table 3. effect of potting media on leaf nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content (%) in aglaonema cv. ernesto’s favourite at 150 days after planting treatment nitrogen phosphorus potassium content (%) content (%) content (%) t 1 soil + sand + fym (2:1:1, v/v) 2.04 0.30 1.26 t 2 soil + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1, v/v) 2.33 0.39 1.40 t 3 soil + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5, v/v) 2.71 0.45 1.59 t 4 cocopeat + sand + fym (2:1:1, v/v) 2.74 0.52 1.69 t 5 cocopeat + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1, v/v) 3.46 0.95 1.91 t 6 cocopeat + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5, v/v) 3.20 0.84 1.88 t 7 sphagnum peat + sand + fym (2:1:1, v/v) 2.73 0.52 1.60 t 8 sphagnum peat + sand + vermicompost (2:1:1, v/v) 2.88 0.79 1.78 t 9 sphagnum peat + sand + fym + vermicompost (2:1:1:0.5, v/v) 2.75 0.65 1.76 s.em.± 0.07 0.02 0.03 c d (p=0.05) 0.21 0.08 0.10 (ms received 20 july 2013, revised 16 november 2013, accepted 17 january 2014) j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):90-93, 2014 growth and quality studies in aglaonema j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 488-495, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction plum (prunus spp.) is one of the most commercially important fruit species in iran. plums are temperate zone fruits, but they are widely grown throughout the world, from the cold climate of siberia to the subtropical conditions of the mediterranean region (son, 2010). prunus species such as p. cerasifera, p. domestica, p. institia and p. salicina are widely grown thr oughout the wor ld. t he eur opean plum ( p. domestica) and the japanese plum (p. salicina) are more important in terms of commercial production (ozbek, 1978). grafting is largely used in the production of vegetable and fruit-bearing crops in order to increase uniformity, vigor, and adaptation to biotic and abiotic stresses. the compatibility of rootstock and scion plays a crucial role in establishing highly efficient root systems through grafting (goldschmidt, 2014; warschefsky et al., 2016). however, this trait varies significantly even between closely related species, which necessitates the evaluation of compatibility before grafting a specific scion genotype into the rootstock. for the stone fruit industry that heavily relies on vegetatively propagated cultivars (i.e., individual genotypes) via grafting, the long-term vitality of the union between the rootstock and scion is crucial (lee et al., 2011; guan et al., 2012). graft incompatibility generally occurs at the early sta ge of gra ft development when the va scula r connection is forming. however, symptoms may manifest at large growth stages such as low plant development related to physiological differences in the stem diameter, which impairs the normal flow of photoassimilates and the lignification of grafted tissues (souza et al., 2018), thus decreasing the hydraulic conductivity of the graft union (tworkoski and fazio, 2015). these symptoms appear during the plant fruiting period when the plant is subjected to a high demand for water transport (martinez-ballesta et al., 2010). incompatibility does not permanently become possibility of early detection of graft incompatibility in some commercial plum cultivars by phenolic compounds analysis arghavan s.1, ganji moghadam e.2*, fahadan a.1, zamanipour m.3 1department of horticulture, azad university branch shirvan, north khorasan, iran 2crop and horticultural science research department, khorasan razavi agricultural and natural resources research and education center, areeo, mashhad, iran 3department of agriculture, technical and engineering faculty, velayat university, iranshahr, iran *corresponding author email : eganji@hotmail.com abstract the incidence of incompatibility signs in the grafting point can be delayed, and the analysis of phenols is used as an applicable early sign for the detection of graft incompatibility. accordingly, this study mainly aimed to investigate compatibility/incompatibility in 10 commercial plum cultivars grafted on myrobalan and apricot rootstocks, followed by determining the role of phenols in graft incompatibility. the evaluated cultivars included santarosa, ghatreh tala, shams, dargazi, no. 16, no. 17, laroda, simka, bokhara, and stanley. the results showed significant differences in the stem diameter. the union graft location in shams, laroda, simka, stanley, and ghatreh tala cultivars on apricot rootstock was thicker than the scions and stocks. phenolic compounds in the union graft decreased in all plum cultivars on myrobalan rootstock in comparison with other sites. finally, the most phenolic accumulation belonged to the union graft on santarosa, ghatreh tala, and shams on apricot rootstocks. therefore, it seems that phenolic compounds in plums can be used as a biochemical marker in graft incompatibility. keywords: apricot rootstock, incompatibility, myrobalan rootstock, phenolic content, plum 489 possibility early detection of graf incompatibility in plum cultivars j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 488-495, 2022 apparent immediately after grafting. it may take several years to manifest failure with establishing graft-union leading to major economic losses to growers and nurseries. in addition, the significant delay in the appearance of incompatibility symptoms renders the evaluation and transfer of new fruit tree genotypes to industry time-consuming, expensive, and laborious (gainza et al., 2015; pina et al., 2017). fruit trees are typically formed by a combination of the scion and rootstock. a good union between a scion a nd r ootstock is necessa r y for a successful combination (errea et al., 2001). graft incompatibility symptoms in woody species include bark thickening in the connection region, chlorotic leaves, premature leaf fall, budding delay, vigor differences between the rootstock and scion, excessive stem thickening below, above, or at the point of the graft union. other symptoms a re gr a ft union disr uption, r educed vegetative growth, low productivity, and premature plant death (zarrouk et al., 2010; hartmann et al., 2011). the grafted partners frequently belong to the same species or genus although the use of genetically divergent genotypes is also common. incompatibility repeatedly occurs in the plum when it is grafted on other prunus species such as the apricot graft. different reasons may influence gr aft success, including the inher ent system of cellula r incompatibility, the formation of plasmodesmata, vascular tissue connections, and the presence of growth regulators and peroxidases (usenik et al., 2006). macromolecules (phloem proteins, rna, and hormones) that are present in the sap phloem might also be important during vascular differentiation in the compatibility process (pina and erea, 2005). different methods for an early detection of graft incompatibility have already been used, including in vitro techniques (errea et al., 2001), isozyme analysis (fernandezgarcia et al., 2004; gulen et al., 2002), and phenol analysis (musacchi et al., 2000). such compounds are important to the early growth stages of connections between scion-rootstock combinations since the cell wa lls of xylem tissues a re dynamic str uctures composed of polysaccharides, phenolic compounds, miner a ls, a nd proteins (her r er o et al. , 2014). moreover, the presence of phenolic compounds has been identified as an important marker for the evaluation of graft compatibility between scions and rootstocks (prabpreea et al., 2018). the analysis and recognition of structural phenol diversity are of particular interest because of their physiological roles during the first steps of graft establishment (usenik et al., 2006). the presence of phenols was generally associated with small cells in incompatible combinations, which did not lead to successful unions (er rea et al., 2001). higher concentrations of catechin and epicatechin were found in quince-incompa tibility cultiva r s befor e the appearance of visible incompatibility symptoms (musacchi et al., 2000). in less compatible apricot combination higher level of flavanols, catechin, and epicatechin, was characteristics (errea et al., 2000). in several apricot combinations grafted on prunus rootstocks, graft incompatibility resulted in breakdown of the trees at the union years after planting, therefore an early selection process could help in detecting a comparatively compatible combination. analysis of the phenol content at the graft union can be used as a technique for the estimation of graft incompatibility (dogra et al., 2018). several studies have shown that phenolic compounds in incompatible combinations move from vacuole to cytoplasm and cause inhibition of lignification which is required during early stages of establishment of scion–stock connections. the cell wall of xylem vessels are dynamic in nature composed of phenolic compounds (for exa mple, lignins), miner a ls, polysaccharides and proteins (liu, 2012; herrero et al. , 2014). pla nt hor mones, especia lly a uxins determine the compatibility of a rootstock-scion combination by interacting with phenolic compounds. incompatibility has been associated with increased levels of phenolic compounds above the graft union which adversely affect the auxin transport (errea, 1998). low auxin concentration in incompatible combinations in turn affect the differentiation of vascular tissues and lignification (aloni, 2010; koepke and dhingra, 2013). all these changes will lead to the formation of weak unions which may cause huge economic losses to the growers. more information about the compounds responsible for inducing graft incompatibility is needed (gainza et al., 2015). given the above-mentioned explanations, the current study mainly sought to evaluate the relationship between graft incompatibility and the total phenolic content in some commercial plum cultivars, as well as to determine whether such analysis can be a useful tool for the early detection of graft incompatibility. 490 moghadam et al materials and methods plant material t his r esea r ch wa s conducted a t a t golma ka n horticultural research station (59° 17' n; 36° 32' e), north east of iran/mashhad, with an average altitude of about 1176 m. the mean temperature for growing season was 13. 4°c and tota l seasonal precipitation was 239.7 mm. the nursery soil was sandy loam with low organic matter. drip irrigation was applied in the nursery. the trees were planted at a spacing of 100 × 10 cm (100.000 trees ha-1) and budded (t-budding technique) 10 cm above the gr ou nd leve l. all r oot s t oc ks ( a p r ic ot a nd myrobalan) were seedlings, and the samples were taken from 1-year-old plum trees. the content of total phenols above, below, and at the union graft in 10 plum cultivars (i.e., santarosa, ghatreh tala, laroda, stanley, dargazi, no. 16, no. 17, bokhara, sha ms, and simka) gra fted on myroba la n and apricot seedling rootstocks was analyzed as well. field study trees were used one year after grafting for the study. the stem diameters of scions, stocks, and the graft union were measured using a pair of caliper. the units of measurment was to mm. phenol extraction three trees from each grafting combination were analyzed, and the samples were collected in june. the small sections of the bark above, below, and at the union graft (1 cm above and below the graft union, 1.5 cm in length) were removed with a knife and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen. phloem with cambium was used for analysis. t he s a mp le s wer e ex t r a c t ed wit h a 1 . 5 ml methanol-acetone-water solution (7:7:1 v/v/v). in a mor t a r, 5 0 mg of t he p la nt ma t er ia l wa s homogenized with a 1.5 ml extraction solution. next, the samples were centrifuged at 6000xg for 20 min using a bench centrifuge. then, the solvents were evaporated in rotary at 40 úc, and the residue was dissolved in 5 ml of deionized water. the extracts were stored at -80 úc until the analysis of the total phenolic content (mngomba et al., 2008). the applied chemical reagents were obtained from merck company. total phenolic content analysis the amounts of the total phenol content in pulm cultivar extracts were determined with the folinciocalteau reagent using the method of spanos and wrolastad (1990), as modified by lister and wilson (2001). to this end, 0.5 ml of folin-ciocalteau reagent and 2 ml of na2co3 (7.55/a, w/v) were added to 100 µl of each sample (three replicates) and then incubated at 45 úc for 15 min. the absorbance of all samples was measured at 620 nm using a spectra maxplu5384 uv-vis spectrophotometer. the results were expressed as milligrams of catechol acid equivalent per gram of dry weight (ganji moghadam et al., 2007). statistical analysis the trial was laid out in a factorial experiment based on completely r a ndomized design with thr ee replications where each replication contained 10 trees. factors a contains cultivars in 10 levels (santarosa, ghatreh tala, laroda, stanley, dargazi, no. 16, no. 17, bokhara, shams, and simka), factor b contains rootstock in 2 levels (myrobalan and apricot seedling) and factor c contains 3 levels (above, below, and at the union graft). three replicates of each sample were used for statistical analysis using mstat-c, version 1.42. data were subjected to the analysis of variance, and means were compared by the least significant difference. differences at p<0.05 were considered statistically significant. results and discussion significa nt differences in stem diameters were observed above, below, and at the union graft. the stem diameters below the graft unions were visibly greater than those of above and the union graft on myr oba la n r ootstock and sa nta r osa , da rga zi, bokhara, no. 16, and no.17 cultivars on the apricot rootstock. the unions were thicker than scions and stocks in ghatreh tala, shams, laroda, stanley, and simka on the apricot rootstock (table 1). in the study of the independent effect of the total phenol content in the union graft, the highest total phenolic content was detected in the below graft union while the lowest content was found in the above graft union. above and union graft differences were not significant (figure 1a). based on the evaluation of the effect of the union graft in apricot and myrobalan rootstocks, the highest and j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 488-495, 2022 491 table 1 : thickness (mm) above, below, and at union graft of different plum cultivars grafted on apricot and myrobalan rootstocks graft combination above the union at the union below the union apricot rootstock santarosa 6.82* 11.95a 12.37a ghatreh tala 8.2c 16.08a 11.57b shams 7.24a 9.09a 7.93a laroda 5.8b 11.30a 10.95a dargazi 7.15c 12.98b 16.18a simka 5.16b 11.79a 9.21a bokhara 5.9c 10.27b 11.86a stanely 6.86a 13.72a 11.11a no. 16 6.03b 12.13a 14.41a no. 17 5.03b 11.62ab 18.21a myrobalan rootstock santarosa 6.93b 12.71b 20.55a ghatreh tala 8.41c 11.57b 16.84a shams 6.76b 10.23b 17.74a laroda 7.94c 12.16b 16.38a dargazi 9.53c 13.49b 18.48a simka 8.22c 13.61b 19.02a bokhara 7.00c 9.28b 11.31a stanely 8.41b 13.67a 16.99a no. 16 7.18b 10.88b 19.44a no. 17 6.83b 11.23b 15.11a note : *means with the same letters within a row are not significantly different at p<0.05. the lowest total phenolic contents were observed in the below gr a ft union on myr oba la n a nd a pr icot rootstocks, respectively (figure 1b). the highest total phenolic content was detected in the below graft union of laroda, shams, stanley, santarosa, and dargazi cultivars grafted on the myrobalan rootstock whereas the lowest content was found in the below graft union fig. 1 : effects of independent union graft (a) and interaction rootstocks and graft union (b) on the total phenolic content (mg catechol acid equivalent per g of dry weight) possibility early detection of graf incompatibility in plum cultivars j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 488-495, 2022 492 of shams, laroda, ghatreh tala, and santarosa cultiva rs gr afted on the a pricot rootstock. the compared differences in the total phenol content in the union and below graft demonstrated the significant accumulation of phenol in the union graft in santarosa, ghatreh tala, laroda, stanley, dargazi, bokhara, shams, and simka cultivars grafted on the apricot rootstock while it decreased on myrobalan rootstock (table 2). the stem diameters below the graft unions were visibly greater compared to the above and at union graft on myr oba la n r ootstock and sa nta r osa , da rga zi, bokhara, no. 16, and no.17 cultivars on the apricot rootstock. the unions were thicker than the scions and stocks in ghatreh tala, shams, laroda, stanley, and simka on the apricot rootstock. the highest total phenolic contents wer e detected in myroba la n rootstocks while the lowest contents were found in apricot rootstocks. the composition of phenols depends on the genetic constitution of the plant species, and hence, some plants accumulate more than others. these results are in agreement with those of pina ane errea (2005) indicating that some apricot cultivars grafted onto a plum rootstock demonstrated only some callus differentiation occurred on cambium and vascular tissues while a large portion of the callus never demonstrated a differentiation. this interrupts va scula r connections beca use of the la ck of differentiation that brings discontinuities in the ca mbium a nd the for ma tion of a ba nd of moghadam et al table 2 : the amount of the total phenol content (mg gallic acid equivalent per g of dry weight) in above, below, and at the union graft of different plum cultivars grafted on apricot and myrobalan rootstocks graft combination above the union at the union below the union apricot rootstocks santarosa 1033.79a 1274.88a 441.01b ghatreh tala 1051.14b 1905.93a 430.14b shams 1010.95a 1424.65a 317.81b laroda 810.05a 902.28a 401.82a dargazi 1114.15a 1302.28a 747.94a simka 1166.21a 1513.24a 839.27a bokhara 677.17a 951.59a 555.25b stanely 762.56a 1250.23a 698.63a no. 16 925.15b 1135.16a 1091.33ab no. 17 807.31b 1347.91a 1204.56a myrobalan rootstocks santarosa 611.78b 363.47b 2230.13a ghatreh tala 1421.91a 663.93b 1476.86a shams 805.47b 1112.32b 2413.69a laroda 1378.99b 536.07b 3215.52a dargazi 830.14b 449.31c 1221.46a simka 1053.88b 763.47b 1789.95a bokhara 838.36b 989.04b 1813.69a stanely 1120.59b 1114.15b 2291.33a no. 16 629.23c 1309.59b 1882.19a no. 17 1828.31a 619.18b 2122.51a note : *means with the same letters within a row are not significantly different at p<0.05. j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 488-495, 2022 493 parenchymatous cells. based on the findings regarding the evaluation of the independent effect of the total phenol content in the union graft, the highest and lowest total phenolic contents were detected in the below and above graft unions, respectively. the results related to the effect of the union graft on apricot and myrobalan rootstocks, the highest and lowest total phenolic contents belonged to below graft union on myr oba la n r ootstock a nd a pr icot r ootstock, respectively. mngomba et al. (2008) reported that the accumulation of phenol deposits at the place of the graft union might inhibit graft compatibility. usenik et al. (2006) also demonstrated that differences in phenol accumulation below and above the graft union might serve as an indicator of incompatibility. the highest total phenolic content was detected below the graft union of laroda, shams, stanley, santarosa, and dargazi cultivars grafted on myrobalan rootstock whereas the lowest content was found in the below graft union of shams, laroda, ghatreh tala, and santarosa cultivars grafted on apricot rootstock. the comparison of differences in the total phenol content in union and below graft showed the significant accumulation of phenol in the union graft in santarosa, ghatreh tala, laroda, stanley, dargazi, bokhara, shams, and simka cultivars grafted on a pricot rootstock while it decreased on myrobalan rootstock. in apricot/plum combinations, a high concentration of phenolic compounds was observed in undifferentiated callus at the scion-rootstock interface of plants previously categorized as incompatible (pina et al., 2012), and thus they are involved in the processes of differentiation of vascular tissues (usenik et al., 2006), which is in line with our results. the statistically significant accumulation of phenol in the graft union was ascertained in santarosa, ghatreh tala, laroda, stanley, darga zi, bokhar a, shams, and simka cultivars grafted on apricot rootstock when compared with the content below the graft union while phenol above the graft union decreased in plum cultivars on myrobalan rootstock. the highest accumulation of phenol in the union graft that can be used as a biochemical marker of graft incompatibility are observed in ghatreh tala, shams, and santarosa on apricot rootstock, which corroborates with the findings of prabpreea et al. 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revised : 18.03.2022; accepted : 15.09.2022) this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. introduction cashew (anacardium occidentale l) is an important commercial plantation crop of the country, grown in an area of 10.27 lakh ha with a production of 7.25 lakh metric tonnes of raw cashew nuts (anon. 2019). world’s total area under the cultivation of cashew is around 35100 km2 with india sharing 20 per cent and 16 per cent of cashew area and production globally, respectively. however, productivity of indian cashew is very low (772 kg/ha). the present low productivity is attributed to several factors such as establishment of plantation with seedling of nondescript origin, due to poor and irregular flowering because of adverse environmental conditions (parameswaran et al., 1984), poor fruit set and excessive premature fruit drop (patnaik et al., 1985), low hermaphrodite flowers (parameswaran et al., 1984), nutritional deficiency (subbaiah 1983), inefficient pollination (heard et al., 1990) and irregular and prolonged flowering (aliyu, 2005). cashew is an evergreen dicotyledonous woody tropical tree with medium canopy size. on an average the plant attains 5-8 m height. the leaves are alternate, simple, globous, oblong, leathery, often notched at the apex. the size of leaf varies from 6-24 cm in length and 4-15 cm in width based on species and variety. the root system of complete grown cashew tree consists of a taproot surrounded by a well-developed and extensive network of lateral roots, 90% which lie on the 15-32 cm soil depth. the pattern of growth of cashew tree alternates with vegetative and reproductive phases. there are two types of branching in cashew intensive and extensive type (damodaran, 1965). intensive type of growth pattern tends to give bushy appearance to tree whereas extensive type results in spreading tree habit. annually, two or three peak periods of growth are observed in bearing cashew tree with development of stray shoot growth. in bearing trees, from flower flush many shoots develop that give rise to terminal inflorescence/ panicle. the other vegetative flush gives rise to lateral shoots that develop soon after main crop has matured. the cashew flowers are pentamerous, white or light green at the time of opening, later turn to pink. two kinds of flowers viz. hermaphrodite (bisexual/perfect) original research paper j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 98-103, 2023 https://doi.org/10.24154/jhs.v18i1.2152 effect of growth regulators and micronutrients on quality parameters in cashew (anacardium occidentale l.) lakshmipathi1, adiga j.d.2, kalaivanan d.1, bhagya h.p.2*, thondaiman v.2, babli mog2, manjesh g.n.2, veena g.l.2, shamsudheen m.2, vanitha k.2 and manjunatha k.2 1icarindian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru 560089, karnataka, india 2icar-directorate of cashew research, puttur 574202, karnataka, india *corresponding author email : bhagya509@gmail.com abstract cashew (anacardium occidentale l.) is an important tropical nut crop of social and economic importance worldwide. however, the crop is threatened with the low yield. in the present study, an attempt was made to test the effects of plant growth hormones as well as micronutrients on nut and apple quality of cashew var. bhaskara. significant differences in kernel weight, shelling percentage, carbohydrates and starch content of cashew kernel and juice content of cashew apple were observed with the foliar application of growth hormones and micronutrients. the foliar application of ethrel @ 50 ppm increased shelling percentage (35.8%), carbohydrate content (21.63%), sugar content (6.26%), protein content (32.4%), starch content (31.42%), juice content (78.3%) and total soluble solids (120 brix). further, the foliar spray of zinc sulphate (0.5%) + borax (0.1%) increased shelling (36.13%), protein content (32.15%), starch content (32.03%) among all the treatments tested. furthermore, higher cashew apple juice content (78%) and total soluble solids (120brix) was also recorded with the foliar spray of zinc sulphate (0.5%) + borax (0.1%). keywords : cashew, micronutrients, nut and apple quality, plant growth hormones 99 j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 98-103, 2023 and male (staminate) are present in the panicle. the perfect flowers are larger than staminate flowers (damodaran et al., 1965). cashew is considered as andromonoecious species due to presence of both male (staminate) and hermaphrodite (perfect) flowers in the same terminal panicle usually called as inflorescence of cashew. number of panicles per plant, flowers per panicle and distribution of male and hermaphrodite flowers (sex ratio) in each panicle vary among varieties. in flowering panicle, abundance of male flowers is reported higher than perfect flowers (rao and hassan, 1957; bigger, 1990 and damodaran et al., 1965). the yield of cashew is very low owing to the production of low percentage of hermaphrodite flowers, poor fruit set, immature fruit drop and low fruit retention (haribabu, 1982). the cashew produces abundant flowers but only less than 10 per cent of which are hermaphrodite, about 85 per cent of the hermaphrodite flowers are fertilized and only 4-6 per cent of them reach maturity to give fruits, the remaining shed away at different stages of development. the fruit drop in cashew during the early stages of development is attributed to physiological reasons (nothwood, 1966). immature fruit drop is one of the major reasons for reducing yield potential of cashew. the formative effects of growth hormones are gaining its importance for managing canopy, ensuring uniform flowering and enhancing fruit retention and yield under commercial cultivation for perennial fruit trees including cashew (olivier et al., 1990). the application of exogenous plant growth hormones has been reported to induce better root and shoot development, to break seed and bud dormancy and improve flowering and fruiting in many crop plants. foliar spray of gibberellic acid and auxin increased shoot and root growth and total shoot and root biomass in treated cashew seedlings (shanmugavelu, 1985). the better seed germination induced by ga in cashew has also been reported by khan et al., (1957). shanmugavelu et al. (1985) suggested that the natural auxin contained in seeds of tree species might probably regulate the seed germination. the use of cytokinin and auxin improved flowering and fruit set in mango (chen, 1983) and cashew (kumar, 1994). therefore, growth hormones are gaining importance in cashew cultivation for overcoming problems associated with rooting, flowering, fruit set, fruit retention and poor yield. hence, it is evident from studies that the economic importance of hormones is due to their ability to increase nut yield. there have been numerous reports considering increased yield due to the use of hormones especially in the horticultural sector but the use of plant growth regulators on cashew in particular is in its infancy. hence, it is of utmost importance to address this research gap and it is also essential to understand how the endogenous hormones affect or regulate the stages of plant growth in order to make exogenously applied plant growth hormones to play an important role in maximizing cashew nut yield. the productivity of cashew can also be enhanced by adopting proper nutrient managementin addition to application of plant growth hormones. numerous nutritional trials on the crop especially on the major nutrients have been attempted in india as well as in other tropical countries. and, response to applied nutrients has been very favorable. however, the information on role of micronutrients on cashew is limited. further, no attempt has been made so far to study the influence of foliar spray of growth regulators and micronutrient in enhancing the quality parameters of raw cashew nut. in the light of aforementioned, the present study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of growth hormones and micronutrients on quality parameters of raw cashew nut. materials and methods site of experiment and plant material the experiment was conducted at experimental farms of icardirectorate of cashew research, puttur, dakshina kannada district, karnataka during 200910 to 2011-12 (latitude: 12.250 north, longitude: 75.40 east), which is situated at 90 meter above mean sea level). the study was carried out on 10 years old plantation (var. bhaskara) by adopting randomized block design (rbd) with 9 tr ea tments a nd 3 replications for plant growth hormones and for micronutrient spray with 6 treatment and 4 replication. the plant growth regulators were sprayed during flushing, flowering and fruiting stages using foot pump paddle sprayer covering the entire canopy (table 1). the growth regulator treatments consits of control (t1), ethrel 50 ppm (t2), 2,4-d 10 ppm (t3), naa 25 ppm (t4), iaa 10 ppm (t5), ba 1000 ppm (t6), ga3 50 ppm (t7), naa 25ppm + ga3 50 ppm (t8) and iaa 100 ppm + ga3 50 ppm (t9). however, micronutrient treatment constitute t1 (control), t2 (borax 0.1%), t3 (borax 0.2%), t4 (zinc sulphate 0.5%), t5 (zinc sulphate 0.5% + borax 0.1%) and t6 (zinc sulphate effect of growth regulators and micronutrients in cashew 100 0.5% + borax 0.2%). observations on kernel weight (g), shelling (%), cho (%), sugar (%), protein (%), starch (%), juice (%), tss (0 brix) were recorded. the micronutrients were sprayed during flushing, flowering and fruiting stages using a foot pump paddle spr a yer covering the entir e ca nopy (ta ble 2). observations on kernel weight (g), shelling (%), cho (%), sugar (%), protein (%), starch (%), juice (%), tss (0 brix) were recorded in all the treatments. fifty whole kernels were weighed and recorded in grams. mean weight of one kernel was calculated by dividing the total weight of kernels by number of kernels. fifty sun dried raw cashew nuts were weighed and weight was recorded in grams. these 50 nuts were shelled by using shelling machine. weight of kernels with testa and shells obtained after shelling these nuts were recorded separately. the weight of kernel with testa and weight of shell of each sample was added up totally with the original weight of 50 nuts. weight of kernel with testa was divided by the weight of nut (weight kernel with testa + weight of shell) and expressed as percentage, which gave the shelling percentage. nuts were shelled and kernels were extracted after removal of testa and the defatted cashew kernel flour was used for the estimation of carbohydrate, protein, sta rch, and sugar content by using the method suggested by sadasivam and balasubramanian (1987). total soluble solids (tss) of cashew apple were estimated using hand refractometer. statistical analysis the data obtained from three successive seasons were pooled and analyzed using sas 9.3 version. anova was applied to evaluate the significant difference in the parameters studied in the different treatments. least significant difference (fisher’s protected lsd) was calculated, following significant f-test (p=0.05). results and discussion effect of growth regulators in the present study, significant increase in kernel weight, shelling percentage, carbohydrates and starch content of kernels and juice content of apple were recorded by the application of ethrel @ 50 ppm followed by naa @ 25 ppm, naa @ 25 ppm + ga3 50 ppm, ga3@ 50 ppm, iaa @100 ppm + ga3 50 ppm, ba @ 1000 ppm, iaa @ 100 ppm and 2,4-d @ 10 ppm (table 1). spraying of ethrel @ 50 ppm also increased the protein percentage (32.20 %) followed by naa @ 25 ppm (32.1 %), naa @ 25 ppm + ga3 50 ppm (32.00 %), ga3 @ 50 ppm (31.4 %), iaa @ 100 ppm + ga3 50 ppm (31.5 %), ba @ 1000 ppm (31.20 %), iaa @ 100 ppm (30.50 %) and 2,4-d @ 10 ppm (30.30 %) compared to untreated trees (29.89 %). kumar et al. (1996) reported that the combined application of ethrel @ lakshmipathi et al. j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 98-103, 2023 treatment kernel shelling carbohy sugar protein starch juice tss weight (%) drate (%) (%) (%) (%) (o brix) (g) (%) control 2.17c 30.00d 20.70b 6.21 29.63c 25.52e 67.40f 11.00 ethrel@50 ppm 2.55a 35.87a 21.63a 6.26 32.40a 31.42a 78.37a 12.00 2,4-d@10 ppm 2.40b 31.50bc 21.47a 6.21 30.43bc 28.50d 68.47e 11.00 naa@25ppm 2.55a 35.58a 21.60a 6.25 32.37a 31.40a 76.40b 11.00 iaa@100 ppm 2.40b 31.17cd 21.47a 6.22 30.50bc 29.00cd 68.53e 11.00 ba @1000 ppm 2.45b 32.50b 21.50a 6.23 31.40ab 29.37cd 70.50d 11.00 ga3@50 ppm 2.54 a 35.50a 21.53a 6.24 31.47ab 30.40b 76.00bc 12.00 naa @25 ppm + 2.54a 35.58a 21.57a 6.25 31.33ab 31.00ab 76.37b 12.00 ga3 50 ppm iaa @100 ppm + 2.54a 35.50a 21.53a 6.24 31.50ab 29.47c 75.50c 12.00 ga3 50 ppm mean 2.46 33.69 21.44 6.23 31.23 29.56 73.06 11.44 se(d) 0.037 0.559 0.089 0.026 0.582 0.416 0.332 0.544 lsd at 5% 0.078 1.186 0.189 ns 1.235 0.882 0.704 ns table 1 : effect of growth regulators on quality parameters of cashew variety bhaskara 101 50 ppm and 500: 250: 250 g npk/plant/year enhanced yield, nut and apple quality in cashew varieties. they also further opined that the increase in total soluble solids and apple yield might be attributed to the positive interaction between growth regulators and nutrients. spraying of growth regulators in all the treatments have given higher nut yield compared to control. it may be because of ethrel and auxin could induce better flowering in cashew (aliyu et al., 2011). auxin is known to induce flowering via ethylene production and also independently (li and xu, 2014). other reasons for more nut yield compared to control are growth regulators/hormone sprayed leaf area mobilizes all the photosynthates and nutrients which will be utilized for flower production and fruit growth (li and xu, 2014). and other reasons might be increased stomatal number increases inflow of carbon dioxide into the mesophyll tissue resulting more photosynthates, latter partitioned towards nut resulted in more nut yield (aliyu et al., 2011). in the present study, gibberellic acid, ga3 @ 50 ppm resulted in better nut and kernel quality in cashew variety bhaskara. application of ga3 @ 50 ppm increased protein content (31.4%), carbohydrate content (21.5%), sugar content (6.4%) and starch content (30.4%) in cashew kernel (table 1). similar results were also reported by murthy et al., (1975) where they studied the free amino acid and total protein content in three developmental stages of kernel in cashew after foliar treatment with 40 ppm and 50 ppm gibberellic acid. treatment with ga3 resulted in a marked increase in protein content of kernel at all stages of development. in ga3 treated cashew kernels, the amino acid contents showed progressive decrease with the growth and maturation of the nut and greater accumulation of protein.similar results were also reported in mango where ga3 treatment enhanced fruit quality of mango trees (muarya and singh, 1981; saski and utsunomiya, 2002 and anila and radha 2003. effect of micronutrients micronutrients perform a n essential role in the production of fruit crops, and their deficiencies largely affect the quality of fruits. in the present study, the influence of micronutrient application on nut and apple quality was studied and presented in ta ble 2. ker nel weight wa s not significa ntly influenced by foliar application of micronutrients. this indicates tha t ker nel weight is more of a genetical factor and least influenced by external factors. higher shelling (36.13%) was found with t he s p r a y o f z inc s u lp ha t e ( 0 . 5 % ) + b or a x (0.1%) compared to untr eated trees (30.13%). micronutrient spray did not significantly influence the ca r bohydr a te and suga r content in ker nel. protein content was higher (32.15%) with the spray of zinc sulphate (0.5%) + borax (0.1%) followed by z in c s u l p h a t e ( 0 . 5 % ) (3 1 .5 %) a n d b o ra x ( 0 . 1 % ) ( 3 1 .3 %) , w h i l e it w a s lo w e r i n u n s p r a y e d tr e e s (29.92%). starch co ntent was highest (32.03 %) with th e s p ra y o f z in c s u lp h a te ( 0 .5 %) + b o ra x (0 .1 %) followed by borax (0.1%) (31.38%), while unsprayed trees recorded lower starch content (25.26%). j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 98-103, 2023 effect of growth regulators and micronutrients in cashew table 2 : effect of foliar spray of micronutrients on quality parameters of cashew variety bhaskara treatment kernel shelling carbohy sugar protein starch juice tss weight (%) drate (%) (%) (%) (%) (o brix) (g) (%) control 2.43 30.13d 20.85 6.20 30.10c 25.26d 67.38e 11.00 borax (0.1%) 2.47 34.13b 21.58 6.24 31.33ab 31.38ab 74.00b 12.00 borax (0.2%) 2.35 31.58c 21.53 6.22 30.15c 28.38c 69.00d 11.00 znso4 (0.5%) 2.40 33.70 b 21.28 6.23 31.50ab 30.35b 70.75c 11.00 znso4 (0.5%) + 2.45 36.13 a 22.10 6.25 32.15a 32.03a 78.00a 12.00 borax (0.1%) znso4 (0.5%) + 2.41 33.38 b 21.48 6.22 30.60bc 28.90c 68.00de 11.00 borax (0.2%) mean 2.42 33.17 21.47 6.22 30.97 29.38 71.19 11.33 se(d) 0.25 0.52 0.49 0.02 0.48 0.49 0.59 0.60 lsd at 5% ns 1.11 ns ns 1.025 1.06 1.26 ns 102 the effect of micronutrient spray on apple quality was also studied (table 2). higher juice content in cashew apple (78%) was found with the spray of zinc sulphate (0.5%) + borax (0.1%) compared to unsprayed trees (67.38%). the role of micronutrients in improving the vegetative growth, fruit quality and yield has been reported in several fruit crops (abdollahi et al. 2012; farid et al., 2020, sanjeela et al., 2021). the present study is in consistent with findings of shafeek et al. (2014), singh et al. (2015) a nd mishr a et al. (2006) where application of micronutrients mainly zinc, boron and iron improved reproductive traits mainly fruiting parameters and quality traits. significant increase in tss was also observed with the foliar spray of zinc sulphate (0.5%) + borax (0.1%) and borax (0.1%). similar results were also reported by sanjeela et al. (2021) where application of boron @ 0.2% increased the tss (8.30brix) in strawberry. the role of boron in sugar translocation helps to improve fruit quality parameters (gauch and dugger, 1953; sathya et al., 2010). moreover, the deficiency of boron aggravatesthe quality of fruit by increasing titrable acidity and its application improves the quality of fruit (haider et al., 2019). conclusion significant differences in nut and apple quality were observed with the foliar application of plant growth hormones and micronutrients. the foliar application of ethrel @ 50 ppm and naa @ 25 ppm + ga3 50 ppm as well as zinc sulphate (0.5%) + borax (0.1%) improved the kernel as well as apple quality traits.the present study represents the first preliminary study on the influence of growth hormones and micronutrients on the nutritional qualities of cashew nuts and apples in the variety bhaskara. this study can be extended to screen other cashew varieties in terms of the nutritional quality of cashew nuts and apples. references abdolla hi, m. , s. eshghi, e. ta f a zol a nd n. moosa vi. 2012. effect of pa clobutr azol, boric acid and zinc sulfate on vegetative and reproductive growth of strawberry (fragaria x ananassa duch.) cv. selva. j. agric. sci. technol., 14: 357-363 aliyu, o. m and awopetu, j.a. 2005. in vitro regeneration of hybrid plantlets of cashew (anacardium occidentale l.) through embryo culture. af. j. biotech., 6: 548-553. anila, r. and radha, t., 2003. studies on fruit drop in mango varieties. j. trop. agric., 41: 30-32. anonymous. 2019. production scenario of cashew. d ir ec t or a t e of c a s hewnu t a nd c oc oa development (dccd). bigger, m. 1990. selenothripsrubrocinctus (grand) a nd t he f lor a l b iology of c a s hew in ta nga nyika , ea st afr ican ag ri. j. , 25 : 229-234 chen, w.s. 1983. cytokinins of the developing mango fruit, plant physiol. 71: 356-362. damodaran, v.k., abraham, j., alexander, k.m. 1965. the morphology and biology of the cashew flower i-flowering habit, flowering season, morphology of the flower and sex ratio. agric. res. j. kerala. 3(1&2): 23-28. farid, m.z., qureshi, k.m., shah, s.h., qureshi, a.a., umair, m. and shafiq, h. 2020. foliar a pp lica tion of micr onut r ients imp r oves gr owth, pr oductivity and fruit qua lity of strawberry (fragaria ananassa duch). j. anim. plant sci., 30(4): 905-912. gauch, h.g. and dugger, w.m. 1953. the role of boron in the translocation of sucrose. am. soc. plant biol., 28: 457-467. haider, z., ahmad, n., danish, s., iqbal, j., ali, m.a. and chaudhry, u.k. 2019. effect of folia r a pplica tion of bor ic a cid on fr uit qua lity a nd yield tr a it s of ma ngo. ad v. hortic. sci., 33(4): 457-465. ha ribabu sri, r. 1982. incr ea sing fruit set in c a s hew by gr owt h s ub s ta nces. ca s hew causerie, 4 (4): 14-15. heard, t. a., vithanage, v. and chacko, e. k. 1990. pollination biology of cashew in the norther n ter ritor y of austr alia. aust. j. agric. res., 41: 1101-1114. khan, a., gross, j.a., smith, d.e. 1957. effect of gibberellins on germination of lettuce seed, science, 125: 645-646. lakshmipathi et al. j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 98-103, 2023 103 kumar, d. p., khan, m. m. and melanta, k. r. 1994. effect of growth regulators on sex expression, fruit set, fruit retention and yield of c a s hew. i n: p r oc eeding s of t he placrosym xi held during 30 november to 3 december 1994 at ca licut, kera la , india. pp. 610-627. kumar, d. p., khan, m. m., melanta, k. r., 1996. effect of nutrition and growth regulators on a p p le c ha r a c t er s a nd yield in c a s hew (anacardium occidentale l.). the cashew, 10(2): 17-24. muarya, a. n. and singh, j. n., 1981. effect of three growth regulators on fruit retention and quality of mango (mangifera indica l.) cv. langra. j. agric. india, 16: 53-56. murthy, k.n., kumaran. p.m. and nayar, n.m. 1975. increasing fruit set in cashew by hormone spraying, j. plantation crops, 3: 81-82. nothwood, p.j. 1966. some observations on the flowering a nd fruit-setting in the cashew (an ac ardi um oc ci de nt al e l . ) . trop ic al agric. (trin.) 43: 35-42. oliveira, e.t. 1989. propagacao vegetative de pinus sp. via cultura de tecido, sao paulo univ. / esalq, diss., piracicaba, sao paulo, brazil. pa r a meswa r a n, n. k. , da moda r a n, v. k. a nd prabhakaran, p.v. 1984. relationship between yield and duration of different phases in flower opening in cashew (anacardium oecidentale l.). indian cashew j., 16(4): 15-19. patnaik, h. p., das, m.s. and panda, j. m. 1985. studies on the fruit set a nd fruit drop in cashew (anacardium occidentale l.) under odisha conditions. indian cashew causerie j., 7(4): 7-8. rao, v.n.m., rao, i.k.s. and hassan, m. 1957. studies on seed viability in cashew, ind. j. agric. sci., 27: 289-294. sa da s iva m. s . a nd ba la sub r a ma nia n, t. 198 7. determination of ascorbic acid. pr actical ma nu a l in bioc hemis t r y, ta mil n a du agricultural university, coimbatore, p. 14. sanjeelasabahat, juliya abbasi, mushtaq ahmad, saima mumtaz, taj naseeb khan, sudheer tariq and muhammad imran. 2021. role of micronutrients in improving fruit quality and yield of str a wber r y cv. cha ndler under microclimatic conditions. pakistan j. agric. res., 34(4): 897. sasaki, k. and utsunomiya, n. 2002. effect of combined application of cppu and ga3 on the growth of “irwin” mango fruits. japanese j. trop. agric. 46 (4): 224-228. s a t hya , s . , m a ni, s . , m a hedr a n , p. p. a nd ar u lmoz hi s elva n, k . 2 0 1 0 . e ff ec t of application of boron on growth, quality and fruit yield of pkm 1 tomato. indian j. agric. res., 44: 274280. shanmugavelu, k.g. 1985. studies on the effect of plant growth regulators in cashew, acta hortic., 108: 35-43. subbaiah, c.c. 1983. fruiting and abscission patterns in cashew. j. agric. sci. (cambridge) 100: 423-427. j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 98-103, 2023 effect of growth regulators and micronutrients in cashew (received : 16.11.2022; revised : 14.12.2022; accepted 30.12.2022) 62 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 62-66, 2020 breeding for improvement of high temperature tolerance in garden pea (pisum sativum l.) for off season cultivation susmita c.1*$, aghora t.s.1, mohan n.1and bhatt r.m.2 1 division of vegetable crops, 2divison of plant physiology and biochemisrty icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru 560 089. $icar-indian institute of seed science, mau, uttar pradesh 275 101, india. email : susmitha.cherukuri00@gmail.com abstract the present investigation is aimed towards breeding varieties of garden pea for early summer cultivation (march-may) that can tolerate temperatures up to 35 0c. high temperature tolerant accessions ktp-4, arka sampoorna, oregon sugar, magadi local were crossed with arka ajit, arka pramodh, arka priya having superior pod quality, yield and followed by pedigree method of breeding, superior transgressive segregants from these crosses were advanced up to f7 generation. in f7, six selected advanced breeding lines were assessed for their performance in the field with checks during early summer for four years in succession. results revealed significant differences between selected lines and checks wherein all the lines surpassed checks with yield ranging from 5.9-7.6 t/ ha and in checks it was only 2.6-3.1 t/ha. among these six breeding lines, three lines were selected based on high yield (6.7-7.6 t/ha), pod quality characters and identified to be highly suitable for early summer cultivation. key words: breeding, early summer, garden pea, high temperature, stress tolerance original research paper globa lly, vegetable legumes are conventionally identified as indispensable sources of nutrition and health to humankind besides radically influencing agricultural sustainability. garden pea, one among the commercially cultivated leguminous vegetables is a dense source of nutrients and vital source of health promoting antioxidants, minerals, vita mins and phytonutrients (dahl et al. 2012). in india, garden pea is grown in an area of 0.55 million hectares (m.ha) with an annual production of 5.52 million tonnes (m.t) and productivity of 10.03 t/ha (nhb, 2018-19). various factors are known to influence yield of which, abiotic stresses especially temperature, drought and salt stress take away major share in causing severe yield losses by impairing growth and development of plants in majority of the crop species(suzuki et al., 2014). within these factors, tempera tur e stress imposes most protracted effects on plant development and reproduction accompanied with severe reduction in yield potential of many subtle crop species (bita and gerats, 2013). garden pea being extremely sensitive to temperature stress, if subjected to higher introduction temperatures responds in an exacerbated manner resulting in drastic reduction of yield. this strictly hampers summer cultivation of the crop where there exists a great demand for peas during off season. hence, in india it is traditionally cultivated during rabi season when the temperatures fall between 15 to 270c that highly favor crop growth and yield (mohan et al., 2013). summer cultivation of the crop is restricted to high altitude areas where congenial conditions for cr op growth exist and in plains cultivation during summer often influences principal morphologica l, physiologica l, biochemical a nd molecular plant processes in a sequential manner affecting the overall plant growth and productivity remarkably (petkova et al. 2009; todorova et al., 2016). among various growth phases of the crop, reproductive stage is highly vulnerable to elevated temperatures (>300c) affecting pollination, flower shedding, flower abortion, seed loss, pod filling and ultimately lowers the yield (guilioni et al., 2003; bueckert et al., 2015). in the recent years, demand for off season peas has enormously increased and is this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. 63 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 62-66, 2020 breeding for improvement of high temperature tolerance in garden pea still anticipated to increase in the coming future owing to its nutritional and health benefits.to meet the ever growing demand for garden pea during off season, peas are often frozen and preserved for months together. since the main growing season of the crop is confined to rabi, at present there are no commercial varieties of garden pea suitable for cultivation at least during early summer. although varieties like magadi loca l are cultivated during early summer on a commercial scale in certain parts of southern india, being a pulse type (arvense group) with small pods its yields are exceedingly low with 2.5 t/ha. the r ea listic a ppr oa ch to sur mount this ba r r ier unequivoca lly includes initia tion of br eeding programmes to develop resilient varieties tolerant to high temperature (up to 350c) that could suit off season cultivation. with this objective, breeding work was started at icar-indian institute of horticultural research (iihr), bengaluru, india during 2007 and aimed towards development of high temperature tolerant varieties (33-350c) suitable for early summer cultivation. materials and methods a field experiment was started in 2007 at indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, india (13.13° n, 77.49° e) located at an altitude of 890 m above mean sea level. initially, 200 pea germplasm lines of ga r den pea wer e scr eened for thr ee consecutive years during summer 2007 to 2009 for identification of lines tolerant to high temperature. avera ge maximum a nd minimum tempera tures recorded during the crop growth period were 350c and 260c respectively. screening and selection of tolerant lines was based mainly on yield related traits such as pods per plant, pod filling, seeds per pod, shelling percent and yield per se. among 200 lines screened, accessions ktp-4, magadi local, arka sampoorna and oregon sugar were identified to be tolerant to high temperature and performed superior in terms of yield and other related traits for three consecutive year s. during 2009, selected high temperature tolerant lines were used as parents and crossed with high yielding varieties arka ajit, arka priya and arka pramodh having average pod yield of 10-12 t/ha to generate f1 population. initially, crosses were attempted between (arka ajit × arka sampoorna) and (arka pramodh × oregon sugar) separately and in the resultant segregating generation f2, superior lines derived from both the crosses were further crossed and advanced upto f7 followed by pedigree method of breeding. simultaneously in another cross, superior f2 transgressive segregants developed from the cross (arka pramodh × oregon sugar) were selected and crossed to arka priya to improve pod filling and advanced up to f7 generation followed by pedigree breeding. from both the crosses [(arka ajit × arka sampoorna) × (arka pramodh × oregon sugar)] and [(arka pramodh × oregon sugar) × arka priya], six advanced breeding lines were selected in f7 generation during 2014 and were evaluated in randomized block design with three replications using three checks viz., magadi local (tolerant to high temperature), arka ajit and arka pramodh (high yielding) during summer for four consecutive years from 2014-2017. standard package of practices was followed and no rainfall was received during the entire crop growth period. the maximum temperature recorded during reproductive and pod setting stages did not exceed 350c. data on plant height, days to 50% flowering, pod length, pod width, 10 pod weight, pods per plant, seeds per pod, pod yield per plant, pod and seed color were recorded from 10 plants in each of the three replications. data obtained was subjected to ana lysis of va r ia nce (anova) using the genstat 9. 1 pa cka ge to a ssess significa nt differences among the breeding lines and checks based on mean performance. results and discussion results of anova revealed significant differences among different advanced breeding lines for various morphological, yield and yield related traits in the present study (table 1). the average plant height in the advanced breeding lines ranged from 64.0 to 127.0 cm. highest plant height of 127.0 cm was recorded in the line iihr 12-3 followed byiihr 1521 with 126.7 cm and least of 57.3 cm was reported in check variety arka ajit. days taken for 50% flowering in the lines ranged from 44.0 to 48.3 as compared to checks with 42.3 to 48.7 days. with respect to this trait, lowest of 42.3 days was reported in check magadi local followed by iihr 15-6 with 44 days and highest of 48.7 days was recorded in arka pramodh. in connection to days to pod maturity, variability in the lines ranged from 60.0 to 65.7 and in checks it was 58.3 to 65.0 days. this clearly illustrates that no significant difference exist between lines and checks for the two traits viz., days to 50% flowering and days to pod maturityand all the selected 64 breeding lines fit into the category of mid-season varieties that can arrive to pod maturity within 60-65 days of flowering. with respect to pod length and width, selected breeding lines had higher pod length ranging from 6.5 to 7.9 cm and width of 1.4 to 1.6 cm in comparison to checks with pod length and width of 4.2 to 6.7 cm and 1.2 to 1.6 cm respectively. in terms of pod length, highest of 7.9 cm was observed susmita et al. in iihr 15-6 followed by iihr 15-21 with 7.0 cm and least of 4.2 cm was found in check magadi local. similar trend was reported in case of pod width wherein iihr 15-6 followed by iihr 1-1 recorded highest pod width of 1.6 cm and 1.5 cm respectively and lowest of 1.2 cm was recorded by check magadi local. table 1. mean performance of selected lines and checks for plant and pod characters during summer (2014-2017) advanced plant days to days to pod pod 10 shelling seeds pods pod & s.no. breeding height 50 % pod length width pod % per per seed lines & checks (cm) flowering maturity (cm) (cm) wt.(g) pod plant colour 1. iihr 15-6 67.7 44.0 60.3 7.9 1.6 63.7 56.0 7.7 16.3 dg 2. iihr 1-2 64.0 48.0 65.0 6.8 1.5 55.7 56.3 6.3 15.0 dg 3. iihr 1-1 65.7 48.3 65.7 6.9 1.5 55.0 57.0 6.3 14.0 dg 4. iihr 15-21 126.7 45.3 64.0 7.0 1.4 57.3 60.0 7.3 17.0 g 5. iihr 12-3 127.0 45.0 60.0 6.5 1.4 37.7 54.0 5.7 17.7 lg 6. iihr 15-15 124.3 45.7 62.3 7.0 1.4 55.7 58.3 6.7 22.3 dg 7. magadi local (c) 122.3 42.3 58.3 4.2 1.2 23.3 57.0 4.3 24.0 lg 8. arka ajit (c) 57.3 46.3 64.0 6.7 1.4 43.0 34.3 3.0 10.0 lg 9. arka pramodh (c) 58.0 48.7 65.0 6.7 1.6 42.3 25.0 2.0 8.0 dg s.e.(m) ± 2.59 1.03 0.82 0.16 0.04 2.14 1.30 0.49 1.05 cd@5% 7.19 2.85 2.27 0.44 0.11 5.92 3.59 1.36 2.90 cv% 4.10 3.17 1.84 3.33 3.45 6.27 3.60 12.59 6.55 dg-dark green, lg-light green, g-green, c-check variety among traits governing yield such as pod weight, shelling percent, number of pods per plant and number of seeds per pod significant differences in mean values were observed between checks and selected advanced breeding lines.with respect to 10 pod weight, a ll the selected lines r ecor ded significantly higher pod weight ranging from 37.7 to 63.7 g as compared to checks with 23.3 to 43.0 g. highest pod weight of 63.7 g was recorded in iihr 15-6 and lowest of 23.3 g in check magadi local. all the br eeding lines except iihr 12-3 (37.7 g) performed significantly superior than all the checks for this specific trait. concurrent to this, shelling percent was also found to be high in the selected lines ranging from54 to 60% as compared to checks with 25 to 57%. results from mean of shelling percent revealed highest performance in the line iihr 15-21 (60%) followed by iihr 15-15 (58.3%) and least of 25% was recorded in check variety arka pramodh. further, number of seeds per pod in the selected lines were markedly higher ranging from 5.7 to 7.7 as compared to checks with only 2.0 to 4.3 seeds per pod. for this respective trait, iihr 15-6 followed by iihr 15-15 were found to have more seeds per pod with 7.7 and 6.7 respectively than checks. these results emphasize that pollination in check varieties was critically impaired due to exposure to high temperature eventually leading to seed abortion and lesser number of seeds with sma ller size. t he observed results were in accordance with the findings of few authors who reported lesser seed number and size in case of field pea after exposure to higher temperatures (lambert and linck, 1958; jeuffroy et al., 1990; poggio et al.,2005). in contrast to this, for the trait pods per plant resistant check magadi local reported highest of 24 pods whereas temperature sensitive high yielding check arka pramodh had lowest of 8 pods per plant. elsewhere, in the selected j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 62-66, 2020 65 lines it ranged from 14.0 to 22.3 wherein iihr 15-15 and iihr 1-1 recorded highest of 22.3 pods per plant and lowest of 14.0 pods per plant respectively. the reason behind abruptly low number of pods per plant in case of high yielding checks arka ajit (10.0) and arka pramodh (8.0) could be directly attributed to lack of high temperature stress tolerance. similar trend of decline in yield of heat susceptible cultivars has been r eported in ca se of bean ( phaseolus vulgaris) by exposing pla nts to higher da y temperatures of more than 280c (prasad et al., 2002). although tolerant check is performing superior with respect to this trait, yield was on the higher side in selected a dva nced br eeding lines owing to increased pod weight and more seeds per pod as compared to tolerant check. further, comparison of yield per se between checks and selected breeding lines over average of four years were convincing and disclosed significant differences between checks and breeding lines with selected lines dominating and out yielding all the three check varieties. average pod yield based on mean of four years in selected lines ranged from 5.9-7.6 t/ha in selected lines and in checks it was significantly lower with 2.6 to 3.1 t/ha. among the six advance breeding lines, highest yield of 7.6 t/ha was reported in iihr 15-15 followed by iihr 15-21 with 7.1 t/ha and iihr 15-6 with 6.7 t/ ha(table 2). all the three checks recorded significant reduction in yield levels that could be ascribed to effects of heat stress which potentially evoked flower drop, reduction in reproductive phase, reduced pod filling, abortion of seeds within pods finally lowering yield. in agreement to this, decline in yields of field pea cultivars due to high temperature stress was previously reported by guilioni et al. (1997), vijayla xmi (2013) and buecker t et al. (2015). eventhough all the six selected breeding lines were reported to be superior over checks, three lines viz., iihr 15-15, iihr 15-21 and iihr 15-6 proved to be outstanding owing to minimal reduction in yield when exposed to higher temperatures in comparison to others. further, percent increase in yield over lowest yielding check was reported to be 192.3% (iihr 1515), 173.1% (iihr 15-21) and 157.7% (iihr 15-6) in these three lines. additionally, the three selected breeding lines were also superior in terms of pod qualitycharacteristics such as colour along with other yield attributing traits and released as arka uttam, arka chaitra and arka tapas respectively. table 2. mean performance of selected breeding lines for pod yield (t/ha) during summer 2014 to 2017 iihr 15-6, iihr 15-15 and iihr 15-21 are selected advanced breeding lines identified for release as high temperature tolerant varieties. s l . advanced breeding 2014 2015 2016 2017 per cent no. lines and checks su mmer su mmer su mmer su mmer average increase mean mean mean mean over check 1. iihr 15-6 6.6 6.7 6.6 6.9 6.7 157.7 2. iihr 1-2 6.2 6.0 5.9 6.3 6.1 134.6 3. iihr 1-1 5.9 5.9 5.6 6.0 5.9 126.9 4. iihr 15-21 7.1 7.1 6.9 7.3 7.1 173.1 5. iihr 12-3 7.0 6.9 6.6 6.9 6.9 165.4 6. iihr 15-15 7.6 7.5 7.3 7.8 7.6 192.3 7. magadi local (c) 2.6 2.6 2.4 2.8 2.6 8. arka ajit (c) 3.1 3.0 2.7 2.8 2.9 9. arka pramodh (c) 2.7 3.3 3.0 3.2 3.1 s.e (m)± 0.18 0.15 0.17 0.18 cd@5% 0.51 0.42 0.47 0.49 cv% 4.80 3.90 4.60 4.49 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 62-66, 2020 breeding for improvement of high temperature tolerance in garden pea 66 these findings clearly illustrate that current breeding programme aimed towards incorporation of high temperature tolerance (33-350c) followed by rigorous selection procedures could successfully integrate heat stress tolerant genes into the selected lines as obvious from the results obtained from the study. further, the average yield obtained from the lines during off season cultivation i.e., summer was more than double in comparison to stress tolerant and high yielding checks. even though yield (6.7-7.1 t/ha) obtained is not on par with the actual yields that could be realized from high yielding cultivars (10-12 t/ha) during normal season of cultivation i.e., rabi, existing gap in yield levels can be compensated by the higher prices fetched for summer peas. hence, the three varieties generated from this breeding programme invariably suit for cultivating garden pea in off season preferably during early summer in regions where temperatures donot exceed 350c. further, the breeding material generated from the study tend to serve as base material for accomplishing in depth investigations on physiological and molecular mechanisms involved in regulating tolerance to high temperature in garden pea in the coming future. acknowledgement the authors are thankful to the director, indian institute of horticultural research (icar-iihr), bengaluru for kind support. references bita, c.e. and gerats, t. 2013. plant tolerance to high temperature in a changing environment: scientific fundamentals and production of heat tolerance crops. front. plant sci.,4: 273. https://doi.org/ 10.3389/fpls.2013.00273 bueckert, r. a., wagenhoffer,s., hnatowich, g. and war kentin, t.d. 2015. effect of hea t and precipitation on pea yield and reproductive performance in the field. can. j. plant sci., 95: 629-639. https://doi.org/10.4141/cjps-2014-342 dahl, w.j., foster, l.m. and tyler, r.t. 2012. review of the health benefits of peas (pisum sativum l.). br. j. nutr.,108: s3-s10.https://doi.org/10.1017/ s0007114512000852 guilioni, l., wery, j. and lecoeur, j. 2003. high temperature and water deficit may reduce seed number in field pea purely by decreasing plant growth rate. funct. plant biol., 30: 11511164.doi: 10.1071/fp03105. guilioni, l., wery,j. and tardieu,f. 1997. heat stressinduced abortion of buds and flowers in pea, is sensitivity linked to organ age or to relations between reproductive organs? ann. bot.,80: 159168. jeuffroy, m.h., duthion, c., meynard, j.m. a nd pigeaire, a. 1990. effect of a short period of high day temperatures during flowering on the seed number per pod of pea ( pisum sativum l) agronomie, 2: 139-145. lambert, r.g. and linck, a. 1958. effects of high temperature on yield of peas. plant physiol.,33: 347-350. mohan, n., aghora, t.s., wani, m.a. and divya, b. 2013. garden pea improvement in india. j. hortl. sci., 8:125-164. nhb database, national horticultural board 2018-19, 1st advance estimates. petkova, v., nikolova, v., kalapchieva,s.h., stoeva,v., topa lova , e. a nd angelova , s. 2009. physiological response and pollen viability of pisum sativum genotypes under high temperature influence. proceedings iv balkan symposium on vegetables and potato, 830: 665-71. https:// doi.org/10.17660/actahortic.2009.830.96 poggio, s.l., satore, e.h., dethiou, s. and gonzalo, g.m. 2005. pod and seed numbers as a function of photothermal quotient during the seed set period of field pea (pisum sativum) crops. eur. j. agron., 22: 55-69. prasad, p.v.v., boote, k.j., allen, l.h. and thomas, j.m.g. 2002. effect of elevated temperature and carbon dioxide on seed-set and yield of kidney bean (phaseolus vulgarisl.) global change in biol., 8: 710-721. suzuki, n., rivero, r.m.,shulaev, v.,blumwald, e. and mittler, r. 2014. abiotic and biotic stress combinations.new phytol., 203: 32-43. https:// doi.org/10.1111/nph.12797 todorova, d., katerova,z., shopova,e., jodinskiene,m., jurkoniene, s. and sergiev, i.2016. responses of pea plants to hea t str ess and sper mine treatment. zemdirbyste-agric., 103 : 99-106. doi: 10.13080/z-a.2016.103.013 vijaylaxmi. 2013. effect of high temperature on growth, biomass a nd yield of field pea. le g. res., 36: 250-254. j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 62-66, 2020 susmita et al. (received on 10.11.2019 and accepted on 10.01.2020) marigold is one of the most important commercially exploited flower crops of india. among crop production technologies, balanced n and p fertilization are essential for better plant-spread and flower yield per unit area. nitrogen and phosphorus are required in adequate quantity to attain ideal growth and to promote flowering (pandey and mishra, 2005). adequate supply of n results in vigorous plant growth, consequently superior yield of flowers of better quality. phosphorus is needed for normal growth and development of the plant due to its vital role in chlorophyll synthesis and physiological / metabolic processes of the plant. nutrient supply needs to be adjusted to specific requirement by the plant during various stages of its growth, to attain maximum yield (mengal, 1969). nitrogen is well known for its influence on plant growth, flower production and quality of bloom in marigold (noggle and fritz, 1979). in the absence of precise recommendations for some areas, growers impose manurial schedules of their own accord, resulting in improper nutrition to the crop. this upsets nutrient balance in the plant and is a major factor for low yield in many flower crops, posing a serious problem in flower production. therefore, an attempt was made to short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):116-119, 2015 influence of nitrogen and phosphorus on flowering in african marigold (tagetes erecta l.) var. cracker jack m. raja naik horticultural research station, anantharajupet dr. y.s.r horticultural university, venkataramannagudem west godavari dist. – 516 105, india e-mail: naik_raja2006@rediffmail.com abstract an investigation was conducted during the year 2000 to study the effect of nitrogen and phosphorus on flowering in african marigold. results revealed that among the four levels of nitrogen tested, highest level of nitrogen (n3) led to minimum number of days for the first flower-bud to become visible (31.66 days), days to flower-break (38.55 days), days to full-flowering (50.66 days). plants receiving n2 recorded significantly high number of flower heads per plant (28.42) and yield (11.11 t/ha). among the three levels of phosphorus tested, days taken to appearance of the first flower-bud, flower-break and full-flowering were significantly earlier in a treatment with no phosphorus (p0). however, number of flower heads per plant was significantly higher in p2 (28.3). as for interaction effect, a combination of the highest level of nitrogen with no phosphorus (n3p0) recorded early flowering. number of flower heads per plant was higher in n3p2 (31.83). highest flower-yield (11.65 t/ha) was recorded in n3p2. thus, it is concluded that nitrogen application advances flowering, while, phosphorus application delays flowering. key words: marigold, nitrogen, phosphorus, flowering improve flowering in marigold by applying various levels of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers to the plant. the experiment was conducted at horticultural garden, sri venkateswara agricultural college, tirupati, during year 2000. soil in the experimental plot was red sandy-loam with good drainage and a low water-holding capacity. soil samples were collected before applying the manure from a depth of 20cm in the experimental area from some randomly selected spots. the composite sample was analyzed for chemical characteristics and content of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. chemical analysis of the soil indicated that it was low in nitrogen and available phosphorus, high in available potash, and was alkaline in nature (table 1). raised nursery beds of 3m and 0.5m size table 1. chemical analysis of soil in horticultural garden at s.v. agricultural college, tirupati particulars quantity p h 7.4 ec 0.39 m. mhos per cm organic carbon low (below 0.5) available nitrogen 201 kg/ha available p2o5 9.2 kg/ha available k2o 130 kg/ha 117 nutrients affecting flowering in african marigold were prepared well in advance for seed sowing. seeds were treated with 0.3% captan prior to sowing on 20-07-2000. two hundred kilograms of farm yard manure was applied as a basal dose and mixed well into the soil at the last ploughing. n and p were applied in the form of urea (46.4%) and superphosphate (16.0% p2o5), respectively. the entire quantity of phosphorus and potash, and 50% of total nitrogen was applied as the basal dose. the remaining 50% of the nitrogen was applied as top-dressing three weeks after transplantation to the main field. thirty-day-old, healthy seedlings of uniform growth were used for transplanting, and, planted at 40cm x 40cm spacing. all the other field operations were performed as per the recommended package of practices. treatments comprised four n levels [0 (n0), 100 (n1), 150 (n2) and 200 (n3) kg n per ha] and three p levels [0 (p0), 100 (p1) and 200 (p2) kg p2o5 per ha]. the experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design, with three replications. data on days taken to appearance of the first flower-bud, days to flower-break, days to full-flowering, number of flower heads per plant, and yield (t/ha) were recorded. fischers’ (1963) method of analysis of variance was followed for analysis, and data was interpretation. f and t tests were applied and the results were tabulated. days taken to visibility of first flower-bud results revealed significant variation among the four levels of nitrogen for days taken to visibility of the first flower-bud (table 2). number of days taken got progressively and significantly reduced with increasing levels of nitrogen. plants receiving the highest dose of nitrogen (n3) took the least number of days (31.66) for appearance of the first flower-bud, whereas, plants treated with the lowest level of nitrogen (n0) took more number of days (34.66). however, levels of nitrogen were seen to be independent of each other, and were significantly superior over the treatment without nitrogen. as the level of phosphorus increased, time taken for appearance of the first flower-bud also increased. however, treatments p0 and p1 were of the same order and took nearly similar number of days (32.33, 32.58), but were significantly different from p2 treatment. interaction between nitrogen and phosphorus with regard to appearance of the first flower-bud was significant. minimum number of days (30.66) were required for this trait under the treatment of the highest level of nitrogen with no phosphorus (n3p0), closely followed by n2p1, n3p1 and n2p0, which were all of the same order. days to flower-break data presented in table 2 show that control plants (n0) took significantly higher number of days (41.88) than nitrogen treatments for flower-break. with increase in level of nitrogen, time taken for flower-break decreased significantly. however, treatments n3 and n2 were at par, but, significantly different from n1. a contrary influence of phosphorus level was observed on this trait. as the level of phosphorus increased, time taken for flower-break too increased. treatments p0, p1 and p1, p2 were of the same order, but p0 and p2 were statistically different. plants receiving the highest level of nitrogen with no phosphorus (n3p0) showed the earliest flower-break (37.00 days). this was significantly superior to all other treatments. control plants (n0p0) receiving neither nutrient flowered late (42.33 days), closely followed by n0p1 (42.00 days). difference between the early-flowering plants and the late flowering plants was found to be 5 days. table 2. influence of nitrogen, phosphorus and their interactions, on flower characters in marigold var. cracker jack treatment days to days to days number yield visibility flowerto full of flower t/ha of first break flowering heads flower-bud /plant nitrogen n 0 34.66 41.88 53.66 23.04 9.23 n 1 33.66 40.33 52.33 26.20 9.98 n 2 32.44 39.33 51.66 28.42 11.11 n 3 31.66 38.55 50.66 26.02 10.38 s.em 0.19 0.31 0.49 0.11 0.35 cd (p=0.05) 0.58 0.93 1.44 0.34 0.10 phosphorus p 0 32.33 39.58 51.41 24.22 9.60 p 1 32.58 39.99 51.83 25.23 10.12 p 2 34.41 40.49 52.99 28.30 10.80 s.em 0.17 0.27 0.42 0.09 0.03 c.d (p=0.05) 0.5 0.80 1.25 0.29 0.09 nitrogen x phosphorus n0p0 34.00 42.33 53.00 21.43 8.75 n0p1 34.33 42.00 54.00 22.46 9.23 n0p2 35.66 41.33 54.00 25.23 9.71 n1p0 33.00 40.00 51.66 25.33 9.51 n1p1 33.33 40.33 52.00 26.06 9.90 n1p2 34.66 40.66 53.33 27.20 10.52 n2p0 31.66 39.00 51.00 27.96 10.83 n2p1 31.33 38.66 51.33 28.33 11.18 n2p2 34.33 40.33 52.66 28.96 11.31 n3p0 30.66 37.00 50.00 22.16 9.31 n3p1 31.33 39.00 50.00 24.06 10.18 n3p2 33.00 39.66 52.00 31.83 11.65 s.em 0.34 0.54 0.85 0.19 0.061 c.d (p=0.05) 1.00 1.61 2.50 0.58 0.181 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):116-119, 2015 118 days to full flowering a perusal of data (table 2) indicates that among the four nitrogen levels tested, the highest level resulted in the shortest duration (50.66 days) for full flowering, closely followed by next highest n level (51.66 days), which was on par. a similar trend was observed in n2 and n3. highest level (n3) and lowest level (n0) of nitrogen differed significantly in their effect. various levels of phosphorus too exhibited a significant effect. as the level of phosphorus increased, the duration of full flowering reduced significantly. treatments p0, and p1 and p2 were of the same order, but p0 was statistically different from others. highest level of applied nitrogen with no phosphorus (n3p0) significantly reduced the number of days to full flowering (50.00 days), while this was highest in the treatment with the highest level of phosphorus with no nitrogen, and, both were independent. number of flower-heads per plant information in table 2 shows that increase in number of flower heads did not corroborate with increase in levels of nitrogen. highest number of flower heads (28.42) was recorded in plants receiving an intermediate level of nitrogen (n2). the highest dose of nitrogen (n3) resulted in fewer flower heads (26.02). the two were independent of each other. number of flowers was lowest (24.22) under no phosphorus treatment, (p0), and maximum (28.30) under the highest level of phosphorus (p2). production of flowers was significantly influenced by various combination treatments of nitrogen and phosphorus. n3p2 was superior to all other treatments. flower yield highest flower-yield (11.11 t/ha) was recorded in plants receiving an intermediate level of nitrogen (n2), while, the highest dose of nitrogen (n3) produced 10.38 t/ha yield. treatment p2 recorded significantly high flower yield (10.80 t/ha). this was significantly superior to that in the other p treatments. n3p2 was superior to all other treatments with reference to flower yield (11.65 t/ha). effect of nitrogen on flowering table 2 indicates that flowering was earlier in plants receiving nitrogen, compared to those receiving no nitrogen. however, the difference between highest level of nitrogen and nonitrogen was just 3 days and, from a practical point of view, this is not appreciable. number of days taken to appearance of the first flower-bud decreased progressively with increase in nitrogen level. number of days taken to 50% flowering was observed to be reduced with increasing level of nitrogen (0-90 kg n/ha) in marigold on sandy-loamy soil by anuradha et al (1988, 1990). chadha et al (1999) obtained earliest bud-initiation in plants treated with 30 kg n/ha. thus, result of the present experiment is in line with the above findings, however, our results differ from the findings of arora and khanna (1986) who reported delayed commencement of flowering in marigold with application of graded doses of nitrogen (0-40g/m2). no probable explanation for this was given. views are divergent on the effect of nitrogen on flowering. increased vegetative growth may help production of greater amount of photosynthates, leading to flowering stimulus, thus inducing early flowering. increased nitrogen levels stimulating early-flowering may sound contradictory to the general belief that plants normally remain vegetative, thus delaying flowering, due to high nitrogen; but, this does not seem to be true in all the cases. butters (1971) and vijaykumar and shanmugavelu (1978) reported early flowering in chrysanthemum with application of increased levels of nitrogen. table 3. nitrogen and phosphorus content (percentage) of the plant in marigold var. cracker jack as influenced by nitrogen, phosphorus and interaction thereof. treatment nitrogen phosphorus content (%) content (%) nitrogen n 0 1.17 0.22 n 1 2.40 0.25 n 2 2.85 0.26 n 3 3.25 0.28 s.em 0.04 0.006 c.d (p=0.05) 0.13 0.017 phosphorus p 0 2.36 0.24 p 1 2.40 0.25 p 2 2.49 0.26 s.em 0.04 0.005 c.d (p=0.05) 0.11 0.015 nitrogen x phosphorus n0p0 1.06 0.21 n0p1 1.17 0.23 n0p2 1.30 0.22 n1p0 2.16 0.24 n1p1 2.53 0.25 n1p2 2.53 0.26 n2p0 2.72 0.25 n2p1 2.83 0.27 n2p2 3.00 0.27 n3p0 3.20 0.28 n3p1 3.25 0.29 n3p2 3.31 0.28 s.em 0.08 0.01 c.d (p=0.05) 0.23 0.03 raja naik j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):116-119, 2015 119 effect of phosphorus on flowering plants receiving phosphorus took more number of days for appearance of the first flower-bud, flower bud break and full-flowering, while, control plants receiving no phosphorus came to flowering earlier. in other words, application of phosphorus delayed flowering. however, no statistical difference was seen between control plants and plants receiving 100kg p2o5 / ha (p1) with regard to date of appearance of the first flower-bud, flower-break and fullflowering. except for appearance of the first flower-bud, the two levels of phosphorus tested were found to be at par with each other. these observations indicate that application of phosphorus does not favour early flowering in marigold. however, these results are not in line with findings reported by others. for instance, anuradha et al (1990) and dahiya et al (1998) reported that the number of days required for 50% flowering reduced with application of phosphorus in marigold. reasons for early flowering due to phosphorus application, however, were not elucidated by them. interaction between nitrogen and phosphorus for flower induction flowering in marigold responded significantly to treatment combinations of nitrogen and phosphorus. plants treated with the highest dose of nitrogen with no phosphorus (n3p0) were the earliest in the appearance of first flowerbud (30.66 days), closely followed by n3p1, n2p1 and n2p0 which were of equal order statistically, but differed from the other treatments. nitrogen is known to promote vegetative growth and advances the reproductive phase in plants. this may have occurred in the present case too. phosphorus with no nitrogen (n0p2) delayed appearance of the flower-bud (35.66 days), and was of same order as n1p2. days to flower bud-break were the least (37 days) under n3p0, which differed significantly from the others. for full flowering, fewer days were recorded in n3p0 and n3p1 (50 days), while this value was highest (54 days) in phosphorus applied with no nitrogen (nop1 & n0p2). our data indicate that flowering is influenced greatly with treatment combinations having nitrogen; flowering was delayed in the absence of nitrogen, whatever the rate of phosphorus applied. increase in the content of nitrogen and phosphorus, singly or in combination, helped the plant in terms of better growth and production, as ,these two nutrients play a very important role in the plant. yield is the net result of several contributing traits like number of flowers per plant, weight of the flower and the nutrient content in the plant and exhibited a positive correlation (table 3). thus, it is concluded that nitrogen application advances flowering, while, phosphorus application delays flowering in marigold. references anuradha, k., pampapathy, k. and narayana, n. 1990. effect of nitrogen and phosphorus on flowering, yield and quality of marigold. indian j. hort., 47:353357 anuradha, k., pampapathy, k. and sreenivasulu, r. 1988. effect of n and p2o5 on flowering and yield of marigold (tagetes erecta l.) s. indian hort., 36:321-323 arora, t.s. and khanna, k. 1986. effect of nitrogen and pinching on growth and flower production of marigold (tagetes erecta l.) indian j. hort., 43:291-294 butters, r.e. 1971. an experimental programme on yearround chrysanthemum. commercial grower no. 3879:598-9, hort. abstracts, 41:1687 chadha, a.p.s., rathore, s.v. and ganesh, r.k. 1999. influence of n and p fertilization and ascorbic acid on growth and flowering of african marigold (tagetes erecta l.) s. indian hort., 47:342-344 dahiya, s.s., narender singh, n. and singh, s. 1998. effect of nitrogen and phosphorus on growth, flowering and yield of marigold (tagetes erecta l.). environ. ecol., 16:855-857 fischer, r.a. 1963. statistical methods for research workers. 14th edn. hafner, oliver & boyd, london, 378p mengal, k. 1969. factors limiting maximum yield: transition from extension to intensive agriculture with fertilizers. international potash institute, berne, switzerland, pp. 27-33 noggle, g.r. and fritz, j. 1979. introductory plant physiology. prentice hall of india pvt. ltd., new delhi, india pandey, r.k. and mishra, a. 2005. effect of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium on growth, flowering and seed yield in marigold cv. pusa narangi gainda. prog. hort., 37:341-344 vijay kumar, m. and shanmugavelu, k.g. 1978. studies on the effect of nitrogen and phosphorus on chrysanthemum cv. yellow (chrysanthemum indicum l.). i. flowering and yield. madras agril. j., 65:247-252 (ms received 06 february 2014, revised 18 april 2015, accepted 25 april 2015) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):116-119, 2015 nutrients affecting flowering in african marigold introduction the primary objective of a crop improvement programme is to assess genetic variability existing in that particular crop the extent to which the character to be improved is heritable. critical estimation of variability existing in the base population is a prerequisite for successful crop improvement through various plant breeding methods. burton (1952) pointed out that calculating genetic coefficient of variation (gcv) along with heritability could assess the best picture of amount of advancement to be expected by selection. ramanujan and thirumalachar (1967) suggested that heritability estimate in the broad sense is reliable if accompanied by high genetic advance. johnson et al (1955) and swarup and chaugle (1967) also considered that heritability estimates along with genetic gain were useful and more reliable than heritability estimates alone in predicting selection response. effectiveness of selection variability studies in palayankodan ecotypes (aab genomic group) of banana (musa spp.) c. rajamanickam and k. rajmohan1 department of fruit crops horticultural college and research institute tamil nadu agricultural university periyakulam east – 625 604, india e-mail: manickshorti@yahoo.co.in abstract six palayankodan ecotypes of banana belonging to aab genomic group were evaluated for genetic variability among quantitative traits. genetic and phenotypic coefficient of variation, heritability and genetic advance were estimated for eighteen traits that included plant height, pseudostem girth, number of leaves per plant, leaf width, number of suckers per plant, days taken from planting to shooting, total crop duration; length, girth, weight and volume of finger; hand weight, bunch weight, number of fingers per bunch, number of fingers per hand, ripe-fruit weight, sugar/acid ratio and pulp weight. remarkable variability was observed among the collections for these characters. bunch weight, number of fingers per bunch and number of suckers per plant with very high value of pcv, gcv, heritability and genetic advance makes it prime traits for direct selection. plant height, pseudostem girth, total crop duration, sugar:acid ratio, finger length and days taken from planting to shooting with high value of heritability and moderate value of genetic advance. pcv are other important traits which need to be considered for selection. the volume of finger with low values for gcv, pcv, heritability and genetic advance as per cent of mean implies that it is highly influenced by environment and should not be taken as a criterion for selection. plant height, total crop duration, sugar:acid ratio, finger length, pseudostem girth, number of fingers per bunch and days taken from planting to shooting showed high genetic advance and heritability and important characters to be considered for selection of ecotypes. key words: banana, palayankodan, ecotypes, heritability, genetic advance, pcv, gcv based on phenotypic performance can be more useful and reliable only when selection is based on heritability estimates combined with genetic gain. above all these, knowledge of the extent of variability in germplasm is an essential prerequisite in any breeding programme. banana (musa spp.) is the most important fruit crop grown in the tropical and subtropical regions of india. clones of ‘aab’ genomic group occupy major banana growing area in india. this group comprises several popular desert types, of which, palayankodan (syn. mysore poovan) is the most widely cultivated single clone because of its drought tolerance and suitability for ratooning (rajeevan and geetha, 1982). the vast difference in agroclimatic conditions under which the clone is grown in india, is likely to generate numerous mutants of the clone. however, only one mutant, namely ‘mottapoovan’, has been reported so far. progress of a breeding programme depends upon the extent to which desirable traits are heritable. high heritability estimate is 1 department of pomology and floricluture, college of agriculture, vellayani 695 522, kerala j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 109-113, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 110 used to predict the usefulness of traits in a selection programme. hence, the present investigation was undertaken to study genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance in eighteen morphological traits of six palayankodan banana ecotypes. material and methods the present experiment was carried out in the department of pomology and floriculture, college of agriculture, vellayani, thiruvananthapuram, kerala. a total of six palayankodan ecotypes procured from banana research station, kannara, thrissur and college of agriculture, vellayani, thiruvananthapuram, were planted and maintained at the college orchard, college of agriculture, vellayani. six ecotypes of palayankodan banana were raised in completely randomized block design (crd) with five replications as per panse and sukhatme (1985). cultural practices as per the package of practice recommendations were followed (kau, 1996). the six ecotypes of palayankodan banana (all dessert type, having 3x ploidy and aab genomic composition) are as follows: palode palayankodan, pknnr, chandra bale, pisang ceylon, mottapoovan vellapalayankodan. the genetic and phenotypic coefficient of variation, heritability and genetic advance were estimated for eighteen characters which included plant height, pseudostem girth, number of leaves per plant, leaf width, number of suckers per plant, days taken from planting to shooting, total crop duration, bunch weight, number of fingers per hand, number of fingers per bunch, hand weight; length, girth, weight and volume of finger, ripe fruit weight, pulp weight and sugar:acid ratio. biometric data were collected and statistically analyzed following fischer (1960). from the analysis of variance, genetic parameters like phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation (pcv and gcv) (burton, 1952), habitability estimates (burton and de vane, 1953) and genetic advance (allard, 1960) were calculated. results and discussion phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation for eighteen morphological characters of six palayankodan ecotypes were studied. pcv were higher than their respective gcv for all the characters, which reflects influence of environment on phenotypic expression of these characters. significant difference was recorded among ecotypes of banana for various plant parameters studied. results presented in table 1 indicate the range and general mean for each character studied. the highest range of variation was recorded for plant height, total crop duration, days taken from planting to shooting and number of fingers per bunch. the lowest range of variation was recorded for the number of suckers per plant, number of leaves per plant, number of fingers per hand, hand weight, bunch weight, finger length and girth of finger. phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation, heritability and genetic advance are presented in table 2. highest pcv was observed for bunch weight (42.07%), followed by the number of suckers per plant (31.99%), hand weight (24.84%) and pseudostem girth (23.62%). lowest pcv value was seen for leaf width (7.18%), followed by ripe fruit weight (7.78%). gcv ranged from 38.14 per cent for bunch weight to 6.27 per cent for volume of finger. highest gcv was recorded for bunch weight (38.13%), followed by number of suckers per plant (27.94%), hand weight (21.18%) and sugar:acid ratio (22.03%). work of rajeevan and geetha (1982) and valsalakumari and nair (1986) also supported this, with high estimates for gcv. table 1. mean, range and coefficient of variation (cv) for eighteen traits in palayankodan ecotypes of banana trait mean ± s.e. range cv (%) plant 311.03 ± 23.3 417.2 – 264.20 17.6 height (cm) pseudostem 65.80 ± 6.3 96.06 – 56.46 23.5 girth (cm) number of 8.53 ± 0.7 11.20 – 6.80 20.3 leaves per plant leaf width (cm) 78.98 ± 2.1 87.64 – 72.92 6.6 number of 9.4 ± 1.5 15.80 – 6.20 39.0 suckers per plant days taken from 227.87 ± 15.6 300.0 – 188.80 16.8 planting to shooting total crop 323.87 ± 17.3 407.0 – 286.80 13.1 duration (days) bunch 16.19 ± 1.9 23.04 – 10.60 28.8 weight (kg) number of 16.90 ± 0.9 18.93 – 14.30 12.2 fingers per hand number of 189.73 ± 15.2 254.20 – 72.20 19.6 fingers per bunch hand 2.03 ± 0.2 2.80 – 1.50 22.0 weight (kg) length of 11.09 ± 0.8 13.60 – 8.36 17.6 finger (cm) girth of 9.76 ± 0.5 10.52 – 8.14 12.3 finger (cm) finger weight (g) 99.38 ± 3.0 109.22 – 90.08 7.4 volume of 92.49 ± 2.8 101.74 – 82.54 7.3 finger (cc) ripe fruit 82.80 ± 2.5 88.78 – 72.74 7.4 weight (g) pulp weight (g) 63.66 ± 2.6 68.30 – 52.32 9.9 sugar:acid ratio 48.01 ± 4.3 68.53 – 37.53 22.2 j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 109-113, 2010 rajamanickam and rajmohan prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 111 lowest gcv value was observed for volume of finger (6.27%), followed by leaf width (6.47%). rajeevan and geetha (1982) observed high pcv and gcv values for bunch weight, number of fingers per bunch and weight of finger for 40 banana cultivars. valsalakumari and nair (1986) reported highest pcv and gcv for bunch weight, hand weight, number of fingers per bunch, pseudostem girth and finger weight. the vast difference in pcv and gcv and very low estimates for gcv indicate an immense influence of environment on manifestation of this character. similar findings were also made by sreerangaswamy et al (1980) in banana. significant difference between phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation for number of leaves per plant, number of suckers per plant, number of fingers per bunch, bunch weight, finger weight and volume of finger suggests that these characters were not influenced by environment. the estimates of heritability separate genetic variability from phenotypic variability and indicate possibility and the extent to which improvement can be brought about through proper selection. moderate phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation were registered for plant height (17.68% and 17.58%), total crop duration (13.19% and 13.10%), number of fingers per bunch (20.22% and 19.49%), finger length (18.46% and 17.41%), finger girth (14% and 11.84%) and sugar:acid ratio (22.76% and 22.02%), respectively. these characters offer much scope for improvement by selection and hybridization. heritability, in a broad sense, gives the amount of heritable portion of a character. environmental coefficient of variation was high in bunch weight (17.78%) and the lowest in total crop duration (1.58%). characters possessing high heritability can be improved directly through selection, as, these are relatively less affected by environment. the magnitude of heritability indicates effectiveness of selection based on phenotypic performance (johnson et al, 1955). in the present study, all traits exhibited high heritability. this ranged from 72.53% for leaves per plant, to 98.90% for plant height. characters like plant height (98.90%), total cropduration (98.57%), pseudostem girth (98.29%), bunch weight (97.31 %), number of fingers per bunch (92.81%), sugar:acid ratio (93.63%) and length of finger (89.02%) show high heritability. relatively higher values of heritability for these characters imply that a large proportion of phenotypic coefficient of variance (pcv) was attributable to the genotypic coefficient variance (gcv). high heritability values for number of fingers per bunch, plant height, days taken from planting to shooting and number of fingers per bunch obtained in the present study are in agreement with findings of sreerangaswamy et al (1980) in banana. high heritability has also been reported for pulp weight and length of finger (singh and sharma, 1997), pseudostem girth, bunch weight, finger length and number of fingers per bunch (rajeevan and geetha, 1982), plant height, days taken from planting to flowering, finger length, sugar:acid ratio, bunch weight and pesudostem girth (valsalakumari and nair, 1986), crop duration (rosamma and namboodiri, 1990) and bunch weight, plant height and crop duration (uma et al, 2000). katiyar et al (1974) demonstrated that heritability values alone are inadequate to cannot be taken as a tool to calculate the amount of genetic progress achieved by selecting the best individual. ramanujam and thirumalachar (1967) opined that heritability estimates could be reliable if accompanied by a high genetic advance. table 2. phenotypic coefficient of variation (pcv), genotypic coefficient of variation (gcv), environment coefficient of variation (ecv), heritability (broad sense) and genetic advance (ga) as percentage of mean for eighteen traits of palayankodan ecotypes of banana trait gcv pcv ecv heritability ga as (%) (%) (%) (broad % of sense) % mean plant 17.58 17.68 1.86 98.90 36.02 height (cm) pseudostem 23.42 23.62 3.09 98.29 47.83 girth (cm) number of 19.69 23.36 10.59 77.56 35.72 leaves per plant leaf width 6.47 7.18 3.11 81.26 12.02 (cm) number of 27.94 32.00 15.59 82.16 38.68 suckers per plant days taken from 16.73 16.97 2.78 76.25 34.01 planting to shooting total crop 13.09 13.19 1.58 98.57 26.77 duration (days) bunch weight (kg) 38.13 42.07 17.77 97.31 71.21 number of 9.77 10.58 4.01 85.38 18.60 fingers per hand number of 19.48 20.23 5.42 92.81 50.26 fingers per bunch hand 21.18 24.84 12.97 72.73 37.21 weight (kg) length of 17.41 18.46 6.12 89.02 33.84 finger (cm) girth of 11.84 14.01 7.47 71.53 20.63 finger (cm) finger 7.24 8.16 3.75 78.88 13.26 weight (g) volume of 6.27 10.42 8.32 36.20 7.77 finger (cc) ripe fruit 7.30 7.78 2.69 88.07 14.11 weight (g) pulp weight (g) 9.73 1.34 3.48 88.63 18.87 sugar:acid ratio 22.03 22.73 5.74 93.63 43.91 j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 109-113, 2010 variability studies in aab banana ecotypes prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 112 in the present investigation, there was wide variation among characters for genetic advance. genetic advance as per cent of mean, varied from 7.77% for volume of finger to 71.21% for bunch weight. characters like bunch weight (71.21%), plant height (36.02%), pseudostem girth (47.83%), days taken from planting to shooting (34.01%), number of fingers per bunch (50.26%), sugar:acid ratio (43.91%), hand weight (37.21%), number of suckers per plant (38.68%) and finger length (33.84%) showed higher genetic advance, along with high heritability. this clearly suggests that these characters are mainly of the additive type as reported by johnson et al (1955). lowest genetic advance was obtained for volume of finger (7.77%), leaf width (12.02%), ripe fruit weight (14.11%), number of fingers per hand (18.61%) and pulp weight (18.87%). number of suckers per plant and bunch weight with high value for pcv, gcv and heritability, coupled with genetic advance, indicate that the character is predominantly controlled by additive gene action. this is supported by the hypothesis proposed by panse (1957) suggesting that characters exhibiting high heritability and ga were governed by additive gene effects. similar results were reported by rosamma (1982) and uma et al (2000). this implies that selection of bunch weight, number of fingers per bunch and number of suckers per plant can bring about effective improvement, and may be exploited in breeding programmes. high heritability does not necessarily mean a high genetic advance for a particular character (allard, 1960). heritability, along with genetic advance, is more useful than heritability alone in predicting the result and effect of selecting the best individuals (johnson et al, 1955). uma et al (2000) reported plant height, with very high value of heritability and moderate value of genetic advance, revealed relatively low influence of environment on the trait for silk ecotypes of banana. in a study with 48 banana varieties, falling under different genomic group traits such as weight of finger, number of fingers per bunch and bunch weight, recorded a high estimate of heritability along with high genotypic gain in the crop (rosamma, 1982). in the present study, plant height, with high value of heritability (98.92%) and moderate value of genetic advance (36.02%) revealed relatively low influence of environment on this trait. a study by uma et al (2000) also revealed that plant height had high value of heritability (91.11%) and moderate genetic advance (27.54%). sugar:acid ratio, pseudostem girth, days taken from planting to shooting, number of fruits per bunch and finger length showed high values of heritability, coupled with moderately high genetic advance, indicative the influence of environment on expression of these characters to some extent and, that, rigid selection might bring about improvement in these traits. though ripe fruit weight, number of fingers per hand, leaf width, finger width and finger weight showed moderate estimate of heritability, lower value of genetic advance reflected favourable influence of environment rather than that of the genotype, and simple selection may not be rewarding. thus it may be suggested that improvement is likely to be very effective for these characters in banana. acknowledgement the authors gratefully acknowledge kerala agricultural university, thrissur, kerala, india, for providing funds and facilities to carry out the research work. references allard, r.w. 1960. principles of plant breeding. john wiley & sons, inc., new york,usa burton, c.w. 1952. quantitative inheritance in grasses. procs. 6th int’l. grassland congr., 1:277-283 burton, g.w. and de vane, e.h. 1953. estimating heritability in tall fescue (festuca arundinacea) from replicated clonal material. agron. j., 45:478-481 fischer, r.a. 1960. the design of experiments. heffner publishing co., inc., new york,usa johnson, h.w., robinson, h.f. and comstock, r.e. 1955. estimates of genetic and environmental variability in soya beans. agron. j., 47:314-318 katiyar, r.p., mishra, b., singh, s.n. and chauhan, y.s. 1974. genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance of yield and its components in indian mustard. ind. j. agril. sci., 44:291-293 kau. 1996. package of practices recommendation, kerala agricultural university, vellanikkara, thrissur, kerala, india panse, v.g. 1957. genetics of quantitative characters in relation to plant breeding. ind. j. genet., 17:18-27 panse, v.g. and sukhatme, p.v. 1985. statistical methods for agricultural workers, 2nd edition. icar, new delhi, p 108 rajeevan, p.k. and geetha, c.k. 1982. variability studies in banana. south ind. hort., 34:197-200 ramanujam, s. and thirumalachar, d.k. 1967. genetic variability of certain characters in red pepper (capsicum annuum l.). mysore j. agri., 1:30-36 rosamma, c.a. 1982. biometrical studies in banana. m.sc. (ag) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur, kerala,india rosamma, c.a. and namboodiri, k.m.n. 1990. genetic j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 109-113, 2010 rajamanickam and rajmohan prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 113 analysis of yield in banana, agril. res. j. kerala, 28:1-8 singh, d.b. and sharma, t.v.r.s. 1997. genetic variability in banana. ind. j. hort., 54:124-127 sreerangaswamy, s.r., sambandamurthy, s. and murugan, m. 1980. genetic analysis in banana. in: national seminar on banana production technology, tnau, coimbatore, c.r. muthukrishnana and j.b.m. abdulkhader (eds.) swarup, v. and chaugle, d.s. 1967. studies on genetic variability in sorgham. 1. phenotypic variations and its heritable components in some quantitative characters contributing towards yield. ind. j. genet., 22:31-36 uma, s., dayarani, m., singh, h.p., shyam, b. and sathiamoorthy, s. 2000. studies on genetic variability in banana silk sub group (aab). ind. j. hort., 57:106-109 valsalakumari, p.k. and nair, p.c.s. 1986. genetic variability in banana. agril. res. j. kerala, 24:66-72 (ms received 4 may 2009, revised 21 june 2010) j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 109-113, 2010 variability studies in aab banana ecotypes prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 479 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 479-487, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction india has a large diversity of mangoes, with more than 1000 varieties (salvi and gunjate, 1988) that are grouped based on the number of embryos in the seed into monoembr yonic and polyembryonic types (mukherjee 1997). most of the commercially grown varieties in india are monoembryonic while the polyembryonic varieties are used as rootstock since their apomictic seedlings arising from nucellus are known to be true to type. each cultivar is distinguished by a unique combination of characters such as plant architecture, fruit size, color, taste, and flavor. correct identification of varieties as well as discrimination of zygotic and nucellar seedlings is very important for crop improvement as well as for clonal rootstocks, even though morphological and molecular assessments have greatly aided in cultivar identification (naik and gangolly 1950, ravishankar et al., 2000, karihaloo et al., 2003, pandit et al., 2007). to complement this work, more reliable variety specific biochemical markers are a desirable attribute. there is a reliable variability in the volatile profile in mango cultivars (andrade et al., 2000). more than 270 aroma volatile compounds have been reported in various mango cultivars, including monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, esters, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, acids, aliphatic hydrocarbons (shibamoto and tang, 1990). each of these volatile substances has its own distinct odour, and the combinations, quantities, and ratios of these molecules impart unique fragrance traits (araguez and valpuesta 2013). mango leaves are a rich source of phenolic compounds such as xanthone-c-glycosides, gallotannins, benzophenones, flavonol glycosides, 5alkyland 5-alkenylresorcinols and many other miscellaneous phenols (barreto et al., 2008) such as comparison of leaf volatile aroma constituents and phenolic acid profiles of the seedling originated polyembryonic mango (mangifera indica l.) genotypes kanade n.m.1, shivashankara k.s.2*, kurian r.m.1 and sankaran m.1 1division of fruit crops, 2division of basic sciences, icarindian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bengaluru-560089 *corresponding author email : shivashankara.ks@icar.gov.in abstract in mango, leaf and fruit volatile aroma profiles are variety specific which can be used as fingerprint of a variety. such biochemical markers can also discriminate the nucellar and zygotic seedlings in polyembryonic mango varieties. in order to validate the applicability of volatile as well as phenolic acid profiles as biomarkers, the open pollinated seedlings of three polyembryonic varieties of mango were compared with their mother trees. leaf volatile and phenol acid profiling were done using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (gcms) and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (lcms) methods respectively. the sesquiterpene hydrocarbons were the most abundant in all the genotypes studied. monoterpenoids were the major compounds in cultivars vellaikolumban and olour, while the sesquiterpenoids were the major compounds in cv. turpentine. while terpinolene was the major monoterpenoid compound in vellaikolumban and limonene in cv. olour, the sesquiterpene á-gurjunene was the major compound in cv. turpentine. volatile profiling showed clear differences between the varieties but was similar within a variety. among the 15 phenolic acids quantified in the leaves, p-coumaric acid, gallic acid, and ferulic acids were predominant whereas, vanillic acid, syringic acid, gentisic acid, benzoic acid, and sinapic acids were low in quantity. phenolic acid profile did not show significant diversity among the varieties and therefore cannot be used for identification of varieties. the volatile profiling can be used for the identification and differentiation of polyembryonic mango genotypes. keywords: gcms, lcms, mango, nucellar seedling, polyembryony 480 kanade et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 479-487, 2022 kaempferol, quercetin, catechin, rhamnetin, gallic acid, benzoic a cid, ellagic acid, ta nnins, fla vonols, benzophenone, and their derivatives (mwaurah et al., 2020, dorta et al., 2014). in this study an attempt has been made to study the variability in leaf volatile and phenolic acid profiles of polyembryonic mango genotypes to identify their suitability as biochemical marker to identify the polyembryonic seedlings. materials and methods plant material three weeks old fresh mango leaves (top three) were taken from the op seedlings of polyembryonic genotypes (vellaikolamban, olour, and turpentine) conserved in the field gene bank of icariihr, bengalur u for hs-spme and phenol profiling analysis. the volatile flavor constituents were analyzed by headspace-solid phase micro-extraction (hsspme) technique using gc–ms/ms and the phenol profiling were done by lc-ms/ms technique. volatile profiling solid phase micro extraction (spme) of volatiles the adsorption of analytes from the coated phase of fused silica fibre and partitioning of analytes between the stationary phase of the fibre and the extraction medium as gas constitute solid phase micro extraction. it consists of a 1-2 cm long fused silica fiber, coated with a stationary phase such as poly dimethyl siloxane (pdms), divinyl benzene (dvb) and carboxen (car) or the mixture of all the three and bonded to a stainless-steel plunger and holder. these fibres are to be first conditioned at 250°c for 2-3 hours in the injector port of gc with the continued flow of helium gas. in our study, ten grams of the fresh leaf was powdered using liquid nitrogen and taken in 100 ml conical flask along with a magnetic stirrer and then previously conditioned spme fibre (facundo et al., 2013) was inserted to absorb the head-space volatiles for 2 hours. fibre was subsequently injected into the gc-ms for the separation and identification of compounds. gc-ms analysis gc-ms analysis was performed on varian-3800 gas chromatograph coupled with varian 4000 gc-ms/ms ion trap mass selective detector. the ms column was a fused-silica capillary column of 30 cm x 0.25 mm id, 0.25mm film thickness for the analysis. the injector temperature was set at 250ºc and all injections were split-less mode for 0.2 min, detector temperature was 270°c, and the temperature programs for the column was as follows: 40°c for 2 min at an increment of 3°c/min to 190°c, held for 1 min, then 5°c/min to 220°c and maintaining the constant temperature for 5 min. the mass spectrometer was set in the external electron ionization mode (ei) with the carrier gas helium at 1.5 ml/min; injector temperature at 250°c; trap temperature at 180°c, ion source-heating at 190°c, transfer line temperature at 260°c, ei-mode at 70 ev, with full scan-range 50-350 amu (atomic ma ss unit). t he total vola tile pr oduction wa s calcula ted by the individua l peak a reas in the chromatogram, individual compounds identified by comparison of the spectra against the retention index determined using homologous series of n-alkanes (c5 to c32) as standard using two spectral libraries available as wiley and nist-2007, and expressed as relative percent area. profiling phenols by lcms the phenolic acids for lc-ms/ms analysis was extracted using 80% methanol as previously described by weidner et al. (2000) and chen et al. (2001) with slight modification. 10 g sample was homogenized in methanol (80%), centrifuged and made up to 50 ml. 20 ml extract was taken and evaporated near to dryness under vacuum at 45°c and then diluted to 5 ml with water later extracted thrice with petroleum ether then in 40 ml of ethyl acetate using separating funnel. the aqueous layer was discarded and extract was ethyl acetate evaporated to dryness under vacuum at room temperature. to the dry residue, 4 ml of 2n naoh was added and allowed to hydrolyze for overnight. once acidifying to ph 2 using 5 ml 2n hcl, again re-extracted with 50 ml ethyl acetate. ethyl acetate layer was again re-extracted twice with 25 ml of 0.1n nahco3. the ethyl acetate layer which carried the flavonoids was evaporated to complete dryness under vacuum, the residue was dissolved in 2 ml ms grade methanol filtered through 0.2μm nylon filter prior to injection in lcms ms for flavonoids estimation. the aqueous layer was further acidified to ph 2 with 5 ml 2n hcl and extracted thrice with 25 ml ethyl acetate, the ethyl acetate layer was dried completely in rotary evaporator and the residue was dissolved in 2 ml ms grade methanol filtered through 0.2μm nylon filter prior to injection in lcms ms for phenolic acid estimation. 481 lc and ms-ms conditions the phenolic acids were resolved on the analytical column beh-c18 (2.1 x 50 mm, 1.7 μm) from waters india ltd., protected by a vanguard beh c18 (waters, usa) with the gradient flow of organic and aqueous phase with the flow rate of 0.3ml/min. the column temperature was maintained at 25°c during analysis and the sample injection volume was 2μl. the eluted phenolic acids and flavonoids from the uplc column effluent pumped directly without any split into the tqd-ms/ms (waters, usa) system optimized for the a nalysis of the phenolic acid. sta tistica l a na lysis (pea rson cor r ela tion) wa s per for med by the web-b a sed p or t a l o pstat (sheoran et al., 1998). results and discussion volatile profiling in the three polyembryonic seedling originated plants of thr ee varieties, the leaf volatile profile was generated, using gcms/ms. the volatiles varied significantly among the genotypes. the most abundant hydrocarbons were monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes in all the three genotypes. in vellaikolumban and olour genotypes (table 1 and 2), the monoterpenoids were maximum while the sesquiterpenoids were minimum but in cv. turpentine (table 4) sesquiterpenes were ma ximum. among the monoter penoids, the terpinolene was the major volatile compound followed by α-pinene in the 3 seedling originated plants of cv. vellaikolumban while sesquiterpenoids β-elemene, γcadinene and δ-cadinene were found to be the minor table 1 : relative peak area (%) of leaf volatile compounds of genotype vellaikolumban using spme based gc-ms analysis and their correlation among plants volatile compound vp1 vp2 vp3 α-pinene 10.577 7.218 7.195 camphene 1.077 0.729 0.700 β-pinene 3.618 2.817 3.055 sabinene 1.906 2.140 1.628 3-carene 5.541 6.494 5.830 α-terpinene 2.072 2.269 1.034 limonene 2.416 2.359 1.974 cis-ocimene 1.314 1.315 1.115 trans-ocimene 1.870 2.156 1.184 terpinolene 49.423 57.821 50.252 α-copaene 0.585 0.367 0.865 (-)-β-elemene 0.288 0.126 0.449 β-caryophyllene 3.921 3.883 6.805 α-humulene 2.072 1.917 4.313 germacrene d 3.452 0.908 3.499 γ-cadinene 0.369 0.368 0.712 δ-cadinene 0.801 0.612 1.890 pearson correlation matrix vp1 vp2 vp3 vp1 1 vp2 0.995** 1 vp3 0.993** 0.995** 1 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 479-487, 2022 comparison of leaf volatile aroma constituents and phenolic acid profiles in mango 482 kanade et al table 2 : relative peak area (%) of leaf volatile compounds of genotype olour using spme based gc-ms analysis and their correlation among plants volatile compound op1 op2 op3 trans-2-hexenal 0.208 0.756 0.649 cis-3-hexen-1-ol 0.166 0.389 0.261 α-thujene 0.128 0.182 0.128 α-pinene 19.567 11.412 17.241 camphene 0.329 0.181 0.235 sabinene 0.813 0.399 0.331 β-pinene 2.276 1.554 1.713 trans-ocimene 4.101 4.111 4.447 α-phellandrene 5.417 5.631 5.687 limonene 56.958 62.001 57.140 α-terpinene 0.801 0.754 0.663 terpinolene 0.368 0.378 0.357 nerol 0.029 0.203 0.095 2-methyl-2-bornene 0.277 0.959 0.759 allo-ocimene 0.019 0.034 0.026 4-terpineol 0.016 0.177 0.114 methyl salicylate 0.495 1.229 0.570 )-elemene 0.199 0.261 0.368 germacrene b 2.733 3.478 5.044 (-)-α-cubebene 0.201 0.211 0.372 pearson correlation matrix op1 op2 op3 op1 1 op2 0.988** 1 op3 0.998** 0.993** 1 volatile compounds. the correlation analysis between the volatile compounds (table 1) of three plants of vellaikolumban were found to be significantly and positively correlated to each other (r = 0.9930.995). in olour (ta ble 2), limonene wa s the ma jor monoterpenoid followed by α-pinene and allo-ocimene. the correlation matrix (table 3) indicated that volatiles of all the three plants of cv. olour were highly corr elated to each other (r = 0.988-0. 993). in turpentine (table 3), sesquiterpenoids were the major group with α-gurjunene being the highest followed by β-sellinene in all the three seedling originated plants. volatiles of all the 3 plants were highly correlated with each other (table 4) (r = 0.991-0.998). genotypes can be identified ba sed on the volatile profile. monoterpene and sesquiterpene hydrocarbons are the most abundant volatile components in all mango cultivars, accounting for 70–90% of total volatiles. wetungu et al. (2015) studied the chemical profile of six mango varieties and reported that the mango leaves were rich in monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes. the αpinene, phellandrene, limonene and ocimene were important monoterpene compounds which clearly distinguished the variability among 34 appemidi genotypes a nd sesquiterpenes composition was observed in genotype gaddemara (90.39%) followed by kalwaguda (78.73%). among sesquiterpenes, αhumulene a nd ca r yophyllene wer e the ma jor j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 479-487, 2022 483 comparison of leaf volatile aroma constituents and phenolic acid profiles in mango table 3 : relative peak area (%) of leaf volatile compounds of genotype turpentine using spme based gc-ms analysis and their correlation among plants volatile compound tp1 tp2 tp3 α-pinene 2.61 3.09 2.41 sabinene 0.42 0.25 0.36 α-phellandrene 5.62 3.09 2.36 β-elemene 0.48 0.57 0.52 α-gurjunene 40.12 37.76 38.01 β-caryophyllene 14.57 16.25 15.13 α-humulene 5.94 7.31 6.94 allo-aromadendrene 0.33 0.48 0.41 (+)-9-aristolene 3.12 3.56 4.10 β-sellinene 22.56 23.53 25.69 γ-gurjunene 2.69 2.94 2.58 γ-cadinene 1.21 1.02 1.44 pearson correlation matrix tp1 tp2 tp3 tp1 1 tp2 0.995** 1 tp3 0.991** 0.998** 1 compounds in all the genotypes (veena, 2018). ma et al. (2018) detected α-pinene and terpinolene in mango varieties and these compounds are considered to be important volatiles. cultivars pingguo and guixiang contained the highest level of α-pinene and limonene respectively. moreover, limonene was a predominant component in five mango cultivars, including cuba delicioso, super hadden, ordoez, filipino and la paz (pino et al., 2005). 3-carene was the dominant volatile in cv. boluoxiang, but limonene was not found. sesquiterpene hydrocarbons form the second largest group of aroma volatiles in mango (pandit et al., 2009). significant differences in the composition of total sesquiterpenoids were recorded among genotypes by dona ld (2019) a nd the highest per cent of sesquiter penoids composition was obser ved in genotype rumani (91.48%) followed by h-151 (90.17%), while, the least content was noticed in genotype da sheha r i (26. 22%). in the ca se of sesquiterpenoids, caryophyllene, α-gurjunene and αhumulene contributed the maximum to the leaf volatiles in the genotypes studied indicating that the leaf volatile profile can be used as a fingerprint for varietal identification and could be important for clearly distinguishing the variability among mango genotypes (donald, 2019, veena, 2018, gebara et al., 2011, dzbreveamic et al., 2010, liu et al., 2013). dzbreveamic et al. (2010) reported that the leaves of m. indica was rich in sesquiterpenes (70.3%) and δ3-carene, α-gurjunene, β-selinene and β-caryophyllene were dominant compounds in mango leaf oil. in conclusion, mango cultivars differ in terms of total vola tile concentr a tion, both qua lita tively a nd quantitatively. the volatile profiling of polyembryonic genotype was found to be different between the genotypes, but was strongly correlated with the seedling originated plants within a genotype. the three seedling originated plants of vellaikolumban, olour and turpentine genotypes were also found to be morphologically similar within the group. hence it is proved that the volatile profiling can be successfully used to identify the seedling originated plants of polyembryonic genotype. phenolic acid profiling the phenolic acid profile of mango leaves was deter mined using liquid chromatogra phy-mass spectrometry (lc-ms/ms). fifteen phenolic acids j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 479-487, 2022 484 kanade et al table 4 : phenolic acid (mg/gm) profiling of genotypes viz vellaikolumban, olour and turpentine and their correlation among genotypes phenolic acid vp1 vp2 vp3 op1 op2 op3 tp1 tp2 tp3 vanillic acid 0.05 0.96 4.67 0.09 2.97 4.74 7.66 7.46 9.37 syringic acid 0.18 0.11 0.07 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.04 0.05 ferulic acid 541.31 635.65 522.05 306.61 223.91 355.38 272.26 378.66 344.17 caffeic acid 17.90 29.01 5.95 9.24 4.13 6.97 9.02 6.66 15.37 gallic acid 564.95 705.11 383.15 144.47 145.30 272.86 437.98 514.02 742.97 p-coumaric acid 1096.94 1266.06 927.67 872.10 606.84 1657.16 967.13 1088.20 1411.17 o-coumaric acid 72.08 86.21 54.47 83.80 60.77 133.59 67.77 136.14 148.89 2,4-dihydroxy 24.44 18.81 0.68 5.28 3.21 6.60 91.88 85.89 101.45 benzoic acid gentisic acid 57.51 5.90 1.76 7.60 0.00 0.62 40.80 43.60 204.64 protocatechuic acid 27.95 43.01 0.60 0.93 0.00 7.48 178.99 157.59 1.20 p-hydroxy 36.30 28.96 19.79 24.03 26.99 35.94 31.80 29.34 32.63 benzoic acid salycylic acid 59.60 17.16 15.43 22.05 10.01 10.07 34.45 47.56 94.12 benzoic acid 4.74 1.40 9.43 3.93 3.50 1.37 3.01 0.67 0.42 3-hydroxy 49.45 35.74 24.26 30.14 34.16 48.07 40.86 40.13 39.64 benzoic acid sinapic acid 2.51 2.01 0.52 1.80 5.26 3.65 1.92 1.92 3.81 pearson correlation matrix vp1 vp2 vp3 op1 op2 op3 tp1 tp2 tp3 vp1 1 vp2 0.998** 1 vp3 0.992** 0.990** 1 op1 0.946** 0.934** 0.960** 1 op2 0.965** 0.956** 0.974** 0.997** 1 op3 0.927** 0.915** 0.932** 0.991** 0.988** 1 tp1 0.966** 0.964** 0.947** 0.943** 0.955** 0.950** 1 tp2 0.981** 0.980** 0.966** 0.951** 0.966** 0.950** 0.995** 1 tp3 0.967** 0.961** 0.938** 0.926** 0.942** 0.936** 0.974** 0.978** 1 (table 4) were identified in the leaves of all the 3 genotypes. among them, p-coumaric acid, gallic acid and ferulic acids were found to be the major phenolic acids. on the other hand, vanillic acid, syringic acid, gentisic acid, benzoic acid and sinapic acids were minor contributors in phenol profiling. p-coumaric acid was the predominant phenolic acid in all the genotypes followed by gallic acid, ferulic acid in vellaikolumban and turpentine but in olour it was ferulic acid followed by gallic acid. the correlations between the seedlings originated from the same kernel indicated a highly significant correlation (r = 0.9150.998) (table 4). correlations between the genotypes also showed significantly higher values indicating that this parameter is not variety specific. earlier reports indicate that the proportion and profile of polyphenols in mango vary depending on the variety and also plant part (ma et al., 2011). ocampo et al. (2020) reported variations in the phenolic profiles among mango types. gallic, vanillic, syringic, and ferulic acids were all j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 479-487, 2022 485 found in the peels of all mango genotypes, while coumaric and chlorogenic acids were not detected. gallic acid has also been identified as a common phenolic acid present in the mango types keitt, sensation, and gomera 3 (dorta et al., 2014). our results showed that based on phenolic acid profiling, it is not possible to distinguish the genotypes. on the contrary to these findings, ocampo et al. (2020) reported that the phenolic acid profile could be utilised as a marker/fingerprint in the future to correctly identify types such as the carabao mango, which is well-known in the philippines for its flavour. conclusion volatile aroma and phenolic acid profiling from the mango leaf using gcms and lcms/ms techniques indicated that leaf volatile profile is variety specific and can also be used successfully to identify the nucellar seedlings of polyembyonic varieties which are similar to the mother plant. leaf volatiles are stable which gives unique aroma to a particular genotype. however, the phenolic a cid profiling could not differentiate the varieties. acknowledgement the authors thanks to icar-iihr, bengaluru for providing the basic infrastructural facilities to conduct the research. the first author is also grateful for the financial support provided by university grants commission, new delhi. references abbasi, a.m., guo, x., fu, x., zhou, l., chen, y., zhu, y. , ya n, h. a nd 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( ed). vola t ile c ompounds in f ood a nd bever a ges , m a r c el d ekker, new yor k, 389-409. j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 479-487, 2022 (received : 11.04.2022; revised : 08.12.2022; accepted : 29.12.2022) comparison of leaf volatile aroma constituents and phenolic acid profiles in mango evaluation of papaya (carica papaya l.) hybrids for yield and papain recovery j. davamani, t.n. balamohan1 and r. sudha2 department of fruit crops horticultural college & research institute tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore 641 003, india e-mail: rsudhahort@yahoo.co.in abstract six papaya hybrids, viz., co-1 × pusa nanha, co-2 × pusa nanha, co-4 × pusa nanha, co-5 × pusa nanha, co-6 × pusa nanha and co-7 × pusa nanha, along with their respective parents, were evaluated for fruit yield and quality. higher fruit yield was recorded in hybrids co-2 × pusa nanha, co-4 × pusa nanha and co-5 × pusa nanha at first harvest. higher papain recovery was seen in co-2 × pusa nanha and co-5 × pusa nanha and activity of this enzyme was highest in co-5 × pusa nanha. for fruit yield at first harvest, hybrids co-2 × pusa nanha, co-4 × pusa nanha, co-6 × pusa nanha and co-5 × pusa nanha recorded higher heterosis over midand better parental values. fruit yield at first harvest exhibited high genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation. days to flowering had the least genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation. highest heritability estimates were recorded for plant height at first flowering, ascorbic acid content and titrable acidity. fruit yield at first harvest showed high genetic advance as percentage of mean and the least genetic advance was seen for days to flowering. co-2 × pusa nanha, co-4 × pusa nanha, co-5 × pusa nanha and co-6 × pusa nanha showed better yield and earliness, and are recommended for further evaluation. key words: carica papaya l., heterosis, heritability, genetic advance, correlation coefficient, path analysis j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):165-171, 2013 introduction papaya (carica papaya l.) is a polygamous diploid species with a small genome of 372 mbp/1c (arumuganathan and earle, 1991). it has nine pairs of chromosomes and is native to tropical america from where it spread to most of the caribbean and asian countries during 16th century. the fruit is highly nutritious and rich in vitamins a, c and in minerals, especially, calcium. papaya pulp is used as a major ingredient in fruit processing industries due to its high pectin levels. papaya is the richest source of carpaine, an alkaloid, and the raw fruit is used for making ‘tutti frutti’. papain, a proteolytic enzyme extracted from papaya latex, is used as a meat tenderizer, in many cosmetics, in pharmaceuticals, fabric weaving and in chill-proofing of beer. papaya seeds are rich in oil and protein. the basic principle in hybridization is to combine desirable characters of the two parents. generally, hybrid evaluation is based on heterotic expression. progress in crop improvement through plant breeding is propelled by better understanding and exploitation of heterosis. heterosis breeding in papaya has been done by several workers earlier to improve yield and papain content (iyer and subramanyam, 1981; chan, 1992; kamalkumar et al, 2010). 1horticultural college & research institute for women, tnau, trichy 620 009, tamil nadu, india 2central potato research station, muthorai 643004, nilgiris, tamil nadu, india in the present study, six hybrids were evaluated along with their parents for yield, yield contributing traits, quality attributes, papain recovery, per se performance, heterosis, and genetic components, viz., phenotypic coefficient of variation, genotypic coefficient of variation, heritability and genetic advance. material and methods six intervarietal hybrids, viz., co-1 × pusa nanha, co-2 × pusa nanha, co-4 × pusa nanha, co-5 × pusa nanha, co-6 × pusa nanha and co-7 × pusa nanha, along with their respective parents, were evaluated in randomized block design, with three replications, during 2009-2010 at the college orchard, department of fruit crops, horticultural college and research institute, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore. hybrid seeds were sown in polybags of 20cm x 10cm size, filled with a mixture of red earth, sand, farm yard manure, in 1:1:1 ratio. polythene bags with 4-5 seedlings 45 days old were transplanted to the main field. irrigation was applied at five day intervals. cultural practices, including weeding and plant protection measures, were improved whenever necessary by adopting the package of practices developed by tamil nadu agricultural 166 university. growth parameters, in terms of plant height, stem girth, number of leaves and first-fruiting height, were recorded as per standard methods. fruit yield was recorded in terms of number of fruits per tree, weight of the fruit, and tree yield at first harvest. data on mean fruit length, fruit mid-circumference, cavity index, flesh thickness and papain recovery per fruit, were calculated from data recorded with five fruits in each experimental unit. for estimation of papain recovery, five unripe mature, uniform-sized fruits 85-90 days old were selected. these fruits were tapped by making 3mm longitudinal incisions on the fruit surface from the fruit-stalk end to the tip of the fruit, between 6.00 and 8.00 am. four cuts were uniformly spaced over the four sides of the fruit. the incisions were repeated 4 times, at three day intervals. latex was collected in specially made aluminum trays. wet latex was dried in shade and dry weight of this crude, unrefined papain was recorded, and expressed in grams. papain activity was estimated as per moore (1984). fruit quality characters like tss, total sugars, acidity, ascorbic acid and carotene content were recorded. total sugars were estimated as per hedge and horreiter (1962), titrable acidity estimated by the a.o.a.c. method (1960), ascorbic acid content was estimated as per rosenberg (1945) and carotene as per roy (1973). average values were subjected to standard statistical procedures, namely, analysis of variance (panse and sukhatme, 1961); genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation, heritability and genetic advance as suggested by burton (1952), lush (1940) and johnson et al (1955), respectively. results and discussion mean data on biometrical, yield and quality characters of parents and their hybrids are presented in tables 1 and 2. among the hybrids, co-2 × pusa nanha and co-5 × pusa nanha took minimum number of days to flower. dinesh et al (2000) reported early flowering to be one of the vital characters in papaya production. co-7 × pusa nanha recorded the lowest mean value for first-flowering height. flowering at an earlier node is considered as an index of precocity (chan, 1992). co-2 × pusa nanha and co-1 × pusa nanha recorded minimum plant height and stem girth at flowering. higher number of leaves translates as increased leaf area and increased photosynthesis. among the hybrids, co-2 × pusa nanha registered highest number of leaves and lowest fruiting-height among the hybrids. hybrids co-7 × pusa nanha, co-5 × pusa nanha and co-4 × pusa nanha registered lower mean plant height at first harvest compared to their respective female parents. among the crosses, co-2 × pusa nanha recorded highest stem girth at first harvest and highest number of leaves. in table. 1. mean performance of papaya parents and their hybrids for biometrical, yield and fruit (physical) attributes parents /hybrid days to firstplant stem no. of no. of mean tree fruit fruit cavity pulp harvest fruiting height at girth at leaves at fruits at fruit yield at length circumfindex thickness height first first first first weight first (cm) erence (%) (cm) (cm) harvest harvest harvest harvest (kg) harvest (cm) (cm) (cm) (kg) co-1 273.76 122.94 203.62 32.76 24.66 26.87 1.57 41.88 23.14 41.17 23.70 2.80 co-2 286.29 99.98 187.71 33.54 23.94 23.23 1.69 39.24 26.11 45.82 25.80 2.88 co-4 254.61 112.85 216.00 30.14 18.46 22.40 1.38 30.53 23.10 36.09 25.26 2.66 co-5 258.98 117.14 215.26 28.73 17.51 29.22 1.34 38.86 26.53 37.84 26.49 2.33 co-6 292.53 109.94 193.94 30.29 24.03 22.99 1.56 35.68 23.10 41.92 27.21 2.68 co-7 262.59 117.49 189.89 29.20 16.81 14.01 0.75 10.52 22.83 28.26 24.03 2.36 pusa nanha 261.05 75.06 134.57 27.66 22.85 19.51 1.34 25.86 23.08 42.85 20.80 2.89 co-1 × 272.98 101.73 195.00 31.78 25.73 27.16 1.61 42.75 24.74 42.30 24.67 2.94 pusa nanha co-2 × 254.74 88.14 189.80 33.54 26.38 36.38 2.02 73.46 27.95 45.37 27.36 2.83 pusa nanha co-4 × 262.47 95.35 179.54 30.40 23.37 33.33 1.90 63.45 27.28 45.84 26.28 2.85 pusa nanha co-5 × 275.18 97.74 176.89 29.40 24.00 31.38 1.89 59.16 26.89 43.50 27.85 2.74 pusa nanha co-6 × 268.96 105.24 196.67 31.92 23.17 35.61 1.61 57.23 24.33 43.41 26.67 2.84 pusa nanha co-7 × 255.56 89.24 172.86 29.80 23.25 22.49 0.87 19.12 22.68 30.21 21.15 2.58 pusa nanha mean 267.67 102.53 188.59 30.71 22.63 26.51 1.50 41.37 24.75 40.35 25.17 2.72 sed 10.17 7.44 9.78 1.73 2.48 3.53 0.13 5.51 1.18 2.08 1.92 0.09 cd (p = 0.05) 20.99 15.35 20.19 3.56 5.11 7.29 0.26 11.37 2.43 4.29 3.96 0.19 j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):165-171, 2013 davamani et al 167 table 2. mean performance of papaya parents and their hybrids for fruit quality attributes and papain recovery parents /hybrid tss total reducing non-reducing titrable ascorbic carotenes sugar: papain papain (obrix) sugars sugars sugars acidity acid content content acid recovery activity (%) (%) (%) (%) (mg/100g) (mg/100g) ratio (g/fruit) (tu/mg) co-1 10.21 9.93 9.31 0.62 0.09 37.78 3.41 115.49 1.97 83.09 co-2 10.50 10.79 8.53 2.26 0.18 82.23 3.25 31.42 1.96 53.32 co-4 10.16 6.54 4.31 2.23 0.18 43.34 1.97 24.85 0.78 70.80 co-5 10.21 11.65 9.86 1.79 0.13 26.67 2.45 92.02 1.61 98.91 co-6 11.03 9.48 7.61 1.87 0.07 48.89 3.59 137.37 0.73 65.84 co-7 8.30 7.03 6.33 0.70 0.18 43.34 3.81 40.14 0.60 59.60 pusa nanha 10.45 7.84 7.25 0.59 0.17 65.56 1.95 46.98 1.27 144.10 co-1 × 11.58 10.64 9.92 0.73 0.14 60.00 1.57 79.03 1.49 97.36 pusa nanha co-2 × 10.92 10.67 10.09 0.57 0.19 71.12 1.79 55.79 3.25 72.28 pusa nanha co-4 × 9.10 7.96 6.87 1.09 0.10 43.34 1.56 77.83 1.72 49.27 pusa nanha co-5 × 9.10 8.59 7.94 0.65 0.05 54.45 0.94 194.08 2.21 126.30 pusa nanha co-6 × 11.34 12.93 10.25 2.68 0.16 48.89 1.62 64.95 1.57 81.84 pusa nanha co-7 × 8.92 9.14 8.38 0.76 0.12 48.89 2.02 77.13 1.38 88.23 pusa nanha mean 10.17 9.48 8.21 1.27 0.14 51.88 2.30 79.78 1.56 83.91 sed 0.07 0.04 0.03 0.06 0.00 0.00 0.00 15.21 0.004 0.12 cd (p = 0.05) 0.14 0.09 0.06 0.11 0.01 0.00 0.01 31.38 0.01 0.24 the present investigation, all the hybrids, in general, exceeded their parents for number of fruits at first harvest and fruit yield at first harvest. among the hybrids, co-2 × pusa nanha registered highest fruit length, followed by co-4 × pusa nanha. similarly, co-4 × pusa nanha registered the highest circumference, followed by co-2 × pusa nanha among the hybrids. among the crosses, co-1 × pusa nanha registered highest pulp thickness and total soluble solids. majority of the hybrids excelled their parents for total sugars and reducing sugars. however, higher mean values for these parameters were obtained in the crosses co-6 × pusa nanha, co-2 × pusa nanha and co-1 × pusa nanha. among the hybrids, co-5 × pusa nanha recorded lowest titrable acidity, and co-2 × pusa nanha and co-1 × pusa nanha registered higher mean values for ascorbic acid content. for carotene, co-7 × pusa nanha recorded highest content, followed by co-2 × pusa nanha. highest sugar: acid ratio was seen in co-5 × pusa nanha, among the hybrids. among the hybrids, co-2 × pusa nanha and co-5 × pusa nanha registered higher papain recovery per fruit. kamalkumar (2003) stated that the hybrids pusa dwarf × 9-1(d) and co-5 × 9-1(d) registered higher papain recovery and papain activity, respectively. in the present study, among the hybrids, co-5 × pusa nanha and co-1 × pusa nanha registered higher papain activity, while, among the parents, pusa nanha recorded highest papain activity. chovatia et al (2010) reported that co-6 had better dry weight of latex. relative heterosis (di) and heterobeltiosis (dii) values in papaya hybrids for biometrical, yield and fruit characters are presented in tables 3 and 4. among the hybrids, co-5 × pusa nanha recorded significantly negative heterosis over the better parent for first-flowering height. kamalkumar et al (2010) stated that dioecious hybrids, viz., co-2 × pusa gaint and co-5 × 9-1(d) registered negative heterosis for first-flowering height. among the hybrids, co-5 × pusa nanha registered highly significant and negative heterobeltiosis for first-flowering height. kamalkumar (2003) also stated that hybrid combination, co-2 × co-5, registered highly negative heterosis for this trait. among the parents, pusa nanha, a dwarf variety, when crossed with co-2, a medium tall variety, exhibited very high heterotic effect. highest negative heterobeltiosis was noticed in the cross co-5 × pusa nanha for first-flowering height. among the hybrids, co-4 × pusa nanha registered significantly positive relative heterosis for stem girth at first-flowering. subhadrabandhu and nantaswatsri (1997) also reported increased stem girth in progenies, in their study. the cross co-4 × pusa nanha had maximum significantly positive heterosis over mid-parental values for number of leaves at first-flowering. among the crosses, co-2 × pusa nanha j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):165-171, 2013 evaluation of papaya hybrids 168 table 3. relative heterosis (di) and heterobeltiosis (dii) in papaya hybrids for biometrical, yield and fruit characters character co-1 × co-2 × co-4 × co-5 × co-6 × co-7 × pusa nanha pusa nanha pusa nanha pusa nanha pusa nanha pusa nanha di dii di dii di dii di dii di dii di dii days to flowering -0.09 -0.65 -4.45 -5.54 -2.15 -2.16 -7.32* -8.88# -1.03 -1.75 -3.83 -6.09 first-flowering 20.61# -5.86 28.56# 2.91 20.62# -9.70 3.26 -26.16# 21.33# -7.85 12.34* -14.97* height (cm) plant height at 8.43* -1.02 35.92# 19.91# 29.01# 19.40# 0.39 -17.60# 5.99 -7.50* 11.88# 0.13 first flowering (cm) stem girth at -27.19# -29.17# -0.25 -2.04 9.11* 1.12 -0.63 -0.87 0.86 -0.94 3.28 -2.33 first flowering (cm) number of leaves -7.32 -8.89 9.74 8.43 23.96# 9.10 1.99 1.15 -3.98 -8.08 6.36 2.34 at first flowering days to harvest 2.08 -0.28 -6.92 -11.02# 1.80 0.54 5.83 5.41 -2.83 -8.06* -2.39 -2.68 first-fruiting 2.76 -17.25* 0.71 -11.84 1.48 -15.51* 1.71 -16.56* 13.77 -4.28 -7.31 -24.04* height (cm) plant height at 15.32# -4.23 17.79# 1.11 2.43 -16.88# 1.13 -17.82# 19.73# 1.41 6.55 -8.97 first harvest (cm) stem girth at 5.20 -2.99 9.61 0.00 5.19 0.86 4.27 2.33 10.16 5.38 4.82 2.05 first harvest (cm) number of leaves 8.31 4.34 12.76 10.19 13.14 2.28 18.93 5.03 -1.15 -3.58 17.25 1.75 at first harvest number of fruits 17.12 1.08 70.24# 56.61# 59.06# 48.80# 28.79* 7.39 67.58# 54.89# 34.19 15.27 at first harvest mean fruit 10.65 2.55 33.33# 19.53* 39.71# 37.68# 41.04# 41.04# 11.03 3.21 -16.75 -35.07 weight (kg) tree yield at 26.22 2.08 125.68# 87.21# 125.04# 107.83# 82.82# 52.24# 85.99# 60.40# 5.11 -26.06 first harvest (kg) fruit length (cm) 7.05 6.91 13.64 7.05 18.15 18.10 8.41 1.36 5.37 5.32 -1.20 -1.73 fruit circumference (cm) 0.69 -1.28 2.33 -0.98 16.14# 6.98 7.82 1.57 2.42 1.31 -15.03* -29.50# cavity index (%) 10.88 4.09 17.42 6.05 14.11 4.04 17.78 5.13 11.10 -1.98 -5.64 -11.99 *significant at 5% level, # significant at 1% level table 4. relative heterosis (di) and heterobeltiosis (dii) in papaya hybrids for fruit quality characters and papain recovery character co-1 × co-2 × co-4 × co-5 × co-6 × co-7 × pusa nanha pusa nanha pusa nanha pusa nanha pusa nanha pusa nanha di dii di dii di dii di dii di dii di dii tss (obrix) 12.10# 10.81# 4.25# 4.00# -11.69# -12.92# -11.91# -12.92# 5.59# 2.81# -4.85# -14.64# total sugars (%) 19.75# 7.15# 14.55# -1.11* 10.71# 1.53* -11.85# -26.27# 49.31# 36.39# 22.93# 16.58# reducing sugars (%) 19.81# 6.55# 27.88# 18.29# 18.86# -5.24# -7.19# -19.47# 37.95# 34.69# 23.42# 15.59# non-reducing sugars (%) 20.66* 17.74 -60.00# -74.78# -22.70# -51.12# -45.37# -63.69# 117.89# 43.32# 17.83* 8.57 titrable acidity (%) 7.69* -17.65# 8.57# 5.56* -42.86# -44.44# -66.67# -70.59# 33.33# -5.88* -31.43# -33.33# ascorbic acid (mg/100g) 16.12# -8.48# -3.76# -13.51# -20.40# -33.89# 18.07# -16.95# -14.57# -25.43# -10.21# -25.43# carotene (mg/100g) -41.42# -53.96# -31.15# -44.92# -20.41# -20.81# -57.27# -61.63# -41.52# -54.87# -29.86# -46.98# sugar: acid ratio -2.03 -25.10 23.17 -8.57 68.22 35.06 172.32# 143.39# -48.20# -64.05# 33.11 12.84 papain recovery (g/fruit) -8.02# -24.37# 101.24# 65.82# 67.80# 35.43# 53.47# 37.27# 57.00# 23.62# 47.59# 8.66# papain activity (tu/mg) -14.29# -32.44# -26.78# -49.84# -54.15# -65.81# 3.95# -12.35# -22.03# -43.21# -13.37# -38.77# *significant at 5% level, # significant at 1% level recorded highest negative heterobeltiosis for days to first harvest. in the present investigation, some hybrids were found to be positively heterotic. however, positive heterosis is not a favorable attribute for days to first-harvest. among the hybrids, co-7 × pusa nanha registered highest negative heterobeltiosis for first-fruiting height. the hybrids ‘co-5 × pusa nanha’ and ‘co-4 × pusa nanha’ expressed significantly negative heterosis over their better parent. among the crosses, co-2 × pusa nanha registered highest heterobeltiosis for number of leaves at first harvest. among the crosses, co-2 × pusa nanha, co-6 × pusa nanha and co-4 × pusa nanha are the three important cross combinations to be considered for further advancement, since, these recorded high heterotic vigour over the mid-, and better parental values for number of fruits at first harvest. iyer and subramanyam (1981) and chan j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):165-171, 2013 davamani et al 169 (1992) reported high heterosis for this trait. however, kamalkumar et al (2010) recorded significantly positive heterosis for number of fruits per plant in the cross combinations ‘co-2 × pusa giant’ and ‘9-1(d) × co-5’. among the hybrids, co-5 × pusa nanha, co-4 × pusa nanha and co-2 × pusa nanha recorded higher heterotic values over the mid-, and better parental values for mean fruit weight. kamalkumar et al (2010) reported similar findings by recording higher heterotic value for this trait in the cross combination co-2 × co-5. in the present study, all the hybrid combinations excelled their parents and the overall mean registered positive heterotic vigour over the mid-parental value for tree yield at first harvest. however, except co-1 × pusa nanha and co-7 × pusa nanha, all other cross combinations expressed heterotic vigour over the midand better parental values. among the hybrids, co-2 × pusa nanha, co-4 × pusa nanha, co-5 × pusa nanha and co-6 × pusa nanha with their high heterotic effect, may be forwarded to f2 generation for further segregation. suma (1995) recorded higher yield and heterotic vigour in papaya crosses 9-1(d) × co-2, co-6 × co-2 and cp81 × 9-1(d). similar results were obtained by kamalkumar (2003) in dioecious and gynodioecious crosses. among the hybrids, co-4 × pusa nanha is the only hybrid recording higher significant and positive heterosis for fruit circumference over its midparental value and higher positive heterosis for fruit length over its mid and better parental value. higher heterosis for fruit length and fruit circumference has been observed earlier by iyer and subramanyam (1981), chan (1992), and kamalkumar et al (2010). in the present study, none of the hybrids registered significant heterosis for pulp thickness. however, hybrid co-4 × pusa nanha had highly positive relative heterosis for this trait. they also found higher flesh thickness, with maximum heterosis in the cross co-3 × co-7. three of the hybrids, viz., co-1 × pusa nanha, co6 × pusa nanha and co-2 × pusa nanha exhibited positive and significant relative heterosis and heterobeltiosis for total soluble solids. among the hybrids, co-6 × pusa nanha registered higher heterotic values for total sugars, reducing sugars and non-reducing sugars. kamalkumar (2003) observed maximum relative heterosis and heterobeltiosis for total sugars and reducing sugars in the cross combination co-5 × 9-1(d). ‘co-5 × pusa nanha’ recorded highest negative heterosis over midand better parental values for titrable acidity. for heterotic vigour, among the hybrids, co5 × pusa nanha and co-1 × pusa nanha registered higher positive and significant heterosis over midparental values for ascorbic acid content. among the hybrids, co-5 × pusa nanha registered the highest negative heterosis for carotene content. kamalkumar et al (2010) stated that the crosses pusa dwarf × 9-1(d) and iihr 37 × coorg honey dew recorded significant higher heterosis for carotene content. co-5 × pusa nanha exhibited the maximum significant positive heterosis over both midand better parents. kamalkumar (2003) reported that the cross combination co-5 × 9-1(d) registered highest relative heterosis and heterobeltiosis for sugar acid ratio and high mean value for this trait. in the present study, the cross co-2 × pusa nanha registered high heterotic value for papain recovery. except the cross co-1 × pusa nanha, all hybrids registered significant and positive heterosis for papain recovery. among the hybrids, co-5 × pusa nanha registered higher positive and significant heterosis for papain activity over the midparent. kamalkumar et al (2010) stated that hybrids pusa dwarf × 9-1(d) and co-5 × 9-1(d) registered higher heterotic value for papain recovery and papain activity, respectively. heritability and genetic advance as per cent of the mean in papaya hybrids for biometrical, yield and fruit characters are presented in figs. 1 and 2. very low gcv for days to flowering indicated that the study material had a fig 1. genetic data for biometrical and fruit attributes in papaya parents and hybrids 1. first-flowering height (cm) 11. cavity index (%) 2. first-fruiting height (cm) 12. flesh thickness (cm) 3. plant height at first harvest (cm) 13. papain recovery (g/fruit) 4. stem girth at harvest (cm) 14. papain activity (tu/mg) 5. number of leaves at first harvest 15. tss (obrix) 6. number of fruits at first harvest 16. total sugars (%) 7. mean fruit weight (kg) 17. titrable acidity (%) 8. tree yield at first harvest (kg) 18. ascorbic acid (mg/100g) 9. fruit length (cm) 19. carotene (mg/100g) 10. fruit circumference (cm) 20. sugar: acid ratio* g c v pcv ga (%) of mean *parameter p er ce nt ag e j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):165-171, 2013 evaluation of papaya hybrids 170 narrow genetic base. moderate heritability and low genetic advance reported for this trait indicates that the environment had an enormous influence on days to flowering. kamalkumar (2003) also stated very low gcv, with moderate heritability and low genetic advance for this trait. higher heritability and higher genetic advance estimates observed for firstflowering height indicated that selection may yield desirable results in a few breeding cycles. a similar result was obtained by kamalkumar (2003) for firstflowering height when crossing with dioecious parents. however, giacometii (1987) observed that early-flowering plants produced less number of nodes and, as a consequence lower yield. genetic coefficient of variation for plant height at first-flowering was just 11.57%. however, higher heritability estimates and computed genetic advance indicated that selection procedure should be effective for this trait. genetic coefficient of variation noted as very low, with high heritability and moderate genetic advance, for stem girth at firstflowering indicated breeding-worthiness of this trait. high heritability estimates reported for the number of leaves at first-flowering could provide ample opportunities for improving this trait. moderate heritability and low genetic advance observed for days to first harvest indicate the influence of environment on this trait. high heritability and high genetic advance found in first-fruiting height indicate the possibility of improving the trait. high heritability and moderate genetic advance expressed for plant height at first harvest reveals that selection is possible for this trait. similar findings were reported earlier by kamalkumar (2003) and karunakaran et al (2010). moderate heritability estimates and low genetic advance reported for stem girth at first harvest indicates that environment had much influence on this trait. high heritability for stem girth has been earlier reported by cynthia et al (2000) and kamalkumar (2003). moderate heritability estimates and moderate genetic advance found for number of leaves at first-harvest indicates a limited possibility for selection. examination of genetic parameters governing number of fruits at first-harvest indicates that selection is possible owing to prevalence of a high degree of heritability and high genetic advance. high heritability for this trait has been reported earlier by cynthia et al (2000) and singh and kumar, (2010) in papaya. very high heritability estimates and high genetic advance for fruit weight in the present study indicates a scope for improvement of this trait. karunakaran et al (2010) also reported high values of heritability and genetic advance registered for fruit weight. in the present study, examination of genetic parameters governing fruit yield at first-harvest indicates that selection is possible due to presence of a high degree of heritability and genetic advancement, with high expression of genetic coefficient of variation. heritability estimates are true indicators of genetic potentiality of an individual and act as a tool for selection (johnson et al, 1955). mansha ram and akhtar (1993) reported high heritability and genetic advance for fruit length and fruit yield characters in papaya. jana et al (2006) also reported similar results for fruit length, fruit yield and number of fruits per plant in papaya. high heritability estimates and higher genetic advance for fruit circumference and high heritability estimates and moderate genetic advance for fruit length were seen. genotypic coefficients of variation estimates are low for both fruit length and fruit circumference. high heritability and moderate genetic advance for these traits indicate lesser influence of the environment. similar observations have also been reported by jana et al (2006) and karunakaran et al (2010). for cavity index, a narrow spectrum of variability, moderate heritability and genetic advance result in a limited scope for selection. karunakaran et al (2010) observed high heritability and moderate genetic advance for this trait. high heritability estimates and moderate genetic advance were recorded for pulp thickness. genotypic coefficients of variation estimates were low for this trait. high heritability and moderate genetic advance reveal that their trait is not influenced by the environment. high heritability and moderate genetic advance offer better fig 2. genetic parameters of biometrical and fruit attributes in the parents and hybrids 1. first-flowering height (cm) 11. cavity index (%) 2. first-fruiting height (cm) 12. flesh thickness (cm) 3. plant height at first harvest (cm) 13. papain recovery (g/fruit) 4. stem girth at harvest (cm) 14. papain activity (tu/mg) 5. number of leaves at first harvest 15. tss (o brix) 6. number of fruits at first harvest 16. total sugars (%) 7. mean fruit weight (kg) 17. titrable acidity (%) 8. tree yield at first harvest (kg) 18. ascorbic acid (mg/100g) 9. fruit length (cm) 19. carotene (mg/100g) 10. fruit circumference (cm) 20. sugar: acid ratio* *parameter p er ce nt ag e heritability j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):165-171, 2013 davamani et al 171 selection opportunities for tss. kamalkumar (2003) observed highest values for total soluble solids in pusa dwarf × 9-1(d). higher heritability and genetic advance for all the traits, viz., total sugars, reducing sugars and non-reducing sugars, offer a wider base for selection. moderate genotypic coefficient of variation and genetic advance were noticed for ascorbic acid content. high heritability for this trait provided ample chance for selection. higher genetic coefficient of variation, heritability and genetic advance for carotene content and sugar:acid ratio too provided better opportunities for selection. high heritability and high genetic advance were recorded for papain recovery and papain activity. high heritability for these characters reveals that environment had no influence on these traits. based on mean performance for yield and quality attributes, hybrids co-2 × pusa nanha, co-4 × pusa nanha, co-5 × pusa nanha and co-6 × pusa nanha were found to be better among the hybrids evaluated. studying f2 populations of these hybrids will help identify the best hybrid derivatives with 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and nontaswatsri, c. 1997. combining ability analysis of some characters of introduced and local papaya cultivars. sci. hort., 71:203-212 suma, 1995. breeding investigations in papaya (carica papaya). ph.d. thesis, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore, india (ms received 12 december 2012, revised 16 september 2013, accepted 05 october 2013) j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):165-171, 2013 evaluation of papaya hybrids influence of organic manures and fertilizers on nutrient uptake, yield and quality in cabbage-baby corn cropping sequence r. srinivasan1, k. jeevan rao, v. sailaja and d. kalaivanan2 acharya n.g. ranga agricultural university, college of agriculture rajendranagar, hyderabad – 500 030, india e-mail: srinivasan.surya@gmail.com abstract field experiments were conducted at acharya n.g. ranga agricultural university, hyderabad, andhra pradesh, india, during rabi and kharif seasons of 2010 and 2011 to study direct, cumulative, or residual effect of organic manures (farmyard manure, vermicompost, poultry manure, neem cake, and combinations thereof) along with the recommended dose of fertilizers (rdf) and absolute control, on nutrient uptake, yield and quality in cabbage-baby corn cropping sequence system. results showed that application of recommended dose of fertilizers [n, p and k (100:50:50 kg ha-1)] recorded highest yield in cabbage (38.91t ha-1), which was comparable to combined application (2.89t ha-1) of poultry manure and neem cake (37.9t ha-1). in baby corn, maximum yield (6.12t ha-1) was recorded with recommended dose of fertilizers, followed by the combined use of poultry manure and neem cake (5.80t ha-1). among various treatments, residual effect and combined application of poultry manure and neem cake to a preceding cabbage crop, recorded maximum yield in baby corn (4.71t ha-1) over other treatments. similar trend was seen in nutrient uptake by cabbage and baby corn (cumulative and residual). highest protein and ascorbic acid content in cabbage, residual and cumulative baby corn was recorded with application of poultry manure + neem cake (2.89t ha-1), and poultry manure + fym (6.11t ha-1) respectively. key words: manures, cabbage, baby corn, cumulative, residual, nutrient uptake, quality 1national bureau of soil survey and land use planning, regional centre, kolkata-700091 2directorate of cashew research, puttur, d.k., karnataka-574202 introduction cabbage is one of the most popular winter vegetables grown in india. it is cultivated over 0.372mha with a total production of 8.534mt and average productivity of 22.9t/ha (indian horticulture database, 2013). major cabbage producing states are uttar pradesh, odisha, bihar, assam, west bengal, maharashtra and karnataka. cabbage is used as salad, boiled vegetable, dehydrated vegetable, cooked curries, and pickles. cabbage is rich in minerals and vitamin a, b1, b2 and c. cabbage plants thrive well in a relatively cool, moist climate. in the plains, cabbage is grown mainly as a winter crop whereas, in the hills, it is grown as a spring and early-summer crop. sandy-loam soil is generally considered most suitable for an early maturing crop, even through clay-loam or silt-loam soil is suitable too. cabbage does not grow well in highly acidic soils (optimum ph range for growing cabbage ranges between 5.5 and 6.5.) it is a shallow-rooted crop with high nutrient requirement. as nutrients are a major contributing factor, appropriate management practices are essential to achieve optimum yield in this crop. baby corn has gained popularity as a vegetable in delhi, u.p, haryana, maharashtra, karnataka, andhra pradesh and meghalaya. it is used in spicy food preparations, soups, pulav, chinese foods, etc. pickled and canned baby corn ears have a great potential for export to european and american markets. recently, a new market for baby corn ears has emerged in india and around the world. with an assured market for their produce, farmers are finding baby corn an attractive crop to cultivate. it requires well-drained sandy-loam to silty-loam soil for cultivation. it can also be grown in well-drained black soils (agritech, 2010). cabbage-baby corn is one of the emerging cropping systems in india and is a practically feasible, viable, economical and eco-friendly enterprise for sustaining soil fertility and productivity. growing awareness of health and environmental issues associated with the intensive use of chemical inputs has led to interest in alternate forms of agriculture globally. in contrast to this, organic agriculture is the best way and is a good management system for ensuring a healthy agro-ecosystem, including concerns on biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity (fao, j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):48-54, 2014 49 organic manures influencing quality in cabbage baby corn cropping sequence 1999). increased use of inorganic fertilizers in crop production is determined to soil health and quality (yadav, 2003). awareness of crop quality and soil health has accelarated the attention of people towards organic farming (sharma et al, 2008). balanced use of nutrients through organic sources like farm yard manure, poultry manure, vermicompost, green manuring, neem cake and biofertilizers, are prerequisites for sustaining soil fertility and producing maximal crop yields with optimal input levels (dahiphale et al, 2003). organic carbon build-up is appreciable and significant in the case of organic matter applied to soil, and, organic manures leave behind residues sufficient quantity of residues for the next crop in the sequence (singh et al, 1996; baruah et al, 1999). in view of these facts, field experiments were conducted to study the influence of organic manures on yield and quality in cabbage and cumulative and residual effect of organic manures on yield and quality in baby corn in a cabbagebaby corn cropping sequence. material and methods field experiments were conducted during rabi and kharif seasons of 2010 and 2011 at college farm, college of agriculture, acharya n.g. ranga agricultural university (angrau), rajendranagar, hyderabad, located on 17o19’ north latitude and 78o28’ east longitude at an altitude of 535m above msl. the experiments were carried out under field conditions with cabbage in rabi 2010 and baby corn in kharif 2011 seasons. a composite soil sample (15cm) was collected before commencing the study to visualize physicochemical characteristics of the soil. properties of the initial soil sample and composition of different organic manures used in the study are presented in table 1. the experimental soil was sandy clay loam in texture, slightly alkaline in reaction, low in available nitrogen (183kg ha-1), and medium in available p2o5 (25.1kg ha -1) and k2o (213kg ha -1). cabbage var. golden acre was transplanted during rabi 2010 at a spacing of 60cm x 45cm. the experiment was laid out in randomized block design, with three replications. the experiment consisted of 12 treatments, viz., t1control; t2 recommended dose of fertilizers (rdf); t3 100% rdn (recommended dose of nitrogen) through fym (9.34t ha-1); t4 100 % rdn through vermicompost (8.92t ha-1); t5 100% rdn through poultry manure (2.88t ha -1); t6 100% rdn through neem cake (2.91t ha -1); t7 50% rdn through fym (4.67t ha-1) + 50% rdn through vermicompost (4.46t ha-1); t8 50% rdn through fym (4.67t ha-1) + 50% rdn through poultry manure (1.44t ha-1); t9 50% rdn through fym (4.67t ha -1) + 50% rdn through neem cake (1.45t ha-1); t1050% rdn through vermicompost (4.46t ha-1) + 50% rdn through poultry manure (1.44t ha-1); t1150% rdn through vermicompost (4.46t ha-1) + 50% rdn through neem cake (1.45t ha-1); and, t1250% rdn through poultry manure (1.44t ha-1) + 50% rdn through neem cake (1.45t ha-1). all organic materials were applied to the soil 15 days before planting and mixed thoroughly. organic sources of the nutrients were supplied on the basis of recommended dose of nitrogen for the crops (100kg ha-1). based on nitrogen contents we calculated the total quantity of organic manure required under each treatment (table 5). recommended dose of n, p and k (100:50:50kg ha-1) fertilizers in the form of urea (46% n), single super phosphate (16% p2o5) and muriate of potash (60% k2o) was applied to the cabbage crop. the entire quantum of phosphorus and potassium was applied as a basal dose, whereas, nitrogen was applied in two equal splits as basal dose and then at 30 days after planting. after harvesting cabbage crop, the field was divided into two sectors: one plot was used for growing baby corn with application manures and recommended doses of fertilizers (100:50:50kg ha-1 of n, p and k) as per treatments mentioned above; the other plot was used for assessing residual effect on baby corn, without further applying manures or fertilizers. baby corn var. golden baby was sown at a spacing of 45cm x 20cm during kharif 2011. table 1. properties of the experimental soil and n, p and k content of manures soil properties initial values bulk density (mg m-3) 1.63 textural class sandy clay loam porosity (%) 41.20 water holding capacity (%) 37.02 soil reaction (ph) 8.15 electrical conductivity (ec) (ds m-1) 0.38 cation exchange capacity (cec) (c mol (p+) kg-1) 22.21 organic carbon (g kg-1) 8.2 nitrogen (kg n ha-1) 183.00 phosphorus (kg p2o5 ha -1) 25.18 potassium (kg k2o ha -1) 213.00 iron (mg kg-1) 3.25 manganese (mg kg-1) 2.24 zinc (mg kg-1) 0.48 copper (mg kg-1) 0.49 nutrient composition of different organic manures used type of manure ec (ds m-1) total amount of nutrients (%) n p k fym 1.12 1.07 0.40 0.78 poultry manure 1.62 3.47 1.33 1.12 vermicompost 0.35 1.12 0.40 0.73 neem cake 1.45 3.43 0.30 1.21 j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):48-54, 2014 50 plant samples of cabbage and baby corn were collected from the field as per standard procedures at flowering. after recording their dry weight, plant samples were ground in a willey mill and analyzed for n, p and k content. total nitrogen of plant samples was analyzed by the kjeldahl method. total phosphorus was estimated using vanadomolybdate yellow colour method, while total potassium was analyzed using flame photometry (jackson, 1973). ascorbic acid (vitamin c) content was estimated by the dichlorophenol indophenol dye method, and expressed in mg 100g-1 (ranganna, 1986). nitrogen content in the plant samples was analyzed using micro-kjeldahl digestion (walinga et al, 1989), where the samples were converted to their protein content by multiplying the values obtained with 6.25. data generated from the experimental plots were analyzed using sas 9.3 version of the statistical package (sas institute inc, 2011). analysis of variance (anova) was performed using proc anova. means were separated using fisher’s least significant difference (lsd) test at a probability level of p d” 0.05. results and discussion influence of organic manures and fertilizers on cabbage cabbage yield was significantly higher with chemical fertilizers and organic manures compared to the control (table 2). highest yield (38.9t ha-1) was recorded with application of recommended dose of fertilizers and was comparable with application of poultry manure + neem cake (37.9t ha-1). this could be due to rapid availability and utilization of nitrogen for various internal processes in the plant in these treatments. among the manure combinations, poultry manure and neem cake recorded highest yield. similar results were obtained with application of different levels of decomposed poultry manure (dpm) in cabbage by ijoyah and sophie (2009). quality parameters studied in cabbage were significantly influenced by organic manures rather than chemical fertilizers or in the control. however, higher protein (18.17%) and ascorbic acid (35.44mg 100g-1) content was recorded with application of poultry manure + neem cake, and, farm yard manure + poultry manure, respectively. similarly, ascorbic acid content in cabbage heads was shown to be significantly influenced by application of organic manures by mahendran and kumar (1997). absolute control recorded lowest protein (16.1%) and ascorbic acid (31.42mg 100g-1) content. rai et al (2008) and zango et al (2009) also reported earlier that application of fym at 20t ha-1 to cabbage increased its biochemical constituents (vitamin c or ascorbic acid) over application of recommended dose of fertilizer. application of organic manures may have helped improve physico-chemical properties of the soil, imparting favourable soil structure for root growth and soil enzymes (the latter continue to break down organic matter in the soil to release nutrients and make them available near the rhizosphere for absorption by plant roots, thereby improving fruit quality) (chaoui et al, 2003). it can be observed from table 2 that organic manures and chemical fertilizers significantly influence uptake of all major nutrients in cabbage at maturity. higher uptake of n (44.08kg ha-1), p (12.38kg ha-1) and k (39.96kg ha-1) were recorded with recommended dose of fertilizers. among the organic manures, poultry manure + neem cake, and, farm table 2. influence of organic manures and fertilizers on nutrient uptake, quality and yield in cabbage during rabi 2010 nutrient uptake (kg ha-1) fruit quality yield(t ha-1) treatment n p k protein (%) ascorbic acid (mg 100g-1) control 14.7 3.2 15.3 16.1 31.4 18.7 recommended dose of fertilizer (rdf) 44.0 12.3 39.9 16.5 32.3 38.9 farm yard manure 30.8 9.1 32.1 17.1 34.1 34.3 vermicompost 26.7 6.4 31.4 17.2 34.3 27.1 poultry manure 36.0 10.0 32.4 17.2 34.6 32.9 neem cake 30.6 7.6 32.9 17.3 34.4 30.3 farm yard manure + vermicompost 26.2 8.2 31.6 17.7 35.2 31.9 farm yard manure + poultry manure 38.8 11.8 35.1 18.0 35.4 35.2 farm yard manure + neem cake 33.3 7.8 33.9 17.8 35.1 32.9 vermicompost + poultry manure 30.3 9.5 28.7 17.8 34.6 29.1 vermicompost + neem cake 28.2 6.4 28.0 17.8 34.0 29.0 poultry manure + neem cake 37.2 10.5 36.1 18.1 34.8 37.9 mean 31.4 8.6 31.4 17.4 34.3 31.5 s.e m± 2.23 0.64 1.65 0.08 0.10 1.56 cd (p ≤ 0.05) 6.53 1.86 4.85 0.22 0.28 4.56 srinivasan et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):48-54, 2014 51 yard manure + poultry manure as combinations showed superior n, p and k uptake over other combinations and were statistically at par. application of organic sources may have enhanced availablility of macro and micro nutrients in the soil significantly, consequently improving the uptake of nutrients. vimala et al (2006) reported application of organic manures to have significant effects on n, p and k content of the cabbage crop. significantly lower n, p and k uptake by cabbage was recorded in the control. cumulative and residual effect of organic manures and fertilizers on baby corn yield of baby corn significantly increased with application of organic manures and chemical fertilizers, over the control (table 4). significantly high yield (6.12t ha-1) was obtained with recommended dose of fertilizers applied both to cabbage and baby corn. treatments t8, t9 and t12 were at par with rdf. similar results were also reported by amakinde and ayoola (2009). residual effect of the organic manures and chemical fertilizers, applied to cabbage to study yield, fruit quality and nutrient uptake on the following baby corn cultivation is shown in tables 3 and 4. yield of baby corn markedly increased owing to residual effect of the organic manures applied to the preceding cabbage crop, than in the recommended npk fertilizer and absolute control. the residual effect of poultry manure + neem cake applied to the preceding cabbage crop gave the highest yield in baby corn (4.71t ha-1), which was comparable with farm yard manure + neem cake (4.57t ha-1). the superiority of residual effect of poultry manure + neem cake, and, farm yard manure + neem cake can be attributed to slow decomposition of these manures, which probably table 4. cumulative and residual effects of organic manures and fertilizers on fruit quality and yield in baby corn during kharif 2011 treatment protein content (%) ascorbic acid (mg 100g-1) yield (t ha-1) cumulative residual cumulative residual cumulative residual control 11.3 11.3 12.1 11.9 2.65 2.53 recommended dose of fertilizer (rdf) 11.8 11.4 12.2 11.9 6.12 2.62 farm yard manure 14.2 12.2 13.3 12.0 4.84 3.26 vermicompost 14.2 11.8 13.1 11.9 4.16 2.80 poultry manure 14.3 12.3 13.4 12.2 5.14 3.83 neem cake 14.3 12.4 13.3 12.2 4.26 3.91 farm yard manure + vermicompost 15.3 12.8 13.8 12.3 4.78 3.28 farm yard manure + poultry manure 15.6 12.9 14.0 12.4 5.51 4.22 farm yard manure + neem cake 14.9 13.1 13.9 12.4 5.94 4.57 vermicompost + poultry manure 15.0 12.0 13.7 12.3 5.19 3.57 vermicompost + neem cake 14.9 12.1 13.7 12.3 4.73 3.06 poultry manure + neem cake 15.6 13.6 14.0 12.7 5.80 4.71 mean 14.3 12.3 13.4 12.2 4.92 3.53 s.e m± 0.18 0.13 0.17 0.12 0.29 0.27 cd (p ≤ 0.05) 0.52 0.37 0.48 0.36 0.85 0.80 table 3. cumulative and residual effects of organic manures and fertilizers on nutrient uptake (kg ha-1) in baby corn during kharif 2011 treatment nitrogen (kg ha-1) phosphorus (kg ha-1) potassium (kg ha-1) cumulative residual cumulative residual cumulative residual control 64.8 63.6 5.1 5.2 49.8 44.7 recommended dose of fertilizer (rdf) 221.0 66.0 15.3 7.9 106.4 55.3 farm yard manure 131.6 94.3 14.3 13.8 88.0 69.8 vermicompost 111.2 77.4 10.3 6.9 86.7 68.8 poultry manure 142.2 114.8 16.1 15.1 100.4 81.1 neem cake 138.1 122.5 14.1 13.9 91.8 83.8 farm yard manure + vermicompost 114.8 92.2 19.3 11.8 93.3 72.3 farm yard manure + poultry manure 183.8 144.9 22.0 17.3 103.8 87.9 farm yard manure + neem cake 183.6 146.6 17.9 13.5 101.8 93.6 vermicompost + poultry manure 126.7 100.3 18.9 16.4 97.9 64.2 vermicompost + neem cake 125.6 103.8 15.7 12.6 90.4 73.2 poultry manure + neem cake 187.1 153.0 18.3 16.3 104.9 94.4 mean 144.2 106.6 15.6 12.5 92.9 74.1 s.e m± 4.59 5.87 1.18 1.30 3.97 4.36 lsd (p ≤ 0.05) 13.5 17.2 3.46 3.81 11.6 12.8 j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):48-54, 2014 organic manures influencing quality in cabbage baby corn cropping sequence 52 released nutrients more slowly compared to other organic materials or chemical fertilizers (kavitha et al, 2010). the beneficial residual effect of organic manures on yield could be due also to enhanced supply of nutrients during the entire growing season of baby corn. significant difference was observed in protein and ascorbic acid content in baby corn by application of chemical fertilizers and organic manures. among these, a combination of poultry manure + neem cake, applied both to cabbage and baby corn, recorded higher protein (15.68%) and ascorbic acid (14.08mg 100g-1) content over other manure combinations or fertilizers. application of organic manures at regular intervals has been shown to have a capacity to improve protein content of baby corn crop (mithun saha and mondal, 2006). similar results were observed for protein and ascorbic acid content in baby corn influenced by manures and fertilizers applied to the previous cabbage crop (kumar et al, 2008). padamwar and dakore (2010) reported that application of organic manures viz., vermicompost, farm yard manure and biofertilizers improved protein and vitamin c content of cole crops. most organic manure combinations improved the quality of both cabbage and baby corn (zango et al, 2009). manure-treated plots showed higher residual recovery than fertilizer-treated plots, in both the seasons. similarly, kavitha et al (2010) studied direct and residual effect of organic manures on cabbage and reported organic manures to significantly increase yield and quality of the edible parts (ascorbic acid and protein content, tss of cabbage) compared to the control. influence of cumulative and residual effect of organic manures and chemical fertilizers on nutrient uptake by baby corn is presented in table 3. n, p and k uptake in baby corn sown after cabbage significantly varied with application of organic manures, either alone or in combination, and chemical fertilizers over the control. the higher n and k uptake of baby corn was achieved by applying fertilizers to both cabbage and baby corn, and was at par with combined application of poultry manure and neem cake. this may have been due to a higher and rapid release by fertilizers of the required nutrients (deshpande et al, 2007). application of recommended dose of fertilizers significantly increased plant growth, uptake of n, p and k, and yield in maize (upperi et al, 2011; sunil kumar and dhar rai, 2005). however, higher p uptake in baby corn was accomplished with cumulative application of farm yard manure + poultry manure, to both cabbage and baby corn, over the recommended dose of fertilizers and control. higher p uptake may also be attributed to a possible increase in p supply and its reduced fixation in soil. the solubilization action of organic acids produced during degradation of organic materials perhaps caused better release of native and applied p available to the crop. it propounded that organic manures can not only enhance p uptake, but also increase uptake of other nutrients (vimala et al, 2006). among manure combinations, poultry manure + neem cake and fym + poultry manure improved nutrient uptake in baby corn. significant residual effect of organic manures and chemical fertilizers applied to the preceding cabbage crop was observed on n, p and k uptake in baby corn. organic manure treatments increased n, p and k uptake in baby corn more than did fertilizers, or that observed in the control. among various manure combinations, poultry manure + neem cake recorded higher n and k uptake and this was on par with farm-yard manure and neem cake combination. higher p uptake was seen with application of farm-yard table 5. economics of cabbage –baby corn cropping sequence treatment quantity of cabbage (regular + residual)2010 cabbage–baby corn (2010-2011) manure applied total cost of net b:c total cost net b:c (t ha-1) cultivation returns ratio of cultivation returns ratio (rs) (rs) (rs) (rs) control 111175 113985 1.02 111175 116825 1.05 recommended dose of fertilizer (rdf) 115108 274612 2.38 119041 354779 2.98 farm yard manure 9.34 129867 240993 1.85 148557 253303 1.70 vermicompost 8.92 146887 153693 1.04 182601 144699 0.79 poultry manure 2.88 122703 250737 2.04 134223 264197 1.96 neem cake 2.91 143240 212080 1.48 175305 180755 1.03 farm yard manure + vermicompost 9.13 138377 214503 1.55 165579 215501 1.30 farm yard manure + poultry manure 6.11 126285 274815 2.17 141390 285890 2.02 farm yard manure + neem cake 6.12 136548 253772 1.85 161925 259345 1.60 vermicompost + poultry manure 5.90 134795 199715 1.48 158412 210928 1.33 vermicompost + neem cake 5.92 145058 177322 1.22 178947 179693 1.00 poultry manure + neem cake 2.89 132966 302354 2.27 154758 303222 1.95 j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):48-54, 2014 srinivasan et al 53 manure + poultry manure. lower n, p and k uptake was recorded with the recommended dose of fertilizers and its control. application of poultry manure (pm) and its combination resulted in higher residual effect on soil chemical composition and increased plant dry matter, yield, nutrient uptake and grain yield in maize significantly (adeniyan and ojeniyi, 2003). recovery of residual nutrients was greater with neem cake and poultry manure combinations. generally, most of the organic manure treated plots gave better results over the control. similarly, sangeeta mohanty and lenka (2007) reported significant increase in residual effect of the organic manures on a subsequent crop than did inorganic fertilizers. residual effect of organic manures was also shown to be evident in available major and micronutrients in the soil (thind et al, 2002). economics pooled data in cabbage and residual effect on baby corn with reference to economics is illustrated in table 5. recommended dose of fertilizers recorded higher net returns (rs. 2,74,612) and benefit:cost ratio (2.38). other manure combinations like t8 and t12 were at par with rdf. lowest b:c ratio was obtained in absolute control (1.02). when the cost of cultivation of both seasons’. cabbage-baby corn sequence was analyzes, highest b:c ratio was obtained in rdf (t2) (2.98), followed by fym + poultry manure (t8) (2.02), and, poultry manure (t5) (1.96). lowest b:c ratio was obtained with vermicompost (t4) (0.79). thus, the highest yields and net returns were obtained with fertilizer treatment. organic manure treatment combinations like neem cake, poultry manure and fym also gave good net returns and b:c ratio, but there were slightly lower compared to the fertilizer treatment. in all, manures performed better than the control. similarly, field experiments of hochmuth et al (1993) on cabbage showed marketable yield to increase with use of recommended dose of fertilizers and poultry manure. beneficial effects of fertilizer treatment due to better availability of nutrients to plants and their uptake was fastest with fertilizer application in the early stages, and from organic sources at later stages. this strategy possibly prolongs the period of nutrient availability to the plant. from the present investigation, it can be concluded that application of recommended dose of fertilizers records higher yield and nutrient uptake in cabbage and baby corn, a value at par with application of poultry manure + neem cake (t12) and farm yard manure and poultry manure (t8). quality parameters in both crops improved with application of organic manures rather than with fertilizers. the residual effect of manures, viz, poultry manure, farm yard manure and neem cake was favourable and resulted in better growth in baby corn. application of fertilizer may be good in the short-term for getting maximum yield and net income to the farmers; but, in the long run, to ensure sustainable crop production with good fruit quality, soil quality, health and economics, a combination of poultry manure with cake (t12) and farm yard manure (t8), is found to be better in the cabbage-baby corn cropping sequence. acknowledgment i am extremely thankful to dr. m. suryanarayan reddy, professor and university head (rtd.) and dr. hussain, associate professor and in-charge of college farm, for facilitating the conduct of field experiments, and to the supporting staff of department of soil science and agricultural chemistry, college of agriculture, rajendranagar, hyderabad, for their help. references adeniyan, o.n. and ojeniyi, s.o. 2003. comparative effectiveness of different levels of poultry manure with npk fertilizer on residual soil fertility, nutrient uptake and yield of maize. moor j. agril res., 4:191197 agritech, advanta limited, 2010. 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(0.276) pc -iv for a grade bulbs (0.436), pc-v for polar diameter of bulbs (0.514), pc-iv negatively loaded with purple blotch (-0.461) and pc-vii for narrow neck thickness (-0.515). plotting pc-i aganist pc-ii differenciated cith-o-13, cith-o-4, cith-o-22, cith-o-19, cith-o-9, cith-o-6 and cith-o2 as most divergent genotype.on the basis of single linkage cluster means cluster-i was most importent for average bulb weight, minimum bolters, high marketble bulb percentage high marketable and total bulb yield whereas cluster -ii was important for maximum nuber of leaves/plant and minimum neck thicknes. highest inter-cluster distance was observed between cluter ii and cluster-i(873.5% ).most divergent genotypes with high inter cluter distance could be the most appropriate parents for crop impovement in onion. key words: genetic diversity, onion, principal component analysis, single linkage cluster analysis introduction onion is an important vegetable crop used by all the sections of people,round the year throughout the world for its distinct flavour and health healing properties. it is a photosensitive crop and forms bulbs at certain day length. long day onion requires 14 hours or more day length to initiate the bulbing. in india, majority of growing area is under short day onion except in hillyregion. long day onion is grown in temperate region of india with productivity ranging from 10 to 23 t/ha.though it covers large temp er a te a r ea fr om ja mmu a nd k a shmir to ar u na c ha l p r a des h b u t ef f or t s o n va r iet a l improvement programme on long day onion are ver y limited. there is no commercial long day variety available for cultivation except some old introductions like yellow globe and brown spanish. f a r mer s u s e t heir own s eed wit h ou t c a r ing isolation distance to maintain the purity which leads to a great variability in shape and size of bulb with inherent low yield. t he ma gnitu de of genet ic diver s ity in onion germplasm is a critical component in breeding for new cultiva r. selection of genetica lly diver se parents in breeding programme on the basis of divergence would be more promising to get the heterotic f1, and to create a broad spectrum of variability in segregating generation (meena and this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. 18 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 17-26, 2020 singh et al. bahadur, 2015). presence of genetic diversity play a vital role in plant breeding for getting higher yield, uniformly disired quality and resitance to b iot ic a nd a b iot ic s t r es s es . a s ys t ema t ic understanding of gentic diversity in different traits is essentia l for ta rgeted br eeding pr ogr amme. t her e a r e nu mer ic a l t a x onomic t ec hniqu es available to classify the variation pattern at inter and intra specific level (ario and odulaza, 1999). mult iva r ia te a na lys is is a n effect ive tool for characterization and classification of plant genetic resources, when a large number of accessions are assessed for several traits (peter and matrinelli, 1989). different type of multivariate analysis such as principal component analysis (pca) and single linka ge c lu st er a na lysis (s lca) a r e u sed to identify groups of accessions that have desirable traits for breeding and assessing the pattern of variation in germplasm collection. pca enables easier understanding of impact and relationship among the different traits. however pca alone wou ld not give a n a dequ a t e c ha r a c t er representation in term of relative importance when multiple characters are considered simultaneously (shalini et al., 2003). to complement the results of such multiva r ia te a na lysis, single linka ge cluster analysis(slca) is employed to classify the varia tion. it is a n a gglomer ative technique which shows t he p a tt er ns of ex a c t genot yp e position in population. (ariyo and odulaza, 1999) by sorting them in distinct group.thus this study is aimed to identify the major characters responsible for variation among the onion genotypes with a view to group accessions and for identifying the potential parental stocks within the group of local germplasm by employing the multivariate analysis. materials and methods thirty four long day onion accessions (allium cepa l.) including two varieties collected from growing hot spot of kashmir valley and conserved at active ger mpla sm sit e of ic arcent r a l ins tit ute of tempera te horticultur e, sr ina ga r (j&k) wer e evaluated (table 1). the seedlings of 45 day old were transplanted in main field during rabi season. ea ch accession was grown in ten rows of two metre length with a spacing of 10x15 cm. the experiment was conducted in randomized block design wit h thr ee r ep lica tions . geogr a phic a l position of the experimenta l site lies between latitude of 34005 n and longitude of 74050 e at an altitude of 1640 msl. the average maximum and minimum temp er a t u r e wer e 1 9. 63 0c , 6. 52 0 c respectively with annual precipitation of 160.72 mm and relative humidity 58.35%, evaporation 2.45mm. the soil characteristics viz. ph= 6.81 and ec = 0. 36 dsm-1 wer e r ecorded dur ing the cr opping sea son. recommended unifor m agronomic and cultural practices were adopted to obtain better expr ession of phenotypic char acters. data was recorded on nineteen quantitative traits. disease severity rating was measured on 0-5 scale (0 grade no disease, 1 grade 1-10%, 2 grade -1120%, 3 grade -21-30%, 4 grade -31-50% and 5 grade -51-100%). whereas, pest (thrips) damage (1-5 scale) (1 -1-20% foliage damage, 221-40 foliage damage, 3-41-60% foliage damage, 4-6180% foliage damage and 5-81-100% foliage. the genotypes with <5% infestation was considered immu ne, 6 1 0 % inf es t a t ion r esis t a nt , 1 0 2 0 infestation moderately resistant, 21-40% infestation moder a t ely s u c ep t b le, 4 1 6 0 % i nf es t a t ion susceptible >60% infestation considered highly susceptible. da ta collected on the quantitative characters were analyzed using sas microsoft windows 9.2 (sas institute, 2011), employing the method outlined by steel and torrie (1980) using statistical xl stat-2011. principal component ana lysis a nd single linkage cluster ana lysis (slca) were used for the determination of genetic var iation and percenta ge simila rity within the genot yp es . e igen vec t or s a nd p r inc ip a l component score were used to assess the relative dis c r imina t or y p ower of it s a x i s a nd t heir associated characters. the cluster procedure was used to produce distinct groups of 34 genotypes on the basis of genetic relationship while using the character variation. average intra-cluster distance wa s c a lc u la ted by t he f ollowing f or mu la a s suggested by singh and choudhary (1985). slca summa r ized the position of a ccessions into a dendogramat an interval of 5% level of dissimilarity s t a r t ing f r om 1 0 0 % level of di s s imila r it y (kendall, 1980). 19 assessment of genetic divergence in long day onion (allium cepa l.) t ab le 1. a cc es si on s w it h th ei r ge og ra ph ic al i nf or m at io n us ed i n st ud y g en ot yp e c ol le ct io n l at itu de l on gi tu de a lti tu de g en ot yp e c ol le ct io n l at itu de l on gi tu de a lti tu de si te (m et er ) si te (m et er ) c it h -o -1 b ud ga m 34 .6 30 74 .0 40 31 99 .9 9 c it h -o -1 7 sr in ag ar 34 .0 80 74 .7 90 15 85 .0 1 c it h -o -2 b ud ga m 34 .6 30 74 .0 40 31 99 .9 9 c it h -o -1 8 b ar am ul la 34 .1 98 0 74 .3 60 15 90 .0 0 c it h -o -3 b ud ga m 34 .6 30 74 .0 40 31 99 .9 9 c it h -o -1 9 b ar am ul la 34 .1 98 0 74 .3 60 15 90 .0 0 c it h -o -4 b ud ga m 34 .6 30 74 .0 40 31 99 .9 9 c it h -o -2 0 b ar am ul la 34 .1 98 0 74 .3 60 15 90 .0 0 c it h -o -5 b ud ga m 34 .6 30 74 .0 40 31 99 .9 9 c it h -o -2 1 b ar am ul la 34 .1 98 0 74 .3 60 15 90 .0 0 c it h -o -6 b ud ga m 34 .6 30 74 .0 40 31 99 .9 9 c it h -o -2 2 b ar am ul la 34 .1 98 0 74 .3 60 15 90 .0 0 c it h -o -7 b ud ga m 34 .6 30 74 .0 40 31 99 .9 9 c it h -o -2 3 b ar am ul la 34 .1 98 0 74 .3 60 15 90 .0 0 c it h -o -8 g an dh ar ba l 34 .2 30 74 .7 80 16 19 .1 0 c it h -o -2 4 sh op ia n 34 .8 10 75 .0 10 20 57 .0 0 c it h -o -9 g an dh ar ba l 34 .2 30 74 .7 80 16 19 .1 0 c it h -o -2 5 sh op ia n 34 .8 10 75 .0 10 20 57 .0 0 c it h -o -1 0 g an dh ar ba l 34 .2 30 74 .7 80 16 19 .1 0 c it h -o -2 6 b ad ip or a 34 .5 00 74 .6 80 15 78 .0 0 c it h -o -1 1 g an dh ar ba l 34 .2 30 74 .7 80 16 19 .1 0 c it h -o -2 7 b an di po ra 34 .5 00 74 .6 80 15 78 .0 0 c it h -o -1 2 g an dh ar ba l 34 .2 30 74 .7 80 16 19 .1 0 c it h -o -2 8 k ul ga m 33 .6 50 75 .0 20 17 38 .8 8 c it h -o -1 3 sr in ag ar 34 .0 80 74 .7 90 15 85 .0 1 c it h -o -2 9 k ul ga m 33 .6 50 75 .0 20 17 38 .8 8 c it h -o -1 4 sr in ag ar 34 .0 80 74 .7 90 15 85 .0 1 c it h -o -3 0 k up w ar a 33 .6 50 75 .0 20 17 38 .8 8 c it h -o -1 5 sr in ag ar 34 .0 80 74 .7 90 15 85 .0 1 c it h -o -3 1 k up w ar a 33 .6 50 75 .0 20 17 38 .8 8 c it h -o -1 6 sr in ag ar 34 .0 80 74 .7 90 15 85 .0 1 c it h -o -3 2 sr in ag ar 34 .0 80 74 .7 90 15 85 .0 1 c or al r ed ic a r -d o g r p un e b ro w n i c a r -d o g r p un e (c he ck ) sp an is h j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 17-26, 2020 20 results and discussion the genotypes evaluated for all horticultural traits va ried significantly (table 2). the phenotypic variability expressed by range, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation. the plant height ranges fr om 63. 33 to 91. 66 cm. genotype cith-o-9 recorded highestplant height, whereas cith-o-32 recorded lowest plant height (63.33 cm). number of leaves ranged from 6.33 ( cith-o-9 ) to 14.0 cm (cith-o-19. polar diameter of bulb ranged from 5.18cm (cith-o-7) to 11.97cm (cith-o13). equatorial diameterof bulb ranged from 5.87cm (cith-o-5) to 11.08 cm (cith-o-8). polar and equatorial diameter ratio reflects the bulb shape singh et al. j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 17-26, 2020 table 2. variation in quantitative traits of onion accessions plant height (cm) 63.33 cith-o-32 91.66 cith-o-9 80.09 5.92 12.92 no. of leaves/ plant 6.33 cith-o-9 14.00 cith-o-19 9.87 1.66 23.71 polar diameter (cm) 5.18 cith-o-7 11.97 cith-o-13 7.44 1.23 20.58 equatorial diameter (cm) 5.87 cith-o-5 11.08 cith-o-8 8.52 1.15 20.85 polar equatorial diameterratio 0.55 cith—o-11 2.03 cith—o-4 0.89 0.26 25.82 neck thickness (cm) 0.42 cith-o-7 2.46 cith-o-19 0.96 0.38 30.56 a grade bulb (%) 12.00 cith-o 86.11 cith-o-12 58.71 15.95 37.05 b grade bulbs (5) 0.00 cith-o 34.55 cith-o 13.96 10.39 60.16 c grade bulbs (%) 0.00 cith-o 33.00 cith-o 6.53 8.42 51.04 doubles (%) 0.00 cith-o 34.28 cith-o 16.05 11.48 66.97 tss % 0.36 cith-o-5 16.00 cith-o-29 10.92 4.36 54.51 average bulb weight (gm) 154.51 cith-o-29 470.30 cith-o-9 289.08 82.29 34.99 purple blotch (%) 7.00 brown spanish 30.71 cith-o-29 19.52 50.88 33.13 thrips/plant 7.66 cith-o-17 31.00 cith-o-6 24.26 5.44 35.12 downy mildew (%) 13.48 cith-o-9 30.50 cith-o-2 20.80 4.92 32.25 bolters (%) 0.00 cith-o-9 3.66 cith-o-11 0.91 1.10 60.31 marketable bulbs (%) 48.26 cith-o-9 100.00 cith-o-28 82.35 12.60 25.20 marketable yield (q/ha) 331.28 cith-o-9 1212.56 cith-o-31 765.09 251.74 41.52 total yield (q/h) 494.45 cith-o-9 1505.06 cith-o-31 925.07 263.32 34.99 characters range mean standard deviation cv (%) minimum maximum value genotype value genotype 21 which is an important parameter indirectly related to yield storage life and market preference. the bulbs of genotype having < 1 polar and equatorial dia met er r a t io ( p: e ) cons ider ed a s fla t a nd genotypes having p: e ratio 1 considered globe and those having p: e r atio> 1 were considered as torpedo. genotype cith-o-11, had p: e ratio 1, whereas cith-o-4, cith-o-32 and cith-o-13 have < 1 p: eratio and remaining genotypes were having >1 p: e r atio. neck thickness of bulb affects the storage life. neck thickness ranged from0.42 to 2.46 cm. the minimum neck thickness (0.42 cm) was observed with genotype cith-o7 , wher ea s c i t h o 1 9 ha d ma x imu m nec k thickness (2.46 cm). bulb grade determines the market price and quality. a grade bulb ranged from 12 to 86.11 per cent (table 3). genotype citho-12 recorded highest a grade percentage of bulbs. b grade bulb ranged from 00 to 34.55 per cent. double bulbs which are major drawback in onion production ranged from 00 to 34.28 per cent. total soluble solids important quality trait in onion ranged from 0.36 to 16 per cent. genotype cith-o-29 scored highest tss (16 %) whereas minimum tss (0.36%) was recorded with genotype cith-o-5. average bulb weight which is directly correlated wit h yield, r a nged f r om 1 5 4. 5 1 t o 4 7 0. 3 0g. genotype cish-o-9 recorded the highest average bulb weight (470.30 g) whereas smallest bulb size was recorded with cith-o-29 (154.51 g). foliar disease of onion is major problem in long day conditions.the incidence of purple blotch ranged from 7.00 to 30.71%. genotype cith-0-29 has recorded highest infestation (30.31%) whereas, assessment of genetic divergence in long day onion (allium cepa l.) j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 17-26, 2020 table 3. the principal component latent vector for eigen values and proportion of variance accounted for different components with respect of different traits characters pc-i pc-ii pc-iii pc-iv pc-v pc-vi pc-vii plant height (cm) -0.039 0.412 0.045 0.208 0.328 -0.215 0.018 no. of leaves/ plant -0.317 0.147 0.273 -0.001 0.192 -0.043 0.014 polar diameter (cm) -0.037 -0.315 -0.109 -0.262 0.514 -0.072 -0.162 equatorial diameter(cm) 0.354 0.227 0.062 -0.018 -0.075 0.040 0.160 polar equatorial diameterratio -0.204 -0.355 -0.168 -0.138 0.398 -0.108 -0.230 neck thickness (cm) 0.040 0.288 0.283 -0.228 0.096 0.128 -0.515 a grade bulb (%) 0.179 -0.111 0.278 0.436 0.234 -0.187 0.083 b grade bulbs (5) -0.208 0.034 0.346 -0.355 -0.111 0.250 0.081 c grade bulbs (%) -0.027 -0.336 -0.302 0.041 -0.403 -0.090 0.146 doubles (%) -0.243 0.198 -0.267 -0.325 -0.101 0.154 0.177 tss % -0.236 -0.142 0.276 -0.214 -0.135 -0.179 0.146 average bulb weight (gm) 0.401 0.034 -0.029 -0.309 0.104 0.014 0.022 purple blotch (%) 0.055 -0.082 0.198 -0.183 0.021 -0.461 0.376 thrips/plant -0.195 -0.170 0.305 -0.108 0.012 0.057 0.277 downy mildew (%) -0.006 -0.137 0.158 0.221 0.156 0.660 -0.002 bolters (%) -0.039 0.023 -0.331 0.029 0.322 0.280 0.564 marketable bulbs (%) 0.148 -0.410 0.282 0.146 -0.098 0.137 0.030 marketable yield (q/ha) 0.388 -0.192 0.125 -0.199 0.025 0.083 0.063 total yield (q/h) 0.401 0.034 -0.029 -0.309 0.104 0.014 0.022 eigen value 4.698 2.902 2.410 2.072 1.583 1.221 1.051 variability (%) 24.726 15.271 12.686 10.904 8.333 6.424 5.530 cumulative % 24.726 39.998 52.684 63.588 71.921 78.345 83.876 22 least infestation was observed with variety brown spanish (7%). downy mildew infestation ranged fr om 13 . 48 to 30. 50%. t he lowest ( 13. 48%) infesta tion of downy mildew wa s obser ved in genotype cith-0-9 whereas highest infestation of was recorded with cith-0-2 (30.50%). thrips is major damaging insect in long day onion. number of thrips/plant ranged from 7.66 to 31.00 / plant. t he minimum infesta tion of thrips /pla nt wa s recor ded with genotype cith-0-6 (7.66/plant) whereas, maximum number of thrips / plant was observed with cith -0-17 (31.00/plant). premature bolting a burning problem in onion ranged from 0 to 3.66 % among the genotypes evaluated. the highes t p er c ent of b olt ing wa s ob s er ved in genotype cith-0-11 (3.66%), whereas fourteen genotypes recorded 0% bolting. marketable bulb percenta geis a n importa nt tr ait fr om economic point of view. the percentage of marketable bulb r a nged f r o m 4 8 . 2 6 t o 1 0 0 % . t he lowes t ma r ket a b le b u lb p er c ent a ge ( 4 8 . 2 6 % ) wa s recorded with genotype cith-09 whereas cith0 2 8 ha d r ec or ded 1 0 0 % ma r ket a b le b u lb s . ma r keta ble bulb yield r a nged fr om 33 1. 28 to 1212.56 q/ha. the lowest marketable bulb yield was recorded with genotype cith-0-31 (331.28 q/ ha ) wher e a s highes t ma r ket a b l e b u lb wa s recorded with cith-0-8 (1212.56 q/ha). total yield ranged from 494.5 to 1505.06 q/ha. among the genotype evaluated, cith-09 recorded highest tota l yield, where as minimum tota l yield was observed with cith-0-31. the genotype having the highest desirable traits may be utilised for crop improvement programme for a particular tra it. coefficient of variation (%) reflected the extent of variationfor evaluated phenotypic traits was highest for double bulb percentage and b grads of bulbs, t. s. s a nd ma r ket a ble bu lb yield (q/h) . high coef fic ient of va r ia tion a mong st udied tr a its indica ted a n a ppr ecia ble va r ia b ility which is pr er equisite of a cr op impr ovement pr ogr a m. similar type of variability was also reported by arya et al. (2017). the observed variability found among the onion genotypes might be related to genetic makeup of genotype as per kandil et al. (2010). based on degree of divergence 34 genotypes were grouped into 7 principal component having eigen value >1 and cumulatively accounted for 83.87% of tota l va r iability (ta ble 4a and 4b). the pc-i contr ibuted for 24. 73% of tota l va riation wa s positively loaded with bulb weight, marketable bulb percentage, total and marketable bulb yield. it was negatively correlated with number of thrips per plant, downy mildew infestation, (%) bolters and doubles, b and c grades bulbs. the pc-ii reflected 15.27% of total variability and was positively loaded with plant height, neck thickness and negatively with downy mildew infestation. the pc-iii was positively loaded with t. s. s. (%), number of lea ves/pla nt a nd contributed 12.69 % of total variation. the 4 t h principal component contributed 10.90% of total variability was, associated with a grade bulb (%) and negatively correlated with purple blotch disease.the pc-v accounted 8. 33% of tota l va riation wa s positively loaded with polar diameter, polar: equatorial. diameter ratios, bolter percentage and negatively loaded with c grade bulb percentage. principal component-vi contributed 6.42% of total variation and was positively correlated with downy mildew (%) but it was negative associated with purple blotch. pc-vii accounted for 5.53% of total variation was positively loaded with bolter percentage, purple blotch percentage, and number of thrips/plant and was negativity correlated with neck thickness. the positive and negative loading of quantitative traits reflects the positive and negative correlation trend between the components and variables suggesting that these principle components may be used to summarise the variables. the traits with largest absolute value closer to unit within first component influence the cluster more than those to lower absolute value closer to zero. thus in present study the differentiation of genotypes in different principal component was because of high contribution of few characters rather than small contribution of each character. the desirable characters loaded positively and undesirable characters loaded negatively in first seven pc’s could be in consideration while selecting the genotype for appropriate traits and yield potential. the principal component analysis has also been used for showing the genetic diversity in many species (ravindra et al., 2018; singh et al., 2017). the bi-plot of pc-i & pc-ii indicated that the some isolated genotype clearly define the diversity among the evaluated germplasm. the genotype cith-0-13, cith-0-4, cith-0-22, cith-0-19, cith-0-9, cith06, cith-o-2 and variety coral red were most singh et al. j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 17-26, 2020 23 assessment of genetic divergence in long day onion (allium cepa l.) j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 17-26, 2020 divergent (fig 1) usually is customary to select one of the important variable from these identified groups for targeted improvement programme. hence pc-i for higher total yield, pc-ii for plant height, pc-iii for high t.s.s, pc-iv for maximum a grade bulb, pc-v for wider polar diameter of bulb, pc-vi for resistance to purple blotch, pc-vii for thin neck thickness of bulb were ideal for selection . the results of present study are useful as it furnish the information about the group where certain traits are more important, allowing breeder to execute breeding for specific target. biological implication of principal component analysis can be quantified by contribution of different variable in each pc as revealed by eigen vector and cluster scor e at the component axis suggest that some relationship exist among the individuals with the cluster but not provided the exact position of genotypes in groups. based on single linkage cluster analysis genotypes were grouped into five clusters by quantifying their share and cluster means for all the traits (table 4 a,b). t he cluster -i a nd cluster -iii a ccommoda ted maximum number of genotype (9) followed by cluster ii (8), cluster-iv (7) and cluster -v(1) contributing 26.47, 23.53, 20.58 and 2.94%, of total population respectively. on the basis of cluster means, the cluster-i was important for high tss (15.06%), marketable bulbs percentage (92.66%) powdery mildew (8.24%) and purple loch (16.08%) resistance. cluster-ii was important for plant height (83 cm) number of leaves/plant(12), polar diameter (8.54 cm) and p:e ratio (1.54) cluster -iii was important a grade bulb percentage (69.21%)whereas cluster-iv was important equatorial diameter ( 9.48 cm),minimum neck thickness (0.42 cm) thrips resistance (9.33 thrips/ plant). cluster -v was important for average bulb weight (377.76 g) marketable yield (1109.59 q/ha) and total yield (1208.83 q/ha). the genotype of cluster having high means value of particular traits would contribute more positively in their off springs if used as a parent. arya et al. (2017) and singh et al. characters cluster-i cluster-ii cluster-iii cluster-iv cluster-v plant height (cm) 63.33 83.00 79.66 79.33 80.00 no. of leaves/ plant 7.33 12.00 10.33 8.33 11.00 polar diameter (cm) 7.50 8.54 6.55 5.18 7.95 equatorial diameter(cm) 7.16 5.87 9.32 9.48 8.99 polar equatorial diameter ratio 1.05 1.45 0.70 0.55 0.89 neck thickness (cm) 0.98 0.66 1.21 0.42 0.88 a grade bulb (%) 22.00 42.00 69.21 65.69 63.58 b grade bulbs (5) 25.00 6.35 12.28 0.00 20.51 c grade bulbs (%) 25.00 12.40 0.00 15.84 7.69 doubles (%) 28.00 28.05 17.30 16.33 8.20 tss % 15.06 9.50 14.00 2.23 14.10 average bulb weight (gm) 374.06 196.98 310.39 236.69 377.76 purple blotch (%) 8.24 10.26 13.09 8.39 9.10 thrips/plant 24.66 21.33 24.00 9.33 29.00 downy mildew (%) 16.08 19.96 20.16 18.06 17.01 bolters (%) 0.00 1.18 1.21 2.13 0.00 marketable bulbs (%) 92.66 71.94 82.70 83.66 91.79 marketable yield (q/ha) 1109.15 453.47 821.41 633.64 1109.59 total yield (q/h) 1197.01 630.34 993.24 757.40 1208.83 table 4a. cluster means for 19 characters in 34 onion genotypes based on agglomerative hierarchical clustering analysis 24 singh et al. j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 17-26, 2020 table 4b. grouping of 34 onion genotypes into five clusters based on agglomerative hierarchical clustering analysis characters cluster-i cluster-ii cluster-iii cluster-iv cluster-v number of genotypes 9 8 9 7 1 % of total genotypes 26.47 23.52 26.47 20.28 2.94 position of genotype cith-o-1 cith-o-4 cith-o-5 cith-o-7 cith-o-29 cith-o-2 cith-o-14 cith-o-6 cith-o-13 cith-o-3 cith-o-16 cith-o-10 cith-o-15 cith-o-8 cith-o-21 cith-o-11 cith-o-17 cith-o-9 cith-o-22 cith-o-12 cith-o-19 cith-o-18 cith-o-24 cith-o-20 cith-o-25 cith-o-27 cith-o-30 cith-o-23 cith-o-28 cith-o-32 cith-o-31 cith-o-26 brown spanish coral red fig. 1.: bi-plot for 1st and 2nd pc for genotypes of onion in relation horticultural traits 25 assessment of genetic divergence in long day onion (allium cepa l.) j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 17-26, 2020 table 5. average inter and intra cluster distance cluster-i cluster-ii cluster-iii cluster-iv cluster-v cluster-i 0.00 803.47 697.08 509.31 582.56 cluster -ii 0.00 488.05 334.36 435.95 cluster-iii 0.00 305.03 579.48 cluster-iv 0.00 353.09 cluster-v         0.00 fig. 2. dendrogram depicting genetic relationship among 34 genotypes based on horticultural traits produced by complete linkage analysis (scaleeuclidean distance at .05) (2017) also suggest that clusters having high mean value of the traits may be used for hybridization program to get better segregates. proximity matrix obtained, suggest the resolution for 34 onion genotype distributed in five clusters with wide range of diversity for the traits (table 5.) the highest inter cluster distance between cluster ii and cluster i (803.47%) followed by cluster-iii and i (697.8) cluster v and cluster i (582.56). based on convention that distantly related parents give better recombinants and hybrid. it could be expected that hybridization between genotype of these cluster will results high heterotic f1, s and better recombinants in segregating generations. these genotypes of distant clustercould serve useful source of genes for different desirable traits in onion. the findings are in conformity with finding of singh et al. (2017), chattopadhay et al. (2015) and ravindra et al. (2018) who reported that genotypes among the cluster having high distance 26 singh et al. j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 17-26, 2020 when used in hybridization programme will obtain a wide spectrum of variation in sergeants. dendogram obtained from single linkage cluster analysis by using the euclidian distance depicted the clear relationship and exact position of genotype in the clusters. all the genotype were distinct at 100 percent of dissimilarity and formed nine duster at 87% of dissimilarity, and formed five clusters at 57 of dissimilarity (fig ii). the dissimilarity ranged from 57 to 100% among the delineated genotypes enough to suggest the variability for crop improvement in onion. (denton and nwangburuka, 2011). genotypes cith-0-29, cith-0-26, cith—8, cith0-24 and cith-05 were divergent in cluster position on the basis of euclidian distance which reflected higher distance among these genotypes and may be used for hybridization to get the better segregates. singh et al., 2013 and santara et al., 2017 also reported such variability by using the single linkage cluster analysis in onion.this genetic diversity analysis would be useful to avoid the selecting parents from genetically homogenous cluster and maintain the broad genetic base for breeding programme in long day onion. references ario, o. j. and odulaza, a. 1991. numerical analysis of variation among accessions of okra . (a. esculentus l. moench) malvaceae. ann. bot. 67:527-531 arya, j. s., singh, n. arya, p. and kant a.2017. morphological variation and relationship among the onion ger mpla sm for qua ntita tive and qualitative traits at trans himalayas ladakh india. australian j. crop sci.11 (3)229-37. chattopadhay, a. sarangi, a.b., dutta, s., das,s. and deney, m. 2015. genetic relatedness between qualitative and qualitative parameters in onion (allium cepa l). vegetose. an international journal of plant research. 26 (1):151-157. denton, o. a. and nwangburuka, c. c. 2011.genetic variability in eighteen cultivars of wolanum anguiviam l. using principal component analysis (pca) and single linkage lluster analysis (slca). ann. biol. res. 2 : 62-67 kandil, a.a., leila, a.a., mostafa a.k., fathalla, f.h. (2010) study on internal bulb quality of some new egyptian onion cultivars under different irr igation r egime. i nte rnational j. plant production. 1(2) : 205-212 kendall, m.a.1980.multivariate analysis (2ndedn.) charls griffin and co. lonon. meena, o.p. and bahadur, v. 2015. breeding potential of indeterminate tomato (solanum lycopersicum l) accessions using d2 analysis. sarrao j. bree. gen. 47(1) 49-59. peter, j. p. and martinelli, j.a.1989. hierarchical cluster analysis as a tool to manage the variation in germplasm collection. theor. appl. genet. 78:42-48 ravindra, d., amirender, k. and anil, k. 2018.genetic variability, heritability and diversity analysis in short day tropical onion (allium cepa l): santara, p. manna, d., sarkar, h. k. and maithy, t.k. 2017. genetic variability, heritability genetic advance in kharif onion (allium cepa l). journal of crop and weed. 13(1):103-106  sas institute, 2011. sas institute inc., sas 9.1.3 help and documentation, cary, nc: sas institute inc., 2002-2004. shalini, m., sharma., s. gupta, m.m. and sushi k. 2003: eva lua tion of a n indian ger mpla sm collection of the medicinal plant bacopa monnieri (l.) pennell by use of multivariate approaches. euphytica 133 : 255-265. singh, r. k. and choudhry, b. d. 1985. biometrical methods in quantitative geneticanalysis. kalyani publishers, new delhi, p.318. singh, s.r., lal s., ahmed n., srivastava k.k., kumar d., jan n., amin a., and malik a.r. 2013. determination of genetic diversity in onion allium cepa l) using the multivariate analysis under long day conditions. afri. j. biot. 7 (20) 5599-606. singh, s.r., ahmed n. , srivastava k.k., singh d.b., achal, singh, and yousuf s. 2017. genetic divergence assessment in european carrot type. indian j. hort. 74 (1):551-54 steel, r.g, and torrie, r.h. 1980. principles and procedure of statistics. 2nd edition mcgraw-hill, inc. new york. (received on 12.07.2019 and accepted on 17.06.2020) 404 not found stack trace: file: /var/www/jhs/pages/article/articlehandler.inc.php line 167 function: dispatcher->handle404() file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/pkprouter.inc.php line 392 function: articlehandler->initialize(object(request), array(0)) file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/pkppagerouter.inc.php line 246 function: pkprouter->_authorizeinitializeandcallrequest(array(2), object(request), array(2), false) file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/dispatcher.inc.php line 144 function: pkppagerouter->route(object(request)) file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/pkpapplication.inc.php line 362 function: dispatcher->dispatch(object(request)) file: /var/www/jhs/index.php line 68 function: pkpapplication->execute() introduction good quality seed can be obtained consistently with efficient use of processing machines, irrespective of seedquality of a harvested seed lot. several seed-processing equipments are available to improve quality of the seed-lot, but, potential of these machines has not been exploited fully. in many of the seed processing plants, just an air-screen cleaner is operated owing to lack of information on other equipment as to how and to what extent seed quality can be upgraded using such equipment. specific-gravity separator is one such equipment which separates seeds based on their density. its potential has not been fully exploited by many involved in seed-processing. many vegetable seed-lots consist of under-developed/chaffy seeds similar in size to normal, well-developed seeds. these are difficult to remove by an air-screen cleaner. during a survey conducted by the authors in ranebennur, karnataka the hub of vegetable seed production activities in india, some seed companies expressed that light and black seeds present in okra seedlots lead to poor germination percentage and these cannot be removed by air-screen cleaning. hence, a study was taken up to assess the feasibility of using specific-gravity separator in okra for separating chaffy seeds from good seeds. seed quality improvement in okra through specific gravity separation h.s. yogeesha, b.l. kashinath, k. bhanuprakash and l.b. naik section of seed science and technology indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bangalore-560089, india e-mail : hsy@iihr.ernet.in abstract a study was conducted to assess the efficiency of specific gravity separator in removing partially filled/chaffy seeds of okra during 2007 and 2008. bulk seed, after extraction, was first subjected to an air screen cleaner with three screens. then, the good seed fraction obtained was subjected to specific gravity separation. three fractions were obtained, viz., heavy, medium and light and they were assessed for quality, along with ungraded seed. test weight, germination percentage, first count, seedling vigour indices i & ii and field emergence were significantly higher in the heavy seed fraction than in ungraded seed. black seed content in heavy seed fraction was significantly low, thereby improving seed quality. rejection percentage in terms of light and medium seed fractions put together was 3.5% and 12% in 2007 and 2008, respectively. by removal of these fractions, percentage of field emergence improved from 63% to 82% in 2007, and 62.8 to 76.4% in 2008, respectively. key words: okra, specific gravity separation, seed quality, black seed j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):70-73, 2013 material and methods fresh seeds of okra cv. arka anamika were produced in kharif season of 2007 and 2008 at iihr, bangalore. after threshing, bulked seeds were subjected to air-screen cleaning (with three screens, westrup model). the goodseed fraction collected here was subjected to specific-gravity separation using westrup gravity separator. seeds were fed into the oscillating deck inclined to a side tilt of 2.5 degrees and rear-end tilt of 3.25 degrees, running on eccentric speed of 450 rpm. this set-up was found to be suitable for okra. the deck had four outlets from. the first outlet (present opposite the inlet) was adjusted such that the deck was completely covered with seeds, with a distinct density gradient. seeds moving upstream of the deck were collected separately at the second outlet and these belonged to the heavy seed-fraction. seeds from the first outlet were combined with this second fraction as these were free of extraneous matter. seeds collected from the lower end of the deck, i.e., fourth outlet, constituted the light seed-fraction. seeds collected from the middle spout, i.e., the third outlet consisted of heavy, medium and light seeds. these were again subjected to gravity separation. this recycling of the middle fraction continued until all the heavy seeds present in this fraction were separated, and were passed through a 71 second outlet meant for the heavy seed-fraction. finally, all three (heavy, medium and light) seed-fractions were collected separately, weighed and subjected to qualityassessment which consisted of 100 seed weight, number of black seeds (%), weight of black seeds (%), first count (%), laboratory germination (%), seedling vigour index i and ii, and field-emergence. normal okra seeds are greenish in appearance. seeds that were black in appearance were counted from a representative sample and expressed, in both number and weight basis, as percentage. seed germination test was conducted as per ista (1976) procedures. five replications of 100 seeds each were tested by the roll paper method. the first count was taken on 4th day, and the final germination on 12th day. seedling vigour index i was calculated by multiplying germination % with seedling length. seedling vigour index ii was calculated by multiplying germination % with seedling dry weight. field-emergence was tested by planting seeds on a raised nursery bed in open field. five replicates of 50 seeds each were planted, and seedling emergence was recorded on 21st day after sowing. data were analyzed using analysis of variance (anova) for completely randomized design, and means were compared using least significant difference (gomez and gomez, 1984). results and discussion test weight of three fractions obtained from specific gravity separation, viz., heavy, medium and light, was 7.79, 6.23 and 4.14g, respectively, in the year 2007. black seed content (by number as well as weight) reduced significantly from about 4% in air-screen cleaned seed to about 1% in the heavy-seed fraction. highest germination (96.4%) was observed in the heavy-seed fraction and was 9.6% higher than ungraded seeds (i.e., good-seed fraction from the airscreen cleaner). hardly any germination was seen in the light-seed fraction, while, only a few seeds (17%) produced normal seedlings in the medium fraction. seed vigour, expressed in as the first count (73.6 %), vigour indices i (3694) and ii (1633) was highest in the heavy-seed fraction than in the air-screen graded seed. total rejection, including medium and light fractions was around 3.5%. by rejecting these seeds, germination rate could be improved from 86.6% to 96.4%, and field-emergence from 63.3% to 82.0% (table 1). the experiment was repeated for confirmation, in the year 2008. test weights of heavy, medium and light seed fractions were 7.34, 5.77 and 4.69 g, respectively (table 2). highest germination rate (89.6%) was observed in the heavy-seed fraction and was 10% higher than in the table 1. various fractions of seeds obtained by specific gravity separation and their effect on seed quality in okra cv. arka anamika, in the year 2007 category of seed proportion no. of wt. of 100 seed first lab. vigour vigour field (%) black black weight count germn. index i* index ii** emergence seeds (%) seeds (%) (g) (%) (%) (%) seed from air screen 100 4.45 3.92 7.47 71.2 (57.5) 86.8 (68.7) 3056 1160 63.3 heavy seed 96.4 1.09 0.96 7.79 73.6 (59.4) 96.4 (79.1) 3694 1633 82.0 medium seed 2.1 8.67 8.54 6.23 15.2 (22.8) 17.2 (24.3) 390 179 10.5 light seed 1.4 61.08 58.03 4.14 7.2 (15.5) 7.2 (15.5) 84 41 1.3 sem ± 0.878 0.788 0.059 2.866 2.041 78.4 23.0 2.19 cd (p=0.05) 2.49 2.24 0.168 8.155 5.808 338.8 90.5 9.46 *germination % x seedling length **germination % x seedling dry-weight figures in parentheses are angular transformed values table 2. seed-quality attributes in different categories of seed obtained after specific-gravity separation in okra cv. arka anamika, in the year 2008 category of seed proportion no. of wt. of 100 seed first lab. vigour vigour field (%) black black wt (g) count germn. index i* index ii** emergence seeds (%) seeds (%) (%) (%) (%) seed from air screen 100 20.5 15.8 7.03 74.8 (60.4) 79.6 (64.3) 2507 7292 62.8 heavy seed 87.6 5.7 4.8 7.34 84.4 (68.2) 89.6 (72.4) 3138 10566 76.4 medium seed 8.1 85.9 84.0 5.77 28.8 (23.3) 34.8 (28.1) 913 1685 22 light seed 4.3 95.1 93.9 4.69 10.8 (8.7) 11.2 (9.0) 187 408 8 sem± 0.716 0.721 0.023 1.93 1.32 49.6 334 0.99 c.d (p=0.05) 3.09 3.11 0.1 8.3 5.7 214 1443 4.3 *germination% x seedling length **germination% x seedling dry-weight figures in parentheses are angular transformed values seed-quality improvement in okra by specific gravity separator j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):70-73, 2013 72 ungraded seed (i.e., good-seed fraction from the air-screen cleaner). black seed content climbed down from 20% to 6% with gravity-separation. black seed content was more in 2008 season than in previous season due to harvest time coinciding with rains. medium and light seed fractions, though showing some germination (35% and 11%, respectively), were significantly lower in seedling vigour expressed in terms of first count and seedling vigour indices, than the heavy-seed fraction. total rejection, including medium and light fractions, was around 12%. by rejecting these seeds, germination was improved from 79.6% to 89.4%, and field-emergence from 63% to 76%. two years’ data revealed that use of specific-gravity separator had significant effect in improving the quality of air-screen cleaned okra seeds. increase in field-emergence percentage observed was from 63% to 82% and from 63% to 76% in 2007 and 2008, respectively; whereas, in the case of laboratory germination, it was from 86.8% to 96.4% in 2007 and 79.6 to 89.6% in 2008. similar findings have been reported by sharma and swaran lata (2005) and pandita et al (2002) in okra; sadhna arora sharma et al (2009) in maize, and by menaka and balamurugan (2008) in amaranthus. impact of specific-gravity separation was greater on field-emergence percentage than on laboratory-germination percentage. laboratory germination improved by 10% in both years, whereas, field-emergence increased by 19% in the year 2007, and 13% in 2008. this shows that even lowvigour seeds germinate and produce normal seedlings under ideal (laboratory) conditions, but not in the field. fieldemergence of air-screen cleaned seeds was just 63% in both the seasons, but germination under laboratory testconditions was 86% and 76% in 2007 and 2008, respectively. this shows that specific-gravity separation is very effective in removing low-vigour seeds, thereby improving fieldemergence rate markedly. high vigour in the heavy-seed fraction obtained by gravity-separation is reflected in vigour index i and vigour index ii in both the seasons. low-vigour seeds constitute black and chaffy seeds, and these were removed effectively by the specific-gravity separator. there was a tendency in stained, defective, germinated and rhizoctonia solani and fusarium infected seeds of french bean to go into the lower spout of the gravity separator (lollato and silva, 1984). in the present study too, black and partially filled/chaffy seeds got separated as light and medium fractions, and this was reflected in the higher number of black seeds and low test-weight in these fractions. deck-inclination and speed of oscillation are very important parameters in a specific-gravity separator to achieve good separation. in the present study, the oscillating deck inclined at 2.50 width-wise and 3.50 length-wise, and oscillating eccentric speed of 450rpm was found ideal for obtaining good separation on the deck. with this set-up, distinct bands of heavy, medium and light seed fractions could be seen on the deck, running from the inlet end to the corresponding outlets. tiwari et al (2008), while working with lentil seed-lot processing, found that deck angle of 1.50 length-wise and 50 width-wise with oscillation speed of 450rpm was ideal for optimum separation. with these parameters in the machine, germination in lentil seed improved from 80% to 94%, and visual appearance improved by reductions in the amount of discoloured seeds from 5.1% to 0.6%. chaffiness, partial filling and occurrence of black seeds in okra could be due to many reasons. washing off of pollen due to heavy rains, non-availability of adequate source (especially during the later stages of the crop) and biotic/ abiotic stresses may lead to chaffiness or partial filling of seeds. such seeds will turn black if the crop is exposed to rains at harvest. lodging or damage to the plants/pods at seed-filling also results in chaffiness or partial filling. total rejection after gravity separation (including medium and light seed fractions) was 3.5% in 2007 and 12% in 2008. though seed recovery declined in specificgravity separation, seed quality significantly improved. sharma and swaran lata (2005) reported significant improvement in seed quality and storability of the heavy seed-fraction in okra by subjecting seeds to gravityseparation. from this study it is concluded that quality in okra seed lots, where cleaning and grading is done using airscreen cleaners, can be improved markedly by subjecting seeds to specific-gravity separation. references gomez, k.a. and gomez, a.a. 1984. statistical procedures for agricultural research. an international rice research institute book, wileyinterscience publication, philippines, pp 207–214 ista. 1976. international rules for seed testing. seed sci. technol., 4:3-49 lollato, m.a. and silva, w.r. 1984. effects of gravity table utilization on seed quality of field beans. da pesquisa agropecuaria brasileira, 19:1483-1496 yogeesha et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):70-73, 2013 73 menaka, c. and balamurugan, p. 2008. seed grading techniques in amarathus cv. co.5. plant arch., 8:729-731 pandita, v.k., sinha, j.p. and shantha natagaran. 2002. use of specific-gravity separator for enhancing seed quality in vegetables. seed res., 30:318-321 sadhna arora sharma, d.k., bhatia, s., arora, m. and sehgal, v.k. 2009. effect of specific-gravity separation on seed quality of maize (zea mays l.) during storage.j. res. (pau), 46:176-179 sharma, j.k. and swaran lata, 2005. use of specific gravity separator and packaging material to enhance and maintain seed quality in okra (abelmoschus esculeutus l. moench.). int’l. j. agril. sci., 1:38-40 tiwari, k.b., basediya, a.c., srivastava, s.p. and himamshu vaishya. 2008. performance evaluation of specific gravity seed separator for lentil seed. indian j. trop. biodiv., 15:145-151 (ms received 21 august 2012, accepted 07 december 2012, revised 31 december 2012) j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):70-73, 2013 seed-quality improvement in okra by specific gravity separator this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. introduction mango (mangifera indica) is climacteric fruit with high respiration rate and have limited shelf life under ambient conditions. sensitivity of fruits to decay, low temperature injury, perishability of fruits due to ripening and softening affects the handling, transport and storage potential of mangoes (hoa et al., 2002). mango cv. banganapalli is one of the major expor t cultivars in india (ra o and ra o, 2008). increasing consumer demand for quality, safety, variety, seasonal availability and consistency a re crea ting oppor tunities a s well a s possible bar rier s for indian small a nd ma rgina l ma ngo farmers. some of the major issues restricting the international trade and domestic transport of mango fruits are fruit fly infestation, disease incidence, sap b u r n, nonu nif or m r ip ening, c hil ling inju r y development during cold storage, etc. (sivakumar et al., 2011) and pesticide residue. for managing fr uit fly a nd a nt hr a cnos e ( impor t a nt s tor a ge disease), apart from implementing good agricultural p r a c t ic es ( g ap s ) in f ield, p os t ha r ves t disinfestation/ quarantine treatments are mandatory for inter na tiona l exports. hot wa ter tr ea tment (hwt) is one among many quarantine treatments used for mango exports. hwt is a highly efficient, non-chemical, environment friendly and low-cost method (jacobi et al., 1995; anwar and malik, 2007), which can also be adapted in local markets for inter-state transportation, aiming major indian markets. t her e a r e r ecommended time-temper a tur e combinations to disinfect mangoes from fruit fly infestation and anthracnose infection. heat treatments disinfect the commodity by diminishing fruit fly eggs and maggots (paul and chen, 2000). when mango fruits are subjected to thermal treatments, the storage life may be further reduced as heat treatments were reported to enhance the ripening process. hence, it is significant to know how the application of these thermal treatments at recommended levels affects the quality and storage life of mango fruits. the present investigation reveals, whether particular hwts (quarantine and disinfection treatments) affect the quality and shelf life of mango cv. banganapalli when stored under ambient conditions. original research paper j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 189-194, 2023 https://doi.org/10.24154/jhs.v18i1.2162 effect of hot water treatments on physiological and biochemical changes in mango cv. banganapalli during storage at ambient temperature anand a.1*, rao d.v.s.2, narayana c.k.2, kurian r.m.3, ranjitha k.2 and shivashankara k.s.4 1&2division of postharvest technology & agricultural engineering, icar-iari outreach programme centre, bengaluru, karnataka, india 3division of fruit crops, 4division of basic sciences, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru 560089, karnataka, india *corresponding author email : anusreehorti@gmail.com abstract mango fruits majorly suffers from anthracnose and fruit fly infestations during storage, transportation and marketing. hot water treatments (hwts) at specific levels have shown to control the incidence of these important threats. application of hwt not only act as a quarantine measure, but also maintains the quality and enhance the marketability of fruits, even at room temperature (rt), leading to its vast applicability in local / international markets. in this study, post harvest application of hwts (48°c for 60 min and 55°c for 10 min) in mango cv. banganapalli recorded reduced ethylene production rate, physiological loss in weight, improved sugar content, ascorbic acid, total carotenoids, phenolics and antioxidants compared to control. combination of hwts (48°c for 60 min followed by 55°c for 10 min) resulted in degradation of some quality parameters compared to individual hwt and control. keywords : antioxidants, hot water treatments, mango cv. banganapalli, phenols, quality 190 j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 189-194, 2023 anand et al. materials and methods the cv. banganapalli fruits of green mature stage were harvested and procured from mango orchards of icar-iihr a nd tr a nspor ted ca r efully to the laboratory. fruits were sorted to discard damaged ones and uniform sized and matured fruits were selected. fruits were separated into four lots, three for hwts and one as control (t4). different hwts viz., t1: 48°c for 60 min (recommended quarantine hwt for control of fruit fly), t2: 55°c for 10 min (recommended hwt for contr ol of a nthr a cnose disea se) a nd t 3: a combination treatment of 48°c for 60 min followed by 55°c for 10 min (to control both fruit fly and anthracnose) were used. the experiments were conducted in a rectangular batch type hot water treatment plant with a capacity of 500 kg/batch, developed at icar-iihr. hot water treated fruits and control fruits (water washed and air-dried) were packed in corrugated fibre board (cfb) boxes with three replications, each containing approximately 4 kg fruits, and stored at room temperature (ambient temperature: 28.1° to 32.2°c with 45-50% relative humidity). measurement of physiological and biochemical parameters respiration rate was recorded using checkmate o2/ co2 analyzer and expressed as mg co2/ kg/ h and ethylene evolution was measured using ethylene analyzer and expressed as µl c2h4/ kg/ h (rao and rao, 2008), taking five fruits as five replications per treatment. physiological loss in weight (plw) was calculated cumulatively and expressed as percentage. five fr uits wer e selected a t ra ndom from ea ch treatment for quality attributes analysis. the pulp was extracted from fruits, grinded in a mixer grinder and then homogenized (specific quantity required for individual parameters) using ika t25 digital ultra turarax homogenizer before analysis. tss was measured using hand refractometer calibrated to 25°c (erma inc., tokyo, japan). parameters like acidity (%), ascorbic acid (mg/100 g) and sugars (%) were estimated using standard methods of analysis (aoac, 2000). five gram of mango pulp was grinded in pestle and mortar using a solution of petroleum ether and acetone (3:2) along with acid washed sand to extract the carotenoid pigments and the od values were read in spectrophotometer at 452 nm using petroleum etheracetone solution as blank. total carotenoid content was then calculated with reference to the standard curve prepared with β-carotene and expressed as µg/100 g pulp. tota l phenolic content in the pulp wa s determined by the method of singleton et al. (1999) and was expr essed as milligr am of gallic acid equivalent per 100 g of fresh weight (mg gae/100 g fw). total antioxiant capacity was determined in terms of frap (ferric reducing antioxidant power), using the method of benzie and strain (1996) and values were expressed as mg acetic acid equivalent (mg aae)/100g fw. statistical analysis: the effects of different treatments over the variables were evaluated by two-way analysis of variance based on a completely randomized design. software windostat 9.3 version was employed to analyze the analysis of variance at 5% significance level and statistical significance of differences between the mean. results and discussion respir ation ra te of all hw trea ted fr uits wa s significantly higher than that of control fruits (fig. 1). hea t tr ea tment might ha ve a cceler a ted the physiological metabolism and hastened ripening in these fruits, which was slow in control. a hot water treatment of 54°±1°c for 5 minutes in alphonso fruits accelerated ripening and resulted in higher respiratory climacteric (laksminarayana, et al., 1974). at the last day of reading, highest respiration rate was observed in the combination treatment. the effect of temperature on the respiration rate can be directly related to chemical reactions where the rate of reaction increases exponentially with an increase in temperature (wills et al., 1989). ethylene production rate of hot water treated fruits and control fruits were measured upto 1 week under ambient condition (fig. 2). ethylene peak was seen on the sixth day, where control fruits showed a highest value followed by 48°c for 60 min + 55°c for 10 min, 55°c for 10 min and 48°c for 60 min treatments. among heat treatments, combination treatment had highest ethylene production rate and quarantine hwt recorded lowest. highest ethylene production in control fruits can be attributed to early onset of diseases like anthracnose and soft rot during storage, which was merely present in hw treated fruits. yimyong et al. (2011) reported similar results in room temperature ripening of hw treated mangoes after low temperature storage. hwt eliminated ripening related ethylene rise and suppressed ethylene 191 effect of hot water treatments on physiological and biochemical changes in mango and 48°c for 60 min + 55°c for 10 min treatment fr uits. mor e da ma ge due to secondary disea se development was seen in control fruits at the end of storage. hwt effectively reduced disease and pest development in tr ea ted fr uits a nd ma inta ined marketability even after 1 week. hwt combined with inorganic salts solution dips effectively reduced disease incidence and enhanced quality and storability of fruits till consumer end (dessa legn et al. , 2013). combination treatment, on the contrary, might have suffered more heat stress, leading to surface scald/ heat injury, providing inoculum for the development of diseases and hence, had maximum weight loss among hwts. table 1 represents the changes in chemical attributes viz., tss, acidity, ascorbic acid and total sugars with respect to the treatments. tss was more and acidity was less in hwts, when compared to control. this is because, hw treated fruits ripened faster than that of control resulting in higher tss during initial storage period. there was no negative effect on the ascorbic acid content of treated mango fruits. ascorbic acid was seen highest in t 3 and t 1. being most unstable vitamin, ascorbic acid content is affected by pre and post harvest treatments, heat treatments, storage dur ation etc. (kha der a nd lee, 2000). in this experiment, ascorbic acid content was maintained in hwts and during storage duration. it is the length of high temperature exposure during storage which may cause the loss of vitamin c and high temperature during hw treatment is only for shorter duration and so there was minimum loss of vitamin c. studies fig. 1 : effect of hot water treatments on respiration rate of mango cv. banganapalli stored at rt fig. 2 : effect of hot water treatments on ethylene production rate (µl c2h4/kg/h) of mango cv. banganapalli stored at ambient temperature fig. 3 : effect of hot water treatments on physiological loss in weight of mango cv. banganapalli stored at ambient temperature production during subsequent storage at ambient temperature. plw of fruits recorded upto 12 days of storage has been shown in fig. 3. there was a gradual increase in fr uits’ plw with storage dura tion, irrespective of the treatments. initially, the loss in weight was higher in hot water treated fruits. this might be attributed to the stress developed in those fruits after subjected to heat treatment followed by ambient storage further, the respiration rates of hw treated mangoes were also higher as depicted in fig.1. plw occurs in fruits due to many reasons, where membr ane disruption associated higher ra te of transpiration and water loss being one among them. the weight loss also depends on the temperature and duration of heat treatment (perini et al., 2017; vilaplana et al., 2018). after 9 days, the plw in control fruits rapidly increased and at the end of storage highest plw was observed in control fruits j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 189-194, 2023 192 t ab le 2 : e ff ec t of d if fe re nt h ot w at er t re at m en ts o n to ta l ca ro te no id c on te nt , to ta l ph en ol s an d to ta l an ti ox id an t ca pa ci ty o f m an go c v. b an ga na pa lli s to re d at a m bi en t te m pe ra tu re t re at m en t to ta l ca ro te no id c on te nt m ea n to ta l p he no ls m ea n to ta l a nt io xi da nt c ap ac it y m ea n ( µg /1 00 g) (t ) (m g g a e /1 00 g) (t ) ( m g a a e /1 00 g) (t ) 5 da ys 7 da ys 10 d ay s 5 da ys 7 da ys 10 d ay s 5 da ys 7 da ys 10 d ay s t 1: 48 °c f or 6 0 m in 11 97 .9 22 28 .9 21 39 .7 18 63 .8 42 .4 5 40 .4 6 40 .6 5 41 .1 9 42 .8 1 40 .6 4 39 .2 0 40 .8 8 t 2: 55 °c f or 1 0 m in 12 36 .7 22 06 .1 23 68 .5 19 37 .1 41 .4 8 39 .9 3 41 .1 9 40 .8 7 41 .6 2 40 .0 6 38 .0 1 39 .9 0 t 3: 48 °c f or 6 0 m in 99 1. 7 16 74 .8 22 42 .8 16 36 .5 40 .5 4 37 .4 2 42 .6 6 40 .2 0 37 .6 3 36 .0 7 34 .3 1 36 .0 0 + 55 °c f or 1 0 m in t 4: c on tr ol 12 61 .0 20 63 .0 21 90 .5 18 38 .2 40 .4 3 38 .2 4 34 .0 8 37 .5 8 37 .1 2 39 .2 6 36 .9 8 37 .7 9 (w ith ou t t re at m en t) m ea n (d ) 11 78 20 43 .2 22 35 .4 41 .2 2 39 .0 1 39 .6 4 39 .8 0 39 .0 1 37 .1 2 t d t xd t d t xd t d t xd f te st ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** s. e .m ± 43 .5 7 50 .3 1 87 .1 4 0. 57 0. 66 1. 14 0. 23 0. 27 0. 46 c d a t 5 % 12 7. 18 14 6. 85 25 4. 35 1. 66 1. 91 3. 31 0. 67 0. 78 1. 35 t ab le 1 : e ff ec t of d if fe re nt h ot w at er t re at m en ts o n t s s , ac id it y, a sc or b ic a ci d , to ta l su ga r of m an go c v. b an ga na p al li st or ed a t am bi en t te m pe ra tu re t re at m en t t ss m ea n a ci di ty m ea n a sc or bi c ac id m ea n to ta l su ga rs m ea n (° b ) (t ) (% ) (t ) (m g/ 10 0 g) (t ) (% ) (t ) 5 da ys 7 da ys 10 d ay s 5 da ys 7 da ys 10 d ay s 5 da ys 7 da ys 10 d ay s 5 da ys 7 da ys 10 d ay s t 1: 48 °c f or 6 0 m in 20 .6 7 21 .6 7 21 .6 0 21 .3 1 0. 47 0. 33 0. 25 0. 35 3. 20 5. 60 9. 47 6. 09 14 .8 9 13 .7 8 15 .0 8 14 .5 9 t 2: 55 °c f or 1 0 m in 21 .5 3 22 .0 7 19 .8 7 21 .1 6 0. 54 0. 34 0. 29 0. 39 3. 27 5. 13 6. 73 5. 04 12 .6 8 16 .4 7 15 .3 1 14 .8 2 t 3: 48 °c f or 6 0 m in 22 .1 3 21 .2 7 20 .5 3 21 .3 1 0. 53 0. 42 0. 32 0. 42 4. 27 6. 73 10 .3 3 7. 11 11 .5 1 14 .1 8 15 .8 9 13 .8 6 + 55 °c f or 1 0 m in t 4: c on tr ol 17 .8 3 19 .8 7 19 .4 7 19 .0 6 0. 63 0. 53 0. 50 0. 56 3. 87 5. 60 7. 00 5. 49 12 .8 4 15 .0 5 15 .9 8 14 .6 2 (w ith ou t tr ea tm en t) m ea n (d ) 20 .5 4 21 .2 2 20 .3 7 0. 54 0. 41 0. 34 3. 65 5. 77 8. 38 12 .9 8 14 .8 7 15 .5 6 t d t xd t d t xd t d t xd t d t xd f te st ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** s. e .m ± 0. 23 0. 27 0. 47 0. 01 0. 01 0. 02 0. 18 0. 20 0. 35 0. 18 0. 20 0. 35 c d a t 5% 0. 68 0. 79 1. 37 0. 03 0. 03 0. 06 0. 52 0. 60 1. 03 0. 52 0. 60 1. 04 j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 189-194, 2023 anand et al. 193 (djioua et al., 2009) reported the positive correlation between heat treatment and ascorbic acid content, sta ting, hea t tr eatment did not a ffect but a lso maintained the ascorbic acid content. hwts maintained the total sugars in fruits during storage. total sugars were highest in t2 and lowest in t3, which is the combination treatment (table 1). increased exposure to the heat in t3 might have denatured the enzymes responsible for the synthesis of sugars. papaya when immersed in hot water at 49°c for 90 min and 120 min acquired minimum sugar content due to the reduction of xylanal and polygalacturonase activity by reducing their synthesis (benjamin et al., 2018). other important bio-chemical parameters on which the effect of hwts studied includes total carotenoids, phenols and antioxidant capacity (table 2). total carotenoids were higher in t2, followed by t1 and then t4. here, the combination treatment, t3 recorded minimum carotenoids, though it had a higher peel colour. there was an elevated outcome on total phenols and antioxidant capacity in hwts than that of control. less antioxidant activity was seen in t3. the total antioxidant activity, levels of phenolic compounds and ascorbic acid were higher in heat treated-pomegranate (mirdehghan et al., 2005) and strawberries due to the stimulation of protective enzymes against oxidation (viente et al., 2006). conclusion hot wa ter tr ea t ment is one of t he pr omising methods to prevent fruit fly disinfestations and decay in mango during storage, though, there is concern regarding its effect on fruits’ storage life and quality. in the present experiment, hwts did not nega t iv ely a ff ec t t he p hys io logic a l a nd biochemical attributes. recommended hwts for fruit fly and anthracnose control, when applied alone enhanced the biochemical quality viz., higher sugar content and lower acidity, higher carotenoid c ont ent , p henolic s a nd a nt iox ida nt c a p a c it y compared to control fruits. the combination of these treatments did not give any positive results in ter ms of qua lity. sta nda lone h wt ca n be recommended as a potential, safe and non-chemical treatment to manage diseases, fulfil quar antine requirements, improve quality and stora ge life, aiding to quality fruits supply in local as well as international markets. acknowledgment the financial support by government of india, department of science and technology, as dstinspire fellowship, is gratefully acknowledged by the first author. authors also acknowledge icar-iihr for availing the laboratory facility. references anwar, r. and malik, a. u. 2007. hot water treatment affects ripening quality and storage life of mango (mangifera indica l.). pak. j. agric. sci. 44: 304-311. benjamin, y., clement, y. b., edith, n. k. and ka bla n, t. 2018. t he effect of ther ma l treatment (49°c-90 min) coupled with storage at 15°c on the infection rate, physicochemical and nutritional 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(received : 13.01.2023; revised : 27.03.2023; accepted 31.05.2023) j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 189-194, 2023 anand et al. 82 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 82-84, 2017 incidence of cetonid beetles, protaetia alboguttata (vigors) on karonda, carissa carandas p. d. kamala jayanthi1, vivek kempraj1 and b.n.s. murthy2 1division of entomology and nematology, 2division of fruit crops, indian institute of horticultural research, hesaraghatta lake po, bangalore 560 089 e-mail: jaiinsect@gmail.com abstract severe infestation of cetonid beetles, protaetia alboguttata (vigors) has been noticed on karonda at the experimental station of indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru during the year 2013. the mean damage on the ripe fruits was found to be 22.40+2.50% with a range of 15.00 – 30.00%. considering the polyphagy of cetoniids, these beetles can pose direct threat to the cultivation of karonda. key words: expanded host range, fruit pest, severe incidence ka r onda , carissa carandus l. is a n underutilized fruit plant which is gaining popularity as one of the ‘future crops’ to supplement nutritional needs. it is a hardy, evergreen, spiny and indigenous shrub widely grown in india and well suited for marginal lands. it naturally grows in nepal, afghanisthan, myanmar, thailand, peninsular malaysia and sri lanka low land rain forests. in india also it is found wild in the western ghats, konkan area of maharashtra, bihar, and west bengal and throughout the semi-arid regions of south india. nevertheless, regular commercial plantations of karonda are also very common in uttar pradesh, rajasthan, madhya pradesh and elsewhere. till to date there is no serious pest problem in karonda except for digama hearseyana, a defoliator in the early stages and simcronyx roridus, a gall forming weevil which were reported as minor pests (peter, 2007). the cetoniids are popularly called fruit and flower chafers, flower beetles and flower scarabs, belonging to subfamily cetoniinae (coleoptera: scarabeidae) comprising ~4000 species. many species are diurnal and visit flowers for pollen and nectar, or to browse on the petals, such play may have role in pollination. however, some species feed on fruits while some are termitophil. the genus protaetia that originates in asia includes some of a gr icult ur a lly imp or ta nt pest sp ecies viz. , p. acuminata, p fusca, p. orientalis r epor ted a s flower pests in mango, papaya etc. weekly survey in experimental orchards of indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru (12o58’n; 77o35’e), during april – june, 2013 revealed a severe incidence of cetoniid beetle, protaetia albogutta (vigor s) on r ipe ka r onda fr uits, c. carandus. beetles were found congregated and feeding on ripe fruits of karonda causing 15 -30% fruit damage during may-june fruiting period (fig.1). the beetles were found attracted to ripe fruits compared to unripe karonda fruits. the beetles fed on the flesh of the fruit by gouging with the horn in the front of the head and burying 3/4th of mouth parts in to the fruit (fig.1). their feeding damage and faecal matter ruined the fruit (fig. 1). the plants with damaged fruits were found to attract more beetles than plants with undamaged fruits. the field collected beetles were kept under caged conditions to monitor their feeding and breeding activities, by supplying ripe karonda fruits da ily along with moistened soil for egg laying (considering the egg laying habit of cetoniids in soil). inspite of the observed mating activity in the cages, egg laying was not noticed. in related species, p. fusca, studies indicated that oviposition occurred only when suitable substrate was available and resorption of eggs was common in females (simpson, 1990, kumbhar et al., 2012). earlier, occurrence of p. albogutta was reported for the first time from madhya pradesh, india as new r ecor d to the species diver sity of fa mily short communication 83 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 82-84, 2017 protaetia infestation on karonda carabaeidae (kailash chandra et al., 2012). a check list of cetoniidae of the palaearctic region mentioned the other species of genus protaetia viz., p. acanthi (from north east china), p. bellula (from yunnan, china), p. burmanica (from burma), p. cariana (from himalayan region, north india), p. coenosa (from north india), p. delavayi (from yunna n, china), p. laevicostata (fr om centra l china) and p. sakaiana (from northern vietnam) but not p. alboguttata restricting its geographical dis t r ib u t ion t o only i ndia a nd n ep a l ( www. gor o dins ki. r u / c hec klis t c e t o n i i d a e palea rctic. h tml ý; www. gbif. org/sp ecies /10 80673). its distribution on grass and flowering plants was reported by oliver e janson as early as 1905 in the ‘additions to the knowledge of the cetoniidae of br itish india ’ a s a common a nd gener a lly distributed indian species extending into ceylon (= sri lanka). the pestiferous nature of this cetoniid beetle wa s r ec or ded ea r lier on b r inja l, s o l a n u m melongena l. where they fed on the tender shoots, flowers and flower buds in the early morning and damage ranged from 60 – 80% (veeresh et al., 1980). recently, sekhar et al. (2000) found p. alboguttata infesting maize tassels during rainy season with characteristic aggregation habit. our subsequent surveys in nearby orchards showed that these beetles were also found damaging ripe fruits of carambola, averrhoa carambola. in near future, this beetle ca n pose serious thr ea t to ka ronda cultivation in india. acknowledgement authors thank dr v. v. ramamurthy, indian agricultural resear ch institute, new delhi for identifying the specimens and director, iihr for providing research facilities. fig.1. adult beetles of p. guttata moving on karonda plants (a); aggregation and feeding of beetles on ripe karonda fruits (b); typical gouging and feeding posture of beetle (c); damged karonda fruits (d); adult male and fe male beetles in dorsal (e) and ventral (f) views 84 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 82-84, 2017 kamala jayanthi et al references (ms received 01 may 2017, revised 15 may 2017, accepted 17 june 2017) kailash chandra, salma khan and devanshu gupta. 2012. new records to the species diversity of family scar abaeidae a nd hybosori da e (col eopt er a: scarabaeoidea) of jabalpur, madhya pradesh (india). academic journal of entomology 5 (1): 28-36. doi: 10.5829/idosi.aje.2012.5.1.6232 kumbhar, s. m., mamlavya, a. b. patil, s.j. and bhawane, g.p. 2012. biology of chiloloba orientalis. journal of insect science 12: 127. doi: 10.1673/031.012.12701 peter, k. v. 2007. underutilized and underexploited horticultural crops, vol 1, new india publishing, new delhi, 88, pp. 392 sekhar, j. c., sharma, r. k. and singh, n. n. 2000. incidence and distribution of flower eating beetles on maize zea mays l. indian j. entomology 62: 1-4. simpson gb. 1990. immature stages of protaetia fusca (herbst) (coleoptera: scarabaeidae: cetoniinae) with n ot es on bi ology. j ournal of a ust rali an entomological society. 29:67–73. veeresh, g. k., reddy, n. v., rajanna, c. 1980. cetoniid beetles as pests on brinjal (solanum melongena l.) in andhra pradesh. current research 9(3): 45-46. 00 content jh june 2017.pdf 00 sph-journal november new 12.pdf 01 sph-journal november new 01.pdf 02 sph-journal november new 04.pdf 03 sph-journal november new 05.pdf 04 sph-journal november new 07.pdf 05 sph-journal november new 09.pdf 06 sph-journal november new 10.pdf 07 sph-journal november new 11.pdf 08 sph-journal november new 13.pdf 09 sph-journal november new 03.pdf 10 sph-journal november new 06.pdf 11 sph-journal november new 08.pdf j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):111-113, 2013 short communication gerbera (gerbera jamesonii bolus ex. hooker f.), belonging to family asteraceae, is an important cut-flower grown for both domestic export markets. it is used in floral arrangements, flower beds, borders, pots and rock gardens. crop improvement programmes currently focus on developing of hybrid cultivars to boost productivity and profitability. genetic variability among parents is a prerequisite for selecting suitable parents in a breeding programme for various economic characters. several flower traits in gerbera have been examined using quantitative genetic approaches (chobe et al, 2010; anop kumari et al, 2011; rajiv kumar et al, 2012). genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation are useful in detecting the quantum of variability present in genotypes. the main purpose of estimating heritability and genetic parameters that compose heritability estimate is to compare the expected gains from selection based on alternative selection strategies (holland et al, 2003). therefore, information on variability, heritability and genetic advance is very important for selection of traits desired. the present study was undertaken to ascertain magnitude and extent of genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance with regard to quantitative traits for 13 genotypes of gerbera, to help identify potential traits for selection. studies on genetic variability in gerbera (gerbera jamesonii bolus ex. hooker f.) rajiv kumar division of ornamental crops indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bangalore 560 089 e-mail : rajiv@iihr.ernet.in abstract thirteen genotypes of gerbera were evaluated under naturally-ventilated polyhouse in completely randomized block design during the year 2011-12 to determine genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance for 15 quantitative traits, based on which selection may be made. analysis of variance showed significant differences among genotypes for all the characters studied. results revealed that magnitude of the phenotypic coefficient of variation (pcv) was higher than genotypic coefficient of variation (gcv) for all the traits, indicating greater genotype and environment interaction. high (>20%) pcv and gcv was observed for number of leaves/plant and leaf width. heritability estimates ranged from 24.03% (number of suckers/plant/year) to 93.5% (length of ray floret). high heritability (>60%) was observed for all traits except number of suckers/plant/year, flower diameter and flower-stalk diameter. high heritability, coupled with high genetic advance over per cent of mean, was observed for number of leaves/plant, leaf length, leaf width, days to bud-burst, days to first-flower opening, disc diameter, flower-stalk length, number of ray florets per flower head with length and width of ray florets. key words: gerbera, genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance the present study was carried out at division of ornamental crops, indian institute of horticultural research, hessaraghatta, bangalore during the year 20112012 in completely randomized block design, with six replications. experimental material consisted of 13 genotypes of gerbera, viz., ambeta, amelie, amlet, askye, cocuy, dameblanche, julia, muriel, naike, natasha, nuvola, sonata and top model. the experiment was conducted in a naturally ventilated polyhouse. tissue culture plants of all the genotypes were planted at 40 cm x 30 cm spacing, accommodating six plants/m2. uniform cultural practices were imposed on all the genotypes to ensure good growth of the crop. data were recorded on six plants from each genotype for 15 traits, viz., number of leaves/plant, leaf length (cm), leaf width (cm), plant spread (cm), number of suckers/ plant/year, days to bud-burst, days to first-flower opening, flower diameter (cm), disc diameter (cm), flower-stalk length (cm), flower-stalk diameter (mm), number of ray florets/ flower-head, length of ray florets (cm), width of ray florets (cm) and number of flowers/plant/month. phenotypic and genotypic co-efficients of variation were calculated using the procedure suggested by singh and choudhury (1985). heritability in the broad sense and genetic advance expressed in per cent of mean were calculated as per burton 112 (1952). statistical package ‘biostat iihr, version 1.0’ was used for statistical analysis. extent of variability was measured in terms of mean, range, genotypic coefficient of variation (gcv) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (pcv) along with per cent heritability (h2) and genetic advance over per cent mean and is presented in table 1. phenotypic coefficient of variation was higher than genotypic coefficient of variation for all the characters, indicating the role of environment in expression of the genotype. anop kumari et al (2011) and rajiv kumar et al (2012) also reported higher pcv than gcv for various traits. however, close correspondence was seen between gcv and pcv for some characters like leaf width, plant spread, days to bud-burst, disc diameter, flowerstalk length, and, length and width of ray florets, indicating little influence of environment on these characters. genotypic coefficient of variation helps to measure genetic variability with regard to a character and, therefore, it is not possible to partition existing heritable variation in a population based solely on this estimate. estimates of heritability in a broad sense give a measure of transmission of characters from one generation to another, thus, giving an idea about the heritable portion of variability which enables the plant breeder to isolate elite selections in the crop. heritability and genetic advance increase efficiency of selection in a breeding programme by assessing influence of the environmental factors, and additive gene action. high heritability (>60%) was observed for all the traits except number of suckers/plant/year, flower diameter and flower-stalk diameter, indicating a possible role of additive gene-action. magnitude of heritable variability is the most important aspect of genetic constitution of a genotype and has a close bearing on the response to selection (panse, 1957). similar findings were also reported by chobe et al (2010) and anop kumari et al (2011). heritability in the broad sense ranged from 24.03% (number of suckers/plant/ year) to 93.5% (length of ray floret). genetic advance (as per cent of mean) ranged between 5.21 (flower diameter) and 42.66% (leaf width). high genetic advance was observed for number of leaves/plant, leaf length, leaf width, days to bud-burst, days to first-flower opening, disc diameter, flower-stalk length, number of ray florets/flower head, and length and width of ray florets. moderate genetic advance was recorded for plant-spread and number of flowers/plant, while, number of suckers/plant, flower diameter and flowerstalk diameter recorded a low genetic advance. gcv and heritability (broad sense) do not suffice when determining the amount of variation that is heritable (burton, 1952). heritable variation can be determined with greater accuracy when heritability is studied along with genetic advance. heritability, along with genetic gain, is a more useful criterion for predicting resultant effects of selecting the best individual (johnson et al, 1955). high heritability, with high genetic advance, means that the character in question is governed by additive gene action (anop kumari et al, 2011). in the present study, number of leaves/plant, leaf length, leaf width, days to bud-burst, days to first-flower opening, disc diameter, flower-stalk length, table 1. mean, range, genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation, heritability and genetic advance for 15 traits in 13 genotypes of gerbera character mean ± sem range gcv pcv heritability genetic advance min. max. (%) (%) (%) over per cent of mean number of leaves/plant 10.98 ± 0.77 6.83 15.83 24.84 30.30 67.21 34.42 leaf length (cm) 37.50 ± 0.83 29.83 44.83 12.14 13.26 82.50 20.64 leaf width (cm) 15.00 ± 0.64 10.33 22.16 24.48 26.62 84.59 42.66 plant spread (cm) 62.69 ± 1.32 52.50 74.00 10.10 11.43 78.06 16.25 number of suckers/plant/year 1.50 ± 0.17 1.16 2.00 16.82 34.31 24.03 8.00 days to bud-burst 65.91 ± 1.60 56.16 97.33 15.76 16.86 87.37 28.37 days to first-flower opening 72.10 ± 1.63 62.16 105.33 14.96 16.01 87.29 26.90 flower diameter (cm) 10.74 ± 0.17 9.96 11.93 4.54 6.08 55.87 5.21 disc diameter (cm) 2.95 ± 0.06 2.30 3.78 15.98 16.80 90.49 29.83 flower-stalk length (cm) 57.39 ± 1.28 45.66 66.50 11.88 12.97 84.02 20.57 flower-stalk diameter (mm) 6.06 ± 0.22 5.25 7.05 8.34 12.08 47.63 8.25 number of ray florets/flower head 59.84 ± 2.43 38.83 84.66 17.85 20.30 77.31 28.44 length of ray florets (cm) 4.57 ± 0.06 3.78 5.59 13.49 13.95 93.50 26.03 width of ray florets (cm) 1.06 ± 0.02 0.84 1.44 17.13 17.93 91.29 32.07 number of flowers/plant/month 3.40 ± 0.07 2.80 3.85 9.02 10.71 71.05 13.23 gcv: genotypic coefficient of variation; pcv: phenotypic coefficient of variation j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):111-113, 2013 rajiv kumar 113 number of ray florets/flower head, and, length and width of ray florets showed high heritability with high genetic advance as per cent of mean. high heritability and high genetic advance for number of leaves per plant (anirban and dastidar, 2005; anop kumari et al, 2011), leaf width (rajiv kumar et al, 2012), disc diameter and stalk length (anuradha and gowda, 1999) have also been reported. high heritability with medium genetic advance as per cent of mean was observed for plant-spread and number of flowers/ plant/month, indicating the presence of dominant and epistatic gene effects. it can thus be inferring that these characters can be improved through hybridization. references anirban maji and dastidar, k.k.g. 2005. genetic variability and association of characters in gerbera (gerbera jamesonii) grown under open field condition. j. interacademicia., 9:481-486 anop kumari, patel, k.s. and choudhary, mahesh. 2011. genetic variability studies in gerbera. res. pl. biol., 1:1-4 anuradha, s. and gowda, j.v.n. 1999. quantitative genetic studies in gerbera. mysore j. agril. sci., 33:224227 burton, g.w. 1952. quantitative inheritance in grasses. proceedings of the 6th international grassland congress, pennsylvania, pa, usa, august 1952, 1:277-283 chobe, r.r., pachankar, p.b. and warade, s.d. 2010. studies on genetic variability and heritability in gerbera. asian j. hort., 5:356-358 holland, j.b., nyquist, w.e. and cervantes-martinez, c.t. 2003. estimating and interpreting heritability for plant breeding: an update. pl. breed. rev., 22:109-112 johnson, h.w., robinson, h.f.r. and comstock, r.e. 1955. estimation of genetic and environmental variability in soybean. agron. j., 47:314-318 nair, sujatha a. and shiva, k.n. 2003. genetic variability, correlation and path coefficient analysis in gerbera. j. orn. hort., 6:180-187 panse, v.g. 1957. genetics of qualitative characters in relation to plant breeding. ind. j. genet., 17:318328 rajiv kumar, deka, bidyut c. and venugopalan, r. 2012. genetic variability and trait association studies in gerbera (gerbera jamesonii) for quantitative traits. ind. j. agril. sci., 82:615–619 singh, r.k. and chaudhary, b.d. 1985. biometrical methods in quantitative genetic analysis. kalyani publishers, new delhi, p 318. (ms received 30 august 2012, accepted 21 march 2013, revised 23 march 2013) genetic variability in gerbera j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):111-113, 2013 introduction pumpkin (cucurbita moschata duch. ex poir) originated in central mexico and is cultivated in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. it is an important cucurbitaceous vegetable crop of india, constituting a principal ingredient in several indian dishes. pumpkin has received little attention in crop improvement compared to other cucurbitaceous vegetables. in pumpkin, the major problem is its large-sized fruits (4-5kg each). this is not overly preferred by the present nuclear families of three to four members. further, with increase in number of such families recently in india, customers prefer to buy only whole fruits of medium-size pumpkins, instead of cut pieces. further, small fruits are easily packed and transported, without any damage. therefore, developing pumpkin hybrids with small-to medium-sized fruits (2-3kg) is essential. the present study was undertaken to evaluate f1 hybrids for yield and quality for this purpose. material and methods the investigation was carried out at department of vegetable crops, horticulture college and research institute, tamil nadu agricultural university, coimbatore, during 2009-10, with 36 f1 hybrids (obtained by crossing 12 lines and 3 testers through line x tester mating design) along with the standard check, mph-1, from mahyco seeds (p) evaluation of f1 hybrids of pumpkin (cucurbita moschata duch. ex poir) for yield and quality n.a. tamil selvi, p. jansirani and l. pugalendhi1 department of vegetable crops, tamil nadu agricultural university coimbatore 641 003, india e-mail: tamilaaru@gmail.com abstract an investigation was carried out to study the performance of 36 hybrids of pumpkin (cucurbita moschata duch. ex poir) through line x tester mating design. observations were recorded on the traits, viz., vine length, days to first female flower appearance, node number for first female flower appearance, sex ratio, days to first harvest, fruit number per vine, fruit weight, flesh thickness and fruit yield per vine, besides quality traits such as total carbohydrate content, total carotenoid content and crude fibre content in the fruit. among the 36 hybrids of pumpkin studied, the cross ‘kasi harit x avinashi local’ excelled in yield per vine, followed by the crosses ‘vadhalagundu local x co-2’ and ‘narendra uphar x co-2’, respectively. thus, first generation hybrids can be well-utilized for exploiting hybrid vigour to achieve improved quality. key words: hybrids, pumpkin, evaluation, line x tester j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):187-194, 2013 ltd. field experiments with the hybrids were laid out in randomised block design, with three replications and seven plants per replication at a spacing of 2.5x2.5m 2. recommended package of practices of tnau was followed to grow a successful crop of pumpkin (anon, 1985). observations were recorded in five randomly selected plants in each replication on important quantitative traits, viz., vine length (m), days to first female flower appearance, node number for first female flower appearance, sex ratio, days to first harvest, fruit number per vine, fruit weight (kg), flesh thickness (cm) and fruit yield per vine (kg) besides quality traits such as total carbohydrate content (g/100g) (hedge and hofreiter, 1962), total carotenoid content (mg/100g) (roy, 1973) and crude fibre content of the fruit (%) (chopra and kanwar, (1976). statistical analysis of data was done to estimate per se values and degree of significance of various traits (panse and sukhatme, 1978). results and discussion in pumpkin hybrids exhibited significant differences for all the characters under study for growth, yield and quality, thus offering scope for selecting high-yielding hybrids with good quality traits. results of per se performance of hybrids are presented in tables 1 and 2. the sca effect of a hybrid denotes deviation from performance prediction based on gca of the parents (allard, 1960). the sca effect seen is 1tapioca and castor research station, yethapur, salem 636 119, india 188 due to dominance, epistasis and environmental influence. under certain favourable conditions, all the non-additive gene functions may be triggered and may result in high sca effect and mean value of a responding hybrid. thus, evaluation of a hybrid for high per se and sca effect is also an important criterion. hybrids with high per se and sca effect were evaluated for selecting the best hybrids. the gca and sca values of parents and hybrids are presented in tables 3 and 4, respectively. vine length is an important parameter for obtaining high fruit yield in crops like the pumpkin. among the 36 hybrids of pumpkin studied, the cross ‘ashoka farm aids x co-2’, followed by ‘karamadai local x avinashi local’ and ‘virudhachalam local x avinashi local’ exhibited high sca and mean performance for vine length. sharma et al (1993) recorded similar results in bitter gourd in the cross ‘pocha seed x pspl’. in these crosses, the parents, ashoka farm aids, karamadai local, virudhachalam local and the testers co-2 and avinashi local exhibited good general combing ability for vine length. a predominant role of nonadditive gene action for vine length in pumpkin was reported by sirohi and ghorui (1993) and nisha (1999). table 1. mean performance of f1 hybrids of pumpkin for growth parameters hybrid vine days to node sex days to no. of length 1st female number of ratio first fruits per (m) flower female flower harvest vine appearance appearance pusa vishwas x arka suryamukhi 2.78 52.87 16.12 18.50 120.75 2.62 pusa vishwas x avinashi local 3.39 52.62 17.75 19.65 127.62 1.37 pusa vishwas x co-2 4.52 50.87 19.62 19.21 125.87 1.25 punjab samrat x arka suryamukhi 2.88 48.12 19.87 17.85 126.50 3.62 punjab samrat x avinashi local 3.57 49.50 22.75 19.35 132.37 4.25 punjab samrat x co-2 4.65 47.12 21.75 19.60 134.25 3.37 narendra abhushan x arka suryamukhi 5.06 45.87 20.62 26.38 107.50 2.50 narendra abhushan x avinashi local 3.31 47.00 22.87 29.90 104.37 1.62 narendra abhushan x co-2 5.64 46.62 17.00 25.88 105.75 2.87 narendra uphar x arka suryamukhi 3.71 49.75 21.25 19.83 107.87 1.37 narendra uphar x avinashi local 2.38 47.37 23.50 19.97 107.12 2.50 narendra uphar x co-2 2.57 48.00 21.12 19.31 106.37 3.37 ambili x arka suryamukhi 3.64 49.87 20.00 24.97 110.62 2.25 ambili x avinashi local 3.27 51.00 21.87 23.95 112.00 2.00 ambili x co-2 5.21 46.12 21.37 23.10 115.75 2.37 virudhachalam local x arka suryamukhi 5.06 50.00 24.62 28.45 128.75 1.37 virudhachalam local x avinashi local 6.39 56.37 23.87 28.85 134.25 1.12 virudhachalam local x co-2 3.57 52.62 23.62 26.38 130.87 1.62 chakor x arka suryamukhi 5.51 55.75 22.75 19.80 119.87 3.37 chakor x avinashi local 4.24 52.75 24.87 20.21 105.87 3.12 chakor x co-2 4.25 48.50 20.87 19.85 112.62 4.37 ashoka farm aids x arka suryamukhi 3.71 46.75 25.62 20.15 122.75 2.87 ashoka farm aids x avinashi local 7.25 48.87 23.62 19.35 104.75 3.50 ashoka farm aids x co-2 8.55 52.00 23.50 20.01 104.12 2.87 vadhalagundu local x arka suryamukhi 3.31 45.50 20.75 18.12 103.87 4.25 vadhalagundu local x avinashi local 2.89 46.75 20.87 19.23 105.62 3.87 vadhalagundu local x co-2 4.36 43.75 15.37 16.30 100.62 8.50 karamadai local x arka suryamukhi 4.17 46.62 22.87 19.23 107.12 4.25 karamadai local x avinashi local 6.27 45.25 22.37 19.45 117.12 5.50 karamadai local x co-2 3.77 46.75 21.12 19.80 111.00 3.87 karwar local x arka suryamukhi 3.50 50.37 23.25 20.95 120.87 2.62 karwar local x avinashi local 5.31 54.50 24.75 21.75 114.75 2.87 karwar local x co-2 5.53 47.87 23.00 19.95 107.87 2.87 kasi harit x arka suryamukhi 3.79 44.62 22.12 18.91 109.12 3.12 kasi harit x avinashi local 5.81 42.00 13.87 13.31 101.75 7.37 kasi harit x co-2 4.97 45.87 22.00 18.75 105.00 4.12 mph-1 6.13 51.25 22.62 20.04 136.50 5.37 mean 4.41 48.78 21.47 21.00 114.26 3.19 sed 0.11 0.88 0.75 0.68 2.47 0.38 cd (p=0.05) 0.22 1.78 1.52 1.38 4.96 0.76 j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):187-194, 2013 tamil selvi et al 189 days taken to first female flower appearance is considered as one of the essential criteria for selecting for earliness in hybrids. among the 36 pumpkin crosses studied, the hybrid ‘kasi harit x avinashi local’ was identified as the best. however, the female parent, ‘kasi harit’, only had favorable negative gca value. neeraj sharma et al (2002) recorded similar results in bottle gourd. per se and sca performance for node number for first female flower appearance in the 36 crosses was favorable in ‘kasi harit x avinashi local’, followed by ‘vadhalagundu local x co2’ and ‘pusa vishwas x arka suryamukhi’. further it was also observed that the female parent, vadhalagundu local, also contributed to development of crosses with favourable, and negative and significant sca, for this trait. similar results of earliness in muskmelon were recorded in the hybrids ‘pusa madhuras x iihr-615-5-2’ and ‘rm-43 x durgapur madhu’ by aravindakumar et al (2005). selection of hybrid combinations in cucurbits with low sex ratio is preferable to get high fruit set and high yield. among the 36 pumpkin hybrids under study, hybrid ‘kasi harit x avinashi local’ followed by ‘vadhalagundu local x co-2’ recorded the lowest mean, coupled with negative table 2. performance of pumpkin hybrids for yield and quality hybrid fruit flesh total total crude fruit weight thickness carbohydrate carotenoid fibre yield (kg) (cm) content content content per vine (g per 100 g) (mg per 100 g) (%) (kg) pusa vishwas x arka suryamukhi 3.60 2.43 0.53 0.98 1.26 9.33 pusa vishwas x avinashi local 4.45 2.08 1.03 0.88 0.64 5.83 pusa vishwas x co-2 4.16 2.62 0.76 0.77 1.02 5.29 punjab samrat x arka suryamukhi 3.57 2.72 1.03 0.92 0.85 10.10 punjab samrat x avinashi local 3.76 2.98 1.73 1.31 0.89 13.44 punjab samrat x co-2 3.06 1.91 1.08 0.71 0.79 6.43 narendra abhushan x arka suryamukhi 2.57 2.22 1.17 0.98 0.98 6.42 narendra abhushan x avinashi local 2.78 2.65 1.25 1.02 0.88 4.49 narendra abhushan x co-2 4.11 3.05 1.20 0.90 1.17 11.02 narendra uphar x arka suryamukhi 3.27 2.18 1.11 0.82 0.99 4.70 narendra uphar x avinashi local 3.71 2.66 2.11 1.37 0.68 9.26 narendra uphar x co-2 4.08 2.10 1.14 0.96 1.19 13.74 ambili x arka suryamukhi 4.74 3.07 1.13 0.84 1.00 10.61 ambili x avinashi local 3.76 2.57 1.52 1.17 1.03 7.54 ambili x co-2 4.07 2.67 0.51 0.44 0.79 10.01 virudhachalam local x arka suryamukhi 4.51 3.08 1.44 0.95 1.01 6.92 virudhachalam local x avinashi local 4.59 3.01 1.66 1.30 0.95 6.16 virudhachalam local x co-2 4.09 2.98 1.19 0.85 0.89 6.74 chakor x arka suryamukhi 3.60 3.40 1.15 1.01 1.04 10.24 chakor x avinashi local 4.41 2.92 1.98 1.27 0.87 12.18 chakor x co-2 4.18 2.83 1.55 1.15 0.93 14.00 ashoka farm aids x arka suryamukhi 4.35 3.42 1.36 0.91 0.72 8.70 ashoka farm aids x avinashi local 3.35 3.52 1.79 1.40 1.30 10.30 ashoka farm aids x co-2 3.73 2.53 1.03 0.89 0.96 6.92 vadhalagundu local x arka suryamukhi 2.50 1.71 1.47 1.22 0.87 8.35 vadhalagundu local x avinashi local 2.58 1.73 2.08 1.78 0.82 6.23 vadhalagundu local x co-2 1.94 3.22 2.56 5.10 0.64 17.51 karamadai local x arka suryamukhi 3.32 2.80 1.95 1.53 0.75 9.46 karamadai local x avinashi local 2.39 2.48 2.93 2.11 0.92 10.03 karamadai local x c2 3.02 3.00 1.65 1.30 1.31 9.21 karwar local x arka suryamukhi 3.66 1.93 1.83 1.60 1.25 6.67 karwar local x avinashi local 2.66 2.50 3.05 3.24 0.93 8.77 karwar local x co-2 3.21 2.47 3.13 2.80 0.86 5.65 kasi harit x arka suryamukhi 2.09 2.46 2.54 2.16 1.17 6.00 kasi harit x avinashi local 2.22 3.55 3.07 3.57 0.77 18.01 kasi harit x co-2 2.40 2.28 2.88 2.68 1.05 8.25 mph-1 3.01 2.38 1.80 3.25 1.32 9.17 mean 3.46 2.66 1.65 1.46 0.94 9.04 sed 0.16 0.24 0.04 0.06 0.04 0.21 cd (p=0.05) 0.33 0.49 0.08 0.13 0.08 0.42 j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):187-194, 2013 evaluation of f1 hybrids of pumpkin for yield and quality 190 ta bl e 3. e st im at io n of g en er al c om bi ni ng a bi lit y (g ca ) ef fe ct s of p ar en ts f or v ar io us t ra it s in p um pk in so ur ce ch ar ac te rs v in e d ay s to n od e no . se x ra tio d ay s to n o. o f fr ui t fl es h to ta l to ta l c ru de fr ui t le ng th 1s t f em al e fo r 1 st 1s t ha rv es t fr ui ts w ei gh t th ic kn es s ca rb oh yd ra te ca ro te no id fib er yi el d fl ow er fe m al e pe r vi ne co nt en t co nt en t co nt en t pe r vi ne ap pe ar an ce fl ow er ap pe ar an ce li ne pu sa v is hw as -0 .8 5 ** 3. 35 ** -3 .6 0* * -1 .8 9 ** 10 .2 1* * -1 .3 8 ** 0. 61 * * -0 .2 8 ** -0 .8 8 ** -0 .5 9 ** 0. 03 -2 .2 0 ** pu nj ab s am ra t -0 .7 1 ** -0 .5 3 0. 02 -2 .0 7 ** 16 .6 3* * 0. 62 * * 0. 01 -0 .1 2 -0 .3 8 ** -0 .4 9 ** -0 .1 1 ** 0. 97 * * n ar en dr a 0. 26 * * -2 .2 8* * -1 .5 2* * 6. 38 * * -8 .5 4* * -0 .8 0 ** -0 .3 0 ** -0 .0 2 -0 .4 5 ** -0 .5 0 ** 0. 06 * * -1 .7 0 ** a bh us ha n n ar en dr a -1 .5 2 ** -0 .4 0 0. 32 -1 .3 0 ** -6 .8 8* * -0 .7 2 ** 0. 23 * * -0 .3 5 ** -0 .2 0 ** -0 .4 2 ** 0. 00 0. 22 * * u ph ar a m bi li -0 .3 7 ** 0. 18 -0 .4 3 3. 00 * * -1 .3 3 -0 .9 2 ** 0. 73 * * 0. 11 -0 .6 0 ** -0 .6 5 ** -0 .0 1 0. 37 * * v iru dh ac ha la m 0. 60 * * 4. 22 ** 2. 61 ** 6. 89 * * 18 .1 7* * -1 .7 6 ** 0. 94 * * 0. 37 * * -0 .2 3 ** -0 .4 4 ** 0. 00 -2 .4 1 ** lo ca l c ha ko r 0. 26 * * 3. 56 ** 1. 40 ** -1 .0 5 ** -1 .6 3 0. 49 * * 0. 61 * * 0. 39 * * -0 .0 9 ** -0 .3 3 ** -0 .0 0 3. 13 * * a sh ok a fa rm 2. 09 * * 0. 43 2. 82 ** -1 .1 7 ** -3 .8 8* * -0 .0 5 0. 35 * * 0. 50 * * -0 .2 6 ** -0 .4 0 ** 0. 04 * -0 .3 7 ** a id s v ad ha la gu nd u -0 .8 9 ** -3 .4 4* * -2 .4 3* * -3 .1 2 ** -1 1. 04 ** 2. 03 * * -1 .1 2 ** -0 .4 4 ** 0. 38 * * 1. 23 * * -0 .1 7 ** 1. 68 * * lo ca l k ar am ad ai 0. 33 * * -2 .6 1* * 0. 69 * -1 .5 1 ** -2 .6 7* 1. 41 * * -0 .5 5 ** 0. 10 0. 52 * * 0. 18 * * 0. 04 * 0. 55 * * lo ca l k ar w ar l oc al 0. 37 * * 2. 14 ** 2. 23 ** -0 .1 2 0. 08 -0 .3 4 * -0 .2 8 ** -0 .3 6 ** 1. 01 * * 1. 08 * * 0. 06 * * -1 .9 9 ** k as i h ar it 0. 45 * * -4 .6 1* * -2 .1 0* * -4 .0 2 ** -9 .1 3* * 1. 41 * * -1 .2 2 ** 0. 10 1. 17 * * 1. 34 * * 0. 05 * 1. 74 * * se d 0. 02 0. 39 0. 33 0. 29 1. 18 0. 16 0. 06 0. 09 0. 01 0. 02 0. 01 0. 03 te st er s a rk a -0 .4 8 ** 0. 06 0. 11 0. 09 -1 .3 0* -0 .2 8 ** 0. 02 -0 .0 4 -0 .2 6 ** -0 .3 1 ** 0. 04 * * -0 .8 9 ** su ry am uk hi a vi na sh i l oc al 0. 10 * * 0. 72 ** 0. 48 ** 0. 24 -0 .2 2 0. 05 -0 .0 7 * 0. 06 0. 36 * * 0. 23 * * -0 .0 6 ** 0. 34 * * c o -2 0. 39 * * -0 .7 8* * -0 .5 9* * -0 .3 3 * -1 .0 8 0. 23 * * 0. 05 -0 .0 2 -0 .1 0 ** 0. 08 * * 0. 02 0. 55 * * se d 0. 01 0. 19 0. 16 0. 14 0. 59 0. 08 0. 03 0. 04 0. 00 9 0. 01 0. 00 9 0. 01 *, * *s ig ni fi ca nt a t 5 % a nd 1 % le ve l, re sp ec tiv el y j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):187-194, 2013 tamil selvi et al 191 ta bl e 4. e st im at io n of s pe ci fi c co m bi ni ng a bi lit y (s ca ) ef fe ct s of c ro ss es f or v ar io us t ra it s in p um pk in h yb ri d v in e d ay s to n od e no . se x ra tio d ay s fr ui t fr ui t fl es h to ta l to ta l c ru de fr ui t le ng th 1s t m al e fo r 1 st to 1 st no . pe r w ei gh t th ic kn es s ca rb oh yd ra te ca ro te no id fib er yi el d fl ow er fe m al e ha rv es t vi ne co nt en t co nt en t co nt en t pe r vi ne ap pe ar an ce fl ow er ap pe ar an ce pu sa v is hw as x -0 .3 0 ** 0. 69 -1 .8 2* * -0 .7 1 -5 .5 5* 1. 15 * * -0 .4 9 ** 1. 00 * 0. 02 0. 41 * * 0. 24 * * 3. 40 * * a rk a su ry am uk hi pu sa v is hw as x -0 .2 7 ** -0 .2 2 -0 .5 7 0. 29 3. 22 -0 .4 2 0. 45 * * -0 .3 3 -0 .1 0 ** -0 .2 3 ** -0 .2 8 ** -1 .3 3 ** a vi na sh i l oc al pu sa v is hw as x 0. 56 * * -0 .4 7 2. 38 ** 0. 42 2. 33 -0 .7 3 * 0. 05 -0 .6 7 0. 08 * -0 .1 8 ** 0. 03 -2 .0 7 ** c o -2 pu nj ab s am ra t x -0 .3 4 ** -0 .1 8 -1 .6 9* * -1 .1 7 * -5 .8 4* * 0. 15 0. 08 -1 .8 3 ** 0. 01 0. 25 * * -0 .0 3 1. 00 * * a rk a su ry am uk hi pu nj ab s am ra t x -0 .2 3 ** 0. 53 0. 81 0. 18 1. 55 0. 45 0. 37 * * 0. 96 * 0. 09 * * 0. 10 0. 11 * * 3. 11 * * a vi na sh i l oc al pu nj ab s am ra t x 0. 56 * * -0 .3 5 0. 88 1. 00 4. 29 * -0 .6 1 * -0 .4 5 ** 0. 87 -0 .1 0 ** -0 .3 5 ** -0 .0 7 * -4 .1 1 ** c o -2 n ar en dr a a bh us ha n x 0. 87 * * -0 .6 8 -0 .1 5 -1 .0 9 * 0. 32 0. 44 -0 .6 1 ** -2 .8 3 ** 0. 23 * * 0. 32 * * -0 .0 7 * 0. 00 a rk a su ry am uk hi n ar en dr a a bh us ha n x -1 .4 6 ** -0 .2 2 2. 48 ** 2. 27 * * -1 .2 8 -0 .7 5 * -0 .3 0 * 2. 09 * * -0 .3 2 ** -0 .1 8 ** -0 .0 7 * -3 .1 6 ** a vi na sh i l oc al n ar en dr a a bh us ha n x 0. 58 * * 0. 90 -2 .3 3* * -1 .1 8 * 0. 96 0. 31 0. 91 * * 0. 74 0. 09 * * -0 .1 4 ** 0. 14 * * 3. 16 * * c o -2 n ar en dr a u ph ar x 1. 31 * * 1. 32 -1 .2 3* 0. 04 -0 .9 7 -0 .7 6 * -0 .4 4 ** 6. 17 * * -0 .0 8 * 0. 08 -0 .0 0 -3 .6 4 ** a rk a su ry am uk hi n ar en dr a u ph ar x -0 .6 0 ** -1 .7 2* 1. 27 * 0. 03 1. 05 0. 04 0. 09 -2 .9 1 ** 0. 30 * * 0. 09 -0 .2 1 ** -0 .3 1 ** a vi na sh i l oc al n ar en dr a u ph ar x -0 .7 1 ** 0. 40 -0 .0 3 -0 .0 6 -0 .0 8 0. 73 * 0. 35 * * -3 .2 6 ** -0 .2 2 ** -0 .1 7 ** 0. 22 * * 3. 96 * * c o -2 a m bi li x 0. 09 0. 74 -1 .1 1 0. 88 -2 .8 9 0. 32 0. 53 * * 1. 92 * * 0. 34 * * 0. 33 * * 0. 02 2. 11 * * a rk a su ry am uk hi a m bi li x -0 .8 7 ** 1. 32 0. 39 -0 .3 0 -0 .8 6 -0 .2 5 -0 .3 6 ** -3 .2 9 ** 0. 10 * * 0. 12 * 0. 15 * * -2 .1 9 ** a vi na sh i l oc al a m bi li x c o -2 0. 78 * * -2 .6 0* * 0. 72 -0 .5 8 3. 75 -0 .0 7 -0 .1 7 1. 37 * * -0 .4 5 ** -0 .4 5 ** -0 .1 7 ** 0. 07 v ir ud ha ch al am l oc al x 0. 54 * * -3 .0 6* * 0. 48 0. 47 -2 .6 4 0. 28 0. 09 0. 42 0. 27 * * 0. 23 * * 0. 02 1. 21 * * a rk a su ry am uk hi v ir ud ha ch al am l oc al x 1. 29 * * 2. 65 ** 0. 65 0. 72 3. 39 -0 .3 0 0. 26 * 3. 21 * * -0 .1 3 ** 0. 03 0. 06 -0 .7 9 ** a vi na sh i l oc al v ir ud ha ch al am l oc al x -1 .8 3 ** 0. 40 0. 17 -1 .1 8 * -0 .7 5 0. 02 -0 .3 6 ** -3 .6 3 ** -0 .1 4 ** -0 .2 6 ** -0 .0 8 * -0 .4 2 ** c o -2 c ha ko r x 1. 33 * * 3. 36 -0 .1 9 -0 .2 4 5. 78 ** 0. 03 -0 .4 9 ** -0 .6 7 -0 .1 5 ** 0. 18 * * 0. 05 -1 .0 1 ** a rk a su ry am uk hi c ha ko r x -0 .5 2 ** -0 .3 1 1. 56 ** 0. 02 -6 .7 0* * -0 .5 5 0. 42 * * -1 .6 8 ** 0. 06 -0 .1 1 * -0 .0 2 -0 .3 0 ** a vi na sh i l oc al j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):187-194, 2013 evaluation of f1 hybrids of pumpkin for yield and quality 192 c ha ko r x c o -2 -0 .8 0 ** -0 .3 6* * -1 .3 7* 0. 23 0. 92 0. 52 0. 07 2. 35 * * 0. 09 * -0 .0 7 -0 .0 3 1. 31 * * a sh ok a f ar m a id s x -2 .3 1 ** -2 .5 1* * 1. 27 * 0. 23 10 .9 1* * 0. 07 0. 52 * * 0. 04 0. 23 * * 0. 15 * * -0 .3 1 ** 0. 95 * * a rk a su ry am uk hi a sh ok a fa rm a id s x 0. 65 * * -1 .0 6 -1 .1 1 -0 .7 3 -5 .5 7* * 0. 37 -0 .3 9 ** 1. 21 * 0. 03 0. 10 * 0. 37 * * 1. 32 * * a vi na sh i l oc al a sh ok a fa rm a id s x 1. 66 * * 3. 57 ** -0 .1 6 0. 50 -5 .3 3* * -0 .4 4 -0 .1 3 -1 .2 6 * -0 .2 6 ** -0 .2 5 ** -0 .0 5 -2 .2 7 ** c o -2 v ad ha la gu nd u l oc al x 0. 27 * * 0. 11 1. 64 ** 0. 15 -0 .8 0 -0 .6 4 * 0. 14 1. 25 * -0 .3 0 ** -1 .1 7 ** 0. 05 -1 .4 6 ** a rk a su ry am uk hi v ad ha la gu nd u l oc al x -0 .7 2 ** 0. 69 1. 39 * 1. 11 * 2. 47 -1 .3 4 ** 0. 31 * -2 .3 3 ** -0 .3 2 ** -1 .1 5 ** 0. 11 * * -4 .8 1 ** a vi na sh i l oc al v ad ha la gu nd u l oc al x 0. 45 * * -0 .8 1 -3 .0 3* * -1 .2 5 * -1 .6 7 1. 98 * * -0 .4 4 ** 1. 08 * 0. 62 * * 2 .3 2 ** -0 .1 6 ** 6. 26 * * c o -2 k ar am ad ai l oc al x -0 .0 8 0. 40 0. 64 -0 .3 5 -5 .9 3* * -0 .0 1 0. 39 * * -0 .7 9 0. 04 0. 19 * * -0 .2 8 ** 0. 78 * * a rk a su ry am uk hi k ar am ad ai l oc al x 1. 44 * * -1 .6 4* -0 .2 3 -0 .2 8 5. 59 ** 0. 91 * * -0 .4 5 ** -0 .9 9 * 0. 39 * * 0. 23 * * -0 .0 1 0. 13 a vi na sh i l oc al k ar am ad ai l oc al x -1 .3 6 ** 1. 24 -0 .4 1 0. 64 0. 33 -0 .9 0 ** 0. 06 1. 79 * * -0 .4 3 ** -0 .4 2 ** 0. 30 * * -0 .9 0 ** c o -2 k ar w ar l oc al x -0 .7 9 ** -0 .6 0 -0 .5 2 -0 .0 2 5. 07 * 0. 11 0. 46 * * 0. 29 -0 .5 8 ** -0 .6 4 ** 0. 20 * * 0. 53 * * a rk a su ry am uk hi k ar w ar l oc al x 0. 43 * * 2. 86 ** 0. 60 0. 63 0. 47 0. 04 -0 .4 5 ** -2 .0 4 ** 0. 02 0. 46 * * -0 .0 2 1. 40 * * a vi na sh i l oc al k ar w ar l oc al x 0. 36 * * -2 .2 6* * -0 .0 8 -0 .6 0 -5 .5 4* * -0 .1 5 -0 .0 1 1. 74 * * 0. 56 * * 0. 18 * * -0 .1 7 ** -1 .9 3 ** c o -2 k as i h ar it x -0 .5 8 ** 0. 40 2. 68 ** 1. 83 * * 2. 53 -1 .1 4 ** -0 .1 7 -4 .9 6 ** -0 .0 2 -0 .3 4 ** 0. 13 * * -3 .8 6 ** a rk a su ry am uk hi k as i h ar it x 0. 85 * * -2 .8 9* * -5 .9 4* * -3 .9 2 ** -3 .3 2 1. 79 * * 0. 05 6. 09 * * -0 .1 2 ** 0. 54 * * -0 .1 7 ** 6. 92 * * a vi na sh i l oc al k as i h ar it x c o -2 -0 .2 7 ** 2. 49 ** 3. 26 ** 2. 09 * * 0. 79 -0 .6 5 * 0. 12 -1 .1 3 * 0. 15 * * -0 .2 0 ** 0. 04 -3 .0 5 ** se d 0. 05 0. 68 1. 88 0. 50 2. 05 0. 29 0. 11 0. 16 0. 03 0. 04 0. 03 0. 06 *, * *s ig ni fi ca nt a t 5 % a nd 1 % le ve l, re sp ec tiv el y h yb ri d v in e d ay s to n od e no . se x ra tio d ay s fr ui t fr ui t fl es h to ta l to ta l c ru de fr ui t le ng th 1s t m al e fo r 1 st to 1 st no . pe r w ei gh t th ic kn es s ca rb oh yd ra te ca ro te no id fib er yi el d fl ow er fe m al e ha rv es t vi ne co nt en t co nt en t co nt en t pe r vi ne ap pe ar an ce fl ow er ap pe ar an ce ta bl e 4. c on td . j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):187-194, 2013 tamil selvi et al 193 significant sca values. also, the lines ‘kasi harit’ and ‘vadhalagundu local’ and the tester co-2 rated as the better performing parents for developing hybrids with lower sex ratio values. shivanand hegde (2009) obtained similar results of low sex ratio in ridge gourd. earliness in terms of days to first harvest is an important criteria to select hybrids for commanding a premium price for fruits in the early markets. ‘vadhalagundu local x co-2’, followed by the other hybrids, ‘kasi harit x avinashi local’, ‘kasi harit x co-2’ and ‘vadhalagundu local x avinashi local’ could be selected as these best performing hybrids as they proved their superiority through per se and sca values for days to first harvest. similar trend of earliness was observed in ash gourd hybrids by joydip mandal et al (2002). the crosses ‘monsoon miracle x holly green’ and ‘the largest x indian prime’ gave significant and negative sca for days to first harvest in bitter gourd (pal et al, 1983). fruit number per vine is a preferable trait for screening the hybrids for high yield. the hybrids ‘vadhalagundu local x co-2’, ‘kasi harit x avinashi local’ and ‘karamadai local x avinashi local’ recorded highest per se values coupled with significant gca and sca effects for fruit number per vine. in this cross, as the female parent, ‘kasi harit’, ‘vadhalagundu local’ and ‘karamadai local’ already proved to be good general combiners for this trait. in pumpkin, uma maheshwari and hari babu (2005) reported higher fruit number per vine in ten crosses and five parents in a partial diallele analysis wherein the cross ‘cm-45 x cm-14’ showed highest per se performance and sca for this trait. fruit weight is a primary trait to be considered in any hybrid development programme, as, it directly contribute towards yield. in this study, of the 36 pumpkin hybrids studied, highest fruit weight and sca effect was registered by ‘ambili x arka suryamukhi’ followed by ‘virudhachalam local x avinashi local’. higher fruit weight in hybrids was reported by shivanand hegde (2009) in ridge gourd. however, lately, small-to medium-sized pumpkin fruits of 2-3kg weight each are preferred. in the present study, small to medium sized fruits of 2-3kg were seen in the hybrids ‘vadhalagundu local x co-2’, ‘kasi harit x avinashi local’ and ‘karwar local x avinashi local’. supporting evidence on less fruit weight of hybrids than their parents has been reported by nisha (1999) in pumpkin hybrid ‘p5 x p4’. however, gca value of ‘arka suryamukhi’ was positive, but non-significant. therefore, transgressive segregants can be identified which helps for cyclic selection. ‘arka suryamukhi’ was a poor combiner as a parent, while, both the female parents were good combiners for fruit weight. similar results were recorded by rao et al (2000) in ridge gourd. in pumpkin, flesh thickness is yet another important character determining market preference. the present investigation revealed that the hybrid ‘kasi harit x avinashi local’ possessed highest flesh thickness and sca among the thirty six hybrid combinations. the hybrids ‘ashoka farm aids x avinashi local’ and ‘ashoka farm aids x arka suryamukhi’ also recorded highest per se values coupled with significant sca effect for fruit flesh thickness. this is in accordance with the report of nisha (1999) in pumpkin involving twenty five crosses and five parents in a partial diallele analysis wherein the cross ‘p4 xp3’ showed highest per se performance and sca for flesh thickness. pumpkin is a good source of total carbohydrate content. in the present study, among the 36 hybrids of pumpkin studied, the cross ‘karamadai local’ x avinashi local’ followed by ‘karwar local x co-2’ can be selected as a good combination for developing hybrids with high carbohydrate content, as evidenced by their significant mean, gca and sca effects. suganthi (2008) also recorded similar results with reference to total carbohydrate content in bottle gourd hybrid ‘ic 362430 x punjab long’. exploitation of pumpkin as a source of carotene on an industrial scale is gaining momentum. among the thirty six hybrids under this study, highest per se, gca and sca values for total carotenoid content were observed in ‘vadhalagundu local x co-2’ followed by ‘kasi harit x avinashi local’ and ‘karwar local x avinashi local’. was found to be best crosses to develop hybrids with high total carotenoids content as adjudged by their mean, gca and sca effects. hazra et al (2007) showed similar results in pumpkin. it was also noticed that both the parents were responsible for developing hybrids with high total carotenoid content. development of superior hybrids with improved carotene content by using the best performing parents was also recorded by moon et al (2006) in muskmelon. presence of crude fibre in pumpkin fruit is a preferred quality trait. quantity of the crude fibre should be optimum at harvestable maturity. among the 36 crosses studied, ‘vadhalagundu local x co-2’ and ‘ashoka farm aids x avinashi local’ were found to be the best crosses for developing hybrids with high total crude fibre content, as adjudged by their mean values alone. similar results were observed in ridge gourd by shivanand hegde (2009) where the hybrid, ‘ic 393014 x ic 413592’, gave highest significant mean value for crude fibre content. j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):187-194, 2013 evaluation of f1 hybrids of pumpkin for yield and quality 194 expression of yield to the fullest potential of the crop is the prime trait to be considered in any hybridization programme. based on per se performance and sca of hybrids, the crosses ‘kasi harit x avinashi local’ followed by ‘vadhalagundu local x co-2’ and ‘narendra uphar x co-2’ proved to be the best specific combiners for yield. these proved their superiority with their per se, gca and sca values. choudhary et al (2006) also obtained similar results crosses ‘ms1 x punjab sunheri’ and ‘ms1 x hara madhu’ which exhibited highest sca effect and recorded highest fruit yield per vine. evaluation of hybrids for per se and sca revealed that the cross ‘kasi harit x avinashi local’ was the best hybrid, since, it recorded highest mean and sca effect for a greater number of traits under study, viz., earliness in terms of early female flowering, early node of female flower appearance, sex ratio, fruit number per vine, flesh thickness, total carotenoid content and total yield per vine. the next best hybrid, ‘vadhalagundu local x co-2’ can also be classified as among the better combinations owing to less node number for first female flower appearance, fruit number per vine, sex ratio, flesh thickness, total carotenoid content and fruit yield per vine. references allard, r.w. 1960. principles of plant breeding. john wiley and sons inc., new york, usa. aravindakumar, j.s., prabhakar, m., pitchaimuthu, m. and gouda, n. 2005. heterosis and combining ability studies in muskmelon (cucumis melo l.) for earliness and growth parameters. karnataka j. hort., 1:1219 chopra, r. and kanwar, s.l. 1976. analytical agricultural chemistry. kalyani publishers new delhi, india p:36 choudhary, b.r., fageria, m.s., sudhakar pandey and mathura rai. 2006. combining ability studies for economic attributes in muskmelon (cucumis melo l.). veg. sci., 33:185-187 hazra, p. and som, m.g. 2005. vegetable science. kalyani publishers, new delhi, india pp. 5-10 hedge, j.e. and hofreiter, b.t. 1962. in: carbohydrate chemistry 17, whistler r.l. and be miller, j.n. (eds), acadamic press, new york, usa joydip mandal, sirohi, p.s. and behera, t.k. 2002. genetical studies on flowering and fruit maturity in ash gourd [benincasa hispida (thunb) cogn.]. orissa j. hort., 30:40-42 kharitra, a.s., singh, n.j. and thakur, j.c. 1994. studies on combining ability in bitter gourd. veg. sci., 21:158162 maurya, i.b., singh, s.p. and singh, n.k. 1993. heterosis and combining ability in bottle gourd (lagenaria siceraria (mol.) stand l.). veg. sci., 20:77-81 moon, s.s., munshi, a.d., verma, v.k. and sureja, a.k. 2006. heterosis for biochemical traits in muskmelon (cucumis melo l.). sabrao j. breed. genet., 38:53-57 neeraj sharma, sharma, n.k. and malik, y.s. 2002. combining ability in long fruited bottle gourd. haryana j. hortl. sci., 31:79-82 nisha, s.k. 1999. genetic studies in pumpkin (cucurbita moschata duch. ex poir.) through diallele analysis. m.sc. (hort.) thesis, tamil nadu agri. univ., coimbatore, tn, india pal, a.b., doijode, s.d. and biswas, s.r. 1983. line x tester analysis of combining ability in bitter gourd (momordica charantia l.). s. indian hort., 42:1821 panse, v.g. and sukhatme, p.v. 1978. statistical methods for agricultural workers. i.c.a.r., new delhi, india rao, b.n., rao, p.v. and reddy, y.n. 2000. combining ability studies in ridge gourd [luffa acutangula (roxb.) l.]. int’l. j. tropical agri., 18:141-146 roy, s.k. 1973.a simple and rapid method of estimation of total carotenoid pigment in mango. j. food sci. tech., 10:45 sharma, n.k., dhankhar, b.s. and tewaria, a.s. 1993. line x tester analysis for combining ability studies in bottle gourd – a note. haryana j. hortl. sci., 22:324-327 sirohi, p.s. and ghorui, s. 1993. gene effects of certain quantitative characters in pumpkin. veg. sci., 20:158162 shivanand hegde. 2009. studies on heterosis in ridge gourd. m.sc. thesis, tamil nadu agri. univ., coimbatore, tn, india suganthi, m. 2008. line x tester analysis in bottle gourd (lagenaria siceraria m.) m.sc. thesis, tamil nadu agri.univ., coimbatore, tn, india uma maheshwari and hari babu, k. 2005. combining ability for yield and its components in f3 generation of pumpkin (cucurbita moschata duch. ex poir.). madras agri. j., 92:288-292 (ms received 05 october 2012, revised 16 november 2013, accepted 22 november 2013,) j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):187-194, 2013 tamil selvi et al introduction ridge gourd [luffa acutangula roxb. (l.)] is one of the most important vegetables grown throughout the year in all the tropical regions of our country, and, in asian and african countries. it is rich in vitamin a, c and iron (fe) (yawalkar, 1985). average productivity (kg/ha) in gourds (9.5t/ha) in india is lower than the world average (12.5t/ ha), falling far below the productivity achieved by developed countries. the main reasons attributed for this is lack of availability of improved varieties/hybrids, quality seeds and improved production technologies. yield is a complex trait influenced by genetic factors and their interaction with the environment. success in any breeding programme depends upon the existing genetic variability in base-populations, and, on the efficiency of selection. for successful selection, it is necessary to study the nature of association of the trait of interest with other, relevant traits, as also the genetic variability available for these. path coefficient analysis provides a better index for selection than mere correlation coefficient, thereby separating correlation coefficient of the yield and its components into direct and indirect effects. j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):154-158, 2015 genetic variability, correlation and path analysis in ridge gourd [luffa acutangula (roxb.) l.] b. varalakshmi, m. pitchaimuthu, e. sreenivas rao, k.s. sanna manjunath and s.h. swathi division of vegetable crops icar-indian institute of horticultural research hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru-560 089, india e-mail: bvl@iihr.ernet.in abstract the present investigation was made to determine variability, heritability, genetic advance and correlation of fruit yield with 10 yield-contributing traits in ridge gourd. a wide variability was observed for days taken to first femaleflower appearance, fruit length, fruit number/plant, fruit weight and fruit yield/ha. phenotypic coefficient of variation was higher than genotypic coefficient of variation for all the traits studied, indicating environmental influence on the expression of these traits. however, high heritability (broad-sense), along with high genetic advance, was recorded in node number at which first female-flower appeared, number of branches, fruit length, number of fruits/plant and fruit weight, indicating presence of additive gene effects. fruit yield/ha was significantly and positively associated with peduncle length, fruit length, number of fruits/plant (at the phenotypic level), fruit weight and fruit yield/plant. fruit weight had the highest direct effect (0.847) on fruit yield/ha, followed by fruit yield/plant (0.793), fruit number (0.344), peduncle length (0.237) and number of branches (0.216). therefore, for yield improvement in ridge gourd, emphasis may be laid on indirect selection using fruit parameters like fruit weight, number of fruits/plant and fruit yield/plant. key words: ridge gourd, luffa acutangula (roxb) l., genetic variability, heritability, correlation path analysis therefore, the present study was undertaken to assess the nature and magnitude of variability, heritability, correlation coefficient and path analysis for various quantitative parameters in ridge gourd. information generated on these aspects can greatly help formulate appropriate breeding strategies for genetic upgradation of this crop. material and methods the experiments were carried out at vegetable farm, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, during the rabi-summer season of the years 2011-12, 201213 and 2013-14. the experiments were laid out in randomized block design, with 51 germplasm lines in two replications, in all the three years. ten plants per replication were raised. two-week-old seedlings were planted at 150cm x 50cm spacing. recommended agronomic practices were applied to the crop. observations were recorded on five randomly-selected plants in each replication, on 10 quantitative traits (node number for first female-flower appearance, days taken to first female-flower appearance, vine length (m), number of branches, peduncle length (cm), 155 genetic variability, correlation and path analysis in ridge gourd fruit length (cm), fruit girth (cm), number of fruits /plant, fruit weight (g), fruit yield/plant (kg) or fruit yield/ha (t). pooled data for the three years was analyzed as per panse and sukhatme (1984) for analysis of variance (anova). phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation (pcv and gcv, respectively), heritability in a broad sense, and genetic advance as per cent of mean, were calculated as per burton and de vane (1953) and johnson et al (1955). correlation co-efficient among all the possible character combinations at genotypic (rg) and phenotypic (rp) levels were estimated using the formula of al-jibouri et al (1958) and path coefficient analysis was done as per dewey and lu (1959). genres statistical software package (genres, 1994) was employed for analysis of variance and estimation of correlation among traits. results and discussion mean, range and estimates for various genetic parameters of 10 traits in 51 germplasm lines of ridge gourd studied are presented in table 1. analysis of variance revealed significant difference among germplasm lines for all the 10 traits studied. a wide range of variation was observed for most of the traits like days taken to first femaleflower appearance (37.0-66.4), fruit length (10.5-41.3cm), number of fruits/plant (4.7-33.8), fruit weight (79.8-300.8g), and fruit yield/ha (8.5-37.9 t). high variability present for these parameters can form a basis for effective selection of superior lines in ridge gourd. such wide variability has also been reported by choudhary and suresh kumar (2011) in this crop. the degree of variability seen in various parameters can be judged by the magnitude of gcv and pcv. gcv, which indicates the extent of genetic variability present in a population, ranged from 11.0 (days taken to first female-flower appearance) to 39.8 (number of fruits / plant). similar findings were reported by varalakshmi et al (1995), singh et al (2002) and choudhary et al (2008) in ridge gourd. table 1 shows that a considerable difference exists between pcv and gcv values for all the traits under study. this points to the presence of higher environmental influence on expression of all these parameters, and, selection may not be effective for improvement of ridge gourd. further, gcv values were low in magnitude compared to pcv values for all the characters studied. this also indicates that direct selection may not be effective for these traits, and heterosis breeding may be resorted to for further improvement. with help from gcv alone, it is not possible to determine the extent of variation heritable. thus, estimates for heritability indicate the effectiveness with which selection can be expected for exploiting existing genetic variability. broad-sense heritability was high (>60%) for node number for first female-flower appearance (74.3%), number of branches (80.8%), fruit length (78.6%), number of fruits/ plant (66.7%) and fruit weight (72.8%). similar findings were reported by varalakshmi et al (1995), karuppaiah et al (2002) and singh et al (2002) in ridge gourd. moderate heritability (40-60%) was observed for days taken to first female-flower appearance (49.2%), vine length (58.2%), peduncle length (57.4%), fruit yield/plant (57.7%), and fruit yield/ha (56.8%) (table 1). johnson et al (1955) reported that heritability, along with genetic advance, was more useful than heritability alone in predicting the effect of selecting the best individual genotype, as, it suggests presence of additive gene effects. in the present study, high heritability, table 1. mean, coefficient of variation, heritability and genetic advance for various traits in ridge gourd sl. trait mean range genotypic phenotypic genotypic phenotypic heritagenetic ga no. variance variance coefficient of coefficient bility advance as % (gv) (pv) variation of variation (h2) (ga) mean (gcv) (pcv) 1 nff 9.8 5.319.9 8.6 11.5 29.9 34.7 74.3 5.2 53.1 2 dff 47.7 37.066.4 27.6 56.1 11.0 15.7 49.2 7.6 15.9 3 vine length (m) 3.9 2.26.5 0.8 1.4 23.6 30.9 58.2 1.4 37.0 4 number of branches 6.9 2.913.3 7.3 9.0 39.0 43.4 80.8 5.0 72.3 5 peduncle length (cm) 8.2 4.912.7 3.1 5.3 21.3 28.1 57.4 2.7 33.3 6 fruit length (cm) 22.5 10.541.3 60.9 77.5 34.7 39.1 78.6 14.2 63.4 7 fruit girth (cm) 11.8 8.116.9 2.8 8.8 14.1 25.2 31.5 1.9 16.4 8 number of fruits /plant 13.6 4.733.8 29.2 43.8 39.8 48.8 66.7 9.1 67.0 9 fruit weight (g) 169.8 79.8-300.8 2915.4 4004.1 31.8 37.3 72.8 94.9 55.9 10 fruit yield/plant (kg) 1.8 0.62.8 0.2 0.4 26.6 35.0 57.7 0.7 41.7 11 fruit yield/ha (t) 23.3 8.537.9 37.3 65.8 26.2 34.8 56.8 9.5 40.7 nff: node number for first female flower appearance; dff: days taken to first female flower appearance j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):154-158, 2015 156 along with a high genetic advance, was recorded in node number for first female-flower appearance, number of branches, fruit length, number of fruits/plant and fruit weight, indicating the presence of additive gene effects. thus, selection can be employed for improvement in these parameters in ridge gourd. fruit yield/plant and fruit yield/ ha recorded moderate levels of heritability and genetic advance. this suggests that environmental effects constitute a major factor for total phenotypic variation, and therefore, direct selection for these traits would be less effective. similar findings were reported by choudhary and suresh kumar (2011) in ridge gourd. all possible correlation coefficients between fruit yield/ha and its component traits were estimated at the genotypic (g) and phenotypic (p) level (table 2). from these associations, it appears that higher fruit yield/ ha was significantly and positively associated with peduncle length, fruit length, number of fruits/plant (at the phenotypic level only), fruit weight and fruit yield/plant. in the present investigation, interrelations among these parameters were also seen to be positive and significant. fruit length exhibited a positive and significant association with fruit weight and fruit yield/plant, and, a negative association with fruit girth and number of fruits/plant. number of fruits/plant had significant positive association with fruit yield/plant, and fruit weight/plant. this implies that indirect selection for all these traits can help improve fruit yield in ridge gourd. these results are in conformity with varalakshmi et al (1995), rao et al (2000), chowdhury and sharma (2002), prasanna et al (2002), choudhary et al (2008), hanumegowda et al (2012) and rabbani et al (2012) in ridge gourd. though correlation analysis can quantify the degree of association between any two characters, it does not provide the reasons for such an association. simple linear correlation coefficient is designed to detect presence of linear association between two variables. this does not imply absence of any functional relationship between the two variables. path coefficient analysis resolves this mystery by breaking the ‘total correlation’ into components of direct and indirect effects. thus, path analysis was performed to assess direct and indirect effects of various characters on fruit yield/ha (table 3). fruit weight had the highest direct effect (0.847) on fruit yield/ha, followed by fruit yield/plant (0.793), number of fruits/plant (0.344), peduncle length (0.237) and number of branches (0.216) (choudhary et al, 2008). indirect effects of most other parameters through table 2. genotypic (rg) and phenotypic (rp) correlation coefficient among various traits in ridge gourd trait nff dff vine number peduncle fruit fruit number fruit fruit fruit length of length length girth of fruits/ weight yield/ yield/ (m) branches (cm) (cm) (cm) plant (g) plant ha (t) (kg) nff (rg) 1.000 0.790** 0.674** 0.513** 0.461** 0.508** -0.280* -0.580** 0.646** -0.135 -0.179 (rp) 1.000 0.522** 0.478** 0.396** 0.311* 0.439** -0.145 -0.590** 0.470** -0.136 -0.180 dff (rg) 1.000 0.500** 0.465** 0.381** 0.372** -0.296* -0.600** 0.519** -0.137 -0.181 (rp) 1.000 0.261 0.346* 0.257 0.265 -0.297* -0.610** 0.348* -0.138 -0.182 vine (rg) 1.000 0.599** 0.717** 0.682** -0.298* -0.620** 0.780** 0.240 0.195 length(m) (rp) 1.000 0.471** 0.471** 0.505** -0.299* -0.600** 0.592** 0.203 0.213 number of (rg) 1.000 0.450** 0.521** -0.300* -0.640** 0.573** -0.028 0.019 branches (rp) 1.000 0.299* 0.399** -0.301* -0.650** 0.480** 0.043 0.078 peduncle (rg) 1.000 0.902** -0.302* -0.660** 0.919** 0.529** 0.503** length (cm) (rp) 1.000 0.755** -0.303* -0.670** 0.682** 0.377** 0.392** fruit length (rg) 1.000 -0.304* -0.680** 0.961** 0.401** 0.391** (cm) (rp) 1.000 -0.305* -0.690** 0.823** 0.277* 0.279* fruit girth (rg) 1.000 -0.700** -0.239 -0.085 -0.186 (cm) (rp) 1.000 0.174 -0.201 0.027 -0.187 number of (rg) 1.000 -0.745** 0.143 0.223 fruits /plant (rp) 1.000 -0.551** 0.282* 0.328* fruit (rg) 1.000 0.292* 0.279* weight (g) (rp) 1.000 0.276* 0.284* fruit yield/ (rg) 1.000 0.948** plant (kg) (rp) 1.000 0.903** fruit yield/ (rg) 1.000 ha (t) (rp) 1.000 **significant at p=0.01, *significant at p=0.05 nffnode number for first female-flower appearance; dffdays taken to first female-flower appearance varalakshmi et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):154-158, 2015 157 table 3. direct and indirect effects of various traits on fruit yield/plant at the genotypic level in ridge gourd trait nff dff vine number of peduncle fruit fruit number fruit fruit genotypic length branches length length girth of fruits/ weight yield/ correlation (m) (cm) (cm) (cm) plant (g) plant (kg) nff -0.144 -0.036 -0.211 0.111 0.110 -0.300 0.051 -0.200 0.547 -0.107 -0.179 dff -0.114 -0.045 -0.157 0.100 0.091 -0.220 0.053 -0.206 0.439 -0.272 -0.181 vine -0.097 -0.023 -0.313 0.129 0.170 -0.402 0.049 -0.170 0.661 0.190 0.195 length (m) number of -0.074 -0.021 -0.188 0.216 0.107 -0.307 -0.004 -0.172 0.485 -0.022 0.019 branches peduncle -0.067 -0.017 -0.225 0.097 0.237 -0.532 0.021 -0.210 0.779 0.419 0.503** length (cm) fruit -0.073 -0.017 -0.214 0.112 0.214 -0.590 0.048 -0.221 0.814 0.317 0.391** length (cm) fruit 0.040 0.013 0.085 0.005 -0.028 0.156 -0.181 -0.008 -0.202 -0.067 -0.186 girth (cm) number of 0.084 0.027 0.155 -0.108 -0.145 0.379 0.004 0.344 -0.631 0.114 0.223 fruits /plant fruit -0.093 -0.023 -0.245 0.124 0.218 -0.567 0.043 -0.257 0.847 0.232 0.279* weight (g) fruit yield/ 0.019 0.016 -0.075 -0.006 0.126 -0.236 0.015 0.049 0.248 0.793 0.948** plant (kg) **significant at p=0.01, *significant at p=0.05 figures on the diagonal in bold font indicate direct effect nffnode number for first female-flower appearance; dffdays taken to first female-flower appearance these stated parameters were also positive. similarly, rabbani et al (2012) from bangladesh reported fruit weight and number of fruits as having the maximum direct effect on fruit yield in ridge gourd. rest of the parameters such as node-number for first female-flower appearance, days taken to first-flower appearance, vine length, fruit length and fruit girth exhibited a negative direct effect on fruit yield/ha; indirect effects via these parameters were also negative for several of the traits. positive direct and indirect effects of fruit weight, fruit yield/plant and fruit number lead to the significant and positive correlation with fruit yield/ha. this indicates that the positive selection for these parameters is going to contribute to higher fruit yields in ridge gourd. therefore, for yield improvement in ridge gourd, emphasis is to be laid on indirect selection using fruit parameters like fruit weight, fruit number and fruit yield/ plant. references al-jibouri, h.h., miller, p.a. and robinson, h.f. 1958. genotypic and environmental variances and covariances in upland cotton crosses of interspecific origin. agron. j., 50:633-637 burton, g.w. and de vane, e.w. 1953. estimating heritability in tall fescue (festuca arundinacea) from replicated clonal material. agron. j., 45:478-81 chowdhury, d. and sharma, k.c. 2002. studies on variability, heritability, genetic advance and correlation in ridge gourd (luffa acutangula roxb.). hort. j., 15:53-58 choudhary, b.r., pandey, s., bhardwaj, d.r., yadav, d.s. and rai, m. 2008. component analysis for quantitative traits in ridge gourd [luffa acutangula (roxb) l.]. veg. sci., 35:144-147 choudhary, b.r. and suresh kumar. 2011. genetic analysis in ridge gourd [luffa acutangula (roxb) l.] under hot arid conditions. indian j. arid hort., 6:55-58 dewey, d.r. and lu, k.h. 1959. a correlation and path coefficient analysis of components of crested wheat grass seed production. agron. j., 51:515-518 genres. 1994. data entry module for genres statistical software pascal int’l. software solution, version 3.11 hanumegowda, k., shirol, a.m., mulge, r., shantappa, t. and prasadkumer. 2012. correlation coefficient studies in ridge gourd [luffa acutangula (roxb) l.]. karnatka j. agril. sci., 25:160-162 johnson, h.w., robinson, h.f. and comstock, r.e. 1955. estimates of genetic and environmental variability in soybean. agron. j., 47:314-318 karuppaiah, p., kavitha, r. and senthilkumar, p. 2002. studies on variability, heritability and genetic advance in ridge gourd. indian j. hort., 59:307-312 panse, v.g. and sukhatme, p.v. 1984. statistical methods genetic variability, correlation and path analysis in ridge gourd j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):154-158, 2015 158 for agricultural workers. indian council of agricultural research, new delhi, india prasanna, s.c., krishnappa, k.s. and reddy, n.s. 2002. correlation and path coefficient analysis studies in ridge gourd. curr. res., univ. agril. sci., bengaluru, 31:150-152 rabbani, m.g., naher m.j. and hoque, s. 2012. variability, character association and diversity analysis of ridge gourd (luffa acutangula roxb.) genotypes of bangladesh. saarc j. agri., 10:01-10 rao, b.n., rao, p.v. and reddy, b.m.m. 2000. correlation and path analysis in the segregating population of ridge gourd (luffa acutangula (roxb.) l.). crop res., 20:338-342 singh, r.p., mohan, j. and singh, d. 2002. studies on genetic variability and heritability in ridge gourd. agril. sci. digest, 22:279-280 varalakshmi, b., rao, p.v. and reddy, y.n. 1995. genetic variability and heritability in ridge gourd (luffa acutangula). indian j. agril. sci., 65:608-610 yawalkar, k.s. 1985. vegetable crops of india (3rd edition). agri. horticultural publishing house, nagpur 440010, india, pp. 166-170 (ms received 05 june 2015, revised 01 october 2015, accepted 19 october 2015) varalakshmi et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):154-158, 2015 introduction the growing interest about potential health-promoting effects of antioxidants in everyday foods, combined with an assumption that a number of common, synthetic antioxidant preservatives may have harmful effects (krishnakumar and gordon, 1996) has led research and development to focus on the field of natural antioxidants. natural antioxidants, particularly from fruits and vegetables, have gained increasing interest among both the consumer and the scientific research community, because, recent developments in epidemiological studies have indicated that frequent consumption of natural antioxidants is associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer (renaud et al, 1998; temple, 2000). different assays have been introduced for measuring antioxidant capacity of foods and a variety of biological samples. the concept of antioxidant capacity first originated from chemistry, and was later adapted to biology, medicine, epidemiology and nutrition (prior and cao, 1999; pellegrini antioxidant activity in pulp and peel of three mango varieties deepa madalageri, p.c. bharati, v.orsat1, v. raghavan1 and udaykumar kage2 department of food science and nutrition college of rural home science university of agricultural sciences, dharwad, india 580005 e-mail: madalagerideepa2@gmail.com abstract the aim of the present study was to estimate the content of total polyphenols and flavonoids and to investigate in-vitro antioxidant potential of methanolic extracts of peel and pulp in three indian mango varieties. antioxidant activity was assessed using [2,2’-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid)] abts+ assay, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (dpph) assay, ferric-reducing ability of plasma (frap) assay, and phosphomolybdate assay for total antioxidant capacity (tac). total phenolic and flavonoid content was also determined, and expressed in gallic acid equivalent (gae) and quercetin equivalent (qe), respectively. results of this study indicated that methanolic extracts of mango peel had significantly higher antioxidant activity compared to that of pulp (29.69 and 3.12), irrespective of the method or variety used. free radical scavenging and antioxidant activity may be attributed to presence of phenolic (24.61mg gae/g dm in the peel and 2.01mg gae/g dm in the pulp) and flavonoid compounds (24.95mg qe/g dm in the peel and 16.15mg e/g dm in the pulp). antioxidant activity determined by abts, dpph and frap assays in mango peel was significantly higher than in the mango pulp (24.95 1.96mg te /g dm, 23.68 versus 4.60mg bha/g dm and 40.52 versus 2.781mg te/g dm), respectively. results for scavenging activity against dpph were 96.18% for the peel and 23.86% for the pulp, while, free radical scavenging activity results using abts+ assay were 99.62% in the peel and 13.46% in the pulp. our study justifies research in processing of mango peel into useful, functional food ingredients (powders or extracts). key words: total polyphenols, flavonoids, bioactive compounds, edible waste, antioxidant activity j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):199-209, 2015 et al, 2003; floegel et al, 2011). it describes the ability of redox molecules in foods and biological systems to scavenge free radicals. antioxidant capacity of any food is due to a mixture of various antioxidant compounds through different mechanisms; therefore, antioxidant capacity of any food product must be evaluated with a variety of methods (pérezjiménez et al, 2008). in the recent years, a wide range of spectrophotometric assays has been adopted to measure antioxidant capacity of foods, the most popular being 2,2’azino-bis-3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (abts) and 1,1’-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (dpph) assay, among others (such as oxygen radical absorbance capacity (orac) and ferric reducing ability of plasma (frap) assays) (brandwilliams et al, 1995; van den berg et al, 1999; re et al, 1999; ou et al, 2002; kim et al, 2003; thaipong et al, 2006). most assays employ the same principle: a synthetic, coloured radical or redox-active compound is generated; thereafter, the ability of a biological sample to scavenge the radical or to reduce the redox-active compound is monitored by a spectrophotometer while applying an appropriate standard 1department of bio-resource engineering, 2department of plant science, macdonald campus, mcgill university, qc, canada h9x 3v9 200 to quantify the antioxidant capacity. the most widely-used methods are abts and dpph radicals (kuskoski et al, 2005; ali et al, 2008; almeida et al, 2011). mango is a seasonal fruit processed into various products such as puree, nectar, leather, pickles, canned slices, etc., which have worldwide popularity (loeillet, 1994). during the processing of mango, a huge amount of peel is generated and is considered a waste by-product. also, its disposal is a major problem, causing environmental pollution. the peel constitutes about 15% to 20% of the whole mango fruit. fresh mango-peel contains a number of valuable compounds such as polyphenols, carotenoids, enzymes and dietary fibres (ajila et al, 2007a, b). peels are a major byproduct obtained during processing of various fruits, and these have been shown to be a good source of polyphenols, flavonoids, carotenoids, dietary fibres and other bioactive compounds that possess various beneficial effects on human health (larrauri et al, 1996; larrauri, 1999; wolfe et al, 2003; ajila et al, 2007a; luthria, 2012). some of these compounds exhibit good antioxidant property (ajila et al, 2007b). use of fruits such as mango, as a source of some phytochemicals (carotenoids, phenolics and flavonoids) is health-promoting as, the latter are, natural antioxidants (saxena et al, 2009) by their action against free radicals generated by lipid peroxidation. phenolics play an important role as aroma constituents in fruits (saxena et al, 2009). mango is a good source of many of these beneficial phytochemicals. devising appropriate methods of utilization of this waste (mango peel) can help overcome some of the nutrition-security challenges in developing countries such as india, and help combat many diet-related diseases or to overcome malnutrition. the aim of the present research was to compare the efficiency of abts, dpph, frap and phosphomolybdate assays for estimating antioxidant activity in mango and their correlation with total phenolics and total flavonoids in the pulp and peel of three varieties. material and methods reagents and standards all the chemicals used in the study were of analytical grade. abts, (+)-catechin, dpph, folin–ciocalteu’s phenol reagent, gallic acid, trolox, quercitin and bha were purchased from sigma–aldrich chemical co. (st. louis, mo, usa). ascorbic acid was obtained from fischer scientific (fair lawn, nj, usa). 2,2-azo-bis (2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride was purchased from wako chemicals inc. (richmond, va, usa). standard solutions were prepared with distilled deionized water obtained through simplicitytm water purification system (millipore, usa). sample collection for this study, ripe mangoes of alphonso, kesar and totapuri varieties were procured from the wholesale traders of uas, dharwad, karnataka, india. mangoes were washed in water and their peel was removed using a sharp knife. the underlying pulp was removed by gently scraping with the knife’s blunt edge. the pulp was homogenized using a hand-held blender, whereas, the peel was cut into small pieces before both were dried using a cabinet drier maintained at 55±2r”c for 12 h. following drying, the peel was ground to a fine powder, packed in a polyethylene bag and stored at -20r”c for further chemical analysis. sample extraction sample extraction was done in department of bioresource engineering, macdonald campus, mcgill university, montreal, canada. approximately 1.5g of mango pulp and peel powders were transferred to 50ml graduated centrifuge tubes and mixed with 25ml methanol. the extraction was carried out by placing the tubes in an incubator shaker (benchmark company) for 24h at 31oc. filtration and recuperation was done using whatman no. 4 filter paper and methanol solution, making the final volume to 25ml and stored at -20oc for further analysis. determination of antioxidant constituents total phenolics quantification total phenolic content in mango peel and pulp extracts was determined using folin-ciocalteu reagent (spectrophotometric method), using gallic acid as a standard. a slight modification was made in the method of singleton and rossi (1965) and waterhouse (2002). briefly, 320µl of the extract was mixed with 1280µl folin ciocalteu reagent, to which 800µl of 7.5% sodium carbonate solution was added along with 800µl deionized water. this solution was mixed well, incubated at 40oc for 30 minutes and the absorbance was measured using the reagent blank at 765nm with a spectrophotometer (ultraspec1000, amersham pharmacia biotech, nj, usa). total flavonoid quantification total flavonoid content in mango pulp and peel extracts was determined using the method developed by zhishen et al (1999). deepa madalageri et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):199-209, 2015 201 antioxidant activity quantification abts assay: (2, 2-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazolin6sulphonic acid): for abts assay, methods of arnao et al (2001) and re et al (1999), with some modification, were followed. fresh abts solution was prepared on the day of the experiment. mango pulp or peel extract or standard trolox solution (150µl) were allowed to react with 2850µl abts solution for 2h in the dark at room temperature. then, absorbance was measured at 734nm using a spectrophotometer. dpph (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) assay: dpph assay was carried out as per ohnishi et al (1994) with some modification. a solution of 0.1mm dpph was prepared in 50ml methanol. the 270µl standard bha (butylated hydroxyanisole) or mango pulp or peel extract were mixed with 1620µl dpph solution and incubated for 20 minutes in the dark (covered with aluminium foil) and absorbance read at 517nm using a spectrophotometer (ultraspec1000, amersham pharmacia biotech, nj, usa). % scavenging = [(ab-ae) ×100]/ab where, ab is absorbance of the blank solution with dpph, and ae is absorbance of the extract solution with dpph. frap (ferric reducing ability of plasma) assay frap assay was done as per benzie and strain (1996), with some modification. to evaluate the antioxidant activity, mango pulp and peel extracts or trolox standard (150µl) were allowed to react with 2850µl frap solution for 30 minutes at room temperature under dark conditions. absorbance of the coloured solutions (ferrous tripyridyltriazine complex) was then read at 593nm using a spectrophotometer (ultraspec 1000, amersham pharmacia biotech, nj, usa). statistical analysis each assay of antioxidant activity, total polyphenols, total flavonoids, tac and scavenging activity was made in triplicate in each sample extract to ensure reproducibility. analysis of variance (anova) was used for testing any difference in antioxidant activity resulting from using these methods. duncan’s new multiple range test was used for determining significant difference. correlations among the data obtained were calculated using pearson’s correlation coefficient. these statistical analyses were carried out using spss software, version 16.0. results and discussion antioxidant constituents in this study, antioxidant activity of three popular mango varieties, viz., alphonso, kesar and totapuri of south india, were compared using different, standard chemicalantioxidant activity protocols. polyphenols and flavonoids are secondary metabolites in plants and are widely distributed in fruits and vegetables, beverages and plant-derived foods. phenolic compounds and flavonoids are a major groups of compounds contributing to antioxidant activity in fruits, vegetables, cereals and other plant-based materials. these bioactive compounds are heat-sensitive or thermomobile, as, high temperature may cause their degradation and decomposition (garau et al, 2007). in this study, 50°c was fixed as the maximum temperature for drying the samples to conserve these valuable bioactive compounds. solvent extraction is the most common method used for extraction of bioactive compounds. different solvent-extraction methods are used currently, of which hot water bath extraction (de rijke et al, 2006; søltoft et al, 2009), soxhlet extraction (bhushan et al, 2008) and microwave extraction are the most commonly used for extraction of bioactive compounds. total polyphenols phenolic compounds are known, powerful chainbreaking antioxidants (shahidi et al, 1994; wanasundara and shahidi, 1998; shahidi and wanasundara, 2002) and are very important plant constituents owing to their scavenging ability attributed to their hydroxyl groups (hatano et al, 1992). total polyphenol content in our study was significantly higher in mango peel (21.613mg gae/g dm) compared to that in the mango pulp (2.013mg gae/g dm) irrespective of the variety. among varieties, in both peel and pulp, significant difference in total polyphenol content was observed (table 1). kesar peel and alphonso pulp had the highest total polyphenol content at 35.144 and 2.249mg gae/g dm, respectively. during the development of the mango fruit, total phenols have been found to be higher in the peel than in the flesh, at all the stages of fruit development (lakshminarayana et al, 1970). earlier, larrauri et al (1996) reported total polyphenol content in aqueous methanol extract of ripe peel of ‘hayden’ variety of mango to be 70mg/g. this value falls within the range reported in the present study. similar results (54.64mg/g gae) were reported by ajila et al (2010a, b) stating that gallic acid, syringic acid, mangiferin, ellagic acid, gentisyl-protocatechuic acid and quercetin were the phenolic compounds present in ripe antioxidant activity in pulp and peel of mango j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):199-209, 2015 202 mango peel. (abdul aziz et al, 2012) reported total phenolics content in ripe mango peel and pulp to be 70.20 and 14.57mg gae/g dm, respectively. mango peel extract was reported to contain 9mg gae/g dm polyphenols (gondi et al, 2014), 19.06mg gae/g (ashoush and gadallah, 2011), 96.2mg gae/g in mango peel powder (mpp) (ajila et al, 2008; ajila and prasada rao, 2008; ajila et al, 2010a). phenolic content in mango has been reported to vary from 15.3 to 266mg gae/100g fresh weight (fw) (wu et al, 2004; noratto et al, 2010). the slight variation reported in polyphenol content may be attributed to a difference in the variety, region or agroclimatic conditions. total polyphenol content decreased with peel browning during cold storage (chidtragool et al, 2011). total polyphenol content in ‘langra’ and ‘chausa’ mango varieties was 116.80 and 122.60mg gae/g dm, respectively (sultana et al, 2012). higher phenolics content can contribute potentially to improved antioxidant activity (gonzalez aguilar et al, 2008). total flavonoids flavonoids are capable of effectively scavenging reactive oxygen species because of their phenolic hydroxyl groups and are, therefore, considered to be potent antioxidants (cao et al, 1997). flavonoids have been demonstrated to have antioxidant activity and to exert a positive effect on prevention of cardiovascular disorders and diseases caused by free radicals (yao et al, 2004). besides, these also exhibit several other biological effects such as anti-inflammatory, anti-hepatotoxic, anti-ulcer, antiallergic, anti-viral and anti-cancer activity (umamaheswari and chatterjee, 2008). total flavonoid content was significantly higher in mango peel (24.948mg qe/ g dm) compared to that in the mango pulp (16.150mg qe/g dm), and, a significant difference was observed among varieties (table 1). total flavonoid content was significantly higher in ‘kesar’ peel (34.897mg qe/g dm) and ‘alphonso’ pulp (13.89mg qe/g dm). similar results on total flavonoid content were reported by abdul aziz et al (2012) in ripe mango peel at 29.24mg qe/g dm, and the pulp at 5.43mg qe/g dm; whereas, gondi et al (2014) reported 8.5mg qe/ g dm of flavonoids in the mango peel. total flavonoid content in ‘langra’ and ‘chausa’ mango varietes was reported at 90.89 and 92.55mg ce/g dm (sultana et al, 2012). our results showed that flavonoid content in the peel was higher than in the pulp, in accordance with results of li et al (2013). antioxidant activity table 2 shows antioxidant/ antiradical activity of methanolic extract prepared from the peel and pulp of three mango varieties. peel from the three varieties showed variable, but high, antioxidant activity in the three assays tested (frap, dpph and abts). large variations in antioxidant activity were observed when the peel and pulp were tested separately. these variations were statistically significant (p=0.01). according to several authors, content of the antioxidant compounds and related antioxidant activity are particularly high in the peel of some fruits (ajila et al, 2007a, b; vieira et al, 2009). variations in antioxidant activity between and within food groups are well-documented. antioxidant activity exhibited a dose-dependent trend in all the assays used. in our work, the total antioxidant activity in mango peel, evaluated using frap assay, was significantly higher compared to abts or dpph assays. on the other hand, the total antioxidant activity in mango pulp, evaluated with dpph assay, was significantly higher than in the other two assays. among the two mango-fruit parts studied, total antioxidant activity in the peel was significantly higher in all the assays evaluated (abts, dpph, frap) compared to that in the pulp of the mango fruit. ‘kesar’ variety had significantly higher antioxidant activity, irrespective of the antioxidant-activity assay used, or the part of the fruit, followed by that in ‘alphonso’ and ‘totapuri’. abts assay table 2 shows antioxidant activity in abts value measurements of methanolic extracts of the peel and pulp in three mango varieties. the overall abts value averaged 13.373mg te/g dm, and ranged from 1.619 to 24.814mg table 1. total polyphenolics and total flavonoids content in peel and pulp of three mango varieties part of mango variety total polyphenols total flavonoids (mg gae/g dm) (mg qe/g dm) peel alphonso 23.919 ± 0.635b 25.519 ± 1.886a kesar 35.144 ± 0.263c 34.897 ± 0.703b totapuri 14.776 ± 0.442a 14.429 ± 0.228ab mean 24.613 ± 8.844 24.948 ± 8.930 pulp alphonso 2.249 ± 0.205b 13.870 ± 1.886a kesar 1.975 ± 0.130c 9.084 ± 0.468b totapuri 1.815 ± 0.134a 25.557 ± 1.286ab mean 2.013 ± 0.235 16.150 ± 7.436 grand mean 13.313 19.333 sem± cd sem± cd portion 0.114 0.493** 0.359 1.550** variety 0.155 0.669** 0.486 ns portion x variety 0.260 1.124** 0.818 3.533** note: values are the mean of three replications; sem: standard error of mean; cd: critical difference; aae: ascorbic acid equivalent; gae: gallic acid equivalent; qe: quercetin equivalent, **significant @ 1%; values with the same superscript (a, b, c) in the same row are not significantly different (p≤0.01). deepa madalageri et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):199-209, 2015 203 ta bl e 2. a nt io xi da nt a ct iv it y as d et er m in ed b y th e a b t s, d p p h a nd f r a p as sa ys b as ed o n m et ha no l e xt ra ct io n fr om p ee l a nd p ul p of t hr ee m an go v ar ie ti es m an go a nt io xi da nt a ct iv ity m ea n c v ar ie tie s a b t s (m g t e / g d m ) d pp h ( m g b h a /g d m fr a p (m g t e / g d m ) pu lp pe el m ea n pu lp pe el m ea n pu lp pe el m ea n a lp ho ns o 1. 62 ± 0. 29 24 .7 7 ± 0 .1 0 13 .1 9 ± 12 .6 8 4. 35 ± 0. 28 23 .7 3 ± 0. 09 14 .0 4 ± 10 .6 1 2. 99 ± 0. 12 39 .1 6 ± 1. 48 21 .0 8 ± 19 .8 3 16 .1 1 ± 14 .1 7b k es ar 1. 73 ± 0. 47 24 .8 1 ± 0. 04 13 .2 7 ± 12 .6 5 3. 30 ± 0. 25 23 .7 9 ± 0. 04 13 .5 4 ± 11 .2 2 2. 26 ± 0. 13 57 .2 4 ± 1. 41 29 .7 5 ± 30 .1 3 18 .8 6 ± 20 .3 5a to ta pu ri 2. 54 ± 0. 13 24 .7 6 ± 0. 05 13 .6 5 ± 12 .1 7 6. 17 ± 0. 44 23 .7 0 ± 0. 03 14 .9 3 ± 9. 60 3. 09 ± 0. 51 25 .1 5 ± 0. 46 14 .1 1 ± 12 .0 9 14 .2 3 ± 10 .6 8c m ea n 1. 96 ± 0. 52 24 .7 8 ± 0. 07 13 .3 7 ± 11 .7 5 4. 61 ± 1. 29 23 .7 4 ± 0. 06 4 14 .1 7 ± 9. 88 2. 78 ± 0. 48 40 .5 2 ± 13 .9 7 21 .6 5 ± 21 .6 5 fa ct or a 13 .3 7 ±1 1. 75 c 14 .1 7 ± 9. 88 b 21 .6 5 ± 2 1. 65 a fa ct or b pu lp 3. 11 ± 1. 39 pe el 29 .6 8 ±1 1. 01 se m ± c d fa ct or a 0. 08 4 0. 32 4* * fa ct or b 0. 06 2 0. 24 0* * fa ct or c 0. 08 4 0. 32 4* * a x b 0. 14 2 0. 54 5* * a x c 0. 19 2 0. 74 0* * b x c 0. 14 2 0. 54 5* * a x b x c 0. 32 4 1. 24 4* * n ot e 1: v al ue s ar e th e m ea n of th re e re pl ic at io ns ; s e m : s ta nd ar d er ro r o f m ea n; c d : c ri tic al d if fe re nc e; a b t s2: 2 -a zi no -b is (3 -3 th yl be nz th ia zo lin -6 su lp ho ni c) a ci d; d pp h 2 : 2 di ph en yl -1 -p ic ry lh yd ra zy l; fr a p: f er ri c r ed uc in g a bi lit y of p la sm a, * *s ig ni fi ca nt @ 1 % . v al ue s w ith th e sa m e su pe rs cr ip t ( a, b , c ) i n th e sa m e ro w a re n ot s ig ni fi ca nt ly d if fe re nt (p ≤0 .0 1) ; v al ue s w ith th e sa m e su pe rs cr ip t ( a ,b ,c ) i n th e sa m e co lu m n ar e no t s ig ni fi ca nt ly d if fe re nt (p ≤0 .0 1) ; f ac to r a : b et w ee n as sa ys (a b t d , d pp h , f r a p) , f ac to r b : b et w ee n po rt io ns ( pu lp , p ee l) ; f ac to r c : b et w ee n va ri et ie s (a lp ho ns o, k ea sr , t ot ap ur i) antioxidant activity in pulp and peel of mango j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):199-209, 2015 204 te/g dm. when the means of total antioxidant activity evaluated by abts assay were compared, mango peel had 24.782mg te/g dm (99.128µmol te/g dm) which was significant higher than in the mango pulp at 1.964mg te/g dm (7.856µmol te/g dm)). among the three varieties studied, no significant difference was observed in antioxidant activity either the peel or the pulp as evaluated by abts assay. le (2012) reported abts scavenging activity of dehydrated mango as varying from 46.7 to 73.8µmol te/g dm. antioxidant activity of dried mango pulp was reported as 27.1µmol/g db ascorbic acid equivalent, using abts assay (soong and barlow, 2004). antioxidant property of dried mango samples varied from 50.7 to 103.8µmol te/g db (sogi et al, 2014). values obtained in our study for antioxidant capacity as trolox equivalent fall within a close range of previously reported results. dpph assay dpph antioxidant activity is shown in table 2. dpph values in methanolic extracts of the peel and pulp in three mango varieties varied. overall dpph value averaged 14.17mg bha/g dm, and ranged from 3.29 to 23.73mg bha/g dm. antioxidant activity in dpph assay in the mango peel (23.68mg bha/g dm) was significantly higher than in the pulp (4.60mg bha/g dm), irrespective of the variety. this significantly higher level of antioxidant activity in mango peel is attributed to a higher level of total polyphenols and total flavonoids, and is comparatively lower in the pulp (table 1). among the varieties tested, significant difference was not observed in peel or the pulp. mango samples extracted from the peel part showed strong scavenging effects compared to the mango pulp. these results are in agreement with previous reports (ajila et al, 2007, 2007a; abdul aziz et al, 2012) who reported mango peel and pulp as having antioxidant activity in dpph assay of 43.30 and 9.82mg te/g dm, respectively. our results are in agreement with these findings. dpph radicalscavenging activity varied from 36.5 to 52.0µmol te/g dm in dried ‘tommy atkins’ mango flesh (le, 2012). dpph antioxidant values varied from 34 to 88.6µmol te/g dm in dehydrated mango powder (sogi et al, 2014). frap assay as with the other two assays, methanolic extracts from the peel and pulp of three mango varieties were tested and results presented in table 3. frap antioxidant activity ranged from 2.258 ± 0.126 to 57.244 ±1.405 (mg te/g dm), with an overall average of 21.650mg te/g dm. the antioxidant activity in frap assay for mango peel (40.518 ± 13.973mg te/g dm) was significantly higher than that in the pulp (2.781 ± 0.477mg te/g dm). among the different assays, frap indicated significantly higher antioxidant activity, with 21.650mg te/g dm, compared to abts or dpph (13.373mg te/g dm and 14.172mg bha/g dm, respectively). several authors have reported antioxidant activity by frap assay in different parts and varieties of mango. abdul aziz et al (2012) reported antioxidant activity using frap assay in mango peel and pulp as 65.92 and 15.30mg/g, respectively. antioxidant compounds like the polyphenols may be more efficient as reducing agents for ferric iron, but will certainly not be effective in scavenging dpph freeradicals (wong et al, 2006). an inverse correlation was observed between peel-browning and total antioxidant capacity measured using frap assay (chongchatuporn et al, 2013). frap values varied from 41 to 81µmol te/g dm in dried mango powder (sogi et al, 2014). radical scavenging activity a free radical is an atom or molecule containing one or more unpaired electrons, making it highly reactive (halliwell and gutteridge, 1990; halliwell et al, 1995). free radicals such as trichloromethyl (ccl3), superoxide (o2), hydroxyl (ho), peroxyl (roo), and nitric oxide (no) are known to be produced metabolically in living organisms. in addition, some non-radical derivatives of the oxygen molecule [hydrogen peroxide (h2o2) and hypochlorous acid (hocl)] can be generated in foods and in biological systems. all these reactive oxygen species (ros) participate in a chain reaction of free radicals. thus, tests on ability of a substance to scavenge radical species may be relevant in evaluating their antioxidant activity (halliwell and gutteridge, 1989; halliwell and gutteridge, 1990; halliwell et al, 1995). free radical scavenging activity in mango peel and pulp was 97.89 and 18.66%, respectively, irrespective of the variety or assay used by us for determining it (abts and dpph), as presented in table 3. abts radical scavenging activity abts activity was quantified in terms of percentage inhibition of abts+ radical cation by antioxidants in each sample. significant variation was seen in percentage inhibition in mango peel and pulp (12.12 to 99.65% inhibition), as presented in table 3. overall inhibition of abts assay was 56.54%, whereas, mango peel had significantly higher free radical scavenging activity (99.62%) than mango pulp (13.46%), irrespective of the variety. deepa madalageri et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):199-209, 2015 205 dpph radical scavenging activity radical scavenging ability of extracts measured by dpph is an important indicator of the anti-oxidative activity. this is highly correlated with total phenolics content in a sample. results obtained in our study reveal dpph radical scavenging activity in mango peel to be significantly higher than in the pulp (table 3). the increase observed in free radical scavenging activity is probably due to a presence of bioactive compounds or natural antioxidants in mango, which, in turn, is attributed to their hydrogen-donating ability (ajila et al, 2008). dpph radical inhibition activity in mango ranged from 18.89 to 96.28%, with an overall average of 60.02%. dpph radical scavenging activity was significantly higher in mango peel compared to that in mango pulp, irrespective of the variety. among the varieties tested, significant differences were observed, with ‘alphonso’ and ‘kesar’ showing significantly higher radical scavenging activity than ‘totapuri’ variety, in both peel and the pulp. mango peel powder extract in earlier studies has exhibited free radical scavenging activity of 79.6% (ajila et al, 2008, 2010) and 93.89% (ashoush and gadallah, 2011). correlation between antioxidant activity and antioxidant constituent table 4 presents pearson’s correlation among the methods used, and, between the method and the antioxidant constituent. significant and strong correlation is noticed. total antioxidant capacity, total polyphenolics and total flavonoid content were strongly and, significantly and positively, correlated with the three different antioxidant activity assays: whereas, only total antioxidant capacity (tac) was significantly and negatively correlated with all the three antioxidant activity assays, and with total polyphenolics and total flavonoids, as reported by others (chun et al, 2003; kim et al, 2003). these findings, taken together, suggest that total phenolics and flavonoids are major bioactive compounds that act as and perform antioxidant activity in these foods. however, this is presumably due not only to flavonoids, but also non-flavonoid phenolics. phenolics, commonly found in fruits, have been reported as exhibiting antioxidant activity due to reactivity of the phenol moiety, and have the ability to scavenge free radicals via hydrogen donation or electron donation (shahidi et al, 1992). a causative relationship has been demonstrated between total phenolic content and antioxidant activity (jayaprakasha and patil, 2007). among the different assays used for analysis of antioxidant activity (abts, dpph and frap), results obtained from abts and dpph assay were comparable. frap technique showed a high reproducibility, was simple, could be rapidly performed, and showed the highest correlation with total polyphenolics and flavonoids. therefore, frap can be recommended as an appropriate technique for determining antioxidants in mango pulp and peel extracts. similar results were reported earlier in guava fruit (thaipong et al, 2006). table 3. comparison of radical scavenging activity in three mango varieties in peel and pulp using two different assays portion variety scavenging activity (%) of fruit abts dpph mean pulp alphonso 18.89 ± 1.20 12.59 ± 1.74 15.74 ± 3.70 kesar 22.86 ± 1.07 12.12 ± 1.07 17.49 ± 5.96 totapuri 29.83 ± 2.01 15.657 ± 0.67 22.74 ± 7.88 mean of pulp 23.86 ± 4.97 13.26 ± 1.98 18.66 ± 6.49 peel alphonso 99.65 ± 0.11 96.28 ± 0.05 97.97 ± 1.85 kesar 99.65 ± 0.06 96.22 ± 0.05 97.94 ± 1.88 totapuri 99.56 ± 0.06 96.03 ± 0.11 97.79 ± 1.94 mean of peel 99.62 ± 0.08 96.18 ± 0.13 97.90 ± 1.78 mean of assay 61.74 ± 44.35 57.42 ± 37.36 58.28 ± 40.46 mean of variety alphonso kesar totapuri 56.85 ± 43.03b 57.71 ± 42.22b 60.27 ± 39.58a sem ± cd assay 0.113 0.445** portion 0.126 0.500** variety 0.152 0.603** assay x portion 0.232 0.916** assay x variety 0.257 1.015** portion x variety 0.257 1.015** assay x portion x variety 0.431 1.706** note : values are the mean of three replications; sem: standard error of mean; cd: critical difference; abts-2: 2’-azino-bis (33thylbenzthiazolin-6sulphonic) acid; dpph-2: 2-diphenyl-1picrylhydrazyl; *significant @ 5%,** significant @ 1% table 4. pearson’s correlation of antioxidant activities, total polyphenolics and flavonoid content trait abts dpph frap tac tpp tf1 tf2 abts 1 .997** .897** -.155 .887** .787** .589* dpph 1 .895** -.208 .884** .781** .602** frap 1 -.117 .999** .909** .793** tac 1 -.108 -.151 -.255 tpp 1 .912** .796** tf1 1 .694** tf2 1 abts: 2,2’-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid; dpph: 1,1’-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl; frap: ferric reducing antioxidant power; tac-total antioxidant capacity; tpp-total polyphenols, tf1 -total flavonoids method 1, tf2total flavonoids method 2. *,** correlation significant at 0.05, 0.01 levels respectively (2-tailed) antioxidant activity in pulp and peel of mango j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):199-209, 2015 206 the peel is considered an edible tissue of the unripe mango fruit. using unripe mango fruit with its peel, chutneys and pickles are prepared. on the other hand, peel of the ripe mango fruit, due to its leathery texture, is not too acceptable taste-wise; therefore, the peel is generally removed and discarded. thus, in the food processing industry, mango peel ends up generally as a waste by-product. our study revealed that methanolic extracts of mango peel had significantly higher antioxidant activity than the pulp, which is attributed to higher content of total polyphenols and flavonoids in the peel. thus, mango peel is rich in bioactive compounds that represent a potential source of natural antioxidants. mango peel powder, rich in bioactive compounds, can therefore be used as a sprinkle or incorporated into a variety of food preparations to enhance nutraceutical value of the food. development and utilization of such functional and nutritional products can provide health benefits by preventing degenerative diseases. acknowledgement this study was supported by inspire fellowship, dst, government of india, new delhi. the first author thanks bioresource engineering, mcgill university, canada, for providing laboratory facilities. references abdul aziz, n.a., wong, l.m., bhat, r. and cheng, l.h. 2012. evaluation of processed green and ripe mango peel and pulp flours (mangifera indica var. chokanan) in terms of chemical composition, antioxidant compounds and functional 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antioxidant activity in pulp and peel of mango j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):199-209, 2015 banana (musa spp.) is the fourth most important food crop in the world in terms of gross value, exceeded only by paddy, wheat and milk products. banana is a rich source of carbohydrates and minerals, particularly, potassium. india is the largest producer of banana in the world, contributing over 25% to the total global production. among fruit crops, banana ranks first in production and productivity at the national level. gujarat is the third largest producer of banana in the country next only to tamil nadu and maharashtra producing about 40,47,767 metric tonnes of banana from an area of 65,029 hectares. of this, south gujarat alone accounts for about 56% of total production and 54% of total area under banana in the state (anonymous, 2013). basrai was until now the leading banana variety in south gujarat. of late, banana growers have turned to grand naine owing to its earliness, synchronous maturity, superior quality and export potential. banana from gujarat is marketed all over the country. maturity is an important factor affecting banana marketability. the stage at which fruits need to be harvested is often dictated by distance to the destined market. duration required for attaining maturity varies depending on soil and climatic conditions. though the duration for maturity has been worked out at different locations in india, information on grand naine pertaining to gujarat is not available. therefore, there is a need to generate information regarding effect of maturity and storage temperature on shelf-life and quality of banana cv. grand naine a.p. gonge, n.l. patel, t.r. ahlawat and s.j. patil aspee college of horticulture & forestry navsari agricultural university, navsari-396 450, india e-mail : amolgonge@gmail.com abstract a study was undertaken at regional horticulture research station, nau, navsari, during 2008-2009 to assess the effect of maturity stage and storage temperature on shelf-life and quality of banana cv. grand naine. the experiment was evaluated in completely randomized ddesign based on the factorial concept, and comprised of three maturity stages (75, 90 and 100% maturity) and four storage temperatures (12°c, 14°c, 16°c & ambient temperature). fruits harvested at 75% maturity and stored at 12°c recorded maximum green-life and better overall shelf-life, whereas, yellow-life was highest when fruits at 75% maturity were stored at 14°c. best colour and texture was seen in fruits harvested at 100% maturity and stored at 16°c. key words: banana, maturity, shelf life, quality j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):95-98, 2013 short communication the effect of different maturity grades on shelf-life and quality of ‘grand naine’ banana under gujarat conditions. secondly, post harvest losses in banana are as high as 3040% (patil and hulmani, 1998). these losses are mainly due to improper handling practices and lack of storage facilities. to reduce these losses, information on critical storage temperature is essential. with an objective of curtailing post-harvest losses in banana and extending availability of the fruit, it was decided to study the effect of different maturity stages and storage temperatures on shelflife and organoleptic quality in banana cv. grand naine. the experiment was carried out at regional horticultural research station and post harvest technology centre, aspee college of horticulture and forestry, navsari agricultural university, navsari, during 2008–2009. thirty six healthy inflorescences were selected randomly just after their emergence. stage of harvest was determined on the basis of number of days taken to maturity after inflorescence emergence. based on the above criteria, in the cv. grand naine, 100 days from shooting (flowering) to harvest was determined as the time required for full maturity and the value was fixed as 100% maturity. accordingly, 90 and 75 days after shooting were considered as the duration required to attained 90% and 75% maturity stage. the hands were separated and kept in cold storage (12°, 14° and 16°c temperature and 90% rh) and under ambient conditions 96 (34°c temperature and 70% rh.) days taken to colour break (from green to yellow stage) was considered as the green-life of the fruit. the period of development of yellow colour to the stage at which fruits showed signs of senescence was considered as yellow-life of the fruits. a total of the green-life and yellow-life was considered as overall shelf-life of the fruits. organoleptic evaluation for assessing flavour, taste, colour of skin, colour of pulp, texture and overall acceptability was made on fruit ripening by a panel of five judges, using a 10 point scale. pulp:peel ratio was calculated by dividing pulp weight by the respective peel weight for each finger. data was analyzed in this completely randomized design, based on the factorial concept. significant differences were observed in green-life (table 1), yellow-life (table 2) and overall shelf-life (table 3) of banana fruits owing to varying maturity levels and storage at different temperatures. fruits harvested at 75% maturity recorded highest green-life (23.25 days), yellowlife (8.25 days) and overall shelf-life (31.5 days); whereas fully mature (100%) ‘grand naine’ fruits had 16.92 days of green-life, 5.83 days of yellow-life and 22.75 days of overall shelf life. this difference may be due to the fact that fruits harvested at 100% maturity exhibit rapid change in colour (chlorophyll breakdown) compared to those harvested at 75% maturity. it could also be due to higher tannin content in the fruits harvested early. this is in close conformity with findings of narayana and mustaffa (2007). green-life of fruits was maximum (29.89 days) at storage temperature of 12°c and minimum (8.11 days) at ambient temperature. shelf-life in fruits is associated with rate of respiration. the rate of respiration is slow in fruits stored at lower temperatures than in those stored at ambient temperature (gane, 1936). similar results were obtained by deka et al (2006). yellow-life of fruits was observed to be maximum (9.78 days) at 14°c and minimum (3.56 days) at ambient temperature, whereas, this was intermediate (8.78 days) at 12°c. this can be attributed to a slow-down in physiological processes within the fruit at lower temperatures. early senescence was observed in fruits stored at ambient temperature, for, the temperature was high and, therefore, rate of the physiological processes was probably fast. desai and deshpande (1975) reported similar results with various storage temperatures in banana. combination of the green and yellow life of fruits was considered as the overall shelf-life of fruits. fruits stored at 12°c had a shelf-life of 38.67 days, while those stored at table 1. effect of maturity and storage temperature on green life of banana cv. grand naine level of maturity storage temperature (t) mean t 1 t 2 t 3 t 4 m 1 35.00 27.67 21.00 9.33 23.25 m 2 28.67 24.33 16.00 8.33 19.33 m 3 26.00 21.00 14.00 6.67 16.92 mean 29.89 24.33 17.00 8.11 source m t m x t s. em± 0.12 0.14 0.24 cd (p=0.05) 0.34 0.40 0.69 cv% 2.06 table 2. effect of maturity and storage temperature on yellow-life of banana cv. grand naine level of maturity storage temperature (t) mean t 1 t 2 t 3 t 4 m 1 10.00 12.00 7.00 4.00 8.25 m 2 8.33 10.33 6.00 3.33 7.00 m 3 8.00 7.00 5.00 3.33 5.83 mean 8.78 9.78 6.00 3.56 source m t m x t s. em± 0.13 0.15 0.25 cd (p=0.05) 0.37 0.43 0.74 cv% 6.27 table 3. effect of maturity and storage temperature on overall shelf life of banana cv. grand naine level of maturity storage temperature (t) mean t 1 t 2 t 3 t 4 m 1 45.00 39.67 28.00 13.33 31.50 m 2 37.00 34.67 22.00 11.67 26.33 m 3 34.00 28.00 19.00 10.00 22.75 mean 38.67 34.11 23.00 11.67 source m t m x t s. em± 0.13 0.15 0.25 cd (p=0.05) 0.37 0.43 0.74 cv% 1.64 ambient temperature had a shelf-life of 11.67 days. these observations corroborate findings of muthuswamy et al (1971) and patil and magar (1976). interaction between maturity stage and storage temperature was found to be significant for green-life, yellow-life and overall shelf-life. fruits harvested at 75% maturity and kept at 12°c had maximum green-life (35 days) and shelf-life (45 days), whereas, highest yellow-life (12 days) was observed in fruits harvested at 75% maturity and stored at 14°c. lowest green-life (6.67 days), yellow-life (3.33 days) and overall shelf-life (10 days) was observed in fruits harvested at 100% maturity and stored under ambient conditions. at different maturity levels, variation in colour, texture and taste were found to be non-significant, except flavour, j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):95-98, 2013 gonge et al 97 which was maximum (7.18) in fully mature fruits (table 4). flavor in banana is imparted by amyl esters and its frutiness is attributable to butyl esters (mc carthy et al, 1963). concentration of these volatile compounds increases as ripening progresses and, therefore, better flavour is noticed in 100% mature fruits. as far as storage temperature is concerned, significantly high score for flavour (7.5), colour (7.85), texture (7.59) and taste (7.58) was recorded in fruits ripened at 16°c (tables 4-7). in an earlier study, peacock (1980) examined colour-quality and eating-quality in ‘cavendish’ banana ripened at 13-33°c. he observed better colour and taste development when these were ripened between 13 to 24°c. higher scores for sensory parameters in ‘grand naine’ banana can be attributed to uniform ripening at 16°c compared to that at lower temperatures or storage at ambient temperature. this is a varietal trait dictated by genetic composition of a particular genotype. interaction effect between maturity stage and storage temperature was found to be significant for colour and texture. higher scores for colour and texture were recorded when fruits of 100% maturity were stored at various low temperatures (m 3 t 1 , m 3 t 2 and m 3 t 3 ). data presented in table 8 indicates significant effect of maturity level and storage temperature on pulp:peel ratio. maximum pulp:peel ratio (3.39) was observed in fully mature fruits, and the minimum (2.37) in 75% mature fruits. with advancing maturity, percentage of pulp:peel ratio increased, with a concomitant decrease in peel weight. this could be due to migration of moisture from the peel to the pulp during the process of ripening. as the fruit ripens, water is lost from the peel to the pulp in response to changes in osmotic potential (stratton and von loesecke, 1931). these results are in accordance with reports of desai and deshpande (1975) and tripathi et al (1981) at full maturity of the fruit. with regard to temperature, maximum pulp:peel ratio (3.02) was observed in fruits stored at ambient conditions compared to those placed in cold storage. pulp:peel ratio increased with increase in temperature. pulp:peel ratio is related to accumulation of moisture in the pulp derived from breakdown of carbohydrates, and osmotic transfer of water from the skin to the pulp (charles and tung, 1973). this is in line with findings of saeed ahmad et al (2006) in banana stored at different temperatures. interaction between maturity stage and storage temperature was found to be non-significant for pulp:peel ratio during the course of our experimentation. bananas are harvested while green, and transported to markets where they are ripened. there is a need to table 4. effect of maturity and storage temperature on flavour at ripening in banana cv. grand naine level of maturity storage temperature (t) mean t 1 t 2 t 3 t 4 m 1 6.66 6.87 7.21 6.67 6.85 m 2 6.47 7.33 7.63 6.75 7.04 m 3 6.81 7.50 7.67 6.75 7.18 mean 6.65 7.23 7.50 6.72 source m t m x t s. em± 0.06 0.07 0.13 cd (p=0.05) 0.19 0.21 ns cv% 3.13 ns = non significant table 5. effect of maturity and storage temperature on colour at ripening in banana cv. grand naine level of maturity storage temperature (t) mean t 1 t 2 t 3 t 4 m 1 6.76 6.47 7.50 6.80 6.88 m 2 6.52 7.40 7.88 5.96 6.94 m 3 7.04 7.40 8.17 5.79 7.10 mean 6.77 7.09 7.85 6.18 source m t m x t s. em± 0.08 0.09 0.16 cd (p=0.05) ns 0.27 0.47 cv% 3.96 ns = non significant table 6. effect of maturity and storage temperature on texture at ripening in banana cv. grand naine level of maturity storage temperature (t) mean t 1 t 2 t 3 t 4 m 1 7.04 7.20 7.43 6.87 7.14 m 2 6.85 7.40 7.43 6.96 7.16 m 3 7.14 7.87 7.92 6.29 7.30 mean 7.01 7.49 7.59 6.71 source m t m x t s. em± 0.07 0.08 0.13 cd (p=0.05) ns 0.22 0.39 cv% 3.19 ns = non significant table 7. effect of maturity and storage temperature on taste at ripening in banana cv. grand naine level of maturity storage temperature (t) mean t 1 t 2 t 3 t 4 m 1 7.15 7.53 7.54 6.93 7.29 m 2 7.14 7.60 7.58 7.08 7.35 m 3 7.09 7.47 7.62 7.32 7.37 mean 7.13 7.53 7.58 7.11 source m t m x t s. em± 0.08 0.07 0.12 cd (p=0.05) ns 0.21 ns cv% 2.93 ns = non significant j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):95-98, 2013 shelf-life and quality of banana cv. grand naine 98 transport the fruit in the green state. based on the above investigation, it may be concluded that for distant markets, fruits of banana cv. grand naine banana should be harvested at 75% maturity and stored at 12°c. for nearby markets, fruits can be harvested at 90% maturity and stored at 14°c. for local markets, it is recommended to harvest fruits at 100% maturity, followed by their storage at 16°c. references anonymous. 2013. district-wise area and production of horticultural crops in gujarat state. directorate of horticulture, government of gujarat, gandhinagar, gujarat charles, r.j. and tung, m.a. 1973. physical, rheological and chemical properties of banana during ripening. j. food. sci., 38:456-459 deka, b.c., choudhury, s., bhattacharyya, a., begum, k.h. and neog, m. 2006. postharvest treatment for shelf life extension of banana under different storage environments. acta hort., 712:841-850 desai, b.b. and deshpande, p.b. 1975. chemical transformation in three varieties of banana (musa paradisiaca linn.) fruits stored at 20oc. mysore j. agril. sci., 9:634-643 table 8. effect of maturity and storage temperature on pulp:peel ratio at ripening of banana cv. grand naine level of maturity storage temperature (t) mean t 1 t 2 t 3 t 4 m 1 2.27 2.30 2.40 2.49 2.37 m 2 2.52 2.65 2.74 3.00 2.73 m 3 3.36 3.37 3.26 3.56 3.39 mean 2.72 2.77 2.80 3.02 source m t m x t s. em± 0.03 0.03 0.06 cd (p=0.05) 0.08 0.10 0.17 cv% 3.52 ns = non significant gane, r. 1936. study of respiration of banana. new phytol., 35:383–402 lodh, s.b., ravel, p., selvaraj, v. and kohli, r.r. 1971. biochemical changes associated with growth and development of dwarf cavendish banana. ind. j. hort., 28:38-45 mccarthy, a.i., palmer, j.k., shaw, c.p. and anderson, e.e. 1963. correlation of gas chromatographic data with flavor profiles of fresh banana fruit. j. food sci., 28:379-384 muthuswamy, r., sadashivam, j.s., sunderraj and vasudevan, v. 1971. storage studies on ‘dwarf cavendish’ banana. j. agril. sci., 41:479-484 narayana, c.k. and mustaffa, m.m. 2007. influence of maturity on shelf–life and quality changes in banana during storage under ambient conditions. ind. j. hort., 64:12-16 patil, d.l. and magar, n.g. 1976. physicochemical changes in banana fruits during ripening. j. mah. agri. univ., 1:95-99 patil, s.n. and hulmani, n.c. 1998. effect of post-harvest treatments on the storage life of banana fruits. karnataka j. agril. res., 11:134-138 peacock, b.c. 1980. banana ripening effect of temperature on fruit quality. queensland j. agril animal sci., 37:39-45 saeed ahmad, pervez, m.a., chatha, z.a. and thompson, a.k. 2006. improvement of banana quality in relation to storage humidity, temperature and fruit length. int. j. agri. biol., 8:377-380 stratton, f.c. and von loesecke, h. 1931. changes in osmotic pressure of bananas during ripening. pl. physiol., 6:361-365 tripathi, v.k., ram, h.b., jain, s.p. and surjeet singh. 1981. changes in developing banana fruit. prog. hort., 13:45-53 (ms received 28 march 2011, accepted 22 september 2012, revised 25 march 2013) j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):95-98, 2013 gonge et al 404 not found stack trace: file: /var/www/jhs/pages/article/articlehandler.inc.php line 167 function: dispatcher->handle404() file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/pkprouter.inc.php line 392 function: articlehandler->initialize(object(request), array(0)) file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/pkppagerouter.inc.php line 246 function: pkprouter->_authorizeinitializeandcallrequest(array(2), object(request), array(2), false) file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/dispatcher.inc.php line 144 function: pkppagerouter->route(object(request)) file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/pkpapplication.inc.php line 362 function: dispatcher->dispatch(object(request)) file: /var/www/jhs/index.php line 68 function: pkpapplication->execute() guava (psidium guajava l.) is one of the most common and major fruit crops of india. it is the fourth most important fruit crop in terms of area and production after mango, banana and citrus. in india, it occupies nearly 2.68 lakh ha, with a production of 36.68 lakh tonnes and a productivity of 13.7 t/ha fruit per year (nhb, 2015). the fruit is rich in minerals like phosphorus (23-37mg/100g), calcium (14-30mg/100g), iron (0.6-1.4mg/100g) and vitamins like ascorbic acid, niacin, pathotenic acid, thiamine, riboflavin and vitamin a (bose et al, 1999). it is a climacteric fruit which ripens rapidly after harvest and, therefore, has a short shelf-life. guava fruit is highly perishable and loses its texture and quality within 3-4 days of harvest, at ambient temperature. post-harvest diseases develop during handling and grading. packing and transportation adversely affect fruit quality. deterioration in quality caused by fungal pathogens may include a wide range of symptoms of spoilage. in tropical and subtropical regions of india, about 25-40% of fruits harvested are damaged from faulty post-harvest handling and infection with fungal diseases. with this backdrop, the present study was undertaken to investigate fruit quality in guava cv. allahabad safeda as affected by post-harvest fungal pathogens. effect of post-harvest fungal pathogens on fruit quality in guava cv. allahabad safeda nabakishor nongmaithem department of plant protection sam higginbottom institute of agriculture technology and sciences allahabad -211 007, india e-mail: nabaaaidu@yahoo.com abstract fruits of guava cultivar ‘allahabad safeda’ at mature yellowish-green stage were collected from allahabad fruit market. nine post-harvest fungal pathogens were isolated from these fruits. of these, two isolates with highest incidence, namely, pestalosia psidii (fruit canker causing pathogen) and gloeosporium psidii (anthracnose causing pathogen) were used in the study. fruits inoculated with the pathogens and control (a lot of fruits with no treatment) were stored at ambient temperature. the fruits were analyzed for various quality attributes at different storage intervals for upto 15 days. data revealed that fruits in all the treatments showed a lower fruit-weight loss compared to the untreated fruits. tss, acidity (%) and ascorbic acid content (mg/100g) were also found to decrease in relation to the control at 5, 10 or 15 days of storage. the least plw was recorded in gloeosporium psidii-treated fruits, followed by those treated with pestalosia psidii. but for the bio-chemical changes (also due to post-harvest fungi) gloeosporium psidii-treated fruits had higher tss, acidity (%) and ascorbic acid content (mg/100g) than pestalosia psidii-treated fruits. key words: guava, allahabad safeda, fungal pathogens, post-harvest, fruit quality short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):254-257, 2015 the diseased parts from infected fruits were cut into small pieces (2-3mm) and surface-sterilized with 0.1% mercuric chloride solution for 30 seconds. these pieces were then washed three times in sterilized distilled water and aseptically transferred onto clean, sterilized petri-dishes containing solidified potato dextrose agar medium. the petridishes were incubated in an inverted position at 28±1oc and observed after 3-4 days. fungal hyphae growing out from the infected fruit pieces associated with post-harvest disease in guava were identified using a microscope, as per biligrami et al (1981 and 1991), burnett and hunter (1999) and subramanian (1971), followed by purification on pda slants. pure culture was maintained by periodic subculture as per aneja (2003). all the nine post-harvest fungal pathogens, viz., pestalotia psidii, gloeosporium psidii, rhizoctonia solani, fusarium sp., alternaria alternata, cladosporium sp., geotrichum candidum, mucor sp. and trichothecium sp., were isolated from the guava fruit. of the nine pathogens, the two most-frequently detected pathogens, pestalotia psidii, the fruit-canker causing fungal pathogen (fig. 1a, 1b and 1c) and gloeosporium psidii, and anthracnose causing fungal pathogen (fig. 1d, 1e and 1f) were used for further study. 255 post-harvest fungal pathogens and fruit quality in guava fresh and mature, green coloured guava fruits of uniform size free of pests or mechanical injury were collected from the fruit market in allahabad. the fruits were washed in distilled water, dried and surface-sterilized using 0.1% mercuric chloride for 30 sec. wounds were made in guava fruits with the help of a sterilized cork-borer (6mm) and inoculated with pathogen pestalotia psidii (t1) and gloeosporium psidii (t2) containing a spore load of 1x104 conidia/ml (granger and horne, 1924). the injured fruits were then wrapped in sterilized paper and stored at ambient temperature for 15 days. observations were made regularly on various physico-chemical characters to assess storage quality as affected by the two pathogens, at intervals of 5 days. physiological loss in weight (plw) of the fruit was calculated on initial-weight basis and expressed as per cent. total soluble solids (tss) in the fruit were determined using a hand-held refractometer and, expressed as per cent. acidity was determined by titrating guava fruit juice against 0.1n naoh and expressed as per cent citric acid (ranganna, 1977; shankar, 1999). ascorbic acid was determined using reduction of 2,6-dichlorophenol by ascorbic acid (sadasivan and manikan, 1996) and expressed in mg/ 100ml juice. the data was statistically analyzed through analysis of variance using crd, as per fisher and yates (1968). a perusal of the data indicates that physiological loss in weight (plw) in guava fruit increased with advancement in storage period (fig. 2). during different storage-interval periods, fruits treated with pestalotia psidii (t1) showed maximum weight loss, i.e., 14.30% on the 5th day, 21.78% on the 10th day and 33.14% on the 15th day, followed by fruits infected with gloeosporium psidii (t2), which ranged between 11.95 to 19.64% from 5 to 15 days of storage, respectively, compared to that in control (where minimum physiological loss in weight was ranged between 10.2114.51% during the same time interval). difference in plw may be due to the continuous moisture loss by evaporation and respiration in fruits. infected guava fruits were associated with greater enzymatic activity by pathogens, thus resulting in higher plw. these results are similar to findings of chundawat et al (1976) and mayer et al (1960). acidity in guava fruits showed a linear decline during storage (fig. 3). loss in acidity during storage was more rapid in fruits artificially inoculated with pathogens, compared to that in the non-inoculated ones. at 15th day of storage, acidity in guava under the two treatments was significantly different. acidity of 0.49% was recorded in the control, followed by t2 (0.28%) and t1 (0.20%). fig 1. post-harvest diseases of guava: 1a and 1b. fruit canker of guava and pure culture of the pathogen, 1c. conidia of pestalotia psidii; 1d and 1e. anthracnose of guava and pure culture of the pathogen, 1f. conidia of gloesporium psidii fig. 3. effect of inoculation of pestalotia psidii (t1) and gloeosporium psidii (t2) on acidity (%) of guava fruit after 5, 10 and 15 days of storage. fig. 2. effect of inoculation of pestalotia psidii (t1) and gloeosporium psidii (t2) on physiological loss in weight (%) of guava fruit after 5, 10 and 15 days of storage. j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):254-257, 2015 256 tss of fruits inoculated with pestalotia psidii and gloeosporium psidii during storage was significantly reduced at 5th, 10th and 15th day of storage compared to the control (fig. 4). tss in gloeosporium psidii (t2) infected fruits was found to be 8.10, 6.50 and 4.20% at 5th, 10th and 15th day of storage, respectively; whereas, pestalotia psidii (t1) treated fruits showed tss values of 7.70, 6.10 and 3.50% at the same intervals of storage, respectively. maximum tss was recorded in the noninoculated fruit (8.40%, 7.10% and 5.30% at 5th, 10th and 15th day of storage, respectively). during storage, tss in both inoculated and un-inoculated fruits showed a decreasing trend; however, the rate of decline was faster in the infected fruits compared to the control. this may be attributed to a higher degradation of metabolites by the fungal pathogens. this result is in agreement with singh et fig. 5. effect of inoculation of pestalotia psidii (t1) and gloeosporium psidii (t2) on ascorbic acid content (mg/100g) in guava fruit at 5, 10 and 15 days of storage fig. 4. effect of inoculation of pestalotia psidii (t1) and gloeosporium psidii (t2) on total soluble solids in guava fruit at 5, 10 and 15 days of storage al (1981). as with tss, ascorbic acid content (mg/100g) in the fruit also decreased with advancement in storage period (fig. 5). ascorbic acid content in the fruit during storage at ambient temperature varied significantly at all the storage periods studied. gloeosporium psidii (t2) had a detrimental effect on ascorbic acid content in guava fruit (68.75, 53.90 and 34.86 mg/100g at the 5th, 10th and 15th day of storage, respectively) compared to pestalotia psidii (t1) inoculated fruits (58.76, 47.25 and 32.74 mg/100g, respectively) and in the control (81.50, 72.47 and 48.80mg/100g, respectively) at the same interval of storage. our results clearly show that the rate of consumption of ascorbic acid varies with the two fungi in the inoculated fruits. this may be due to the oxidation of ascorbic acid by ascorbic acid oxidase enzyme, or, by some other oxidative enzymes like polyphenol oxidase, cytochrome oxidase or peroxidase as reported by siddiqui et al (1991). it may be concluded that pestalotia psidii, the fruitcanker causing fungal pathogen, and gloeosporium psidii, the anthracnose-causing fungal pathogen, adversely affect the quality of guava fruit during storage. information obtained in this study can be effectively utilized to develop suitable post-harvest management practices for minimizing deterioration in fruit quality and post-harvest loss in guava. references aneja, k.r. 2003. experiments in microbiology, plant pathology and biotechnology. 4th edn., new age international (p) limited publishers, new delhi india, pp. 121-128 bilgrami, k.s., jamaluddin, s. and rizwi, m.a. 1981. fungi of india. part ii. list and references. today and tomorrow’s printers and publishers, new delhi, india biligrami, k.s., jamaluddin, s. and rizwi, m.a. 1991. fungi of india. part iii. list and references. today and tomorrow’s printers and publishers, new delhi, india bose, t.k., mitra, s.k., farooqui, a.a. and sandhu, m.k. 1999. tropical horticulture. 1st ed. nava prokash publication, kolkata, india, p. 297 burnett, h.l. and hunter, b.b. 1999. illustrated genera of imperfect fungi, the american phytopathological society, usa, pp. 99-103 chundawat, b.s., singh, j.p., kamsa, r. and gupta, o.p. 1976. harvest studies on guava fruits. haryana j. hortl. sci., 5:130-136 fisher, r.a. and yates. 1968. statistical methods for research workers. olive and boyd ltd., edinburgh and london, uk, p. 10 granger, k. and horne, a.s. 1924. a method for inoculating nabakishor nongmaithem j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):254-257, 2015 257 apples. annal. bot., 38:213-216 mayer, b.s., anderson, d.s. and bhing r.h. 1960. introduction to plant physiology. d van nastrand co. ltd., london, uk nhb. 2015. indian horticulture database, 2014. national horticulture board, ministry of agriculture, government of india, gurgaon, india ranganna, s. 1977. manual of analysis of fruits and vegetable products, tata mcgraw hill publication company ltd., new delhi, india sadasivam, s. and manickam, a. 1991. biochemical methods, new age international publishers pvt. ltd., new delhi, india, pp. 6-11 shankar, g. 1999. practical manual in horticulture. 4th edn., balyog prakashan publication, allahabad, india, pp. 95-105 siddiqui, s., sharma, r.k. and gupta, o.p. 1991. physiological and quality response of guava fruits to posture during storage. hort. sci., 26:1295-1297 singh, b.p., singh, h.k. and chuahan, k.s. 1981. effect of post-harvest calcium treatment on storage life of guava fruits. indian j. agril. sci., 51:44-47 subramanian, c.v. 1971. hypomycetes: an account of indian species, except cercosporaceae. indian agricultural research institute (iari), new delhi, india (ms received 21 may 2015, revised 04 august 2015, accepted 20 august 2015) post-harvest fungal pathogens and fruit quality in guava j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):254-257, 2015 introduction the cucumber (cucumis sativus l.) is a widely cultivated plant of the gourd family, cucurbitaceae. on account of f1 hybrids of cucumber possessing better quality, high yield, early-maturity, uniformity, etc., these have almost fully replaced traditional, open-pollinated varieties for greenhouse-culture. intensified protected-cultivation of cucurbits leads to conditions favorable to several pathogens, especially, soil-borne diseases. fumigation of soil with methyl bromide to control soil-pathogens was considered as one of the main factors for successful cultivation of cucurbits. with withdrawal of methyl bromide, cucurbits growers are increasingly looking for alternatives to this fumigant. grafting is an asexual plant-propagation method and has become an essential technique for repeated production of crops in greenhouses. grafting of vegetables was first attempted in korea and japan in the late 1920s by grafting watermelons onto gourd rootstocks. lee (1994) reported the gradual increase in use of grafted vegetables in japan, korea and some other asian and european countries, and currently includes melon, cucumber, watermelon, tomato, eggplant and pepper to being grafted before transplantation. grafting vegetables onto compatible rootstocks offers a number of advantages like resistance to soil-pathogens, increase in yield (bletsos et al, 2003) and greater tolerance effects of cucumis and cucurbita rootstocks on vegetative traits, yield and quality in ‘tainan no. 1’ cucumber hsiu-fung chao* and yung-fu yen** department of bio-agricultural science national chiayi university, chiayi, taiwan 600 e-mail : hfchao@mail.tndais.gov.tw abstract ‘tainan no.1’ cucumber, an f1 hybrid, is powdery-mildew resistant and is, therefore, fit for greenhouse-culture. soil-borne diseases in cucurbits have gained increasing importance with intensive cultivation of these crops. in the present experiment, cucumber cv. ‘tainan no. 1’ was grafted onto two rootstocks, viz., cucumis and cucurbita. nongrafted cucumber plants were used as the control. results revealed that both kinds of grafted plants had similar graft-survival rate, and, better vegetative growth than non-grafted ones; however, between the two rootstocks, grafted plants did not differ in vegetative growth or yield. further, plants grafted on cucumis had significant effect on fruit quality. in is therefore recommended that grafting procedure in cucumber greenhouse-culture can be practiced on cucumis. key words: cucumis, cucurbita, cucumber, graft, soil-borne diseases to temperature and salt stresses (ahn et al, 1999; rivero et al, 2003). sakata et al (2008) showed that cucumber could be grafted onto different rootstocks, including cucumis spp., cucurbita spp., cucurbita interspecific hybrids, bottle gourd, wax gourd, fig-leaf gourd and luffa. each rootstock has its specific function. marukawa and takatsu (1969) reported fig-leaf gourd as providing better cold-tolerance and resistance to fusarium wilt while having a high affinity for cucumber, making it the most commonly used rootstock in the crop. a majority of cucumbers grown in taiwan when grafted onto cucurbita spp. cv. heroes, show superior tolerance to soil-borne diseases, but often lack seed formation. cucumis spp. cv. qingpi, originally from an openpollinated variety and primarily used for processing in taiwan, has a high commercial potential. as grafting of herbaceous vegetables continues to gain popularity, plant breeders need to be ready and equipped with rootstock germplasm. grafting is a viable option to growers for managing biotic and abiotic stresses which limit yield and quality (king et al, 2010). the purpose of our study was to compare effects of cucumis and cucurbita rootstocks on vegetative growth, yield and quality in cucumber and identify new rootstocks to replace conventional ones to exploit economic potential of cucumber cultivation. *tainan district agricultural research and extension station, council of agricultural, executive yuan, taiwan 624 **corresponding author j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):51-54, 2013 52 material and methods the present study was conducted at yichu branch station, tainan district agricultural research and extension station, chiayi county, taiwan, during 2009-2010. cucumber (cucumis sativus) cv. ‘tainan no.1’ was grafted onto two rootstocks, viz., cucumis cv. qingpi and cucurbita cv. heroes. approach-grafting is best done when the rootstock and scion both have similar stem-thickness. to obtain an equal stem-diameter in scion and the rootstock, rootstock seeds were planted ten days earlier than cucumber seeds; non-grafted cucumber plants were used as the control. to facilitate graft-union, acclimatization is important, whereby the light was maintained at about 3000 lux, air temperature at 25ºc and relative humidity at 95% for sixteen days. graftsurvival rate was estimated 20 days after grafting and was expressed as percentage of total number of plants grafted. after the graft was firmly established, seedlings were transplanted to soil. the experiment was laid out in completely randomized block design. each treatment was replicated four times, with twenty plants per replication in the greenhouse at a spacing of 1.5×0.75m. the following vegetative / qualitative traits were recorded: survival rate of grafted seedlings; horticultural traits (including parthenocarpy and gynoecious habit) from planting to harvest, including final main-stem length, scion diameter, rootstock diameter, internode length and number of leaves. fruit weight was estimated and soluble solids content of juice (extracted from the central endocarp) was determined with a hand-held refractometer. data were statistically analyzed. results and discussion most greenhouses in taiwan are subjected to continuous cropping in fruit-bearing vegetable production, which lowers the yield and diminishes quality of the produce. takahashi (1984) reported 68% reduction in continuous vegetable cropping in japan, caused by soil-borne diseases and nematodes. as soil-sterilization is difficult, grafting has become an essential technique for production of repeat crops in greenhouses. many grafting methods are available for different types of fruit-bearing vegetables including tomato. cleft-grafting and cut-grafting are popular in watermelon. oda (1999) reported survival rate in grafted cucurbitaceae plants to be higher when approach-grafting was used. in this experiment, cucumber cv. ‘tainan no. 1’ was grafted by approach-grafting onto two different rootstocks. survival rates when grafted onto cucumis and cucurbita were 80% and 78%, respectively (table 1), i.e., similar graft-success rate. though traka-mavrona et al (2000) reported that difference in stem diameter of rootstock and scion reduced graft-survival rate. however, in this experiment, acclimatization provided good conditions for rootstock/scion union to overcome disparate stem-diameter. moreover, cucumber cv. ‘tainan no. 1’ grafted onto various rootstocks retains all the desired horticultural traits (table 1). vegetative growth of grafted plants differed significantly and indicated superior growth potential compared to non-grafted controls. non-grafted plants suffered from serious soil-borne diseases, including phytophthora blight, gummy-stem blight and fusarium wilt (fig. 1). data on final main-stem length, scion diameter, rootstock diameter, internode length and leaf number are presented in table 2. all the traits under study were affected by rootstock-use. lee and oda (2003) reported grafted plants as showing different vegetative growth responses owing to vigor of the rootstock and rootstock-scion compatibility. longest final main-stem was observed in plants grafted onto cucurbita. however, no significant differences were found in final main-stem length, scion / rootstock diameter, internode length and leaf number among plants grafted onto the two different rootstocks (table 2). however, final main-stem length and leaf number in grafted plants were significantly higher than in non-grafted ones. table 1. effect of rootstock on survival rate and horticultural traits in grafted cucumber rootstock survival gynoecious parthenocarpic rate (%) type type cucumis 80 yes yes cucurbita 78 yes yes non-grafted — yes yes t-test ns ns ns ns = non-significant fig 1. performance of ‘tainan no. 1’ cucumber grafted onto two different rootstocks: cucumis (left), cucurbita (centre) and nongrafted (right) planted on the same date in the greenhouse at yichu branch station j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):51-54, 2013 hsiu-fung chao and yung-fu yen 53 superior vigor and vegetative growth in grafted plants can be explained by their resistance to soil-borne diseases (lee, 1994), better root-system activity in the rootstock (salehi et al, 2009) leading to increased water and plant nutrient uptake, higher endogenous levels of hormones (zijlstra et al, 1994) and tolerance of the rootstock to other unfavorable soilconditions (rivero et al, 2003). it has been stated that grafting onto cucurbita rootstock had an adverse effect on cucumber production in taiwan. in our experiment, though, we could not detect any negative effect on cucumber fruit quality using cucurbita rootstock. in addition, there was no significant difference between the two rootstocks in grafting in terms of fruit length, fruit width or fruit weight (table 3). moreover, grafting resulted in significantly higher soluble solid content and total yield on both the rootstocks, especially when cucumber was grafted onto cucumis. however, total yield did not vary with rootstock (table 3). in this study, higher fruit yield was obtained in plants grafted onto cucurbita rootstock. this may be due to various factors such as increase in uptake of water and nutrients with the widespread root-system of the rootstock (salehi et al, 2009) and due to improved tolerance to soil-borne diseases (miguel et al, 2004). improvement in quality of the vegetable by grafting has been demonstrated in melon grafted onto cucurbita spp. (kamiya and tamura, 1969) and watermelon grafted onto squash (yamasaki et al, 1994). the most obvious reason why rootstocks affect scion fruit quality is rootstock/ scion incompatibility, which induces undergrowth or overgrowth of the scion leading to decreased water and nutrient flow through the graft-union, with resultant wilting (davis et al, 2008). various rootstocks affect cucumber quality negatively, besides causing shortening of fruits (muramatsu, 1981) and decreased soluble solids content (zhu et al, 2006). in our study, cucumber when grafted onto cucumis was seen to be compatible with normal vegetative growth response and good fruit traits. all in all, these results suggest that cucumis is a new rootstock that can replace the existing cucumber production and its economic potential can be exploited. thus rootstock had a significant effect on survival rate, vegetative growth, fruit yield and fruit quality. cucumber grafted onto cucumis rootstock showed good rootstockscion combination, better tolerance to soil-borne diseases, better growth, yield and quality. therefore, it is recommended that cucumis can be used as a new rootstock with economic potential, in cucumber production. references ahn, s.j., y.j., chung, g.c., cho, b.h., suh, s.r. 1999. physiological responses of grafted cucumber leaves and rootstock root affected by low root temperature. sci. hort., 81:397-408 bletsos, f.a., thanassoulopoulos, c., roupakias, d. 2003. effect of grafting on growth, yield and verticillium wilt of eggplant. hort. sci., 38:183-186 davis, a.r., p. perkins-veazie, r. hassell, a. levi, s.r. king and x. zhang. 2008. grafting effects on vegetable quality. hortsci., 43:1670-1672 kamiya, e. and s. tamura. 1964. studies on grafting in muskmelon [in japanese]. bull. shizuoka pref. agri. exptl. stn., 9:79–83 king, s.r., angela r. davis, xingping zhang and kevin crosby. 2010. genetics, breeding and selection of rootstocks for solanaceae and cucurbitaceae. sci hort., 127:106-111 lee, j.m. and m. oda. 2003. grafting of herbaceous vegetable and ornamental crops. hort rev., 28:61-124 lee, j.m, 1994. cultivation of grafted vegetables i. current status, grafting methods and benefits. hortl. sci., 29:240-244 table 3. effect of rootstock on fruit traits in grafted cucumber rootstock fruit fruit fruit total yield length width weight soluble (t/ha) (cm) (cm) (g) solids (°brix) cucumis 22.8±0.8 2.5±0.3 92±1.5 4.6±0.3 8.0±0.8 cucurbita 23.4±1.0 2.6±0.2 94±1.2 3.3±0.2 8.1±0.9 non-grafted 23.5±0.7 2.6±0.3 95±1.5 3.3±0.1 5.9±0.9 t-test ns ns ns * ** ns = non-significant; significant at p d” 0.05 or 0.01 level, respectively table 2. effect of rootstock on vegetative traits in grafted cucumber rootstock final main-stem scion rootstock internode no. of length (cm) diameter(cm) diameter (cm) length (cm) leaves cucumis 220±7 1.3±0.1 1.3±0.2 5.5±0.3 122±15 cucurbita 228±9 1.3±0.3 1.3±0.2 5.6±0.2 124±12 non-grafted 201±5 1.1±0.2 1.1±0.1 4.6±0.3 108±11 t-test * ns ns ns * ns = non-significant; *significant at p d” 0.05 level j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):51-54, 2013 effect of rootstock on yield and quality in cucumber 54 marukawa, s. and takatsu, i. 1969. studies on the selection of cucurbita spp. as cucumber stock. 1. compatibility, ability to tolerate low-temperature conditions and yield of black prickly 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sci. vol. 8(1):51-54, 2013 hsiu-fung chao and yung-fu yen 404 not found stack trace: file: /var/www/jhs/pages/article/articlehandler.inc.php line 167 function: dispatcher->handle404() file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/pkprouter.inc.php line 392 function: articlehandler->initialize(object(request), array(0)) file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/pkppagerouter.inc.php line 246 function: pkprouter->_authorizeinitializeandcallrequest(array(2), object(request), array(2), false) file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/dispatcher.inc.php line 144 function: pkppagerouter->route(object(request)) file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/pkpapplication.inc.php line 362 function: dispatcher->dispatch(object(request)) file: /var/www/jhs/index.php line 68 function: pkpapplication->execute() this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. short communication chrysanthemum belongs to the family asteraceae, native of asia and europe (asha et al., 2016), is commercially cultivated in for the exquisite flowers. it is a leading flower in the global market and commonly grown for cut flower, loose flower, pot plant and garden decoration throughout the world. in india, is being commercially grown in 31.40 thousand hectare area with 482.54 thousand metric tons loose flower and 28.73 thousand metric tons of cut flower production (anon., 2022). chrysanthemum flowers have high potential and price because of its variable flower shape, size, forms and distinctiveness for flower hues and shades (kaushal and bala, 2019). there is demand for superior varieties over the existing ones, thus, ther e is need to evaluate a nd categor ize chr ysa nthemum var ieties on the basis of their commercial significance (bala, 2015). the objective of this study was to evaluate diverse standard varieties of chrysanthemum having potential for pot culture, exhibition, a nd cut flower with commer cia l significance. the experiment was conducted with ten standard varieties of chrysanthemum i.e., snow ball, pusa centenary, sonar bangla, thai chen queen, purnima, kikobiory, swan dance, otam blaze, valliant, denise oatridge, in 8 inch pots, replicated thrice in completely randomized block design (crd) at research farm, department of floriculture and landscaping, punjab agricultural university, ludhiana, during 2018-19. substrate media of soil : leaf mold : sand (2:1:1) was used for pot filling. disbudding was done in september and october to maintain a healthy terminal flower on the single stem. the observations on various growth and flowering parameters such as plant height at bud appearance and at anthesis, number of leaves per plant, days to bud initiation, days to flower opening stage, maturity group (early, medium, late), flower diameter, duration of flowering, flower colour, vase life, flower form and commercial use were recorded. data were subjected to statistical analysis by using cpcs-1 software and comparisons were made at 5% level of significance. all the varieties differed significantly with each other with regard to various vegetative and floral parameters (ta ble 1). t he ma ximum pla nt height a t bud appearance (71.82 cm) and anthesis (77.23 cm) was recorded in variety snow ball which was significantly higher than at bud appearance (68.30 cm) and at anthesis (73.47 cm) in kikobiory, however, the minimum plant height (44.08 cm) at bud appearance and at anthesis (48.10 cm) was observed in purnima. the height of plants should be proportionate i.e., j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 240-243, 2023 https://doi.org/10.24154/jhs.v18i1.2171 morphological characterization of standard chrysanthemum (chrysanthemum morifolium ramat.) abhishek k. and bala m.* department of floriculture and landscaping, punjab agricultural university, ludhiana 141004, punjab, india *corresponding author email : madhu-flori@pau.edu abstract ten diverse chrysanthemum varieties were evaluated for their suitability as cut flower, flower arrangement and pot plant. the maximum plant height at bud appearance (71.82 cm) and at anthesis (77.23 cm) was recorded in snow ball, while, it was recorded minimum at bud appearance (44.08 cm) and flower opening stage (48.10 cm) in purnima. the longest duration of flowering (33.73 days) was recorded in thai chen queen, whereas, the least flowering duration (23.63 days) was recorded in swan dance. the variety pusa centenary exhibited the longest vase life (22.00 days), however, the least vase life (16.00 days) was recorded in valliant. depending upon the compactness, medium size and vase life, thai chen queen, purnima, pusa centenary, otam blaze and denise oatridge were found suitable for pot culture, cut flower and flower arrangements, whereas, the varieties with big flower such as snow ball, kikobiory, sonar bangla, valliant and swan dance were identified for pot culture and exhibition purpose. keywords : chrysanthemum, evaluation, floral characters, vase life 241 j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 240-243, 2023 morphological characterization of standard chrysanthemum 2-2.5 times to the size of pot for its effective display. the seasonal variation pertaining to environmental conditions such as light and temperature also affect the plant architecture (suvija et al., 2016). the variation in plant height could be due to genetic and environmental factors (baskaran et al., 2010). the highest number of leaves per plant (18.50) was recorded in the variety pusa centenary, whereas, the lowest leaf count per plant (10.80) was observed in kikobiory. the diverse genetic makeup of different genotypes along with variable response to prevailing environmental conditions likely resulted in variation in leaf number (suvija et al., 2016). the number of days to bud appearance and flower opening differed significantly among the varieties (fig. 1). the variety swan dance (71.30 days) recorded early bud initiation and it was statistically at par with kikobiory (72.20 days). the variety pusa centenary registered the highest number of days to bud initiation (84.03 days) and was found statistically at par with sonar bangla (83.33 days) to initiate the flower buds. the days to bud initiation to first flower bud appearance is an important parameter reflecting earliness as well as late flowering habit of a variety, and holds a significance pertaining to the availability of flowers in the market (behera et al., 2002). the highest number of days to flower opening (104.87 days) was observed in the variety sonar bangla. the variety swan dance bloomed earliest (94.87 days) to anthesis, which was statistically at par with snowball and kikobiory. the cultivar which bloom early likely to reach or capture the market relatively earlier and could be a decisive factor for the farmer to cultivate plant height (cm) number flower duration floret colour code variety at bud at of leaves/ diameter of floweri(rhs colour appearance anthesis plant (cm) ng (days) chart) denise oatridge 61.27 65.07 13.65 14.33 32.97 purple violet group (n 80 d) kikobiory 68.30 73.47 10.80 15.82 26.87 yellow group (6 a) otam blaze 57.59 60.73 13.20 14.50 26.70 orange red group (31 a) purnima 44.08 48.10 11.37 13.30 30.60 white group (15 n) pusa centenary 61.33 65.80 18.50 14.41 29.57 yellow group (6 c) snow ball 71.82 77.23 13.37 17.69 31.07 white group (155 a) sonar bangla 58.84 62.70 13.03 16.85 25.17 yellow white group (158 c) swan dance 66.94 70.80 14.87 19.50 23.63 white group (155 b) thai chen queen 54.10 58.70 14.67 15.80 33.73 yellow orange group (22 c) valliant 60.13 64.27 13.07 16.73 27.90 red purple group (62 d) sem± 0.47 0.23 0.32 lsd (0.05) 1.40 0.68 0.94 0.77 1.24 table 1 : evaluation of chrysanthemum varieties for vegetative and floral characters fig. 1 : days to bud apperance and flower opening stage 242 abhishek and bala colourful varieties taking into consideration their varying response groups and their optimum stage for marketing (laxmi et al., 2008). the flower diameter is an important floral parameter that determines the likely weight of a flower which can be used as loose flower or for exhibition purpose. the large sized chrysanthemum inflorescence is desired for exhibition purpose and sometimes raised by the growers owing to consumer demand (kireeti et al., 2017). the maximum diameter of flower was observed in swan dance (19.50 cm) followed by ‘snow ball’ (17. 69 cm), while, minimum flower dia meter (13.30 cm) was observed in purnima. simila r variations in diameter of flower have been reported by kumar and polara (2017). considerable variations were recorded for the duration of flowering in different chrysanthemum varieties (table 1). the variety thai chen queen exhibited longest flowering duration (33.73 days), whereas, the shortest duration (23.63 days) was recorded in swan dance. these variations in flower diameter are requisite for the commercial flower market which provides an opportunity to select the varieties with profuse flowering with long blooming period. similar variation in flowering among chrysanthemum varieties have also been reported (srilatha et al., 2015). flower colour of different varieties was observed and the colour codes were designated as per the standard royal horticultural society colour charts (rhscc), london. variations in flower colour were observed among the ten varieties and are categorized into white, yellow, yellow white, orange red, red purple and purple violet group. the variation in flower colour among chrysanthemum varieties may also be due to the distinct genetic makeup and different proportion of pigments present in a particular genotype. the longest vase life (22 days) was observed in ‘pusa centenary’ and the shortest vase life (16.00 days) was observed in variety valliant (fig. 2). the variation in vase life may be due to genetic makeup of cultivars (singh et al., 2017). the varietal differentiation according to the maturity group is important for consumer preference. the variation among maturity and flowering duration is determining factors, especially for pot cultivation of chrysanthemum. the observations revealed that all the ten varieties assessed matured between 8 to 12 weeks, thus have been categorized under the medium maturity group (table 2). wide range of variation with respect to flower form viz., regular incurve, decorative, irregular incurve and spider etc. was observed. the trait such as flower shape and flower form is totally accredited to the genetic factor (behera et al., 2002). all the evaluated varieties can be used for pot culture and exhibition purposes depending upon consumer preferences. table 2 : characterization of chrysanthemum varieties for different maturity groups and commercial utilization flowering maturity flower pot culture/variety season group form exhibition cut flower denise oatridge novembermedium irregular december incurve kikobiory november medium regular incurve × otam blaze november medium decorative purnima november medium decorative pusa centenary november medium decorative snow ball november medium regular incurve × sonar bangla november medium regular incurve × swan dance octoberearly to medium spider × november thai chen queen november medium decorative valliant november medium spider × j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 240-243, 2023 243 therefore, the varieties thai chen queen, purnima, pusa centenary, otam blaze and denise oatridge with medium sized flowers and better keeping quality were found to be most suitable for pot culture, cut flower and flower arrangement, whereas, the varieties snow ball, kikobiory, sonar bangla, valliant and swan dance with bigger sized flowers were found suitable for pot culture and exhibition purpose. references anonymous. 2022. area and production of floriculture in india. https://www.indiastat.com. asha , k. m. sa ne, a. a nd kuma r, r. 2016. cha r a cter iza tion of chr ysa nthemum (dendranthema grandiflora) genotypes as per dus guidelines. indian j. agric. sci., 86: 103112. bala, m. 2015. eva lua tion of chr ysanthemum (chrysanthemum morifolium ra ma t. ) genotypes for morphological traits j. hortic. sci., 10: 242-244. baskaran, v., jayanthi r., janakiram, t. and abiramil, k. 2010. evaluation of post harvest quality of some varieties of chrysanthemum. j. hortic. sci., 5: 81-83. behera, t. k., sirohi, p. s. a nd pal, a. 2002. assessment of chrysanthemum germplasm for commercial cultivation under delhi condition. j. ornam. hortic., 5: 11-14. kaushal, s. and bala, m. 2019. morphological variability of chrysanthemum (dendranthema grandiflorum ramat.) genotypes for pot culture., agric. res. j., 56: 206-212. kireeti, a., ravindrababu, om prasad, m. j., and ra ma devi, p. 2017. eva lua tion of chrysanthemum (dendranthema grandiflora tzvelev) varieties in humid coastal zone of andhra pradesh. int. j. chem. stud., 5: 370372. kumar, a. s. and polara, n. d. 2017. evaluation of chrysanthemum varieties on growth and quality under south saurastra region. int. j. pure app. biosci., 5(4): 1989. laxmi, p. , pra ta p, m. a nd reddy, s.a. 2008. evaluation of yellow coloured chrysanthemum (dendranthema grandiflora l.) varieties for growth, flowering and yield. orissa j. hortic., 36(1): 116-119. singh, d. d., tyagi, s., singh, s and kumar, p. 2017. studies on the per for ma nce a nd flower cha r a cter iza tion of chr ysa nthemum (dendranthema grandiflora l.) genotypes under uttar pradesh conditions. adv. res., 9: 1-7. srilatha, v., kumar, k. s. and kiran, y. d. 2015. evaluation of chrysanthemum (dendranthema grandiflora tzvelev) varieties in southern zone of andhra pradesh. agri. sci. dig., 35:155-157. suvija, n. v., suresh, j., kumar, s. r. and kannan, m. 2016. evalua tion of chr ysanthemum (chrysanthemum morifolium ramat) genotypes for loose flower, cut flower and pot mums. int. j. innov. res. adv. std., 3:101-104. fig. 2 : vase life (days) of standard chrysanthemum (received : 05.03.2021; revised : 01.02.2023; accepted 03.02.2023) j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 240-243, 2023 morphological characterization of standard chrysanthemum this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. introduction cucumber is a member of the diverse and distinct cucurbitaceae family and is widely grown for both fresh and processing purposes around the world. primary centre of origin was india where both wild and cultivated species exist while, china and near east are secondary centre of origin (telford and renner, 2010). both cultivated and wild species viz., cucumis sativus var. hardwickii render enormous variation for various traits like growth habit, sex expression, fruit size, spines and flesh bitterness. about 70% of the cucumber world production is contributed by asian countries, turkey, iran and russia. in india, cucumber covered an area of 104 thousand hectares with 1603 thousand mt annual production (nhb 2019). cucumber is an ideal model crop for genetic studies due to smaller genome size of approximately 367mb with shorter life cycle (kaur and sharma, 2021). breeding cucumber for enhancing yield, quality, and biotic and abiotic stress tolerance is a major challenge for the breeders, globally (yuan et al., 2008). in spite of huge variability, it has narrow genetic base with only 12% polymorphism which limits the new cultivar development by cross breeding (pandey et al., 2018). there is scope for improvement of the productivity with the use of improved varieties or hybrids of cucumber (pandey et al., 2016). selection of suitable parents for breeding programme depends on the existence of variability in the germplasm. identification of the suitable parents is the most imperative for hybridization. recent progresses in plant genomic offers an opportunity for assessing genetic diversity through use of molecular markers (yang et al., 2015). molecular markers are more advantageous than morphological characters due to more stability under variable environment conditions. different types of molecular markers are random amplified polymorphic dna (rapd), sequence characterized amplified r egions (scar), a mplified fr a gment length polymorphisms (aflp) and simple sequence repeats (ssr) (dar et al., 2017). among all, ssr markers are widely used in plant genomics like gene mapping, quantitative trait loci (qtl), marker assisted selection (mas), evolutionary studies and genetic diversity ssr analysis to assess genetic diversity and population structure in parthenocarpy cucumber (cucumis sativus l.) kaur m.*, sharma p. , sharma a., hemalata and kumar n. department of vegetable science and floriculture, college of agriculture, csk hpkv, palampur 176062 (hp) india *correspondence author email : sidhumanpreetk12@gmail.com abstract the genetic diversity and population relationship was determined in 14 genotypes of parthenocarpic cucumber (cucumis sativus l.) using simple sequence repeats (ssr) markers. in this study, fifty-nine ssr markers comprehensively showed polymorphism among cucumber genotypes. total 252 alleles were identified with an average of 4.27 alleles per locus, while the polymorphism information content (pic) of the primers ranged from 0.34 to 0.84 with a mean value of 0.62. the major allele frequency and heterozygosity ranged from 0.21 to 0.75 and from 0.43 to 0.89, respectively. maximum major allele frequency was reported with primer csfemale-4, whereas the maximum value of polymorphic information content was found with the primer ssr11742. the dendrogram clustered genotypes into two main groups a and b with 8 and 6 genotypes, respectively. jaccard’s similarity coefficient ranged from 0.63 to 0.86 with maximum similarity between genotypes ddpcg3 and plp-1, whereas minimum similarity was observed between ddpcg8 and plp gy-1-08b. the population structure revealed three sub-populations with some admixtures. principal coordinate analysis (pcoa) with ssr markers revealed that the genotypes were uniformly distributed across the two axes in both the plots with 41.76% of cumulative variation. the genetic divergence within indigenous genotypes allow genotypic identification, gene mapping and cloning for improvement in cucumber breeding. keywords : cucumber, genetic diversity, polymorphism, population structure, ssr markers original research paper j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 46-52, 2023 https://doi.org/10.24154/jhs.v18i1.2146 47 j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 46-52, 2023 analysis (mahajan et al., 2016). ssr markers are used in cucumber for assessment of genetic diversity in cucumber (yang et al., 2015). genetic diversity and population str uctur e is ver y impor ta nt for the maintenance, conservation and improvement in productivity in agriculture. plant genetic diversity can be preserved and stored in the form of plant genetic resources in gene banks and dna libraries for long term conservation. these plant genetic resources could be utilized in future for the crop improvement against various biotic and abiotic stresses to meet global food security (garzon-martinez et al., 2015). due to narrow genetic base and use of limited number of ssr markers for genetic diversity analysis, there is a dire need for studying genetic diversity using ssr markers for bridging the gap in the crop improvement by hybridization. therefore, this study was focused to determine genetic diversity and population structure using ssr markers in cucumber. the findings of this work will aid in the selection of cucumber genotypes with a high genetic diversity of the genes used in crossbreeding, qtl mapping, gene tagging and other imperative genomic studies materials and methods experimental material this study was conducted at research farm of vegetable science, department of vegetable science and floriculture (n 32° 61, e 76° 31), csk-hpkv, palampur. agro-climatically, it is located in the midhill regions having humid sub-temperate climate with 2,500 mm annual rainfall. the experiment material comprised of fourteen genotypes both gynoecious parthenocarpic which were collected from cskhpkv (palampur), pau (ludhiana, punjab) and gbpua&t (pant nagar) (table 1). the genotypes were maintained at experimental farm and molecular biology la bor a tor y of vegeta ble science a nd floriculture department, cskhimachal pradesh krishi vishvavidyalaya, palampur, india during the year 2020-21 to take up genetic diversity analysis. genomic dna extraction and pcr amplification using ssr markers about 5 g of plant tissue was finely ground in liquid nitrogen. the entire genomic dna was extracted from each genotype using the ctab technique (doyle and doyle, 1987). the dna quantification was done using nanodrop spectrophotometer at the od 260/280 value and 0.8% agarose gel-electrophoresis. for pcr, dna was diluted to 50 ng/ul and refrigerated at 4°c, whereas concentrated dna stocks were kept at -80°c for later use. for amplification of genomic dna, a reaction mixture of 15 µl volume was prepared using template dna (50 ng/µl), forward and reverse primer (5µm each), mgcl2 (1.6 mm), 1 x pcr buffer (1 x: 10mm trishcl, 50mm kcl, ph 8.3), dntp mix (0.25 mm) and taq polymerase (0.75 u/µl). the pcr reaction was carried out in thermal cycler with initial denaturation at 94°c at 3-5 min, 35-36 cycles of denaturation of 94°c for 3060 sec, annealing of 50-60°c for 3060 sec, extension of 72°c for 60-80 sec and followed by final extension of 72°c for 5-10 min. the amplified products were resolved in 3 per cent agarose gel with 100 bp ladder and gels were visualized using the geldocumentation unit (bio-rad). statistical analysis for all analyzed genotypes, exclusive dna bands were evaluated as present (1) or absent (0). in the simqual programme of the ntsyspc package (version 2.02), the binary data were used to generate a jaccard’s similarity coefficient through upgma (unweighted pair-group method with ar ithmetic a ver a ges) method which a llowed to design a dendrogra m by genotype clustering. pic value calculates the informativeness of a particular dna marker (spooner et al., 1993). using the software structure version 2.3.4 (pritchard et al., 2000), model-based cluster ana lysis wa s performed to germplasm collection source ddpcg4 cskhpkv, palampur hpk-1 cskhpkv, palampur punjab kheera-1 (pk-1) pau, ludhiana ppc-2 gbpua&t, pant nagar ppc-3 gbpua&t, pant nagar ddpcw1 cskhpkv, palampur ddpcg2 cskhpkv, palampur ddpcg5 cskhpkv, palampur ddpcg6 cskhpkv, palampur ddpcg7 cskhpkv, palampur plpgy-1-08-a (green) cskhpkv, palampur plp gy-1-08-b (white) cskhpkv, palampur ddpcg3 cskhpkv, palampur plp-1 cskhpkv, palampur table 1 : cucumber germplasm and their sources used for diversity analysis ssr analysis to assess genetic diversity and population structure 48 determine the genetic structure and number of clusters in the da ta set. t he number of hypothesized populations (k) varied between 2 and 10 and the analysis was carried out twice and the true k was determined according to the method described by evanno et al. (2005). the run with maximum likelihood was used to assign individual genotypes into groups. popgene was used to calculate a variety of genetic variation parameters. using the darwin softwar e ver sion 5. 0, a neighbor-joining tr ee (unweighted) was constructed from the dissimilarity matrix (per rier and ja cquemoud, 2006). 1000 bootstraps were used to test branch robustness. principal coordinates analysis (pcoa) in genalex 6.5 was used to visualize the genetic relationship patterns in the matrix. structure analysis was done to estimate population str ucture (q matrix) using structure (pritchard et al., 2000; falush et al., 2003) and express as membership probability. to estimate the actual population substructure, ten different ks (from k=1 to k=10, where k is the kinship matrix) were utilized. results and discussion ssr and marker informativeness the gel electrophoresis results for 14 germplasm with primer ssr11742 is presented in fig. 1. the total molecula r var ia bility pa ra meters such a s pic, heterozygosity, major allele frequency, number of alleles and allele size across all 14 germplasm are presented in table 2 (supplimentary file). out of 61 ssr primers, 59 primers exhibited polymorphism. a total of 252 amplicons were created, with sizes ranging from 100 to 380 bp. the total number of alleles from 59 primers observed was 252 with a mean of 4.27 alleles per locus and eight alleles were identified in ssr11742 and ssr04689. major allele frequency varied from 0.21 (ssr04689) to 0.75 (cs-female-4) with an average value of 0.42. the polymorphic infor ma tion content (pic), r a nged fr om 0. 34 (ssr30647) to 0.84 (ssr11742), with an average value of 0.62 per primer. similarly, heterozygosity varied from 0.43 (cs-female-4) to 0.89 (ssr 11742) with an average value of 0.70. genetic diversity assessment and structure analysis fourteen cucumber genotypes were divided into two main clusters (a and b). cluster a was split into two sub-clusters comprising of total of 8 germplasm, while cluster b had contained six genotypes namely, ddpcg6, ddpcg7, plpgy-1-08a, plpgy-1-08b, ddpcg3 and plp-1 (fig. 2). based on upgma analysis, jaccard’s similarity coefficient varied from 0.63 to 0.84 with maximum similarity between genotype ddpcg3 and plp-1 (0. 86), whereas minimum similarity was between ddpcg8 and plpgy-1-08b (0.59). based on neighbor joining analysis, genotypes were grouped into three clusters as depicted using the color codes in fig. 3. cluster i (red), cluster ii (blue) and cluster iii (green) fig. 1 : dna profile of 14 germplasm of cucumber showing polymorphism with primer ssr11742 (m-100 bp ladder) fig. 2 : dendrogram depicting genetic relationships among the cucumber germplasm constructed by ntsys–pc (version 2.02) using upgma method j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 46-52, 2023 kaur et al. 49 fig. 3 : neighbor-joining tree of cucumber germplasm using ssr markers generated by darwin software fig. 5 : genetic structure of 14 cucumber germplasm (red and green) represent the two groups, defined by the k value. cucumber germplasm showing more than one color may have an admixture percentage of variation explained by the first 3 axes axis 1 2 3 % 17.59 14.10 10.08 cum % 17.59 31.68 41.76 fig. 4 : pcoa scatter diagram analysis showing the distribution of 14 cucumber germplasm j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 46-52, 2023 ssr analysis to assess genetic diversity and population structure 50 comprised of two, six and six genotypes, respectively. principal coordinate analysis (pcoa) showed that first three coordinates accounted for 41.76% cumulative variation among 14 genotypes (fig. 4) with the first and second coordinates explaining 17.59% and 14.10% of the total variation respectively. the structure analysis divided the population into two groups. the differentiations at k =2 were nearly equivalent to pedigree knowledge with a few outliers. in group 1 (red) consists of 6 genotypes and group 2 (green) comprises 8 genotypes (fig. 5). the germplasm generated by the ntsys software were confirmed using structure analysis at k = 2. as a result of this, it was established that the germplasm that were separated according to cluster analysis were almost identical to those that were divided according to structure analysis, with a few minor differences. the genetic diversity and population structure in cucumber was investigated for improvement of various traits using crop breeding practices. a limited number of ssr molecular markers were used with indian cucumber genotypes. it has been observed that ssr markers showed high polymorphism in cucumber. in our study, we have determined the genetic diversity using sixty-one ssr markers in 14 genotypes of cucumber compr ising a wider geogr a phica l distribution of genotypes. among 61 ssrs primers, 59 primers showed high polymorphism and a total of 252 alleles were identified with an amplicon size ranging from 100-380 bp. the number of alleles varied from 2-8 with a mean of 4.27 alleles per locus. similarly, dar et al. (2017) and lv et al. (2012) observed an average number of alleles 2.9 and 13.7 per locus, respectively. the polymorphic information content (pic), a mea sur e r ela ted to ma r ker discrimination, ranged from 0.34 (ssr30647) to 0.84 (ssr11742), with a mean of 0.62 per primer. our study revealed similar r esults of pic (0.62) in comparison with previous reports on cucumber i.e., 0.664 and 0.69 (hu et al., 2011; normohamadi et al., 2017) while, pic was lower in indian cucumber (0.310), chinese cucumber (0.388) and cucumber (0.33) (hu et al., 2011; pandey et al., 2013; dar et al., 2017). a range of 0.12-0.44 was observed for pic value for 15 primers with the mean value of 0.21 (someh et al., 2016). ssr11742 and ssr04689 markers were found more polymorphic among 59 ssr markers due to their high pic values. the results were in agr eement with earlier studies on cucumber suggesting the role of ssr markers for identification of genotypes, dna fingerprinting and maintenance of genotypes in the gene banks. based on upgma analysis with jaccard’s similarity coefficient varied from 0.63 to 0.86. similarly, someh et al. (2016) and nor moha madi et al. (2017) reported jaccard’s similarity coefficient ranging from 0.56 to 0.88 and 0.51 to 0.92 in cucumber, respectively. lower range of jaccard’s similarity coefficient viz., 0.01-0.44 and 0.35-0.51 was reported in cucumber by valcarcel et al. (2018) and park et al. (2021). there was no regional distribution trend in the clustering pattern based on upgma and pca. this could be due to regular gene flow through seed exchange between different places, which is most likely due to human interference (garzon-martinez et al., 2015). minimum jaccard’s similarity coefficient was observed in ddpcg8 and plpgy-1-08b showing maximum diversity among genotypes. the genotypes ddpcg8 and plpgy-1-08b were collected from different parts of indian origin the clustering formed by the upgma dendrogram was moderately validated by projecting individua l genotypes into a two-dimensiona l multivariate space in pcoa diagram. as per upgma method the cucumber genotypes were divided into two main clusters a (a1-5 and a2-3) and b (6). similar results were reported by dar et al. (2017) which grouped cucumber germplasm into two main distinct clusters. various clustering methods were employed to assess genetic relationship of different genotypes or germplasm. based on neighbour joining, fourteen genotypes were grouped into thr ee clusters a s represented by using color codes. cluster i consists of 2 genotypes followed by 6 genotypes in cluster ii and iii. pcoa is a multivariate strategy for grouping data ba sed on similarity coefficients or var iance or covariance values that provides more information about main groups, whereas cluster analysis provides higher resolution among closely related populations. pcoa explores correlations between many quantitative variables by constructing a small number of linear combinations (principal components) that retain as much information as feasible from the original data. principal coordinate analysis (pcoa) showed that first three coordinates accounted for 41.76% cumulative variation among 14 genotypes with the first and second coordinates explaining 17.59% and 14.10% of the j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 46-52, 2023 kaur et al. 51 total variation respectively. the population structure analysis grouped the genotypes into 2 groups including genotypes having admixtures. as a result, pedigree information was combined with cluster membership to determine the division of red and green groupings. similar results were reported in cucumber (pandey et al. 2013; dar et al., 2017) and turkish melons (sensoy et al., 2007). the increased variance should be r ecor ded for ger mpla sm pr eser va tion a nd agricultural enhancement breeding strategies. conclusion this study could be used to estimate genetic variation within a group of elite genotypes to employ in cucumber impr ovement in india. a total of 14 cucumber genotypes wer e a ssessed using 59 polymorphic ssr markers. the experiment depicted total number of 252 amplicons, with an overall average of 4.27 alleles per locus. ssr 11742 primer was recorded to have good marker informativeness. based on upgma cluster analysis, ma ximum simila rity (less diverse) was observed between genotype ddpcg3 and plp-1 whereas minimum similarity (more diverse) between ddpcg8 and plpgy-1-08b. the population structure depicted three main populations including admixture genotypes. it may be further utilized in future projects related to qtls identification, genome wide association studies, dna fingerprinting and preservation of cucumber germplasm across india and other countries. references dar, a. a., mahajan, r., lay, p. and sharma, s. 2017. genetic diversity and population structure of cucumis sativus l. by using ssr markers. 3 biotech., 7: 307. doyle, j. j. and doyle, j. l. 1987. a rapid dna isolation procedure for small quantities of fresh leaf tissue. phytochem. bull., 19: 11-15. evanno, g., regnaut. s. a nd goudet, j. 2005. detecting the number of clusters of individuals using the software structure: a simulation study. mol. ecol., 14: 2611-2620. falush, 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pho-physiologica l a nd est-ssr markers. physiol. mol. biol. plants. j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 46-52, 2023 ssr analysis to assess genetic diversity and population structure 52 pandey, s., ansari, w.a., pandey, m. and singh, b., 2018. genetic diversity of cucumber estimated by mor pho-physiologica l a nd est-ssr ma rkers. physiol. mol. biol. plants, 24: 135-146. park, g., choi, y., jung, j. k., shim, e. j., kang, m. y., sim, s. c., chung, s. m., lee, g. p. and park, y. 2021. genetic diversity assessment and cultivar identification of cucumber (cucumis sativus l.) using the fluidigm single nucleotide polymorphism assay. plants, 10: 395. perrier, x. and jacquemoud, c. 2006. darwin software. pritchard, j. k., stephens, m. and donnelly, p. 2000. infer ence of popula tion str uctur e using multilocus genotype data. genetics, 155: 945959. sensoy, s., buyukalaca, s. and abak, k. 2007. evaluation of genetic diversity in turkish melons (cucumis melo l.) based on phenotypic characters and rapd 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(received : 22.09.2022; revised : 10.12.2022; accepted 12.12.2022) j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 46-52, 2023 kaur et al. this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction papaya (carica papaya l.) is a common fruit crop grown in the southern region of india. the crop is being cultivated in an area of 1,49,000 ha with a production of 57,44,000 mt (anonymous, 2022). fertigation combines the application of water and nutrient required for plant growth and development and allows an accurate and uniform application of nutrients to the wetted area in the root zone. through fertigation, it is possible to supply an adequate quantity and concentration of nutrients to meet the demand of the crop throughout growing season. further, fertigation is the most efficient method of fertilizers application, as it ensures application of the fertilizers directly to the plant roots (rajput and patel, 2002). the scheduling of fertigation for crops will benefit the farmers to increase the yield and improve the quality of produce through efficient use of water and fertilizers. use of fertigation in fruit crops was reported to save 30-50% of fertilizer doses as well as ir r iga tion (shirgur e et al. , 2001; shirgur e and srivastava 2014). further, it is imperative to a chieve the high nutr ient use efficiency a nd reducing the requirement of bulk fertilizers to 25% (malhotra, 2016). fertigation has been substantiated for many crops t hr ou ghout wor ld. i t ha s b een r ep or t ed t ha t efficiency of nitrogenous fertilizers is 95% under drip-fertigation compared to 30-50% under soil application. when a fertilizer is applied to a soil, nearby water begins to move very gradually toward the a rea wher e the fer tilizer has been applied. fertilizer salts begin to diffuse, or move away from the place where they were applied. this dilutes the fertilizer and distributes it throughout a much larger area. if tender plant roots are close to the placement of a fertilizer, water is drawn from these roots, as well as from surrounding soil (rajput and patel, 2002). further, sathya et al. (2008) observed that the availability of n, p and k nutrient was found to be higher in root zone area of drip fertigated plot, while nitrogen and potassium moved laterally from point source up to 15 cm a nd vertica lly up to 15-25 cm and p moved 5 cm both laterally and vertically and thereafter dwindled. nitrogen promotes vegetative growth, flower and fruit set. high level of phosphorus throughout root zone is essential for ra pid root development and good utilization of water and other nutrients by plant. phosphorous has pronounced effect on the flowering, j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 104-112, 2023 https://doi.org/10.24154/jhs.v18i1.2133 standardisation of fertigation in papaya for higher productivity and profitability manjunath b.l.1*, gutam s.2 and raghupathi h.b.3 1division of fruit crops, 2division of basic sciences, 3division of natural resources icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru 560089, karnataka, india *corresponding author email: manjunath.bl@icar.gov.in abstract a field experiment conducted to standardize the fertigation in papaya (carica papaya l.) variety arka prabhat with 12 treatments in split plot design, indicated that fertigation with 75% recommended fertilizers (250:250:500 g npk/plant/year) through water soluble fertilizers recorded significantly higher fruit yield (47.34 t/ha), fertilizer use efficiency (20.45 kg fruit yield/kg of nutrient applied) and increase in 31% higher yield over soil application. the tss of papaya fruit was although not significantly influenced by both doses and sources of fertigation, significantly lower cavity index (3.12%) was observed when rdf was supplied with organics to the soil. fertigation with 100% rdf through water soluble fertilizers recorded significantly higher soil organic carbon (1.16%). however, fertigation of 75% rdf with inorganic fertilizers was found more economical with higher gross returns (rs.7.10 lakh/ha), net returns (rs.4.7 lakh/ha) and benefit cost ratio (2.96). keywords : benefit cost ratio, fertigation, papaya, productivity, profitability 105 standardisation of fertigation in papaya j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 104-112, 2023 in combination with n and k improves peel colour, taste, hardiness and vitamin c content and hastens maturity. potassium tends to increase fruit size, fruit quality and rectifies many disorders. it also helps in decreasing incidence of irregular shaped fruits. however, sta nda r disa tion of the schedules of fertigation is crucial to decide both the doses and in coinciding the crop nutrient requirement with different stages of the crop. keeping this in view, a field exper iment wa s ca rr ied out to standa rdize the fertigation in papaya. materials and methods the experiment was conducted during 2020-21 at icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, karnataka, which is located at an altitude of 890 m above mean sea level and lies between coordinates of 13° 8' n latitude and 77° 29' e longitude. soil of experimental field was sandy loam with 6.27 ph, 0.16 ds m-1 ec, and 0.78% organic carbon. the soil had an initial nutrient content of 283 kg available n/ha, 42.0 kg available phosphorus/ ha and 246.4 kg available potassium/ha. uniform and well-developed 45 days old seedlings of papaya var. arka prabhat were planted at a spacing of 1.8 m x 1.8 m on raised beds during july 2020 and the tr ea tments wer e imposed with the cr op esta blishment. t he cr op wa s ma na ged with r ecommended pa cka ge of pra ctices except for irrigation. the experiment was carried out in split plot design with 12 treatment combinations consisting of three doses of fertilizers, viz., m0: 100% rdf (250 g n + 250 g p2o5 + 500 g k2o per plant/year), m1: 125% rdf, and m2: 75% rdf as main plot and four sources of nutrients, viz., s0: fertigation through inorganic sources (urea, mkp and sop) s1: fertigation through organic sources (humic acid and vermiwash), s2: soil application of only organic sources (fym, vermicompost, neem cake, sesbania and glyricidia loppings), and s3: soil application of fym+ rdf (ur ea , ssp a nd mop) a s contr ol a s sub-plot treatments. each treatment was replicated four times and each replication had five plants. observations were recorded on various parameters of plant growth and physiology, root growth, soil fertility, yield, and tss and fruit cavity index after 240 days after planting. the physiological parameters were measured using irga portable photosynthesis system. the horizontal and vertical root growth was measured for the longest spread, and the root volume was ca lcula ted ba sed on the displacement of water technique at the end of the crop season on a destructive mode. the dry weight of roots was calculated by carefully uprooting the roots with soil, washing with water and drying with hot air oven. soil samples were collected at the end of the crop from 0-30 cm at 30-40 cm away from the base of the plant. soil chemical and fertility parameters such as ph, organic carbon, available phosphorus (p) and potassium (k) were analysed as per standard procedures described by jackson (1973). the fruit cavity index (%) was calculated by fruit cavity volume divided by fruit volume and multiplied by 100. plant canopy volume was calculated using the formula 2/3πh (a/2 x b/2)], where h stands for plant height, a and b stands for ew and ns plant canopy spread (thome et al., 2002). fertilizer use efficiency was calculated based on the fruit yield obtained and the fertilizer nutrient used in each of the treatment. all the experimental data were statistically analysed as per panse and sukhatme (1985), and the differences in means were compared at 5% level of significance. results and discussion plant growth parameters t he pla nt height in pa pa ya wa s significa ntly influenced by fertilizer doses and fertigation sources (table 1). significantly higher plant height (1.19 m) was recorded with 125 % rdf and among the sources, fertigation with rdf through inorganics recorded higher plant height (1.20 m). number of leaves were significantly higher with 125% rdf (20.63/plant) as compared to other sources, and further application of water soluble fertilizers recorded significantly higher number of leaves (20.6/plant) differing from other sources. among the interactions, soil application of organic sources meeting 125 % rdf recorded significantly more number of leaves (21.5/plant). the plant girth in papaya differed significantly both due to doses and sources of nutrients although their interactions were non-significant. significantly higher plant girth (26.28 cm) was recorded with application of 75 % of rdf, and among the sources, fer tiga tion with inorganic sources recorded more plant girth (26.92 cm). canopy volume in papaya was not significantly influenced by the fertilizer doses and their interaction with various sources. however, fertigation with water soluble fertilizers recorded significantly higher (1.64 m3) canopy volume differing from rest of the sources. 106 manjunath et al. treatment plant height no. of stem girth canopy volume (m) leaves/plant (cm) (m3) main plot m0 1.00 15.66 20.56 0.95 m1 1.19 20.63 25.78 1.18 m2 1.10 18.63 26.28 1.16 subplot s0 1.20 20.63 26.92 1.64 s1 1.05 16.67 22.42 1.00 s2 1.03 17.33 22.71 0.81 s3 1.11 18.59 24.79 0.93 interaction m0s0 1.10 21.00 24.75 1.44 m0s1 0.95 13.75 20.00 0.75 m0s2 0.90 12.00 17.00 0.65 m0s3 1.07 15.88 20.50 0.96 m1s0 1.32 21.00 26.75 1.78 m1s1 1.13 19.00 23.38 1.34 m1s2 1.15 21.50 27.50 0.87 m1s3 1.15 21.00 25.50 0.74 m2s0 1.18 19.88 29.25 1.71 m2 s1 1.06 17.25 23.88 0.92 m2s2 1.05 18.50 23.63 0.91 m2s3 1.12 18.88 28.38 1.10 s em ± main 0.02 0.65 0.37 0.07 sub 0.03 0.66 0.80 0.21 main x sub-1 0.05 1.19 1.25 0.32 c.d (p=0.05) main 0.07 2.31 1.30 ns sub 0.08 1.93 2.33 0.60 main x sub-1 ns 3.69 ns ns table 1 : mean plant growth parameters in papaya as influenced by fertilizer doses and fertigation sources physiological parameters in papaya although, the fertigation sources found to have nonsignifica nt impa ct on differ ent physiologica l parameters recorded, the doses of fertilizers influenced the photosynthesis, r espir a tion a nd stoma ta l conductance significantly (table 2). application of either 75% or 100% recommended fertilizers recorded significantly higher photosynthetic rate (16.34 µ mol m-2 s-1 and 16.24 mol m-2 s-1, respectively), the former a lso r ecor ded significa ntly higher stoma ta l conductance (0.14 mol h2o m -2 s-1) and transpiration rate (3.07 mol m-2 s-1). among the interactions, application of recommended fertilizer s through fertigation (m0s0) recorded significantly higher photosynthetic rate (17.53 µ mol m-2 s-1), which was followed by application of 75% rdf with organic sources of fertigation (m2s1), the latter also recording higher transpiration rate (3.14 mol m-2 s-1). application of 75% rdf through fertigation (m2s0) recorded significantly higher stomatal conductance (0.16 mol h2o m -2 s-1) also. better physiological parameters in fertigated plants may be attributed to the higher nutritional status (n, p and k content), leaf n and k contents and physiological efficiency (shirgure et al., 2001), fertigated papaya plants recorded higher physiological efficiency (especially total chlorophyll content), photochemica l efficiency, stoma ta l conducta nce a nd net photosynthesis, water use efficiency and relative water content compared with plants not subjected to fertigation. j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 104-112, 2023 107 table 2 : physiological parameters in papaya as influenced by fertilizer doses and fertigation sources treatment photosynthetic stomatal transpiration rate conductance rate (µ mol m-2 s-1) (mol m-2 s-1) (mol m-2 s-1) main plot m0 16.24 0.09 1.94 m1 12.61 0.07 2.32 m2 16.34 0.14 3.07 sub plot s0 14.70 0.11 2.52 s1 14.25 0.09 2.23 s2 15.82 0.10 2.55 s3 15.48 0.10 2.47 interaction m0s0 17.53 0.11 2.54 m0s1 15.15 0.08 1.85 m0s2 16.26 0.09 1.58 m0s3 16.00 0.08 1.77 m1s0 9.69 0.05 1.91 m1s1 10.35 0.04 1.71 m1s2 16.10 0.09 3.01 m1s3 14.29 0.09 2.67 m2s0 16.88 0.16 3.11 m2 s1 17.26 0.14 3.14 m2s2 15.09 0.11 3.06 m2s3 16.15 0.13 2.97 s em ± main 0.20 0.01 0.15 sub 0.41 0.01 0.15 main x sub-1 0.64 0.01 0.27 c.d (p=0.05) main 0.80 0.03 0.60 sub ns ns ns main x sub-1 1.98 0.04 0.89 root growth the impact of fertigation treatments on root growth parameters indicated that both the lateral and vertical root growth in papaya was significantly influenced by the doses and sources of fertigation although the root volume showed non-significant differences (table 3). the vertical growth of the roots was significantly higher with application of 100 % rdf (84.1 cm) and especially with soil application of organic sources (97.5 cm) both of which differing significantly from other treatments. although, the horizontal growth of roots was significantly influenced both by the fertilizer doses and the fertigation sources, their interaction was nonsignificant. in general, application of 75 % of rdf (163. 8 cm) a nd a mong the sour ces, soil a pplica tion of nutr ients (174. 5 cm) showed significantly higher lateral spread of roots. root dry weight in general was significantly higher with 125 % rdf, and among the sources soil application of rdf shown significantly higher root dry weight (641.2 g plant-1) differing significantly from rest of the fertigation sources. soil fertility the ph of soil was influenced significantly both by the doses and sources of fertigation under papaya. lowering the dose of fertilizers to 75 % rdf recorded ph 6.06 as compared to ph 5.96 in 100 % rdf. among the sources, soil application of fym and rdf recorded relatively better soil ph (6.11), while, among standardisation of fertigation in papaya j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 104-112, 2023 108 root root root root fresh root dry treatment length breadth volume weight weight (cm) (cm) (cm3 plant-1) (g plant-1) (g plant-1) main plot m0 84.1 109.9 1222.5 1606.9 395.9 m1 65.6 154.8 1530.6 2378.1 594.4 m2 50.0 163.8 1332.5 2556.3 554.8 subplot s0 69.8 131.5 1260.8 1900.0 496.8 s1 70.0 117.0 1215.8 1920.8 408.5 s2 65.8 148.2 1490.8 2158.3 513.6 s3 60.7 174.5 1480.0 2742.5 641.2 interaction m0s0 74.5 105.5 1032.5 1187.5 323.0 m0s1 85.0 86.0 765.0 962.5 162.4 m0s2 97.5 109.5 1460.0 1900.0 477.2 m0s3 79.5 138.5 1632.5 2377.5 621.1 m1s0 85.0 114.0 1340.0 1887.5 677.6 m1s1 77.5 140.0 1612.5 2800.0 609.9 m1s2 52.5 180.0 1750.0 2275.0 501.2 m1s3 47.5 185.0 1420.0 2550.0 589.0 m2s0 50.0 175.0 1410.0 2625.0 489.9 m2 s1 47.5 125.0 1270.0 2000.0 453.2 m2s2 47.5 155.0 1262.5 2300.0 562.6 m2s3 55.0 200.0 1387.5 3300.0 713.7 s em ± main 0.2 2.7 145.9 37.0 20.4 sub 2.0 7.5 281.5 155.7 52.7 main x sub-1 3.0 11.6 446.7 236.4 81.6 c.d (p=0.05) main 0.7 9.5 ns 130.5 72.1 sub 5.8 21.9 ns 454.1 153.7 main x sub-1 8.7 ns ns 693.2 ns table 3 : root growth in papaya as influenced by fertilizer doses and fertigation the interactions, fertigation through organic sources with 75 % of rdf recorded a soil ph of 6.19. the lower ph of soil with recommended fertilizers may be attributed to the addition of acidic fertilizers and the same was relatively better when applied along with fym. the organic carbon content in soil was significantly influenced by doses and sources of fertigation. application of 100 % rdf recorded significantly higher organic carbon (0.93 %) as compared to either 75 % (0.59 %) or 125 % (0.82 %). among the sources, application through water soluble fertilizers recorded significantly higher organic carbon (0.92 %) as compared to other sources and the control. among the interactions, 100% rdf through water soluble fertilizers recorded significantly higher organic carbon (1.16%) differing significantly from rest of the tr ea tment combina tions except the tr ea tment application of 125% rdf through soil application of organics (1.05%). the higher organic carbon content with water soluble fertilizers may be attributed to the better availability of plant nutrients in turn favouring the accumulation of organic carbon in the soil. t he nitrogen content in soil wa s significa ntly influenced by doses and sources of fertigation. application of 100 % rdf recorded significantly higher a va ila ble nitr ogen (150. 7 kg ha -1) a s compared to either 75 % (96 kg ha-1) or 125 % rdf manjunath et al. j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 104-112, 2023 109 (133 kg ha-1). among the sources, application through water soluble fertilizers recorded significantly higher available nitrogen (148.2 kg ha-1) as compared to other sources and the control. among the interactions, 100 % rdf through water soluble fertilizers recorded significantly higher n (187.1 kg ha -1) differing significantly from rest of the treatment combinations. the available phosphorous content in soil was significantly influenced both by the doses and sources of fertigation. application of 125 % rdf recorded significa ntly higher a va ila ble phosphor ous (40.92 kg ha-1). among the sources, soil application nutr ients thr ough orga nic sour ces r ecor ded significantly higher available phosphorous (47.31 kg ha-1) as compared to other sources and the control. among the interactions, 75 % rdf through organic sources recorded higher available phosphorous content (58.46 kg ha-1) differing significantly from rest of the treatment combinations except application of 125 % rdf through soil application of organic sources (55.91 kg ha-1) and application of 100 % rdf through water soluble fertilizers (54.19 kg ha-1). t he a va ila ble pota ssium content in soil wa s significantly influenced by doses and sources of fertigation. application of 125 % rdf recorded significantly higher soil available potassium (281.3 kg ha-1). among the sources, application through water soluble fertilizers recorded significantly higher available potassium (284.2 kg ha-1) as compared to other sources and the control. among the interactions, 100 % rdf through water soluble fertilizers recorded significantly higher potassium (353.8 kg ha-1) differing treatment ph ec (dsm-1) o.c. (%) n (kg ha-1) p (kg ha-1) k (kg ha-1) main plot m0 5.93 0.20 0.93 150.7 34.12 256.3 m1 5.96 0.16 0.82 133.0 40.92 281.3 m2 6.06 0.17 0.59 96.0 39.20 243.1 subplot s0 5.96 0.22 0.92 148.2 40.59 284.2 s1 5.99 0.15 0.76 122.3 32.16 251.3 s2 5.88 0.21 0.76 123.1 47.31 252.1 s3 6.11 0.13 0.70 112.6 32.26 253.4 interaction m0s0 5.71 0.35 1.16 187.1 54.19 353.8 m0s1 6.03 0.16 0.95 153.1 26.20 261.3 m0s2 5.92 0.15 0.80 128.8 27.56 152.5 m0s3 6.09 0.15 0.83 133.7 28.53 257.5 m1s0 6.08 0.16 0.75 121.5 35.82 243.8 m1s1 5.76 0.13 0.68 109.4 38.46 258.8 m1s2 5.80 0.22 1.05 170.1 55.91 351.3 m1s3 6.19 0.13 0.81 131.2 33.50 271.3 m2s0 6.10 0.14 0.84 136.1 31.77 255.0 m2 s1 6.19 0.17 0.65 104.5 31.83 233.8 m2s2 5.92 0.26 0.44 70.5 58.46 252.5 m2s3 6.04 0.12 0.45 72.9 34.76 231.3 s em ± main 0.06 0.02 0.03 4.5 5.15 ns sub ns 0.05 0.07 11.5 ns ns main x sub-1 ns 0.08 0.11 17.7 ns 71.3 c.d (p=0.05) main 0.02 0.01 0.01 1.3 1.46 12.1 sub 0.08 0.02 0.02 3.9 4.51 13.1 main x sub-1 0.12 0.03 0.04 6.0 6.92 23.1 table 4 : soil fertility and major nutrients of soil in papaya as influenced by fertigation treatments standardisation of fertigation in papaya j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 104-112, 2023 110 significantly from rest of the treatment combinations except application of 125 % rdf through soil application of organic sources (351.3 kg ha-1). these differences in npk may be attributed to the movement of applied nutrients in the soil both horizontally and vertically as well as concentration of immobile elements (sathya et al., 2008). the easy availability of water-soluble nutrients right at the root zone of the crop through fertigation in a balanced form through rdf might have favoured better availability of plant nutrients favouring their accumulation in the soil. fruit yield the fruit yield in papaya was significantly influenced by fertilizer doses and fertigation sources (table 5). application of 75 % rdf through fertigation recorded significantly higher fruit yield (47.34 t ha-1), which was followed by application of organic sources 125 % rdf (44.37 t ha-1). the increase in yield of papaya was over 31 % with fertigation clearly indicating the relative advantage, which may be attributed to higher nutrient use efficiency resulting in more number of fruits, fruit weight, tss and lower fruit cavity index. jeyakumar et al. (2010) reported that, application of 100 % recommended dose of n and k2o through drip resulted in more number of fruits, fruit weight, tss and low fruit cavity index with soil application of p2o5. although significantly lower cavity index was observed when rdf was supplied with organics to the soil (3.12%), among the fertilizer dosages, relatively lower cavity index (10.51%) was observed with 125% rdf, while, among the sources of nutrients, soil application of only orga nic sources r esulted in marginally lower cavity index (10.44%). no. of individual fruit fruit tss cavity treatment fruits fruit weight yield yield (ob) index plant-1 (kg) (kg plant-1) (t ha-1) (%) main plot m0 9.50 0.87 6.12 21.18 10.28 13.97 m1 21.09 0.69 10.49 32.39 9.61 10.51 m2 20.91 1.14 10.58 32.66 9.86 12.77 subplot s0 21.17 0.66 11.95 36.87 9.66 13.74 s1 13.38 0.92 6.82 21.07 10.44 12.75 s2 15.94 0.75 9.11 28.91 10.57 10.44 s3 18.18 1.27 8.38 28.13 9.00 12.75 interaction m0s0 19.25 0.70 12.73 39.27 10.10 19.06 m0s1 7.88 1.53 5.03 15.53 11.28 21.63 m0s2 3.25 0.71 1.73 7.70 11.30 3.12 m0s3 7.63 0.56 5.00 22.22 8.45 12.08 m1s0 23.50 0.54 7.78 24.00 9.30 11.60 m1s1 17.88 0.52 7.61 23.50 9.80 5.21 m1s2 21.75 0.89 14.38 44.37 9.38 11.23 m1s3 21.25 0.79 12.21 37.69 9.98 14.00 m2s0 20.75 0.73 15.34 47.34 9.58 10.55 m2 s1 14.38 0.72 7.83 24.17 10.25 11.42 m2s2 22.83 0.66 11.23 34.67 11.03 16.96 m2s3 25.67 2.47 7.93 24.48 8.58 12.18 s em ± main 1.33 ns 0.89 2.75 0.37 2.45 sub 1.33 ns 1.17 3.62 0.47 2.19 main x sub-1 2.39 ns 1.97 6.09 0.79 4.10 c.d (p=0.05) main 4.69 0.248 3.14 9.72 ns ns sub 3.87 0.276 3.41 10.57 ns ns main x sub-1 7.44 0.483 5.98 18.53 ns 12.85 table 5 : fruit yield and quality in papaya with different fertilizer doses and fertigation sources manjunath et al. j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 104-112, 2023 111 t he tr ea t ment combina t ion m 2s 0 (75 % rd f) recorded maximum fertilizer use efficiency (20.45 kg of yield /kg of nutrient applied) (fig. 1). this may be due to the application of nutrients directly to the root zone through fertigation coupled with complete solubility of water soluble fer tilizers increasing the efficiency of the applied nutrients. similar results of 75% n and k when applied through drip recorded on par papaya yield with 100% rdf (sadaraunnisa, 2010). it was attributed to the better yield components like number of fruits/ plant, fruit weight in the treatments where fertilizers wer e a pp lied t hr ou gh dr ip comp a r ed t o soil application of fertilizers. it was also concluded that since there was no significant difference between 100% and 75% n and k treatments through drip regarding yield and yield attributes, the later dosage is economical over the former. t he t ss in pa pa ya fr uits wa s not influenced significantly either by fertilizer doses and the sources of fertigation or their interaction (table 5). however, relatively higher tss was observed when rdf was supplied with organics either through soil (11.30 obrix) or through fertigation (11.28 obrix). t he ca vity index in papa ya wa s significa ntly influenced by the interaction of fertilizer doses and fertigation sources. significantly, lower cavity index was observed when rdf was supplied with organics to the soil (3.12) and it was followed by application fig. 1 : fertilizer use efficiency in papaya as influenced by fertilizer doses and methods table 6 : the economics of papaya cultivation under different fertilizer doses and sources of fertigation fruit gross total net b:c treatment yield returns cost returns ratio (t ha-1) (rs. ha-1) (rs. ha-1) (rs. ha-1) main plot m0 21.18 3,17,734 2,46,228 71,506 1.28 m1 32.39 4,85,820 2,58,475 2,27,345 1.87 m2 32.67 4,89,975 2,34,119 2,55,856 2.08 subplot s0 36.87 5,53,050 2,54,147 2,98,903 2.21 s1 21.07 3,15,990 2,26,582 89,408 1.40 s2 28.91 4,33,675 2,52,532 1,81,143 1.70 s3 28.13 4,21,990 2,51,833 1,70,157 1.67 interaction m0s0 39.27 5,89,125 2,54,148 3,34,977 2.32 m0s1 15.53 2,32,980 2,26,582 6,398 1.03 m0s2 7.70 1,15,500 2,50,032 -1,34,532 0.46 m0s3 22.22 3,33,330 2,54,148 79,182 1.31 m1s0 24.00 3,59,955 2,68,238 91,717 1.34 m1s1 23.50 3,52,425 2,33,782 1,18,643 1.51 m1s2 44.37 6,65,505 2,70,595 3,94,910 2.46 m1s3 37.69 5,65,395 2,61,284 3,04,111 2.16 m2s0 47.34 7,10,070 2,40,055 4,70,015 2.96 m2 s1 24.17 3,62,565 2,19,382 1,43,183 1.65 m2s2 34.67 5,20,020 2,36,970 2,83,050 2.19 m2s3 24.48 3,67,245 2,40,068 1,27,177 1.53 standardisation of fertigation in papaya j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 104-112, 2023 112 of 125 % rdf through fertigation using organic sources (5.21). the lower cavity index recorded may be attributed to the production of more photosynthates due to more number of leaves and leaf area which might have resulted in better transfer to the sink, the developing fruit with thicker pulp and low cavity index. jeyakumar et al. (2010) also observed that application of 100% recommended dose of n and k2o through drip resulted in lower cavity index in papaya. the economics fertigation of 75% rdf with inorganic fertilizers was found more economical with higher gross returns (rs. 7.10 lakh ha-1), net returns (rs. 4.7 lakh ha-1) and benefit cost ratio (2.96) (table 6). the higher net returns with the treatment (m2s0) may be attributed to the moderately higher papaya yield (47.34 t ha-1). it was followed by soil application of 125 % rdf through organic sources with better gross returns (rs. 6.65 lakh ha-1), net returns (rs.3.94 lakh ha-1) and benefit cost ratio (2.46). in a similar study, jeyakumar et al. (2010) also reported that the increase in number of fruits and fruit weight were attributed for higher fruit yield per tree and the resultant total fruit yield per hectare with high b:c ratio in plants treated with 100 % recommended dose of n & k2o per plant through drip (50 g n and 50 g k2o), in addition to soil application of 50 g p2o5. conclusion the results of field experiment on fertigation in papaya indicated that application of 75% rdf through drip using water soluble fertilizers is beneficial to get higher fruit yield (47.34 t ha-1) with higher nutrient use efficiency and was found economical with higher net returns (rs.4.7 lakh ha-1) and benefit cost ratio (2.96). acknowledgement the authors gratefully acknowledge the financial help rendered by project on consortia research platform on water, coordinated by icar-indian institute of water management research, bhubaneshwar. references anonymous, 2022. area and production of horticulture crops for 2021-22 (advance estima tes), na tiona l hor ticultur a l boa r d. india , www.nhb.gov.in jackson, m.l. 1973. soil chemical analysis. prentice hall of india pvt. ltd., new delhi, p. 498. jeyakumar, p.r., amutha, t.n., balamohan, j., auxcilia. and nalina, l. 2010. fertigation improves fruit yield and quality of papaya. acta hortic., 851: 369-376. malhotra, s.k. 2016. water soluble fertilizers in horticultural crops-an appraisal. ind. j. agric. sci., 86(10):1245-1256. panse, v.g. and sukhatme, p.v. 1985. statistical methods for agr icultura l wor kers. indian council of agricultural research, new delhi pp. 87-89. rajput, t. b. s. and patel, n. 2002. water soluble fertilizers –opportunities and challenges. in: fai annual seminar pp. 1-9. sadarunnisa, s., madhumathi, c., hari babu, k., sreenivasulu, b. and rama krishna, m. 2010. effect of fertigation on growth and yield of papaya cv. red lady, acta hortic., 851: 395400. sathya, s., g. james pitchai, r. indirani and m. kannathasan, 2008. effect of fertigation on availability of nutrients (n, p & k) in soila review. agric. rev., 29(3): 214-219. shirgure, p.s. and srivastava, a.k. 2014. fertigation in perennia l fruit crops: ma jor concerns. agrotechnol., 3(1):109-115. shirgure, p.s., srivastava, a.k. and shyam s. 2001. effect of drip, micro jets and basin irrigation method on growth, soil and leaf nutrient change in acid lime. ind. j. soil conser., 29: 229-234. thorne, m.s., skinner, q.d., smith, m.a., rodgers, j.d., laycock, w.a. and cerekci, s.a. 2002. evaluation of a technique for measuring canopy volume of shrubs. j. range manag. arch., 55(3): 235-241. (received : 04.01.2023; revised : 21.06.2023; accepted 23.06.2023) manjunath et al. j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 104-112, 2023 standardization of an in vitro regeneration protocol in gerbera (gerbera jamesonii bolus ex. hooker f.) koushik dutta and subhendu s. gantait* department of floriculture, medicinal and aromatic plants, uttar banga krishi viswavidyalaya, cooch behar, west bengal, india *e-mail: ssgflori@gmail.com abstract an experiment was undertaken to develop an improved in vitro regeneration protocol in gerbera. murashige and skoog (ms) medium was supplemented with various growth regulators at different concentrations for callus induction and organogenesis. newly emerging leaves of gerbera cv. rosalin were used as explants. experimental results showed that maximum rate (74.07%) of formation of callus with good growth was recorded on ms m edium supplem ente d with 2.0m gl-1 2,4-d + bap 0.5m gl -1. best s hoot regeneration (57.8 %) with maximum shoot number (12.0) was achieved on with bap 2.0mgl-1 + naa 0.5mgl-1 fortified ms medium. maximum (66.7 %) and earliest (12.3 days) root formation in shoots was recorded on iba 3.0mgl-1 is ½ms media. survival rate of regenerated plantlets was maximum (73.33 %) in the potting mixture containing garden soil, sand and vermicompost (1:1:1). key words: gerbera,gerbera jamesonii, leaf explants, callus, in vitro regeneration introduction gerbera (gerbe ra james onii bolus ex. hooke r f.), also known as transva al daisy or barberton daisy, is one of the important commercial cut flowers in global flower business. gerbera is propagated vegetatively by the division of suckers or clumps. propagation through seeds is not preferred as the plants exhibit heterozygosity and non-uniformity. also, the improved semi-double and double cultivars do not set seed. propagation by division of suckers or clumps gives true-to-type plants, but multiplication rate is very low. many new varieties are being introduced every year. to popularize these varieties and, also, to meet the demand for quality planting material of elite varieties, there is a need to develop a technology for rapid multiplication. micropropagation is used mainly to to clonally propagate gerbera for commercial production of millions of plant-lets each year. gerbera is propa ga te d by dire ct or indire c t in vitro organogenesis using various explants, including stem tips, floral buds, leaf, capitulum, etc. (paduchuri et al., 2010; akter et al., 2012; samanthi et al., 2013). type of explant, different type of explant, growth regulator/ s and combinations thereof and genotype are the main factors for successful in vitro regeneration of gerbera. organogenesis refers to production of organs, either directly from the explant or from callus culture. it relies on the inherent plasticity of plant tissues, and is regulated by altering the components in a medium. bioc he mica l c ha nges tha t pre ce de onse t of organogenesis or embryogenesis can serve as markers for the differentiation processes that bring about morphologic al, de ve lopme nta l and functional specialization (thorpe, 1990). during morphogenesis, certain enzymes and proteins produced are responsible for callus proliferation and differentiation into shoot buds (chawla, 1991). as conventional methods of propagation are inadequate to meet the demand for planting material for commercial production, this experiment was set up to study the effect of some growth regulators to optimize culture media for in vitro regeneration. in this study, individual or combination effects of different growth regulators in ms media have be e n inve stigate d f or induc ing indirec t organogenesis. material and methods the experiment was conducted in tissue culture laboratory of department of floriculture, medicinal and aromatic plants, faculty of horticulture, j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(2): 143-150, 2017 144 uttar banga krishi viswavidyalaya, cooch behar, west bengal india, during the years 2011-2014. plant material and culture media murashige and skoog (ms) medium was used as the base medium in all the experiments (murashige and skoog, 1962). for explant source, newly emerging leaves of gerbera cv. rosalin were transferred to ms medium containing 2,4-d (1.0, 2.0 or 3.0mgl-1) and naa (1.0, 2.0 or 3.0mgl-1) singly, or in combination with bap (0.5mgl-1) in for callus formation (table 1). callus initiation and growth were recorded to evaluate indirect organogenesis and for biochemical analysis. three concentrations of bap (1.0, 2.0 or 3.0mgl-1) and kinetin (1.0, 2.0 or 3.0mgl-1), alone or in combination with naa (0.5mgl-1) in ms medium, were used for shoot regeneration from callus (table 2). various levels of naa (1.0, 2.0 or 3.0mgl-1) and iba (1.0, 2.0 or 3.0mgl-1) alone, as supplements in ½ ms medium, were used for root initiation in shoots (table 3). rooted plantlets, after removal from the culture bottle, were washed off any adherent agar and planted in polycups containing different types of hardening media. the plantlets were hardened for 15 days under a mist chamber (80-90% humidity). after primary hardening, the plants were transferred to polybags containing potting medium and placed in a greenhouse for 15 days before transfer to field. per cent callus induction, days to callus induction, intensity and morphology of the callus formed, and fresh and dry weight of the callus were recorded. per cent shoot regeneration, days to shoot regeneration, number and length of shoot; and, fresh and dry weight of shoot was also recorded. root parameters like per cent root formation, days to shoot initiation, number and length of roots, and, fresh and dry weight of roots was recorded. final survivability was recorded after hardening of the plantlets in a greenhouse. the experiments were laid out under completely randomized design, with ten replications (n=10) per treatment. data were analyzed by fisher’s analysis of variance (anova) technique, and results were interpreted. where treatments were found significant in anova, individua l tre atme nt me ans we re compared by leastsignificance difference (lsd) test at p = 0.05. results and discussion exogenous supply of plant growth regulators is required to disturb the established polarity of auxins in explants. leaf explants of cv. rosalin showed maximum rate of callus induction (74.07 %) with good growth of callus, on ms medium supplemented with 2mgl-1 2, 4-d + 0.5mgl-1 bap (table 1, fig. 1). increase or decrease in concentrations of growth regulators affected callus formation and, subsequent, callus growth. paduchuri et al. (2010) found the same result (c allus formation) on ms basal medium supplemented with bap 2mgl-1 + 2,4-d 2.5mgl-1. formation of callus was positively correlated with concentration of growth regulators in the nutrient media. results presented in table 1 illustrate that ms medium fortified with 2,4-d 3mgl-1 + bap 0.5mgl-1 took minimum time (10.3 days) for callus induction. this may be due to a stimulated, unorganized cellgrowth under higher concentrations of the auxins (2,4d and naa), and the cytokinins may have facilitated early cell-division and cell-elongation in the culture. fresh weight of callus increasing concentration of auxin 2,4-d and naa, upto 3.0mgl-1 (table 1). this could be due to the higher concentration of auxins applied exogenously to induce more number of unorganized cells which, in turn, increased cell volume and weight. dry weight of callus increased with increasing fresh weight. similar results on callogenesis were reported by dutta and gantait (2016), paduchuri et al. (2010), son et al. (2011), akter et al. (2012), samanthi et al. (2013) and bhargava et al. (2013). bap 2.0mgl-1 + naa 0.5mgl-1 resulted in highest shoot formation (57.78 %) in callus (table 2, fig. 2 & 3). hasbullah et al. (2011) showed that only a few calli developed shoots when transferred to ms medium supplemented with 2.0mgl-1 bap + 0.5 mgl1 naa, in addition to 3% (w/v) sucrose and 0.8% (w/ v) agar in the medium. number of days required for shoot regeneration decreased as the concentration of bap increased (table 2). higher dose of growth regulators could have forced the plant into early shoot initiation. data presented in table 2 show that number of shoots incr ea se d signific antly with highe r concentration of bap, upto 2.0mgl-1. also, higher cytokinin (bap) concentration advanced shoot regeneration. cytokinin to auxin ratio is critical. it is clear from the above findings that cytokinin (bap) is a potent plant growth regulator for generation of j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(2): 143-150, 2017 koushik dutta et al 145 j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(2): 143-150, 2017 in vitro regeneration in gerbera 146 j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(2): 143-150, 2017 koushik dutta et al 147 in vitro regeneration in gerbera j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(2): 143-150, 2017 fig. 1. callogenesis on ms medium supplemented with 2,4-d 2.0mfl-1 + bap 0.5mgl-1 (c, callus) fig. 2. shoot initiation from callus on ms medium supplemented with bap 2.omgl -1 + naa 0.5mgl 1 (sl, shoot initiation) fig. 3. shoot multiplication from callus on ms medium fortified with bap 2.0mgl-1 + naa 0.5mgl-1 (sm, shoot multiplication) fig. 4. root initiation and generated from shoots gerbera on half-ms medium supplemented with iba3.0mgl-1 (ri, root initiation) fig. 5. hardening of in vitro regenerated gerbera plantlets: a. in vitro rooted plantlets ready for transfer to hardening medium, b. primary hardening of regenerated plantlets one week after transfer, c. secondary hardening of plantlets under green-house 148 koushik dutta et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(2): 143-150, 2017 149 in vitro regeneration in gerbera j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(2): 143-150, 2017 multiple shoots. these results are in conformity with those of shailaja (2002) who obtained highest multiplication rate in gerbera with 3.0mgl-1 bap. results presented in table 2 show that average length of shoots de cre as ed significa ntly with highe r concentration of cytokinin (bap) when in combination with naa. length of shoots appeared to be inversely proportional to the number of multiple shoots. on ms medium supplemented with bap 3.0mgl-1 + naa 0.5mgl-1, maximum length (2.6 cm) of shoot was observed at 4 weeks after inoculation on shoot induction media. at higher cytokinins levels, shoot of length may get reduced. fresh weight of shoot increased with increasing concentration of the cytokinin bap upto 3.0mgl-1 . similarly, dry weight to increases in relation to an increase in fresh weight. similar result on organogenesis was obtained by paduchuri et al. (2010), son et al. (2011), bhatia et al. (2012) and samanthi et al. (2013). results presented in table 3 reveal that root formation in microshoots increased with higher concentrations of naa or iba in ½ ms media, upto 3.0mgl-1. this enhancement with higher concentrations of naa or iba is expected. akter et al. (2012) observed root induction with iba at the base of in vitro regenerated shoots using fulland halfstrength ms medium. in our study, ½ ms medium with iba 3.0mgl-1 recorded maximum response in rooting (66.67%), followed by iba 2.0mgl-1 (table 3, fig. 4); ½ ms medium with 3.0mgl-1 iba produced longest roots 3.0cm. fresh weight of root increased with conce ntration of a uxins (iba and naa) upto 3.0mgl-1. similar result on rhizogenesis was reported by dutta and gantait (2016), hasbullah et al. (2011), bhatia et al. (2012) and kadu (2013). significantly high survival percentage (73.33%) was recorded in garden soil, sand and vermicompost medium (1:1:1. v/v) over the other hardening potting mixtures tested,while, garden soil and perlite (1:1, v/v) mixture gave a poor result (table 4, fig. 5). medium with vermicompost proved its superiority in a hardening it provided optimum conditions of aeration and a higher water-holding capacity. the primary-hardened plants were transferred to polybags containing potting media and were kept under greenhouse for 15 days. similar result on rhizogenesis was shown by hasbullah et al. (2011) and kadu (2013). our results indicate d that auxin (2,4-d) facilitated good amount of callus formation from leaf explants, and, cytokinin (bap) along with naa was required for shoot regeneration in the callus. the auxin, (iba), facilitated root formation. induction of callus was maximum on ms medium supplemented with 2.0mg l-1 2,4-d + bap 0.5mg l-1, with good callusgrowth. ms medium fortified with 2.0mg l-1 bap + 0.5mg l-1 naa regenerated maximum number of shoots. highest rooting was recorded on ½ ms medium fortified with 3.0mg l-1 iba. regenerated plantlets were recorded as surviving best on a potting mixture containing garden soil, sand and vermicompost (1:1:1). acknowledgement the authors thank dst, ministry of science & technology, new delhi, government of india for providing financial support, viz., inspire fellowship and contingency grant to conduct the experiments. references akter, n., hoque, m.i. and sarker, r.h. 2012. in vitro propagation in three varie ties of gerbera (gerbera jamesonii bolus.) from flower bud and flower stalk explants. pl.tiss. cult. & biotech. 22: 143-152. bhatia, r., singh, k.p. and singh, m.c. 2012. in vitro ma ss multiplic ation of ge rbera ( ge rbera jamesonii) using capitulum explants. indian j. agril. sci.82: 1-6. bhargava, b., dilta, b.s., gupta, y.c., dhiman, s.r. a nd modgil, m. 2013. studies on micr opropaga tion of gerbe ra ( ge rbe ra jamesonii bolus). indian j. appl. res. 3: 111. chawla, h.s. 1991. regeneration potentiality and isoenzyme variation during morphogenesis of barely callus. biologia plantarum, 33: 175-180. dutta, k. and gantait, s.s. 2016. in vitro cormel production and changes in calli composition during morphogenesis in gladiolus. indian j agril. sci. 86:120-6. hasbullah, n.a., saleh, a. and taha, r.m. 2011. establishment of somatic embryogenesis from gerbera jamesonii bolus. ex. hook f. through 150 koushik dutta et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(2): 143-150, 2017 suspension culture. african j biotech. 10: 13762-68. kadu, a.r. 2013. in vitro micropropagation of gerbera using axillary bud. asian j biol. sci. 8: 15-18. murashige, t.s. and skoog, f. 1962. a revised medium for rapid growth and bioassays with tobacco tissue cultures. physiology plantarum. 15: 473-479. paduchuri, p., deogirkar, g.v., kamdi, s.r., kale, m.c. and madhavi, d. 2010. in vitro callus induction and root regene ration studies in ge rbera jamesonii. international j advanced biotech and res. 1: 87-90. samanthi, j.a., kumari, m.p., herath, h.k., shirani, a. and nugaliyadde, m.m. 2013. development of in vitro establishment and multiplication technology from gerbera flower buds. anna. sri lanka dept. agri. 15: 305-09. shailaja, v.p. 2002. studies on in vitro propagation of gerbera jame sonii bolus. m.sc . thesis, university of agricultural sciences, dharwad, india. son, n.v., monakshi, a.n., hegde, r.v., patil, v.s. and lingaraju, s. 2011. response of gerbera (ger bera james onii bolus .) va rie tie s to micropropagation. karnataka j agril .sci. 24: 354 – 357. thorpe, t.a. 1990. the current status of plant tissue culture. p1-33. in: plant tissue culture: applications and limitations. bhojwani, s.s. (e d.), els evie r s cie nce publishe r, ne w york,usa (ms received 05 december 2016, revised 18 december 2016, accepted 23 december 2016) mango is one of the most important tropical fruits worldwide in terms of production and consumer-acceptance (fao, 2010). mango (mangifera indica l.) belongs to the order sapindales and the family anacardiaceae, and is cultivated primarily under tropical and subtropical climate. foot hills of himachal pradesh present semi-arid type of a climate but, generally, the whole area around is characterized by a sub-tropical climate. mango is one of the leading fruit crops grown in the low-hill and valley areas of himachal pradesh, with 28927 mt production from 39568 ha under mango cultivation (anon., 2012). despite adequate annual rainfall in the region, drought-like situation is fairly common due to a skewed distribution of rainfall. owing to these suboptimal growth conditions, establishing new plantations and attaining normal vegetative and reproductive growth is an uphill task. fruit growth and fruit maturity in mango grown in these areas coincides with a period of heavy water-stress often resulting in low fruit-set, high fruit-drop, low fruit-size and poor fruit-quality. natural fruit-drop in mango is very high, especially during the initial four weeks of fruit-set. chadha and singh effect of hormonal treatment and mulching on fruit drop and quality in mango sanjeev kumar banyal and deepa sharma dr. y.s. parmar university of horticulture and forestry krishi vigyan kendra, chamba 176 310, india e-mail: skbanyal@gmail.com abstract an experiment was laid out to assess the effect of hormonal treatment and mulching on fruit drop and quality in cvs. mallika, amrapali and dashehari of mango at the experimental farm bhota of ibes neri, hamirpur, during the years 2010-2012. eight treatments, viz., t1 & t2: 2, 4-d (20 and 40ppm), t3 & t4: naa (25 and 50ppm), t5: 2, 4-d (20ppm) + black polythene mulch, t6: naa (25ppm) + black polythene mulch, t7: black polythene mulch, and t8: control, were applied during the last week of april at the pea stage of fruit development in the years 2011 and 2012. observations were recorded on marked panicles at monthly intervals until harvest. all the hormonal treatments, mulching and combination thereof, showed significant reduction in fruit drop in all the three cultivars under study. fruit retention at harvest in cvs. amrapali, and mallika and dashehari was maximum (5.95, 9.5 and 8.3%, respectively) with t5 (2, 4-d 20ppm + black polythene mulch) which was statistically at par with t1 (2, 4-d 20ppm), t7 (black polythene mulch) and t2 (2, 4-d 40ppm). effect of treatments on tss content was non-significant. highest tss content (14.5ob) was noted in cv. dashehari which was significantly higher than in mallika (11.7ob) or amrapali (11.4ob). titratable acidity was significantly low in all the treatments than that in untreated plants. highest acidity (0.53%) was recorded in control. ‘dashehari’ recorded the highest (0.63%) acidity, followed by mallika (0.49%) and amrapali (0.46%). key words: mango, naa, 2,4-d, mulch, fruit-drop, fruit quality short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):102-106, 2015 (1964) reported fruit-drop of 98, 95 and 99% in cvs. langra, dashehari and fazli, respectively, during the ‘on year’. incidence of fruit-drop is more severe during the ‘on year’ in biennial-bearing cultivars. various factors are associated with fruit-drop, such as, lack of cross-pollination, deficient nutrition, self-incompatibility, formation of abscission layer, hormonal imbalance, position of the fruit, and prevalence of pests and diseases (chadha, 1993). various workers have reported that just 0.1% of perfect flowers reach maturity in mango. extent of the fruit-drop varies among cultivars (chadha and singh, 1964). higher fruit-drop is generally associated with low auxin concentration (singh et al, 2005), gibberellins & cytokinins (ram, 1983). the period of heavy fruit drop in mango corresponds with high concentration of growth inhibitors (murti and upreti, 1995). among the control measures, mulching, proper fertilization and hormonal treatments have been found promising by a number of workers. swake et al (1990) reported an increase of 2% in the yield over control using polythene mulch in mango. singh and singh (1976) reported that naa at 10ppm and 2, 4-d at 10 or 15ppm gave the 103 effect of hormonal treatment and mulching in mango highest retention of fruits. therefore, the present study intended to assess the effect of plant hormonal treatments, in combination with mulching, on reducing fruit-drop in mango. an experiment was laid out to assess the effect of hormonal treatments and mulching on fruit drop and quality of mango cultivars mallika, amrapali and dashehari at the experimental farm bhota of ibes neri, hamirpur during the years 2010 -2012. the experimental site lies in hamirpur district representing the sub-mountain region of himachal pradesh. average mean maximum and minimum temperatures here are 31.30c and 12.40c, respectively, and relative humidity is 60.9%. eight treatments, viz., t1 & t2: 2, 4-d (20 and 40ppm), t3 &t4: naa (25 and 50ppm), t5: 2, 4-d (20ppm) + black polythene mulch, t6: naa (25ppm) + black polythene mulch, t7: black polythene mulch, and t8: control, were applied during the last week of april at the pea-size stage of fruits. each treatment was replicated on three mango trees. randomized block design was set up for applying treatments and for data analysis. each treatment was replicated thrice. to record observations on the effect of treatments on fruit-drop, four panicles from all around the tree were marked on each plant. data on initial fruit-set per panicle was recorded in these marked panicles before commencing the experiment. subsequently, fruitretention on the marked panicles was recorded at monthly intervals until harvest. fruit samples, comprising ten fruits per tree, were used for determining physico-chemical characteristics like fruit-length, diameter, fruit-weight, tss and titrable acidity. perusal of data (table 1) revealed that the highest fruit-retention (22.2%) at 30 days after fruit set was found with t4 (50ppm naa) in cv. amrapali, followed by that in the control (21.6%), 2,4-d 40ppm (21.2%), and naa 25ppm (20.6%). in cv. mallika, highest fruit-retention (29.5%) at the same stage was recorded with t1 (2,4-d 20ppm), followed by naa 20ppm, and control. treatment t1 (2,4-d 20ppm) had the highest fruit-retention (23.4%) 30 days after fruit-set in cv. dashehari, which was at par with naa 25ppm (22.5%) and black polythene mulch (22.4%). at 60 days after fruit-set, maximum fruit-retention (13.3%) was noted with t5 (2,4-d 20ppm + black polythene mulch), which was statistically at par with naa 50ppm (12.8%) and the control (12.4%). maximum fruit-retention in cv. mallika at this stage was recorded with t7 (black polythene mulch), which was statistically at par with t2 (2,4-d 40ppm), t4 (50ppm naa) and t5 (2,4-d 20ppm + black polythene mulch). in cv. dashehari, t5 (2,4-d 20ppm + black polythene mulch) recorded the highest fruit-retention (17.5%), whereas, the lowest retention (8.1%) was found table 1. effect of hormonal treatments and mulching on fruit-retention in three cultivars of mango fruit-retention (%) days after fruit-set amrapali mallika dashehari treatment 30 60 90 120 a t 30 60 90 120 a t 30 60 90 120 a t harvest harvest harvest 2,4-d (20ppm) 19.6 10.5 8.2 5.7 5.73 29.5 14.8 9.4 6.7 6.51 23.4 8.1 6.1 5.2 4.41 (4.42) (3.21) (2.83) (2.38) (2.37) (5.43) (3.81) (3.03) (2.56) (2.54) (4.81) (2.82) (2.45) (2.27) (2.10) 2,4-d (40ppm) 21.2 11.6 8.2 5.7 5.28 26.8 16.4 11.3 7.6 6.77 21.3 14.7 9.5 6.3 4.31 (4.60) (3.38) (2.83) (2.38) (2.28) (5.15) (4.02) (3.31) (2.73) (2.59) (4.60) (3.81) (3.06) (2.49) (2.05) naa (25ppm ) 20.6 12.3 9.2 5.6 4.05 27.3 14.9 9.5 6.8 5.19 22.5 13.7 9.5 7.3 4.27 (4.53) (3.48) (3.01) (2.35) (2.01) (5.20) (3.85) (3.06) (2.57) (2.25) (4.72) (3.68) (3.06) (2.68) (2.04) naa (50ppm ) 22.2 12.8 7.9 4.9 4.54 25.6 16.1 10.2 8.3 5.09 20.8 11.77 8.6 6.4 4.54 (4.70) (3.56) (2.80) (2.21) (2.11) (5.03) (4.00) (3.17) (2.86) (2.23) (4.55) (3.41) (2.90) (2.50) (2.13) 2,4-d (20ppm) + 19.6 13.3 9.8 7.4 5.95 26.2 15.8 11.7 9.5 7.15 21.3 17.5 11.6 8.3 5.25 black polythene (4.42) (3.61) (3.11) (2.70) (2.43) (5.10) (3.97) (3.40) (3.06) (2.65) (4.60) (4.15) (3.38) (2.86) (2.27) mulch naa (25ppm ) + 20.4 11.9 8.3 5.6 5.23 23.9 13.3 8.2 5.7 4.68 18.9 11.6 9.3 8.1 4.89 black polythene (4.51) (3.43) (2.87) (2.35) (2.26) (4.86) (3.64) (2.84) (2.36) (2.14) (4.32) (3.39) (3.02) (2.83) (2.20) mulch alone black polythene 19.3 10.2 8.6 5.9 5.35 26.3 17.3 11.6 7.1 4.27 22.4 15.8 11.3 8.9 4.58 mulch (4.39) (3.18) (2.91) (2.40) (2.30) (5.10) (4.12) (3.38) (2.65) (2.04) (4.70) (3.95) (3.35) (2.95) (2.12) control 21.6 12.4 9.2 6.5 3.28 27.2 16.3 11.4 8.4 4.15 20.8 14.5 9.5 7.4 4.12 (4.62) (3.50) (3.01) (2.5) (1.80) (5.18) (4.01) (3.35) (2.86) (2.02) (4.55) (3.78) (3.06) (2.70) (2.01) cd 0.05 1.69 1.38 ns 1.41 1.27 3.25 2.95 1.71 1.28 1.07 3.13 4.90 4.21 2.39 0.43 *figures in parentheses are square-root transformed values j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):102-106, 2015 104 ta bl e 2. e ff ec t of h or m on al t re at m en ts a nd m ul ch in g on f ru it q ua lit y in t hr ee c ul ti va rs o f m an go t re at m en t fr ui t w ei gh t ( g) fr ui t l en gt h (c m ) fr ui t d ia m et er (c m ) t ss (0 b ) a ci di ty ( % ) a m ra m al lik a d as he m ea n a m ra m al lik a d as he m ea n a m ra m al lik a d as he m ea n a m ra m al lik a d as he m ea n a m ra m al lik a d as he m ea n pa li ha ri pa li ha ri pa li ha ri pa li ha ri pa li ha ri 2, 4d 13 5. 21 32 9. 25 24 0. 34 23 4. 20 8. 41 12 .9 5 10 .4 3 10 .5 9 5. 98 7. 11 5. 32 6. 14 11 .4 11 .5 13 .8 12 .2 0. 44 0. 37 0. 52 0. 44 (2 0p pm ) 2, 4d 12 4. 53 32 8. 46 23 8. 35 23 0. 45 8. 39 12 .9 9 10 .5 9 10 .6 6 5. 87 7. 22 5. 36 6. 15 11 .6 11 .9 13 .7 12 .4 0. 39 0. 40 0. 55 0. 45 (4 0p pm ) n a a 13 0. 63 32 3. 78 23 4. 13 22 9. 51 8. 31 12 .7 4 10 .4 5 10 .5 0 5. 84 7. 06 5. 69 6. 20 11 .3 12 .6 13 .9 12 .6 0. 42 0. 53 0. 44 0. 46 (2 5p pm ) n a a 12 1. 27 32 4. 52 24 1. 25 22 9. 01 8. 41 12 .7 5 10 .4 1 10 .5 2 5. 81 7. 15 5. 55 6. 17 11 .8 12 .8 13 .3 12 .6 0. 35 0. 57 0. 56 0. 49 (5 0p pm ) 2, 4 -d 13 9. 46 33 9. 45 24 8. 75 24 2. 55 8. 45 13 .1 9 10 .6 6 10 .7 6 5. 69 7. 36 5. 54 6. 20 12 .1 11 .7 14 .8 12 .8 0. 34 0. 34 0. 48 0. 38 (2 0p pm ) + b la ck po ly th en e m ul ch n a a 13 7. 58 33 7. 75 24 5. 48 24 0. 77 8. 40 13 .3 2 10 .7 4 10 .8 2 6. 19 7. 55 5. 77 6. 50 11 .6 12 .3 14 .6 12 .8 0. 37 0. 46 0. 47 0. 43 (2 5p pm ) + b la ck po ly th en e m ul ch b la ck 12 6. 16 32 3. 45 23 3. 96 22 7. 85 8. 25 13 .1 5 10 .7 1 10 .7 0 6. 01 7. 12 5. 66 6. 26 11 .5 11 .8 14 .3 12 .5 0. 40 0. 44 0. 50 0. 44 po ly th en e m ul ch a lo ne c on tr ol 12 3. 17 32 1. 28 20 6. 74 21 7. 06 8. 22 12 .8 1 10 .0 1 10 .3 4 5. 35 6. 95 5. 29 5. 86 11 .4 11 .7 14 .5 12 .5 0. 46 0. 49 0. 63 0. 53 c d 0. 05 11 .2 3 0. 16 0. 17 n s 0. 09 t re at m en ts 67 .3 5 1. 35 0. 86 1. 26 0. 11 v ar ie ty t xv 93 .5 8 1. 68 1. 04 1. 94 0. 21 banyal and sharma j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):102-106, 2015 105 with 2,4-d 20 ppm. treatment t5 (2,4-d 20ppm + black polythene mulch) recorded highest fruit-retention in cv. amrapali (9.8%), followed by mallika (11.7%) and dashehari (11.6%) at 90 days after fruit-set, and was statistically at par with t4 (naa 50ppm) and t7 (black polythene mulch). a similar trend was observed at 120 days after fruit-set where t5 (2,4-d 20ppm + black polythene mulch) had highest fruit-retention in all the three cultivars under study. enhancement in (flowering 35 to 50%), fruit retention and minimum fruit-drop with enhanced yield in trees mulched with black polythene was also reported by singh et al (2009) in cvs. langra and chausa of mango. a perusal of data on fruit-retention at harvest revealed that maximum (5.95%) retention of fruits in cv. amrapali was observed with t5 (2,4-d 20ppm + black polythene mulch), which was statistically at par with t1 (2,4d 20ppm), t7 (black polythene mulch) and t2 (2,4-d 40ppm). in cvs. mallika and dashehari too, the same treatment, i.e., t5 (2,4-d 20ppm + black polythene mulch) resulted in the highest fruit-retention of 9.5% and 8.3%, respectively. chattaha and anjum (1999) also found 2,4-d @ 40ppm to be the most effective treatment in controlling fruit-drop in cv. samar behisht chausa of mango, as compared to naa or 2,4,5-t. during our investigation at harvest, it was noticed that all the hormonal treatments, mulching and combinations thereof, had significant effect on reduction in fruit-drop in all the three cultivars under study. results obtained in the present study are in conformity with ahmed et al (2012) who reported that treating plants with naa, 2,4-d and 2,4,5-t significantly influenced the number of fruits retained at pea, marble, and harvest stages of fruit growth, compared to than in control. kulkarni (1983) also reported that application of 2,4-d @ 25ppm to halfgrown fruits of mango cv. alphonso reduced fruit-drop. 2,4d reduced the fruit-drop by antagonizing adverse effects of growth inhibitors like aba and ethylene. all the treatments tested enhanced fruit-weight over the untreated control (table 2). maximum fruit-weight (242.55g) was recorded with t5 (2,4-d 20ppm + black polythene mulch), which was statistically at par with the treatments naa (25ppm) + black polythene mulch, and 2,4-d 20ppm. among the three cultivars, highest fruit-weight (321.28g) was recorded in cv. mallika, followed by dashehari (206.74g) and amrapali (123.17g). treatment t5 (2,4-d 20ppm + black polythene mulch) was found to give maximum fruit-length (10.82cm) and fruit-diameter (6.50cm), which was statistically at par with t6 (naa 25ppm + black polythene mulch) and t7 (black polythene mulch alone). lowest value for fruit-length (10.34cm) and fruitdiameter (5.29cm) was recorded in the untreated control. among the cultivars, amrapali had the maximum (12.81cm) fruit-length, and mallika had the largest (6.95cm) fruitdiameter. effect of various treatments on total soluble solids (tss) content was non-significant. highest tss content (14.5ob) was noted in cv. dashehari, which was significantly higher than that in mallika (11.7ob) or amrapali (11.4 ob). titratable acidity was significantly low in all the treatments, than in control (untreated) plants. highest acidity (0.53%) was recorded in the control. ‘dashehari’ recorded the highest (0.63%) acidity, followed by ‘mallika’ (0.49%) and ‘amrapali’ (0.46%). results obtained in the present experiment showed that t5 (2,4-d 20ppm + black polythene mulch) produced the best results in terms of enhanced fruit-retention and improved fruit-size and quality. ahmed et al (2012) also reported similar results in cv. dashehari, where, application of 2,4-d @ 15ppm enhanced fruit-size (in terms of fruitweight) by 8.7% over the control. 2, 4-d (35ppm) recorded significantly higher tss (19.5°b), and, tss to titratable acidity ratio over the control. this confirms the role of application of exogenous auxins in reducing fruit-drop in mango. references ahmed, w., tahir, f.m. and ahmad, i. 2012. comparative evaluation of plant growth regulators for preventing premature fruit drop and improving fruit quality parameters in ‘dusehri’ mango. int’l. j. fr. sci., 12:372-389 anonymous. 2012. horticultural development in himachal pradesh at a glance. http://hpagrisnet.in chadha, k.l. 1993. fruit drop in mango. advances in horticulture, vol. 3 (eds. k.l. chadha and o.p. pareek), malhotra publishing house. new delhi chadha, k.l. and singh, k.k. 1964. fruit-drop in mango: intensity, periodicity and nature of shedding of immature fruits. indian j. hort., 21:1-14 chattha, g.a. and anjum, m.a. 1999. effect of various growth regulators on reducing fruit drop in mango (mangifera indica). int’l. j. agri. biol., 1:288-289 fao. 2010. faostat database collection, agricultural data, food and agriculture organization of the united nations. available at http://faostat.fao.org, accessed january 2011. food and agriculture organization of the united nations (fao), rome, italy j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):102-105, 2015 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):102-106, 2015 effect of hormonal treatment and mulching in mango 106 kulkarni, p.b. 1983. studies on regulation of vegetative growth, flowering and fruit-drop in mango (mangifera indica l.). thesis abstracts, haryana agriculture university, india, 9:344-345 murti, g.s.r. and upreti, k.k. 1995. changes in some endogenous growth substances during fruit development in mango. pl. physiol. biochem., 22:4447 ram, s. 1983. hormonal control of fruit growth and fruit drop in mango cv. dashehari. acta hort., 143:169178 singh, u.r. and singh, a.p. 1976. control of fruit drop in mango. fruit research workshop, hyderabad, india, 24-28 may 1976, pp. 213-16 singh, v.k., gorakh singh and bhriguvanshi, s.r. 2009. effect of polyethylene mulch on soil nutrient level and root, leaf and fruiting characteristics of mango (mangifera indica l.). indian j. agril. sci., 79:411-417 singh, z., malik, a.u. and davenport, t.l. 2005. fruit drop in mango. hort. rev., 31:111-153 swake, d.p., ramtake, j.r. and deshmukh, m.t. 1990. irrigation and mulching studies in mango. international symposium on natural resource management for sustainable agriculture, 6-10 february, new delhi, p. 101 (ms received 08 may 2013, revised 25 april 2015, accepted 22 may 2015) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):102-106, 2015 banyal and sharma effects of type of cutting, iba and bioinoculants on rooting in madhunashini (gymnema sylvestre retz.) h.j. akshitha, k. umesha and t.h. shankarappa1 post graduate centre, university of horticultural sciences campus gkvk post, bangalore-560 065, india email: akshi.hosahalli10@gmail.com abstract an experiment was carried out to study the effect of type of cutting, iba and bioinoculants on rooting in madhunashini. among the three types of cuttings, hardwood cuttings registered higher values for fresh (0.790g/cutting) and dry weight (0.650g/cutting) of sprouts, per cent rooting (6.66 %), fresh and dry weight of roots (0.037 and 0.030g/ cutting) and biomass production (0.682g/cutting). among iba and bioinoculant treatments, azotobacter chroococcum recorded higher values for percentage sprouting (26.66 %) and rooting (9.99 %) as also for other root parameters; whereas, maximum fresh weight (0.863g/cutting) and dry weight of sprouts (0.740g/cutting), and, biomass production (0.759g/cutting) was observed in iba 1000ppm treatment. interaction effect of type of cutting, iba and bioinoculants on fresh and dry weight of sprouts (2.438g and 2.084g, respectively) and biomass production (2.123g/cutting) was found superior in hardwood cuttings treated with iba 1000ppm. percentage of rooting (13.33 %) was better in hardwood cuttings treated with azotobacter chroococcum. therefore, among the various treatments tested, hardwood cuttings treated with azotobacter chroococcum are the best for propagation through cuttings. key words: iba, azotobacter chroococcum, madhunashini, vegetative propagation short communication gymnema sylvestre retz. is a medicinal woody climber belonging to the family asclepiadaceae. it is native to the tropical forests of southern and central india. leaves of this species yield acidic glycosides and anthroquinones which have antidiabetic, antisweetener and antiinflammatory activities. leaf extract from the plant is used in india as a stomachic, stimulant, laxative, diuretic and for curing diabetes (alam et al, 1990). the herb stimulates the heart, increases urine secretion and is useful in the treatment of type ii diabetes. madhunashini is propagated through seeds in its natural habitat. but, there are problems like flower-shed, low fruit-set and a very short span of seed viability (chandrasekar et al, 2003). besides overcoming problems in seed propagation, vegetative propagation is helpful for large scale multiplication of the plant during lean periods of seed availability. gymnema is one of the highly traded medicinal plants sourced from the wild, with annual consumption of 5001000t/year (ved and goraya, 2007). there is an urgent need to bring it under cultivation with suitable agro-techniques, as well as for developing propagation methods. therefore, 1assistant professor, department of agricultural microbiology, college of horticulture, kolar, karnataka,india the present study was initiated to standardize propagation methods in this plant through cuttings. the present study was carried out at post graduate centre, university of horticultural sciences (bagalkot), gandhi krishi vignana kendra campus, bengaluru. the experiment was laid out in factorial completely randomized design with three replications. plant material required for the experiment was collected from foundation for revitalization of local health traditions (frlht), bengaluru, and the experiment was spanned january to april. three main treatments were imposed, i.e., type of cutting with 6 sub-treatments, i.e., bio-inoculants and iba. each treatment was replicated thrice; in each replication, 10 cuttings were used. a slant cut was made at the basal end, whereas, a transverse cut was made at the top end of each cutting. softwood cuttings 10-15cm long were prepared and leaves on the lower portion of the cutting were removed, while those on the upper part were retained. semi hardwood cuttings 10-15cm long were prepared by retaining 2-3 leaves at the top. hardwood cuttings were collected from the basal portion of the vine, and cuttings 10-15cm long were prepared by removal of all the leaves. j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):94-97, 2014 95 the basal portion of the cuttings (about 2.5-3cm) was dipped either in bioinoculants or in distilled water (control) for 15 minutes, or, in growth regulator solution for one minute, and air-dried. treated cuttings were planted in seed pans containing rooting media (soil, sand and fym 2:1:2). using a pointed stick, a hole was made in the media and the basal portion of the cutting was inserted into it. cuttings were planted in such a way that one basal node of the cutting was inserted into the media, and medium around the cutting was gently pressed to exclude air pockets. the seed pans with cuttings were placed in the net-house. observations on various shoot and root parameters were collected 90 days after planting. for recording fresh weight of sprouts, cuttings were uprooted at 90 days after planting. fifty per cent of the rooted cuttings, but not more than five cuttings in each treatment and replication, were utilized. the sprouts were separated from the cuttings and weighed. after recording fresh weight, the samples were dried in a hot air oven at 60oc until constant weight was attained. cuttings utilized for recording fresh weight of sprouts were used for recording fresh weight of roots as well. the root system was washed thoroughly in water and roots were separated from the cuttings and air dried. their fresh weight and dry weights were recorded. biomass was calculated by adding dry weights of the sprouts and the roots. data on various shoot and root parameters were tabulated and statistically analyzed using factorial completely randomized design (fcrd). inference was drawn after comparing the f values calculated with table f values at 5% (p= 0.05) level of significance. rooting studies in madhunashini (gymnema sylvestre retz.) cuttings treated with azotobacter chroococcum recorded highest per cent sprouting (40%) (table 1). this may be due to the fact that azotobacter chroococcum is a nitrogen fixing bacterium which also produces the rooting hormone iaa which, in turn, may have helped produce more number of roots, and aided better uptake of water and nutrients. similar results were obtained by karthikeyan and sakthivel (2011) in eucalyptus. hardwood cuttings treated with iba 1000ppm recorded higher fresh and dry weights of sprouts (2.438 and 2.084 g/cutting). higher fresh weight may be related to the higher number of and longer sprouts in these treatments, as in jasminum sambac (singh, 2001). similar response was recorded by singh et al (2003) in long pepper. rooting percentage (13.33%), fresh weight (0.088g) and dry weight (0.064g) of roots were maximum in hardwood cuttings treated with azotobacter chroococcum (table 2). superior rooting and rooting parameters could be due to production of plant hormones that stimulate root initiation. production of iaa, an important hormone for rooting, by azotobacter chroococcum was confirmed by karthikeyan and sakthivel (2011) while working on eucalyptus. earlier studies have also shown that azotobacter chroococcum species are able to produce iaa, ga and cytokinin-like substances, both under culture conditions and in the plant rhizosphere (brown, 1976). this suggests that continuous release of small quantities of iaa can enhance root initiation over a single application of a root hormone. sufficient amount (7.8μg/ml) of iaa, to promote root initiation and elongation, was produced even without supplementation with tryptophan (karthikeyan and table 1. influence of type of cutting, bioinoculants and iba on various shoot parameters in madhunashini (gymnema sylvestre retz.) treatment per cent sprouting fresh weight of sprouts (g) dry weight of sprouts (g) m 1 m 2 m 3 mean m 1 m 2 m 3 mean m 1 m 2 m 3 mean s1control 20.00 13.33 6.66 13.33 0.015 0.037 0.060 0.037 0.012 0.035 0.046 0.031 s2azospirillum lipoferum 26.66 20.00 26.66 24.44 0.049 0.066 1.389 0.501 0.047 0.064 1.020 0.377 s3azotobacter chroococcum 26.66 13.33 40.00 26.66 0.571 0.430 0.648 0.549 0.536 0.368 0.584 0.496 s4pseudomonas striata 13.33 13.33 16.66 14.44 0.195 0.074 0.079 0.116 0.048 0.058 0.062 0.056 s5pseudomonas fluorescence 30.00 16.66 16.66 21.11 0.046 0.162 0.129 0.112 0.040 0.113 0.108 0.087 s6iba 1000ppm 16.66 20.00 16.66 17.77 0.047 0.104 2.438 0.863 0.040 0.096 2.084 0.740 mean 22.21 16.11 20.55 0.153 0.145 0.790 0.121 0.122 0.650 sem± cd f test sem± cd f test sem± cd f test (p=0.05) (p=0.05) (p=0.05) m 1.69 ns 0.114 0.328 * 0.095 0.273 * t 2.40 6.88 * 0.162 0.465 * 0.135 0.387 * m × t 4.15 ns 0.280 0.805 * 0.233 0.670 * *significant at 5% ns non significant m1 – softwood cuttings; m2 – semi hardwood cuttings; m3 – hardwood cuttings j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):94-97, 2014 96 sakthivel, 2011). similar response to azotobacter chroococcum inoculation in mulberry (das et al, 1990) and ocimum sanctum (vinutha, 2005) has been reported. not much difference between fresh and dry weight of sprouts and roots was observed, which may be due to the smallsized, thin sprouts and roots; moisture content was also lower, hence, smaller difference was observed. table 3. dry biomass production (g/cutting) in madhunashini (gymnema sylvestre retz.) cuttings as influenced by different type of cutting, bioinoculants and iba sub-treatment (s) main treatments (m) softwood semi hardwood mean (m1) hardwood (m3) (m2) s1control 0.012 0.035 0.046 0.031 s2azospirillum 0.047 0.064 1.030 0.381 lipoferum s3azotobacter 0.576 0.376 0.648 0.534 chroococcum s4pseudomonas 0.048 0.058 0.079 0.062 striata s5pseudomonas 0.040 0.113 0.158 0.103 fluorescence s6iba 1000ppm 0.049 0.105 2.123 0.759 mean 0.128 0.125 0.681 sem± cd @ 5% f test m 0.100 0.288 * s 0.142 0.407 * m×s 0.246 0.706 * *significant at 5% table 2. influence of type of cuttings bioinoculants and iba on various root parameters in madhunashini (gymnema sylvestre retz.) treatment per cent rooting root fresh weight (g) root dry weight (g) m 1 m 2 m 3 mean m 1 m 2 m 3 mean m 1 m 2 m 3 mean s1control 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 (0.70) (0.70) (0.70) (0.70) (0.70) (0.70) (0.70) (0.70) (0.70) (0.70) (0.70) (0.70) s2azospirillum lipoferum 0.00 0.00 6.66 2.22 0.00 0.00 0.019 0.006 0.00 0.00 0.010 0.003 (0.70) (0.70) (1.07) (0.82) (0.70) (0.70) (0.72) (0.71) (0.70) (0.70) (0.72) (0.71) s3azotobacter chroococcum 6.66 10.00 13.33 9.99 0.044 0.012 0.088 0.048 0.040 0.008 0.064 0.037 (1.07) (1.22) (3.66) (1.98) (0.73) (0.71) (0.76) (0.73) (0.73) (0.71) (0.74) (0.73) s4pseudomonas striata 0.00 0.00 6.66 2.22 0.00 0.00 0.020 0.006 0.00 0.00 0.017 0.006 (0.70) (0.70) (1.07) (0.82) (0.70) (0.70) (0.72) (0.70) (0.70) (0.70) (0.71) (0.70) s5pseudomonas fluorescence 0.00 0.00 6.66 2.22 0.00 0.00 0.053 0.017 0.00 0.00 0.050 0.016 (0.70) (0.70) (1.07) (0.82) (0.70) (0.70) (0.74) (0.71) (0.70) (0.70) (0.74) (0.71) s6iba 1000ppm 6.66 3.33 6.66 5.55 0.013 0.012 0.044 0.023 0.009 0.009 0.039 0.019 (1.07) (0.91) (1.07) (1.01) (0.72) (0.71) (0.74) (0.72) (0.71) (0.71) (0.73) (0.72) mean 2.22 2.22 6.66 0.009 0.004 0.037 0.008 0.003 0.030 (0.82) (0.82) (1.07) (0.70) (0.70) (0.73) (0.71) (0.70) (0.72) sem± cd f test sem± cd f test sem± cd f test (p=0.05) (p=0.05) (p=0.05) m 0.04 0.11 * 0.004 0.013 * 0.003 0.010 * t 0.05 0.16 * 0.006 0.019 * 0.005 0.015 * m × t 0.10 0.28 * 0.010 ns 0.050 ns note: values in the parentheses are square root transformed values *significant at 5% m1 – softwood cuttings; m2 – semi hardwood cuttings; m3 – hardwood cuttings ns non significant interaction of type of cutting and iba treatment had significant influence on biomass production (table 3). hardwood cuttings treated with iba 1000ppm recorded higher biomass (2.123g) than semi hardwood and softwood cuttings with bioinoculant treatment. this study clearly indicates that vegetative propagation in gymnema sylvestre by hardwood cuttings treated with azotobacter chroococcum and iba 1000ppm gives best results, with good rooting and establishment. references alam, m.m., siddiqi, m.b. and husain, w. 1990. treatment of diabetes through herbal drugs in rural india. fitoterapia, 61:240–242 brown, m. 1976. role of azotobacter paspali in association with paspalum notatum. j. appld. bacteriol., 40:341-348 chandrasekar, a., sankaranarayan, r., balakrishnan, k. and balakrishnan, a. 2003. standardization of gymnema (gymnema sylvestre r. br.) propagation. south indian hort., 51:275 – 277 das, p.k., ghosh, a., katiyar, r.s. and sengupta, k. 1990. response of irrigated mulberry to azotobacter and azospirillum biofertilizers under graded levels of nitrogen. j. gen. microbiol., 31:255-261 karthikeyan, a. and sakthivel, k.m. 2011. efficacy of akshitha et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):94-97, 2014 97 azotobacter chroococcum in rooting and growth of eucalyptus camaldulensis stem cuttings. res. j. microbiol., 6:618-624 singh, a.k., rajesh singh, mittal, a.k., singh, y.p. and shiva jauhari. 2003. effect of plant growth regulators on survival, rooting and growth characters in long pepper (piper longum l.). prog. hort., 35:208-211 singh, a.k. 2001. effect of auxins on rooting and survival of jasmine (jasminum sambac) stem cuttings. prog. hort., 33:174-177 ved, d.k. and goraya, g.s. 2007. in: demand and supply of medicinal plants in india. nmpb, new delhi & frlht, bangalore vinutha, t. 2005. biochemical studies on ocimum species inoculated with microbial inoculants. m.sc. thesis, university of agricultural sciences, bangalore, india (ms received 11 december 2012, revised 10 october 2013, accepted 07 january 2014) j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):94-97, 2014 rooting studies in madhunashini (gymnema sylvestre retz.) short communication evaluation of onion varieties under low hill conditions of himachal pradesh deepa sharma, y.r. shukla1 and kumud jarial dr. y.s. parmar university of horticulture and forestry institute of biotechnology and environmental science neri, p.o. khagal, distt. hamirpur 177001, india e-mail: deepabanyal@gmail.com abstract an experiment was conducted to identify promising varieties of onion suited for cultivation under low hill conditions of himachal pradesh. ten varieties were evaluated at research farm of the institute of biotechnology and environmental science, dr. y.s. parmar university of horticulture and forestry, neri, hamirpur, for two consecutive seasons (20102011 and 2011-2012). the farm is located at an altitude of 620m above mean sea level, with average mean maximum and minimum temperatures of 31.30c and 12.40c, respectively, and is a representative site of the low hill region of himachal pradesh. standard package of practices was followed for raising the crop as recommended by the university. observations were recorded on various horticultural traits, viz., plant height, number of leaves per plant, days to harvest, neck thickness, bulb diameter, bulb weight, tss, and total yield. in addition, all the varieties were screened for resistance against purple blotch disease. maximum days to harvest (129.33 days) were seen in the variety holland louis, while, variety agrifound rose showed minimum number of days (109). varieties palam lohit, nasik red, n53 and agrifound dark red recorded significantly higher bulb yield (275.00, 240.67, 239.25 and 232.37 q/ha, respectively) than the other varieties evaluated. none of the varieties was able to resist the disease totally; however, ‘agrifound dark red’ was moderately resistant, exhibiting just 13.78% disease incidence. varieties palam lohit, nasik red and agrifound dark red had medium bulb size and higher yield. these can be advocated for commercial cultivation under low hill conditions of himachal pradesh. key words: onion, varieties, evaluation, yield, purple blotch 1hrs kandaghat, solan, hp onion (allium cepa l.) is an important vegetable and spice consumed by almost all sections of the society round the year. in himachal pradesh, onion is grown over an area of 2.2 thousand hectares, with production of 36.3 thousand metric tons. productivity of onion in himachal pradesh, however, is only 16.5 t/ha (sfacindia.com, 2012). several factors play a significant role in onion production, and genotypes can be considered as one of the important factors. many new hybrids/ varieties of onion have been released by the public and private sectors in the market, but information on their performance, especially under low hill conditions, is lacking. farmers opt for cultivating specific hybrids/varieties solely on recommendation of vendors, which leads to uncertainty in yield and, sometimes, total crop failure. among several other factors, diseases are the most important associated with low productivity in onion. purple blotch, caused by alternaria porri, is one of the serious fungal diseases affecting onion, causing yield losses upto 50% (srivastava et al, 1994). the crop in our region is highly prone to this disease that appears by the end of march (with onset of summer) and results in huge losses of the crop. therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the performance of hybrids/varieties before recommending them for cultivation so that farmers can fetch assured returns on their investment. thus, to identify promising varieties suited to low hill conditions of himachal pradesh, an evaluation trial was conducted during 2010 2012 using 10 onion genotypes. the experimental site is located at an altitude of 620m above mean sea level at latitude 31o682 n and longitude 76o 522 e. the mean minimum and maximum temperature ranged between 12.4oc to 31.3oc. average humidity remained 60.91%. the area experiences annual rainfall of 69.4cm, a majority of it occuring during the monsoon season. the soil in the experimental area was clay-loam, with ph 6.6 and 0.38% organic matter content. soil n and p were low while k was medium. the experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications in each j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):78-81, 2014 79 evaluation of onion varieties under low hill conditions of himachal pradesh treatment. germplasm obtained from various sources is tabulated hereunder: sl. no. variety source 1. nasik red nhrdf 2. holland louis local market 3. palam lohit palampur 4. agrifound light red nhrdf 5. agrifound white nhrdf 6. nhrdf red nhrdf 7. n-53 nhrdf 8. agrifound dark red nhrdf 9. agrifound rose nhrdf 10. century selection local market seeds of these ten varieties of onion were planted in the nursery bed in october for raising the nursery. eightweek old healthy seedlings were transplanted on flat beds at a spacing of 15cm x 10cm in a plot of 3.0 x 3.0 sq.m. during the last week of december for both years of experimentation. recommended cultural practices were followed to raise the crop successfully. all observations pertaining to crop traits, viz., plant height (cm), no. of leaves/ plant, neck thickness (cm), bulb diameter (cm), bulb size index (cm2), bulb weight (g), days to bulb initiation, days to harvest, total soluble solids (ob), and yield, were made on 10 randomly selected healthy seedlings in each plot. bulb yield was noted on plot basis. data obtained during the two years were analyzed and pooled as per the standard procedure of gomez and gomez (1984). in addition, all the cultivars under study were screened for disease severity to purple blotch on the basis of a 0-4 scale (0no infection, 1-, 2-, 3and 4). per cent disease index was calculated as per mckinney (1923). varieties were rated as resistant to highly susceptible (depending upon level of disease severity exhibited by them) as given below: sl. no. disease disease reaction severity (%) 1 0-5 resistant (r) 2 5-15 moderately resistant (mr) 3 15-25 moderately susceptible (ms) 4 25-40 susceptible (s) 5 > 40 highly susceptible (hs) pooled analysis of variance (table 1) revealed significant mean square estimates for all the characters studied. this not only explained differences observed over the years of testing, but also indicated degree of variability among the varieties. mean performance of the varieties during the two year of study is presented in table 2. variety palam lohit showed maximum plant height (70.33cm), closely followed by ‘century selection’, whereas, table 1. pooled analysis of variance for various traits in onion source of variation d.f. mean sum of squares plant nlpp neck bulb bulb size bulb tss days to days bulb height thickness diameter index weight (ob) bulb to yield (cm) (cm) (cm) (cm2) (g) initiation harvest (q/ha) replication 2 2.25 2.11 0.01 0.10 7.73 18.36 0.10 1.44 6.03 13.37 treatment 9 313.56* 10.75* 0.09* 0.70* 52.45* 1806.77* 6.16* 68.33* 170.89* 2996.31* error 18 30.82 1.90 0.02 0.09 4.82 21.19 2.65 14.27 27.12 131.20 *significant at 5% level table 2. mean performance (pooled) of onion varieties under low hill conditions of himachal pradesh variety traits plant nlpp neck bulb bulb weight tss days to days bulb height thickness diameter size index of bulb (ob) bulb to yield (cm) (cm) (cm) (cm2) (g) initiation harvesting (q/ha) nasik red 62.67 11.00 0.99 5.26 22.62 67.89 12.66 53.33 121.00 240.67 holland louis 64.16 9.33 1.38 6.13 27.15 88.46 11.00 61.33 129.33 215.26 palam lohit 70.33 11.67 0.85 5.56 26.85 70.93 12.33 53.00 115.77 275.00 agrifound light red 57.33 9.00 0.82 5.70 23.20 62.53 10.55 47.66 112.66 220.25 agrifound white 53.00 7.00 1.18 4.43 18.82 54.99 11.33 50.33 113.00 174.67 nhrdf red 57.50 8.00 1.22 4.72 18.54 60.39 11.10 56.66 123.33 185.75 n-53 49.00 12.33 1.10 5.63 22.85 65.92 12.00 49.33 115.00 239.25 agrifound dark red 64.00 8.33 0.94 5.86 25.40 79.64 13.00 51.66 117.00 232.37 agrifound rose 39.00 6.67 1.13 4.25 13.18 40.22 14.16 45.60 109.00 144.75 century selection 65.00 8.00 1.29 5.20 21.00 66.00 11.62 59.00 124.00 192.00 mean 57.11 9.13 1.09 5.27 21.78 65.70 12.85 52.00 118.26 203.41 se(m) ± 4.53 1.13 0.13 0.30 1.79 3.76 1.33 3.09 4.25 9.35 cd (p=0.05) 9.61 2.39 0.28 0.64 3.80 8.97 2.82 6.54 9.01 19.83 j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):78-81, 2014 80 ‘agrifound rose’ registered the shortest plants (39.00cm). cultivar n-53 produced maximum number of leaves/plant (12.33), at par with ‘palam lohit’ and ‘nasik red’. on the contrary, ‘agrifound rose’ recorded minimum number of leaves/plant (6.67), followed by nhrdf-red and century selection. thickest neck (1.38cm) was recorded in cultivar holland louis, while, ‘agrifound light red’ registered the thinnest neck (0.82cm). varieties ‘nasik red’ (0.99cm), ‘agrifound dark red’ (0.94cm) and ‘palam lohit’ (0.85cm) also displayed a thinner neck than other varieties. bhonde et al (1992) too found thinner neck in ‘agrifound light red’ in a late kharif season trial, which supports our findings. biggest bulb (6.13cm diameter) was noticed in cultivar holland louis, whereas, ‘agrifound rose’ expressed the lowest bulb diameter (4.25cm). rest of the varieties exhibited moderate bulb diameter. similarly, highest bulbsize index (27.15cm2) was observed in cv. holland louis, which was at par with cultivars palam lohit (26.85cm2) and agrifound dark red (25.40cm2). the heaviest bulb (88.46g) was observed in ‘holland louis’, which was at par with ‘agrifound dark red’ (79.64g). on the other hand, ‘agrifound rose’ possessed the lightest bulb (40.22g), followed by ‘agrifound white’ (54.99g). rest of the varieties showed medium bulb weight. thin neck, coupled with small to medium bulb size was detected in ‘palam lohit’, ‘agrifound light red’ and ‘nasik red’ by patil and kale (1985). minimum days to bulb initiation (45.00 days) were seen in cv. agrifound rose, closely followed by ‘agrifound light red’ and ‘n-53’ (49.33), while, the variety holland louis took maximum (61.33) number of days to bulb initiation. similarly, minimum number of days to harvest (109.00 days) were seen in cv. agrifound rose, which was at par with ‘agrifound light red’ (112.66 days), ‘agrifound white’ (113.00 days), ‘n-53’ (115.00 days), ‘palam lohit’ (115.77 days) and ‘agrifound dark red’ (117.00 days). variety holland louis showed maximum number of (129.33) days to harvest. highest total soluble solids content (14.160b) was observed in cv. agrifound rose, which was statistically at par with cultivars agrifound dark red, palam lohit and n-53. lowest tss was recorded in cv. holland louis. bulb yield among cultivars ranged from 144.75 to 275.00 q/ha. highest yield was obtained in palam lohit (275.00 q/ha), which was significantly higher than yield of other cultivars. cultivars nasik red (240.67 q/ha), n-53 (239.25 q/ha) and agrifound dark red (232.37q/ha), respectively, were observed to be the next best performers. high yield obtained in these cultivars may be attributed to better vegetative growth in terms of plant height and number of leaves per plant, thereby enhancing photosynthetic efficiency of the plant (mohanty and prusti, 2002); whereas, moderate yield of 220.25 and 215.26 q/ha was realized ‘agrifound light red’ and ‘holland louis’, respectively. bhagchandani et al (1972), singh et al (1991) and sharma (2009) also reported better performance in cvs. nasik red, n-53 and agrifound dark red than in the other cultivars. results of the experiment on screening of onion cultivars for resistance to purple blotch disease showed that none of the varieties resisted the disease totally; however, ‘agrifound dark red’ was moderately resistant, exhibiting just 13.78% disease incidence. similar results were obtained by kumari and singh (2012) who reported disease intensity of 6.36% when seedlings of this cultivar were inoculated with spores of the pathogen. rest of the cultivars exhibited moderate to high susceptibility reaction towards the disease. on the basis of observations recorded over two successive years, it is concluded that cultivars palam lohit, agrifound dark red and nasik red perform better over the other varieties in terms of bulb size, total soluble solids and marketable yield under low-hill, subtropical conditions of himachal pradesh. references bhagchandani, p.m., pal, n. and choudhury, b. 1972. you can grow kharif crop of onion in northern india. indian farming, xxii:24-27 bhonde, s.r., srivastava, k.j. and pandey, u.b. 1992. table 3. reaction of onion varieties to purple blotch under natural epiphytotic conditions variety disease disease severity (%) reaction nasik red 70.49 hs holland louis 83.73 hs palam lohit 20.77 ms agrifound light red 32.32 s agrifound white 60.34 hs nhrdf red 43.28 hs n-53 65.67 hs agrifound dark red 13.78 m r agrifound rose 18.23 ms century selection 80.52 hs mr: moderately resistant, ms: moderately susceptible, s: susceptible, hs: highly susceptible deepa sharma et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):78-81, 2014 81 evaluation of varieties for growing “rangda” crop of onion (allium cepa l.) in nasik area of maharashtra. maharashtra j. hort., 6:39-42 gomez, k.a. and gomez, a.a. 1984. statistical procedures for agricultural research (2nd ed.), new york, john wiley and sons, inc., 680p. http://www.sfacindia.com. 2012. baseline data for onion and potato. kumari, r. and singh, b.p. 2012. resistance response of onion varieties to purple blotch caused by alternaria porri (ellis). res. j. agril. sci., 3:78-81 mckinney, h.h. 1923. influence of soil temperature and moisture on infection of wheat seedlings by helminthosporium sativum. j. agril. res., 26:195197 mohanty, b.k. and prusti, a.m. 2002. varietal performance of onion in rainy season. indian j. agril. res., 36:222-224 patil, r.s. and kale, p.n. 1985. correlation studies on bulb characteristics and storage losses in onion. j. maharashtra agril. univ., 10:38-39 singh, l., singh, s.p. and mishra, p.k. 1991. evaluation of onion varieties at karnal. aadf newslett., xi:3-4 sharma, a.k. 2009. evaluation of onion varieties in kharif season under submontane low hill conditions of himachal pradesh. annals hort., 2:191-193 srivastava, p.k., bharadwaj, b.s. and gupta, p.p. 1994. status of field diseases and selected pests of onion in india. national horticulture research and development foundation newsletter, 14:11-14 (ms received 23 january 2013, revised 20 december 2013, accepted 10 march 2014) evaluation of onion varieties under low hill conditions of himachal pradesh j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):78-81, 2014 final sph -jhs coverpage 16-2 jan 2021 single c o n t e n t s journal of horticultural sciences volume 16 issue 2 june 2021 in this issue i-ii review phytoremediation of indoor air pollutants: harnessing the potential of 131-143 plants beyond aesthetics shalini jhanji and u.k.dhatt research articles response of fruit yield and quality to foliar application of micro-nutrients in 144-151 lemon [citrus limon (l.) burm.] cv. assam lemon sheikh k.h.a., singh b., haokip s.w., shankar k., debbarma r. studies on high density planting and nutrient requirement of banana in 152-163 different states of india debnath sanjit bauri f.k., swain s., patel a.n., patel a.r., shaikh n.b., bhalerao v.p., baruah k., manju p.r., suma a., menon r., gutam s. and p. patil mineral nutrient composition in leaf and root tissues of fifteen polyembryonic 164-176 mango genotypes grown under varying levels of salinity nimbolkar p.k., kurian r.m., varalakshmi l.r., upreti k.k., laxman r.h. and d. kalaivanan optimization of ga3 concentration for improved bunch and berry quality in 177-184 grape cv. crimson seedless (vitis vinifera l) satisha j., kumar sampath p. and upreti k.k. rgap molecular marker for resistance against yellow mosaic disease in 185-192 ridge gourd [luffa acutangula (l.) roxb.] kaur m., varalakshmi b., kumar m., lakshmana reddy d.c., mahesha b. and pitchaimuthu m. genetic divergence study in bitter gourd (momordica charantia l.) 193-198 nithinkumar k.r., kumar j.s.a., varalakshmi b, mushrif s.k., ramachandra r.k. , prashanth s.j. combining ability studies to develop superior hybrids in bell pepper 199-205 (capsicum annuum var. grossum l.) varsha v., smaranika mishra, lingaiah h.b., venugopalan r., rao k.v. kattegoudar j. and madhavi reddy k. ssr marker development in abelmoschus esculentus (l.) moench 206-214 using transcriptome sequencing and genetic diversity studies gayathri m., pitchaimuthu m. and k.v. ravishankar generation mean analysis of important yield traits in bitter gourd 215-221 (momordica charantia) swamini bhoi, varalakshmi b., rao e.s., pitchaimuthu m. and hima bindu k. influence of phenophase based irrigation and fertigation schedule on vegetative 222-233 performance of chrysanthemum (dendranthema grandiflora tzelev.) var. marigold vijayakumar s., sujatha a. nair, nair a.k., laxman r.h. and kalaivanan d. performance evaluation of double type tuberose iihr-4 (ic-0633777) for 234-240 flower yield, quality and biotic stress response bharathi t.u., meenakshi srinivas, umamaheswari r. and sonavane, p. anti-fungal activity of trichoderma atroviride against fusarium oxysporum f. sp. 241-250 lycopersici causing wilt disease of tomato yogalakshmi s., thiruvudainambi s., kalpana k., thamizh vendan r. and oviya r. seed transmission of bean common mosaic virus-blackeye cowpea mosaic strain 251-260 (bcmv-blcm) threaten cowpea seed health in the ashanti and brong-ahafo regions of ghana adams f.k., kumar p.l., kwoseh c., ogunsanya p., akromah r. and tetteh r. effect of container size and types on the root phenotypic characters of capsicum 261-270 raviteja m.s.v., laxman r.h., rashmi k., kannan s., namratha m.r. and madhavi reddy k. physio-morphological and mechanical properties of chillies for 271-279 mechanical harvesting yella swami c., senthil kumaran g., naik r.k., reddy b.s. and rathina kumari a.c. assessment of soil and water quality status of rose growing areas of 280-286 rajasthan and uttar pradesh in india varalakshmi lr., tejaswini p., rajendiran s. and k.k. upreti qualitative and organoleptic evaluation of immature cashew kernels under storage 287-291 sharon jacob and sobhana a. physical quality of coffee bean (coffea arabica l.) as affected by harvesting and 292-300 drying methods chala t., lamessa k. and jalata z vegetative vigour, yield and field tolerance to leaf rust in four f1 hybrids of 301-308 coffee (coffea arabica l.) in india divya k. das, shivanna m.b. and prakash n.s. limonene extraction from the zest of citrus sinensis, citrus limon, vitis vinifera 309-314 and evaluation of its antimicrobial activity wani a.k., singh r., mir t.g. and akhtar n. event report 315-318 national horticultural fair 2021 a success story dhananjaya m.v., upreti k.k. and dinesh m.r. subject index 319-321 author index 322-323 261 j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 261-270, 2021 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper effect of container size and types on the root phenotypic characters of capsicum raviteja m.s.v., laxman r.h*., rashmi k., kannan s., namratha m.r. and madhavi reddy k. icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hesaraghatta lake po, bangalore 560089, india *corresponding author email: laxman.rh@icar.gov.in abstract capsicum genus comprised of several cultivars is considered as an important spice crop worldwide. roots play a vital role in a plant to mine water from the deeper layers of the soil. although, characterisation for root traits have been made using different containers in many crops, such efforts for phenotyping root characteristics in capsicum species are limited. therefore, the experiment was initiated to find out the influence of container size on root characteristics and also to identify the appropriate container for high throughput phenotyping of capsicum species for desirable root characteristics. nine genotypes belonging to different capsicum spp. were grown in three types of containers having different dimensions. among the three types of containers, the bucket type container with dimension of 32 cm height 30 cm diameter with 23 kg soil media capacity was most suitable for phenotyping root characteristics compared to pvc pipe and pot type. subsequently, 18 genotypes were phenotyped for plant growth and root characteristics in the bucket type container. the genotypes ihr 4517, ihr 3529, ihr 4501, ihr 4550, ihr 4491 and ihr 3241 with better root characteristics were identified. key words: capsicum, container, root characteristics and plant growth introduction the genus capsicum comprises several cultivars that are grown worldwide. in addition to their use as spices and food vegetables, capsicum species have also been used in pha r ma ceutica l industr ies. the genus capsicum has five domesticated species, capsicum annuum l., c. baccatum l., c. chinense jacq., c. frutescens l., and c. pubescens ruiz and pav. however, among them, capsicum annuum l. is distr ibuted world over with greatest economic importance and is part of many dishes mainly because of its spicy taste, pungency, appealing colour and flavor. india is the world’s largest producer and exporter of chilli, contributing about 25% of world’s chilli production (national horticultural board, 2017). several abiotic stresses during critical stages of crop gr owth a nd development sever ely a ffect the productivity of capsicum sp. inadequate water availability is a major abiotic stress which adversely affects growth and productivity of chilli crop (bhutia et al., 2018). the major growing areas in india experience water limiting conditions due to limited water resources. in india in some parts, chilli is grown under rainfed conditions. the sporadic water stress is a common feature that causes considerable reduction in productivity of chilli, through modification in various morpho-physiological and bio-chemical processes (singh, 1994). the antagonistic effects of water deficit stress have been studied by several workers in chilli (cantore et al., 2000; kirnak et al., 2003; antony and singandhupe, 2004; khan et al.,2008; gunawardena and de-silva 2014; r’him and radhouane, 2015; george and sujatha, 2019). some of the plant’s adaptive strategies under deficit water stress situations are; deep root system, higher water use efficiency (wue) and tissue water retention through modifications in leaf, stomatal and cuticular characteristics (basu et al., 2016). these adaptive features help plants to maintain higher tissue water content under deficit moisture stress and facilitate them to delay the imminent adverse effects of water stress. roots play a major role under water deficit conditions by acquiring water from the deeper layers of the soil. 262 raviteja et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 261-270, 2021 they also communicate with above ground parts thr ough signa ling pa thwa ys. t he gr owth a nd development of plants is controlled through the alter ations in root mor phology a nd physiology. modifications were noticed in root to shoot transport of signaling molecules including hormones, proteins, rnas and mineral nutrients (dovale and neto, 2015). the restricted growth and development of plants by limited water availability could be overcome through root morphological plasticity at different soil moisture levels (forde 2009). under water limited conditions, roots improve the ability of crop plants to maintain water relations by exploring available water in the soil profile. identification of root characteristics that enhance the plant’s capability to mine soil water and sustain productivity is very essential.several workers have attempted studies on various root characteristics and have elucidated the role of root characteristics like deep root system (sashidhar et al.,2000; sinclair and muchow 2001; venuprasad et al., 2002), thick root system (chang et al., 1986), root to shoot ratio (fukai and cooper 1995), enhanced root system (price and tomos, 1997), root penetrating ability (ray et al., 1996) and higher number of roots in the crown region (kinyua et al., 2003). understanding the role of roots in improving tolerance and maintenance of water relations under water limiting conditions is very important. in this direction quantification of the root characteristics and their role in enhancing water stress tolerance is of primary relevance. conventional crop improvement approaches have played a principal role in many crops for enhancing drought tolerance (sreenivasulu et al., 2007). the desirable root characteristics like, deeper root length, large root volume, high root dry weight, and higher root-to-shoot ratio coupled with thick lateral roots were observed to confer water stress tolerance in chilli germplasm iihr 4502 (capsicum chinense) (naresh et al., 2017). since, phenotyping root characteristics under field conditions are highly cumbersome and challenging, researchers have been relying on assessing the desirable root characteristics in container grown plants. studies have also shown relationships between controlled-environment root vigor and field root vigor, indicating that evaluations at early stage are predictive of future root performance (wa sson et al. , 2012). using conta iner s for measurement of root systems reduces the growing medium volume and enables proper removal of the root system as compared to plants grown in field (neumann, 2009). there is a need for identification of suitable container type and size that provide congenial growing conditions for expression of genetic potential and also enable easy extraction of root system to phenotype root characteristics. though studies have been conducted to characterize root characteristics using different containers in many crops, such efforts for phenotyping root characteristics in capsicum species are very much limited (kulkarni and phalke, 2009; naresh et al., 2017). hence, the objective of the study was to identify appropriate container and size for high throughput phenotyping of root characteristics which facilitate selection of genotypes having desirable root characteristics for water mining. material and methods experiment was carried out during 2018-2019 at the division of basic sciences, icar-indian institute of horticultural research (icar-iihr), bengaluru. the experimental site is located at 13o58’ n latitude, 78°e longitude and 890 m above mean sea level. seeds of capsicum sp. genotypes used in the study were obtained from the division of vegetable crops, icarindian institute of horticultural research (icariihr), bengaluru. in order to achieve objectives of the study, two experiments were conducted. first experiment was carried out using three different containers to identify appropriate container for high throughput phenotyping of root character istics. second experiment was conducted to phenotype for desir a ble r oot characteristics using 18 genotypes belonging to different capsicum sp. in the suitable container identified in the first experiment. identification of appropriate container for high throughput phenotyping of root characteristics in order to identify appropriate container for high throughput phenotyping of root characteristics, nine genotypes belonging to different capsicum sp. ihr 3226, ihr 3455, ihr 3575, ihr 4517, ihr 3476 (c. annuum) ihr 3240, ihr 3241, ihr 4491(c. baccatum) and ihr 3529 (c. chinense) were selected. the genotypes were evaluated in three types of containers having different dimensions and soil media holding capacity. the containers used were: (i) bucket type container (empty paint container, 30 cm diameter, 263 effect of container size and types on the root phenotypic characters of capsicum 32 cm height having capacity to hold 23 kg soil), (ii) pvc pipe container (20 cm diameter, 64 cm height having capacity to hold 26 kg soil) and (iii) pot type container (18 cm diameter, 27 cm height having capacity to hold12 kg soil). the containers were filled with soil, farm yard manure (fym) and sand (2:1:1 v/v). the experiment was laid out in a factorial completely ra ndomized block design with five replications. phenotyping of capsicum sp. genotypes in appropriate container for desirable root characteristics eighteen genotypes belonging to different capsicum sp. were evaluated for root characteristics in the bucket type container (30 cm diameter, 32 cm height having capacity to hold 23 kg soil). the experiment was laid out in a completely randomized block design with five replications. seedling raising and crop care: the seeds of genotypes used in both the experiments were sown in pro trays filled with coco peat as a growing medium. the seedlings were maintained in the shade net nursery for 45 days and recommended cultural practices were adopted to maintain plant health status and population. forty-five-day old seedlings were transplanted into the conta iner s. t he pla nts wer e pr ovided with recommended dose of fertilizer and crop protection measures. the plants were irrigated regularly to maintain 100 per cent field capacity. growth parameters: the observations in both the experiments were recorded at peak flowering stage (50 dat). plant height was measured using graduated scale and expressed in centimeters. the number of primary branches were counted manually at the point of initiation. the plant shoot parts were excised and the leaf and stem portions were separated. the entire root portion was carefully extracted from the soil medium using water jet to clean the soil. soon after extracting the roots, observations on root parameters like root length (using graduated scale), root volume (water displacement method), number of primary roots and fresh and dry weights were recorded. fresh weights of the root and shoot samples were measured immediately after extraction by using a sartorius bsazzas-cw balance. the root, stem and leaf parts were dried in oven separately at 80ºc for 72 h to achieve stable weight. the dry weight was recorded as total biomass accumulated and expressed as gram per plant. to quantify the leaf area, representative sample of 20 leaves from each plant was taken and the leaf area was determined using leaf area meter (biovis, psm-l2000, india). then the leaves were kept in oven at 70ºc for five days and leaf dry weight was measured using sartorius bsazzas-cw balance. the ratio of leaf area to the leaf dry weight was computed as specific leaf area (sla). the leaf dry weight of each plant was multiplied with sla to arrive at the total plant leaf area (tla). root: shoot ratio: it was arrived by dividing root dry matter with shoot dry matter. statistical analysis anova: the data obtained in different experiments was analyzed in factorial completely randomized block design and completely randomized block design for first and second experiment, respectively using two factors statistical package opstat developed by ccshau (sheoran et al.,1998). results and discussion plants manifest physiological and morphological modifications in response to change with soil volume. the container size and type influence root volume and in turn determine the dry matter distribution between above and below ground parts. studies have shown that with doubling in pot size there is an average increase of 43% plant mass (poorter, 2012). container size is known to influence morphologica l and physiological changes in crops like tomato (oagile et al., 2016), bell pepper (weston, 1988), squash (nesmith, 1993) a nd ca bbage (csizinszky a nd schuster, 1993). alterations in container size leads to cha nges in a va ila ble r ooting volume which subsequently affects plant growth. identification of appropriate container for high throughput phenotyping of root characteristics the container size plays a major role in plant root and shoots growth. the root length was not significantly influenced by the container type. however, among the three containers, higher root length was observed in pvc pipe container compared to bucket type and pot type containers. the root volume in bucket type container was 35.8% and 72.4% higher compared to pot type and pvc pipe containers, respectively (figure 1). the studies conducted in bell pepper have shown that the container size has influence on the root volume and plant growth (weston, 1988; nesmith et al.,1992). in this exper iment, a mong the thr ee types of j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 261-270, 2021 264 containers, the plants grown in bucket type container produced significantly a greater number of primary roots (44.8) compared to pot type (33.1) and pvc pipe (25.4) containers (figure 1). studies conducted by cantliffe, (1993) and kharkina et al., (1999) have shown that there is a strong positive correlation between container size and root biomass. in the present study, significantly higher root fresh weight and dry weights were observed in bucket type container compared to other two types of containers (figure 1). the genotypes ihr 4491, ihr 3241, ihr 4517 and ihr 3529 produced significantly higher root fresh weight as compared to remaining genotypes (figure 1). plants grown in bucket type container recorded 73.14 % (4.32 g) and 40.86% (5.31 g) higher root dry weight compared to pvc pipe and pot type containers (table 1). a b c d figure 1: influence of containers on root length (a), root volume (b), primary root number (c) and root fresh weight (d) of capsicum sp. healthy root system growth promotes better above ground canopy growth. hence, providing appropriate space for adequate root growth is essential. it is observed that the shoot growth is greatly impacted by varying container size and root restriction (poorter, 2012). the plant height was significantly higher in bucket type container compared to remaining types of containers. genotypes, ihr 3241 (68.1 cm) and ihr 3226 (57.2 cm) recorded significantly higher plant height compared to rest of the genotypes (table 2). tomato plants when grown in containers with low volume showed reduction in shoot height and biomass (peterson et al., 1991). hence, providing better rooting space helps the plants to produce higher above ground biomass with increased shoot height. among the three types of containers, plants grown in bucket type produced significantly a greater number of branches compared to remaining two types of containers (table 2). in bell pepper (capsicum annum l.), root restriction caused reduction in number of branches (nesmith et al.,1992). in container grown bell pepper plant, reduction in leaf area was observed mainly due to smaller and fewer leaves per plant (weston, 1988; n es mit h e t a l . , 1 99 2 ) . wit h the inc r ea s e in container size, the leaf area and shoot biomass has increased (cantliffe, 1993). in this experiment, the leaf area was significantly higher in plants grown in bucket type container (5690 cm2) as compared t o pot ( 37 9 7 cm2 ) a nd pvc pip e (2 6 90 cm2 ) containers (table 2). raviteja et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 261-270, 2021 265 table 1: influence of containers on root dry weight and shoot dry weight in capsicum sp. genotype root dry weight shoot dry weight (g plant-1) (g plant-1) pvc pot bucket pvc pot bucket pipe type pipe type ihr 3226 1.91 3.47 5.28 9.6 15.3 33.0 ihr 3455 3.06 5.49 6.26 15.6 32.9 45.0 ihr 3575 3.30 3.89 5.02 18.2 21.4 26.6 ihr 4517 6.92 7.11 8.60 34.3 39.5 51.1 ihr 3476 1.71 4.04 4.43 6.2 17.1 28.3 ihr 3240 5.14 5.19 6.82 26.2 18.7 49.9 ihr 3241 6.49 7.21 10.44 31.1 44.7 53.5 ihr 4491 5.52 5.31 10.81 27.4 27.1 54.1 ihr 3529 4.79 6.10 9.63 14.8 33.5 51.7 mean 4.32 5.31 7.48 20.4 27.8 43.7 factors g c gxc g c gxc c.d@0.05 0.65 0.38 1.13 3.2 1.85 5.54 se (m) 0.23 0.13 0.4 1.12 0.65 1.95 cv (%) 10.8 11 table 2. influence of containers on plant height, leaf area and number of branches in capsicum sp. genotype plant height leaf area branch number (cm plant-1) (cm2 plant-1) (no. plant-1) pvc pot bucket pvc pot bucket pvc pot bucket pipe type pipe type pipe type ihr 3226 67.7 57 57.3 1363 2221 4526 12 9 13 ihr 3455 40 44.3 54.7 2186 4510 6015 7 9 10 ihr 3575 45.7 41.7 53.3 2706 3179 3977 9 10 12 ihr 4517 49.3 38.3 47 4656 5263 6737 8 5 8 ihr 3476 29.3 25 41.7 1161 3092 4797 3 4 7 ihr 3240 46 52.7 52.3 2901 2209 5240 9 10 10 ihr 3241 54.3 51.5 84.7 4389 6058 8365 9 9 11 ihr 4491 32.3 29 71.3 2074 2040 4089 5 7 10 ihr 3529 25.7 27 55.7 2773 5600 7467 4 5 6 mean 43.4 40.7 57.6 2690 3797 5690 7 8 10 factors g c gxc g c gxc g c gxc c.d. (0.05) 3.17 1.83 5.49 669 386 1159 0.88 0.5 1.52 se (m) 1.11 0.64 1.93 136 235 408 0.31 0.18 0.53 cv (%) 6.8 17.4 10.8 effect of container size and types on the root phenotypic characters of capsicum j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 261-270, 2021 266 ta bl e 3. v ar ia bi lit y in r oo t an d sh oo t gr ow th c ha ra ct er is tic s am on g 18 c ap si cu m s p. g en ot yp es g en ot yp e r l r v p r n r f w r d w sd w r oo t: p h b n l a (c m p la nt -1 ) (c c pl an t-1 ) (n o. p la nt -1 ) (g p la nt -1 ) (g p la nt -1 ) (g p la nt -1 ) sh oo t (c m (n o. (c m 2 ra ti o pl an t-1 ) pl an t-1 ) pl an t-1 ) ih r 3 24 0 38 .0 50 .0 32 54 .0 6. 90 60 .6 0. 11 8 54 .7 10 62 84 ih r 3 24 1 55 .0 10 0. 0 43 69 .2 10 .6 3 51 .2 0. 21 1 79 .7 10 88 37 ih r 4 49 1 39 .3 73 .3 36 88 .6 11 .8 1 48 .2 0. 24 9 75 .6 10 44 55 ih r 4 55 0 54 .3 11 0. 0 45 12 7. 7 15 .3 8 42 .9 0. 41 2 68 .0 6 65 83 ih r 4 50 1 65 .0 12 5. 0 33 11 0. 8 12 .5 6 44 .2 0. 29 68 .0 8 76 30 ih r 3 52 9 48 .7 71 .3 36 76 .0 10 .2 3 36 .9 0. 26 8 54 .7 7 70 12 ih r 4 65 8 42 .3 38 .3 34 49 .9 5. 80 47 .1 0. 12 2 69 .3 9 47 24 ih r 3 98 2 33 .3 18 .3 14 24 .6 2. 01 19 .7 0. 34 6 48 .3 13 38 72 ih r 3 98 3 45 .7 31 .7 29 38 .6 7. 55 46 .1 0. 16 9 95 .3 15 33 02 ih r 3 22 6 35 .0 38 .3 47 30 .5 3. 78 40 .0 0. 09 6 58 .0 12 51 76 ih r 3 45 5 37 .0 32 .7 63 32 .4 5. 17 57 .7 0. 09 1 54 .3 11 69 22 ih r 3 57 5 33 .3 30 .0 41 29 .5 4. 13 25 .2 0. 16 4 52 .0 12 36 89 ih r 4 51 7 44 .0 61 .7 30 75 .1 8. 93 52 .0 0. 17 6 44 .7 10 79 36 ih r 3 47 6 30 .7 35 .0 60 32 .2 4. 45 29 .8 0. 15 41 .3 7 44 63 ih r 3 44 7 28 .0 16 .7 25 20 .1 2. 30 8. 7 0. 26 4 38 .0 10 18 54 ih r 4 10 8 42 .7 44 .0 46 35 .1 3. 40 54 .1 0. 06 5 71 .7 10 49 55 c hi kk ab al la pu r 42 .0 30 .0 19 28 .6 3. 13 15 .8 0. 20 6 52 .0 11 15 17 l oc al g un tu r 42 .3 29 .3 31 41 .0 6. 70 53 .6 0. 12 5 72 .7 14 68 65 l oc al c .d . (0 .0 5) 4. 6 18 .5 6. 5 14 .5 1. 79 12 .4 0. 06 8. 79 2. 35 29 14 se ( m ) 1. 6 6. 4 2. 2 5 0. 6 4. 3 0. 02 1 3. 05 0. 82 10 12 c v ( % ) 6. 5 21 .3 10 .6 16 .1 15 .3 5 18 .2 18 .6 8. 63 13 .8 32 .9 r l : r oo t le ng th , r v : r oo t vo lu m e, p r n : pr im ar y ro ot n um be r, r fw : r oo t fr es h w ei gh t, r d w : r oo t dr y w ei gh t, sd w : sh oo t dr y w ei gh t, ph : pl an t he ig ht , b n : b ra nc h nu m be r an d l a : l ea f ar ea p he no ty pi ng o f c ap si cu m g en ot yp es f or d es ir ab le r oo t ch ar ac te ri st ic s raviteja et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 261-270, 2021 267 shoot growth is greatly impacted by varying container size and root restriction in tomato (kemble et al., 1994) and soybean (krizek et al.,1985). in this study, among the three types of containers, plants grown in bucket type container produced significantly higher amount of shoot biomass compared to remaining two types of containers. plants in bucket type container produced 57.1% (15.9 g) and 114.2% (23.3 g) higher shoot biomass than plant grown in pot type and pvc pipe containers, respectively (table 1). therefore, the bucket type container with higher soil volume and area enabled the capsicum spp. genotypes to express their genetic potential with higher shoot and root growth. roots, stems a nd lea ves a r e functiona lly interdependent and these three systems maintain a dyna mic ba la nce in bioma ss pr oduction a nd distribution. it is clearly evident from the study that the bucket type container provided enough rooting space for capsicum spp. genotypes to express their genetic potential in terms of shoot and root biomass production. hence, the bucket type container was chosen for further studies on phenotyping capsicum spp. genotypes for desirable root characteristics. the importance of plant phenotyping based on specific root characteristics like root length, number of primary roots and root volume are of practical value for crop improvement (garcia, 2015). genetic potential of a genotype for root characteristics plays a critical role during growth and metabolic aspects of the plants. in this study, to know the genetic potential and behavior of each genotype under optimal moisture condition capsicum sp. genotypes were evaluated for desirable root characteristics and shoot growth. the results clearly indicated that genotypes, ihr 4501, ihr 4491, ihr 3241, ihr 4550, ihr4517, ihr 3529 exhibited desirable root characteristics such as root length, root volume, primary root number, root fresh and dry weight. the genotypes, ihr 3982 and ihr 3447 showed poor root characteristics (table 3). studies have indicated that root length, root volume and root dry weight have strong positive correlation with total dry matter production (lakshmamma et al., 2014). the genotypes which showed higher root length and volume also produced higher biomass because of adequate water and nutrients uptake from deeper layers of the soil and maintained the tissue water potential (khan et al., 2008). under ample supply of water and nutrient, the plant height, leaf area, branch number and shoot biomass production are dependent on the size of the root system (za ka r ia et al. , 2020). our r esults clea r ly demonstrated that genotypes, ihr 3241, ihr 4501, ihr 4491, ihr4517 and guntur local exhibited better shoot growth in terms of plant height, number of branches, lea f ar ea and shoot bioma ss. the genotypes, chikkaballapur local, ihr 3447 and ihr 3982 showed poor shoot growth (table 3). in fact; leaf area determines the light interception capacity of a crop and is often used as a surrogate for plant growth and above ground biomass. from the results it is clear that the genotypes having higher leaf area showed better shoot biomass. concurrently, our results suggested that number of branches in a plant is independent with plant height. the branching pattern in a plant depends on the genetic makeup of each genotype and it is not linked with plant height and other characteristics. similar observations were made in chilli (bijalwan et al., 2018) and tomato (malaker et al., 2016). at optimal moisture condition, shoot and root dry weights are interred linked (brdar-jokanovic et al., 2014). root to shoot ratio is an important index and it reflects the plant health status. in this regard our results confirms that genotypes, ihr 4550, ihr 4501, ihr 3529 and ihr 4491 recorded significantly higher root to shoot ratio compared to other genotypes. the genotypes, ihr 4108, ihr 3455 and ihr 3226 showed significantly lower root shoot ratio (table 3). though enough rooting space was available in the bucket type container only few genotypes had higher shoot and root growth. this could be due to the genetic potential of the genotypes exhibiting higher root and shoot biomass (chowdary et al., 2015). based on the growth pa ttern with respect to root and shoot characteristics, six genotypes, ihr 4517 (c. annuum), ihr 3241 (c. baccatum), ihr 4491 (c. baccatum), ihr 4550 (c. chinense), ihr 3529 (c. chinense), ihr 4501 (c. chinense) were identified having desirable root characteristics and ihr 3447 (c. annuum) a nd ihr 3982 (c. chacoense) wer e identified having poor root characteristics. effect of container size and types on the root phenotypic characters of capsicum j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 261-270, 2021 268 references aung, l. h. 1972. root-shoot relationships. in pl. root and its environ.1: 29–61. antony, e. and singandhupe, r. 2004. impact of drip and surface irrigation on growth, yield a nd w ue of c a p s ic u m. a g r i c . watermanag.65(2): 121-132. basu, s., ramegowda, v., kumar, a. and pereira, a. 2016. plant adaptation to drought stress. f1000research, 5, f1000 faculty rev-1554. bhutia k.l., khanna, v.k., meetei, t.n.g. and bhutia, n.d. 2018. effects of climate change on gr owt h a nd develop ment o f c hilli. agrotechnology7: 180. bija lwan, p.s., meghana, s. and madha vi, n. 2018. assessment of genetic divergence in 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(received on 30.00.2020, revised on 28.05.2021 and accepted on 29.05.2021) venuprasad, r., shashidhar, h. e., hittalmani, s. a nd h ema ma lini, g. s . 2 0 0 2 . ta gging quantitative trait loci associated with grain yield and root morphological traits in rice (oryza sativa l.) under contrasting moisture regimes. euphytica 128: 293–300. wasson, a., richards, r., chatrath, r., misra, s., prasad, s. s., rebetzke, g., kirkegaard, j., christopher, j. and watt, m. 2012.traits and selection strategies to improve root systems and wa ter uptake in wa ter-limited wheat crops. j. exp. bot., 63:3485–3498. weston, l. a. 198 8. e ffect of fla t cell siz e, transplant age, and production site on growth and yield of pepper transplants. hort. sci.23: 709-711. z a ka r ia , n . i . , i s ma il, m . r . , awa ng, y. , edaroyati, p., wahab, m and berahim, z. 2020. effect of root restriction on the growth, p hot os ynt hes is r a t e, s ou r c e a nd s ink relationship of chilli (capsicum annuum l.) grown in soilless culture. biomed research international. v: 2020, 14p. raviteja et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 16(2) : 261-270, 2021 00 contents.pdf 15 lakshman.pdf 19 lamesssa.pdf 20 divya.pdf 21 wani.pdf 23 index and last pages.pdf studies on macronutrient fertilization in pomegranate under sub-tropical plains p.p.s. gill, m. kumar, n.p. singh and w.s. dhillon1 department of fruit science punjab agricultural university, ludhiana-141004, india e-mail: parmpalgill@pau.edu abstract an investigation was carried out to study the influence of different levels of npk fertilizers on plant growth, fruit yield and quality, and leaf npk content in pomegranate cv. kandhari under sub-tropical conditions. graded doses of nitrogen (0-300g/plant), phosphorus (0-150g/plant) and potassium (0-300g/plant) fertilizers were applied through soil, in addition to a basal dose of fym. control plants were fed fym only. maximum increase in plant growth and fruit yield was recorded in plants receiving npk @ 300:50:100g/plant, while control plants registered least growth and yield. potassium levels improved fruit weight over the control. higher dose of potassium also improved fruit colour and enhanced peel thickness and grain weight. maximum tss:acid ratio was seen with npk @ 200:50:100g/plant. reducing sugars were not affected by any treatment. leaf n, p and k content increased with application of the respective nutrient. key words: pomegranate, macronutrients, growth, yield, quality, leaf analysis 1punjab horticultural post harvest technology centre, ludhiana, india introduction pomegranate (punica granatum l.) is one of the important fruits exported from india. in north-western plains, it is primarily grown as a backyard plant. commercial plantations are limited in number. to boost cultivation its management practices need to be refined and mineral nutrition influences yield and quality of the fruits most. under sub-tropical conditions, pomegranate bears heavily which can exhaust the plant and essential elements in soil needed for proper growth and development. a regular supply of these nutrients needs to be ensured for sustainable production. earlier studies revealed that application of balanced fertilizers improved growth, yield and quality pomegranate (kumar and dhandar 1996 and dhanumjaya and subramanyam, 2009). hence, application of optimum dose of fertilizer is a prime necessity for obtaining higher yields in pomegranate. in view of importance of mineral nutrition in growth and development in pomegranate, an attempt was made to ascertain the requirement of macronutrients in pomegranate grown under sub-tropical plains. material and methods fertilizer application was imposed on seven year old pomegranate cv. kandhari plants spaced at 4x4m distance at new orchard, department of fruit science, punjab agricultural university, ludhiana, during the year 2010. soil in the experimental plot was alluvial, with sandy-loam texture at ph 7.7, ec 0.092 dsm-1, organic carbon 0.51% and available p 17.3kg/ha and k 205.4kg/ha. single-nutrient application was chosen to conduct this experiment. plants were applied with graded doses of n (0-300g/plant), p2o5 (0-150g/plant) and k2o (0-300g/plant) in the form of urea, single super phosphate and muriate of potash, respectively. half dose of n and full dose of p2o5 and k2o was applied during february, and the remaining half of n dose was applied after fruit-set. when applying a particular nutrient, level of the other two nutrients was kept constant. all the plants (including control) were supplied with fym @ 20kg/plant in december. eleven treatment combinations (table 1) were replicated thrice in randomized block design. for growth traits, plant height and spread were recorded before application of fertilizer during the dormant period. increase in annual growth was calculated by noting observations the following dormant season. fruit weight and fruit yield were recorded in each tree at harvest. fruit colour was rated visually on a scale of 110 by a panel of five judges. peel thickness was estimated by digital vernier callipers (mitutoyo, japan). juice was extracted from grains by sieving through a muslin cloth and juice percentage was calculated on the basis of total fruit weight. for elemental analysis, leaf sampling was done as per bhargava j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):172-175, 2013 173 macronutrient fertilization in pomegranate and chadha (1988). leaf nitrogen was estimated by kjeldahl method, using kel plus system (pelican equipments, india); phosphorus by vanadomolybdo phosphoric yellow colour method, and potassium by flame photometer method. data were analyzed as per standard statistical procedures described by singh et al (1998). results and discussion effect of various npk combinations on plant height and plant spread are presented in table 2. significant increase in plant height was recorded in all fertilizer treatments compared to control, except, in plants under t1 treatment (npk: 0:50:100g/plant). maximum increase in plant height (55.0cm) was recorded in t3 (npk: 300:50:100g/ plant) where highest dose of n and low levels of p and k were applied. data further showed that higher dose each of n, p and k nutrients resulted in increased plant height. nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (being major essential nutrients for plant growth and development) may have resulted in enhanced growth with increased levels of the nutrients. similar findings were earlier reported by dhanumjaya and subramanyam (2009) also in pomegranate. likewise, plant spread in both north-south and east-west directions increased significantly with various n, p and k applications compared to control. maximum increase in plant spread in north-south and east-west directions (0.67m ew and 0.64m n-s) was recorded in t3 (npk 300:50:100g/ plant) and minimum spread (0.41m e-w and 0.43m n-s) in control trees. similarly, phosphorus at all levels significantly increased plant spread in both directions compared to control. among k levels, plant spread increased up to 200g/ plant, and then decreased with increasing levels. these findings are in agreement with chougule (1976) also in pomegranate. fruit yield (table 2) increased linearly with higher levels of nitrogen, and maximum fruit yield (21.74kg/ plant) was registered in t3 (npk: 300:50:100g/plant), followed by t2 (20.69kg/ plant). medium levels of phosphorus and potash recorded better fruit yield over lower or higher levels of these nutrients. minimum fruit yield was observed in t11, where no fertilizer was applied. increase in yield with n and k application has also been reported by bewoor et al (1990) in pomegranate cv. jyoti. data presented in table 3 shows that different combinations of npk increased fruit weight in pomegranate over control. maximum fruit weight (270.65g) was recorded in t9 (npk 100:50:300g/plant) which was statistically at par with t2 (npk 200:50:100g/plant) and t8 (npk 100:50:200g/ plant). minimum fruit weight (221.44g) was obtained in control plants. nitrogen application also helped increase fruit weight and maximum fruit weight was observed when 200g n/plant was applied, but further increase in n levels did not cause increased fruit weight. increased fruit size with potassium application was also reported by dutta and banik (2007) in guava. fruit colour score too was significantly affected by various npk combinations (table 3). data show that highest dose of k (300g/plant) produced superior colored fruits (score of 7.48), followed by application of k @ 200g/plant. improvement in colour with k fertilization could be due to increased carbohydrate accumulation by the fruit (fisher and kwong, 1961). minimum colour rating of 5.83 was observed in fruits under t3 (npk: 300:50:100g/plant), where the highest dose of nitrogen was applied. peel thickness was affected significantly by various npk combinations (table 3). maximum peel thickness (3.5mm) was registered with the highest dose of k (300g/plant). phosphorus doses reduced table 2. effect of various npk combinations on growth and fruit yield in pomegranate cv. kandhari treatment increase increase in plant fruit in plant spread (m) yield height north-south east-west (kg/plant) (cm) t1-n 0p50k100 24.8 0.49 0.47 15.81 t2-n 200p50k100 49.3 0.63 0.60 20.69 t3-n 300p50k100 55.1 0.67 0.64 21.74 t4-p0n100k100 24.8 0.47 0.46 15.40 t5-p 100n100k 100 30.1 0.51 0.53 18.11 t6-p 150n100k 100 35.7 0.55 0.56 17.74 t7-k0n100p50 35.7 0.50 0.51 15.68 t8-k 200n100p50 43.3 0.58 0.58 20.47 t9-k 300n100p50 49.2 0.52 0.54 19.86 t10-n 100p50k 100 32.7 0.56 0.55 17.68 t11-n0p0k0 22.4 0.41 0.43 14.60 (control) cd (p=0.05) 5.07 0.04 0.03 1.01 table 1. treatment details s. no. npk composition (g/plant) t 1 n 0p50k 100 t 2 n 200p50k 100 t 3 n 300p50k 100 t 4 p0n 100k 100 t 5 p 100n 100k 100 t 6 p 150n 100k 100 t 7 k 0n 100p50 t 8 k 200n 100p50 t 9 k 300n 100p50 t 1 0 n 100p50k 100 t 1 1 n0p0k0 (control) j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):172-175, 2013 174 peel thickness; minimum peel thickness (2.89mm) was observed in plants supplied with npk @ 100:100:100g. maximum 100 grain weight was seen in npk: 100:50:300g/ plant (31.70g). where higher dose of k (300g/plant) was applied, it was significantly higher than in all other treatments. minimum weight of 100 grains was recorded in plants that received no npk dose. in general, grain weight increased with increasing levels of n, p and k. present findings are in agreement with prasad and mali (2000) who observed seed weight to increase appreciably with increasing dose of nitrogen. various npk combinations had a significant effect on fruit juice percentage. maximum juice percentage (37.95) was seen in t8 (npk 100:50:200 g/plant) and it was statistically at par with the juice content of fruits under t3 (npk: 300:50:100g/plant) and t2 (npk: 200:50:100g/plant) treatments. minimum juice percentage (32.11) was observed in fruits under control. fruit juice percentage increased in linearly as level of nitrogen increased upto 300g/plant. these results are in line with those of bose et al (1988) and sen and chauhan (1983) who reported an increase in nitrogen rate resulting in greater absorption of water and minerals from the soil, resulting in increased juice percent in pomegranate. among various p levels, no significant difference in juice content was observed. npk fertilizer combinations had a varied effect on tss:acid ratio in pomegranate. highest tss/acid ratio was recorded in t2 (npk: 200:50:100g/plant), and minimum in t1 treatment (npk 100:50:100g/plant). similarly, all phosphorus and potassium applications improved tss:acid ratio compared to control. similar results have been reported by arora et al (2012). reducing-sugar content was not significantly influenced by treatments (table 3). however, maximum content of reducing sugars (9.22%) was recorded in t2 (npk 200:50:100g/plant), whereas, lowest value of 8.11% was found in the control. it is evident from data presented in table 4 that different fertilizer combinations significantly influenced leaf n, p and k content. nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content of leaves showed an increasing trend with increasing levels of the respective nutrient. our study showed that foliar npk status of trees supplied with different doses of n, p and k fell within the optimum range (n: 0.44-2.54, p: 0.100.26 & k: 0.20-2.37%) of high-yielding plants as suggested by raghupati and bhargava (1998) in pomegranate. significantly higher leaf nitrogen content (2.23%) was recorded in t3 treatment which had the highest dose of n (300g/plant) and was statistically at par with t2, t4 and t7 treatments. leaf nitrogen content was minimum (1.88%) in t1 where no n was applied. increased rate of nitrogen fertilization was associated with increased nitrogen table 3. effect of varioius npk combinations on fruit quality in pomegranate cv. kandhari treatment fruit fruit colour peel weight of fruit tss/ acid reducing weight (max. 10) thickness 100 grains juice ratio sugars (g) (mm) (g) (%) (%) t1 – n0p50k100 232.19 7.04 3.14 25.53 33.27 (35.21) 19.9 8.39 (16.82) t2 – n200p50k100 265.33 6.48 3.33 27.19 36.53 (37.17) 23.4 9.22 (17.67) t3 – n300p50k100 259.15 5.83 3.27 28.25 37.00 (37.45) 21.2 9.12 (17.57) t4 – p0n100 k100 229.53 6.71 3.16 28.00 34.30 (35.83) 20.3 8.12 (16.53) t5 – p100n100k100 237.46 7.08 2.89 23.58 34.67 (34.06) 21.8 8.58 (17.02) t6 – p150n100k100 236.61 7.10 2.84 29.90 34.70 (36.08) 21.3 8.33 (16.74) t7 – k0n100p50 226.27 6.67 3.26 27.82 32.77 (34.90) 19.8 8.22 (16.64) t8 – k200 n100p50 265.19 7.13 3.32 29.33 37.95 (38.02) 22.0 8.43 (16.86) t9 – k300 n100p50 270.65 7.48 3.50 31.70 36.32 (37.04) 22.9 8.37 (16.79) t10 –n 100p50k100 259.38 6.93 3.37 26.58 34.60 (36.01) 21.1 8.75 (17.19) t11 – n0p0k0 (control) 221.44 6.91 3.04 23.30 32.11 (34.50) 20.0 8.11 (16.53) cd (p=0.05) 18.42 0.47 0.19 0.91 0.97 0.72 ns figures in parentheses indicate arcsine transformed values of percentages; ns = non-significant table 4. effect of various npk combinations on macronutrient content in leaves of pomegranate cv. kandhari treatment leaf n(%) leaf p(%) leaf k(%) t1 – n0p50k100 1.88 (7.88) 0.13 (2.08) 1.63 (7.33) t2 – n200p50k100 2.18 (8.49) 0.12 (2.02) 1.58 (7.22) t3 – n300p50k100 2.23 (8.58) 0.12 (1.99) 1.56 (7.17) t4 – p0n100 k100 2.17 (8.47) 0.09 (1.73) 1.62 (7.31) t5 – p100n100k100 2.11 (8.35) 0.15 (2.20) 1.60 (7.26) t6 – p150n100k100 2.10 (8.33) 0.15 (2.24) 1.57 (7.20) t7 – k0n100p50 2.16 (8.45) 0.12 (1.97) 1.43 (6.87) t8 – k200 n100p50 2.12 (8.37) 0.12 (2.01) 1.63 (7.33) t9 – k300 n100p50 2.00 (8.13) 0.10 (1.83) 1.70 (7.49) t10 –n100p50k100 2.15 (8.43) 0.14 (2.14) 1.62 (7.31) t11 – n0p0k0 (control) 1.91 (7.94) 0.10 (1.83) 1.49 (7.01) cd (p=0.05) 0.123 0.085 0.095 figures in parentheses indicate arcsine transformed values of percentages gill et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):172-175, 2013 175 accumulation as might be expected, while, leaf phosphorus and potassium levels decreased. similarly, leaf p content ranged from 0.09% (t4) to 0.15% (t5 & t6), while, minimum leaf p content was recorded in npk 100:50:200g/ plant combination. leaf k content significantly improved from 1.43% (npk 100:50:0g/plant) to 1.70% (npk 100:50:300g/plant). high n application seemed to have a negative effect on leaf k content. leaf composition of 2.23% n, 0.12% p and 1.56% k was associated with highest fruit yield. references arora, n.k., gill, m.i.s. and navjot, 2012. influence of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers on yield and quality of grapes cv. perlette. hortflora res. spectrum, 1:17-23 bewoor, b.t.n., hulamani, n.c. and sulikeri, g.s. 1990. effect of n and k nutrition on reproductive characters of pomegranate cv. jyoti. punjab hort. j., 30:145149 bhargava, b.s. and chadha, k.l. 1988. leaf nutrient guide for fruit and plantation crops. fert. news, 33:21-29 bose, t.k., mitra, s.k. and sadhu, m.k. 1988. pomegranate. in: mineral nutrition of fruit crops. noya prokash, 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29:186187 raghupati, h.b. and bhargava, b.s. 1998. diagnosis of nutrient imbalance in pomegranate by diagnosis and recommendation integrated system and compositional nutrient diagnosis. commun. soil sci. plant annal., 29:2881-2892 sen, n.l. and chauhan, k.s. 1983. effect of different fertilizers on physio-chemical characters of pomegranate. punjab hort. j., 23:59-63 singh, s., bansal, m.l., singh, t.p. and kumar, r. 1998. statistical methods for research workers. kalyani publishers, new delhi, pp. 310-317 (ms received 30 august 2012, revised 04 september 2013, accepted 11 september 2013) j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(2):172-175, 2013 macronutrient fertilization in pomegranate effect of pre harvest foliar spray of growth regulators on pre and post harvest parameters in ornamental sunflower genotype m-17r kirtimala b. naik*, s. k. nataraj, y. g. shadakshari, d. p. kumar, g. k. seetharamu and k. v.jayaprasad college of horticulture, gkvk, campus, university of horticultural, sciences, bagalkot-587104. *e-mail: kirtiflori@gmail.com abstract an experiment was conducted to study the effect of pre harvest foliar application of growth regulators on the pre and post harvest flower quality in ornamental sunflower during the year 2012-13, at college of horticulture, gkvk campus, uhs, bagalkot. at 60 das highest plant height was with ga3 @ 150 ppm (154.73 cm) followed by ga3 @ 200 ppm (146.20 cm) and ga3 @ 250 ppm (145.53 cm). sodium silicate @ 250 ppm (4508.77 cm2) registered maximum plant spread at 60 das. foliar application of ga3 @ 150 ppm (25.00) produced highest number of leaves which was at par with sodium silicate @ 250 ppm, ga3 @ 200 ppm and ga3 @ 250 ppm recording 24.87, 24.80 and 24.67 leaves respectively. calcium sulphate @ 200 ppm registered highest leaf area of (4930.30 cm2) which was at par with sodium silicate @ 250 ppm, calcium sulphate @ 300 ppm, chlormequat chloride @ 500 ppm, sodium silicate @ 350 ppm, and chlormequat chloride @ 1000 ppm with 4792.64, 4735.04, 4721.75, 4503.05 and 4430.02 cm2 respectively. key words : ornamental sunflower, growth regulators, quality parameters, vase life original research paper introduction sunflower (helianthus annuus l.) is native to north america and belongs to the family compositae. the term helianthus comes from the greek word ‘helios’ meaning sun and ‘anthos’ meaning flower. historically sunflower was first used as a garden plant, then as a flowering pot plant and more recently as a specialty cut flower. specialty cut flowers can be defined as crops other than roses, carnations and chrysanthemums or other flowers that are present in the market only at a special time of the year. the type of flowers grown for the specialty cut flower market are usually field grown flowers with poor shipping characteristics. several positive and precise results were obtained in the past by the growth regulating chemicals on various flowering annuals. growth regulators have been found useful in overcoming the factors limiting the yield and quality of flowering annuals like marigold, china aster and daisy (patil, 1998). the response exhibited by plants to growth regulators vary with the species, varieties and on the concentration of the chemical used. an attempt was made to study the effect of growth regulators on the pre and post harvest quality parameters of ornamental sunflonwer. the results pertaining to the effect of growth regulators on the pre and post harvest characters of ornamental sunflower genotype m-17r are discussed below. material and methods an experiment was conducted to study the effect of pre harvest foliar application of growth regulators on the pre and post harvest flower quality in ornamental sunflower. the entire experimental area was divided into plots measuring 6.72 sq.mts each, with 4 rows of 10 plants per row. foliar application of different chemicals on leaves was taken up three times at 15 days, 30 days and 45 days after sowing. design followed was rcbd adopting fisher’s method of analysis of variance technique as given by panse and sukhatamane (2002) by using sas package v9-3 available at statistical cell, iihr with three replications and sixteen treatments. j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 48-53, 2018 48 49 naik et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 48-53, 2018 treatments: t1: gibberellic acid (ga3)@ 150 ppm t10: calcium sulphate (caso4) @ 200 ppm t2: gibberellic acid (ga3)@ 200 ppm t11: calcium sulphate (caso4) @ 300 ppm t3: gibberellic acid (ga3)@ 250 ppm t12: calcium sulphate (caso4) @ 400 ppm t4: benzyl adenine (ba) @ 400 ppm t13: chlormequat chloride (ccc) @ 500 ppm t5: benzyl adenine (ba) @ 500 ppm t14: chlormequat chloride (ccc) @ 1000 ppm t6: benzyl adenine (ba) @ 600 ppm t15: chlormequat chloride (ccc) @ 1500 ppm t7: sodium silicate (nasio3) @ 250 ppm t16: control (no spray) t8: sodium silicate (nasio3) @ 350 ppm t9: sodium silicate (nasio3) @ 450 ppm results and discussion vegetative parameters at 60 das highest plant height was with ga3 @ 150 ppm (154.73 cm) followed by ga3 @ 200 ppm (146.20 cm) and ga3 @ 250 ppm (145.53 cm). while it was minimum with t15 chlormequat chloride @ 1500 ppm (105 cm) and t10 calcium sulphate @ 200 ppm (106.33 cm). it may be because though growth is under genetic control, environmental factors also influence it simultaneously. hence, application of growth regulators play significant role in modifying growth of plants. similar result with regard to ga3 to promote maximum plant height was reported by syamal et al. (1990) leshem (1992); herrera and benedetto (1992), dutta et al. (1993); kamenidou (2005), spitzer et al. (2011) a nd dor a jir a o (2010).sodium silicate @ 250 ppm (4508.77 cm2) registered maximum plant spread at 60 das, followed by chlormequat chloride @ 500 ppm (4209.49 cm2).silicon spray was earlier reported by wroblewska and debicz (2011) to incr ease pla nt sprea d in ornamental plants by stimulating synthates. foliar application of ga3 @ 150 ppm (25.00) produced highest number of leaves which was at par with sodium silicate @ 250 ppm, ga3 @ 200 ppm and ga3 @ 250 ppm recording 24.87, 24.80 and 24.67 leaves respectively. calcium sulphate @ 200 ppm registered highest leaf area of (4930.30 cm2) which was at par with sodium silicate @ 250 ppm, calcium sulphate @ 300 ppm, chlormequat chloride @ 500 ppm, sodium silicate @ 350 ppm, and chlormequat chloride @ 1000 ppm with 4792.64, 4735.04, 4721.75, 4503.05 and 4430.02 cm2 respectively. the activity of sodium silicate may be attributed to its ability to reinforce cell wall and maintaining water status in plants and adequate supply of nutrients as reported by wroblewska and debicz (2011). positive activity of calcium sulphate for growth was also reported by parmeshwar (2010) in sunflower. chlormequat chloride is reported to enhance availability of carbohydrates during growth and development of plant. lokhande et al. (2008); kamenidou et al. (2008) also reported that depending on the source and concentration of silicon supplied, several horticultural traits were improved in greenhouse produced sunflower (table 1). flower quality parameters foliar application of gibberellic acid (ga3)@ 150ppm favoured longest flower stalk length (35.93 cm) followed by ga3@ 200 ppm (35.53 cm). increase in stalk length may be due to increase in cell division and cell elongation. similar results were reported by kore et al. (2003) with ga3 @ 200 ppm in china aster and parmeshwar (2010) with ga3 @ 150 ppm in sunflower. increased flower stalk girth was observed with the foliar application of chlormequat chloride @ 1500 ppm recording 0.46 cm which was at par with sodium silicate @ 250 ppm and calcium sulphate @ 200 ppm (0.44 and 0.43 cm respectively). it might be attributed to the increase in photosynthetic activity and accumulation of more carbohydrates in the flower stalk and enhanced varietal response to application of certain growth regulators. similar results with relation to silicate application were earlier reported by chikkur (2010) in rose and kameniduo et al. (2010) by nasio3 foliar spray in sunflower (table 2). sodium silicate @ 250 ppm significantly increased the flower head diameter (11.37 cm) and was at par with chlormequat chloride @ 1500 ppm, calcium sulphate @ 300ppm, chlormequat chloride @ 1000 ppm and sodium silicate @ 450 ppm recording 11.27, 11.18, 11.11 and 11.06 cm respectively. smallest flower head diameter was observed with the foliar application of ga3@ 200 ppm (6.96 cm) and ga3@ 50 ta bl e 1. v eg et at iv e pa ra m et er s as i nf lu en ce d by a pp lic at io n of d iff er en t gr ow th r eg ul at or s in g en ot yp e m -1 7r sl .n o. pl an t h ei gh t ( cm ) pl an t sp re ad ( cm 2 ) n um be r of le av es l ea f a re a (c m 2 ) d a s d a s d a s d a s 30 45 60 30 45 60 30 45 60 30 45 60 g ib be re lli c ac id ( g a 3) @ 5 0 pp m ( t 1) 33 .0 9 10 5. 00 15 4. 73 18 7. 17 15 60 .2 1 20 87 .4 0 12 .4 0 21 .3 3 25 .0 0 37 0. 60 11 37 .4 4 15 72 .0 0 g ib be re lli c ac id ( g a 3) @ 2 00 p pm ( t 2) 29 .6 0 10 4. 13 14 6. 20 27 0. 51 11 68 .8 0 19 77 .8 6 11 .9 3 21 .1 3 24 .8 0 33 1. 07 11 91 .7 3 16 59 .2 0 g ib be re lli c ac id ( g a 3) @ 2 50 p pm ( t 3) 28 .4 7 97 .4 0 14 5. 53 39 2. 52 20 69 .5 3 28 16 .6 7 11 .3 3 19 .7 3 24 .6 7 38 5. 00 14 86 .3 9 18 06 .1 5 b en zy l ad en in e (b a ) @ 4 00 p pm (t 4) 17 .3 3 55 .8 3 10 8. 67 44 3. 07 18 57 .2 0 29 09 .1 9 6. 87 15 .0 0 19 .0 7 31 9. 00 12 73 .3 2 16 44 .3 7 b en zy l ad en in e (b a ) @ 5 00 p pm (t 5) 16 .4 7 60 .5 3 11 0. 73 40 7. 87 23 55 .8 3 33 65 .3 9 7. 60 14 .4 7 21 .6 7 33 9. 33 16 28 .3 0 23 19 .7 0 b en zy l ad en in e (b a ) @ 6 00 p pm ( t 6) 16 .2 7 55 .0 0 11 6. 33 45 2. 51 20 29 .6 0 25 26 .3 7 10 .4 0 17 .4 7 21 .0 7 35 1. 60 20 39 .4 4 33 62 .1 9 so di um s ili ca te ( n as io 3) @ 2 50 p pm ( t 7) 18 .9 3 73 .6 6 11 2. 27 49 3. 68 28 96 .3 1 45 08 .7 7 12 .2 7 21 .2 7 24 .8 7 48 0. 60 38 00 .1 9 47 92 .6 4 so di um s ili ca te ( n as io 3) @ 3 50 p pm ( t 8) 22 .4 7 60 .5 3 11 0. 00 42 6. 80 18 42 .1 5 27 72 .7 2 12 .1 7 20 .6 7 24 .7 3 48 2. 47 33 37 .7 8 45 03 .0 5 so di um s ili ca te ( n as io 3) @ 4 50 p pm ( t 9) 22 .3 3 56 .4 0 11 5. 33 49 1. 16 18 38 .1 1 24 39 .6 8 8. 40 17 .6 0 21 .7 3 45 6. 93 23 42 .8 3 43 77 .9 1 c al ci um s ul ph at e @ 2 00 p pm ( t 10 ) 19 .8 0 54 .6 3 10 6. 33 27 0. 32 17 34 .5 2 22 10 .4 0 8. 67 17 .3 3 23 .4 7 46 7. 27 23 13 .3 0 49 30 .3 0 c al ci um s ul ph at e @ 3 00 p pm ( t 11 ) 22 .5 1 63 .4 7 11 3. 07 48 5. 24 19 35 .9 5 26 59 .1 1 9. 07 19 .0 0 23 .9 3 45 9. 00 22 38 .5 5 47 35 .0 4 c al ci um s ul ph at e @ 4 00 p pm ( t 12 ) 21 .8 2 61 .3 5 12 3. 40 48 5. 60 20 59 .3 2 24 95 .7 7 9. 53 18 .5 3 23 .2 0 43 5. 40 23 07 .8 4 40 83 .7 7 c hl or m eq ua tc hl or id e (c c c ) @ 5 00 p pm ( t 13 ) 22 .4 0 62 .4 9 12 5. 87 40 2. 6 28 36 .3 9 42 09 .4 9 8. 47 19 .1 3 23 .6 7 48 0. 80 31 71 .2 7 47 21 .7 5 c hl or m eq ua t ch lo rid e (c c c ) @ 1 00 0 pp m ( t 14 ) 20 .5 3 60 .3 2 13 0. 53 43 1. 9 16 39 .1 9 24 55 .9 3 9. 07 17 .2 7 22 .6 7 37 8. 13 27 54 .2 7 44 30 .0 2 c hl or m eq ua t ch lo rid e (c c c ) @ 1 50 0 pp m ( t 15 ) 22 .4 0 54 .5 1 10 5. 00 34 5. 6 26 36 .4 8 39 74 .0 3 8. 93 17 .9 3 20 .0 0 43 2. 40 20 63 .8 1 40 72 .6 1 c on tr ol ( n o sp ra y) ( t 16 ) 15 .0 7 61 .0 0 12 0. 13 41 1. 6 24 49 .0 9 30 85 .1 3 9. 60 18 .5 3 22 .5 3 42 8. 20 16 35 .1 5 38 07 .5 5 m ea n 21 .8 4 67 .8 9 12 1. 51 39 9. 9 20 56 .7 9 29 05 .8 7 9. 79 18 .5 3 22 .9 4 41 2. 36 21 70 .1 0 35 51 .1 4 se m 0. 39 0. 64 0. 54 18 .0 4 73 .1 3 69 .7 5 0. 17 0. 30 0. 23 5. 54 64 .6 7 17 9. 86 c d (p = 0. 05 ) 1. 14 1. 84 1. 56 52 .1 0 21 1. 21 20 1. 45 0. 50 0. 86 0. 67 16 .0 0 18 6. 77 51 9. 48 c v % 3. 13 1. 62 0. 77 7. 81 6. 16 4. 16 3. 06 2. 77 1. 76 2. 33 5. 16 8. 77 ft es t * * * * * * * * * * * * * s ig ni fic an t a t p = 0 .0 5 n s n on s ig ni fic an t a t p = 0 .0 5 effect of growth regulators in ornamental sun flower j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 48-53, 2018 51 naik et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 48-53, 2018 150 ppm (7.19 cm). flower disc diameter increased with the foliar application of chlormequat chloride @ 1500ppm (4.47) which was at par with chlormequat chloride @ 1000 ppm, sodium silicate @ 250 ppm and calcium sulphate @ 200 ppm recording 4.32, 4.11 and 4.00 cm respectively. smallest flower disc diameter was produced with the foliar application of ga3 @ 250 ppm and ga3 @ 150 ppm (1.80 and 1.89 cm respectively). flower head diameter in sunflower ranging from 8-15 cm is considered ideal for florist according to sloan and harkness (2006). with the application of growth regulators there is a decrease in apical dominance leading to the development of side buds by diver ting ca r bohydr a tes for flower development. similar results wer e repor ted by lokhande et al. (2008), muhammad et al. (1997), katkar et al. (2003) and kamenidou (2005) by application of various growth regulators (table 2). total number of flower heads per plant was highest with the foliar application of sodium silicate @ 250 ppm (24.93) followed by sodium silicate @ 350 ppm, chlormequat chloride @ 1500 ppm and chlormequat chloride @ 1000 ppm (22.53, 22.40 and 22.13). foliar spray of sodium silicate @ 250 ppm (20.80) followed by sodium silicate @ 350 ppm (19.67) produced more number of marketable flower heads per plant. total number of marketable flowers per hectare increased with the foliar application of sodium silicate @ 250 ppm (11.55) lakh flowers ha-1 followed by sodium silicate @ 350 ppm (10.93) lakh flowers ha-1. it may be because sodium silicate application increased the parameters such as stalk girth, flower diameter and number of petals per flower. similar results with application of silicon were reported by chikkur, 2010 in rose (table 2). while, post harvest cumulative water uptake was highest in the flowers harvested from plants with foliar application of sodium silicate @ 250 ppm, ba @ 600 ppm and ga3 @ 150 ppm recording 40.80, 39.20 and 38.23 g respectively. cumulative water loss was induced in the flowers harvested from plants with foliar application of ga3@ 250 ppm (42.63 g) followed by sodium silicate @ 450ppm, ga3 150ppm and calcium sulphate @ 200 ppm recording 41.40, 41.23 and 40.27 g respectively. while lowest cumulative water loss was observed with foliar application of ba @ 400 ppm and chlormequat chloride @ 1000 ppm recording 34.03 and 34.43 g respectively. similar results with application of ga3 were reported by michalczuk et al. (1989) and torre et al. (1999) in rose and parmeshwar (2010) in sunflower (table 2). sodium silicate @ 250 ppm increased the post harvest vase life of cut flowers (5.90) and was at par with sodium silicate @350 ppm, chlormequat chloride @ 1500ppm and chlormequat chloride @ 1000 ppm recording 5.70, 5.67 and 5.53 days respectively. vase life was enhanced by 2.10 days in comparison to control. this may be because of the contribution of sodium silicate and with respect to pre harvest floral parameters which in turn contributed to maximize post harvest vase life of the cut flowers. similar results were also reported by srikanth (2011) in china aster and parmeshwar (2010) in sunflower (table 2). 52 j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 48-53, 2018 ta bl e 2 . fl ow er q ua lit y, y ie ld a nd p os t ha rv es t pa ra m et er s as in flu en ce d by t he a pp lic at io n of d if fe re nt g ro w th r eg ul at or s in g en ot yp e m -1 7r fl ow er fl ow er fl ow er fl ow er n um be r of n um be r of n um be r of n um be r of sl . st al k st al k he ad di sc ra y fl or et s fl ow er m ar ke ta bl e m ar ke ta bl e c w u c w l v as e lif e n o. le ng th gi rt h di am et er di am et er pe r he ad s pe r flo w er h ea ds flo w er h ea ds (g ) (g ) (d ay s) (c m ) (c m ) (c m ) (c m ) fl ow er pl an t p er p la nt (la kh s ha -1 ) t 1 35 .9 3 0. 35 7. 19 1. 89 21 .4 0 15 .0 0 7. 40 4. 11 38 .2 3 41 .2 3 5. 20 t 2 35 .5 3 0. 31 6. 96 1. 97 19 .6 7 11 .6 7 7. 67 4. 25 35 .0 5 39 .1 0 5. 13 t 3 20 .3 3 0. 31 8. 63 1. 80 24 .3 3 14 .4 0 10 .0 7 5. 59 35 .3 3 42 .6 3 5. 13 t 4 31 .3 3 0. 41 9. 43 3. 79 33 .1 3 21 .0 0 14 .9 0 8. 27 32 .3 7 34 .0 3 4. 53 t 5 22 .2 0 0. 39 10 .3 5 3. 51 33 .4 0 20 .0 0 15 .3 3 8. 51 35 .6 0 35 .9 3 3. 80 t 6 27 .3 3 0. 35 9. 29 3. 86 33 .3 3 18 .4 7 13 .3 3 7. 40 39 .2 0 38 .8 7 4. 33 t 7 26 .2 7 0. 44 11 .3 7 4. 11 34 .9 3 24 .9 3 20 .8 0 11 .5 5 40 .8 0 35 .5 3 5. 90 t 8 23 .2 0 0. 39 10 .6 2 3. 61 34 .6 7 22 .5 3 19 .6 7 10 .9 2 36 .8 0 39 .3 7 5. 13 t 9 23 .8 0 0. 37 11 .0 6 3. 75 33 .2 7 15 .4 0 13 .8 7 7. 70 37 .3 3 42 .4 0 4. 87 t 10 25 .7 3 0. 43 10 .4 1 4. 00 34 .3 3 20 .9 3 16 .7 3 9. 29 37 .4 0 40 .2 7 4. 80 t 11 21 .7 3 0. 34 11 .1 8 3. 49 33 .5 3 20 .0 0 16 .6 7 9. 26 37 .0 7 35 .8 7 4. 40 t 12 18 .8 7 0. 33 10 .0 5 3. 36 33 .2 7 18 .2 7 16 .3 3 9. 07 34 .1 0 36 .6 7 4. 60 t 13 24 .0 0 0. 37 11 .0 2 3. 44 33 .2 3 20 .6 0 17 .0 0 9. 44 33 .0 7 37 .1 0 5. 07 t 14 27 .5 0 0. 41 11 .1 1 4. 32 33 .9 3 22 .1 3 17 .5 3 9. 74 31 .0 7 34 .4 3 5. 53 t 15 27 .8 1 0. 46 11 .2 7 4. 47 34 .1 3 22 .4 0 17 .6 7 9. 81 32 .2 7 35 .1 0 5. 67 t 16 30 .0 4 0. 34 10 .4 6 3. 86 33 .4 0 21 .9 8 14 .7 7 8. 20 31 .6 7 35 .1 3 3. 60 m ea n 26 .3 5 0. 37 10 .0 2 3. 45 31 .5 0 19 .3 6 14 .9 8 8. 27 35 .4 6 37 .7 3 4. 86 se m 0. 25 0. 01 0. 11 0. 05 0. 65 0. 64 0. 56 0. 28 1. 09 0. 29 0. 18 c d (p = 0. 05 ) 0. 72 0. 03 0. 31 0. 16 1. 88 1. 85 1. 62 0. 83 3. 15 0. 83 0. 53 c v % 1. 65 4. 07 1. 87 2. 73 3. 59 5. 73 6. 47 5. 99 5. 32 1. 32 6. 55 ft es t * * * * * * * * * * * * si gn ifi ca nt a t p = 0. 05 n s n on s ig ni fic an t at p = 0 .0 5 w h er e: t 1: g ib be re lli c ac id ( g a 3) @ 5 0 pp m t 2: g ib be re lli c ac id ( g a 3) @ 2 00 p pm t 3: g ib be re lli c ac id ( g a 3) @ 2 50 p pm t 4: b en zy l ad en in e (b a ) @ 4 00 p pm t 5: b en zy l ad en in e (b a ) @ 5 00 p pm t 6: b en zy l ad en in e (b a ) @ 6 00 p pm t 7: so di um s ili ca te ( n as io 3) @ 2 50 p pm t 8: so di um s ili ca te ( n as io 3) @ 3 50 p pm t 9: so di um s ili ca te ( n as io 3) @ 4 50 p pm t 10 : c al ci um s ul ph at e @ 2 00 p pm t 11 : c al ci um s ul ph at e @ 3 00 p pm t 12 : c al ci um s ul ph at e @ 4 00 p pm t 13 : c hl or m eq ua tc hl or id e (c c c ) @ 5 00 p pm t 14 : c hl or m eq ua t ch lo ri de ( c c c ) @ 1 00 0 pp m t 15 : c hl or m eq ua t ch lo ri de ( c c c ) @ 1 50 0 pp m t 16 : c on tr ol ( n o sp ra y) c w u : c um ul at iv e w at er u pt ak e c w l : c um ul at iv e w at er l os s effect of growth regulators in ornamental sun flower 53 j. hortl. sci. 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promotes longevity and bud opening in cut rose flowers. israel j. bot., 38: 209-215. muhammad a., sharafat, k., shah, a. h. and khalil, s. a., 1997, response of large flowered incurve chrysanthemum (chrysanthemum morifolium) to various concentrations of paclobutrazol. sarhad j. agri., 13(2): 117-122. panse, v.s and sukhatamane, p.v., 2002, statistical methods for agriculture workers, icar, new delhi, pp: 152155. parmeshwar, a. s., 2010, evaluation of sunflower (helianthus annuus l. ) ger mpla sm for ornamental cut flower production. msc. thesis univ. agri. sci., bengaluru. patil, v. s., 1998, standardization of production technology in daisy (aster amellus l.). ph.d. thesis. univ. of agric. sci., dharwad. syamal, m., rajput, c. b. s., upadhyay, r. k. and singh, j. n., 1990, effect of ga3 and mh on growth, flowering and seed yield of marigold and china aster. indian j. hort., 47 (4): 439441. spitzer, t., matusinsky, p., klemova, z. and kazda, j., 2011, management of sunflower stand height using growth regulators. plant soil environ. 57(8): 357–363. srikanth, l. g., 2011, influence of growth regulators on growth, flowering and yield of china aster (callistephus chinensis l. nees). m.sc. thesis, univ. agri. sci. bengaluru. torre, s., borochov, a. and halevy, a. h., 1999, calcium regulation of senescence in rose petals. physiol. plant., 107: 214-219. wroblewska, k. and debicz, r., 2011, the effect of silicon application on the development of season ornamental plants. acta agrobotanica, 64 (4): 107-114. naik et al (ms received 10 september 2017, revised 04 april 2018, accepted 25 june 2018) comparative performance of mango varieties grafted on vellaikolamban and mixed rootstock m.s. gawankar, b.r. salvi, s.a. chavan and n.v. dalvi regional fruit research station, vengurle 416 516, india e–mail: gawankarms@yahoo.co.in abstract research on rootstock in mango is very limited in our country. kalapady was reported to be a dwarfing rootstock. recent trend among mango growers is to high density orcharding with dwarfening nature of the varietie. efforts were made at agriculture research station, mulde, to study comparative performance of ratna, alphonso and kesar mango on vellaikolamban and mixed rootstock i.e., heterozygous seedling stock and the effect of rootstock on a scion under high density of 5m x 5m spacing. results indicated that use of vellaikolamban rootstock reduced plant volume in scion cv. alphonso by 39.1%, followed by 24.9% in ratna and 26.5% in cv. kesar. as volume of the canopy was reduced, it directly influenced fruit yield cvs. alphonso and ratna. however, reduction in canopy volume had a positive influence on yield in cv. kesar. net returns of rs.38,629/per ha were maximum for kesar with the rootstock vellaikolamban. key words: mango, ratna, alphosno, kesar, vellaikolamban, mixed rootstock, polyembryonic, dwarfing, volume, yield introduction konkan region of maharashtra is a traditional belt of mango cultivation particularly, cv. alphonso which occupies an area of 1,64,000 ha. though alphonso is the chief commercial variety of the region, cultivars kesar and ratna are gaining popularity with the concept of high density orcharding. however, the weather of the region favours crop viguor. wide variation in performance of the same variety within an orchard using grafts prepared out of heterozygous seedling stocks restricts establishment of high density orchards. rootstock research work in mango is still in its infantly. good work was done on selection criteria for dwarfness, way back in 1985 at iari (bose, 1985). studies conducted at various places indicated that the varieties kalapady (sen, 1939), olur, ambalavi (jauhari et al, 1972), vellaikolamban (singh and singh, 1976) and belkhas and parikhas (mukherjee and das, 1976) have the potential for imparting dwarfness. avilan et al (1996) reported influence of rootstock on fruit size and shape of the grafted cultivars, showing strong scion/rootstock relationship. singh and singh (1976) recorded maximum reduction in height of dashehari scion when grafted to vellaikolamban rootstock. with this in view, the present study was carried out to study comparative performance of ratna, alphonso and kesar mango varieties on vellaikolamban and mixed rootstock, i.e., heterozygous seedling stock, and, to study the effect of rootstock within a scion variety under a high density orchard with a spacing of 5m x 5m. material and methods the present study on comparative performance of different, leading varieties namely alphonso, ratna and kesar grafted onto vellaikolamban and mixed rootstock under high density viz., 5m x 5m spacing was carried out at agriculture research station, mulde, from september, 1992 to may, 2007. the experimental station is located at 16o2’ latitude, 73o42’ longitude and at 17m above msl in konkan region of maharashtra, which is a coastal region with annual rainfall of 3000mm. soils are well drained sandy loam with ph 6.01. treatment combinations are detailed below: t 1 ratna on vellaikolamban t 2 ratna on mixed rootstock (heterozygous seedling stock) t 3 alphonso on vellaikolamban t 4 alphonso on mixed rootstock (heterozygous seedling stock) t 5 kesar on vellaikolamban t 6 kesar on mixed rootstock (heterozygous seedling stock) t 4 trial was laid out in randomized block design with five replications and two plants per replication as a unit. the experimental material was prepared by stone grafting and one year old grafts were planted at 5m x 5m j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 114-116, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 115 table 1. growth and yield of ‘alphonso’, ‘kesar’ and ‘ratna’ mango varieties grafted onto vellaikolamban and mixed rootstock during 2003 2006 and data pooled over the years treatments pooled pooled over the years (m3) pooled % reduction yield (t/ha) pooled % decrease/ mean 2003 2004 2005 2006 over the in volume 2003 2004 2 005 2006 over the increased in height year yield over (m) (m3) mixed rootstock ratna / 3.6 289.0 263.3 270.6 320.7 285.9 24.9 13.4 4.2 2.8 3.1 5.9 (-) 24.4 vellaikolamban ratna / 3.7 360.8 334.6 329.5 498.0 380.8 13.8 5.8 4.4 6.9 7.8 mixed rootstock alphonso / 3.8 306.1 303.1 270.7 414.2 323.5 39.1 5.1 1.7 3.9 1.0 2.9 (-) 21.6 vellaikolamban alphonso / 4.7 582.6 465.4 483.3 593.9 531.3 7.4 2.6 3.8 1.1 3.7 mixed rootstock kesar / 4.6 512.4 397.2 406.1 599.5 478.8 26.5 17.8 8.0 4.5 3.9 8.6 (+) 10.3 vellaikolamban kesar/ 4.6 679.5 569.0 576.0 781.4 651.5 15.7 8.5 3.6 3.2 7.8 mixed rootstock c.v. 8.2 28.1 27.7 28.7 32.0 44.0 35.3 75.2 50.6 se + 0.17 57.3 48.2 50.0 76.5 27.9 2.4 0.8 1.3 0.7 0.8 cd (p=0.05) 0.5 169.0 142.2 147.4 225.7 78.4 7.1 2.4 n. s. 2.1 2.3 performance of mango varieties on different rootstocks spacing during september, 1992. annual growth (height and spread) was recorded in the month of may every year since 1994. however, data on growth and yield from year 2003 to 2006 only have been used here. low spreading branches upto 60cm height above ground and overcrowded branches in the canopy of the tree were chopped by way of light pruning in the year 2004. plant volume was calculated using the following formula: plant volume (m3) = πr2 x h where h = plant height and r = e w + n s spread 4 data on growth and yield attributes were subjected to statistical analysis (panse and sukhatme, 1989). cost of cultivation was calculated using standard cost concepts applied by gorivale et al (1997) and nikam et al (2004). results and discussion growth and yield observations for the years 2003 to 2006 are presented in table 1. it is evident from the data (table 1) that significant difference between treatments was observed for pooled data on plant height, plant volume and yield. grafts of ratna variety on vellaikolamban showed significantly lower plant height (3.6 m) compared to kesar on vellaikolamban and mixed rootstock (4.6 m), alphonso on mixed rootstock (4.7 m) and was on par with alphonso on vellaikolamban, and ratna, on mixed rootstock. effect of rootstock on plant height within a scion variety was significant only in alphonso variety. alphonso grafts on vellaikolamban showed marked reduction in plant height (3.8 m) over the mixed rootstock (4.7 m). singh and singh (1976) recorded maximum reduction in plant height in dashehari grafted on vellaikolamban rootstock. however, rootstock did not show any effect on plant height in kesar variety. data on average plant volume from 2003 to 2006 and pooled data over the years revealed that ratna grafts on vellaikolamban had reduced plant volume compared to that in other treatments. similarly, grafts of all varieties on vellaikolamban rootstock showed reduction in plant volume over the mixed rootstock. data on average plant volume pooled over the years revealed that ratna variety on vellaikolamban had recorded the lowest plant volume (285.9 m3) compared to the grafts on mixed rootstock and other scion varieties, irrespective of the rootstock. maximum plant volume (651.5 m3) was recorded in ‘kesar’ on mixed rootstock. in the present study, reduction in plant volume was observed in cv. alphonso (39.1%), followed by ‘kesar’ (26.5%) and ‘ratna’ (24.9%) when grafted onto vellaikolamban rootstock. these results are in line with earlier results reported by avilan et al (1996), singh and singh (1976) and reddy et al (2003). vellaikolamban rootstock not only important reduced plant volume to the scion variety, but four year pooled yield data revealed that it also reduced the yield by 24.4% in ‘ratna’ and 21.6% in ‘alphonso’ scions. similar effect of vellaikolamban rootstock on yield of dashehari plants was reported by singh and singh (1976), whereas, reddy et al (2003) reported higher yields with the dwarfing vellaikolamban rootstock. however, j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 114-116, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no vellaikolamban rootstock showed beneficial effect on ‘kesar’ variety, where the yield increased by 10.3% over mixed rootstock. per hectare cost of cultivation of different mango varieties grown on vellaikolamban and mixed rootstock is presented in table 2. data reveale that ‘ratna’ variety on mixed rootstock exhibited 1.32 benefit to cost ratio as against 1.06 in ‘ratna’ on vellaikolamban rootstock. cultivation of ‘alphonso’ on vellaikolamban suffered a loss by recording only 0.93 benefit to cost ratio compared to ‘alphonso’ on mixed rootstock (1.15). maximum net returns (rs. 38,629/ -) per hectare were recorded in ‘kesar’ on vellaikolamban, exhibiting b:c ratio of 1.43 as against that on mixed rootstock with, rs. 28,779 and 1.33 b:c ratio. the present study revealed that plant height, plant volume and yield decreased by use of vellaikolamban rootstock in ‘alphonso’ and ‘ratna’ whereas, vellaikolamban rootstock reduced the plant volume of ‘kesar’ variety with increased per hectare yield under high density planting of 5m x 5m. references avilan, l.f., leal, m., rodariguez, j.r. and marin.c, 1996. mango rootstocks and their influence on fruit shape and size. proceedings of the 5th international mango symposium. acta hort., 455:479–488 bose, t.k. 1985. fruits of india: tropical and subtropical, first edition., p 85 gorivale, p.b. gumaste, a.k. and wadkar, s.s. 1997. profitability of alphonso mango in konkan region of maharashtra state. agriculture banker, july-sept., p. 24-26 jauhari, o.s., teaotia, s.s. and upadhyay, s.k, 1972. acta horti., 24:107-109 mukherjee, s.k. and das, d. 1976. screening of mango seedlings for use as dwarfing rootstock. prog. hort., 8:5-11 nikam, v.v., wadkar, s.s., mulik, s.m. and vaidya, k.p. 2004. betelvine cultivation in thana district of maharashtra; ind. j. arecanut, spices & medicinal plants 6:16-20 panse, v.g. and sukhatme, p.v. 1989. stastical methods for agricultural workers. 5th edn., icar, new delhi reddy, y.t.n., kurian, r.m., ramachander, p.r., singh, g. and kohli, r.r. 2003. long term effect of rootstocks on growth and fruit yielding patterns of alphonso mango (mangifera indica l.). sci. hort., 97:95108 sen, p. k. 1939. annual report, fruit research satation, sabour (bihar), india singh, u.r. and singh, a.p. 1976. rootstock studies in mango (mangifera indica l.). prog. hort., 8:1319 table 2. cost of cultivation (rs./ha) of mango varieties on rootstocks particulars r x v r x m a x v a x m k x v k x m hired labour 21,775 21,775 21,775 21,775 21,775 21,775 manures and fertilizers 18,640 18,640 18,640 18,640 18,640 18,640 plant protection 7,000 7,000 7,000 7,000 7,000 7,000 input cost (rs.) 47,415 47,415 47,415 47,415 47,415 47,415 depreciation on implements 500 500 500 500 500 500 and machinery land revenue & other cesses 50 50 50 50 50 50 interest on working capital 7,682 7,682 7,682 7,682 7,682 7,682 for 12 months @ 13% interest on fixed capital @ 10% 500 500 500 500 500 500 rental value of land (1/6th) 14,700 19,400 9,733 12,400 21,400 19,400 of the gross value. land revenue amortization value 7,482 7,332 7,482 7,332 7,482 7,332 supervision charges @ 10% 4,742 4,742 4,742 4,742 4,742 4,742 of input cost total cost (cost c) 83,071 87,621 78,104 80,621 89,771 87,621 yield (t/ ha) and gross returns 5.88 7.76 2.92 3.72 8.56 7.76 sale price of ‘alphonso @ rs.25/kg 88,200 1,16,400 73,000 93,000 1,28,400 1,16,400 ratha and kesar @ rs.15/kg net returns at total cost 5,129 28,779 (-) 5,104 12,379 38,629 28,779 benefit:cost ratio 1.06 1.32 0.93 1.15 1.43 1.33 r= ‘ratra’, v= ‘vellaikolumban’, a= ‘alphonso’, m= mixed rootstock’, k= kesar (ms received 9 march 2010, revised 26 october, 2010) gawankar et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 5 (2): 114-116, 2010 prinect color editor page is color controlled with prinect color editor 4.0.70 copyright 2008 heidelberger druckmaschinen ag http://www.heidelberg.com you can view actual document colors and color spaces, with the free color editor (viewer), a plug-in from the prinect pdf toolbox. please request a pdf toolbox cd from your local heidelberg office in order to install it on your computer. applied color management settings: output intent (press profile): isocoated_v2_eci.icc rgb image: profile: ecirgb.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no rgb graphic: profile: rgb2cmyk.icc rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent rgb/lab graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray image: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no device independent cmyk/gray graphic: rendering intent: perceptual black point compensation: no turn r=g=b (tolerance 0.5%) graphic into gray: yes turn c=m=y,k=0 (tolerance 0.1%) graphic into gray: no cmm for overprinting cmyk graphic: yes gray image: apply cmyk profile: no gray graphic: apply cmyk profile: no treat calibrated rgb as device rgb: no treat calibrated gray as device gray: yes remove embedded non-cmyk profiles: no remove embedded cmyk profiles: yes applied miscellaneous settings: colors to knockout: no gray to knockout: no pure black to overprint: no turn overprint cmyk white to knockout: yes turn overprinting device gray to k: yes cmyk overprint mode: set to opm1 if not set create "all" from 4x100% cmyk: yes delete "all" colors: no convert "all" to k: no 67 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 67-71, 2020 original research paper evaluation of hybrids and cultivars of single type tuberose (polianthes tuberosa) jadhav s.b. *, vichare s.v. and katwate s.m. department of horticulture, mahatma phule krishi vidyapeeth rahuri dist. ahmednagar 413 722, maharastra, india email : satishjadhav061321@gmail.com abstract hybrids and cultivars of single type tuberose was evaluated to fulfill the need to develop new hybrids as demanded by commercial growers. evaluation of fifteen genotypes showed significant variation in growth, floral and bulb characters. cultivar arka prajwal was significantly superior over all genotypes, which recorded least number of days for opening of 1st floret (78.55 days) with maximum diameter of spike (1.18 cm), length of floret (6.05 cm), weight of individual floret (3.12 g) and weight of spike (121.43 g).the hybrid genotype l1p4 (variegated x phule rajani) was observed to be superior in terms of rachis length (39.78 cm), inter-nodal length (7.25 cm), length of bulb (8.09 cm), diameter of bulb (3.76 cm) and diameter of bulb-lets (1.85 cm). among the hybrid genotypes l1p4 also recorded maximum plant height (116.39 cm), spike length (109.58 cm), weight of cut spike (105.08 g) and vase life (11.00 days). however, it was foundto be at par for number of florets per spike (57.25), length of floret (5.92 cm) and number of spikes per clump (10.14) with all other cultivars and hybrids tested. from the overall performance, it was found that the cultivar arka prajwal was the best. genotype l1p4 found promising for loose as well as cut flower production because of its number of florets, inter-nodal length and spikes per clump which are important characters considering loose flower for taking maximum number of pickings. however, characters such as rachis length, spike length, vase life and weight of spike which are imperative for cut flowers are also noted superior in genotype l1p4. key words: bulb, flower, growth, hybrid and single type tuberose tuberose (polianthe stuberosa) is one of the most impor ta ntcut and loose flowers in india . it is anornamental bulbous plant, native to mexico from where it has spread to different parts of the world dur ing the 16 th centur y. it belongs to fa mily asper a ga cea e a nd is popula r ly known a s ‘rajnigandha’(ya da v a nd ma ity, 1989). t he nomenclature of different types of tuberose is based on the number of r ows of peta ls ea ch flower possesses. the cultivar with single row of petals is designated as ‘single’ while the one which bears more than three rows of petals is called ‘double’. the cultivar ‘semi-double’ bears flowers with two-three rows of petals. valuable natural aromatic oil is extracted from the flowers for the high cost perfume industry. the flower of single petalled cultivars reported to contain 0.08-0.135 % concrete and yield 0.08-0.11 % essential oil in india (singh, 2006). the serene beauty of flower spikes, bright white flowers, sweetness of blooms and delicacy of fragrance of this ornamental crop transform the entire area into a nectarine and joyous. varieties which perform well in one region may not do well in other locations due to varying climatic conditions. hence, it is important to study morphological variation and performance of genotypes for important yield contributing characters. hence, the present investigation was undertaken to evaluate the single type tuberose for growth, flower and bulb yield for western maharashtra. materials and methods the present study was conducted at the national agricultural research project ganeshkhind, pune7 , m p k v; r a hu r i, du r ing 2 0 1 4 2 0 1 5 . geographically, pune is situated at 18°32’ north latitude a nd 73°51’ east longitude on decca n pla tea u a t the confluence of mula a nd mutha rivers. the controlled hybridization programme introduction this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. 68 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 67-71, 2020 evaluation of hybrids and cultivars of single type tuberose (polianthes tuberosa) using available cultivar of single type of tuberose is already in progress at all india co-ordinated r es ea r c h p r ojec t on f lor ic u lt u r e a t n ar p, ganeshkhind. experimental materials consisted of 15 genotypes of single type tuberose obtained from aicrp on floriculture.seedling selection from hybrid progenies of different crosses identifiedeight new promising single type tuberose genotypes. the experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications.the land was ploughed to a medium depth. fym was spread evenly @ 25 tonnes per hecta re a nd recommended fertilizer dose 2 00 :1 50 :2 00 k g n p k p er hec ta r e wa s incorporated. 100kg nitrogen was given as basal dose and two split doses 50 kg each at 60 days and 90 days respectively was spread after planting of bulbs. flat beds of 1.8 x 1.5 m plot size were laid and medium sizedbulbsof 2-2.5 cm diameter were planted at a spacing of 30x30 cm which accommodated 30 bulbs per plot. standard cultural p r a c t ic es wer e f ollowed t hr ou ghou t experimentation. the data were recorded on three selected plants from each treatment and replication for vegetative, floral, bulb and bulb-lets characters. results and discussion vegetative characters the mean performance of cultivars for vegetative growth characters (table 1) reflected the variations among the cultivars. the earliest spike emergence was observed in cv. arka nirantara (60.89 days) but the genotype gk-t-c-4 required maximum days for spike emergence (67.89 days). significantly highest plant height was recorded in cv. variegated (138.64 cm) and less in hybrid phule rajani x arka suvasini (61.76 cm) compared to other genotypes. this is in accordance with the results of ranchana et al. (2013).mor e number of lea ves per plant wer e observed in genotype gk-t-c-2 (24.11) and less in cv. local single (17.00). flower bud was initiated at 5.78th node in hybrid phule rajani x arka suvasini while cv. arkaprajwal flower bud started at 12.84th node which wa s noted to be the highest. t he significantly longest spike wa s obser ved in cv. variegated (124.37cm) and shortest in hybrid phule rajani x arka suvasini (56.52 cm). hybrid l1p4 recorded significantly maximum rachis length (39.78 cm) amongst 15 genotypes under study. the variation table 1. performance of different tuberose genotype on vegetative growth characters treatment days to spike emergence plant height (cm) no. of leaves node at which floret started sp ike length (cm) rachis length (cm) no. of florets per spike local single 63.33 94.81 17.00 10.56 89.73 20.49 39.56 arka shringar 65.78 78.86 18.78 9.89 72.81 30.28 52.01 phule rajani 65.44 74.49 20.45 8.84 69.74 33.61 52.84 hyderabad single 66.67 77.47 20.00 9.73 72.46 28.41 47.59 arka nirantara 60.89 95.27 21.89 12.17 86.93 26.77 54.25 arka prajwal 62.78 94.83 23.55 12.84 91.14 32.53 57.56 variegated 62.99 138.64 21.45 11.33 124.37 24.55 45.36 variegated x phule rajani l9p7 65.11 71.33 19.34 10.22 64.93 25.14 57.28 variegated x phule rajani l1p4 62.22 116.39 20.56 11.78 109.58 39.78 57.25 variegated x phule rajani l9p2 66.22 84.51 17.45 9.45 80.56 24.75 34.53 local single x arka shringar gk-t-c-1 63.89 76.93 19.56 9.23 70.71 30.62 55.14 local single x arka shringar gk-t-c-2 65.89 84.63 24.11 10.89 79.22 25.67 49.45 local single x arka shringar gk-t-c-7 67.00 76.56 18.78 8.33 70.83 30.66 58.58 phule rajani x arka suvasini 64.22 61.76 18.89 5.78 56.52 36.72 49.95 local single x arka shringar gk-t-c-4 67.89 74.57 17.67 9.45 68.29 27.82 50.92 se(m) ± 1.25 2.03 1.14 0.44 1.65 0.94 1.63 c.d. at 5% 3.63 5.92 3.33 1.29 4.81 2.72 4.76 69 jadhav et al. among different vegetative characters are attributed due to the difference in their genetic makeup. the number of florets recorded to be highest in genotype gk-t-c-7 (58.58). however, less number of florets was recorded in genotype l9p2 (34.53). number of florets is an important character, as single type flowers are mostly used as loose flower. the variation in florets per spike may be due to genetic variability, disparity in storage of food among different cultivars and prevailing environmental condition. flowering characters among the fifteen genotypes evaluated for their floral characters (table 2), the minimum days required for opening of first floret was noted in cv. arka prajwal (78.55days) whereas, significantly maximum days wa s r equir ed in genotype l9p7 (85. 76 da ys). significantly maximum inter-nodal length was noted in genotype l1p4 (7.25cm).cultivar arka prajwal recorded significantly thick diameter of spike (1.18 cm) while it was thin in genotype l9p2 (0.75 cm). the diameter of spike influences the spike strength a nd r eserved food ma terial in it. the existing environmental condition and genetic factors influence the variation in spike thickness among different genotypes under study. patil et al. (2009) and arya et al.(2006) also reported similar results in tuberose. cultivar arka prajwal recorded maximum floret length (6.05 cm) and significantly minimum length of floret was recorded in cv. hyderabad single (4.89 cm). the diameter of floret was noted significantly maximum in hybrid l9p7 (6.34 cm) and minimum was recorded table 2. performance of different tuberose genotype on flowering characters local single 79.22 4.60 0.88 5.29 4.45 64.90 1.47 9.50 7.88 390799 arka shringar 80.77 4.18 0.86 4.90 5.05 88.24 1.79 10.17 9.87 489284 phule rajani 81.33 4.73 0.91 5.12 5.64 96.16 1.97 11.50 9.71 481187 hyderabad single 83.44 3.25 0.95 4.89 5.37 81.53 1.74 10.00 8.13 403027 arka nirantara 79.66 4.50 1.11 5.76 5.79 91.69 2.59 10.00 8.11 402036 arka prajwal 78.55 4.97 1.18 6.05 5.65 121.43 3.12 10.17 9.04 448304 variegated 82.99 4.68 0.87 5.34 5.18 94.41 1.49 9.00 6.85 339409 variegated x phule rajani 85.76 4.21 0.87 6.04 6.34 88.89 2.49 9.00 7.77 385346 l9p7 variegated x phule rajani 83.33 7.25 0.85 5.92 5.67 105.08 1.80 11.00 10.14 502669 l1p4 variegated x phule rajani 81.22 3.60 0.75 5.28 5.08 57.52 1.94 9.17 10.57 523985 l9p2 local single x arka shringar 82.88 4.66 0.81 5.95 5.11 67.10 2.32 8.50 8.93 442520 gk-t-c-1 local single x arka shringar 81.55 3.67 0.91 5.66 5.59 81.10 2.07 9.67 10.06 498538 gk-t-c-2 local single x arka shringar 83.33 4.17 0.83 5.52 5.45 78.56 2.35 8.83 8.35 413933 gk-t-c-7 phule rajani x arka suvasini 80.22 5.79 0.85 5.22 4.52 48.57 1.94 9.17 8.22 407324 local single x shringar gk81.33 4.15 0.86 5.31 4.99 67.15 1.94 9.83 8.90 441033 t-c-4 se(m) ± 1.24 0.27 0.02 0.24 0.26 2.99 0.17 0.52 0.42 c.d. at 5% 3.61 0.77 0.05 0.69 0.76 8.70 0.49 1.52 1.22 treatment days for opening of 1st floret internodal length (cm) diameter of cut spike (cm) length of floret (cm) diameter of floret (cm) weight of cut spike (g) weight of individual floret (g) vase life (days) spike per clump spike per hector j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 67-71, 2020 70 in cv. local single (4.45 cm). this variation among length and diameter of floret may be due to difference in the genetic makeup of cultivars. significantly heavier cut spike (121.43g) and maximum individual floret weight (3.12g) were noted in cv. arka prajwal. the variation in weight of individual and cut spike among different genotype is due to genetic factors, length and thickness of floret and spike respectively. these results are in consonance with findings of mahawer et al. (2013) in tuberose.the longest vase life duration was observed in cv. phule rajani (11.50 days) which was at par with genotype l1p4 (11.00 days) whereas, shortest vase life was observed in genotype gk-t-c-1 (8.50 days). the variation in vase life of cut spike may be due to different genetic makeup of each tuberose genotype with prevailing envir onmental condition, which fina lly a ffects physiological processes like cell turgidity, water uptake through xylem tissues, water loss through transpiration, respiration and breakdown of reserved food material. maximum number of spikes per clump and hectare was recorded in genotype l9p2 i.e. 10.57 and 523985.55 respectively. however, minimum number of spikes per clump and hectare were observed in cv. variegated i.e. 6.85 and 339409.12 respectively. bulb and bulb-lets characters total number of bulbs per clump (11.00) and per plot (329.90) was produced more in genotype l9p2. while, minimum bulbs per clump (7.01) and per plot (210.20) was recordedin cv. variegated. maximum number of bulb-lets per clump was recorded in hybrid table 3. performance of different tuberose genotype on bulb and bulb-lets characters treatment no. of bulb per clump no. of bulb-lets per clump length of bulbs (cm) diameter of bulb (cm) weight of individual bulb (g) weight of bulb-lets (g) diameter of bulb-lets (cm) total bulbs per plot local single 8.33 17.11 6.54 2.64 23.51 7.11 1.47 249.90 arka shringar 10.28 23.44 6.08 3.39 39.13 7.67 1.58 308.30 phule rajani 9.78 25.89 6.21 2.95 35.06 7.77 1.76 293.30 hyderabad single 9.10 22.33 5.97 2.98 31.46 7.63 1.62 273.10 arka nirantara 8.55 13.45 7.08 3.72 59.91 9.16 1.68 256.40 arka prajwal 9.30 12.50 7.55 3.56 56.90 9.43 1.75 279.00 variegated 7.01 21.21 6.18 3.47 40.24 5.40 1.41 210.20 variegated x phule rajani l9p7 8.60 15.89 5.87 3.15 38.73 7.83 1.63 258.10 variegated x phule rajani l1p4 10.78 18.67 8.09 3.76 52.21 9.28 1.85 323.50 variegated x phule rajani l9p2 11.00 25.33 5.87 3.26 43.23 8.39 1.58 329.90 local single x arka shringar gk-t-c-1 9.87 17.10 6.04 3.26 34.29 9.86 1.54 296.00 local single x arka shringar gk-t-c-2 10.52 16.33 5.46 2.98 43.47 8.43 1.56 315.50 local single x arka shringar gk-t-c-7 8.48 24.09 5.65 2.91 28.30 7.05 1.48 254.50 phule rajani x arka suvasini 8.22 28.66 6.02 3.04 35.07 7.67 1.40 247.93 local single x arka shringar gk-t-c-4 9.26 23.78 5.73 3.13 43.31 8.41 1.64 277.80 se(m) ± 0.49 1.63 0.22 0.12 1.89 0.36 0.06 14.45 c.d. at 5% 1.41 4.75 0.66 0.35 5.50 1.05 0.19 42.07 evaluation of hybrids and cultivars of single type tuberose (polianthes tuberosa) j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 67-71, 2020 71 phule rajani x arka suvasini (28.66) whereas, minimum were observed in cv. arka prajwal (12.50). genotype l1p4 exhibited maximum length of bulb (8. 09 cm) while genotype gk-t-c-2 r ecor ded minimum (5.46 cm). the variation in number of bulbs produced per clump might be due to genetic factor which is further modified by prevailing environmental condition and the results are in consonance with finding of chaturvedi et al. (2014) and mahawer et al. (2013) in tuberose.hybrid l1p4 exhibited maximum diameter of bulb (3.76 cm) and bulb-lets (1.85 cm) while minimum diameter of bulb was recorded by cv. local single (2.64 cm). however, heavier bulb was produced by cv. arka nirantara (59.91 g) while it was lighter in cv. local single (23.51 g). genotype gk-t-c-1 recorded maximum weight of bulb-lets (9.86 g). the variation in bulb weight per plant among different genotype at bulb harvesting stage might be due to the distinguished varietal genetic makeup with more leaves to improve photosynthetic activity, source sink relationship to accumulate more carbohydrate and prevailing condition. arya, j.k., singh, p.v. and satyaprakah. 2006. effect of bulb size on flower ing of tuber ose (polianthes tuberosa l.) cv. single. prog. agric. 6(2): 211-212. chaturvedi, a., mishra, t.s., kumar, n. and singh, s.s. 2014. screening of different cultivars of tuberose (polianthes tuberosa l.) under agro climatic condition of allahabad. progressive horticulture. 46(1): 146-148. mahawer, l.n., bairwa, h.l. and shukla, a.k. 2013.field performance of tuberose cultivar for growth, floral and economic characters under sub-humid southern plains and aravalli hills of rajasthan. indian j. hort. 70(3): 411-416. references patil, v.s., munikrishanppa, p.m. and shantappa, t. 2009.performance of growth and yield of differ ent genotypes of tuber ose under tr a nsitiona l tr a ct of nor th ka r na ta ka . j. ecobiol., 24: 327-33. ranchana, p., kannan, m. and jawaharlal, m. 2013. the assessment of genetic parameters: yield, quality traits and performance of single type genotypes of tuberose (polianthes tuberosa l.). adv. crop sci. tech., 1(3): 111. singh, a.k. 2006. flower crops cultivation and management. tuberose, pp: 357-370. yadav, l.p. and maity, r.g. 1989. tuberose. in: commercial flowers (eds) bose, t.k. and l.p. yadav. p. vedams books pvt. limited, new india. pp. 519-544. jadhav et al. j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 67-71, 2020 (received on 07.11.2019 and accepted on 09.07.2020) mango (mangifera indica l.), the ‘king of fruits,’ is an evergreen fruit crop of the tropical and sub-tropical regions with a great economic potential, for, it fulfils the requirement for nutritional, medicinal, commercial, industrial and religious needs (bihari et al, 2012). in india, it is a part and parcel of life, being connected with all phases of life from birth to death (bose et al, 2001). among fruit crops, it occupies the first place in area in india, occupying 2.29 mha with a production of 151.88 lakh tonnes, constituting 45% of the total world mango production. production has been increasing since independence, contributing 20.3% of the total fruit produced in india, after banana (39.8%). uttar pradesh tops in total production (23.9%), followed by andhra pradesh (22.1%). west bengal, falling also under the major mango-growing belt, contributed about 4.1% of total mango production in india (indian horticulture database, 2011). west bengal too is a major mangoproducing state in india in terms of area and production, and new mango plantations need to be raised every year to supply an increased demand for this fruit. however, indiscriminate application of inorganic fertilizers leads to changes in physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil, besides reducing its fertility and leading to decline in its organic content (singh et al, 2001). also, use of inorganic carbon fertilizers is detrimental to human health and environment (arisha and bardisi, 1999). estrada (2002) effect of integrated nutrient management on vegetative growth and yield in mango cv. himsagar s.r. singh1, b.c. banik and m.a. hasan department of fruits and orchard management, faculty of horticulture bidhan chandra krishi vishwavidyalaya mohanpur, nadia – 741252, west bengal, india 1e-mail: romensenjam@yahoo.com abstract an experiment was conducted to study the effect of various combinations of integrated nutrient management schedules on vegetative growth and yield in mango cv. himsagar at regional research station, gayeshpur, b.c.k.v., nadia, west bengal, during the years 2009-2011. maximum total increment in plant height (108.00 cm), plant spread in e-w direction (123.00 cm) and n-s direction (105.00 cm), and tree volume (85.95 m3) was recorded in 500:250:250g npk/tree/year + 50kg fym + 250g azospirillium (t6) compared to that in other treatments. this treatment (t6) also significantly increased total number of fruits (234.12 fruits / tree), average fruit weight (263.10g) and yield (58.56kg /tree). key words: mango, himsagar, biofertilizer, inm short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):120-124, 2015 reported that agricultural lands get impoverished with application of high doses of fertilizer which, in turn, pollute the ecosystem significantly. besides, information on effects of integrated nutrient management on vegetative growth and yield in mango cv. himsagar in the alluvial tract of west bengal is lacking. therefore, the present experiment purported to develop an integrated nutrient management package for mango consisting of organic manure (fym), inorganic fertilizers and biofertilizers for improving growth and yield in ‘himsagar’. the present investigation was carried out at regional research station, gayeshpur, b.c.k.v., nadia, west bengal, during the years 2009-2011. the site of the experiment is situated at 22p 57¹ n latitude and 89p 34¹ e longitude, at an average altitude of 9.75m above mean sea level. the experiment was laid out in randomised block design (rbd) in five replications. age of the trees was seven years, at a spacing of 10m x 10m. the experiment consisted of 10 treatments, viz., t1: 1000:500:500g npk/tree (control), t2: t1 + zn (0.5%) + b (0.2%) + mn (1%) + ca (0.6%) as foliar application, twice (aug & oct); t3: t1 + organic mulching (10cm thick layer of dry leaves); t4: t2 + organic mulching (10cm thick layer of dry leaves); t5: ½ t1 + 50kg fym + 250g azospirillium; t6: ½ t1+ 50kg fym + 250g azospirillium; t7: ½ t1 + 250g azotobacter + 250g 1department of fruit science, college of horticulture & forestry, central agricultural university, pasighat-791 102, arunachal pradesh, india 121 effect of inm on growth and yield in mango azospirillium; t8: ½ t1 + 50kg fym + 250g azotobacter; t9: ½ t1 + 50kg fym + 250g pseudomonas florescence; t10: ½ t1 + 50kg fym + 250g pseudomonas florescence + 250g trichoderma. every plant treated was supplemented with the dose set for each treatment from the month of march after flowering. treatments, along with mulches (dry wheat-straw leaves), were applied at a thickness of 8-10cm and retained in the field for three years for soil moisture conservation and increased organic matter in soil. nutrient fertilizers (n, p and k) were provided in the form of urea (46% n), single super phosphate (16% p2o5) and potassium sulphate (50% k2o), respectively, and applied in two split doses in march (at the marble stage of fruit development) and july (after harvest). vegetative growth parameters were recorded after harvest (in june) and, again, before initiation of the next flowering (december). yield parameters were also recorded. irrigation was applied after the fertilizer and, subsequently, as and when required (depending upon the rainfall). irrigation was stopped 7-10 days before harvest. plant growth parameters showed significant variation under different treatments (table 1, 2, 3 & 4). plants grown under 500:250:250g npk/tree + 50kg fym + 250g azospirillium (t6), showed improved vegetative growth parameters compared to other treatments. however, t2 + organic mulching (10cm thick layer of dry leaves) (t4) caused the maximum total increment in canopy height, closely followed by 500:250:250g npk/tree + 50kg fym + 250g azospirillium (t6). these findings are similar to those of sivakumar (2001) and shulka et al (2009). further, gautam et al (2012) found in mango cv. sunderja, that application of 500:250:250g n:p:k/tree + 50kg fym + 10kg vermicompost registered maximum plant height, canopy height, plant spread (n-s and e-w) and tree volume compared to the control 500:250:250g n:p:k/tree. vegetative parameters were superior in the treatment with nitrogen fixing bacteria, viz., azotobacter and azopirillium. this could be due to the higher nitrogen content in soil, essential for growth of the plant system. subba rao et al (1980) also reported inoculation of azotobacter and azospirillium in several non-legumes crops as contributing table 1. effect of integrated nutrient management (inm) on plant height in mango cv. himsagar treatment dec june increase dec increase june increase dec increase june increase total 2008 2009 (cm) 2009 (cm) 2010 (cm) 2010 (cm) 2011 (cm) increase (m) (m) (m) (m) (m) (m) (cm) t 1 5.02 5.16 14.00 5.31 15.00 5.44 13.00 5.57 13.00 5.73 16.00 71.00 t 2 4.86 5.03 17.00 5.19 16.00 5.36 17.00 5.52 16.00 5.71 19.00 85.00 t 3 4.65 4.83 18.00 4.99 16.00 5.16 17.00 5.31 15.00 5.50 19.00 85.00 t 4 4.95 5.13 18.00 5.30 17.00 5.48 18.00 5.64 16.00 5.82 18.00 87.00 t 5 4.76 4.99 23.00 5.16 17.00 5.34 18.00 5.48 14.00 5.67 19.00 91.00 t 6 5.30 5.52 22.00 5.72 20.00 5.91 19.00 6.08 17.00 6.38 30.00 108.00 t 7 4.78 4.96 18.00 5.13 17.00 5.30 17.00 5.46 16.00 5.65 19.00 87.00 t 8 4.46 4.65 19.00 4.84 19.00 5.02 18.00 5.21 19.00 5.39 18.00 93.00 t 9 5.05 5.23 18.00 5.42 19.00 5.59 17.00 5.76 17.00 5.93 17.00 88.00 t 1 0 4.83 5.02 19.00 5.19 17.00 5.36 17.00 5.52 16.00 5.73 21.00 90.00 se±m 0.15 0.15 0.12 0.15 0.13 0.12 cd (p=0.05) 0.43 0.34 0.34 0.44 0.39 0.35 table 2. effect of integrated nutrient management (inm) on tree volume of mango cv. himsagar treatment dec june increase dec increase june increase dec increase june increase total 2008 2009 (m3) 2009 (m3) 2010 (m3) 2010 (m3) 2011 (m3) increase (m3) (m3) (m3) (m3) (m3) (m3) (m3) t 1 67.30 74.38 7.08 82.98 8.60 92.41 9.43 101.91 9.50 112.88 10.97 45.58 t 2 75.02 85.61 10.59 96.54 10.93 108.60 12.06 121.31 12.71 136.72 15.41 61.70 t 3 57.88 67.26 9.38 77.16 9.90 87.09 9.93 99.98 12.89 113.80 13.82 55.92 t 4 76.07 87.29 11.22 99.46 12.17 117.50 18.04 127.45 9.95 147.36 19.91 71.29 t 5 76.07 92.24 16.17 106.93 14.69 118.20 20.75 135.53 17.33 151.90 16.37 75.83 t 6 99.53 116.09 16.56 132.58 16.49 150.81 15.23 166.68 15.87 185.48 18.80 85.95 t 7 56.02 64.36 8.34 73.46 9.10 83.35 9.89 94.73 11.38 107.63 12.90 51.61 t 8 67.71 78.84 11.13 90.92 12.08 105.29 14.37 118.69 13.40 134.84 16.15 67.13 t 9 81.90 92.93 11.03 105.11 12.18 117.75 12.46 131.93 14.18 146.83 14.90 64.93 t 1 0 70.99 80.92 9.99 91.33 10.41 107.20 15.87 117.50 10.30 131.45 13.95 60.46 se±m 5.72 7.21 — 6.55 — 7.44 — 11.35 — 8.70 — — cd (p=0.05) 16.27 20.5 — 18.61 — 21.14 — 32.24 — 24.73 — — j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):120-124, 2015 122 about 25kgn / ha through fixation in soil, leading to better plant growth and 5-15% higher yield. results also revealed that yield parameters (table 5) such as number of fruits/tree, average fruit weight and yield (kg/tree) increased under different combinations of integrated nutrient management compared to that in control table 3. effect of integrated nutrient management (inm) on plant-spread (north – south) in mango cv. himsagar treatment dec june increase dec increase june increase dec increase june increase total 2008 2009 (cm) 2009 (cm) 2010 (cm) 2010 (cm) 2011 (cm) increase (m) (m) (m) (m) (m) (m) (cm) t 1 5.09 5.24 15.00 5.39 15.00 5.55 16.00 5.75 20.00 5.91 16.00 82.00 t 2 5.29 5.47 18.00 5.66 19.00 5.82 16.00 6.01 19.00 6.21 20.00 0.92 t 3 4.73 4.92 19.00 5.11 19.00 5.26 15.00 5.55 29.00 5.69 14.00 0.96 t 4 4.99 5.17 18.00 5.36 19.00 5.56 20.00 5.75 19.00 5.93 18.00 0.94 t 5 5.5 5.69 19.00 5.87 18.00 6.07 20.00 6.29 22.00 6.49 20.00 0.99 t 6 5.68 5.89 16.00 6.10 19.00 6.29 17.00 6.54 25.00 6.73 19.00 1.05 t 7 5.41 5.57 16.00 5.76 19.00 5.93 17.00 6.14 21.00 6.30 16.00 0.89 t 8 5.30 5.50 20.00 5.70 20.00 5.88 18.00 6.08 20.00 6.29 21.00 0.99 t 9 5.50 5.68 18.00 5.85 17.00 6.02 17.00 6.22 20.00 6.39 17.00 0.89 t 1 0 5.35 5.55 20.00 5.72 17.00 5.90 18.00 6.09 19.00 6.26 17.00 0.91 se±m 0.25 0.26 — 0.25 — 0.25 — 0.27 — 0.26 — — cd (p=0.05) ns ns — ns — ns — 0.78 — 0.76 — — table 4. effect of integrated nutrient management (inm) on plant-spread (east – west) in mango cv. himsagar reatment dec june increase dec increase june increase dec increase june increase total 2008 2009 (cm) 2009 (cm) 2010 (cm) 2010 (cm) 2011 (cm) increase (m) (m) (m) (m) (m) (m) (cm) t 1 4.64 4.82 18.00 4.988 16.00 5.17 19.00 5.34 17.00 5.49 15.00 85.00 t 2 5.15 5.34 19.00 5.524 18.00 5.71 19.00 5.89 18.00 6.10 21.00 95.00 t 3 4.74 4.94 20.00 5.138 19.00 5.39 26.00 5.56 17.00 5.75 19.00 101.00 t 4 5.61 5.84 23.00 6.042 20.00 6.24 20.00 6.43 19.00 6.64 21.00 103.00 t 5 5.52 5.74 22.00 5.892 15.00 6.13 24.00 6.32 19.00 6.54 22.00 102.00 t 6 5.67 5.96 29.00 6.204 24.00 6.48 28.00 6.68 20.00 6.90 22.00 123.00 t 7 4.11 4.31 20.00 4.482 17.00 4.69 21.00 4.86 17.00 5.06 20.00 95.00 t 8 5.02 5.27 25.00 5.488 21.00 5.76 28.00 5.95 19.00 6.16 21.00 114.00 t 9 5.00 5.18 18.00 5.364 18.00 5.57 21.00 5.75 18.00 5.93 18.00 93.00 t 1 0 4.89 5.07 18.00 5.252 18.00 5.51 26.00 5.69 18.00 5.85 16.00 96.00 se±m 0.26 0.24 — 0.26 — 0.26 — 0.27 — 0.27 — — cd (p=0.05) 0.74 0.70 — 0.75 — 0.76 — 0.76 — 0.76 — — table 5. effect of integrated nutrient management (inm) on yield in mango cv. himsagar treatment no. of fruits / tree average fruit weight (g) fruit yield (kgme) 2009 2010 2011 pooled 2009 2010 2011 pooled 2009 2010 2011 pooled t 1 21.00 178.00 158.00 119.00 224.506 231.28 232.38 229.38 5.05 38.58 40.41 28.02 t 2 32.25 267.00 240.00 175.43 233.8 239.30 234.20 235.76 7.51 61.77 53.15 40.81 t 3 80.25 245.20 246.00 180.05 226.35 246.76 248.06 232.57 21.29 63.71 55.29 46.76 t 4 50.00 271.40 246.00 189.13 239.45 245.98 246.94 244.12 10.01 65.97 58.82 44.93 t 5 60.60 262.20 275.00 199.26 222.50 244.08 240.02 235.77 17.74 65.48 62.78 48.66 t 6 74.66 294.00 333.70 234.12 243.00 255.58 290.74 263.10 21.90 71.95 81.85 58.56 t 7 55.00 196.75 216.00 153.91 222.6 239.332 255.98 239.30 13.72 47.57 44.65 35.31 t 8 78.00 280.75 261.75 206.83 244.22 250.62 265.82 253.55 20.81 65.91 63.18 49.97 t 9 25.00 278.00 245.80 177.60 235.15 239.40 255.70 243.41 9.04 62.95 61.77 44.59 t 1 0 51.00 259.00 254.00 194.33 237.00 247.02 260.62 248.27 13.78 68.10 61.38 47.75 se±m 8.40 8.32 10.16 6.49 4.02 5.63 10.25 3.90 2.76 3.60 7.65 1.37 cd (p=0.05) 23.88 23.63 28.87 18.45 11.42 ns 29.11 11.09 7.76 8.70 2.69 3.91 (t1) (1000:500:500g n:p:k/tree). significantly high cumulative yield was obtained in ½ t1+ 50kg fym + 250g azospirillium (t6), followed by ½ t1 + 50kg fym + 250g azotobacter (t8), while significantly lower value was seen in control. these finding are in line with those of patel et al (2005). hasan et al (2009) too observed maximum flowering and fruiting in trees supplied with 50% recommended dose singh et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):120-124, 2015 123 of nutrients along azospirillium and vam inoculation. further, yadav et al (2011) reported in mango cv. amrapali that the recommended npk + vermicompost + azotobacter + psb + zn + fe + paclobutrazol application recorded optimum yield compared to that in control (recommended npk/tree). similarly, gautam et al (2012) found that application of 500:250:250g n:p:k/tree + 50kg fym + 10kg vermicompost registered maximum number of fruits/tree compared to control (500:250:250g n:p:k/tree). therefore, it can be concluded that integration of inorganic fertilizer with biofertilizers improves vegetative growth and yield in mango, without affecting fruit quality. this can be recommended for sustainable mango production with minimal use of fertilizer under the alluvial zone of west bengal. acknowledgement the authors are obliged to department of fruits and orchards management, faculty of horticulture, bidhan chandra krishi vishwavidyalaya, mohanpur, nadia, west bengal for the necessary inputs. references arisha, h.m. and bradisi, h. 1999. effect of mineral fertilizers and organic fertilizers on growth, yield and quality of potato under sandy soil condition. zagazig. fig. 1. observations on girth and plant-spread fig. 2. observations on plant height fig. 3. harvested fruit of mango cv. himsagar under treatment t6 fig. 4. heavy bearing under treatment t6 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):120-124, 2015 effect of inm on growth and yield in mango 124 j. agril. res., 26:391-405 indian horticulture database. 2011. all india area and production of fruits and vegetables. national horticultural board, ministry of agriculture, govt. of india. pp. 3-4. (http.//www.nhb.gov.in) bihari, m., singh, r.k., kumar, a., prasad, a., narayan, s. and pandey, s.k.n. 2012. quality parameters studies on mangifera genus and varieties. indian j. hort., 69:272-276 bose, t.k., mitra, s.k. and sanyal, d. 2001. mango. in: fruits: tropical and subtropical volume 1, 3rd edition. naya udyog, kolkota, west bengal, pp 1108 estrada, c.g. 2004. evaluation of a biofertilizer, clearing and fruit bagging in mango ‘kent’. acta hort., 645:217-221 gautam, u.s., singh, r., tiwari, n., gurjar, p.s. and kumar, a. 2012. effect of integrated nutrient management in mango cv. sunderja. indian j. hort., 69:151-155 hasan, m.a., chowdhury, r.r., mandal, k.k., majumdar, d. and das, a. 2009. effect of organic and inorganic nutrients in improving flowering of mango. crop res., 37:95-100 patel, v.b., singh, s.k., ram, a. and sharma, y.k. 2005. response of organic manures and bio-fertilizer on growth, fruit yield and quality of mango cv. amrapali under high density orcharding. karnataka j. hort., 1:51-56 singh, m., singh, v.p. and reddy, k.s. 2001. effect of integrated use of fertilizer nitrogen and farm-yard manure or green manure on transformation of n, p and s and productivity of rice-wheat system on vertisols. j. indian soc. soil sci., 49:430-435 sivakumar, u. 2001. effect of bacterial inoculation on mango (mangifera indica l.) rootstock. madras agril. j. 88:486-487 shukla, a.c., saralia, d.k., bhavna, k., kaushik, r.a., mahawar, l.n. and bairwa, h.l. 2009. evaluation of substrate dynamics for inm under high density planting of guava cv. sardar. indian j. hort., 66:461464 subba rao, n.s., tilak, k.v. and singh, c.s. 1980. yield response of rice to root inoculation with azospirillium. j. genet. appl. microbiol., 44:365-70 yadav, a.k., singh, j.k. and singh, h.k. 2011. studies on integrated nutrient management in flowering, fruiting, yield and quality of mango cv. amrapali under high density orcharding. indian j. hort., 68:453-460 (ms received 24 june 2014, revised 17 may 2015, accepted 02 june 2015) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):120-124, 2015 singh et al introduction india is the largest producer of mango in the world, with a share of 39.5% of total production (anon., 2010). though a majority of mango producing areas in our country are the tropical and subtropical plains, considerable improvement in acreage under this fruit crop has been noticed in the low-hill and valley region of nw himalayas. mango from this region comes to the market when the crop season is over elsewhere in the country. in himachal pradesh, area under mango has increased from a mere 2,600 hectare in 1971 to 37,840 hectare at present (anon., 2009). ‘dashehari’ is the main cultivar of the region, followed by ‘langra’ and ‘chausa’, besides the rich heritage of local varieties. in himachal pradesh, mango is grown primarily in the subtropical region of kangra, hamirpur, bilaspur, una, solan, sirmour, chamba and mandi districts. owing to high levels of radiative cooling and a varied topographical feature, frost of variable intensity is quite common in the low-hill and valley region of himachal pradesh. this is one of the major factors governing growth restoration studies in frost-affected mango (mangifera indica l.) orchards in sub-himalayan region shashi kumar sharma institute of biotechnology and environmental science dr. y.s. parmar university of horticulture and forestry neri, p.o. khagal, distt. hamirpur -177 001, india e-mail: shashi_uhf@yahoo.com abstract frost is a major constraint in mango production in the subhimalayan region. to restore growth and productivity in frost-affected dashehari mango orchards, effect of different growth-restoring treatments was studied at highly frost-sensitive, medium frost-sensitive, low frost-sensitive and frost-free locations. foliar application of urea, benzyladenine, gibberellic acid (individually or in combination) was made during the post-spring season. as the cut ends of branches or damaged open area serve as entry points for the propagation of ice crystals through the vascular system in plants, the experiments were also carried out with and without prior winter covering of cut ends of branches with wax or polythene cover. at low and high frost-sensitive locations, 7 and 5.5 number of news shoots emerged, on average, per scaffold when frost-affected trees were sprayed with benzyladenine (ba 20ppm), followed by 2% urea spray after fifteen days. better restoration of reproductive growth was observed with this treatment. pre-winter waxing or polythene covering of the cut ends of branches was very effective in preventing lethal frost-damage (stem injury below 20cm) to the trees. effect of benzyladenine and urea treatments was found to be additive in trees whose cut surfaces were waxed or covered with polythene sheets. key words: frost, benzyladenine, gibberellic acid, urea, corrective pruning, mango productivity of mango in the region. the present level of productivity is quite low (0.9t/ha) compared to national and international productivity averages. a majority of the loss occurs due to radiation and frost (sharma and badiyala, 2008) affecting not only the current season’s growth and productivity, but also the subsequent 2-3 years (the crop can get affected by even a single instance of frost damage). in view of the severity of this problem, agriculture technology management agency, hamirpur (himachal pradesh) treated it as a researchable issue and assigned the responsibility of developing an effective technology for restoration of growth in such orchards to regional horticultural and forestry research station, bhota/ neri, hamirpur, himachal pradesh. material and methods studies were conducted during the years 2006-07 to 2008-09 at four types of location described as: l1highly frost-sensitive low-lying area (0-80m from the lowest point of a micro watershed), l2medium frost-sensitive, lower portion of the sloppy area (80-120m from the lowest point j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):12-17, 2014 13 of a micro watershed), l3low-frost sensitive middle portion of the sloppy area (120-160m from the lowest point of a micro watershed), and, l4least frost-sensitive, upper portion of the sloppy area (above 160m from the lowest point of a micro watershed). three replicates of each location were selected in hamirpur, bilaspur and una districts. selection of locations for frost sensitivity was in accordance with sharma and badiyala (2008). at every location selected, there were four mango orchards of cv. dashehari in the age group of 15 to 20 years, growing on loam to silt loam soils with almost neutral soil reaction, and uniform level of orchard management as per standard package of practices. in each orchard, five trees were selected randomly for recording various observations. the experimental trees were subjected to corrective pruning in mid-february for removal of frost-affected dead parts. immediately after corrective pruning, the trees were sprayed with copper oxychloride (0.3%) as per standard recommendation (anon., 2008). thereafter, the experimental trees were subjected to following set of growth restoring treatments: t10.5% urea spray (low urea dose on tender growth), t2 20 ppm gibberellic acid (ga3) spray, t3 20 ppm benzyladenine (ba) spray [all these treatments (t1 to t3) were given 15 days after corrective pruning], t4 t1 + 2% urea spray, 15 days after t1, t5 t2 + 2% urea spray (higher dose of urea for accelerating vegetative growth), 15 days after t2, t6 t3 + 2% urea spray, 15 days after t3, t7 control (water spray at the time of t1 and t4). observations were recorded on shoot regeneration by counting the number of new shoots that emerged per scaffold at the canopy-top until april-mid. further growth of shoots was measured at the end of september, and was termed ‘shoot extension growth’. for this purpose, ten shoots were tagged per scaffold. treatment effect was also measured for reproductive growth of the tree in terms of proportion of the canopy producing flowers, fruit retention by aprilend (pea stage) and june-end (pit hardening stage). data was pooled for the years 2007 and 2008. it was a pre-experimentation observation that trees were subjected to heavy corrective-pruning (pruning that involved cutting of branches >2" diameter) suffered more if the frost occurred during the subsequent year as well. for preventing of this type of damage, prior to winter onset, the following set of treatments were imposed: c1-pre-winter waxing of cut-ends (>2" diameter), c2pre-winter polyethylene covering of cut-ends (>2" diameter), and c3control (no covering of cut-ends). these trees received growth restoring set of treatments as detailed described above; observations recorded were also similar. data were pooled for all the locations and the years of study i.e., 200708 and 2008-09. randomization, experimental layout and statistical analyses were done as per ‘repeated measurement design (factorial)’ wherein the same experimental units received two sets of treatment at different times, and observations were recorded after applying of the respective set of treatments (freeman, 1959; hoblyn et al, 1954). results and discussions ba + urea treatment (t6) significantly enhanced number of shoots regenerated on the top scaffolds (table 1). influence of location on shoot regeneration was found to be non-significant, though, interaction effect of the treatments and location was significant. effect of the abovestated treatment was highest at a location of low frostsensitivity (l3) and was statistically at par with the least frost-affected sites (l4) (table 1). similar pattern was observed for shoot extension growth: ba + urea outscored the other treatments, though statistically it was at par with ga3 + urea (t5) treatment. location and location-treatment interactions were observed to be non-significant in influencing shoot extension growth. such an effect of benzyladenine (ba) on shoot regeneration and shoot extension growth may be attributed to its known, characteristic effect on protein and rna content in leaves and meristematic regions. this stimulates the anaboloid mechanism in the plant, leading to enhanced shoot regeneration and growth (nailo et al, 2007). further, garner et al (1997) also reported ba as inducing lateral buds by activating epicormic buds on the main branches and the stem in woody species. application of urea yielded effects additive to that of ba owing to urea’s active contribution in protein synthesis (daoudi et al, 1998). effect of location on shoot regeneration can be understood in the light of findings of wisniewski et al (2001) who studied damage to heartwood and lateral meristematic regions of the plant at variable levels of low-temperature exposure. at low frost-sensitive sites (l3), lateral meristematic tissues of the scaffolds may have been rarely damaged; therefore, these plants gained active growth immediately after winters ceased. proportion of the canopy restored to flowering was not influenced significantly by various treatments, although this figure was significantly higher at locations that were less frost-affected (table 2). under highly frosty conditions (l1), proportion of the flowering canopy was lowest j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):12-17, 2014 growth restoration in frost-affected mango in sub-himalayan region 14 (12.11%), as, a majority of the canopy was damaged by frost. count of fruitlets at the end of april, representative of initial fruit-set, was found to be highest with t6 (ba+urea treatment) non-significantly, followed by t4 (urea+urea treatment). positive effects of ba and urea treatments on reproductive behavior of treated plants may be attributed to a lower flower and fruit abscission under these treatments. similar observations were recorded by daoudi et al (1998) and talaie et al (2006) in pistachio nut. location-wise variation in fruit-set was found to be significant only in the case of l4 (least frost affected site) where the variation was lowest. this may be attributed to lower water and fertility regime at the site (sharma and badiyala, 2008). fruit retention by the end of june was considerably higher at l1 (low-lying areas) owing to better water and fertility regimes. effect of the treatments was also significant under this location, although interaction effects were non-significant. variation in fruit yield was not significant with respect to the location under study, primarily due to the opposite order of variation in flowering and fruit retention. for yield, both treatment and treatment x location interactions were found to be significant. ba+urea produced significantly higher fruit yield than other treatments. highest fruit yield was recorded in this treatment at l1. anti-senescence properties of both benzyladenine and nitrogen may have resulted in retention of higher number of fruits and better fertility regime at the location (sharma and badiyala, 2008) thereby, contributing significantly to fruit yield. it is quite clear from the results (fig. 1a) that covering the cut-ends of the scaffolds with wax or polyethylene sheet significantly reduced frost/ freeze induced damage to shoots and stems (damage of upto 6.23cm, 16.9cm and 77.3cm was observed for wax, polyethylene and uncovered treatments, respectively). the effect of spring season’s growth promoting treatments and their interaction effect with cut-end covering treatments was found to be nonsignificant with reference to freeze damage of stem or shoots. these findings was supported by inferences of wisniewski et al (2001) who demonstrated that during a frost event, once the ice nucleation occurs, the ice spreads very fast across the vascular system of the plant, upon its entry into the vascular strands. thus, when the cut-ends were not covered, these acted as entry points for ice propagation through the tree’s vascular system, and resulted in grave damage to the plant system. though regeneration of new shoots significantly improved by cut-end treatment as well as growth promotion treatment (fig. 1b), interaction between the two was found to improve shoot regeneration significantly. highest number of shoots regenerated (8.2) on scaffolds whose cut-ends covered with polyethylene were given a spray of ba+ urea. shoot extension growth recorded highest with wax cover treatments (fig. 1c), and was found at par with polyethylene cover treatment coupled with ba+urea. this may be attributed to a possibility that wax or polyethylene protected table 1. effect of various treatments on growth restorations in frost affected mango orchards at different locations (pooled data for the years 2007 and 2008) location shoots emerged/scaffold (number) shoot extension growth (cm) l1 l2 l3 l4 mean l1 l2 l3 l4 mean treatment t1 1.2 2.6 4.2 4.0 3.00 12.2 11.6 12.4 11.2 11.85 t2 0.6 1.8 3.1 3.2 2.18 11.4 11.2 10.4 9.7 10.68 t3 3.2 3.4 3.2 3.7 3.37 14.2 13.4 13.7 12.9 13.55 t4 2.7 3.2 3.8 3.9 3.40 12.2 9.4 12.3 11.2 11.27 t5 3.4 3.7 3.8 3.6 3.63 18.4 16.7 12.6 16.4 16.02 t6 5.5 6.5 7.0 6.1 6.28 20.7 19.3 11.2 19.1 17.58 t7 2.1 2.9 2.7 2.7 2.60 10.1 10.2 8.1 10.2 9.65 mean 2.67 3.44 3.97 3.88 14.2 13.1 11.5 12.1 cd (p=0.05) l ns l ns t 2.57 t 3.76 l x t-1.48 l x t ns t 1 0.5% urea spray l1 highly frost sensitive area (0-80m from the lowest point of a micro watershed) t 2 20ppm gibberellic acid (ga3) spray l2 medium frost sensitive area (80-120m from the lowest point of a micro watershed) t 3 20ppm benzyladenine (ba) spray l3 low frost sensitive area (120-160m from the lowest point of a micro watershed) t 4 t1 + 2% urea spray 15 days after t1 l4 least frost sensitive area (above 160m from the lowest point of a micro watershed) t 5 t2 + 2% urea spray, 15 days after t2 t 6 t3 + 2% urea spray, 15 days after t2 t 7 control (water spray at the time of t1 and t4) shashi kumar sharma j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):12-17, 2014 15 ta bl e 2. e ff ec t of v ar io us t re at m en ts o n re pr od uc ti ve g ro w th a nd f ru it y ie ld u nd er d if fe re nt lo ca ti on s (p oo le d da ta f or t he y ea rs 2 00 7 an d 20 08 ) l oc at io n c an op y pr op or tio n (% ) n o. o f fr ui ts /p an ic le a t t he n o. o f fr ui ts /p an ic le a t t he a v. f ru it yi el d / re st or ed to fl ow er in g en d of a pr il (p ea s ta ge ) en d of j un e (p it ha rd en in g st ag e) tr ee (k g) l 1 l 2 l 3 l 4 m ea n l 1 l 2 l 3 l 4 m ea n l 1 l 2 l 3 l 4 m ea n l 1 l 2 l 3 l 4 m ea n t re at m en t t 1 8. 4 27 .4 41 .8 41 .6 29 .8 0 7. 2 4. 8 5. 9 4. 2 5. 53 0. 61 0. 23 0. 30 0. 28 0. 35 5 24 .5 26 .2 16 .1 31 .2 24 .5 0 t 2 9. 2 30 .2 54 .2 54 .2 36 .9 5 7. 4 5. 9 6. 9 4. 0 6. 05 0. 42 0. 35 0. 28 0. 19 0. 31 0 19 .1 26 .4 31 .3 39 .6 29 .1 0 t 3 14 .2 28 .6 50 .4 51 .2 36 .1 0 7. 2 6. 4 6. 1 6. 1 6. 95 0. 64 0. 39 0. 30 0. 39 0. 43 0 39 .7 36 .3 28 .5 26 .4 32 .7 2 t 4 13 .2 25 .4 44 .4 42 .4 13 .3 5 7. 6 8. 1 7. 4 6. 4 8. 13 0. 70 0. 38 0. 30 0. 30 0. 42 0 39 .1 31 .4 29 .6 38 .3 34 .6 t 5 10 .4 27 .2 38 .4 51 .6 39 .9 0 8. 7 8. 9 7. 8 6. 1 7. 88 0. 71 0. 42 0. 29 0. 37 0. 44 8 30 .8 34 .2 36 .2 30 .4 32 .9 0 t 6 19 .6 32 .9 49 .9 56 .4 39 .7 0 10 .1 9. 7 9. 3 8. 4 9. 88 1. 03 0. 56 0. 59 0. 67 0. 71 3 62 .8 45 .4 47 .4 44 .8 50 .1 t 7 9. 8 26 .2 44 .4 54 .6 33 .7 5 7. 1 3. 1 3. 8 4. 1 5. 42 0. 21 0. 29 0. 18 0. 26 0. 23 5 25 .8 22 .7 12 .4 11 .5 15 .6 m ea n 12 .1 1 28 .2 7 46 .2 1 50 .2 8 7. 90 6. 70 6. 74 5. 61 0. 61 7 0. 37 4 0. 32 0 0. 35 1 34 .5 31 .8 27 .8 31 .7 c d ( p = 0. 05 ) l 19 .7 5 l 2. 71 l 0. 21 2 l n s t n s t 1. 87 t 0. 28 1 t 9. 82 lx t n s lx t n s lx t n s lx t 21 .7 6 t 1 0. 5% u re a sp ra y l 1 h ig hl y fr os t s en si tiv e ar ea ( 080 m f ro m lo w es t p oi nt o f a m ic ro w at er sh ed ) t 2 2 0p pm g ib be re lli c a ci d (g a 3) sp ra y l 2 m ed iu m f ro st s en si tiv e ar ea ( 80 -1 20 m f ro m lo w es t p oi nt o f a m ic ro w at er sh ed ) t 3 20 pp m b en zy la de ni ne ( b a ) sp ra y l 3 l ow f ro st s en si tiv e ar ea ( 12 016 0m f ro m lo w es t p oi nt o f a m ic ro w at er sh ed ) t 4 t 1 + 2% u re a sp ra y, 1 5 da ys a ft er t 1 l 4 l ea st f ro st s en si tiv e ar ea ( ab ov e 16 0m f ro m lo w es t p oi nt o f a m ic ro w at er sh ed ) t 5 t 2 + 2% u re a sp ra y, 1 5 da ys a ft er t 2 t 6 t 3 + 2% u re a sp ra y, 1 5 da ys a ft er t 2 t 7 c on tr ol ( w at er s pr ay a t th e tim e of t 1 an d t 4) growth restoration in frost-affected mango in sub-himalayan region j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):12-17, 2014 16 cut-ends prevented damage to the meristematic regions of shoots, and these regions supported the plants in early restoration of growth. fruit yield per tree was also influenced significantly by these set of treatments and their interactions. highest fruit yield (42kg/tree) was recorded in trees where the cutend of a scaffold was covered with wax and which had received ba+urea treatment for growth restoration (fig. 1d). wax and polyethylene treatments were statistically at par, which may be attributed to the fact that covering of the cut-ends of scaffolds prevented severe injury to these branches, thereby restoring reproductive growth better than in an uncovered branch. in uncovered branches, photosynthates may have been used up first for recouping vegetative losses rather than restoring yield in the plant system. altered biomass partitioning towards vegetative growth has also been demonstrated earlier by hancock et al (2007) under induced stress. on the basis of results above, it may be concluded that application of benzyladenine, followed by urea (2%) spray after fifteen days enhanced regeneration of vegetative and reproductive growth of frost-affected mango orchards, along with increase in yield over the control. covering tree wounds or cut-end surfaces of branches with wax or polythene sheet protected the trees from severe damage while retaining the vegetative and reproductive growth capacity of shoots. acknowledgement: the author is highly thankful to agriculture technology management agency, hamirpur, for providing financial assistance for the study. references anonymous. 2008. package of practices of fruit crops. directorate of extension education, dr. ysp university of horticulture and forestry, nauni, solan (hp), india anonymous. 2009. horticultural statistics. dept. of horticulture, govt. of himachal pradesh, shimla, hp, india anonymous. 2010. http//www.business.gov.in/agriculture/ current scenario daoudi, h., ferguson, l. and lovatt, c.j. 1998. urea combined with 6-benzyladenine applied to the foliage of pistachio trees during nut-fill reduced floral bud abscission during the “on” crop year and increased yield the following “off” crop year. hort. sci., 33:497-498 freeman, g.h. 1959. the use of same experimental material for more than one set of treatments. appld. stat., 8:13-20 garner, j.m., keever, g.j., eakes, d.j. and kessler. j.r. 1997. ba-induced offset formation in hosta dependent on cultivar. hort. sci., 32:91-93 hancock, j.e., loya, w.m., giardina, c.p., li, l., chiang, fig 1. effect of scafolds’ cut end covering and growth restoring treatments on frost damaeg, vegetative growth and fruit yield in ‘dashehari’ mango (pooled data for location and years 2008 and 2009) shashi kumar sharma j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):12-17, 2014 17 v.l. and pregitzer, k.s. 2007. plant growth, biomass partitioning and soil carbon formation in response to altered lignin biosynthesis in populus tremuloides. new phytol., 173:732–742 hoblyn, t.n., pearce, s.c. and freeman, g.h. 1954. some considerations in design of successive experiments in fruit plantations. biometerics, 10:503-15 nailo, k., nagumo, s., furuya, k. and suzuki, h. 2007. effect of benzyladenine on rna and protein synthesis in intact bean leaves at various stages of ageing. physiol. plant., 52:343-348 sharma, shashi k. and badiyala, s.d. 2008. prioritization of subtropical fruit plants for the frost prone low hill region of himachal pradesh. natural product radiance, 7:347-353 talaie, a., seyedi, m., panahi, b. and khezari, m. 2006. effects of shoot girdling and urea combined with 6benzyladenine on abscission of inflorescence buds in “ohadi” pistachio cultivar (pistacia vera l.). int’l. j. agril. biol., 8:474-476 wisniewski, m., fuller, m., glenn, d.m., palta, j., carter, j., gusta, l., griffith, m. and duman, j. 2001. factors involved in ice nucleation and propagation in plants: an overview based on new insights gained from the use of infrared thermography. icel. agri. sci., 14:41-47 (ms received 04 may 2013, revised 27 november 2013, accepted 14 march 2014) growth restoration in frost-affected mango in sub-himalayan region j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):12-17, 2014 gladiolus (gladiolus grandiflorus hort.) is a popular bulbous ornamental flower crop belonging to the family iridaceae, and is aptly known as ‘queen of bulbous flowers’. it is native to the mediterranean region, tropical south africa and asia. it is also cultivated in various states of india, mainly, west bengal, maharashtra, uttar pradesh, karnataka, uttaranchal, punjab, haryana, sikkim, jammu and kashmir, gujarat, himachal pradesh, tamil nadu, madhya pradesh and rajasthan (arora et al, 2002). it is commercially propagated by corms and cormels that have a dormancy period of about three and six months, respectively. the degree of dormancy in gladiolus varies with the cultivar. dormancy of cormels is longer than that of corms (ginzburg, 1973). temperature during storage of corms affects dormancy: higher temperature enhances dormancy while lower temperature reduces it (denny, 1936). thus, the present investigation was undertaken to study the effect of temperature and storage period on dormancy of corms in three gladiolus genotypes and its effect on quality parameters. material and methods the experiment was conducted during the year 20102011 at indian institute of horticultural research, j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):114-117, 2013 short communication effect of temperature and period of storage on breaking dormancy in gladiolus (gladiolus grandiflorus hort.) corms varun s. amingad, t. manjunatha rao, r. venugopalan1, d.p. kumar2, m.v. dhananjaya and k. bhanuprakash3 division of ornamental crops, indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta lake post, bengaluru-560 089, india e-mail : varun.amingad@gmail.com abstract an experiment was conducted in 2010-2011 at indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, on three gladiolus cultivars viz., ‘arka amar’, ‘darshan’ and ‘kum kum’ to study effects of storage temperature (4°c and room temperature 27±2°c) and length of storage (50, 70 and 90 days) on dormancy of corms. cv. ‘kum kum’ registered minimum number of days for sprouting (42.71 days), spike emergence (116 days) and days to opening of first floret (128 days). corms stored at 4°c resulted in lowest number of days for-sprouting (45.24 days), days to spike emergence (114.63 days) and days to opening of first floret (126.60 days) and resulted in highest sprouting percentage (58.7%). interaction effects revealed that cv. ‘kum kum’ stored at 4°c for 90 days after harvest took minimum number of days to sprouting (25.07 days), days to spike emergence (90.38 days) and days to opening of first floret (102.38 days) resulting in 100% sprouting. key words: gladiolus, dormancy, storage, corms 1section of economics and statistics, iihr, hessaraghatta lake post, bengaluru-560089, india 2dept. of horticulture, uas, gkvk, bengaluru-560065, india 3section of seed science and technology, iihr, hessaraghatta lake post, bengaluru-560089, india hessaraghatta, bengaluru, located at an altitude of 890 metres above mean sea level, latitude 13058' north and longitude 77037' east. three gladiolus genotypes, viz., ‘arka amar’, ‘darshan’ and ‘kum kum’ were studied. the experiment was laid out in factorial randomized complete block design (rcbd) with three factors (variety at 3 levels, 2 different storage temperature and different storage duration) and three replications. statistical analysis was done using sas-glm (sas, 2008) v 9.2 available with statistics laboratory, iihr, bengaluru. uniform-sized corms of cultivars arka amar, darshan and kum kum (with diameter ranging from 5.5 to 6.5cm, 5 to 5.5cm and 4 to 4.5cm, respectively) were collected after harvest and stored at either 4ºc or ambient condition (27±2ºc). five corms from each treatment were taken at 50, 70 and 90 days interval and planted, with three replications. plants were grown using recommended package of practices. observations were recorded for fifteen plant characters, viz., sprouting percentage (%), days to sprouting, days to spike emergence, days to opening of first floret, plant height (cm), spike length (cm), rachis length (cm), floret diameter (cm), number of florets per spike, number of marketable spikes per corm (a spike having more 115 breaking dormancy in corms of gladiolus than twelve florets was considered marketable), total number of spikes per corm, number of florets open at a given time, flowering duration (days), spike weight (g) and vase life (days). significant difference was found in parameters for days to sprouting, sprouting percentage, days to spike emergence and days to opening of first floret, whereas, there was no significant difference with respect to plant height and floral characters studied. days to sprouting data presented in table 1 reveal that minimum number of days taken to sprout was recorded in ‘kum kum’ (42.7 days), followed by ‘arka amar’ (58.8 days) and ‘darshan’ (74.6 days). storage at 4°c resulted in earlier sprouting (45.2 days) compared to that at ambient temperature (72.1 days). minimum number of days to sprout was observed in ‘kum kum’ (25.1 days) when corms were stored at 4°c for 90 days. this finding is in accordance with results of jean ming hong et al (1997) and sun yan zhi and yi ming fang (2004) who reported that storage at 5°c improved germination within 21 days. this might be due to storing the corms at low temperature which results in faster breaking on dormancy. minimum number of days to sprout was seen when corms of ‘kum kum’ were stored at 4°c (34.8 days), whereas, corms of ‘darshan’ stored at ambient conditions took maximum number of days to sprout (90.6 days). three-way interaction effects revealed that corms of ‘kum kum’ stored for 90 days at 4°c took the least number of days to sprout (25.0 days). on the contrary, corms of ‘darshan’ stored for 50 days at room temperature took maximum number of days to sprout (97.3 days). significant difference was seen among treatments. days to spike emergence interaction between storage temperature and duration of storage showed significant difference for days to spike emergence (table 1). minimum number of days to spike emergence was seen in ‘kum kum’ (116 days), followed by ‘arka amar’ (130.3 days), maximum number of days to spike emergence was observed in ‘darshan’ (141.7 days). storing corms at 4°c resulted in earlier spike emergence (114.6 days) compared to those at ambient conditions (143.5 days). hsieh and huang (1970) reported that 40 day treatment at 5°c successfully broke dormancy in gladiolus leading to earliness in spike emergence. this may be attributed to the fact that storing corms at low temperature reduces aba content and increases ga 3 content, thus helping overcome dormancy, leading to earlier spike emergence. there was significant difference in time taken to spike emergence when corms were stored for 90 days (110.1 days), followed by 70 days (126.3 days) and 50 days (151.4 days). minimum number of days taken to spike emergence was noticed when corms of ‘arka amar’ were stored at 4°c (107.3 days). whereas, corms of ‘darshan’ stored at ambient conditions took maximum number of days to spike emergence (157.6). three-way interaction effects revealed that corms of ‘arka amar’ stored for 90 days at 4°c took the least number of days for spike emergence (81.6 days). on the other hand, corms of ‘arka amar’ stored for 50 days at room temperature took maximum number of days to spike emergence (171.0 days). days to opening of first floret all the three factors viz., variety, storage temperature and duration of storage were found to be significantly affecting days to opening of first floret (table 1). minimum number of days taken to opening of first floret was seen in ‘kum kum’ (128 days), followed by ‘arka amar’ (142.3 days), whereas, maximum number of days to opening of first floret was observed in ‘darshan’ (153.7). corms stored at 40c were early to first flower emergence (126.6 days) compared to ambient conditions (156 days), differing significantly. suh and kwack (1992) reported that longer the corms stored at 5°c, greater was the effect on breaking dormancy. in the present study, ‘arka amar’ stored at 4°c for three months took less number of days for flowering (93.60 days). three-way interaction effects revealed that corms of ‘arka amar’ stored for 90 days at 4°c took the least number of days to first flower emergence (93.6 days). on the other hand, corms of ‘arka amar’ stored for 50 days at room temperature took maximum number of days for opening of the first floret (183 days). sprouting percentage sprouting percentage ranged between 7.77 and 78.35%. maximum sprouting was recorded in ‘kum kum’, while minimum was observed in ‘darshan’. seenivasan (2001) reported genotypic variation with respect to per cent sprouting. storage at 4°c resulted in maximum sprouting (58.70%) compared to storage at ambient temperature (22.41%). three-way interaction effects showed that corms of ‘arka amar’ and ‘kum kum’ stored at 4°c for 90 days sprouted within 50 days of planting, resulting in 100% sprouting. on the contrary, corms of ‘arka amar’ and ‘darshan’ stored at room temperature for 50 and 70 days failed to sprout within the first 50 days of planting. j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):114-117, 2013 116 table 1. effect of variety, storage temperature, storage duration and their interactions on days to sprouting, days to spike emergence and days to opening of first floret in gladiolus treatment combination days to days to spike days to opening sprouting emergence of first floret v 1 t 1 d 1 62.0 137.9 149.9 v 1 t 1 d 2 39.0 102.7 114.7 v 1 t 1 d 3 26.0 81.6 93.6 v 1 t 2 d 1 86.8 171.0 183.0 v 1 t 2 d 2 83.8 158.7 170.7 v 1 t 2 d 3 54.9 129.9 141.9 v 2 t 1 d 1 68.3 142.6 154.6 v 2 t 1 d 2 57.0 119.8 131.8 v 2 t 1 d 3 50.4 114.7 126.7 v 2 t 2 d 1 97.3 167.2 179.2 v 2 t 2 d 2 94.3 161.3 173.3 v 2 t 2 d 3 80.3 144.5 156.5 v 3 t 1 d 1 41.0 142.3 154.3 v 3 t 1 d 2 34.4 99.7 111.7 v 3 t 1 d 3 25.0 90.4 102.4 v 3 t 2 d 1 62.2 148.2 160.2 v 3 t 2 d 2 52.6 116.0 128.0 v 3 t 2 d 3 37.0 99.7 111.7 v v 1 v 2 v 3 v 1 v 2 v 3 v 1 v 2 v 3 58.7 74.5 42.7 130.3 141.7 116.0 142.3 153.7 128.0 t t 1 t 2 t 1 t 2 t 1 t 2 45.2 72.1 114.6 143.5 126.6 156.0 d d 1 d 2 d 3 d 1 d 2 d 3 d 1 d 2 d 3 70.2 60.1 45.6 151.5 126.3 110.1 163.5 138.3 122.1 v 1 v 2 v 3 v 1 v 2 v 3 v 1 v 2 v 3 t 1 42.3 75.2 58.5 107.3 153.2 125.7 119.3 165.2 137.7 t 2 90.6 34.8 50.6 157.6 110.8 121.3 169.6 122.8 133.3 d 1 74.4 61.4 40.5 154.4 130.7 105.7 166.4 142.7 117.7 d 2 82.7 75.6 65.3 154.9 140.5 129.6 166.9 152.5 141.6 d 3 53.6 43.5 31.0 145.2 107.8 95.0 157.2 119.8 107.0 d 1 d 2 d 3 d 1 d 2 d 3 d 1 d 2 d 3 t 1 58.4 43.5 33.8 140.9 107.4 95.5 152.9 119.4 107.5 t 2 82.1 76.9 57.4 162.1 145.3 124.7 174.1 157.3 136.7 cd (p=0.05) v 1.11 1.45 1.45 t 0.91 1.18 1.18 d 1.11 1.45 1.45 v × t 1.57 2.05 2.05 v × d 1.93 2.51 2.51 t × d 1.57 2.05 2.05 v × t × d 2.73 3.55 3.55 v 1 : arka amar t 1 : 40c d 1 : 50 days storage v 2 : darshan t 2 : room temperature (27±2ºc) d 2 : 70 days storage v 3 : kum kum d 3 : 90 days storage amingad et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):114-117, 2013 117 references arora, j.s., misra, r.l., singh, k., singh, p. and bhattacharjee, s.k. 2002. introduction in gladiolus technical bulletin (14). aicrp – floriculture, iari, pusa, new delhi, 1-36 pp. denny, f.e. 1936. storage temperatures for shortening the rest period of gladiolus corms. contributory boyce thompson institute 8:137-140 ginzburg, c. 1973. hormonal regulation of cormel dormancy in gladiolus grandiflorus, j. exptl. bot., 24:558566 hsieh, k.c. and huang, s.t. 1970. a study on measuring the dormant period and breaking dormancy in gladiolus bulbs. taiwan agri. quarterly, 6:92-103 jean ming hong, lin tshenchan, sheng chungteh, wu gwo dean, chen wenhuei, huang tungjui. 1997. the optimal period of constant cold temperature storage for breaking dormancy of gladiolus flower bulbs. report of the taiwan sugar research institute, 156:37-48 sas v 9.2. 2008. statistical analysis systems institute inc., cary, nc, usa seenivasan, n. 2001. effect of plant growth regulators on dormancy and growth of gladiolus. m.sc. (hort.) thesis, acharya n.g. ranga agricultural university, hyderabad suh, j.k. and kwack, b.h. 1992. physiological changes in the course of bulbing and dormancy-breaking of gladiolus (gladiolus gandavensis l.). j. korean. soc. hortl. sci., 33:466-470 sun yan zhi and yi ming fang, 2004. influence of storaging temperatures on breaking corm dormancy and germination of gladiolus. j. agril. univ. hebei, 5:46-50 (ms received 22 october 2011, accepted 15 june 2012, revised 07 february 2012) j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):114-117, 2013 breaking dormancy in corms of gladiolus final sph -jhs coverpage 17-1 jan 2022 single 95 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 95-102, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction ginger of commerce is the underground rhizome of zingiber officinale rosc. (2n=22), belonging to the family zingiberaceae and it is originated from southeast asia. it is one of the oldest and most important spices, being cultivated in tropical asia for over 3000 years. it is one of the earliest oriental spices known to europe and is still in large demand today. the rhizomes may be scraped or peeled before drying and are esteemed for their aroma, flavour and pungency. it may also be used in powdered form (purseglove et al., 1981). largest collection of ginger germplasm (675 accessions) is being conserved at icar-indian institute of spices research, kozhikode, kerala which is also nags centre of ginger. most of the varieties have vernacular names and as the crop is propagated vegetatively hence the chances of mixing are very high. generally, ginger genotypes are identified based on morphological traits, but the assessment of these traits is difficult and their evaluation can be subjective considering that most of these cultivars are related. most of the ginger cultivars are not easily differentiated based on rhizome or aerial morphological features, further confounding the confusion to a greater extent. t he development in molecular approaches for identification of plant varieties/genotypes seems to be more effective than the traditional morphological ma rkers because it a llows dir ect access to the her edit a r y ma ter ia l a nd ma kes it p oss ib le to under s ta nd the r ela tionships , bet ween pla nts (williams et al., 1990; paterson et al., 1991). molecular marker technology is the powerful tool f or det er mi ning genet ic va r ia t io n in ginger genotypes as they can reveal abundant difference among genotypes at the dna level, providing a mor e dir ec t , r elia b le a nd eff ic ie nt t ool f or ger mp la s m c ha r a c t er iz a t ion, c on s er va t ion, ma na gement a nd untouched by envir onmenta l influence. although rapd markers are suitable for genetic diver sity a na lysis of clonal organisms ( ba r da kc i, 2 0 0 1 ) , s s r ma r ker s a r e mor e r epr oducible a nd useful in eva lua ting genetic diversity and cultivar identification (goulao and oliveira 2001; pomper et al., 2010; nas et al., 2011). in view of the above, the present study used both rapd a nd s sr ma r ker s to a na lyz e the pr esence of diver sity a mong differ ent ginger genotypes. molecular characterization of ginger genotypes using rapd and ssr markers akshitha h.j.1,3*, prasath d.2, umesha k.1, mohammed faisal p.3 and venkataravanappa v.4 1college of horticulture, uhs campus, bengaluru, karnataka, india 2 icar-indian institute of spices research, kozhikode, kerala, india 3 icar-indian institute of spices research regional station, appangala, karnataka, india 4icar-iihr central horticultural experiment station, chettalli, karnataka, india *corresponding author e-mail: akshi.hosahalli10@gmail.com abstract genetic diversity among ginger genotypes collected from different parts of the country was studied using molecular markers (30 rapd and 55 ssr). compared to rapd primers ssr primers were efficient in distinguishing the genotypes. a total of 86 and 23 polymorphic bands were observed with rapd and ssr primers, respectively. percentage polymorphism observed between rapd and ssr primers was 97.40 % and 56.54 %. grouping of genotypes by using combined data of rapd and ssr primers indicated that irrespective of their place of collection or geographical origin, 30 genotypes were clustered into different groups which showed that, each individual genotype is having wider variability or it might be due to the genetic similarity existing among them. keyword: ginger, molecular markers, monomorphic and polymorphic 96 akshitha et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 95-102, 2022 material and methods plant material twenty-seven ginger genotypes, one zingiber sp., one curcuma sp. and one kaempferia sp. collected from different parts of the country and maintained at nags centre iisr, kozhikode were used in the study (table s1). genomic dna isolation young leaves from 45-60 days old plants were selected for dna isolation. genomic dna was isolated using the ctab method (syamkumar et al., 2003). one gram of young, clean leaf was ground in liquid nitrogen into fine powder with the help of pestle and mortar. dna was extracted with ctab extraction buffer. dna was purified and quantified by gel (0.8% agarose gel) based quantification. rapd and ssr analysis thirty randomly selected rapd primers were used in the study (table s2). a 25 µl reaction mixture was prepared as follows: 3 µl of dntp (10 mm), 1 µl primer (10 mm), 3.5 µl of 10 x reaction buffer with 15mm mgcl2, 0.5 µl of taq dna polymerase ( 3 u/ μl) a nd 1 . 6 µ l of t empla t e d na. pc r amplification was done in a thermocycler with an initial denaturation of 94 °c for 3 minutes followed by 35 cycles of 94 °c for 45 seconds, annealing at 37 °c for 45 seconds and extension at 72 °c for 1 minute followed by a final extension at 72 °c for 15 minutes. the pcr amplified products were a na lysed on a 1. 5 % agar ose gel sta ined with et hidiu m b r omide. t he gels wer e digit a lly photographed by bio-imaging systems (syngene gbox-chemi, england). a set of 55 ssr primers were used in the present study viz., 22 est ssr primers (anu, 2016), eight ginger genomic ssr primers (lee et al., 2007), 18 genomic ssr primers (siju et al., 2010a) and 7 es t ss r pr imer s (s iju et a l. , 2 01 0b ) f r om curcuma longa (ta ble s3). a 20 µ l r ea ction mixture was prepared as follows: 2 µl of dntp (10 mm), 2 µl primer (10 mm), 2.5 µl of 10 x reaction buffer with 15mm mgcl2, 0.2 µl of taq dna polymerase (3 u/μl) and 1.5 µl of template dna. pcr amplification was done in a thermocycler with an initia l denaturation of 94 °c for 5 minutes followed by 35 cycles of 94 °c for 45 seconds, 45 seconds of annealing temperature (52-65 °c) and extension at 72 °c for 1 minute followed by a final extension at 72 °c for 20 minutes. t he pcr a mplified pr oducts wer e a na lysed on a 3. 0 % agarose gel stained with ethidium bromide. the gels wer e digita lly phot ogr a phed b y bioima ging systems (syngene gbox-chemi, england). data analysis the independent as well as combined data generated for 30 genotypes from rapd and ssr primers were subjected to statistical analysis. rapd and ssr products were scored visually for presence (1) and absence (0) of bands. the scores were used to create a data matrix to analyze genetic relationship using the ntsys-pc program version 2.02 (exeter software, new york, usa) described by rohlf (1990). a dendrogram was constructed based on jaccard’s similarity coefficient (jaccar d, 1908) u s ing the ma r ker da t a fr om t he ginger wit h u nweight ed p a ir gr ou p met hod ( up g m a) . p a r a met er s s uc h a s p i c a nd genot yp ic gene diversity were estimated by using the for mula developed by anderson et al. (1993) and mariette et al. (2002), respectively. results molecular variability of ginger genotypes through rapd using rapd analysis, polymorphic fragments were generated in ginger genotypes. the selection of primers wa s based on clear, scor able a nd r epr oducible amplified banding patterns. out of 30 primers used, 11 rapd primers showed amplification and the number of amplification products obtained was specific to each primer. the size of the amplified products varied from 400 to 2800 bp. of the 11 primers, ten primers viz., opa 09, opa 17, opa 18, opb 08, opd 03, opd 07, opd 18, oph 08, opi 07 and opl 12 were found to show 100 per cent polymorphism which is presented in table 1. of the 88 tota l a lleles obser ved, 86 a lleles wer e polymorphic and maximum numbers of 14 alleles were obtained with primer opl 12, followed by primer opa 09 and opi 07 with 10 alleles. minimum numbers of 3 alleles were generated with primer opd 03. thus, amplifications varied across the primer employed. among the 11 rapd primers, the polymorphism information content (pic) was high in opd 03, opd 07 and oph 08 (0.998) (table 1). 97 molecular characterization of ginger genotypes using rapd and ssr markers table 1. polymorphism among ginger genotypes detected by rapd markers primers total mb pb % % total allele pic genotypic allele mm pm amplicons brange gene diversity opa 09 10 0 10 0 100 55 750-2600 0.981 0.816 opa 17 6 0 6 0 100 80 1000-2500 0.985 0.555 opa 18 8 0 8 0 100 98 400-1800 0.988 0.591 opb 08 6 0 6 0 100 107 500-1500 0.996 0.448 opd 03 3 0 3 0 100 87 1000-2000 0.998 0.275 opd 07 7 0 7 0 100 92 1500-2300 0.998 0.561 opd 18 9 0 9 0 100 169 500-2800 0.993 0.324 oph 08 8 0 8 0 100 70 1200-2700 0.998 0.708 oph 15 7 2 5 28.57 71.43 111 1000-2300 0.997 0.390 opi 07 10 0 10 0 100 175 400-2600 0.993 0.358 opl 12 14 0 14 0 100 253 400-2800 0.988 0.437 total 88 2 86 28.57 1071 10.92 5.463 mean 8 0.18 7.82 2.59 97.40 117.90 0.99 0.50 mb – number of monomorphic bands; pb – number of polymorphic bands; % mm – per cent monomorphism; % pm – per cent polymorphism; pic polymorphism information content each rapd pattern was compared with other patterns and genetic similarity ma trix for all the thir ty genotypes was constructed from binary data of markers using jaccard’s algorithm. the coefficient of genetic similarity ranged from 39 97 per cent. maximum similarity of 95 per cent was noticed between himachal and zaheerabad local. further, the information generated out of rapd banding pattern was used for clustering through unweighted mean pair group arithmetic mean method (upgma) (fig. 1). the genotypes were divided into two main groups, i and ii sharing 39 % similarity which were further subdivided into clusters. among the genotypes, two genotypes (black ginger and mango ginger) were grouped under group i with sharing similarity of 90 % and other 28 genotypes (suravi, iisr rejatha, kau chandra, suruchi, nadia, aswathy, rg 3, acc. 65, suprabha, maran, rio de janeiro, iisr varada, acc. 833, mahim, acc. 578, red ginger, karthika, acc. 219, iisr mahima, gorubathane, sourabh, acc. 247, mohini, athira, bhaise, arunachal pradesh local, himachal and zaheerabad local) were grouped under group ii with sharing similarity of 47 %. group ii consisted of two sub clusters namely a and b sharing similarity of 47 %. cluster a consisted of one genotype viz., arunachal pradesh local. cluster b was sub divided into c and d sharing similarity of 60 %. group c further divided into cluster e and f sharing approximately 65 % similarity. cluster e was subdivided into g and h sharing 70 % similarity. cluster g consisted only one genotype bhaise. cluster h consisted of nine genotypes (acc. 219, acc. 247, ma hima , gor uba tha ne, sour a bh, hima cha l, zaheerabad local, mohini and athira). among the nine genotypes, himachal and zaheerabad local showed 97 % similarity followed by 94 % similarity was observed between mohini and athira as well as acc. 219 and acc. 247. cluster f consisted of three genotypes viz., acc. 578, red ginger and karthika showing 71 % similarity. fig. 1. upgma dendrogram based on rapd markers using jaccard’s similarity coefficient j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 95-102, 2022 98 conducted on ssr banding patterns, indicated that maximum percentage of similarity (100 %) was observed between kau chandra, iisr mahima and mohini; iisr rejatha and nadia; acc 65, suprabha and maran; rio de janeiro and sourabh; suruchi and acc. 833; iisr varada and bhaise. thirty ginger genotypes were used to study their variability through ssr analysis using sixteen primers. the ssr pattern obtained for these genotypes with different primers were defined by the presence or absence of bands. each ssr pattern was compared with each other and euclidean distance matrix was calculated for all the 30 ginger genotypes. the relationship among the genotypes was represented as dendrogram using upgma. the genotypes were divided into two main groups, i and ii sharing 59 % similarity. group i comprised of only one genotype, mango ginger. group ii was further subdivided into cluster a and b with similarity molecular variability of ginger genotypes through ssr out of 55 ssr primers screened, sixteen primers amplified and produced 34 alleles among them 25 were polymorphic bands and 10 were monomorphic bands. ssr fragments ranged from 100 to 1200 bp in size (table 2). maximum number of alleles detected was seven from zom 103 primer. with the average of 62.80 per cent polymorphism produced by sixteen ssr primers, cent per cent polymorphism was detected by the primers zoc 11, zoc 28, zoc 156, zoc 33, zom 064, zom 140 and clest 16. polymorphism information content (pic), a measure of gene diversity was an average of 0.92 with a range of 0.889 by zom 033 to 0.982 by clest 16 primer. jaccard’s similarity coefficients among the thirty genotypes helped to establish genetic relationships (fig. 2). phylogenetic analyses of thirty genotypes, table 2. polymorphism among ginger genotypes detected by ssr markers primers total mb pb % % total allele pic genotypic allele mm pm amplicons brange gene diversity zoc 11 1 1 0 100 0 30 250 0.893 0 zoc 28 3 0 3 0 100 31 150-280 0.923 0.655 zoc 92 1 1 0 100 0 30 190 0.943 0 zoc 98 3 1 2 33.33 66.66 88 250-280 0.952 0.022 zoc 100 2 1 1 50 50 58 150-170 0.922 0.033 zoc 156 3 0 3 0 100 36 150-250 0.897 0.60 zoc 33 1 0 1 0 100 29 180 0.889 0.633 zom 040 2 1 1 50 50 42 190-210 0.921 0.3 zom 055 1 1 0 100 0 30 190 0.921 0 zom 064 1 0 1 0 100 28 250 0.954 0.066 zom 103 7 2 5 28.57 71.43 101 150-1200 0.988 0.545 zom 107 3 1 2 33.33 66.66 32 190-400 0.893 0.644 zom 111 1 1 0 100 0 30 300 0.906 0 zom 140 2 0 2 0 100 58 140-150 0.940 0.033 clest 15 1 1 0 100 0 30 150 0.948 0 clest 16 2 0 2 0 100 56 170-190 0.982 0.066 total 34 11 23 695.23 904.75 709 14.87 3.597 mean 2.12 0.68 1.43 43.45 56.54 44.31 0.92 0.22 mb – number of monomorphic bands; pb – number of polymorphic bands; % mm – per cent monomorphism; % pm – per cent polymorphism; pic polymorphism information content akshitha et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 95-102, 2022 99 percentage of 74. cluster a consisted of 2 genotypes (acc. 578 and black ginger) sharing similarity of approximately 81 %. cluster b was subdivided into 2 clusters c and d sharing percentage similarity of 84 %. cluster c divided into 2 sub clusters e and f with 89 % similarity. cluster e consisted of 4 genotypes namely red ginger, athira, karthika and zaheerabad local sharing 92 % similarity. cluster f consisted of 8 genotypes viz., suruchi, acc. 833, aswathy, rg 3, iisr varada, bhaise, acc. 219 and gorubathane. among the 8 genotypes suruchi and acc. 833 shared 100 % similarity; iisr varada and bhaise were also 100 % similar to each other. cluster d was subdivided into 2 clusters namely g and h with similarity percentage of approximately 88 %. cluster g consisted of 7 genotypes sharing 91 % similarity, among 7 genotypes acc. 65, suprabha and maran showed 100 % similarity and rio de janeiro and sourabh were also 100 % similar. cluster h consisted 8 genotypes sharing 91 % similarity, among them genotypes kau chandra, iisr mahima and mohini were 100 % similar. similarly, genotypes iisr rejatha and nadia also showed 100 % similarity. molecular variability of ginger genotypes through pooled rapd and ssr markers the data obtained on rapd and ssr primers were pooled to assess the polymorphism. data obtained from pooled analysis of rapd and ssr primers revealed that, the ginger genotypes were divided into 2 main groups i and ii sharing 49 % similarity (fig. 3). group i consisted of only one genotype black ginger. group ii was further subdivided into 2 clusters a and b sharing approximately 50 % similarity. cluster a consisted of only one genotype i.e., mango ginger. cluster b further divided into cluster b and d with 53 % similarity. cluster c consisted of two genotypes (himachal and zaheerabad local) sharing approximately 63 % similarity. cluster d is subdivided into cluster e and f sharing similarity percentage of 68. cluster e was subdivided into g and h with 72 % similarity. cluster g consisted of eight genotypes namely acc. 219, iisr ma hima, gorubatha ne, mohini, athira, acc 247, sourabh and bhaise. among them, acc. 247 and sourabh showed maximum similarity of 90 %. cluster h consisted of three genotypes, acc. 578, red ginger and karthika sharing 77 % similarity. cluster f was divided into 2 clusters, i and j sharing 77 % similarity. cluster i consisted of nine genotypes namely aswathy, rg 3, acc. 65, suprabha, maran, rio de janeiro, iisr varada, acc. 833 and mahim. among them, genotypes suprabha and maran showed 100 % similarity. cluster j consisted of 5 genotypes (suravi, kau chandra, iisr rejatha, suruchi and nadia) sharing approximately 83 % similarity. comparison of rapd and ssr marker systems for their efficacy in assessing genetic diversity of ginger genotypes to compare the utility of the two marker systems, thirty ginger genotypes were analyzed with eleven rapd and sixteen ssr primers. various parameters viz., total number of alleles, number of polymorphic ba nds per a ssa y unit, mea n per centa ge of polymorphism per assay, number of monomorphic bands per assay and polymorphic information content (pic) value were recorded as criteria to differentiate their efficacy and the results are presented in table 3. fig. 2. upgma dendrogram based on ssr markers using jaccard’s similarity coefficient fig. 3. upgma dendrogram based on rapd and ssr markers using jaccard’s similarity coefficient molecular characterization of ginger genotypes using rapd and ssr markers j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 95-102, 2022 100 the mean number of alleles per assay unit, number of polymorphic and monomorphic bands per assay unit in ssr analysis was 16.0, 1.56 and 0.62 respectively, and in case of rapd primers it was 11.0, 7.82 and 0.18 respectively. mean percentage of polymorphism per assay was 96.97 % in rapd, whereas, it is 62.80 % in case of ssr primers. discussion knowledge of the genetic variation within and among popula tions is a n impor ta nt component for understanding the variability in any crop. therefore, information on population diversity may be used in selection and crop improvement process. molecular methods are much faster, more specific, sensitive and accurate. molecular markers are nowadays widely used to distinguish the genotypes in sever a l horticulture crops (li et al., 2007; karimi et al., 2010 and ansari and singh 2013 and 2014). as ginger is clonally propagated and it is difficult to distinguish between the genotypes using morphological markers, molecula r a ppr oa ches a r e highly useful for characterization of ginger genotypes. in the present study 30 rapd and 55 ssr markers were used to study the genetic variability. rapd dendrogram was not associated with exact geogr a phica l loca lities fr om which the ginger genotypes wer e collected. t he consider a ble polymorphism detected in this study illustrated that, it is possible to find genetic divergence among ginger cultivars of the same origin. these results are in accordance with nayak et al. (2005) and sera et al. (2003), who also reported similar results in ginger and coffee respectively. these results in ginger indicate that, rapd markers were able to provide more reliable information than morphological characters to identify closely related ginger genotypes (nayak et al., 2005 and palai and rout 2007). diversity among the cultivars revealed the presence of genotypic diversity among the genotypes. variability to certain extent might be due to the different environmental conditions. ssrs are widely used as versatile tool in plant breeding programme as well as in evolutionary studies because of their ability for showing diversity among the cultivars (adato et al., 1995). therefore, in the present investigation, out of 55 ssr primers screened, 16 primers amplified and produced 34 alleles among them 23 were polymorphic bands and 11 were monomorphic bands. pandotra et al. (2013); das et al. (2016); jatoi et al. (2006) and lee et al. (2007) also reported the use of ssr markers to study the variability a nd genetic diversity existing at the population level. dendrogram obtained revealed that, irrespective of their place of collection or geographical origin they have grouped into different clusters which showed that, each genotype selected in the study is having wide variability or it may be due to genetic similarity existing among them. ssr primers used were highly efficient in separating curcuma sp. from the zingiber species but those did not distinguish the ginger genotypes ba sed on a ny char a cter or place of collection. jatoi et al. (2006) also reported that clustering pattern within the genus zingiber did not reflect any relationship between genotypic variation and place of collection. similar results were obtained by jaleel and sasikumar (2010) and they reported that, collection of the accessions based on vernacular identity irrespective of the geographical proximity may be the probable reason for this behaviour. it also implies that genes amplified by the markers need not be strictly linked with any agronomic traits. table 3. comparative analysis of banding patterns generated by rapd and ssr components rapd ssr number of alleles per assay unit 11 16 total amplicons 1297 709 total number of alleles 88 34 mean number of alleles per assay unit 8 2.12 number of polymorphic bands per assay unit 7.83 1.43 mean (%) polymorphism per assay 97.40 56.54 number of monomorphic bands per assay unit 0.18 0.68 mean pic per assay 0.99 0.92 akshitha et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 95-102, 2022 101 conclusion rapd and ssr primers were used to study the diversity among ginger genotypes collected from different agro climatic regions of the country. among 11 rapd primers, ten primers viz., opa 09, opa 17, opa 18, opb 08, opd 03, opd 07, opd 18, oph 08, opi 07 and opl 12 were found to show 100 per cent polymorphism. among the sixteen ssr primers, cent per cent polymorphism was detected by the primers zoc 11, zoc 28, zoc 156, zoc 33, zom 064, zom 140 and clest 16. irrespective of their place of collection or geographical origin, 30 ginger genotypes were clustered into different groups which showed that, each individual genotype is having wider variability or it may be due to the genetic similarity existing among them. references ada t o, a. , s ha r on, d . a nd l a vi , u. 1 9 9 5 . ap p lic a t i on of d n a f inger p r int s f or identification and genetic analyses of mango (mangifera indica) genotypes. j. am. soc. hortic. sci., 120: 259-264. anderson, j. a., churchill, g. a., autrique, j. e., tanksley, s. d. and sorrels, m. e. 1993. optimizing parental selection for genetic linkage maps. genome, 36: 181-186. ansari, a. m. and singh, y. v. 2013. molecular diversity of brinjal (solanum melongena l.) genotypes revealed by rapd marker. j. res. 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final sph -jhs coverpage first 2 pages.pdf 00 content and in this issue.pdf 01 mohan kumar g n.pdf 02 meera pandey.pdf 03 biradar c.pdf 04 varalakshmi b.pdf 05 vijayakumari n.pdf 06 barik s.pdf 07 sajid m b.pdf 08 ranga d.pdf 09 usha s.pdf 10 manisha.pdf 11 amulya r n.pdf 12 akshatha h j.pdf 13 adak t.pdf 14 sujatha s.pdf 15 gowda p p.pdf 16 subba s.pdf 17 dhayalan v.pdf 19 ahmed s.pdf 20 vishwakarma p k.pdf 21 deep lata.pdf 22 udaykumar k p.pdf 23 nayaka v s k.pdf 24 sahel n a.pdf 25 bayogan e r v.pdf 26 rathinakumari a c.pdf 27 yella swami c.pdf 28 saidulu y.pdf 29 sindhu s.pdf 30 neeraj.pdf 31 sivaranjani r.pdf 32 rashied tetteh.pdf 34 sangeetha g.pdf 35 shareefa m.pdf 36 last pages.pdf 61 genome wide analysis of heat responsive micrornas in banana during acquired thermo tolerance s. m. vidya1,2 , r. h. laxman3, k. v. ravishankar*1 1division of biotechnology, icar-iihr, hesaraghatta, bengaluru 560 089. 2department of biotechnology, centre for post graduate studies, jain university, jayanagar, bengaluru 560 011, india. 3division of plant physiology and biochemistry, icar-iihr, hesaraghatta, bengaluru 560 089, india. *e-mail: kv_ravishankar@yahoo.co.in, kvravi@iihr.res.in abstract micrornas are a class of small regulatory rnas in plants, which play vital roles during various abiotic and abiotic stress conditions including plant processes. in this present study, we examined the expression of mirnas and their predicted target expression levels during heat stress in banana. out of 235 mirna found in musa, 40 mirna showed homology to heat responsive mirnas from other plants. further, 14 targets for mirna were predicted that are potentially regulated by their cognate mirnas and were monitored under three stages of stress viz, induction, induction + lethal alone using qpcr analysis. the results suggest that generally, there is a negative relationship in the expression patterns of mirna and their predicted cognate targets hsp70, hsp90, sap, dnaj genes. these were highly up regulated and their respective mirnas showed lower expression. this is the first report in banana, which demonstrated that during induction stress, various thermo-protective genes are activated at initial stages of stress to achieve thermotolerance through altered mirna expression. the results will help in broadening our understanding acquired thermotolerance and their regulation by mirnas in plants. key words:acquired thermo tolerance, banana, heat stress, mirna,thermo protective genes. j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 61-71, 2018 original research paper introduction micrornas (mirnas) are a class of small nonprotein-coding rnas previously was considered as junk, with a nucleotide length of 20–24 and are involved in regulation ofa broad range of metabolic and physiological processes (bartel, 2004; mallory and vaucheret, 2006; ruiz-ferrer and voinnet 2009) indicating that mirnas also play an important role in plant response to abiotic and biotic stresses.the mir393 and other mirnas are induced by cold stress in arabidopsis and mir169g and mir393 are upregulated under drought stress in rice (zhao and srivastav, 2007). sunkar and zhu (2004) reported that expression of mir393 to be strongly up-regulated by cold, dehydration, and nacl treatments in radish, mir397b and mir402 are slightly up-regulated by all the stress treatments, whereas mir319c appears to be up-regulated by the cold. thus, mirnas can be used as a promising tool to improve our understanding plant response to environmental stresses. differential expression of mirnas was seen in response to heat stress in wheat and banana revealed through high-throughput transcriptome sequencing (xin et al., 2010). they cloned small rnas from heatstressedwheat leaves. among the 32 mirna families identified in wheat, nine conserved mirnas were putatively heat-responsive. in a study on banana roots under salt stress, mirnas and their targets that r esponded wer e identified using tr a nscr iptome sequencing. results indicate that several of the differentially expressed genes (deg) were majorly down-r egulated in mirnas, and incr ea sed the expression of predicted target-genes. the targets were found to participate in diverse signaling and stress defense pathways (lee et al., 2015). plants have an inherent ability to survive at high temperatures (basal thermotolerance) and to acquire thermotolerance (senthil kumar et al., 2003). acquired thermotolerance may be induced by either exposure to short but sub-lethal high temperatures (de klerk 62 banana heat responsive mirnas j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 61-71, 2018 and pumisutapon et al., 2012), or,by a gradual temperature increase to lethally high levels experienced under natural conditions (larkindale and vierling, 2008), therefore reflecting a natural mechanism contributing to thermotolerance in plants. in bananas (musa spp.), heat stress is a serious threat to yield and affects productivity. in our study, heat-stress related mirna and their targets were predicted; subsequently, their conser vation and expression patterns during acquired thermotolerance were determined. material and methods plant material and stress treatment five to six week old uniform banana seedlings (grand naine) were used for temperature induction responses (tir) experiment. three different stages of stress viz, control (c), induction stress (i), induction + lethal stress (i+l), were employed for heat stress treatment. control plants were maintained at room temperature around 30°c. heat treatment was given in the temperature controlled growth chamber. the plants were kept at 32°c and the temperature was slowly increased to 42°c for 2.5 hrs called “induction” stress, and later the plants were shifted to 55°c for 2 hrs (referred as “induction + lethal” or i+l). after each stress treatment leaf samples were immediately harvested and frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored in 80°c until use (vidya et al., 2017). mirna prediction initial identification of mirnas involved in heat stress, in plants was based on previous studies (reference). mirnas from different plants such as a. thaliana (fujiiet al., 2005) wheat (xin et al., 2010), maize (gonget al., 1997) and cotton (he et al., 2014), which were involved in heat stress were selected in this study. t hey wer e individua lly examined through homology search using blast software (ncbi) against 235 mirnas reported in banana (d’hont et al., 2012). finally, 40 mirna from banana sequences, which showed homology to hea t r es pons ive mir nas wer e chos en f or experimental (supplementary table 1). pr imer s wer e designed using mirpr imer software (balcellset al., 2011), where a primer and primer pair are assigned a score for each of the features that are relevant for the performance in qpcr. the output consists of a list of primer pairs ranked according to score. the best possible 3oend sequence of the primer and then make the primer longer towards the 5o end until a tm of 59°c to 60°c reached were chosen (supplementarytable 1). target gene prediction a web based plant small rna target analysis software psrnatarget (http://plantgrn.noble.org/ psrnatarget; dai and zhao, 2011) was used to predict the mrna target genes for selected heat responsive mirnas (supplementary table 2) with the following default parameters: maximum expectation of 3.0, length for complementarity scoring of 20 bp, target accessibility-allowed maximum energy to unpair the target site (upe) of 25.0, flanking length around target site for target accessibility analysis of 17 bp in upstream and 13 bp in downstream, and a range of central mismatch leading to translation inhibition of 9 to11 nt. in order to validate the target gene association with the mirna, fourteen-target genes expression was examined using quantitative real-time pcr analysis. rna extraction total rna was extracted from the leaf samples following the “pine tree method” (chang, 1993), from three biological replicates for each treatment. rna qua ntifica tion was done using the na no drop (spectramax m2, molecular devices) and 10µg of total rna was treated with rnase free dnase (cat no #am1907, ambion) following the manufacturer ’s instructions.rna integrity was examined on 1.2% agarose gel prior and after dnase treatments. mirna specific cdna synthesis first strand cdna synthesis was performed by using a miscript ii rt kit (qiagen) following the manufacturer’s protocol. further, cdna was diluted to 1:10 concentration and used for further study, qrtpcr was performed using dynamo flash sybr green qpcr master mix (thermo scientific, #218161) using abi7500 (applied biosystem). expression analysis of mirna and targets the total rna was converted to cdna. for mirna, the cdna synthesis kit used was miscript ii rt kit and for target genes cdna was prepared using 63 vidya et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 61-71, 2018 the revert aid rt kit (thermo scientific, #k1622) following manufacturer ’s instructions. qpcr for mirna wa s done using pr imer s listed in supplementary table 1 and target genes primers are listed in supplementary table 2. qpcr was performed using sybr green ma ster mix (rox) using abi7500 (applied biosystem). 2l of cdna template was added to 10l of sybr green master mix (rox) and h2o to a final volume of 20l reaction. thermal profile for qpcr was: 50°c for 2 min, 95°c for 10 min, followed by 39 cycles each consisting of 95°c for 15 sec and 60°c for 1 min, 72°c for 30sec. 25s gene was used as an endogenous contr ol (ling et al. , 2014). t he comparative ct method was used to calculate the fold change of transcript between an experiment and calibrator sample (schefe et al., 2006). statistical analysis data from different treatments were statistically a na lyzed using one-wa y a na lysis of va r ia nce (anova) method using ms-excel.the data were presented as mean values [mean ± standard error (se)]. results identification of heat stress responsive mirna using previously reported heat responsive mirnas from plants wheat (xin et al., 2010), maize (singletary et al., 1994), cotton (he et al., 2014), a. thaliana(sunkaret al., 2007) a comparison was done with banana genome. these mirnas were compared with mirnas of banana through homology search using blastn with the cut off value of e value <1e10 was employed. we found 40 mirnas that were identified as heat responsive in banana genome. the identified mirnas were analyzed through, qpcr in heat stress treatments. validation of heat-responsive mirna t he predicted 40 mirnas wer e initia lly sta ndardized, with 25s gene as a n endogenous reference control by qpcr. later, only14 mirnas were selected for further studies. under heat stress (hs), the variation in the expression of these identified mirna was observed in cultivar grand naine. in order to validate the identified conserved mirnas, all the 14 mirnas sequences (4 up-regulated and 10 downregulated) were subjected to quantitative real timepcr under the differential heat stress conditions. in cultivar grand naine, higher levels of expression were observed in case of mir399, where fold change was 2.1 during induction (i), 4.0 fold in induction + lethal (i+l). similarly, mir156, and mir169 were also up-regulation greater than the reference 2.2, 2.2 folds, and 2.1, 2.0 folds respectively in i, i+l respectively. the majority of mirnas showed down regulation under heat stress, the significant ones such as mir171 having 0.9, 0.7 fold change, mir3970.5,0.6, mir398-0.5,0.4and mir4140.7,0.6, mir854-0.1,0.1 fold change in i and i+l respectively (fig. 1). identification of mirna specific target genes the differentially expressed mirnas were used for the target prediction analysis. in order to identify mirna specific targets, a plant small rna target ana lysis server psrnata rget softwar e, (http:// plantgrn.noble.org/psrnatarget/;dai and zhao, 2011) was used to predict target genes. plant mirnas usually bind to the protein-coding region of their target genes with nearly perfect sequence complementarities, which results in either degradation of their target mrnas or translation (rhoades et al., 2002). based on analysis, we have selected 14 target genes (mrna) for each of the mirnas.the predicted targets were found to be involved in diverse metabolic and physiological processes, transcription factors, signal transduction, disease resistance proteins, cell differentiation and growth. validation of target genes by quantitative real time pcr we have examined the expression of the target genes, using qpcr. the transcript profiling of heat shock protein dnaj was found to have highest level of expression (induction 4.9, i+l 4.8) followed by hsp90 (4.6, 4.8), hsp70 (3.2, 3.8), stress associated protein (3.7, 3.1) respectively. highly down-regulated targets were glutathione synthase (0.1, 0.2), ribosomal protein s8 (0.18, 0.2). discussion heat stress affects growth and development, thus reducing the productivity of crops. plant mirnas 64 banana heat responsive mirnas j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 61-71, 2018 supplementary table 1:list of primer sequences used in qpcr for mirna sr. no. primer name primer sequences (5’-3’) 1 mir399f ggg gaa aat ggc agg gca att ctc r cca gtt ttt ttttttttt tgc caa agg cca aag 2 mir169f gcc aag gat gac ttg cct gtg tc r ggt cca gtt ttt ttttttttt tag gag agg aga gg 3 mir400f acg cag cgc agt atg aga gta tta taa gt r ggt cca gtt ttt ttttttttt tgt gag tga gtg ag 4 mir854f cgc cgc agg atg agg ata gg r ggt cca gtt ttt ttttttttt tct cct cctcct c 5 mir390f atg ggt aag tag gaa ctt gtg ttc tgt ttg tct aga g r cca gtt ttt ttttttttt tga gta gga tga gta gga tga g 6 mir414f cgc cgc agt cat ctt cat catcat c r gtc cag ttt tttttttttttt gac gga cgg ac 7 mir397f gcc cag cgc tgc act ca r ggt cca gtt ttt ttttttttt tcg tcgtcg t 8 mir156f ttg aca gaa gag agt gag cac aca g r agg tcc agt ttt ttttttttt tta cca cca cc 9 mir159f cgc gcg cag ttt gga ttg aag r cag gtc cag ttt tttttttttttt aag aagaagaagaag aa 10 mir393f caa agg gat cgc att gat cca cac r gtc cag ttt tttttttttttt gag agg aga gga g 11 mir529f gcg cag ctg tac cct ctc tc r gtc cag ttt tttttttttttt gaa gaa gga aga agg aa 12 mir398f cca aag gta gcc aag gac aaa ctt gc r ggt cca gtt ttt ttttttttt tct gct gct gc 13 mir171f acc ttt ttt ctg att gag ccg tgc caa tat ctt ag r cag gtc cag ttt tttttttttttt atg atgatgatgatgatg note: mir156f/r primers were used for two targets. 65 supplementary table 2: sequences for primers used for target genes in qpcr analysis sr. no. predicted targets forward primer (5’-3’) reverse primer (5’-3’) 1 outer envelope protein of 80 kda tgggacaaacagcgtaagag tccatagtctccaaacagcac 2 glutamate synthase ggatgaagtggaacctgctag accagtgttagatt tgcct cc 3 putative pentatricopeptide repeattggataggtttggcgatgtg t ccct caact t taat gcct ct g containing protein. 4 stress-induced protein, ctcgt ctatatcact gccat ct g gtcatgtatcgtcacagt ccag 5 camk includes calcium/calmodulindegtagatatgtggagtcttggcg gagaatggactgcgaaaatgg pedent protein kinases, expressed 6 heat shock protein dnaj cat cgt ct cct tt tgt cctcg t cagcat ccctt t ccagtt c 7 heat shock 70 kda gatgagaaggatgtgagaggg atatt ctccacact caaccct g 8 t ropinonereductase. tcgcctaccctcatctcaag ccatgaagcctacgacagaag 9 gamyb cctggtcgcactgataatgag gct gacaatctgagtttgctg 1 0 serine/threonine-protein kinase receptor. tt gcgaccagtt ctacct tg tggctgtagtcaacgaagtg 1 1 putative squamosa promoter-bindinggat ctgtatgt tcgt ctggtcg t gat tt t ct ct t t cct gcccc like protein 12 1 2 sod cgttgatggagtagctgagg agtggtaaggctgagttcatg 1 3 ribosomal protein s8 aagacccgtatccttgat gtg tccaatctcaaccccgtaatg 1 4 hsp90 cctgagtctctagt tgtggaaatc tcgccgtaaagaacaccaac vidya et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 61-71, 2018 function as a gene regulator through binding to the protein-coding region of their target genes, further to initiate degradation or translational repression of the transcripts (palatniket al., 2003). in case of musa species, 37 mirna families in musaa genome (d’hontet al., 2012) and 42 mirna families in musa b genome (davey et al., 2013) were identified. in this study, through homology search we identified 40 heat responsive mirnas, of which 14 mirnas, and their targets expression were analyzed during various stages of heat stress treatment. the induction stress treated banana plants (32o c42o c for 2 hrs and 30 min), which were later challenged with high temperature (55o c for 2 hrs), showed better recovery. this showed that induced plants, show better tolerance than the non-induced ones through acquired thermotolerance (vidya et al., 2017). in order to investigate the regulation of mirnas and their targets, during thermotolerance, differential expression analysis was done. the mir397 was less expressed under hs, compared to control, in case of cv. grand naine, the mir397 was observed to be down regulated due to heat stress at the induction stage (figure 1a). the down-regulation of mir397, and higher expression of the its predicted target gene hsp70 which is a thermoprotective gene (vidya et al, 2016b). we have also recorded higher expression of hsp70 at induction and i+l stages(yu et al., 2010, vidya et al., 2018). similarly, mir414, mir854, and mir171 expression were down regulated during induction sta ges. t he pr edicted ta r gets a r e dnaj(figure 1b), stress associated proteins (saps) (figure 1c) and heat shock protein 90 (figure 1d) respectively was up regulated during heat stress. in one of the studies, carried out on stress associated protein gene (sap’s) on banana, the expression profiles of musasap1 also showed up regulation at 24 and 48hrs of drought, heat stress which is also in agreement with the results we have observed here (shekhawat et al., 2015). from the earlier studies, it is well known tha t hsp70, hsp90, dnaj, sap a cts a s thermoprotective genes. the alteration in expression pattern of heat responsive mirnas (mir397, mir414, mir854, mir171) thus regulating the expression levels of thermoprotective genes (hsp70, hsp90,dnaj, sap) during heat stress indicates their direct role in tolerance to heat stress. under heat stress, mir398 expression was decreased, and its target superoxide dismutase (sod) (beauclairet al., 2010) expression was up-regulated (figure 1e). mir398 has been reported to be involved in tolerance. heat stress triggers the accumulation of ros, up-regulating the antioxidant activity. similar 66 pattern was observed in arabidopsis (yan et al., 2012) for mir398, under oxidative stress where down regulation of mir398 enhanced the expression of csd1 and csd2 (sunkar et al., 2006). similarly, mir400 was also down regulated during hs. the mir400 regulates pentatricopeptide repeat (ppr) genes (figure 1f). however, the mir400 target pentatricopeptide repeat (ppr), which is involved in plant development and abiotic stress, was up-regulated by heat stress in arabidopsis (park et al., 2014) mir393 targets serine/ threonine-like receptor kinases called receptor-like kinases (rlks) (figure 1g), which are the major class of cell surface receptor. the relative expression of the target gene was down regulated suggesting that the rlks play a vital role under heat stress responses (bhargava et al., 2013). these observations were supported by earlier studies. in a transgenic study on arabidopsis where down regulation of mirna mir398 enhanced the expression of targets, hsp70. the plants were heat tolerant when compared to the wild type (guan et al., 2013). for mir399, mir529 and mir169, the target genes are outer envelope 80kda protein (figure 1h), ribosomal protein (figure 1i) and glutamate synthase (figure 1j) respectively. these mirnas were upregulated by heat stress, correspondingly the target genes were down regulated. the target genes are majorly involved in protein synthesis. the ribosomal protein, membrane proteins are involved in protein synthesis, since it is a highly energy demanding process and protein synthesis is at low level during hs (pillai et al., 2007). it is also observed that the expressions of these mirnas were significantly altered during the induction stress treatment, suggesting that they respond to mild stress. mir169 and mir399 which were most frequently found heat responsive micro rna’s in plant system and were up regulated with their respective targets being down regulated in response to heat stress (chai et al., 2015). the results observed here were consistent with the previous reports that they are responsive to heat stress in both rice and wheat (xin et al., 2010; yu et al., 2010). the remaining mirnas (mir159, mir390) expressions are not altered much in our study. these mirnas have targets gamyb for mir159 (figure 1k), calmodulin for mir390 (figure 1l) and spl for mir156 (figure 1m). calmodulin was upregulated only in induction stress. however, myb was up-regulated in all the stress treatments. in one of the studies on triticum aestivum l, in contrasting cultivars the tagamyb was found to be decreased initially and increased during 2 hrs of heat stress treatment. therefore, we speculate that myb plays an important role in the aspect of plant growth and development, stem elongation and the up-regulation of these genes confirms its role in heat stress.the remaining mirnas studied wa s mir156, ta r get being squamosapromoter-binding like (spl) a nd tropinonereductase (tr) (figure 1n) gene was highly down regulated during lethal conditions compared to mild heat stress i.e induction stress (figure 1m). the spl gene in r ice, wa s obser ved to ha ve complementarity to mir156, was expressed in the leaves and shoots (xieet al., 2006). mir390 was observed to have no alteration in i and i+l due to heat str ess suggesting that the corresponding targets calmodulin-binding proteins which are involved in calcium signaling are regulated (figure 1l). however, ther e wa s r eduction in expression if thestress levels increased when compared to control conditions where the fold change was 0.9. the probable reason for this might be ca2+ signaling was not altered by heat stress in the tolerant cultivar gr a nd na ine. it ha s been demonstr a ted tha t involvement of calmodulin in on heat shock induced thermotolerance in maize seedlings (gong et al., 1997) and possibly similar pathway could be operating in banana these findings indicate that relationships between mirnas and their target genes expression vary and not always one-to-one. the expression patterns of mirnas and corresponding target genes had negative relation as well. a negative correlation between the expression of mirnas and their target genes was also observed that the correspondence between the expression pattern of mirna and their targets can vary between mrnas belonging to the same gene family and even for the same target mrna at different developmental stages (lopez-gomollonet al., 2012). plants have ability to adopt various strategies to optimize their response to thermotolerance. one of them might be the cha nge in pa tter n of mirnaexpression, thus, altering expression of thermoprotective genes is achieved. for example, banana heat responsive mirnas j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 61-71, 2018 67 figure 1 : expression analysis of mirna and their respective target genes under different heat stress conditions. each column represents the mean±se of three biological replicates. vidya et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 61-71, 2018 68 banana heat responsive mirnas j. hortl. sci. vol. 13(1) : 61-71, 2018 69 hsp70, hsp90,dnaj, sap has a direct relevance during thermotolerance and are regulated by mirnas. induction stress activates an array of signal transduction pathways, which helps in adaptation to severe stress (srikanthbabu et al., 2002; lindquist,1986). the results of the present study indicate that changes in expression levels of mirna, which further alters the expression of many thermoprotective genes during induction and i+l. this is further expected to confer tolerance to high temperature their-by acquired thermotolerance. conclusions the role of heat stress related mirnain banana has been demonstrated through this study. significant changes in the pattern of mirna expression in banana indicated the key role of mirnas in the heat stressr esponse. an incr ea se in the expr ession of thermoprotective genes regulated by their respective mirnas was evident. mirnas have been reported to be ma ster r egula tor of pla nt gr owth a nd development, though it constitutes only 1 per cent of the total protein-coding genes of an organism. an increase in the expression of hsps like hsp70, hsp90, dnaj and other stress associated proteins and lower expression of respective mirnas indicated their roles in the heat tolerance. therefore, it appeared tha t mirnas are involved in the regula tion of expression of stress associated genes and metabolic pathway associated genes which can impart the tolerance to heat stress in banana. acknowledgments the authors acknowledge the financial support from indian council of agricultural research (icar), new delhi, 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india *e-mail: bhuvana@iihr.res.in abstract tuberose is one among the important commercial flower crops popular for its pleasant fragrance in domestic as well as export market. packaging material plays an important role in retention of freshness of tuberose flowers. at present, tuberose flowers are packaged in bulk in wet gunny bags and sold in whole sale market. for retail market, polyethylene covers are largely used for packaging of tuberose flowers which is not eco friendly. hence, an attempt is made to standardise alternate eco friendly packages which will retain freshness and extend the shelf life of tuberose flowers. experiments were conducted by packaging loose tuberose flowers (cv. local single) in areca nut sheath cup, banana leaf cup and peepal leaf cup. the samples were stored in both ambient (temp 25-26°c, rh 52%) and low temperature (temp 10p c, rh 86%). periodical observations on colour index, freshness index and fragrance index were done using standard procedures. studies revealed that arecanut sheath cup was found suitable for retail packaging of tuberose with higher freshness (82.26%), fragrance (71.21%), had shelf life upto 2 days in ambient storage condition when compared to flowers packaged in banana sheath cup and peepal cup which had less freshness and fragrance index in similar storage condition. in low temperature storage also tuberose flower packaged in areca nut sheath cup had higher freshness index (87.84), colour index (79.63) and fragrance index (71.21), as compared to flowers packaged in banana sheath cup and peepal leaf cup and shelf life of 7 days. key words: tuberose, eco friendly package, shelf life extension, freshness retention introduction tuberose is one among the important commercial flower crops popular for its pleasant fragrance in domestic as well as export market. packaging material plays an important role in retention of freshness of tuberose flowers. at present tuberose flowers are packaged in bulk in wet gunny bags and sold in whole sale market. tuberose loose flowers are packaged in bamboo basket (around 10-15kg are packaged in each basket) and the baskets covered with wet gunny bags or muslin cloth (safeena et al., 2015). they are transported to the nearby wholesale market for selling. for retail market, polyethylene covers are largely used for packaging of tuberose flowers which is not eco friendly. roy chowdhury et al.(2011) reported the beneficial effect of banana leaf over polyethylene and polypropylene in the packaging of tuberose flowers. an attempt is made to standardise eco friendly packages such as areca nut sheath cup, banana sheath cup and peepal leaf cup which will retain freshness and extend the shelf life of tuberose flowers. experiments were conducted by packaging loose tuberose flowers (cv. local single) in areca nut (areca catechu) sheath cup, banana (musa a c u m i n a t a ) s hea t h c u p a nd p eep a l ( fi c u s religiosa) leaf cup. the samples were stored in both ambient (temp 25-26°c, rh 52%) and low temperature (temp 10pc, rh 86%). periodical observations on plw, colour index, freshness index and fragrance index were done. the plw was short communication 198 199 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 198-200, 2017 eco friendly packages in tuberose computed by subtracting fresh weight of flowers on any day from its weight on the previous day and expressed as percentage. visual observations such as colour retention index, freshness index, fragrance index and shelf life (days) were recorded as sensory evaluation scoring (thamaraiselvi et al., 2010). all t he ex p er i ment s wer e c ondu c t ed wit h f ou r r ep lic a t ions a nd s t a t is t ic a lly a na lyz ed us ing completely randomised design (crd) with wasp 2.0 software (bhuvaneswari et al, 2016) among different packages, freshness index (%) of tuberose flower was higher in areca nut sheath cup (82.26), followed by banana sheath cup (78.38), peepal leaf cup (77.14) at ambient storage condition (table.1). in low temperature storage, freshness index in the areca nut sheath cup and banana sheath cup were on par compared to peepal leaf cup (table 2). ma intenance of maximum freshness in flowers might be due to higher levels of moisture content in the areca nut sheath cup. packaging maintains higher humidity which slows down the process of moisture loss. respiration loss also slows down due to proper balance of co2 and o2 (anzueto and rizve,1985). similarly, fragrance index which is the important quality character was higher in tuberose packaged in areca nut sheath cup (71.21), followed by banana sheath cup (66.67) and peepal leaf cup (66.67) both in ambient and low temperature storage (table 1 and table 2). this may be due to biological nature of areca nut sheath to retain the fragrance without any off flavour development. these results are in accordance with the findings of ka r uppaia h et al. (2006). t he fragrance retention of tuberose was higher in areca nut sheath cup kept in low temperature storage (73.33) even after seven days of storage than in ambient condition. colour index which is used to determine the retention of whiteness of tuberose flower during storage was also higher in the flowers packaged in areca sheath cup both in ambient and low temperature storage when compared to other package. low temperature storage of tuberose in areca sheath cup had good colour retention upto 7 days of storage as compared to those stored at ambient condition for 2 days (fig.1 and 2). higher table 2. tuberose in eco friendly packages at low temperature storage (temp.10p c, rh 83%) after 7 days of storage treatments freshness index colour retention index fragrance index plw(%) peepal leaf cup 86.16 77.05 70.11 5.97 arecanut shealth cup 87.84 79.64 70.33 7.60 banana shealth cup 87.98 78.63 70.51 4.16 c.d. at1% 1.072 1.74 1.071 1.31 table 1. tuberose retail package at ambient storage (temp. 25-26°c, rh 52%) after 48h of storage treatments freshness index colour retention index fragrance index plw(%) peepal leaf cup 77.14 76.51 66.67 8.33 arecanut shealth cup 82.26 78.15 71.21 10 banana shealth cup 78.38 77.18 66.67 8.33 c.d. at1% 2.38 1.42 1.36 4.52 fig. 1. tuberose in different packages at ambient storage (temp. 25-26°c, rh 52%) 200 bhuvaneswari and sangama fig. 2. tuberose in different packages at low temperature storage (temp.10pc, rh 83%) anzueto,g.r and rizve,s.s.h. 1985. individual packaging of apples for shelf life extension. j.food.sci.50: 897-900 bhuvaneswari, s., narayana, c.k., udhayakumar, r. and veeregowda, r. 2016. effect of packaging a nd stor age tempera ture on shelf life of minimally processed onion (allium cepa l.). j.hort.sci. 10(2): 216-219 karuppaiah,p., s. ramesh kumar and m.rajkumar. 2006. effect of different packages on the post harvest behaviour and shelf life of jasmine (jasminum sambac). int.j.agri.sci. 2(2) : 447449 roy chowdhury, n., s. chakrabarty and p. munsi. 2011. influence of packaging material, storage references condition and storage duration on vase life of tuberose ‘calcutta double’. proc. xth is on flower bulbs and herbaceous perennials. acta.hort. 886. pp 359-364 safeena s.a, m. thangam, s. priya devi, a.r.desai and n.p.singh. 2015. ready reckoner on cultivation of tuberose. technical bulletin no:50, icar-central coastal agricultural research institute (indian council of agricultural research), ela, old goa-403 402, goa, india. thamaraiselvi, s.p, m. jawaharlal, m. ganga and n. varadharaju. 2010. packaging technology for long term storage of jasmine (jasminumsambac ait.) flowers. j.orn.hort. 13 (3) :171-181 (ms received 06 october 2017, revised 23 november 2017, accepted 12 december 2017) j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 198-200, 2017 relative humidity and lower temperature might have favoured the colour retention of tuberose flower. it was found from the studies that areca nut s hea t h c u p wa s f ou nd s u it a b le ec o f r iendly pa cka ging of tu ber ose with higher f r eshness (82.26%), fragrance (71.21%), had shelf life upto 2 days in ambient storage condition when compared to those packaged in banana sheath cup and peepal leaf. in low temper ature stora ge also tuberose flower packaged in areca nut sheath cup had higher freshness index (87.84), colour index (79.63) and fr agra nce index (71.21), as compared to those packaged in banana sheath cup and peepal leaf cup and shelf life of 7 days. ‘cashew apple’ juice blend with mango, pineapple and sapota for improving quality of rts beverages and economic feasibility thereof anindita roy, b. prasanna kumar*, d.v. swami, p. subbramamma department of fruit science horticultural college & research institute dr. ysr horticultural university, venkataramannagudem tadepalligudem 534 101, west godavari dist., andhra pradesh, india *e-mail: prasanna652002@yahoo.com abstract the present study on value-addition in cashew apple (anacardium occidentale l.) juice by blending it with mango, pineapple and sapota juices for preparation of rts beverage was conducted during the year 2012-2013 at horticultural college and research institute, dr. ysr horticultural university, andhra pradesh, in completely randomized design (crd) with 3 replications and 10 treatments. in the present investigation, ‘cashew apple’ juice extracted from the fruit was blended with fruit juices of mango, pineapple and sapota in various proportions. rts beverages prepared from different blends of cashew apple juice were evaluated for physico-chemical and organoleptic properties at 0, 30 and 60 days of storage, and significant differences were observed. rts beverage prepared from a blend of 25% cashew apple juice + 75% mango juice (t3) recorded a gradual decrease in ph, titrable acidity and ascorbic acid content from 0 to 60 days after storage, whereas, density of the blended juice increased gradually at 0 to 30 days of storage; thereafter it decreased. total soluble solids, reducing sugars and tss/acid ratio gradually increased from 0 to 60 days of storage, followed by 25% cashew apple juice + 75% pineapple juice (t6). organoleptic score for rts prepared from 25% cashew apple juice + 75% mango juice blend (t3), followed by 50% cashew apple juice + 50% mango juice blend (t2), 25% cashew apple juice + 75% pineapple juice blend (t6) and 50% cashew apple juice + 50% pineapple juice blend (t5), were found to be high on quality, viz., colour, taste and overall acceptability, up to 60 days of storage, and were economical for rts preparation. key words: acidity, cashew apple rts, mango, pineapple, reducing sugars, sapota introduction cashew in andhra pradesh was cultivated in the year 2013 in an area of 1.84 lakh hectares with an annual nut production of 1.18 lakh tonnes with an average productivity of 650kg/ha. statistics on production/productivity/area under cultivation are released by directorate of cashewnut and cocoa development (dccd), delhi. the main byproduct of the cashew nut is its peduncle (false fruit) called cashew apple, to which the kidney shaped nut is attached. for every tonne of cashew nut, about 10-15 tonnes of cashew apple is produced, but is not of much use. it is discarded in the orchards under the trees and gets spoiled. wastage of this cashew apple is a great economical loss, both in terms of nutrients and national wealth. it is one of the richest sources of ascorbic acid, and, b-complex and other vitamins. the juice is astringent due to presence of tannins and j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):37-43, 2016 anacardic acid, which causes bitter sensation on both the tongue and the throat when the apples are eaten as such. owing to the very high tannin content, cashew apple juice is clarified by treating it with fining agents. after refining, the cashew apple clarified juice is used for blending it with other fruit juices and rts beverage prepared. the present investigation was carried out to estimate juice content and to standardize rts beverage preparation by blending cashew apple juice with mango, pineapple or sapota juice for quality at different time intervals (days) after storage. material and methods the experiment was conducted in a laboratory of department of post harvest technology, horticulture college and research institute, venkataramannagudem, during the year 2012-2013 in completely randomized design (crd) with 3 replications and 10 treatments. fruits 38 of cashew apple harvested were transported under refrigeration to the laboratory, and were analyzed for physico-chemical properties as well as for preparation of cashew apple juice blends. the other fruits used, viz., mango, pineapple and sapota, were purchased from the local market. cashew apple juice contains a fair amount of tannins, which were strained through a muslin cloth and collected into a wide-mouthed stainless steel container. then, poly vinyl pyrrolidone (pvp) @ 1.4g/l of juice, was added slowly by stirring the juice in a circular motion, till the entire juice formed a curd-like precipitate. the precipitate was allowed to stand for 8 to 12 hours after which the clear supernatant was collected carefully, without disturbing the residue. the clear juice obtained was strained through a muslin cloth and used in differently blended juices as stated by jayalekshmy and salam (2007). treatments were set up in terms of mixing (blending) various juices in different proportions as follows: treatment details t1: 75% cashew apple juice + 25% mango juice t2: 50% cashew apple juice + 50% mango juice t3: 25% cashew apple juice + 75% mango juice t4: 75% cashew apple juice + 25% pineapple juice t5: 50% cashew apple juice + 50% pineapple juice t6: 25% cashew apple juice + 75% pineapple juice t7: 75% cashew apple juice + 25% sapota juice t8: 50% cashew apple juice + 50% sapota juice t9: 25% cashew apple juice + 75% sapota juice t10: 100% cashew apple juice the blended juices were then filled in sterilized bottles of 250ml capacity each, crown-corked and heatprocessed in boiling water (65°c for 30 min), cooled and stored (srivastava and sanjeev kumar, 2002). initial physico-chemical properties of blended juices (ph, density, tss and acidity) are presented in table 1 (i.e., before preparation of rts beverage from each of the blends). rts made from treatment 1 contained 10ml of blended cashew apple juice and mango juice @ 75% and 25%, respectively, along with 10g of sugar and 80 ml of water. this made up 100ml of rts beverage. similarly, treatment 2 to treatment 10 were also readied (100ml rts beverage each) and poured (while still hot) into sterilized bottles of 250 ml capacity each, and, crown-corked and heatprocessed in boiling water at 65°c for 30 min. these were then cooled and stored as per srivastava and sanjeev kumar (2002). quality attributes such as colour, taste and overall acceptance were assessed by a panel of 15 judges, by scoring on a 9-point hedonic scale, as per amerine et al (1965). colour of the clarified juices, blended juices and rts beverage was recorded as per the scale in the descriptor catalogue of directorate of cashew research (dcr), puttur, karnataka. results and discussion quality parameters for rts beverage change in the colour of rts beverage at 0, 30 and 60 days of storage was observed, and the best colour that was recorded in mango and cashew apple blends was at 0 day. a gradual change in colour was observed in 25% cashew apple juice + 75% mango juice blend (t3). this could be due to oxidation of the product, leading to the onset of millard reaction, as reported by sastry et al (1963) in cashew apple. the ph of rts juice prepared from different blends recorded a decreasing trend from 0 to 60 days of storage. ph 3.45 was recorded in 25% cashew apple juice + 75% mango juice blend (t3) among various other rts juices at 0 day of storage, and ph 3.11 at 60 days of storage in 25% cashew apple juice + 75% mango juice blend (t3). this could perhaps be due to an increase in titrable acidity, as, acidity and ph are inversely proportional, as per awis jan table 1. physico-chemical parameters of cashew apple blended juices before rts beverage preparation using various treatments treatment ph density total titrable (kg/m3) soluble acidity solids (%) (obrix) t1: 75% cashew apple juice + 3.63 0.83 10.16 0.91 25% mango juice t2: 50% cashew apple juice + 3.47 0.9 9.63 0.92 50% mango juice t3: 25% cashew apple juice + 3.53 1.03 8.53 0.86 75% mango juice t4: 75% cashew apple juice + 3.56 0.9 10.1 0.97 25% pineapple juice t5: 50% cashew apple juice + 3.48 0.9 10 0.93 50% pineapple juice t6: 25% cashew apple juice + 3.44 1.03 11.56 0.85 75% pineapple juice t7: 75% cashew apple juice + 3.58 0.9 11.06 0.95 25% sapota juice t8: 50% cashew apple juice + 3.66 1.03 13.1 0.92 50% sapota juice t9: 25% cashew apple juice + 3.6 1.06 15.7 0.92 75% sapota juice t10: 100% cashew apple juice 3.53 0.8 9.93 0.89 se(m) 0.02 0.02 0.08 0.01 cd (p=0.05) 0.09 0.07 0.25 0.02 anindita roy et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):37-43, 2016 39 and dorcus masih (2012). similarly, reduction in ph during storage of cashew apple rts juice is due to an increase in level of sugars by hydrolysis and decrease in level of acidity, as reported by sarvesh rustagi and pravesh kumar (2013) in amla-mango blends (table 1, fig. 1). a study on density of the rts beverage in different treatments showed that in cashew apple and sapota juice blend rts, it ranged between 0.87 and 0.97 kg mg-3; but, the lowest range of 0.92 kg mg-3 was observed in cashew apple and mango rts beverage at 0 day of storage, while, the other treatments showed an increasing trend (minimum 0.90 to 1.08 kg mg-3 at 30 and 60 days of storage). however, a moderate range of density (0.91 to1.01 kg mg-3) was observed in 25% cashew apple juice + 75% mango juice blend (t3), which is optimum for the quality of rts beverage, followed by t5 compared of 50% cashew apple juice + 50% pineapple juice. total soluble solids (tss) studied in various treatments showed that cashew apple and sapota mix rts ranged between 15.40 and 16.40obrix; but, the lowest range table 2. effect of length of storage on colour, ph, density and total soluble solids in rts beverage prepared from cashew apple blended juices treatment colour ph density (kg m-3) total soluble solids (obrix) days after storage days after storage days after storage days after storage 0 days 30 days 60 days 0 days 30 days 60 days 0 days 30 days 60 days 0 days 30 days 60 days t1: 75% cashew light light light 3.63 3.16 3.05 0.9 1.06 1.01 15.1 15.43 15.5 apple juice + yellow yellow yellow 25% mango juice t2: 50% cashew yellow light light 3.52 3.77 3.07 0.92 1.05 0.9 14 14.93 15.12 apple juice + yellow yellow 50% mango juice t3: 25% cashew yellow light light 3.45 3.25 3.11 0.91 1.07 1.01 14.86 15.46 15.7 apple juice + yellow yellow 75% mango juice t4: 75% cashew dull light light 4.36 3.14 3.08 0.9 1.04 1.03 14.96 15.03 15.2 apple juice + white yellow yellow 25% pineapple juice t5: 50% cashew dull light light 3.7 3.26 2.84 0.9 1.06 1.05 15.03 15.13 15.14 apple juice + white yellow yellow 50% pineapple juice t6: 25% cashew dull light light 3.55 3.18 3.11 0.94 1.08 1.02 15.1 15.5 15.66 apple juice + white brown brown 75% pineapple juice t7: 5% cashew dull light light 3.53 3.16 2.73 0.95 1.05 1.02 15.4 15.63 15.96 apple juice + white brown brown 25% sapota juice t8: 50% cashew dull light light 3.58 2.86 3.12 0.87 1.06 1.01 15.8 16.36 16.73 apple juice + white brown brown 50% sapota juice t9: 25% cashew dull light brown 3.52 2.9 2.64 0.97 1.07 1.04 16.4 16.76 17.1 apple juice + white brown 75% sapota juice t10: 100% cashew creamy dusky dusky 3.6 3.24 3.08 0.92 1.07 1.03 15.1 15.66 16.06 apple juice white white white se(m) — — — 0.05 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.08 0.09 0.08 cd (p=0.05) — — — 0.17 0.035 0.02 0.03 0.01 0.03 0.24 0.27 0.27 blending cashew apple juice with other fruits juices j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):37-43, 2016 40 of 14.0 to 15.10obrix was observed in the rts blend of cashew apple and mango at 0 day of storage, while, the other treatments showed an increasing trend of a minimum of 14.00obrix (t2) to 17.10obrix (t9) at 0, 30 or 60 days of storage. however, a moderate range of tss (14.86 to 15.70) was observed in a blend of 25% cashew apple juice + 75% mango juice (t3), followed by 50% cashew apple juice + 50% pineapple juice (t5) at 30 and 60 days of storage, respectively. this increased level of tss could be due to hydrolysis of sugars and decreased levels of acidity, as reported by pawar et al (2011) in sapota, and by sarvesh rustagi and pravesh kumar (2013) in cashew apple and amla-mango blends (table 1, fig. 2 & 7). titrable acidity among different treatments with cashew apple and sapota blend rts ranged between 0.53 – 0.64; but, the lowest range of 0.48 0.65 was observed in rts juice of cashew apple and mango juice blend at 0 days of storage. the other treatments showed a decreasing trend in titrable acidity ranging from 0.48 to 0.24 at 0, 30 and 60 days of storage. however, a moderate range of titrable acidity (0.56 0.26) in 50% cashew apple juice + 50% pineapple juice (t5), followed by 25% cashew apple juice + 75% mango juice blend (t3) was recorded at 0, 30 and 60 days of storage. this decreasing trend could be due to increased levels of sugars by hydrolysis and by the decreased levels of acidity. release of acid by decomposition, hydrolysis or oxidation (which modifies the hydrogen ion concentration), results in changed acidity of the rts beverage, as reported by jain et al (1984) in orange and uma et al (2011) in cashew (table 2, fig. 4). reducing sugars (%) among different treatments constituting cashew apple and pineapple rts beverages table 3. effect of storage period on titrable acidity, reducing sugars, tss/acid ratio and ascorbic acid in rts beverages prepared from cashew apple blended juices treatment titrable acidity (%) reducing sugars (%) tss/acid ratio ascorbic acid (mg/100g) days after storage days after storage 0 days 30 days 60 days 0 days 30 days 60 days 0 days 30 days 60 days 0 days 30 days 60 days t1: 75% cashew 0.55 0.53 0.32 2.13 2.37 2.42 27.54 28.23 51.5 13.48 13.1 12.87 apple juice + 25% mango juice t2: 50% cashew 0.48 0.48 0.31 3.76 3.92 4.28 30.35 31.08 33.6 13.05 12.71 12.47 apple juice + 50% mango juice t3: 25% cashew 0.65 0.59 0.32 2.22 2.59 2.64 22.87 26.82 49.4 12.51 11.76 11.66 apple juice + 75% mango juice t4: 75% cashew 0.55 0.54 0.24 3.07 3.16 3.18 27.66 25.82 63.3 11.51 10.9 10.9 apple juice + 25% pineapple juice t5: 50% cashew 0.56 0.53 0.26 5.1 5.18 5.47 26.63 26.33 58.1 16.25 15.05 14.91 apple juice + 50% pineapple juice t6: 25% cashew 0.58 0.53 0.33 5.04 5.04 5.52 25.56 30.06 49.87 25.25 22.2 20.93 apple juice + 75% pineapple juice t7: 75% cashew 0.53 0.51 0.34 3.73 3.8 4.22 28.57 29.36 50.76 30.65 24.64 23.6 apple juice + 25% sapota juice t8: 50% cashew 0.64 0.61 0.37 3.38 3.56 3.56 25.42 27.1 48 18.79 16.69 16.41 apple juice + 50% sapota juice t9: 25% cashew 0.58 0.56 0.36 3.24 3.49 3.57 27.49 29.44 49.61 26.45 24.09 22.48 apple juice + 75% sapota juice t10: 100% cashew 0.97 0.83 0.5 3.12 3.94 4.24 15.46 19.55 32.86 38.07 35.17 34.38 apple juice se(m) 0.01 0.01 0.04 0.27 0.2 0.09 0.34 0.71 0.18 0.55 0.53 0.81 cd (p=0.05) 0.02 0.02 0.1 0.67 0.6 0.28 1.01 2.11 0.05 1.67 1.61 2.39 anindita roy et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):37-43, 2016 41 table 4. effect of storage period on organoleptic score of cashew apple rts beverage prepared from blended juices for colour, taste and overall acceptability treatment colour taste overall acceptability days after storage days after storage days after storage 0 days 30 days 60 days 0 days 30 days 60 days 0 days 30 days 60 days t1: 75% cashew apple juice + 5 6 6 8 6.23 6.66 6.5 6.11 6.33 25% mango juice t2: 50% cashew apple juice + 5 6 5.66 6.66 5.66 6.38 5.83 5.83 6.02 50% mango juice t3: 25% cashew apple juice + 5.1 5.1 5.1 8.66 8.66 8.52 8.33 7.83 7.89 75% mango juice t4: 75% cashew apple juice + 6 5.66 4.9 7 6.16 5.79 6.5 5.91 5.39 25% pineapple juice t5: 50% cashew apple juice + 4.9 5.16 5.16 7.66 6.83 6.9 6.33 5.99 6.03 50% pineapple juice t6: 25% cashew apple juice + 5.66 5.66 5.66 8 7.66 7.6 6.83 6.66 6.63 75% pineapple juice t7: 75% cashew apple juice + 6 6.33 6.33 6.66 5.16 4.76 6.33 5.74 5.54 25% sapota juice t8: 50% cashew apple juice + 5 4.9 5 7.33 6.66 6.68 6.16 5.83 5.84 50% sapota juice t9: 25% cashew apple juice + 5.66 5.66 5.66 7.33 6.5 6.87 6.49 6.08 6.25 75% sapota juice t10: 100% cashew apple juice 8.66 8.5 8.33 8 7.16 7.46 6.83 6.83 6.76 se(m) 0.61 0.61 0.6 0.36 0.24 0.11 0.48 0.42 0.35 cd (p=0.01) 2.02 1.81 1.79 1.08 0.71 0.33 1.54 1.26 1.06 hedonic rating scale: dislike extremely 1 dislike very much 2 dislike moderately 3 dislike slightly 4 neither like nor dislike 5 like slightly 6 like moderately 7 like very much 8 like extremely 9 table 5. cost of production of rts beverage (1000ml) prepared from variously blended juices in different treatments treatment cost of cost of cost of cost of cost of miscellatotal blended preservative bottle labour sugar neous cost juice (rs.) (rs.) (rs.) (rs.) (rs.) (rs.) (rs.) t1: 75% cashew apple juice + 25% mango juice 4.02 1.35 4 3 4.4 5.1 21.87 t2: 50% cashew apple juice + 50% mango juice 4.45 1.35 4 3 4.4 5.1 22.3 t3: 25% cashew apple juice + 75% mango juice 4.87 1.35 4 3 4.4 5.1 22.72 t4: 75% cashew apple juice + 25 % pineapple juice 4.14 1.35 4 3 4.4 5.1 21.99 t5: 50% cashew apple juice + 50% pineapple juice 4.7 1.35 4 3 4.4 5.1 22.55 t6: 25% cashew apple juice + 75% pineapple juice 5.24 1.35 4 3 4.4 5.1 23.09 t7: 75% cashew apple juice + 25% sapota juice 3.45 1.35 4 3 4.4 5.1 21.3 t8: 50% cashew apple juice + 50% sapota juice 3.32 1.35 4 3 4.4 5.1 21.17 t9: 25% cashew apple juice + 75% sapota juice 3.18 1.35 4 3 4.4 5.1 21.03 t10: 100% cashew apple juice 3.6 1.35 4 3 4.4 5.1 21.45 ranged between 3.07 and 5.10; but, the lowest range of (2.13 to 3.76) was observed in rts blend of cashew apple and mango at 0 days of storage. all treatments showed an increasing trend in reducing sugars, ranging from 2.37 to 5.52 at 30 and 60 days of storage. however, a moderate range of reducing sugars (2.22 to 2.64) in 25% cashew apple juice + 75% mango juice blend (t3), followed by 50% cashew apple juice + 50% pineapple juice (t5) was recorded at 0, 30 and 60 days of storage. this increasing trend may be due to the conversion of polysaccharides into reducing sugars in the presence of citric acid, and due to the addition of sugars as reported by sakhale (2012) in mango rts beverage and sarvesh rustagi and pravesh kumar (2013) in mango and amla blend (table 2, fig. 5). similarly, tss/acid ratio in all the treatments showed that total soluble solids increased and the acidity was reduced. correspondingly, tss/acid ratio increased blending cashew apple juice with other fruits juices j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):37-43, 2016 42 with increasing days of storage, viz., 0, 30 and 60 days. however, the highest tss/acid ratio (30.35) was seen in 50% cashew apple juice + 50% mango juice blend (t2) at 0 and 30 days; but, at 60 days of storage, 75% cashew apple juice + 25% pineapple juice blend had a ratio of 63.30 (t4). a steady increase was observed in 25% cashew apple juice + 75% mango juice blend (t3), followed by that in 50% cashew apple juice + 50% pineapple juice (t5) at 0, 30 and 60 days of storage. similar results were reported earlier by akinwale (2000) in cashew apple (table 2, fig. 6). ascorbic acid content among different treatments showed that the cashew apple and sapota rts beverage ranged between 18.79 and 30.65 mg/100g; but, the lowest range of 12.51 to 13.48 mg/100g was observed in the rts beverage of cashew apple and mango at 0 days of storage. all the treatments showed a decreasing trend of a minimum of 10.90 to 23.60 mg/100g at 30 and 60 days of storage. however, a moderately lowest decrease was observed in 25% cashew apple juice + 75% mango juice blend (t3), followed by 50% cashew apple juice + 50% mango juice (t2) and 50% cashew apple juice + 50% pineapple juice (t5) at 0, 30 and 60 days of storage. ascorbic acid content of the rts beverage decreased with advancement in storage period, probably due to the fact that ascorbic acid is sensitive to oxygen, light and heat, and was easily oxidized in the presence of oxygen by enzymatic and non-enzymatic catalysts. this has been stated by mapson (1970) and bhardwaj and mukherjee (2011) in kinnow, aonla and ginger blended rts beverages (table 2, fig. 7). organoleptic score for cashew apple rts for taste was highest (8.66) in 25% cashew apple juice + 75% mango juice blend (t3) at 0, 30 days of storage, followed by 25% cashew apple juice + 75% pineapple juice (t6), and, 75% cashew apple juice + 25% mango juice blend (t1) which were on par with each other. also, at 60 days storage, a score of 8.52 was recorded in 25% cashew apple juice + 75% mango juice blend (t3). overall acceptability was rated highest (8.33) in 25% cashew apple juice + 75% mango juice blend (t3), followed by (6.83) 25% cashew apple juice + 75% pineapple juice (t6), at 0 days of storage. however, organoleptic score for colour, taste and overall acceptability in different treatments decreased with advancing storage period; but, rts beverage prepared from a blend of 25% cashew apple juice + 75% mango juice blend (t3), followed by 25% cashew apple juice + 75% pineapple juice (t6), was stable. similar results were reported by bhardwaj and mukherjee (2011) in kinnow, aonla and ginger blended rts beverages. if the maximum possible quantity of mango or pineapple juice is used in a blend, we can hope to get a higher sensory score and adjust acidity, to yield a good taste to the rts beverage on blending with cashew apple juice (table 3, figs. 8, 9 & 10). economics of ready-to-serve (rts) beverage prepared from cashew apple juice blends cost of production of a unit a quantity of rts beverage in different treatments is presented in tables 4 & 5. the net benefit over cashew apple rts beverage as per prevaling price in the local market was considered (pineapple rts costs rs. 99 per liter, mango rts costs rs. 60 per litre, sapota rts costs rs. 50 per litre, and cashew apple rts costs rs. 40 per litre). the price was estimated for arriving at the net benefit, and the data is presented in table 5. the highest net benefit for rts beverage was rs. 61.16 in 25% cashew apple juice + 75% pineapple juice (t6), followed by 50% cashew apple juice + 50% pineapple juice (t5) at rs. 46.95. the lowest net benefit was recorded in 75% cashew apple + 25% sapota juice (t7) over the table 6. economics of rts beverage prepared from various cashew apple blended juices treatment cost estimated net incurred price per benefit per 1000ml 1000ml (rs.) rts (rs.) rts (rs.) t1: 75% cashew apple juice + 21.87 45 23.13 25% mango juice t2: 50% cashew apple juice + 22.3 50 27.7 50% mango juice t3: 25% cashew apple juice + 22.72 55 32.28 75% mango juice t4: 75% cashew apple juice + 21.99 54.75 32.76 25% pineapple juice t5: 50% cashew apple juice + 22.55 69.5 46.95 50% pineapple juice t6: 25% cashew apple juice + 23.09 84.25 61.16 75% pineapple juice t7: 75% cashew apple juice + 21.3 42.5 21.2 25% sapota juice t8: 50% cashew apple juice + 21.17 45 23.83 50% sapota juice t9: 25% cashew apple juice + 21.03 47.5 26.47 75% sapota juice t10: 100% cashew apple juice 21.45 40 18.55 *price was estimated based on the price prevailing in local market of the respective rts, as follows: 1. 1 litre mango rts costs ` 60/2. 1 litre pineapple rts costs ` 99/3. 1 litre sapota rts costs ` 50/4. 1 litre cashew apple rts costs ` 40/anindita roy et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):37-43, 2016 43 control, i.e., 100% cashew apple juice (rs. 18.55); the net benefit for other rts beverages was intermediate between treatment combinations, and the data is presented in tables 5 & 6 and figures 15 & 16. similar results were reported by jayalekshmy and salam (2007). however, based on organoleptic score, the rts beverage prepared using mango with cashew apple juice as blend was the best, and as per cost-economics, pineapple with cashew apple juice blend was found to be the best with regard to quality parameters under the study. conclusion ingredient composition of 25% cashew apple juice + 75% mango juice blend (t3), or, 25% cashew apple juice + 75% pineapple juice blend (t6), followed by 50% cashew apple juice + 50% pineapple juice blend (t5) revealed increased levels of density, total soluble solids (tss), reducing sugars, tss:acid ratio, and, decreased levels of ph, titrable acidity and lowest decrease rate in ascorbic acid content in treatment t3, followed by t5 and t6. rts beverages prepared from cashew apple and mango-juice blend, and cashew apple and pineapple-juice blend, were suitable for increasing the value of cashew apple rts beverage prepared from various fruit-juice-blends. further, organoleptic score for rts juice blend prepared from 25% cashew apple juice + 75% mango juice blend (t3), followed by 50% cashew apple juice + 50% mango juice blend (t2), 25% cashew apple juice + 75% pineapple juice blend (t6), and 50% cashew apple juice + 50% pineapple juice blend (t5), was superior in quality in terms of colour, taste and overall acceptability up to 60 days of storage; and, these processes were economical for utilization of cashew apple juice blended variously with mango and pineapple juice for rts beverage preparation, thereby imparting value-addition to cashew apple juice. references akinwale, t.o. 2000. cashew apple juice: its use in fortifying the nutritional quality of some tropical fruits. europ. food res. technol., 211:205-207 amerine, m.a., pangborn, r.m. and roessler, e.b. 1965. principles of sensory evaluation of food. in: food science and technology monographs, academic press, new york, usa, pp. 338-339 awsi jan and dorcus masih er. 2012. development and quality evaluation of pineapple juice blend with carrot and orange juice. int’l. j. scientific & res. publications, 2(8):1-7 bhardwaj, r.l. and mukherjee, s. 2011. effects of fruit juice blending ratios on kinnow juice preservation at ambient storage condition. african j. food sci. 5:281-286 hiremath, j.b. and rokhade, a.k. 2012. preparation and preservation of sapota juice. int’l. j. food agri. & veterinary sci., 2:87-91 hemalatha, r. and anbuselvi, s. 2013. physico-chemical constituents of pineapple pulp and waste. j. chem. & pharmaceutical res., 5:240-242 jain, s.p., tripathi, k.v., ram, h.b. and singh, s. 1984. effect of storage conditions on the keeping quality of fruit squashes. indian food packer, 38:33-39 jayalekshmy, v.g. and salam, m.a. 2007. cost of establishment of a cashew apple processing unit and production cost of cashew apple syrup. cashew, 16:29-33 mapson, l.w. 1970. vitamins in fruits. in: the biochemistry of fruits and their products. vol 1. hulme, a.c. (ed.). academic press, london, p. 369 pawar, c.d., patil, a.a. and joshi, g.d. 2011. physicochemical parameters of sapota fruits at different maturity stages. karnataka j. agril. sci., 24:420-421 sakhale, b.k., pawar, v.n. and ranveer, r.c. 2012. studies on the development and storage of whey-based rts beverage from mango cv. kesar. j. food process technol., 3:148 doi:10.4172/2157-7110.1000148 santos, f.h.c., cavalcanti, j.j.v. and silva, f.p. 2010. detection of quantitative trail loci for physical traits of cashew apple. crop breed. appl. biotech., 10:101-109 sarvesh rustagi and pravesh kumar. 2013. to study the storage analysis of developed amla mango blended. adv. biores., 4:109-117 sastry, l.v.l., chakraborty, r.n., pruthi, j.s. and siddappa, g.s. 1963. preservation and storage of cashew apple juice and its blends. indian j. tech., 1:431-433 srivastava, r.p. and kumar, s. 2002 fruit and vegetable preservation: principles and practices. international book distribution company, lucknow, u.p., india, pp. 184-185 uma, t., rama rao vechalapua and khasim beebi shaikb. 2011. preservation and shelf-life extension of cashew apple juice. internet j. food safety, 13:275-280 blending cashew apple juice with other fruits juices j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(1):37-43, 2016 (ms received 02 january 2015, revised 25 april 2016, accepted 27 april 2016) introduction blending of wines (coupage, assemblage) is frequently used to equilibriate composition of wines and to increase their stability, colour and quality. therefore, it is of great interest to wineries to work out optimum proportions of each component in the blend to achieve perfect quality of the wine. nowadays, there is an increasing interest in studying grape varieties that could yield better blends and coupages, with originalquality-attributes. another objective of blending wines is to optimize use of certain grape varieties to cut production costs (escudero-gilete et al, 2010) most studies in literature on wine blending are based on sensorial attributes (datta and nakai, 1992; monagas et al, 2006; monagas et al, 2007). blending wines is a complex process demanding great rigour. analytical and colorimetric study of original wines and their mixtures may lead to a better knowledge of the influence of the particular phenolic composition of the grape on wine characteristics especially colour (escudero-gilete et al, 2010). polyphenolic compounds are also important sensory components providing colour, taste, bitterness, astringency and microbiological stability (xi zhu-mei et al, 2010) j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):74-81, 2013 improvement in quality of wine by blending white and coloured grapes veena joshi, s. amarender reddy1, vinod kumar2 and b. srinivas rao grape research station, dr.ysr horticultural university rajendranagar, hyderabad-500 030, india e-mail : veenahorti@rediffmail.com abstract blending of juices from four white grape varieties viz., thompson seedless, chenin blanc, sauvignon blanc and italia with three coloured varieties, viz., shiraz, ruby red and bangalore blue, was done in 2:1 and 3:1 ratios to assess the effect of blending on wine quality. white varieties blended with bangalore blue recorded maximum titratable acidity (1.23%), while those blended with ruby red showed the least acidity (0.42%), alcohol content in the wine ranged from 8.11% (italia + ruby red, 2:1) to 12.04% (chenin blanc + shiraz, 2:1). the range of values for tannin content (0.007% to 0.044 %) and total phenol content (228mg/l to 571mg/l) indicated that white varieties blended with the coloured cv. shiraz had the lowest content of tannins and total phenols in wine, while, those blended with cv. ruby red showed highest content of these in the blended wines. hence, among different blends, chenin blanc, thompson seedless, sauvignon blanc and italia blended with the coloured variety shiraz, in 2:1 ratio, produced good quality wine. key words: grape, coloured varieties, white varieties, wine, blending 1college of horticulture, dr. ysr horticultural university, rajendranagar, hyderabad 500030, india 2directorate of rice research, rajendranagar, hyderabad 500030, india coloured and white grapes are used for preparing blended grape juice and wine. akopyan (1979) reported that quality of red wines could be improved by blending thereby resulting in reduction of acidity and tannin content. according to pawar (2002), wine from blended juice of ‘ugni blanc’ and ‘sharad seedless’ at 1:3 ratio gave better quality of wine over the other blends. suitability of a grape variety for the purpose is judged by certain criteria which differ from case to case. wine prepared from white varieties is dull-coloured. hence, to overcome this, blending is a method to impart colour, flavour and acceptability. with this objective, wines were prepared by blending juices of white grape varieties (sauvignon blanc, chenin blanc, thompson seedless and italia) with coloured varieties (shiraz, ruby red and bangalore blue) in two different proportions, i.e., 2:1 and 3:1 ratios. the study involves analysis of various biochemical properties and organoleptic evaluation of different wine blends. material and methods wine was prepared by blending juices of four white grape varieties (thompson seedless, chenin blanc, sauvignon blanc and italia) with three coloured varieties 75 blending white and coloured grapes for improved wine quality (shiraz, ruby red and bangalore blue) in two proportions (2:1 & 3:1). treatments were replicated thrice. total number of treatments was twenty four. t 1 thompson seedless + shiraz (2:1) t 2 thompson seedless + shiraz (3:1) t 3 thompson seedless + ruby red (2:1) t 4 thompson seedless + ruby red (3:1) t 5 thompson seedless + bangalore blue (2:1) t 6 thompson seedless + bangalore blue (3:1) t 7 chenin blanc + shiraz (2:1) t 8 chenin blanc + shiraz (3:1) t 9 chenin blanc + ruby red (2:1) t 10 chenin blanc + ruby red (3:1) t 11 chenin blanc + bangalore blue (2:1) t 12 chenin blanc + bangalore blue (3:1) t 13 sauvignon blanc + shiraz (2:1) t 14 sauvignon blanc + shiraz (3:1) t 15 sauvignon blanc + ruby red (2:1) t 16 sauvignon blanc + ruby red (3:1) t 17 sauvignon blanc + bangalore blue (2:1) t 18 sauvignon blanc + bangalore blue (3:1) t 19 italia + shiraz (2:1) t 20 italia + shiraz (3:1) t 21 italia + ruby red (2:1) t 22 italia + ruby red (3:1) t 23 italia + bangalore blue (2:1) t 24 italia + bangalore blue (3:1). wine samples were analyzed for titrable acidity, alcohol content, tannins, total phenols, and, organoleptic evaluation, viz., appearance, aroma, flavour, taste, colour and overall acceptability of the wine. wine preparation the following procedure, as outlined by joshi (1995) was followed for reparation of the wine. a. preparation of yeast culture yeast strain saccharomyces cerevisiae var ellipsoideus was used in the present study. fresh grape juice was diluted in the ratio 1:1 (one litre juice with one litre distilled water) and was pasteurized. a little quantity of the pasteurized juice from the container was poured into a test tube containing the yeast culture, under aseptic condition, and mixed. the culture was ready for inoculation after 24h when plenty of bubbling was observed. b. preparation of ‘must’ the berries were washed with water and handcrushed, then filtered through a cheese cloth. the clear juice thus obtained was used for fermentation. tss and ph were estimated and adjusted to 240b and 3.5 respectively. potassium meta-bisulphite was added to the juice @ 100150mg per litre to inhibit growth of wild yeast and other microorganisms causing spoilage, and also to prevent browning due to oxidation. this was treated as ‘must’. c. fermentation must extracted after so 2 treatment was inoculated with 2% (v/v) yeast culture and left at 20+1oc for primary fermentation. nearly 7 days were needed to complete the primary fermentation process for red wine, and 10 days for white wine. fermentation was completed when no more bubbles were released. this was also ascertained by stabilizating tss for two successive days. tss is normally to 7 or 8obrix. d. filtration after completion of fermentation, the supernatant was siphoned off, filtered through a muslin cloth, and placed for cold stabilization for a week. e. clarification after filtration, if the wine was found not clear, it was clarified using clarifying agents such as bentonite (150ppm) to recover wine of crystal-clear finish. f. siphoning/ racking siphoning of clear liquid from the fermented must was done four times at fortnight intervals to get a clear liquid. g. pasteurization after clarification, the clear wine was siphoned off and transferred to fresh sterile bottles, corked and subjected to pasteurization at 820c for 20 minutes. h. maturation after cooling, the bottles were stored for maturation in a bod incubator at 10oc for 90 days. during maturation, the wine was racked regularly. j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):74-81, 2013 76 veena joshi et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):74-81, 2013 77 biochemical analysis a. estimation of titratable acidity titratable acidity of wine was determined by aoac method (1965) using 0.1n naoh and expressed as % tartaric acid. ml naoh x normality of tartaric acid (g) /100 ml wine = naoh x 0.075 x 100 volume of sample (ml) b. estimation of alcohol alcohol content of wine was estimated using a spectrophotometer at 600nm as (natu et al, 1986) using sulphuric acid and potassium dichromate, and was expressed as % alcohol content. c. estimation of tannins tannins in wine were determined by the method of amerine and joslyn (1951) using indigo carmine as the dye and titrated against potassium permanganate solution (0.1n). % tannins = c x normality of kmno 4 x 0.0416 x 100/volume of wine (ml) d. estimation of total phenols total phenol content in the wine was estimated by the procedure of sadasivam and manickam (1996). phenols react with phosphomolybdic acid in folin-ciocalteau reagent in an alkaline medium and produce a blue-coloured complex (molybdenum blue) measured at 650nm in a spectrophotometer, and is expressed as mg/ml of wine. organoleptic evaluation sensory evaluation of wine was done for appearance, aroma, flavour, taste, colour and overall acceptability after maturation of the wine. a panel of 10 members evaluated wine samples on a 20 point scale. wine samples were graded on a hedonic scale (table 1). all parameters were recorded for two consecutive years. the data was pooled and means were calculated for both the years. statistical analysis was applied as per panse and sukhatme (1967). results and discussion mean data for two years on biochemical properties of wine are presented. titratable acidity grape juice and wine mainly contain organic acids like tartaric, malic and citric acid. these play an important role in quality of a wine, particularly tartness, colour and keeping-quality. data on titratable acidity of wine with various treatments are presented in table 3. significant variation was observed among different blending treatments and time (years). however, interaction between treatments and years showed no significant effect. pooled data indicate that t 12 [chenin blanc + bangalore blue, (3:1)] recorded maximum titratable acidity (1.23%), followed by t 23 , t 24 , t 11 , t 18 , t 17 , t 20 , t 8 and t 19 , which were at par. minimum titratable acidity (0.42%) was recorded in t 3 (thompson seedless + ruby red, 2:1), followed by t 9 , t 10 , t 4 and t 1 . rest of the treatments recorded intermediate values, ranging from 0.66 to 1.01%. it was observed that white varieties blended with bangalore blue recorded maximum titratable acidity while those blended with ruby red showed the lowest acidity. the blends under the study yielded optimum values (standard international wine composition values, 0.40 to 1.5%) for titratable acidity. acidity imparts flavor too to the wine and is a crucial factor in wine making (ethiraj and suresh, 1978). dry table-wines require high acidity (0.6 to 0.9%), while sweet (dessert) wines require 0.5 to 0.6% acidity (bammi, 1968). alcohol content in the present study, alcohol content in blended wines ranged from 8.11 to 12.04% (table 3). wines blended with table 1. hedonic scale used in the study quality hedonic 20 point scale scale score excellent 7 18-20 good 6 15-17 fair 5 12-14 ordinary 4 9-11 poor 3 6-8 bad 2 3-5 very bad 1 1-2 table 2. quality parameters of wine from grapes biochemical standard wine quality in properties international wine different blends of wine composition (a) studied (b) titratable acidity 0.40 1.5% 0.42 1.23% alcohol 7.4 15.5% 8.11 12.04% tannins 0.002 1.40% (white wine) 0.007 0.044% 0.04 3.26% (red wine) total phenols 246-426 mg/l (white wine) 283 570mg/l 9102160 mg/l (red wine) a adil et al,1980; bhalerao, 2001; suresh et al, 1985; pawar, 2002 b results of the present study j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):74-81, 2013 blending white and coloured grapes for improved wine quality 78 ‘shiraz’ recorded higher % of alcohol, while, those blended with ‘ruby red’ recorded a lower content. alcohol content increase when blended with shiraz which may be due to varietal specification, total soluble solids and yeast activity during fermentation (chikkasubbana et al, 1990). other factors which determine the alcohol content in wine include initial sugar content of the juice, amount of by-product formed, amount of sugar utilized by yeast and other microorganisms for their growth, and alcohol lost to evaporation (amerine et al, 1979). tannin content tannins are a complex group of polyphenolic compounds which impart a bitter taste. data on tannin content of wine in various blended wines for both the years are presented in table 4. blended treatments showed significant differences, whereas, years and interaction effect were found to be non-significant. significantly high content of tannins (0.044%) was recorded in t 21 (italia + ruby red, 2:1) and minimum was observed in t 8 (0.007%) (chenin blanc + shiraz, 3:1). interestingly, white varieties blended with the coloured cv. shiraz registered minimum content of tannins in the wine, while, those blended with cv. ruby red showed the maximum tannin content. high tannin content in wine blended with ‘ruby red’ can be attributed to extraction/presence of higher amount of tannins in grape skin and seeds. white varieties contributed less amount of tannins to the wine because must here is fermented without the skin and seeds (sharma, 1987). tannin content decreases upon storage by complexing with proteins (padshetty et al, 1982). tannins polymerize with ageing, leading to low astringency and greater softness in the wine (leslie, 2000). total phenol content phenolic compounds play a vital role in determining wine colour and flavour. for total phenol content, blending treatments were significant while years and interaction were non-significant (table 4). maximum total phenol was recorded in t 21 (570.89mg/l) and minimum (228.32mg/l) in t 8. in both the years, similar trend was observed among treatments wherein maximum content was found in t 21 , and table 3. evaluation of various wine blends for titratable acidity and alcohol content treatment details titratable acidity of wine (%) alcohol content of wine (ob) batch i batch ii mean batch i batch ii mean t 1 thompson seedless + shiraz 2:1 0.55 0.62 0.58 11.59 11.44 11.51 t 2 thompson seedless + shiraz 3:1 0.61 0.72 0.66 10.72 10.38 10.55 t 3 thompson seedless + ruby red 2:1 0.42 0.43 0.42 8.40 8.28 8.34 t 4 thompson seedless + ruby red 3:1 0.46 0.49 0.47 8.83 8.54 8.68 t 5 thompson seedless + b. blue 2:1 0.66 0.68 0.67 9.24 9.15 9.19 t 6 thompson seedless + b. blue 3:1 0.75 0.88 0.81 9.83 9.73 9.78 t 7 chenin blanc + shiraz 2:1 0.92 1.01 0.96 12.11 11.97 12.04 t 8 chenin blanc + shiraz 3:1 1.00 1.12 1.06 10.72 10.67 10.69 t 9 chenin blanc + ruby red 2:1 0.41 0.50 0.45 8.54 8.21 8.37 t 1 0 chenin blanc + ruby red 3:1 0.44 0.50 0.47 9.39 9.27 9.33 t 1 1 chenin blanc + b. blue 2:1 1.13 1.22 1.17 10.30 10.17 10.23 t 1 2 chenin blanc + b. blue 3:1 1.21 1.26 1.23 10.82 10.67 10.74 t 1 3 sauvignon blanc + shiraz 2:1 0.86 1.00 0.93 10.40 10.29 10.34 t 1 4 sauvignon blanc + shiraz 3:1 0.90 1.12 1.01 10.22 10.07 10.14 t 1 5 sauvignon blanc + ruby red2:1 0.79 0.82 0.80 9.20 9.02 9.11 t 1 6 sauvignon blanc + ruby red 3:1 0.88 0.96 0.92 9.43 9.25 9.34 t 1 7 sauvignon blanc + b. blue 2:1 1.04 1.19 1.11 9.42 9.39 9.40 t 1 8 sauvignon blanc + b. blue 3:1 1.06 1.20 1.13 9.71 9.62 9.66 t 1 9 italia + shiraz 2:1 1.00 1.11 1.05 8.69 8.52 8.60 t 2 0 italia + shiraz 3:1 1.05 1.09 1.07 8.41 8.27 8.34 t 2 1 italia + ruby red 2:1 0.61 0.75 0.68 8.20 8.02 8.11 t 2 2 italia + ruby red 3:1 0.71 0.75 0.73 8.33 8.11 8.22 t 2 3 italia + b. blue 2:1 1.17 1.22 1.19 8.54 8.38 8.46 t 2 4 italia + b. blue 3:1 1.07 1.32 1.19 8.49 8.41 8.45 mean 0.82 0.91 0.86 9.56 9.40 9.48 f test sem cd(p=0.05) f test sem cd(p=0.05) treatment * 0.07 0.20 * 0.04 0.12 years * 0.02 0.06 * 0.01 0.04 treatment x years ns 0.03 ns ns 0.06 ns j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):74-81, 2013 veena joshi et al 79 minimum in t 8 . among treatments, it was observed that ‘shiraz’ blended with white varieties registered minimum total phenol content in the wine, while blend of ‘ruby red’ with any white variety showed maximum content of total phenols in the wine. shiraz, when blended with a white variety, resulted in better mouth-feel, colour and astringency compared to the rest of the treatments. singleton and easu (1969) reported higher phenol content in white varieties compared to red varieties. suresh et al (1983) reported that blending of musts result in better quality red wines. organoleptic evaluation blended wines were evaluated by a panel of five members. a 20 point scale was considered based mainly on appearance, aroma, flavour, taste, colour and overall acceptability. significant differences were found among treatments for all the quality attributes studied (table 5). treatment t 7 recorded the highest score for appearance (17.18), aroma (16.25), flavour (16.55), taste (17.30) and colour (17.83). this was followed by t 1 for appearance, aroma and taste; t 12 for flavor and t 4 for colour. lowest score was observed in t 21 and t 23. overall acceptability of wine in t 7 (chenin blanc + shiraz, 2:1) was found to be excellent (with a score of 18.31), followed by t 1 (thompson seedless + shiraz, 2:1) with a score of 17.41. based on average score, wine made from blending shriraz juice can be graded as good (t 7 , t 1 , and t 13 ), while the rest of the blends produced fair quality wine (except t 23 , which showed ordinary quality). hence, blending any white variety with shiraz gave good quality wine in terms of phenolic compounds (total phenols and tannins) and alcohol content within the specified range of composition of standard wine. it can be concluded that blending white varieties (chenin blanc, thompson seedless, sauvignon blanc and italia) with the coloured variety shiraz was found to produce good quality wine, recording the highest average organoleptic score. as regard ratio, 2:1 proportion recorded as superior to 3:1 in terms of wine quality and organoleptic evaluation. table 4. evaluation of various wine blends for tannins and total phenol content treatment details tannin content of wine (%) total phenol content of wine (mg/l) batch i batch ii mean batch i batch ii mean t 1 thompson seedless + shiraz 2:1 0.012 0.017 0.014 486.66 492.63 489.64 t 2 thompson seedless + shiraz 3:1 0.011 0.015 0.013 473.55 481.32 477.43 t 3 thompson seedless + ruby red 2:1 0.018 0.023 0.020 516.23 525.00 520.61 t 4 thompson seedless + ruby red 3:1 0.016 0.019 0.017 501.00 513.12 507.06 t 5 thompson seedless + b. blue 2:1 0.015 0.018 0.016 495.04 509.00 502.02 t 6 thompson seedless + b. blue 3:1 0.014 0.016 0.015 474.00 479.30 476.65 t 7 chenin blanc + shiraz 2:1 0.008 0.012 0.010 251.24 267.67 259.45 t 8 chenin blanc + shiraz 3:1 0.006 0.008 0.007 221.65 235.00 228.32 t 9 chenin blanc + ruby red 2:1 0.028 0.029 0.028 319.32 329.57 324.44 t 1 0 chenin blanc + ruby red 3:1 0.022 0.024 0.023 300.05 305.35 302.70 t 1 1 chenin blanc + b. blue 2:1 0.015 0.018 0.016 301.10 310.12 305.61 t 1 2 chenin blanc + b. blue 3:1 0.010 0.013 0.011 274.31 284.63 279.47 t 1 3 sauvignon blanc + shiraz 2:1 0.017 0.021 0.019 240.33 247.65 243.99 t 1 4 sauvignon blanc + shiraz 3:1 0.015 0.018 0.016 222.33 243.00 232.66 t 1 5 sauvignon blanc + ruby red2:1 0.026 0.030 0.028 270.10 275.66 272.88 t 1 6 sauvignon blanc + ruby red 3:1 0.022 0.025 0.023 258.67 264.02 261.34 t 1 7 sauvignon blanc + b. blue 2:1 0.020 0.022 0.021 254.10 272.00 263.05 t 1 8 sauvignon blanc + b. blue 3:1 0.019 0.020 0.019 237.64 241.35 239.49 t 1 9 italia + shiraz 2:1 0.023 0.025 0.024 480.54 485.24 482.89 t 2 0 italia + shiraz 3:1 0.016 0.021 0.018 453.12 472.60 462.86 t 2 1 italia + ruby red 2:1 0.043 0.045 0.044 553.78 588.00 570.89 t 2 2 italia + ruby red 3:1 0.029 0.032 0.030 535.11 553.00 544.05 t 2 3 italia + b. blue 2:1 0.026 0.029 0.027 513.25 531.66 522.45 t 2 4 italia + b. blue 3:1 0.018 0.021 0.019 487.62 509.37 498.49 mean 0.018 0.021 0.019 380.03 392.34 386.18 f test sem cd (p=0.05) f test sem cd (p=0.05) treatment * 0.003 0.010 * 6.47 19.75 years ns 0.005 ns ns 3.82 ns treatment x years ns 0.002 ns ns 5.48 ns j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):74-81, 2013 blending white and coloured grapes for improved wine quality 80 table 5. organoleptic evaluation of wine in different blended treatments of grape (mean of two years data) treatment organoleptic evaluation appearance aroma flavour taste colour overall mean acceptability max. score 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 t 1 thompson seedless + shiraz 2:1 16.53 15.41 15.73 16.53 16.31 17.41 16.32 t 2 thompson seedless + shiraz 3:1 14.75 13.21 12.63 13.11 14.41 14.46 13.76 t 3 thompson seedless + ruby red 2:1 13.46 10.96 13.66 13.45 15.01 15.56 13.68 t 4 thompson seedless + ruby red 3:1 13.40 14.51 14.56 14.50 16.95 16.40 15.05 t 5 thompson seedless + b. blue 2:1 14.30 12.16 12.86 14.50 14.11 13.20 13.52 t 6 thompson seedless + b. blue 3:1 14.10 14.26 14.63 15.05 14.78 13.91 14.45 t 7 chenin blanc + shiraz 2:1 17.18 16.25 16.55 17.30 17.83 18.31 17.23 t 8 chenin blanc + shiraz 3:1 15.16 13.20 14.51 15.71 15.56 15.40 14.92 t 9 chenin blanc + ruby red 2:1 13.51 10.63 13.15 13.41 13.91 14.35 13.16 t 1 0 chenin blanc + ruby red 3:1 13.95 12.63 14.55 15.69 14.55 14.66 14.33 t 1 1 chenin blanc + b. blue 2:1 14.38 11.25 13.73 13.90 14.33 14.30 13.64 t 1 2 chenin blanc +b. blue 3:1 15.36 14.40 16.08 16.25 15.53 15.41 15.50 t 1 3 sauvignon blanc + shiraz 2:1 15.30 14.53 14.50 14.60 15.36 15.90 15.03 t 1 4 sauvignon blanc + shiraz 3:1 14.38 12.18 14.60 13.65 15.10 15.56 14.24 t 1 5 sauvignon blanc + ruby red2:1 14.58 11.31 11.55 14.20 14.51 12.91 13.17 t 1 6 sauvignon blanc + ruby red 3:1 14.16 13.70 12.23 14.31 14.71 13.58 13.78 t 1 7 sauvignon blanc + b. blue 2:1 14.50 12.86 13.78 12.20 14.90 14.10 13.72 t 1 8 sauvignon blanc + b. blue 3:1 14.70 14.25 14.83 13.98 15.16 14.51 14.57 t 1 9 italia + shiraz 2:1 15.06 14.51 14.66 13.33 13.65 15.85 14.51 t 2 0 italia + shiraz 3:1 13.18 11.15 13.86 12.90 13.23 14.83 13.19 t 2 1 italia + ruby red 2:1 11.66 12.75 12.26 12.01 12.63 11.55 12.14 t 2 2 italia + ruby red 3:1 13.10 14.98 13.66 14.30 13.10 12.23 13.56 t 2 3 italia + b. blue 2:1 12.35 10.26 11.63 12.13 13.16 12.26 11.96 t 2 4 italia + b. blue 3:1 13.28 12.93 12.26 13.51 13.41 12.43 12.97 mean 14.26 13.09 13.85 14.18 14.67 14.54 ftest * * * * * * sem 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.08 0.07 0.12 cd (p=0.05) 0.17 0.21 0.22 0.28 0.19 0.34 *significant ns: non significant hedonic scale: 18-20 excellent, 15-17 good, 12-14 fair, 9-11 ordinary, 6-8 poor, 3-5 bad, 1-2 very bad references adil g. sachde, abdul monam al–kaisy and raad, a.k. norris. 1980. chemical composition with relation to quality of some wine brands produced in iraq. amer. j. enol. vitic., 31:254-256 akopyan, a.a. 1979. improvement in quality of red wines by 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accepted 10 july 2012, revised 31 october 2012) j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):74-81, 2013 blending white and coloured grapes for improved wine quality 27 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 27-34, 2020 original research paper carotenoid content in cherry tomatoes correlated to the color space values l*, a*, b*: a non-destructive method of estimation shilpa pandurangaiah, sadashiva a.t., shivashankar k.s., sudhakar rao d.v. and ravishankar k.v. icarindian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru 560 089, india email : ravishankar.kv@icar.gov.in abstract cherry tomatoes are rich sources of carotenoids. the carotenoids are known to be precursors of vitamin a and also act as an antioxidant. it is important to visually judge the tomato surface color for higher carotene content since this is the major provitamin aa carotenoid. estimation of carotenoids by hplc (high performance liquid chromatography) and spectrophotometric methods in tomatoes are very expensive and time consuming. therefore, colorimeters can be used to describe the color and determine the carotenoid content in a relatively easy and inexpensive manner. the objective of this study was to determine, if the carotenoid content within cherry tomatoes measured by conventional method could correlate with colorimetric cie (commission international del’eclairage) l*, a*, b* color space values. strong correlations were found between color surface value a* and total carotenoids (0.82) and lycopene content (0.87). we also observed positive correlation for the b* color value with carotene (0.86). the l* value was negatively correlated (-0.78) with an increase in carotenoids. these close associations between color space values l*, a*, b* and carotenoids will help the breeders to quickly screen large germplasm/ breeding lines in their breeding program for improvement in carotenoid content through this time saving, inexpensive and nondestructive method at fully ripe stage. keywords: carotene, carotenoid, lycopene, tomato. introduction color is one of the important quality parameters of fruits and vegetables. the color of tomatoes is the most important quality character to determine the ripeness. the color of tomatoes is the initial external factor that makes them appealing to the consumer’s decision for purchasing them. the complexity of tomato color is due to the presence of a diverse ca r otenoid pigment system with a ppea r a nce conditioned by pigment types and concentrations, and subject to both genetic and environmental regulation (radzevicius et al., 2014). color of tomatoes is an important desired character which can be achieved by genetic improvement of breeding lines with varying concentration of carotenoids. the tomatoes are harvested and consumed at the red ripe stage of ripening, which occurs due to the degradation of chlorophyll at green stage and rapid accumulation of carotenoids particularly lycopene and carotene. in this study, we have assessed surface color differences among the cherry tomatoes and its relation to their total carotenoid, lycopene and carotene content. carotenoid content in fruits can be assessed in laboratory through spectrophotometer measurement of toma to fr uit extra cts, but this method is time consuming a nd tedious (lichtentha ler 1987). colorimeters can be used to determine the carotenoid content in fruits and vegetables in a quick, easy and in a non-destructive manner. in 1931, the commission international del’eclairage (cie) made possible to express color in exact quantitative and numerical this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. 28 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 27-34, 2020 shilpa pandurangaiah et al. terms. an improvement of this system was developed in 1976 by cie, which defines color better related to human perception and where all conceivable colors can be located within the color sphere defined by three perpendicular axes, l* (from white to black),a* (green to red) and b* (blue to yellow). in the present study, an attempt was made to correlate tomato surface color values with actual carotenoids content so as to standardize a fast, inexpensive and nondestructive method. materials and methods plant material: nine different cherry tomato lines such as iihr 2754, iihr 2857, iihr 2858, iihr 2861, iihr 2862, iihr 2863, iihr 2864, iihr 2865, iihr 2866 were grown in the open field at icar– indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, india. fruits were harvested in ripe stages and brought to the laboratory for further examination of color and estimation of carotenoids. carotenoid profiling : total carotenoids and lycopene content were analyzed by spectrophotometry method (lichtenthaler 1987). carotenoids were extracted using acetone and partitioned with hexane for the ripe stage.the carotenoids in the extract were estimated by rea ding absorba nce at 470 and 503 nm for estimating total carotenoids and lycopene respectively. thecarotenoid profiling was done using uplc, as per themethod reported by serino et al. (2009) with modifications. color measurement : the surface color (values of l*,a*, b*, c* and hue angle) was measured on fresh tomatoes using a color reader, cr-10 (minolta co. ltd, osaka, japan; measuring area of 8mm with 8/d viewing geometry using cie standard illuminant d65). three different measurements were taken at three equidistant points on the equatorial region of individual fruit. the value l*(lightness) indicates the ratio of white and black color, value a* is the ratio of red and green colors, value b* is the ratio of yellow and blue colors. chroma/chromaticity (c*) is the saturation or vividness of color. as chromaticity incr ea ses, a color becomes mor e intense; a s it decreases, a color becomes more dull. hue angle isthe basic unit of color. both chroma and hue are derived from a* andb* using the following equations: chroma: c* = “ (a*) 2 + (b*) 2and hue angle: h0 = tan– 1 (b*/a*)0 (itle et al., 2009). it should be noted that all color space values l*, c, a* and b* are measured in nbs units, hue angle h° in degrees from 0 to 360°. nbs unit is a unit of usa national standard bureau and corresponds to one threshold of color distinction power, viz. the least distinction in color, which the trained human eye can notice (juskeviciene et al., 2014). statistical analysis : cor r ela tion a na lysis a nd r egr ession a na lysis wa s conducted for tota l carotenoids, lycopene and carotene with color space values using statistical package spss ver. 19 (spss inc., chicago, il, usa) software (wellman 1998). microsoft excel program was used to plot the scatter plot and calculate regression equation. mean cd and standard error was also calculated. results colorimetric measurements: significant differences were observed among the cherry tomato lines for color values l*, a*, b*, c* and hue angle. beginning with the l* value a range from lightness (48.9) to darkness (37.40) was observed in tomato lines evaluated. highest l* value of 48.9 nbs units was observed for iihr 2866 and iihr 2754 showed the least l* value of 37.40. mean color space value a* ranged from 35.43 in iihr 2754 to 18.03 in iihr 2866. the mean color space value b* ranged from 42.99 in iihr 2866 to 21.03 in iihr 2754. c*, chroma/chromaticity ranged from 46.61 in iihr 2866 to 34.46 in iihr 2857. hue angle ranged from 67.250 in iihr 2866 to 30.690 in iihr 2754 (table. 1 & fig. 1). there was a significant difference in the total carotenoid content among the tomato lines. the dark red fruit line iihr 2754 contained highest carotenoid content with 23.80 mg/100g fw. the lycopene content was also more in iihr 2754 with 15.10 mg/ 100g fw and -carotene content was 3.02 mg/100g fw. iihr 2865 contained the least a mount of carotenoids with 8.20mg/100g fw. iihr 2866 contained the lowest lycopene content 0.85 mg/100g fw and highest -carotene content 8.56mg/100g fw (fig. 2). 29 carotenoid content in cherry tomatoes correlated to the color space values l*, a*, b* genotypes l a* b* chroma hue tot car lycopene -carotene angle (h°) iihr 2754 37.40 ± 35.43 ± 21.03 ± 41.21 ± 30.69 ± 23.80 ± 15.10 ± 3.02 ± 0.49 0.62 0.70 1.25 0.98 1.26 0.69 1.25 iihr 2861 39.20 ± 34.93 ± 23.37 ± 42.03 ± 33.78 ± 17.90 ± 11.60 ± 1.23 ± 0.29 1.16 0.54 0.96 1.25 1.54 0.87 0.96 iihr 2857 37.93 ± 25.93 ± 22.70 ± 34.46 ± 41.20 ± 13.70 ± 8.30 ± 1.79 ± 1.08 0.70 1.04 0.69 0.54 2.36 1.06 0.69 iihr 2858 38.77 ± 28.07 ± 24.53 ± 37.28 ± 41.16 ± 12.10 ± 5.20 ± 0.80 ± 0.94 2.98 0.97 0.25 0.85 0.98 1.89 0.25 iihr 2862 39.83 ± 26.73 ± 24.20 ± 36.06 ± 42.15 ± 11.00 ± 6.20 ± 1.63 ± 1.89 1.98 1.37 1.02 1.06 1.06 1.65 1.02 iihr 2863 43.43 ± 28.83 ± 31.80 ± 42.93 ± 47.80 ± 10.70 ± 6.10 ± 1.87 ± 2.36 1.41 1.54 1.26 1.15 1.54 0.84 1.26 iihr 2864 44.60 ± 15.57 ± 35.13 ± 38.43 ± 66.10 ± 9.74 ± 3.30 ± 6.44 ± 1.47 1.47 1.21 0.48 0.75 1.97 1.78 0.48 iihr 2865 48.50 ± 22.30 ± 40.13 ± 45.91 ± 60.94 ± 8.20 ± 2.00 ± 5.65 ± 2.50 1.96 1.58 0.78 1.35 2.01 1.30 0.78 iihr 2866 48.90 ± 18.03 ± 42.99 ± 46.61 ± 67.25 ± 9.50 ± 0.85 ± 8.56 ± 0.69 1.02 0.66 1.36 1.06 1.23 0.56 1.36 table 1. each observation is a mean ±sd of three replicate experiments of color indexes l*, a*, b*, c*, hue angle (h°) and total carotenoids, lycopene and -carotene content in cherry tomato lines. fig. 1. color indexes l*, a*, b*, c* and hue angle in cherry tomato lines. error bars indicate the extent of variation among genotypes. j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 27-34, 2020 30 fig. 2. total carotenoids, lycopene and β-carotene content in cherry tomato lines. error bars indicate the extent of variation among genotypes. the color change in tomato is primarily observed from the immature green stage to the red ripe stage. during the process of ripening chlorophyll gets disappeared and carotenoids start accumulating giving the red or the orange color in tomatoes. color is an important quality attributes in the food and bioprocess industries, a nd it influences the consumer ’s choice a nd preferences (pathare et al., 2013). most of the tomato literature defines color in terms of the achromatic descriptors viz. l*, a*, b*. the color indexes a* and b* are combined and used by various researchers in differ ent mathema tical models to express color changes (lopez camelo et al., 2004) in tomato. in this study, cherry tomato lines were studied for surface color changes associated with carotenoid content in them. the cherry tomato lines used in this study included both red and the orange colored tomatoes. lightness (l*) values ranged from 48.9 to 37.40. we observed that the l* value which indicates lightness was mor e in ora nge fr uited tomatoes compared to the red tomatoes, this is because red colored tomatoes synthesize more lycopene and appear darker than the orange colored tomatoes. the l* value of iihr 2866 was highest (48.9 nbs units) and these tomatoes were lighter than the red colored tomatoes with lower l* values in genotypes such as iihr 2754 (37.40), iihr 2861 (39.2). discussion shilpa pandurangaiah et al. j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 27-34, 2020 31 we observed that the correlation between l* and total carotenoids was -0.78(p<0.05) (table 2) viz. as the total carotenoids in tomato lines increase, the fruit surface l* color space value decreases. a similar study by itle et al., in 2009 on pumpkins and squashes r eported that ther e was nega tive correlation between l* and carotenoid content. the color space value a* was found to be higher in i i h r 2 7 5 4 ( 3 5 . 4 3 ) t ha t ha d high t ot a l carotenoids and lycopene content. we observed that, as the a* value decreased in different tomato lines t her e wa s c onc omit a nt d ec r ea s e in c a r ot enoids ( ta b le 1 ). t her e wa s a pos it ive correlation between a* value to total carotenoids (0 . 82 ) (p <0. 01) a nd lycop ene content ( 0. 8 7) (p<0.01) where as a nega tive cor relation wa s obs er ved between a * a nd -c a r otene c ont ent (-0.77)(p<0.05). as indicated in the table 1, in red colored tomato lines lycopene constitutes major pa r t of tota l ca r otenoids which a r e r ed color pigments. as higher a * va lues indica t e mor e redness, the tomato lines with higher surface a* values ha d more lycopene pigments indicating positive correlation as reported in (table 2). the orange colored tomatoes showed a* value lower than red tomatoes, as shown in fig 3 that a* value in horizontal axis is negative for green color and gradually increases with a* value becoming positive as there is change in color from orange to orange red and then to red. the b* value was highest in iihr 2866 (42.99) which had highest -carotene of 8.56 mg/100g fw. fig. 3. a three-dimensional representation of cie (l*, a*, b*) color space. the figure shows horizontal oval disk, with four orthogonal axes radiating out from the center of the disk in the horizontal plane. one set of horizontal axis ranges from -a* (greenish) to +a*(reddish).the other set ranges from -b*(blueish) to +b*(yellowish). inside the horizontal disk, the range of perceived colors is shown. an orthogonal vertical axis runs through the center of the disk, this vertical axis portrays the lightness dimension, ranging from l*= 100 for white at the top and l*=0 for black at bottom (cie publication15.2-1986). carotenoid content in cherry tomatoes correlated to the color space values l*, a*, b* j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 27-34, 2020 32 we observed a positive correlation between b* and -carotene content (0.86) (p<0.01) and there was a negative correlation between b* and total carotenoids (-0.78) (p<0.01) & lycopene content (-0.83) (p<0.01). the surface b* values indicate yellowness and the toma to lines with higher b* values had higher -carotene content giving positive correlation between b* and -carotene. chroma value c showed no significant differences among the genotypes (table 1). it is reported that although chroma sub model has been proposed (thai et al., 1990), it is not a good indicator of tomato ripening because it essentially is an expression of the purity or saturation of a single color (differentcolors may have the same chroma values) (lopez camelo and gomez et al., 2004).in the case of tomato ripening, different colors are present simultaneously since chlorophyll is degraded from green to colorless compounds at the same time that carotenoids are synthesized from colorless precursor (phytoene) to -carotene (pale yellow), lycopene (red),   l* a* b* total lycopene chroma hue carotenoids carotene angle(h°) l* 1 -0.738* 0.993** -0.788** -0.817** 0.840** 0.737 0.913** a* -0.738** 1 -0.780** 0.822** 0.877** -0.772* -0.128 -0.943** b* 0.993** -0.780** 1 -0.789** -0.835** 0.867** 0.709 0.939** total caroten oids -0.788** 0.822** -0.789** 1 0.976** -0.507 -0.245 -0.842** lycopene -0.817** 0.877** -0.835** 0.976** 1 -0.613 -0.286 -0.895** β carotene 0.840** -0.772* 0.867** -0.507 -0.613 1 0.596 0.865** chroma 0.737 -0.128 0.709 -0.245 -0.286 0.596 1 0.438 hue angle 0.913** -0.943** 0.939** -0.842** -0.895** 0.865** 0.438 1 table 2. pearson correlation coefficients (r) (2 tailed) (n = 10) between color space values (l*, a*, b*, chroma, and hue angle) and total carotenoids, lycopene and -carotene content. significant correlations of two-tailed tests are indicated: *, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.01 -ca r otene (or a nge) a nd xa nthophylls a nd hydroxylated carotenoids (yellow) (giuliano et al., 1993), in a kind of parallel biosynthetic pathway (horton & stark,1969). hue angle, h° was more in iihr 2866 (67.25) and was less in red colored tomato iihr 2754 (30.69). lower hue angle means redness and higher hue angle indicates yellowness. the negative correlation (-0. 84) (p<0.01) observed between hue and total ca rotenoids is perfectly reflected by lower carotenoid readings in tomato lines with higher hue angles. a similar negative correlation was observed by itle et al., (2009) in pumpkins and squashes; they suggest that as hue angle decrease the carotenoid content increase. but we could observe positive cor r ela tion (0. 86) (p<0. 01) between -carotene and hue angle. also, hue angle and b* value strongly correlated (0.93) (p<0.01), as we discussed earlier with increase in -carotene the b*values also increased and showed positive correlation. so, it can be assumed that b* value and hue angle are clearly associated with -carotene content in tomatoes. shilpa pandurangaiah et al. j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 27-34, 2020 33 conclusion from this study, it is clear that there was a change in a* value due to accumulation of lycopene. the a* value increased as lycopene content increased and b* value increased with increase in -carotene content. in the tomato lines selected in our study we observed the total carotenoid content was more in lines where there was more lycopene content, hence there was positive correlation between a* to total carotenoids and lycopene content. hue angle also showed a strong positive correlation to -carotene content. based on these results from this study, we could identify strong correlations between colorimetric values and the carotenoid content. these results confirmed the feasibility of obtaining precise indirect estimation of lycopene and -carotene content from chromaticity readings. the methodology described here could be useful for large scale selection of tomato lines with fig. 4(a). correlation between a* and lycopene content, 4(b). correlation between b* and carotene content (n=10). improved levels of lycopene without high prices and likewise prevents the residue disposal problems associated with the employment of organic solvents in the standard spectrophotometric methods. the utilization of portable hand held colorimeters for estimation of carotenoids in tomatoes is less clumsy a nd convenient when compa r ed to other methods.therefore, the close association between color and carotenoids established through colorimeter readings can be utilized or applied for breeding purposes to improve the nutritional value of tomatoes in very easy, inexpensive, less time consuming and a non-destructive method. acknowledgement we sincerely thank the department of biotechnology, government of india for the financial support through the project “metabolomics in tomato with special reference to fruit quality” references radzevicius a.,viskelis p., viskelis j ., karkleliene, r.,juskeviciene, d. 2014 tomato fruit color changes during ripening on vine. international journal of biological, food, veterinary and agricultural engineering, vol : 8 (2). radzevicius a., viskelis p., bobinas c. quality and physiologica l pa r a meter s of toma to (lycopersicon esculentum mill.) fruits of lithuanian selection, 2008, biologija. 54 (2):108–111. giuliano g., bartley g.e., scolnik p.a. 1993 regulation of car otenoid biosynthesis during toma to development. the plant cell, 5: 379-387. horton b.d. and stark f.c. 1969 developmental r a tes a nd biosynthesis of ca r otenoids in tomatoes (lycopersicone sculentum mill.) as carotenoid content in cherry tomatoes correlated to the color space values l*, a*, b* j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 27-34, 2020 34 influenced by two sola r r a dia tion levels. maryland agricultural experimental station bulletin. p(19). cie l*a *b* colour sca le 1996. hunter lab applications note, 8(7): 1-4. itle r.a., and kabelka e.a. 2009. correlation between l*a*b* color space values and carotenoid content in pumpkins and squash (cucurbita spp. ), hort science, 44 (3): 633–637. lichtentha ler, h. k. 1987. chlor ophylls a nd carotenoids: pigments of photosynthetic bio membranes. method enzymol, 148: 350–382. lopez camelo a.f. gómez p.a. 2004. comparison of color indexes for toma to r ipening. horticultura brasileira, 22(3): 534-537. pathare p.b., opara u.l. and al-said f.aj. 2004. mea sur ement a nd ana lysis in fr esh and pr ocessed foods : a review. food bioprocess technol, 6: 36-60. serino s., gomez l., costagliola g., gautier h. 2009. hplc assay of tomato carotenoids : validation of a rapid micro extraction technique. j agric food chem, 57: 8753–8760. thai c.n., shewfelt r.l., garner j.c. 1990. tomato color changes under constant and variable stor age tempera tures : empir ical models, transactions of the asae, 33(2): 607-614. shilpa pandurangaiah et al. j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 27-34, 2020 (received on 13.08.2019 and accepted on 15.02.2020) 1 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 00-00, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper advancing fruiting season in annona cv. arka sahan through pruning chander s.*$, kurian r.m., satisha j., upreti k.k. and laxman r.h. icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru 560089, india $punjab agricultural university, rrs, abohar 152116, india *corresponding author email : subhashghorela@pau.edu abstract annona cultivar ‘arka sahan’, an inter-specific hybrid of annona atemoya × a. squamosa comes to harvest during august-september under mild tropical climate, which coincides with monsoon rains resulting in poor fruit quality and high susceptibility to anthracnose and fruit fly. an attempt was made to advance the fruiting in this hybrid through pruning during 201617 and 2017-18. the effect of three pruning levels (25, 50 and 75% of previous season’s growth) at five different times (60, 75, 90, 105 and 120 days after final harvest of previous crop) on flowering and fruiting were compared. early sprouting, flowering and fruit harvest were recorded in trees pruned to 75% of the past season’s growth in both the years. earliest fruits were harvested 271 (3rd week of june) and 268 (2nd week of june) days after pruning in trees pruned during first week of october in 2016-17 and 2017-18 respectively (p<0.05). bigger fruits with lesser seeds per 100 g of pulp (p<0.05) were harvested from trees pruned to 75% and 25% levels in the first and second year, respectively, irrespective of pruning time. tree canopy following pruning at 75%level recorded higher light interception and photosynthetic rate (p<0.05). pruning time and levels significantly influenced the biochemical constituents of leaf and shoot. the fruiting in cultivar ‘arka sahan’ could be thus advanced by 8-9 weeks to june from the normal season of august-september with comparable or better fruit quality by pruning 75% of the last season’s growth during october. keywords : annona, biochemical constituents, fruit quality, off-season and pruning introduction sugar apple (annona squamosa l.), also known as sweet sop, sugar apple, sitaphal or sharifa and as custard apple in india is a native of tropical america and west indies, introduced to india. the fruits are generally used fresh, while some products like custard powders and ice-creams are prepared from the fruits. ‘arka sahan’ is an inter-specific hybrid between a. atemoya (var. island gem) × a. squamosa (var. mammoth). it is a vigorous plant. its mature fruits take about 6-7 days to ripe. the creamy white colour flesh is juicy with mild pleasant aroma and tender with fewer seeds (9/100 g pulp) and large segments. the edible pulp is remarkable for its sweetness with 22.8 per cent total sugars and measures more than 300 b as against 240 b in mammoth (jalikop and kumar 2007). flowering in annona occurs on current season growth arising after natural leaf fall during late winter. in annona, flower bud formation is restricted to early shoot development, and is extra-axillary, borne opposite to leaves (george and nissen 1991). the leaf imposed para-dormancy of axillary bud is present in annona (george and nissen 1987). soler and cuevas (2008) reported off-season (winter season) fruit production through shoot pruning followed by tipping the newly emerged shoots in cherimoya. normal fruiting time of ‘arka sahan’ grown under the mild tropical climate is august-september, which coincides with monsoon rains resulting in deterioration of fruit quality due to anthracnose incidence and fruit fly infestation during the rainy period. flowering can be manipulated by modifying the timing of bud break in annona species to get fruit out of season. for this leaf fall is prerequisite to open up the sub-petiolar axillary bud residing under the leaf petiole. we attempted to make the annona hybrid ‘arka sahan’ to flower and fruit early through pruning, which could induce early defoliation, bud sprouting and formation of new shoots and flowers and thus advance fruiting season to 2 chander et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 00-00, 2022 summer months. t he pr uning techniques wer e standardized in terms of time and severity, keeping in view the flowering and fruiting behavior of the cultivar ‘arka sahan’. materials and methods the experiment was conducted at icar indian institute of horticultur al resear ch, benga luru (karnataka state, india) during two consecutive years, 2016-17 and 2017-18. the experimental material consisted of eight-year-old one hundred and twenty uniform plants of annona cv. arka sahan planted at a distance of 5m × 5m. the treatments comprised of five pruning times (t1, t2, t3, t4 & t5) and three shoot pruning levels (l1, l2, & l3). pruning was performed after 60, 75, 90, 105 or 120 days after final harvest of the previous crop. pruning levels consisted of removal of 25 per cent (one-fourth of shoot length), 50 per cent (half of shoot length) or 75 per cent (twothird of shoot length) of the previous season’s growth. each treatment was replicated four times in a factorial randomized block design. two trees were observed in each replication under each treatment for collection of data. eight trees that were not pruned and giving new shoot growth naturally by the end of march following leaf abscission during late winter served as external check for comparison of treatment effects against natural fruiting as these could not be fitted effectively into the factorial design involving pruning time and intensity. standard package of practices were adopted for ma intena nce of a ll the tr ees dur ing the experimentation. the number of days required for sprouting and flowering was assessed by recording the days taken for the emergence of fir st spr out a nd flower respectively after the treatment imposition. the durations of the first and last harvest were calculated from the date of imposing the treatments to the first fruit harvest and the last fruit harvest respectively. the total fruit yield per tree was recorded at harvest by measuring the weight of fruits harvested and values were expressed in kilogram. fruit weight (g) was recorded using electronic balance. the total soluble solids (tss) were measured using digital refractometer and expressed as degree brix. titrable acidity was estimated by adopting the titrametric method of a.o.a.c (1975) using phenolphthalein indicator and the values were expressed in terms of percentage citric acid equiva lent. pulp content (%) of fr uit was determined using the following formula: the number of seeds per 100 g of pulp was calculated by using the following formula: gas exchange parameters such as net photosynthesis (pn, μmol m -2 s-1), transpiration rate (e, mmolm-2 s-1) and stomatal conductance (gs, mmol m-2s-1) were recorded in three fully expanded leaves of each plant using portable photosynthesis system (lcpro+, adc bioscientific limited, uk) during morning hours of clear and sunny conditions between 09:30 h and 11:30 h at two stages viz., fruit set (march, 2018) and rapid fruit growth (may, 2018) stage in the second year (2017-18) of study. photosynthetically active radiation (par) below the tree canopy was measured using the li-191sa line quantum sensor (li-cor, lincoln, ne) on uniformly overcast days between 12:00 h and 13:00 h at the fruit set and rapid fruit growth stages (fss and rfgs) during 2017-18. the total leaf chlorophyll content was measured at fss using spectrophotometer (uv 1650pc, shimadzu, japan) at wave lengths of 645 and 663 nm as per hiscox and isrealstam (1979). total sugar in shoot was estimated after the harvest of fruits following the method of somogyi, (1952). statistical analysis was done separately for the parameters studied for each year using opstat (sheoran et al., 1998) and discussed at p < 0.05 for significance of difference between their mean values. result and discussion physiological and biochemical characteristics: pruning, especially its levels, significantly influenced the amount of light interception at both fruit set stage (fss) in march and rapid fruit growth stage (rfgs) in may (p<0.05) (table 2). higher light interception in different treatments could be related to longer shoot length and higher number of leaves and leaf area in 75 per cent pruned trees (p<0.05). differential light interception within tree canopies can also influence vegetative growth, flower initiation, fruit set, fruit size and fruit quality (marini and marini, 1983). higher light interception was also associated with higher photosynthetic rate of leaves at both fruit set and rapid fruit growth stage. pruning provided open canopy area and resulted in maximum interception of sunlight for 3 advancing fruiting season in annona cv. arka sahan through pruning higher rate of photosynthesis (singh and singh 2007). similar results were recorded by sharma et al. (2006) that the light interception was significantly influenced by pruning intensity in mango, being higher for pruned trees than for not pruned ones. the highest value of diffuse light availability below the canopy was recorded for severely pruned trees than for trees not pruned. higher photosynthetic rate was recorded in trees pruned to 75 per cent level compared to 50 and 25 per cent levels (p<0. 05) (table 2). higher photosynthetic rate reflects more metabolic activity in these leaves which could be attributed to interception of more light by the leaves. the trees pruned to 75 per cent produced longer shoots carrying more leaves, which harvested more light. similar results were observed by sharma et al. (2006) in mango where higher photosynthetic rate was recorded in leaves of pruned trees than trees not pruned. however, stomatal conductance was not affected much due to pruning in the present study (data not presented). it ranged from 0.07 to 0.18 mmol m-2 s-1 among the treatments. the leaf chlorophyll content is considered as an important index of the metabolic activity of plants. at both fss and rfgs, chlorophyll content exhibited differential pattern in response to different levels of pruning (table 2). accumulation of higher chlorophyll content in leaf could be related to the higher light interception which favoured the synthesis of more chlorophyll. light interception by 75 per cent level pruned trees was higher at both fruit set and rapid growth stages. the lower chlorophyll content in the other treatments may be attributed to limited chlorophyll synthesis for want of conducible environmental conditions (sritharan et al., 2010). although, there was significant influence of pruning time and pruning levels on chlorophyll content at fruit set stage, no consistent results were evident over the years. at fruit set, the amount of chlorophyll content varied from 1.5 to 3.1 mg/g in the first year and from 1.2 mg to 3.2 mg/g in the second year. at rapid fruit growth stage, in the first year, pruning treatments did not influence the chlorophyll content while in the second year, significant influence was recorded with chlorophyll content varying from 2.0 to 2.8 mg/g (p<0.05). sharma and chauhan (2003) reported higher chlorophyll content in leaves of pruned peach tree leaves as compared to trees not pruned. however, total leaf chlorophyll content was recorded similar for both pruned and unpruned mango trees during april and july while during november it was recorded highest in pruned trees (schaffer and gaye 1989). presence of higher amount of sugar in shoots of trees pruned at 25 per cent level in the present study, could be attributed to poor translocation of sugar for the growth of shoot or more towards the developing fruits which was also reflected in terms of relatively, smaller shoot and less number of leaves in 25 per cent pruned trees. however, sugar accumulation in shoot was recorded more in the second year (506.2 mg/100 g) over the first year (457.4 mg/100 g) which could be related to the favourable environmental condition prevailed including higher rainfall (average 2.41 mm per month), relative humidity (average 76.32%) and maximum temperature (average 29.74° c) in the second year (october to july) than the first year (rainfall 1.76 mm & relative humidity 68.47%). shoots that emerged from 75 per cent pruning treatments were longer, which also reflected better translocation and utilization of sugar in the growth of shoot. overall, total sugar content was affected by pruning levels, the results are in conformity with those of bagchi et al. (2008) who observed that pruning up to 10 cm with complete removal of old leaves showed significant effect on increasing reducing sugars (36.7 mg/g) than other treatments and control. growth and yield characteristics: pruning led to leaf fall followed by sprouting of sub petiolar axillary buds on the shoot. irrespective of pruning time, the number of days required for sprouting has become shorter with the increase of pruning levelduring both the years with minimum number of days to sprout for those pruned in december first week and october first week in first and second years, respectively (p<0.05) (table3). early sprouting in trees pruned to 75 per cent level table 1 : details of timing and level of pruning treatments pruning level pruning time t1l1 25% pruning 60 dafh* t1l2 50% pruning (1 st week of t1l3 75% pruning october) t2l1 25% pruning 75 dafh t2l2 50% pruning (3 rd week of t2l3 75% pruning october) t3l1 25% pruning 90 dafh t3l2 50% pruning (1 st week of t3l3 75% pruning november) t4l1 25% pruning 105 dafh t4l2 50% pruning (3 rd week of t4l3 75% pruning november) t5l1 25% pruning 120 dafh t5l2 50% pruning (1 st week of t5l3 75% pruning december) *days after final fruit harvest 4 ta bl e 2 : e ff ec t of p ru ni ng t im e an d pr un in g le ve ls o n lig ht i nt er ce pt io n, p ho to sy nt he tic r at e, to ta l l ea f ch lo ro ph yl l a nd t ot al s ug ar in a nn on a cv . a rk a sa ha n l ig ht in te rc ep ti on ( % ) p ho to sy nt he ti c ra te to ta l le af c hl or op hy ll to ta l su ga r t re at m en ts 20 17 -1 8 (μ m ol m ”2 s” 1 ) (m g g1 ) (m g/ 10 0 g) f ss r f g s 20 17 -1 8 20 16 -1 7 20 17 -1 8 20 16 -1 7 20 17 -1 8 t 1l 1 21 .8 65 .1 7. 9 3. 1 3. 2 39 9. 3 48 0. 0 t 1l 2 41 .5 82 .6 7. 7 2. 5 2. 5 35 2. 0 41 5. 0 t 1l 3 58 .8 92 .0 10 .8 2. 9 3. 1 18 1. 5 24 9. 3 t 2l 1 19 .6 66 .3 5. 7 2. 3 2. 2 37 2. 0 41 0. 8 t 2l 2 40 .6 75 .9 5. 8 2. 9 3. 0 42 7. 8 50 4. 0 t 2l 3 55 .7 90 .6 7. 2 2. 3 2. 3 18 2. 5 29 9. 0 t 3l 1 24 .4 71 .9 4. 5 2. 3 2. 4 46 7. 5 53 1. 0 t 3l 2 32 .5 80 .2 4. 8 2. 0 1. 8 40 8. 8 47 2. 0 t 3l 3 59 .4 85 .2 8. 7 2. 2 2. 1 27 8. 8 32 7. 8 t 4l 1 21 .0 70 .4 7. 6 1. 7 1. 2 58 9. 5 69 8. 0 t 4l 2 47 .4 76 .9 8. 0 1. 5 2. 9 57 0. 5 57 3. 0 t 4l 3 58 .4 84 .1 8. 7 2. 0 3. 1 32 6. 5 53 9. 0 t 5l 1 24 .6 73 .4 6. 8 1. 8 2. 6 45 8. 8 41 1. 0 t 5l 2 40 .6 80 .5 6. 4 1. 6 2. 5 42 7. 0 49 8. 0 t 5l 3 58 .7 92 .7 7. 5 1. 9 1. 8 36 4. 0 43 1. 0 e xt er na l c he ck 20 .3 60 .2 7. 6 3. 0 3. 1 35 0 46 5 t c .d . ( p =0 .0 5) 3. 00 1. 11 0. 03 0. 04 6. 71 8. 39 l c .d . ( p =0 .0 5) 2. 81 2. 33 0. 86 0. 03 0. 03 5. 20 6. 50 t x l c .d . ( p =0 .0 5) 6. 28 5. 20 1. 92 0. 06 0. 07 11 .6 2 14 .5 3 t: t im e of p ru ni ng ; l : l ev el o f pr un in g chander et al 5 ta bl e 3 : e ff ec t of p ru ni ng t im e an d le ve ls o n sp ro ut in g, f lo w er in iti at io n, f ru it yi el d an d its p at te rn o f a nn on a cv . a rk a sa ha n sp ro ut in g f lo w er in it ia ti on f ir st h ar ve st f in al h ar ve st f ru it y ie ld p er f ru it y ie ld p er t re at m en ts (d ay s) (d ay s) (d ay s) (d ay s) tr ee ( kg ) t c sa (k g/ cm 2 ) 20 16 -1 7 20 17 -1 8 20 16 -1 7 20 17 -1 8 20 16 -1 7 20 17 -1 8 20 16 -1 7 20 17 -1 8 20 16 -1 7 20 17 -1 8 20 16 -1 7 20 17 -1 8 t 1l 1 85 .3 10 4. 7 10 0. 6 13 2. 8 29 7. 5 30 7. 5 30 7. 5 32 0. 0 12 .0 20 .2 0. 10 0. 14 t 1l 2 57 .5 60 .7 75 .7 74 .5 28 5. 0 27 9. 5 30 2. 0 30 6. 3 10 .1 14 .9 0. 07 0. 09 t 1l 3 23 .3 13 .7 42 .9 26 .3 27 1. 0 26 8. 9 29 9. 5 30 2. 5 11 .1 16 .1 0. 09 0. 11 t 2l 1 60 .5 10 4. 6 77 .7 12 6. 1 29 0. 0 29 1. 0 30 5. 0 30 1. 8 10 .2 17 .7 0. 08 0. 13 t 2l 2 28 .0 90 .1 45 .4 10 5. 3 27 7. 5 26 6. 0 29 6. 3 29 5. 0 11 .2 15 .7 0. 09 0. 10 t 2l 3 17 .5 20 .0 35 .3 33 .9 27 1. 0 24 5. 0 28 7. 0 29 5. 0 11 .3 17 .0 0. 08 0. 10 t 3l 1 41 .6 44 .9 54 .2 54 .8 26 9. 0 27 6. 8 27 9. 0 28 5. 5 9. 0 18 .9 0. 08 0. 14 t 3l 2 25 .5 32 .6 42 .9 55 .6 26 9. 8 26 5. 8 27 8. 0 28 4. 5 10 .0 19 .4 0. 09 0. 14 t 3l 3 16 .3 17 .6 48 .2 42 .2 27 1. 3 23 5. 0 28 7. 3 28 1. 0 10 .1 16 .8 0. 09 0. 11 t 4l 1 31 .5 62 .9 44 .4 76 .1 26 9. 0 26 1. 5 28 4. 0 26 6. 8 8. 7 20 .5 0. 07 0. 13 t 4l 2 19 .2 39 .6 33 .8 55 .7 27 0. 8 25 2. 5 28 4. 0 27 6. 0 9. 3 16 .4 0. 07 0. 10 t 4l 3 16 .2 18 .4 56 .8 44 .0 27 6. 3 23 6. 8 28 5. 0 27 1. 5 10 .8 15 .2 0. 08 0. 10 t 5l 1 25 .2 45 .1 38 .5 59 .8 27 0. 0 24 6. 8 28 3. 0 25 8. 3 9. 8 20 .6 0. 07 0. 12 t 5l 2 20 .9 33 .5 37 .8 45 .6 27 1. 0 23 6. 5 28 3. 0 25 5. 0 10 .5 19 .1 0. 07 0. 12 t 5l 3 14 .7 17 .3 50 .8 40 .6 27 4. 5 22 2. 5 28 3. 0 24 4. 8 11 .3 16 .4 0. 08 0. 09 e xt er na l c he ck 11 8 13 5 13 3 14 5 32 1 32 9 33 5 33 8 14 .2 20 .1 0. 09 0. 14 t c .d . ( p =0 .0 5) 3. 06 5. 10 4. 39 5. 07 3. 98 2. 55 3. 25 4. 78 0. 21 1. 27 0. 01 0. 01 l c .d . ( p =0 .0 5) 2. 37 3. 95 3. 40 3. 93 3. 08 1. 98 2. 52 3. 70 0. 16 0. 98 0. 01 t x l c .d . ( p =0 .0 5) 5. 29 8. 84 7. 61 8. 78 6. 89 4. 42 5. 64 8. 28 0. 36 2. 20 t: t im e of p ru ni ng ; l : l ev el o f pr un in g advancing fruiting season in annona cv. arka sahan through pruning 6 could be attributed to very few leaves or no leaf left on such shoots and with less number of buds available on the shoot, the reserve metabolites from trunk could have contributed to early release of these buds. similar results were observed in cherimoya (soler and cuevas, 2008) and guava (shaban and haseeb, 2009), where severely pruned trees gave early sprouting. also, early flowering occurred in trees pruned to 75 per cent level (p<0.05). in a less vigorous cultivar of sugar apple, balanagar, early shoot growth during winter could be induced under similar climatic condition through chemical defoliation (chander et al., 2019). since flowering is on current season growth in annona and concomitant with the shoot growth, early sprouting resulted in early flowering in both the years. however, in the first year, flowering was earlier on trees pruned to 50 per cent level during november and december despite early sprouting in those pruned to 75 per cent level. it was observed that there was continuous vegetative growth in 75 per cent pruned trees. similar results were reported in custard apple (george and nissen, 1987), cherimoya (soler and cuevas, 2008) and atemoya (olesen and muldoon, 2012). pruning treatments significantly influenced the flowering and fruiting period of annona cv. ‘arka sahan’ (table 3). earliest fruits were harvested from the treatments imposed in 1st week of october, at 75 per cent pruning level (t1l3) with minimum days (271) to harvest by 2nd week of june in first year (p<0.05). a consistent result was recorded for early harvest (2nd week of june) with 75 per cent pruned trees in second year for all pruning time. early harvest from 75 per cent pruned trees could be attributed to advanced flowering and fruit set in these trees. observations recorded on final harvest exhibited significant differences with pruning time and pruning level (table 3). in both the years, the final harvest extended longer for the 25 per cent pruned trees (p<0.05). final harvest in case of 75 per cent pruning was completed earlier than 25 per cent or 50 per cent pruning. early harvest in these trees could be attributed to earlier induction of flowering and pollination than the other treatments. the results are in conformity with those reported by vinay et al. (2014) in custard apple and adhikari and kandel (2015) in guava. higher yield was obtained from trees pruned during 1st week of october at 25 per cent level (t1l1) while for rest of the pruning treatments greater yield was recorded from 75 per cent pruned trees in the first year. however, in the second year, maximum yield per tree was obtained from 25 per cent pruned trees (table 3). higher yield in respective years could be attributed to bearing of larger size of fruits and occurrence of prevailing congenial environmental conditions during the fruit growth. also, accumulation of more sugars in the shoot of 25 per cent pruned trees at harvest reflect more availability of assimilates to fruits on these trees. fruits were harvested near to normal season from trees pruned to 25 per cent level which could have advantage of prevailing congenial environmental condition than other treatments. the results are in conformity with kumar et al. (2010) in peaches and choudhary and dhakare (2018) in sugar apple, where heavy pruning (90 cm) gave lesser yield than light or trees not pruned but medium pruning (3045 cm) recorded higher yield per tree. the yield per t csa was not influenced much with pr uning treatments, which could be attributed to lesser effect of pruning treatments on trunk growth (table 3). in the second year, comparatively higher yield per tree wa s r ecor ded a lthough ther e wa s not much improvement in trunk growth. higher yield in second year could be more related to the increase of yield per tree rather than trunk circumference. fruit quality characteristics: there was consistent significant effect of pruning levels on fruit weight and pulp content in both the years (p<0.05) (table 4). higher fruit weight and pulp content in 75 per cent pruned trees could be attributed to the better growth of shoot with higher number of leaves which resulted in higher synthesis of photosynthates in these shoots. the higher amount of accumulated photosynthates could have contributed for bigger size of fruits. similar results were reported in custard apple (olesen and muldoon, 2009; choudhary and dhakare, 2018) and ber (gupta and gill, 2015). however, in the second year, trees pruned at 25 per cent level recorded the maximum fruit weight and pulp content which could be due to a va ila bility of sufficient stor ed carbohydrates, confirmed with the estimation of higher sugar in the developed shoot. similar trend was observed on other fruit quality parameters including fruit volume, fruit length, fruit width and fruit circumference with the pruning treatments imposed over two years (data not presented). results indicated that irrespective of pruning time, comparatively fewer seeds per 100 g of pulp were recorded in 75 per cent and 25 per cent pruning levels in the first and second years, respectively (p<0.05). as the fruit size including fruit weight, volume, and pulp content was recorded more in these treatments this could have lowered the proportion of seed per unit of pulp. similar findings were also observed by chander and kurian (2019) in sugar apple and teaotia and singh (1971) in guava where lesser percentage of seed was recorded in chander et al 7 ta bl e 4 : e ff ec t of p ru ni ng t im e an d pr un in g le ve ls o n fr ui t qu al ity a tt ri bu te s of a nn on a cv . a rk a sa ha n f ru it w ei gh t p ul p co nt en t se ed s pe r 10 0 g of t ss t re at m en ts (g ) (% ) p ul p (º b ) 20 16 -1 7 20 17 -1 8 20 16 -1 7 20 17 -1 8 20 16 -1 7 20 17 -1 8 20 16 -1 7 20 17 -1 8 t 1l 1 24 8. 1 43 2. 9 59 .9 80 .1 29 .1 12 .4 36 .3 33 .9 t 1l 2 30 1. 5 35 0. 8 69 .5 70 .5 22 .7 15 .4 35 .2 32 .0 t 1l 3 31 6. 5 36 3. 6 64 .2 76 .2 21 .9 16 .1 34 .5 31 .8 t 2l 1 25 7. 9 39 4. 0 63 .6 80 .3 24 .1 12 .1 37 .0 33 .6 t 2l 2 26 5. 6 36 1. 5 66 .3 75 .2 25 .6 15 .2 35 .4 33 .0 t 2l 3 31 0. 7 42 1. 4 67 .7 73 .3 20 .3 15 .0 32 .8 31 .8 t 3l 1 27 8. 9 46 8. 7 65 .8 79 .0 27 .1 12 .4 35 .5 33 .8 t 3l 2 30 8. 9 45 2. 8 66 .8 78 .6 24 .2 15 .4 36 .7 32 .8 t 3l 3 28 9. 7 39 4. 5 68 .2 66 .2 22 .2 18 .2 35 .0 31 .3 t 4l 1 26 2. 5 45 6. 0 66 .5 80 .0 26 .1 13 .5 36 .3 32 .6 t 4l 2 25 0. 8 40 2. 7 68 .5 77 .4 24 .2 13 .4 36 .1 32 .4 t 4l 3 27 5. 0 38 5. 8 70 .8 74 .3 19 .2 15 .5 35 .3 31 .7 t 5l 1 26 2. 9 45 1. 2 62 .3 79 .1 25 .7 13 .5 36 .0 33 .5 t 5l 2 27 3. 1 40 8. 7 65 .8 69 .7 28 .6 13 .1 35 .7 32 .9 t 5l 3 27 8. 7 44 1. 4 66 .6 73 .9 23 .9 16 .1 35 .9 32 .2 e xt er na l c he ck 30 0 37 5 61 .4 66 .1 23 .2 15 .8 31 .8 30 .2 t c .d . ( p =0 .0 5) 36 .7 3 2. 72 0. 60 l c .d . ( p =0 .0 5) 18 .2 3 28 .4 5 2. 11 2. 34 2. 62 1. 39 0. 47 0. 54 t x l c .d . ( p =0 .0 5) 5. 22 1. 04 t: t im e of p ru ni ng ; l : l ev el o f pr un in g advancing fruiting season in annona cv. arka sahan through pruning 8 heavier fruit obtained from pruned trees. pruning influences qua lity of the fr uits by r egula ting carbohydrate allocation to the developing fruits (palanichamy et al., 2011). early pruning during october-november resulted in increased level of total soluble solids (tss) of the fruit than the later or trees not pr uned (p<0.05) (table 4). t he prevailing congenia l tempera tur e dur ing fr uit gr owth a nd maturation could have contributed for accumulation of more sugar in the developing fruits as the fruits come to harvest earlier in these pruned trees. in both the years, comparatively higher value of prevailing average maximum temperature (31.11, 31.50°c) was recorded from flowering to fruit maturity (february to june) for october-november pruned trees than the late pruned trees wherein lesser average maximum temperature (30.73, 30.33°c) was recorded from flowering to fruit maturity (april to august). the results are in conformity with those of kadam et al. (2018) in custard apple cv. dharur-6 where fruits from light pruned (20 cm) trees recorded maximum tss content. in contr ast, heavy pr uning resulted in accumulation of more tss in grapes (zabadal et al., 2002) and peach (chitkara et al., 1991). there were no consistent trends of acidity content of fruit pulp although higher level of acidity was observed in trees pruned to 75 per cent level (data not presented). chitkara et al. (1991) and kumar et al. (2010) recorded increased acidity level with the increase of pruning severity in peaches. similar results were obtained by mehta et al. (2012) in guava and kadam et al. (2018) in custard apple cv. dharur-6. induction of off-season crop with better quality is a new technique in sugar apple production that could ena ble the gr ower s to get better ma r ket a nd profitability. fruiting could be advanced by 8-9 weeks to june with pruning at 75 per cent level during october in annonacv. arka sahan from the normal fruiting season of august september. acknowledgement we are thankful for the requisite facility providedby the director, icar indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru (india). the first author is also grateful for the financial support provided to him by university grants, commission, new delhi (india). references adhikari, s. and kandel, t. p. 2015. effect of time and level of pruning on vegetative growth, flower ing, yield, a nd qua lity of gua va . international journal of fruit science,15(3): 290-301. a.o. a. c. 1975. officia l methods of ana lysis. association of the official analytical chemists, washington d.c. 8th edn. ba gchi, t. b., sukul, p. a nd ghosh, b. 2008. biochemica l cha nges dur ing off-sea son flowering in guava (psidium guajava l.) induced by bending and pruning. journal of tropical agriculture, 8: 64-66. chander, s. and kurian, r. m. 2019. effect of crop load, fruit position and shoot vigour on yield and quality of annona atemoya × annona squamosa in india . the journal of horticultural science and biotechnology, 94(4): 507-512. chander, s., kurian, r. m., satisha, j., upreti, k. k. a nd la xma n, r. h. 2019. chemica l interventions for advancing the fruiting season of sugar apple (annona squamosa l.) cv. balanagar.international journal of chemical studies,7(1): 774-781. chitkara, s. d., arora, r. k. and sharma, r. k. 1991. effect of various levels of pruning on physio-chemical characters of fruit in flordasun peach. haryana journal  of  horticultural  sciences, 20(3): 189–192. choudhary, k. and dhakare, b. b. 2018. influence of pruning intensities on growth, yield and fruit attributes of custard apple. international journal of current microbiology and applied sciences,7: 5311-5315. george, a. p. and nissen, r. j. 1987. effects of cincturing, defoliation and summer pruning on vegetative growth and flowering of custard apple (annona cherimola x annona squamosa) in subtropical queensland. australian journal of experimental agriculture, 27(6): 915-918. george, a.p, nissen, r. j. and campbell, j. a. 1991. pollination and selection in annona species (cherimoya, atemoya and sugar apple). frontier in tropical fruit research, 321: 178-185. gupta, n and gill, m s. 2015. effect of intensity of pruning on yield and fruit quality of ber (ziziphus mauritiana l. ) cv. umr a n. international journal of agriculture, environment and biotechnology, 8(1): 69-73. hiscox, j. d. and israelstam, g. f. 1979. a method for the extraction of chlorophyll from leaf tissue without maceration. canadian journal of botany, 57(12): 1332-1334. chander et al 9 jalikop, s. h. and kumar, r. 2007. pseudo-xenic effect of allied annona spp. pollen in hand pollination of cv. ‘arka sahan’ [(a. cherimola × a. squamosa) × a. squamosa]. hortscience, 42(7): 1534-1538. kadam, s r, dheware, r m. and urade, p s. 2018. effect of different levels of pruning on quality of custard a pple (annona squamosa l. ). international journal of bio-resource and stress management,9(5): 573-575. marini, r. p. and marini, m. c. 1983. seasonal cha nges in specific lea f weight, net photosynthesis, and chlorophyll content of peach leaves as affected by light penetration. journal of the american society for horticultural science,108: 600-605. mehta, s., singh, s. k., das, b., jana, b. r. and mali, s. 2012. effect of pruning on guava cv. sardar under ultra high-density orcharding system. vegetos, 25(2): 192-195. olesen, t. and muldoon, s. j. 2012. effects of defoliation on flower development in atemoya custard apple (annona cherimola mill. × a. squamosa l.) and implications for flowerdevelopment modelling. australian journal of botany,60(2): 160-164. olesen, t. a nd muldoon, s. j. 2009. br a nch development in custa r d a pple (annona cherimola miller× a. squamosa l.) in relation to tip-pruning and flowering, including effects on production. trees, 23(4): 855-862. palanichamy, v., mitra, b., srivastav, m. and singh, s.k. 2011. studies on various grape genotypes through development of bearing zones and pr uning sever ity. journal of pharmacy research, 4(10): 7-10. schaffer, b. and gaye, g. o. 1989. effects of pruning on light interception, specific leaf density and leaf chlorophyll content of mango. scientia horticulturae, 41(1-2): 55-61. shaban, a. e. a. and haseeb, g. m. m. 2009. effect of pruning severity and spraying some chemical substances on growth and fruiting of guava tr ees. american-eurasian journal of agricultural and environmental science, 5(6): 825-831. sharma, d.p. and chauhan, j.s., 2003. october. response of pruning intensities and fertilizer tr ea tments on yield, fr uit qua lity a nd photosynthetic efficiency of peach. in vii international symposium on temperate zone fruits in the tropics and subtropics 662 pp. 237-241. sharma, r. r., singh, r. and singh, d. b. 2006. influence of pr uning intensity on light penetration and leaf physiology in high-density orchards of mango trees. international journal of fruit science, 61(2):117-123. sheoran, o. p., tonk, d. s, kaushik, l.s., hasija, r. c. and pannu, r. s. 1998. statistical software package for agricultural research workers. recent advances in infor ma tion theory, statistics & computer applications by d.s. hooda & r. c. ha sija depa r tment of mathematics statistics, ccs hau, hisar (139143). singh, v k. and singh, g. 2007. photosynthetic efficiency, canopy micro climate and yield of rejuvenated guava trees. acta horticulturae, 735: 326-331. soler, l and cuevas, j. 2008. development of a new technique to pr oduce winter cherimoyas. horttechnology, 18(1): 24-28. somogyi, m. (1952). notes on sugar determination. journal of biological chemistry, 200:245-247. sritharan, n, vijayalakshmi, c. and selvaraj, p. k. 2010. effect of micro-irrigation technique on physiological and yield traits in aerobic rice. international journal of agriculture, environment and biotechnology, 3(1): 26-28. teaotia, s. s. and singh, r. d. 1971. the effect of training on growth, cropping and physicochemical properties of guava cv. allahabad safeda. progressive horticulture, 2: 5-20. vinay, g. m. and chithiraichelvan, r. 2014. induction of off-sea son flower ing in custa rd apple (annona squamosa l.) cv. balanagar. journal of horticultural sciences, 10(1): 13-17. zabadal, t. j., vanee, g. r., dittmer, t. w. and ledebuhr, r.l. 2002. evaluation of strategies for pr uning and cr op contr ol of concor d grapevines in southwest michigan. american journal of enology and viticulture, 53: 20-24. advancing fruiting season in annona cv. arka sahan through pruning 1 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 00-00, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper growth and yield enhancement of carrot through integration of npk and organic manures kiran m.1, jilani m.s.1, waseem k.1, haq f.2, khan m.s.1, nadim m.a.3* rahman k.1 and hussain k.1 1department of horticulture, 2institute of chemical sciences, 3department of agronomy, gomal university, dera ismail khan, pakistan *corresponding author email : mehwishkiran@gu.edu.pk abstract a pot experiment was conducted at horticulture experimental area, gomal university, dera ismail khan, pakistan to investigate the combined effects of npk and organic manures on growth and yield of carrot, for two consecutive years. the experiment was laid out in crd with six treatments and four replications. five different organic manures such as poultry manure (pm), sewage sludge (ss), farmyard manure (fym), press mud (prm) and goat manure (gm) were applied in combination with npk, each at recommended levels for two successive years. a fertilizer check (control) was also included as treatment where no fertilizer and manure were used. the study revealed significant improvements in almost all growth and yield attributes by combined application of npk and organic manures. among different combinations, npk + pm surpassed all other treatments by giving maximum leaves per plant (8.73 and 8.13), leaf length (38.17 and 36.77cm), root length (29.30 and 24.83cm), root diameter (3.10 and 3.27cm), root weight per plant (142.40 and 142.00g), total biomass per plant (169.33 and 166.67g) and root yield (56.67 and 56.83 t/ha), during both the experimental years. similarly, npk combination with green manure and sewage sludge also produced better results pertaining to carrot growth and production for two consecutive years. it was also observed during the study that control treatment showed poorest findings and placed at lowest levels. keywords: carrot, npk, organic manures, root length, root weight and total biomass introduction carrot is one of the major vegetable crops grown throughout the world (cho et al., 2021) and considered to be an important economical vegetable as it has large yield per unit area (sikora et al., 2020). in pakistan, carrot is one of the cheaply available vegetables and is equally used by poor and rich people (amjad et al., 2013). besides, vitamin a and fiber carrot is also enriched with carbohydrates, protein, minerals, fibers, iron and so on (khomich et al. , 2020). fr om therapeutic point of view carrot is more useful in curing human diseases especially eye sight (nagraj et al., 2020). this root vegetable is used for different purposes in daily human diet and its roots are eaten uncooked in steamed or boiled vegetable salad and can also be used in soup and other food stuff (rahman et al., 2020). according to survey in pakistan (2017-18) the carrot was grown on area of 13.95 thousand ha and its total production was 241.91 thousand tones (noor et al., 2020). the proper application of nutrients increase the soil fertility and crop production (silveria and kohmann, 2020). plants and crops fulfill their nutritional requirements by the uptake of minerals largely through soil (vijayprabhakar et al., 2020). balanced nutrition application is considered as an important factor to boost production. both soil fertility and crop production are adversely affected by misuse of fertilizers without any significant knowledge (pandey et al., 2020). generally, most carrot growers use inorganic fertilizers to realize higher yields. the rising level of inorganic fertilizers adversely affect the human health (toor et al., 2020) soil texture and structure. so, the farmers tried the integrated plant nutrients which significantly increased the fertility of 2 kiran et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 00-00, 2022 soil and crop production (singh et al., 2020). there are several organic soil amendments which include materials such as chicken manure, cattle manure, cocoa pod husk, compost and solid waste (ameen, 2020). so, the mineral fertilizers can be substituted by organic manures. manure application provides nutrients, enhances water holding ability, soil structure and porosity, moisture retention, bulk density, enhance the microbial growth and crop quality (goel et al., 2020). organic fertilizers are cheaper than inorganic sources, thus farmers can easily afford the cost of organic fertilizers (hafez et al., 2020) in order, to achieve high yield and quality product, the proper use of mineral fertilizers and organic manure are of considerable importance. they also display a vital role in avoiding harmful effects on soil and environment as well (fallah et al., 2020) the effectiveness of the combined application of mineral and organic fertilizers assigned to the increased efficiency of mineral fertilizer and the balanced supply of all the essential nutrients. integrated use of organic and inorganic fertilizers can improve crop productivity and sustain soil fertility (hammad et al., 2020) however, the main important issue is that the organic fertilizers are slowly available to the crops as compared to the inorganic fertilizers. recently, the researchers focused to practice the combination of miner al fer tilizers a nd organic manures. the combination of both the organic and inorganic fertilizer increase the soil fertility, crop production and decrease the level of soil pollution (karmakar et al., 2020). taking into consideration the beneficia l a spect of integr a ted fer tilizer s, a n experiment was conducted to study the response of growth and yield of carrot towards the combined effect of npk dose and organic manures. materials and methods the two years study to investigate the integrated use efficiency of different organic manures in addition to npk on growth and production of carrot was carried out at horticultur e experimental ar ea, gomal university, dera ismail khan, pakistan. experimental site is located between 32º 4’ n (latitude), 71º 2’ (longitude) and 173 m (altitude) above sea level. climatic conditions of the study ar ea are a rid, subtropical, and continental with an average rainfall ranging 180-300 mm. the trial was conducted in pots using crd layout with six treatments (i.e.) t1:control (no fertilizers), t2: npk (100:100:125 kg ha -1) + fym (30.0 t ha-1), t3:npk + pm (10.0 t ha -1), t4:npk + gm (15.0 t ha-1), t5: npk + prm (20.0 t ha -1) and t6:npk + ss (20.0 t ha -1) each treatment replicated four times. all pots were filled with equal and uniform amount (20.0 kg) of river soil along with respective quantities of npk and organic manures. a set of pots without any additives (manures and fertilizers) treated as control. the required quantity of mineral fertilizers (phosphorus and potash) were applied in the form of single super phosphate and sulphate of potash at sowing, while different manures were incorporated well before sowing of seeds (10 days). nitrogen was applied in the form of urea in two splits i.e., before sowing and after one month of sowing. five seeds of carrot (local variety) were sown on 20th october, each year in pots and all cultural practices were performed uniformly. data on various attributes pertaining to plant growth and yield including number of leaves per plant, leaf weight and length, root weight, length, diameter, plant biomass and yield were recorded, and statistical analysis was done as per anova techniques, while means’ comparison was done by duncan’s multiple range (dmr) test. results and discussion application of npk and organic manures significantly influenced number of leaves per plant during both the experimental years (table1). application of npk + pm recorded the significantly higher number of leaves per plant (8.73 and 8.13) during both the years. it was followed by the application of npk + gm (8.17 and 7.60). the study also showed statistically on par number of leaves per plant by applying ss (7.83 and 7.33), fym (7.73 and 7.27) and prm (7.60 and 7.07) in addition to npk. the control treatment recorded the least number of leaves per plant was (4.53 and 3.27). the obtained results showed that the integrated mineral and organic manure increased the number of leaves by providing macro and micro nutrient to plants. the increase in the number of is attributed to the use of variant nature of the organic manures. the obtained results are in accordance to previously reported literature (singh et al., 2007). kirad et al. (2010), also recorded 8.26 and 16.06 leaves per plant. the addition of various organic fertilizers along with npk greatly increased the leaf length of the carrot. the results related to the combined effect of organic fertilizers along with npk on the leaf length are shown 3 growth and yield enhancement in carrot using integrated nutrient management in table 1). among the treatments, the longest leaves (38. 17 a nd 36. 77 cm) wer e pr oduced by the combination of npk + pm, followed by npk + gm (35.17 and 36.50 cm) and npk + ss (34.13 cm). significantly shortest leaves (17.33 and 15.70 cm) were found in control treatment, during two years of experimentation. the results of this experiment are also supported by numerous references already cited in literature (singh et al., 2007, singh et al., 2020 and sunandarani and mallareddy, 2007). data pertaining to weight of ca rrot lea ves (table 1) expressed significant variations by comparing organic manures, as well as comparison over control for two succeeding years. during 1st year, highest and statistically leaf weight per plant (25.00g) was recorded with t3, which remained on par with only t4 (24.33 g) only. during second year significantly higher leaf weight per plant (23.67 g) was recorded in t4, which remained on par with t3 (23.00 g) and t6 (22.67g). the significantly lowest values of 9.0 and 7.67 gm were recorded with t1 during first and second year respectively. it can be concluded from the results that the application of orga nic ma nur es in combina tion with npk substantially increased the weight of carrot leaves. the combined introduction of manures along with npk raised the leaf weight 163.7% to 226.1% over control in the first year, while the same was 144.4% to 162.9% in the next year, higher in npk + pm (first year) and npk + gm (second year), while during both years the minimum increase was noted npk + prm. this might be attributed to the combination of inorganic and organic fertilizers that decreased the loss of nutrients. the proper use of the integrated manures and fertilizers increased the leaf weight by providing higher rate of nutrients availability (toor et al., 2020). the different treatments significantly influenced root length, root diameter, root weight, biomass weight and root yield (table 2). application of poultry manure (pm) in addition to npk produced significantly higher values for root length (29.30 and 24.83 cm), which table 1 : effect of npk and organics manures on leaf characters in carrot in response of npk and organic manures treatment no. of leaves per plant leaf length (cm) leaf weight (g per plant) i year ii year i year ii year i year ii year t1 4.53 3.27 17.33 15.70 9.00 7.67 t2 7.73 7.27 33.87 32.73 22.33 21.33 t3 8.73 8.13 38.17 36.77 25.00 23.00 t4 8.17 7.60 36.50 35.17 24.33 23.67 t5 7.60 7.07 32.70 32.17 22.00 20.22 t6 7.83 7.33 34.77 34.13 23.00 22.67 lsd (0.05) 0.239 0.289 0.670 1.013 0.878 1.434 root root root biomass root treatment length diameter weight weight yield (cm) (cm) (g/plant) (g/plant) (t/ha) i year ii year i year ii year iyear ii year iyear ii year i year ii year t1 12.03 10.80 1.43 1.22 47.33 38.33 56.33 46.00 18.93 15.33 t2 22.00 19.57 2.79 2.50 128.00 114.33 150.33 135.63 51.04 45.73 t3 29.30 24.83 3.27 3.10 142.40 142.00 169.33 166.67 56.83 56.67 t4 26.03 23.87 2.93 2.90 141.33 136.67 166.0 160.00 55.15 51.75 t5 23.77 20.73 2.80 2.67 128.67 120.33 150.73 140.57 53.83 45.90 t6 25.17 21.83 2.83 2.73 130.33 129.37 153.0 152.33 54.37 48.83 lsd (0.05) 1.829 1.157 0.133 0.176 5.116 4.598 2.876 4.608 1.301 1.936 table 2 : effect of npk and organics manures on root characters and yield 4 remained on par with only t4 during the second year of experimentation. among different organic fertilizers, poorest results (22.00 and 19.57 cm root length) were recorded in npk + fym. however, the shortest roots (10.80 cm and 12.03 cm) were found in control treatment. the current study revealed that the use of organic manure in conjunction with npk significantly enlarged carrot roots, thereby advocating positive impact on root growth from the combined use of manures and fertilizers. these results are supported by previously work done in literature (sunandarani and mallareddy, 2007) root length and diameter greatly contributes to carrot weight and yield. amongst different organic manures applied in addition to npk, poultry manure (pm) superseded other treatments by producing maximum root diameter (3.27 and 3.10 cm), respectively for two successive years. it was followed by npk + gm (2.93 and 2.90 cm) and npk + ss (2.83 and 2.73 cm) respectively for two years. the lowest root diameter (1.43 and 1.22 cm) was recorded in control treatment. the study showed that the combined use of organic manures together with npk substantially increased the carrot root diameter. addition of pm proved superior amongst treatments,while fym was least effective that might be due to lower nutrient concentrations in fym as well as its slow release and delayed decomposition. from the obtained results it was concluded that the integrated nutrients increased the root diameter (toor et al., 2020). maximum root weight per plant (142.4 and 142.0 g) was recorded in combined application of npk and pm, which was followed by npk + gm (141.33 and 136.68 g) for two years. addition of fym along with npk resulted in poor root weight (128.00 and 114.33 g) during both the cropping seasons. however, control treatment, where no fertilizers (chemical + organic) were mixed into the soil showed lowest root weight per plant (47.33 and 38.33 g), respectively for two consecutive years. the results of this study showed that the combined use of organic and mineral fertilizers substantially increased the root weight of carrot, which might be attributed to the well solubilization of plant food, contributing to the increased nutrient uptake. these results suggested that combination of organic manures and mineral fertilizers with appropriate ratios ca n significa ntly incr ea se the r oot weight (vijayaprabhakar et al., 2020). perusal of data presented in table 2 indicated that biomass of carrot plants was significantly affected by integrated use of npk and organic manures, during both the yea r s. amongst differ ent tr ea tments, significantly higher biomass per plant (169.33 and 166.67g) was recorded in plants amended with npk + pm than other treatments during two years of cropping. it was followed by the combined use of npk with gm (166.00 and 160.00 g) and ss (153.0 and 152.33 g). the lowest biomass weight (56.33 and 46.00g) was recorded in control treatment. the results revealed that the effectiveness of npk supplied with pm and gm was remarkable, suggesting that these organic sources provided more nutrients to plants. these results are in the agreement with previously report literature (singh et al., 2020). considerable variations existed in carrot root yield due to combined application of inorganic and organic fertilizers, for two years study (table 2). application of npk + pm recorded significantly higher root yield (56.83 and 56.67 t/ha) than all the treatments in both the years. it was followed by npk + gm (55.15 and 51.75 t/ha) and npk + ss (54.3 and 48.83 t/ha). among integrated treatments, npk + fym produced statistically lowest yield (51.04 and 47.73 t/ ha), respectively during both the experimental years. combination of organic and inorganic treatments recorded the higher yield to the tune of 170-200 and 198-269 per cent than the control treatment during both the years. the study exposed that amongst various combinations, npk + pm surpassed rest of the treatments in enhancing root yield. the npk incorporation with manures significantly increased the root yield, which might be attributed to the plant nutrient solubilization leading to increased macro and micronutrients uptake. the advantage of the use of mixture of organic and mineral fertilizers is it increase the efficiency of the fertilizers, minimized the nutrient loss and enhanced the yield of carrot (vijayaprabhakar et al., 2020). conclusion it is concluded that collective application of npk and organic manures has significantly improved vegetative growth and yield of carrot, as compared to control. integration of npk and poultry manure (both at r ecommended levels) has out yielded all other combinations and control in almost all parameters. hence, for getting more root yield of carrot, poultry manure must be incorporated into the soil in addition kiran et al 5 growth and yield enhancement in carrot using integrated nutrient management to npk. moreover, use of goat manure along with npk is also a viable combination for getting higher root yield of carrot. authors’ contribution present research work is part of ph.d. dissertation of the principal author. muhammad saleem jilani was the research supervisor for two consecutive years. kashif waseem and fazl haq conceived the idea and designed experiments. muhammad sohail khan helped in da ta a na lysis. muha mma d amja d na dim contributed during writing up and proofreading of manuscript. khalid rahman and kashif hussain helped in data collection and tabulation. all the authors have read and approved the final manuscript. references ameen, a. 2020. comparison of crop production efficiency of compost leachate with chemical fer tilizer a nd eva lua ting its effect on germination and growth of wheat crop. african journal of biotechnology, 19(5):282-286. amjad, m., ahmad,t., iqbal, q., nawaz, a. and jahangir, m.m. 2013. herbicide contamination in carrot grown in punjab, pakistan. pakistan journal of agricultural sciences 50(1): 1-4. cho, y. , kim, b. , lee, j. a nd kim, s. 2021. construction of a high-resolution linkage map and chromosomal localization of the loci determining major qualitative traits in onion (allium cepa l.). euphytica, 217(1) : 1-12. fallah, s., mouguee, s., rostaei, m., adavi, z., lor igooini, z. a nd sha hba zi, e.2020.productivity and essential oil quality of dracocephalum kotschyi under organic and chemical fertilization conditions. journal of cleaner production, 255: 120189. goel, r., debbarma, p., kumari, p., suyal, d.c., kuma r, s. a nd ma ha pa tr a , b. s. , 2021. assessment of soil chemical qua lity, soil micr obia l popula tion a nd pla nt gr owth parameters under organic and conventional rice–wheat cropping system. agricultural research, 10(2), pp.193-204. hafez,m., popov, a.i. and rashad, m.2020.integrated use of bio-organic fertilizers for enhancing soil fertility–plant nutrition, germination status and initia l gr owth of cor n (zea mays l. ). environmental technology & innovation, 21: 101329. hammad, h.m., khaliq, a., abbas, f., farhad, w., fahad, s., aslam, m., shah, g.m., nasim, w., mubeen, m. a nd ba kha t, h. f. 2020. comparative effects of organic and inorganic fertilizers on soil organic carbon and wheat productivity under arid region. communications in soil science and plant analysis, 51(10): 1406-1422. karmakar, s., bhattacharyya, a., ghosh, b., roy, r., kuma r, s. , ka r, b. a nd sa ha , g. 2020.suitability of coupling application of organic and inorganic fertilizers for crop cultiva tion. ecologica l a nd pr a ctica l applications for sustainable agriculture, springer, pp. 149-177. khomich, l., perova, i., and eller, k.2020.carrot juice nutritional profile. voprosy pitaniia, 89(1): 86-95. kirad, k., swati, b. and singh, d.2010. integrated nutrient management on growth, yield and qua lity of ca r rot. karnataka journal of agricultural sciences, 23(3): 542-543. kushwah, g., sharma, r., kushwah, s. and mishra,s. 2019. effect of organic manures, inorganic fertilizers and varieties on growth, yield and quality of tropical carrot. indian journal of horticulture, 76(3): 451-456. nagraj, g.s., jaiswal, s., harper, n. and jaiswa,a.k. 2020. carrot, in: nutritional composition and antioxidant properties of fruits and vegetables. p.323-337. nisar, f., mufti, s., afroza, b., khan, f., din, s., andrabi, n., saleem, s., shah, l.r. and nabi, j. 2019. effect of integr a ted nutr ient management on growth and yield attributes of black carrot (daucus carota subsp. sativus var. atrorubens alef.), indian journal of chemical studies, 7(4):2019-2022 noor, a. ziaf, k., ghani, m.a., ayub, c.m, ahmad, i. and amjad, m. 2020. plant spacing effects on seed yield and quality of carrot cultivar t29. pure and applied biology, 9(4): 25632570. 6 kiran et al pandey, m., shrestha, j., subedi, s. and shah, k.k. 2020. role of nutrients in wheat: a review, tropical agrobiodiversity, 1(1):18-23. rahman, n., uddin, m.b., quader, m.f.b and bakar, m.a. 2020.optimization of mixed peels from banana, carrot and apple to develop high fiber biscuit. international journal of natural and social sciences, 7(1): 21-5. sikora, j., niemiec, m., tabak, m., gródek-szostak, z. , szelą g-sikor a , . kuboń, a. , m a nd komorowska, m. 2020. assessment of the efficiency of nitrogen slow-release fertilizers in integrated production of carrot depending on fertilization strategy. sustainability, 12(5):1982. silveir a , m. l. a nd kohma nn, m. m. 2020. ma inta ining soil fertility and hea lth for sustainable pastures. in: management strategies for sustainable cattle production in southern pastures, elsevier, pp. 35-58. singh, b., singh, a., singh, t. and singh, n. 2007. integra ted nutrient mana gement in car rot (daucus carota l.). progressive agriculture, 7(1&2): 84-86. singh, s., patel, c.r. and k. paikra. k. 2020. integrated nutrient management: an effective approach for susta ina ble agriculture in chhattisgarh: a review, int. j. curr. microbiol. app. sci, 9(5):1652-1662. sunandarani, n. and mallareddy, k.2007. effect of differ ent orga nic ma nur es and inorganic fertilizers on growth, yield and quality of carrot (daucus carota l.). karnataka journal of agricultural sciences, 20(3): 686. toor, m.d., amin, m.m., khan, b.a., nadeem, m.a.,usman, m., faizan, m., arshad, a., and zafar, k. 2020. consequence of surplus fertilizers and nutrients: a review on effect on plants and humans, international journal of botany studies 5(3): 360-364. vijayaprabhakar, a., hemalatha, m. and joseph, m. 2020. utilization of paddy straw as a source of nutrients for succeeding paddy and its effect on soil available nutrients, nutrient uptake and crop yield. international journal of farm sciences, 10(1): 53-58. this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction minimally processed vegetables, popularly known as ready-to-use or ready to eat or fresh-cut, are raw vegetables that have been sanitized, peeled, sliced, chopped or shredded and packaged to make them readily usable without decline in freshness and quality (siddique et al., 2011). since lettuce is having meager number of calories (10 kcal100-1 g fw), it is often advised for reducing obesity and also minimizing risk of cataracts, heart ailments, cancers and paralysis due to presence of ample amount of β-carotene and lutein contents (mampholo et al., 2016). in recent years, demand for minimally-processed (mp) vegetables is increasing in india and projected to record 6.5% compound annual growth rate (cagr) by 2026 due to their minimal processing, ready to consumption form and high dietary value. lettuce is an important leafy vegetable usually consumed as salads. currently, share of salads has enhanced in diet and, hotels, restaurants and catering services are demanding lettuce in ready to eat form. lettuce is highly delicate and prone to surface browning through enzyme action. minimally processed produce deteriorates more rapidly than whole produce because internal and outer tissues are exposed to external environment. physical damage during the minimal processing elevate metabolic activities, respiration, biochemical conversion and microbial growth, that often result in dilapidation of texture, color, ûavour and affect visual quality as well as marketability of the product. several chemical and physical treatments have been widely tried out to manage fresh-cut lettuce browning. however, most of the methods are commonly constrained by toxic nature, cost and potentially spoiling sensory properties and reduction in nutrient content of the produce. mela tonin is a ha r mless biologica l molecule synthesized naturally in mitochondria and chloroplast of the plants (tan et al., 2013). melatonin works as an antioxidant and augments the post-harvest life of horticultural produce. earlier, post-harvest treatment of mela tonin had found effective in mitiga ting browning and extending shelf-life in strawberry (aghdam and fard, 2017), litchi (zhang et al., 2018), peach (gao et al., 2018), broccoli (zhu et al., 2018) and cut anthurium flowers (aghdam et al., 2019). the objective of this investigation was to assess the impact j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 195-200, 2023 https://doi.org/10.24154/jhs.v18i1.2163 post-harvest melatonin application reduced browning in minimally processed lettuce (lactuca sativa l.) during low temperature storage gurjar p.s.1*, singh s.r.2, verma a.k.2 and mishra m.2 1icar-central institute for arid horticulture, bikaner 334006 rajasthan, india 2icar-central institute for subtropical horticulture, rehmankhera, lucknow 226101, uttar pradesh, india *corresponding author email : pawan.gurjar@icar.gov.in abstract the investigation was carried out to assess the effect of post-harvest dipping of minimally processed fresh cut lettuce with various concentrations (10, 100 and 1000 µmoll-1) of melatonin on shelf-life and sensory quality of lettuce stored at 6±2ºc for 8 days. melatonin treatment was found effective in maintaining freshness and sensory quality of lettuce during storage. browning was reduced by 45% and visual quality index increased by 44.10% compared to control in 100 µmol l-1 melatonin treated samples on the 6th day of storage. maximum total chlorophyll, total phenol and total antioxidants and least activity of browning related enzyme i.e., peroxidase (pod) was observed in 100 µmol l-1 melatonin treated samples during storage. no significant variation was observed between 10 µmol l-1 melatonin treated and control samples. browning index value had significant negative correlation with total chlorophyll, total phenol and total antioxidants whereas pod activity had significant positive correlation. it can be inferred from the present investigation that post-harvest treatment of 100 µmol l-1 melatonin extended shelf-life of minimally processed lettuce for 6 days by preserving phenols, chlorophyll, antioxidants and inhibiting pod activity. keywords : browning, lettuce, melatonin, minimal processing, peroxidase, phenols 196 gurjar et al. j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 195-200, 2023 of post-harvest melatonin treatment on tissue browning and storage quality of fresh-cut lettuce. materials and methods lettuce var. ‘grishma’ grown under a eroponic conditions at vegetable hydroponic centre of icarci sh, lucknow wa s pr oc ur ed. unifor m size healthy heads were selected and wrapper foliage was removed and heads were sanitized with 100 ppm chlorine water. then heads were cut into two halves with sanitized sharp stainless-steel knife. thereafter, cut pieces were treated with aqueous solution of melatonin (cdh, new delhi) (10 µmol, 100 µmol and 1000 µmoll-1) by immersing them for 5 min a nd treated hea ds wer e a ir-dr ied to evaporate surface water. dried cut pieces with sample size of 200 g were packed in zip-n-lock polypropylene bags. packaged samples were stored at 6±2ºc temperature for period of 8 days and observation was recorded on 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 days of storage. physical and biochemical observations were recorded in four samples for each treatment. the appearance and browning index of lettuce were recorded as suggested by tian et al. (2014). five lettuce pieces evaluated for each treatment by 8 pa nelis ts. o ver a ll visu a l qu a lity (o vq) wa s measured on a scale fr om 9 to 1, where 89: excellent (completely devoid of brown spots) 6-8: good (minor defects; not objectionable) and less than 6: poor (moderately to excessive defects) quality. salability limit was restricted to 6 ovq rating. the browning index (bi) was calculated by using following formula: bi=”(browning scale) × (number of lettuce pieces with that browning level)/ (total number of lettuce pieces). sample rated bi mor e tha n 2 . 0 wa s consider ed uns uita ble for marketing. electrolyte leakage (el) was measured by using the method of aghdam et al. (2015). the t ot a l phenols wer e det er mined by t he f olic ceocalteu method using tannic acid as standard. the total chlorophyll was determined using the equation: total chlorophyll (µg/ml) = (20.2 x o.d. at 645 nm) + (8.02 x o.d. at 663 nm) as given by arnon (1949). the antioxidants activity in lettuce wa s mea s ur ed a s f er r ic r educing a nt iox ida nt potential (frap) value (bhattacherjee et al., 2014). the peroxidase enzyme activity was estimated as number of absorbance units per gram fresh weight of lea f. experiment was designed in complete ra ndomized block design (crd) a nd data was analyzed by using web agr i sta t pa cka ge 2.0 (wasp 2.0) statistical software. results and discussion the emergence of brown spots on minimally processed (mp) lettuce leaves increased progressively in all samples during storage period irrespective of postharvest treatment. during first 2 days of storage, browning index (bi) remained below the threshold limit (less than 2) in all samples. however, bi in control and 10 µmoll-1 melatonin treated samples was significantly higher compared to 100 and 1000 µmoll1 melatonin treated samples (fig. 1). after 2 days of storage, sharp elevation in bi was observed in control and 10 µmoll-1 melatonin treated lettuce and it exceeded threshold bi limit (less than 2) on 4th day dur ing storage and with values 3.50 a nd 3. 16, respectively. however, bi in 100 and 1000 µmoll-1 melatonin treated leaves was lesser than the threshold limit (below 2) i.e., 1.91 and 1.95, respectively on 6th day of storage. at 6th day of storage, 45% lower bi value was observed in 100 µmoll-1 melatonin treated samples compared to control. at 8th day of storage, the lowest bi (2. 45) was noticed in 100 µmol melatonin treated samples followed by 1000 µmoll-1 melatonin treatment (2.51) whereas, significantly higher bi (3.82) was observed in control and 10 µmol melatonin treated lettuce. similar outcomes were reported by aghadam et al. (2015) in cut anthurium where 51% lower browning was noticed in 100 µmol mela tonin treated flower s. zha ng et al. (2018) observed strong suppression of pericarp browning in litchi through post harvest melatonin treatment. membrane damaged during minimal processing fig. 1. browning index score in minimally processed lettuce treated with exogenous application of melatonin during 8 days storage at 6±2ºc temperature. 197 post-harvest melatonin application reduces browning in lettuce oper a tions ca used loss of sub-cellula r compartmentalization, leading to contact between browning inducing-enzymes (ppo and pod) and phenolic substrates, further leading to enzymatic browning in fruits and vegetable produce. in the current investigation, less tissue browning in treated samples compa red to control might be due to suppression of phenol oxidizing enzymes by melatonin. this is supported by the significant positive correlation (r=0.915) between bi and pod activity at the end of storage period (table 2). visual quality of mp lettuce was considerably retained by exogenous post-harvest dip treatment of 100 and 1000 µmoll-1 melatonin. on the 6th day of storage, visual quality index (vqi) was significantly higher i.e., 7.12 (more than threshold limit 6) in 100 µmoll1 melatonin treated samples whereas, in control and 10 µmol melatonin treated lettuce vqi was calculated as 4.78 and 5.02, respectively. on the 8th day of storage, maximum vqi (5.26) was recorded for 100 µmol melatonin treated heads and minimum vqi (3.65) was observed in control (fig. 2). in 100 µmol melatonin treated samples, vqi value was 44.10% higher than the control samples. no considerable visual quality difference was observed in 10 µmol melatonin treated lettuce and untreated samples. simila r ly, 100 µ moll -1 mela tonin tr ea tmentsmaintained freshness in broccoli florets for 7 days storage period (zhu et al., 2018). vqi demonstrated significant negative association with browning index (r= -0.945) and pod activity (r= -0.986) whereas, it displayed significant strong positive correlation with total chlorophyll (r=0.0.963), total phenol (r=0.794) and total antioxidants (r=0.961) (table 2). electr olyte lea ka ge (el) is cor r ela ted with maintenance of membrane integrity during cold storage of fresh produce. an enhancement in el has been used as an indicator of physiological damage in cell membrane during storage. el of mp lettuce leaves increased in control as well as melatonin treated samples during storage. during initial two days of storage, non-significant difference was observed in el among the treatments. however, on 4th, 6th and 8th day of storage considerably lower el was noticed in lettuce dipped in 100 and 1000 µmoll-1 melatonin compared to control (fig. 3). at the end of storage period, 55.77% enhancement in el was noticed in 100 µmoll-1 melatonin treated samples whereas 97.92% elevation was noticed in control samples. melatonin treatment slowed down the production of superoxide radicals (o2 –·) and hydrogen peroxide (h2o2) during post-harvest storage which resulted in protection of membrane structure and lower electrolyte leakage (aghda m et al. , 2015). our r esults wer e in concomitant with findings of aghdam et al. (2019) in melatonin treated anthurium cut flowers during cold storage. fig. 2. visual quality index (vqi) score in minimally processed lettuce treated with exogenous application of melatonin during 8 days storage at 6±2ºc temperature. fig. 3. electrolyte leakage (%) in minimally processed lettuce treated with exogenous application of melatonin during 8 days storage at 6±2ºc temperature. chlorophyll in lettuce leaves is a crucial quality parameter with respect to salability and consumer acceptance. total chlorophyll content decreased in mp lettuce during storage irrespective of postha r ves t t r e a t ment . t he r a t e of c hlor op hyll degradation was considerably delayed in 100 and 1000 µmoll-1 melatonin solution dipped samples whereas rapid chlorophyll loss was recorded in untreated and 10 µmoll-1 melatonin treated samples (table 1). on the 8th day of storage, 71.61% and 68.16% chlorophyll loss was noticed in control and 10 µmoll-1 melatonin treated samples, respectively j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 195-200, 2023 198 whereas in 100 and 1000 µmoll-1 melatonin treated samples 44.12% and 42.30% chlorophyll loss was observed. similar, observation were reported by zhu et al. (2018) who recorded 24.15% higher chlor ophyll in 100 µ moll -1 mela tonin tr ea ted broccoli compared to water treated samples on the 6th day of storage. during post-harvest storage of fr esh pr oduce chlorophyll, dilapidation occurs through the continuous reduction of chlorophyll b inding p r o t eins du e t o eleva t e d a c t ion of chlorophylase enzyme (arnao and ruiz, 2008). it may be possible here that melatonin plays a role as antioxidant, prevents the accumulation of free radicals such as ros and lipid radicals and thus delaying the chlorophyll degradation. changes in total phenol content occurred in mp lettuce throughout the storage period. both treated and untreated samples displayed an enhancing trend with respect to total phenols. lettuce dipped in 100 a nd 1 0 0 0 µmoll ”1 mela t onin demons t r a t ed consider a bly incr ea sed levels of tota l phenol compared to untreated samples from day 4 to 8 days of storage, whereas no considerable variation was noticed between untreated and 10 µmol l-1 melatonin treated lettuce (table 1). on the 8th day of storage maximum total phenols (0.268 tae mgg-1 fw) was estimated in 100 µmoll”1 melatonin t r ea t ed s a mp les f ollowed b y 1 0 0 0 µ moll 1 melatonin treatment (0.263 tae mgg-1 fw) with non-significant difference. consistent with our findings, high total phenols retained in melatonin tr eated sa mples of litchi (zhang et al., 2018), strawberry (liu et al., 2018), peaches (gao et al., 2018) and anthurium (aghdam et al., 2019) during low temperature storage has been reported earlier. damage occurs during minimal processing due to induced accumulation of phenols in both untreated and melatonin treated lettuce leaves. phenolics are converted into quinone through oxidation by ppo a nd pod in the pr esence of oxygen which is responsible for browning in fresh produce (pardossi and tognoni, 2005). significantly higher level of total phenols in samples treated with melatonin might be ascribed to the fact that mela tonin is mitigating the action of phenol oxidizing agents such as peroxidase (pod) and polyphenol oxidase (ppo) enzyme. melatonin treatment significantly influenced the antioxidant activity of mp lettuce leaves during storage. gradual enhancement in antioxidant activity was noticed during storage irrespective of post-harvest treatment. at the end of storage period, untreated lettuce leaves exhibited lowest (24.90) antioxidant activity as compared to melatonin pre-treated samples. table 1 : post harvest melatonin treatment effect on total chlorophyll, total phenols and total antioxidants of minimally processed lettuce during low temperature (6±2ºc) storage for 8 (days) biochemical post-harvest storage parameter treatment period (d) d0 d2 d4 d6 d8 mean total control 3.18a 2.90b 2.48b 1.34c 0.91b 2.16 chlorophyll 10 3.11ab 2.91b 2.67b 1.59c 0.99b 2.25 (mg/g fw) 100 3.15ab 3.11a 3.05a 2.45b 1.39a 2.67 1000 3.12b 3.10ab 2.98c 2.89a 1.32a 2.68 mean 3.14 3.05 2.81 2.06 1.15 total phenols control 0.117a 0.168a 0.211a 0.227c 0.236b 0.191 (tae mg/g 10 0.118a 0.155a 0.206b 0.220c 0.250b 0.189 fw) 100 0.116a 0.160a 0.237ab 0.253b 0.268a 0.206 1000 0.117a 0.166a 0.251c 0.237a 0.263a 0.206 mean 0.117 0.162 0.226 0.234 0.254 total control 12.91a 15.73b 19.17c 22.39b 24.90b 19.02 antioxidants 10 12.91a 16.12b 18.15c 23.37b 26.10b 19.33 (mmol/g fw) 100 12.91a 18.31a 23.59b 26.25ac 29.29a 22.11 1000 12.91a 19.54a 22.34a 27.12a 28.56a 22.09 mean 12.91 17.42 20.81 24.78 27.19 *means with same superscript are non-significant. tae=tannic acid equivalent gurjar et al. j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 195-200, 2023 199 among mela tonin tr ea ted sa mples, ma ximum antioxidant activity (19.29) was observed in minimally processed lettuce leaves which were treated with 100 µmoll -1 mela tonin followed by 1000 µmoll -1 melatonin (ta ble 1). however, non-significant difference was noticed in both the treatments. the findings are in concurrence with the previous reports that melatonin treatment preserved antioxidant level in strawberry (liu et al., 2018), litchi (zhang et al., 2018) and anthurium (aghdam et al., 2019). phenolics are well recognized for their antioxidant properties. in lettuce strong positive correlation (r=0.884, table 2) was noticed among total phenols and total antioxidants dur ing stora ge. higher a ntioxidant a ctivity of melatonin treated lettuce might be attributed to higher presence of phenol content accompanied by lower activity of peroxidase (pod) and polyphenol oxidase (ppo). during storage of mp lettuce pod activity was enhanced in the tissues irrespective of post harvest treatments. the augmenting tendency of pod activity was considerably inhibited by melatonin pre-treatment (fig. 4). dur ing initial 2 da ys of stor age nonsignificant variation was observed in pod activity in all treatments. however, it was rapidly enhanced afterwards but remains significantly low throughout the storage period in 100 and 1000 µmoll-1 melatonin treated lettuce compared to control (fig. 4). on the 8th day of storage, pod activity in untreated and 10 µmoll-1 melatonin treated samples was 6.60, 6.42 times of the initial value, respectively whereas 100 and 1000 µmoll-1 melatonin treated samples had 5.05and 5.43-fold pod activity compared to initial value. previous researchers also reported lower pod activity in post-harvest melatonin treated broccoli florets (zhu et al., 2018), litchi (zhang et al., 2018) and peach (gao et al., 2018). pod takes part in the oxidation of polyphenols into quinones that contributes in development of the brown pigments in minimally processed fresh produce. slow increases in pod concentration coupled with elevated levels of total phenolics were noticed in treated lettuce signaled that melatonin slowed down the enzyme induced phenolic oxidation and inhibit brown color development in minimally processed lettuce. in present study, pod activity showed strong positive correlation (r=0.915, table 2) with browning index. the results of the present study concluded that postharvest melatonin treatment proved effective in reducing browning, maintaining freshness and quality of minimally processed lettuce for 6 days during storage at 6±2 ºc. comparing to the higher dose (1000 table 2 : correlation between browning index and various physical and biochemical parameters recorded during storage of lettuce trait browning visual electrolyte total total total pod index quality leakage phenol chloroantioxiactivity index phyll dants browning index 1.000 visual quality index -0.945 1.000 electrolyte leakage 0.935 -0.891 1.000 total phenol -0.884 0.794 0.667 1.000 total chlorophyll -0.886 0.961 -0.931 -0.615 1.000 total antioxidants -0.997 0.963 0.921 0.889 -0.898 1.000 pod activity 0.915 -0.986 0.918 -0.693 -0.993 0.931 1.000 fig. 4. peroxidase (pod) activity in minimally processed lettuce treated with exogenous application of melatonin during 8 days storage at 6±2ºc temperature. post-harvest melatonin application reduces browning in lettuce j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 195-200, 2023 200 µmoll-1) and control, lower dose of melatonin at100 µmoll-1 was found highly beneficial for minimizing browning, quality retention and enhancing shelf life of minimally processed lettuce for 6 days. acknowledgement the authors would like to convey their gratefulness to ra str eey kr ishi vika s yoja na (rkvy) for providing financial support. authors also express their gratitude to director, icar-cish, lucknow for providing necessary facilities during study. references aghdam, m. s. and fard, j. r. 2017. melatonin treatment attenuates post-harvest decay and maintains nutritional quality of strawberry fruits fragaria × anannasa cv. selva by enhancing gaba shunt a ctivity. food chem., 221: 1650-1657. aghdam, m. s., naderi, r., sarcheshmeh, m. a. a. and babalar, m. 2015. amelioration of postharvest chilling injury in anthurium cut ûowers by γ-aminobutyric acid (gaba) treatments. postharvest biol. tech., 110: 70-76. aghdam, s. m., jannatijadeh, a., nojadeh, s. m. and ebrahimjadeh, a. 2019. exogenous melatonin ameliorates chilling injury in cut anthurium ûower s dur ing low temper a tur e stora ge. postharvest biol. tech., 148: 184-191. arnao, m. b. and ruiz, j. h. 2008. protective effect of melatonin against chlorophyll degradation during the senescence of barley leaves. j pineal res., 48(2): 234-240. arnon, d. i. 1949. copper enzymes in isolated chlor opla sts. polyphenol oxidase in beta vulgaris. plant physiol., 24: 1-15. bhattacherjee, a. k., tandon, d. k. and dikshit, a. 2014. antioxidant activity and quality of spray dried aonla powder as affected by storage behavior of juice. j. sci. ind. res., 73: 607-612. gao, h., lu, z., yang, y., wang, d., yang, t., cao, m. and cao, w. 2018. melatonin treatment reduces chilling injury in peach fruit through its regulation of membrane fatty acid contents and phenolic metabolism. food chem., 245: 659-666. liu, c., zheng, h., sheng, k., liua, w. and zhenga, l. 2018. eûects of melatonin treatment on the post-ha rvest qua lity of stra wber ry fr uit. postharvest biol. tech., 139: 47-55. mampholo, b. m., martin, m. m., soundy, p. and shivakumar, d. 2016. phytochemicals and overall quality of leafy lettuce (lactuca sativa l.) varieties grown in closed hydroponic system. j. food quality, 39: 805-815. pardossi, d. e. and tognoni, a. 2005. physiological basis of sensitivity to enzymatic browning in ‘lettuce’, ‘escarole’ and ‘rocket’ salad when stored as fresh-cut products. food chem., 104(1): 209-215. siddique, w. m., chakraborty, i., zavala, j.f. and dhua, r. s. 2011. advances in minima l processing of fruits and vegetables: a review. j. sci. ind. res., 70(10): 823-834. tan, d. x., manchester, l. c., liu, x., rosalescorral, s. a., castroviejo, d. a. and reiter, r. j. 2013. mitochondria and chloroplasts as the or igina l sites of mela tonin synthesis: a hypothesis related to melatonin’s primary function and evolution in eukaryotes. j. pineal res., 54: 127-138. tian, w., lv, y., cao, j. and jiang, w. 2014. retention of iceberg lettuce quality by low temperature storage and post-harvest application of 1methylcyclopropene or gibberellic acid. j. food sci. tech., 51(5): 943-949. zhang, y., huber, d. j., hu, m., jiang, g., gao, z., xu, x., jiang, y. and zhang, z. 2018. delay of post-harvest browning in litchi fruit by melatonin via the enhancing of anti-oxidative processes and oxidation repair. j. agri. food chem., 66: 7475-84. zhu, l., hu, h., luo, s., wu, z. and li, p. 2018. melatonin delaying senescence of post-harvest broccoli by regulating respiratory metabolism and antioxidant activity. trans. chinese soc. agri. engineer., 34(3): 300-308. (received : 28.02.2022; revised : 29.04.2022; accepted 03.05.2022) gurjar et al. j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 195-200, 2023 171 effect of integrated nutrient management on dry herbage yield, nutrient uptake and profitability of french basil (ocimum basilicum l.) baraa al-mansour*1, d. kalaivanan2, m. a. suryanarayana3 and a.k. nair 4 1department of plantation, spices, medicinal and aromatic crops, college of horticulture, uhs campus, bengaluru 2division of soil science and agricultural chemistry, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru 2division of floriculture and medicinal crops, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru 4division of vegetable crops, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru *e-mail: baraaalmansour@yahoo.com abstract field experiments were conducted at ic ar indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru during kharif season of 2015 and 2016 with nine treatments and three replications in a randomized block design to find out the effect of integrated nutrient management on dry herbage yield, nutrient uptake and economics of sweet basil (ocimum basilicum). the results revealed that the conjunctive use of inorganic fertilizer along with fym increased the dry herbage yield and nutrient uptake of sweet basil. application of recommended fym (10 t/ha) along with recommended npk (160:80:80 kg/ha) registered the highest dry herbage yield (8.43 and 3.76 t ha1) in the main crop and ratoon, respectively and maximum uptake of nutrient in the main crop as n (155.67 and 113.19 kg/ha), p (43.80 and 32.43 kg/ha) and k (163.33 and 116.16 kg/ha) and in ratoon (56.43 and 26.65 kg ha-1), (16.14 and 14.01 kg ha-1) and (55.65 and 39. 27 kg ha-1) in 2015 and 2016 respectively. highest b: c ratio (5.49) was obtained with application of full dose of recommended npk fertilizer during 2015. while in 2016, the maximum b: c ratio (3.71) was recorded with application of recommended dose of npk (160:80:80 kg/ha) + fym (10 t/ha) keywords: basil, fresh herbage, dry herbage, oil yield, economics, fym, bio-fertilizer j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 171-179, 2017 phosphorus and potassium are the most important macro nutrient elements that decide the yield level. the nature and the characteristics of nutrient release of chemical, organic and biofertilizers are different, and each type of fertilizer has its advantages and disadvantages in the context of nutrient supply, crop growth and environmental quality. the advantages need to be integrated in order to make optimum use of each type of fertilizer and achieve balanced nutrient management for crop growth. applying of organic manures and biofertilizers such as cattle manure and nitrogen fixing bacteria has led to a decrease in the use of chemical fertilizers and has provided high quality products free of harmful agrochemicals for human safety (mahfouz and sharaf eldin, 2007). cattle manure is the source of n and other nutrients for plants (such as phosphorus, potassium, original research paper introduction basil (ocimum basilicum l.) is an important essential oil bearing crop; grown worldwide as a medicinal and aromatic plant. basil leaves and shoots are used fresh or dried in culinary applications, as an ingredient in western and mediterranean diets. the high economic value of basil oil is due to the presence of a complex mixtur e of vola tile substa nces, monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and their oxygenated analogs present at low concentrations in plants (taie et al., 2010). the oil yield may vary under different agro climates, soil conditions and nutrient application (duhan and gulati, 1977). ba sil is consider ed a s a species which moder a tely needs for essentia l nutr ients a nd fertilization, among the plant nutrients, nitrogen, 172 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 171-179, 2017 calcium,, iron, zinc and copper) that can make valuable contributions to soil’s organic matter, can improve physical fertility, and is a center for biological activities of soil and mineral element absorption (salem and awad, 2005), caused more biomass production (darzi, 2012; najm et al., 2012). azotobacter, were found to have not only the ability to fix nitrogen but also the ability to release phytohormones similar to gibberellic acid and indole acetic acid, which could stimulate plant growth, absorption of nutrients, and photosynthesis (mady and youssef, 2014).the effect of organic and bio-fertilizer on root morphology and development, uptake of nitrogen, phosphorous and other minerals and hormone supply to plants have been suggested as factors influencing growth responses (abou el-ghait et al., 2012; gendy et al., 2013); but, considering economics and also physiological potential of varieties, entire dependence on organic sources of nutrients may not be adequate to attain the most productivity (anwar et al., 2005). however, in many situations, the high cost of nutrient sources and the difficulty to supply the necessa r y a mount of or ga nic ma nur e ma kes conventional management of the nutrient as the best strategy to produce herbs. several studies have reported that cattle manure can increase the yield of some medicinal plants such as sage (kaplan et al., 2009); basil (biasi et al., 2009); geranium (araya et al., 2006) and lemon balm (santos et al., 2009). some other studies have reported that nitrogen fixing bacteria such as azotobacter chroococcum and azospirillum lipoferum could cause increased yield in a few medicinal plants such as fennel (azzaz et al., 2009) and davana (kumar et al., 2009). the rigorous management of fertilization must try to ensure both an improved and safeguarded environment; so, a balanced fertilization strategy that combines the use of chemical, organic or biofertilizers must be developed and evaluated. in this context, the present study aimed to show the effect of integrated nutrient management on dry herbage yield, nutrient uptake and profitability of french basil (ocimum basilicum l.) material and methods field exper iments wer e conducted in a r a ndomized complete block design with thr ee replications in the experimental field of icar-indian institute of horticultural research (iihr), bangalore during the kharif season of 2015 and 2016. the experimental station is located at an altitude of 890 m above mean sea level and 13058" north latitude and �77 29" east longitudes. the nine treatments of experiment conta in t 1 (fym (10 t/ha) +100% recommended n through fym), t2 (fym (10 t/ha) + 100% recommended n through fym + bio-fertilizer), t3 (fym (10 t/ha) +75% recommended n through fym), t4 (fym (10 t/ha) + 75% recommended n through fym + bio-fertilizer), t5 (fym (10 t/ha) + 50% recommended n through fym), t6 (fym (10 t/ ha ) + 50% r ecommended n thr ough fym + biofertilizer), t7 (recommended fym (10 t/ha) only), t8 (recommended npk (160:80:80 kg/ha) only), and t9 (recommended fym (10 t/ha) + recommended npk (160:80:80 kg/ha). initial experimental soil samples (0-30 cm depth) were taken for the nutrient analysis prior to land preparation and analyzed using standard procedures (piper, 1966; jackson, 1973; subbaiah and asija, 1956). physical and chemical properties of the initial experimental soil are presented in table 1. the nutrients were supplied in the form of straight fertilizers like urea (160 kg/ha), single super phosphate (80 kg/ha) and muriate of potash (80 kg/ ha). fifty per cent of nitrogen and full dose of phosphorus and potash were applied as basal and the remaining fifty per cent of n was applied after 45 days of transplanting in t8 and t9 treatments. for biofertilizers, ar ka micr obial consortium (amc) developed by icar-iihr was used in the experiment and it contains n fixing, p and zn solubilizing and plant growth promoting microbes in a single carrier. after 15 days of transplanting, recommended dose of amc @ 5 kg/ha was applied at 2 cm deep to individual plants and immediately covered by soil. similar method of application was followed for ratoon crop after harvest of main crop in t2, t4, and t6 treatments. quantities of added fertilizers are mentioned in table 2. the land was brought to a fine tilth by ploughing and harrowing. the experimental site was divided into plots having dimensions of 4.8 m long and 4.0 m wide with the spacing of 40 cm between the plants and 60 cm between the rows. there was a space of 0.5 meter between plots and 0.5 meter between replications. basil seeds were sown in two nursery beds of 6.0 m in length with 0.1 m in width and 10 cm height. forty days old (40) healthy and uniformly rooted seedlings of sweet basil were transplanted to the field. weeding was done manually and drip irrigation was given daily baraa al-mansour et al 173 inm in french basil table 1. physical and chemical proprieties of initial experimental soil physical properties bulk density (mg m-3) 1.32 particle density ( mg m-3) 2.65 pore space (%) 42 chemical properties ph (1:2.5) 7.75 electrical conductivity (dsm-1) 0.36 organic carbon (g kg-1) 5.0 available n (kg ha-1) 185 available p (kg ha-1) 28 available k (kg ha-1) 200 exchangeable ca (cmol(p+)kg-1) 5.25 exchangeable mg (cmol(p+)kg-1) 0.84 dtpa fe (mg kg-1) 7.5 dtpa mn (mg kg-1) 5.8 dtpa cu (mg kg-1) 1.33 dtpa zn (mg kg-1) 1.22 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 171-179, 2017 table 2. treatment wise applied quantities of fym, inorganic fertilizer and bio-fertilizers quantity of inputs total nutrient supplied treatments fym npk bf* n p k t ha-1 kg ha-1 kg ha-1 kg ha-1 kg ha-1 kg ha-1 t1:fym (10 t ha -1) +100% rec. 31.5 39.2 224 0 35 n through fym t2:fym (10 t ha -1) +100% rec. 31.5 39.2 224 5 0 35 n through fym + bf t3:fym (10 t ha -1) +75% rec. 25.9 32.2 184 0 28.75 n through fym t4:fym (10 t ha -1) +75% rec. 25.9 32.2 184 5 0 28.75 n through fym + bf t5:fym (10 t ha -1) +50% rec. 20.3 25.2 144 0 22.5 n through fym t6:fym (10 t ha -1) +50% rec. 20.3 25.2 144 5 0 22.5 n through fym+bf t7:rec. fym (10 t ha -1) only 9 11.2 64 0 10 t8:rec.npk (160:80:80 kg ha -1) 80 80 160 rec 0 t9:rec.npk (160:80:80 kg ha -1) + 89 91.2 224 rec 10 rec. fym (10 t ha-1) fym farm yard manure, rec. – recommended and *bf bio-fertilizer 174 for half an hour during the early stages of the crop and subsequently irrigation was given depending on the soil moisture condition. five plants were randomly selected from each plot and the observations were recorded as pooled data of two years in the main crop and ratoon at harvest time. fresh and dry weight from each plot was converted to per hectare and it was expressed in tones (t). dried plant samples were ground to a fine powder and analyzed for determination of total nutrients content by adopting standard methods. the total nitrogen (%) was determined by microkjeldhal method as outlined by piper (1966), total phosphorus wa s estima ted fr om di-a cid extr a ct by vanadomolybdate phosphoric acid yellow colour method (kitson a nd mellon, 1944) using spectrophotometer. total potassium was estimated from di-acid extract by using flame photometer (piper, 1966). total plant nutrient uptake was calculated by following the equation: dry matter yield (kg/ha) × nutrient nutrient uptake (kg/ha) = content (%) 100 gross income, net income, returns to cost ratio were also calculated as per the formulas given below. gross income gross income was calculated based on the prevailing market price of the produce. net income the net income per hectare was calculated on the basis of gross income and cost of cultivation per hectare as follows: net income = gross income cost of cultivation benefit: cost ratio the benefit: cost ratio was worked out using the following formula: benefit: cost ratio = gross income (rs/ha) total costs of cultivation (rs/ha) statistical analysis the data generated from the experiment were analyzed using sas 9.3 version of the statistical package (sas institute inc, 2011). analysis of variance (anova) was performed using sas proc anova procedure. means were separated using fisher’s protected least significant difference (lsd) test at a probability level of p<0.01. results and discussion dry herbage yield (t/ha) the data on dry herbage yield (t/ha) of basil as influenced by different levels of n through fym with and without bio-fertilizers and inorganic fertilizer is given in table 3. application of recommended npk (160:80:80 kg /ha) along with recommended fym (10 t/ha i.e.,t9 registered the highest dry herbage yield (8.43, 3.76 and 12.19 t/ha) whereas the lowest dry herbage yield was observed with recommended fym (10 t/ha) i.e., t7 (4.80, 2.08 and 6.88 t/ha) of main crop, ratoon and cumulative data respectively. among the biofertilizer treatments, application of fym (10 t/ ha) + 100% recommended n through fym + biofertilizer i.e., t2 recorded maximum dry herbage yield (6.97, 3.05 and 10.02 t/ha) in the main crop, ratoon and cumulative data, respectively. more suitable surrounding environment is created by organic manure that enhance root growth and nutrient availability, which lead to increased plant growth and dry matter (scheffer and koehler, 1993). the plants treated by bio-fertilizer can absorb nutrients from soil easily resulting in accumulation of more n, p and k in the leaves (rai, 2006) that lead to increase the yield. these results are on line with the findings of khaliq and janardhanan (1997) in mint, kapoor et al. (2004) in fennel a nd joshee et al. (2007) in scutellaria integrifolia. available macro nutrient in the soil the results of the study presented in table 4 revealed that highest available nitrogen and potassium in the soil after cropping was recorded with application of fym (10 t/ha) +100% rec. n through fym + bf i.e, t2 (227 and 236.33 kg/ha) and (296.80 and 340.60 kg/ha) during 2015 and, 2016, respectively. while, application of (160:80:80 kg /ha) + fym (10 t/ha) i.e., t9 recorded the highest available phosphorus (42.31 and 58.15 kg/ha) during 2015 and, 2016, respectively. j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 171-179, 2017 baraa al-mansour et al 175 dry herb yield (t ha-1) first year (2015) second year (2016) pooled main ratoon total main ratoon total main ratoon crop yield crop yield crop t1 6.67 d 3.15d 9.82 e 5.50cd 2.30cd 7.8 cd 6.09d 2.73d t2 7.71 bc 3.66c 11.37 c 6.24c 2.45c 8.69 c 6.97c 3.05c t3 6.38 de 2.89e 9.27 e 4.73def 2.07fg 6.8def 5.56ef 2.48e t4 7.33 c 3.32d 10.65 d 4.96de 2.25de 7.21de 6.14d 2.79d t5 5.98 ef 2.65f 8.63 f 4.51ef 1.91gh 6.42ef 5.25f 2.28f t6 6.71 d 2.87ef 9.58 e 4.74def 2.11ef 6.85def 5.72de 2.49e t7 5.54 f 2.34g 7.88 g 4.05f 1.82h 5.87f 4.80g 2.08g t8 8.00 b 3.95b 11.95 b 7.28b 2.76b 10.04 b 7.64b 3.36b t9 8.71 a 4.31a 13.02 a 8.16a 3.21a 11.37 a 8.43a 3.76a mean 7.00 3.24 10.24 5.58 2.32 7.89 6.29 2.78 cv% 4.09 4.15 2.91 8.79 4.26 6.63 3.98 3.32 lsd5% 0.49 0.23 0.51 0.84 0.17 0.90 0.43 0.15 table 3: effect of integrated nutrient management on dry herb yield (t ha-1) of basil (ocimum basilicum ) tr ea tm en ts t1: fym (10 t/ha) +100% rec. n through fym; t 2: fym (10 t/ha) +100%rec. n through fym + bf; t 3: fym (10 t/ha) +75% rec. n through fym; t4: fym (10 t/ha)+75% rec. n through fym + bf t5: fym (10 t/ha)+50% rec. n through fym; t6: fym (10t/ha)+ 50% rec. n through fym+bf; t7: rec. fym (10t/ha) only; t8: rec. npk (160:80:80 kg /ha); t9: rec. npk (160:80:80 kg /ha)+(10t/ha). j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 171-179, 2017 inm in french basil treatments n p k 2015 2016 2015 2016 2015 2016 t1 220.15 ab 262.10 36.91 abc 46.37 abc 268.80 abc 281.66 abc t2 227.40 a 277.00 42.10 a 47.98 abc 296.80 abc 340.60 a t3 211.68 abc 246.00 33.33 abc 45.58 abc 242.67 abc 275.67 abc t4 222.57 ab 266.70 38.74 ab 46.25 abc 265.07 abc 315.86 ab t5 203.21 abc 228.00 30.33 bc 39.29 bc 250.13 bc 261.00 bc t6 211.68 abc 246.40 36.41 abc 43.25 abc 259.47 abc 324.53 ab t7 189.91 c 201.40 27.33c 34.17 c 212.80 c 234.90 c t8 195.96 bc 214.20 40.40 ab 53.26 ab 229.60 ab 323.22 ab t9 199.58 abc 222.00 42.31 a 58.15 a 235.20 a 333.33 a mean 209.13 240.42 36.42 46.03 251.17 298.97 cv% 5.09 5.20 11.54 11.08 8.49 8.46 lsd5% 10.46 20.04 4.19 13.91 36.92 43.94 table 4. influence of integrated nutrients practices on macro nutrient availability in the soil (kg/ha) t1 : fym (10 t/ha) +100% rec. n through fym; t 2 : fym (10 t/ha) +100%rec. n through fym + bf; t 3 : fym (10 t/ha) +75% rec. n through fym; t4: fym (10 t/ha) +75% rec. n through fym + bf t5: fym (10 t/ha) +50% rec. n through fym; t 6 : fym (10 t/ha) +50% rec. n through fym+bf; t 7 : rec. fym (10 t/ha) only; t 8 : rec. npk (160:80:80 kg /ha); t9: rec. npk (160:80:80 kg /ha) + (10 t/ha) 176 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 171-179, 2017 baraa al-mansour et al the treatment t7 recorded lowest available nitrogen (189.91 and 201.23 kg/ha), phosphorus (27.33 and 34.17 kg/ha) and potassium (212.8 and 234.90 kg /ha) during 2015 and, 2016, respectively. in general, increasing the level of n application through fym leads to increase in the availability of major nutrient. organic acids produced during decomposition of fym had solubilizing action that lead to create good balance between nutrients in the soil solution and improvement of nutrient exchange between soil and plant (bhandari et al. 1992). bio-fertilizer enhances nutrients mobilizing microorganism which helps in increase the levels of extracted minerals a nd ma de it more a va ila ble (sha r ma , (2002); murugan et al. (2011) and gichangi and mnkeni, (2009). treatments n p k ratoon main crop ratoon main crop ratoon main crop t1 82.63 cd 27.06d 29.85bc 12.87 b 99.16cd 33.80de t2 112.69 b 40.24 c 36.76ab 14.53b 124.97 b 44.05bc t3 82.88 cd 26.96 d 27.21 bc 10.47c 108.55bc 33.65de t4 95.72 c 32.92 d 32.49abc 13.67 b 122.89 b 38.94cd t5 68.50 de 20.84 d 22.16c 8.77d 87.02de 27.56e t6 82.23 cd 25.96 d 28.36 bc 8.14d 115.35 bc 30.14 de t7 55.92 e 15.95 d 20.54 c 6.97d 79.55e 24.67 e t8 123.52 b 41.95 b 35.47ab 12.58 b 125.19b 49.15ab t9 155.67 a 56.43 a 43.80a 16.14 a 163.33a 55.56 a mean 83.07 32.04 29.00 11.57 114.00 37.50 cv% 9.15 12.32 16.05 7.63 7.31 10.43 lsd5% 15.13 6.83 8.54 1.52 14.43 4.03 table 5. influence of integrated nutrient practices on macro nutrient uptake of basil (ocimum basilicum l.) during first year of 2015 t1 : fym (10 t/ha) +100% rec. n through fym; t 2 : fym (10 t/ha) +100%rec. n through fym + bf; t 3 : fym (10 t/ha) +75% rec. n through fym; t4: fym (10 t/ha) +75% rec. n through fym + bf t5: fym (10 t/ha) +50% rec. n through fym; t 6 : fym (10 t/ha) +50% rec. n through fym+bf; t 7 : rec. fym (10 t/ha) only; t 8 : rec. npk (160:80:80 kg /ha); t9: rec. npk (160:80:80 kg /ha) + (10 t/h treatments n p k ratoon main crop ratoon main crop ratoon main crop t1 69.66 cd 17.33 d 24.07 bc 8.65 bc 77.64 cd 24.88cde t2 84.80 b 19.44 c 27.17 ab 12.54 b 85.23c 29.44 bc t3 64.04 cd 15.29 e 17.74cd 7.60 cd 62.31 de 22.07de t4 68.15 c 17.57 d 19.95d 7.79 b 68.69cde 26.63bcd t5 61.36 de 13.80f 15.63 d 5.09 cd 57.20 e 20.02de t6 63.83 cd 15.80 e 17.27 d 9.41 cd 63.03 de 23.40cde t7 53.81 e 13.16f 14.22 d 5.28 d 51.92 e 19.10 e t8 97.35 b 21.69 b 25.36 abc 10.27 b 99.33 b 31.37 b t9 113.19 a 26.65 a 32.43 a 14.01 a 116.16 a 39.27 a mean 75.13 17.86 21.32 8.96 75.72 26.24 cv% 8.15 3.74 12.14 12.29 10.56 10.53 lsd5% 10.6 1.15 4.47 1.66 13.84 4.03 table 6. influence of integrated nutrient practices on macro nutrient uptake of basil (ocimum basilicum l.) during second year of 2016 t1: fym (10 t/ha) +100% rec. n through fym; t2: fym (10 t/ha) +100%rec. n through fym + bf; t3: fym (10 t/ha) +75% rec. n through fym; t4: fym (10 t/ha) +75% rec. n through fym + bf t5: fym (10 t/ha) +50% rec. n through fym; t6: fym (10 t/ha) +50% rec. n through fym+bf; t7: rec. fym (10 t/ha) only; t8: rec. npk (160:80:80 kg /ha); t9: rec. npk (160:80:80 kg /ha) + (10 t/h 177 nutrient uptake by plant the data on nutrient uptake by the plants presented in tables 5 and 6. total uptake of nutrients was significantly influenced by different treatments. among the treatments, t9 with application of npk (160:80:80 kg /ha) + fym (10 t/ha) recorded maximum uptake of nitr ogen (155.67 and 113.19 kg/ha), phosphorus (43.80 and 32.43 kg/ha) and potassium (163.33 and 116.16 kg/ha) in the main crop during 2015 and 2016, respectively. similar trend was also observed in ra toon crop that different trea tments varied significantly with respect to nutrient uptake and t9 resulted in the highest uptake of n (56.43 and 26.65 kg/ha), p (16.14 and 14.01 kg/ha) and k (55.56 and 39.27 kg/ha) in 2015 and 2016, respectively. whereas, application of recommended fym (10 t/ha) i.e., t7 recorded lowest uptake of nutrient in the main crop i.e., n (55.92 and 53.81 kg/ha), p (20.54 and 14.22 kg/ ha) and k (79.55 and 51.92 kg/ha). similarly, in ratoon lowest uptake of n (15.95 and 13.16 kg/ha), p (6.97 and 5.28 kg/ha) and k (24.67 and 19.10 kg/ha) was registered in 2015 and 2016 respectively. the gradual mineralization process lead to improvement in nutrient uptake by the plant with application of organic manures, beside to the chelating effect on nutr ients ther eby continued nutr ient availability through the growing period (preetha et al. 2005). similar results were also reported by attia and j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 171-179, 2017 inm in french basil total cost of cumulative gross income net income b/c cultivation (rs/ha) oil yield (i/ha) (rs./ha) (rs./ha) ratio t no. 2015 2016 2015 2016 2015 2016 2015 2016 2015 2016 t1 55,015 54,526 238.37 141.26 143022.0 84756 88,007 29,741 2.60 1.54 t2 55,515 55,026 294 179.2 176400.0 107520 120,885 52,005 3.18 1.94 t3 51,265 50,776 172.76 103.84 103656.0 62304 52,391 11,039 2.02 1.22 t4 51,765 51,276 232.21 116.82 139326.0 70092 87,561 18,327 2.69 1.35 t5 47,515 47,026 157.58 94.38 94548.0 56628 47,033 9,113 1.99 1.19 t6 48,015 47,526 172.91 100.11 103746.0 60066 55,731 12,051 2.16 1.25 t7 40,015 39,526 133.65 67.76 80190.0 40656 40,175 641 2.00 1.02 t8 35,790 35,790 327.51 220.47 196506.0 132282 160,716 96,492 5.49 3.70 t9 41,790 41,301 356.3 258.27 213780.0 154962 171,990 113,172 5.12 3.71 table 7. cost of cultivation, gross income, net income and b/c ratio as influenced by integrated nutrient management in basil t1: fym (10 t/ha) +100% rec. n through fym; t2: fym (10 t/ha) +100%rec. n through fym + bf; t3: fym (10 t/ha) +75% rec. n through fym; t4: fym (10 t/ha) +75% rec. n through fym + bf t5: fym (10 t/ha) +50% rec. n through fym; t6: fym (10 t/ha) +50% rec. n through fym+bf; t 7: rec. fym (10 t/ha) only; t 8: rec. npk (160:80:80 kg /ha); t 9: rec. npk (160:80:80 kg /ha) + (10 t/ha) saad (2001) in periwinkle, el-khashlan (2001) in roselle plants and el-latif (2006) in salvia officinalis. economic studies t he economics ha s been wor ked out by comparing costs and returns as influenced by different levels of organic manures along with and without biofertilizers and inorganic fertilization in basil and given in table 7. cost of cultivation under each treatment was estimated by summing the cost of agro inputs, manpower needed for one hectare area, oil extraction, overhead costs and interest per capital. the cost of cultivation for basil crop was maximum with the treatment t2 i.e. fym (10 t/ha) +100% recommended n through fym + bio-fertilizers, which amounted rs. 55,026 and 55,515 /ha in 2015 and 2016, respectively, whereas the application of 100% recommended npk alone (t8) required an investment of only rs 35,790 / ha in each year. the high cost of organic nutrient sources may form an impediment for integrated nutrient management and makes the conventional management “the best” strategy to produce basil herbs. gross income was minimum in treatment t7 i.e. recommended fym (10 t/ha) as it attained rs 80190 178 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 171-179, 2017 baraa al-mansour et al and 40656 /ha in 2015 and 2016, respectively, whereas, t9 with application of npk (160:80:80 kg /ha) + recommended fym (10 t/ha) recorded the maximum gross income of rs 2, 13,780 and 1, 54,962 /ha in first and second year, respectively. net returns from the data reveals that an application of recommended doses of npk (160:80:80 kg /ha) + recommended fym (10 t/ha ) i.e. (t 9) fetched maximum net income of rs 171,990 and 113,172 /ha, whereas the minimum net income of rs 40,175 and 641 per ha was recorded in treatment t7 (recommended fym (10 t/ha) during 2015 and 2016, respectively. benefit cost ratio ranged from 1.99 in t5 i.e. the application of fym (10 t/ha) + 50% recommended n through fym to 5.49 in t8 i.e. the application of 100% recommended dose of npk fertilizer in 2015. while in 2016, the maximum value of b:c (3.71) was realized by the application of recommended dose of npk (160:80:80 kg/ha) + recommended fym (10 t/ ha), i.e. t9. application of nutrients through organic manure along with inorganic fertilizer improved the production of oil yield as well as soil fertility (alizadeh et al., 2010) which lead to increased returns. adoption of a balanced fertilization is the way of enhancing productivity and economic profitability of basil. these finding were supported by sudhakara et al. (2010) and vennila (2014) in coleus a nd pa til (2014) in ashwaganda. conclusion the outcome of the present investigation revealed that the highest dry herbage yield, nutrient uptake, and maximum b: c ratio was obtained with a pplica tion of r ecommended fym (10 t/ha ) + recommended npk (160:80:80 kg/ha) for both main as well as in ratoon basil crop. hence, the incorporation of full dose of recommended fym along with 50 percent of recommended n through inorganic fertilizer as basal and the remaining fifty per cent as top dressing at 45 days after transplanting may be recommended for basil crop to realize maximum dry herbage, nutrient uptake and profitability. abou el-ghait, e.m., gomaa, a.o.,youssef, a.s.m., atiea, e.m. and abd-allah, w.h., 2012. effect of sowing dates, bio, organic and chemical fertilization treatments on growth and production of indian fennel under north sinai conditions. bull. fac., cairo univ., 63: 52-68. araya, h.t., soundy, p., steyn, j.m., teubes, c., learmonth, r.a. and mojela, n.,. 2006. response of herbage yield, essential oil yield and composition of south african r ose-scen t ed ger a n ium (pel ar goni um sp. ) t o conventional and organic nitrogen. j. ess. oil res., 18: 111-115. anwar, m., patra d.d., chand s., alpesh k., naqvi a.a. and khanuja s.p.s., 2005. effect of organic manures and inorganic fertilizer on growth, herb and yield, nutrient accumulation, and oil quality french basil. comm. soil sci. plan., 36 (13/14), 1737–1746. attia, f.a. and saad, o.a., 2001. biofertilizers as partial alternative of chemical fertilizer for catharanthus roseus. j. agric. sci. mansoura univ., 26(11): 71937208. azzaz, n.a., hassan, e.a. and hamad, e.h., 2009. the chemical constituent and vegetative and yielding characteristics of fennel plants treated with organic and bio-fertilizer instead of mineral fertilizer. aust. j. app. sci., 3(2): 579-587. biasi, l.a., machado, e.m., kowalski, a.p.j., signor, d., alves, m.a., lima, f.i., deschamps,c., côcco, l.c. and scheer, a.p., 2009. organic fertilization in the production: yield and chemical composition of basil chemotype eugenol. hortic. bras. 27, 35–39. el-khashlan, s.h., 2001. physiological studies on roselle (hibiscus sabdariffa l.). ph. d. thesis. fac. of agric. kafr el-sheikh tanta univ. el-latif, e.s.m., 2006. effect of chemical, organic fertilizers and spraying with active dry yeast on growth, oil production and plant constituents of sage (salvia officinalis l.) plants. m. sc. thesis, fac. agric., cairo univ., egypt. darzi, m., 2012. effects of organic manure and biofertilizer application on flowering and some yield traits of coriander (coriandrum sativum). intl. j. agri. sci., 4 (3): 103-107. duhan, s.p.s. and gulati, b.c., 1977. chemical weed control st udi es in cit ronella , java type (cy mhopogan winterianus jowitt.) effect of 2, 4-d on control of weeds, herb and oil yield. indian perfumer., 17 : 77-82. gendy, a.s.h., said-al ahl, h.a.h. mahmoud, a.a. and hanaa f.y., 2013. 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and asija, g.l., 1956. a rapid procedure for the estimation of available nitrogen. soil.curr. sci., 25: 259. sudhakara, h., sriramu, m., shivayogappa, g., prabhulin, g. and babu, p., 2010. standardization of organic farming practices for coleus (coleus forskohlii). biomed, 5 (2):98-103. taie, h.a.a., salama z.a.e.r. and radwan s., 2010. potential activity of basil plants as a source of antioxidants and anticancer agents as affected by organic and bioorganic fertilization. not. bot. hort. agrobot. cluj., 38, 119–127. vennila, c., 2014. effect of planting systems and sources of nutrients on productivity of medicinal coleus (coleus forskohlii). int. j. food, agric. veterin. sci., 4 (2): 97101. j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 171-179, 2017 inm in french basil (ms received 21 october 2017, revised 29 november 2017, accepted 03 december 2017) introduction yield in grapevine is determined by number of clusters and mean weight of the cluster. number of clusters in a vine, in turn, is determined by the number of canes, and cane-productivity as measured by cluster/cane ratio. earlier studies have revealed that increase in number of canes does not result in proportionate increase in cluster number on a vine. cane density of 5 to 6/m2 was found as optimum in bower-trained ‘thompson seedless’ vines with reference to cane-productivity and number of clusters/vine. higher number of canes/unit area gave a reduced cluster/cane ratio, eventually reduced number of clusters/vine (shikhamany, 1983). cluster/cane ratio is an outcome of the number of fruitful buds on a cane. mutual shading of shoots in a dense vine canopy hampers incident light required for fruit-bud formation in ‘thompson seedless’ which requires over 3600 ft. candles of light (buttrose, 1970). since varietal variation was observed in requirement of light for fruit-bud formation variation in relation between yield and yield attributes in ‘thompson seedless’ grape and its clones s.d. shikhamany, sanjay k. jeughale, kailas n. khapre and r. venugopalan* research and development unit maharashtra state grape growers’ association manjri farm post, pune-411 032, india e-mail: sdshikhamany@gmail.com abstract to study variation in the relationship between yield and yield attributes in ‘thompson seedless’, ‘tas-a-ganesh’ and ‘2a clone’ vines grafted onto dogridge rootstock and trained on the extended y training system, data collected from 120 vines in each variety were subjected to correlation and regression analysis. numbers of clusters per vine was the main contributing factor for yield in all these varieties. it determined the yield by 87.9, 42.0 and 51.5%, respectively, in ‘thompson seedless’, ‘tas-a-ganesh’ and ‘2a clone’, with the optimum number of clusters at 27.3, 43.1 and 46.5, respectively. contrary to that in vars. thompson seedless and tas-a-ganesh, increase in number of canes was associated with higher cluster/cane ratio. yield depended upon cluster weight in ‘thompson seedless’, mediated through number of clusters, but was not a contributory factor as evidenced by a negative correlation between clusterweight and yield. increase in cluster weight was associated with increase in number of berries in all the varieties. increase in berry weight was related to cluster weight in only thompson seedless and tas-a-ganesh. while berry number and berry weight together determined cluster weight by 96.3 and 92.4%, respectively, in vars. thompson seedless and tas-a-ganesh, this value was just 39.0% in ‘2a clone’. these studies provide a clue that for realizing higher yield, cluster size needs to be greater while limiting the number of canes/vine in vars. thompson seedless and tas-a-ganesh. increase in the number of canes would benefit ‘2a clone’ by adopting suitable cultural practices. key words: correlation, variation, yield, yield attributes, thompson seedless, tas-a-ganesh, 2a clone (buttrose, 1969), optimum cane density may be different for tas-a-ganesh and 2a clone, for thompson seedless even, when vines are trained on extended y trellis to afford open canopies. mean cluster weight, the other yield attribute, is determined by number of berries in a cluster and mean berryweight. variation in relation of the above stated yield attributes to yield, in the different varieties studied, can provide guidelines for formulating specific sets of cultural practices for each variety to obtain higher yields, since, all these attributes are amenable to regulation by cultural operations. material and methods the present investigation was carried out on ‘thompson seedless’, ‘tas-a-ganesh’ and ‘2a clone’ in 2013-2014 cropping season in growers’ vineyards around *section of economics and statistics, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru 560089, india j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):8-12, 2015 9 relation between yield and yield attributes in grape nashik, maharashtra. details of the vineyards selected are given below: thompson seedless vineyards of: 1. shri suresh kalamkar, mohadi 2. shri arun more, pimpalgaon tas-a-ganesh vineyards of: 1. shri ashokrao gaikwad, palkhed 2. shri jagannathrao khapre, kothure 2a clone vineyards of: 1. shri kailashrao bhosale, sarole khurd 2. shri manikrao patil, khedgaon tas-a-ganesh and 2a clone are mutants of thompson seedless. the former was identified by the late vasantrao arve, a progressive grower in 1976, in his vineyard at borgaon, sangli district, maharashtra, the latter was identified at kearney experimental station, uc davis, california, usa. tas-a-ganesh is cultivated widely in maharashtra, whereas, 2a clone was introduced only in 1999, and is gaining popularity. to work out variation in the relation of yield attributes to yield in these varieties, 120 vines (60 from each vineyard, under each variety) were selected at random. all the vines selected were in the age group of 6-7 years, grafted onto dogridge rootstock, spaced uniformly at 2.7 x 1.8m, trained on extended y training system, grown under similar agroclimatic conditions and subjected to similar cultural practices, including sub-cane development; application of ethrel for pre-pruning defoliation, hydrogen cyanamide for bud-break, ga3 sprays for cluster elongation, girdling and dipping in cppu solution for berry sizing. data were collected on the following yield-attributes and yield, separately for each vine: no. of canes/vine: number of canes left on the vine after forward pruning. cluster/cane ratio: this is an index of vine productivity, derived by dividing the number of clusters borne on a vine by the number of canes retained on it. no. of clusters/vine: number of clusters borne on each vine, counted at harvest. cluster weight: mean weight of the cluster was derived by dividing mean yield/vine by mean number of clusters/vine. yield/vine: recorded in kg for each vine at harvest no. of berries/cluster: average number of berries in five bunches selected at random in each vine mean berry weight: average weight of 25 berries selected at random in five selected clusters, at the rate of five berries from each cluster berry diameter: average diameter of 25 berries, measured at middle length of the berry, using callipers statistical analysis: correlation was worked out to assess the relation of yield and cluster-weight to their respective attributes. multiple regression equations for these parameters, with all their respective attributes as independent variables, were also worked out. optimized models and optimum values for the critical attribute for yield, clusterweight and cluster-compactness were derived. results and discussion yield/vine yield correlated positively with number of canes/vine in 2a clone, cluster/cane ratio in ‘thompson seedless’, and number of clusters/vine in all the varieties, but, was negatively correlated with cluster-weight in ‘thompson seedless’ (table 1). among the yield attributes studied, number of clusters/vine correlated significantly with yield in all the varieties. while cane is a unit of vine productivity, cluster/ table 1. correlation between yield and yield attributes correlation correlation coefficient thompson tas-a-ganesh 2a seedless clone 1. yield/vine vs. -0.048 0.160 0.226** no. of canes/vine 2. yield/vine vs. 0.211* -0.042 0.152 cluster/cane ratio 3. yield/vine vs. 0.940** 0.643** 0.696** no. of clusters/vine 4. yield/vine vs. -0.255** -0.001 0.125 cluster weight 5. yield/vine vs. -0.713** -0.479** -0.535** betty tss 6. clusters/vine vs. -0.104 0.185 0.330** no. of canes/vine 7. no. of clusters/vine vs. 0.235* -0.065 0.286** cluster/cane ratio 8. cluster weight vs. 0.204* -0.019 0.081 no. of canes/vine 9. cluster weight vs. -0.221* -0.152 0.052 cluster/cane ratio 10. cluster weight vs. -0.314** 0.073 0.169 no. of clusters/vine 11. cluster/cane ratio vs. -0.234* -0.222* 0.427** no. of canes/vine significance of ‘r’ value at 5% = 0.195, and at 1% = 0.254 (0.361 and 0.463, respectively, at 5% and 1% for yield/vine vs. berry tss) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):8-12, 2015 10 cane ratio is a measure of cane-productivity. an inverse relationship of cane number with cluster/cane ratio was reported, with optimum cane-density of 5/m2, in bowertrained vines of ‘thompson seedless’ (shikhamany, 1983). this was attributed to inadequate intensity of light received by the vines for fruit-bud formation. however, the relation of number of canes to cluster/ cane ratio was not significant in ‘thompson seedless’ or ‘tas-a-ganesh’. this could be due to exposure of the canes to more sunlight in an open canopy in vines trained on extended y training system in the present study, where, increase in cane-density did not impair fruit-bud differentiation and, consequently, cluster/cane ratio. data in table 2 corroborating with vine spacing of 4.9m2 reveals that cane density was 6.7 in ‘thompson seedless’, 5.3 in ‘tas-a-ganesh’ and 9.0 in ‘2a clone’. it is pertinent to note that in spite of a higher number of canes/vine and a higher cane-density (9/m2), cluster/cane ratio and number of clusters/vine were highest in ‘2a clone’ compared to the other two varieties. moreover, i) the relationship of number of clusters/vine with number of canes/vine was not significant in ‘thompson seedless’ or ‘tas-a-ganesh’, but was significant in ‘2a clone’, and ii) cluster/cane ratio correlated negatively with number of canes/vine in the two former varieties, but correlated positively and highly significantly in ‘2a clone’ (table 1). number of clusters/ cane ratio, a measure of cane-productivity, depends upon the inherent ability of a variety to develop fruitful buds on the canes under a given set of agro-climatic conditions. despite having higher number of canes/vine, caneproductivity was higher in ‘2a clone’. these results imply that higher cane density of up to 9/m2 is not detrimental to cane-productivity and yield/vine in ‘2a clone’, unlike in ‘thompson seedless’ and tas-a-ganesh. increase in yield/vine was associated with reduced total soluble solids (tss) content in the berry in all the varieties studied (table 1). depressing effect of yield on tss content in berry is a well-established fact in several varieties of grape (chadha et al, 1974; lider et al, 1974; purohit et al, 1979; chittiraichelvan et al, 1985). number of clusters/vine number of clusters/vine is dependent on number of canes/vine and the cluster/cane ratio, and was correlated positively with number of canes/vine in ‘2a clone’ but not in the other two varieties (table 1). probable reason for this variation in relationship is the inherent character of a variety in converting growth into productivity, as explained earlier. number of clusters/vine had a positive relationship with cluster/cane ratio in ‘thompson seedless’ and ‘2a clone’, but not in ‘tas-a-ganesh’ (table 1). from the data presented in table 2, estimated number of clusters/vine (product of number of canes and cluster/cane ratio) is 46.1, 43.5 and 79.82 in ‘thompson seedless’, ‘tas-a-ganesh’ and ‘2a clone’, respectively; whereas, number of clusters observed is 26.3, 32.7 and 47.4, respectively. thus the percentage of observed number of clusters to estimated number of clusters works out at 57.0, 75.2 and 59.4, respectively. this implies that the proportion of productive canes was higher in ‘tas-a-ganesh’ compared to that in the other two varieties. hence, the deviation in relationship. in multiple regression analysis involving seven yieldattributes, it was observed that all these yield attributes could together determine yield by 88.5% in ‘thompson seedless’, but only by 44% in ‘tas-a-ganesh’ and 53% in ‘2a clone’ (table 3). number of clusters/vine was the major contributing factor in determining yield in all the varieties. optimized regression model revealed that 87.9% of the yield was determined by number of clusters/vine in ‘thompson table 3. regression of yield attributes on yield in various varieties regression equation variety thompson tas-a2a seedless ganesh clone intercept 2.66 0.59 -5.8 slope of x1(no. of canes/vine) 0.03 0.009 0.045 slope of x2 (cluster/cane ratio) 0.96 -0.091 -0.58 slope of x3 (no. of clusters/vine) 0.29 0.142 0.27 slope of x4 (cluster weight) 0.04 -0.009 -0.003 slope of x5 (berry weight) 0.095 0.08 0.81 slope of x6 (no. of berries/cluster) -0.014 0.04 0.0001 slope of x7 (berry diameter) -0.16 0.313 0.44 determination co-efficient (r2) 0.885 0.44 0.53 table 2. variation in yield attributes attribute thompson seedless tas-a-ganesh 2a clone min. max. mean min. max. mean min. max. mean yield/vine(kg) 1.1 18.8 9.14 5.1 16.5 10.7 4.4 28.0 17.37 no. of canes/vine 17 53 32.7 10 52 25.9 18 62 44.1 cluster/cane ratio 0.8 2.0 1.41 0.4 2.4 1.68 1.2 2.8 1.81 no. of clusters/vine 4 66 26.3 11 62 32.7 11 73 47.4 cluster weight (g) 137.3 791.9 380.3 162.6 534.5 335.5 184.7 580.1 367.4 shikhamany et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):8-12, 2015 11 seedless’, while, the corresponding values were 42.0 and 51.5%, respectively, for ‘tas-a-ganesh’ and ‘2a clone. values of 27.3, 43.1 and 46.5 clusters/vine were optimum, respectively, for ‘thompson seedless’, ‘tas-a-ganesh’ and ‘2a clone’ (table 4). cluster weight cluster weight correlated positively with number of canes/vine, but negatively with number of clusters/vine, cluster/cane ratio and yield/wine in ‘thompson seedless’, but not in ‘tas-a-ganesh’ or ‘2a clone’ (table 1). the positive relationship observed between number of canes/vine and cluster weight can be explained by a negative relationship of canes/vine with cluster/cane ratio, coupled with the negative relationship of cluster weight with cluster weight with cluster/cane ration (table 1). when cluster/cane ratio simultaneously correlated negatively with number of canes number of cluster/vine and cluster weight, the latter two parameters would correlate positively. while the number of cluster/cane ratio denotes the physiological sink, carbohydrate reserves and the current metabolites in a cane denote the source. similarly number of clusters/vine denote the sink and its corresponding source is the total carbohydrate reserves in a vine. at a given level of source, increasing number of sinks result in a reduced size (weight) of an individual sink (cluster). this is the reason for a negative correlation of cluster weight with number of clusters/vine and number of clusters cane ratio. number of clusters/vine and cluster/cane ratio are attributes of yield and these correlated positively with yield/ vine (table 1). when these correlated negatively with the cluster weight, yield/vine would also correlate negatively. lack of negative correlation of cluster-weight to yield in ‘tas-a-ganesh’ and ‘2a clone’ indicates that contribution of cluster-weight in determining yield is much less in these varieties compared to that in ‘thompson seedless’ evidenced by the meagre values of slope of cluster-weight in the multiple regression function of yield in these varieties (table 3). physiologically, this can be explained by variation in source-sink relation among varieties. cluster-size being larger in ‘thompson seedless’, any additional cluster on the cane can reduce cluster-weight more drastically than in the other two varieties (where clusters were relatively smaller). positive correlation of cluster weight with number of canes/vine can be explained in the light of the inverse relationship of yield with clusterweight, and, with the number of canes/vine. when the number of canes increases, yield decreases and there is a simultaneous increase in cluster-weight, resulting in a positive correlation between number of canes/vine and clusterweight. cluster-weight is an important yield attribute in grape, alterable as desired by cultural operations, primarily with use of growth regulators. the main components of cluster weight are: number of berries in a cluster, and, mean berryweight. increase in the number of berries in a cluster was associated with increase in weight of the cluster. correlation here was highly significant in all the varieties studied. clusterweight also varied significantly with mean berry weight in ‘thompson seedless’ and ‘tas-a-ganesh’ but not in ‘2a clone’. number of berries in a cluster and mean berryweight correlated negatively in all the varieties (table 5). although increase in the number of berries reduced mean berry-weight in ‘2a clone’, the reduction seemed to be inadequate in masking the positive effect of number of table 6. variation in cluster attributes cluster attribute thompson seedless tas-a-ganesh 2a clone min. max. mean min. max. mean min. max. mean cluster weight (g) 137.3 791.9 380.3 162.6 534.5 335.5 184.7 580.1 367.4 no. of berries/cluster 30 132 74.5 35 108 68.9 44 128 76.6 berry weight (g) 2.41 8.63 5.21 3.23 7.52 4.97 3.51 6.84 4.86 table 4. determination of yield in various varieties variety per cent yield determination optimum number by no. of clusters/vine of clusters/vine thompson seedless 87.9 27.3 tas-a-ganesh 42.0 43.1 2a clone 51.5 46.5 table 5. correlation between cluster weight and other attributes in various varieties attribute correlation coefficient thompson tas-a2a clone seedless ganesh cluster weight vs. 0.661** 0.754** 0.449** no. of berries/cluster cluster weight vs. 0.477** 0.296** 0.164 mean berry weight mean berry weight vs. 0.316** 0.349** 0.484** no. of berries/cluster significance of ‘r’ value at 5% = 0.195, and at 1% = 0.254 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):8-12, 2015 relation between yield and yield attributes in grape 12 table 7. regression of cluster weight attributes on cluster weight in different varieties regression equation thompson tas-a2a seedless ganesh clone a) intercept -301.78 -213.07 -49.19 b) slope of x1 68.03 57.82 47.61 (berry weight) c) slope of x2 5.14 4.56 3.04 (no. of berries/cluster) determination 0.963 0.924 0.39 coefficient (r2) table 8. determination of cluster weight in different varieties variety per cent determination optimum of cluster weight values number of mean berry berries weight thompson seedless 96.3 85.7 7.32 tas-a-ganesh 92.4 84.5 4.96 2a clone 39.0 104.3 4.32 berries on cluster-weight. this assumption gains support from less variation seen in the number of berries in a cluster, berry-weight and cluster-weight in ‘2a clone’ (table 6). multiple regression function involving berry number and berry weight determined cluster weight by 96.3% in ‘thompson seedless’ and 92.4% in ‘tas-a-ganesh’, but only 39.0% in ‘2a clone’ (table 7). a model optimized for cluster-weight indicated that 85.7 berries/cluster was optimum in ‘thompson seedless’, 84.5 in ‘tas-a-ganesh’ and 104.3 in ‘2a clone’. optimum weight of the berry was 7.32, 4.96 and 4.32 grams, respectively, for the three varieties in that order (table 8). based on variation observed in the relation of yieldattributes to yield in various varieties in the present study, it can be inferred that for obtaining higher yields, cluster-size needs to be increased while limiting number of canes/vine in ‘thompson seedless’ and ‘tas-a-ganesh’; but, an increase in number of canes in ‘2a clone’ by appropriate cultural practices would be useful. acknowlegement the authors are grateful to chairman and office bearers of central research committee of maharashtra state grape growers’ association, pune, for supporting these studies. thanks are also due to shri ashok gaikwad, kailash bhosale, arun more, manik patil, jagannath khapre and suresh kalamkar for facilitating these studies in their vineyards. support provided by shri t.s. mungare and t.s. shelke, and guidance provided by research advisory committee of the association are gratefully acknowledged. references buttrose, m.s. 1969. fruitfulness in grapevines: effects of light intensity and temperature. bot. gaz., 130:166173 buttrose, m.s. 1970. fruitfulness in grapevines: the response of different cultivars to light, temperature and day length. vitis, 9:121-125 chadha, k.l., singh, s., kumar, h. 1974. effect of severity of pruning on time of ripening, yield and quality of kandhari grape (vitis vinifera l.). haryana j. hortl. sci., 3:39-43 chittiraichelvan, r., shikhamany, s.d., chadha, k.l. 1985. contribution of leaf area towards bunch development in thompson seedless grape. indian j. hort., 42:156-160 lider, l.a., kasimatis, a.n. and kliewer, w.m. 1975. effect of pruning severity on the growth and fruit production in thompson seedless grapevines. amer. j. enol. vitic., 26:175-178 purohit, a.g., shikhamany, s.d., prasanna kumar, b. 1979. effect of number of leaves per bunch on growth and quality of tropical grape variety anab-e-shahi (vitis vinifera l.). indian j. hort., 36:36-41 shikhamany, s.d. 1983. effect of time and different doses of n and k on growth, yield and quality of thompson seedless grapes (vitis vinifera l.). ph.d thesis, university of agricultural sciences, bangalore, india (ms received 17 january 2015, revised 18 may 2015, accepted 23 may 2015) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):8-12, 2015 shikhamany et al in himachal pradesh, tomato is grown in an area of 9.388 thousand ha, with production of 3.177 lakh metric tones, and productivity of 33.84 metric tonnes ha-1 (anonymous, 2006). mid-hills of himachal pradesh are leading suppliers of tomato to the plains. the crop is grown during summer and rainy seasons in the hills, and the entire produce is sent to markets of adjoining states. the farmers, thus, earn good money on account of premium price, as, this crop cannot be grown in the plains during summer months owing high temperatures. performance of any crop depends upon quality of the seed, various environmental factors, type of cultivar and cultural practices. among these factors, optimum age of transplants is one that affects both growth and yield but, generally, this factor is ignored by farmers. optimum seedling age depends on soil, environmental factors (temperature, moisture), location and cultural practices. several investigations have been made to test the effect of transplant age on crop performance. yield of tomato either increased linearly with age of transplants (3 to 6 weeks old) or was not influenced by transplant age (leskover et al, 1991). conflicting results in literature on transplant age may be due to different environmental and cultural conditions that plants were exposed to, both in greenhouse and in the field. effect of age of transplants on fruit and seed yield of tomato (solanum lycopersicum l.) y.r. shukla, thuktan chhopal and rajender sharma krishi vigyan kendra, kandaghat 173215, india e-mail : yrshukla@rediffmail.com abstract tomato is a major cash crop of the mid-hill regions of himachal pradesh. among various factors that affect its growth and yield, age of the transplant an important factor is generally ignored by farmers. therefore, the present investigation was undertaken at vegetable research farm, department of vegetable science, dr. y.s. parmar university of horticulture and forestry, nauni, solan, himachal pradesh, during the summer of 2008 and 2009 to ascertain optimum age of transplants for maximizing fruit and seed yield in tomato var. solan vajr. the experiment was laid out in rbd, with 3 replications. age of the transplant starting with 15 days, and with subsequent gaps of 3 days each (upto 42 days, i.e., 10 stages) comprised different treatments. among the various treatments imposed, 33-day old (middleaged) transplants performed best with respect to fruit and seed yield than younger or older transplants. this treatment also gave the best results for number of fruits per plant, fruit yield per plot (kg), seed recovery (%), seed yield per plot (g), and germination percentage. key words: age of transplant, fruit and seed yield, ‘solan vajr’, seed recovery, germination percentage j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):99-102, 2013 short communication generally, 4-6 week old transplants are recommended for transplanting in mid-hill regions of himachal pradesh, but, this is a very wide range. exact age of transplant would, therefore, be helpful in understanding relationship between physiological state of the transplant, its survival in field and growth response under various cultural systems and environments. hence to reduce the wide gap (4-6 weeks after 50% germination of seed) existing in recommendation of the age of seedlings, the present study was conducted to ascertain optimum age of transplants for maximizing fruit and seed yield in tomato at dr. y.s. parmar university of horticulture and forestry, nauni, solan. the research farm is located at an elevation of 1260 metres above msl. geographical location of the site is latitude 30.52° n and longitude 77.11° e which falls under the mid-hill agro-climatic zone of himachal pradesh. seeds were sown in pro-trays on 20th february 2008. temperature during this period varied from 15-18°c during daytime. all precautions were taken for raising a healthy nursery and seedlings of the required age were transplanted. ten different ages of transplants (table 1), starting with 15 day old, with a gap of three days comprised the treatments. days to 50% seed germination was taken as zero day (18th day) and successive days were counted for determining seedling 100 age. the field experiment was laid out in rbd, with three replications whereas, germination and seedling vigour studies were conducted in the laboratory using crd, with four replications following ista (anonymous, 1985). the variety used was “solan vajr” and was transplanted at a spacing of 90cm x 30cm in plots of 2.7m x 2.1m size. observations were recorded on number of fruits per plant, fruit yield per plot (kg), total soluble solids (°b), pericarp thickness (mm), seed recovery (%), seed yield per plot (g), thousand seed weight (g), germination (%), seedling vigour index-i and seedling vigour index-ii. analysis of variance showed significant differences for characters like number of fruits per plant, fruit yield per plot (kg), seed recovery (%), seed yield per plot (g) and germination percentage. however, total soluble solids (°b), pericarp thickness (mm), thousand seed weight (g), seedling vigour index-i and seedling vigour index-ii were found to be non-significant among different treatments (tables 2a & 2b). maximum number of fruits per plant (19.5) was obtained in t 7 (33 days) and minimum number of fruits (12.99) was recorded in t 1 (15 days). in the present findings, middle-aged transplants produced higher number of fruits table 2a. effect of age of transplants on horticultural and seed traits in tomato treatment age of the number of fruit yield / fruit yield / total soluble pericarp seed transplant (days) fruits / plant plot (kg) hectare (q) solids (0b) thickness (mm) recovery (%) t 1 15 12.99 14.76 260.32 3.97 5.64 0.486 (0.697)* t 2 18 13.75 15.47 272.84 4.07 5.67 0.516 (0.719) t 3 21 15.01 17.01 300.00 4.03 5.65 0.515 (0.718) t 4 24 16.05 18.29 322.57 4.25 5.66 0.522 (0.723) t 5 27 16.84 19.30 340.39 4.33 5.72 0.544 (0.737) t 6 30 17.50 19.74 348.15 4.26 5.93 0.697 (0.835) t 7 33 19.50 21.08 371.78 4.27 5.96 0.726 (0.852) t 8 36 17.40 19.60 345.68 4.29 6.23 0.692 (0.832) t 9 39 17.06 19.20 338.62 4.25 5.60 0.658 (0.811) t 1 0 42 16.75 18.84 332.28 4.25 5.56 0.515 (0.718) cd (p=0.05) 0.64 0.61 60.13 ns ns 0.079 cv (%) 2.29 1.94 10.84 7.84 sed 0.22 0.21 20.24 0.03 table 2b. effect of age of transplants on horticultural and seed traits in tomato treatment age of the seed yield / thousand seed seedling seedling transplant (days) plot (g) seed weight (g) germination (%) vigour indexi vigour indexii t 1 15 47.49 2.84 58.67 (49.98)** 0.108 619.83 t 2 18 52.83 3.02 76.67 (61.25) 0.111 724.87 t 3 21 57.84 2.97 69.33 (56.39) 0.091 755.29 t 4 24 65.84 3.08 64.00 (53.53) 0.089 767.72 t 5 27 71.42 3.12 62.00 (51.94) 0.109 669.04 t 6 30 76.98 3.06 71.33 (57.63) 0.114 613.37 t 7 33 82.22 3.17 84.67 (67.61) 0.159 913.13 t 8 36 74.48 3.07 66.67 (54.74) 0.133 627.00 t 9 39 73.93 3.03 79.00 (62.75) 0.126 742.13 t 1 0 42 72.52 3.13 70.67 (57.21) 0.119 670.05 cd (p=0.05) 2.95 ns 7.57 ns ns cv (%) 56.40 6.28 sed 0.99 2.55 *figures in parentheses represent square root transformed values ** figures in parentheses represent arc sine transformed values ns: nonsignificant; cv:coefficient of variation; se (diff) :standard error of difference; cd (0.05):critical difference at 5% level of difference table 1. details of treatments imposed treatment age of seedling at transplanting (days after 50% germination of seeds) t 1 15 t 2 18 t 3 21 t 4 24 t 5 27 t 6 30 t 7 33 t 8 36 t 9 39 t 1 0 42 j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):99-102, 2013 shukla et al 101 than younger or older transplants. the reason seems to be that in the case of younger seedlings, there is comparatively lower rate of establishment because of limited storage of foods that are needed for vegetative extension; whereas, older shoots are mature enough and have more stored food material and therefore, divert it to production of fruits. however, middle-aged seedlings, on account of extended lateral branches, produced maximum number of fruits per plant than younger or older ones. maximum number of fruits by middle-aged transplants is reported by salik et al (2000). contrary to this, guo et al (1991) reported maximum number of fruits from younger transplants, while renuka and perera (2002) recorded higher number of fruits from older transplants. maximum fruit yield per plant, per plot and per hectare was recorded in t 7 (33 days old) which showed significant difference over the other treatments. second best treatment was t 6 (30 days old) but showed non-significant differences with t 8 (36 days old), t 5 (27 days old) and t 9 (39 days old). minimum fruit yield was observed in t 1 (15 days old). middle-aged seedlings produced maximum yield, followed by older ones. minimum yield was recorded with younger seedlings. a possible reason for maximum yield in middleaged transplants (rather than in younger or older transplants) seems to be that a greater number of marketable fruits was produced per plant here. similar differences were observed by cooper and morelock (1983), zhao rui et al (2000) and salik et al (2000) who obtained maximum yield in middleaged transplants. total soluble solids (tss) content was found to be non-significant among different treatments. however, highest tss (4.33°b) was recorded in t 5 (27 days old), closely followed by t 8 , t 7 and t 6 . lowest tss (3.97°b) was observed in t 1 (15 days old). non-significant effect of age of transplants was noticed in tss of fruits. similar findings are reported by salik et al (2000). pericarp thickness was found to be non-significant among different treatments. however, maximum pericarp thickness was obtained in t 8 (36 days old) (6.23mm), followed by treatments t 7 , t 6 and t 5 . minimum pericarp thickness (5.56 mm) was recorded in t 10 (42 days old). generally, middle-aged transplants produced fruits with greater pericarp thickness. this might be due to the transplants having produced higher yields and well-developed fruits, having a thicker pericarp. this is in conformity with findings of salik et al (2000). maximum seed recovery (0.726%) observed in t 7 (33 days old) was at par with t 6 , t 8 , and t 9 (having seed recovery of 0.697, 0.692 and 0.658 per cent, respectively) and minimum seed recovery 0.486% was recorded in t 1 [at par with five other treatments, i.e., t 10 , t 3 (21 days old), t 2 (18 days old), t 4 (24 days old) and t 5 having seed recovery of 0.515, 0.515, 0.516, 0.522 and 0.544% respectively]. in the present findings, middle-aged transplants had better seed recovery in tomato than in younger transplants. it is seen that transplants that produced more number of fruits and higher yield, also had better % seed recovery than younger transplants. the youngest seedlings may had less food stored needed for vegetative extension. likewise, older seedlings turned mature enough, thus limiting their vegetative extension. it seems that middleaged seedlings, on account of extended lateral branches, produced maximum number of fruits per plant resulting in higher % seed recovery. maximum seed yield (82.22g/plot) observed in t 7 (33 days old) was significantly superior to that in all other treatments. this was followed by t 6 and t 8 with seed yield of 76.98g and 74.48g per plot; while, minimum value (47.49g/ plot) was observed in t 1 . however, maximum seed yield per plot was produced by middle-aged transplants, while, minimum by younger transplants. this may be because of the fact that middle-aged transplants produced more number of marketable, healthy and disease-free fruits (which, ultimately, resulted in better seed yield). osman and george (1984) were also of the opinion that a greater number of ripe fruits produced by plants of middle-aged seedlings were responsible for higher seed yield. germination percentage was found to be significant among different treatments. maximum seed germination (84.67%) was recorded in seeds of treatment t 7 (33 days old). minimum seed germination (58.67%) was recorded in t 1 . in general, maximum germination was recorded using middle-aged transplants than younger or older ones. it appears that plants developed from middle-aged seedlings could establish well early in the season, produced vigorous plants that yielded higher number of good-sized fruits with better seed yield, better test weight and, ultimately, good germination; while, younger transplants may have stored less food needed for vegetative extension, thereby producing non-vigorous plants having low yield and poor quality seeds. almost similar results were reported by salik et al (2000). in general, germination was low in all the treatments as seeds were raised in summer rather than in the rainy season. j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):99-102, 2013 age of transplants and fruit/seed yield in tomato 102 both seedling vigour index-i and ii were found to be non-significant among different treatments. however, maximum seedling vigour index-i was obtained in t 7 (33 days old) (0.159), closely followed by t 8 , t 9 and t 10 . minimum seedling vigour index-i (0.089) was recorded in t 4 (24 days old). maximum seedling vigour index-ii (913.13) was recorded in t 7 (33 days old), closely followed by t 4 , t 3 and t 9 ; whereas, minimum seedling vigour index-ii (613.37) was recorded in t 6 . the present results may hold good for summer or early crop, but not for the rainy season crop, as, in the rainy season, nursery is raised during june-july and temperature during this period is generally high compared to that in february (summer or early crop). hence, rate and speed of germination is likely to be high. consequently, seedling growth is also higher at high temperature. as a result, seedlings are ready for transplanting quite early, than at low temperature. it can, thus, be concluded that seed emergence and seedling growth is correlated with temperature and other environmental factors rather than the month or season of cropping. references anonymous. 1985. international rules for seed testing. seed science and technology. 13: 293-353 anonymous. 2006. annual report. department of agriculture, himachal pradesh, shimla-171005, h.p. cooper, p.e. and morelock, t.e. 1983. effect of transplant age on earliness, total yield and fruit weight of tomato. arkanas farm res., 32:6 guo, f., fujime, y., hirose, t. and kato, t. 1991. effects of the number of training shoots, raising period of seedlings and planting density on growth, fruiting and yield of sweet pepper. j. japanese soc. hortl. sci., 59:763-770 leskovar, d.i., cantliffe, d.j. and stoffella, p.j. 1991. growth and yield of tomato plants in response to age of transplants. j. amer. soc. hortl. sci., 116:416420 osman, o.a. and george, r.a.t. 1984. effect of mineral nutrition and fruit position on seed yield and quality of sweet pepper (capsicun annuum l.). acta hort., 143:133-140 renuka, k.a. and perera, k.d.a. 2002. effect of seedling age and its management on growth and yield of chilli. annals sri lanka, dept. agri., 4:33-38 salik. m.r., muhammad, f. and pervez, m.a. 2000. relationship between age of seedlings on productivity of tomato (lycopersicon esculentum l.) grown under plastic tunnel. pakistan j. biol. sci., 3:12601261 zhao-rui, jian ma and fei li. 2000. study on age of tomato seedlings growing in plug. china vegetables, 6:9 (ms received 08 may 2012, accepted 10 september 2012, revised 08 october 2012) j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):99-102, 2013 shukla et al this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. introduction potted plants occupy a sizable share in the floriculture trade both in the global and domestic markets.the indoor plants market was valued at usd 17.93 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach usd 26.23 billion by 2029, at a cagr of 4.87% during the forecast period of 2022-2029 (anon., 2022). besides being a decorative element, potted flowering plants have positive effects on the human psychology and when placed indoors, improves the air quality. popular flowering potted plants include marigold, petunia, geranium, chrysanthemum, orchids, anthurium and so on. french marigold (tagetes patula l.), is one of the, most versatile, low-maintenance and popular flowering plants that can be grown in beds and as containers. production of florifer ous and well ma inta ined attractive canopy is imperative in enhancing the aesthetics and consumer appeal of the potted plants. the container type, potting media and the nutrient dose have a considerable effect on the growth, flowering and quality of the potted plants. among the containers, plastic, ceramic, terracotta, metallic and biodegradable containers like coir pots are used for commercial production. according to anil and roshan (2022), the plastic segment was the highest contributor to the flower pots and planters market size, with $328.1 million in 2020, and is estimated to reach $479.6 million by 2030, at a cagr of 3.6%. conventional potting media in india is comprised of soil, sand and farmyard manure, whereas in other countries, peat and amended peat substrates were widely used. problems of compaction, presence of soil borne pathogens in the soil based media and restriction on harvesting of peat due to environmental concerns has increased the need for alternate substrates. similarly nutrition and in particular, the concentration of each of the major nutrients and the source of nutrients play an important role in the growth and development of the plant. consumer acceptance and willingness to purchase the product is a key factor in successful production and marketing of the potted plants. the production of potted ornamental plants must be based on consumer preferences (megersa et al., 2018). considering all these aspects, the present study was conducted to standardize the three important elements viz., container type, potting media composition and the original research paper j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 113-121, 2023 https://doi.org/10.24154/jhs.v18i1.2153 influence of container, potting media and nutrients on production and post-production consumer acceptance of potted marigold (tagetes patula l.) nair s.a.*, smitha, g.r. and kalaivanan d. icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hesaraghatta, bengaluru 580089, karnataka, india *corresponding author email : sujathaa.nair@icar.gov.in abstract production of potted plants is influenced by factors viz., type of container, potting medium, nutrient dose. a study was conducted to standardize these factors for potted french marigold var. arka pari. the treatments comprised of two type of containers (plastic and coir), three potting media [red soil + fym + sand (1:1:1 v/v), arka fermented cocopeat (afc), afc + vermicompost (1:1 v/v)] and four nutrition concentrations (160:30:180 ppm n:p: k, 128:24:144 ppm n:p: k, 96:18:108 ppm n:p:k and 3% jeevamrutha) laid out in factorial completely randomized design replicated thrice. plants grown in potting media combination of arka fermented cocopeat (afc) + vermicompost (1:1 v/v) along with weekly application of nutrient solution (128:24:144 ppm npk) produced maximum number of flowers plant-1 (147.61) and registered highest uptake of nitrogen (2.87 g plant-1), phosphorus (0.53 g plant-1), potassium (3.24 g plant-1), magnesium (0.85 g plant1) and sulphur (0.21 g plant-1). based on the attributes of the potted plants, this treatment combination also registered the highest score (81.2 on a scale of 100), willingness of the consumers to purchase (4.5 on a scale of 5), overall acceptability (2.7 on a scale of 3) and the benefit cost ratio of 1.18. keywords : consumer preference, container type, nutrition, potted marigold, potting media 114 j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 113-121, 2023 nair et al. nutrient dose in potted plant production of marigold and to gauge the consumer preference. materials and methods the study on potted plant production of french marigold var. arka pari, under open field conditions, was conducted at the icar indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, during 2019 and 2020, to standardize the container type, composition of the potting media, the nutrient doses and to evaluate the consumer acceptance of the containerized plants. french marigold var. arka pari is a short statured plant with spreading habit, bearing orange flowers and flowering duration is 30 to 45 days. the treatments comprised of twenty four combinations laid out in factorial crd design with three replications and ten pots per replication. three factors viz., factor a: type of pots (p1: 6" plastic pot; p2: 6" coir pot); factor b: potting media [s1: red soil + fym + sand (1:1:1 v/v), s2: arka fermented cocopeat (afc), s3: afc + vermicompost (1:1 v/v)]; factor c: nutrition concentration (n1160:30:180 ppm, n2128:24:144 ppm, n 3 96:18:10 8 ppm n:p 2o 5:k 2o, n 4 jeevamrutha @ 3% were imposed. secondary and micronutrients wer e applied unifor mly for the treatments n1, n2 and n3. nutrient application was scheduled at weekly intervals @ 50 ml pot-1. one month old seedlings @ one seedling pot -1 were transplanted in the centre of the pot. need based watering was done at regular intervals, taking into consideration the water holding capacity of the media (governed by the texture and porosity of the media) and the prevailing weather conditions. to encourage canopy spread through induction of more lateral branches, first pinch was done one month after transplanting and it was followed by the second pinching of the lateral branches. prophylactic sprays of plant protection chemicals was done to check infestation of pest and diseases. standard procedures were adopted to analyse the physical and chemical properties of the potting media. afc recorded bulk density of 0.16 mg m-3; porosity 67.8%; ph 6.75; electrical conductivity 0.5 dsm-1; total carbon 36.1%; total n 0.98%; total p 0.07%; total k 2.20% and na 0.35%. the average concentration of macronutrients was estimated at 0.58% n, 0.26% p2o5 and 0.60% k2o in fym. physical and chemical characteristics of the soil were recorded as bulk density (1.28 mg m-3); por osity (51. 3%); ph (6. 97), electr ica l conductivity (0.26 dsm-1); organic carbon (7.8 g kg1); available n (0.13 g kg-1); 18 mg kg-1 olsen’s p, a mmonium aceta te (ch 3coonh 4) extra ctable nutrients are as follow: 0.90 g ca kg-1, 0.174 g mg kg-1 a nd 0. 15 g k kg-1 a nd dt pa extr a ctable micronutrients as follow: 10.3 mg kg-1 fe, 5.70 mg kg-1mn, 2.24 mg kg-1 cu and 1.35 mg kg-1 zn. analysis of n, p, k content and uptake by plant were done. nitrogen (n) contents in the plant samples were analysed after mineralization with sulphuric acid by kjeldahl method (ja ckson, 1973). phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, zinc and copper were estimated after digesting with a triacid mixture of nitric acid, perchloric acid and sulphuric acid (9:4:1 v/v hno3: hclo4: h2so4) as described by jackson (1973). observations were recorded on the vegetative growth, floral parameters and nutrient uptake during the cropping period, pooled and analysed using the opstat statistical package (sheoran et al., 1998). post-production analysis of the potted plants was done with a sample size of 35 respondents, based on attributes such as cultural perfection (dense foliage, typica l colour of cultiva r, a ttr a ctive), for m (symmetrical appearance), plant size (height, spread and fullness), flower number (open flowers and buds), flower colour (true to the cultivar, clear, attractive, and free from blemishes) and distinctiveness (desirable characters) by assigning scores for these out of 30, 15, 15, 20, 10 a nd 10, r espectively (beck et al.,1985). according to zeithaml (1988) the consumers’ willingness to purchase is affected by objective price, perceived quality, perceived value, and product attributes. willingness of the consumer to purchase the product was also ascertained by using the scale of 1-definitely would not; 2-probably would not; 3-might or might not; 4-pr oba bly would; 5-definitely would. the potted plants were also rated on an overall visual yardstick on a scale of 1 to 3 viz., 1-unacceptable; 2-acceptable and 3-visually excellent. the economics of potted plant production for varying container types, potting media and nutrients was calculated and the benefit: cost ratio was worked out. results and discussion the canopy and flowering of the potted plants of marigold was influenced by the container type, potting media, nutrients and the interaction effect of these factors. 115 container type potting media and nutrients : pot type has significant influence on the number of leaves at flowering, internodal length, number of flowers plant-1 and root spread (table 1). plants grown in plastic pots (p1) recorded the highest number of flowers plant-1 (124.54), root spread (18.17 cm), the lowest number of leaves plant-1 (54.75) and internodal length (1.94 cm), whereas coir pots (p2) recorded the highest number of leaves at flower ing (57. 06), internodal length (2.06 cm), the lowest number of flowers plant-1 (112.17) and root spread (15.76 cm). in plastic pots, lesser permeability of the container walls, leading to better water and nutrient retention in the media, might have influenced the rhizosphere environment, contributed to better uptake of water and nutrients and thereby to better growth and development of the plant as compared to coir pots. this is in line with the findings of evan and hensley (2004) in vinca rosea. the number of flowers plant -1 was significantly influenced by the potting media composition (table 1). t he tr ea tment s 3-ar ka fer ment ed cocopea t + vermicompost (1:1 v/v) produced the highest number of flowers plant-1(123.68), whereas, afc alone (s2) recorded the lowest number of flowers plant-1 (113.65). this might be due to the fa ct that the afc + vermicompost medium does not tend to compact, stores and allows uptake of nutrients, as opposed to the conventional soil based media. further, the presence of vermicompost, a rich organic source of nutrition, would have contributed to better plant growth and thereby production of highest number of flowers. this corroborates the findings of rawat et al. (2020) in geranium. application of inorganic source of nutrients of varying concentrations and an organic source (jeevamrutha) recorded significant differences for the number of leaves at flowering, flower diameter and number of flowers plant-1 (table 1). the treatment n3 96:18:108 ppm n:p2o5:k2o, recorded the maximum number of leaves at flowering (59.39) and was at par with n 4 jeeva mr utha @ 3 % (57. 02), wher ea s n1160:30:180 ppm n: p2o5: k2o recorded the minimum number of leaves (52.44). n1160:30:180 ppm n: p2o5: k2o recorded the highest flower diameter (4.48 cm) and number of flowers plant-1 (125.87), whereas the minimum flower diameter (4.32 cm) was recorded by application of n2128:24:144 ppm table 1 : influence of type of pot, potting media and nutrients on growth and flowering in marigold var. arka pari treatment plant spread number of internodal flower number of root at flowering leaves length diameter flowers spread (cm) at flowering (cm) (cm) plant-1 (cm) p1 33.20 54.75 1.94 4.37 124.54 18.17 p2 33.45 57.06 2.06 4.41 112.17 15.76 sem± 0.34 0.63 0.04 0.03 1.61 0.49 cd (p= 0.05) ns 1.80 0.11 ns 4.58 1.39 s1 33.24 54.72 1.98 4.37 117.73 16.10 s2 33.66 55.88 2.03 4.38 113.65 18.36 s3 33.07 57.11 2.00 4.41 123.68 16.43 sem± 0.42 0.77 0.05 0,03 1.97 0.60 cd (p= 0.05) ns ns ns ns 5.62 1.71 n1 33.41 52.44 2.00 4.48 125.87 16.01 n2 33.65 54.76 1.92 4.32 117.18 17.81 n3 33.95 59.39 2.03 4.41 112.78 17.48 n4 32.28 57.02 2.05 4.33 117.60 16.55 sem± 0.48 0.89 0.05 0.04 2.28 0.69 cd (p= 0.05) ns 2.54 ns 0.1 6.48 ns p1: 6" plastic pot, p2: 6" coir pot; s1: red soil + fym + sand (1:1:1 v/v), s2: arka fermented cocopeat (afc), s3: afc + vermicompost (1:1 v/v)]; n1160:30:180 ppm n:p2o5:k2o, n2128:24:144 ppm n:p2o5:k2o, n3 96:18:108 ppm n:p2o5:k2o, n4 3% jeevamrutha j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 113-121, 2023 standardization of production techniques for potted marigold 116 n: p2o5: k2o and minimum number of flowers plant-1 (112.78) by n3 96:18:108 ppm n: p2o5: k2o. higher concentrations of the major nutrients resulted in production of maximum number of flowers with larger flower size, which might be attributed to the availability of sufficient amount of nutrients to the plants, as also observed kang and van (2004) in salvia splendens. however, it was observed the number of leaves did not increase with the increase in nutrient concentration and was also at par with the organic source of nutrients. interaction effect : significant difference was observed with respect to the number of flowers plant-1and root spread on account of the interaction of three factors viz., pot type, potting media composition and nutrients (table 3), whereas, parameters like plant spread, number of leaves at flowering, internodal length (table 2) and flower diameter (table 3) did not vary significantly with these treatment combinations. maximum number of flowers plant-1 (147.61) was produced by the plants grown in plastic pots, on a potting media combination of arka fermented cocopeat + vermicompost (1:1 v/v) along with nutrient solution of concentration 128:24:144 ppm n: p 2o5: k2o (p1s3n2) and it was on par with p1s1n4 (142.06), p1s2n1 (137.28) and p2s1n1 (137.83), whereas p1s3n2 (94.16) produced the minimum number of flowers plant-1. plastic pots containing the potting media combina tion of ar ka fer mented cocopea t a nd vermicompost with inorganic nutrient solution of concentration 128:24:144 ppm n: p2o5: k2o produced most floriferous plants, which might be attributed to the walls of the plastic container and the nutrient rich porous potting media, holding adequate nutrients and moisture besides the key factor being the optimum concentration of the major nutrients applied at weekly intervals for the growth and production of the plant. accor ding to ma r ina r i et al. (2000) a dding vermicompost to container media modifies the soil structure, increases availability of macro and micronutrients, stimulates microbial activity, augments production of plant growth-promoting substances by microorganisms through interactions with earthworms. similar observation was made by sahni et al. (2008) in strawberry. root spread was significantly highest (23.70 cm) in plants grown in plastic pots on a potting media combination of red soil + fym + sand (1:1:1 v/v) and nutrient solution of concentration 160:30:180 ppm n: p2o5: k2o (p1s1n1), which was on par with p la nt s pr ea d at f lo w er in g (c m ) n um be r of l ea ve s at f lo w er in g in te rn od al l en gt h (c m ) t re at m en t p 1 p 2 p 1 p 2 p 1 p 2 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 n 1 31 .2 1 33 .2 8 30 .9 7 38 .2 4 34 .6 2 32 .1 2 50 .2 8 53 .0 6 57 .8 3 48 .5 0 51 .3 3 53 .6 7 1. 96 1. 88 2. 17 2. 24 1. 93 1. 80 n 2 32 .1 9 32 .4 7 35 .8 9 33 .9 8 33 .4 5 33 .9 1 51 .8 3 52 .5 0 51 .8 3 52 .3 4 61 .6 7 58 .4 1 1. 81 1. 88 1. 92 1. 97 1. 97 1. 99 n 3 33 .6 2 33 .3 8 33 .4 6 34 .5 8 34 .4 3 34 .2 3 59 .1 1 52 .6 7 56 .9 5 65 .2 2 59 .3 9 63 .0 0 2. 03 1. 97 2. 00 2. 21 2. 11 1. 85 n 4 32 .6 3 35 .9 9 33 .2 8 29 .4 7 31 .6 5 30 .6 9 58 .4 4 55 .9 4 56 .5 5 52 .0 0 60 .5 0 58 .6 7 2. 00 2. 01 1. 96 1. 98 2. 24 2. 11 se m ± c d (p = 0. 05 ) se m ± c d ( p= 0 .0 5) se m ± c d ( p= 0 .0 5) p 0. 34 n s 0. 63 1. 80 0. 04 0. 11 s 0. 42 n s 0. 77 n s 0. 05 n s p x s 0. 59 n s 1. 09 n s 0. 07 n s n 0. 48 n s 0. 89 2. 54 0. 05 n s p x n 0. 68 1. 93 1. 26 3. 60 0. 08 n s s x n 0. 83 2. 37 1. 55 4. 40 0. 09 n s p x s x n 1. 18 n s 2. 19 n s 0. 13 n s p 1 : 6 " pl as tic p ot ; p 2 : 6 " co ir po t; s 1 : r ed s oi l + fy m + s an d (1 :1 :1 v /v ), s 2 : a rk a fe rm en te d c oc op ea t (a fc ), s 3 : a fc + v er m ic om po st ( 1: 1 v/ v) ]; n 1 1 60 :3 0: 18 0 pp m n :p 2o 5:k 2o , n 2 1 28 :2 4: 14 4 pp m n :p 2o 5:k 2o , n 3 96 :1 8: 10 8 pp m n :p 2o 5:k 2o , n 4– 3% j ee va m ru th a ta bl e 2 : in te ra ct io n ef fe ct o f ty pe o f po t, po tt in g m ed ia a nd n ut ri en ts o n ve ge ta tiv e pa ra m et er s at f lo w er in g st ag e j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 113-121, 2023 nair et al. 117 ta bl e 3 : in te ra ct io n ef fe ct o f ty pe o f po t, po tt in g m ed ia a nd n ut ri en ts o n flo ra l p ar am et er s an d ro ot s pr ea d fl ow er d ia m et er ( cm ) n um be r of f lo w er s pe r pl an t r oo t sp re ad ( cm ) t re at m en t p 1 p 2 p 1 p 2 p 1 p 2 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 1 s 2 s 3 n 1 4. 55 4. 49 4. 42 4. 38 4. 44 4. 62 12 7. 11 13 7. 28 13 0. 67 13 7. 83 11 6. 06 10 6. 26 23 .7 0 18 .1 7 19 .2 7 11 .4 0 11 .3 1 12 .2 3 n 2 4. 21 4. 44 4. 32 4. 30 4. 36 4. 28 11 4. 89 11 0. 33 14 7. 61 10 8. 11 10 4. 44 11 7. 67 21 .9 0 11 .5 3 18 .6 0 17 .8 3 19 .2 0 17 .8 0 n 3 4. 33 4. 25 4. 35 4. 70 4. 26 4. 57 10 7. 67 11 1. 72 11 8. 89 11 0. 00 10 3. 78 12 4. 61 21 .5 7 18 .3 7 13 .5 3 17 .0 0 17 .3 3 17 .1 0 n 4 4. 30 4. 34 4. 40 4. 20 4. 47 4. 28 14 2. 06 12 1. 45 12 4. 78 94 .1 6 10 4. 17 11 8. 95 21 .4 0 17 .6 7 13 .6 7 12 .0 7 17 .9 0 16 .5 8 se m ± c d ( p= 0 .0 5) se m ± c d ( p= 0 .0 5) se m ± c d ( p= 0 .0 5) p 0. 03 n s 1. 61 4. 58 0. 49 1. 39 s 0. 03 n s 1. 97 5. 62 0. 60 1. 71 p x s 0. 05 n s 2. 79 n s 0. 85 2. 41 n 0. 04 0. 10 2. 28 6. 48 0. 69 n s p x n 0. 05 n s 3. 22 9. 17 0. 98 2. 79 s x n 0. 06 0. 18 3. 94 11 .2 3 1. 20 n s p x s x n 0. 09 n s 5. 58 15 .8 8 1. 69 4. 82 p 1 : 6 " pl as tic p ot ; p 2 : 6 " co ir po t; s 1 : r ed s oi l + fy m + s an d (1 :1 :1 v /v ), s 2 : a rk a fe rm en te d c oc op ea t (a fc ), s 3 : a fc + v er m ic om po st ( 1: 1 v/ v) ]; n 1 1 60 :3 0: 18 0 pp m n :p 2o 5:k 2o , n 2 1 28 :2 4: 14 4 pp m n :p 2o 5:k 2o , n 3 96 :1 8: 10 8 pp m n :p 2o 5:k 2o , n 4– 3% j ee va m ru th a p1s1n2 (21.90 cm), p1s1n3 (21.57 cm), p1s1n4 (21.40 cm), p1s3n1 (19.27 cm) and p 2s2n2 (19.20 cm), whereas p2s2n1 (11.31 cm) recorded the minimum root spread. this contradicts the findings that cocopeat based substrates encourage better root growth and spread, which might be due to the interaction of all the three factors. the longevity of flowers from bud stage to the end of display stage was assessed (fig. 1) and the maximum longevity was recorded in the treatment combination p2s2n2 (21.4 days), which was on par with p1s3n2 (20 days), whereas p2s1n3 had the least longevity (15 days). this might be attributed to the optimum dose of nutrients supplied to the plants at weekly intervals and the water and nutrient holding capacity of the potting media and the root spread that must have led to enhanced uptake of the nutrients. nutrient uptake: maximum uptake of nitrogen (2.87g plant-1), phosphorous (0.53g plant-1), potassium (3.24g plant-1), magnesium (0.85g plant-1) and sulphur (0.21g plant-1) was recorded by the plants grown in plastic pots, on a potting media combination of arka fermented cocopeat + vermicompost (1:1 v/v) along with nutrient solution of concentration 128:24:144 ppm n: p2o5: k2o (p1s3n2), whereas the minimum uptake of nitrogen (0.84 g plant-1), phosphorous (0.21g plant-1), potassium (1.02g plant-1), calcium (0.74g plant-1), magnesium (0.25g plant-1) and sulphur (0.07 g plant-1) was recorded by the plants grown in coir pots, on a potting media combination of arka fermented cocopeat + vermicompost (1:1 v/v) along with nutrient solution of concentration 96:18:108 ppm n: p2o5: k2o (p2s3n3) as is evident from fig. 2 and 3. profuse flowering and longevity might be attributed to the uptake of optimum amount of nutr ients in this tr ea tment combina tion. t his corroborates the findings of krol (2011) in pot marigold. micronutrient uptake by the potted plants (fig. 4 and 5) was the highest (3.29,4.57 and 8.10 mg plant-1 of cu, zn and mn, respectively) in the plants grown in plastic pots, on a potting media combination of red soil + fym + sand (1:1:1 v/v) along with nutrient solution of concentration 128:24:144 ppm n: p2o5: k2o (p1s1n2), whereas, the fe uptake was the highest (34.09mg plant-1) in p2s1n1. scoring based on attributes, willingness of the c o ns ume r t o purc has e and t he o v e r all acceptability: the potted plants were scored based on attributes such as cultural perfection, form, plant s iz e, f low er nu mb er, f lower c olou r a nd distinctiveness on a scale of 100 (fig. 6 and 7). j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 113-121, 2023 standardization of production techniques for potted marigold 118 fi g. 1 : e ff ec t of p ot t yp e, p ot tin g m ed ia a nd n ut ri en ts o n lo ng ev ity o f in di vi du al f lo w er o n th e pl an t fig. 2 : effect of pot type, potting media and nutrients on uptake of major nutrients fig. 3 : effect of pot type, potting media and nutrients on uptake of secondary nutrients j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 113-121, 2023 nair et al. 119 fig. 4 : effect of pot type , potting media and nutrients on uptake of cu, zn and mn. fig. 6 : effect of pot type, potting media on nutrient on attributes of consumer to purchase fig. 5 : effect of pot type, potting media and nutrients on uptake of fe fig. 7 : effect of pot type, potting media and nutrients on scores based on the consumer to purchase j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 113-121, 2023 standardization of production techniques for potted marigold 120 plants grown in plastic pots on potting media c omb ina t io n of ar ka f er ment ed c oc op ea t + vermicompost (1:1 v/v) along with nutrient solution of concentration 128:24:144 ppm n: p 2o5: k2o (p1s3n2) scored the highest (81.20), whereas, plants grown in coir pots, on a potting media combination of ar ka f e r ment ed c oc op ea t a lo ng wit h 3 % jeevamrutha (p2s2n4) registered the lowest score (57.70). quality depends on the shape, size, colour of flowers a nd leaves, a nd number of flower s (noordergraaf, 1994; wang et al, 2005). based on the consumers’ willingness to purchase on a scale of 1-5, the same treatment combination p 1s3n2, registered the highest score of 4.5, and p 2s2n4 r ecor ded the lowest scor e of 2. 4. t he overa ll a ccepta bility ba sed on visua l appear a nce wa s assessed on a scale of 1-3. on visual assessment also p1s3n2 and p1s1n4 registered the highest score of 2.7 and p2s2n4 recorded the lowest score of 1.5. according to ferrante et al. (2015) improvement of visual quality of potted plants plays a key role in inc r ea s i ng t he s a le. c oir p o t s ha d p oor mecha nica l pr oper ties a nd r esulted in a faster fig. 8 : effect of pot type, potting media and nutrients on the economics degradation and tended to rupture during handling, tr a ns por t a nd ma r ket ing. besides, r oots a lso protruded from the pot walls in some treatments with discolouration of the pots. economics: plants grown in plastic pots on arka fer mented cocopea t a lone a long with nutr ient solution of concentration 160:30:180 ppm n: p2o5: k2o (p1s2n1) recorded the highest benefit cost ratio of 2.03, however the number of flowers plant-1 and the consumer acceptance scores were lower for this t r ea tment c omb ina tion. t he b es t p er f or ming t r ea t ment c omb ina t ion wit h r es p ec t t o floriferousness, cultural attributes, willingness of the consumer to buy and overall visual acceptability (p1s 3n2) r ecor ded a benefit cost ra tio of 1.18 (fig. 8). coir pots increased the cost of production and have to be retailed at higher prices as compared to the plastic pots. selling price of rs.70 per coir potted plant resulted in b: c ratios ranging from 0 . 3 7 t o 0. 6 3. willingnes s of the c us tomer t o purchase the coir pots depended on their purchasing power and concern for the environment by using eco-friendly products. j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 113-121, 2023 nair et al. 121 conclusion from the present study, it can be concluded that potted plant production of marigold (tagetes patula l.) can be taken up on a commercial basis by nurserymen in plastic pots on a potting media combination of arka fer mented cocopea t+ ver micompost (1:1 v/v) supplemented with weekly application of nutrient solution of 128:24:144 ppm n: p2o5: k2o @ 50 ml pot-1. this combination produced highly floriferous plants with attractive form and shape and had the highest consumer preference and overall visual acceptability. 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(received : 13.12.2022; revised : 03.03.2023; accepted 09.03.2023) standardization of production techniques for potted marigold j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 113-121, 2023 editor’s exordium interdependence in horticultural research “the ultimate goal of farming is not growing crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings” (masanobu fukuoka, the one-straw revolution, 1975) call it “zen and the art of farming” or a “little green book”, masanobu fukuoka’s manifesto about farming, eating and the limits of human knowledge presents a radical and ever-current challenge to the global systems we rely on for our food. at the same time, it is an inspiring, philosophical and spiritual memoir of a man whose innovative system of cultivating the earth reflects a deep faith in the wholeness and balance of the natural world. it is a relevant pick-up whether you are a guerilla gardener or a kitchen gardener. in fruits, gajanana et al have presented an economic analysis marketing of pink flesh guava and its post harvest losses all along the chain from producer to the consumer, while identifying the maximum window for exercising critical care before product disposal to the consumer. muralidhara and gowda have identified the best stage of rootstocks of coorg mandarin (citrus reticulate blanco) for rapid multiplication of the quality planting material, through soft wood grafting, a new way in citrus. srivastava et al have studied significant correlations between growth, yield and quality of apple in relation to trunk cross sectional area under espalier architecture. same but expanded group has also noticed strong correlations in additional attributes in plum under north west himalayan region, at least in the variety santa rosa. shivashankara et al, while decoding the possible causes for the poor fruit set due to low pollen viability, have undertaken metabolic profiling and chemical compositional analysis in mango applying liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (lc-ms) in totapuri, amrapali and alphonso and other cultivars. yippiee! they have deduced that certain phytohormones, free sugars and amino acids indeed are efficient biochemical markers of pollen viability and possibly better yields. srivastava et al, have evaluated the performance of sweet cherry cultivars in terms of correlational trunk cross sectional area with growth and productivity traits. kanupriya et al have reported the rare occurance of seed polyembryony in langsat (lansium parasiticum) in a tropical tree plantation in tamil nadu; polyembryony is a desirable trait for clonal propagation of perennial plus trees. in vegetable crops, singh et al have evaluated extant germplasm accessions and varieties of brinjal and wild solanaceous lines and identified promising accessions tolerant to the bacterial wilt caused by ralstonia solanacearum, which perhaps, is one of the most intriguing and phenocomplex pathogens today. varalakshmi et al, while breeding ridge gourd (luffa acutangula (l.) roxb.) for heterosis and combining ability, have recorded superior cross combinations for best sca and gca effects. nasiya-beegum and subramanian, using trichome morphology of 48 accessions in cowpea, have i j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : i-ii, 2019 deduced the ever complex trait of insect resistance, to the infestation by spotted pod borer, maruca vitrata. dalamu et al have addressed the nutritional improvement and heritability aspects of red skinned potatoes of eastern india through genetic diversity in terms of iron and zinc levels. in flower crops, radhika and tejaswini have developed a digital repository and retrieval system for rose germplasm management including a web-enabled interface, useful for rose researchers. a rosy touch indeed! nataraj et al have investigated the performance of anthurium (a. anderanum lindl) cultivars under hill zones of karnataka and suggested cultivars with very good vase life and high benefit: cost ratio. in this issue, articles on the three main crops, fruits (7), vegetables (4) and flower (2), represent various facets of the horticultural technologies, including crop improvement (1), field aspects (5), insect pests (1), diseases (1), post harvest losses (1), nutrition (1), biochemistry (1), basic plant biology (1) and bioinformatics (1). in the midst of the milieu of a torrent of current developments like artificial intelligence, climate resilience, gmo ambience and chemical independence, in agriculture and horticulture, it is with a little indulgence that we consider the opulence and essence of fukuoka’s wisdom and intelligence in our routine research superintendence without any magniloquence! that will be a real tribute to the one-straw revolution man indeed. sayonara. vageeshbabu s. hanur editor in chief journal of horticultural sciences ii j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : i-ii, 2019 1 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 01-05, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. review nutraceutical horticulture : an overview of biochemical and molecular considerations mohan kumar g.n. department of horticulture, washington state university, pullman, wa 99163. usa corresponding author email: gnmkumar@wsu.edu t he ma jor c omp onent s of ou r diet , na mely, c a r b ohydr a t es , f a t s , pr ot eins , vit a mins , a nd minerals provide for the building blocks besides serving as metabolic fuel to fulfil the bioenergetic needs. since they serve the basic cellular needs, they are considered as ‘primary metabolites’. the molecular and biochemical pathways modulated by the major food components of our diet are wellestablished. many phytochemicals referred to as ‘secondary metabolites’ and not considered as an ‘essential part’ of our diet, also find their way into the digestive tr a ct a long with the major food components. interest in the role played by the ‘nonessential’ or ‘minor ’ components of our diet in preventing the initiation or progression of metabolic disorders has gained momentum. the metabolic disor der s, by and large, ar e non-pathogenic in nature and originate as a consequence of derailed cellular metabolism. p la nt s p r odu c e over 5 0 , 00 0 p hyt oc hemic a ls b elonging t o t he ma jor gr oup s of s ec onda r y metabolites such as phenolics, alkaloids, saponins and terpenes. the secondary metabolites serve several functions in plants and tend to accumulate in various plant parts in response to biotic and/or a biotic inter a ctions. ma ny of the seconda r y metabolites are used by the pharmaceutical industry either in the for mulation drugs dir ectly, or a s pr ecur s or s f or a ctive ingr edients in t he dr ug formulations. the secondary metabolites associated with our diet a re known to influence cellular function upon assimilation. such dietary phytochemicals capable of sustaining normal cellular function and sustain health are known as ‘nutraceuticals’. although phytochemicals of nutraceutical value occur widely, horticultural crops such as fruits, vegetables and spices are particularly rich in nutraceuticals. the interest in the nutraceuticals is on the increase as ca n be ascertained from number of books a nd jou r na ls f ea t u r ing r es ea r c h a r t ic les on nutraceuticals (fig. 1, 2). this talk will focus on the role of dietar y nutra ceuticals derived fr om fruits, vegetables, and spices in sustaining health via their interaction with the biochemical/molecular components in our cells. c e llular c o mpo ne nt s int e r ac t ing w it h nutraceuticals the biochemical pathways modulated by the dietary nutraceuticals are many and complex. however, the major player interacting with nutraceuticals appears to be the nuclear transcription factor (nfk b) . m a ny diet a r y nu t r a c eu t ic a ls ex hib it inhibitory effect on nf-kb (fig. 3). in addition, nutr aceutica ls are capable of inhibiting nf-kb activation mediated by the tumor necrosis factoralpha (tnf-), a cell-signaling molecule. t he activation of nf-kb transcribes genes that mediate the initiation and progression of several metabolic disorders. transcription factors transcription factors are proteins that bind to dna to effect transcription. over 1600 transcription fa ctor s exist in ma mma lia n cells. one su ch transcription factor of importance is nf-kb. as many as 133, 517 citations (oct 2021; pubmed c ent r a l, n a t iona l c ent er f or biot ec hnology information, ncbi) exist on various aspects of nfkb. it is a transcription factor of relevance to the initiation and progression of diseases. therefore, inhib it ion of n f kb a nd/ or it s endogenou s activators (see below) a re considered valuable targets for drug development. nf-kb was discovered in 1986 by ranjan sen and david baltimore. it is ubiquitous to all mammalian cells a nd exists in the cytopla sm. nf-kb is expressed constitutively and remains inactive when 2 mohan kumar j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 01-05, 2022 bound to its inhibitory peptide, ikb. the list of activators of nf-kb is large and include biotic as well as abiotic factors such as viral antigens, freer a dic a ls ( f r s ) , c a r c inogens , en vir onment a l pollutants, alcohol, to name a few. in addition, a family of endogenous peptides known as tumor necrosis factors (tnfs), play a crucial role in the a c t iva t ion of n f kb. up on b ind ing t o it s a c tiva t or s, t n f p r omot es degr a da tion of its inhibitory peptide (ikb) resulting in the activation of n f-kb. t he a ctive nfkb then enter s the nucleus and binds to the response elements (re) of dna to promote transcription. in fact, active nfkb has potential to transcribe over 150 genes with a potential to deregulate cellular function. tumor necrosis factor t nf is a tr ansmembr a ne protein that pla ys a crucial role in the activation of nf-kb. it was first isolated in 1984 and identified as an endogenous t u mor r egr e s s ion f a c t or. t her ef or e, it wa s designated as a tumor necrosis factor. however, over the years, the tnf was identified as a proinflammatory cytokine (cell-signaling peptide) with an ability to initiate several inflammation-induced metabolic disorders upon binding to its elicitors. thus, tnf has a dual role in cell metabolism and often described as a ‘double-edged sword’. the loca liz ed a nd contr olled expr es sion of t n fmediated inflammatory reaction has therapeutic significance. however, its uncontrolled expression lea ds to chr onic infla mma tion a nd contr ibute toward metabolic disorders. for example, in cancer cells, tnf is expressed constitutively. tnf plays a crucial role in pathogenesis of several diseases and hence has attracted a greater research interest. several synthetic fda approved drugs as inhibitors of tnf are currently available. the tnf inhibitor drug industry is expected to reach 42.1 billion us $ in the year 2025. biochemical/molecular pathways modulated by the active tnf and nf-kb as described above, activation of tnf and nf-kb has potential to result in far-reaching consequences through their abilities in initiating transcriptions detrimental to the normal cellular function. such transcriptional changes are significant to derail cells from their norma l function by activa ting proinflammatory pathways. although localized and regulated inflammation is beneficial in containing the disea se pr ogr ession, chr onic infla mma tion contributes toward a number of diseases. in fact, most disea se na mes ending with suffix “ itis” ( b r onc hit is , hep a tit is , meningit is . . . ) s u gges t inflammatory origin (itis: inflammation). by inhibiting apoptosis (programmed cell death) and promoting angiogenesis (development of new blood vessels), nf-kb confirms immortality to abnormal cells. fa ctors that inhibit a poptosis pr omote proliferation of cells with undesirable function. nfkb also promotes development of new blood vessels (angiogenesis). among several factors that promote angiogenesis, vesicular endothelial growth factor (vegf) plays a major role in the development of blood vessels. developing tumor cells promote angiogenesis mediated by vegf. inhibition of angiogenesis is therefore desirable for containing tumor growth. to date, over 14 fda approved angiogenesis inhibitors are available. inhibition of tnf, nf-kb and associated cellular events by nutraceuticals from fruits, vegetables, and spices by their ability to inhibit activation of tnf and nfkb, nutraceuticals derived from fruits, vegetables, and spices modula te infla mma tion, a poptosis, a nd angiogenesis (fig. 2, 3). these molecular/biochemical events promote metabolic disorders such as cancer. a significant body of knowledge exits pertaining to the potential and mode of action of nutraceuticals in containing diseases such as prostate, breast, colon cancer and alzheimer’s disease. to date, information pertaining to the nutraceutical benefits of curcumin (turmeric), quercetin (onion), resveratrol (red grapes, peanut seed coat), sulforaphane (cole crops) and capsaicin (chilies) appear prominently (fig. 4abc and 5ab). it is evident from the published literature that studies on the nutr a ceutica l benefits of other horticultural crops are actively pursued. an interdisciplinary course covering the nutraceutical aspects of horticultural crops will be a very useful addition to the undergraduate or graduate curriculum. such a course deriving appropriate content from horticulture, biochemistry, molecular biology, food science, pharmacology, and human physiology will be valuable to advance awareness on the scientific basis for the health sustaining benefits of fruits, vegetables, and spices. 3 nutraceutical horticulture fi g. 1 . n um be r of p ub lic at io ns p er ta in in g to t he n ut ra ce ut ic al p hy to ch em ic al s of s el ec te d fr ui ts , v eg et ab le s an d sp ic es c ap ab le m od ul at in g in fla m m at io n, a po pt os is ( pr og ra m m ed c el l d ea th ) an d an gi og en es is b y th ei r ab ili ty t o in hi bi t ac tiv at io n of t n f (t um or n ec ro si s fa ct or ) an d n fkb (n uc le ar t ra ns cr ip tio n fa ct or ). so ur ce : n at io na l c en te r fo r b io te ch no lo gy i nf or m at io n, u sa . snotaclbupforeb mun j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 01-05, 2022 4 mohan kumar fig. 2. number of publications pertaining to the nutraceutical phytochemicals of selected fruits, vegetables, and spices capable of preventing or containing diseases such as prostate, breast and colon cancer and alzheimer’s disease through their ability to inhibit activation of tnf (tumor necrosis factor) and nf-kb (nuclear transcription factor). source: national center for biotechnology information, usa. fig. 3. nutraceutical components of selected fruits, vegetables, and spices capable of inhibiting nuclear transcription factor and tumor necrosis factor (nf-kb/tnf). the activation of tnf/nf-kb has negative effects on cellular function. s no ta cl bu pf or eb m un j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 01-05, 2022 5 fig. 4. simplified schematic presenting the mechanism of activation of tumor necrosis factor (tnf) and nuclear transcription factor (nf-kb). nutraceuticals derived from fruits, vegetables and spices play a role in the inhibition of nf-kb and suppress cellular processes (inflammation, angiogenesis, and apoptosis) that lead to metabolic disorders (bold faced tnf and nf-kb represent active forms). references anand, p., kunnumakkara, a.b., sundaram, c, harikumar, k.b., tharakan, s.t., lai, o.s., sung, b., aggarwal, b.b. 2008. cancer is a preventable disease that requires major lifestyle changes. pharm res, 25:2097-116. taniguchi, k., karin, m. 2018. nf-κb, inflammation, immunity and cancer: coming of age. nat rev immunol 18, 309–324. liu, t., zhang, l., joo, d., sun, s.c. 2017. nf-κb signaling in inflammation. sig transduct target ther 2, 17023 holbrook, j. lara-reyna, s., jarosz-griffiths, h., mcdermott, m. 2019. tumour necrosis factor signaling in health and disease. f1000res. 28: f1000 fa culty rev-111. doi:10. 12688/ f1000research. 17023.1. nutraceutical horticulture acknowledgement thanks to dr. ts channesh, director, center for public understanding of science (cpus), bangalore (https:/ /cfpus.org) for his constructive criticism. j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(1) : 01-05, 2022 short communication studies on genetic variability in dolichos bean (lablab purpureus l.) n. mohan, t.s. aghora and m.a. wani division of vegetable crops icar indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru -560 089, india e-mail: nmohan@iihr.ernet.in abstract fifty seven pole-type vegetable dolichos bean [lablab purpureus (l.) sweet] germplasm lines were evaluated for genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance at the experimental farm of indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore, during 2010-12. gcv was comparatively high in days to 50% flowering, days to pod maturity, pod length, pod weight, number of pods per cluster, number of pods per plant, pod yield per plant and pod width. high heritability estimates were observed for number of pods per plant, pod yield per plant, pod weight, days to 50% flowering, pod length, days to pod maturity, pod width and number of pods per cluster. high genetic advance, along with relatively high heritability percent, was observed for number of pods per cluster and pod width. existence of wide variation along with high heritability and genetic advance for number of pods per cluster, pod length, pod width and pod yield per plant indicate that selection would be effective for these traits. among the accessions studied, iihr 177 was early for 50% flowering (43 days) and pod maturity (65 days). iihr 6 and iihr 11 had maximum pod length (16.5cm) and pod width (4.1cm), respectively. ten-pod weight was highest in iihr 7(122g), while the number of pods per plant was high in iihr 159 (91.0). maximum pod yield was seen in iihr 150 (576.9g per plant). these accessions having green, purple or creamy-white pods can be used in future breeding programmes. key words: dolichos bean, lablab purpureus, genetic variability dolichos bean (lablab purpureus l.), also known as lablab bean, is one of the important indigenous legumevegetables grown in india for its tender green pods, mature fresh green seeds, and dry seeds. dolichos bean is a rich source of protein, minerals, vitamins and fibre. india is one of the primary centers of origin and diversity of pole-type vegetable dolichos bean (lablab purpureus var. typicus). the present study was undertaken with an objective of assessing extent of genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance available in the 57 pole-type vegetable dolichos bean germplasm lines, since, such information would be useful for improvement in this crop. the experiment was carried out over two years (201012) during september february at the experimental farm of indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore. the crop was raised in two replications at 1.5m x 15cm spacing between rows and plants, respectively. recommended package of practices was followed. five plants were selected randomly from each accession and data were recorded for thirteen quantitative characters, viz., number of branches, stem thickness, internodal length, leaflet size, days to 50% flowering, days to pod maturity, pod length, pod width, pod weight, number of pods per cluster, number of pods per plant, pod yield per plant and number of seeds per pod. average values were arrived at from these five plants for each of the lines in both replications. data were subjected to analysis of variance to obtain information on variation among accessions (panse and sukhatme, 1984). variability for various quantitative characters, and expected genetic advance at 5% intensity of selection, were calculated as per burton (1952) and johnson et al (1955), respectively. results of analysis of variance are presented in table 1. mean sum of squares for various sources with respect to the 13 characters under study revealed that genotypic effects were highly significant for number of branches, internodal length, leaflet size, days to 50% flowering, days to pod maturity, pod length, pod weight, number of pods per cluster, number of pods per plant, pod yield per plant and number of seeds per pod, indicating available variability for the aforementioned characters among germplasm accessions studied. range of phenotypic variations was high for leaflet size, pod weight, number of pods per plant and pod yield per plant, indicating that these traits to respond positively for selecting desired types. existence of high variability for j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):82-85, 2014 83 genetic variability in dolichos bean various characters among dolichos bean accessions has also been reported earlier by baswana et al (1980), singh et al (1985), bendale et al (2004) and nahar and newaz (2005). estimates of genotypic coefficient of variation (gcv) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (pcv) provide better comparison of characters regarding extent of genetic variation. genetic variability parameters, viz., genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation (gcv and pcv), heritability (h2) in the broad sense and genetic advance (ga) as percent over mean and range are given in table 2. gcv was comparatively high in days to 50% flowering, days to pod maturity, pod length, pod weight, number of pods per cluster, number of pods per plant, pod yield per plant and pod width indicating, that, these traits are less affected by environment and would respond positively to selection. maximum gcv values were recorded for number of pods per plant (49.47) and pod yield (45.79), suggesting a scope for improvement of these characters through selection. the magnitude of differences between gcv and pcv were found to be relatively narrow for internodal length, leaflet size, stem thickness and number of seeds per pod suggesting, that, the above traits are less affected by environment and selection for these traits based on phenotype would be effective. these results are in agreement with findings of selvi et al (2007). pcv was higher than gcv for number of branches, indicating influence of the environment over genotype, and, phenotypic selection for this trait would be less effective. similar results were obtained in chilli by sha et al (1986). heritability per cent (broad sense) indicates quantum of genotypic variance present among germplasm. heritability estimates give the best picture of the extent of advance to be expected by selection (sha et al, 1986; biradar et al, 2007). high heritability estimates were observed for number of pods per plant, pod yield per plant, pod weight, days to 50% flowering, pod length, days to pod maturity, pod width and number of pods per cluster. similar findings were reported by singh et al (1985) and ali et al (2005). among the above traits, heritability estimates for number of pods per plant, pod yield per plant and pod weight were 98 to 99%. heritability for the remaining traits fell in the range of 33 to 54%. genetic advance is the quantum of genetic gain expected during a selection process. high genetic advance, along with relatively high heritability per cent, was observed for number of pods per cluster and pod width, indicating that these traits are predominantly controlled by additive genes and, therefore, improvement in these characters can be achieved through selection (johnson et al, 1955; panse, 1957). high to moderate heritability together, with moderate table 1. analysis of variance for thirteen traits in dolichos germplasm sl. no. source of variance / replication genotypes error character degrees of freedom 1 57 57 1 number of branches 1.45 0.60** 0.30 2 stem thickness (cm) 2.79 0.82 0.82 3 inter nodal length (cm) 3.80 5.14** 1.14 4 leaflet size (cm2) 643.25 660.58** 147.14 5 days to 50% flowering 0.88 63.12** 72.13 6 days to pod maturity 29.00 114.89 47.98 7 pod length (cm) 264.61 17.01** 10.54 8 pod width (cm) 211.95 12.89 10.34 9 ten-pod weight (g) 452.06 634.90** 7.01 10 number of pods/ cluster 7.76 5.51** 0.85 11 number of pods/ plant 1.70 640.63** 2.69 12 pod yield/ plant (g) 6123.0 30796.46** 302.46 13 number of seeds/ pod 7.74 0.82** 0.31 **significant at 5% level table 2. range, mean, pcv, gcv, heritability and genetic advance for various quantitative characters in dolichos character range mean se gcv pcv heritability ga (% ) (%) (%) (% of mean) number of branches 2.0 – 4.5 3.1 0.39 12.63 17.87 33.33 12.06 stem thickness (cm) 0.6 – 1.3 0.98 0.08 13.24 12.13 54.00 13.62 internodal length (cm) 4.3 – 10.8 7.6 0.76 18.54 14.06 64.00 15.67 leaflet size (cm2) 65.3 – 153.8 112.8 8.58 14.20 10.75 64.00 14.14 days to 50% flowering 43.0 – 83.0 62.5 0.80 8.90 1.80 96.00 3.54 days to pod maturity 65.0 – 100.0 81.8 0.95 5.83 1.64 93.00 3.07 pod length (cm) 5.8 – 16.5 10.9 0.49 27.25 6.30 95.00 12.03 pod width (cm) 1.2 – 9.5 2.30 0.21 31.56 13.06 85.00 22.84 10-pod weight (g) 49.5 – 122.0 78.6 1.87 22.53 3.37 98.00 6.81 number of pods/ cluster 2.0 – 10.0 5.3 0.65 28.79 17.38 73.00 26.10 number of pods/ plant 10.0 – 91.0 36.1 1.16 49.47 4.54 99.00 9.26 pod yield/ plant (g) 69.5 – 576.9 269.7 12.30 45.79 6.44 98.00 13.03 number of seeds/ pod 3.5 – 6.0 4.9 0.39 10.29 11.27 45.00 10.41 j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):82-85, 2014 84 genetic advance, was observed for internodal length, leaflet size, stem thickness, pod yield per plant and pod length suggesting, that, these traits are governed by both additive and non-additive gene action (ukkund et al, 2007). genetic improvement of the above characters would be effective only on a moderate scale. high heritability along with low genetic advance noticed for days to 50% flowering and days to pod maturity are attributable to non-additive gene action (vijayalakshmi et al, 1989). these traits can be improved through hybridization (frageria, 1997; kamruzzahan et al, 2000). number of pods per cluster and pod width recorded high gcv, h2 and ga indicating, that, these traits can be improved through phenotypic selection. both pod yield per plant and pod length showed high values for heritability, and moderate values for gcv and ga. selection for these traits would only be moderately effective. existence of a wide variation for various traits in the dolichos bean germplasm, along with high heritability and genetic advance for certain yield-related traits (namely, number of pods per cluster, pod length, pod width, pod yield per plant) indicate that selection would be effective for these traits. of the 57 accessions evaluated, accessions showing maximum values for pod yield and related traits as shown in table 3. five accessions were early (50% flowering 4355.5 days). iihr 177 was the earliest with 50% flowering in 43 days, followed by iihr 143 (53.5 days). similarly, for pod-maturity, iihr 177 was the earliest (65 days), followed by iihr 143 (73.5 days). pod length was highest in iihr 6 (16.5cm) and pod width in iihr 11 (4.1cm). ten-pod weight was maximum in iihr 7 (122g) and number of pods per plant was high in iihr 159 (91.0). maximum pod yield was seen in iihr 150 (576.9g per plant), followed by iihr 159 (576.2g). among accessions with maximum pod yield per plant, three had green pods (iihr157, iihr 177, iihr 159), one purple (iihr 149) and two had creamy white pods (iihr 150 and iihr 170). these elite accessions can be included in future breeding programmes. references ali, f.b., sikdar roy, a.k. and joarder, o.i. 2005. correlation and genetic variation of twenty different genotypes of lablab bean, lablab perpureus (l.) sweet. bangladesh j. bot., 34:125-128 baswana, k.s., pandita, m.l., dhankhar, b.s. and partap, p.s. 1980. genetic variability and heritability studies on indian bean (dolichos lablab var. lignosus l). haryana. j. hort. sci., 9:52-55 bendale, v.w., topare, s.s., bhave, s.g., mehta, j.k. and madav, r.r. 2004. genetic analysis of yield and yield components in lablab bean [lablab purpureus (l.) sweet]. orissa j. hort., 32:99-101 biradar, k.s., salimath, p.m. and ravikumar, r.l. 2007. genetic variability for seedling vigour, yield and yield components in local germplasm collections of green gram [vigna radiata (l.) wilczek]. karnataka j. agric. sci., 20:608-609 burton, g.w. 1952. quantitative inheritance in grasses. proceedings of the 6th grassland congress, 1:277285 frageria, m.s. and kokli, u.k. 1997. correlation studies in tomato. haryana j. hort. sci., 25:158-160 johnson, h.w., robinson, h.f. and comstock, r.e. 1955. estimate of genetic and environmental variability in soybean. agron. j., 47:314-318 kamruzzahan, m.m., hossain, i. and alam, m.f. 2000. variability and correlation studies in tomato (lycopersicon esculentum mill.) bangladesh j. genet. biotech., 1:21-26 nahar, k. and newaz, m.a. 2005. genetic variability, character association and path analysis in lablab bean (lablab purpureus l.). int’l. j. sustainble agril. tech., 1:35-40 panse, v.g. and sukhatme, p.v. 1984 in: statistical methods for agricultural workers, icar, new delhi, pp, 347 panse, v.g. 1957. genetics of quantitative characters in table 3. mean data of elite dolichos germplasm accessions showing maximum values for pod traits and yield days to 50% days to mean pod pod width 10-pod no. of pods yield per pod colour flowering pod maturity length (cm) (cm) weight (g) per plant plant (g) green purple creamy white iihr 177 (43.0) iihr177 (65.0) iihr 6 (16.5) iihr 11 (4.1) iihr 7 (122.0) iihr159 (91.0) iihr 150 (576.90) iihr 157 iihr 149 iihr 150 iihr 143(53.5) iihr143 (73.5) iihr 10 (16.0) iihr 160 (4.0) iihr 10 (112.0) iihr170 (82.5) iihr 159 (576.20) iihr 177 iihr 170 iihr 9 (54.0) iihr 9 (74.5) iihr154 (16.0) iihr 1 (3.9) iihr 11 (111.0) iihr176 (76.5) iihr 177 (535.00) iihr 159 iihr 16 ( 54.5) iihr 16 ( 75.0) iihr155 (16.0) iihr 17 (3.8) iihr 174 (111.0) iihr177 (75.0) iihr 157 (515.20) iihr 19 (55.5) iihr 19 (75.0) iihr174 (15.8) iihr 8 (3.7) iihr 155 (109.5) iihr142 (73.5) iihr 170 (501.00) iihr163 (15.5) iihr 149 (380.50) j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):82-85, 2014 mohan et al 85 relation to plant breeding. indian j. genet. pl. breed., 17:318-28 selvi, b.s., ponnuswami, v. and sumathi, t. 2007. genetic variability studies in gamma ray induced amla (emblica officinalis gaertn.) grafts. j. applied sci. res., 3:1929-1932 sha, a., lal, s.d. and panth, c.c. 1986. variability studies in chilli. prog. hort., 18:270-272 singh, a.k., geeutam, n.c. and singh, k. 1985. genetic variability and correlation studies in bean (lablab purpureus). indian j. hort., 42:252-257 ukkund, k.c., madalageri, m.b., patil, m.p., mulage, r. and kotlkal, y.k. 2007. variability studies in green chilli (capsicum annuum l.) karnataka j. agril. sci., 20:102-104 vijayalakshmi, y., rao, m.r. and reddy, e.n. 1989. genetic variability in some quantitative characters in chilli. indian cocoa arec. spices j., 1:84-86 (ms received 05 august 2013, revised 22 may 2014, accepted 11 june 2014) j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):82-85, 2014 genetic variability in dolichos bean cashew (anacardium occidentale l.) is native to south america (mitchell and mori, 1987) and was introduced into india during the 16th century by the portuguese (johnson, 1973). it is now an important commercialplantation crop in india, grown mainly along the east coast (tamil nadu, andhra pradesh, orissa and west bengal), west coast (kerala, karnataka, maharashtra and goa) and the north-eastern region (meghalaya, manipur, assam, tripura and nagaland). it is widely grown in asia, africa and south america. its kernel is highly nutritive (jain et al, 1954; morton, 1961; joseph, 1975) containing about 21% protein, 22% carbohydrates and 41% fats. production of quality planting material is of utmost important for which the seedlings need to be healthy, free from diseases and pests, and the seed should contain sufficient amount of auxin for good germination, rendering them ideal for softwood grafting. owing to its significant contribution to the national economy, there is a huge demand for quality planting material both for area expansion and replacement of old and unproductive orchards. huballi (2009) reported a requirement of about 1.25 crore grafts to cover nearly 50,000 hectares, on annual basis. therefore, to meet an increasing demand, there is a need to produce quality planting material at a rapid rate. cashew seed is recalcitrant by nature, and year round production of healthy planting material is difficult, as, viability of the seed deteriorates rapidly upon storage short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):245-249, 2015 effect of panchagavya and ga3 on germination and seedling growth in cashew (anacardium occidentale l.) l.s. singh, a. pariari1 and gopal shukla2 central plantation crops research institute research centre, kahikuchi, guwahati 781 017, india e-mail: singhleichombam@gmail.com abstract an experiment consisting of three sowing periods (march-may, june-august and september-november) and seven pre-sowing treatments was undertaken to study the effect of these factors on seed germination and initial seedling growth in cashew. seeds sowing during june august gave significantly better germination and initial seedling growth. however, maximum germination percentage, maximal seedling growth and minimum days to germination were observed with ga3 200ppm during all three sowing periods compared to that in other treatments. as for panchagavya, @ 10% and 20%, was found to be beneficial in treated seeds. all the growth parameters studied were also superior with ga3 application, excepting root growth. best root growth was recorded with panchagavya at 20%. key words: cashew, anacardium occidentale l., ga3, germination, growth, panchagavya (aravindakshan and gopi kumar, 1979; mandal, 2000). to facilitate its germination, the seed must be provided favourable environmental conditions such as adequate moisture supply, appropriate gaseous balance and optimum light. it is necessary to enhance germination while maintaining uniformity of seedlings. with this in view, the present study was undertaken to standardize period of sowing and pre-sowing treatment for optimum germination and good growth in cashew seedlings. the experiment was conducted over two consecutive years (2009 and 2010), at horticultural research station (hrs), mondouri, bidhan chandra krishi viswavidyalaya, mohanpur, nadia, west bengal. the experimental site is located at 23ºn latitude and 80ºe longitude, at an elevation of 9.75 meters above mean sea level, with the sub-tropical climate of the region providing average annual rainfall of 154.7cm from the south-west monsoon. freshly-harvested seeds of cashew were used for june-august sowing, whereas, stored seeds were used during march–may (9 months) and september–november (4 months) for sowing. seeds were selected based on sinker and floater method, i.e., seeds that sank in water alone were considered for sowing. a hundred seeds were sown per treatment in polythene bags (size 26cm x 17cm) filled with fym, sand and soil in 1:1:1 ratio for germination. seeds 1department of spices and plantation crops, faculty of horticulture, bidhan chandra krishi viswavidyalya, mohanpur 741 252, nadia, west bengal, 2department of forestry, uttar banga krishi viswavidyalaya, pundibari-736 165 (cooch behar) west bengal 246 that produced 5mm or longer radicals were taken as germinated. growth parameters such as seedling height, collar diameter, number of leaves, shoot and root dry weight, were recorded at 60 days after germination. the experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design, with seven treatments and three replications. seeds were sown during the first week each of march, june and september for the three sowing periods (march-may, june-august and september-november). details of treatments are: 5% panchagavya (t 1), 10% panchagavya (t 2), 20% panchagavya (t3), ga3 50ppm (t4), ga3 100ppm (t5), ga3 200ppm (t6), and no treatment, i.e., control (t7). seeds were soaked in these solutions for three hours. panchagavya was prepared by mixing cow dung (2.5kg), cow urine (1.5 litre), ghee i.e. clarified butter (500g), cow milk (1 litre), curd (1 litre) and jaggery (500g). cow dung, cow urine and ghee were mixed in a plastic bucket and stirred continuously for a week to remove methane gas. then, cow milk, curd and jaggery were added and the mixture stirred and kept aside for a week. the extracts were weighed and diluted in water to prepare 5%, 10% and 20% panchagavya solution. data were statistically analyzed as per gomez and gomez (1984). from seeds sown during three different periods during a year, it was found that june august was best, yielding the highest germination in a very short time, whereas, march may was not suitable, as, it resulted in the lowest germination rate (table 1). seed germination and growth of cashew seedlings were significantly influenced by presowing treatment (table 1). pre-sowing treatment with ga3 at 200ppm gave 100% germination within 8.5 days, followed by ga3 at 100ppm (99% germination in 9 days). lowest germination (90% in 13.5 days) was recorded in control during june august sowing. sowing period september november also gave germination rates similar to the presowing treatment of june august. results on sowing period confirm that cashew sown during two seasons (march-may and september-november) in west bengal produces better germination, without substantial deterioration to the crop. this may also be due to the prevalent favourable climatic conditions and high viability retained in a fresh seed during this period. pre-sowing treatment also gave uniform and quick germination. similar effect with ga3 treatment has been reported (furuta, 1961). it is likely that this treatment removes the waxy layer of the pericarp, thereby facilitating better germination (harris et al, 1994). three panchagavya treatments were also tried and similar effects were recorded on germination in june – august sowing, whereas, lowest values were recorded in march – may sowing. during september – november sowing, germination percentage ranged from 62% to 83%. maximum germination percentage was recorded with ga3 200ppm (fig. 1). beneficial effect of treatment of seeds with panchagavya on germination has also been reported by pathak and ram (2004). table 1. effect of pre-sowing treatment on germination and number of days to germination in cashew seed march may june august september november treatment germination days taken to germination days taken to germination days taken to (%) germination (%) germination (%) germination panchagavya 5% 38.0 (38.06) 17.50 95.0 (77.08) 13.00 66.0 (54.33) 14.50 panchagavya 10% 51.0 (45.57) 16.00 97.0 (80.02) 10.00 74.0 (59.34) 11.50 panchagavya 20% 54.0 (47.29) 15.00 96.0 (78.46) 12.50 70.0 (56.79) 13.50 ga3 50ppm 47.0 (43.28) 16.50 92.0 (73.57) 11.50 67.0 (54.94) 14.00 ga3 100ppm 52.0 (46.15) 15.00 99.0 (84.26) 9.00 76.0 (60.67) 11.00 ga3 200ppm 61.0 (51.35) 13.50 100.0 (90.00) 8.50 83.0 (65.65) 9.00 control 31.0 (33.83) 18.00 90.0 (71.56) 13.50 62.0 (51.94) 14.50 figures in parentheses are logarithmic transformed values fig. 1. cashew seedlings treated with ga3 200ppm during june – august sowing singh et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):245-249, 2015 247 effect of pre-sowing treatment on initial seedlinggrowth in cashew is presented in table 2. initial seedlinggrowth showed similar trends in germination, and sowing during june august recorded better growth, followed by september – november. the least growth was recorded in march may sowing. seeds pre-soaked in ga3 200ppm recorded maximum plant height, collar diameter and number of leaves, while, the least plant height, collar diameter and number of leaves were recorded in control in all three periods of sowing. this may be due to early and uniform germination supported by ga3, hastening initiation of shoot growth, thus leading to better seedling height. further, application of ga3 may have also helped increase cell division, leading to better initial shoot-growth. similar results were reported by walase et al (2007) and shanmugavelu (1963; 1970). all the three treatments with panchagavya gave better seedling growth during june august sowing, with the highest seedling height, collar diameter and number of leaves, followed by september november sowing. the lowest values were recorded in march – may sowing. yelleshkumar et al (2008) reported that seeds treated with 3% panchagavya were superior in sprout height, seedling diameter, number of sprouts and number of leaves in mango. leaf area, root length and root:shoot ratio were highest when sowing was done during june – august; all the parameters studied were lowest in march may sowing (table 3). pre-sowing treatment also influenced leaf area, root growth and root:shoot ratio. maximum leaf area (37.75cm2) and root:shoot ratio (1.46) was recorded in ga3 treatment in sowing during june august, while, maximum root growth was recorded in 10% panchagavya. lowest values were associated with ga3 50ppm and 5% panchagavya. root growth was unaffected, as, pre-treated seeds in all the sowings gave similar root growth. it is very interesting to note that application of panchagavya produced better root growth irrespective of sowing time. according to solaiappan (2002), panchagavya has beneficial microorganisms like azospirillum, azotobacter, phosphobacteria and lactobacillus, which may be the reason for good root growth. the present findings are in conformity with yabuta and hayashi (1939) and sumiki (1952). fresh and dry root and shoot weights are presented in table 4. similar trends were observed in june august sowing, which showed maximum fresh and dry root and shoot weights, while, lowest values were recorded in march – may sowing. seeds treated with ga3 200ppm produced higher shoot growth and weight in the three different sowing table 2. effect of pre-sowing treatment on initial seedling growth in cashew treatment march may june august september november plant seedling no. of plant seedling no. of plant seedling no. of height diameter leaves height diameter leaves height diameter leaves (cm) (cm) (cm) (cm) (cm) (cm) panchagavya 5% 18.10 0.74 9.48 22.92 0.88 11.03 22.71 0.85 11.17 panchagavya 10% 19.01 0.77 9.64 24.31 0.96 12.20 22.80 0.90 11.38 panchagavya 20% 21.07 0.88 10.56 24.73 1.05 12.55 23.82 0.91 11.94 ga3 50ppm 18.38 0.76 9.40 23.06 0.92 11.67 22.65 0.86 11.35 ga3 100ppm 20.99 0.86 10.59 25.18 1.05 12.67 24.36 1.02 12.23 ga3 200ppm 23.15 1.00 11.64 27.25 1.15 13.91 26.05 1.03 13.12 control 17.93 0.70 8.83 22.62 0.82 10.83 21.82 0.82 10.98 s.em. (±) 0.37 0.03 0.25 0.43 0.04 0.17 0.45 0.03 0.30 c.d. (p=0.05) 1.14 0.09 0.75 1.30 0.12 0.52 1.35 0.11 0.90 table 3. effect of pre-sowing treatment on seedling growth of cashew treatment march may june august september november leaf area root shoot: leaf root shoot: leaf root shoot: (cm2) length root area length root area length root (cm) length (cm2) (cm) length (cm2) (cm) length panchagavya 5% 27.27 14.61 1.22 27.75 17.80 1.28 29.31 17.62 1.28 panchagavya 10% 31.01 13.88 1.30 31.84 19.22 1.27 26.96 17.56 1.32 panchagavya 20% 25.56 15.65 1.34 34.69 18.68 1.32 31.76 18.66 1.27 ga3 50ppm 26.19 14.35 1.27 26.58 17.80 1.32 24.36 16.58 1.36 ga3 100ppm 26.01 14.82 1.40 35.06 17.81 1.42 35.41 17.23 1.41 ga3 200ppm 31.24 15.55 1.48 37.75 18.59 1.46 32.62 17.47 1.48 control 23.52 14.79 1.28 28.28 18.57 1.21 28.86 16.40 1.32 s.em. (±) 0.77 0.36 0.03 1.38 0.25 0.03 1.26 0.43 0.01 c.d. (p=0.05) 2.34 1.10 0.10 4.21 0.76 0.09 3.82 1.31 0.05 effect of panchagavya and ga3 application in cashew j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):245-249, 2015 248 periods. this could be related to broader leaves, thereby enhanced photosynthetic activity and accumulation of nutrients in the leaf tissues. this, in turn, may have helped improve shoot growth and dry biomass. it may be concluded from the present study that sowing cashew during june -august or september november was better for germination rate and initial seedling growth. treatment with ga3 200ppm was the most effective for germination and better initial seedling growth in cashew during the three different sowing periods. however, ga3 may not be a suitable option to a farmer due to its high price and problem with availability. therefore, pre-sowing treatment with the farmer-friendly panchagavya (20%) can be adopted due to its easy availability and economic viability. acknowledgement the authors are thankful to university grants commission (ugc), new delhi, for providing financial assistance through rajiv gandhi national fellowship, and to dr. mini poduval, reader (research) and officer-incharge, aicrp on cashew, regional research station (rrs), jhargram, bidhan chandra krishi viswavidyalaya, mohanpur, nadia, west bengal, for providing necessary facilities and for the co-operation extended during the investigation. references aravindakshan, m. and gopikumar, k. 1979. seed viability in cashew. cashew bulletin, 16:6-7 furuta, t. 1961. influence of gibberellins on germination of seeds. amer. camellia yearbook,pp. 141-145 gomez, k.a. and gomez, a.a. 1984. statistical procedure for agricultural research (2nd ed.), table 4. effect of pre-sowing treatment on fresh and dry shoot and root weight of cashew seedling treatment march may june august september november shoot shoot root root shoot shoot root root shoot shoot root root fresh dry fresh dry fresh dry fresh dry fresh dry fresh dry wt. (g) wt. (g) wt. (g) wt. (g) wt. (g) wt. (g) wt. (g) wt. (g) wt. (g) wt. (g) wt. (g) wt. (g) panchagavya 5% 3.70 0.77 1.06 0.15 6.76 1.47 1.72 0.44 5.61 1.05 1.67 0.45 panchagavya 10% 4.38 0.91 1.24 0.21 6.95 1.57 1.97 0.65 6.06 1.13 1.75 0.43 panchagavya 20% 5.16 1.04 1.45 0.33 7.41 1.72 1.88 0.59 6.09 1.18 1.78 0.60 ga3 50ppm 4.02 0.77 1.13 0.13 6.45 1.48 1.66 0.42 5.11 0.96 1.39 0.24 ga3 100ppm 5.20 1.07 1.24 0.21 7.73 1.97 1.70 0.41 6.46 1.50 1.53 0.30 ga3 200ppm 5.72 1.20 1.30 0.23 8.11 2.01 1.86 0.58 7.29 1.81 1.58 0.26 control 3.83 0.74 1.26 0.21 6.19 1.52 1.81 0.57 4.91 0.92 1.40 0.25 s.em. (±) 0.30 0.10 0.05 0.02 0.49 0.10 0.02 0.01 0.51 0.22 0.07 0.07 c.d. (p=0.05) 1.01 0.34 0.16 0.08 1.46 0.29 0.07 0.07 1.56 0.61 0.20 0.22 interscience publication, johan wily and sons, new york, pp. 20-30 harris, c.v., pandian, i.r.s. and thangavelu, s. 1994. pretreatment of cashew seeds to improve germination. south indian hort., 42:121-122 huballi, v.n. 2009. cashew in india. proceedings of cashew field day, february 20, bidhan chandra krishi viswavidyalaya, jhargram, paschim midnapur, west bengal, pp. 8-14 jain, n.l., das, d.p. and lal, g. 1958. utilization of cashew apples. procs. of the symposium on fruit and vegetable preservation industry in india, cftri, mysore, pp.75-80 johnson, d. 1973. the botany, origin, spread of cashew (anacardium occidentale l.). j. pl. crops, 1:1-7 joseph, k.t. 1975. cashew nut: a valuable nutritive food product. indian cashew j., 10:5-6 mandal, r.c. 2000. cashew production and processing technology. agrobios (india) publishers, ludhiana, pp. 22-31 mitchell, j.d. and mori, s.a. 1987. the cashew and its relatives ( anacardium occidentale l.), anacardiaceae. memoirs of the new york bot. gardens, 42:1-76 morton, j.f. 1961. the cashew’s brighter future. econ. bot., 15:57-78 pathak, r.k. and ram, r.a. 2004. manual on vedic krishi. central institute for subtropical horticulture, rehmankhera, lucknow, pp. 1-38 shanmugavelu, k.g. 1963. studies on the effect of plant growth regulators on some forest plant species. ph.d. thesis, annamalai univ., tamil nadu, india shanmugavelu, k.g. 1970. effect of gibberellic acid on seed germination and development of seedlings of some tree plant species. madras agril. j., 55: 311-314 solaiappan, a.r. 2002. microbiological studies in singh et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):245-249, 2015 249 panchagavya. bio-control laboratory o f f i c i a l communication, chengalpet, tamil nadu, india sumiki, y. 1952. biochemistry of the bakane fungus. xxv. the physiological action of gibberellins. j. agril. chem. soc. (japan), 26:393-397 walase, s.r., ghawade, d.m., panchbhai and dod, v.n. 2007. effect of ga3 and chemicals on seed germination and seedling growth of aonla. souvenir and abstracts, second indian horticulture congress, april 18-21, icar complex for north eastern region (ner), barapani, meghalaya, india, pp. 138 yabuta, j. and hayashi, t. 1939. biochemical studies bakane fungus of the rice. iii. physiological action of gibberellins on the plants. j. agril. chem. soc. (japan), 15:403-413 yelleshkumar, h.s., swamy, g.s.k., patil, c.p., kanamadi, v.c. and kumar, p. 2008. effect of pre-soaking treatments on the success of soft-wood grafting and growth of mango grafts. karnataka j. agril. sci., 21:471-472 (ms received 02 september 2013, revised 30 june 2015, accepted 29 august 2015) effect of panchagavya and ga3 application in cashew j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(2):245-249, 2015 genotypic variability in tomato for total carotenoids and lycopene content during summer and response to post harvest temperature k.s. shivashankara, k.c. pavithra, r.h. laxman, a.t. sadashiva1 and m. george christopher1 division of plant physiology and biochemistry icar indian institute of horticultural research bengaluru – 560 089, india e-mail: shiva@iihr.ernet.in abstract lycopene is the major carotenoid responsible for fruit colour in tomato (lycopersicon esculentum mill.). however, colour of the fruit is greatly affected by high temperature prevailing during fruit growth in the summer crop. to select a genotype suitable for summer conditions that can maintain colour better, a set of 52 tomato genotypes were evaluated for lycopene, total carotenoids and for tss during summer in bengaluru. among the genotypes screened, iihr 2892 recorded very high lycopene content (328.4mg/100g dry weight) and iihr 2866 recorded very low lycopene content (25.2mg/100g dry weight). tss values ranged from 2.6obrix in cv. vybhav to 7.0o brix in iihr 2866. in addition, study was carried out to determine the effect of postharvest temperature on biosynthesis of lycopene in five selected tomato cultivars (arka rakshak, arka samrat, arka ananya, lakshmi and abhinava). tomatoes harvested at breaker stage were stored at 27o c, 35o c and 40o c for ripening. high temperature reduced lycopene content in tomato fruits. lycopene synthesis in fruits was completely inhibited above 35oc. in this study, mean lycopene content in tomatoes stored at 27o c was 3-4 times higher than that in tomatoes stored at 40o c. this indicates that in tomatoes, temperature at which the fruits are stored after harvest, is a more important factor for colour development. key words: tomato, temperature, total carotenoids, lycopene, total soluble solids (tss) 1division of vegetable crops, indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru-560 089, karnataka, india tomato is one of the widely consumed vegetables in the world. it is rich in compounds beneficial to health, like vitamins, carotenoids, lycopene and phenolic compounds (palop et al, 2010; kaur et al, 2013). lycopene is a potent antioxidant and is thought to be responsible protect cells against oxidative damage, thereby lowering the risk of chronic diseases (rao and agarwal, 1999). in addition to its antioxidant properties, lycopene has also been shown to induce cell to cell communication and to modulate hormone/ immune systems and other metabolic pathways, which may also confer beneficial effects (rao et al, 1998). lycopene, a fat soluble carotenoid, is a precursor of β-carotene and has at least twice as much antioxidant capacity as β-carotene (davis et al, 2003). tomato and its products are a major source of lycopene, and contribute significantly to carotenoid intake in humans. however, processing and storage conditions of tomato may cause lycopene degradation (nguyen and schwartz, 1999). isomerization and oxidation are important reactions causing lycopene degradation. the first stage of degradation is a reversible isomerization of all trans-lycopene to the less colored, more oxidizable cis isomer. environmental factors such as oxygen, light and temperature may be very important in isomerization and autoxidation of lycopene in tomato products. tomatoes are dried mostly at high temperatures in the presence of oxygen; dried tomato products (e.g., tomato halves, slices, quarters and powders) show highest sensitivity to oxidation (demiray et al, 2013). apart from processing and storage conditions, growth environment also influences development of lycopene in tomatoes. high-altitude cultivars had higher lycopene content than cultivars of the plains (chandra et al, 2012), mainly due to the low growth temperature in the high altitude regions. lycopene content is also affected by solar radiation and high temperature in the plains sometimes results in yellow colour of the fruit rather than red (chandra et al, 2012). short communication j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):98-102, 2014 99 genotypic variability in tomato for total carotenoids and lycopene temperature has a significant influence on growth and development of tomato fruits (ploeg and heuvelink, 2005). temperatures below 12o c and above 32o c strongly inhibit lycopene biosynthesis (collins et al, 2006; javanmardi and kubota, 2006; raffo et al, 2006; helyes et al, 2007). high temperatures (35o c) specifically inhibit accumulation of lycopene due to stimulation of conversion of lycopene into β-carotene (krumbein et al, 2006). growth season and location are highly significant factors affecting lycopene concentration in tomatoes. temperatures greater than 30o c lead to inhibition of lycopene synthesis in normal, red cultivars of tomato; when the temperature is lower than 30o c, lycopene synthesis is restored. such effects of temperature are dependent on cultivar (garcia and barrett, 2006). shi and maguer (2000) reported that relatively high temperatures (38o c) inhibited lycopene production, while, low temperatures inhibited both fruit ripening and lycopene production. in this study, variation in lycopene content in 52 genotypes and the effect of postharvest temperature on lycopene biosynthesis in five cultivars was studied. genotypes showing diversity in fruit colour were selected for assessing the variability during summer cultivation. commercial cultivars with red coloured fruits were selected for postharvest temperature experiments, since, these are harvested at the breaker stage, and, full colour-development occurs only after harvest. the experiment was carried out at indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, during summer of 2012. bengaluru is located at 13o58’ n latitude, 78o e longitude and 890m above mean sea level. uniformly ripe healthy fruits, at the red ripe stage were harvested and used in the analysis. fruits were homogenized in a blender. total carotenoids and lycopene content was estimated by spectrophotometric method (lichtenthaler, 1987). total carotenoids and lycopene were estimated by extracting five grams of the homogenized tomato sample with acetone and calcium carbonate. extraction was repeated till the residue turned white. all the extractions were carried out under low-light conditions. carotenoids were partitioned to hexane, dried with sodium sulphate and absorbance was read at 470nm and 503nm using a spectrophotometer (t80+ uv/ vis spectrophotometer, pg instruments ltd.). results were expressed as mg per 100g dry weight, using standards. total soluble solids were measured using a digital refractometer (arko india ltd., model dg-nxt) and expressed as obrix. data were subjected to analysis of variance using anova, and means were compared, with critical difference at p≤0.05. significant differences were observed for lycopene and total carotenoid content among the genotypes used (table 2). lycopene content ranged from 25.2mg/100g dry weight in iihr 2866, to 328.4mg/100g dry weight in iihr 2892. total carotenoid content also exhibited a similar trend. the range of lycopene content in the genotypes was found to be significantly higher than the range reported earlier by several workers for tomato cultivars (kerkhofs et al, 2005; toor and savage, 2005; adalid et al, 2010; kotikova et al, 2011). significant differences in tss were observed among genotypes. tss ranged from 2.6o brix in cv. vybhav, to 7.0o brix in iihr 2866. tss is a key determinant of quality in the crop, whether for use as fresh produce or for processing. further, tss also contributes strongly to tomato flavor and consistency (kaur et al, 2013). tss range observed in the genotypes was found to be significantly higher than the range reported by workers earlier for tomato cultivars (george et al, 2004; javanmardi and kubota, 2006; rai et al, 2012). based on lycopene content, the tomato table 1. tomato genotypes used in the study with date of harvest and mean maximum and minimum temperatures during fruit growth period tomato genotypes date of temperature during harvest fruit growth period avg. max. avg. min. iihr 2195, iihr 2197, iihr 2199, iihr 2200, iihr 2201, iihr 2202, iihr 2852 27/06/2012 31.9oc 16.4oc iihr 2853, iihr 2854, iihr 2855, iihr 2856 28/06/2012 31.9oc 16.5oc iihr 2858, iihr 2859, iihr 2860, iihr 2861, iihr 2862 29/06/2012 31.9oc 16.5oc vybhav, nandi, arka rakshak, arka samrat, arka ananya, lakshmi, us 3140, 06/07/2012 31.3oc 17.6oc us 3380, abhinava, iihr 2891, iihr 2890, iihr 2889 iihr 2886, iihr 2887, iihr 2884, iihr 2835, iihr 2834, iihr 2888, iihr 2857, 07/07/2012 31.3oc 17.6oc iihr 2863, iihr 2864, iihr 2865, iihr 2866, iihr 2406, iihr 2408, iihr 2412, iihr 2413, iihr 2417, iihr 2321, iihr 2876, iihr 2827, iihr 2622, iihr 2828, iihr 2657, iihr 2885, iihr 2892 j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):98-102, 2014 100 table 2. variation in total carotenoids, lycopene content and tss of 52 tomato genotypes cultivated during summer of 2012 tomato total lycopene tss genotype carotenoids (mg/100g dry (o brix) (mg/100g dry weight) weight) iihr 2892 529.2 328.4 4.4 iihr 2876 505.5 319.1 4.3 iihr 2890 482.8 302.4 3.3 abhinava 466.3 286.5 3.8 iihr 2889 454.9 284.3 3.5 vybhav 454.4 283.8 2.6 iihr 2828 424.6 264.7 4.1 iihr 2861 418.2 263.0 4.3 iihr 2417 392.2 249.6 5.2 iihr 2321 389.9 235.3 4.7 iihr 2827 363.7 230.7 3.3 iihr 2860 367.8 223.7 5.7 iihr 2657 358.1 222.5 5.1 us 3380 355.9 218.0 3.2 lakshmi 346.5 211.0 3.6 iihr 2858 346.4 204.7 5.3 iihr 2891 329.3 203.9 4.3 nandi 335.6 199.4 3.2 iihr 2412 316.9 193.5 4.1 iihr 2888 308.7 189.1 4.3 iihr 2408 304.2 187.7 3.1 us 3140 315.4 186.7 2.9 iihr 2622 298.3 178.8 4.6 iihr 2884 287.5 178.4 4.6 iihr 2413 281.1 178.0 6.0 iihr 2835 284.5 171.3 5.3 iihr 2886 276.9 168.8 4.2 iihr 2887 260.3 165.9 4.5 arka samrat 258.0 158.1 4.2 iihr 2854 259.5 155.5 4.7 arka rakshak 252.5 151.6 3.2 iihr 2857 265.3 151.5 5.5 iihr 2853 246.4 149.9 4.8 iihr 2885 244.2 148.2 4.1 arka ananya 243.9 145.5 4.1 iihr 2834 225.0 133.3 3.9 iihr 2862 225.0 131.9 5.6 iihr 2195 229.4 130.5 4.5 iihr 2863 199.2 118.7 5.8 iihr 2855 201.8 114.9 3.9 iihr 2197 198.2 111.5 4.9 iihr 2859 173.2 100.7 5.1 iihr 2856 160.3 96.3 4.5 iihr 2201 156.7 85.7 4.9 iihr 2202 148.7 81.8 5.1 iihr 2199 137.7 78.1 5.4 iihr 2200 128.6 71.4 5.5 iihr 2852 126.3 69.3 5.1 iihr 2406 146.4 52.1 4.9 iihr 2865 140.2 45.3 3.5 iihr 2864 141.4 44.7 4.5 iihr 2866 98.2 25.2 7.0 mean 285.8 170.8 4.5 cd (p=0.05) 25.2 17.1 0.2 genotypes were divided into six groups (table 3). in the highest (>300mg/100g dw) and lowest (<50mg/100g dw) lycopene content groups, only three genotypes each were present. a majority of the genotypes fell in the group 100-200mg/100g dw lycopene content. results on the effect of postharvest temperature on lycopene biosynthesis in five tomato cultivars, viz., arka rakshak, arka samrat, arka ananya, lakshmi and abhinava, indicated significant difference for total carotenoids and lycopene content (table 4). at 27oc, all genotypes recorded highest total carotenoids and lycopene. with increase in temperature, total carotenoids and lycopene content decreased in all the genotypes. arka rakshak showed highest reduction in total carotenoids and lycopene content. arka ananya, followed by arka samrat, recorded lower reduction in total carotenoids and lycopene content. ‘lakshmi’ and ‘abhinava’ exhibited higher total carotenoids and lycopene at all the temperatures, compared to the other genotypes. mean lycopene content of tomatoes stored at 27oc was 3-4 times higher than that at 40oc. better lycopene content was recorded in cv. abhinava at 35oc, and in cv. lakshmi at 40oc. toor and savage (2006) reported that storage at lower temperatures (7oc) inhibited accumulation of lycopene in tomatoes, whereas, lycopene level in light-red tomatoes increased upto 3-fold at a storage temperature of 15-25oc. farneti et al (2012) concluded that storage of tomatoes at temperatures below 12oc induced lycopene degradation. effect of high temperature (above 30oc) on lycopene content was reported to be cultivar-specific (garcia and barrett, 2006). shi and maguer (2000) reported that relatively high temperatures (38oc) inhibited lycopene production. similar inhibition was also observed in this study at 40oc. further, results indicated that irrespective of the field temperature experienced, colour development in tomato was largely controlled by storage temperature in fruits harvested at the breaker stage. total carotenoids (r = -0.9106) and lycopene (r = -0.9143) were seen to be strongly and negatively correlated with temperature in this experiment. such strong relationship at the post-harvest stage indicates the importance of ripening temperature for colour development in tomato. a wide variation exists for lycopene content among tomato genotypes. iihr 2892 was found to be superior in terms of lycopene content compared to other genotypes. results show that post-harvest environmental conditions showed be considered carefully for development of good colour in tomato fruit. variation in lycopene content in tomato is controlled by both genetic and environmental conditions (like temperature and light). this study confirms that tomatoes contain significant amounts of lycopene which may vary with post harvest shivashankara et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):98-102, 2014 101 temperature conditions. storage at temperatures of 35o and 40o c inhibits accumulation of lycopene in tomatoes significantly, whereas, at 27p c, lycopene content increases. acknowledgement the authors acknowledge financial assistance from nicra project for carrying out the study. they are also thankful to director, iihr, for providing facilities. references adalid, a.m., rosello, s. and nuez, f. 2010. evaluation and selection of tomato accessions (solanum section lycopersicon) for content of lycopene, β-carotene and ascorbic acid. j. food comp. anal., 23:613618 chandra, h.m., shanmugaraj, b.m., srinivasan, b. and ramalingam, s. 2012. influence of genotypic variations on antioxidant properties in different fractions of tomato. j. food sci., 77:1174-1178 collins, j.k., perkins-veazie, p. and roberts, w. 2006. lycopene: from plants to humans. hort. sci., 41:1135-1144 davis, a.r., fish, w.w. and perkins-veazie, p. 2003. a rapid spectrophotometric method for analyzing lycopene content in tomato and tomato products. postharvest biol. tech., 28:425-430 demiray, e., tulek, y. and yilmaz, y. 2013. degradation kinetics of lycopene, â-carotene and ascorbic acid in tomatoes during hot air drying. food sci. tech., 50:172-176 farneti, b., schouten, r.e. and woltering, e.j. 2012. low temperature-induced lycopene degradation in red ripe tomato evaluated by remittance spectroscopy. postharvest biol. tech., 73:22-27 garcia, e. and barrett, d.m. 2006. assessing lycopene content in california processing tomatoes. j. food proc. pres., 30:56-70 george, b., kaur, c., khurdiya, d.s. and kapoor, h.c. 2004. antioxidants in tomato (lycopersicum esculentum) as a function of genotype. food chem., 84:45-51 helyes, l., lugasi, a. and pék, z. 2007. effect of natural light on surface temperature and lycopene content of vine ripened tomato fruit. can. j. pl. sci., 87:927929 javanmardi, j. and kubota, c. 2006. variation of lycopene, antioxidant activity, total soluble solids and weight loss of tomato during postharvest storage. postharvest biol. tech., 41:151-155 table 4. effect of temperature on total carotenoids and lycopene content tomato genotype total carotenoids lycopene mg/100g dry weight mg/100g dry weight 27oc 35oc 40oc mean 27oc 35oc 40oc mean arka rakshak 196.9 79.7 75.8 117.5 121.1 41.5 39.4 67.3 arka samrat 169.6 104.3 71.0 115.0 99.5 56.4 35.1 63.7 arka ananya 193.3 114.5 89.3 132.4 114.2 65.0 47.6 75.6 lakshmi 228.7 112.7 110.5 150.6 138.8 61.3 57.5 85.9 abhinava 221.2 134.4 86.5 147.4 134.2 75.9 47.1 85.7 mean 202.0 109.1 86.6 132.6 121.6 60.0 45.4 75.6 cd (p=0.05) variety (v) 6.0 3.8 temperature (t) 3.6 2.3 v x t 17.9 11.5 table 3. grouping of genotypes based on lycopene content group genotypes i (> 300mg/100g dw) iihr 2892, 2890, 2876 ii (250-300mg/100g dw) abhinava, iihr 2889, vybhav, iihr 2828, iihr 2861 iii (200-250mg/100g dw) iihr 2417, iihr 2321, iihr 2827, iihr 2860, iihr 2657, us 3380, lakshmi, iihr 2858, iihr 2891 iv (150-200mg/100g dw) nandi, iihr 2412, iihr 2888, iihr 2408, us 3140, iihr 2622, iihr 2884, iihr 2413, iihr 2835, iihr 2886, iihr 2887, arka samrat, iihr 2854, arka rakshak, iihr 2857 vi (100-150mg/100g dw) iihr 2853, iihr 2885, arka ananya, iihr 2834, iihr 2862, iihr 2195, iihr 2863, iihr 2855, iihr 2197, iihr 2859 vii (50-100mg/100g dw) iihr 2856, iihr 2201, iihr 2202, iihr 2199, iihr 2200, iihr 2852, iihr 2406 viii (< 50mg/100g dw) iihr 2865, iihr 2864, iihr 2866 j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):98-102, 2014 genotypic variability in tomato for total carotenoids and lycopene 102 kaur, c., walia, s., nagal, s., walia, s., singh, j., singh, b.b., saha, s., singh, b., kalia, p., jaggi, s. and sarika. 2013. functional quality and antioxidant composition of selected tomato (solanum lycopersicon l.) cultivars grown in northern india. food sci. tech., 50:139-145 kerkhofs, n.s., lister, c.e. and savage, g.p. 2005. change in colour and antioxidant content of tomato cultivars following forced-air drying. pl. foods human nutr., 60:117-121 kotíková, z., lachman, j., hejtmánková, a. and hejtmánková, k. 2011. determination of antioxidant activity and antioxidant content in tomato varieties and evaluation of mutual interactions between antioxidants. food sci. tech., 44:1703-1710 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rai, g.k., kumar, r., singh, a.k., rai, p.k., rai, m., chaturvedi, a.k. and rai, a.b. 2012. changes in antioxidant and phytochemical properties of tomato (lycopersicon esculentum mill.) under ambient condition. pak. j. bot., 44:667-670 rao, a.v. and agarwal, s. 1999. role of lycopene as antioxidant carotenoid in the prevention of chronic diseases. nutr. res., 19:305-323 rao, a.v., waseem, z. and agarwal, s. 1998. lycopene content of tomatoes and tomato products and their contribution to dietary lycopene. food res. int’l., 31:737-741 shi, j. and maguer, m.l. 2000. lycopene in tomatoes: chemical and physical properties affected by food processing. crit. rev. food sci. nutr., 40:1-42 toor, r.k. and savage, g.p. 2005. antioxidant activity in different fractions of tomatoes. food res. int’l., 38:487-494 toor, r.k. and savage, g.p. 2006. changes in major antioxidant components of tomatoes during postharvest storage. food chem., 99:724-727 (ms received 25 june 2013, revised 28 october 2013, accepted 05 february 2014) j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):98-102, 2014 shivashankara et al this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. introduction mango (mangifera indica l.), belongs to the family anacardiaceae, has an important place among the fruits of the world and is popularly called as king of fruits in india because of its wide uses and nutritional qualification. it is the most widely cultivated tropical fruit species in india and its cultivation also spread to other tropical and subtropical parts of the world. it occupies the highest area of 2,317 thousand ha among fruit crops and contributes 20, 386 thousand metric tons fruit production (nhb, 2020-21) in india. globally, asia accounts for 75% of world mango production. whereas, india holds first rank among world’s mango producing countries with a share of 38 percent in total world’s mango production (faostat, 2019). in india, most of the commercial cultivars behave as irregular bearers in north indian conditions whereas produce regular crops under south indian conditions (tropical climate). the irregular bearing behaviour of mango is the major obstacle in getting good yields during “off-year” cropping. irregularity in mango crop bearing is may be due to different factors like c:n ratio, hormonal imbalance, etc. carbohydrate metabolism plays a very important role in bearing beha viour of fruit crops (fischer et al. 2012). carbohydrates reserves depicted as the key energy producing chemicals which play important role in floral induction process in many crop species (wahl et al., 2013). draining out of carbohydrate and nitrogen reserves during “on” year is known to lead to a lean crop in the “off” year as they are important for fruit bud initiation i.e., high c/n ratio helps for fruit bud initiation (sharma et al., 2019, 2020). it is well studied about the catalytic activity of the enzymes sucrose phosphate synthase, trehalose phosphate synthase, citrate synthase, alcohol dehydrogenase in carbohydrate metabolism of plants (brownleader, 1997). t he genes r ela ted to the enzymes of car bohydrate metabolism (trehalose phosphate synthase, sucrose phosphate syntha se, citr ate synthase, alcohol dehydrogenase) have been studied original research paper j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 122-127, 2023 https://doi.org/10.24154/jhs.v18i1.2135 impact of carbohydrate metabolism pathways on bearing habit of mango (mangifera indica l.) genotypes vittal h.1, sharma n.1*, shivran m.1, sharma n.2, dubey a.k.1, singh s.k.3, sharma r.m.1, singh b.p.4, bollinedi h.1, meena m.c.1, pandey r.1 and gutam s.3 1division of fruits and horticultural technology, icar-indian agricultural research institute, new delhi 110012, india 2department of biotechnology, iilm university greater noida 201310, uttar pradesh, india 3icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru 560089, india 4icar-national institute for plant biotechnology, new delhi 110012, india *corresponding author email : nimishasharma@iari.res.in abstract heterozygosity is the major constraint in perennial fruit crop like mango for regular bearing breeding. majority of the popular mango varieties have irregular bearing habit. many external and internal factors affect the bearing habit of perennial fruit crops. among internal factors, the level of carbohydrate reserves and phytohormones plays a major role on bearing habit of fruit crops like apple, citrus, mango, litchi etc., therefore, present research work aimed to study the carbohydrate metabolism pathways in regular and irregular mango genotypes of varying origin. a total of 30 primers were designed using in silico mining of four key genes coding for citrate synthase, alcohol dehydrogenase, sucrose phosphate synthase and trehalose phosphate synthase. these genes play important role in sugar and starch metabolism in mango. of these specific primers, 14 showed polymorphism among the genotypes studied. gene diversity (gd), average number of alleles per locus (an), polymorphism information content (pic) and major allele frequency (maf) observed were 0.45, 2.14, 0.35, 0.59, respectively. simple sequence repeats markers grouped 63.15% studied mango genotypes of regular bearers together. further, these markers could be utilized in a greater number of genotypes for regularity. keywords : carbohydrate metabolism, irregular bearing, mango, molecular markers 123 impact of carbohydrate metabolism pathways in mango j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 122-127, 2023 by many researchers (eldik et al., 1998, coleman et al., 2010, wahl et al., 2013, han et al., 2017, benny et al., 2022) for their role in flowering related process of different plant species. differential expression of the genes coding for sucrose synthase, sucrose phosphate synthase1, atp synthase, polyphenol oxidase and auxin response factor are reported in the floral buds of mango cultivars dashehari, langra, cha usa a nd amr a pa li (ba jpa i et al. , 2021). carbohydrates levels in plants are generally analyzed by biochemical methods, recent advances in molecular biology and biotechnology fields helps us to find out the genes related to carbohydrate metabolism. in our present research we have designed carbohydrate metabolism specific primers for validation of regular and irregular bearing genotypes. materials and methods the pr esent exper iment was carr ied out on 19 genotypes of mango (mango field gene bank, iari) of varying origin and bearing habit viz., 9 hybrids (r egula r bea r er ) r elea sed fr om icar-india n agricultural research institute, new delhi (pusa arunima, pusa surya, pusa peetamber, pusa lalima, pusa shresth, pusa manohari, pusa deepshikha, amrapali and mallika), six irregular bearer genotypes namely dashehari, kesar, alphonso, bombay green, langra, chausa, two south indian genotypes of regular bearer namely totapuri and neelum and two exotic genotypes viz; tommy atkins and sensation. during the course of investigation, blocks were maintained as per the recommended cultural practices. new flushing and healthy leaves from single tree of each genotype were plucked, put into labelled polyethylene bags and placed in an icebox. samples were wr apped in aluminium foil, tagged properly, frozen in liquid nitrogen for a few seconds, and stored at –80°c until dna extraction. genomic dna was extracted by the cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (ctab) method with some modifications (doyle and doyle 1987).the genomic dna was further purified by successive rnase treatment followed by phenol: chloroform extraction. the pellet dissolved in te buffer and stored at -20 °c temperature. the quality of the extracted dna was assessed by agarose gel electrophoresis and quantified using nanodrop 8000 spectrophotometer (thermo scientific, usa). a total of 4 key gene sequences coding for trehalose phosphate synthase, sucrose phosphate synthase, citrate synthase and alcohol dehydrogenase of mangifera indica l. were retrieved from national center for biotechnology informa tion (ncbi, www.ncbi. nlm. nih. gov). these gene nucleotide sequences play impor tant role in ca rbohydra te metabolism. a total of 30 primers were synthesized for wet lab validation. carbohydrate metabolism genes coding for trehalose phosphate synthase, sucrose phospha te syntha se, citr a te syntha se, alcohol dehydrogenase generated 9, 10, 5 and 6 primers, respectively. nucleotide accession number gu233771, gu233770 and gu233769 of alcohol dehydrogenase gene of m. indica l. var. dashehari was used for simple sequence repeats (ssrs) mining. a total of 10 ssrs were identified and 6 primers were synthesized. for citrate synthase gene jn001196, xm_044609816, xm_044609329 nucleotide accession of mango varieties jinhuang and alphonso were used for ssrs mining. a total of 5 primers were generated from identified 5 ssrs sequences. trehalose phosphate synthase gene (nucleotide a ccession number mh759789) sequence of mango variety kensington pride resulted into 13 ssrs and a total of 9 primers were generated. sucrose phosphate synthase gene (nucleotide accession number ab724402, ab724401, ab724400 and ab724399) sequences of mango varieties namely n-13, cat trang, glenn, valencia pride resulted into 25 ssrs sequences and a total of 10 primer s wer e gener ated. primer 3 softwa re (www.frodo.wi/mit.edu/primer3) was used for primer designing. pcr was carried out in 10μl reaction mixture containing 0.5μl each primer (10 pico mole each of forward and reverse), 2 μl of 25ng/μl genomic dna as template and 5μl of taq polymerase buffer 2x master mix (g bioscience, usa). the volume was ma de up to 10μl with ster ile distilled wa ter. thermocycling was carried out in a pe-thermo cycler (c1000 touch thermal cycler, bio-rad, usa). initial denaturation carried out at 94 °c for 5 minutes followed by 35 cycles (denaturation at 94°c, annealing at 55 ° c and extension at 72°c for 1 minute). final extension was carried out at 72°c for 10 minutes. pcr amplified products were resolved in 3% high resolution agarose gels (sisco research laboratories pvt. ltd). electrophoresis was carried out at 120 v for 3 to 4 hours. dna profiles were visualized on uv tr a ns-illumina tor a nd photogr a phed on gel documentation system (alpha innotech, usa). power marker 3.5 was used to calculate gene diversity, heterozygosity and polymorphic information content of the markers (liu and spencer, 2005). 124 vittal et al. results and discussion a total of 30 carbohydrate metabolism specific ma r ker s wer e designed (online resour ce 1). carbohydrate metabolism genes coding for trehalose phosphate synthase, sucrose phosphate synthase, citrate synthase, alcohol dehydrogenase generated 9, 10, 5 and 6 primers, respectively (online resource 1). these ma r kers wer e validated in 19 ma ngo genotypes. genomic dna yield was found varied in all 19 studied mango genotypes and highest yield in totapuri (1360.30 ng/μl) and lowest in pusa surya (405.80 ng/μl) with 752.91 ng/μl average yield. the avera ge value of dna quality on the basis of nanodrop reading (a260/280) was 1.68 and maximum value was found in pusa surya (1.79) and minimum value was found in dashehari (1.65). however, a260/ 230 ratio was found maximum in pusa shresth (2.07) and minimum in neelum (1.83) with 1.90 average values. a total of 14 markers were found polymorphic (table 1). agarose gel profile of mango genotypes using alcohol dehydrogenase gene-based primer nmad1 shown in fig. 1. the major allelic frequency (maf) ranged from the 0.44 to 0.94 among the markers with a mean value of 0.59 per locus. the marker nmsps4 had the highest allelic frequency (0.94), while nmtps7 had the lowest value (0.44). further, among all primers, maximum and minimum pic value was found in nmtps7 primers (0.49) and nmsps4 (0.09), respectively. however, average pic value was 0.35 per locus. the gene diversity of the primers was calculated which ranged from 0.09 to 0.58 with an average of 0.45 per locus. the nmtps7 had the highest gene diversity (0.58), while the lowest value (0.09) was recorded in nmsps4. the observed heterozygosity among primers was also estimated, which varied from 0.10 to 1.00 with an average value of 0.67 per locus. table 1 : genetic variability indices of the 14 polymorphic carbohydrate metabolism specific primers among the set of 19 mango genotypes marker id maf an gd ho pic nmad1 0.7105 2.0000 0.4114 0.5789 0.3267 nmad2 0.5000 2.0000 0.5000 1.0000 0.3750 nmad3 0.6579 2.0000 0.4501 0.6842 0.3488 nmad4 0.5526 2.0000 0.4945 0.7895 0.3722 nmad5 0.5000 2.0000 0.5000 0.8947 0.3750 nmad6 0.6579 2.0000 0.4501 0.5789 0.3488 nmcs1 0.5526 2.0000 0.4945 0.5789 0.3722 nmcs2 0.4737 2.0000 0.5485 0.7368 0.4453 nmcs3 0.5000 3.0000 0.5000 0.5789 0.3750 nmsps4 0.9474 2.0000 0.0997 0.1053 0.0948 nmsps5 0.5526 2.0000 0.4945 0.8947 0.3722 nmsps7 0.5789 2.0000 0.4875 0.7368 0.3687 nmtps1 0.7105 2.0000 0.4114 0.5789 0.3267 nmtps7 0.4474 3.0000 0.5886 0.6842 0.4997 mean 0.5959 2.1429 0.4593 0.6729 0.3572 fig. 1 : agarose gel profile of mango genotypes using alcohol dehydrogenase gene-based primer nmad1 l100 bp ladder, 1. pusa arunima, 2. pusa surya, 3. mallika, 4. tommy atkins, 5. sensation, 6. neelum, 7. totapuri, 8. pusa shreshth, 9. pusa deepshikha, 10. amrapali, 11. pusa manohari, 12. pusa peetamber, 13. pusa lalima, 14. kesar, 15. dashehari, 16. bombay green, 17. langra, 18. chausa, 19. alphonso, l100 bp ladder j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 122-127, 2023 125 fig. 2 : genetic tree of 19 mango genotypes using carbohydrate metabolism specifc primers foot note required? maf, an, gd, ho, pic a dendrogram generated based on molecular data grouped all the 19 genotypes of mango into one major cluster b and one out group a. major cluster b, comprised most of the studied genotypes and further sub-divided into two clusters as b1 and b2. cluster b2 further sub-divided into cluster b2.1 and b2.2. only the amrapali and pusa arunima genotypes were found in sub-cluster b2.1. most of the mango genotypes (89.46%) come under subgroup b2.2 (table 2). genetic tree showed the relatedness among the studied mango genotypes (fig.2). operational taxonomic units (otu) for all combinations given in online resource 2. table 2 : distribution of mango genotypes into groups based on carbohydrate metabolism specific markers cluster alternate bearing regular bearing total genotypes genotypes(tommy (bombay green, atkins, pusa arunima, kesar, dashehari, amrapali, totapuri, alphonso, langra, pusa shreshth, chausa) pusa peetamber, pusa lalima, pusa deepshikha, pusa manohari, neelum, mallika, pusa surya, sensation) a 1(5.2%) 0 5.2% b.1 0 1 (5.2%) 5.2% b.2 5(26.31%) 12 (63.15%) 89.46% impact of carbohydrate metabolism pathways in mango j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 122-127, 2023 126 t he ssr ma r ker s wer e used with a view to characterize and analyze the 19 mango genotypes with respect to bearing habit (regular or alternate bearing) of mango tree. out of 30 ssr markers used, 14 were found polymorphic. pic values aid in forecasting the potentia l use of dna ma r ker s for genotypes assessment in molecular breeding. markers with high pic values (nmtps7) have greater potential in showing allelic variation according to spandana (2012) findings in sesamum crop. and our ssr markers exhibited lower level of gene diversity (0.45). low level of genetic diversity indicates the frequent use of only few parents in breeding among selected cultiva r s (kuma r et al. , 2013). t hough the dendrogram in the present study did not indicate very clear pattern of clustering according to the bearing habit. the cluster b2 consists of 63.15 % regular bearing genotypes as one group which may indicate that these markers have some potential to use and to improve in future studies for differentiating mango cultivars based on their bearing nature. conclusion for characterization and evolution of mango genotypes with respect to bearing habit, ssr markers can be used as they are globally accepted for their efficient and effective management and analysis of the genetic diversity of the germplasm. though clustering is not clear in dendrogram, our markers grouped more than 60 % regular bearing cultivars in one cluster which need further improvement in future studies. therefore, the research work further will be helpful in selection of suitable recombinants and hybrids having regular bearing habit in early nursery stage itself overcoming the problem of long gestation periods and other economic constraints. references bajpai, y., trivedi, m., muthukumar, m. and bajpai, a. 2021. novel insights into biochemical and hormonal factors regulating floral transition in mango (mangifera indica l.). ind. j. biotech., 20(1): 54-64. benny, j., giovino, a., marra, f.p., balan, b., martinelli, f., caruso, t. and marchese, a. 2022. transcriptomic analysis of the pistacia vera (l.) fruits enable the identification of genes and hormone-related gene linked to inf lor es c enc e b u d a b s c i s s ion. g e n e s . , 13(1): 60. brownleader, m.d., harborne, j.b.and dey, p.m. 1997. carbohydrate metabolism: primary meta bolism of monosa ccha r ides. plant biochem.,111. coleman, h.d., beamish, l., reid, a., park, j.y. and ma nsfield, s. d. 2010. alter ed sucr ose metabolism impacts plant biomass production and flower development. transgenic res., 19(2): 269-283. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11248-0099309-5 doyle, j.j., and doyle, j.l. 1987. a rapid total dna preparation procedure from fresh plant tissue. focus.,12:13-15. eldik, g.v., ruiter, r.k., herpen, m. van, schrauwen, j.a.m. and wullems, g.j. 1998. an alcohol dehydr ogena se-like gene is specifica lly expr essed in pota to pistils. j. expert. bot..,49(325): 1453–1454. faostat 2019. food and agriculture data. retrieved from food and agriculture organisation of the united nations. http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/ data. fischer, g., almanza-merchán, p.j. and ramírez, f. 2012. source-sink relationships in fruit species: a r eview. rev. colombiana de ciencias hortícolas., 6(2): 238-253. han, d., wang, y., zhang, z., pu, q., ding, h., han, j., fan, t., bai, x. and yang, g. 2017. isolation and functional analysis of mxcs3: a gene encoding a citr a te syntha se in ma lus xiaojinensis, with functions in tolerance to iron str ess and abnor mal flower in tra nsgenic arabidopsis thaliana. pl. growth reg., 82(3): 479-489. kumar, m., ponnuswami, v., nagarajan, p. and jeyakumar, p. 2013. molecular characterization of ten mango cultivars using simple sequences r epea t (ssr) ma r ker s. af. j. biotech. , 12: 6568-6573. liu, k. and spencer, v.m. 2005. power marker: a n integr a ted a na lysis envir onment for genetic marker analysis. bioinformatics., 21: 2128-2129. nhb 2020-21. india n hor ticultur e da ta ba se. gurugram, india. http://www.nhb.com vittal et al. j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 122-127, 2023 127 sharma, n., singh,s.k., mahato,a.k., ravishankar, h. , dubey, a. k. a nd singh, n. k. 2019. physiological and molecular basis of alternate bearing in perennial fruit crops. sci. horti., 243:214-225. sharma, n., singh, a.k., singh, s.k., mahato, a.k., sr iva sta v, m. a nd singh, n. k. 2020. compa r a tive rna sequencing-ba sed transcriptome profiling of regular bearing and alternate bearing mango (mangifera indica l.) va r ieties r evea ls novel insights into the (received : 27.10.2022; revised : 17.01.2023; accepted 27.01.2023) regulatory mechanisms underlying alternate bearing. biotech. lett., 42: 1035-1050. spandana, b., reddy, v. p., prasanna, g. j., anuradha, g. 2012. development and characterization of microsatellite markers (ssr) in sesamum. (sesamum indicum l.) species. appl. bioche. biotech., 168: 1594-1607. wahl, v., ponnu, j., schlereth, a., arrivault, s., langenecker, t., franke, a. and schmid, m. 2013. regulation of flowering by trehalose-6phosphate signaling in arabidopsis thaliana. science., 339(6120): 704-707. impact of carbohydrate metabolism pathways in mango j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 122-127, 2023 turmeric (curcuma longa l.) is one of the most important spice crops grown in andhra pradesh. it is a major cash crop cultivated in high-altitude and tribal areas of north coastal andhra pradesh, and is mainly grown on hill slopes under rainfed conditions. during harvest season, fresh as well as cured rhizomes are marketed on weekly shandy days. however, due to lack of knowledge, tribal farmers grow only the local variety and that too without proper fertilization, leading to poor harvest. hence, an investigation was launched to study performance of some improved cultivars for yield potential and yield attributing characters, to identify a better variety for commercial cultivation in this region. field experiments were conducted for two consecutive years during 1997 and 1998 at agricultural research station, seethampeta, srikakulam (dist.,) which falls under the high altitude and tribal zone (hat) of andhra pradesh. seethampeta is located at an elevation of 400m above msl, with average rainfall of 1280mm (contributed from the south west and north east monsoons). turmeric is generally planted during the second fortnight of may, or the first week of june, to coincide with onset of early monsoon showers. the experiment was conducted in randomized block j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):118-120, 2013 short communication evaluation of turmeric (curcuma longa l.) varieties for rainfed cultivation l. naram naidu and k. purushotham horticultural research station, lam, guntur 522 034, india e-mail: naramlnaidu@gmail.com abstract field experiments were carried out for two years at agricultural research station, seethampeta, srikakulam dist., andhra pradesh, to identify suitable turmeric cultivars for tribal areas of north coastal andhra pradesh for rainfed cultivation. ten cultivars were screened for their performance for comparison with the most popular local cultivar, ‘seethampeta local’. all the cultivars tested outperformed the local cultivar. cultivars pts-24 and cll-326 were better in terms of plant height (93.43cm and 92.70cm, respectively) and mean number of tillers / plant (2.16 and 2.21 respectively). per cent curing was highest in pts-38 (28.5), followed by pts-24 (25.7) and cll-326 (25.2). cultivars pts-24 and cll-326 recorded highest mean yield of both fresh and cured rhizomes. yield of fresh rhizomes was positively correlated to number of tillers and number of leaves, while, yield of cured rhizomes was significantly influenced by per cent curing and number of leaves. cultivars pts-24 and cll-326 recorded highest mean yield (23.08 t ha-1 and 22.93 t ha-1, respectively) and were identified as suitable varieties for rainfed cultivation in tribal areas of north coastal andhra pradesh. key words: turmeric, tillers, rhizome, curing, rainfed cultivation design with ten cultivars, viz., pts-9, pts-24, pts-38, co1, bsr-1, cli-317, cll-324, cll-325, cll-326 and local, and replicated thrice. selected primary-finger rhizomes were planted during the first fortnight of june in both the years of study. these were planted at 45cm x 15cm in a plot of 3m x 1.5m. n, p 2 o 5 and k 2 o were applied as per recommendations and normal cultural practices / plant protection measures were followed for raising a successful crop. observations on plant height, number of tillers and number of leaves per plant were recorded on ten randomly selected plants from each plot on the 180th day after planting. rhizome yield was estimated and expressed as tonnes ha-1. per cent curing was evaluated by boiling and drying a sample of 2kg of fresh rhizomes from each plot. yield of cured rhizomes was worked out based on curing percentage and was expressed as tonnes ha-1. data were statistically analyzed as per standard procedures (gomez and gomez, 1984). significant differences among cultivars were observed for all the characters studied during both the years of study (table 1). all the cultivars were found to be superior to the local variety. cultivars pts-24, cll-324 and cll-326 recorded 119 t ab le 1 . m ea n p er fo rm an ce o f tu rm er ic v ar ie ti es d u ri n g th e ye ar s 19 97 a n d 1 99 8 e st im at ed y ie ld (t h a1 ) v ar ie ty p la n t h ei g h t (c m ) n o . o f ti ll er s/ p la n t n o . o f le av es /p la n t y ie ld ( kg /p lo t) p er c en t c u ri n g f re sh r h iz o m es c u re d r h iz o m es 19 97 19 98 m ea n 19 97 19 98 m ea n 19 97 19 98 m ea n 19 97 19 98 m ea n 19 97 19 98 m ea n 19 97 19 98 m ea n 19 97 19 98 m ea n p t s -9 7 9 .5 7 84 .2 0 81 .8 8 1. 20 1. 50 1. 35 18 .1 6 18 .1 7 18 .1 6 6. 21 7. 21 6. 71 26 .5 24 .5 25 .5 13 .8 1 16 .0 1 14 .9 1 3. 56 3. 93 3. 74 p t s -2 4 91 .2 7 95 .6 0 93 .4 3 2. 13 2. 20 2. 16 24 .1 6 24 .0 7 24 .1 1 10 .8 7 9. 91 10 .3 9 27 .0 24 .5 25 .7 24 .1 5 22 .0 1 23 .0 8 6. 53 5. 38 5. 95 p t s -3 8 82 .8 3 85 .6 0 84 .2 1 1. 76 1. 80 1. 78 19 .0 3 18 .6 7 18 .8 5 7. 83 7. 11 7. 47 30 .0 27 .0 28 .5 17 .4 1 15 .7 9 16 .6 0 5. 23 4. 26 4. 74 c o -1 80 .2 7 84 .2 7 82 .2 7 1. 76 1. 77 1. 76 19 .9 3 18 .5 3 19 .2 3 10 .4 7 7. 27 8. 87 23 .5 21 .5 22 .5 23 .2 6 16 .1 7 19 .7 1 5. 46 3. 47 4. 46 b s r -1 78 .3 7 83 .1 3 80 .7 5 1. 63 1. 70 1. 66 21 .0 3 20 .5 7 20 .8 0 9. 80 7. 28 8. 54 26 .0 22 .0 24 .0 22 .8 9 16 .1 7 18 .9 7 5. 66 3. 55 4. 60 c l i31 7 91 .0 0 93 .4 0 92 .2 0 1. 97 1. 90 1. 93 21 .0 19 .8 3 20 .4 1 10 .0 6 7. 39 8. 72 25 .5 22 .0 23 .7 22 .3 7 16 .4 2 19 .3 9 5. 70 3. 61 4. 65 c l l -3 24 90 .2 7 95 .5 3 92 .9 0 2. 23 2. 30 2. 26 22 .8 6 21 .6 7 22 .2 6 10 .3 0 8. 22 9. 26 26 .0 22 .0 24 .0 22 .8 9 18 .2 7 20 .5 8 5. 95 4. 02 4. 98 c l l -3 25 82 .4 7 86 .0 3 84 .2 5 1. 70 1. 80 1. 75 20 .6 6 19 .8 0 20 .2 3 9. 30 6. 96 8. 13 24 .0 24 .0 24 .0 20 .6 7 15 .4 7 18 .0 7 4. 97 3. 71 4. 34 c l l -3 26 90 .5 0 94 .9 0 92 .7 0 2. 13 2. 30 2. 21 24 .6 3 22 .9 3 23 .7 8 10 .2 2 10 .4 3 10 .3 2 26 .5 24 .0 25 .2 22 .7 1 23 .1 6 22 .9 3 6. 01 5. 56 5. 78 l oc al 76 .4 3 83 .2 3 79 .8 3 1. 90 1. 90 1. 90 20 .0 6 21 .0 20 .5 3 7. 75 6. 11 6. 93 22 .5 21 .0 21 .7 17 .2 2 13 .5 8 15 .4 0 3. 88 2. 86 3. 37 s .e d. 2. 57 2. 33 1. 76 0. 21 0. 18 0. 14 1. 04 1. 18 0. 78 0. 41 0. 26 0. 24 1. 59 1. 21 0. 95 0. 92 0. 59 0. 53 0. 43 0. 28 0. 25 c .d ( p = 0 .0 5 ) 5. 41 4. 91 3. 57 0. 45 0. 38 0. 29 2. 20 2. 48 1. 59 0. 86 0. 55 0. 49 3. 35 2. 54 1. 93 1. 92 1. 24 1. 07 0. 91 0. 58 0. 52 j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):118-120, 2013 turmeric varieties for rainfed cultivation 120 naram naidu and purushotham table 2. correlation coefficient of yield and yield attributing characters in turmeric plant no. of no. of per cent yield of height tillers leaves curing freshrhizomes no. of tillers 0.450 no. of leaves 0.653** 0.776** per cent curing 0.380 0.029 0.501* yield of fresh 0.455 0.644** 0.735** 0.052 rhizomes yield of cured 0.386 0.592** 0.726** 0.542* 0.864** rhizomes **correlation significant at 0.01 level *correlation significant at 0.05 level the tallest plants, with highest number of tillers and leaves in these were found to be the most vigorous. cultivation pts-24 had the tallest plants (93.43cm) with highest number of leaves (24.11 per plant), closely followed by cll-324 (92.9cm plant height). cll-324 recorded maximum number of tillers per plant (2.26), followed by cll-326 (2.21) and pts-24 (2.16). the local cultivar recorded shortest (79.83cm) plants, with a mean of 1.9 tillers and 20.53 leaves per plant. similar results have been reported earlier by ramakrishna and reddy (1992). yield per plot ranged from 6.71kg (pts-9) to 10.39kg (pts-24), whereas, per cent curing ranged from 21.7 (local) to 28.5 (pts-38). though yield of fresh rhizomes in the local variety (15.40 t ha-1) was higher than in pts-9 (14.91t ha-1), yield of cured rhizomes was relatively low in this variety (3.37t ha-1) owing to low curing percentage. mean yield of fresh and cured rhizomes was highest in pts24 (23.08t ha-1 and 5.95t ha-1, respectively) closely followed by cll-326 (22.94 and 5.78t ha-1, respectively). these two cultivars were found to be consistent in their performance in both the years under study. suitability of these cultivars to different agro-climatic zones (pujari et al, 1987; ramakrishna and reddy 1992; pruthi, 1998) and yield potential of long-duration cultivars released by andhra pradesh (subbarayudu et al, 1976) have been earlier reported by many workers. these cultivars have been already recommended for commercial cultivation in andhra pradesh (chadha, 2001). results in the present investigation are in conformity with those reported earlier. correlation studies (table 2) revealed fresh yield to be positively correlated to number of tillers and number of leaves, while yield of cured rhizomes was significantly influenced by per cent curing, yield of fresh rhizomes and number of leaves. these findings are in accordance with those reported by indiresh et al (1996). thus, superiority of cvs. pts-24 and cll-326 can be attributed to vegetative vigour and high curing percentage. in view of yield potential and consistent performance of cv. pts-24 and cll-326, these two cultivars were concluded to be suitable for rainfed cultivation in the highaltitude tribal areas of north coastal andhra pradesh. references chadha, k.l. 2001. handbook of horticulture, icar, new delhi. pp: 726-728 gomez, k.a. and gomez, a.a. 1984. statistical procedures for agricultural workers. john wiley & sons, inc., new york ramakrishna, m. and reddy, p.s.n. 1992. performance of different varieties / cultivars of turmeric under northern telangana zone of andhra pradesh. geobios news rep., 12:85-86 indiresh, k.m., uthaiah, b.c., herle, p.s. and balakrishna rao, k. 1996 morphological, rhizome and yield characters of different turmeric varieties in coastal karnataka. mysore j. agril. sci., 24:484-490 pujari, p.d., patil, r.b. and satpal, r.t. 1987. studies on growth, yield and quality components in different turmeric varieties. indian cocoa, arecanut and spices, 11:15-17 subbarayudu, m.r., reddy, r.k. and rao, m.r. 1976. studies on performance of different turmeric varieties. the andhra agril. j., 23:195-198 pruthi, j.s. 1998. major spices of india – crop management, post-harvest technology, icar, new delhi, pp. 289-314 (ms received 08 february 2011, accepted 14 june 2012, revised 11 december 2012) j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):118-120, 2013 1 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 00-00, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction ya r d long bea n (vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis (l.) verdcourt), a trailing type of vegetable cowpea (2n= 24) is one of the most popular and remunerative vegetable crops traditionally grown in kerala. due to the favourable a gro climatic conditions, the crop has gained much importance and has come to occupy a prime position among the vegetable crops raised in the state. but the production of vegetable cowpea is hindered by an array of diseases that cause growth suppression or death of plants, leading to reduction in yield and productivity. sreeja (2014) conducted periodical survey in the potentia l cowpea gr owing a r ea s of thiruvananthapuram district and reported that among the six major fungal diseases, anthracnose was found to be the most predominant one (0-55%). disease index ranged between 0 33.30 and considerable yield losses were attributable to the disease. anthracnose is a destructive fungal disease caused by colletotrichum spp. in india, the incidence of a nthr a cnose disea se wa s fir st r epor ted fr om maharashtra (rao, 1966). according to emechebe and lagoke (2002), all stages of the crop and its parts like hypocotyls, stem, peduncle, flowers, leaves and pods were seriously affected. previous attempts to identify r elia ble sour ces of r esista nce ha ve led to the identification of few bush type resistant cowpea (kumar, 1999), as most of the trailing cultivars are susceptible to anthracnose, but high yielding compared to the bushy or semi-trailing types. the disease is pan-tropical in distribution and is being widely recorded in regions where conditions are wet and humid. once the infection is incited under favourable condition, its management using fungicides is difficult. breeding resistant varieties is suggested as the only practical strategy, especially under hot and humid condition. the present study identified the resistant varieties of vegetable cowpea through artificial inoculation followed by detached leaf assay. materials and methods fifty yard-long bean genotypes belonging to bush, semi erect and pole types were screened against anthracnose disease through artificial inoculation under pot cultur e. seeds of vegeta ble cowpea genotypes were collected from different parts of india, including the released varieties of saus and icar institutes and stored at refrigerated conditions for the screening of yard long bean (vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis (l.) verdcourt) genotypes for resistance to colletotrichum gloeosporoides merin e.g.*, sarada s. and joy m. college of agriculture, kerala agricultural university, trivandrum, kerala, india *corresponding author email : merinelzageorge5010@gmail.com abstract anthracnose is one of the most destructive fungal diseases caused by colletotrichum gloeosporoides in yard long bean, leading to complete crop loss at all stages and its parts like hypocotyls, stem, peduncle, flowers, leaves and pods were seriously affected. few bush type cowpea cultivars have been earlier identified as reliable sources of resistance while trailing types are susceptible, but high yielding. breeding resistant varieties is suggested as the only practical strategy, especially under hot and humid condition. fifty-yard-long bean genotypes belonging to bush, semi erect and pole types were screened against anthracnose disease through artificial inoculation under pot culture. the present study identified the resistant varieties of vegetable cowpea through artificial inoculation followed by detached leaf assay. among the 50 varieties of yard long bean observed, kanakamony, dual purpose yard long bean was found highly resistant with disease severity of 3.67% followed by arimbra local. keywords: anthracnose, colletotrichum gloeosporoides and yard long bean 2 merin e.g., et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 00-00, 2022 study. the most virulent isolate of c. gloeosporoides was used for artificial inoculation (fig. 1 1). to isolate the fungal spores for artificial inoculation, infected plant parts were collected from field, washed in tap water, and surface sterilised using 0.1% mercuric chloride followed by washing thrice with autoclaved distilled water. the fungus was cultured in potato dextrose agar medium and mycelial growth was observed through microscope. all petri dishes were incubated at room temperature (25±20c). petri dishes were examined for the growth of the pathogen and the morphological characteristics were observed. inoculum was prepared from secondary culture of 7 dayold culture, by scrapping off the mycelium and spores and suspended in 100 ml sterile distilled water. seven seeds each of fifty genotypes were sown in two pots. after the germination, five healthy seedlings were retained and excess thinned out. artificial inoculation was done on 20 days old seedlings kept in pots inside the greenhouse. each plant was sprayed with 20 ml of spor e suspension of vir ulent str a in of c. gloeosporoides having a concentration of 106 spores ml-1 by following serial dilution method. the plants were covered with moistened polythene covers to maintain high humidity (fig. 2). inoculated plants were observed daily for disease incidence. observations on disease incidence were taken on three, five, seven, nine, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five and thirty days. final observation was taken when the disease was well expressed. disease severity was assessed using the scale 0-5 reported by latunde and dada (1990). 0. no infection 0.5. hypersensitive spots on main stem only 1: trace of infection – small anthracnose lesions on main stem, petioles of lower leaf only 2. slight infection – lesions on stem, petioles and branches 3. moderate infection – advanced anthracnose lesions on stem, petioles, branches, veins on the abaxial surface of leaves 4. severe – advanced anthracnose lesions on stem, petioles, branches, leaves, veins and peduncles 5. very severe – advanced anthracnose lesions on stem, petioles, branches, leaf veins, spreading lesions on peduncle and pods based on the percentage of plant area infected, disease severity/ intensity was calculated using the following formula (wheeler, 1969). per cent disease severity = sum of all numerical ratings x 100 total no. of plants taken for maximum observation disease category per cent disease incidence was calculated by using the following formula. per cent disease incidence = no. of plants infected x 100 total no. of plants observed based on the per cent disease severity, the genotypes wer e gr ouped into 5 categories a s a dopted by rajkumar et al. (1995). disease severity category 0 immune 1 10 highly resistant 10.1 25 moderately resistant 25.1 50 moderately susceptible above 50 highly susceptible five plants of the resistant genotype identified through artificial inoculation were grown in the field and detached leaf assay was done just before flowering to confirm resistance. results observations on disease incidence were recorded at 10 days after infection. the infection was first observed in leaves, reddish brown streaks were very prominent on veins and veinlets. prominent mildew symptoms were also observed on the leaf lamina (fig. 3). finally, leaves became chlorotic and detached from the infected plant. reddish brown lesions were also developed on the stem. these individual lesions coalesced to form large sunken lesions and covered the whole stem causing drying up of the veins which is known as vine blackening. the pods were rottened, grey in colour, cover ed with bla ck fr uiting bodies of fungus. according to the visible symptoms, the plants were awarded disease scores. among the 50 genotypes tested, kanakamony, a dual purpose yard long bean variety was found to be highly resistant with disease severity of 3.67%, followed by arimbra local with 3 screening of yard long bean sl.no. treatments source percent disease severity disease reaction 1 anaswara kau 22.15 moderately resistant 2 bagyalakshmi kau 13.90 moderately resistant 3 kanakamony kau 3.67 highly resistant 4 arimbra local kau 9.58 highly resistant 5 vyjyanthi kau 56.84 highly susceptible 6 mithra kau 46.90 moderately susceptible 7 githika kau 56.70 highly susceptible 8 lola kau 54.90 highly susceptible 9 manjari kau 38.80 moderately susceptible 10 sharika kau 63.80 highly susceptible 11 vellayani jyothika kau 55.90 highly susceptible 12 kau deepika kau 50.90 highly susceptible 13 co6 tnau 24.70 moderately resistant 14 pusa beej iari 66.45 highly susceptible 15 kashi kanchan iivr 47.64 moderately resistant 16 arka garima iihr 23.90 moderately resistant 17 arka mangala iihr 24.30 moderately resistant 18 arka samradhi iihr 21.60 moderately resistant 19 fh 31 farm house, trivandrum 56.50 highly susceptible 20 fh 55 farm house, trivandrum 53.50 highly susceptible 21 fh 7 farm house, trivandrum 70.78 highly susceptible 22 vs 38 kau 64.99 highly susceptible 23 vs 53 kau 50.12 highly susceptible 24 vs 58 kau 44.64 moderately susceptible 25 vs 16 kau 70.00 highly susceptible 26 tcr 17 nbpgr 69.80 highly susceptible 27 tcr 18 nbpgr 41.50 moderately susceptible 28 tcr 19 nbpgr 56.00 highly susceptible 29 tcr 50 nbpgr 47.25 moderately susceptible 30 tcr 53 nbpgr 26.80 moderately susceptible 31 tcr 54 nbpgr 36.00 moderately susceptible 32 tcr 55 nbpgr 78.91 highly susceptible 33 tcr 56 nbpgr 36.00 moderately susceptible 34 tcr 60 nbpgr 59.49 highly susceptible 35 tcr 61 nbpgr 54.00 highly susceptible 36 tcr 63 nbpgr 59.45 highly susceptible table 1 : percent disease severity and disease reaction of yard long bean genotypes for anthracnose incidence 4 37 tcr 68 nbpgr 31.70 moderately susceptible 38 tcr 69 nbpgr 69.22 highly susceptible 39 tcr 70 nbpgr 36.23 moderately susceptible 40 tcr 74 nbpgr 26.89 moderately susceptible 41 tcr 75 nbpgr 44.47 moderately susceptible 42 tcr 77 nbpgr 35.50 moderately susceptible 43 tcr 80 nbpgr 37.95 moderately susceptible 44 tcr 84 nbpgr 54.25 highly susceptible 45 tcr 86 nbpgr 33.63 moderately susceptible 46 tcr 91 nbpgr 55.20 highly susceptible 47 tcr 92 nbpgr 33.30 moderately susceptible 48 tcr 93 nbpgr 65.33 highly susceptible 49 tcr 96 nbpgr 39.82 moderately susceptible 50 tcr 125 nbpgr 37.49 moderately susceptible se (m)± 1.13 c.d. (0.05) 3.22 9.58% disease severity. tcr 55(78.91 %) was found to be highly susceptible followed by fh-7 (70.78 %) (table 1). among the genotypes evaluated, eight showed moderately resistant reaction from 13.90 to 23.40%. in the eighteen moderately susceptible genotypes, much difference could not be noticed in disease severity values and most of them were pole types. in deta ched lea f a ssa y, the lea ves of kanakamony was symptomless, and the resistance was confirmed in vitro (fig. 4). discussion anthracnose is one of the most destructive fungal diseases caused by colletotrichum gloeosporoides in yard long bean, leading to complete crop loss in all stages and its parts like hypocotyls, stem, peduncle, flowers, leaves and pods were seriously affected. c. gloeosporioides has a wide host range including brassica campestris, legumes, pigeon pea, soybean, brinjal, pumpkin, cucumber, tomato, spinach, mung bea n, br oa d bea n, cowpea , etc. (sha r ma a nd kulshrestha, 2015). symptomatology studies on anthracnose of cowpea was conducted by sreeja (2014). the initial symptoms appeared as minute, circular to irregular spots on the leaves which later increased in size and turned light to dark brown in colour and coalesced together to form large, necrotic spots on the leaves with shot holes. on the stem and vines, symptoms appeared as spindle shaped lesions with light grey centre and reddish-brown margin which merin e.g., et al fig. 1 fig. 2 fig. 3 fig. 4 5 enlarge upto 10-12 mm in length. in the later stages, small, irregular deep-seated reddish-brown spots appear on the pods also. isolation, characterization and identifica tion of the pa thogen r evea led tha t colletotrichum gloeosporioides was associated with anthracnose. adebitan and olufajo (1998) reported that grain types exhibited better resistance to anthracnose. artificial inoculation of fifty genotypes confirmed the resistance in kanakamony, followed by arimbra local, hence these varieties are valuable sources for anthracnose resistance breeding programme. kanakamony is a dual-purpose cowpea (grain cum vegetable) belonging to the sub-species cylindrica. shiny et al. (2015) reported that susceptible bush-type cultivar pusa komal and pole type cultivar lola showed 100 and 68.80 % disease severity while the immune bush type cultivar kanakamony was free from the symptoms and pole type arimbra local showed 8.80 % disease severity using sds-page. these results further support that kanakamony is highly resistant to c. gloeosporoides causing anthracnose. since fungicides and chemicals are not fully effective, the transfer of resistance from the cultivars to trailing types can only be a durable solution. hence the results revealed that the highly resistant genotypes kanakamony and ar imbr a local could be recommended for cr op improvement programmes in trailing type vegetable cowpea for enhancing the resistance to anthracnose. acknowledgments merin elza george expresses her sincere gratitude to kerala agricultural university, india for the complete funding of this research work, which forms part of her ph.d program in vegetable science. reference adebitan s.a. and olufajo o. 1998. field evaluation of cowpea (vigna unguiculata) varieties for grain and fodder production and for multiple disease resistance in nigeria. ind. j. agric. sci., 68:152–154. emechebe, a.m. and lagoke, s.t.o. 2002. recent advances in research on cowpea diseases. in: challenges and opportunities for enhancing sustainable cowpea production. iita, nigeria pp. 94-123. kumar, m. p. 1999. anthracnose disease of vegetable cowpea [vigna unguiculata ssp. sesquipedalis (l. ) ver dcour t]. m. sc. t hesis, ker a la agricultural university, thrissur. latunde dada, a.o. 1990. assessment of anthracnose disease in some cultivars of cowpea (vigna unguiculata) caused  by colletotrichum lindemuthianum. j. phythopathol., 130: 147156. rajkumar, g, kalloo, a nd pa ndey, p. k. 1995. resistance in cowpea to pseudocercospora. in: pa per, na tiona l symposium on r ecent developments in vegetable improvement; 2-5 february, 1995, raipur, p. 23. rao, v.g., 1966. an account of the market and storage diseases of fruits and vegetables in bombaymahar ashtr a (india). mycopathologia et mycologia applicata, 28(1-2):165-176. sharma m and kulshrestha s. 2015. colletotrichum gloeosporioides: an a nthr acnose causing pathogen of fruits and vegetables. biosci. biotechnol. res. asia, 12: 1233-1246. shiny, a., mathew, d., nazeem, p.a., abida, p.s., ma thew, s. k. a nd va lsa la , p. a. 2015. identification and confirmation of trailing-type vegetable cowpea resistance to anthracnose. tropical plant pathol., 40: 169-175. sreeja, s.j. 2014. integrated management of fusarium wilt and anthracnose (vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis (l.) verdcourt) using new generation fungicides. ph.d (ag) thesis, kerala agricultural university, thrissur. wheeler, h. and pirone, t.p. 1969. pathotoxin-induced disease resistance in plants. sci., 166: 14151417. screening of yard long bean introduction grape (vitis vinifera l.) is among the important fruit crops of our country, grown on an area of 1,11,000ha with annual production of 12,35,000t (anon., 2012). in india, 74.5% of the grapes produced are used for table purpose, nearly 22.5% are dried for raisin making, 1.5% for wine making and 0.5% are used for juice making. it is known that the best grapes come from vineyards where vegetative growth and crop yield are balanced (dry et al, 2004). vine balance was defined by gladstones (1992) stating, that “balance is achieved when vegetative vigour and fruit load are in equilibrium and consistent with high fruit quality.” in several studies on treatment-induced differences in grapevine productivity, yield components were analyzed to specify the developmental stages involved (may et al, 1976; tafazoh, 1977; cawthon and morris, 1977; scholefield et al, 1977a, 1977b; shaulis, 1980; pool, 1982). in these studies, effects of developmental stages on yield and its components were analyzed. some of the practices like retention of specific number of canes per vine, and removal of leaves and bunches to achieve production of quality grapes from a unit area, need to be accorded priority. information on source:sink alteration on berry development and quality, with respect to biochemical constituents in table grapes, is berry weight, quality and cane biochemistry changes in relation to cane thickness of own-rooted and grafted ‘tas-a-ganesh’ grape r.g. somkuwar, j. satisha and s.d. ramteke national research centre for grapes p.o. box 03, manjri farm post, pune 412 307, india e-mail : rgsgrapes@gmail.com abstract a field trial was conducted to determine the effect of cane thickness on berry quality and other biochemical parameters in ‘tas-a-ganesh’ grape at national research centre for grapes, pune, during the year 20082009. average bunch weight increased with increase in cane diameter. own-rooted vines of cane thickness <6mm sprouted earlier than thicker canes. tss of berries decreased with increase in berry size. berries on grafted vines recorded lower tss than on own-rooted vines. biochemical parameters such as content of reducing sugars, carbohydrat and phenols were higher in grafted vines of cane thickness >10mm. results indicate that thicker canes either on their own roots or on grafted vines are superior for yield and yield components, as also for physical properties of bunches and berries and total carbohydrate content of the canes. key words: tas-a-ganesh, sprouting, cane thickness, bunch weight, total soluble solids, reducing sugars, carbohydrates j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):30-34, 2013 lacking. therefore, the present study purports to focus on effects of cane thicknes of own-rooted and grafted vines in relation to yield and quality parameter in ‘tas-a-ganesh’ grape. material and methods the study was conducted at national research centre for grapes, pune, during the year 20082009. rootstock ‘dogridge’ was planted during march 2000 along with ownrooted vines, and grafting of ‘tas-a-ganesh’ grape was effected in october, 2000. the experimental site is situated in mid-west maharashtra at an altitude of 559m above msl at 18.32°n latitude and 73.51°e longitude. pune has tropical wet and dry climate, with average temperatures ranging from 20 to 28°c. the vines were trained on four cordons on a horizontally divided canopy trellis with vertical shoot positioning. height of the cordon from ground surface was 1.2m separated by 0.6m wide cross-arms. distance from the fruiting wire to top of the foliage support wire was 0.6m. the vines were planted at a spacing of 3.0m between rows and 1.83m between vines, providing a density of 1815 vines per hectare. since the region falls under a tropical belt, double pruning and single cropping is practiced. the vines were, therefore pruned twice a year (back-pruning and forward31 pruning). the experiment was laid out in randomized block design, with four treatments of shoot diameter replicated five times. after back-pruning, approximately 80-100 shoots emerge with varying thickness on the four cordons of the vine. shoot-thinning was performed at the 7-leaf stage. retention of proportionate shoots of <6mm, 6-8mm, 8-10mm and >10mm diameter at shoot-thinning was done on both grafted and own-rooted vines. each replication had five vines. three vines with uniform shoots on each cordon and with fruitful canes were tagged and labelled for recording data in each replication. standard recommended cultural practices were followed during the period of study. observations on yield per vine were recorded after harvest. total phenolic content was determined using folinciocalteu method, using 4-methylcatechol as the standard. concentration of phenolics was expressed as catechol equivalent (mg/g) of the lyophilized sample. reducing sugars were estimated by dinitrosalicylic acid (dnsa) method, while total carbohydrates were estimated by anthrone method, using d-glucose as the standard. protein was estimated using the method of lowry et al (1951). total protein content was expressed as bovine serum albumin fraction-v equivalent (mg/g). standard reference-chemicals like d-glucose, 4-methylcatechol, bovine serum albumin, etc. used in the study were obtained from sd fine chemicals, ltd., mumbai (india). all other buffers and chemicals used were of ar grade from merck pvt. ltd. data were analyzed using the sas model (version 9.3). results and discussion effect of cane thickness on vegetative growth and bunch weight observations recorded on vegetative traits are presented in table 1. significant differences were recorded for days to bud-sprout, bunch weight, berry weight, tss and acidity. own-rooted ‘tas-a-ganesh’ grapevines were earlier to sprout (9.33 days) than vines grafted on ‘dogridge’ rootstock (10.58 days). among own-rooted vines, thin canes (<6mm diameter) sprouted in 7.6 days, followed by 6-8mm (8.53), 8-10mm (10.13) and >10mm thick canes (11.06), respectively. the same trend was observed in grafted vines. these results are in conformity with those of satisha et al (2010) who also reported early sprouting of own-rooted ‘thompson seedless’ grape compared to grafted vines. interaction effect was also found to be significant. prakash and reddy (1990) compared the effect of different rootstocks for bud-sprout and reported that number of days required for bud-break was shorter when ‘gulabi’ (isabella) cane thickness in own-rooted and grafted tas-a-ganesh grape table 1. effect of cane thickness on berry and bunch characters in ‘tas-a-ganesh’ grape parameter days to av. bunch av. berry berry berry tss acidity bud sprout wt (g) wt (g) diameter (mm) length (mm) (0brix) (%) factor-a grafted 10.58 371.77 2.94 16.40 21.03 20.49 0.30 own root 9.33 275.02 2.56 16.53 21.00 21.14 0.32 sem± 0.0457 3.219 0.021 0.232 0.133 0.067 0.003 cd (p=0.05) 0.580 40.193 0.266 ns ns 0.851 0.038 factor-b <6 mm 8.66 258.05 2.43 14.89 19.68 21.62 0.32 6-8 mm 9.58 299.70 2.49 16.06 20.52 21.54 0.29 8-10mm 10.41 335.95 2.79 17.17 22.08 21.42 0.31 >10mm 11.16 399.88 3.28 17.76 21.78 18.70 0.30 sem± 0.0646 4.553 0.030 0.328 0.189 0.094 0.004 cd (p=0.05) 0.205 14.48 0.09 1.043 0.601 0.299 0.0127 interaction a x b grafted grafted <6mm 9.73 288.56 2.50 15.73 20.10 20.73 0.26 grafted 6-8mm 10.64 320.14 2.63 16.60 21.43 20.40 0.30 grafted 8-10mm 10.70 385.34 3.09 16.50 22.46 21.33 0.30 grafted >10mm 11.27 493.04 3.54 16.80 20.13 19.53 0.33 own root own root <6mm 7.60 227.55 2.37 14.06 19.26 22.52 0.38 own root 6-8mm 8.53 279.26 2.35 15.53 19.62 22.68 0.29 own root 8-10mm 10.13 286.56 2.50 17.84 21.70 21.51 0.31 own root >10mm 11.06 306.72 3.02 18.72 23.44 17.87 0.28 sem± 0.0914 6.439 0.043 0.464 0.267 0.134 0.006 cd (p=0.05) 0.290 20.48 0.136 1.476 0.849 0.426 0.019 j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):30-34, 2013 32 was used as the rootstock, and was longer in vines grafted on ‘dogridge’. in grafted vines, higher bunch weight (371.77g) and berry weight (2.94g) were recorded compared to own-rooted vines (275.02g and 2.65g, respectively). among grafted vines, higher cane thickness resulted in higher average bunch-weight and berry-weight compared to thinner canes. the same trend was observed in ownrooted vines, with varying cane thickness. this could be due to the influence of rootstock in increasing food reserves in the canes, thus increasing berryand bunch-weight. increase in bunch weight directly relates to total yield per vine. though yield per vine in this case is not reported, there appears to be a direct impact on total yield per vine. hedberg et al (1986) reported that ‘shiraz’ vines grafted on ‘ramsey’ and ‘dogridge’ rootstocks outyielded ungrafted vines by 46 and 48%, respectively. they reported ability of ‘dogridge’ rootstock to produce yields as high as those with ‘ramsey’ highlighting the importance of adequate pruning level to enable full potential of the rootstocks to be realized. ferree et al (1996) reported increased yield in grafted ‘cabernet franc’ and ‘white riesling’ over own-rooted vines. differences for berry-diameter and berry-length among grafted and own-rooted vines were found to be nonsignificant. however, interaction effect among cane thickness, and grafted versus own-rooted vines, varied significantly. among canes of varying thickness in grafted vines, higher berry diameter (16.80mm) was recorded in canes with thickness of >10mm diameter, whereas, minimum berry-diameter (15.73mm) was recorded in thin canes (<6mm). among own-rooted vines, berry diameter increased significantly with increase in cane thickness. differences in berry diameter with varying cane thickness may be due to higher amount of reserve food material in thicker canes. these findings are supported by rizk-all et al (2011) who reported that grafting ensured best vegetative growth, improved efficiency of nutrient uptake and increased total chlorophyll content of leaves and total carbohydrates of canes, in comparison with ungrafted vines. significant differences were recorded for total soluble solids in grape berries on own-rooted and grafted vines. higher amount of total soluble solids was recorded in own-rooted vines (21.140brix) over grafted vines (20.490brix). among variable cane thickness in own-rooted vines, tss ranged from 17.870brix in >10mm thick cane, to 22.680brix in 68mm thick canes. however, in grafted vines, tss ranged from 19.530brix (>10mm thick canes) to 21.330brix (810mm thick canes). in the present study, it was observed that tss was lower in grafted vines than in own-rooted vines. tss was also found to decrease with increase in cane thickness. acidity varied significantly among different treatments and their interactions. this is perhaps be due to the fact that grafted vines impart more vigour to a crop than own-rooted vines. increased vigour helps the vine protect its bunches from direct sunlight. protected bunches under the canopy show lower tss. influence of rootstock on fruit composition has been reported by several workers, especially in relation to wine grapes, with a close link between fruit quality and wine made from those fruits. fruit composition parameters that eventually affect wine quality include soluble solids, organic acids, ph, phenolics, anthocyanins, monoterpenes and other components (jackson and lombard, 1993). however, reynolds and wardle (2001) reported grafting to have no effect on vine size, or any of the yield components (yield/vine, clusters/vine, cluster weight, number of berries/cluster, berry weight and crop load). berry size in relation to cane thickness in this experiment indicates that source:sink strength is greater when the canes are thick, either on own-rooted vines or on grafted vines. effect of cane thickness on biochemical parameters data on biochemical changes in relation to cane thickness in own-rooted or grafted grapevines is presented in table 2. among own-rooted and grafted grapevines, significant differences were recorded for amount of reducing sugars in canes of ‘tas-a-ganesh’ grape. higher amount of reducing sugars was recorded in canes of grafted vines (7.26mg/g) compared to own-rooted vines (6.40mg/g). among cane thickness treatments, higher content of reducing sugars (8.51mg/g) was recorded in thicker canes (>10mm) than in thin canes of <6mm diameter (5.56mg/g). with increase in cane diameter, content of reducing sugars also increased. however, interaction effect here was found to be non-significant. increase observed in bunch-weight in thicker canes may be due to higher availability of reducing sugars. higher sugar content in thick canes of grafted as well as own-rooted vines may have helped vines produce larger berries and bunches. significant differences were recorded for carbohydrate content in the canes of own-rooted vs. grafted vines. higher concentration of carbohydrate was recorded in canes of grafted vines (9.36mg/g) compared to own-rooted vines (6.49mg/g). among types of cane, higher amount of carbohydrates was noticed in thicker canes than in thinner ones. canes of >10mm diameter recorded higher concentration 8.69mg/g than thinner canes (<6mm, 6.33mg/ g). however, interaction effect here was found to be nonsomkuwar et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):30-34, 2013 33 significant. increase in carbohydrate content in grafted vines might be due to the fact that grafted vines are more efficient in nutrient uptake and storage of carbohydrates. this may have helped increase bunch-size. the above results are in conformity with those of richards (1983) who observed that major functions of the grapevine root system are vine water-relations, uptake and translocation of nutrients, synthesis and metabolism of plant growth substances and storage of carbohydrates. efficient assimilation and use of nutrients by plants is of prime importance for optimizing crop productivity. grape berries, as typical “sink organs”, rely on use of the available carbohydrate resources produced through the process of photosynthesis to support growth and development. transport and allocation of sugars between photosynthetic “source tissues” and the heterotrophic “sink tissues” is known as ‘assimilate partitioning’ and is a major determinant of plant growth and productivity (kingstonsmith, 2001). rizk et al (2011), in their three-season study on red globe grafted on three different rootstocks, observed that percentage of total carbohydrates of the cane was much higher in vines grafted on ‘dogridge’ rootstock than in ownrooted vines. they concluded that rootstocks were more efficient than own-rooted vines in respect of improving physical and chemical characteristics of the berries, vegetative growth parameters, increasing the content of total leaf chlorophylls and percentages of total nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and content of total carbohydrates in the cane compared to non-grafted vines. accumulation of starch in the canes of grafted vines was greater (6.35mg/ g) than in own-rooted vines (5.06mg/g). however, differences among cane thickness and interaction were nonsignificant for most of the biochemical parameters, except proteins and phenols. accumulation of starch in the permanent wood may be the most important carbohydrate reserve in a grapevine. verma et al (2010), in their studies on ‘pusa urvashi’ grape variety grafted on different rootstocks, reported that the rootstocks induced a change in various biochemical parameters of grafted vines. compared to ‘pusa urvashi’ grafted on itself (auto grafted), grafted rootstock-based plants exhibited improved physiological and nutrient status. variation in protein content of canes was observed in both grafted and own-rooted vines. higher protein content was recorded in grafted vines (100.47mg/g) than in ownrooted vines (87.98mg/g). among different cane thickness treatments, higher protein content was recorded in canes of higher thickness than in thinner canes. the same trend was observed in own-rooted vines. interaction effect here table 2. effect of cane thickness on cane biochemical status in ‘tas-a-ganesh’ grape parameter reducing sugars carbohydrates starch proteins phenols (mg/g) (mg/g) (mg/g) (mg/g) (mg/g) factor-a grafted 7.26 9.36 6.35 100.47 7.94 own root 6.40 6.49 5.06 87.98 7.79 sem ± 0.207 0.176 0.161 0.523 0.167 cd (p=0.05) 2.630 2.236 2.046 6.647 ns factor-b <6 mm 5.56 6.33 5.22 78.14 6.01 6-8 mm 6.15 8.20 5.56 84.23 7.63 8-10mm 7.10 8.48 5.71 100.70 8.13 >10mm 8.51 8.69 6.33 113.84 9.69 sem ± 0.293 0.250 0.228 0.740 0.236 cd (p=0.05) 0.932 0.890 ns 2.354 0.750 interaction a x b grafted grafted <6mm 6.09 7.49 5.96 81.23 6.44 grafted 6-8mm 6.43 9.93 6.08 86.22 8.10 grafted 8-10mm 7.56 9.97 6.21 110.92 8.40 grafted >10mm 8.96 10.06 7.16 123.52 8.83 own root own root <6mm 5.04 5.17 4.47 75.05 5.59 own root 6-8mm 5.87 6.47 5.05 82.24 7.17 own root 8-10mm 6.65 7.06 5.21 90.49 7.86 own root >10mm 8.06 7.33 5.51 104.16 10.56 sem ± 0.415 0.353 0.322 1.047 0.334 cd (p=0.05) ns ns ns 3.314 1.062 j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):30-34, 2013 cane thickness in own-rooted and grafted tas-a-ganesh grape 34 was found to be highly significant. with increased cane thickness, protein content also increased. a positive correlation of berry and bunch weight was also established with higher content of proteins, carbohydrates and reducing sugars in the canes. change in total phenols was observed for cane thickness alone. total phenols were found to increase with increase in cane thickness. however, phenol content found in grafted vines was higher than in own-rooted vines. phenolic compounds occur naturally in plant systems and are known for their anti-microbial properties. these inhibit fungal-spore germination, mycelial-fungal enzymes and toxin production by pathogens (vidhyasekran, 1973). higher levels of phenolic compounds in a plant system imply greater tolerance to biotic stresses (gotez et al, 1999). references anonymous. 2012. grapes. in: indian horticulture database 2011. kumar, b., mistry, n.c., singh, b. and gandhi, c.p. (eds), national horticulture board, gurgaon, india, pp. 68-75 cawthon, d.l. and morris, j.r. 1977. yield and quality of ‘concord’ grapes as affected by pruning severity, nodes per bearing unit, training system, shoot positioning and sampling date in arkansas. j. amer. soc. hortl. sci., 102:760-767 dry, p.r., iland, p.g. and ristic, r. 2004. what is vine balance? proceedings of 12th australian wine industry technical conference, melbourne, victoria, australia, pp. 68-74 ferree, d.c., cahoon, g.a., ellis, m.a., scurlock, d.m. and johns, g.r. 1996. influence of eight rootstocks on the performance of ‘white riesling’ and ‘cabernet franc’ over five years. fruit varieties j., 50:124130 gladstones, j. 1992. viticulture and environment. winetitles. adelaide, south australia gotez, g., fkyerat, a., metais, n., kunz, m., tabacchi, r., pezet, r. and pont, v. 1999. resistance factors to grey mould in grape berries: identification of some phenolics inhibitors of botrytis cinerea stilbene oxidase. phytochem., 52:759–767 hedberg, p.r., mcleod, r., cullis, b. and freeman, b.m. 1986. effect of rootstock on the production, grape and wine quality of shiraz vines in the murrumbidgee irrigation area. australian j. exptl. agri., 26:511-516 jackson, d.i. and lombard, p.b. 1993. environmental and management practices affecting grape composition and wine quality – a review. amer. j. enol. viticult., 44:409-430 kingston-smith, a.h. 2001. resource allocation. trends in plant sci., 6:48-49 may, p., clingeleffer, p.r. and brien, c.j. 1976. sultana (vitis vinifera l.) canes and their exposure to light. vitis, 14:278-288 pool, r.m. 1982. effect of mepiquat chloride on the growth and yield of concord grapevines. j. amer. soc. hortl. sci., 107:376-380 prakash, g.s. and reddy, n.n. 1990. effect of different rootstocks on bud-break in grape cv. anab-e-shahi. crop res., 3:51-55 reynolds, a.g. and wardle, d.a. 2001. rootstocks impact vine performance and fruit composition of grapes in british columbia. hort. technol., 11:419-427 richards, d. 1983. the grape root system. hort. rev., 5:127168 rizk-alla, m.s., sabry, g.h. and abd el-wahab, m.a. 2011. influence of some rootstocks on the performance of red globe grape cultivar. j. amer. sci., 7:71-81 satisha, j., somkuwar, r.g, sharma, j., upadhyay, a.k. and adsule, p.g. 2010. influence of rootstocks on growth yield and fruit composition of thompson seedless grapes grown in the pune region of india. south african j. enol. viticult., 31:1-8 scholefield, n., may, p. and neales t.f. 1977. harvestpruning and trellising of ‘sultana’ vines: i. effects on yield and vegetative growth. scientia hort., 115-122 shaulis, n. 1980. responses of grapevines and grapes to spacing of and within canopies. proc. ucd grape and wine symp., pp. 353-361 tafazoh, e. 1977. cane and bud number effect on yield components of non-irrigated grape cv. ‘yaghooti’. scientia hort., 7:133-136 verma, s.k., singh, s.k. and hare krishna. 2010. the effect of certain rootstocks on the grape cultivar ‘pusa urvashi’ (vitis vinifera l.) int’l. j. fr. sci., 10:16–28 vidhyasekaran, p. 1973. possible role of ortho-dihyroxy phenolics in grapevine anthracnose disease resistance. indian j. exptl. biol., 11:473–475 (ms received 04 june 2012, accepted 01 august 2012, revised 10 october 2012) j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):30-34, 2013 somkuwar et al 193 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 193-197, 2017 inheritance of parthenocarpy in gynoecious cucumber (cucumis sativus l.) cultivar ppc-2 g.s. jat1, a.d. munshi1, t.k. behera1, *and c. bhardwaj2 1division of vegetable science, icar-indian agricultural research institute, new delhi-12, india; 2division of genetics, icar-indian agricultural research institute, new delhi-12, india *e-mail: tusar@rediffmail.com abstract the gynoecious and parthenocarpic inbred line, pant parthenocarpic cucumber-2 (ppc2) was crossed with indian monoecious and non-parthenocarpic cultivar pusa uday to develop f1, f2, b1 and b2 to determine the inheritance of parthenocarpy.the crop was grown under insect proof net house of 40 mesh. the pistillate buds were covered using butter paper bags before anthesis to prevent out-crossing.the observations were recorded separately for the development of early parthenocarpic fruits (i.e.1-7th nodes), late parthenocarpy (8th and above nodes) and non-parthenocarpic fruits. in f1 generation, out of 40 plants screened, 2 plants produced parthenocarpic fruits at lower nodes (1-7th nodes), 37 plants produced parthenocarpic fruits at upper nodes (8th and above), whereas,only 1 plant that did not produced any fruit was considered as non-parthenocarpic. the segregation of f2 population and test crosses for parthenocarpic fruit development suggested that parthenocarpy in gynoecious and parthenocarpic cucumber line ppc-2 is under the control of incomplete dominant gene. keywords: inheritance, parthenocarpy, gynoecious, cucumber introduction cucumber (cucumis sativus l., 2n = 2x = 14) is an important valuable vegetable of cucurbitaceae family. it is originated in india (sebastian et al, 2010) fr om its wild progenitor cucumis sativus var. hardwickii r., which is still found in southern foothills of himalayas. it is primarily cultivated for tender fruits, which a r e used a s sa la d, pickles a nd rayata preparation. in india, cucumber is cultivated from higher altitude to plains under open field as well as under protected conditions. the cultivated cucumber has narrow genetic base with 3-8% polymorphism within the cultivated genotypes, and 10-25% between botanical varieties (behera et al, 2011). india being considered the home of cucumber possesses a vast range of genetic diversity and variability for both growth and fruit characters, but this diversity has not been fully utilised for its genetic improvement. t he development of gynoecious va r ieties with parthenocarpic traits has become major challenge to the cucumber breeders for use as a parent in f1 hybrid development for achieving higher yield, earliness, uniformity and suitability for protected cultivation (jat et al, 2015, 2016, 2017). therefore, there is an important need to develop gynoecious hybrids with parthenocarpic traits, which may be utilized on commercial scale, especially in the north indian plains because most of indian cucumber cultivars are monoecious with non-parthenocarpic trait. therefore, these varieties are not suitable for growing under protected conditions as these require pollination for fruit set. gynoecy coupled with parthenocarpic cucumber is a yield and quality-related parameter and a high value vegetable crop immensely suited for off season cultiva tion under pr otected condition beca use parthenocarpic varieties do not require pollination for fruit setting. moreover, the fruits are mild in flavour, seedless and have thin skin that does not require peeling. plant growth regulators also regulate the parthenocarpic trait and its stability is significantly influenced by environmental factors. it is a complex physiological process that can be influenced by environmental, physiological and genetic factors. some studies indicated that low temperature, light and short communication 194 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 193-197, 2017 jat et al exogenous hormone could induce parthenocarpy. however, the genetic mechanism of parthenocarpy in cucumber is still unclear. the information about genetics of parthenocarpy is utmost important for efficient breeding procedure to be used for the development of stable parthenocarpic lines. keeping in view all above facts and realizing the importance of cucumber as an important vegetable crop for protected cultivation, it was felt crucial to conduct an experiment for inheritance of parthenocarpy in cross of gynoecious parthenocarpic line with indian monoecious nonparthenocarpic line. the gynoecious line ppc-2 (used as a female parent for source of parthenocarpic gene) was crossed with monoecious and non-parthenocarpic line pusa uday (used as male parent) to develop f1 hybrid during august-november, 2012. the resulting f1 generation of the cross ppc-2× pusa uday was selfed to obtain f2 seeds and pollinated simultaneously with p1 (ppc2) a nd p 2 (pusa uda y) to genera te ba ckcr oss generations, b1 and b2, respectively, during augustnovember, 2013. the seed material of all segregating and backcross generations (f2, b1and b2) including parental lines and f1were sown in plug trays using soil less media i.e. coco-peat, vermiculite and perlite in 3:1:1 ratio. the seedlings at three leaf stage were transplanted in insect proof net-house of 40 mesh size during march-june, 2014 at the research farm, centre for protected cultivation technology, icar-indian agricultural research institute, pusa campus, new delhi, india. all plants of segregating generations (f2, b1 and b2) along with parents and f1 hybrids were tagged and numbered after transplanting for their individual identity for parthenocarpic fruit development. the f2 population comprising 213 plants were used for genetics of parthenocarpy in background of gynoecious and parthenocarpic inbred line ppc-2. the female flowers were covered with butter paper bag one day prior to anthesis to maintain isolation. the fruit set and development were examined after at 7 to 8 days after flower opening. the number of parthenocarpic fruits developed and total number of female flowers labelled per plant were counted. observations were recorded for development of parthenocarpic fruits up to 25th nodes. plants that produced parthenocarpic fruits up to 25th node were considered as parthenocarpic plants. observations were recorded separately for early parthenocarpy (17th node), late parthenocarpy (8th and above node) and non-parthenocarpy. the goodness of fit of the observed segregation ratio for the segregation of parthenocarpic and nonparthenocarpic plants was tested using the classical chi-square (χ-2) test as suggested by panse and sukhatme (1985). the χ-2 value was calculated using the formula given below. χ-2= (observed number – expected number) 2 / expected number) the test of significance is judged when the computed χ2 statistic exceeds the critical value in the table for a 0.05 probability level, then we can reject the null hypothesis of equal distributions and then it is revealed that the observed values are the same as the theoretical distribution. parthenocapy is an important yield related trait in cucumber, especially in protected cultivation. in the present study, an attempt was made to consign the inheritance of parthenocarpy on classical dominantrecessive mendelian model by keeping the cucumber fruits only in three categories of their fruit development i.e. early parthenocarpic, late parthenocarpic and nonparthenocarpic fruit development. the development of parthenocarpic fruit in ‘pant parthenocarpic cucumber-2 (ppc-2)’ is taking place from the beginning at the lower nodes from the base of the plant (early parthenocarpy). therefore, ‘ppc2’ was considered as a homozygous genotype for parthenocarpic fruits development. the variety pusa uda y wa s monoecious a nd pr oduced nonparthenocarpic fruits and it was considered to be homozygous for non-parthenocarpic fruit development. the f1 hybrid derived from the cross of ppc-2 × pusa uday with heterozygous condition produced some parthenocarpic fruits on the lower nodes i.e.5-7th node a nd a bove 8 th node, wer e consider ed a s la te parthenocarpic fruits. in f1 generation, most of the plants produced parthenocarpic fruits but some plants that did not set any fruit were considered as nonparthenocarpic fruit. in segregating f2population, early, late and non-parthenocarpic plants were recorded. out of 213 plants, 170 produced as early and late pa r thenoca r pic fr uits wher e a s 43 a s nonparthenocarpic fruits. the χ2 value indicated a good fit for segregation of parthenocarpy (early, late and non195 parthenocarpy in cucumber cv. ppc-2 parthenocarpy) in the f2 population and backcrossed populations confirmed with the expected ratio of 1:2:1 a nd 1:1, respectively (table1). therefor e, the genotypes for inbr ed line ppc-2 r epr esenting pa r thenoca r py, non-pa r thenoca r py a nd la te parthenocarpy phenotypes were considered as pp, pp and pp, respectively. these data support that parthenocarpic trait in cucumber is controlled by single incompletely dominant gene, as suggested by pike and peterson (1969). they had used a parthenocarpic monoecious var iety a nd a non-pa r thenoca r pic gynoecious line as parents, whereas in our study, gynoecious parthenocarpic and monoecious nonparthenocarpic inbred lines were used as parents. average first fruiting node in segregating generation was observed at the 5thnode. rudish et al (1977) also suggested that the degree or intensity of parthenocarpy could be measured by both the earliness of fruiting and the total number of parthenocarpic fruits. the segregation for parthenocarpic fruits observed in f2 population of ppc-2 × pusa uday is shown in fig.1. these data support that parthenocarpic trait in cucumber is controlled by single incompletely dominant gene, as suggested by pike and peterson (1969). exploring the parthenocarpic trait for development of high yielding cultivars and f1 hybrids suitable for protected cultivation is one of the current priority areas of cucumber breeding.the breeding procedure for development of parthenocarpic varieties in cucumber is not well understood because of the complexity in nature of inheritance and involvement of physiological factors for parthenocarpic fruit development(wu et al, 2016). in cucumber, parthenocarpic mutants have been largely used to breed cultivars suitable for greenhouse cultivation. it was also clear that parthenocarpy trait is genetically controlled, but there is some argument regarding the number of genes and type of gene action involved in development of parthenocarpic fruits. parthenocarpy in cucumber is controlled by an incomplete dominant gene p (pike and peterson, 1969; kim et al, 1992). in the homozygous condition pp develops early parthenocarpic fruits generally at fifth node. in the heterozygous condition pp produce parthenocarpic fruits later than homozygous plants and small in numbers. in homozygous condition recessive pp develops non-parthenocarpic fruits. single recessive gene might be responsible for the expression of parthenocarpy in cucumber (juldasheva, 1973) or many incompletely recessive genes control parthenocarpy (kvasnikov et al, 1970). the study of f3 population showed that more than five genes are involved in par thenocarpy, whereas growing envir onmental conditions and epistatic interactions significantly influence the expression of this trait (sun et al, 2006 a and b) and two additive-dominant epistatic major genes and additive-dominant polygenes (li et al, 2012). thus, the parthenocarpic line ppc-2 could be utilized for development of light green parthenocarpic cucumber lines using pedigree method of breeding (hybridization followed by selection of pur e homozygous parthenocarpic lines). it was revealed from the present study that parthenocarpy in cucumber particularly in gynoecious and parthenocarpic lines ppc-2 is governed by incomplete dominant gene. this study has to be generations number of early late nonexpected chipplants parthenocarpic parthenocarpic parthenocarpy ratio square value (1-7th nodes) (8th and above nodes) observed expected observed expected observed expected ppc-2 (p1) 40 40 40 pusa uday (p2) 40 40 40 ppc-2 × pusa uday (f1) 40 2 37 40 1 ppc-2 × pusa uday (f2) 213 49 56 121 105 43 52 3:1 0.94 0.23 (ppc-2 × pusa uday) × 40 23 20 17 20 1:1 ppc-2 (b1) (ppc-2 × pusa uday) × 40 24 22 16 18 pusa uday (b2) table 1. segregation for parthenocarpy in cucumber j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 193-197, 2017 196 fig. 1. phenotypic evaluation of parthenocarpic and non-parthenocarpic parental genotypes, f1 and f2 population (ppc-2 × pusauday) of cultivated cucumis sativus for parthenocarpy, (a) parthenocarpic fruit of ppc-2, (b) non-parthenocarpic fruit of pusa uday, (c) parthenocarpic fruits of f1 of ppc-2 × pusa uday, (d-f) showing segregation for parthenocarpy in f2 population, (d) early parthenocarpic fruit development, (e) late parthenocarpic fruit development, (f) seeded fruit (after pollination). j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 193-197, 2017 jat et al continued further by employing more number of populations in different cross-combinations and plants in segregating population in different environment and locations and confirmation of genetics for this trait would be required in other potential parthenocarpic lines. this information would facilitate the adoption of appropriate breeding strategies for the development of indian stable parthenocarpic cucumber lines and will impr ove the efficiency of selection procedures.therefore, the information generated on inheritance of parthenocarpy from this study would be of immense importance in the context of developing parthenocarpic cultivars/hybrids in indian cucumber suitable for protected cultivation. (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) 197 (ms received 07 august 2017, revised 30 november 2017, accepted 18 december 2017) j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(2) : 193-197, 2017 parthenocarpy in cucumber cv. ppc-2 sativusl.).institute of agricultural information, chinese academy of agricultural sciences. http://www.caas.net.cn. panse, v.g. and sukhatme, p.v. 1985. statistical methods for a gr icultur a l wor ker s. icar publication, new delhi, pp 327-340. pike, l.m. and peterson c.e. 1969.inheritance of parthenocarpy in the cucumber(cucumis sativus l.).euphytica, 18: 101-105. rudish, j. , ba ker, l. r. a nd sell, h. m. 1977. par thenocar py in cucumis sativus l. a s affected by genetic parthenocarpy, thermophotoperiod and femaleness.journal amer. soci. hort. sci., 102: 225-228. sebastian, p., schaefer, h., telford, i.r.h. and renner, s.s. 2010. cucumber (cucumis sativus) and melon (c. melo) have numerous wild relatives in asia and australia, and the sister species of melon is from australia. procnatl. acad. sci., usa, 107: 14269–14273. sun, z., lower, r.l. and staub, j.e. 2006a. analysis of gener a tion mea ns a nd components of var ia nce for pa rthenoca r py in cucumber (cucumis sativus l.).plant breed., 123(3): 277-280. sun, z., lower, r.l. and staub, j.e. 2006b. variance component analysis of parthenocarpy in elite u.s. processing type cucumber (cucumis sativus l.) lines.euphytica, 148(3): 331–339. wu, z., zhang, t., li, l., xu, j., qin, x., zhang, t., cui, l., lou, q. and li, j. 2016.identification of a stable major-effect qtl (parth 2.1) controlling parthenocarpy in cucumber and associated candidate gene analysis via whole genome resequencing.bmc plant biol., 16(1):182. behera, t.k., staub, j.e., behera, s., delannay, i.y. and chen, j.f. 2011. marker-assisted backcross selection in an interspecific cucumis population br oa dens the genetic ba se of cucumber (cucumis sativus l.) euphytica,178: 261–272. jat, g.s., munshi, a.d., behera, t.k. and tomar, b.s. 2016. combining ability estimation of gynoecious and monoecious hybrids for yield and earliness in cucumber (cucumis sativus l) indian j. agric. sci.,86 (3): 399–403. jat, g.s., munshi, a.d., behera, t.k., choudhary, h. and dev, b. 2015.exploitation of heterosis in cucumber for ea r liness, yield a nd yield components utilizing gynoecious lines.indian j. hort.,72(4): 494-499. jat, g.s., munshi, a.d., behera, t.k.,singh, a.k. and kumari s. 2017.genetic analysis for earliness and yield components using gynoecious and monoeciouslines in cucumber (cucumis sativus l.). chemical sci. rev. letters,6(22): 10751079. juldasheva, l.m. (1973). inheritance of the tendency towards parthenocarpy in cucumbers.vavilova, 32: 58-59. kim, s., okubo, h. and fujieda, k. 1992. endogenous levels of iaa in relation to parthenocarpy in cucumber (cucumis sativus l.). scientia horticulturae, 52: 1-8. kvasnikov, b.v., rogova, n.t., tarakanova, s.i. and igna tova s.i. 1970.methods of br eeding vegetable crops under the covered ground.bot. genet. selek.,42:45-57. li, j., zhiwei, q. and xiuyan, z. 2012. genetic analysis of gynoecious in cucumber (cucumis references introduction grape is one of the major fruit crops of the country. earlier, grapevines grown on their own roots performed well, since, most grape growing regions were free from soil-and water-salinity and water scarcity. however, with introduction of the rootstock in grape cultivation, changes in management practices became necessary. since cost of production in grape is higher compared to that in all other horticultural crops, quality production is given due importance. grapevine canopy management is aimed at optimizing carbon allocation to the fruit sink without disturbing growth or development in the other parts of grapevine, e.g., perennial structures such as roots. given the complexity a grapevine canopy may have (microclimate, photosynthetic activity, yield and fruit quality) (smart et al, 1985; hunter et al, 1995), canopy management should be practiced with great care. thorough consideration should be given to partitioning of assimilates between the site of production, accumulation and utilization, to reach this goal. in addition to primary effects like changed translocation patterns when seasonal practices (such as topping and effect of canopy management practices during forward pruning on berry development and photosynthesis in tas-a-ganesh grapes r.g. somkuwar, s.d. ramteke, j. satisha, mahadev bhange and prerna itroutwar national research centre for grapes pune 412307, india e-mail: rgsomkuwar@yahoo.co.in abstract effect of canopy manipulation during forward pruning on berry development and photosynthetic parameters was studied in tas-a-ganesh grape grafted onto dogridge rootstock. canopy manipulation including shoot thinning, leaf removal, shoot thinning with leaf removal, and shoot pinching, was done after forward pruning. significant differences were observed in yield and quality. shoot thinning to about 40 shoots per vine, with removal of three basal leaves, resulted in significantly higher yield, followed by that in shoot thinning alone. lowest yield was recorded in the control. leaf removal drastically reduced bunch development affecting berry weight, diameter and length compared to other treatments. among different canopy manipulation treatments, higher average bunch weight was recorded in shoot thinning plus leaf removal, whereas, lowest bunch weight was recorded with leaf removal alone. at harvest, the amount of total soluble solids in berries was low in leaf removal at pre-bloom stage, but increased in the treatment of shoot thinning with leaf removal, at the same stage. different canopy manipulation treatments had significant impact on photosynthesis and transpiration rates. overall results indicated that canopy manipulation practices such as shoot thinning, to retain 40 shoots per vine with or without leaf removal, followed by pinching, can be recommended to grape growers. key words: grape, canopy managements practices, photosynthesis, quality, yield different levels of defoliation) are applied (hunter and visser 1988a; koblet et al, 1993), secondary effects like compensatory growth, take place (hunter and visser 1990). leaves at different ages play a major role in import and export of food material from the source to the sink as growth progresses (ruffiner et al, 1990; hunter et al, 1994). this variation in canopy due to management practices like shootthinning and leaf-removal is known to directly affect assimilation dynamics. berry growth and chemical composition can be regulated by manipulating source-sink relationship (kliewer and dokoozlian, 2005). assimilate supply from a source may be increased by increasing leaf:fruit ratio, thus, generally leading to larger fruit size in grape (petrie et al, 2000). however, abiotic stress (such as drought) can reduce leaf area and photosynthesis in the grapevine (matthews and anderson, 1988), thus limiting leaf function, and changing the source-sink balance. functional relationship between source availability around bloom period and yield (petrie et al, 2003) inherently implies that defoliation around flowering can reduce fruit-set, leading to loose clusters. with this in view, an effort was made to study j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):18-22, 2014 19 the effect of seasonal canopy management practices on growth compensation, photosynthetic activity, yield and quality parameters in tas-a-ganesh grape grafted onto dogridge rootstock. material and methods vines and vineyard a field experiment was conducted at the farm of national research centre for grapes, pune, during fruiting season of 2007-08. pune is situated in mid-west maharashtra at an altitude of 559m above mean sea level, at latitude of 18.32°n and longitude of 73.51°e. seven-year old vines of tas-a-ganesh grape grafted onto dogridge rootstock were selected for the study. the vines were on flat roof gable system of training, with north-south cordon orientation, spaced at 2.4m between rows and 1.2m between vines (thus, accommodating 1815 vines per hectare). under tropical conditions, the vines were pruned twice a year once after harvest of the crop (foundation pruning) and another for fruits to develop (fruit pruning). all the recommended cultural practices were followed. the experiment was conducted in randomized block design, with five treatments replicated four times. twenty well-developed vines were selected under each canopy management treatment. five different canopy management practices were imposed during the fruit pruning season, i.e., shoot thinning to 15 shoots per meter (retaining approximately 40 shoots per vine), removal of basal three leaves at pre-bloom stage, a combination of shoot thinning with leaf removal, and, shoot pinching at 10 leaves above the bunch, and a control. canopy management practices followed during the period of study are elaborated below. shoot thinning shoot thinning was done at 4 to 5 leaf stage, which was approximately about 16-17 days after pruning. all the secondary and tertiary shoots were hand-removed, and the remaining shoots were thinned evenly when necessary, to 15 shoots/m per vine. leaf removal the fruit bunch appears at the 5th leaf on a newly emerged shoot. basal three leaves on the shoot were removed during the pre-bloom to berry-setting stage (approximately 40-45 days after pruning). shoot pinching for development of a bunch, approximately 10 leaves above the bunch are deemed sufficient. hence, shoot pinching was done at the 10th leaf after bunch, and growth was stopped here. gas exchange parameters: parameters such as stomatal conductance, photosynthetic rate and transpiration rate were recorded during the full-bloom stage. recently matured leaves (5th 6th leaf from tip) were used for measuring various parameters using infra-red gas analyzer (irga model li 6400, li-cor biosciences, nebraska, usa). observations were recorded during bright sunlight during 11.0am to 12.30pm. yield and quality parameters bunch and berry traits: fully mature and ripe bunches were harvested and weighed. fifty berries from each bunch were randomly collected and weighed for calculating the average berry weight. bunch and berry diameter was measured using a graduated scale. total soluble solids (°brix): fresh samples (berries) were pressed using a hand press and juice filtered through a muslin cloth. extracted juice was used for recording total soluble solids (°brix) using a hand refractometer. titratable acidity: titratable acidity of fresh, filtered juice of 50 berry samples was determined using 0.1n naoh and titrated till reaching the end-point (change from colourless to pink) with phenolphthalein indicator. statistical analysis analysis of variance was performed for each variable using sas statistical package version 9.3 (sas institute, cary, nc). least significant differences among treatments were calculated using the same software. results and discussion effect of canopy management practices on vegetative growth and photosynthesis results on vegetative growth parameters in relation to canopy management practices are presented in table 1. among the different treatments studied, differences for shoot length were non-significant. however, shoot thinning with leaf removal, shoot thinning, and shoot pinching, considerably increased shoot diameter. shoot diameter in treatments was higher than in the control. though differences in inter-nodal length were significant, impact of canopy management practices on increasing internodal length was not experienced so much. when the shoot length had no effect, internodal length could not be improved in any of the treatments. canopy management practices had j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):18-22, 2014 canopy management in forward pruning in grape 20 no effect on total number of bunches per vine and lai in tas-a-ganesh grape. it is evident that considerable growth was induced by shoot thinning and leaf removal. increase in shoot diameter may be due to consolidation of food material in shoots supported by photosynthetically active leaves. in a similar study, hunter et al (1995) concluded that an additional compensatory growth and energy demand brought about by lateral removal could have a direct impact on metabolic processes in the grapevine, particularly, availability and distribution of carbohydrates for bunch development. highest photosynthesis rate (11.30μmol/m2/s) was recorded in shoot-thinning (6-7 leaf stage), followed by shoot pinching at 10 leaves above the bunch (10.77μmol/m2/s) compared to the control (8.05µmol/m2/s). results in the present investigation are in conformity with those of koblet (1975) and hunter and visser (1988b) who concluded that changes in canopy microclimate increase photosynthetic activity and export photoassimalates. however, in this study, a noticeable enhancement of photosynthetic activity due to improved light intensity, and possibly, delayed senescence and abscission of the remaining leaves due to lateral-shoot thinning, were found to have a positive effect on yield. canopy manipulation practices had no marked stimulating effect on stomatal conductance. rate of transpiration varied from 2.34 to 3.05 µmol h2o/ m 2/s and was comparable with findings of hunter and visser (1989) for defoliation per cent values for all leaf positions. maximum rate of transpiration (3.05 μmol/m2/s) was recorded with shootpinching at 10 leaves above the bunch, while, a drastic reduction in the rate of transpiration (2.00 μmol h2o/ m 2/s, 2.34 μmol/m2/s, respectively) was recorded with leaf removal (pre-bloom stage and shoot thinning at 6-7 leaf stage). rate of transpiration was higher in shoot-pinching treatment compared to other treatments. results of the present investigation are in line with falis et al (1982) who reported a general decline in transpiration rate with removal of the shoot and leaves during the growth season. shoot thinning had a positive effect on transpiration rate in grapevine. effect of canopy management practices on yield and berry composition data recorded on yield and berry composition figure in table 2. application of different canopy management table 2. effect of canopy management on yield and berry composition in grapes cv. tas-a-ganesh treatment bunch 50-berry berry length berry dia. tss juice acidity yield/ wt(g) wt(g) (mm) (mm) (obrix) p h (%) vine (kg) shoot thinning (6-7 leaf stage) 375.60 a 184.20 a 20.20 b 18.40 a 20.20 b 3.59 b 0.52 b 12.75 a leaf removal (pre-bloom stage) 258.00 d 165.35 d 18.00 d 17.40 c 18.60 d 3.65 a 0.43 c 10.80 b shoot thinning & leaf removal 290.60 c 178.50 b 21.00 a 17.78 b 21.00 a 3.58 b 0.55 b 11.14 b shoot pinching (10 leaves above bunch) 307.80 b 172.35 c 19.44 c 18.40 a 17.66 c 3.65 a 0.53 b 12.25 a control 235.60 e 133.00 e 19.56 bc 17.00 d 19.80 bc 3.58 b 0.62 a 10.09 b cv % 1.38 1.60 2.51 1.48 2.51 0.95 7.99 6.84 cd (p=0.05) 5.440 3.579 0.663 0.354 0.663 0.046 0.056 1.047 significance ** ** ** ** ** * ** * *values followed by the same alphabet are statistically not significant at p ≤ 0.05 table 1. effect of canopy manipulation on vegetative growth and photosynthesis in grape cv. tas-a-ganesh treatment shoot shoot dia. internodal no. of leaf photosynthesis stomatal transpiration length (mm) length bunches/ area index (μmol/m2/s) conductance rate (cm) (cm) vine (lai) (μmol/m2/s) (μmol/m2/s) shoot thinning 93.64 ab 9.13 ab 5.80 a 38.60 a 1.10 a 11.30 a 0.07 ab 2.34 c (6-7 leaf stage) leaf removal 99.07 a 8.56 bc 5.80 a 31.80 a 1.02 a 9.65 c 0.08 ab 2.00 c (pre-bloom stage) shoot thinning + 102.61a 9.57 a 5.30 ab 38.40 a 1.10 a 9.05 d 0.09 a 2.93 ab leaf removal shoot pinching 88.27ab 8.87 ab 4.82 bc 38.60 a 0.98 a 10.77 b 0.09 a 3.05 a (10 leaves above the bunch) control 80.00 b 8.14 c 4.70 c 34.20 a 1.00 a 8.05 e 0.06 b 2.46 bc cv % 15.28 5.97 7.92 14.32 9.42 1.11 20.12 15.27 cd (p=0.05) 0.709 0.561 0.146 0.523 significance at p ≤ 0.05 ns * * ns ns ** ns * *values followed by the same alphabet are statistically not significant at p ≤ 0.05; ns: not significant somkuwar et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):18-22, 2014 21 practices resulted in variation in berry quality. yield per vine ranged from 10.09kg in the control to 12.75kg in shoot thinning treatment at 6-7 leaf stage. significant differences were recorded for yield among treatments. highest yield was recorded when shoot-thinning was performed at 6-7 leaf stage (12.75kg/vine), followed by shoot-pinching at 10th leaf above the bunch (12.25kg/vine) over the control (10.09kg/vine). shoot thinning may have helped the vine improve its photosynthetic activity, thereby increasing source-strength required for bunch development (fig 1). similar studies were reported by hunter et al (1995) in cabernet sauvignon. grapevines tend to have reduced cluster weight with leaf-removal. we presume that this is in response to a lower shoot vigor of the grapevine at leaf removal compared with rest of the treatments, when more vigorously growing shoots during fruit-set may compete with clusters at anthesis for available carbohydrates (vasconcelos et al, 2009). berry quality parameters varied due to canopy manipulation practices. berry diameter increased with canopy manipulation treatments. maximum berry diameter (17.78mm) was recorded in shoot-thinning with leafremoval. results of the present investigation are in accordance with keller (2009) who reported that berry growth after flowering was highly dependent on assimilate supply. kemp (2010) reported that removal of leaves early in the first stage of berry growth may disrupt cell division and growth due to reduced assimilates. keller (2009) explained that environmental factors, especially heat stress, seemed to restrict berry size when imposed before the lag phase of growth. spayd et al (2002) reported that sun exposed berries get heated by the incoming radiation, and that a rise in temperature due to early leaf-removal can potentially limit berry size. significant variation in total soluble solids (tss) and titratable acidity was recorded among different canopy management treatments. higher total soluble solids and acidity were recorded with a combination of shoot-thinning and leaf-removal (21.00obrix and 0.55%, respectively), whereas, lowest total soluble solids (18.60obrix) and acidity (0.43%) were recorded in leaf-removal treatment. increase in total soluble solids may have been due to a reduction in the canopy area which resulted in exposure of the bunches to sunlight. these results are in accordance with price et al (1995) who reported exposed pinot noir berries as having the highest tss and lowest acidity; however, there was no difference in ph when compared with moderately-exposed and naturally-shaded fruit. leaf removal at four weeks postbloom decreased tss but did not affect titrable acidity or ph compared to the shaded fruit (vasconcelos and castagnoli, 2000). changes in total soluble solids in a berry may have been due to canopy management practices that resulted in stress to the vine. early-season carbon supply limitation, whether imposed by environmental stress or by cultural practices (such as leaf-removal) may restrict berry size and/or number, but these do not usually impair berry ripening (keller 2009). this is clearly demonstrated in his study. poni et al (2006) emphasized that defoliation at or close to flowering should be avoided in low-vigour vines as it affects yield and berry size adversely. however, results from leaf-removal depend upon climate, variety, clone and trellis system, all of which affect sunlight and temperature within a grapevine canopy. a positive correlation between photosynthesis and yield per vine and average bunch weight is also reported in the present investigation (table 3) indicating the importance of canopy management practices during forward pruning to achieve quality grape production. references fails, b.s., lewis, a.j. and barden, j.a. 1982. net photosynthesis and transpiration of sunand shade – grown ficus benjamina leaves. j. amer. soc. hort. sci., 107:758-761 hunter, j.j. and visser, j.h. 1988a. distribution of 14ctable 3. correlation coefficient between various growth, yield and photosynthesis parameters as influenced by canopy management practices parameters shoot yield per photosynthesis transpiration bunch 50-berry tss length (cm) vine (kg) (µmol/cm2/s) rate (µmol h2o/m 2/s) wt (g) wt (g) (obrix) shoot length (cm) 1 0.228 -0.076 0.027 0.173 0.416* -0.014 yield per vine (kg) 1 0.622* 0.213 0.784** 0.662* -0.150 photosynthesis (µmol/cm2/s) 1 0.115 0.604* 0.446* -0.038 transpiration rate (µmol h2o/m 2/s) 1 0.132 0.180 -0.019 bunch wt (g) 1 0.818** 0.124 50-berry wt (g) 1 0.077 tss (obrix) 1.000 *significant at p ≤ 0.05; **significant at p ≤ 0.01 canopy management in forward pruning in grape j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):18-22, 2014 22 photosynthate in the shoot of vitis vinifera l. cv. cabernet sauvignon. i. the effect of leaf position and development stage of the vine. s. afr. j. enol. vitic., 9:3-9 hunter, j.j. and visser, j.h. 1988b. distribution of 14cphotosynthate in the shoot of vitis vinifera l. cv. cabernet sauvignon. ii. the effect of partial defoliation. s. afr. j. enol. vitic., 9:10-15 hunter, j.j., and visser, j.h. 1989. the effect of partial defoliation, leaf position and developmental stage of the vine on leaf chlorophy concentration in relation to the photosynthetic activity and light intensity in the canopy of vitis vinifera l. cv. cabernet sauvignon. s. afr. j. enol. vitic., 10:67-73 hunter, j.j. and visser, j.h. 1990. the effect of partial defoliation on growth characteristics of vitis vinifera l. cv. cabernet sauvignon. i. vegetative growth. s. afr. j. enol. vitic., 11:18-25 hunter, j.j., skrivan, r. and ruffener, h.p. 1994. diurnal and seasonal physiological changes in leaves of vitis vinifera l. co2 assimilation rates, sugar levels and sucrolytic enzymes activity. vitis, 33:189-195 hunter, j.j., ruffner, h.p., volschenk, c.g. and le roux, d.j. 1995. partial defoliation of vitis vinifera l. cv. cabernet sauvignon/99 richter: effect on root growth, canopy efficacy, grape composition and wine quality. amer. j. enol. vitic., 46:306-314 keller, m. 2009. managing grapevines to optimize fruit development in a challenging environment: a climate change primer for viticulturists. aust. j. grape wine res., 16:56-69 kemp, b. 2010. the effect of the timing of leaf removal on berry ripening, flavour and aroma compounds in pinot noir wines. ph.d. thesis submitted to lincoln university, new zealand, pp. 236 kliewer, w.m. and dokoozlian, n.k. 2005. leaf area/crop weight ratios of grapevines: influence on fruit composition and wine quality. amer. j. enol. vitic., 56:170-181 koblet, w. 1975. wanderung von assimilaten uas verschiedenen rebenblattern wahrend der reifephase der trauben. wein-wiss., 30:241-249 koblet, w., candolfi-vasconcelos, m.c., aeschimann, e. and howell, g.s. 1993. influence of defoliation, rootstock and training system on pinot noir grapevines. i. mobilization and accumulation of assimilates in woody tissue. vitic. enol. sci., 48:104108 matthews, m.a. and anderson, m.m. 1988. fruit ripening in vitis vinifera l.: responses to seasonal water deficits. amer. j. enol. vitic., 39:313-320 petrie, p., trought, m. and howell, g. 2000. fruit composition and ripening of pinot noir (vitis vinifera l.) in relation to leaf area. aust. j. grape wine res., 6:46-51 petrie, p.r., dunn, g.m., martin, s.r., krstic, m.p. and clin-geleffer, p.r. 2003. crop stabilization. in: grape growing at the edge. australian society of viticulture and oenology seminar. s.m. bell et al (eds.), pp. 11-16, asvo, adelaide poni, s., casalini, l., bernizzoini, f.s., civardi and intrieri, c. 2006. effects of early defoliation on shoot photosynthesis, yield components and grape composition. amer. j. enol. vitic., 57:397-407 price, s.f., breen, p.j., valalladao, m. and watson, b.y. 1995. cluster sun exposure and quercetin in grapes and wine. amer. j. enol. vitic., 46:187-194 ruffner, h.p., adler, s. and rast, d.m. 1990. soluble and wall associated forms of invertase in vitis vinifera. phytochem., 29:2083-2086 smart, r.e., robinson, j.b., due, g.r. and brien, c.j. 1985. canopy microclimate modification for the cultivar shiraz ii. effects on must and wine composition. vitis, 24:119-128 spayd, s.e., tarara, j.m., mee, d.l. and ferguson, j.c. 2002. separation of sunlight & temperature effects on compostion of vitis vinifera cv. merlot berries. amer. j. eno. vitic., 53:171-182 vasconcelos, m.c., greven, m., winefield, c.s., trought, m.c.t. and raw, v. 2009. the flowering process of vitis vinifera: a review. amer. j. enol. vitic., 60:411–433 vasconcelos, s.c. and castagnoli, s. 2000. leaf canopy structure and vine performance. amer. j. enol. vitic., 51:390–396 (ms received 30 may 2013, revised 03 december 2013, accepted 28 february 2014) somkuwar et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 9(1):18-22, 2014 introduction according to a panel of nobel laureates, of the top 10 priorities selected for advancing global welfare using methodologies based on theory of welfare economics, in copenhagen consensus, 2008, five were in the area of nutrition “ nutrient supplements, nutrient fortification, biofortification, de-worming and other nutrient programmes at the school and community levels. agriculture in general and horticulture in particular, are of paramount importance for overcoming the malady of mineral nutrient deficiency and malnutrition. attempts to enhance mineral content in food automatically enhanced quality and yield of the crops, especially in horticulture. secondary nutrient deficiency in soils and crops is now emerging as a major problem for maintaining balanced nutrition and quality in horticultural crops. this is mainly due to use of straight fertilizers devoid of secondary nutrients particularly, mg and s. further, intensive cultivation of high yielding varieties/hybrids and the ensuing multifold increase in yields have lead to mining out of these nutrients from soil (shukla et al, 2009). magnesium deficiency in soil not only limits horticultural crop quality and production but also has a negative effect on human nutrition and health. apart from human suffering due to morbidity and mortality, malnutrition, in general, and mineral nutrient deficiencies in particular entail a high economic cost. solanaceous crops like tomato, effect of applied magnesium on yield and quality of tomato in alfisols of karnataka b.l. kashinath, a.n. ganesha murthy1, t. senthivel2, g. james pitchai3 and a.t. sadashiva division of vegetable crops indian institute of horticultural research hesaraghatta lake post, bangalore 560 089, india e mail : kasnath@iihr.ernet.in abstract field experiments were conducted for two years on alfisols to assess the effect of applied magnesium on fruit yield and quality parameters in tomato. magnesium was applied at four levels ranging from 0 to 100 kg/ha in the form of mgso 4 . applied mg significantly enhanced fruit yield up to 50kg /ha during the two years of experimentation. tomato quality parameters viz., total titrable acidity, content of lycopene, total carotenoids and ascorbic acid differed significantly among treatments. applied mg significantly improved quality. highest lycopene content, carotenoids and ascorbic acid in the fruit was recorded in recommended dose of fertilizers (rdf) + mgso 4 @ 50kg/ha followed by rdf + mgso 4 @ 75 kg/ha. lowest values for the above parameters were observed in the treatment receiving rdf alone in both the years. key words: tomato, titratable acidity, lycopene, total carotenoids, ascorbic acid, yield j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):55-59, 2013 potato and cole crops respond well to applied mg (bhargava and raghupathi, 1997). tomato is extensively cultivated on alfisols in south india, particularly, in south and south interior karnataka. these soils are generally deficient in available mg and crops in the field frequently show symptoms of mg deficiency that seriously affect yield and quality in tomato. hence, the present study was undertaken to understand effect of applied mg on yield and quality in tomato grown on alfisols in southern karnataka. material and methods the experiment was conducted at indian institute of horticultural research, hessaraghatta, bangalore, for two years during the winter season of 2010-11 and 2011-12. the experiment was laid out in randomized block design in triplicate with five treatments, viz., t 1 control (rdf[180:150:120 npk kg ha-1]), t 2 rdf+mgso 4 (25kg ha-1) , t 3 rdf+mgso 4 (50kg ha-1), t 4 rdf+mgso 4 (75kg ha1) , t 5 rdf+mgso 4 (100kg ha-1). fifty per cent of nitrogen and the, full dose of phosphorus and potassium were applied at transplanting, as per treatment, in the form of ammonium sulphate, single super phosphate (ssp) and muriate of potash. the whole quantity of ammonium sulphate 857kg/ ha, ssp938 kg/ha and muriate of potash-200 kg/ha were applied through soil application. only nitrogen was applied 1division of soil science and agriculture chemistry, indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore 560 089 2gandhi gram rural institute, gandhigram 3bharathiar university, coimbatore, india 56 in three splits viz., 50% at planting, 25% at 25 days after transplanting, and 25% at 50 days after transplanting. magnesium was applied in the form of magnesium sulphate (mgso 4 7h 2 o). quantity of magnesium applied as magnesium sulphate is given in table 1. table 1. quantity of mgso 4 applied for supplying different doses of magnesium treatment levels of quantity of mgso 4 magnesium (kg ha-1) applied (kg ha-1) 25 257 50 514 75 771 100 1028 tomato hybrid arka ananya was transplanted at a spacing of 100cm x 60cm. tomato fruits are harvested in 7 pickings. fruit samples were drawn after ii & iv picking for quality analysis. samples were immediately washed and stored in a refrigerator until analysis. fruit quality parameters viz., total titratable acidity, lycopene level, total carotenoids and ascorbic acid were analyzed by the following methods. titratable acidity (%) titratable acidity of tomato was analyzed using the procedure outlined by mazumdar. acidity was expressed as per cent (%) citric acid. a known amount of tissue sample (by weight) was taken. this was extracted with distilled water by thorough crushing. the extract was then filtered, and the filtrate was made up to a known volume with distilled water. a few drops of phenolphthalein solution were added to this and shaken well. titration was determined by appearance of a pink colour. titratable acidity (%) was quantified using the following formula: calculation in terms of citric acid percentage of total titratable acidity in the sample as equivalent of citric acid average burette volume made upto reading for x 0.0064 x with distilled x 100 sample (ml) water (ml) = ————————————————————————— weight of x volume of aliquot taken for sample (g) examination (ml) where, 0.0064 refer to 1 ml of 0.1 n naoh neutralises 0.0064g of citric acid lycopene and total carotenoids content (mg/100g) lycopene and total carotenoids content of tomato was analyzed using the procedure outlined by lichtenthaler (1987). five grams of the fruit sample was blended with the help of a clean mortar by adding 20ml acetone. the acetone extract was transfer to a separating funnel. carotenoids were extracted with (10x2) ml of hexane, 50ml of distilled water and a pinch of nacl. the volume was then made upto 25ml. to this were added 5-6 grams of sodium sulphate to remove water. absorbance was read using spectrophotometer at 470nm for total carotenoids, and 503nm for lycopene estimation and quantified using the formula: od x std. value x total volume x 100 lycopene (mg/100g) = ————————————————— (503 nm) weight of the sample (g) x 1000 std. value = 1 od = 5.375 µg od x std. value x total volume x 100 total carotenoids (mg/100g) = ————————————— (470 nm) weight of the sample (g) x 1000 std. value = 1 od = 7.306 µg ascorbic acid ascorbic acid was estimated using the 2,6dichlorophenol indophenol titration method (thimmaiah, 1999).the extracted sample was mixed in 4 per cent oxalic acid and made upto a known volume (100ml) and centrifuged. 5 ml of the supernatant was added to 10 ml of 4% oxalic acid and titrated against the dye. titer x dye x volume made x 100 value factor up (ml) ascorbic acid (mg/100g) = ——————————————— aliquot of x weight of the extraction (ml) sample taken (g) where, dye factor = 0.5/titer value statistical analysis data on yield and quality parameters were subjected to statistical analysis as described by sundaraja et al, 1972. and subjected to statistical analysis using ‘biostatiihr’ programme and ‘sas’ programme. results and discussion fruit yield in tomato total mean yield in tomato differed significantly among various treatments during the two years of experimentation. magnesium applied as mgso 4 @ 50kg ha-1significantly enhanced fruit yield. application of higher levels of mg depressed fruit yields, but, yield levels were higher than in plots without mg application (control) (table 3). the mean of two year pooled data revealed lowest tomato yield in j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):55-59, 2013 kashinath et al 57 control treatment (60.09 t ha-1); highest yield was observed in rdf+mgso 4 (50kg mg/ha) (78.01t ha-1) and rdf+mgso 4 (25kg mg/ha) (73.92t ha-1), followed by rdf+mgso 4 (75kg mg/ha) (68.12 t ha-1) and rdf+mgso 4 (100kg mg/ha) (67.80t ha-1). lycopene and total carotenoids magnesium significantly affected lycopene content in tomato fruits during both the years of experimentation (table 4). application of 50kg mg /ha resulted in maximum lycopene content during the first year at ii & iv harvest stage (9.33 & 9.10 mg/100g) and ii year at ii & iv harvest stage (8.33 & 8.10mg/100g) and the lowest lycopene at ii & iv harvest stage (6.89 & 6.46 mg /100g) was observed in control. during the ii year, highest lycopene content was observed in the treatment of 50kg mg/ha (8.33 mg at ii harvest stage and 8.10 mg/100g at iv harvest stage) compared to control (6.05 mg at ii harvest stage and 5.92mg/100g at iv harvest stage). similar results were reported by bose et al (2006) in soils of west bengal. they also stated that soil k deficiency to decreased lycopene content. according to cox et al (2003), red fruiting cultivars had higher lycopene content than yellow or orange cultivars. there was also seasonal effect on lycopene and antioxidant levels in tomato fruits (rosales el al, 2006, toor et al, 2006) and effect of irrigation and nutritional status of plants (dumas et al, 2003). the cultivar used in this study is a medium red variety and, generally, fruits contain 8-9mg lycopene/100g variation in lycopene content in the range of 5.9-9.1 mg/ 100g observed in different treatments in this study showed that applied mg can enhance lycopene content in tomato hybrid ‘arka ananya’ in alfisols. total carotenoids in tomato fruits differed significantly among different treatments (table 5). highest carotenoid content was observed in the treatment 50kg mg/ha during i and ii year. the content was 12.86 and 12.530 mg/100g table 2. initial physical and chemical properties of soil parameter value methodology reference sand (%) 80.30 hydrometer method piper (1966) silt (%) 10.20 hydrometer method piper (1966) clay (%) 9.50 hydrometer method piper (1966) ph 5.20 potentiometer method jackson (1973) ec (ds m-1) 0.26 conductivity meter page et al (1982) organic carbon (%) 0.40 walkely and black wet oxidation method jackson (1973) available nitrogen (ppm) 57.52 alkaline permanganate method subbaiah and asija (1956) available phosphorus (ppm) 6.56 0.5 m nahco 3 – extractable; molybdate – page et al (1982) ascorbic acid blue colour method available potassium (ppm) 110.50 n nh 4 oac – extractable; flame photometer method page et al (1982) nh 4 oac extractable calcium (ppm) 1288.83 versanate titration method black (1965) nh 4 oac extractable magnesium (ppm) 281.58 versanate titration method black (1965) table 4. effect of magnesium application on lycopene content (mg/ 100 g) in tomato hybrid arka ananya treatment i year ii year ii harvest iv harvest ii harvest iv harvest control (rdf) 6.89 6.46 6.05 5.92 rdf+mgso 4 7.62 7.42 6.88 6.65 25kg/ha rdf+mgso 4 9.33 9.10 8.33 8.10 50kg/ha rdf+mgso 4 8.82 8.49 8.02 7.99 75kg/ha rdf+mgso 4 8.80 8.27 7.97 7.83 100kg/ha cv (%) 9.52 8.83 10.6 8.26 cd(p=0.05) 1.49 1.32 1.49 1.14 table 3. effect of magnesium application on fruit yield (t/ha) of tomato hybrid arka ananya treatment i year ii year mean control (rdf) 59.10 61.08 60.09 rdf+mgso 4 25kg/ha 74.60 73.24 73.92 rdf+mgso 4 50kg/ha 77.53 78.40 78.01 rdf+mgso 4 75kg/ha 68.22 68.02 68.12 rdf+mgso 4 100kg/ha 68.10 67.49 67.80 cd (p=0.05) 8.75 8.07 6.31 table 5. effect of magnesium application on total carotenoids (mg/ 100 g) content of tomato hybrid arka ananya treatment i year ii year ii harvest iv harvest ii harvest iv harvest control (rdf) 8.91 8.18 8.84 8.51 rdf+mgso 4 10.49 9.69 10.09 9.59 25kg/ha rdf+mgso 4 12.86 12.53 12.03 11.87 50kg/ha rdf+mgso 4 12.31 12.44 11.18 10.94 75kg/ha rdf+mgso 4 12.02 12.12 10.93 10.30 100kg/ha cv (%) 9.30 13.37 9.50 10.95 cd(p=0.05) 1.98 2.77 1.90 2.11 j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):55-59, 2013 effect of magnesium on yield and quality in tomato 58 carotenoids in the treatment 50kg mg/ha during i year at ii & iv harvest stage, respectively. similarly, during the second year, carotenoid content was 12.03 at ii harvest & 11.87 mg/100 g at iv harvest. lowest levels of carotenoids (8.91, 8.18, 8.84 & 8.51 mg/100 g during i & ii year at ii & iv harvest stage, respectively) were recorded in control treatment jean aghofack –nguemezi and valere (2010) carried out similar studies on the effect of fertilizer containing ca and mg on growth, development and quality of tomato fruits in cameroon. they reported no significant alteration in carotenoid content in tomato fruits. this was partly due to the fact that these soils were as such rich in available mg. several others have also reported carotenoids as remaining either unaltered, or even decreasing in content. however, in this study, mg applied to the soils low in available mg had enhanced carotenoid levels in tomato. hence, in these soils, farmers can benefit by adding mg containing fertilizers to soils low in available mg. acidity and ascorbic acid applied mg significantly influenced acidity and ascorbic acid content in tomato during the two years of experimentation (tables 6 & 7). during the first year, highest acidity was recorded in the treatment 50kg mg/ha (0.44mg/ 100g) followed by the treatment 100kg mg/ha (0.40mg/ 100g); lowest was recorded in the control (0.37mg/100g) during the i year at the ii harvest stage. similar results were obtained in the iv harvest stage. where the lowest was observed in control (0.34mg/100g). during the second year highest acidity of the fruit was recorded in treatment 50 kg mg/ha (0.45 and 0.43 mg/100g at ii & iv harvest stage respectively) and the lowest acidity (0.35 and 0.34 mg/100g at ii & iv harvest stage respectively) was observed in the control (rdf only) (table 6). shibli et al (1995) evaluated physico-chemical properties of the fruits of four open-pollinated tomato cultivars (pello, e. mich, pakit and riogrande) grown under rainfed conditions in jordan, and recorded 0.3 % titratable acidity in soils low in available mg. similar to acidity, highly significant difference in ascorbic acid content in tomato was observed among different treatments (table 7). magnesium application resulted in ascorbic acid ranging from 20.17 to 32.22mg/ 100g in fresh fruit during both years. maximum ascorbic acid content was observed in the treatment of 50kg mg/ha (ii harvest-32.22 & iv harvest 30.41 mg/100g) and lowest ascorbic acid content in control during the i year experiment. similarly, during the second year, highest ascorbic acid content (ii harvest-31.41 & iv harvest-29.95 mg/100g) was recorded in the treatment 50kg mg/ha. this was in agreement with findings of gulshan et al (1991) who evaluated nine tomato varieties during summer in tarai region and reported highest (16.2mg/100g) and lowest (8.8 mg/ 100 g) ascorbic acid content in the tomato plant. shibli et al (1995) also reported similar results. results of field experiments clearly indicate that yield in hybrid tomato can be enhanced through application of 50kg mg/ha in alfisols. in addition to fruit yield significant improvement in quality of the fruits was seen as indicated by enhanced levels of total titratable acidity, lycopene, carotenoids and ascorbic acid. hence, farmer applying mgso 4 to the crop can realize higher yields and good quality tomato, with little investment. references bhargava, b.s. and raghupathi, h.b. 1997. current status and new norms of magnesium for grapevines. j. indian soc. soil sci., 45:120-123 black, c.a. 1965. methods of soil analysis part-ii. agronomy monograph, amer. soc. agron., maidson, wisconsinn, usa. table 6. effect of magnesium application on total titratable acidity (mg/100g) in tomato hybrid arka ananya treatment i year ii year ii harvest iv harvest ii harvest iv harvest control (rdf) 0.37 0.34 0.35 0.34 rdf+mgso 4 0.38 0.36 0.39 0.38 25kg/ha rdf+mgso 4 0.44 0.41 0.45 0.43 50kg/ha rdf+mgso 4 0.39 0.37 0.42 0.40 75kg/ha rdf+mgso 4 0.40 0.39 0.41 0.40 100kg/ha cv (%) 5.48 5.92 5.90 5.88 cd (p=0.05) 0.041 0.042 0.045 0.043 table 7. effect of magnesium application on ascorbic acid (mg/ 100g) content in tomato hybrid arka ananya treatment i year ii year ii harvest iv harvest ii harvest iv harvest control (rdf) 21.84 20.67 21.25 20.17 rdf+mgso 4 27.03 25.70 25.93 25.55 25kg/ha rdf+mgso 4 32.22 30.41 31.41 29.95 50kg/ha rdf+mgso 4 29.34 28.01 29.08 27.67 75kg/ha rdf+mgso 4 28.08 26.75 27.26 26.08 100kg/ha cv (%) 7.39 9.37 7.23 7.63 cd(p=0.05) 5.57 4.64 5.18 5.43 j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):55-59, 2013 kashinath et al 59 bose, p., sanyal, d. and majumdar, k. 2006. balancing potassium, sulphur, and magnesium for tomato and chilli grown on red lateritic soil. better crops. 90:215218 cox, s.e., stushnoff, c. and sampson, d.a. 2003. relationship of fruit color and light exposure to lycopene content and antioxidant properties of tomato. can. j. p. sci., 83:913-919 dumas, y., dadomo, m., dilucca, g. and grolier, p. 2003. effects of environmental factors and agricultural techniques on antioxidant content of tomatoes. j. sci. food agri., 83:369-382 gulshan, l., singh, d.k. and tiwari, 1991, performance of some tomato cultivars during summer in tarai region. veg. sci., 18:99-101 jackson, m.l. 1973. soil chemical analysis. prentice hall of india private limited, new delhi, pp. 498 jean aghofack –nguemezi and valere tatchago, 2010. effects of fertilizers containing calcium and / or magnesium on the growth, development of plants and quality of tomato fruits in the western highlands. cameroon int’l. j. agril. res, 5:821-831 litchtenthaler, h.k. 1987. chlorophyll and carotenoids pigments of photosynthetic biomembrane. methods in enzymology., 148:350-382 mazumdar, b.c. and majumdar, k. 2003. methods on physico-chemical analysis of fruits. daya publishing house. delhi page, a. l., miller, r.h. and keeney, d.r. 1982. methods of soil analysis: part-2. chemical and microbiological properties (2nd ed.), no. 9 (part 2), amer. soc. agron. madison, wisconsin, usa piper, c.s. 1966. soil chemical analysis, prentice hall of india pvt. ltd., new delhi, rosales, m.a, ruiz, j.m., hernadez, j., soriano t., castilla, n. and romero, l. 2006. antioxidant content and ascorbate metabolism in cherry tomato exocarp in relation to temperature and solar radiation. j. sci. food and agri., 86:1545-1551 shibli, r.a., ereifej, k.i., ajlouni. m.a. and hussain, a. 1995. physico-chemical properties of fruits of four open-pollinated tomato (lycopersicon esculentum mill.) cultivars grown under rainfed conditions in jordan. j. food sci. technol., 32:489-492 shukla, a.k., dwivedi, b.s., singh, v.k. and gill, m.s. 2009. macro role of micronutrients. indian j. fert., 5:11-30 subbaiah, b. v. and asija, g. l. 1956. a rapid procedure for the estimation of available nitrogen in soils. curr. sci., 25:259-260 sundaraja, n., nagaraju, venkataramu, m.n. and jaganath, m.k. 1972. design and analysis of field experiments, uas and biostat-iihr bangalore thimmaiah, s.k. 1999. standard methods of biochemical analysis. kalyani publishers, new delhi toor, r.k., savage, g.p. and lister, c.e. 2006. seasonal variations in the antioxidant composition of greenhouse grown tomatoes. j. food comp. anal., 19:1-10 (ms received 09 january 2013, accepted 16 march 2013, revised 10 april 2013) j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):55-59, 2013 effect of magnesium on yield and quality in tomato changes in fruit quality and carotenoid profile in tomato (solanum lycopersicon l.) genotypes under elevated temperature k.s. shivashankara, k.c. pavithra, r.h. laxman, a.t. sadashiva1, t.k. roy and g.a. geetha division of plant physiology and biochemistry icar-indian institute of horticultural research hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru 560 089, india e-mail: shivaiihr@yahoo.com abstract tomato (solanum lycopersicon l.) is a rich source of carotenoids, especially lycopene, and is affected severely by high temperatures under tropical conditions. to study the effect of elevated temperature on lycopene content and other quality parameters, five tomato genotypes, viz., rf4a, abhinava, arka saurabh, iihr 2195 and arka vikas, were grown in a temperature gradient tunnel (tgt) facility under 33.4 and 35.4ºc temperature conditions. fruits were analyzed for total carotenoids, total phenols, total flavonoids, total sugars, tss, acidity, vitamin c besides carotenoids profile (βββββ-carotene, lycopene, phytoene and luteoxanthin content). results revealed that all the quality parameters studied were superior at 33.4ºc, compared to 35.4ºc in all the genotypes. ‘iihr 2195’ recorded highest total phenols (479.28mg/100g dw), total flavonoids (70.27mg/100g dw), ferric reducing antioxidant potential (frap) (310.53mg/100g dw), diphenyl picryl hydrazyl (dpph) radical (487.89mg/100g dw), vitamin c content (292.25mg/ 100g dw) and total sugars (606.88mg/g dw) at 33.4ºc and at 35.4ºc. ‘rf4a’ and ‘arka vikas’ were found to have better total carotenoids content and lycopene at higher temperature than other genotypes. ‘arka vikas’ recorded highest total soluble solids (tss) (8.9ºbrix) and acidity (0.80%) at 35.4ºc. higher tss and acidity were recorded at 35.4ºc than at 33.4ºc in all the five genotypes. genotypic variation was observed in the above stated biochemical parameters in response to elevated temperatures. key words: tomato, tgt, antioxidants, elevated temperature, uplc 1division of vegetable crops, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru 560 089, india introduction global warming is an important issue threatening most horticultural crops, and can lead to serious consequences in food production. tomato, being sensitive to temperature, is likely to be influenced by elevated temperatures under a climate change scenario (laxman et al, 2013). increase in temperature under climate-change circumstances affects crop yield, in turn affecting sustained supply for meeting a growing demand. tomato, an important horticultural crop in india, is currently the second largest vegetable in terms of production. it is one of the most consumed vegetables in the world. tomatoes are rich in bioactive compounds, including carotenoids (lycopene, β-carotene, phytoene and luteoxanthin), ascorbic acid, flavonoids and phenolic compounds (kaur et al, 2013). along with phenols, higher intake of flavonoids, vitamin c and carotenoids has been reported to reduce the risk of many degenerative diseases (agarwal and rao, 2000). optimal mean daily temperatures for tomato lie between 21 and 24°c, depending on the developmental stage (geisenberg and stewart, 1986). supra-optimal temperatures cause a series of complex morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular changes that adversely affect plant growth and productivity (wang et al, 2003). temperature has a significant influence on many aspects of growth and development in tomato. temperature below 16ºc can cause flower abscission, while temperature above 30ºc can cause fruit cracking and blotchy ripening (islam, 2011). impact of high temperature on the plant is not limited to flowering and fruit-set, but also subsequent development and maturity of the fruit, and fruit quality. lee and kader (2000) reported higher vitamin c content in tomato grown under low temperatures than that under high temperature. high temperature also affects biosynthesis of carotenoids, j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):38-43, 2015 39 fruit quality and carotenoids in tomato under elevated temperature especially lycopene (kaur et al, 2013). environmental factors other than temperature, like, plant nutrition and light, can also considerably affect biosynthesis of carotenoids. phenolic acids and flavonols are reported to increase under high temperature conditions in strawberry (wang and zheng, 2001). although sufficient literature is available on fruit quality parameters in different tomato genotypes, studies on varietal response to elevated temperature in terms of fruit quality are scanty and this information is essential to identify varieties suited to a changing climate. therefore, the present experiment was set in a temperature gradient tunnel to study the effect of temperature on fruit quality parameters and carotenoid profile in five tomato genotypes. material and methods the experiment was carried out at icar-indian institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, in a temperature gradient tunnel during the months of october 2011 to february 2012. bengaluru is located at 13º58' n latitude, 78ºe longitude and 890m above mean sea level. five genotypes of tomato (solanum lycopersicon l.), viz., rf4a, abhinava, arka saurabh, iihr 2195 and arka vikas, were selected for the study. twenty-five day old seedlings were transplanted into 20 litre capacity plastic containers filled with soil, fym and sand, in the ratio of 2:1:1. temperature gradient tunnel (tgt) measuring 18m length, 4.5m width and 3m height, covered with a polycarbonate sheet was used in the study. one week after transplanting, the containers were shifted to tgt for imposition of temperature treatments. one set comprising six plants each of the five genotypes was placed near the cooling pad and another set with the same number of plants was placed towards the fan (where the average air temperature was about 2°c higher than at the cooling-pad end). daily temperatures and relative humidity (rh) during fruit growth period recorded inside tgt are shown in fig. 1. the gradient inside tgt was maintained only during daytime, as tgt worked on the pad-and-fan system. since there was no gradient in the night-time minimum temperature, only one value for temperature is indicated (fig. 1). photosynthetically active radiation (par) inside the tgt was about 85% of that of the light outside. the plants were provided with recommended dose of fertilizer, and suitable crop protection measures were applied when required. freshly-harvested, fully ripe fruits were used for analysis. fruits were crushed in a blender and a known quantity of the homogeneous mass was set apart for analysis. quality parameters like tss, % acidity, vitamin c content, total phenols, total flavonoids, frap, dpph, total carotenoids and total sugars were analyzed. total soluble solids (tss) were recorded using a digital refractometer (arko india ltd., model dg-nxt) and expressed in ºbrix. acidity was determined by the titration method (aoac, 942.15) using phenolphthalein as the indicator. acidity was expressed in per cent citric acid equivalent. vitamin c content was determined using 2,6dichlorophenol indophenol (dcpip) method (aoac, 967.21) and calculated as mg ascorbic acid equivalent per 100g dry weight. total phenols present in 80% methanol extract were estimated by folin-ciocalteu method (singleton and rossi, 1965). methanol extract was mixed with fcr reagent and the color developed with 20% sodium carbonate reagent. intensity of color developed was read at 700nm using a spectrophotometer (t80+ uv/vis spectrophotometer, pg instruments ltd., uk). results were expressed in mg gallic acid equivalent per 100g dry weight. total flavonoids content was estimated as per chun et al (2003). flavonoids present in the 80% methanol extract were estimated using 5% nano2 and 10% alcl3. absorbance of the pink mixture was read at 510nm and expressed as mg catechin equivalent per 100g dry weight. antioxidant capacity was measured as frap, using a modified method of benzie and strain (1996). methanol extract (0.2ml) was mixed with 1.8ml frap reagent. intensity of the blue colour that developed was measured at 593nm. total antioxidant capacity (as ferric reducing antioxidant potential) was calculated and the antioxidant capacity was expressed as mg ascorbic acid equivalent antioxidant capacity (aeac) per 100g dry weight. radical-scavenging ability was measured using dpph radical assay of kang and saltveit (2002). a 0.2ml aliquot of methanol extract was mixed with 0.3ml of 10mm acetate buffer (ph 5.5) and 2.5ml methanolic 0.2mm dpph solution. reduction in color due to scavenging of dpph radicals by antioxidants was estimated by reading the absorbance at 517nm. radical-scavenging ability was expressed as weight of the sample required for 50% fig. 1. daily maximum/minimum temperature (°c) and relative humidity (%) during the last 35 days of fruiting season j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):38-43, 2015 40 reduction in dpph radicals. total sugars present in the 80% ethanol extract were estimated using dinitrosalicylic acid method (miller, 1959). a 0.2ml aliquot of extract was mixed with dns reagent and the absorbance read at 540nm, expressed as mg glucose equivalent per gram dry weight using a standard curve. total carotenoids and lycopene content were analyzed by spectrophotometric method (lichtenthaler, 1987). carotenoids were estimated by extracting with acetone, partitioned to hexane, and their absorbance read at 470 and 503nm. standards were used for calibration, and results were expressed as mg per 100g dry weight. carotenoid profile by uplc carotenoid profile was estimated by uplc as per serino et al (2009) with minor modifications. acquity-uplc system from waters (milford, ma, usa) consisting of a quaternary pump, auto sampler injector and pda detector equipped with acquity-uplc beh-c18 column (1.7μm, 2.1x50mm) with beh-c18 (1.7μm, 2.1x5mm) guard column was used. instrument control and data processing were done using mass lynx software. the mobile phase consisted of phase-a acetonitrile:methanol:ethyl acetate (53:7:40) and phase-b methanol. isocratic flow rate of 0.2ml/ min was used in the ratio of a:b (95:5) for 6 min with pda scanning from 200 to 650nm. individual carotenoids were identified by diode array spectral characteristics, retention time and relative elution order compared to standards and values in literature. carotenoids were quantified as β-carotene equivalents. a known quantity (1ml) of hexane extract was evaporated to dryness, and residual carotenoids were dissolved in the mobile phase and filtered through 0.2μm nylon filter prior to ion injecting in uplc for further analysis. the detection was monitored at 450nm for βcarotene, 470nm for lycopene, 286nm for phytoene and 420nm for luteoxanthin. statistical analysis data were subjected to analysis of variance using anova, and, means were compared, with critical difference at p≤0.05. results and discussion changes in fruit quality parameters in five tomato genotypes at two temperature conditions are presented in table 1. tss increased with increase in temperature in all the genotypes (5.6 to 7.2ºbrix) and ranged from 3.8 to 7.1ºbrix at 33.4ºc, and at 35.4ºc, it ranged from 4.5 to 8.9ºbrix. similar trend was observed in per cent acidity too. acidity ranged from 0.34 to 0.68% at 33.4ºc, whereas, at 35.4ºc, the acidity ranged from 0.39 to 0.80%. sugars and acids are important components in tomato fruit flavor (george et al, 2004; kaur et al, 2013). increase in titratable acidity with increase in temperature has been reported (khanal, 2012). among genotypes, arka vikas recorded the highest tss (8.9ºbrix) and acidity (0.80%) at 35.4ºc. higher temperature is known to enhance soluble solids level in relation to ambient temperature conditions (gunawardhana and de silva, 2011; khanal, 2012). table 1. changes in fruit quality parameters of five tomato genotypes at two temperature conditions genotype mean tss acidity vitamin c total total frap dpph total total temperature (ºbrix) (%) (mg/100g phenols flavonoids (mg/100g (mg/100g carotenoids sugars during dw) (mg/100g (mg/100g dw) dw) (mg/100g (mg/g fruiting stage dw) dw) dw) dw) rf4a 33.4ºc 5.9 0.53 265.68 344.51 44.63 209.34 321.56 270.36 375.91 35.4ºc 7.1 0.66 272.49 378.99 45.06 160.37 306.32 191.97 366.21 abhinava 33.4ºc 6.1 0.46 272.06 361.73 42.83 202.06 310.16 228.98 423.03 35.4ºc 8.6 0.66 263.70 377.48 43.21 168.35 293.08 136.14 221.03 arka saurabh 33.4ºc 3.8 0.34 225.94 336.88 33.03 198.39 315.28 269.14 403.99 35.4ºc 4.5 0.39 258.59 419.68 45.52 191.93 318.73 176.74 264.38 iihr 2195 33.4ºc 4.9 0.46 292.25 479.28 70.27 310.53 487.89 205.13 606.88 35.4ºc 6.8 0.64 271.63 461.61 66.88 231.92 415.20 155.45 379.79 arka vikas 33.4ºc 7.1 0.68 226.19 352.64 49.66 208.72 343.55 197.33 347.23 35.4ºc 8.9 0.80 212.87 436.62 64.40 192.90 377.65 158.24 254.68 mean 33.4ºc 5.6 0.49 256.42 375.01 48.08 225.81 355.69 234.19 431.41 35.4ºc 7.2 0.63 255.86 414.88 53.01 189.09 342.20 163.71 297.22 cd for varieties (v) (p≤0.05) 0.02 0.01 1.98 1.67 0.82 1.36 1.40 0.81 1.86 cd for temperature (t) (p≤0.05) 0.01 0.01 ns 0.67 0.33 0.55 0.56 0.32 0.74 cd for v x t (p≤0.05) 0.05 0.03 3.96 3.34 1.64 2.73 2.80 1.62 3.72 ns= non-significant shivashankara et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):38-43, 2015 41 vitamin c content did not show significant differences among the two temperature treatments. however, among genotypes, iihr 2195 and rf4a recorded higher vitamin c content at 33.4ºc and 35.4ºc respectively compared to other genotypes. total phenols and flavonoids increased with increase in temperature in all the genotypes (375.01 to 414.88 and 48.08 to 53.01 mg/100g dw for total phenols and total flavonoids respectively). higher total phenols and flavonoids were observed in cv. iihr 2195. phenolic substances are reported to have a protective effect on ascorbic acid (toor and savage, 2006). therefore, presence of phenolics and flavonoids in tomato cells may have helped maintain ascorbic acid level. ferreyra et al (2007) also reported ascorbic acid level to be not significantly affected by temperature during the growth season. wang and zheng (2001) found elevated growth temperature of 30ºc to significantly enhance the content of phenolic acids and flavonols in strawberry. accumulation of phenolics at higher growth temperature has been reported in other crops too (wang, 2006; toor et al, 2006). total antioxidant capacity and radical-scavenging ability were assessed using frap and dpph methods respectively. all the genotypes recorded significantly higher frap and dpph at 33.4ºc. among genotypes, higher frap and dpph values were recorded in iihr 2195 at both 33.4ºc and 35.4ºc. ‘rf4a’ and ‘abhinava’ recorded lower frap values at 35.4ºc compared to other genotypes. ‘abhinava’ recorded lower dpph values at both 33.4ºc and 35.4ºc. all the genotypes recorded higher total sugars at 33.4ºc than at 35.4ºc. iihr 2195 recorded the highest total sugars (606.88mg/g dw) at 33.4ºc. temperature changes are known to affect fruit maturation and growth through influencing regulation of the enzymes acid invertase and sucrose synthase or cell-expansion and division and regulation of sugar transport into the fruit (fleisher et al, 2006). gautier et al (2005) reported decrease in sugar content in cherry tomato when fruit temperatures increased. sugar content in purple passionfruit juice was highest at low growth temperature, and lowest at high growth temperature. more sucrose accumulated at low temperature, while glucose and fructose content increased at higher temperature (utsunomiya, 1992). all these studies support our observations in tomato. in the present study, all the genotypes studied recorded higher total carotenoids and lycopene content at 33.4ºc than at 35.4ºc. carotenoid profiles indicated that β-carotene, lycopene, phytoene and luteoxanthin content was greater at 33.4ºc in all genotypes. temperature had a significant influence on total carotenoids and lycopene content. high temperature may lead to degradation of lycopene (demiray et al, 2013), in addition to a reduced synthesis (helyes et al, 2007). temperatures greater than 30ºc lead to inhibition of lycopene synthesis in normal red cultivars of tomato and synthesis is restored when the temperature drops below 30ºc. these temperature effects vary with the tomato cultivar (garcia and barrett, 2006). temperatures below 12ºc strongly inhibit lycopene biosynthesis, while temperatures over 32ºc stop this process altogether (dumas et al, 2003). temperature during fruit ripening plays a more important role in lycopene biosynthesis than it does during fruit growth period. fig. 2 shows chromatograms of tomato carotenoids at 33.4ºc and 35.4ºc. all the carotenoid pigments under study diminished at 35.4ºc in all five genotypes (table 2). greatest reduction was observed in two major pigments, lycopene and phytoene. however, reduction was lower in ‘rf4a’ and ‘arka vikas’. higher reduction was noticed in ‘abhinava’. in conclusion, changes in fruit quality parameters in five tomato genotypes under elevated temperature were studied under tgt. variations were observed among tomato genotypes for fruit quality parameters at elevated temperature. increase in temperature improved tss and per cent acidity, but decreased total carotenoids, lycopene fig. 2. uplc chromatograms of carotenoids in tomato fruit extract. chromatogram a represents carotenoid profiling at 33.4°c (maximum temperature near the cooling pad) and chromatogram b represents carotenoid profiling at 35.4°c (maximum temperature towards the fan). peaks identified are: (1) luteoxanthin, (2) lycopene, (3) βββββ-carotene and (4) phytoene j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):38-43, 2015 fruit quality and carotenoids in tomato under elevated temperature 42 and total sugars in all the genotypes studied. among the genotypes, iihr 2195 was found to be better in terms of total phenols, total flavonoids, frap, dpph and total sugars at 33.4ºc, as also at 35.4ºc. ‘arka vikas’ was found to be high in tss and per cent acidity at 33.4ºc. rf4a and arka vikas were found to be good at maintaining lycopene level at elevated temperature, compared to the other genotypes. genotype iihr 2195 is recommended for cultivation at elevated temperatures. acknowledgement this work was carried out under a project entitled “national initiative on climate resilient agriculture (nicra)”, indian council of agricultural research (icar), new delhi. the authors are grateful to director, iihr, bengaluru, for providing necessary facilities. references agarwal, s. and rao, a.v. 2000. tomato 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data on phytoene, lycopene, βββββ-carotene and luteoxanthin in five tomato genotypes at two different temperature conditions genotype phytoene lycopene β-carotene luteoxanthin (mg/100g dw) (mg/100g dw) (mg/100g dw) (mg/100g dw) 33.4ºc 35.4ºc % 33.4ºc 35.4ºc % 33.4ºc 35.4ºc % 33.4ºc 35.4ºc % increase/ increase/ increase/ increase/ decrease decrease decrease decrease over over over over 33.4ºc 33.4ºc 33.4ºc 33.4ºc rf4a 29.20 27.05 -7.35 174.38 130.43 -25.20 11.38 5.95 -47.70 4.48 4.94 10.36 abhinava 67.02 35.10 -47.64 150.65 88.91 -40.98 8.11 6.20 -23.52 3.88 2.17 -44.16 arka saurabh 29.74 17.67 -40.58 175.54 121.34 -30.87 5.74 3.67 -36.09 5.01 2.95 -41.20 iihr 2195 36.67 19.25 -47.49 131.46 88.38 -32.77 7.69 3.69 -52.06 4.03 2.23 -44.57 arka vikas 30.08 17.64 -41.37 146.46 122.61 -16.29 4.39 5.22 18.67 3.43 1.61 -53.19 mean 38.54 23.34 170.78 122.65 7.46 4.94 4.17 2.78 cd for varieties 0.40 2.68 0.46 0.13 (v) (p≤0.05) cd for temperature 0.16 1.07 0.18 0.05 (t) (p≤0.05) cd for v x t 0.80 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dinitrosalicylic acid reagent for determination of reducing sugars. anal. chem., 31:426-428 serino, s., gomez, l., costagliola, g. and gautier, h. 2009. hplc assay of tomato carotenoids: validation of a rapid micro-extraction technique. j. agri. food chem., 57:8753-8760 singleton, v.l. and rossi, j.a. jr. 1965. colorimetry of total phenolics with phosphomolybdic-phosphotungstic acid reagents. amer. j. enol. viticult., 16:144-158 toor, r.k. and savage, g.p. 2006. changes in major antioxidant components of tomatoes during postharvest storage. food chem., 99:724-727 toor, r.k., savage, g.p. and lister, c.e. 2006. seasonal variations in the antioxidant composition of greenhouse grown tomatoes. j. food comp. anal., 19:1-10 utsunomiya, n. 1992. effect of temperature on shoot growth, flowering and fruit growth of purple passion fruit (passiflora edulis sims var. edulis). sci. hort., 52:63-68 wang, s.y. 2006. effect of pre-harvest conditions on antioxidant capacity in fruits. acta hort., 712:299305 wang, s.y. and zheng, w. 2001. effect of plant growth temperature on antioxidant capacity in strawberry. j. agril. food chem., 49:4977-4982 wang, w., vinocur, b. and altman, a. 2003. plant responses to drought, salinity and extreme temperatures: towards genetic engineering for stress tolerance. planta, 218:1-14 (ms received 24 november 2014, revised 30 april 2015, accepted 15 may 2015) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):38-43, 2015 fruit quality and carotenoids in tomato under elevated temperature 85 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 85-87, 2017 low cost potato warehouse facility for karnataka: a success story shahid ali*1, b b kumar2, c m kalleshwara swamy2, m s kadian1, b v ramakrishna1 and brajesh singh3 1international potato center (cip), nasc complex, iari campus, dps marg, pusa, new delhi 110 012 2university of agricultural and horticultural sciences, shivamogga, karnataka 3central potato research institute (cpri), shimla, h.p. *e-mail: s.ali@cgiar.org abstract karnataka is one of the important potato growing states in peninsular india. potato is mainly cultivated in hassan, belgaum, chikkaballapur, chickmagalur, kolar, bangalore rural and dharwad districts. it is grown as rain-fed kharif crop in hassan, belgaum, chickmagalur and dharwad districts and as rabi crop in chickmagalur, chikkaballapur, kolar and bangalore rural districts under protective irrigation. due to non-availability of quality planting material to karnataka farmers, potato productivity is limited. seed imported from north india (punjab) is very expensive and incur about 50% of total production cost and small and marginal farmers cannot afford to procure quality seed every year as no certified seed is being produced locally. international potato center (cip) has recommended an innovative low cost ware house facility as a model during 2014 and 2016 to retain farmers’ seed for subsequent planting seasons saving their seed input cost by 40%. key words: warehouse, potato, low cost technology, cip karnataka produces 5,89,120 mtof potato cultivated in an area of 44,160 ha with productivity of 15.73 tons per ha (anonymous, 2015) and has a ready market within and neighboring states. the potato grown in southern peninsular region gets high market price as this potato is used by processing industry. due to lack of cold storage facility in the state, potato growers are compelled to sell off their produce at throw away prices and this is one of the reason the acreage under potato cultivation has been drastically reduced during last decade. however, the traditional and non-scientific storage practice like heaps and pits usually result in significant loss up to 40% by soil radiation, pests/ diseases, undesirable and early sprouting (mehta et al. 2007). the objective of this study was to demonstrate the use of low cost warehouse in karnataka by cip store fresh harvested table potatoes for short time and seed potatoes for long time storage in the hill zone of karnataka. two low cost diffused light wooden potato ware houses were constructed with the structure size of 8x8x10 and 10x10x10 ft by using locally available areca logs with thatched roofing and racks are made with low cost forest wood planks atkerkepete village and krishi vigyan kendra (kvk), mudigere of chickmagalur district (fig 1&2). the storage capacity of the warehouses are 3.0 and 4.5 tones and total construction cost incurred was rs. 25,000/ and rs. 30700/ respectively. the breeder (certified) seed of kufri jyoti variety procured from central potato research institute (cpri), shimla was planted in june, 2014 and ha r vested dur ing september inkharif 2014 in kerkepete village. it was sorted/graded and treated with 3 per cent boric acid for 30 minutes and tubers were stored in the potato warehouse after shade drying covered with the chopped dried leaves of lantana camara to avoid the infestation of storage pests like potato tuber moth (singh et al, 2009). short communication 86 potato ware houses at kerkepete village and kvk, mudigere, chickmagalur fig.1. front view of the ware houses fig.2. potato seed kept in three tiers in the ware houses j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 85-87, 2017 ali et al after three months of storage the well sprouted medium sized tuber s of var iety k. jyoti wer e planted in small plots of 500m2 as an experiment in the chickmagalur and chikkaballapur areas during subsequent rabi season (2014-15) and 20-25 per cent more yield over the farmers’ seed procured from the apmc was recorded. the productivity in chickmagalur was little lower (19.4 t/ha) than the c hikka ba lla p u r ( 2 5 . 6 t / ha ) . t he t r ia ls wer e undertaken in the farmers’ fields to educate and encourage small and marginal potato growers for using seed stored in the country potato warehouse in chickmagalur disrict. the field day was also organized by cip and about 120 potato growers were trained on seed potato production and short t ime ta b le a nd seed p ota to low cost st or a ge technology at kerkepete village of chickmagalur district. the rabi season (2014-15) seed harvested from chickmagalur and chikkaballapur was sorted/graded and treated with 3 per cent boric acid and well dried seed was stored back in the ware houses in month of march, 2015 covered with chopped lantana leaves and same seed was planted at college of horticulture campus, mudigere in ½ an acre during kharif 2015 under rain-fed condition. the crop was planted during june, 2015 and harvested during september, 2015. the yield of k. jyoti was recoded 25t/ha which is significantly higher than the karnataka state average of 15.73 t/ha. the seed harvested from college of horticulture campus was stored in the ware house at kerkepete village and distributed to the potato growers during ensuing season in chickmagalur and tarikere taluks of chickmagalur districts for further multiplication gave satisfactory yields. 87 j. hortl. sci. vol. 12(1) : 85-87, 2017 low cost potato warehouse facility anon., 2015. national horticulture board data base (final area & production estimates for horticulture crops) 2014-15 (http://nhb.gov.in/ misdailyareaproduction.aspx?enc=3zoo8k5czcdc/ yq6hcdixc0u1kzzenfunvxacdlxz28=) mehta, a., ezekiel, r., singh b., kumar, d. and pandey s.k. 2007. modified heap and pit storage for table and processing potatoes. cpri technical bulletin no. 82. references singh, b., burman, r.r.,tiewla, d. and ramani, s. 2009. postharvest handling and storage practice in north-east region: present status and suggested improvisations insovenir: golden jubilee celebrations, on 7-8 may, 2009 cprs, shillong, megahalaya (india), pp. 1-6. (ms received 07 may 2016, revised 03 april 2017, accepted 12 may 2017) the breeder seed of varieties k.jyoti and k. himalini was procured from cpri, modipuram, u.p. during 2016 was stored at kvk, mudigere for sprouting and well sprouted tubers were planted at college of horticulture campus during kharif and harvested in september 2016. the yield of k.jyoti and k. himalini was recorded 24.2 t/ha and 18.6 t/ha respectively which was significantly higher than the state productivity .the harvested tubers were sorted/ graded and treated with 3 per cent boric acid and well dried seed was stored in the ware house at kvk, mudigere. the seed harvested in september 2016 was stored in the warehouse at kvk, mudigere for quite a long time to see the physiology when stored more than six months. the well sprouted tubers of both the variety was planted at college of horticulture on 19’th june, 2017 and a good germination and crop growth is recorded. with this innovative technology the farmers can afford to store their fresh harvest up to three months on their farms in low cost ware house and sell when market situation becomes favorable.the potato seed can be retained and used for at least three subsequent seasons without any seed replacement. by using this low-cost ware house facility, karnataka farmers will be able to retain good quality farm seed potato thereby saving approximately40 percent of potato seed cost every year. there is an ample scope to promote short time storage structure at farm level made-out of locally available material for augmenting small and marginal farmers’ income and food security. the farmers can store their seed potato up to six months without any significant loss and the same stock can be used as planting material for subsequent seasons saving their seed input cost. 00 content jh june 2017.pdf 00 sph-journal november new 12.pdf 01 sph-journal november new 01.pdf 02 sph-journal november new 04.pdf 03 sph-journal november new 05.pdf 04 sph-journal november new 07.pdf 05 sph-journal november new 09.pdf 06 sph-journal november new 10.pdf 07 sph-journal november new 11.pdf 08 sph-journal november new 13.pdf 09 sph-journal november new 03.pdf 10 sph-journal november new 06.pdf 11 sph-journal november new 08.pdf j. hortl. sci. vol. 7(2):134-137, 2012 effect of paclobutrazol application on nutrient dynamics, vigour and fruit yield in ‘alphonso’ mango (mangifera indica l.) s.c. kotur division of soil science and agricultural chemistry indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore 560 089, india e-mail: sckotur@gmail.com abstract application of paclobutrazol to 22 year-old ‘alphonso’ mango trees significantly retarded plant height, plant spread and tree volume. number of flushes and vigour of emerging new flush also decreased significantly besides production of fewer leaves, reduced leaf area, twig length and dry matter content. fruit yield increased significantly in trees receiving paclobutrazol treatment, compared to ‘control’ trees in all four years of study. this increase was distinctly higher during the on-years 2005 and 2007 by 133% and 77%, respectively, over ‘control’ due to more profuse flowering and fruit-set. differences in mineral composition of various tree parts were significant except for n and p content. paclobutrazol application caused significant increase in ca, mg and mn content in the leaf. substantial reduction observed in dry matter content and reduced leaf area accompanied by greater removal of nutrients by increased fruit production under paclobutrazol, application may weaken the tree significantly. the trees would then need proper and adequate nutrient management vis-à-vis untreated trees, to achieve sustainable productivity. key words: ‘alphonso’ mango, mangifera indica l., nutrient dynamics, tree vigour, yield, paclobutrazol introduction paclobutrazol application is recommended as a potent measure to induce regular bearing in ‘alphonso’ mango where alternate bearing is an observed phenomenon. substantial physiological changes in the tree, such as, inhibited growth of meristem, thickened roots and decreased root length are known to be induced by paclobutrazol ([2rs, 3rs]-1-[-chlorophenyl]-4, -4-dmethyl-2-[1, 2, 4-triazol-1-yl] pent-3-ol) application (blaike et al, 2004). singh (2000) envisaged paclobutrazol as the best bet to reduce tree vigour, promote flowering, increase fruit-set and yield in ‘dushehri’ mango. earlier studies on 19-year old productive mango trees during the late rainy season (kotur, 2006) have shown that active roots substantially bunch towards the trunk and soilsurface with paclobutrazol application, as against untreated ‘control’ trees. therefore, effect of this growth retardant was studied on vigour, fruit yield and nutrient dynamics within a tree in 22-year old ‘alphonso’ mango trees. material and methods ‘alphonso’ mango (mangifera indica l.) trees were raised under rain-fed condition on a red sandy-loam (typic haplustalf) soil having a textural b t horizon at 20cm+ depth (>41% clay) overlying a loamy layer (11-14% clay). the soil had ph 5.7, organic carbon 0.3%, cation exchange capacity 8.7 cmol(p+)/kg and bray-i p 20µg/g soil. of the 40 uniform, productive mango trees, 20 were treated twice with paclobutrazol @3.75 a.i/tree in 10 concentric holes, 30cm deep at 1.5m distance from the trunk. the first application was in september 2004, and the second in september 2007, when the soil was sufficiently moist. the trees received 800g of n, 200g of p and 700g of k, applied in two equal splits each year in june (pre-monsoon) and september (post-monsoon). fruit yield was recorded in 10 uniform plants each, from the two set of trees spanning the period 2005 to 2008 in both ‘control’ and paclobutrazol treated plants. the years 2005 and 2007 were on-years, while 2006 and 2008 were off-years under the alternatebearing cycle of ‘alphonso’ mango trees. twigs of the new flush were collected from the same trees to record number of flushes and their vigour during july 2007. height and spread of the tree (east-west and north-south) were recorded in december 2008 in the same trees. tree volume was calculated assuming the crown to be spheroid. data were analyzed using completely randomized design, with 10 replications. in another study, four trees each (being replications in a factorial experiment) from two sets of 135 ‘control’ and paclobutrazol-treated trees (being factor-1) were further sampled to monitor nutrient dynamics within a whole plant, in seven parts (from root to leaf, being factor2) during july 2007. in these trees, samples from root, trunk and the primary branch were drawn using a screw-hole auger. the samples from secondary branch to leaf were collected from a secondary branch that was selected at random and severed from the tree. the branch was separated into secondary, tertiary and quaternary branches, twig and leaf. representative samples were collected from each separately, washed, dried in a draft air oven for 72h at 70ºc. these were then powdered and analyzed for mineral nutrient content using standard analytical procedures chapman and pratt (1961). results and discussion growth and fruit-yield growth and twig properties: application of paclobutrazol caused significant retardation in tree growth and vigour (table 1) in terms of plant height, plant spread and tree volume. it also significantly reduced number of flushes and vigour of the new flush. new twigs showed fewer leaves, reduced leaf area, shorter twigs and reduced dry matter. these results are in agreement with reports of kulkarni (1988) and kurien and iyer (1993). the latter workers also observed that the retardant effect of paclobutrazol was superior to that of cycocel and alar. in peach (prunus persica l.), falcon et al (1998) observed 40% reduction in leaf area and 29% lower dry matter content under paclobutrazol treatment. fruit yield: fruit yield increased significantly in all four years of study in trees receiving paclobutrazol treatment (table 2). similar increase in fruit yield has been reported by kulkarni (1988), voon et al (1991) and burondkar and gunjate (1993). the increase, however, was distinctly higher during the on-years 2005 and 2007 (133% and 77% respectively) over ‘control’ due to more profuse flowering and fruit-set. mean increase was 86%. during the off-years 2006 and 2008, the corresponding enhancement in fruit yield owing to paclobutrazol application was 51% and 55% respectively over ‘control’. mean increase was 54% nutritional composition of the tree effect of paclobutrazol treatment: differences in nutrient composition in different parts of the mango tree with application of paclobutrazol compared to untreated ‘control’ were not significant in respect of n and p (table 3). paclobutrazol treated trees showed significantly higher content of k, ca, s, mn and zn, while, ‘control’ trees showed higher content of mg, fe and cu. nutrient content in different parts of mango tree: earlier studies have been confined to nutrient composition of the leaf (reiger, 1990; werner, 1993). in this study, total nutrient content varied widely in different parts of the mango tree and, significantly, in respect of individual nutrients. four characteristic regions were apparent within a tree (table 3). leaf and quaternary branch, among various parts of the tree, showed distinctly higher contents, of most nutrients. tertiary, secondary and primary branches showed either low or intermediate nutrient content. trunk contained significantly higher amount of nutrients compared to the tertiary and primary branches. root, in contrast, showed nutrient content close to that in trunk. between ‘control’ and paclobutrazol treated trees, n, p, fe, zn and cu content did not differ significantly, while, ca, mg and s content, the table 1. traits for vigour in ‘alphonso’ mango trees influenced by paclobutrazol application treatment tree height tree spread tree number of length of leaf area/ dry weight/ number of (m) (m) volume (m3) leaves/twig twig (cm) shoot (cm2) shoot (g) flushes/tree control 4.25 7.67 130.93 16 14.4 847 2.43 310 paclobutrazol 3.58 6.77 84.48 13 11.1 496 1.40 159 sem (±) 0.140 0.259 9.738 0.4 0.46 46.6 0.087 9.2 cd (p=0.05) 0.415 0.769 28.791 1.2 1.35 138.4 0.258 27.2 table 2. fruit yield (kg/tree) during onand off-years in ‘alphonso’ mango treatment 2005 2006 2007 2008 mean of mean of (on-year) (off-year) (on-year) (off-year) on-years off-years control 79.4 18.6 59.6 35.2 75.6 26.9 paclobutrazol 185.1 28.0 105.2 54.7 140.3 41.5 sem (±) 8.60 1.56 6.10 3.17 6.52 1.82 cd (p=0.05) 25.54 4.64 18.13 9.41 19.37 5.40 j. hortl. sci. vol. 7(2):134-137, 2012 effect of paclobutrazol on nutrient dynamics in mango 136 latter trees showed distinctly higher amount of nutrients in different tree parts. application of paclobutrazol caused significantly higher content of ca, mg, s, mn and zn in our study. werner (1993) reported increased n, ca, mn, zn and b, and reduced p, k and cu content, in ‘blanco’ mango leaves. in peach, reiger (1990) noted significant increases in ca, mg, b and mn content with concomitant reduction of n, p, k, fe and mo in the leaf. further, these workers observed that magnitude of these changes was proportional to the degree of growth-suppression. interaction effects: nitrogen and p content was at par in ‘control’ and paclobutrazol treated trees, except in the quaternary branch that showed significantly higher values when paclobutrazol was applied (table 4). in the case of k, ca, mg and s, paclobutrazol treated trees showed significantly higher values than ‘control’ trees in all plant parts. paclobutrazol, as a growth retardant, affected the extent of flushing and vigour of trees which, over a period of three years, substantially reduced tree volume and tree biomass. in perennial trees, framework of a tree (consisting of the trunk and branches of different order) serve as a reservoir of energy and nutrients. the current status of foliar, floral and fruit growth is largely dependent on nutrients remobilized from this important reserve of the tree. significant reduction in the biomass of a permanent part of the tree, therefore, results in a definite reduction of tree vigour, particularly, when the active roots become shrunk and withdrawn towards the trunk and soil surface (kotur, 2006). in other words, reduced root volume and root activity, table 3. effect of paclobutrazol on mineral composition of different plant parts in ‘alphonso’ trees treatment/ plant part n(%) p(%) k(%) ca(%) mg(%) s(%) fe (µg/g) mn(µg/g) zn(µg/g) cu(µg/g) effect of application of paclobutrazol control 0.39 0.084 1.03 3.82 1.38 0.04 129 38 11.0 43.0 paclobutrazol 0.39 0.085 1.02 5.57 0.93 0.06 113 54 13.7 39.1 sem (±) 0.006 0.0019 0.024 0.121 0.033 0.001 3.6 1.1 0.26 1.35 cd (p=0.05) ns ns 0.069 0.346 0.094 0.002 10.3 3.2 0.76 3.85 mineral composition of different parts of the tree leaf 0.49 0.09 0.06 7.00 2.21 0.13 100 135 22.0 5.6 quaternary branch 0.48 0.18 1.92 5.84 1.02 0.06 53 50 24.8 9.5 tertiary branch 0.35 0.10 0.86 4.25 0.94 0.03 74 25 8.3 2.6 secondary branch 0.40 0.05 0.84 3.68 0.77 0.03 63 20 5.9 11.7 primary branch 0.38 0.05 0.90 3.74 0.87 0.03 99 22 7.3 53.3 trunk 0.35 0.07 1.04 4.89 1.26 0.03 158 37 10.7 129.6 root 0.31 0.05 0.90 3.46 0.99 0.03 302 33 7.4 75.1 sem (±) 0.001 0.004 0.045 0.226 0.061 0.002 6.7 2.1 0.50 2.52 cd (p=0.05) 0.031 0.010 0.128 0.648 0.176 0.005 19.3 6.0 1.42 7.20 table 4. interaction effect of paclobutrazol application on mineral composition in different parts of ‘alphonso’ mango tree plant part n(%) p(%) k(%) ca(%) mg(%) s(%) fe (µg/g) mn(µg/g) zn(µg/g) cu(µg/g) c p c p c p c p c p c p c p c p c p c p leaf 0.50 0.48 0.10 0.09 1.05 1.07 5.29 8.72 1.64 2.79 0.10 0.16 103 98 113 156 22.2 21.7 6.4 4.8 quaternary 0.43 0.52 0.15 0.21 1.36 2.48 4.52 7.16 1.33 0.71 0.05 0.08 51 54 37 63 20.5 29.1 8.0 11.0 branch tertiary 0.34 0.35 0.09 0.10 0.70 1.01 3.73 4.77 1.30 0.59 0.03 0.03 80 68 21 30 7.8 8.9 3.0 2.2 branch secondary 0.39 0.40 0.05 0.06 0.83 0.86 2.80 4.56 1.13 0.43 0.02 0.03 59 67 18 22 5.4 6.5 19.4 4.0 branch primary 0.36 .41 0.05 0.04 0.98 0.81 2.46 5.03 1.18 0.57 0.02 0.03 130 68 18 27 6.9 7.8 40.7 65.8 branch trunk 0.35 0.34 0.09 0.06 1.17 1.51 5.90 3.89 1.65 0.87 0.02 0.04 174 141 29 46 8.2 13.2 92.1 93.1 root 0.37 0.24 0.07 0.03 1.12 0.68 2.43 4.88 1.43 0.54 0.04 0.01 306 298 33 33 6.4 8.5 131.6 92.5 sem (±) 0.015 0.005 0.06 0.320 0.087 0.003 9.5 2.9 0.70 3.65 cd (p=0.05) 0.044 0.014 0.181 0.916 0.249 0.007 27.3 8.4 2.01 10.18 c = control; p = paclobutazol application j. hortl. sci. vol. 7(2):134-137, 2012 kotur 137 in conjunction with reduced leaf area, may limit the quantum of nutrients absorbed by a tree, and also adversely affect photosynthetic activity in a tree. notwithstanding this, persistent, enhanced fruit yield was observed throughout the four years of this study (2005-2008) due to paclobutrazol treatment, especially, during the on-years (2005 and 2007). this places considerable demand on nutrients removed by the fruits, that add to the overall stress placed on trees. significant changes in composition of different parts of the tree, due to paclobutrazol treatment, reflect this condition. under the circumstances, to maintain high yields in placlobutrazol-treated mango trees, adequate input of nutrient, irrigation and generally good tree-maintenance is warranted (voon et al, 1991). since the permanent framework of the tree including trunk and branches of different order play an important role in supplying seasonal growth of leaves, flowers and fruits it is necessary to keep the associated nutrient reserves of the tree well-supplied (kotur and keshava murthy, 2010). to ensure usefulness of application paclobutrazol (to overcome alternate bearing and sustain fruit yield of mango), there is an imminent need to standardize nutrient management by application of fertilizers close to the trunk (in the zone of high root activity) and, perhaps to apply a higher dose of manures and fertilizers to compensate for nutrients removed by high fruit-yield. acknowledgement the author is grateful to director, indian institute of horticultural research, bangalore, for providing facilities and to shri n.k. kacker, technical officer, for technical assistance. references burondkar, m.m. and gunjate, r.t. 1993. control of vegetative growth and induction of early and regular cropping in ‘alphonso’with paclobutrazol. acta hort., 341:206-215 chapman, h.d. and pratt, p.f. 1961. methods of analysis for soils, plants and waters. division of agricultural sciences, university of california, the united states of america. kotur, s.c. 2006. effect of paclobutrazol on root activity of mango (mangifera indica). ind. j. agril. sci., 76:143-144 kotur, s.c. and keshavamurthy, s.v. 2010. nutrient dynamics of annual growth flush in mango (mangifera indica). j. hortl. sci., 5:75-80 kulkarni, v.j. 1988. chemical control of tree vigour and promotion of flowering and fruiting in mango (mangifera indica l.) using paclobutrazol. j. hortl. sci., 63:557-566 kurien, r.m. and iyer, c.p.a. 1993. chemical regulation of tree size in mango (mangifera indica l.) cv. alphonso. i. effects of growth retardant on vegetative growth and tree vigour. j. hortl. sci., 68:349-354 singh, s. 2000. effect of (2rs-3rs) paclobutrazol on tree vigour, flowering, fruit set and yield in mango. acta hort., 525:459-462 voon, c.h., pitakpaivan, c. and tan, s.j. 1991. mango cropping manipulation with cultar. acta hort., 291:219-228 werner, h. 1993. influence of paclobutrazol on growth and leaf nutrient content of mango (cv. blanco). acta hort., 341:225-261 (ms received 13 february 2012, revised 14 november, 2012) j. hortl. sci. vol. 7(2):134-137, 2012 effect of paclobutrazol on nutrient dynamics in mango heat tolerance genes, namely, heat-shock proteins (hsp) play a vital role in stress tolerance. these are a class of functionally related proteins involved in folding and unfolding of other proteins. their expression increases when cells are exposed to elevated temperatures. this increase in expression is transcriptionally regulated. the dramatic upregulation of heat shock proteins is a key part of the heatshock response and is induced primarily by the heat shock factor. hsps are found in virtually all living organisms, including plants. many hsps function as molecular chaperones where these direct a protein into a particular pathway by excluding alternate pathways. hsps plays a critical role in protein-protein interactions (such as folding) and assist in establishing of proper protein-shape conformation (ellis, 1993; georgopoulos and welch, 1993; welch, 1993). high levels of heat-shock proteins were produced by exposure to different kinds of environmental stresses, including ultraviolet light, nitrogen deficiency and water deprivation. thus, heat-shock proteins are also referred to evidence for molecular evolutionary conservedness of small heat-shock protein sequence in solanaceaeous crops using in silico methods m.k. chandra prakash, reena rosy thomas1, m. krishna reddy2 and sukhada mohandas3 section of economics and statistics, indian institute of horticultural research hessaraghatta, bangalore 560 089, india e-mail : mk_chandraprakash@yahoo.com abstract drought and heat contribute to much of the yield decline in agricultural lands all over the world. the basic physiological responses developed against drought and heat stress overlie each other, as; both these stresses eventually lead to dehydration of the cell and to osmotic imbalance. to cope with abiotic stresses, it is necessary to understand plant responses to stresses that disturb homeostatic equilibrium at the cellular and molecular level. although there has been remarkable progress in this with development of microarray-based expression profiling methods (together with genomic sequence data), understanding on ways to employ these data to engineer plants with improved stresstolerance is still at a nascent stage. however, these data can be used for discovering genes, functional microsatellites and regulatory elements using in silico methods. in this context, single nucleotide repeat marker sequences have been identified which is associated with small heat-shock protein sequence (shsp) for heat tolerance in capsicum annuum. these shsp sequences have some structural features in common; its characteristic is that it is homologous and highly conserved. these sequences have been analyzed for molecular evolutionary conservedness in solanaceaeous crops and have been found to have a single nucleotide repeat sequence and a highly conserved shsp sequence. key words: small heat-shock protein (shsp), evolutionary, conserved, solanaceae, markers j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):82-87, 2013 short communication as stress proteins. hsps range in size from about 16 to over 100kda (vierling, 1991; waters et al, 1996) and are classified into five groups based on molecular weight and function. heat-shock proteins are named according to their molecular weight. for example, hsp60, hsp70 and hsp90 (the most widely-studied hsps) refer to families of heatshock proteins of the order of 60, 70, and 90kda size. the small hsp (shsp), or hsp20, family of heat-stress proteins is a nearly ubiquitous family of stress proteins that range in size from approximately 16–42kda (scharf et al, 2001). increased expression of these under heat-shock conditions and their protective effect on cell viability at elevated temperatures suggests that these may have a function in formation or maintenance of native conformation of the proteins (jakob et al, 1993). during high-temperature stress, molecular chaperones are believed to act by preventing irreversible protein denaturation harmful to the cell (parsell and lindquist, 1993). 1project co-ordinator (tropical fruits) cell 2division of plant pathology 3division of biotechnology 83 small heat-shock protein sequence in solanaceaeous crops genome sequence of the solanaceae crops, i.e., solanum lycopersicum, and capsicum annuum has been explored for abiotic-stress tolerance genes using several in silico methods. the est collection of capsicum annuum and solanum lycopersicum database (approximately 33,875 sequences in capsicum annuum and 2,65,760 sequences in solanum lycopersicum) has been explored for repeat sequences. good quality repeat sequences of around 2500 in capsicum annuum and 12900 in solanum lycopersicum have been identified. these sequences are subjected to several in silico methods for identifying conserved sequences. a sequence of 314bp in capsicum annuum has shown a high degree of similarity with sequences in several solanaceous crops. the sequence has been identified as a small heat-shock protein sequence in capsicum annuum, having single nucleotide repeat (snp) that could be a potential unique marker for heat-shock protein sequence. further, the sequence has been blasted against embl nucleotide sequence database and the result is presented in fig 1. fig 1. the above figure shows the most homologous sequences on top (shown in red) and the less similar ones (in blue). sequence-match and subject-match are shown on the left side and right side, respectively. the sequence in red colour has zero error values (e values) while the sequence in blue colour has a small error value of 1 x 10-29. most homologous sequences are from capsicum annuum, hot pepper, solanum tuberosum and solanum lycopersicum j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):82-87, 2013 84 the identified sequence has been classified as small heat-shock protein class i mrna sequence of capsicum annuum, similar to genbank id eu311413.1. further, a unique signature (marker) has been identified having a 21bp single nucleotide repeat sequence. this may qualify as a marker sequence associated with heat -shock proteins in capsicum annuum. the 314 bp hsp sequence in table 1 was subjected to blast analysis for homologous sequences across genomes. sequence identity of over 85% with hsp sequence mostly places it in solanaceae family. most similar sequences belong to small heat shock protein (shsp) having similar transcription factors. also, it was found that this is highly conserved in solanaceaeous species. blast result sequences having identity of over 85% were subjected to phylogenetic analysis. results revealed that the query sequence was highly similar to that in capsicum annuum and solanum tuberosum. these shsp sequences are highly conserved during the evolutionary process and these sequences together with similar groups indicate stress-related functional conservedness. chandra prakash et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):82-87, 2013 fig 2. the above cladogram from embl shows that shsp sequence is conserved in most of the solanaceae species. the sequence is strongly conserved in capsicum annuum, solanum tuberosum, lycopersicon peruvianum, lycopersicon esculentum and hot pepper 85 small heat-shock protein sequence in solanaceaeous crops further, these sequences were analyzed for functional conservedness across genomes using the web-based program clustalw from embl to assess phylogenetic distance between species. result of the analysis is given below: it is clearly evident from distance values (fig 2) that shsp sequence associated with heat tolerance is present across the genomes by being conservedduring evolution. different shsps that belong to the same species (capsicum annuum) showed high sequence-similarity (table 2) and shsp belonging to different species remained conserved during evolution. hsp sequences were further analyzed using jalview lite, a web-based software from embl, for multiple sequence alignment (msa) of several similar biological sequences for evolutionary relationship (by which they share a lineage, and are descended from a common ancestor). most multiple sequence alignment programs are made using heuristic methods. from the resulting msa sequence, homology can be inferred to identify sequences shared by evolutionary origins and their conservation. multiple sequence alignments of shsp sequence and its conservedness is given below: visual depiction of alignment in fig. 3 illustrate mutation events such as single nucleotide changes, (that appear as differing characters in a single alignment column) and insertion or deletion mutations, i.e., indels or gaps (that fig 3. the above diagram shows alignment of shsp sequence. jalview lite software displays sequence consensus of capsicum annuum cdna, which shows evolutionary conservation with other solanaceaeous crops j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):82-87, 2013 86 j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):82-87, 2013 chandra prakash et al appear as hyphens in one or more of the sequences in the alignment). the consensus sequence is shown at the bottom as a black bar, where height of the black bar depicts sequence consensus. greater height of the black bar denotes high consensus while lesser height denotes low consensus. from the above msa, it is evident that the identified shsp sequence is highly conserved in capsicum annuum and solanum tuberosum. from the above results, it is clear that the 314bp shsp sequence (table 1) shows evolutionary conservedness in solanaceae crops. these shsp sequences have similar structural features in all the crops and blast result revealed that it is highly conserved in the same species (table 2). the single-nucleotide marker sequence “ttttttttttttttttttttt” 72bp from 314bp shsp, sequence is a potential unique signature associated with small table 1. single nucleotide repeat sequence, a unique marker, and shsp conserved sequence from solanaceaous crops sequence feature length/locus ttttttttttttttttttttt single nucleotide repeat sequence 21 bp sequence. (starting from -72bp of 314 bp shsp sequence) aagctcactgaaaatgtcgctaatcccaagaa conserved shsp sequence 314 bp tcttcggcgatcgacgaagcagcagcatgttc gatccattctcaatcgacatgtttgatccattc agggaattgggcttcccaggttccaattcaag ggaggcctctgcatttgccaacacacgaatcg actggaaggaaacacccgaggcgcatgttttc aaggccgatcttccagggcttaagaaggagga agtgaaagtagagatcgaagagcatagggtac ttcagattatcggagagaggaatgaggagaaa gaagataagagtgatacttggcatc table 2. the shsp sequence is conserved in same species, i.e., capsicum annuum, with 100% identity and >89% identical with other solanaceae species such as solanum tuberosum, hot pepper and lycopersicon peruvianum identicality of shsp sequences across genomes source length score identicality e value ks01013c01 ks01 capsicum annuum cdna, mrna sequence 409 387 100.0 0.0 ks01013d08 ks01 capsicum annuum cdna, mrna sequence 437 383 99.0 0.0 ks26044c11 ks26 capsicum annuum cdna, mrna sequence 676 337 99.0 0.0 ks24058a06 ks24 capsicum annuum cdna, mrna sequence 663 337 99.0 0.0 ks12030d10 ks12 capsicum annuum cdna, mrna sequence 356 337 99.0 0.0 ks09027h07 ks09 capsicum annuum cdna, mrna sequence 447 337 99.0 0.0 cs01011e02 hot pepper under oxidative stress capsicum annuum cdna 5', mrna sequence 699 188 90.0 3.0e-99 cs01017f11 hot pepper under oxidative stress capsicum annuum cdna 5', mrna sequence 708 188 90.0 3.0e-99 lycopersicon peruvianum mrna for hsp20.1 protein 656 182 89.0 1.0e-95 sdbt002k03x sdbt solanum tuberosum cdna clone sdbt002k03, mrna sequence 654 179 89.0 6.0e-94 solanum lycopersicum class i small heat-shock protein 20.1 (sl20.1shsp) and class i small 8304 175 89.0 1.0e-91 heat-shock protein 17.6 (sl17.6 shsp) genes lycopersicon esculentum 17.6 kd class i small heat-shock protein (hsp17.6) mrna 732 175 89.0 1.0e-91 stdb002d08u stdb solanum tuberosum cdna clone stdb002d08, mrna sequence 650 175 89.0 1.0e-91 b24i 2 b1 b24i solanum tuberosum cdna, mrna sequence 470 175 89.0 1.0e-91 12734.2 stolon solanum tuberosum cdna clone 12734 5', mrna sequence 671 175 89.0 1.0e-91 ks06005531 ks06 capsicum annuum cdna, mrna sequence 551 175 89.0 1.0e-91 est612422 generation of a set of potato cdna clones for microarray analyses mixed potato 697 175 89.0 1.0e-91 tissues solanum tuberosum cdna clone stmgb34 3' end, mrna sequence est582165 potato roots solanum tuberosum cdna clone cpro32m12 5' end, mrna sequence 564 175 89.0 1.0e-91 est581924 potato roots solanum tuberosum cdna clone cpro31n3 5' end, mrna sequence 605 175 89.0 1.0e-91 est580887 potato roots solanum tuberosum cdna clone cpro28i11 5' end, mrna sequence 669 175 89.0 1.0e-91 est516270 cstd solanum tuberosum cdna clone cstd18g8 5' sequence, mrna sequence 456 175 89.0 1.0e-91 est515117 cstd solanum tuberosum cdna clone cstd13d9 5' sequence, mrna sequence 685 175 89.0 1.0e-91 est513393 cstd solanum tuberosum cdna clone cstd6e7 5' sequence, mrna sequence 688 175 89.0 1.0e-91 est513074 cstd solanum tuberosum cdna clone cstd3n22 5' sequence, mrna sequence 658 175 89.0 1.0e-91 est491411 csts solanum tuberosum cdna clone csts2a16 5' sequence, mrna sequence 629 175 89.0 1.0e-91 87 (ms received 27 december 2012, accepted 05 february 2013, revised 27 march 2013) j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):82-87, 2013 small heat-shock protein sequence in solanaceaeous crops heat-shock protein sequence in capsicum annuum. further, distance value from phylogenetic analysis reveals that the sequence has been highly conserved across genomes during evolution. msa also proves alignment conservedness and that mutations occurred during the process of evolution. the shsp sequence shows a high degree of similarity between capscium annuum and solanum tuberosum followed by solanum lycopersicum, solanum peruvianum and lycoperscicon esculentum. presence of this shsp sequence in a crop reveals tolerance to heat and other stressinducible conditions. references ellis, r.j. and van der vies, s.m. 1991. molecular chaperones. annu. rev. biochem., 60:321-347 georgopoulos, c. and welch, w.j. 1993. role of the major heat shock proteins as molecular chaperones. annu. rev. cell biol., 9:601–634 jakob, u., gaestel, m., engel, k. and buchner, j. 1993. small heat shock proteins are molecular chaperones. j. biol. chem., 268:1517–1520 scharf, k.d., siddique, m., vierling, e. 2001. the expanding family of arabidopsis thaliana small heat stress proteins and a new family of proteins containing ácrystallin domains (acd proteins). cell stress chaperones, 6:225–237 parsell, d.a. and lindquist, s. 1993. the function of heatshock proteins in stress tolerance: degradation and reactivation of proteins. annu. rev. genet., 27:437– 496 vierling, e. 1991. the roles of heat-shock proteins in plants. annu. rev. pl. physiol. pl. mol. biol., 42:579–620 waters, e.r., lee, g.j. and vierling, e. 1996. evolution, structure and function of the smallh e a t s h o c k proteins in plants. j. exptl. bot., 47:325–338 welch, w.j. 1993. heat shock proteins functioning as molecular chaperones: their roles in normal and stressed cells. philos. trans. r. soc. lond. b. biol. sci., 339:327–333 introduction cultivation of the common fig (ficus carica) is picking up in india amid growing acceptance of the fruit with high curative and lacerative nutritional values. commercial cultivation of the common (edible) fig is confined mostly to the western parts of maharashtra, gujarat, uttar pradesh (lucknow & saharanpur), karnataka (bellary, chitradurga & srirangapatna) and tamil nadu (coimbatore). of the 470 varieties listed, cvs.‘poona’ and ‘deanna’ are popularly grown for fresh fruit. in india, fig trees are prone to attack by as many as 50 species of insect pests (butani, 1979). of these, the stem boring beetles (that include batocera rufomaculata , b. rubus, aclees cribratus, apriona cinerea, a. rugicollis, olenecamptus bilobus and rhytidodera species) (verghese et al, 2001, 2003) cause severe damage to plants. however, a new curculionid weevil, dyscerus? fletcheri marshall (coleoptera: curculionidae) has been found damaging fig plants heavily during the post-rainy season, by directly damaging the terminal fruit bearing shoots (kamala jayanthi et al, 2015, in press). our preliminary studies showed differential susceptibility of fig cultivars to this stem borer, suggesting a need to identify marker traits involved in hostj. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):83-89, 2015 plant traits in fig as indicators of resistance to shoot borer, dyscerus? fletcheri marshall (coleoptera: curculionidae) p.d. kamala jayanthi, abraham verghese, r. chittiraichelvan1 and ravindra kumar1 division of entomology and nematology indian institute of horticultural research, hessaraghatta lake po, bangalore-560089 e-mail: jaiinsect@gmail.com abstract a comparative study was conducted on fig (ficus carica l.) cultivars deanna and poona to test whether antixenosis due to plant traits was at least partially responsible for a differential susceptibility to the shoot boring curculionid weevil, dyscerus? fletcheri. field evaluation revealed significant difference in borer incidence in cvs. poona (6.25%) and deanna (75%). further, traits of plant architecture such as number of primary/ secondary/ terminal shoots, plant vigour and density of terminal shoots were significantly higher in cv. deanna, which was highly susceptible to shoot borer. however, latex-flow index was significantly higher in cv. poona that was resistant to the borer. a step-wise multiple regression analysis revealed that the tested plant traits explained 60% of the total variation in stem borer infestation (y=-0.96-0.02x1+0.23x2-0.03x3+0.24x4+1.28x5-1.31x6, r 2=0.60) in the susceptible cultivar, deanna. role of these traits in preference/non-preference of d. fletcheri for a cultivar is discussed. key words: fig, ficus carica l., resistance, cultivars, stem borer, dyscerus? fletcheri plant selection by the pest. however, no literature is available on the effect of plant architecture traits on incidence of shoot borer, d. fletcheri, in fig. therefore, this study was carried out to determine whether these traits contributing to antixenosis in fig cultivars by d. fletcheri. material and methods in the present study, a differential susceptibility of two common fig varieties, deanna and poona, to the curculionid weevil d. fletcheri, was assessed through field evaluation at indian institute of horticultural research (iihr), bangalore (12o58’n; 77o35’e), india. observations were recorded during september – december, 2010 to assess the incidence of d. fletcheri on two year old plants growing adjacent to each other. each of the cultivars was planted in five rows, each row consisting of 16 plants. plant architecture traits were recorded in both the varieties (n=80) before flowering (september – december). traits like number of primary shoots, secondary shoots, terminal shoots, plant vigour, density of terminal shoots and latex-flow were measured to relate these traits to varietal preference and non-preference of the curculionid borer, d. fletcheri for a variety. of these traits, the number of primary shoots, secondary shoots, terminal shoots and density of terminal 1division of fruit crops, iihr, bengaluru 560 089, karnataka, india 84 shoots were grouped under canopy traits as these can be altered through canopy management, whereas, plant vigour and latex-flow index were grouped as inherent plant traits. plant vigour was visually scored on a 1-5 scale where, 1= least vigorous and 5= most vigorous. density of terminal shoots in each tree was also visually scored on a 1-5 scale where, 1= less dense with less compactness, and 5= highly dense with more compactness. latex flow was measured on a 1-3 scale where, 1= low and 3= profuse. latex-flow index was measured by uniformly piercing the base of the tender terminal shoot with a pin, and the amount of latex that oozed out was expressed in relative terms (as described above). sampling for borer infestation was carried out on terminal, fruit-bearing shoots on each tree, based on fresh feeding-damage (external deposition of a fine powder at the base of the shoot), wilting and withering of tender shoots. data collected on plant traits, viz., number of primary shoots, secondary shoots, terminal shoots, plant vigour, density of terminal shoots and latex-flow index were analyzed using one way anova to determine differences in the above-mentioned parameters as significant or nonsignificant, between the two cultivars as per little and hills (1978). correlation, step-wise multiple regression and pathcoefficient analyses between the plant parameters studied and stem-borer incidence were carried out. to get a further insight, a step-wise regression procedure (ryan, 1997) was employed to select the most crucial plant traits influencing variability in borer incidence. this technique consists of essentially identifying, stage by stage, trait(s) significantly related to borer incidence (y). further, as a measure of goodness-of-fit of the models developed, values pertaining to co-efficient of determination (r2) (agostid’no and stephens, 1986) were calculated. variance inflation factor (vif) value was computed to test the multi-colinearity of variables. table 1. plant traits in two fig cultivars variety canopy traits inherent traits of the plant no. of no. of no. of terminal density of plant latex-flow per cent per cent primary secondary tender shoots shoots vigour index infested infested shoots (+se) shoots (+se) (+se) (+se) (+se) (+se) trees(n=80) shoots/ tree deanna 3.80 + 0.08 16.15 + 0.66 53.58 + 1.94 2.90 + 0.15 3.38 + 0.14 1.06 + 0.03 75.00 7.82† (1.0 5.0) (0.0 28.0) (6.0 89.0) (1.0 5.0) (1.0 5.0) (1.0 2.0) poona 3.41 + 0.08 10.83 + 0.37 23.29 + 1.06 2.04 + 0.10 2.46 + 0.11 2.94 + 0.03 6.25 0.32†† (2.0 4.0) (5.0 19.0) (4.0 48.0) (1.0 4.0) (1.0 5.0) (2.0 3.0) cd (p=0.05) 0.22 1.48 4.33 0.34 0.34 0.08 figures in parentheses show the range of values; †n = 4286; ††n = 1863 results and discussion severe borer infestation was noticed (75%) in cv. deanna (n=80) and significantly (p = 0.05) lower infestation (6.5%) was observed in cv. poona (n=80), during augustdecember. within a tree too, significantly higher infestation was noticed on tender terminal-shoots (7.82%) in cv. deanna (n=4286), and 0.32% in cv. poona (n=1863) (t=8.17, df =79, p<0.01). among canopy traits, the number of primary shoots, secondary shoots, terminal tender-shoots, and density of terminal shoots ranged from 1-5, 0-28, 6-89 and 1-5 respectively in cv. deanna and 2-4, 5-19, 4-48 and 1-4, respectively, in cv. poona. inherent plant traits, viz., plant vigour and latex-flow index ranged from 1-5 & 1-2, and 15 & 2-3, respectively, in cvs. deanna and poona, respectively (table 1). data revealed significant variation in canopy and plant traits between cultivars deanna and poona. mean number of primary shoots (3.80), secondary shoots (16.15), terminal tender-shoots (53.58), plant vigour (3.38) and density of terminal shoots (2.90) was significantly higher in cv. deanna compared to cv. poona (table 1). mean latexflow index was significantly higher in cv. poona (2.94) compared to cv. deanna (1.06) (table 1). influence of various plant traits on differential susceptibility of the two common fig varieties revealed that the number of primary shoots (r=0.28; p=0.01); number of secondary shoots (r=0.64; p=0.001), number of terminal tender-shoots (r=0.58; p=0.001), plant vigour (r=0.54; p=0.001), density of terminal shoots (r=0.67; p=0.001) had a significant, positive correlation with incidence of the shoot borer, d. fletcheri. however, latex-flow index had a significant, negative correlation with the incidence of d. fletcheri (r = -0.53; p = 0.001) (table 2). j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):83-89, 2015 kamala jayanthi et al 85 multiple regression analysis indicated that plant traits could explain 60% of the total variation in stem-borer infestation. considering the traits viz., number of secondary shoots, density of terminal shoots, and latex-flow index, being significant based on r/se (a stringent criterion for identifying significant variables for regression analysis), variability in stem borer infestation on the two cultivars can be explained to an extent of 59% (y=-1.56+0.18x2+1.35x51.04x6, r 2=0.59) (table 3). further, traits like number of primary shoots, secondary shoots, terminal tender-shoots, plant vigour, density of terminal shoots and latex-flow index as lone, independent factors explained 8, 41, 33, 29, 49, 28% of the total variation in stem borer incidence, respectively, in linear equations. maximum variation in stem borer infestation was explained by canopy traits and density of terminal shoots (49%), followed by the number of secondary shoots (41%) (table 4). however, step-wise multiple regression analysis showed that various combinations of host-plant traits could not explain variability in stem borer infestation beyond 60% (tables 5-6). nevertheless, canopy traits, viz., number of secondary shoots and density of terminal shoots, alone, could explain variability in stem borer infestation to an extent of 53% (y=-4.83+0.25x2+1.43x5, p=0.01; r2=0.53), with lesser vif value (2.13) indicating a low level of collinearity among variables (table 5). further, a combination of canopy traits, viz., number of terminal shoots and density of terminal shoots, could explain variability in stem borer infestation to an extent of 51% (y=3.97+0.05x3+1.63x5, r 2=0.51). a combination of canopy traits (density of terminal shoots) and inherent plant traits (latex-flow index) could explain variability in stem borer table 2. direct and indirect effects of plant traits in fig cultivars pathways of association direct indirect ‘r’ effects effects 1. primary branches (no.) 0.28* a. direct effect -0.05 b. indirect effect via tertiary branches (no.) secondary branches (no.) plant vigour density of branches latex flow 2. secondary branches (no.) 0.64** a. direct effect 0.33 b. indirect effect via primary branches (no.) 0.13 tertiary branches (no.) 0.24 plant vigour 0.16 density of branches 0.20 latex flow -0.15 3. tertiary branches 0.58** a. direct effect -0.16 b. indirect effect via primary branches (no.) -0.06 secondary branches (no.) -0.12 plant vigour -0.08 density of branches -0.09 latex flow 0.12 4. plant vigour 0.54** a. direct effect 0.08 b. indirect effect via primary branches (no.) 0.01 secondary branches (no.) 0.04 tertiary branches (no.) 0.05 density of branches 0.04 latex flow -0.03 5. density of branches 0.67** a. direct effect 0.40 b. indirect effect via primary branches (no.) 0.12 secondary branches (no.) 0.24 tertiray branches (no.) 0.22 plant vigour 0.26 latex flow -0.13 6. latex flow -0.53** a. direct effect -0.33 b. indirect effect via primary branches (no.) 0.08 secondary branches (no.) 0.15 tertiray branches (no.) 0.24 plant vigour 0.12 density of branches -0.33 *significant at 1% level; **significant at 0.1% level table 3. linear regression models explaining the variability in shoot borer, d. fletcheri, infestation in fig using plant traits variables considered model r2 vif i) significant variables based on r* y=-0.96-0.02 x1 0.60 2.47 (x1=no. of primary shoots; +0.23 x2-0.03x3 x2=no. of secondary shoots; +0.24 x4+1.28 x5 x3= no. of terminal shoots.; -1.31x6 x4=plant vigour; x5=density of terminal shoots; x6=latex-flow index) ii) only significant variables y=-1.56+0.18x2 0.59 2.42 based on (r/se)** +1.35 x5-1.04x6 (x2=no. of secondary shoots; x5=density of terminal shoots; x6=latex-flow index) r=correlation coefficient; **se=standard error table 4. linear models to estimate variability in shoot borer, d. fletcheri, infestation in fig using various plant traits variables considered model r2 vif i) no. of primary shoots (x1) y=-3.15+1.46x1 0.08 1.09 ii) no. of secondary shoots (x2) y=-3.86+0.44x2 0.41 1.69 iii) no. of terminal shoots (x3) y=-1.95+ 0.110x3 0.33 1.50 iv) plant vigour (x4) y=-2.87+ 1.71x4 0.29 1.40 v) density of terminal shoots (x5) y=-3.19+ 2.16x5 0.49 1.81 vi) latex-flow index (x6 ) y=6.25-2.06x6 0.28 1.38 j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):83-89, 2015 plant traits and resistance to shoot borer in fig cvs. 86 infestation to an extent 55% (y=0.37+1.79x5-1.32 x6; r2=0.55) (table 6). pathways through which the six plant traits studied operate, to produce their association with shoot borer infestation reveal direct and indirect contribution (table 2). path-coefficient analysis showed that direct effect of number of primary shoots on stem borer infestation was negative and was not too pronounced. indirect effects through other traits also exhibited a similar trend. direct effect of the number of secondary shoots on stem-borer infestation was positive and high in magnitude (0.33). the total correlation between number of secondary shoots and stem-borer infestation was highly positive and significant (0.64). indirect effect of the number of secondary shoots via other plant traits, viz., number of primary shoots (0.13), number of terminal shoots (0.24), plant vigour (0.16) and density of terminal shoots (0.20) was positive and of a reasonable magnitude, contributing to the total correlation coefficient. however, indirect effect through latex-flow index was found to be negative (-0.15). table 5. various linear equations for estimating variability in shoot borer (d. fletcheri) infestation variables considered model r2 vif with the no. of primary shoots kept at a constant i) no. of primary shoots (x1)+ no. of secondary shoots (x2) y=-4.51+0.22x1+0.43 x2 0.41 1.70 ii) no. of primary shoots (x1)+ no. of terminal shoots (x3) y=-3.37+ 0.45x1+0.10x3 0.34 1.52 iii) no. of primary shoots (x1)+ plant vigour (x4) y=-6.19+1.01x1+1.61x4 0.32 1.47 iv) no. of primary shoots (x1)+ density of terminal shoots (x5) y=-4.58+0.44x1+2.07x5 0.46 1.85 v) no. of primary shoots (x1)+ latex-flow index (x6) y=2.95+0.83x1 -1.91x6 0.30 1.43 with the no. of secondary shoots kept at a constant i) no. of secondary shoots (x2)+ no. of terminal shoots (x3) y=-3.89+0.33x2+0.04 x3 0.43 1.76 ii) no. of secondary shoots (x2)+ plant vigour (x4) y=-5.27+ 0.35x2+0.94x4 0.47 1.89 iii) no. of secondary shoots (x2)+ density of terminal shoots (x5) y=-4.83+0.25x2+1.43x5 0.53 2.13 iv) no. of secondary shoots (x2)+ latex-flow index (x6) y=-0.27+0.35x2-1.16x6 0.48 1.92 with the no. of terminal shoots kept at a constant i) no. of terminal shoots (x3)+ plant vigour (x4) y=-3.88+0.08x3+1.06 x4 0.41 1.70 ii) no. of terminal shoots (x3)+ density of terminal shoots (x5) y=-3.97+ 0.05x3+1.63x5 0.51 2.04 iii) no. of terminal shoots (x3)+ latex-flow index (x6) y=1.05+0.08x3-0.91x6 0.36 1.56 with the plant vigour kept at a constant i) plant vigour (x4)+ density of terminal shoots (x5) y=-3.85+0.52x4+1.81 x5 0.46 1.85 ii) plant vigour (x4)+ latex flow index (x6) y=1.42+ 1.28x4-1.51x6 0.42 1.72 with the density of terminal shoots kept at a constant i) density of terminal shoots(x5)+ latex-flow index (x6) y=0.37+1.79x5-1.32 x6 0.55 2.22 table 6. step-wise linear models to estimate variability in shoot borer (d. fletcheri) infestation in fig variables considered model r2 vif i. no. of primary shoots ( x1) + no. of secondary shoots ( x2) + y=-4.25+0.12 x1 + 0.32 x2 +0.04 x3 0.43 1.75 no. of terminal shoots (x3) ii. no. of primaries ( x1) + no. of secondary shoots ( x2) + y= -5.69+0.18x1 + 0.27x2 +0.026x3+0.86x4 0.48 1.92 no. of terminal shoots (x3) + plant vigour (x4) iii. no. of primary shoots ( x1) + no. of secondary shoots ( x2) + y=-5.21+0.02x1 +0.19x2 +0.02x3+0.31x4 +1.19x5 0.54 2.17 no. of terminal shoots (x3) + plant vigour (x4) + density of terminal shoots ( x5) iv. no. of secondary shoots ( x2) + no. of terminal shoots (x3) + y=-5.16+0.28x2 +0.03x3+0.86x4 0.48 0.92 plant vigour (x4) v. no. of secondary shoots ( x2) + no. of terminal shoots (x3) + y=-5.14+0.19x2 +0.02x3+0.03x4 +1.19x5 0.54 2.17 plant vigour (x4) + density of terminal shoots ( x5) vi. no. of secondary shoots ( x2) + no. of terminal shoots (x3) + y=-1.03+0.23x2 -0.03x3+0.24x4 +1.28x5-1.30x6 0.60 2.50 plant vigour (x4) + density of terminal shoots ( x5) + latex-flow index ( x6) vii. no. of terminal shoots (x3) + plant vigour (x4) + y=-4.33+0.05x3+0.31x4 +1.45x5 0.51 2.04 density of terminal shoots ( x5) viii. no. of terminal shoots (x3) + plant vigour (x4) + y=-0.58+0.01x3+0.26x4 +1.56x5-1.15x6 0.55 2.22 density of terminal shoots ( x5) + latex-flow index ( x6) j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):83-89, 2015 kamala jayanthi et al 87 number of terminal shoots exhibited moderate, negative, direct effect (-0.16) as well as indirect effects via the number of primary shoots (-0.06), number of secondary shoots (-0.12), plant vigour (-0.08) and density of terminal shoots (-0.09). however, it exhibited a positive, indirect effect through latex-flow index (0.12). similarly, plant vigour also showed moderate, positive, direct effect (0.08) besides indirect effects via the number of primary shoots (0.01), number of secondary shoots (0.04), number of terminal shoots (0.04) and density of terminal shoots (0.05). however, it exhibited a negative, indirect effect through latex-flow index (-0.03). density of terminal shoots exhibited a very high magnitude of positive, direct effect with reference to stem borer infestation (0.40). indirect effects via the number of primary shoots (0.12), number of secondary shoots (0.24), number of terminal shoots (0.22) and plant vigour (0.26) were positive and high in magnitude. total correlation coefficient (0.71) was also found to be highly significant. however, with latex-flow index, it exhibited a negative, indirect effect (-0.13) for stem borer incidence. therefore, by managing canopy traits such as the number of secondary shoots, terminal shoots and density of terminal shoots, stem borer infestation can be reduced. latex-flow index showed a negative, direct effect of high magnitude (-0.33), but showed positive, indirect effects through the number of primary shoots (0.08), number of secondary shoots (0.15), number of terminal shoots (0.24), density of terminal shoots (0.11) and plant vigour (0.12). therefore, inherent plant characters, viz., plant vigour and latex-flow index, can be used as marker traits to induce resistance against stem borer in the common fig cultivars. plant genotypes possess trait-variations that can alter insect preference/non-preference (also referred to as antixenosis), i.e., insects are attracted to, or repelled by, a plant due to a variety of plant characteristics (karban et al, 1997; ernest, 1989) such as plant shape, size, surface texture, presence of trichomes and toughness of the tissue, tough vascular bundles, etc. antixenosis refers to potential planttraits, either morphological or allelochemical, impairing or altering insect behaviour towards the host (preference) in a way as to reduce chances of infestation by insects, for oviposition, food or shelter. preliminary comparative study conducted during 2010-11 showed significant differences in susceptibility of fig genotypes, viz., deanna and poona, to shoot borer, d. fletcheri (table 1). these variations can be attributed to several canopy traits and inherent plant-trait variations, as explained in this study (tables 1-6). the present study clearly revealed highly significant differences in per cent stem-borer infestation among two common fig cultivars, deanna and poona. further, canopy traits, viz., number of secondary shoots, number of tertiary shoots, plant vigour and density of terminal shoots had a significant, positive relationship with stem borer infestation, and, latex-flow index had a significant, negative relationship with stem-borer incidence. high concentration of fresh latex in ficus spp. (moraceae) was reported to range between 15-30% (mooibroek and cornish, 2000). it is generally accepted that the primary function of latex is to provide stickiness to entrap whole insects (dussourd 1993, 1995) or mire their mouthparts (dussourd & eisner 1987); the latex is mobilized and transported to the site of damage immediately upon onset of damage. however, the mechanism of these effects (even for stickiness) is not well-documented. in the present study, the high latex-flow index in cv. poona can be seen as primarily effective on early-instar grubs of d. fletcheri, as reported by zalucki et al (2001 a and b) in the case of milkweed caterpillars. they reported that mortality in specialist caterpillars armed with tiny mandibles feeding on milkweeds is the highest in earlier instars, and, especially high at the first bite after hatching (as, latex is mobilized and transported to the site of damage immediately upon the damage, and can travel over 70cm to the point of damaged, as reported in cryptostegia grandiflora) (buttery and boatman, 1976). however, larger herbivores that feed on whole-plants can be expected to be much less affected, because, accumulation of latex at the site of damage in this case will be ineffective. therefore, in the present study, the high latex-flow index observed in cv. poona may have hampered establishment of early-instar grubs of d. fletecheri. canopy traits, viz., number of primary shoots, secondary shoots, terminal shoots and the density of terminal shoots, were found to be higher in the susceptible cv. deanna, where, heavy incidence of stem borer was noticed. usually, host-preference of herbivourous insects is attributed to their behavioral response to visual, tactile or chemical cues received from the plants when pests encounter (bernays and chapman, 1994; briese and walker, 2002). this provides the insects with positive and negative signals which enable them to identiy a right host (bernays, 1989). earlier studies reported that plant traits such as odour, colour, morphological and anatomical characteristics were also important factors influencing insect host-choice (bernays j. hortl. sci. vol. 10(1):83-89, 2015 plant traits and resistance to shoot borer in fig cvs. 88 and chapman, 1994). in the present study, the susceptible variety deanna was found to be highly vigorous, with higher number of secondary shoots and, terminal shoots, leading to a dense canopy structure. this may have attracted the stem borer to cv. deanna, compared to cv. poona which was less vigorous, having a less dense canopy architecture. connections between general host-vigour and herbivore preference have been found, especially in gall-inducing insects (craig et al, 1989; horner and abrahamson, 1992; fritz et al, 2003; price and hunter, 2005). plant vigour hypothesis by price (1991) states that females prefer to oviposit on fast-growing plants because of the plant’s better nutritional quality or higher general vigour. further, it is also reported that some plant genotypes endowed with a higher level of defense chemicals, are more resistant to insects than plants with lower concentrations of the same (diego et al, 2011). we too observed in the present study that cv. poona with a higher latex-flow index recorded a lower incidence of stem borer. inherent plant traits, viz., high latexflow index and plant vigour in cv. poona may be responsible for the non-preference of stem borer to this genotype. these can be used as marker traits in breeding programs for developing stem-borer resistant varieties. it is clear from the present study that canopy traits that influence stem borer infestation. the density of terminal shoots, and the number of secondary shoots can be managed to develop a less dense canopy in the susceptible variety, deanna. as reported in earlier studies, herbivorous insect do not attack plants indiscriminately but prefer to feed/ oviposit on specific plant species, or, genotypes of a single species (jaenike, 1990; hjalten et al, 2007; crawford et al, 2007; tommi et al, 2011). further, in addition to genetic effects (i.e., species and genotype effects) on host-plant quality, other factors such as shading, soil fertility, etc. may influence suitability of a host (mutikainen et al, 2000; lower et al, 2003; osier and lindroth, 2006). semiochemical cues in successful hostplant location and colonization can be expected to play a role in primary host attraction, and probably provide a basis for future olfaction-based studies. acknowledgement the authors are grateful to director, iihr, bangalore for providing facilities to carry out the research, and to dr. v.v. ramamurthy, principal scientist, iari, new delhi, for taxonomic identification of the weevil. the senior author wishes to place on record her deep regards to dr. abraham verghese for his valuable advice, guidance, constant support and encouragement. references agostid’no r.b and stephens m.a. 1986. goodness of fit techniques. marcel dekker, new york bernays, e.a. 1989. host range in phytophagous insects: the potential role of generalist predators. evol. ecol., 3:299-311 bernays, e.a. and chapman, r.f. 1994. host-plant selection by phytophagous insects. chapman and hall, london, uk briese, d.t. and 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resistance to shoot borer in fig cvs. 404 not found stack trace: file: /var/www/jhs/pages/article/articlehandler.inc.php line 167 function: dispatcher->handle404() file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/pkprouter.inc.php line 392 function: articlehandler->initialize(object(request), array(0)) file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/pkppagerouter.inc.php line 246 function: pkprouter->_authorizeinitializeandcallrequest(array(2), object(request), array(2), false) file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/dispatcher.inc.php line 144 function: pkppagerouter->route(object(request)) file: /var/www/jhs/lib/pkp/classes/core/pkpapplication.inc.php line 362 function: dispatcher->dispatch(object(request)) file: /var/www/jhs/index.php line 68 function: pkpapplication->execute() sph -jhs coverpage december 2019 number 2 87 trends and innovations in value chain management of tropical fruits harinder singh oberoi* and dinesh m.r. icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hessaraghatta, bengaluru, india *corresponding author, email: harinder.oberoi@icar.gov.in abstract india produced about 97.35 million tons of fruits during 2017-18, of which less than 1% fruits were exported. in india, less than 5% of the total fruits produced are sold by the organized supply chain management and e-commerce companies and 3% of the total produce gets processed, indicating that more than 90% of fruits follow the traditional route of supply chain involving farmers, auctioneers, agents/intermediaries, wholesalers, sub-wholesalers, retailers, cart vendors before they reach the consumers. post-harvest (ph) losses occur at each stage of the supply chain and are compounded with each operation. a study on ph loss estimation has shown maximum loss of 15.88% in guava among fruits while other studies have reported much higher ph lossesin fruits. value of tropical fruits, both in monetary terms and quality reduces during harvesting, handling, transportation from the farmer’s field, packaging, storage, retail and even at the consumer’s level. important interventions that reduce the ph losses and improve the supply chain management are establishment of pre-cooling facilities and short term storage facilities through evaporative cooling/refrigeration mechanisms at the farm gate, primary processing and packaging provision at the farm gate or nearby collection centres, transportation of fruits in refrigerated/evaporative cooled vans with the use of alternate energy sources and provision for low temperature and high humidity storage at the retail centres. establishment of a postharvest management system for sorting, washing, partial drying, edible coating, if required and grading at the collection centres will help in reducing the ph losses in the supply chain and help farmers get a better value for their produce. formation of farmer clusters or farmers producer organizations (fpos) provides farmers a better bargaining power because of higher volumes. educating and bringing awareness among the farmers about the good agricultural practices (gap), mechanization in field operations, availability of seeds for different seasons, eliminating the problem of seasonality are also important in production of quality output. transportation of fruits, such as mango, banana and guava in vans/wagons operating through evaporative cooling/ cooling mechanism using phase change material will help in improving the shelf life of such fruits. an integrated radio frequency identification (rfid) system along with the sensors for ethylene, temperature and rh monitoring is likely to help in easy tracking and traceability of the fresh produce. establishment of primary and secondary processing facility at the farmer cluster/ fpo levels will help in transforming the farmers to primary processors. keywords: collection centres, packaging, post-harvest management, supply chain, transportation and value chain introduction india is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world and even the largest producer for some of the tropical fruits, such as papaya, mango and banana. as per the report of national horticulture board (nhb), fruit and vegetable production during 2017-18 in india was 97.35 and 187 million tonnes, respectively. india exported about 0.69 million tons of processed fruits and vegetable products, earning a revenue of about rs 5279 crores in 2018-19, while the export of about 3.80million tons of fresh fruits and vegetables during 2018-19 fetched a revenue of about j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(2) : 87-97, 2019 review 88 j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(2) : 87-97, 2019 rs 10,338 crores according to agricultural and processed food export development authority (apeda). export of fresh fruits from india during 2018-19 was less than 1% of the total quantityof the fruits produced in the country. as per ministry of food processing industries (mofpi) data, only 2-2.2% fruits are processed in india. organized supply chain management companiesin india like reliance fresh, big bazaar, aditya birla retail ltd or e-commerce companies like big basket or grofers etc. account for procurement of less than 5% of the total fruits produced in the country. this data indicates that more than 90% of fresh fruits pass through the traditional supply chain involving farmers, auctioneers, agents/ intermediaries, wholesalers, sub-wholesalers, retailers, cart vendors and consumers as mentioned elsewhere in this paper. as the fresh perishable produce has to pass through several hands/ steps, post-harvest (ph) losses occur at each stage before the fruits actually reach the consumers. in addition to the measurable losses, a deterioration in quality (intangible loss) of the fruits takes place at each step, indicating that there are both quality and quantity losses in such a long supply chain having a direct impact on the value of the fresh produce. losses even occur at the level of the consumers that cannot even be estimated. studies on ph losses in fruits and vegetables have reported maximum losses in guava at 15.88% among all the fruits (jha et al., 2015). however, authors considered only eight fruits for ph loss estimation study viz., apple, banana, citrus, grapes, guava, mango, papaya andsapota. salami et al. (2010) have reported losses in fruits and vegetables between harvest and final consumption at about 30-40%. therefore,it becomes imper a tive to r educe the number of operations from farm-to-fork in order to retain the value of the fruits both from the quality and nutrition perspectives and minimize the ph losses. value chain model for horticultural crops value chains describe the full range of activities which are required to bring a product or service from conception, through the different phases of production (involving a combination of physical transformation and the input of various producer services) delivery to final disposal after use (kaplinsky and morris, 2000). value chain integrates various factors together and provides communication of market information to all the players involved in the chain. supply chain activities consist of buying produce (purchasing), changing something about the produce to increase its value (processing e.g. packaging and/ or sorting) and transporting it to the location of demand (distribution). the demand chain consists of activities to stimulate demand for produce (marketing), facilitating transactions to enable people to buy the produce (sales) and providing any ‘after-sales’ service such as dealing with returns or unsold perishable goods (service). value chain encompasses different facets of supply and demand chain, starting from the land use planning, adoption of good agricultural practices (gap), nutrient and agro-chemicals use mana gement, precision farming for production of a good quality and uniform produce; supply chain management, discussed in detail elsewhere in this paper; market intelligence and demand forecasting/crop planning for fruits and vegetables and marketing of the fresh as well as processed fruits. therefore, value chain for fruits is extremely important as it integrates different links together, starting from farmer/ fpo to consumer through different approaches. value chain analysis of mango cultivation in one acre of land in dharwad, karnataka is presented in fig.1. the input details and the price that the farmer gets in the market are obtained from the farmer who has mango plantations spread over 9 acres. though the farmer is the primary producer of the crop, he gets least value for his produce, whereas the major share of value addition is distributed among the traders (intermediaries) and retailers. despite the fact that the major stakeholder in this value chain is a farmer, he accounts for about 12%, whereas the retailers account for about 60% and the traders for about 30% in the value chain. smallholder (farmer ’s) participation in the tropical fruits value chain is constrained by inadequate farmlevel resources, farm-to-market logistical bottlenecks and transaction costs in matching and aggregating dispersed supplies to meet buyer and consumer demands (chang et al., 2014). these constraints are compounded by a new set of challenges associated with compliance with product and process standards enforced by the government agencies or supply chain management companies. some of the major reasons for low-level participation of the smallholders/ farmersin the tropical fruit value chain in countries like indiaare: harinder singh oberoi and dinesh 89 trends and innovations in value chain management of tropical fruits fig. 1: value chain analysis of mango cv. alphonso (1 acre) in dharwad, karnataka (input details for production of fruits and market price of the fruit are presented for illustration purpose and may vary from farm to farm, place to place and the method of cultivation)  fragmented land holdings and low farm outputs which r educe the ba r ga ining power of the individual farmers. it is therefore important to have the farmer co-operatives or fpos who can have a better bargaining power vis-à-vis wholesalers or intermediaries.  lack of market intelligence, poor linkages to mar ket and ina dequate ma rket infor mation, distance from the farmer ’s fields to the retail markets and poor roads and transportation systems compound the problems for farmers.  lack of effective policies, including access to credit, on-farm infrastructure for storage, handling or primary processing of fruits, appropriate quality standards and compliance mechanism and lack of proper pre. and post. harvest technologies limit the involvement of the individual farmers in the value chain. production and crop planning value chain begins with the farmer and the agricultural practices followed by the farmers in production of uniform and quality produce. highest amount of waste in fruits and vegetables supply chain occurs at the farm gateitself. even today, traditional cropping patterns are prevalent in most parts of india. for example, high density and ultra-high density plantations of tropical fruits, such as mango and guava increase the productivity as well as quality of the product, therebyhelping farmers to get better price for their produce. pr oblem of sea sona lity in fr uits and vegetables could be handled largely using seeds available for different seasons.application of gap is widely recognized as the most important measure in assuring the safety of fresh produce, followed by the application of good hygienic practices (ghp) and the certification of food safety management systems (fsms). pre-harvest factors which have a profound influence on the ph quality attributes are the use of qua lity ir r iga tion wa ter (ma in sour ce of contamination); maintenance or restoration of soil organic carbon, crop rotation, avoiding water and fertilizer run-off, water recycling, etc., help in better quality output and minimizing the incidence of pathogen infestation, such as that of aspergillus spp, largely responsible for production of aflatoxins. mechanization j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(2) : 87-97, 2019 90 in land preparation, planting, irrigation and pest and disease management are important components of gap, which help in production of a good quality output. in order to tackle the issues of perishability and seasonality of fruits and vegetables, it is important for the procurement agencies (both government agencies and supply chain management companies) to work closely with the farmers and help them in crop planning. farmers should also be informed about the nutrient use ma nagement, use of biopesticides, micronutrient formulation, high density planting and irrigation techniques. such crop planning and market intelligence techniques will help in adding value to the produce and getting a good remuneration for farmers for their produce. supply chain management of fruits in india recent advances in food markets around the world are driven by consumer demand and preferences, food safety concerns and the increased bargaining power of moder n reta il systems. higher income a nd changing lifestyles have led to demand for more variety, better quality, year-round supply of fresh produce, “healthy” food and convenience. in addition, consumer’s concerns for safe foodand also about the social and environmental conditions under which food is produced has led us to believe that technological interventions are needed to strengthen the supply chain as well as product development. it therefore becomes important to preserve the value of important perishable commodities at each stage in the supply chain as well as during processing. traditional model of supply of fruits and vegetables in india (fig.2) from farmer to consumer involves a series of intermediaries. loss in quantity because of physiological lossesand quality loss due to poor handling occurs at each stage. in certain parts of the country, banana combs are stacked over one another and transported in open trolleys and mini trucks to the auction sites/ wholesale markets. as the village roads and the approach roads to auction sites/ wholesale markets are undulating, broken and have many potholes, spoilage in fruits is intensified. losses are accumulated at each stage of the supply chain (fig.2) and a long supply chain like the one being used in the conventional system leads to significant ph as well as quality loss in fruits. fig. 2: traditional supply chain system followed in india baskets made from bamboo with paddy straw as cushioning materials used as packaging for fruits like papaya and mangoes in various parts of the country (fig. 3) result in very high spoilages during storage and transportation. all these losses reduce the value of the fruit in monetary terms for farmers, leading to distress sale. traditional supply chain for fresh fruits in most cases does not fetch a good remuneration for the farmers. fig. 3: packaging of mangoes in bamboo baskets with paddy straw as cushioning material supply cha in being followed by the organized companies like reliance fresh and aditya birla retail ltd (more) in india isrelatively shorter than the traditional supply chain. both these companies directly procure the produce fr om the fa rmer s/ far mer producer organizations (fpos)/ farmer co-operatives/ clusters. on most occasions, sorting of the fruits is done at the farm gate and the desired fruits are only procured by such companies for supply to their retail stores. supply chain model involves transportation of fresh fruits and vegetables to their collection centres (cc)/buying centres, where the fruits and vegetables are weighed, sorted, if necessary and shifted to the distribution centres (dc), where primary processing operations, such as grading, packaging into small retail packs is done and subsequently, the material is shifted to the retail stores of the respective companies or consumers directly by the e-commerce companies (fig.4). facilities like graders, conveyors, washers and cold stores are available at dcs of these companies. harinder singh oberoi and dinesh j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(2) : 87-97, 2019 91 reliance fresh also deploys a fleet of refrigerated vehicles for transportation of the fruits to their retail stores. this kind of supply chain has helped in reducing the ph losses drastically. as per sihariya et al. (2013) reliance fresh has successfully reduced the ph losses from the farmer’s field to their retail stores from 25-30% to about 7-8% through precooling of harvest, better post-harvest handling (less number of human touches/contacts), and special type of packages for highly perishable products. reliance also uses coldchain for inter-state movement of fruits and vegetables and regularly conducts trainings for the staff in the supply chain, which contribute significantly to alleviation in the ph losses. waycool foods and products pvt ltd, chennai, india procures most fruits and vegetable directly from the farmers and fpos located in and around chennai and nearby districts of tamil nadu and transport the fresh horticultural produce to their collection centre which has facilities for sor ting, gr a ding, weighing, wa shing a nd temperature controlled compartments for storage of highly perishable materials. the company repacks the produce in bulk packages for supply to wholesalers and retails packages for supply to their franchisee retail outlets. the company also has developed transport vehicle based on phase change material (pcm) for transport of highly perishable produce from their collection centre to retail outlets or wholesale ma r kets. wa ycool ha s pla ced the icar-iihr developed arka high humidity storage boxes in their franchisee retail outlets for storage of green leafy and other vegetables, thereby significantly reducing the ph losses at the retail level. big basket, a la rge e-commer ce company that supplies about 100,000 tons of fresh fruits and vegetables annually procures a substantial quantity of and vegetables (about 80%) directly from the farmers and fpos and the remaining produce from other companies like grofers, waycool, etc. the company has its own ccs located near the production hubs, which have the basic facilities for weighing, sorting and grading. fresh produce is directly transported from the ccs to dcs, where the fresh produce is graded, if required, repackaged in small packs, such as punnets for pomegranate, corrugated fibreboard (cfb) boxes for mangoes and papaya and transported directly to the consumer’s doorstep. some of the dcs of the company also have facilities for treatment and packaging of the selected fr esh-cut fruits and vegetables. highly perishable produce is transported either in refrigerated vans or in the containers with gel packs for small retail packs by the company. though the supply of fresh fruits and vegetables in an organized way by the above mentioned companies has brought down the ph losses significantly and have successfully added value to the fresh horticultural produce, these companies put together procure less than 5% of the total fruits produced in the country. fig. 4: supply chain followed by the organized farm-to-fork companies for supply of fruits in india supply chain management practices followed in other countries supply of fruits and vegetables in most of the developed countries involves primary processing of fresh produce at the farm gate and supply of such pr oduce to wholesa ler s/ a gents, r eta iler s a nd consumers directly (fig.5). as per jassi (2011), most of the produce after harvest is subjected to processing to increase the shelf life of the products and is then transported to wholesalers/ agents who deliver the product to the hospitality industry and retail stores from where it r eaches the consumer, which is considered as another good approach of saving the precious fruits and vegetables. in most developed countries, farmers supply fresh produce directly to the retail stores and at times to the consumer and the processing levels in such countries are substantially higher than that in india. fig. 5: supply chain for fresh fruits and vegetables followed in developed countries thailand has similar climatic condition as india and so is the food consumption pattern. the supply chain in fruits and vegetables however is much better developed in thailand as compared to india (srimanee and routray, 2012). supermarkets in thailand account for 40 % of fruit and 30 % of vegetables in urban trends and innovations in value chain management of tropical fruits j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(2) : 87-97, 2019 92 areas, but a lower percentage in the context of the entire country (fig. 6). fresh fruits and vegetables have not only increased in percentage share of sales but also are very profitable relative to other products in the stores in thailand. a consequence of the increasing importance of supermarkets for fruits and vegetables is that the procurement system has had an impact on small farmers, who are the major fruit producers in thailand. the major channel from farmers to co-operative groups to supermarkets accounts for a bout 20% of supply of fa rmer ’s pr oduce. t her e is no inter media r ies between supermarkets and farmers’ co-operative groups. this has reduced the incidence of multiple parties in the channel, thereby improving efficiency of the chain. cooperatives and specialist assemblers are more beneficial to farmers, compared to other channels beca use of their openness a nd flexibility. intermediaries of these channels are responsible for all the steps involved in grading, packaging and delivery, which are more efficient when carried out on a large scale. hotels, restaurants and catering fig. 6: supply chain for fruits and vegetables followed in thailand harinder singh oberoi and dinesh j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(2) : 87-97, 2019 93 technological interventions for reducing post-harvest losses pre-cooling and storage structures harvesting methods and time of harvest play an important role in storage life of the fruit. harvesting of fruits, such as mangoes at about 2 inches from their tip on the peduncle using mechanical harvesters (fig.7) helps in improving the keeping quality of the mangoes. harvesters for fruits, like citrus fruits, sapota, etc. help in reducing the damage/injury to such fruits, eventually leading to extended storage life for such fruits.  air-coolingwhich involves the use of refrigerated air as pre-cooling medium and this method is suitable for tropical fruits. pre-cooling with air can be accomplished in a conventional cold storage room, a special pre-cooling, a funnel cooler, or a forced air cooler.  vacuum cooling that works on the principle of cooling by reducing atmospheric pressure in artificial hermetically sealed chambers. the major advantages of vacuum cooling are the speed and uniformity of cooling of the produce. vacuum cooling is generally found to be useful and suitable for vegetables. in order to save the fresh produce, it is suggested to have the pre-cooling facility at the farm gate or in the vicinity of the farmer ’s field. pre-cooling at 10°c, packing in ldpe bags of 200-gaugethickness without vents followedby storage at 10°c resulted in optimum quality and minimal spoilage in guava (dhara et al., 2017). ravikumar et al. (2018) reported that banana cv. grand naine fruits pre-cooled with hydro cooling (spray at 13°c and stored in cold store at 13 °c) showed good shelf life. kanade et al. (2017) reported that among all the treatments, pre-cooling at 12 °c followed by storage at 15 °c helped in extending the shelf life of fruits of mango cv. alphonso to 28 days. onfarm primary processing deterioration in fruits occurs largely due to factors, such as temperature, oxygen, light, moisture, and microbial growth. deterioration process accelerates once these factors act together, resulting in fast spoilage of fruits. tropical fruits like mango, guava and papaya generally come to harvest during hot and humid periods, such fruits being high in moisture with very less protection are vulnerable to deterioration beca use of physiologica l, biochemica l a nd microbiological spoilage. oxygen essentially provides conditions that enhance growth of aerobic microbes. pr esence of oxygen enha nces the gr owth of microorganisms, such as molds and yeasts, and contributes directly to deterioration in fats, vitamins, flavors, and colors within fruits through the action of enzymes. therefor e, it is extremely important to have a disinfection facility at the farm level to have a good/ optimal shelf life for fresh fruits. ozone is the fig. 7: simple mango harvesters developed at icar-iihr, bengaluru pre-cooling of fruits reduces the field heat, thereby reducing the respiration rate and physiological activity in the fruits, thereby minimizing the spoilage. in addition, pre-cooling also helps in reducing the physiological loss in weight (plw), thus helping in preservation of the value of the fruits. pre-cooling a lso helps in dela ying r ipening a nd r eta r ding senescence. pre-cooling is extremely important for tropical fruits, as the temperatures during harvest are relatively high and therefore, the fruits need to be immediately pre-cooled for having an optimal shelf life. different methods of pre-cooling include  hydro cooling which requires the use of cold water or cold water spray. hydro cooling is generally achieved through flooding, immersion or spraying of cold water. trends and innovations in value chain management of tropical fruits j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(2) : 87-97, 2019 94 strongest food grade antimicrobial agent. while destroying bacteria and viruses, the remaining ozone reverts to oxygen, for a pure, fresh taste without any chemical residue. ozone is environmental friendly, quick, simple and effective against bacteria, pesticides, poisons and prolongs the storage life naturally. ozone is reported to have 1.5 times the oxidizing potential of chlor ine a nd 3, 000 times the potentia l of hypochlor ous acid (hocl). conta ct times for antimicrobial action with ozone are typically 4-5 times less than that of chlorine. ozone rapidly attacks bacterial cell walls and is more effective against the thick-walled spores of plant pathogens and animal pa r a sites tha n chlor ine, a t pr a ctica l a nd sa fe concentr ations (suslow, 1998). applica tion of electrolyzed water has been primarily focused on fr uits and vegeta bles; its potential for sur fa ce decontamination of food products still requires further study and optimization. especially, a pplica tion parameters, such as ph, oxidation reduction potential (orp), temperature, treatment time, and active chlorine concentration, require optimization for washing fresh fruits to increase the microbiocidal effect of electrolyzed water washing as a promising alternative technique (turantas et al., 2018). in some of the countries like usa, uk, washing and/or disinfection using electrolyzed water or ozone is done at the farmer’s field. this helps in not only controlling the spoilage microorganisms as well as the food borne pathogens but also helps in reduced biochemical activity, resulting in a better storability of the produce. packaging and transportation cold storage of mango at 12-13°c is appropriate only for 2-3 weeks, beyond which the fruits tend to deteriorate rapidly. cold storage limits the use of sea freight, which is usually more economical and ecofriendly than airfreight. controlled atmosphere (ca) storage involves regulating the concentration of oxygen (o2) and carbon dioxide (co2) using nitrogen, a right mix of storage temperature and relative humidity (rh) in the storage environment. controlled atmosphere in combination with an optimum storage temperature prolongs the storage life and helps in maintaining the fruit quality including aroma volatiles in mango fruit depending upon the cultivar (singh and zaharah, 2015). elhefny et al. (2012) reported that the optimal ca for long term storage of “keitt” mango at 13°c with 3% o2 + 6% co2+ 91% n2 could extend the storage life up to 10 weeks. shelf life of 3 months is ideal for export of mangoes through the sea route. rao et al. (2018) have pr esented a consolidated information on different storage and packaging techniques to extend the shelf life of tropical fruits, which includes shrink wrapping, modified a tmospher e pa cka ging (map) a nd contr olled atmosphere (ca) storage. transportation of tropical fruits from the farmer’s field to the r eta il stores or cc of the supply cha in companies is one of the major operations having a direct impact on the ph losses and shelf life of the produce. generally, the tropical fruits require a temperature ranging from 12-15 °c and rh ranging from 85-95% for optimal storage. if the similar conditions could be provided during transportation, the ph losses in such fruits can be brought down significantly. studies conducted by icar-iihr, bengaluru on solar operated evaporatively cooled vans for retail sale of fruits and vegetables have shown an extended shelf life of fruits by 36-48 hours depending on the ambient conditions (fig 8a). evaporative cooling through misting helped in increasing the rh to the tune of 80-85%, which subsequently helped in reducing the physiological loss in weight (plw) and r eta ined fr eshness in fr uits a nd vegeta bles. incorporation of phase change material (pcm) [fig. 8b], such as gel packs also help in reducing the temper a tur e, ther ebyhelping in extending the stor a bility of tr opica l fr uits. integr a ting the incorporation of pcm along with the misting system and running this system through solar power is the need of an hour. such kind of storage vans which do not use the fuel of the vehicle for evaporative cooling/cooling mechanism are suitable for short distance transportation as well and will help in reducing the carbon footprint. integrating the use of solar power a nd pcm not only will r educe the environmental pollution but also help in saving energy. fig. 8: a. fruit and vegetable vending van using the solar power and evaporative cooling mechanism through misting for maintaining high rh inside the structure harinder singh oberoi and dinesh j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(2) : 87-97, 2019 95 fig. 8: b. vending van using the phase change material (pcm) for maintaining low temperature during transportation establishment of on-farm storage structures based on evaporative cooling/ refrigeration and hybrid systems help in impr oving the shelf life of the fr esh horticultural produce. increase in humidity to about 90% with a decrease in temperature by 10-12 °c, compared to ambient temperatures help in improving the shelf life of the tr opica l fr uits. on-fa r m establishment of evaporative cooled (ec) storage structures help in reducing the ph losses in fruits and vegetables (chopra et al., 2004). on-farm storage str uctur es like the icar-ciphet designed eva poratively cooled str uctur e (fig. 9a ) or the refrigerated structures (fig. 9b)can serve as ideal structures for pre-cooling as well as storage to improve the shelf life of fruits as well as avoid distress sale of the fresh fruits. in addition to on-farm storage and/or pre-cooling, onfarm primary and secondary processing of fruits will help in adding significant value to the fruits and improve their shelf life. primary and secondary processing facility for sorting, washing, grading, waxing (wherever required) and packaging at the farm gate will improve the marketability of the fruits, in addition to improving their shelf life. creation of secondary processing activities at the farm gate level, for fr uits such a s mango, gua va , papaya pulp processing facility with the product having a shelf life of six months or more will help the farmer/fpo to add value to the fruit and enable them to sell the product at the appropriate time, whenever demand of such products is on the rise. tracking and traceability of the produce tracking of the fresh fruits through the supply chain helps in monitoring the movement of the produce throughout the chain. traceability of the produce gives details about the farmer who produced the fruits, planting date, spray schedule, quality of water used for irrigation, test reports and harvesting date, so that the information could be put to use for improving the cultivation practices at the time of recall. with the traceability system in place, one can identify the root cause for the pathogen infestation or epidemic outbreak so that appropriate preventive action could be taken to ensure that such epidemics do not recur. information about traceability can be incorporated in the farm of bar codes and readable radio frequency identification (rfid) tags and can be made available to a person sitting at a distant place through a mobile app. during the supply chain, installation of the rfid tags on the crates and integrating them with the sensor s for temper ature, rh, weight, ethylene production and biosensors in the transport vehicles will help in reducing the wastages in the supply chain (oberoi, 2008). such information once made available to the farmer/ producer on a mobile or any other device will help him in deciding if the produce needs to be diver ted to a pr ocessing unit dur ing transportation to the destination because of the deterioration in the quality of the produce or could be taken to the destination (fig. 10). this is an important innovation, which will help in significantly reducing the transit losses in perishable commodities. (a) (b) fig. 9: (a) evaporatively cooled structures and (b) solar power refrigerated structure for on-farm pre-cooling and storage of fruits and vegetables trends and innovations in value chain management of tropical fruits j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(2) : 87-97, 2019 96 conclusion value chain integrates different actors in the chain of operations right from the farmers to consumers, involving technological innovations so that the value addition takes place at each stage. in case of fruits, value chain deals with value addition in monetary terms at each stage of the value chain and quality maintena nce thr oughout the va lue cha in. it is extremely important to have a shorter supply chain to ensur e the delivery of quality output to the consumer. farmers/ fpos need to be educated about suitable varieties, gap, use of micronutrients and biopesticides, nutrient use management, mechanization in field operations and better irrigation techniques, thus helping in production of quality and uniform output. efficient crop planning and use of market intelligence and integrating them with gap will help in adding value to the farm produce. establishment of on-farm primary processing and storage facility including the facility for pre-cooling and cold storage is extremely important to preserve the quality and nutritional value of the fr uits. appr opria te packa ging, such a s packaging of fruits in punnets using laser microperforated films or other appropriate films creating map and ca storage are important techniques for value addition to the tropical fruits, such as mango and banana. transportation of tropical fruits using r efr iger a ted conta iner s or wher ever possible, evaporatively cooled containersusing renewable sources of energy, such as solar energy will help in extending the shelf life of fr uits.tra cking and traceability of the fresh produce using the rfid tag, sensors, bar codes help in effective monitoring of the produce through the supply chain. formation of more and more farmer producing organizations (fpos) will help in improving the bargaining power of the farmers and in creation of on-farm storage and processing facilities. creating on-farm processing will help in improving the shelf life of tropical fruits and add value to them through processing facilities. harinder singh oberoi and dinesh j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(2) : 87-97, 2019 fig. 10: traceability studies integrating the rfid tags with different sensors for the produce transported directly or in crates in the trucks 97 chang, k., brattlof, h. and ghukasyan, s. 2014. sma llholder par ticipa tion in the tr opica l superfruits value chain: ensuring equitable share of the success to enhance their livelihood. fao, www.fao.org chopra, s., aleksha kudos, s,k., oberoi, h.s., baboo, b., mahmood ahmad, k.u. and kaur, j. 2004. performance evaluation of evaporative cooled room for storage of kinnowmandarin. journal of food science and technology, 41: 573-577. dhara, p., patel, n.l., ahmad, t., 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fruits and vegetables. journal of microbiology, biotechnology and food science, 7(4): 337-342. trends and innovations in value chain management of tropical fruits j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(2) : 87-97, 2019 references (received on 30.11.2019, revised and accepted on 20.12.2019) 33 j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 33-42, 2019 original research paper metabolite profiling in mango (mangifera indica l.) pollen grains in relation to viability *k.s. shivashankara, g.a. geetha and t.k. roy division of plant physiology and biochemistry, icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hessaraghatta lake post, bengaluru 560 089, karnataka, india *email : shivaiihr@yahoo.com abstract mango productivity is affected mainly by irregular flowering, proportion of bisexual flowers, poor pollination and fertilization and fruit drop. poor fruit set in some of the varieties may be associated with the lower pollen viability. the present experiment was initiated to assess the viability of pollen grains and their metabolites in three mango cultivars amrapali, alphonso and totapuri which are differing in their fruit set intensity. the profiling of sugars, amino acids and some of the phytohormones were analysed using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (lc-ms/ms). assessment of pollen grains in three mango cultivars indicated that free sugars such as fructose and glucose, and available amino acids including serine, proline, lysine, phenylalanine, alanine and glutamic acid were predominantly higher in all the cultivars. phytohormones like iaa, iba, aba, ga, zeatin, jasmonic acid and salicylic acid were significantly different in low fruit setting cultivars alphonso and totapuri compared to high fruit setting cultivar amrapali. in cv. alphonso all the metabolites were higher at anthesis but later decreased drastically compared to cvs. totapuri and amrapali. pollen viability percentage was significantly higher in cv. amrapali than in cvs. totapuri, alphonso. among all the cultivars, amrapali maintained better chemical composition at anthesis and also at two hours after anthesis compared to cvs. totapuri and alphonso. key words: pollen, viability, lc-ms, amino acids, sugars, mango, hormones introduction mango productivity is adversely affected by irregular/ alternate flowering, reduced fruit set, high fruit drop and poor pollen viability. greater understanding towards flowering physiology and reproductive physiology of mango (mangifera indica l.) is crucial to overcome these yield complications. mango floral biology has been studied by many workers (pimentel et al., 1984; spencer and kennard, 1955; young, 1955; tsang and chang, 1983). mango pollens are characterized by very short viability as well as high sensitivity towards desiccation (issarakraisila and considine, 1994). pollen viability and its germination are also cultivar dependent characters in mango crop (abourayya et al., 2011; singh, 1954; dahshan, 1971; el-kady, 1973; desai et al., 1986; el-masry, 2001 and abd el-hadi, 2006). however, reasons for poor pollen viability and its biochemical ba sis ar e not yet understood. for effective fertilization, the pollen grains are to be transported to the stigma of the flower at a precise period of time wher e stigma is highly receptive. in a few cases, where pollen grains are placed before the maximum receptivity period of stigma, they must continue to be viable for a long per iod to ger mina te which lea ds to effective fertilization (stosser et al., 1996). pollination outside the window of stigma receptivity period resulted in reduced fruit set or most of the time no fruit set at all in many crops including mango (herrero, 2003). therefore, it is essential to understand the metabolite basis of pollen viability and its relationship with fruit set and production. mango pollens are 20-45 µm long and possess three symmetr ica l, na r r owing cha nnels a long the 34 shivashankara et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 33-42, 2019 longitudinal margins when it is dehydrated and more spher ica l or tr ia ngula r sha pe when hydr a ted (randhawa and damodaran, 1961; singh and singh, 1961). there are many reports suggesting that mango pollen grains are more viable shortly after anther dehiscence and rapidly reduces with time (mallik, 1957; singh, 1963; spencer and kennard, 1955). it is reported that in warm weather the pollen viability is normally >90% in the initial flowering (mukherjee, 1949; singh, 1954; singh and singh, 1961) however, during cool climate, initial flowering resulted in irregular and non-viable pollen grains (issarakraisila et al., 1992). davenport (2009) revealed that mango pollen gr a ins a r e via ble thr oughout wa r m temperatures, whereas cool climate can adversely influence pollen gra in gr owth and pollen tube development to the ovule. pollen grain samples showed presence of various essential and non-essential amino acids (basuny et al., 2013). it is reported that palm pollen grains contain major essential amino acids constituents like, leucine and lysine (hassan, 2011). among available amino acids, proline found to be the maximum and account for 1-2% of the whole weight of pollen grains (stanley and linskens, 1974). kedzia and holdernakedzia (2012) revealed that pollen comprises 10.4% of essential amino acids such as methionine, lysine, threonine, histidine, leucine, isoleucine, va line, phenylalanine and tryptophan. the stingless bees collected pollen grains from jandaira area consisted of 17 amino acids, among which, proline was found at the highest concentration. proline and serine reported to be major amino acids, establishing around 56% of total free amino acids (da silva et al., 2014). digestible carbohydrates have been reported in pollen grains to an extent of 30.8% and among reducing sugars, mainly fructose and glucose account for 25.7% (roulston and cane, 2000). it is also reported that the sugars such as fructose, glucose and sucrose consists of around ninety percent of all low molecular weight sugars. such information on the biochemical composition of pollens is lacking in mango. there is a need for understanding the varietal variation in biochemical composition of pollens in mango which show diver sity in pollen viability and fruit set (abour ayya et al. , 2011; abd el-ha di, 2006). therefore, the present study was initiated in three commercially valued mango cultivars viz. alphonso, totapuri and amrapali which differ in fruit set and pollen viability characteristics. material and methods the experiment was conducted in icar-indian institute of horticultural research (iihr), bengaluru, which is located at 13°58 n latitude, 78° e longitude and 890 m above mean sea level. uniformly and healthy grown five trees from each variety were selected for sample collection. the samples were collected at two time intervals after anthesis i.e., 9:00 am and 11:00 am in the morning. the flower samples were brought to lab using petri plates covered with moisture filter papers and immediately processed for biochemical estimation using relevant solvents. pollen viability viability of mango pollen grains was assessed using inorganic acid test as explained by koul and paliwal’s (1961). adding 4% sulphuric acid to the freshly collected pollen grains resulted in immediate formation of short pollen tubes which is known as instant pollen tubes. pollen viability was assessed at anthesis and 2 hours after anthesis. biochemical composition of pollen grains assessment of free amino acids the free amino acids were extracted and analysed using the methanol: formic acid method (geetha et al.,., 2016). in brief, the free amino acids were extracted using 0.1% (v/v) formic acid in 20% methanol and the mixture was sonicated for about 15 min and centrifuged at 4°c in 10,000 rpm for about 20 mins. the extract was filtered using 0.2μm nylon membrane filter and 5μl of sample injected to lcms/ms column for the amino acid analysis. lc and ms-ms conditions the mobile phase for running the lc program was an aqueous phase of 0.1% formic acid in water (a) and organic phase of methanol: water (1:1) with 0.1% formic acid (b). the gradient program starting with 95% of solvent a to 60% at 15 mins and back to the initial conditions at 19 mins. the flow rate was 0.1 ml/min. the analytical column was 2.1 x 50mm uplc behc18 reverse phase column with 1.7μm particle size, protected by a vanguard beh c18 with 1.7μm guard column. the elution was supervised by means of a pda detector and the uplc column discharge driven directly without any splitting into the tqd-ms/ms (waters, usa), for amino acid analysis. 35 metabolite profiling of mango pollen grains estimation of hormones phytohormones were analysed by using lc-ms/ ms a s descr ibed by geetha et al (2016). the samples were homogenised in 1-propanol: water ( 2 :1 ; v/ v) wit h 0 . 0 7 % h c l f or dif f er ent phytohormonal extraction. the supernatant was va por ized to complete dryness a nd ta ken into mobile phase, filtered using 0.2μm nylon filter paper and 5μl was injected to lc-ms/ms. lc and ms-ms conditions the mobile phase was composed of solvent (a) water/acetonitrile/acetic acid (95/5/0.05, v/v/v) and solvent (b) acetonitrile/water/acetic acid (95/5/ 0.05, v/v/v). the gradient program initiated with 85% solvent a changed to 15% at 12 mins and from 13 mins the gradient was returned to the initial conditions of 85% a at 15 min. the flow rate was 0.2 ml/min and the lc column details are same as mentioned for the amino acid analysis. estimation of sugars extraction of different sugars from mango pollen grains was performed as described by geetha et al (2008). a known quantity of the sample was extracted with 5ml of 80% ethanol. the extract was evaporated to remove traces of alcohol and re-dissolved in mobile phase comprising solvent a and solvent b in 1:1 ratio, filtered through nylon filter paper and injected to lc-ms/ms (waters uplc h class system fitted with tqd ms/ms system) for analysis. lc and ms-ms conditions the mobile phase comprised of solvent (a) 80:20ac et onit r il e: wa t er a nd s olvent ( b) 3 0 :7 0 ac et onit r i le: wa t er wit h 0 . 1 % ammoniu m hydr oxide. the gra dient pr ogram was used for running lc, initially with 100% of solvent a to 98% at end of 15 mins and r etur ned to 100% solvent a at 19 mins. the flow rate was 0.1 ml/ min and the analytical column was the same as mentioned for amino acid analysis. statistical analysis the current work is conducted entirely using crd with thr ee replica tes. significance differences among the means were analysed using analysis of variance (anova) at p 0.05. results and discussion in the current study the biochemical changes in pollen grains at anthesis and 2 hours after anthesis was analysed in three commercially important mango cultivars alphonso, totapuri and amrapali which are differing in fruit set intensity. pollen viability our study on pollen viability by inorganic acid test revealed that the pollen grains of cv. amrapali had significantly higher viability compared to cvs. totapuri and alphonso (fig. 1). pollen viability was found to fig 1. pollen viability (% viable pollens) in cvs. alphonso, totapuri and amrapali at anthesis and 2 hrs after anthesis j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 33-42, 2019 decrease 2 hrs after anthesis in cvs. alphonso and totapuri, however it remained consta nt in cv. amrapali. earlier literature on mango pollen grains revealed that they are most viable soon after anther dehiscence and viability decreases rapidly afterwards (sen et al., 1946; spencer and kennard, 1955; mallik, 1957; singh, 1963). although the initial percentage of viable pollen grains are reported to be generally >90% during warm weather, during cool climate initial flowering resulted in irregular, non-viable pollens (issarakraisila et al., 1992). it is reported that reduced pollen viability might be due to abnormal development of anthers at low temperatures (issarakraisila and considine, 1994). the variations in the pollen viability of different mango cultivars are due to genetic makeup (abourayya et al., 2011; el-masry, 2001 and abd el-hadi, 2006). therefore, it is essential to understand whether these variations of pollen viability are due to differences in biochemical composition of pollen grains in the above three cultivars. amino acids in pollen grains results revealed that proline was found to be the leading amino acid in pollen grains of all the three 36 cultivars. total free amino acids were higher in alphonso cultivar compared to the other two cultivars totapuri and amrapali. however, most of the amino acids were decreasing with time in cultivar alphonso on the other hand it remained constant in other two cultivars totapuri and amrapali (table 1). proline, serine, lysine and phenylalanine are the major amino acids in all the cultivars. these amino acids are higher in alphonso at anthesis but later i.e., two hours after anthesis decreased to half of its concentration. in other two cultivars totapuri and amrapali the amino acid concentration remained constant at anthesis and also at 2 hours after anthesis. proline was reported to be present in highest percentage in pollens of higher plants and is up to 1-2% of the whole weight of pollen grains (stanley and linskens, 1974). however, in palm trees pollen grains contain leucine and lysine as the major amino acids (hassan, 2011). in general, pollen grains contain 10.4% of important amino acids such as methionine, lysine, threonine, histidine, leucine, isoleucine, valine, phenylalanine and tryptophan (kedzia and holderna-kedzia, 2012). proline was reported to be highest in the jandaira stingless bees collected pollen grains. they identified 17 amino acids in the bees collected pollen grains and found proline and serine were at higher concentration, comprising around 56% of overall free amino acids (da silva et al., 2014). it is reported by earlier workers that the serine is considered to be second highest amino acid present in many pollen grains whereas bee-collected pollen grains from poland, south korea and china reported glutamic acid, proline, aspartic acid, leucine and lysine are high concentration (szczesna, 2006). in our study also serine was found second highest free amino acid recorded in all the three cultivars (table 1). mutters et al., (1989) revealed that the pr oline content wa s ma ximum in the ma le reproductive parts of cowpea plants, whereas proline deficient mutant arabidopsis plants showed reduced pollen viability signifies the role of proline in pollen grain growth and development. the proline mutated plants are moderately supplemented by spraying proline on inflor escences which resulted in the enhancement of pollen germination in arabidopsis plants (mattioli et al., 2012). phytohormones play very important role in growth and development of plants especially during reproduction. this study indicated that the iaa content was more at anthesis and later decreased in cultivars alphonso and totapuri but increased after anthesis in cv. amrapali (table 2). higher iaa content in pollens of amrapali may be contributing for the better quality pollens in this cultivar compared to alphonso and totapuri. it is reported that indole-3-acetic acid (iaa) is involved in controlling the development of floral parts such as stamens, gynoecia and ovary, which indirectly supporting the development of ovule and also encouraging axial polarity and polar growth of embryo (mol et al., 2004; aloni et al., 2006). increase in content of iaa in pistil post-pollination pr ocesses wa s a lso obser ved indica ting the involvement of iaa probably in promoting the pollen tube growth in the pistils (aloni et al., 2006; wu et al., 2008). however, only a few reports are available on the role of auxins in pollen development and viability. auxin is required for floral organ development and pollen production (cheng et al., 2006) as well as for pollen maturation and a nther dehiscence in arabidopsis (cecchetti et al. , 2013). pollen germination in stigma was complemented by the increase of ethylene, aba, iaa and cytokinins (kovaleva and zakharova, 2003; 2004). there are earlier reports suggested that ethylene or ethylenereleasing agents produce an increased number of female and bisexual flowers, respectively (owens et al., 1980). ethylene content was observed more in cv. amrapali which is high fruit setting variety and the content was increased to twice after 2 hrs of anthesis and this variety is also known to have higher number of bisexual flowers (geetha et al., 2016). plant growth regulator salicylic acid was high in the pollens of cv. amrapali compared to other two cultivars and the content of sa increased after anthesis in all the cultivars (table 2). among the gibberellins estimated, ga4 was significantly higher in cv. amrapali and lowest in cv. alphonso whereas ga3 and ga7 content were similar among the cultivars. aba and jasmonates were also significantly higher in cv. amrapali compared to other two cultivars (table 2). aba was increasing with time after anthesis in all the cultivars. methyl jasmonate was found to increase after anthesis only in cultivar amrapali. parish et al., (2013) revealed gibberellins and aba role in the growth of tapetum is crucial for the circulation of metabolites to the pollen grains. it is also reported that in arabidopsis gibberellins are essential for stamen elongation and pollen maturation (goto and pharis, 1999) whereas in rice, gibberellins j. hortl. sci. vol. 34(1) : 33-42, 2018 shivashankara et al 37 j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 33-42, 2019 metabolite profiling of mango pollen grains ta bl e 1. a m in o ac id s (m g/ 10 0g f w ) pr of ili ng i n po lle n gr ai ns o f m an go c vs . a lp ho ns o, t ot ap ur i an d a m ra pa li in flo w er s w hi ch o pe ne d at 9 a m a nd 1 1 a m 38 ta bl e 2. h or m on es a nd p la nt g ro w th r eg ul at or s (µ g/ g fw ) in p ol le n of m an go c vs . a lp ho ns o, t ot ap ur i an d a m ra pa li in flo w er s w hi ch o pe ne d at 9 a m a nd 1 1 a m shivashankara et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 33-42, 2019 39 are essential for pollen growth, stamen elongation and pollen development (chhun et al., 2007). the sugar accumulation in pollen grains of all the three cultivars also followed similar trend as that of amino acids. alphonso cultivar recorded higher fructose and glucose contents when compared to the other two cultivars, but the content decreased to half of its concentration with time in alphonso cultivar however, in the other two cultivars totapuri and amrapali sugars remained constant (table 3). it is reported that pollens collect sucrose throughout their development (aloni et al., 2001), and subsequent hydrolysis by invertase, the glucose and fructose are generated due to rapid metabolization at the onset of germination (karni and aloni, 2002). this is the main reason that in our studies also fructose and glucose concentration was observed in high concentration compared to other sugars in all three mango cultivars. digestible carbohydrates occur in the pollen grains in the amount of 30.8% on an average. reducing sugars, mainly fructose and glucose, are present in about 25.7% in pollen grains (roulston and cane, 2000). increased content of non-reducing sugars, starch and decreased inorganic phosphates and acid phosphatase activities are reported to be some of the reasons for lower viability (nishiyama, 1984). relationship between the sugar and amino acids with pollen viability and germination is yet to be understood. lower pollen viability is observed in cv. alphonso but the pollens had higher amino acids and sugars at anthesis later on decreased. this indicates that these pollen grains may be lacking the enzymes which are useful for the utilisation of sugars and amino acids for germination. the pollen grains of alphonso cultivar is degraded rapidly compared to cultivars totapuri and amrapali which is one of the main constraints for pollen germination and fruit set. greater fruit set in cv. amrapali is primarily because of improved pollen viability and enhanced metabolites in pollens compared to cv. alphons o. higher content of pr oline, ser ine, salicylic acid, glucose and fructose were observed in pollens of cv. alphons o a t a nthes is when compared to other cultivars even though alphonso is low in fruit set. conclusion in the pr esent study, it is obser ved that pollen viability and metabolites vary significantly between the cultivars. in addition to that higher viability pollens of c v. amr a p a li ( high fr u it set) a lso recorded lower sugars and amino acids, higher aba, g a 4, z ea t in a nd s a l ic ylic a c i d when compared to the pollens of alphonso (low fruit set) indicating that the higher viability may be due to better utilisation of sugars and amino acids and due t o higher gr owth r egula t or s. f u r ther it wa s varieties time fructose glucose ribose sucrose alphonso 09:00 5.63±0.21 3.34±0.14 0.13±0.02 0.28±0.03 11:00 2.49±0.14 1.40±0.12 0.03±0.01 0.36±0.02 mean 4.06±0.17 2.37±0.13 0.08±0.02 0.32±0.02 totapuri 09:00 1.67±0.25 1.17±0.13 0.04±0.01 0.24±0.02 11:00 2.29±0.09 1.13±0.07 0.02±0.00 0.21±0.02 mean 1.98±0.17 1.15±0.10 0.03±0.01 0.225±0.02 amrapali 09:00 2.98±0.11 1.56±0.20 0.02±0.01 0.01±0.01 11:00 3.16±0.11 1.85±0.12 0.02±0.01 0.09±0.02 mean 3.07±0.11 1.70±0.16 0.02±0.01 0.05±0.01 cd for varieties (p 0.05) 0.072 0.041 0.001 0.007 cd for time (p 0.05) 0.088 0.051 0.001 0.008 cd for v x t (p 0.05) 0.125 0.072 0.002 0.012 table 3. sugar (g/100g fw) profiling in pollen of mango cvs. alphonso, totapuri and amrapali in flowers which opened at 9 am and 11 am metabolite profiling of mango pollen grains j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 33-42, 2019 40 observed that most of the metabolites increased at 2 hrs after anthesis in cv. amrapali compared to alphonso where the metabolites decreased after a nt hes is . t he s tu dy su gges ts tha t the a b ove met a b olit es es p ec ia lly hor mones a long wit h ma int ena nc e of met a b olit es a f t er a nt her dehiscenc e pla ys a n impor ta nt r ole in higher viability and fruit set in mango crop. this is one of the first studies on mango pollen metabolites. acknowledgement the current study was supported by icar project “national innovations on climate resilient agriculture (nicra)” new delhi. all the authors are thankful to the director, icar-iihr, bengaluru for providing the necessary facilities to carry out the work. j. hortl. sci. vol. 14(1) : 33-42, 2019 shivashankara et al references abourayya, m.s., kassim, n.e., el-sheikh, m.h. and rakha, a.m. 2011. comparative study between inflorescence characteristics, pollen viability, germination and dimensions of tommy atkins, kent and keitt mango cultivars. life sci. j. 8 (1):100–105. abd el-hadi, s.m.k. 2006. evaluation studies on some mango varieties. fac. agric., al-azhar univ., egypt, pp. 166 (m.sc. thesis). aloni, b., peet, m.m., pharr, m. 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(ms received 17 december 2018, revised 04 may 2019, accepted 10 june 2019) 00 contents.pdf 01. rms copy 62(17) gauva.marketing & phl-pinflesh.pdf 02. rms copy 63(17) soft wood grafting – a novel and rapid multiplication technique in coorg mandarin (citrus reticulata blanco).pdf 03. rms copy 25(18) evaluation of solanum species and eggplant cultivated varieties for bacterial wilt resistance.pdf 04. rms 18(18).pdf 05. rms_ii _24_18.pdf 06. rms copy 26 (18) metabolite paper-edited_04.05.2019.pdf 07. rms copy 1(19).pdf 08. rms copy 2(19) revised heterosi and combining effects ridge gourd 2019.pdf 09. rms copy 5(19) digital repository revised.pdf s1. rms 45(17) effect of trichomes in cowpea on infestation by spotted pod borer.pdf s2. rms copy 65(17) performance of anthurium (anthurium andreanum lind) cultivars in hill zone of.pdf s3. rms copy 2(18) langsat paper revised.pdf s4. rms 3(19) mineral content of red skinned potatoes of eastern india-revised.pdf sph -jhs coverpage jun 2019 issue 14(1).pdf page 3 page 4 sph -jhs coverpage jun 2019 issue 14(1).pdf page 1 page 2 72 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 72-80, 2020 original research paper soil and plant analysis a strategic tool to diagnose micronutrient imbalance in lime and sapota orchard in tablelands of chambal ravine region of india rashmi i.1*, meena h.r.1, somasundaram j.2 and radha t.k.3 1icar-indian institute of soil water conservation, rc, kota, 2icar-indina institute of soil science, bhopal; 3icar-indian institute of horticulture research, bengaluru 560 089, india email : rashmimenon109@gmail.com abstract micronutrient imbalance in lime and sapota fruit crops result in unstable fruit yield, fruit shedding and degrade quality of the produce. a study was therefore conducted to evaluate micronutrient statusoflime and sapota orchard by analysing soil and plant samples. soil samples were collected from surface (0-15cm) and sub-surface (15-30cm)depth representing whole orchard. at the same time, plant samples including 35-40 each for leaves and petiole samples each from lime and sapota field was also collected.available micronutrients from soil samples were extracted using diethylenetriaminepenta acetic acid (dtpa) and it was in the order of manganese (mn)> iron (fe)> zinc (zn)> copper (cu) in both lime and sapota plantations. dtpaextractable zn and cu showed low status, marginal status of fe and sufficient level of mn in soils of sapota plantations. in plant analysis, high concentration of cu (869 mg kg-1) and zn (411mg kg-1) was observed in lime leaves; however, in sapota crop cu and zn content was 8.25mg kg-1 and 16.7mg kg1 respectively. similarly, fe and mn content of lime leaves was 197 and 43 mg kg-1 which was slightly higher than sapota leaves that recorded 128 and 49mg kg-1 of fe and zn respectively. in sapota plants, higher mn and cu concentration in leaf resulted in zn deficiency symptoms such as shortened internodes or rosette disorders of sapota plants. thus, correcting micronutrient deficiency is pre-requisite for qualitative and quantitative fruit production in tablelands of india. keywords: copper, iron, leaf analysis, manganese, micronutrient deficiency, sapota, zinc introduction ravines are typical examples of land degradation covering approximately 2.06 mha and gully formation occurs in 8.31 mhaarea in india (icar-naas, 2010). generally, these ravine lands also known as badlands are situated near rivers and typically know for deep ravines cutting with extension overnearby arable lands (pani and carling 2013). cultivation of crops is practised on the top slope called tablelands and adjacent undulating topography of gully eroded areas of chambal ravines. fruit crops like lime is of great significance in semi-arid regions of rajasthan due to its hardy nature and low water requirement. however, sapota crop is recently introduced in the r egion a nd ther efor e infor ma tion on a rea a nd production of sapota in rajasthan is not readily available. lime per unit production in rajasthan is 4.0 t ha0-1 which is low against india’s national average of 8.33 t ha”1 (srivastava and shyam, 2008). the area under sapota in india is estimated to be 1.77 lakh hectares, with an annual production of 1.74 million metric tonnes and productivity of 9.91 mg ha -1 (sharma, 2015). major sapota growing state includes andhra pradesh, gujarat, karnataka, maharashtra, tamil nadu, kerala, punjab, west bengal, and haryana. in citrus crops necrosis, die back, chlorosis symptoms are commonly observed in the region due to nutrient deficiency r esulting in decline of lime yield (somasundaram et al., 2011). nutrient imbalance in sapota crop is visualised by poorfruit setting,quality, shedding of fruitsand low productivity. guvvali (2016) this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. 73 j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 72-80, 2020 micronutrient imbalance in lime and sapota reported thatonly 10-12% of the total fruits set, and retains until maturity in sapota crop. lower fruit production in north western india is mainly due to nutr ient imba la nce or disor der s which ca use considerable yield reduction with huge economic loss (somasundaram et al., 2011; guvvali and shirol, 2017). subsequently, orchards provide sub optimal fruit yield with increasing gap between the amount of nutrient added and demand of crop (srivastava and singh, 2006). in rajasthan, about 57, 34, 28 and 9% soils are deficient in zinc (zn), iron (fe), manganese (mn) and copper (cu) respectively (shukla, 2018). micronutrients are required by plants to perform specific biochemical reactions, metabolism required for its growth and productivity. thus in order to avoid yield and quality loss, nutrient requirements of lime and sapota crop need to be carefully monitored through soil a nd pla nt a na lysis for evolving nutr ient management strategies. besides soil analysis, leaf sample analysis is considered a more direct method of plant nutritional status evaluation, especially, for fruit crops as these differ from seasonal crops in nutrient requirement due to their size, population density, rate of growth and rooting pattern (motsara and roy, 2008). in ravine landforms, very scanty information is available on micronutrientdeficiency in fruit crops (somasundaram et al., 2011; meena et al. , 2019). t her efor e, the pr esent study wa s conducted with the hypothesis that diagnosing micronutrient disorders of sapota crop is vital to achieve optimum fruit yield so as to improve orchard efficiency with advancing age of crop. the objective of this study was to analyse micronutrient deficiency or sufficiency level through soil and plant analysis in lime and sa pota cr op a nd its ma na gement for sustainable productivity in semi-arid regions of ravine ecosystem. material and methods brief description of experimental site the study area comprises two distinct landscapes, the agricultural tablelands and the ra venous lands a djoining chamba l r iver. t he physiogr aphy is constituted of gently sloping (<2% slope), moderately well-drained tablelands in the immediate vicinity of ravines. the experimental orchard area is a tableland located at research farm, icarindian institute of soil and water conservation, research centre, kota, situated at 25º 11' n latitude and 75º 51' e longitudes at an elevation of 256.9 meters above mean sea levelwith fairly levelled topography. according to koppen’s climate classification subtype, the climate of kota is semi-arid type (mid latitude steppe). more than 90 per cent of rainfallis received during mid-june to september with scanty showers during winter months (nov-dec). this region is characterized by mild and dry winters and hot summers with average rainfall of 740mm (mean of last 5 years) of which most of the r a infa ll is r eceived dur ing july month (300 mm). lime (kagzi lime variety) crop planted at 4.5 x 4.5 m (row x plant) during 2001; sapota cv. ‘kalipatti’ trees planted at 8 x 8 m spacing (row x plant) during 2008. the study was carried out during 2018-2019at the research farm of indian institute of soil and wa ter conser va tion, resea r ch centr e, kota , rajasthan. the soils are brown to dark grey brown in colour, generally non calcareous occurring on flat gently sloping land with less than 2% slope. the soils of the region are moderately well drained fine textured soils classified as typic chromoustert belonging to kota soil series. the region comprises of two diverse geology namely sandstone quartzite, silicaceous limestone and dolomite where a vast area is formed from the alluvium brought down by chambal and its tributaries passing through the residual hillocks and gently sloping rocky plateau (shyampura and sehgal, 1995). the physico-chemical properties of the orchard soil are given in table 1. the irrigation water used in sapota orchard contained bicarbonate, calcium a nd ma gnesium of 600, 66. 8 a nd 33.5 mg l -1 respectively, with ph of 7.6 and electrical conductivity (ec) of 2.76 dsm-1. orchard management the experimental trees were managed with uniform cultural practices as per the standard recommendations with respect to manures and fertilizers, irrigation and pla nt pr otection mea sur es, etc. nutrients wer e regularly supplied to lime crop duringcritical period of crop growth for better production and explained in ta ble 2. recommended dose of nitr ogen (n), phosphorus (p2o5), and potash (k2o) was applied beyond a 30-cm radius from the tree trunk of lime. after ten years, fertilizer were mixed @ 750g n, 450g p and 750g k was applied to each lime plant every year. fertilizers were applied to each tree in two or 74 rashmi et al. three split doses when soil is moist. in sapota orchard, recommended doses of fertilizer were mixed @ 1000 g n, 500 g p and 500 g k per plant for ten-year-old sapota plants. for the application of full recommended dose of npk,2174 g urea (1000 g n), 3125 g single super phosphate (500 g p) and 833 g murate of potash (500 g k) per plant were applied from 6 th year onwards. full amount of phosphorus, potash and half dose of nitrogen in various treatments were applied as basal dose before vegetative sprouting in the month of june. remaining half dose of nitrogen was applied after fruit set in the month of december. collection of plant and soil samples a systematic survey of lime and sapota orchard was conducted to assess the micronutrient status in 15 and 10 year old plantation covering an area of 2 and 0.4 ha respectively. for leaf sample collection, uniform area was selected in the orchard and 30 trees were selected as shown in the fig 1. in both lime and sapota orchard, recently matured leaf were collected from north, south, east, and west quarters of thetrees (reuter et al. , 1997) dur ing september a nd october.about 35-40 fully developed leaf samples were collected, from which petioles samples were separated.the sampling pattern is shown in figure 1 omitting the border plants. from the 35-40 leaf samples collected, petiole samples (40) separated, j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 72-80, 2020 soil parameters lime sapota depth (cm) 0-15 15-30 0-15 15-30 ph(1:2.5) 7.74 7.51 7.81 7.62 ec (ds m-1) 0.57 0.62 0.55 0.59 oc (g kg-1) 4.7 3.6 4.5 3.4 available nutrients (kg ha-1) nitrogen (n) 365.7 304.4 342.3 288.7 phosphorus (p) 17.4 13.9 15.41 11.4 potassium (k) 436.5 412.4 386 344.5 exchangeable cations (cmol p+ kg-1) na 4.9 5.7 3.2 3.5 ca 18.2 17.9 17.7 17.8 mg 7.6 6.1 7.5 6.4 cation exchange capacity (cec) 27.6 22.5 33.4 32.8 (cmol p+ kg-1) soil texture (%) sand 27.8 29.3 27.2 29.7 silt 42.2 41.5 44.3 42.3 clay 30 29.2 28.5 28 table 1. soil properties under lime and sapota orchard 75 shade dried and grounded to fine powder for nutrient analysis. for nutrient analysis, 1g of sample was digested with tri acid mixtures (nitric, sulphuric and per chloric acid a t 9:2:1). micr onutrients wer e estimated by directly feeding the filtered tri acid extract of the plant sample to a calibrated atomic absorption spectrophotometer using respective hollow cathode lamps for each element (fe, mn, zn and cu). micronutrient concentration was expressed in mg kg-1 on dry weight basis. soil samples were collected from four quadrants at two different depths (0-15cm and 15-30cm) of the lime and sapota orchard (15 composite samples from each depth). soil samples were air dried, grounded and passed through 2mm sieve and subjected to analysis of available micronutrients, namely fe, mn, zn and cu. for the soil analysis 20g soil samples was shaken with 40ml 0.005m dtpa extractant for 2 hours (linday and norvell, 1978). the filtered extract was directly read on aas (model thermo m6 series; thermo scientific, waltham, mass.) for micronutrient analysis of iron (fe), manganese (mn), copper (cu) and zinc (zn). results and discussion micronutrient concentration in soil samples micronutrient concentration of soil samples under sapota plantations are shown in table 3. among micronutrient imbalance in lime and sapota j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 72-80, 2020 table 2. fertilizer management in lime and sapotaorchard age (years) nitrogen (g/plant) p2o5 (g/plant) k2o (g/plant) lime 1 75 40 75 2 150 80 150 3 225 120 225 4 300 160 300 5 375 200 375 6 450 240 450 7 525 280 525 8 600 320 600 9 675 360 675 10 750 400 750 sapota 1 200 200 300 2 200 200 300 3 200 200 300 4 200 200 300 5 200 200 300 6 1000 500 500 7 1000 500 500 8 1000 1000 1500 9 1000 1000 1500 10 1000 1000 1500 76 micronutrients, highest concentration was observed in mn, followed by fe, zn and cu. surface soil recorded higher micronutrient concentration compared to subsurface soil except for mn. t he micr onutr ient concentr ation in soil was crucially inter pr eted considering the critical limit of soil availability of dtpa extractable zn, cu, mn and fe as 0.6, 0.2, 2 and 4.5 mg kg-1 respectively suggested by lindsay and norvel (1978) and katyal(2018). the available fe content in lime and sapota orchard ranged from 5.3 to 7.7 mg kg-1 and 3.4 to 8 mg kg-1 with mean value of 6.1 and 5.19 mg kg-1 respectively. however, sub surface mean values of dtpa fe content in lime and sapota orchard was 5.4 and 4.59 mg kg-1 respectively (table 3). most of the soil sa mples showed fe concentr a tion below the sufficiency range (6-8 mg kg-1) suggesting that fe deficiency might arise in future in sapota plantation. higher bicarbonate concentration of irrigation water used in fruit orchard could result in fe deficiency. in the medium black soils of study site, fe deficiency in lime plantations owing to increased concentration of bicarbonate ions in irrigation water was reported by somasundaram et al. (2011). similar report of fe deficiency in pomegranate orchard was also reported by gathala et al. (2004). considering the critical concentr a tion of soil mn (2 mg kg-1), d t pa extractable mn concentration in both lime and sapota orchard were above sufficiency range. in lime and sapota orchard, dtpa-mn of surface samples varied from 13.7 to 27.8 mg kg-1 and 8.4 to 15.2 mg kg-1 with mea n va lue of 20. 2 a nd 12. 11 mg kg -1 respectively. in sub surface soil mn concentration varied from 12.7 to 24.6 and 6.57 to 16.03 mg kg-1 with a mea n va lue of 18. 8 a nd 11. 3 mg kg -1 respectively in lime and sapota orchard. in vertisol, high concentr a tions of both tota l a nd dt pa extractable mn had been reported earlier by few authors (singh et al., 2006; kumar and babel, 2011). however, surwase et al.(2016) also found low status of fe and mn in silty clay loam soils under orange crop, although soils had optimum zn and cu. available zn concentration in lime orchard was higher than that of sapota orchar d. t he zn content was low to marginal level in lime orchard. the dtpa extractable zn concentration of lime and sapota orchard varied between 0.42 to 0.97 mg kg-1 and 0.17 to 0.74 mg kg-1 respectively in surface soil. sub surface dtpa zn concentration varied from 0.26 to 0.81 and 0.19 to 0.72 mg kg-1 respectively in lime and sapota orchard. earlier study reported zn deficiency in fruit orchard soils of south eastern rajasthan (kumar and babel, 2011; somasundaram et al. 2011). among all the four micronutrients, cu concentration was lowest in or cha r d soils. t he dt pa extr a cta ble cu concentration varied between 0.082 to 0.51 mg kg-1 and 0.02 to 0.35 mg kg-1 in surface soils of lime and sapota plantations. sub surface samples recorded lower cu content varying from 0.05 to 0.33 mg kg-1 and.02 to 0.25 mg kg-1 in lime and sapota orchard.soils of orchard have ph >7.5, zn forms negatively charged ions called zincate ions (zno2 2-) which can reduce zn availability in soils (katyal, 2018). except for mn, fe, zn and cu concentration were higher in surface compared to sub surface soil. similar results were also reported by surwase et al. (2016) who reported higher dtpa extractable micronutrients in surface soils of orange orchards due to higher soil organic carbon and biological activity in surface layer. thus, balanced micronutrient fertilization is necessary to correct nutrient deficiency in soils of fruits crops for doubling farmer’s income. micronutrient concentration in plant samples (leaves and petioles) plant analysis is known as adiagnostic tool for managing mineral nutrition and the total nutrient concentrationin the leaf tissue provide an accurate production potential of fruit crop which mostly depends upon the supply and uptake of particular nutr ient (sr iva sta va a nd singh 2006). lea f micronutrient concentration, like soil micronutrient content, showed wide variation (table 4).the mean fe content in leaves and petioles of lime trees were 196.8 and 161 mg kg-1 whereas, in sapota plantations it was 127 and 120 mg kg-1respectively. leaf fe concentr ations wa s higher tha n the normal fe concentration in plant tissues. however, 12% plant samples were deficient in fe and in case of petioles 8, 54 and 33% samples were deficient, sufficient and high in fe concentration. considering the optimum level of total fe concentration in plant tissue (50-100 mg kg-1), more than 62% of samples were sufficient a nd 18% sa mples r ecor ded excess of fe concentration. during field examination for sample collection, some trees showed interveinal chlorosis and necrotic symptoms were observed in leaves of both lime and sapota crop.(fig. 2). considering the normal mn content in plant tissues (15 to 50 mg kg-1), most rashmi et al. j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 72-80, 2020 77 micronutrient imbalance in lime and sapota j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 72-80, 2020 table 3. micronutrient concentration and ranges (mg kg-1) in soils of lime and sapotaorchard soil depth (cm) fe mn cu zn lime surface soil (0-15) min 5.3 13.7 0.082 0.42 max 7.7 27.8 0.51 0.97 mean* 6.1±0.23 20.2±1.1 0.28±0.025 0.69±0.032 sub surface (15-30) min 3.8 12.7 0.05 0.26 max 7.2 24.6 0.33 0.81 mean* 5.4±0.30 18.8±0.81 0.18±0.02 0.53±0.031 sapota surface soil (0-15) min 3.4 8.4 0.02 0.17 max 8.0 15.2 0.35 0.74 mean* 5.19 ± 0.33 12.11± 0.5 0.19 ± 0.03 0.38±0.05 sub surface (15-30) min 2.8 6.57 0.02 0.19 max 6.5 16.03 0.25 0.72 mean* 4.59 ± 0.29 11.3 ± 0.72 0.10 ± 0.02 0.42 ± 0.05 *mean of 15 samples, ± standard error of mean table 4. leaf and petiole micronutrient concentration and ranges (mg kg-1) in lime andsapotaplantations fe mn cu zn mg kg-1 leaf petiole leaf petiole leaf petiole leaf petiole lime range 45 – 61.2 – 18.6 – 5.64 – 45 – 63 – 46.3 – 68 – 470.3 313.5 84.9 55.3 1588 941 650.8 473.2 mean* 196.8 ± 161.1 ± 42.87 ± 18.6 ± 869 ± 526 ± 411 ± 293 ± 22.7 20.1 3.58 2.2 89.6 57.9 39.8 21.3 sapota range 89.41 – 33.52 – 22.2 – 11.31 – 4.35 – 2 – 0.62 – 0.54 – 231.24 284.51 97.61 69.26 19.78 18.48 48.12 36 mean* 127.66 ± 119.8 ± 48.84 ± 33.46 ± 8.25 ± 9 ± 16.66 ± 13.01 ± 6.56 12.23 3.98 2.92 0.77 0.89 2.25 2.1 *mean of 30 samples, ± standard error of mean 78 rashmi et al. j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 72-80, 2020 fig. 2. iron deficiency in lime (a) and sapota (b) plants fig. 1. collection of representative plant samples from sapotafruit orchard of the leaf samples showed deficient to sufficient status. the average mn concentration in lime varied between 43 and 19 mg kg-1 and in sapota was 48 and 33 mg kg-1 respectively for leaves and petioles samples (table 4). leaf samples registered 64% sufficientand 36% excess concentra tionof mn, wher ea s in petiole sa mples 8% sa mples wer e deficient. excessive mnconcentration in plant tissues can alter various processes such as enzyme activity, absorption, translocation and utilization of other mineral elements (ca, mg, fe and p), causing oxidative stress (ducicand polle, 2005; lei et al., 2007). mean cu concentration in lime leaf samples varied between 869 and 526 mg kg-1 in leaf and petiole sample. in contrast, lower cu concentration values of leaf samples were recorded in sapota plants. copper concentration of sapota leaf samples varied from 4.35 to 19.78 mg kg1 with a mean value of 8.25 mg kg -1. t he cu concentration of petiole samples varied from 2 to 18.48 mg kg-1 with a mean value of 9 mg kg-1 (table 4). the cu concentration range in plant samples vary from 5 to 16 mg kg-1. based on the normal range of 79 micronutrient imbalance in lime and sapota j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 72-80, 2020 cu (100 mg kg-1) in plants, lime plants samples showed excessive total cu content. this was mainly attributed to the spray of cu based fungicide to control fungal disease in orchard. some plants with young leaves showed chlorosis symptoms due to cu toxicity. however, in sapota crop, 13 and 21% of leaf and petiole samples were recorded as deficient and 79% wer e sufficient in cu. however, cu deficiency symptoms (dieback of apical buds) in sapota were observed during plant sampling in some sapota trees. some common symptoms included pr ema tur e defoliation and die back of twigs occurred. the tip of the twigs developed multiple buds which died soon. zinc concentration of lime crop for leaf and petiole varied from 46.7 to 650.8 mg kg-1 and 68 to 473.3 mg kg-1 respectively with a mean value of 411 and 293 mg kg-1. in sapota crop, the zn concentration of leaf and petiole samples varied between 0.62 48.12 and 0.5436.0 mg kg-1 with a mean value of 16.7 and 13.0 mg kg-1 respectively (table 3). wide difference between fe content in sapota and lime was observed in the study. based upon the zn concentration (<20 mg kg-1), more than 73% samples were sufficient in zn content in lime orchard. however, in sapota crop 50% of leaf samples were deficient where as 42% recorded optimum to highand 8% had excess zn status.in petioles, 67 and 33% samples recorded deficiency and sufficiency of zn respectively in sapota plants. high zn concentration in lemon orchard was also reported by somasundaram et al. (2011) where more than 88% leaf samples recorded higher zn content. they suggested accumulation of excess of cu in leaf resulted in greater accumulation of zn to maintain nutrient balance. soil and foliar method of fertilizer application is utilized for sapota crop.foliar application of micronutrients is considered as quickest means to correct nutrient deficiency in fruit trees. in sapota crop, fe, mn, zn and cu deficiency can be corrected by foliar spray ferrous sulfate (0.2 to 0.4%), manganese sulphate (0.3%), zinc sulphate (0.2 to 0.5%) and copper sulphate (0.1%) (satyagopalet al., 2015).copper based fungicide (copper oxychloride with 3g l-1 of water) sprays will be helpful in correcting the cu deficiency of sapota. possibility of micronutrient response to its application in crops could be as high as 90% for very low, 60 to 90% for ‘low’ and 30 to 60% for ‘optimum’ levels of extr a cta ble micronutrients (cooper and abi-ghanem, 2017). thus,identifying the deficiencies of micronutrients timely and application of balanced fertilizers at correct time can enhance crop production and quality of fruits. acknowledgement authors are thankful to director icar-iiswc for providing fa cilities for the study. authors a lso acknowledge shri ajay yada v for their help in carrying out study. references cooper, l. and abi-ghanem, r. 2017. micronutrients are the key to better yields. publication no. hg-170215-02, bio huma netics inc. ducic, t. a nd polle, a. 2005. tr ansport and detoxification of manganese and copper in plants. braz. j. plt.phy., 17: 103-112. gathala, m. k., b. l. yadav, and singh, s. d. 2004. mineral nutrient status of pomegranate orchard in jaipur district of rajasthan. j. ind. soc. soil sci. 52:206–208. icarnaas. 2010. degraded and wastelands of india : sta tus a nd spa tia l distr ibution. , directorate of information and publications of agriculture, indian council of agricultural research, krishi anusandhan bhavan i, pusa road, & national academy of sciences, new delhi 110 012. ka tya l, j. c. 2018. micr onutr ients in india n agriculture. ind. j. ferti., 14(4): 12-26. kuma r, m. a nd ba bel a. l. 2011. ava ila ble micronutrient status and their relationship with soil properties of jhunjhunu tehsil, district jhun jhunu, ra ja stha n. ind. j. agri. sci., 3(2): 97-106. lei, y. and korpelainen, h. l.c. 2007. physiological a nd biochemica l r esponses to high mn concentrations in two contrasting populus cathayana populations. chemosphere, 68: 686694. 80 rashmi et al. j. hortl. sci. vol. 15(1) : 72-80, 2020 lindsay, w.h. and norvell, w.a. 1978. development of dtpa soil test for zinc, iron, manganese and copper. soil sci. soc. am. j., 42: 421-428. meena, h.r., somasundaram, j., kaushik, r.a., sarolia, d.k., singh, r.k. and meena, g.l. 2019. integrated nutrient management affects fruit yield of sapota (achras zapota l.) and nutrient availability in a vertisol. comm. soil sci. and plt ana., 50 (22):2848-2863. motsara , m.r. a nd roy, r. n. 2008. guide to laboratory establishment for plant nutrient analysis. fao fertilizer and plant nutrition, bulletin no 19: 77-81 guvvali, t. 2016. effect of micronutrients on growth, yield and quality of sapota cv. kalipatti under hdp system. thesis submitted, uhs, bagalkot. guvva li, t. a nd shir ol, a.m. 2017. effect of micronutrients application on soil properties of sapota (achrassapotal.) cv. kalipatti. asia. j. soil sci. plt. nutr., 2(2): 1-6. pani, p. and carling, p. 2013. land degradation and spatial vulnerabilities: a study of inter-village differences in chambal valley, india. asian geograp., 30:1, 65-79. reuter, d.j., robinson, j.b., peverill, k.i., price, g.h. a nd la mbert, m.j. 1997. guidelines for collecting, handling and ana lyzing plant materials. in plant analysis: an interpretation ma nua l, ed. d. j. reuter et al. , p. 55-70. australia, csiro. satyagopal, k., sushil, s.n. and jeyakumar, p. et al. 2015. aesa based ipm package for sapota. pp 37. sharma, k.m. 2015. effect of foliar application of different chemicals on yield and quality of sapota [manilkara achras (mill.) fosberg] cv. kalipatti. m.sc thesis submitted, at nau, navsari, gujrat. shukla, a., behera, s., pakhre, a. and chaudhary, s. 2018. micronutrients in soils, plants, animals a nd huma ns. ind. j. fert. , 14(4): 30-54. shyampura, r.l. and seghal, j. 1995. soils of rajasthan for optimizing land use (nbss publication soils of india series) nagpur, india: national bureau of soil survey and land use planning. singh, r. d., s. kumar, and pande, h. 2006. micronutrient status of soils under different vegetation in uttaranchal hills. j. ind. soc. soil sci. 54:115–116. somasundaram, j.,  meena,  h.r.,  singh,  r.k., prasad, s.n.  and  parandiyal, a.k.  2011. diagnosis of micronutrient imbalance in lime crop in semi-arid region of rajasthan, india. comm. soil sci. plt. anal., 42: 858-869. srivastava, a. k. and singh, s. 2006. diagnosis of nutrient constraints in citrus orchards of humid tropical india. j. plt. nut., 29:6, 1061-1076. srivastava, a. k., and singh, s. 2008. citrus nutrition in india: current status and future strategies. ind. j. agri. sci., 78:3–16. surwase, s.a., kadu, p.r. and patil, d.s. 2016. soil micronutrient status and fruit quality of orange orchards in kalmeshwar tehsil, district nagpur (ms). j. glob. biosci., 5(1): 3523-3533. (received on 17.03.2020 and accepted on 18.06.2020) heavy use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides causes health hazards and environmental pollution, apart from imparting resistance to pathogens nad insects. thus, sustainable agriculture is the answer to tackle various issues arising from excessive dependence on synthetic chemicals. organic farming is not merely nonchemical agriculture, but is a system for integrating interactions between soil, plant, water and soil micro-flora and fauna. organic farming keeps soil healthy by improving biological life therein and helps sustain yields (lampkin, 1990). it is based mainly on principles of restoration of soil organic matter in the form of humus and increasing microbial population (pathak and ram, 2003). bell pepper, being a high-value crop, is subjected to indiscriminate use of fertilizers and pesticides for realizing high yields. but, information on organic cultivation of bell pepper as of now is rather scanty. hence, the present study was undertaken with to assess the response of bell pepper to organic sources of nutrients in relation to biological status of the soil. the experiment was carried out at agricultural research station, gangavati, during 2006 and 2007 in a fixed plot situated in the northern dry zone of karnataka (zone3) that receives rain both from south-west and north-east monsoon. this zone also falls under tungabhadra command area. average rainfall received here was 357.4mm and 176.4mm during the cropping seasons of 2006 and 2007, effect of organic cultivation of capsicum annuum l. on soil microbial properties under open-field and shade-house conditions vasant m. ganiger, j.c. mathad1, m.b. madalageri, n.s. hebasur2 and g. bhuvaneswari department of vegetable science, college of horticulture university of horticultural sciences, bagalkot 587 103, india e-mail : vasantg.veg@gmail.com abstract two bell pepper (capsicum annuum l.) varieties, viz., california wonder and gangavati local, were raised under nine completely organic nutrient sources, along with recommended package of practices, and, under completely inorganic nutrient sources. irrespective of the variety and growing environment, there was substantial increase in total bacterial count (22.97% and 24.98%), population of fungi (20.23% and 20.23%), actinomycetes (36.89% and 36.83%) and mycorrhiza (44.63% and 29.40%) in open-field and shade-house conditions, respectively, in all the nutrient combinations where organic sources were used, compared to the inorganic treatment. all organic nutrient sources used were found to be similar in their effect on soil microbes. key words: capsicum, organics, shade-house, soil microbes, dehydrogenase activity j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):103-106, 2013 short communication 1department of horticulture, college of agriculture, uas, dharwad, karnataka 2department of soil science, college of agriculture, uas, dharwad, karnataka respectively. the soil of the experimental site was medium black. composite soil samples were collected from 0-25cm depth before and after the experiment and subjected to analysis for biological properties. the experiment included main treatments as two varieties of bell pepper, viz., california wonder and gangavati local. sub-treatments were organic source of nutrients, presented in table 1. the experiment was laid out in split-plot design, with three replications. the experimental area was sown with sunhemp (crotalaria juncea) about three months earlier to bell pepper and sunhemp was incorporated into soil 45 days before transplanting bell pepper. sunhemp incorporation was done in all experimental plots except sub-plot treatments o 10 and o 11 . subsequently, the plot area was brought to fine tilth by repeated ploughing and harrowing. the nursery area too was ploughed, harrowed and the soil brought to a fine tilth. beds for raising nursery seedlings for organic nutrient-source treatment were prepared by incorporating well-decomposed fym + sand + red soil. beds for raising seedlings for inorganic treatment were incorporated with the recommended dose of inorganic fertilizer mix along with fym (anontmous, 2005) before sowing bell pepper seeds. to avoid seed and soil-borne diseases, bell pepper seeds were treated with trichoderma viridae prior to sowing. roots of thirty five day old seedlings 104 of bell pepper (except seedlings for o 10 and o 11 treatments) were dipped in a slurry containing biofertilizers, viz., azospirillum, mycorrhizal and phosphorus solubilizing bacterial cultures, for ten minutes. the seedlings were transplanted to a shade-house. all the necessary care table 1. organic and inorganic sources of nutrients used o 1 basal dose of 100% n equivalent (150 kg/ha) through fym 50% (75 kg/ha) and vermicompost 50% (75 kg/ha) o 2 basal dose of 100% n equivalent (150 kg/ha) through fym 50% (75 kg/ha) and vermicompost 25% (37.5 kg/ha) as basal and top dressing after 45 dat with 25% vermicompost (37.5 kg/ha) o 3 basal dose of 150% n equivalent (225 kg/ha) through fym 50% (112.5 kg/ha) and vermicompost 50% (112.5 kg/ha) o 4 basal dose of 150% n equivalent (225 kg/ha) through fym 50% (112.5 kg/ha) and vermicompost 25% (56.25 kg/ha) as basal and top dressing after 45 dat with 25% vermicompost (56.25 kg/ha) o 5 basal dose of 100% n equivalent (150 kg/ha) through fym 50% (75 kg/ha) and poultry manure 50% (75 kg/ha) o 6 basal dose of 100% n equivalent (150 kg/ha) through fym 50% (75 kg/ha) and poultry manure 25% (37.5 kg/ha) and top dressing after 45 dat with 25% poultry manure (37.5 kg/ha) o 7 basal dose of 150% n equivalent (225 kg/ha) through fym 50% (112.5 kg/ha) and poultry manure 50% (112.5 kg/ha) o 8 basal dose of 150% n equivalent (225 kg/ha) through fym 50% (112.5 kg/ha) and poultry manure 25% (56.25 kg/ha) as basal and top dressing after 45 dat with 25% poultry manure (56.25 kg/ha) o 9 basal dose of 150 kg n equivalent through fym, in addition to 25 t/ha recommended fym o 1 0 npk 150:75:50 kg/ha inorganic fertilizer source and 25 t/ha fym as per recommended package (control 1) o 1 1 npk 150:75:50 kg/ha inorganic fertilizer source only (control 2) varieties used: v1= california wonder, v2= gangavathi local table 2. effect of nutrient source on total populations of bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes in bell pepper varieties grown under openfield conditions (pooled data) nutrient source total bacterial count (cfux106/g) total fungal count(cfux104/g) total actinomycetes count (cfux104/g) v 1 v 2 mean v 1 v 2 mean v 1 v 2 mean o1 54.10 55.12 54.61 24.17 26.00 25.09 30.06 29.41 29.73 o 2 55.81 52.57 54.19 23.18 23.91 23.55 30.99 29.63 30.31 o3 52.85 53.78 53.31 25.19 24.67 24.93 29.25 28.39 28.82 o4 53.04 54.56 53.80 24.14 25.41 24.78 31.77 31.79 31.78 o5 52.55 50.87 51.71 25.14 25.02 25.08 30.01 31.18 30.59 o6 52.86 50.85 51.85 25.69 24.81 25.25 30.39 30.38 30.38 o7 52.27 50.6 51.43 22.63 24.19 23.41 27.00 29.16 28.08 o8 53.88 54.25 54.06 23.11 24.18 23.65 27.36 29.33 28.34 o9 53.78 50.12 51.95 24.37 25.15 24.76 28.85 30.37 29.61 o10 41.26 40.32 40.79 20.44 20.53 20.49 19.63 18.94 19.28 o11 34.31 36.31 35.31 16.28 17.21 16.75 16.76 15.35 16.05 mean 50.61 49.94 50.27 23.122 23.73 23.43 27.46 27.63 27.54 initial value 38.72 18.69 17.38 % increase over iv 22.97 20.23 36.89 cd (p=0.01) sem± cd (p=0.01) sem± cd at (p=0.01) sem± variety (a) ns 0.6638 ns 0.5973 ns 0.3264 nutrient source (b) 6.09 1.6724 3.15 0.8635 3.79 1.0421 axb 8.62 2.3651 4.45 1.2212 5.36 1.4737 axb 7.43 5.36 4.25 ns = non-significant; v1= california wonder; v2= gangavathi local and cultural operations were followed to raise the bell pepper crop. diseases and pests were, however, managed using products of animal or plant origin only (neem oil, nske 0.5%, npv, pseudomonas fluorescence, nomuruea releyi, trichoderma viridae, hirestela thampane and verticillium lecani) in the organic plots. ten grams of soil samples were diluted serially, using sterile distilled water, to 10-3, 10-4 , 10-5 and 10-6 strengths. aliquots of the one ml of appropriate dilution were plated. total bacteria present were enumerated by growth on nutrient agar, fungi on martins rose bengal agar and actinomycetes on kusters agar medium. plates were incubated at room temperature and counts were made at three days for bacteria, at five days for fungi and at seven days for actinomycets. mycorrhizal spores from soil samples were isolated by wetsieving and decanting (gerdemann and nicolson, 1963). dehydrogenase activity in soil was assayed by the method of cassida et al (1969). data generated from the experiments were statistically analyzed and interpreted, following fisher’s method of analysis of variance, as suggested by panse and sukhatme (1967). data in tables 2 and 3 reveal a substantial increase in total bacterial count (22.97% and 24.98%), total fungal count (20.23% and 20.23%) and total actinomycetan count (36.89% and 36.83% ) in the experiment site after bell pepper cropping, in open and shade-house conditions, respectively, compared to the initial value. bell pepper varieties did not j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):103-106, 2013 ganiger et al 105 table 3. effect of nutrient source on total bacterial count, fungal count and actinomycetan count in bell pepper varieties grown under shade-house conditions (pooled data) nutrient source total bacterial count (cfux106/g) total fungal count (cfux104/g) total actinomycetes count (cfux104/g) v 1 v 2 mean v 1 v 2 mean v 1 v 2 mean o1 40.33 42.33 41.33 17.53 18.57 18.05 23.6 22.27 22.93 o 2 40.67 41.37 41.02 16.33 16.97 16.65 20.53 22.23 21.38 o3 41.40 41.46 41.43 18.10 18.53 18.31 23.00 22.53 22.76 o4 41.00 41.30 41.15 18.47 17.63 18.05 22.13 24.77 23.45 o5 42.53 39.40 40.96 17.07 18.30 17.68 24.67 21.63 23.15 o6 37.93 38.76 38.34 17.13 16.93 17.03 20.50 20.40 20.45 o7 39.53 39.70 39.61 16.80 17.10 16.95 22.50 21.06 21.78 o8 40.10 40.73 40.41 16.13 16.23 16.18 19.90 22.60 21.25 o9 41.50 43.63 42.56 18.23 17.50 17.86 24.90 26.43 25.66 o10 29.33 29.53 29.43 15.17 15.07 15.12 17.27 18.00 17.63 o11 28.47 27.53 28.00 14.17 14.40 14.28 14.33 13.83 14.08 mean 38.43 38.70 38.56 16.83 17.02 16.92 21.21 21.43 21.32 initial value 29.30 14.98 15.58 % increase over iv 24.98 20.23 36.83 cd (p=0.01) sem± cd (p=0.01) sem± cd (p=0.01) sem± variety (a) ns 0.720 ns 0.222 ns 0.393 nutrient sources (b) 6.36 1.748 ns 1.126 3.88 1.065 a × b 9.00 2.473 ns 1.593 5.48 1.507 a × b 7.88 ns 4.58 ns = non-significant; v1= california wonder; v2= gangavathi local table 4. effect of nutrient source on total mycorrhizal count and dehydrogenase activity in soil after cropping season in bell pepper varieties grown under open-field conditions (pooled data) nutrient total mycorrhizal dehydrogenase source count (no. of activity (µg tpf /g spores/100 g) soil/24 hrs) v 1 v 2 mean v 1 v 2 mean o1 135.45 133.85 134.65 4.04 3.80 3.92 o 2 129.58 130.28 129.93 3.64 3.69 3.66 o3 128.29 130.14 129.22 3.79 3.74 3.76 o4 132.86 130.50 131.68 3.80 3.63 3.71 o5 129.59 131.96 130.78 4.08 3.81 3.94 o6 127.66 130.37 129.02 3.79 3.73 3.76 o7 133.67 133.69 133.68 3.76 3.68 3.72 o8 137.21 133.04 135.13 3.71 3.72 3.71 o9 130.86 131.35 131.11 3.94 3.78 3.86 o10 108.67 109.74 109.21 3.00 2.89 2.94 o11 82.24 80.87 81.555 2.40 2.35 2.37 mean 125.10 125.07 125.09 3.63 3.52 3.58 initial value 88.31 2.48 % increase over iv 44.63 30.72 cd sem± cd sem± (p=0.01) (p=0.01) variety (a) ns 0.8672 ns 0.0089 nutrient sources (b) 10.76 2.9554 0.19 0.0548 axb 15.23 4.1796 0.28 0.0775 axb 11.19 ns = non-significant v1= california wonder v2= gangavathi local significantly influence microbial count. organic treatments showed significant increase in microbial count over inorganic treatments. however, the of various organic treatments were found to be at par for microbial count. there was substantial increase in total mycorrhizal count (44.63% and 29.40%) and dehydrogenase activity (30.72% and 8.87%) in the open and shade-house conditions, respectively, in organic treatments over the initial value (tables 4 and 5). results indicated that organic sources of nutrients significantly influenced soil mycorrhizal count as well as dehydrogenase activity compared to inorganic sources. however, there was no significant difference among organic sources of nutrients. vermicompost and poultry manure are known to contain higher amounts of growth substances, vitamins and enzymes. this increased the bacterial population and root biomass, resulting in elevated amounts of exudates which, in turn, increased bacterial multiplication in the rhizosphere region. present results are in agreement with those of chitesh (2005) and nandani (2006). microbial count was higher in the treatments o 1 to o 8 compared to other treatments involving chemical fertilizers. treatments o 1 to o 8 had higher dehydrogenase activity (2.62 to 2.97µl hydrogen evolved) compared to the inorganic nutrient source treatment o 11 (2.15µl hydrogen j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):103-106, 2013 organic cultivation of capsicum and soil microbial properties 106 table 5. effect of nutrient source on total mycorrhizal count and dehydrogenase activity in soil after cropping season in bell pepper varieties grown under shade-house conditions (pooled data) nutrient total mycorrhizal dehydrogenase source count (no. of activity (µg tpf /g spores/100 g) soil/24 hrs) v 1 v 2 mean v 1 v 2 mean o1 99.33 105.33 102.33 2.97 2.97 2.97 o 2 101.33 106.00 103.66 2.68 2.67 2.67 o3 102.66 102.33 102.49 2.63 2.65 2.64 o4 105.33 106.00 105.66 2.61 2.63 2.62 o5 97.33 93.33 95.33 3.08 3.03 3.05 o6 93.66 95.66 94.66 2.74 2.67 2.70 o7 95.33 92.66 93.99 2.77 2.70 2.73 o8 100.00 87.00 93.50 2.84 2.75 2.79 o9 110.00 105.66 107.83 2.95 2.79 2.87 o10 63.33 53.66 58.49 2.37 2.24 2.30 o11 44.66 41.33 42.99 2.14 2.17 2.15 mean 92.08 89.90 90.99 2.51 2.46 2.48 initial value 50.38 2.26 % increase over iv 29.40 8.87 cd sem± cd sem± (p=0.01) (p=0.01) variety (a) ns 1.896 ns 0.026 nutrient sources (b) 14.72 4.056 0.24 0.065 a × b 20.89 5.736 0.33 0.092 a × b 19.45 0.29 ns = non-significant v1= california wonder v2= gangavathi local evolved). higher enzyme activity in these treatments may be attributed to higher soil microbial population which was probably due to more substrates being available in the form of fym, vermicompost and poultry manure. soil organic matter plays an important role in protecting soil enzymes which become immobile in the three dimensional network of clay and humus complex (tabatabai, 1994). this reflects greater biological activity in the plot receiving these substrates and stabilization of extra-cellular enzymes with humic substances (burns, 1982 and colvan et al, 2001). these results of the experiment are also in conformity with findings of gunadi et al (1999), masciandaro et al (2000), chitesh (2005) and nandani (2006). references anonymous. 2005. horticulture package of practices, university of agricultural sciences, dharwad karnataka, india burns, r.g. 1982. enzyme activity in soil: location and a possible role in microbial ecology. soil biol. biochem., 14:423-427 cassida, l.e., klein, d.a. and santoro, t. 1964. soil dehydrogenase activity. soil sci., 98:371-376 chithesh, c. 2005. studies on use of organics in tomato (lycopersicon esculentum mill.) production. m.sc (hort.) thesis, university of agricultural sciences, dharwad, karnataka, india colvan, s.r., syers, j.k. and o’donnell, a.g. 2001. effect of long-term fertilizer use on acid and alkaline phosphomonoesterase and phosphodiesterase activities in managed grassland. biol. ferti. soils, 34:258-263 gerdemann, j.w. and nicolson, j.h. 1963. the spores of mycorrhizal endogone species extracted from soil by wet sieving and decanting. trans. br. mycol. soc., 46:235-244 gunadi, b., blount, c. and edwards, c.a. 1999. the growth and fecundity of eisenia fetida (savigny) in cattle solids pre-composted for different periods. pedobiologia, 46:15-33 lampkin, n. 1990. in: organic farming, ipswich, u.k. press books, pp. 701-710 masciandaro, g., ceccanti, b., ronchi, v. and bauer, c. 2000. kinetic parameters of dehydrogenase and inorganic fertilizers. biol. fert. soils, 32:579-587 nandani, t. 2006. effect of organic, conventional and integrated form of nutrient management systems on growth, yield and quality of tomato (lycopersicon esculentum mill). m. sc. (hort.) thesis, university of agricultural sciences, dharwad, karnataka, india panse, v.g. and sukhatme, p.u. 1967. statistical methods for agricultural workers, indian council of agricultural research, new delhi, india, pp. 100174 pathak, r.k. and ram, r.a. 2003. organic farming systems prevalent in india. national symposium on organic farming in hor ticulture for sustainable production, 29-30 august, central institute of subtropical horticulture, lucknow, india, pp. 1-2 tabatabai, a. 1994. soil enzymes. in: weaver, r.w., angle, j.s. and bottomley, p.s. (eds.), methods of soil analysis, part 2. microbiological and biochemical properties, sssa, madison, usa, pp.775-833 (ms received 17 september 2011, accepted 15 june 2012, revised 09 november 2012) j. hortl. sci. vol. 8(1):103-106, 2013 ganiger et al j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 60-66, 2023 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper evaluation of tuberose genotype iihr 17-23sp-08 (ic0642158) for flower yield, quality and response to biotic stress bharathi t.u.1*, kumar r.1, nair s.a.1, umamaheswari r.2, sonavane p.2 kalaivanan d.3 and rao v.k.4 1division of flower and medicinal crops, 2division of crop protection, 3division of natural resources, 4division of basic sciences icar-indian institute of horticultural research, hesaraghatta lake post, bengaluru 560089, karnataka, india *corresponding author email : ushabharathi.t@icar.gov.in abstract tuberose (agave amica, family asparagaceae) is an important commercial flower crop valued for its spectacular fragrant flowers. an experiment was conducted to evaluate the single petalled tuberose genotypes for growth, flowering, flower yield, concrete yield and response to biotic stress for two consecutive years from 2020 to 2022. tuberose genotype iihr 17-23sp-08 was found to be superior with highest plant height (55.53 cm), early flowering (94.93 days), highest number of spikes/plant (8.47), longest spikes (114.61cm) and rachis (32.11 cm) and maximum number of florets/spike (54.87). the matured bud weight of iihr 17-23sp-08 was 1.29 g, which is preferable in the medium segment range with higher number of flower buds (725 buds per kg). it is a high yielder producing the highest number of spikes/m2 (76.20) and loose flower yield 18.88 t/ha/year among the genotypes evaluated. the genotype iihr 17-23sp-08 was also found to be a good multiplier with the maximum bulb production of 8.94 bulbs per clump. it was found to be resistant to root knot nematode (meloidogyne incognita) and tolerant to leaf burn disease (alternaria polianthi) under field conditions. it was found suitable as loose flower for garland preparation with the shelf life of 2 days under ambient conditions and for concrete extraction with the concrete yield of 0.095%. it produces white buds (rhs colour: nni55d, white group, fan 4) with green tinge on the tip. thus, the genotype iihr 17 23sp 08 was found promising and novel among the single types with better flower and bulb yield parameters. keywords : concrete, evaluation, flowering, single type, shelf life, tuberose, yield. introduction tu b er o s e, a g a v e a m i c a ( m edik. ) t hiede & govaerts (formerly polianthes tuberosa linn.) is one of t he mos t imp or t a nt t r op ic a l b u lb ou s f lower ing p la nt s t ha t b elongs t o t he f a mily asparagaceae and is native to mexico. it is an important commercial crop preferred due to its pleasant fragrance, longer keeping quality and wide adaptability. it is commercially cultivated in india in about 21,970 ha, with a loose flower production of 1,21,860 metric tonnes and cut flower production of 93,680 metric tonnes (anon., 2021). the flowers of tuberose are highly fragrant containing 0.08 to 0.14 % of concrete and having high demand in the international market. globally, tuberose concrete and absolute are produced and traded in india, egypt a nd fr a nce. commer cia l cultiva tion of tuber ose in india is confined to west bengal, kar na ta ka , ta mil nadu, mahar a shtr a, andhr a pr adesh, utta r pra desh, chha ttisga r h a nd the national capital region (ncr). in india, the preference of flower colour of tuberose varieties is limited to white, although some varieties show pinkish and greenish tinge in bud stage. garland segment in tuberose prefer varieties with green tinge on the bud tip. though, the local variety of tuberose under cultivation is with green tinge on the bud tip, but its yield potential is very low and is highly susceptible to pests and diseases. market demand is for medium sized flowers weighing less than 1.5 g/bud which makes a greater number of flowers per unit (kg). this stipulates the development of high yielding tuberose varieties with green tinge on the bud tip and medium bud weight suitable for garland purpose. with respect to biotic stresses, crop loss of 10 to 14% was reported due to root knot nematode https://doi.org/10.24154/jhs.v18i1.2148 61 j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 60-66, 2023 infestation in tuberose (khan and parvatha reddy, 1992). leaf burn disease caused by alternaria polianthi is extensive in tuberose causing significant yield losses (mariappan et al., 1977; muthukumar et al., 2007 and mazumdar et al., 2021). keeping the above in view, the present research work was carried out with the objective of breeding medium sized flowers with green tinge on bud tip for loose flower and garland purpose that are resistant/tolerant to root knot nematode and leaf burn disease. materials and methods t he tuber ose genotype iihr 17-23sp-08 wa s developed through seedling selection from gk-tc-4 during the year 2017. it was vegetatively fixed through bulbs and multiplied. seven single petalled type of tuberose genotypes namely iihr 17-23sp-08, gktc-4, phule rajani, bidhan ujwal, calcutta single, arka prajwal (commercial check) and mexican single (local check) were evaluated for growth, flowering, flower and concrete yield and response to biotic stress in randomized block design with three replications from 2020 to 2022 at the division of flower and medicina l cr ops, icar-india n institute of horticultural research, bengaluru, india. bulbs of medium size (2.5 cm diameter) were planted on raised bed of 30 cm height with a spacing of 30 cm x 30 cm with the bed size of 2.4 m2. standard cultural practices were followed throughout the experiment. observations were recorded on 15 plants in total, comprising 5 plants per replication for various parameters viz., plant height (cm), days to spike emergence, days to opening of first floret, number of spikes per clump, spike length (cm), rachis length (cm), number of florets per spike, length of floret (cm), diameter of floret (cm), bud length (cm), matured bud weight (g), weight of 100 florets (g), number of spikes per m2, loose flower yield per ha per year (tons), number of bulbs per clump, shelf life (days) and concrete content (%).tuberose concrete was extracted by solvent extraction method (asta, 1960) with food grade hexane as solvent. the concrete content was calculated on fresh weight basis and expressed in percentage. tuberose genotypes were screened for the resistance against root-knot nematode (m. incognita) for two consecutive years. gall index (gi) was registered in the roots in a 0-5 scale (0immune, 1highly resistant, 2r esistant, 3tolerant, 4susceptible, 5highly susceptible) as per taylor and sasser (1978) at the time of bulb harvest. the per cent disease index (pdi) and host reaction of the tuberose genotypes to leaf blight (a. polianthi) was recorded on 0-5 disease severity scale (0immune, 1resistant, 2-moderately susceptible and 3highly susceptible) under field condition at 15 days interval for three times, as per narayanappa and chandra (1984). the da ta of two yea r s wer e pooled a nd a na lysed statistically (gomez and gomez,1984). results and discussion the perusal of data presented in table 1, revealed significant differences in the growth, flowering and yield traits among the different genotypes. plant height was maximum in genotype iihr 17 23sp 08 (55.53 cm), which was on par with the commercial check arka prajwal (54.84 cm), while, it was minimum in gk-tc-4 (36.05 cm). the variation in plant height table 1 : evaluation of tuberose genotype iihr 17 23sp 08 (ic0642158) with checks plant days to days to no. of spike rachis number single bud genotype height spike first floret spikes per length length of florets weight (cm) emergence open clump (cm) (cm) per spike (g) iihr 17-23sp-08 55.53 94.93 22.17 8.47 114.61 32.11 54.87 1.29 mexican single 37.81 111.10 19.73 4.17 88.11 20.01 43.83 1.01 arka prajwal 54.84 101.03 29.00 5.18 97.39 30.90 52.50 2.04 gk-tc-4 36.05 125.03 19.77 4.00 65.25 18.29 49.67 1.22 phule rajani 39.02 148.17 24.10 4.00 58.14 20.15 44.10 1.09 bidhan ujwal 36.07 106.87 23.30 4.23 55.11 16.21 56.87 1.04 calcutta single 40.77 105.77 19.80 4.13 91.22 11.28 33.57 0.82 sem± 0.79 1.77 0.35 0.12 2.10 0.88 1.25 0.03 cd (p=0.05) 2.45 5.51 1.08 0.36 6.54 2.75 3.90 0.10 cv (%) 3.18 2.70 2.67 4.15 4.47 7.20 4.52 4.75 evaluation of tuberose genotype iihr 17-23sp-08 for yield and quality 62 might be due to the inherent genetic makeup of the particular genotype. similar results on variation in plant height were also reported by mahawer et al. (2013) and dogra et al. (2020) in tuberose. days to spike emergence varied from 94.93 to 148.17 days. the genotype iihr 17 23sp 08 was found to be early flowering (94.93 days) followed by arka prajwal (101.03 days) and phule rajani (148.17 days). ramachandrudu and thangam (2009) also reported early flowering in cv. hyderabad single. days to opening of first floret ranged from 19.73 (mexican single) to 29.00 days (arka prajwal), however, genotype iihr 17 23sp 08 recorded 22.17 days for first floret opening and was early as compared to commercial check arka prajwal. the genotypes with early flowering catch the early market and would be remunerative to the farmers. madhumathi et al. (2018) also observed variation in spike emergence in different cultivars of tuberose. the number of spikes per plant has direct influence on the yield of the tuberose. the genotypes iihr 17 23sp 08 registered the highest number of spikes per clump (8.47), whereas, lowest was in gk-tc-4 and phule rajani (4.00). this variation in the production of spikes per clump might be due to the inherent genetic factor of different cultivars under prevailing envir onmenta l conditions. t he r esults a r e in conformity with the findings of dalvi et al. (2021) and gandhi and bharathi (2021) in tuberose. the genotype iihr 17 23sp 08 recorded the longest spike (114.61 cm), while, bidhan ujwal registered shortest spike (55.11 cm). the rachis length varied from 11.28 (calcutta single) to 32.11 cm (iihr 17 23sp 08). variation in spike length and rachis length might be due to the inherent genetic potential of the genotype coupled with environmental conditions during the growing period. madhumati et al. (2018) also observed variation in spike length of tuberose and reported maximum rachis length in arka prajwal (33.40 cm), whereas, minimum rachis length was recorded in gktc-4 (23.93 cm). t he number of flor ets per spike ha s a dir ect association with the flower yield of the crop. number of florets per spike ranged from 33.57 (calcutta single) to 56.87 (bidhan ujwal). the genotype iihr 17 23sp 08 recorded 54.87 number of florets per spike which was on par with commercial check arka prajwal (52.50) and was superior than the local check mexican single (43.83). bharathi and umamaheswari (2018) also reported similar results in tuberose. weight of matured bud is an important economical trait for loose flowers as they are sold on weight basis. current market demand in tuberose is for the variety that produces flowers buds which weigh less than 1.5 g per bud and have a greater number of flowers per unit (kg). in the present study, matured bud weight varied from 2.04 g (arka prajwal) to 0.82 g (calcutta single). the genotype iihr 17 23sp 08 recorded matured bud weight of 1.29 g/bud which is in the range of medium segment and is preferred in the market. based on the individual mature bud weight, iihr 17 23sp 08 contains approximately 725 buds per kg. similar observations were also made by ramachandrudu and thangam (2009) in tuberose cv. arka prajwal. hundred bud weight was recorded maximum in arka prajwal (219.63 g) and minimum in calcutta single (80.80 g). the results are in corroboration with the findings of vijayalaxmi and lakshmidevamma (2016) in tuberose. the data presented in table 2 indicates significant variation in different flower traits. the bud length varied from 5.27 cm (bidhan ujwal) to 6.41 cm (mexican single), however, the genotype iihr 17 23sp 08 recorded the bud length of 6.20 cm, which was found to be superior to the commercial check arka prajwal (6.15 cm). variation in bud length of tuberose might be due to the difference in inbuilt genetic factor of the genotypes as reported by singh et al. (2018) and bharathi and umamaheswari (2018) in tuberose. diameter of floret varied from 3.82 cm (bidhan ujwal) to 5.17 (gk-tc-4). the diversity in flower diameter is in close conformity with the findings of singh and dakho (2017), singh et al. (2018) and bharathi and kirthishree (2019) in tuberose. the highest number of spikes per m2 was recorded in iihr 17-23sp-08 (76.20), whereas lowest was recorded in gk-tc-4 and phule rajani (36.00). loose flower yield was maximum in iihr 17-23sp-08 (18.88 t/ha/yr) followed by arka prajwal (17.48 t/ha/ yr), whereas the lowest loose flower yield was recorded in calcutta single (5.08 t/ha/yr). number of spikes per clump and number of florets per spike were found to be the highest in the tuberose genotype iihr 17 23sp 08 which directly related to the highest loose flower yield. the distinct variation in the flower yield may be attributed to the distinguished inherent genetic bharathi et al. j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 60-66, 2023 63 makeup of cultivars as reported by naik et al. (2018) and dalvi et al. (2021) in tuberose. t he mu lt ip lic a t ion effic ienc y of a va r iet y is important for large scale propagation and wider spread among the farmers and ease of availability. number of bulbs per clump ra nged fr om 3. 19 (phule rajani) to 8.94 (iihr 17-23sp-08). the variations observed in the bulb parameters are due to the presence of wide genetic variability among t he t es t ed genot yp es of t u b er os e. s imila r ob ser va t ions wer e r ecor ded by m a r t olia a nd srivastava (2012) in tuberose. shelf life wa s found to be the highest in the c ommer cia l chec k ar ka p r a jwa l ( 3. 00 da ys ) followed by calcutta single (2.33 days) and iihr 17 23sp 08 (2.17 days). var iation a mong the t u ber os e c u lt iva r s f or t he s helf life ma y b e attributable to the hereditary traits, which is further inter pr eted by pr eva iling clima tic conditions. safeena et al. (2019) reported the presence of genotypic variation in post-harvest life of tuberose. tuberose concrete and absolute are much valued in the international market which is used as powerful modifier in floral accords that blends well with other scents. among the tuberose genotypes tested, the concrete content was found to be the highest in calcutta single (0.097 %) followed by iihr 1723sp-08 (0.095 %) (fig 1.). the results of the study confirms that the genotype iihr 17-23sp-08 can be exploited for concrete extraction besides use as loose flowers which can be value added and used for ga r la nd ma king. t he existence of genetic variation among the tuberose genotypes in terms of concrete and absolute was reported by chaudhary and kumar (2017). the authors suggest that this tr a it ma y b e c ons ider ed a s pr ima r y ba s e f or impr ovement pr ogr ams especially for breeding tuber ose va r ieties with high concr ete content. s imila r r esu lts on va r ia t ion in conc r et e a nd essential oil yield among landraces were reported by tabaei-aghdaei et al. (2002) in rose. t he tuber ose genotype iihr 17-23sp-08 wa s screened for the tolerance/resistance to root knot nematode (m. incognita) under field condition for two consecutive years and pooled analysis revealed that it was highly resistant under field conditions wit h minima l ga ll index of 1 . 3 1 ( ta b le 3 ) . genotypic variations towards root knot nematode infestation in tuberose might be due to the genetic table 2 : evaluation of tuberose genotype iihr 17 23sp 08 (ic0642158) with checks bud hundred diameter no. of loose flower no. of shelf genotype length bud weight of floret spikes yield/ha/ bulbs per life (cm) (g) (cm) per m2 year (tons) clump (days) iihr 17 23sp 08 6.20 134.69 4.33 76.20 18.88 8.94 2.17 mexican single 6.41 108.63 4.31 37.50 8.10 7.00 2.00 arka prajwal 6.15 219.63 4.88 46.65 17.48 6.87 3.00 gk-tc-4 6.37 135.41 5.17 36.00 8.86 6.17 1.50 phule rajani 5.49 97.39 4.01 36.00 6.87 3.19 1.42 bidhan ujwal 5.27 116.56 3.82 38.10 8.99 5.67 1.25 calcutta single 5.61 80.80 4.08 37.20 5.08 6.44 2.33 sem± 0.07 2.53 0.08 1.05 0.21 0.25 0.07 cd (p=0.05) 0.21 7.89 0.27 3.28 0.65 0.65 0.22 cv (%) 1.95 3.44 3.50 4.15 3.39 3.39 6.35 fig 1 : evaluation of tuberose genotypes for concrete content on fresh weight basis j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 60-66, 2023 evaluation of tuberose genotype iihr 17-23sp-08 for yield and quality 64 table 3 : evaluation of tuberose genotypeiihr-23 sp 08 with checks for leaf burn disease incidence under field condition genotype screening for leaf burn disease* root knot nematode screening** iihr-23 sp 08 9.79 (18.24) 1.31 mexican single 19.20 (26.00) 2.42 arka prajwal 21.33 (27.52) 2.14 gk-tc-4 15.23 (22.98) 1.68 phule rajani 23.59 (29.06) 1.53 bidhan ujwal 21.10 (27.36) 1.38 calcutta single 13.00 (21.14) 1.51 sem± 0.11 cd (p=0.05) 0.34 cv (%) 10.95 *disease severity scale (narayanappa and chandra,1984); **gall index (taylor and sasser,1978); figures in parenthesis are arc sine transformed values makeup of the particular genotype as reported by gandhi et al. (2019) in tuberose. the per cent disease index and host reaction of tuberose genotypes against leaf burn disease caused by a. polianthi under field conditions was recorded for two yea r s . t he r esu lts indic a ted tha t the tuberose genotype iihr 17 23sp 08 was tolerant to leaf burn disease as compared to commercial check arka prajwal and local check mexican single (table 3). the results are in line with the findings of mazumdar et al. (2021) in tuberose who has observed the genetic inherent variation among the genotypes for a. polianthi leaf burn disease. the quality traits of tuberose genotype iihr 17 23sp 08 (fig. 2) along with other genotypes have been presented in the table 4. all the tuberose genotypes under study belong to single type. the flower/bud size was medium in iihr 17 23sp 08 and gk-tc-4, large in arka prajwal and small in mexican single, phule rajani, bidhan ujwal and calcutta single. the tinge on the tip of the bud was green in all the genotypes except arka prajwal. table 4 : quality traits of tuberose genotype iihr 17 23sp 08 (ic0642158) with checks genotype flower type flower/bud size tinge on bud nature of spike iihr 17 23sp 08 single medium green straight mexican single single small green slight bent arka prajwal single large pink straight gk-tc-4 single medium green straight phule rajani single small green straight bidhan ujwal single small green crooked calcutta single single small green slight bent flower spikes of iihr 17 23sp 08 matured buds with green tinge on the tip fully opened medium size flower fig. 2 : tuberose genotype iihr 17 23sp 08 (ic0642158) bharathi et al. j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 60-66, 2023 65 conclusion on the basis of two years of evaluation of seven genotypes for growth, flowering, flower, bulb, concrete yield and biotic stresses, the tuberose genotype iihr 17-23sp-08 was found promising and novel for its single type medium size flowers having white (rhs colour: nni55d, white group, fan 4) flower buds with green tinge on the tip, more number of flower buds per kg (approx. 725), more number of spikes (8.47) and bulbs (8.94) per clump per year and high loose flower yield (18.88 t/ha/year). it has resistance to root knot nematode and is tolerant to leaf burn disease under field condition. based on the study, the genotype iihr 17-23sp-08 can be recommended as loose flower for garland purpose and for concrete extraction. references anonymous 2021. final estimates of 2020-21 area and production of horticulture crops. https:/ /a gricoop.nic.in/sites/defa ult/files/202021 %20 (final) %20 advance %20 estimates % 202020-21 %20(1). pdf. accessed 31 mar 2023. asta. 1960. official analytical methods of the american spice trade association, new york, pp. 41-42. bha r a thi, t. u a nd kir thishr ee, s. p. 2019. hybridization and evaluation of hybrids in tuberose (polianthes tuberosa l.). int. j. chem. stud. 7(1): 189-193. bha r a t hi, t. u a nd uma ma heswa r i, r. 2 01 8. evalua tion of adva nce breeding lines of tuberose (polianthes tuberosa l.) for yield a nd qua lity. j. plant dev. sci. , 10(12): 683-687. cha udhar y, v. and m. kumar. 2017. effect of harvesting time of flowers on concrete and absolute recovery in tuberose (polianthes tuberosa l.): a comparative study of single and double petalled cultivars. int. j. chem. stud., 5(4): 1416-1420. dalvi, n.v., salvi b.r., pawar c.d., salvi v.g., dhekale j.s., joshi m.s. and khandeka r.g. 2021. va r ieta l eva lua tion on tuber ose (polianthes tuberosa l.) under konkan agroclimatic conditions. j. pharm. innov., 10(10): 444-447. dogra, s., pandey r.k., laishram n and singh a. 2020. varietal evaluation of tuberose under agro-climatic conditions of jammu. j. pharm. innov., 9(2): 499-501. gandhi, d.p. a nd bharathi t.u. 2021. genetic variability and diversity study in tuberose (polianthes tuberosa l.). int. j. chem. stud., 9(3): 235-240. gandhi, d.p., bharathi, t.u., umamaheswari, r., kala iva na n, d. a nd pra thibha, s. 2019. response of tuberose genotypes to root knot nema tode, meloidogyne incognita: biochemica l, histological a nd nutritional characterization of host-pathogen interaction. j. env. biol., 40: 1151-1158. gomez, k. a. and gomez, a. a. 1984. statistical procedures for agricultural research. john wiley and sons, new york. khan, r.m. and reddy p. p. (1992). nematode problems of ornamental crops and management. nematode pests of crops., pp. 250-257. madhumathi, c., bhargav v., reddy d.s., sreedhar d. and lakshmi t.n. 2018. evaluation of tuberose genotypes for vegetative, flowering a nd yield tra its. int. j. of chem. stud. , 6(6):88-90. maha wer, l. n., bairwa h. l. and shukla a.k. 2013. field performance of tuberose cultivars for growth, floral and economic characters under sub-humid southern plains and aravalli hills of rajasthan. indian j. hort., 70(3): 411-416. mariappan, v., babu, k. and kandasamy, t.k. 1977. a leaf spot disease of tuberose (polianthes tuberose l. ) ca used by new species of alternaria. curr. sci., 46(9): 311. martolia, k. and srivastava, r. 2012. evaluation of differ ent tuberose (polianthes tuberosa ) varieties for flowering attributes concrete and absolute content. indian j. agric. sci., 88: 170-80. mazumder, n., borah, s.k. and deka, k.k. 2021. screening of tuberose cultivars against leaf spot (alternaria polianthi) and its management. agric. sci. dig., doi: 10.18805/ag.d-5289. j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 60-66, 2023 evaluation of tuberose genotype iihr 17-23sp-08 for yield and quality 66 muthukumar, a., bhaskaran, r., eswaran, a. and kumar, m. r. 2007. studies on biochemical properties of healthy and leaf spot infected tub er ose pla nts. i nd. j. h orti c. , 46(2 ): 190-193. naik, b.c., kamble b.s., tirakannanavar s. and p a r it s. 2 0 1 8 . e va lu a t ion of diff er ent genotypes of tuberose (polianthes tuberose l . ) f or yield a nd qua lity. i nt . j. cu rr. microbol. appl. sci., 7(08): 53-60. n a r a ya na p p a , m . a nd c ha ndr a , j . k . 1 9 8 4 . fungicidal control of leaf spot of marigold caused by alternaria tagetica. indian j. agri. sci., 54(5): 691-692. ra ma cha ndr udu, k . a nd t ha nga m, m. 2 009. performance of tuberose (polianthes tuberosa l.) cultivars in goa. j. hortic. sci., 4(1): 7677. safeena, s.a., thangam, m. and singh n.p. 2019. evaluation of different cultivars of tuberose (po l i a n t h e s t u b e ro s a l . ) u nder hu mid agro-climatic conditions of goa. j. hortic. sci., 14(2): 109-114. singh, a, singh ak, sisodia a. and padhi m. 2018. performance of tuberose varieties for flowering and flower yield parameters under indo-gangetic plains of eastern uttar pradesh, india. int. j. curr. microbol. appl. sci., 7(08): 2319-7706. singh, a.k. and dakho, j. 2017. evaluation on per for ma nce and superiority of tuber ose (polianthes tuberosa l.) cultivars for growth and flowering under north indian plain. env. and ecol., 35(1a): 341-345. tabaei-aghdaei, s.r., rezaei m.b. and jaymand, k. 2002. evaluation of variation of flower yield in the damask rose (rosa damascena mill.) genotypes of kashan (iran). iranian j. forest rangeland plants. genet. breed., 9: 99-111. taylor, a. l. and sasser, j. n. 1978. biology, identification and control of root knot nematode meloidogyne spp. nor th ca r olina sta te university graphics, raleigh, nc, p.111. vijayalaxmi, g.p. and lakshmidevamma, t.n. 2016. evaluation of tuberose (polianthes tuberosa) varieties for quality traits. adv. life sci., 5(12): 5370-5371. (received : 20.09.2022; revised : 14.02.2023; accepted 31.03.2023) bharathi et al. j. hortic. sci. vol. 18(1) : 60-66, 2023 effect of cane regulation and ga3 spray on berry thinning in ‘thompson seedless’ grape (vitis vinifera l.) s.d. shikhamany*, swapnil v. borade, sanjay k. jeughale and suryakant y. patil maharashtra state grape growers’ association manjri farm post, pune 411 032, india *e-mail: sdshikhamany@gmail.com abstract a field trial was conducted during 2013-14 and 2014-15 fruiting seasons in growers’ vineyards around nashik, maharashtra, india to improve efficacy of ga 3 sprays in berrythinning. as smaller clusters have fewer berries, cluster compactness derived at by number of berries per unit length (cm) of rachis, and, berry-diameter were considered as a measure of berry-thinning. as ga3 effect in berry-thinning is stage-specific, canes uniformly thick in a vine only were retained to achieve uniformity in flowering, by inducing uniform bud-break. cane regulation did not result in uniformity in bud-break or flowering. blanket spray of ga 3 thrice @ 20g a.i./ha, each coupled with either removal of non-uniform canes or retention of all the canes could effectively reduce cluster compactness by reducing number of berries per cluster, without increasing total length of the rachis/cluster or berry diameter. vine yield and quality in terms of total soluble solids and acid content were not affected by the treatments. considering cluster-compactness, yield and ease of cultural operations, retention of all the canes in a vine, coupled with three blanket sprays each of ga 3 @ 20g a.i/ha, on alternate days commencing from initiation of the bloom, is recommended for ‘thompson seedless’. key words: cane regulation, ga 3 spray, uniform flowering, cluster compactness, ‘thompson seedless’ introduction ‘thompson seedless’ is the predominant variety of grape grown in india for table and raisin purposes. this variety is grown in over 70% of the total area under grape in the country. clusters in this variety are very compact, prone to berry cracking and rotting, during ripening, transit and storage. hence, berrythinning is necessary. berry-thinning is achieved with blanket sprays of ga 3 prior to bloom under temperate viticulture. response to ga3 for berry-thinning is highly stage-spe cific. according to turne r (1972), the effective stage is three days to one day prior to initiation of bloom. phenological development stages in the panicle are uneven on any given day under tropical conditions of peninsular india, owing to uneven budbreak after fruit pruning. hence, growers in this region resort to ga 3 sprays during the bloom, supplementing it with manual thinning. manual thinning is not only labour-intensive, but also time-consuming. delayed thinning deprives the berries retained from gaining in size (winkler et al, 1974; coombe, 1960). moreover, manual thinning often leaves unseen bruises on the berries retained, which are then prone to decay in transit and storage (chadha and shikhamany, 1999). in view of the importance of chemical thinning, a field trial was undertaken with an aim to improve the efficacy of blanket pre-bloom sprays of ga3 on berry-thinning by induc ing uniform flowering through cane regulation. uniformity in flowering depends mainly on uniformity in bud-break which, in turn, depends on uniformity in thickness of the canes in a vine. bud-break was found to be earlier in thin canes compared to the thick ones (reddy and shikhamany, 1990; shikhamany and manjunath, 1992). hence, removal of non-uniform canes was attempted, to induce uniform flowering, mediated through uniform bud-break in the vine. material and methods this trial was conducted during the cropping season of 2013-14 and 2014-15 on six/seven – yearj. hortl. sci. vol. 11(2): 131-142, 2017 132 old ‘thompson seedless’ grapevines in farmers’ vineyards at two locations (mohadi and pimpalgaon) around nashik (maharashtra). all the experimental vine s were space d at 2.7m x 1.5m gra fted on ‘dogridge’ rootstock, and trained on extended y trellis. these were pruned for fruiting in the second week of october, and grapes were harvested on 140th day after pruning. the vines were subjected to uniform viticulture practices, namely, ethrel sprays for pre-pruning defoliation, hydrogen cyanamide application for promoting bud-break, and ga 3 sprays for cluster elongation. experiments in each vineyard were laid out in factorial a x b x c randomized block design, with the following treatments replicated thrice: factor a season: s1: 2013-14 and s2: 2014-15 factor b location: l1 (mohadi) and l2 (pimpalgaon) factor c treatments (removal of abnormally thin or abnormally thick canes within a vine, coupled with ga3 sprays): t1 -cane removal, coupled with three sprays each of ga3 @ 20g a.i./ha t2 -cane removal, coupled with two sprays each of ga3 @ 30g a.i./ha t3 -retention of all canes, coupled with three sprays each of ga 3 @ 20g a.i./ha t4 -retention of all canes, coupled with two sprays each of ga3 @ 30g a.i./ha t5 -control (growers’ practice of retaining all the canes, and spraying ga 3 @ 80g a.i./ha at 50% bloom) the first spray of ga 3 was applied three days prior to full bloom stage (approximately at initiation of calyptras-opening in a panicle), repeated on alternate days. ga3 at specified dose was sprayed with a blower-assisted-sprayer irrespective of the volume of spray solution. obs e rvations r ec ord ed : obse rvations wer e recorded on five canes tagged in each of the five vines selected at random in each replication/ treatment number of canes/vine: number of canes left on the vine after forward-pruning in t3, t4 and t5, and, after cane removal in t1 and t2 cane diameter: diameter at the middle of each cane was measured, and the average diameter calculated. uniformity in bud-break: number and position of buds opening on selected canes was recorded every day from the 5th to 12th day after pruning. the day on which highest number of buds broke was taken as the standard (d-day) and a score of 100 was given for each bud. for deviation in bud-break by a day from the d-day, either early or late, a score of 75 was given for each bud; a score of 50 for each bud deviating by two days, and a score of 25 for each bud deviating by 3 days. the sum of the scores was divided by the total number of broken buds, and expressed as ‘per cent uniformity in bud-break’. uniformity in flowering: the stage of inflorescencedevelopment specified for applying the first spray of ga3 for thinning wa s use d a s a re fer enc e . observations we re re corded on the number of inflorescences attaining this stage from the 30th day after pruning, on selected canes. the day on which highest number of panicles attained this stage was taken as the standard (d-day), and was given a score of 100 for each panicle. for deviation by one day from the d-day, either early or late, a score of 75 was given for each panicle; 50 for each deviating by two days, and 25 for each deviating by 3 days. the sum of scores was divided by the total number of panicles and expressed as ‘per cent uniformity in flowering’. cluster compactness index: this was derived by dividing the number of berries per cm of the total length of rachis. berry-count and total length of rachis was recorded after removal of berries in five clusters selected at random from each plot. berry-thinning has been found to increase the size of berries retained in a cluster (coombe, 1960; winkler et al, 1974). hence, berry diameter was included in factors determining cluster compactness in these studies. total length of rachis: sum of the length of main rachis and all its branches was measured in cm. number of berries/cluster: average number of berries was counted in five, selected clusters. berry diameter: average diameter of 25 berries was measured (at the middle of the berry, using callipers). yield/vine: average yield of 10 vines in a plot was recorded in kg at harvest. shikhamany et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(2): 131-142, 2017 133 cluster weight: mean weight of five clusters selected at random from each plot was calculated. total soluble solids content (tss): soluble solids content was determined in °b using a hand-held refractometer in the juice extracted by crushing the 25 berries selected at random. titratable acids content: this was determined by titrating an aliquot of 10ml juice against 0.1n naoh using phenolphthalein indicator and expressed as gram equivalent tartaric acid in 100ml juice. statistical analysis: data were analyzed in factorial a x b x c (2 x 2 x 5) design, with eight treatment combinations and three replications, where ‘a’ denotes the season, ‘b’ location and ‘c’ treatment. results and discussion reducing cluster compactness was a major objective in our trial, therefore, greater emphasis is laid on presenting this parameter. any treatment reducing cluster compactness should not result in reduction of any yield or quality attribute/s. hence, trea tment e ffe cts on thes e a ttribute s ar e a lso presented. effect on cluster compactness number of berries per cm length of the rachis is a recognized measure of cluster compactness (chadha and shikhamany, 1999), but berry-size also contributes to cluster compactness. at a given number of berries/cm length of rachis, a cluster with berries of 20mm diameter will be more compact, for example than one with 16mm berry diameter. cluster compactness differed significantly with season, location and treatment (table 1) being low less in 2014-15 (s2) compared to that in 2013-14 (s1). this can be attributed to an increased total length of rachis, a nd re duce d numbe r of be rrie s/c luste r. le s s compactness in s2, despite greater berry-diameter is an indication of greater cluster elongation and/or a chemical thinning in ‘ thompson seedless’ grape table 1. effect of cane regulation and ga treatment on components of cluster compactness factor cluster compactness rachis length no. of berries/ berry index (cm) cluster diameter (mm) a. season 1. 2013-14 34.5b 47.6 a 79.0 b 17.9 a 2. 2014-15 32.0a 64.6 b 66.2 a 18.8 b s.em ± 0.52 1.21 1.61 0.11 c.d. (p=0.05) 1.5 3.5 4.6 0.3 b. location 1. l1 32.2 a 63.9 b 66.1 a 18.0 a 2. l2 34.3 b 48.2 a 79.2 b 18.8 b s.em ± 0.52 1.21 1.61 0.11 c.d. (p=0.05) 1.5 3.5 4.6 0.3 c. treatment 1. t1 29.9 a 51.4 a 69.0 a 18.3 2. t2 33.2b 59.8b 72.2 a 18.3 3. t3 30.3a 53.8 a 68.4 a 18.5 4. t4 35.9 c 54.8 a 75.0 a 18.4 5. t5 36.8c 60.6b 78.5b 18.3 s.em ± 0.82 1.91 2.55 0.17 c.d. (p=0.05) 2.3 5.5 7.3 ns interaction a x b * ** ** ** a x c * ns ns ns b x c ** ** ** ns a x b x c * ns ns ns ns= non-significant j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(2): 131-142, 2017 134 reduction in berry-number per cluster in this season. when locations were compared, cluster compactness was less in the vineyard at mohadi (l1) than in the one at pimpalgaon (l2). contributory factors for less compactness at l1 were: comparatively longer rachis, reduced number of berries/cluster, and lower berry diameter. these results indicate that the general prac tice of growe rs for cluster elonga tion and treatments imposed to reduce number of berries/cluster were more effective in s2 and in the vineyard at l1. on the other hand, practices for increasing berry diameter were more effective in s2 and in the vineyard at l2. all the treatments were effective in reducing number of berries/cluster, but owing to less elongation of rachis, cluster compactness was not low in t4 (retention of all canes, coupled with two sprays of ga 3 @ 30g a.i/ha). however, the rest of the treatments more effectively reduced compactness, compared to that in the control. variation in rachis length cannot be attributed to treatments, because, neither cane removal before initiation of growth nor ga3 sprays applied between three to one day prior to bloom, have any effect on rachis elongation. the ideal stage for ga3 application for cluster elongation has been found to be 25 days prior to full-bloom (turner, 1972). berry diameter was not affected by treatments. reduced berry number in the treatments did not result in increased berry-size. the reason for ineffectiveness of ga3 treatments in increasing berry-diameter is the mode of action of ga 3 and its stage of application. ga3 increases berry length but not berry diameter. the ideal stage for ga 3 application for berry elongation is from five to ten days after full-bloom (turner, 1972). hence, application of ga 3 just before bloom was ineffective in increasing berry-diameter. the growers’ practices for increasing berry-diameter appear to have masked treatment effect, if any. effect of the treatments on cluster compactness varied with season and location. interaction of season with treatments influenced cluster compactness only, but not rachis length, number of berries/cluster, or berry diameter. in individual effects of treatments, all the treatments, excepting t4 (retention of all canes, coupled with two sprays of ga3 @ 30g/ha) greatly reduced compactness, compared to the control (t5growers’ practice). however, all the treatments, including t4, reduced compactness in s1; whereas, in s2, only t3 (retention of all canes, coupled with three sprays of ga3 @ 20g/ha) reduced the compactness, compared to that in control, consistently, over the years (table 1a). location x treatment interaction also shikhamany et al table 1a. season x treatment effect on cluster compactness index season treatment t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 2013-14 29.2a 35.4de 30.7ab 36.9e 40.2f 2014-15 30.5ab 31.0a 29.9 a 34.9cde 33.5bcd s.em ± 1.16; cd (p=0.05) = 3.3 influenced cluster compactness. in its major effect, across locations, t2 (cane removal, coupled with two sprays of ga3 @ 30g a.i./ha) reduced compactness greatly, compared to control; but, at l1 it could not do so. at l2, all the treatments (except t4) reduced compactness greatly compared to the control. t1 (cane removal, coupled with three sprays of ga 3 @ 20g a.i./ ha) and t3 were consistent in their effect in reducing the compactness, over the control, at both the locations (table 1b). rachis length was also influenced by location x treatment interaction. when effects of the trea tme nts ove r the s eas on a nd loc ation were considered, rachis length was greater in control, but at par with t2. similar was the trend at l1; but, at l2, all the treatments were at par with control. although ga 3 spray at initiation of bloom had little effect on rachis elongation, rachis length was consistently greater in t2 over locations (table 1c). interaction effect of location x treatment revealed that t1 and t4 were more effective at l1 than at l2, in reducing number of berries/cluster (table 1d), although all the treatments were effective over locations and seasons (table 1). effect of the treatments in reducing number of berries/ cluster seems to have been deviated by comparison with the inherently small clusters obtained in t1 and t4 at l1, and in control at l2 (table 1e). in addition to the berry-thinning effect of ga3 sprays, inherent size of the cluster appears to be the reason for reduced number of berries/cluster. interaction of treatments with season and loca tion als o influe nc ed c luste r c ompa c tnes s significantly. interactions of s1l1t1, s1l1t3, s2l1t1, s2l1t3, s2l2t2 and s2l2t3 resulted in lower compactness, than that of s1l1t5, s1l2t4 or s1l2t5 (table 1e). j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(2): 131-142, 2017 135 table 1b. location x treatment effect on cluster compactness index ____________________________________________________________________________________ location treatment —————————————————————————————————— t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 —————————————————————————————————————————— l1 27.8a 34.2efg 29.5abcd 32.2de 37.2gh l2 31.9cde 32.2de 31.2bcde 39.5h 36.5fgh —————————————————————————————————————————— s.em ± 1.16; cd (p=0.05) = 3.3 table 1c. location x treatment effect on rachis length (cm) —————————————————————————————————————————— location treatment —————————————————————————————————— t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 —————————————————————————————————————————— l1 53.4b 68.4cd 63.9c 61.5c 72.4d l2 49.4ab 51.2ab 43.7a 48.1ab 48.8ab —————————————————————————————————————————— s.em ± 2.70 cd (p=0.05) = 7.7 table 1d. location x treatment effect on number of berries/cluster —————————————————————————————————————————— location treatment —————————————————————————————————— t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 —————————————————————————————————————————— l1 57.7a 69.1bc 66.8abc 61.4ab 75.3cde l2 80.2def 75.4cde 70.1bcd 88.5f 81.8ef —————————————————————————————————————————— s.em ± 3.60 cd (p=0.05) = 10.3 table 1e. season x location x treatment effect on cluster compactness index —————————————————————————————————————————— 2013-14 2014-15 —————————————————————————————————— treatment l1 l2 l1 l2 —————————————————————————————————————————— t1 25.7a 32.8fghijk 30.0abcdefgh 31.1bcdefgh t2 34.1ghijkl 36.7jkl 34.3hijkl 27.7abcd t3 29.3abcdef 32.2defghij 29.6abcdefg 30.2abcdefgh t4 32.0cdefghi 41.7mn 32.5efghij 37.3klm t5 42.3n 38.0lmn 32.0cdefgi 35.0ij _____________________________________________________________________________________ s.em ± 1.63 cd (p=0.05) = 4.7 chemical thinning in ‘ thompson seedless’ grape 136 in the overall analysis, considering variation due to season and location in the effects of treatments on rachis length, number of berries/cluster and the berry diameter, it can be concluded that t1 and t3 were equally effective in reducing cluster compactness over the control. effect on uniformity in flowering uniformity in flowering is considered to be the basic requirement for blanket sprays of ga 3 to be effective in reducing number of berries/cluster. a perusal of variation in uniformity in flowering and numbe r of be rries /cluster within se asons a nd locations, would reveal that greater uniformity in flowering was associated with a lower number of ber ries /clus ter. trea tment e ffec ts on uniform flowering were influenced by season and location, as evidenced by a significant effect of season x treatment and location x treatment interactions (table 2). cons idering the ir main effe cts and inter ac tion e ffe c ts with se a son a nd loca tion, treatments comprising cane removal (t1 and t2), envisaged at increasing the uniformity in bud-break (eventually increasing uniformity in flowering), failed to do so (tables 2a, 2b and 2c). uniformity in flowering was concordant with uniformity in budbreak only in the case of season but not location or tre a tme nt (ta ble 2). inte ra c tion of se as on x treatment also influenced uniformity in bud-break significantly. this could be due to a differential rate of flowe r de velopme nt, influenced by we ather conditions during flower development (christensen, 1969; negi and randhawa, 1974). however, the component of cane removal in t1 and t2 did not result in increased uniformity in bud-break (table 2d). ca ne diameter was highe r in t1 and t2 where uneven canes were removed (table 2). this implies that it was the undersized canes that were r e mov e d in t 3 a n d t 4 . ca n e di a me te r wa s influenced by season x treatment interaction, being higher in t1 and t2 in 2014-15, but not in 2013-14 (table 2e). increased cane diameter in t1 and t2 did not result in increased uniformity of bud break (table 2d) or flowering (table 2a). in addition to uniformity in cane thickness, uniformity in bud-break depends on pre-pruning defoliation, diurnal variation in tempe rature a fter pruning (shikhamany and manjunath, 1992), and use of chemicals that promote bud-break (shulman et al, 1983; williams, 1987). effect of cane removal on inducing uniform budbreak could have been masked by growers’ practice of using ethrel for pre-pruning defoliation, pruning when temperature is conducive for bud-break, and using hydrogen cyanamide for inducing increased and uniform bud-break. these results point at the futility of caneregulation in inducing uniform flowering under viticulture practices followed by growers in the course of our experimentation. effect on yield yield/vine was higher in 2014-15 compared to that in 2013-14, and higher at l1 than at l2. yield did not diffe r signific antly among trea tments. however, interaction of treatment x location (table 2 f)and treatment x season x location (table 2 g) influenced yield significantly. yield/vine was greater in t3 compared to t1 and t2 at l1, but not at l2 (table 3 a,b,c). treatments t3 and control fared better at l2, than at l1 (table 3a). yield /vine is a function of number of canes/vine, number of clusters/ cane and mean weight of the cluster. increased yield in 2014-15 over that in 2013-14 can be attributed to increased number of canes and higher weight of cluster. in spite of mean bunch-weight being the same (table 3), and cane number/vine being lower (table 2), yield at l1 was higher. similarly, mean weight of cluster and number of canes/vine was lower in t1compared to t3, t4 or t5, but, yield was not lower (table 3). this could be attributed to a greater number of clusters/cane, which depends on c onditions be ing favoura ble for f ruit-bud formation during the vine growth season. effect on quality quality of grapes, as judged by the total soluble solids (tss) and acids content did not differ significantly among tre atments. however, tss content varied with season and location, and, acid content with the location only. interaction of season x location also influenced both quality-components (table 3). t ss content is primarily a varietal character, often modified by diurnal variation in temperature during the ripening period (coombe, 1992). it is mainly controlled by genotype x environment interaction. similarly, acid content is a ls o de termine d by ge notype x environment interaction. shikhamany et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(2): 131-142, 2017 137 chemical thinning in ‘ thompson seedless’ grape results of this trial indicate that: i) t1 and t3 a r e e qu a l ly e f f e c ti ve in r e d uc i ng c l us t e r compactness; ii) cane regulation did not result in significant improvement in uniformity of bud-break or flowering; iii) none of the treatments influenced yield or quality. in overall analysis, t3 (retention of all the canes in a vine, and spraying ga3 thrice @ 20g a.i./ha on alternate days, commencing from initiation of the bloom) is recommended for reducing cluster compactness, without compromising yield or quality in ‘thompson seedless’ grape. acknowledgement the authors a re gra teful to shri sure sh ka lamka r (mohadi) a nd shri. arun mor e (pimpalgaon) for facilitating these studies in their vineyards. also, they thank the office bearers and chairma n, ce ntra l re se a rc h committe e of maharashtra state grape growers’ association, pune, for supporting these studies. support given by prof. t.s. mungare and shri. t.s. shelke, and guidance provided by research advisory committee of the association, are gratefully acknowledged. table 2. effect of season on vine growth characters factor canes/vine cane diameter uniformity in uniformity in (mm) bud break (%) flowering (%) a. season 1. 2013-14 33.4a 7.13a 83.1b 79.7a 2. 2014-15 35.2b 7.46b 77.2a 91.7b s.em ± 0.34 0.032 0.52 0.73 c.d. (p=0.05) 1.0 0.09 1.5 2.1 b. location 1. l1 30.3a 7.33 81.7b 88.4b 2. l2 38.2b 7.26 78.6a 83.1a s.em ± 0.34 0.032 0.52 0.73 c.d. (p=0.05) 1.0 ns 1.5 2.1 c. treatment 1. t1 29.5a 7.44b 81.3b 84.4ab 2. t2 30.1a 7.49b 79.3ab 83.2a 3. t3 35.5b 7.16a 80.4ab 86.6bc 4. t4 38.8c 7.18a 80.9ab 89.7c 5. t5 37.4c 7.19a 78.7a 84.7ab s.em ± 0.54 0.050 0.82 1.16 c.d. (p=0.05) 1.6 0.14 2.3 3.3 interaction a x b ** ** ns ns a x c ns ** ** * b x c ** ns ns ** a x b x c ** ns ns * ns= non significant table 2a. season x treatment effect on uniformity in flowering (%) —————————————————————————————————————————— treatment season ——————————————————————————————————— t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 —————————————————————————————————————————— 2013-14 78.9ab 76.0a 81.5b 86.2cde 76.0a 2014-15 89.9defg 90.3efg 91.7fg 93.3g 93.4g —————————————————————————————————————————— s. em ± 1.64 cd (p=0.05) = 4.7 j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(2): 131-142, 2017 138 table 2b. location x treatment effect on uniformity in flowering (%) —————————————————————————————————————————— location treatment —————————————————————————————————— t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 —————————————————————————————————————————— l1 84.9a 83.2a 91.4b 96.4c 85.9a l2 83.9a 83.1a 81.8a 83.0a 83.5a —————————————————————————————————————————— s.em ± 1.64 cd (p=0.05) = 4.7 table 2c. season x location x treatment effect on uniformity in flowering (%) —————————————————————————————————————————— 2013-14 2014-15 ——————————————————————————————————— treatment l1 l2 l1 l2 —————————————————————————————————————————— t1 79.8a 78.0 a 90.0 bcd 89.8 bcd t2 74.6 a 77.5 a 91.9 bcde 88.8 b t3 87.3b 75.7 a 95.5cde 87.8 b t4 96.7e 75.7 a 96.2de 90.4 bcde t5 78.5 a 73.5a 93.3 bcde 93.6 bcde —————————————————————————————————————————— s.em ± 2.31 cd (p=0.05) = 6.6 table 2d. season x treatment effect on uniformity in bud-break (%) —————————————————————————————————————————— treatment season —————————————————————————————————— t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 —————————————————————————————————————————— 2013-14 83.4e 84.2e 84.3e 85.7e 77.8bcd 2014-15 79.3cd 74.4a 76.5abcd 76.2abc 79.7d —————————————————————————————————————————— s. em ± 1.16 cd (p=0.05) = 3.3 shikhamany et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(2): 131-142, 2017 139 table 2e. season x treatment effect on cane diameter (mm) —————————————————————————————————————————— treatment season —————————————————————————————-————— t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 —————————————————————————————————————————— 2013-14 7.18abc 7.08ab 7.04a 7.20abc 7.12abc 2014-15 7.71d 7.90d 7.29c 7.16abc 7.25bc —————————————————————————————————————————— s. em ± 0.071 cd (p=0.05) = 0.20 table 2f. location x treatment effect on number of canes/vine —————————————————————————————————————————— location treatment ———————————————————————————-—————— t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 —————————————————————————————————————————— l1 27.0a 26.2a 32.3cd 34.0d 32.0bcd l2 32.0bcd 34.0d 38.7e 43.6f 42.8f —————————————————————————————————————————— s.em ± 0.0.77 cd (p=0.05) = 2.2 table 2g. season x location x treatment effect on number of canes/vine —————————————————————————————————————————— 2013-14 2014-15 ——————————— —————————————————— treatment l1 l2 l1 l2 —————————————————————————————————————————— t1 26.7a 32.1fghij 27.3abc 31.9efghij t2 26.9ab 30.0bcdef 25.5a 37.9lm t3 33.1ghijk 35.2kl 31.6defghij 42.2n t4 34.5jk 42.7n 33.6hijk 44.6no t5 33.8ijk 38.9m 30.3cdefg 46.7o _____________________________________________________________________________________ s.em ± 1.08 cd (p=0.05) = 3.1 chemical thinning in ‘ thompson seedless’ grape j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(2): 131-142, 2017 140 table 3. effect of cane regulation and ga treatment on yield and quality attributes —————————————————————————————————————————— factor yield/vine weight/cluster t.s.s. content acid content (kg) (g) (ob) (g/100ml) —————————————————————————————————————————— a. season 1. 2013-14 9.01a 385.2a 16.9b 0.500 2. 2014-15 19.16b 423.6b 14.9a 0.490 —————————————————————————————————————————— s.em ± 0.459 9.48 0.15 0.0060 c.d. (p=0.05) 0.31 27.2 0.4 ns —————————————————————————————————————————— b. location 1. l1 15.35b 404.7 15.5a 0. 535b 2. l2 12.82a 404.1 16.4b 0.455a —————————————————————————————————————————— s.em ± 0.459 9.48 0.15 0.0060 c.d. (p=0.05) 0.31 ns 0.4 0.017 —————————————————————————————————————————— c. treatment 1. t1 13.26 372.2a 15.9 0.493 2. t2 14.44 417.1bc 15.9 0.491 3. t3 14.39 404.8abc 15.9 0.497 4. t4 13.93 392.5abc 15.8 0.495 5. t5 14.42 435.2c 16.1 0.501 —————————————————————————————————————————— s.em ± 0.725 14.99 0.24 0.0095 c.d. (p=0.05) ns 42.9 ns ns —————————————————————————————————————————— interaction a x b ** ** ** ** a x c ns ns ns ns b x c ** ** ns ns a x b x c * ns ns ns —————————————————————————————————————————— ns= non significant shikhamany et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(2): 131-142, 2017 141 table 3a. location x treatment effect on yield/ vine (kg) —————————————————————————————————————————— location treatment ——————————————————————————————————— t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 —————————————————————————————————————————— l1 12.83ab 14.44bcd 17.60e 15.91cde 15.99de l2 13.70abcd 14.44bcd 11.18a 11.94ab 12.84ab —————————————————————————————————————————— s.em ± 1.026 cd (p=0.05) = 2.94 table 3b. season x location x treatment effect on yield/vine (kg) —————————————————————————————————————————— 2013-14 2014-15 ——————————— —————————————————— treatment l1 l2 l1 l2 —————————————————————————————————————————— t1 11.08cdefg 6.57ab 14.57ghi 20.83mno t2 10.35bcdef 7.27abcd 18.53ijklmn 21.61no t3 12.43efgh 7.09abc 22.77o 15.27hi t4 13.29fgh 4.87a 18.53ijklmn 19.01jklmno t5 11.37defgh 5.77 a 20.62lmno 19.91klmno —————————————————————————————————————————— s.em ± 1.450 cd (p=0.05) = 4.15 table 3c. location x treatment effect on weight of cluster (g) —————————————————————————————————————————— location treatment ———————————————————————————————————— —————-——— t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 —————————————————————————————————————————— l1 321.3a 418.4efgh 428.6gh 376.9abcdefg 478.2h l2 423.2fgh 415.9defg 381.1abcdefg 408.1cdefg 392.2bcdefg —————————————————————————————————————————— s.em ± 21.20 cd (p=0.05) = 60.7 chemical thinning in ‘ thompson seedless’ grape j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(2): 131-142, 2017 142 (ms received 13 april 2016, revised 12 june 2016, accepted 20 december 2016) references chadha, k.l. and shikhamany, s.d. 1999. the grape improvement, production and post harvest management (isbn: 81-85048-40-1). malhotra publishing house, new delhi, india, pp. 129-30 christensen, p. 1969. seasonal changes and distribution of nutritional elements in ‘thompson seedless’ grapevines. amer. j. enol. and viticulture, 20:176-90 coombe, b.g. 1960. relationship of growth and development to changes in sugars, auxins and gibberellins in fruit of seeded and seedless varieties of vitis vinifera. pl. physiol., 35:241250 coombe, b.g. 1992. research on development and ripening of the grape berry. amer.j. enol. viticulture, 43:101-110 negi, s.s. and randhawa, g.s. 1974. improvement of grapes with spe cia l reference to tropical conditions of peninsular india. indian j. genetics, 34a:1268-1275 reddy, n.n. and shikhamany, s.d. 1990. comparative efficacy of spray and dip treatments with h2cn2 on bud-bre ak in ‘t homps on se e dles s’ grapevines under tropical indian conditions. gartenbauwissenchaft, 55(1):27-30 shikhamany, s.d. and manjunath, g.o. 1992. effect of hydrogen cyanamide and date of pruning on bud-break and subsequent shoot growth, yield and quality in ‘thompson seedless’ grape. proc. int’l. symp. on recent advances in viticulture and oenology, hyderabad (india), pp. 181-87 shulman, y., nir, g., fangerstein, l. and lavee, s. 1983. the effect of cyanamide on the release from dormancy of grapevine buds. scientia horticulturae, 19:97-104 turner, j.n. 1972. practical use of gibberellin in agric ulture and horticulture. outlook on agriculture, 1:14-20 williams, l.e. 1987. the effect of cyanamide on budbreak and vine development of ‘thompson seedless’ grapevines in the san joaquin valley of california. vitis, 26:107-13 winkler, a.j., cook, j.a., kliewer, w.m. and lider, l.a. 1974. general viticulture. university of california press, berkeley, usa,. pp. 138-96 & 338-70 j. hortl. sci. vol. 11(2): 131-142, 2017 shikhamany et al 1 j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 00-00, 2022 this is an open access article d istributed under the terms of creative commons attribution-noncommer cial-shareal ike 4.0 international license, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. original research paper introduction tomato is a globally important vegetable crop and its cultivation is severly hampered by various pests and diseases including tomato leaf curl virus (tolcv). the losses due to infestation of tolcv often exceeds 90 per cent (varma and malathi, 2003; singh et al., 2015). majority of genomic studies relied on molecular markers and functional analysis of genes. in order to understand the structural and functional concept of genomic regions, it is important to employ highthroughput next generation sequencing technologies (barone et al., 2008; wang et al., 2018). rna sequencing also known as transcriptomics is one such technology that allows researchers to examine both known and unknown transcripts. non-coding rnas (ncrnas) are transcripts that are not part of proteincoding genes (wang et al., 2018). among them circular rnas (circrna) are diverse and unique family of endogenous non-coding rnas found in plant cells (wang et al., 2018). cir crnas a r e a bunda nt in the euka r yotic tra nscr iptome. their discovery a nd functiona l involvement in biological processes has opened up a new perspective so as to know how genomic regions interact in a variety of ways. however, their specific role is yet to be understood (zhang et al., 2020; litholdo et al., 2018). the majority of circrnas are conserved across species, although their expression varies according to tissue or developmental stage, as well as during biotic and abiotic stresses. circrnas interact with the transcriptional complex and influence the transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression (zhang et al., 2020; shao et al., 2021). they regulate parent gene expression by acting identification of circular rnas in resistant tomato genotype in response to tolcbav infection bhavya c.1, dayanandhi e.2, sadashiva a.t.2#, krishna reddy m.2 and ravishankar k.v.2* 1 department of plant biotechnology, uas, gkvk, bengaluru 560 065, india 2* icarindian institute of horticultural research, hessaraghatta lake post, bangalore 560 089, india # present address-r & d, nethra crop sciences private limited-bangalore 562 127, india *corresponding author email : kv_ravishankar@yahoo.co.in abstract circular rnas (circrnas) are covalently closed non-coding rnas that play an important role in a variety of biological processes. circrna profiling helps to understand biological process associated with various abiotic and biotic stresses. in tomato genotype iihr2611 (resistant to tolcbav), a total of 193 circrnas were discovered, of which 72 and 121 were found in control (rc) and tolcbav inoculated (ri) plants respectively. among them, 103 (53 %) were exonic circrna regulating the expressions of their parent genes. relative expression of circrnas 2:45295638|45295796, 2:51520741|51530067 and 7:67566489|67566691 and their respective parent genes solyc02g080530.3 (peroxidase), solyc02g088950.2 (superoxide dismutase) and solyc07g065840.2.1 (heat shock protein 90) response to tolcbav infection were analysed at different time intervals. a significantly positive correlation was observed for the expression profiles of all three circrnas and their parent genes. furthermore, the differential expression across samples as well as time interval indicates that circrna mediated gene expression is involved in viral resistance. the results of the expression assays of both superoxide dismutase and peroxidase were consistent with enzyme analysis. overall findings demonstrated the importance of circrnas in tolcbavd resistance and suggested that circrnas could be key regulators of gene expression during disease resistance in tomato. keywords: circrnas, rna sequencing, tolcbavd resistance, tomato 2 bhavya et al j. hortl. sci. vol. 17(2) : 00-00, 2022 as mirna sponges and rna binding proteins (rbp) sponges (hansen et al., 2013; ashwal-fluss et al., 2014; shao et al., 2021). their biogenesis competes with linear mrna splicing to target alternative splicing mechanism of gene regulation (shao et al., 2021). circrnas also regulate the translation of parental genes through interaction with trans-acting elements (shao et al., 2021). circrna were found to be differentially expressed during pathogen interaction in arabidopsis (sun et al., 2016; zhang et al., 2020), pathogen invasion in kiwi fruit (wang et al., 2017) and interaction with leaf curl virus in tomato (wang et al., 2018); they also have regulatory roles in response to cotton verticillium wilt and maize iranian mosaic virus (xiang et al., 2018; ghor ba ni et al. , 2018). however, ther e is no information on the involvement of circrna in tolcv tolerance in tomatoes. keeping this in view, the present study investigated the potential role of circrna in regulating tolcv resistance in tomato. using highthroughput sequencing technology and appropriate bioinformatic tools, we analysed transcriptome data and identified circrnas. abundance of circrnas, chromosome distribution and their corresponding genes were analysed and further the differential expression of few selected circrnas and their corresponding parent genes at different interval after tolcbav infection were analysed through gene expression studies. material and methods plant infection and rna sequencing tomato genotype (acc no. iihr 2611) resistant to tolcbav was grown under control green house conditions at icar-iihr, bengaluru. ten day old seedlings were inoculated with white fly (bemisia tabaci) carrying tolcbav. at 0, 3, 5, 9, 15 and 21 days post inoculation (dpi) lea f sa mples were collected. total rna from all the periods with three biological replications in each sample was isolated using rna iso-plus (takara, bio inc. japan). the quality of total rna was measured using nabi uv/vis nano spectrometer. total rna of control plants of all the intervals (0, 3, 5, 9, 15 and 21 dpi) were pooled as sample rc and total rna of infected plants of all the intervals (3, 5, 9, 15 and 21 dpi) were pooled as sample ri and sent for rna-sequencing at m/s eurofins genomics facility, bengaluru. the libraries were made from the pooled rna samples and sequenced on an illumina hiseq1500 sequencing platform with 150-bp paired-end reads following manufacturer ’s instructions. the raw reads were filtered to obtain the clean reads by removing reads containing adaptors and uncertain nucleotides n>10%, and also reads with low quality nucleotides (base quality <5 and q score <20%). the rna sequence data of both control and infected tomato (iihr 2611) was submitted to ncbi (srr 13493714). bioinformatic analysis to detect circrnas circplant is composed of four modules. based on total/polyarna sequencing reads, cireplant using bwa-mem software detects plant circrnas and the modified ciri2 (gao et al, 2015; gao et al, 2019; zhang et al., 2020). ciriexplore2 tool was used to identify circrnas with the following criteria: both ends of splice sites should be gu/ag; mismatch d” 2; back-spliced junctions reads e” 1; the distance between two splice sites d” 100 kb (zhang et al., 2016). the functional role of the parent genes of identified circrnas involved in viral resistance was ta ken fr om sol genomics networ k (https:// solgenomics.net) and also from other publications. validation of circrnas and their parent genes using qrt-pcr assay following the manufacturer’s instructions, cdna for rna samples of iihr-2611 at both control and infected conditions (0, 3, 9 and 15 dpi) with three biological replications were synthesized using hicdna synthesis kit (mol bio himedia: mbt076100r). qrt-pcr was performed in quantstudio 7 flex thermal cycler (applied biosystems) using the inter calation dye tb gr een premix ex taq ii (takara cat# rr820a). pcr mixture composition and data analysis were carried out as previously described (sorrequieta et al. 2010). pcr conditions were 30 sec at 95 °c and 40 cycles of 5 sec at 95 °c, 40 sec at 59 °c and 30 sec at 72 °c. a melting curve for every target analysed was included using the following conditions: 95 °c for 15 sec, 60 °c for 1 min, and 95 °c for 15 sec. primer sequence for circrna and their parent genes is listed in table 1. the relative expression level was calculated using the 2"δδct method (livak and schmittgen, 2000). each sample contains three biological replications and three technical replications. the housekeeping gene ef-1α (elongation factor-1α) was used to normalize the transcript levels in the rna samples (lacerda et al., 3 identification of circular rnas in resistant tomato genotype 2015). correlation was performed to mean values of log2 (fc) in excel to analyse relationship between circrna and their parent gene expression. antioxidant enzyme analysis in order to complement circrnas data, we examined sod (superoxide dismutase) and peroxidase (pox) activity, spectrophotometrically in control and infected plants following du and br amlage (1994) a nd chander, s. (1990) respectively. absorption was measured at 560 nm for sod and the increase in absorbance was measured at 450 nm up to 5 min at 1 min inter val for pox. enzyme a ctivity wa s expressed in unit/mg fw. the enzymes activity between control and tolcbav infected tomato samples with three replications were compared statistically by two factor analysis of variance (anova) using online sta tistica l softwa r e pa cka ge for agricultural research-opstat (sheoran et al., 1998). in all analyses, p < 0.05 was taken to indicate statistical significance and tukey’s hsd test was performed for multiple comparisons. results identification of circrnas in tolcbav infected resistant tomato genotype a total of 193 circrnas were identified in iihr2 6 11 genot yp e u s ing c ir c p la n t ( c ir c r n a identifier-ciri2 software (gao et al., 2015; gao et al . , 20 19 ), of which 5 8 wer e sp ec if ic a lly expressed in uninfected plant samples and 107 circrnas in tolcbav infected samples (fig. 1a). while 14 circrnas are common to both rc and ri conditions (fig.1a). the analysis of circrnas a c r os s c hr omos omes ( c hr. ) s howed t ha t a ll chromosomes harbour circrna. however, chr. 2 ha s ma x imum cir crnas both in cont r ol a nd infected conditions, accounting for 23.83 per cent of t ot a l c ir cr nas ident if ied (f ig. 1b). t he distribution of identified circrnas differs with chromosomes where, chr. 1, 4 and 6 had more circrnas in infected sample compared to control (fig. 1b). the results showed that circrnas were formed from various genomic regions. out of 193 total circrnas identified fr om both rc a nd ri, 103 (53 %) circrnas were generated from exonic region, four (2 %) circrnas were from intergenic region and 86 (45 %) circrnas are from other regions of the genome (fig. 1c). the circrnas length analysis showed that most of the exonic circrnas were up to 10kb and intergenic circrnas were <500bp (fig. 1d). a few parent genes of identified circrnas involved in vir us r esista nce includes sod (solyc02g088950.2) and pox (solyc02g080530.3) in chr. 2, zinc finger tr a nscr iption fa ctor 33 (solyc04g057990) and ariadne-like ubiquitin ligase (solyc04g079780) on chr. 4 a nd cha per onin (solyc01g028810) a nd cha per onin cpn60 (solyc01g028810) on chr. 1 (table 2). validation of tomato circrnas in response to tolcbav infection a total of 193 novel circrnas were discovered from control and tolcbav infected seedlings of the resistant genotype (iihr-2611). 108 of them were specific to infected samples induced due to viral infection. among them, we listed parent genes of circrnas based on their functional role in defence against biotic stress (table 2) and experimentally tested the predictions of their expressions using qrtpcr analysis. relative expression pattern of circrna and their parent genes was found to be significantly positively correlating across different interval of viral infection in all three genes with correlation coefficient of 0.89, 0.61 and 0.97 for 7:67566489|67566691 (hsp 90: solyc07g065840. 2. 1), 2:45295638| 45295796 (pox: solyc02g080530.3) and 2:51520741| 51530067 (sod: solyc02g088950.2 respectively (fig 2). the expression of sod gene (up to 6.0 log2fc) table 1 : list primers used in the study circrna_id circrna primer sequence 5 ‘-3’ corresponding gene primer sequence 5'-3' 2:45295638|45295796 f: tgcttggtctcacacattca f: ggaatcaacacccctggagtt (peroxide, pox) r: gcaagatgtataatgcgatggat r: acttctggatataaacggtgtaccaa 2:51520741|51530067 f: gcttgttcccaaatcctgca f: gcgacacttgaacttccttcct (superoxide dismutase) r: ttacccgagttccatccacc r: agcacttccccacagaataatttg 7:67566489|67566691 f: acatggagagaattatgaaggcc f: tatgaaggcacaggcacttagg (heat shock protein 90) r: tcaccttacacagtccctca r: atgatggagttctctgggttgatc 4 bhavya et al table 2 : list of a few identified circrnas with their parental genes circrna_id gene_id corresponding gene reference 1:41290623|41290915 solyc01g028810 chaperonin solgenomics 1:41290675|41291268 solyc01g028810 chaperonin cpn60 solgenomics 2:44939803|44947800 solyc02g080050.2 cysteine-rich receptor-like protein kinase 25 van et al., (2017) 2:45295638|45295796 solyc02g080530.3 peroxide, pox xue et al., (2020) 2:51520741|51530067 solyc02g088950.2 superoxide dismutase li et al., (2020) 4:55042616|55042849 solyc04g057990 zinc finger transcription factor 33 solgenomics 4:64205208|64205372 solyc04g079780 ariadne-like ubiquitin ligase solgenomics 6:39320133|39320546 solyc06g061200 glycine-rich protein padmanabhan et al., 2019 6:39320160|39320804 solyc06g061200.1 glycine-rich protein tomr2 padmanabhan et al., 2019 7:67566489|67566691 solyc07g065840.2.1 heat shock protein 90 tgrd 9:66931468|66931629 solyc09g074680.2.1 cullin 1b (ubiquitin-protein ligase activity) solgenomics 9:69558474|69566030 solyc09g084465.1 wound-induced proteinase inhibitor 1 fan et al., (2019) 11:40246227|40246508 solyc11g040050.2 tbp-associated factor 15 tomap fig. 1. identification and characterization of circrnas in response to tolcbav in a resistant tomato genotype. (a) number of circrnas identified in rc and ri. (b) circrnas distribution on each chromosome. (c) the number and percentage of circrnas originated from exon, intergenic and other genomic regions. (d). percent distribution of exonic, intergenic and other circrnas across chromosomes. (e) classification of circrnas based on length range. 5 identification of circular rnas in resistant tomato genotype fig. 2: expression profiling of tolcbav resistant genotype for circrnas and their corresponding parent genes at different days post infection. the data were normalized to elongation factor-1, presented as the means (standard error, n = 3, three biological replicates, correlation coefficient r=0.89, 0.61 and 0.97 for hsp 0, pox, and sod respectively). and its circrna (up to 5.63 log2fc) was significantly higher during early stages of infection whereas, gene hsp 90 (up to 14.92 log2fc) and its corresponding circrna (up to 7.17 log2fc) expression was higher during later stages of viral infection (nine and 21 dpi) (fig. 2). while, the gene pox relative expression was up to 5.34 log2fc and that of its circrna was up to 8.38 log2fc (fig. 2