Divergence Analysis of Bitter Gourd Genotypes for Yield and Yield Attributes

Genetic divergence for yield and yield attributes were evaluated in 33 bitter gourd genotypes for 17 characters. Characters such as, days to first male flower appearance, days to first female flower appearance, node of first male flower appearance, node of first female flower appearance, number of male flowers per vine, number of female flowers per vine, days to first harvest, number of harvests, fruit length (cm), fruit girth (cm), individual fruit weight (g), vine length (cm), number of primary branches per vine, number of fruits per vine, sex ratio, number of seeds per fruit and yield of fruits per vine (g) were used for analysing the divergence among the genotypes. Genotypes were grouped into five clusters using D2 statistics, and a dendrogram was created using Ward's approach. Out of the five clusters, cluster I was the largest comprising of 14 genotypes. Maximum inter cluster distance was observed between cluster III and cluster V, hence diverse parents for hybridization can be selected from these two clusters.