Studies on Genetic Variability, Heritability, Genetic Advance and Correlation Analysis in Marigold (Tagetes spp.)

The experiment was conducted in the Department of Floriculture and Landscape Architecture, University of Horticultural Sciences, College of Horticulture, Bagalkot to evaluate twenty cultivars of marigold (Tagetesspp) during 2020-2021. The experiment was laid out RCBD (Randomised Complete Block Design) with two replications for growth and yield contributing characters to determine genetic variability, heritability, genetic gain and correlation among fourteen characters. The magnitude of phenotypic coefficient of variance (PCV) was higher than the genotypic coefficient of variance (GCV) for all characters under study. The estimates for the coefficients of variance related to genotype and phenotype varied from 10.87% to 50.65% and 11.48% to 50.96% respectively. Heritability was high for all the growth and flowering parameters ranged from 89.60% to 99.00%. The plant with the highest heritability was noticed in leaf width (99.00%), followed by the flowers yield per plant (98.90%). Plant height (42.08) and leaf width (96.34%) were showed high genetic advance and genetic advance as per cent of mean, respectively. Correlation coefficient analysis indicated that the characters viz., plant height, plant spread in east-west and north-south directions, number of primary and secondary branches per plant, leaf length, number of flowers per plant, individual flower weight, flower diameter and flowering duration exhibited positive significant correlation (genotypic and phenotypic) with flower yield per plant. Our investigation indicated that these characters are important in determining the flower yield per plant. Hence, these characters may be considered as selection indices for deciding flower yield per plant and might be considered as selection indices in a marigold improvement program.