Studies on the Variability of Indigenous Mulberry Germplasm for Growth and Yield Traits

Twenty two indigenous mulberry accessions were evaluated for growth and yield traits in three seasons. ANOVA on growth and yield showed significant variation among the accessions for the traits. The interaction between accession and season was highly significant for all traits. The co-efficient of variation was maximum for single leaf weight (17.08%) and minimum for total shoot length (0.08%). The divergence analysis grouped 22 indigenous mulberry accessions into 5 clusters. Maximum accessions were grouped in clusters I & II (8 acc.) followed by cluster V (4 acc.). The diversity among the accessions measured by inter-cluster distance (D2) showed variation. The cluster group indicates that mulberry accessions were distributed in different clusters irrespective of geographical distribution.