Abstract

                                The magnitude of variability and association among various traits in F2populations of three crosses viz., MDU 1 x TU68, VBN6 x TU68, and VBN8x TU68 of blackgram were studied. The experiment was conducted at theNational Pulses Research Centre, Vamban, during Rabi 2019. The genotypiccoefficient of variability was lower than the values of phenotypic coefficientof variability, which revealed the influence of the environment in decidingthe expression of these populations.The traits viz., plant height, number ofbranches per plant, number of clusters per plant, number of pods per plant,and seed yield per plant has recorded high heritability and high geneticadvance as per cent of mean for the majority of the crosses. It indicatedthat these traits were less influenced by the environment and possessedwith high magnitude of genetic variability. Association studies revealed thatthe traits viz., number of clusters per plant, and number of pods per plantin all the three crosses recorded significant and positive association withseed yield per plant. Hence, based on the present investigation, it can beconcluded that the number of clusters per plant and number of pods perplant should be given due importance in framing the selection indices forseed yield improvement in blackgram. However, separate selection indicesare required for each population as the association of traits differs amongpopulations.

Key words : Blackgram; Segregating populations; Variability; Correlation; Yield traits