Abstract

Ash-gourd or wax-gourd or white pumpkin (Benincasa hispida Cogn.) is being commercially grown in Tamil Nadu and other States of India for its fleshy fruits. Inspite of the importance of the fruit for use as vegetables and in preparation of sweet-meats, there is no improved strain and only non-descript types are under cultivation in Tamil Nadu. These types give low and irregular yields for want of balanced production of staminate ard pistillate flowers, resulting in wide sex ratio and low yields. According to Choudhury (1967) an ideal variety is one which has a narrow sex ratio of stami- nate to pistillate flowers. Towards this goal, breeding work was undertaken at Coimbatore for evolving a high yielding and better quality strain in ash-gourd combining desirable qualities.

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