Abstract

                                Character association and path analysis in 25 genotypically diverseindigenous accessions of garlic (Allium sativum L.) were evaluated atVegetable Farm, CSK HPKV Palampur, for 17 agro-morphological quantitativetraits namely, plant height, leaves per plant, leaf length, leaf width at middleportion, pseudo stem length, pseudo stem diameter, bulb polar diameter, bulbequatorial diameter, cloves per bulb, clove weight, clove length, clove polardiameter, clove equatorial diameter, total soluble solids, bulbils per plantand bulb yield per plant. In general, the estimates of genotypic correlations,were higher than their respective phenotypic correlations for all the traitsstudied, indicating inherent relationship. Bulb yield per plant displayedsignificant positive correlation with bulb equatorial diameter, clove weight,clove equatorial diameter, pseudo stem diameter, clove polar diameter, bulbpolar diameter, clove length, leaf length, leaf width at middle portion, plantheight and leaves per plant indicated that selection based on these traitswould be more effective. Path coefficients studies revealed that clove weight,bulb equatorial diameter, clove polar diameter, leaf length and clove equatorialdiameter were the important traits for direct selection of bulb yield as thesetraits had high direct effects and significant positive correlation with bulb yieldper plant. These traits can be considered as the best selection indices forincreasing the bulb yield.

Key words : Garlic, correlation, path coefficient