Variability studies for yield and its contributing traits in okra

Twelve okra genotypes were crossed in diallel fashion excluding reciprocals to generate 66 one-way hybrids. All the F1’s along with their parentswere grown at Vegetable Research Farm of the Department of Vegetable Crops, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab during therainy season of 2004-05. High genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation were noticed for number of primary branches per plantindicating maximum variability among the different genotypes. High estimates of heritability coupled with high genetic advance obtained fornumber of branches per plant, total yield per plant and marketable yield per plant indicating presence of additive gene effects which indicated theeffectiveness of selection for these traits. Presence of high heritability coupled with low genetic advance for days to fruit picking, average fruitweight, plant height, internodal length, number of fruits per plant, fruit diameter and average fruit length revealed that straight selection haslimited scope for further improving these traits