Variability and Character Association in Cotton Under Natural Bollworm Infestation

Abstract

To assess the extent of variability, heritability, genetic advance present in 45 Fi's and their 10 parents a study was undertaken at the Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Lam. both under protected and unprotected environments. The PCV, GCV heritability and genetic advance values were comparatively high for seed cotton yield and number of bolls per plant indicating the operation of additive gene action. The correlation analysis indicated that number of bolls, sympodia and plant height had significant, positive correlation with seed cotton yield in both the environments. Die weightage may be given to these characters while developing high yielding varieties / hybrids with built in resistance to bollworms.