CORRELATION AND PATH ANALYSIS FOR QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE TRAITS IN BOTTLE GOURD [Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) standl]

The experiment carried out at Agriculture research farm, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab. 30 genotypes were used for analysis of quantitative and qualitative traits in bottle gourd and to know the genotypic and phenotypic correlation into the components of direct and indirect effects. Correlation analysis study exhibited that the fruit yield per vine showed positive significant correlation with no of fruits per vine (0.964), average weight of fruit (0.331) and node number at which female flower appears and results of path analysis study showed that the characters like days to 1st female and male flower appearance, node number at first female flower, days to 1st fruit harvest, vine length, no of primary branches per vine, no of fruits per vine, vine length, fruit girth were most important yield improving characters with positive direct effects on fruit yield and indirect effect via many other yield attributing characters. This suggests that preference should give on such characters which help in improving yield in bottle gourd.