Stability studies for yield and quality traits in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out at Vegetable Experimental Farm, Division of Vegetable Science & Floriculture, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Chatha during 2013-14 and 2014-15 to assess the performance of genotypes in terms of yield as well as quality across seasons and years under wide range of environments through phenotypic stability studies using Eberhart and Russel regression model. Twenty five brinjal genotypes were evaluated for yield and quality under six environments comprising of six different seasons viz., E1: autumn-winter2013; E2: spring-summer, 2014; E3: rainy, 2014; E4: autumn-winter, 2014; E5: spring-summer, 2015 and E6: rainy, 2015. The portioning of environments + (genotypes x environments) mean squares showed that environments (linear) differed significantly and were quite diverse with regards to their effect on the performance of the genotypes for fruit yield and quality traits. A perusal of stability parameters indicated only one genotype PPL-74 as average responsive and thus adapted to all types of environments for total phenol content whereas for ascorbic acid content, only two genotypes viz., Sandhya and Chhaya to be stable. However, two genotypes viz., Shamli and Punjab Sadabahar were identified as stable for fruit yield per plant whereas, genotype PPL-74 was found stable for average fruit weight and fruit yield per hectare.