CHARACTER ASSOCIATION STUDY FOR YIELD RELATED TRAITS AND FRUIT YIELD IN CUCUMBER (Cucumis sativus L.) GENOTYPES

Inter-character relationship study helps to understand the relationship between yield and associated characters as yield is a complex trait which depends on so many contributing characters. Field experiment was carried out at the Teaching and Research farm of the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Nigeria. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Data were collected on hundred seed weight, number of fruits per plant, fruit length, fruit breath, average fruit weight, vine length, number of nodes per plant and plant height. Data measured were subjected to analysis of variance, genotypic and phenotypic correlation and path analysis. Results of the study revealed that the genotypes were significantly different from each other for almost all the measured traits. Also, the result showed that average fruit weight had positive correlation with fruit length and fruit breadth both at the genotypic and phenotypic level. Similarly, both fruit length and fruit weight had positive direct effect on average fruit weight. This suggests that fruit length and fruit breadth can be used as selection indices for fruit yield improvement in cucumber.