Genetic divergence in garden pea (Pisum sativum L.)

Abstract

Mahalanobis 02 analysis was utilized in the present study to assess the genetic diversity among 83 genotypes of garden pea (Pisum sativum L.) and also the contribution of each character to the total diversity. Twenty-three lines of garden pea obtained from different sources and their 60 F1's formed the materials for the study. The field experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications during 2002-03. Each treatment consisted of single row of 3 m length and was kept 50 cm apart and plant to plant distance within row was maintained as 10 cm. All the recommended package of practices were followed to raise the normal crop. The observations were recorded on five randomly selected plants for each genotype replication wise on 18 quantitative characters viz., days to first flowering (OFF), number of first flowering nodes (NFFN), days of first green pod picking (OFGPP), pod length (cm) (PL), 100 green pod weight (g) (HGPW), number of seeds/pod (NSPP), 100 green seeds weight (g) (HGSW), shelling percentage (SP), early yield/plant (g) (EYPP), total soluble solids (%) (TSS), number of green pods/plant (NGPPP), number of primary branches/plant (NPBPP), number of nodes/main stem (NNPMS), plant height (cm) (PH), green pod yield/plant (g) (GPYPP), days to seed maturity (OSM), dry matter weight/plant (g) (OMWPP) and dry seed yield/plant (g) (OSYPP). The genetic divergence was analysed using Mahalanobis 0 2 statistics [1]. The genotypes were grouped in clusters according to Tocher's method as described by Rao [2].