STABILITY AND GENETIC VARIABILITY STUDIES OF F6 GENERATION IN OKRA (ABELMOSCHUS ESCULENTUS L. MOENCH.)

An investigation entitled, "Stability and Genetic variability studies of F 6 generation in Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench.)" was undertaken during three crop seasons viz., Summer-2022(E 1 ), Kharif -2023(E 2 ) and Summer-2024(E 3 ) at Experimental Farm, Horticulture Research Scheme (Vegetable), Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani.(M.S.).Study was undertaken with the objectives to study magnitude of variability, heritability and genetic advance, correlation studies of yield and yield components at both genotypic and phenotypic levels and analysis of stability parameter over environment.The experimental material comprising 63 genotypes including two check were evaluated in Randomized Block Design (RBD) in two replications.and the data on various growth and yield parameters were recorded and statistically analyzed.The analysis of variance revealed that significant differences among the genotypes for all the characters except for fruit width across all the three environments indicating the presence of genetic variability in the studied material.All the character studied during course of experiment exhibited high heritability and genetic advance in all the three environments.This indicated that high heritability combined with high genetic advance per cent of mean linked to additive gene action but the response to direct selection would vary with environments.It can be concluded that E 2 (kharif 2023) was most suitable for improvement.Therefore, important traits governed by additive gene action which could be improved through selection.Correlation studies among 63 genotypes for yield and yield component at both genotypic and phenotypic level individually and pooled over environment revealed significant and positive association of characters studied with marketable yield per plant, this suggests improvement in yield characters through selection leads to genetic progress.environmental index during kharif 2023 (E 2 ) recorded suitable increase in values which was proved to be best environment.The genotypes PBNOKR-1-7, PBNOKR-1-22, PBNOKR-1-5, PBNOKR-2-4 and PBNOKR-2-8 were found average stable for fruit yield per plant across the environments.