VARIABILITY IN INDIGENOUS CUSTARD APPLE (ANNONA SQUAMOSA L.) GENOTYPES FOR FRUITING AND YIELD CHARACTERS AT DHARSIWA BLOCK OF CHHATTISGARH, INDIA

The present study was conducted during 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 at different sites located at Dharsiwa block of Chhattisgarh.A total of 60 genotypes were identified, selected and evaluated for various fruiting and yield characters.These genotypes revealed wide variability in terms of fruiting characters like fruit length (5.10 cm to 8.13 cm), fruit diameter (5.42 cm to 8.47 cm), fruit weight (129.52 g to 330.78 g) , length of pericarp (1.44 cm to 3.17 cm), weight of pericarp (2.24 g to 4.33 g), seed length (9.97 mm to 17.04 mm), seed width (4.74 mm to 8.99 mm), seed weight (11.56 g to 25.48), number of seeds per fruit (23.37 to 35.37), pulp weight (66.17 g to 203.26 g ) and yield of fruits per tree (5.84 kg to 16.86 kg).