Evaluation of Bottle Gourd Genotypes for Yield and Quality Traits.

Nine exotic bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria Mol. Standley) genotypes were evaluated for their fruit physico-chemical characteristics and yield behavior at Faculty of Agriculture, Gomal University, D.I. Khan (Pakistan) during 2013 and 2014. The genotypes of bottle gourd were Hazarvi, Anmol, Amber, King, Advanta-205, Surbhi, Royal, Nobel, Sharmic and Louki (local check variety). The experiment was laid-out in randomized complete block design having ten treatments (including 9 exotics plus 1 local genotype) and three replications. The results showed that there were significant variations in all the parameters except moisture content that was found to be non-significant in 2013. The comparative assessment of the exotic germplasms investigated in this study displayed better performance over the local check in both the study years. The maximum germination (84.1% and 85.4%), number of fruits (25.4 and 23.9), fruit length (52.8 and 51.5 cm), fruit width (16.7 and 17.1 cm), fruit weight (1283.8 and 1330.2 g), yield (48.1 and 50.1 tons ha-1), TSS (7.1 and 6.9%) and Vitamin C (16.1 and 16.1 mg/100g) were recorded in cv. Anmol. On the basis of overall performance and highest yield, genotype Anmol is recommended for large-scale cultivation under the agro-climatic conditions of Dera Ismail Khan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]