Study of genetic divergence in kharif onion cultivars

Abstract

Twenty-two diverse onion genotypes were evaluated to study the genetic divergence in kharif onion during Kharif season at C-block farm, BCKV, Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal. All the genotypes were clustered into three groups based on Mahalanobis D2 statistic. Cluster I comprised of accessions with highest yield, yield related traits and TSS. Cluster II was composed of accessions having highest Total sugar, dry matter, pyruvic acid and phenol content. Cluster III was the largest cluster comprising of accessions having highest polar diameter, neck thickness, days to maturity, bolters and ascorbic acid content. Both total yield and marketable yield together explained almost 85 percent contribution of diversity, whereas the contribution of other traits were only 15 percent.