Evaluation on growth and yield attributing characters of local brinjal genotypes of Karbi Anglong district of Assam

Introduction

Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) is an important crop in India. Vavilov (1928) [16] regarded India as the centre of origin for Brinjal crop and the crop is variable in India. In India it is grown in an area of 0.61 mha with a production of 13.37 million tonnes and a productivity of 17.3 tonnes per hectare. Brinjal is a good source of calcium, phosphorus, iron and vitamins B. But the local brinjal are degrading as the farmers preferred HYV hybrid varieties or Bt. brinjal which give higher yield and more profit. Therefore, attention and efforts are needed for the conservation of local brinjal (Sharma et al 2016) [14] . Thorough evaluation of genotypes is needed to know the performance in terms of yield and other yield attributing characters. There is ample scope for local brinjal to explore and identify for its improvement. The genotypes with good performance can be released as a variety and it can be further used in the breeding programme as a breeding line by the breeder. Many local varieties are well known to the farmers but their improvement is still needed. Being the centre of origin, India is a place of great genetic variation and vast diversity of brinjal with regard to vegetative and fruit morphology, yield and yield components. So, keeping in view of the above facts, the present investigation was undertaken with the objective to identify the variety with higher yield and other yield attributing characters.

Materials and Methods

The field experiment was carried out at Assam Agricultural University-Zonal Research Station, Diphu, Karbi Anglong, Assam during mid-winter 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. Seven brinjal genotypes collected in and around Diphu, Karbi Anglong region including one check variety were taken to analyse their growth and characteristics. The different varieties with local name and source of collection is given in (table 1). The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with three replications. The plot size is 2 m x 2 m with a spacing of 60 cm x 60 cm were followed. A total of 12 plants were accommodated in each plot in all the three replications.

Randomly five plants were considered for recording observations in each replication. Other management practices are followed as per package of practices of Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat. Data were analysed as per Panse and Sukhatme (1967) [9] using the mean values at random plots in each replication from all genotypes to find out significance of genotype effect.

Results and Discussion

Growth characters Plant height

Plant height is considered as one of the important traits for growth and yield of the plant. In the present investigation it is revealed from Table 1 that the highest plant height (69.33 cm) was observed in the genotype V 6 followed by genotypeV 2 (68 cm) and V 8 (66 cm). There is no significant difference between those genotypes. The genotype V 7 (46.33 cm) recorded the minimum plant height followed by V 4 (47 cm) and V 1 (51 cm). The genotype V 7 is significantly different from V 1 but not with other genotypes. The results is similar to the findings of Kumar et al. (2011) [6] and Ahmed et al. (2014) [1] who obtained similar trend of result.

Leaf blade length and width

The highest leaf blade length was recorded both in the genotype V 6 (15.33 cm) and V 7 (15.33 cm) which is statistically at par. The minimum leaf blade length was observed in V 5 (9.83 cm) followed by V 1 (10.73 cm), V 2 (11.06 cm) and V4 (12 cm). From Table 2 it is evident that the genotype V 5 is significantly different from V 4 but not from V 1 and V 2 . The highest leaf blade width was recorded in V 4 (11cm) followed by V 3 (10.33 cm) and V 6 (10.66 cm) which are statistically at par. The minimum leaf blade width was observed in V 7 (7 cm) followed by the genotype, V 2 (7.16 cm), V 8 (7.3 cm), V 1 (8.66 cm) and V 5 (9.33 cm). V 7 is significantly different from V 5 but not with genotype V 2 and V 8 . The results is in contrast with that of Begum et al.

(2013) [2] who reported smaller leaf length and leaf width in Bangladesh.

Terminal thickness of shoot

The maximum terminal thickness was observed in V 6 (0.43 cm) followed by V 5 (0.36cm), V 2 (0.33 cm), V 8 (0.33 cm) and V 3 (0.3 cm). And the least thickness was recorded in V 7 (0.23 cm) followed by V 1 (0.25 cm) and V 4 (0.26 cm). For both the cases they were, however, statistically at par.

As brinjal flowering is primarily influenced by temperature and humidity, a particular variety may produce variable number of clustered fruits in different seasons. But be it spring-summer or autumn-winter or even rainy season, long styled flowers set 70-87% fruits (Prasad and Prakash 1968) [11] . The least time required for fruit initiation was recorded in V 7 (60.33 DAT) followed by V 6 (61 DAT) which are however, statistically at par. The maximum days required for fruit initiation was observed in V 1 (72.66 DAT) followed by V 2 (71.33 DAT) and V 4 (71 DAT) and there was no significant difference among the genotypes. Similar findings were reported by Vandana et al. (2014) [15] , Sanas et al.

(2014) [12] , Dhaka and Soni et al. (2012) [13] , Gavade and Ghadge (2015) [4] .

Fruit peduncle length

The highest fruit peduncle length was recorded in V 3 (4.3 cm) followed byV 6 (4.16 cm), V 5 (3.76 cm) and V 2 (3.24 cm). The genotype V 3 was found to be significantly different from that of genotype V 2 . The lowest fruit peduncle length was observed to be significantly at par in the genotype V 4 (2.66 cm) and genotype V 7 (2.76 cm). These results are in confirmatory with those of Kumar et al.

(2013) [7] , Vandana et al. (2014) [15] .

Fruit length

From Table 3 it can be seen that the maximum length of fruit was recorded in V 6 (12 cm) which was followed by V 3 (9.3 cm) and V 5 (6.3 cm) and V 6 is found to be significantly different with that of V 5 . The lowest fruit length was recorded in the genotype V 4 (3.36 cm), V 1 (4 cm) and V 2 (4.1 cm) which are at par with each other. The similar pattern of result was reported by Begum et al (2013) [2] , Vandana et al. (2014) [15] , Uddin et al. (2014) [13] and Kumar et al. (2011) [6] .

Fruit width

The highest fruit width was obtained in the genotype V 6 (3.96 cm), V 8 (3.26 cm), V 4 (3.3 cm) and V 1 (3.23 cm) which significantly at par with each other. The lowest value of fruit width was obtained in the genotype V 7 (1.5 cm) followed by V 3 (2.56 cm) and the results are in accordance with that of Ahmed et al. (2014) [1] .

Number of fruits/plants

The maximum number of fruits per plant produced was recorded in the genotype V 5 (25.33) which significantly higher than that of genotype V 3 (23), V 2 (22.33) and V 7 (22). However, the minimum number of fruits per plant was recorded in the genotype V 8 ( 16), V 6 (17.33) and V 4 (21) and are statistically at par with each other. The findings is similar pattern to the findings as reported by Negi et al.

(2000) [8] and Vandana et al. (2014) [15] .

Fruit weight

The weight of fruits varied significantly among different genotypes. The highest weight was recorded in V 6 (173 g) which was followed by V 8 (167.8 g), V 5 (138 g) and V 4 (105 g) while the lowest weight of fruit was found in the genotype V 7 (39 g) followed by V 1 (84) and V 3 (90 g). In both the cases the genotypes are significantly different from each other. Any deviation in the results with the findings of others is attributed to differences in the genotypes under study or due to environmental conditions and the stage of harvest of fruits. Generally, the increase in the fruit weight in the present investigation is attributed to higher fruit length and fruit circumference while, increase in the number of fruits per plant is attributed to higher plant height and number of primary branches.

Yield per plant

From the analysed data of Table 3 it was revealed that the yield per plant was recorded to be highest in the genotype V 8 (1.63 kg) followed by V 6 (1 kg) and V 5 (0.93 kg). The lowest yield was recorded in V 2 (0.31 kg) and V 2 (0.37 kg) which are statistically at par. Ghosh et al. (2011) [5] , Prabhakaran et al. (2015) [10] and Dhaka and Soni (2012) [13] obtained similar trend of result with regard to the yield of fruit per plant.

Yield per ha (q)

The yield per plot was converted into yield per hectare and the highest yield per hectare was found in the genotype V 8 (151 q) which is followed by V 5 (120 q) and V 2 (105 q). From the data analysed and as given in Table 3 it was revealed that all the genotypes are significantly different with each other in terms of yield per hectare. The lowest yield was recorded in the genotype V 7 (34 q/ha) and V 1 (67.9 q/ha). Morphological characters of fruit and seed is also studied and the results is given in Table 5. Solanum melongena has three botanical varieties namely., var. esculentum (round to oval fruit shape), var. serpentina (long and slender) and var. depressum (dwarf and oblong fruit shape). In the present study all the three basic types of fruit shape having a colour range from milky white to purplish white and light green to greenish purple and purple has been observed. Variation in fruit pattern i.e. solitary has been observed in six genotypes including check variety while cluster type was seen in genotype V 3 and V 7. The fruit shape (oval, round, long and slender) is found to be different for different genotypes.

According to the fruit apex shape only round and prostrate were observed, while round is observed in five genotypes including check the prostrate type was observed in V 3, V 5 and V 6. The fruit colour distribution (uniform, regular stripped, irregular stripe), fruit length: breath, appearance of flesh colour, seediness (many, few), seed size (large, intermediate and small) and seed colour has also been studied and found to differ among the genotypes. The differences in morphological characters are due to mainly for varietal and environmental characteristics which are controlled and expressed by specific gene (s), climatic factors and their interaction.

Conclusion

From the findings of the present investigation, it can be concluded that genotypes of local brinjal differed significantly for most of the growth, morphological and yield attributing characters. The genotype V 6 has been found to perform highly satisfactorily in all the agronomically desired characters except in number of fruits per plant and was closely followed by V 2 , V 3 and V 5 . The higher yielder genotypes are V 2 and V 5 and also V 8 , which is a check variety. The investigated genotypes in the present study showed higher level of variability for yield due to variation in yield attributing parameters. Promising genotypes particularly V 2 and V 5 can be used as parents in future hybridization programmes to develop superior types with high yield.

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