Heritability for growth, flowering and yield characters in pumpkin (cucurbita moschata duch ex poir)

Abstract

The present investigation was conducted to assess the magnitude of narrow-sense heritability and genetic advance for growth, flowering, fruit, yield and disease resistance traits in pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch. ex Poir.) under kharif and summer seasons. Narrow-sense heritability estimates ranged from 8.83 to 70.38 per cent during the kharif season and from 7.13 to 52.91 per cent during Summer-2026. The highest narrow-sense heritability was recorded for number of nodes per vine (58.39%) and node at which first male flower appeared (53.55%). During summer, the highest heritability was observed for fruit diameter (52.91%), followed by fruit cavity width (50.96%), number of nodes per vine (48.87%) and flesh thickness (48.25%). Genetic advance as per cent of mean ranged from 1.29 to 57.00 per cent during kharif and from 1.82 to 48.72 per cent during summer. High genetic advance was recorded for fruit fly infestation, powdery mildew incidence, fruit cavity length, rind thickness, yield per vine, yield per plot and yield per hectare. Traits such as fruit cavity length, rind thickness and yield-related traits showed relatively favourable combinations of heritability and genetic advance in at least one season, indicating the presence of exploitable additive genetic variation and scope for selection. In contrast, traits with low heritability and low genetic advance, particularly flowering-time traits and sex ratio, appeared to be more strongly influenced by environmental and non-additive genetic effects. The results demonstrated that simultaneous consideration of narrow-sense heritability and genetic advance is more informative than either parameter alone for identifying traits amenable to selection in pumpkin breeding programmes.