MSc

An experiment was carried out in the Department of Olericulture, College of Horticulture, Kerala Agricultural University, Vellanikkara, during February- April 2011 to analyse the performance of different accessions of snap melon (Cucumis melo L. var. momordica Duth. & Full.). The major objective of the study was to identify superior snap melon genotypes with high yield and T.S.S. The other objectives were to genetically catalogue the germplasm and to assess the genetic variability, divergence, heritability, genetic gain and correlation of different traits with yield. Twenty five accessions collected from different parts of India were grown in randomized block design with two replications.

Cataloguing of the germplasm evidenced significant differences for all the characters studied viz., vine length, nodes to first male flower appearance, nodes to first female flower appearance, days to first male flower appearance, days to first female flower appearance, days to first fruit set, maturity period, days to first harvest, duration of crop, number of harvests, fruit length, fruit diameter, fruit weight, flesh thickness, fruit cavity length, number of fruits plant-1, number of seeds fruit-1, yield plant-1, pulp placenta ratio, total soluble solids, ascorbic acid, reducing sugar and non reducing sugar.

Accession CMM-11 was the highest yielder with 7.97kg/plant followed by CMM-12 (7.62kg/ plant). Maximum fruit length was observed in CMM-11(49.65cm). The fruit diameter was highest in CMM-2 (22.25cm). It was observed that collections of snap melon from the state of Kerala were higher yielders than the North Indian collections. But, North Indian collections exhibited more shelf life (3days) due to their high rind firmness. Among quality attributes total soluble solids (5.30Brix), reducing sugar (3.01%) and non reducing sugar (3.03%) were found to be highest in CMM-21.

During organoleptic evaluation, accession CMM-9 had the highest mean score for appearance (8.3), colour (8.6), texture (7.8) and flavour (7.5). Accession CMM-21 had the highest mean score for taste (8.8) and over all acceptability (8.3).

The highest genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation were observed for average fruit weight, shelf life and number of seeds fruit-1. High heritability coupled with high genetic gain was observed for most of the characters.

Yield had strong association with average fruit weight, fruit diameter, flesh thickness, fruit length, length of fruit cavity and vine length. Highest positive direct effect on yield was contributed by average fruit weight and number of fruits plant-1.

The 25 accessions were grouped into five clusters based on genetic distance. Intra cluster distances were much lower than inter cluster distances, suggesting homogeneity and heterogeneity of the accessions within and between the clusters respectively. Based on selection index, the accession CMM-11 was identified as the best performer followed by the accessions CMM-12 and CMM-20.