Intra and inter varietal variability analyses in cardamom (Elettarla cardamomum Maton)

Abstract

The present investigation was conducted at the Cardamon Research Station, Pampadumpara to obtain Information on the magnitude of genetic variability In the population and the extent to which the desirable characters are heritable. Four popular cultivars viz. Malabar, Mysore, Vazhukka and PV-1 of two age groups three and six year old planted at the above station were used for the study. Observations were made on height of tillers, number of productive tiliers/plant, number of leaves/tiller, number of panicles/plant, number of capsules/panicle, fresh weight of capsules/plant, dry weight of capsules/plant, hundred capsule weight, capsule volume, number of seeds/capsule, length of panicle, number of nodes/ panicle and Internodal length In the panicle. The data collected was subjected to studies on genetic variability, estimation of genetic parameters, correlation and path coefficient analysis. Variability analysis revealed that significant differences exsisted among the varieties for eight of the thirteen morphological characters studied. They were number of productive tillers/plant, height of tillers, number of panicles/plant,internodal length in the panicle, number of capsules/panicle, capsule volume, fresh and dry weight of capsules/plant. The variability within the varieties was not significant.