Veena Chawla

Four diverse genotypes of Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L. Czern & Coss.)  and their crosses with Ogura restorer as the background were evaluated for eleven quantitative traits during winter (Rabi) 2011–12. The mean, range, phenotypic, genotypic and environmental variance, genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation, heritability in broad sense and genetic advance were calculated to differentiate the contribution made by each parameter in the final seed yield. The maximum value of phenotypic coefficient of variation was observed for no. of pods on main branch (36.23) followed by oil content (31.65), siliqua density on main shoot (30.72) and the highest genotypic coefficient of variation was observed for number of pods on main branch (33.49) followed by seed yield per plant (29.18) followed by oil content (28.89). Path coefficient analysis revealed that no. of pods on main branch (5.94) had the highest direct contribution towards seed yield per plant followed by 1000-seed weight (4.14) and siliqua density on main shoot (1.82) which suggested that selection for these traits would be quite effective in improving seed yield in Indian mustard. During the course of investigations, it was observed that the mean performance of F1’s (OR x RH 406 and OR x RH 832) was better than parental genotypes for no. of primary and secondary branches, no. of seeds per siliqua and seed yield per plant.