Variability, heritability and genetic advance for yield, yield attributes and xanthophyll content in african marigold (Tagetes erecta l.) Kumar P. Karuppaiah, Senthil P.1 Department of Horticulture, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar-608 002, Tamil Nadu, India 1Department of Agricultural Botany,Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar-608 002, Tamil Nadu, India Online published on 19 March, 2018. Abstract An investigation was carried out with 34 genotypes of African marigold to assess the variability, heritability and genetic advance to identify superior genotypes for further crop breeding programmes. High GCV was observed for number of flower heads per plant followed by xanthophyll content, number of branches per plant, flower yield per plant, flower head size and flower head weight. High heritability estimates of more than 95% were observed for plant height, stem girth, number of branches per plant, days to first flowering, flower head diameter, flower head size, number of flowers per plant, flower yield per plant and xanthophyll content. When heritability and genetic advance as per cent of mean were considered together, the characters like number of flowers per plant and flower head weight recorded the highest values. Top Keywords African marigold, Genetic advance, Heritability, Variability. Top |