Abstract

Guava (Psidium guajava L) is one of the commercially important fruit crops being cultivated in India. Due to consumer preference, red pulp cultivars are currently becoming more important commercially. Red pulp cultivars, on the other hand, have a greater proportion of large, bold seeds, which restricts their widespread acceptability. Therefore, the goal of the current study is to find genotypes that have deep pink or red coloured pulp and few soft seeds. The 48progenies showed range of variability in respect to plant growth, yield attributes and yield and quality parameters. Progenies viz., PG 15-9 (2.10 m), PG 1-7 and PG 35-1 (2.16 m) had a lower tree height. Tree girth ranged from 5.65 to 9.13 cm and tree girth was significantly higher in PG 5-8 (9.13 cm). Among the progenies, leaf area ranged from 40.63 cm² to 92.69 cm² and it was significantly higher in PG 7-4 (92.70 cm²). Fruit yield ranged from 3.47 to 22.45 kg tree^-1. The fruit yield was significantly higher in PG 24-6 (22.45 kg tree^-1). Number of seeds per fruit of identified progenies varied from 111.22 to 630.95. On comparing PG 1-7 with its parent Arka Kiran whose fruits were of almost same weight, PG 1-7 was found to be having less number of seeds (341.52 seeds fruit^-1) than that of Arka Kiran (428.98 seeds fruit^-1). Seed hardiness ranged from 4.98 to7.08 Kgf. Progeny, PG 1-7 (4.98 Kgf) had a significantly lower seed hardiness. With reference to biochemical constituents of fruit, maximum TSS and total sugar contents were observed in progeny, PG 1-7 (12.6° Brix; 6.72%). Among the progenies, lower titratable acidity was found in genotype, 27-2 (0.19%), maximum ascorbic acid content was found in PG 28-1 (220.42 mg 100 g) followed by PG 1-7 (203.73 mg 100 g). Regarding over all organoleptic qualities of fruit, PG 1-7 was found to be the best, which received the maximum points possible (8.9 out of 9) followed by PG 34-1 (8.8). In a nutshell, based on investigation of several physico-chemical parameters of half sib progenies of guava variety Arka Kiran, progeny PG 1-7 was found to be the best in terms of highest intensity of fruit pulp colour, yield, fruit quality and seed attributes besides its organoleptic qualities.

Sanjana, U., Kavion, M., 2024. Variability Studies of Half Sib Progenies of Guava (Psidium guajava L.) var. Arka Kiran for Growth, Yield and Quality Attributes. Research Biotica, 2024, online first.