Association and path analysis studies for yield contributing and fibre quality traits in the F1 population of Gossypium hirsutum L

The present investigation on correlation and path analysis studies helps to study the relationship among the yield and yield contributing traits along with the quality parameters. The observations were taken in the F1 population of 35 hybrids along with lines (7 lines) and testers (5 testers) for the traits viz. plant height (cm), number of sympodial branches per plant, the number of bolls per plant, boll weight (g), lint index (g), single cotton yield per plant (g), ginning outturn (%), upper half mean length (cm), elongation percent (%) and micronaire value (µg per inch). The results revealed that seed cotton yield per plant had strong and positive association with the traits namely number of sympodial branches per plant (0.646), number of bolls (0.633) and boll weight (0.652). Path analysis study revealed that number of sympodial branches per plant (1.5396), boll weight (0.6285), lint index (1.3526) and upper half mean length (0.3392) had high direct positive effects on single plant yield and indirect very high positive effects through the traits viz., number of sympodial branches per plant via., number of bolls per plant (1.5125) and boll weight (1.0121). Hence selection based on these traits that are positively associated and direct positive effect with the yield would produce the best outcome in the genotypes in further breeding programmes.