Veg. Sci. 36(1) : 69-73 (2009) CHARACTER ASSOCIATION AND PATH ANALYSIS IN GARLIC ( ALLIUM SATIVUM L.) ANKUR AGARWAL* AND R.S. TIWARI Department of Vegetable Science, College of Agriculture, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar - 263 145 *Corresponding author: Field Research Laboratory (DRDO) Det Partapur, C/O 774 FPO Summary A field trial was carried out with twenty-one genotypes of garlic for two years at Pantnagar. Results revealed the significant and positive correlation of bulb yield both at genotypic and phenotypic levels with bulb weight, clove weight, bulb diameter, clove length, leaf area index and neck diameter during both the years. Genotypic correlations were higher than their corresponding phenotypic values for most of the character combinations establishing predominant role of heritable traits. During both the years, significant negative correlations of bulb yield at genotypic level were observed with purple blotch severity index (-0.619 and -0.691) and number of cloves per bulb (-0.58 and -0.619). Positive direct effect of bulb weight, clove length and leaf area index during both the years indicate good scope for improvement in bulb yield by selecting the genotypes bearing bigger and heavier bulbs and cloves along with broad leaves. lkjka'k yglw u dh 21 iz tkfr;ks a dk nks o"kks ± rd eq Y;ka du ia ruxj es a fd;k x;kA ifj.kke ls Li"V gq vk fd lkFkZ d o ?kukRed lg&lEcU/k dUnk mit ds lkFk&lkFk dUnk Hkkj] tS o Hkkj] dUnk O;kl] tok yEckbZ ] iRrh {ks =xq .kka d rFkk xz hok O;kl gs rw vuq okaf'kd o ckán` '; iz k:i nks uks a o"kZ ik;k x;kA vuq okaf'kd lglEcU/k cká n` '; izk:i dh rq yuk esa T;knk ik;k x;kA blesa T;knk xq .k iwoZiz Hkkoh oa'kkxfrRo dks Li"V djrs gS A nks uks o"kZ dUnk mit dk lkFkZ d o _.kkRed vuq oka f'kd Lrj ij iiZ yCykp xq .kka d ¼&0-619 o &0-691½ vkS j tok iz fr dUnk ¼&0-58 o &0-619½ ds lkFk ik;k x;kA nks uks o"kks ± rd dUnk Hkkj] tok yEckbZ o iRrh {ks =Qy xq .kka d dk ?kukRed iz R;{k iz Hkko ns [kk x;k tks la ds r djrk gS fd dUnk lq /kkj gs rw iz Hks n dk p;u cM+ k vkdkj] otuh; dUnk o tok rFkk iRrh dh yEckbZ dks /;ku es a j[kdj djuh pkfg,A Introduction Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is an important bulbous crop grown over an area of 88,100 ha in India with a productivity of 4.2 t/ha (Korokanthimath, 2004). Yield, being a complex polygenic trait is dependent on a number of attributing traits and association among the component character is a pre-requisite to execute effective selection programme. In order to increase the potential of garlic varieties for bulb yield, an understanding of the relationship among different plant characters is of immense importance. Besides, knowledge about the direct contribution of different components characters to yield would be highly useful for formulating a selection programme. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to provide information on the effect of the selection for one character on the direction and magnitude of change in the others when simultaneous improvement is sought in more than one attribute. Materials and methods The experiment was conducted at Vegetable Research Centre, Patharchatta of Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, during the winter season of 2000-2001 and 2001-2002. The material comprised 21 genotypes of garlic grown in randomized block design with 3 replications in each year. The crop was planted in the last week of October and recommended cultural operations were carried out to ensure a good crop. Plot size was 2.0 x 1.5 m. Observations were recorded on plant height, leaves per plant, neck diameter, leaf area index, chlorophyll content, bulb diameter, bulb weight, clovesl bulb, clove weight and bulb yield. Observations were also recorded on qualitative traits of plants and the bulbs. TSS was estimated by hand refractometer (Erma, Japan) and crude protein content by Micro Kjeldhal method. Data were statistically analyzed to estimate genotypic and phenotypic correlation (Allard, 1960) and path coefficient analysis (Dewey and Lu, 1959).