~ 2205 ~ The Pharma Innovation Journal 2022; 11(8): 2205-2209 ISSN (E): 2277-7695 ISSN (P): 2349-8242 NAAS Rating: 5.23 TPI 2022; 11(8): 2205-2209 © 2022 TPI www.thepharmajournal.com Received: xx-06-2022 Accepted: xx-07-2022 Yashpal Singh Bisht Department of Vegetable Science, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India DK Singh Department of Vegetable Science, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India NK Singh Department of Genetic and Plant Breeding, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India Dhirendra Singh Department of Vegetable Science, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India Shashank Shekhar Singh Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Nawada, Bihar, India Corresponding Author: Yashpal Singh Bisht Department of Vegetable Science, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India Studies of genetic variability in parthenocarpic cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) Yashpal Singh Bisht, DK Singh, NK Singh, Dhirendra Singh and Shashank Shekhar Singh Abstract The aim of present experiment was to study genetic variability in parthenocarpic cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) material consist of 44 genotypes. A sufficient amount of genetic variability was present in all 44 genotypes for 12 characters viz., days to first female flower, node number to first female, days to first harvest, days to last harvest, internodal length (cm), fruit length (cm), fruit diameter (cm), vine length (m), number of fruits/plant, average fruit weight (g), yield/plant (kg) and total yield/hectare (quintal). The GCV and PCV varies from 2.01 to73.84 and 3.30 to 74.78. The difference between PCV and GCV was less which indicate these traits are less influence by the environments. PPCUC-2 was found best performing genotypes for yield per plant and yield per hectare. Hence, these genotypes can be used for further improvement of cucumber germplasm for sound breeding program. Keywords: Breeding, cucumber, genotypes, parthenocarpic, variability 1. Introduction Cucurbits are one of the important summer vegetable crops grown in large scale in India. After tomato and watermelon, cucumber and melons are mostly cultivated vegetable. Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is a member of the Cucurbitaceae, is one of the oldest cultivated vegetable. Cucumber is mostly cultivated at tropical and sub-tropical region and sensitive to frost, grown best at temperature of 20 °C (Tatlioglu, 1993) [16] . Total worldwide production of cucumber is 91.25 million tonnes form an area of 2.261 million hectares with productivity of 4.04 kg/m 2 . China is largest producer of cucumber in the world with production of 72.778 million tonnes accounting for 79.75% world cucumber (FAOstat, 2020) [4] . In India, it is cultivated in the area of 109 thousand ha and production of 1664 thousand MT. West Bengal rank first in the production of cucumber in India with production of 326.82 thousand tonnes and share 20.32 percent in total production (NHB, 2020-21) [9] . To overcome the situation of low production, genetically stable genotypes having high yield potential are urgently needed. It is therefore, necessary to estimate relative amounts of genetic and non-genetic variability exhibited by different characters using suitable parameters like genetic coefficient of variability, heritability estimates and genetic advance. Besides estimating the nature and magnitude of correlation coefficient, path coefficient analysis and genetic association between yield with other traits that contributed to yield and are suitable to identified by variability, correlation and path coefficient analysis between yield and its attributes. The information on their genetic variability and traits association contributes with yield and among itself is of considerable importance in selection for elite genotype as well as exploitation of heterosis breeding programme. A study on genetic variability and correlation alone are not enough to give an exact figure of relative importance of direct and indirect influence of each of the component traits on yield. In such case, path coefficient analysis is an important technique for partitioning the correlation coefficient in to direct and indirect effect of independent variables on dependent variable. It is therefore, genetic variability as well as correlation and path coefficient may be important tools for the breeder to enhancing the production and productivity of the cucumber. The present study was conducted to assess genetic variability, heritability and path coefficient analysis yield and its component characters to provide necessary information that could be useful in cucumber improvement programmes aimed at improving yield.