Variance in yield and agronomic performance of egusi melon (citrullus lanatus thunb) genotypes

An experiment was carried out in 2006 and 2007 at the Teaching and Research Farm, University of Agriculture, in two Abeokuta environments to estimate the variability among 18 egusi melon accessions. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. The phenotypic coefficient of variability (PCV) ranged from 2.15 % (days to 50 % flowering) to 51.20 % (pod weight) and 2.18 % (days to 50 % flowering) to 63.65 % (seed yield per plant), respectively in the two environments. Similar trend was observed in the genotypic coefficient of variability. Number of seeds per pod had the highest phenotypic variance (3,347.00 and 4884.42) and the least was pod weight (0.12 and 0.22), respectively in Abeokuta 1 and Abeokuta 2 study environments. Averaged over the two environments, seed yield per plant had the highest genotypic variance (531.60) while pod weight was the lowest (0.16). Number of pods per plant, pod weight per plant, seed weight per pod and seed yield per plant had a combined high heritability and genetic advance, which revealed limited influence of environment on them.