Evaluation of underutilized vegetable Momordica cymbalaria accessions for growth, yield and quality parameters

Abstract

The study on evaluation of underutilized Momordica cymbalaria for growth, yield and quality characters was carried out at College Orchard, Department of Horticulture, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai during 2020-2021 with the aim to identifying high yielding athalakkai accessions suitable for commercial cultivation in southern India. The results revealed that among the twenty two accessions, MC-2 (Pudupatti local) recorded the highest values in growth and yield characters such as days taken for flowering (18.50 days), vine length (140.67 cm), number of vines per plant (8.67), number of fruits per vine (12.30), number of fruits per plant (71.67), fruit length (4.91 cm), fruit girth (3.76 cm), fruit weight (0.93 g), leaf petiole length (4.01 cm), fruit stalk length (1.81 cm), number of seeds per fruit (3.68) and yield (57.10 g plant-1) followed by MC–14 (Chittur local), whereas MC–12 (Kovilangulam local) registered the lowest values in all the traits. MC–12 (Kovilangulam local) recorded the highest days (6.67 days) taken for sprouting, whereas the MC–2 (Pudupatti local) found the least days taken for sprouting (5. 67 days). Regarding quality characters, MC-12 registered the highest in vitamin C (289.00 mg 100 g-1), crude fibre content (6.40 g), protein (2.15 mg 100 g-1), whereas MC-12 registered the lowest content of quality characters (284.12 mg 100 g-1; 6.30 g; 2.15 mg 100 g-1). The study concluded that MC-2 (Pudupatti local) performing well under Madurai condition need further evaluation.