Studies on Genetic Divergence on Cucumber (Cucumber sativum L.)

Evaluation of 41 diverse genotypes of cucumber was carried out in a randomized block design. Among the 41 genotypes studied, Mahalanobis D² analysis confined the presence of wide genetic diversity through the formation of seven clusters. The clustering pattern showed the lack of parallelism between geographic and genetic diversities. Among the clusters, intercrossing the genotypes in the cluster I, II, IV and V had high mean values for many characters studied is likely to result in an enlargement of spectrum of variability facilitating the selection for higher yield. The ranking D² values revealed that tender fruit yield per vine, tender fruit girth, tender fruit weight and number of tender fruit per vine contributed high genetic divergence. Hence, these characters could respond favourably for phenotypic selection.