Variability, Heritability, Genetic Gain, Genetic Advance and Correlation in Growth Characteristics of Progenies of Melia azedarach

Seeds of Melia azedarach were collected from selected mother trees (ortets) one each at twenty seven locations, and progenies were raised to study the extent and pattern of variation with respect to growth characters. Site S₂₇ (Nauni) exhibited outstanding performance for these traits of progenies followed by S₁₄ (Ropar) and S₂₃ (Subathu), whereas S₂(Palu upper) showed the lowest values. High heritability with high genetic gain was observed for collar diameter (0.96 and 64.37 %), ischolar_main length (0.93 and 57.72 %) and ischolar_main-shoot length ratio (0.91 and 51.83 %). Highly significant and positive genotypic and phenotypic correlations were observed for majority of the characters. Plant height had significantly positive genotypic and phenotypic correlation with number of branches (0.85 and 0.82) and collar diameter (0.84 and 0.81) whereas collar diameter showed positive and significant genotypic and phenotypic correlation with number of branches (0.83 and 0.74) and number of leaves (0.70 and 0.65).