Genetic variability and heritability estimates for morphological and quality traits in linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.)

The present investigation was undertaken to evaluate the mean performance, variability, heritability and genetic advance for 17 morphological traits including yield and quality of six generations in linseed crosses under two locations with five genetically divers varieties of linseed in Randomized Block Design with three replications during Rabi season 2013-2014. The results indicated that the mean performance of F 1 S of nearly all the crosses showed significant superiority for all the characters under study at both the locations except fatty acid profile which was recorded for only Ranchi location. Among parents Meera and Shekhar showed significant superiority over LC-54 (check) for most of the characters at both the locations. Characters like, plant height, number of primary branches per plant, number of capsules per plant, wilt disease reaction, rust disease reaction, seed yield per plant showed high PCV and GCV at both the locations including all the fatty acids. High heritability coupled with high to moderate genetic advance was found for traits like wilt disease reaction, oleic acid content and linolenic acid content and rest characters exhibited low heritability and low genetic advance at both the locations.