Estimates of genetic variability in vegetable amaranth (A. tricolor) over different cuttings

The present investigation was carried out to study different selection parameters for foliage yield and its important yield contributing traits in 29 strains of vegetable amaranth (A. tricolor). The data were recorded for plant height (cm), stem diameter (cm), branches/plant, leaves/plant, leaf size (cm2), and protein content (mg/100 mg) in each cutting separately. Foliage yield (kg) was recorded on plot basis comprising 4 cuttings. The highest foliage yield per plot was recorded for strain AV-38, followed by AV-23 and AV-31. In general, protein content was high in the 2nd cutting in all strains. The heritability estimates were in general high for all the characters in all the cuttings and ranged from 74.87% to 93.33%. Genetic advance was maximum for foliage yield (42.50%), followed by leaf size (31.02%) and stem diameter (21.13%). It was concluded that foliage yield could be increased substantially in vegetable amaranth through indirect selection based on the characters leaf size and stem diameter.