Early evaluation of sugarcane for quality improvement as an effective approach for varietal selection in subtropical climate

Abstract

A study Was conducted during 1994 -96 to evaluate 16 early maturing high sugar genotypes in plant crops for
3 quality traits - brix, purity and sugar content at 4 sampling dates in October, November, December and January to
assess the genetic variances, heritability, genetic advance over the mean, correlation coefficient among the characters at
each· sampling date and repeatability of quality traits between sampling time and maturity. Results showed that the
genetic variances for these traits were largest at the early maturity stage (October). The broad sense heritability, genetic
advance over the mean and correlation between 3 sucrose related traits were also highest at early maturity stage (October)
and lowest at late maturity stage (January/February). Repeatability of quality traits between sampling time and maturity
was smallest but highly significant at early maturity stage and highest at the late maturity stage. The study indicates that
selection for the sucrose related traits will have higher expected genetic gains at the early maturity stage than selection
done at other maturity stages. Genotypic differences between clones were more pronounced during this(October) for
quality traits and this is very important and critical time for selection of period desirable early maturing high sugar
genotypes in Uttar Pradesh which lies in the subtropical part of india .