International Journal of Horticulture, 2024, Vol.14, No.4, 218-222 http://hortherbpublisher.com/index.php/ijh 218 Research Report Open Access Performance Evaluation of Cucumber Genotypes and Study on Correlation and Path Analysis Hari Prasad Ghimire , Namrata Acharya, Rejina Sapkota Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur, Chitwan, 44200, Nepal Corresponding author: ghari9757@gmail.com International Journal of Horticulture, 2024, Vol.14, No.4 doi: 10.5376/ijh.2024.14.0024 Received: 25 May, 2024 Accepted: 12 Jul., 2024 Published: 12 Aug., 2024 Copyright © 2024 Ghimire et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Ghimire H.P., Acharya N., and Sapkota R., 2024, Performance evaluation of cucumber genotypes and study on correlation and path analysis, International Journal of Horticulture, 14(4): 218-222 (doi: 10.5376/ijh.2024.14.0024) Abstract The study was conducted to evaluate the cucumber varieties for different agronomic traits and to study the correlation and heritability traits at Rukum East, Nepal. The experiment was carried out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with seven cucumber varieties and three replications. Observations were recorded for various growth parameters, floral parameters, and yield parameters. The experimental finding showed the highest plant height (136.66 cm) in Bhaktapur local followed by Garima (104.56 cm). The highest average number of fruits/plants (6) and highest fruit length (23.63 cm) was observed in Bhaktapur local. In the case of yield per plant, the highest yield was observed in Bhaktapur local (2.60 kg) and the lowest in Dynasty (1.34 kg). Among the seven selected varieties the highest yield (26 ton/ha) was obtained from Bhaktapur local and this variety was also preferred by most of the consumers due to its good flavor and taste. Correlation studies revealed that the yield per plot of cucumber was positively correlated and highly significant with yield per plant (1.00***), followed by fruit weight (0.87***), fruit length (0.80***), and plant height (0.74***). Path analysis showed that fruit weight has the highest positive direct effect over fruit yield (0.777) and days to flowering of male flowers and female flowers showed the highest positive indirect effect through fruit weight (0.759). These traits can be considered for crop improvement through selection. Keywords Cucumber; Correlation; Path analysis; Rukum 1 Introduction The cucumber is a fruit crop that has significant nutritional, medicinal, and economic value (Ene et al., 2016). It is the fourth most important cultivated vegetable in the world after cabbage, onion, and tomatoes (Ene et al., 2016). In Nepal, cucumber is grown on 9,978 hectares (ha) with productivity of 15.32 mt/ha and production of 152,862 mt (MoALD, 2022). It is cultivated from terai to high hills ranging from 100 masl to 1,800 masl (Khanal et al., 2020). The global production of cucumber was recorded over 91.2 million metric tons from more than 2.2 million hectares of land with a productivity of 40.35 tons/ha (FAOSTAT, 2022). The leading Cucumber producer worldwide is China followed by Turkey, with about one-third of the world's Cucumber produced in China (FAOSTAT, 2022). It’s worth noting that the 10 largest world producers of cucumber account for 90.54% of the world's cucumber production Cucumber is one of the potential commodities for export, however, farmers are not getting reasonable prices for many reasons, one being lack of variety recommendation at local level (Dhakal et al., 2023). Assessment of genetic diversity among genotypes collection could exploit information to enhance the development of better-performing varieties among the cultivated species of cucumber that could be suitable in crop breeding for diverse applications such as identifying diverse parental genotypes. The yield of cucumber in the study area is considerably low due to the non-availability of high-yielding varieties that are well-suited for specific production zones, diseases and pest infestation, fertilizers, irrigation, staking, and drainage (Khanal et al., 2020). Understanding the varietal character of cucumber is essential for maintaining yield and productivity. Correlation and path analysis studies would be helpful in selecting suitable plant type. Correlation coefficient indicates nature of association among the characters, whereas path analysis splits the correlation coefficients into
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