Correlation and Path Analysis for Growth, Yield, Quality and Incidence of Shoot and Fruit Borer in Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

The study was conducted using sixty brinjal genotypes to evaluate yield quality and incidence of shoot and fruit borer with an objective to study the correlation and path coefficient analysis. The majority of the time, genotypic correlations were higher than phenotypic correlations, indicating that the attribute is highly heritable. At the genotypic level, fruit yield per plant significantly correlated positively with the number of fruits per plant, the weight of infested fruit, the girth of fruit, the height of the plant, the number of primary branches per plant, the proportion of medium-styled flowers, the proportion of long-styled flowers, and the length of fruits. It an exhibited significant negative correlation with SFB fruit infestation as well as SFB shoot infestation both at phenotypic and genotypic levels. Path coefficient revealed that fruits per plant showed a high and positive direct effect on yield followed by fruit weight, long -styled flowers, medium -styled flowers, and days to first harvest. Direct selection for these traits would be rewarding for improvement in the fruit yield per plant.