Varietal Mean Performance of Garden Pea (Pisum sativum var. hortense L.) Under Subtropical Conditions of Punjab, India

This study on genetic variability and character association in fourteen genotypes of garden pea was conducted during the period spanning from 2022 to 2023. The research was carried out at the Agricultural Farm, School of Agriculture, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara (Punjab), India. The results obtained from this study revealed a significant variation in the mean performance among genotypes concerning various parameters, including days to 50% flowering, plant height, number of nodes per plant, number of primary branches per plant, node to 1st flower appears, node to 1st pod appears, internodal length, length of pod, number of seeds per pod, number of pods per plant, 100 seeds weight, number of seeds per 100g pods, number of pods per 100g, pod yield per plant and total soluble solids. Among these parameters, it was observed that the number of primary branches per plant was highest (4.60) in the Tako-11 genotype, followed by GS-10 (4.46) and Samag (4.46). In terms of plant height, BKS pea recorded the highest measurement (91.28 cm), closely followed by Peas A-1 (90.85 cm). The genotypes GS-10 and AP-3 demonstrated superior performance in terms of yield as 104.70 g and 102.97 g, respectively. Furthermore, the assessment of total soluble solids content revealed that genotypes like GS-10 with 19.82°B and Nirali with 18.81°B exhibited higher sweetness levels in their pods compared to the other genotypes. Results of analysis of variance in this study indicated a substantial variance across the traits considered under investigation. Furthermore, it revealed that there are ample opportunities exist for the selection of promising genotypes with favorable characteristics for further agricultural development and breeding programs. From the obtained results it can be concluded that a notable variation in various agronomic traits was observed and these findings would be helpful in providing valuable insights for future research and breeding efforts aimed at enhancing garden pea cultivation and productivity.