Abstract

In this study, 11 potato cultivars were assessed based on their genetic variability of different morphological parameters, including emergence percentage (%), date of flowering, plant height (cm), number of leaves per plant, average leaf area, number of flowers per plant, number of stems per plant, and number of fruits per plant. All of these characters showed a high level of variation among all the varieties. Locally developed advanced line SH-19 showed maximum emergence percentage (92.33%). Among other characters, Asterix, Smeengi and SH-19 produced considerable amount of flowers per plant (37.39). Romeo touched the line, indicating three stems per plant and was grouped into a separate group ‘A’. Cultivars Smeengi and Aziza, Leonardo and Avalanche carried 2.67 and 1 stem per plant respectively. Moreover, the 11 cultivars were ranked and grouped into 5 groups (A to E). For number of fruits/plant, means were not very much different from one another. The pyramid of variety Asterix was the highest, indicating that this genotype is efficient in bearing fruits. Variation was observed for tuber yield among all the cultivars and was not significantly high between replications of all varieties. Overall, there was highly significant variation for this character among all the potato cultivars. All the 11 varieties were grouped into seven homogeneous groups (A to G) in which the means are not significantly different from one another. Almost every variety was in a different group. Average yield for all the varieties ranged from 22 to 7 kg. Pyramid height for Desiree was highest, indicating that maximum yield (22 kg) was produced by this variety.

Key words: Germplasm, potato, Solanum tuberosum L. Rawalakot, Azad Kashmir.