Divergence studies for different horticultural traits in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)

Thirty diverse genotypes of cucumber collected from different indigenous and exotic sources were planted in randomized complete block design, during kharif season of 2016 and were assessed to know the nature and magnitude of genetic divergence for different horticultural traits, using Mahalanobis D2 statistics. All the characters under study showed considerable divergence and the genotypes were grouped into five clusters. Cluster II contained the maximum (12) number of genotypes, whereas cluster V contained minimum (3) genotypes. The intra cluster distance was maximum in cluster IV (3.469) and minimum in cluster III (1.776). Maximum average inter-cluster distance (6.221) was recorded between cluster III and cluster IV.