Variability study of ber fruits (Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk.) collected from naturally grown plants through morphological characterization

Abstract

An experiment was carried out in the department of Horticulture, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU), Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India to evaluate the morphological variation of ber fruits collected from widely and naturally grown ber crops inside the main campus of the university. There were 85 morphotypes selected for the study and fruit morphological characters were studied at the departmental laboratory with CRD statistical design and data of various morphotypes were compared at 5% level of significance. The results revealed that the highest fruit weight (15.33 g), fruit length (43.92 mm), fruit width (30.09 mm), fruit volume (14.23ml), pulp weight (14.26g), Pulp thickness (11.12 mm), pulp per cent (92.84%) was observed in B-45 morphotype. These physical characters seemed to be good for customer attractiveness. Considering the morphocharacteristic performance of fruit of 85 ber morphotypes grown in side BBAU campus, it may be concluded that the ber morphotype B-45 could be used for further crop improvement programme for its bigger fruit size, high pulp content.