Assessment of S1 progenies in two diverse populations of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.)

An investigation was conducted at Jobner (Rajasthan) to estimate variability, heritability and expected selection gain among S, progenies generated from RF-125 and UF-143 populations of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). The inter-family variance was higher in comparison to intra-family variance in both the populations for most of the characters studied. The estimates of heritability (narrow sense) were high only for plant height in RF-125. For rest of the characters, the heritability was medium to low. The expected genetic gain was medium to low in both the populations and was highest in umbels plant-1 in RF-125. The study suggests that significant inter family variance is still present in these populations which can be exploited. &nbsp