October 21, 2020
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Eggplant (Solanumaethiopicum) is an underutilized crop in Nigeria grown for its fruits and seed. Nine accessions of African eggplant (Solanumaethipicum) were evaluated during the 2013 early cropping season at the National Horticultural Research Institute , Ibadan, Nigerian for variability in yield and related characters. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The accessions are: NHS 10.71, NHS 10-40, NHS 10-55, NHS 10-42, NHS 10-28, NHS 10-22, NHS 10-24 and NHSGB/09/128. Data collected were subjected to analysis of variance while correlation coefficients were also determined. There were significant variations among the nine accessions for all the evaluated characters measured. Accession NHS 10-83 was the tallest (101.50cm) at maturity with the highest number of branches (6.57), largest stem diameter (1.73), highest fruits and seed weight per plant (327.33 and 212.49 respectively). However accession NHS number of fruits per cluster (3.84) and number of fruit per plant were recorded in accession NHS 10-40. Seed weight per plant had positive and significant per cluster (3.84) and number of fruit per plant were recorded in accession NHS 10-40. Seed weight per plant had positive and significant correlation with the plant height (0.48) and stem diameter (0.45) while negative but significant correlation was observed between seed weight and number of branches per plant (-0.30). The two accessions have potentials for selection in a future hybridization programme.
Africa eggplant, characters, yield correlation, accessions