The present study was undertaken to evaluate the performance of 30 genotypes of khirni Manilkara hexandra (Roxb.) Dubard, at Experimental Farm of Central Horticultural Experiment Station (ICAR-CIAH), Vejalpur, Panchmahals (Godhra), Gujarat under rainfed hot semi-arid ecosystem of western India during 2011-14. The results of study revealed that the different genotypes of khirni exhibited considerable variation for vegetative, floral, yield and physicochemical characters. The vegetative growth in terms of plant height, rootstock girth, scion girth, plant spread (East-West) and plant spread (North-South) varied between 2.50-5.54 m, 30.12-53.45 cm, 26.12-44.42 cm, 2.10-5.10 m and 2.30-5.20 m, respectively. Number of leaves/shoot varied between 10.12-16.12. The period of flowering was recorded in November-December in all the genotypes. Pollen viability and pollen germination ranged from 84.23-94.86 and 15.00-23.56 respectively, being highest in CHESK-10. Fruit set per cluster ranged from 2.00 to 3.70 being highest in CHESK-10. Peak period of ripening in majority of the genotypes was recorded in May. Maximum fruit yield (10.10 kg/plant), fruit weight (5.20 g), pulp (87.50), TSS (24.73 degrees Brix), total sugar (17.80) and carotene (6.80 mg/100 g) was recorded in CHESK-10. Based on the horticultural traits studied, the genotypes, CHESK-10, CHESK12, CHESK-15 and CHESK-4 were found to be promising under rainfed hot semi-arid conditions of western India. The genotype CHESK-10 was released as variety named as Thar Rituraj.
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