Abstract:
Executive Summary
Flowering Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa subsp. chinensis var. parachinensis) also called
‘Caixin’ or “Choy sum” is an annual leafy vegetable of the ‘Brassicaceae’ family. An
experiment was conducted with seven flowering Chinese cabbage and one mustard (BARI
Sharisha-14) genotypes using randomized complete block design with three replications at
the experimental farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University to characterize the various
yield contributing traits, assess the genetic variability and interrelationship among the
genotypes. The genetic variability analysis revealed that there was a significant variation for
different character among the studied flowering Chinese cabbage genotypes. The higher
genotypic variance was found in days to maturity, fresh yield per plant, plant height, number
of siliqua per plant and seeds per siliqua indicating the occurrence of high genetic variability
for these traits. The high broad heritability with high genetic advance in percentage of mean
were observed for fresh vegetative yield (99.87% and 48.88%), number of siliqua per plant
(90.19% and 46.31%) and seeds per silique (94.09% and 56.59%) indicating that these traits
under additive genetic control and selection would be effective. Fresh yield of flowering
Chinese cabbage had a significant positive correlation with leaf length (r
=
0.693) and plant height (r
g
= 0.823; r
= 0.760) at both genotypic and phenotypic level while
with days to 50% flowering (r
p
p
= 0.446), leaf breadth and number of siliqua per plant, there
is a correlation at phenotypic level only. Present findings indicate that phenotypic selection
would be effective for these characters. Therefore, Flowering Chinese cabbage G5
performed better for fresh yield and could be used as a leafy vegetable. Furheremore,
Genotypes G6 could be selected for futre hybridization programs for seed yield. To the best
knowledge, this is the first scientific report of flowering Chinese cabbage cultivation in
Bangladesh and further research can be performed based on the present findings for the
genetic improvement of this crop.
