Correlation analysis of musk melon, Cucumis melo genotypes grown under different water regimes in greenhouse

Drought is most important abiotic stress factor responsible for greater yield loss than any other single stress condition in India.Water greatly infl uences the yield and quality of vegetables and thereby drastically reduces productivity including muskmelon.So, correlation study among 40 genotypes of muskmelon was done under different water regimes.The genotypes were sown in polythene bags in four replications for study root and shoot traits.Stress was imposed after germination of seeds by different levels of irrigation per day (50 ml, 25 ml and 0 ml) till 35 days old seedlings.The traits like root fresh weight with root dry weight ( 0.868** and 0.824**, 0.907** and 0.790** 0.896** and 0.837**), root shoot ratio by weight (0.719** and 0.643**, 0.659** and 0.602**, 0.577** and 0.468**) and root length (0.937** and 0.863**, 0.870** and 0.759**, 0.798** and 0.678**) ; root dry weight with root shoot ratio by weight (0.907** and 0.869**, 0.869** and 0.846**, 0.755** and 0.664**) and root length (0.844** and 0.792**, 0.903** and 0.741**, 0.760** and 0.640**); root shoot ratio by weight with root length (0.671** and 0.585**, 0.745** and 0.607**, 0.500** and 0.343**) were positive and signifi cantly correlated with each other at both genotypic and phenotypic level under normal and water stress conditions.Hence selection of anyone of these traits enhances the performances of other traits.