Abstract

Okra belongs to the Malvaceae family and is known by various common names such as lady's finger, gumbo, and bhindi. Okra has been consumed for centuries and is a staple in many culinary traditions, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions. The seed of the only approved variety ‘Sabaz Pari’ in Pakistan is mixed and distributed among the farmers. To evaluate its characteristics an experiment was carried out in the laboratory of the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad to study genetic variability for different seedling traits of 14 varieties of okra marketed as Sabaz Pari, collected from Ayub Agriculture Research Institute. The same varieties were sown in a completely randomized design (CRD) in a laboratory with three replications, using a sand and soil mixture as the growing media. Seedling traits such as root length, shoot length, leaf width, leaf length, fresh weight of root, dry weight of root, fresh weight of shoot, dry weight of shoot and germination percentage were recorded. Data recording was conducted after 40 days in each replication by randomly selecting three plants. Analysis of variance showed significant difference among all the okra genotypes under study. Results showed Genotypes obtained from different sources showed the significant variations for different traits. These findings help okra breeders to select viable genotypes for future breeding plan