GENETIC ADVANCE BY PARTICIPATORY MASS SELECTION IN PIPIANA SQUASH (Cucurbita argyrosperma Huber var. stenosperma)

Abstract

The present work was carried out in Achichipico, Morelos, with the purpose of evaluating the genetic advance of in situ participatory mass selection in a local population of pipiana squash (Cucurbita argyrosperma Huber var. stenosperma), in the association system maize-squash, an experimental design of randomized blocks with four replications was used. The response to selection for seed and fruit yield per hectare was 20.19 kg ha-1 (42.9%) and 213.4 kg ha-1 (41.3%), respectively, per selection cycle, because of the genetic gain for seed and fruit yield per plant (9.80 g plant-1 (27.5%) and 0.10 kg plant-1 (26.3%), respectively. In flesh flavor and flesh color characters the advance per selection cycle was 0.53 units (15.9%) and 0.48 units (13.1%), respectively. Analysis of variance, only detected highly significative differences among selection cycles for flesh color and flesh flavor. Characters that did not present statistical differences, shown clear numerical tendency to improvement throughout selection cycles in pipiana squash.