Multivariate Analysis in Determining Morphologically Diverse Sugarcane Genotypes (Saccharum officinarum L.) and their Flowering Response at Arja, Azad Kashmir

Sugarcane is the most important sugar crop in Pakistan. However, its improvement through hybridization is limited because of its flowering and viable fuzz production. New avenues suitable for flowering were explored using 20 genotypes for initiation of breeding program in the country. A site near Bagh district (Arja) Azad Kashmir was found suitable and used for morphological evaluation, phenotypic diversity analysis and their flowering behavior sugarcane under local conditions. Two year data revealed that genotype HSF-242 showed maximum mean values for, internodes length, brix percentage and reducing sugar while S-08-FSD-19 showed maximum values for number of tillers and stem girth, whereas S-05-FSD-307 revealed maximum values for plant height and number of nodes. Analysis of variance revealed highly significant differences for plant height, number of tillers, leaf area, brix percentage, reducing and non-reducing sugar. A total of 79.75% cumulative variance was estimated in genotypes with PCA analysis at eigenvalue 1 and grouped 20 genotypes into five clusters at Euclidean distance (ED) 7. Cluster analysis revealed that the members of clusters I, cluster III and Cluster V diverse genotypes that should be utilised to initiate breeding program. The genotype HSF-242 was the outlier at ED 8. Out of twenty genotypes tested only five (S-03-US-694, S-05-FSD-307, S-05-FSD-317, S-08-FSD-23 and S-08-FSD-19) are responded flowering and viable fuzz production at new site. More germplasm need to be evaluated for selection of suitable parents that can be used for future breeding program.