Kasturi Bai, K.V.John George2014-06-052014-06-052007-02-08Proceedings of Placrosym XV (2002): p-20-23http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/2394Coconut cultlvars and hybrids viz., West Coast Tall, Chandra kalpa, Pratap, Keraganga, Chandra sankara, takshaganga and Chandralaksha were evaluated tor leaf traits, dry matter production and yield to identify the superior cultlvar among the released ones. The cultivars and hybrid showed significant differences in the above parameters. Based on the results, the traits for higher dry matter production and yield have been delineated. v Among the cultlvars and hybrids the performance of Keraganga (WCTxCBGD) and lakshaganga (LCTxCBCD) f was found to be better than the others in terms of leaf traits, dry matter production and yield. The observations clearly indicated that total nut production per se is not an important criteria for crop improvement programmes, but harvest index (HI) which gives an indication of the partitioning of total dry matter (TDM) towards the economic yield (l.e,copra outum) is the important trait for improving the production potential of the palms. Since the determination of TDM in coconut is very tedious and time consuming, partitioning of total nut dry matter towards copra can be used as an important trait for crop improvement programmes.enArticle