Variation and Relationship in Developmental Growth Phases of Santalum album after Pruning

About two year old even-aged Santalum album plants were used to observe the mean and variability of growth performances after pruning. Under each of the two treatment conditions of 'with host' and 'without host'. the growth in general was sub-divided into three components, as, (1) initial growth, (2) regenerative growth and (3) expansive growth; to observe their individual performances and relationship among different characters. It was observed that the 'without host" treatment expressed lower mean and variability whereas the 'with host' condition showed higher mean and variability. The elementary characters (ICD, NSS) had lower variabilities and the composite characters had higher variability. The initial growth phase is always inversely) associated (not correlated) with all other growth phases and interestingly there is no correlation between the initial growth phase and the regenerating growth phase. Strong negative correlation between ICD and FSBL, SSBL, ISLN and SSLN suggests that, higher ICD is detrimental to the expansive growth. NSS is largely uncorrelated with other characters. It may be said that probably the elementary characters are indiVidually controlled genetically and the strong positive correlations among the composite characters indicate tbat they are likely to be similarly genetically governed.