Heterosis and combining ability for yield and yield attributing traits of parthenocarpic cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) under poly-net house conditions

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Date
2017
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
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The present investigation entitled “Heterosis and combining ability for yield and yield attributing traits of parthenocarpic cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) under poly-net house conditions” was carried out at Research Farm of Department of Vegetable Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana during 2015-17. Eight parthenocarpic gynoecious inbred lines of cucumber were crossed in a diallel fashion (excluding reciprocals) to produce twenty eight cucumber hybrids. The observations were recorded for eleven traits, viz. fruit weight, total soluble solids, fruit length, fruit diameter, vine length, number of fruits per plant, flesh to seed cavity ratio, days to first fruit harvest, days to last fruit harvest, number of seeds per fruit and yield per plant. The analysis of variance indicated significant difference among all the genotypes for all the traits except number of seeds per fruit. The combining ability analysis revealed that mean squares due to gca and sca were significant for almost all the traits, indicating the role of both additive and nonadditive gene action in inheritance of these traits. The cross combinations PBRK-4 x PBRK-12, PBRK-4 x PBRK-9 and PBRK-4 x PBRK-8 were found to exhibit high heterosis over commercial check (Multistar) for yield per plant. The parental line PBRK10 was observed to be the best general combiner for five characters, viz., fruit weight total soluble solids, fruit length, vine length and flesh to seed cavity ratio and second best combiner for days to last fruit harvest, whereas PBRK4 was found to be the best general combiner for number of fruits per plant, days to first fruit harvest and yield per plant. The cross combination PBRK-4 x PBRK-12 was found to be the best specific combiner for number of fruits per plant and yield per plant, PBRK-12 x PBRK-7 for fruit weight and fruit diameter and PBRK-10 x PBRK-1 for fruit length. The cross combinations PBRK4 x PBRK12, PBRK4 x PBRK9 and PBRK9 x PBRK1 exhibiting high positive heterosis for yield per plant along with high sca effects can be used for developing F1s. The genetic components of variation revealed that most of the characters, except fruit weight, fruit length and number of fruits per plant were governed by non-additive gene action and hence can be improved through heterosis breeding.
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