STUDIES ON HETEROSIS, COMBINING ABILITY AND EFFECT OF ETHREL ON SEX EXPRESSION IN VEGETABLE TYPES OF Cucumis melo L

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Date
1990
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ACHARYA N.G. RANGA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY, RAJENDRANAGAR, HYDERABAD.
Abstract
The diallel cross was used to evaluate ten open pollinated lines of vegetable types of Cuqumis melo for several characters related to earliness, quality, flowering and yield. Heterosis was significant for all characters studied. Both general combining ability and specific combining ability variances were significant for all traits. Additive gene action had a predominant role for fruit size, acidity, number of male and female flowers, number of fruits per plant and average fruit weight, while nonadditive gene action had a predominant role for days to female flowering, node number to first ferna+e flower, flesh thickness, cavity diameter, total soluble solids, sex ratio, percentage fruit set, total yield by weight and number of main branches per plant. Evaluation of these ten lines and predicted values for the characters in the synthetic breeding populations formed from five selected parents are presented. It was found that the crosses cs-2 x cs~, cs-2 x cs-6, cs-4 x cs-s and cs-9 x CS-10 can be utilized as F1 hybrids. Four concentrations of ethrel were applied twice as foliar sprays, once at two-true leaf stage and again after ten days. Ethrel treated plants produced the pistillate flowers earlier and increased their number, delayed the production of staminate flowers and reduced their number. Ethrel at 250 ppm was the most effective concentration for sex conversion in vegetable types of Cucumis melo. Hybrid seed production with the use of ethrel is discussed.
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STUDIES, HETEROSIS, COMBINING, ABILITY, EFFECT, ETHREL, SEX, EXPRESSION, VEGETABLE
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