Vol. 11, Issue 12 (2022)

The research consisted of fifteen diverse parents of linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) which were crossed following diallel mating design (Griffings 1956) ^[4] Model I Method II to generate one hundred and five crosses (excluding reciprocals). These 105 F1s were evaluated in randomized block design having three replications during rabi 2021-22 at the farm of AICRP on linseed and mustard, College of Agriculture, Nagpur. The data were recorded on five observational plants for nine quantitative characters viz., days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height (cm), number of branches plant^-1, number of capsules plant^-1, 1000 seed weight (g), seed weight plant^-1 (g), alternaria blight infestation (%), bud fly infestation (%) to estimate general combining ability of parents, specific combining ability of crosses for yield and yield contributing traits and to select potential parents and crosses for linseed breeding programme. The analysis of variance revealed highly significant mean squares for all the characters studied indicating presence of considerable genetic diversity among genotypes which allows further estimation of experimental material. Analysis of variance for combining ability revealed that mean squares due to GCA and SCA were significant for all the characters studied. The predictability ratio ranged from 0.49 to 0.81. Based on mean performance and GCA effects of parental lines, the genotypes Kota Barani-3, TL 99, Indira Alsi-32, Neela were found to be the best general combiners for seed yield plant^-1, 1000 seed weight, number of capsules plant^-1. The crosses PKV NL 260 × Indira Alsi-32, Kota Barani 4 × Arpita, PKV NL 260 × Neela, Mutant-2 × TL 99, Mau Azad Alsi-2 × TL 99, JLS 79 × Pratap Alsi 1, Neela × Mutant-4, JLS 95 × Mau Azad Alsi-2, JLS 9 × Mau Azad Alsi-2, JLS 95 × Kota Barani 3, JRF 2 × Kota Barani 3, JLS 95 × Kota Barani 4, Neela × JRF 2 possessed negative SCA effects along with high and significant or non significant mean performance for seed yield plant^-1, 1000 seed weight, number of capsules plant^-1. These crosses possesses desirable GCA effects for the parents involved in the cross. These crosses therefore found to be the best crosses which can be forwarded to the next generation for their use in varietal breeding programme in linseed.