Vol. 10, Issue 8 (2021)

Author(s):
AK Mahawar, AK Soni, LN Bairwa and SK Bairwa

Abstract:
The experiment was conducted to access the magnitude of variance for GCA and SCA and identify promising parents and crosses for further improvement in bottle gourd under semi-arid conditions. Eight parents were crossed in diallel fashion (excluding reciprocals) in Zaid-2015. In kharif-2016, these parents and F₁s were evaluated in RBD with three replications under four environments. Results showed environment wise combining ability analysis revealed significant differences for GCA and SCA variances indicating necessity of both additive and non-additive gene effects in the genetic control of characters studied. The GCA/SCA showed preponderance of non-additive gene action for most of the characters. As regards GCA effects, parents PSPL, NR and PN for days to opening of first female flower, days to first fruit set, number of nodes at first female flower appearance, number of primary branches, number of marketable fruits per vine, number of pickings and total fruit yield; PSPL and PN for fruit length and PK for fruit girth emerged as good general combiner. The crosses viz. PSPL × NR, PN × PSPL, PN × PS for days to opening of first female flower, days to first fruit set, number of primary branches, fruit girth, number of pickings, PSPL × NR, PK × AB, PN × PSPL for number of nodes at first female flower appearance, number of marketable fruits per vine, PSPL × NR, PK × AB, PN × PS for fruit length and PN × PS, PK × AB, PN × PSPL for fruit yield (q/ha) had maximum SCA effects in desirable direction emerged as good specific combiners. All these crosses offer good promise for improvement of respective component characters in specific environment and ultimately fruit yield.