Combining ability analysis for yield and quality traits in ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula L. Roxb.)

Abstract

The investigation was carried out to study combining ability in ridge gourd through line × tester analysis in which 11 lines were crossed with 3 testers to get 33 F1 hybrids. These 33 F1s along with 14 parents were evaluated in Randomized Block Design with three replications under four environments consisting of two locations and two seasons during 2016-17. The parents DRG-3, DRG-5, DRG-15 and Konkan Harita were good general combiners for fruit yield, fruit quality and yield attributing traits and therefore, these are proposed for their further utilization in hybrid breeding programme. Hybrids DRG-15 × Konkan Harita and DRG-3 × Konkan Harita exhibited good specific combining ability for yield per plant and yield contributing characters like number of fruits per plant, fruit weight and fruit diameter. These superior combinations can be further promoted to be utilized as hybrids.