HETEROSIS AND COMBINING ABILITY FOR YIELD AND CONTRIBUTING TRAITS IN CUCUMBER (CUCUMIS SATIVUS L.)

Abstract

Combining ability and heterosis studies were carried out through half diallel method using ten parents with six characters. The analysis revealed that none of the parents was found good general combiner for all the characters consistently, however parent Peelibheet local, PCUC-28 and Patna-3 were good combiner for yield and its contributing traits. The gca variances were higher than the sca variances for vine length, polar diameter of fruit, equatorial diameter of fruit, average fruit weight and yield per plant. While other character viz., number of branches per plant had gca variances lower than the sca variances indicating the pre dominance of non additive gene effects. The maximum heterosis for yield was exhibited by VRC-18-2 x Patna -3. The selection should be made for improvement of traits like polar and equatorial diameter of fruit, and yield. While, vine length, number of branches and individual fruit weight may be improved through hybridization.