COMBINING ABILITY FOR YIELD AND QUALITY ATTRIBUTES IN BHENDI (ABELMOSCHUS ESCULENTUS (L.) MOENCH)

Abstract

The present experiment on bhendi consisted of 12 parents (9 lines and 3 testers) with their 27 F1 hybrids developed through line x tester mating design with three replications in randomized block design. Parents and hybrids differed significantly for gca and sca effects, respectively. Among the parents, maximum gca effect was found in EC 169329 and Aruna for fruit length, EC 102605 and Arka Anamika for fruit girth, EC 112241 and Arka Anamika for fruit yield per plant, EC 169335 and Aruna for ascorbic acid content, EC 109454 and Arka Anamika for mucilage content. The crosses EC 169331 x Kashi Kranti, EC 102605 x Arka Anamika and EC 169344 x Arka Anamika were found as good specific combiners for fruit length, fruit girth and yield per plant respectively. The hybrids EC 169335 x Aruna and EC 109454 x Arka Anamika exhibited maximum significant positive sca effects for quality traits like ascorbic acid content and mucilage content respectively.