Heterosis for yield and yield components over environments in desi cotton (gossypium arboreum L.)

Nature and magnitude of heterosis was studied for ten quantitative characters in a line x tester mating design in desi cotton. The values of average heterosis recorded for days to flower initiation, bolls/plant, seed-cotton yield/plant, seed yield/plant, and lint yield/plant were 3.6, 22.1, 21.2, 21.7 and 20.3%, respectively. Twenty six cross combinations out yielded significantly the best parent RG-10. Heterosis for seed-cotton yield was related mainly to number of bolls, seed yield and lint yield and to some extent on lateness and tallness. Crosses involving G-121, K-7, Shyamali, G-27, RG-10, SD-5, BH-113, BH-112, BH-99, BH-98, RG-8 and Lohit are expected to be more effective for exploitation of genetic variability for yield and its components. For halo length, ginning percentage and seed and lint indices F1s exhibited least deviation from betterparent, suggesting that these characters were governed by additive genes.