Heterosis Breeding in Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.)

Line x Tester analysis was undertaken to estimate the extent of useful heterosis to find out high yielding hybrids in safflower. Desirable significant useful heterosis was observed only for days to 50 per cent flowering, number of seeds per capitulum, seed yield per plant and oil content. Overall frequency and magnitudes of useful heterosis was very low for all the traits. Maximum significant useful heterosis recorded was for number of seeds per capitulum (68.81%), seed yield per plant (67.82%), days to 50 per cent flowering (7.20%) and oil content (4.13%). Heterosis for seed yield was found to be associated with heterosis for number of seeds per capitulum. Promising crosses identified for exploitation of hybrid vigour and/or obtaining desirable transgressive segregates were GMS-102 x AKS-215, GMS (O) 6 x AKS152 and MS 9 (O) xAKS-152.