Studies on heterosis and combining ability for earliness and yield in sponge gourd

The heterosis and combining ability studies of eight parental lines of sponge gourd with crosses (without reciprocals) were conducted for earliness and yield contributing characters. The better parent heterosis was observed as high as (50.49%) for yield per vine. In the present study P7 X P8 (PSG-9 x HASG-5) was best heterotic combination (in terms of better parent and standard check) for days to first female flower, day to first male flower, days to first fruit picking, yield per vine and ratio of male and female flower. Among the parent P7 (PSG-9) was found best general combiner for imparting earliness, days to first fruit picking and ratio of female to male flowers and parent P8 (HASG-5) for total yield per vine. Significant SCA effect for earliness was lacking. Desirable SCAeffect was found significant in five hybrids for yield per vine. The specific crosses, P1 x P2 (Phule prajakta x Pusa chikani), P1 x P7 (Phule prajakta x PSG-9), P1 x P8 (Phule prajakta x HASG-5),P4 X P5 (VR-1 x PSG 100), P4 x P8 (VR-1 x HASG-5) and P7 x P8 (PSG-9 x HASG-5) can be utilized in heterosis breeding programme for improvement in sponge gourd.