Heterosis and inbreeding depression for yield components in okra

Heterosis and inbreeding depression in spring crop of okra were studied in a set of 8X8 diallel crosses excluding reciprocals for two seasons viz., spring and rainy. Heterosis over better parent and standard check and inbreeding depression (ID) were calculated for fruit yield per plant and four contributing traits. The cross combination Punjab Padmini X Hisar Unnat had significant heterobeltiosis and standard heterosis for fruit yield per plant in both the seasons. Other promising crosses for fruit yield were NDO 10 X Hisar Unnat, Punjab 8 X Pant Bhindi-1 and IIVR-11 X Pusa-A-4 for spring season and Punjab Padmini X Punjab 8, Punjab 8 X Hisar Unnat and Pant Bhindi-1 X IIVR-11 for rainy season. These crosses therefore can be considered promising for exploitation in hybrid production. There was significant inbreeding depression for all the traits. The hybrids Punjab-8 X Hisar Unnat (for spring season) and Punjab Padmini X Punjab-8 (for rainy season) had negative ID for fruit yield which implicated appearance of transgressive segregants. The results showed that selection in advanced generations would be advantageous.