STUDIES ON HETEROSIS, COMBINING ABILITY AND STABILITY FOR YIELD AND ITS COMPONENTS IN TOMATO (Solanum lycopersicum L.).

objective to estimate heterosis, combining ability, gene action, genetic parameters, character association, path analysis and to assess stability of parents and their crosses for yield and yield contributing characters employing full diallel mating design. The experimental material consisted of 38 genotypes which include six parents, 30 resultant F1 hybrids and two standard checks Lakshmi and US-618, grown in a randomized block design replicated thrice during 2013-2014 and evaluated for fifteen characters viz., plant height (cm), number of primary branches per plant, days to 50% flowering, number of flowers per cluster, number of fruits per cluster, fruit set (%), days to first fruit harvest, days to last fruit harvest, fruit length (cm), fruit width (cm), average fruit weight (g), fruit yield per plant, Total soluble Solids (0Brix), Lycopene content (mg/ 100g) and shelf life (days).