COMBINING ABILITY AND HYBRID POWER IN INTERSPECIFIC (Gossypium hirsutum L. x Gossypium barbadense L.) LINE x TESTER HYBRIDS OF COTTON

Cotton is most important fiber plant in the world having different fiber properties. This study was carried out to increase yield and ginning outturn of seven interspesific pure (F9) line of cotton (G hirsutum L. x G barbadense L.). For this, lines were hybridized with ST 468 and Claudia cultivars which belonging to G hirsutum L. genus, in 2018, by Line x Tester mating design. Then, 14 F1 hybrids were sown with nine parents according to Randomized Complate Block Design with three replications, in 2019, in Kahramanmaras. In the results of study, BGKM-3 x ST 468 and BGKM-5 x Claudia F1 hybrids had been found very significant. Morever, while BGKM-3 x ST 468 hybrid showed positive SCA in seed cotton yield and ginning outturn, BGKM-3 line showed very important GCA in terms of yield and fiber length. Also, ST 468 tester showed important GCA both fiber fineness and ginning outturn. İnheritance of seed cotton yield have been found higher than other traits and determined both environmental conditions and dominant genes are effective on the seed cotton yield. Besides, effects of lines on total variance were found higher than both testers and lines x testers interaction, excluding fiber fineness.