Combining ability in muskmelon (Cucumis melo)

A study was conducted during 1995-97 on the combining ability analysis in a 6 m X 6 m diallel cross of muskmelon (CuCumis melo L.) excluding reciprocal. The 15 F, hybrids along with 6 parental lines were grown in randomized block design with 3 replications. The mean square due to gca and sca were highly significant for most of the characters indil.lated the importance of both additive and nOIl·additive genetic components for the characters under study. The predictability ratio and average degree of dominance was observed to be less than 0.5 and more than 1 for 3 most important yield contributing characters. viz days to first fruit harvest, fruit/plant anu yield/plant suggested the importance of non-additive component of variance for the improvement of these characters. The parents P2, P5 and p6 were observed to be good combiners fOr number of characters including yield/plant. The crosses P3 X P4' P1 X P2' P3 X P6 and P1 x P5 was most promising combinations for earliness and other desirable characters including yield/plant. The results indicated the importance of heterosis breeding for effective utilization of non-additive genetic variance