Heterosis for quantative traits and mineral contents in ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula)

摘要

Seven parental lines and 21 F-1 hybrids of ridge gourd resulting from half diallel were studied to investigate the extent of heterosis for earliness, viz. days to first female flower anthesis and days to first fruit harvest, yield and its attributing characters viz. number of fruits per plant, fruit weight and fruit length, and nutrients (Ca, K, Fe, Zn and Mn) content. The crosses Pusa Nasdar x CO-1, DRG-71 x Swarna Uphar and Pusa Nasdar x Swarna Uphar were found to be the most promising for earliness as they showed negative and significant heterosis over better parent and standard variety. Hybrids Pusa Nutan x Arka Sujat, Pusa Nutan x DRG-71 and Pusa Nutan x DRG-7 were found to be best heterotic combinations as they exhibited significant heterosis percentage for yield per plant over the standard variety. The hybrids DRG-71 x Arka Sujat, DRG-7 x DRG-71, DRG-71 x Pusa Nasdar, Pusa Nutan x Pusa Nasdar and Pusa Nutan x Arka Sujat were the best specific combiners for Ca, K, Fe, Zn and Mn contents, respectively. The two most promising F-1 hybrids found were Pusa Nutan x Arka Sujat and Pusa Nutan x DRG-7 which were early in maturity, had higher number of fruits/plant and showed 84.38 and 51.26 heterosis for yield. They also exhibited significantly higher heterosis for most of the mineral contents over standard variety, Pusa Nutan.