AN INVESTIGATION ON HETEROSIS, GENERAL AND SPECIFIC COMBINING ABILITY FOR POD YIELD AND ITS CONTRIBUTING PARAMETERS IN OKRA [ABELMOSCHUS ESCULENTUS (L.) MOENCH]

The heterosis and combining ability studies were conducted by utilizing modified Line X Tester mating design involving 6 Lines and 9 testers of Okra [Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench]. The breeding material involving fifty four F1 hybrids along with 15 parents with one commercial check were evaluated during Kharif 2020 in a Randomized Block Design (R.B.D.) with three replications at Research Centre of Goldking Biogene Private Limited with an aim to estimate the magnitude of heterosis and to identify the good parents and good hybrid combinations for pod yield and other quantitative traits. Among the parents GKOF-1, GKOF-5 and GOM-7 were found to be good general combiners for pod yield per plot. Among the lines GKOF-3, GKOF-4 and GKOF-6 and testers GKOM-4, GKOM-5, GKOM-7 and GKOM-9 were found to be involved in exhibiting significant sca effects for almost all characters. Among the crosses GKOF-2 X GKOM-5, GKOF-1 X GKOM-8 and GKOF-6 X GKOM-7 exhibited high per se performance for pod yield per plot. Further the cross GKOF-1 X GKOM-7, GKOF-4 X GKOM-9 and GKOF-6 X GKOM-4 revealed highest positively significant sca effects for pod yield per plot.