Vegetos

Abstract

Six parental genotypes and their thirty F₁ hybrids in a full diallel cross system with reciprocals, were used in the present study to estimate combining ability for quantitative and qualitative traits in hot pepper. The experiment was conducted at Department of Vegetable Crops, Horticultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Periyakulam, India during 20132015. The mean sum of squares due to gca, sca and rca were significant for all the characters which suggested that these parents could have performed differently in different combinations indicating the interallelic interactions. All the traits studied exhibited greater SCA variance than GCA, suggesting that these traits are controlled by non-additive gene action. Analyzing the gca effects of parents for various traits revealed that LCA 625, K 1 and PKM 1 were the best general combiners for almost all the traits. Estimates of SCA effects showed that the hybrids LCA 625× K 1, K 1× Arka Lohit and Pusa Jwala × PKM 1 were found to be the best combiners for yield and its attributes. The hybrid K 1×Arka Lohit was the best reciprocal combiner for quality parameters based on their better mean performance and combing ability. These results suggested that commercial production of hot pepper hybrids and isolation of pure lines from these hybrids is a possible way to enhance the yield and fruit quality.