Studies on Hybrid Breeding and Genetic Variability in Vegetable Pea Under High Hilly Condition of Uttarakhand

Hybrid breeding and genetic variability for pod yield and its components were studied following line × tester(7 × 4) analysis in garden pea during kharif, 2006–07. The estimates of genetic parameters of thirty nine (11 parents and 28 crosses) genotypes, evaluated for nine horticultural traits, indicated a good amount of genetic variation in the experimental materials under investigation. Characters like plant height, days to first picking, 100 green pod weight, green pod yield and days to 50 per cent flowering revealed higher values of heritability in broad sense and genetic gain indicating that the additive gene actions are important in determining these characters. Therefore, selection programme based on these characters would be more effective in improving yield parameters of garden pea. The crosses VRP-5 × Arkel and DGP-207x Snow Pea manifested maximum significant heterosis for days to 50 per cent flowering, DVP-2 × VL-7 and DVP-2 × Pusa Pragati for days to first picking and PMR-32 × Snow Pea for number of green pods per plant and green pod yield per plant, respectively.