Inheritance of yield and yield attributes in okra (Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) moench)

Six generations (P_c, P_i, F₁, F₂, B_c, B_i) of okra were derived during summer season 2009 by crossing of one common female parent Pc (Punjab-8) with each of male parent i.e. Pi's (Arya Dhanlaxhmi and Pusa Sawani) and were evaluated during rainy season 2009 to study the gene action and inheritance pattern of yield and yield attributing traits at Vegetable Research Farm, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. F1 means of both the crosses i.e. (Punjab-8 x Arya Dhanlaxhmi and Punjab-8 x Pusa Sawani) surpassed both of their corresponding parental means suggesting over dominance for total yield per plant, number of fruits per plant, average fruit weight and plant height and evidence of epistasis was detected for all the traits. Both fixable and non-fixable gene effects govern the inheritance for the traits except for average fruit weight in cross Punjab-8 x Pusa Sawani. The magnitude of dominance gene effects was more than that of additive gene effects which confirms that dominance gene effects were found to contribute more substantially in the inheritance of these traits along with the presence of duplicate type of epistasis. Therefore, genetic improvement of okra with respect to these characters in this material can be made through pure line breeding or inbred development.