Combining Ability Analysis for Fruit Yield and its Attributes in Okra [Abelmoschus Esculentus (L.) Moench]

The experimental material, comprised of 49 entries including 13 genetically diverse parents and their 36 crosses generated by line x tester mating design. The experiment was raised in a randomized block design with three replications during three consecutive seasons viz., early summer (2003) (E₁), late summer (2003) (E₂) and kharif (2003) (E₃). The pooled analysis of variance for combining ability revealed that mean squares due to females, males and females x males were significant. These variance components were also significant when tested against their respective interaction mean squares for days to flowering, number of nodes per plant, internodal length, plant height and yield per plant. The interactions of various sources with environments were significant when tested against error mean square for all the characters. Whereas the variances due to females x environment were found non-significant when tested against females x males x environments interaction for all the characters except for branches per plant. The parents GO-2, Parbhani Kranti, HRB-55, HRB-107-4, JO (2000K)-15, NDO-10, NOL-101 and D-1-87-5 were good general combiner for yield per plant and also for fruits per plant. For early flowering, hybrid Parbhani Kranti x VRO-6 and for fruits per plant the hybrid HRB-55 x JO (2000K)-15 were found the best specific combiners.