Department of Vegetable Crops, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana -141004.
Twenty eight cross combinations along with eight parental lines were assessed for their combining ability in muskmelon. Mean squares due to gca and sca were highly significant for the most of the characters. It indicated the importance of both additive and non-additive genetic components for characters under study. For most of the characters s2D/s2A was observed to be >1 except number of fruits per vine, suggesting the importance of non-additive components of variance for the improvement of these characters. The parental line Hara Madhu was the best general combiner for total fruit yield per vine (0.17**), fruit weight (0.05**), number of fruits per vine (0.11*), TSS (0.52**) and fruit shape index (0.045**) and Punjab Rasila was the best general combiner for fruit/cavity ratio (0.16**), flesh thickness (0.105**), flesh proportion (0.018**) and node at which 1st female flower opens (−0.26**).The cross combination MM-28 x I VMM-3 recorded highest sca value for node at which 1st pistilate flower opens, number of fruits per vine and fruit weight whereas cross combination MM-28 x NDM- 21 exhibited best sca effects for total yield per vine. The results revealed the importance of heterosis breeding for effective utilization of non-additive genetic variance.
Muskmelon, diallel, combing ability, gene action, yield
