Combining ability in watermelon (Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Mansf.)

In the present investigation, the nature and magnitude of combining ability effects in twenty-eight crosses of watermelon involving eight parents were studied for fruit yield and its components. The variances due to specific combining ability were higher in magnitude than that of general combining ability variances for all the characters (except for total soluble solids) indicating predominance role of non-additive gene action for all the traits. Parents, RW-187-2, GP-42 and GP-10(b) were good general combiner for all the four traits. The cross combination viz., GP-42 x GP-42 (b), RW-187-2 x Sonam, GP-42 x Sonam, GP-42 (b) x Sonam, RW-187-2 x GP-42 (b), GP-10 (b) x RW-187-2, GP-10 (b) x GP-42, GP-33 x GP-1-27, GP-10 (b) x Durgapura Lal, RW-187-2 x Durgapura Lal and RW-187-2 x GP-42 were found to be good specific cross combiners for fruit yield per plant. The crosses exhibiting high specific combining ability for fruit yield also have high or average combining ability for yield components. The crosses showing high specific combining ability involved at least one high general combining parent.