Heterosis for seed cotton yield and quality traits in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)

Forty five intra-hirsutum hybrids from a 10 × 10 diallel crossing excluding reciprocals along with their parents and check were tested in three environments at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Lam Farm, Guntur, Agricultural Research Station, Jangamaheswarapuram and Agricultural Research Station, Darsi during kharif, 2013–14. Observations were recorded on seed cotton yield and fibre quality traits to estimate the extent of heterosis over mid, better parent and check. Heterosis for seed cotton yield plant⁻¹ over mid parent, better parent and standard check ranged from -10.25 (NDLH 1938 × MCU 5) to 33.83 (NDLH 1938 × L 604), -14.3 (NDLH 1938 × MCU 5) to 23.37 (L 770 × RAH 1004) and -10.17 (L 604 × G COT 16) to 39.47 (NDLH 1938 × L 604); respectively. The hybrids NDLH 1938 × L 604 and NDLH 1938 × RAH 1004 recorded maximum significant positive heterosis over mid, better parent and check for most of the fibre quality characters. The cross combination involving NDLH 1938 parent recorded significant positive heterosis for most of the characters. Hence, the parent NDLH 1938 can be used for exploitation of heterosis.