Seed and Siliqua Character Association and Xenia in Brassica Campestris And B. Chinensis

A set of diallel crosses (6 × 6) in oleiferous Brassicae were made to see the effect of xenia in F_o generation, on the basis of which suitable mixture of two intercrossable varieties could be recommended. Selfing/sibbing was done to simulate the situation when a single variety is grown, where only selfing and/or sibbing is possible.

Correlation studies showed that seed size is independent of the effect of the number of seeds/siliqua, percentage siliqua setting and siliqua length, but is linked with the width of siliqua, which however, is a character not controlling yield. For any particular variety yield is directly dependent upon percentage of siliqua setting, number of seeds per siliqua and seed size, other things remaining the same. Therefore, any effective increase in seed size, taking into account percentage of siliqua setting and number of seeds per siliqua, would result in increased yield.

Combination of “Lahia (female) and Toria (male)” and “Lotni brown sarson (female) and Brassica chinensis (male)” have been found to give 21.5% and 12.8% more yield than the respective female parents (self/sib pollinated).