Division of Vegetable Crops and Floriculture, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-12
**Present address: Department of Horticulture, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana.
*A part of a thesis submitted by the senior author to the Post-Graduate School, Indian Agricultural Research Institute New Delhi in partial fulfilment of requirement of Ph.D. degree in Horticulture.
In the seed crop of cauliflower, the drying of curd and flowering shoots is often noticed which results in complete failure of plants to set seeds. The causal organism(s) of the disease is (are) being investigated. However, the susceptible or resistant reactions were found to be genetically controlled. The resistance to drying at seed formation stage was dominant over susceptibility and governed by polygenes. In general, the additive gene effects were found to be greater than dominance in most of the cases. However, dominance variance was also highly significant in one cross involving both susceptible parents. The breeding methods to be adopted for incorporating resistance are also discussed.
