Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur
The performance of 36 hybrids of Triticum durum was studied in relation to that of standard recommended macaroni cultivar ‘Raj 911.’ Eight crosses exhibited highly significant higher yield over ‘Raj 911’ ranging upto 29 ⋅ 29% heterotic response, in ‘Meghdoot × Grando’ involving Indian × Mexican derivatives. Number of effective tillers per plant, spike length and grain weight per spike were found to be major contributors for heterotic yield. The ranking of the best crosses on the basis of heterotic response and s.c.a. effects were different. The selection of the crosses based on heterotic response as against s.c.a. effects, has been realized. The best crosses, in general, involved additive × dominance or dominance × dominance types of epistatic gene interactions.
