Department of Agricultural Sciences, Meerut University, Meerut, India
1Present Address: Department of Plant Breeding, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana.
The present study was made on 8 × 8 diallel cross (excluding reciprocals) in F1 grown over 3 different locations in northern India. The combining ability studies made over environments revealed that both g.c.a. and s.c.a. are influenced by locations. This suggested that to have unbiased estimates of g.c.a. and s.c.a. the studies be made over a wide range of environments. As additive gene effects were pre-ponderent, the pedigree method was suggested for getting pure lines with high pod and cluster number. Simultaneously, the diallel selective mating system among the good general combiners be followed for release of greater genetic variability.
