Department of Plant Breeding, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India
*Part of the Ph.D. Thesis submitted to the Punjab Agricultural University by the Senior author under the guidance of Dr. K. S. Gill.
A 10 X 10 diallel set in the F1 and F2 generations was examined for heading date, plant height, tiller number per plant, number of spikelets per spike, number of grains per ear and grain yield per plant. The parents which were good combiners for grain yield proved to be so for some of the components also. For instance, ’C 591’ was a good combiner for tiller number. ‘Erection RGA’ for number of spikelets and grains per ear. ‘UP 249’ and ‘Kalyansona’ for number of grains per ear. The importance of the study of specific combining ability was highlighted by the absence of any general trend between the specific performance of the crosses and the general combining ability of the parents involved. The effect of spacing was significant on most of the genetic parameters. The role of this interaction must be kept in view by the breeders while selection was done.
