1Department of Plant Breeding, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Combining ability studies were made for seed cotton yield, boll number, boll weight and halo length in F1, F2, F3, and BC1, generations of an eleven-parent diallel set in upland cotton. Both additive and non additive gene effects were important for all the four characters studied. The gca effects of the genotypes were consistent over generations. The per se performance of the parents was a good index of their combining ability. Both gca effects of the parents and sea effects of the crosses for seed cotton yield were reflected through their respective combining abilities for boll number and boll weight. Most of the crosses with significant sca effects were combinations of high × low or high. × average combiners. Parents PL 82, LH 95 and RS 89 were found to be in high
Combining ability, diallel cross, cotton, Gossypium hirsutum
