Heterosis and Combining Ability Analysis in Chilli

Four chilli lines, Jwala, Pant C-l, CA 33 and CA 23, were crossed in a half diallel to estimate heterosis and combining ability. Involvement of both additive and nonadditive gene actions was detected for the control of plant height, primary branches/plant, leaf laminar length, fruit length, and days to flower. Out of six hybrids, four exhibited significant relative heterosis for plant height and one for fruit length. Taking into consideration the per se performance, heterosis and sca effect, Jwala × Plant C-1 was the best hybrid, yielding 201 g/plant, followed by Jwala × CA 23 (160g/plant). All the hybrids were earlier than the midparents of which three were even earlier than the early parents.