Department of Vegetable Crops, Landscaping and Floriculture, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
A line x tester analysis involving ten selected lines from a wide spectrum of genetic stock of diverse origin and two varieties (Tester) of American origin was done for various economic characters. Marked heterosis was observed in many crosses for all the characters and pronounced effects were found for fruit number per plant, fruit weight, yield and fruit index. The over all study of hybrid vigour revealed that Special No. 1, Durgapur Mitha and Asahi Yamato were top-most male parents showing considerable heterosis for yield over better parent in crosses with both T1 and T2. The practical possibilities of exploiting hybrid vigour in watermelon have been discussed.
