Division of Ornamental Crops, Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore, 560 080
*Present address: Division of Floriculture and Landscaping, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012.
Sixty-six F1 hybrids of China aster (Callistephus chinensis Nees) in a diallel set involving twelve parents (excluding reciprocals) were evaluated to study the magnitude of heterobeltiosis at the Division of Ornamental Crops, Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore 560 080. The characters studied were plant height, main branches and laterals per plant, plant spread, days to flower, flowers per plant, stalk length, flower size, flower weight, ray florets per flower head, flowering duration and cut flower life. Appreciable heterobeltiosis was recorded for all the characters except days to flower. The means of hybrids were higher than those of the parents for all the characters other than days to flower. The minimum and maximum heterobeltiosis observed were 0.37 and 126.96 per cent in flower size and flowers per plant, respectively. In all the characters, the best performing hybrid was better than the top parent. In order of merit, P-5 × P-9, P-2 × P-9 and P-2 × P-7 combinations were found to be the best and are recommended for commercial growing.
