Heterosis and inbreeding depression in okra

Heterosis in okra was studied in a set of 8×8 diallel crosses excluding reciprocals. The parents, F₁s and F₂s were grown in a randomized block design with 3 replications. Analysis of variance indicated significant differences for all the characters, indicating the presence of genetic variability among the material studied. Heterosis over better parent, standard check and inbreeding depression were calculated for fruit yield/plant, fruits/plant and days to 50% flowering. Heterosis was shown in many crosses for different characters. Four crosses (P 7 × ABY, P 7 × ANK, P 7 × PKT and PKT × ABY) showed maximum heterosis for fruit yield over the standard check, showing the importance of non-additive genes. Therefore, these can be considered as the promising crosses for their exploitation in hybrid production. Two crosses PSN × ABY and HBN × ABY had significant heterosis and inbreeding vigour in F₁ and F₂ generations for fruit yield/plant and fruits/plant. Such crosses have the potential to throw desirable transgressive segregants in the latter generations which may lead to evolve a high-yielding variety.