Department of Horticulture, Allahabad Agricultural Institute-Deemed University, Allahabad 211 007.
*Corresponding author.
Combining ability was estimated with six lines and four testers in bitter gourd for seventeen traits. Gy-I (L6) was found good general combiner for number of fruits per vine, number of fruit per plot, internodal length, days to first appearance of male flower and vine length. For yield per vine, yield per plot, yield/ha, fruit width and days to first appearance of female flower, MC-84 (L1) was best general combiner. S-17 (L2) for fruit length, fruit weight and JMC-21 (L3) for number of nodes, first effective node, number of primary branches per vine were best general combiners. The crosses MC-84 x JMC-22 (L1 x T2) for yield per plot, yield (q/ha) and MC-84 x VRBT-6-9 (L1 x T1) for yield per plot, yield per vine, fruit width, days to first appearance of female flower, number of primary branches per vine exhibited significant specific combining ability (sca).
Bitter gourd, gca, sca, combining ability
