Heterosis and combining ability for yield and its related traits in ash gourd

The heterosis and combining ability studies with 10 parent diallel crosses (without reciprocals) in ash gourd were conducted for yield and its related traits. The mid-parent heterosis was observed as high as 166% for the yield per vine. In the present study, DAG-12 × DAG-11 was the best heterotic combination (in terms of better parent, mid parent and top parent heterosis) for number of female flowers; DAG-5 × DAG-11 for number of fruits per vine and DAG-1 × DAG-5 for individual fruit weight and yield per vine. The parent, DAG 4 was found to be the best combiner for yield per vine, respectively. The specific crosses, P₃ × P₈ (DAG-1 × DAG-5), P₂ × P₁₀ (DAG-4 × DAG-11), P₅ × P₁₀ (DAG-6 × DAG-11), P₄ × P₅ (DAG-9 × DAG-6), and P₉ × P₁₀ (DAG-12 × DAG-11) can be utilized in heterosis breeding programme for the improvement of yield per vine in ash gourd.