1Department of Vegetable Science, Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan – 173 230, Himachal Pradesh, India
2Division of Vegetable Science, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110 012, India
Combining ability studies were carried out using diallel (excluding reciprocal crosses) technique in indeterminate tomato for yield and component characters with an objective to isolate good general combiners with their related per se performance in specific crosses to identify/develop high yielding hybrids in indeterminate tomato suitable for cultivation in the hilly regions having off-season potential. The variance due to general combining ability (gca) of parents and specific combining ability (sca) of crosses was significant for all the traits. The lines Solan Vajr, EC-2791 and UHFT-55 were good general combiners for fruit yield, number of fruits per cluster and average fruit weight (g) whereas, EC-29414 was found to be good general combiner to earliness. Similarly, line Solan Vajr was good general combiner for longer harvest duration. Amongst different crosses, Solan Vajr x EC-2791 followed by UHFT-55 x EC2798 and EC-2791 x EC-29414 found to have high sca effects for most of the horticultural traits including yield per plant. Hence, Solan Vajr x EC-2791 and EC2791 x EC-29414 crosses of indeterminate tomato can be recommended for commercial cultivation as hybrids after multi-location testing in the hilly regions.
Combining ability, indeterminate hybrids, tomato, yield
