Combining Ability Studies in Gladiolus. I.

Combining ability analysis was looked out from 8 × 8 diallel for five important characters, viz. days to sprout, plant height, number of leaves/plant, days to flower and floret size. Variances due to general combining ability exceeded the variances due to specific combining ability for all the characters except days to sprout, where the variances for SCA were twice the variances due to GCA. The variances due to GCA and SCA were significant for all the five characters. The higher values of GCA than SCA variances indicate that the inheritance of these characters was predominantly governed by additive and additive epistatic components of genetic variance. Oscar, Friendship and Apple Blossom were found to be good general combiners.