Estimation of heterosis for seed yield, its components and Alternaria blight resistance in linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.)

In the present study 13 genotypes and their 23 F1s were evaluated. The observations were recorded for eleven traits including incidence of Alternaria blight and the data was subjected to the statistical analysis to see the magnitude and direction of heterosis over the mid-parent, better parent and standanrd variety Jawahar-1. The desirable amount of significant heterosis over mid parent, better parent and standard variety was observed maximum in 10, 9 and 9 crosses for number of capsules per plant, 9, 2 and 20 crosses for plant height, 9, 3 and 9 crosses for corolla size, 3, 1 and 5 crosses for incidence of Alternaria blight, 6, 2 and 1 crosses for seed yield per plant. While other traits like 1000-seed weight, days to maturity, capsule size, number of primary branches per plant, seed size and number of seeds per capsule exhibited less number of heterotic crosses. Considering overall performance, it is suggested that derivative of cross Jawahar-1 x EC-322680 may be handled properly in subsequent generations for the development of high yielding linseed varieties whereas, for isolating Alternaria blight resistant genotypes cross EC-541194 x EC-607789 seems to be promising one. Pedigree method and bulk method are equally important for the improvement of those characters which are governed by additive type of gene action. After all, the handling of the segregating generations may be carried out with the help of pedigree and/or mass selection.