Combining ability study in the development of potato hybrids suitable for processing*

Forty crosses involving 14 parents crossed in line × tester design were studied for tuber yield, number of tubers per plant, average tuber weight and per cent tuber drymatter in F₁ generation. The additive gene action was found to be more important for tuber yield and average tuber weight, whereas, the non-additive gene action was more important for tuber number and per cent tuber drymatter. The good combiners for various characters were identified. The supertor crosses for selecting recombinants with high yield, average tuber weight and per cent tuber drymatter involved parents with good or average combining-ability only. The crosses involving poor combiners always showed low mean values of these characters in the crosses.