Division of Crop Improvement, Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla-171 001, (H.P.).
*Part of Ph.D Thesis of the author, approved by the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141 004, (Pb.)
The objective of the present study was to know how general combining ability of Tuberosum female will be affected by the choice of Tuberosum or Andigena male. Eighteen Tuberosum females were crossed with 2 Tuberosum and 2 Andigena males to generate 72 families in a line × tester pattern. These were evaluated for three successive generations for tuber yield, tuber number, average tuber weight, general impression and plant vigour. Mean squares due to females, males and females × males were significant for various characters in both Tuberosum × Tuberosum and Tuberosum × Andigena families. Correlation coefficients between general combining ability effects of females in Tuberosum × Tuberosum and Tuberosum × Andigena families were either non-significant or of moderate magnitude indicating the need of estimating the general combining ability of females separately for the two types of crosses. General combining ability effects also varied from generation to generation. F 1277 was a consistently poor com biner for various characters in all the generations in both Tuberosum × Tuberosum and Tuberosum × Andigena families. Whereas, none was a consistently good combiner in the two types of families over all the generations.
