Heterosis in Relation to Combining Ability for Flowering Behaviors and Yield Parameters in Pumpkin

Combining ability and heterosis studies carried out through diallel method using seven parents with eight characters. The analysis revealed that none of the parents was found good general combiner for all the characters consistently, however parent BP-18, VRPG-7, Pumpkin-172 and IVPK-226 were best general combiners foryield and flowering traits. The gca variances were higher than the sca variance for days to first female flowering, node at which first female flower appears, number of fruits per plant and average fruit weight. While other characters viz.; number of female flowers per plant, equatorial and polar circumferences of fruit and yield per plant had gca variances lower than the sca variances indicating the predominance of non-additive gene effects. The maximum heterosis for number of female flower per plant was exhibited by Pumpkin-172 x BS-165. The selection should be made for improvement of traits like days to first female flowering, node at which first female flower appears, number of fruits per plant and average fruit weigh. While number of female flowers per plant, equatorial and polar circumferences of fruit and yield per plant may be improved through hybridization.