Genetic combining ability for yield and other economic traits in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

An 8 × 8 half diallel set of crosses were made to identify promising genotypes and crosses and to suggest suitable breeding approaches for increasing simultaneous yield and consumers’ preference traits in brinjal. The estimates of GCA effectsindicated that the parents, namely Black beauty, Pusa Purple Long, Pusa Purple Round and Surati Ravaiya excelled for eleven, nine, nine and eight economic traits, respectively. Desirable SCA effects for yield of marketable fruits per plant were observed in eleven crosses (Pusa Purple Long × Black Beauty, Manjarigota × Surati Ravaiya, BB-44 × Surati Ravaiya, Green Long ×Black Beauty, Black Beauty×Surati Ravaiya, Pusa Purple Long × Green Long, Gulabi Long × Pusa Purple Round, Gulabi Long×Black Beauty, Pusa Purple Long × Gulabi Long, Pusa Purple Long × Pusa Purple Round, Gulabi Long × Surati Ravaiya). However, six cross combinations (Black Beauty × Surati Ravaiya, Pusa Purple Long × Black Beauty, Gulabi Long × Surati Ravaiya, Pusa Purple Long × Green Long, BB-44 × Black Beauty and Pusa Purple Long × Gulabi Long) were found to be best for fruit yield. These crosses have at least one of the parents as good general combiner and could be exploited through heterosis breeding and hybridization followed by selection breeding approaches.