D.S. Kishor , K. Arya , Shrishail Duggi , Santoshkumar Magadum , N.R. Raghavendra , Challa Venkateshwaralu , Peddi Sudharshan Reddy

1. Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, College of Agriculture, Kerala Agricultural University, Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram-695522, Kerala, India
2. Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar-263145, Uttarakhand, India
3. Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141004, Punjab, India
4. IRRI-South Asia Rice Breeding Hub, ICRISAT, Patancheru–502324, Andhra Pradesh, India
Author    Correspondence author
Molecular Plant Breeding, 2013, Vol. 4, No. 35   doi: 10.5376/mpb.2013.04.0035
Received: 15 Oct., 2013    Accepted: 25 Oct., 2013    Published: 25 Oct., 2013

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

In the present investigation, a study was conducted at the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, College of Agriculture, Vellayani during 2011-2012 to identify potential parents and superior crosses for yield and yield related traits in okra. Fifteen hybrids (F₁s) were developed by crossing five lines and three testers in Line×Tester mating design. Fifteen hybrids along with eight parents were used to estimate the heterosis for ten yield and yield attributing characters. The result indicated that significant standard heterosis for yield per plant was observed in Holavanalli Local×Mallapalli Local, Thirumala Local×Kattakada Local, Kunnapuzha Local×Punjab Phalgani, Thirumala Local×Punjab Phalgani and Thirumala Local×Mallapalli Local. The magnitude of heterobeltiosis for yield per plant was significantly superior in Holavanalli Local×Mallapalli Local and Thirumala Local×Kattakada Local. These two crosses also exhibited significant heterosis for days to first flowering, number of primary branches, number of fruits per plant, fruit weight, fruit length and fruit girth. Among the fifteen hybrids, Holavanalli Local×Mallapalli Local and Thirumala Local×Kattakada Local cross combinations found promising for fruit yield and other traits. Hence, these hybrids need to be tested on larger scale for their commercial values.

Fruit yield; Heterosis; Lines; Okra; Testers