Studies on heterosis and combining ability for yield and yield attributes in Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.)

Abstract

Eight genetically divers parents of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) were crossed in diallel mating design without reciprocal to know heterosis for plant height. In order of merit the two best performing F1 hybrids (ATL-13 x ATL-9744, IIVR-Sel-2 x ATL-9744) exhibited heterosis percentage of 0.22 in E1 and 118.79 in E2 respectively for marketable fruit weight and fruit yield over the standard check, IIVR-Sel-2 x H-36, IIVR Sel-2 x Manithoiba, IIHR-3 x Manithoiba and IIHR-3 x Manithoiba in E2 yielding 74.63 over the standard parent, these promising crosses also recorded positive sca. The high performing crosses for important characters showed that in general these crosses involved high x high, high x medium, medium x low and high x low general combiners. The low x low crosses giving high sca values may be due to the genetic diversity of the parents and non-allelic interaction.