Comparison of heterosis for traits governing shelf life of brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) fruits under conventional and natural farming systems

Abstract

The experiment was conducted during 2022-2023 at the Vegetable Research Centre of Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Udham Singh Nagar (Uttarakhand), India. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications consisting of 31 genotypes comprising of 10 parent (07 lines + 03 testers), 21 F1hybrids and two standard checks (Pant Rituraj and Kashi Uttam) planted in both natural as well as conventional farming systems. To understand the breeding behaviour of these F1hybrids for shelf life of brinjal in conventional and natural farming system under both ambient temperature and refrigeratorconditions. In conventional as well as in natural farming system, PB-413 × Kashi Uttam, PB-413 × PB-414 and PB-410 × PB-414 cross combinations showed significantly positive heterosis for shelf life at ambient temperature and in refrigerated conditions. While physiological loss in water (PLW%) under ambient temperature was highest in PB-416 × Kashi Uttam for conventional farming system, PB-416 × PB-414 showed the highestlosses in natural farming conditions. The brinjalfruits obtained from conventional and natural farming system, PB-416 × Pant Rituraj and PB-410 × Kashi Uttam showed highest PLW (%) respectively.