Combining ability studies for yield and yield attributing characters of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) in summer

Abstract

A study was conducted in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)to estimate the combining ability for yield and its yield related components.The experimental material for the present study comprised of F1 population of twenty four crosses, developed by crossing four female parents viz., Sheetal, Shubhangi, Himangi, and Puna khira of cucumber with six male parents viz., AAUC-2, DC-2, AAUC-1, VRC-19, DARL-103 and Fansu local. The experiment was laid out with 24 F1s, 4 females 6 males and one check Konkan kakadi in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with two replications during the summer 2019. Observations were recorded on thirteen different quantitative characters. For the character marketable yield vine-1 Sheetal and Puna khira female parents and male parent AAUC-2 exhibited significant positive gca effects while the four hybrids viz., Shubhangi x AAUC-1, Sheetal x VRC-19, Himangi x DARL-103 and Puna khira x AAUC-2 were noted significant positive sca effects. The non-additive gene action recorded by the traits viz., days to first female flower appearance, days to first picking, fruit length, marketable yield vine-1, harvest duration, number of primary branches -1 and total soluble solids (0Brix). The heritability estimates were very high recorded for fruit diameter (78.12%),days to first male flower appearance(76.58%), vine length (69.79%) and number of marketable fruits vine-1 (66.65%) while high heritability was observed in marketable yield vine-1 (54.20%), days to first female flower appearance (52.69%), harvest duration (46.68%), average fruit weight (39.10%) and number of primary branches plant-1 (33.63%).