Heterosis in pearl millet for yield and yield attributing characters

Abstract

The experimental material comprised of thirty two crosses along with twelve parents (four lines and eight testers) and standard checks AHB 1200 Fe and AHB 1269. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with two replications. The observations were recorded on ten characters viz., days to 50 percent flowering, days to maturity, plant height, number of effective tillers, earhead length, earhead head girth, Fe Content, Zn Content, 1000 grain weight, grain yield and fodder yield. The analysis of variance revealed that there were significant differences among the parents and crosses for all the characters studied. Considering the heterosis 94555A x 15815R, 92444A x 15706R, 92444A x 16656R and 98222A x 16531R appeared to be the more promising hybrids for breeding.