Heterosis in rabi sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench)

Abstract

An experiment involving nine elite lines of rabi sorghum selected from different rabi growing regions of the country along with a released variety as check (CSV-14R) and 18 hybrids obtained by crossing the 9 elite lines at random was laid out in a randomised block design with two replications during rabi 1998-99 at Centre on Rabi Sorghum (NRCS), Solapur. A single plot had two rows of 4 meter length. The inter and intra row spacing was 45 x 15cm. All the recommended package of practices for cultivation of rabi sorghum were followed. Observations on characters viz, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, 1000 grain weight and grain yield per plant were recorded on 10 randomly selected plants in each plot. The F1 hybrid heterosis was estimated over better parent (heterobeltosis) (1) and over the check (useful heterosis) and the test of significance was carried out. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among parents and F1 hybrids for all the characters. The estimates of heterosis are presented in Table 1.