Combining ability studies in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum MilL) under mid hill conditions of Central Himalaya

Abstract

Fourteen varieties of tomato viz., Pusa Early Dwarf, Punjab Chhuhara, Punjab Kesari, Marglobe, EL-13, Sweet-72, Azad T-2, T- 1, Co-3, Pant Bahar, Arka saurabh, Shakit, NDT-5, and Azad Kranti were crossed in a half diallel fashion. The parents along with 91 F1's were evaluated in a randomised block design comprising 2.5 x 1.0m plot size with three replications during 1996-97 at DARL, Pithoragarh. Observation were recorded on days to first harvest, number of primary and secondary branches, plant height (cm), number of flowers and fruits per truss, fruits per plant and yield per plant (kg). Data were analysed for combining ability following the method 2, model 1 of Griffing [1].