HETEROSIS AND COMBINING ABILITY IN INDIAN MUSTARD (BRASSICA JUNCEA L. CZERN. and COSS.)

Abstract

Indian mustard (B. juncea) is an important edible oil yielding crop in the Indian subcontinent. So far, the agronomic improvement was sought by developing pure lines through pedigree method of breeding. Recently, the availability of stable cytoplasmic male sterile (eMS) lines[l] and their restorer counterparts[2] has stimulated the interest of plant breeders to explore the possibility of producing productive commercial hybrids. This paper reports the results on heterosis and combining ability of 96 intervarietal crosses obtained by line x tester mating of newly bred lines and germplasm lines of B. juncea for seed yield and some important yield components. Six lines and 16 testers of B. juncea were crossed in line x tester mating design. Ninety six resultant crosses (F1) were field evaluated alongwith their parents and best national cultivar (Varuna) in randomized block design with 3 replications, for seed yield, branches, pods on branches and seeds per pod. The crop was sown in rows, 40 cm apart and plant to plant distance within row was kept 8-10 cm by thinning plot size was 3 x 0.4 M. Two irrigations and fertilizer @ 80 kg 'N', 60 kg 'P', 40 kg 'K' and 25 kg '5' per hectare were applied.