HETEROSIS AND COMBINING ABILITY VIA LINE × TESTER ANALYSIS FOR QUALITY AND SOME AGRONOMIC CHARACTERS IN SAFFLOWER

This research was conducted in 2018 and 2019 at Tekirdag Namık Kemal University, Faculty of Agriculture, Field Crops Department, Research and Experimental area. It was aimed to determine general combining abilities (GCA) of parental lines, specific combining abilities (SCA) of hybrids, having F1 hybrids from 5 female lines and 9 male testers. For this purpose, lines and testers were hybridized in all combinations using line x tester method in 2018. The field experiments for hybrids (F1) were designed in a randomized complete block with three replications in 2019. The male parents Linas as high general combiners for developing increased seed and oil yields in safflower hybrids. The highest heterosis for oil content was calculated EC18 hybrid (14.281%). The highest heterosis was calculated in EC2 (34.079%) and EC4 (34.548%) for seed and oil yield, respectively. In the study, similar heterotic effect was observed between seed and oil yield as there is interaction between them. Hybrid EC2, EC4 and EC18 were determined as best combinations for high seed yield, oil content and oil yield according to the SCA and heterosis values. The promising hybrids will be grown in the next generations together with the other hybrids in order to ensure sufficient variation, and the selection will be started in the later generations such as F3 and F4.