Combining ability studies in the advanced lines of bottle gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (mol.) Standl.] for growth, earliness and yield parameters

The present investigation was carried out with the objective to study the combining ability of parents and hybrids for growth, earliness and yield parameters in bottle gourd. General combining ability effects of parents and sca effects of crosses were highly significant for the characters studied. The parents Bot.G-4, Bot.G-7 and Kolkata Collection are the good general combiners for fruit yield per vine. The line Bot.G-6-2 exhibited significant and maximum gca effects for vine length and number of branches. The line Kolkata Collection showed maximum and significant gca effects for days to first female flower, days to first harvest and sex ratio. Tester Samrat exhibited significant gca effects for vine length, number of branches, nodes up to first female flower, sex ratio and fruit yield per vine. Among crosses, the cross Bot.G-6-2 X Arka Bahar exhibited significant sca effects for vine length and fruit yield per vine. While the cross Bot.G-6-1 X Samrat showed significant sca effects for days to first female flowering and days to first harvest. The cross Bot.G-6 X Samrat exhibited maximum and significant sca effects for nodes up to first female flowering and sex ratio. It is evident that gca or sca effects in parents or hybrids were in desirable for some other traits. Therefore it is important to ascertain the status of parent or hybrid with respective to combining ability effects over a number of component characters.