Studies on Combining Ability in Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) for Yield and Its Component

Present investigation was carried out during autumn winter season 2013-14 and 2014-15 at the Vegetable Research Centre of GBPUA&T, Pantnagar with 43 genotypes including 10 lines, 3 testers and 30 F1’s of brinjal. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications. The observations were recorded for 11 characters. Variances due to testers were greater than variances due to lines for most of the characters. The estimates of General Combining Ability (GCA) effect indicated that PB71, BB85, PB66, Swarn Syamli and DBL02 were best general combiner for earliness (days to 50% flowering), whereas the best specific cross was BRLVAR6 × DBL02. For weight of marketable fruits per plant PB66, SMB115, LC7, BRLVAR6 were best general combiners and SMB115 × DBL02, PB66 × Pant Samrat and IBWL 2001-1 × Pant Rituraj were best specific combiners. Pant Rituraj was found best general combining effect for plant height, fruit diameter, weight of marketable fruits per plant, number of unmarketable fruits per plant, total yield per plant and total yield per hectare. Pant Samrat showed good General Combining Ability (GCA) effects for number of primary branches per plant, number of marketable fruits per plant, weight of unmarketable fruits per plant and total number of fruits per plant. DBL02 was recorded best general combiner for earliness and fruit length. SMB115 and PB 66 were best general combiners for most of the yield characters. SMB115 × DBL02, PB66 × Pant Samrat and IBWL2001-1 × Pant Rituraj were showed highest Specific Combining Ability (SCA) effect for most of the characters. Therefore, these cross combinations could be commercially exploited for higher yield.