HETEROSIS AND COMBINING ABILITY FOR YIELD AND YIELD CONTRIBUTING CHARACTERS IN BOTTLE GOURD

The knowledge of heterosis and combining ability is very important to select the parental materials for breeding program. A field experiment was implemented at the central farm of Olericulture Division, Horticulture Research Center (HRC), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Gazipur-1701, to find out heterosis and combining ability in bottle gourd. Twenty-one cross combinations were used for this experiment in Randomized Completely Block Design which was replicated thrice. Both positive and negative significant heterosis was observed for all the studied characters. The best cross combinations to exploit heterosis commercially for fruit number and yield were 59-1-1-1-1-8 x BG0048 and 59-1-1-1-1-8 x BARI Lau-1. The cross 59-1-1-1(A)-7x BARI Lau-1 also prospective to improve the number of fruits and yield per plant. The cross namely 59-1-1-1(A)-7 x BG0048 followed by 62-12-1-2-2-2 x BG0048, 8-3-1-1-1-1 x BG0059 may be selected for developing short-duration hybrid. The parent 62-12-1-2-2-2 was found as a good general combiner for yield and fruits per plant and earliness, while BG59-1-1-1(A)-17 for fruits and yield per plant. The tester BG0059, which showed significant and higher positive GCA effect for fruits and yield per plant and significant negative GCA for days to 1st male and female flowering, can be used as the male parent. The cross combination 59-1-1-1-1-8 x BG0059, 59-1-1-1-1-8 x BARI lau-1 and 72-1-1-1-4 x BG0059 showed significant and higher positive SCA effect for fruits and yield per plant, suggesting the potentiality to develop a hybrid for commercial production.