Estimation of Heterosis in the Advanced Lines of Bottle Gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (Mol.) Standl.] for Growth, Earliness and Yield Parameters

Abstract

Bottle gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (Mol.) Standl.] is one of the important cucurbitaceous vegetable having wide range of uses and it is cultivated largely in the tropics and subtropics for its edible fruits. It is commonly called as calabash gourd, trumpet gourd, white flowered gourd and zucca melon. Bottle gourd is a commonly grown vegetable in India having chromosome number of 2n = 22. Heterosis signifies increased or decreased vigour of the F 1 hybrids over the parents. Some bottle gourd hybrids Pusa Meghdoot and Pusa Manjari were released, long back in 1971, by Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. The commercial exploitation of hybrid vigour depends on the ease with which the technique employed for hybrid seed production and reasonably the low cost of F 1 seed production.