Heterosis Studies for Seed Yield and its Component Traits in Indian Mustard [Brassica juncea (L.) Czern and Coss] Over Environments

Abstract

Seventy five crosses of Indian mustard [Brassica juncea (L.) Czern & Coss] generated by crossing of fifty lines with five testers in a line x tester mating design, which were used to estimate the standard heterosis potentiality for seed yield, its component traits and oil content. These parents, crosses and checks were sown in randomized complete block design under four environments each replicated thrice at two different locations. Observations were recorded on thirteen different characters. Standard heterosis was estimated on the basis of best check PUSA BOLD for these characters based on the pooled data over environments. The maximum values of standard heterosis recorded were 47.87% for seed yield per plant. The highest value of standard heterosis in case of yield components was 41.43% for harvest index; 34.01% for number of primary branches per plant; 31.59% for number of siliqua per plant; 27.03% for biological yield; 25.92% for 1000-seed weight; 18.12% for number of seeds per siliqua; 17.21% for siliqua length; 13.79% for number of secondary branches per plant; 6.95% for plant height; -17.00% for days to 50% flowering and -8.85% for days to maturity. Standard heterosis results revealed that few hybrids viz., RH-30 x RGN-298, RL-1359 x RGN-298 and PBR-378 x Bio-902 were shown significant standard heterosis results for 10 or more characters towards desirable direction. The best three hybrids for seed yield per plant were Kranti x RGN-298 (47.87%), RL-1359 x RGN-298 (47.53%) and Kranti x RH-749 (43.98%).