Heterosis for quantitative and qualitative traits in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

Abstract

Throughout the last century, brinjal breeding has been based on various standard methods, which has ultimately resulted in the development of improved brinjal cultivars and hybrids having high quality and yield. In the present study, consisting of 6 diversified genotypes of brinjal along with their hybrids and one standard check were evaluated during kharif season under randomized block design with two replications. Data on quantitative characters were recorded and better-parent and standard heterosis were determined. Significant levels of heterosis were detected for all the traits studied. Pronounced heterosis over standard check was observed for Plant height 22.49 % in Seetipulam Local × Sevathampatti Local, number of branches per plant in Spiny Local × Sevathampatti Local (46.97 %), fruit yield per plant in Sevathampatti Local × Spiny Local (34.57%) and number of fruits per plant fruit in Spiny Local × Manaparai Local (36.68%). The crosses the highest negative and significant heterosis was exhibited by the hybrids Sevathampatti Local × Seetipulam Local and Seetipulam Local × Sevathampatti Local (-10.06 %) over standard check for earliness (days to first flowering and days to first harvesting). In this study Seetipulam Local ×Sevathampatti Local found superior for most of the characters (earliness and yield/plant) and it can be commercially exploited after assessing their stability.