Heterotic potential and combining ability of yield and quality traits in garden pea (Pisum sativum L.)

Abstract

Thirty-nine crosses of pea made in line x tester design were evaluated and SCA/GCA variance ratios for majority of the traits were more than unity which indicated the predominance of non-additive gene effects except for number of primary branches per plant, crude and soluble protein and total sugars. Among the females, 09/PMVAR-7 and NS-3 were considered to be best combiner for earliness whereas VRP-8, 10/PMVAR-4, PB-89, 09/PMVAR-4 were good general combiners for pods per node, 100 seed weight, green pod yield per plant, primary branches per plant on the basis of having per se performance and gca effect. The cross combination 09/PMVAR-7 x PM-65 was observed to have high per se performance along with high sca effects over better parent for days to 50% flowering and days to marketable maturity. Whereas, none of the cross combinations exhibited desirable significant heterosis over both the checks Arkel and MA-6 for earliness. The cross combination Arka Sampoorna x 08/PMVAR-4 and PB-89 x PM-65 were observed to have high heterosis over both better parent and two checks (Arkel and MA-6) along with high sca effects and mean performance for green pod yield per plant. Though the development of hybrid varieties does not seem to be economically feasible in garden pea but the development of pure line from the segregating material of hybrid combination can be used to develop a variety.