Exploitation of Hybrid Vigour for Yield in Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.] using Line x Tester analysis

The present investigation was conducted to find out the exploitation of hybrid vigour for yield and its components in bottle gourd. The yield and yield contributing parameters i.e. days to germination, days to fruit setting, fruit length (cm), fruit diameter (cm), number of branches per plant, vine length (m), number of seeds per fruit, number of fruits per plants, days to maturity, fruit yield per plant were worked out through line x tester analysis involving eight lines viz. C-29, C-37, C-74, C-78, C-4, C-55, C-34, C-26 and three tester viz. Azad Harit, PSPL and KLG. All the hybrids with parents were grown in a Randomized Block Design (RBD) with three replication at Horticulture Research Center of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture & Technology Meerut during 2008 and 2009. On the basis of facts, three crosses namely C-4 X PSPL, C-34 X PSPL and C-29 X PSPL, revealed significant desirable heterosis for yield and many other traits, which were showed more than 40% heterosis over better parent.