Exploitation of heterosis for quantitative and qualitative characters in castor (Ricinus communis L.) 

Abstract

A study was conducted in Castor (Ricinus communis L.) at Castor-Mustard Research Station Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar (Gujarat) to assess the extent of heterosis for ten characters including seed yield per plant. Six lines and Seven testers were crossed in line × tester mating design to develop 42 F₁ hybrids. The analysis of variance was found significant for all the character suggesting the presence of considerable amount of variability among the parents and hybrids for seed yield per plant, important yield components and oil content. A perusal of mean values revealed that the parent SKP 84 had the highest seed yield per plant, whereas among the all hybrids, SKP 84 × SKI 357, SKP 106 × SKI 342 and SKP 42 × SKI 357 registered the highest seed yield per plant. In the present study, extent of heterosis varied from cross to cross for all the traits. The cross JP 96 × SKI 350 recorded the highest heterosis for seed yield per plant (46.18%) over check variety GCH 7 Followed by JP 96 × SKI 342 (35.44%) and SKP 84 × SKI 350 (26.60 %), for 100 seed weight cross SKP 42 × SKI 349 (12.50%) recorded highest heterosis and cross SKP106 × SKI 357 (8.61 %) recorded highest oil content.