Magnitude of Heterosis for Earliness Traits in Bottle Gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.] Hybrids

The present investigation was undertaken to generate information about the magnitude of heterobeltiosis, average heterosis and standard heterosis for flowering characters in bottle gourd. The experimental material consisted of fifteen female parents, three male parents and their resultant forty-five hybrids developed by using line × tester mating design along with one standard check HBGH-35. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications at the Research Farm of the Department of Vegetable Science, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar during rainy season 2023 and spring-summer season 2024. The analysis of variance for various flowering parameters studied for the current investigation in both seasons designated highly significant differences among the parents, crosses and standard check. Among the 45 hybrids, best performing F1 hybrids over mid parent, better parent and standard check in negative direction were GH-71 × HBG-36, GH-75 × HBG-36, GH-76 × HBG-36, GH-79 x Pusa Summer Prolific Long and GH-80 × Pusa Sandesh for the traits responsible for earliness in both seasons. F1 hybrids which were best performing over mid, better and standard check for days to first female flower anthesis were GH-79 x Pusa Summer Prolific Long (-8.87 & -7.15%, -14.85 & -12.65% and -7.98 & -4.74%), GH-76 × HBG-36 (-7.04 & -3.83%, -9.08 & -5.87% and -5.37 & -3.54%), GH-80 × Pusa Sandesh ( -5.47 & -4.61%, -6.29 & -5.62% and -6.54 & -4.85%) and GH-71 × HBG-36 (-4.39 & -3.12%, -9.04 & -6.44% and -5.31 & -4.12%) for rainy & spring-summer season, respectively.