Agricultural Science Digest
Year : 2006, Volume : 26, Issue : 4
First page : ( 245) Last page : ( 248)
Print ISSN : 0253-150X.

Heterosis in sorghum {Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench}

Sharma Hemlata, Sharma Vithal

Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur-313 002, India.

Abstract

The six different parents of sorghum were crossed in 6 x 6 diallel fashion (excluding reciprocals) during kharif 2002. The six parents and their 15 crosses alongwith checks were grown in randomized block design with three replications during kharif 2003. Observations were recorded on 13 different characters. The analysis of variance revealed the significant differences existing among the genotypes, viz., parents, crosses and parents v/s crosses for all the characters except dry stem weight incase of parents while dry stem weight and days to physiological maturity incase of parents v/s crosses. The crosses SPV 1518 x IS 18580, IS 18580 x Raj. 13 and SPV 1514 x Raj 36 showed high heterosis over mid parent and better parent for grain yield per plant, panicle weight and panicle length. In addition to this, crosses SPV 1518 x IS 18580 and SPV 1514 x Raj. 36 also showed good heterosis for stover yield and contributing traits viz., leaf length, leaf width and number of leaves per plant. Thus, these crosses in future can be exploited easily for dual purpose attributes by conventional breeding procedure (Pedigree method).

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