Studies on Heterosis and Combiing Ability for Yield and Quality Attributing Traits in Chilli (Capsicum Annum L.)

Seven lines and four testers were crossed in line x tester mating design to evolve twenty-eight hybrids. These hybrids were studied along with their eleven parents for estimation of relative heterosis, heterobeltiosis and standard heterosis for Fruififteen characters. Observations were recorded on fifteen economically important traits viz., days to 50 percent flowering, plant height at maturity, plant spread, fruit length, fruit width, fruit pedicel length, placenta length, number of fruits per plant, fruit weight, number of seeds per fruit, 1000 seed weight, fruit yield per plant, ascorbic acid content, capsaicin content and capsanthin content. The hybrids L4 x T3 (LCA 625 × G-4) is the best hybrids followed by L7 x T4 (Pant C-1 × LCA 678) and L7 x T2 (Pant C-1 × K1) recorded significant standard heterosis for fruit yield per plant. Selection of hybrids for heterosis breeding based on per se performance, sca effects and standard heterosis will be more effective. It may be concluded that based on all the three criteria, the following three hybrids L4 x T3 (LCA 625 × G-4) and L7 x T4 (Pant C-1 × LCA 678) and L7 x T2 (Pant C-1 × K1) were identified as the superior hybrids, among the twenty-eight hybrids evaluated