EXTENT OF HETEROTIC EFFECTS FOR SEED YIELD AND COMPONENT CHARACTERS IN CASTOR (RICINUS COMMUNIS L.) UNDER SEMI RABI CONDITION

Experimental material comprised of 4 pistillate lines, 12 inbred lines with their 48 hybrids and one check hybrid GCH-7 was evaluated under semi rabi condition of middle Gujarat. The heterobeltiosis was negative for days to 50% flowering and days to 50% maturity of primary spike, plant height up to primary spike and number of nodes up to primary spike, test weight of 100 seeds and oil content (%). Whereas, the estimates of heterobeltiosis were positive for seed yield per plant, number of capsules per plant. For the characters length of primary spike, number of secondary spikes, number of tertiary spikes, number of effective branches per plant and number of capsules per primary spike depicted heterotic effect on both the directions. The crosses VP 1 ´ DCS 47, Geeta ´ SH 41, SKP 84 X DCS 47, Geeta ´ SKI 270 and SKP 24 ´ DCS 47 were found as promising hybrids for seed yield. Seed yield is a cumulative effect of positive and negative effects of component characters. None of the promising hybrids was consistence for all the component characters.