STUDIES ON COMBINING ABILITY AND HETEROSIS IN FIELD PEA (PISUM SATIVUM L.)

Combining ability analysis carried out for ten characters using six diverse parents in field pea
revealed that variance due to gca and sca were highly significant for days to maturity, plant
height, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, 100 seed weight and seed yield per
plant, indicating the importance of both the additive and non-additive genetic components of
variation. The parents DDR-44 and Rachna were good general combiners for grain yield and
biological yield; HUP-2 for 100 seed weight and maturity; DMR-7 for number of pods per plant;
HUDP-6 and DMR-41 for plant height; and HUP-2 and DDR-44 for protein content. The cross
combinations viz., HUP-2 x DDR-44, Rachna x DDR-44, HUDP-6 x DMR-41 and DMR-7 x DMR-
41 were the best with significant sca effects and high per se performance for seed yield. Heterosis
over standard check (SC) was studied for ten characters in 15 hybrids. Considering the values of
standard check, high heterotic effects were observed for days to maturity, protein content and
100 seed weight; moderate for days to flowering, number of seeds per pod, plant height and
number of branches per plant. High heterotic response for seed yield per plant was mainly due to
pods per plant, number of seeds per pod and 100 seed weight