A laboratory experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of different seed coating materials and storage containers on germination, seedling vigour and suitability of packaging material for soybean seed. Seed of soybean varietyPS1024 was used for coating purpose with 6 coating treatments viz., T 0 (control), T 1 (Polymer coating i.e. Polykote @ 3 ml kg -1 of seed diluted with 5 ml of water), T 2 (Flowable Thiram i.e. Royal flow 40 SC @ 2.4 ml kg -1 of seed), T 3 (T 1 + T 2 ), T 4 (Vitavax 200 i.e.thiram 37.5 % and carboxyl 37.5% @ 2 g kg -1 of seed and T 5 (T 1 + T 4 ). The coated seeds were stored in two kinds of containers i.e. jute canvas bag, high density poly ethylene (HDPE) non-laminated bag and bimonthly observation on germination and seedling vigour were recorded. After 8 th month of storage, germination and vigour index in polythene bag stored seeds were significantly higher than the seed stored in cloth bag. Among seed coating treatments, maximum %germination was recorded in polymer coating @ 3 ml kg -1 followed by vitavax 200 @ 2 g kg -1of seed treatment (T 5 ) which was significantly higher than rest of the coated treatment including untreated control seeds (T 0 ). Similarly, maximum seed vigour index was observed in T 5 and minimum vigor index was recorded with T 0 (untreated control).

The investigation was carried out to get information regarding magnitude of combining ability and nature of gene action for fruit yield and several other yield attributing traits following line × tester mating design involving 12 lines and 3 testers and their 36 hybrids tested in two environments viz., summer and rainy season 2010 at Research Farm of Department of Vegetable Science, N. D. University of Agriculture & Technology, Kumarganj, Faizabad, UP, India. From the estimate of gca effects, among the parental lines NDBT-13, NDBT-15 and NDBT-19 were identified as superior donor for both seasons and NDBT-10 for summer season and among the testers Kalyanpur Sona for summer season and Pusa Do Mausami for rainy season for fruit yield per plant and its yield contributing traits like number of fruits per plant and average fruit weight. Eight crosses displayed desirable significant sca effects in both seasons for fruit yield per plant. Among these eight crosses the best cross combinations based on desirable sca effects for fruit yield per plant were NDBT-19 × Pusa Do Mousami in summer season while NDBT-8 × Pusa Do Mousami, NDBT-15 × NDBT-12 and NDBT-10 × Pusa Do Mousami in rainy season. These crosses have more number of fruits per plant, average fruit weight, fruit diameter and other component traits in both seasons.

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