Heterosis Studies for Morphological and Within Boll Yield Related Traits in Gossypium Hirsutum

Abstract

Cotton is the most important fibre crop. Cotton production in Pakistan is declining every year so there is need to develop new high yielding varieties of cotton to boost country's economy. This research study was directed to assess heterotic potential of nine F1 hybrids for different morphological and within boll yield components. For this purpose, the nine F1 hybrids along with their parent were sown in two replications in the field area of Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture Faisalabad during the normal growing season. The analysis of variance showed highly significant difference among genotypes for all the traits except seed index and fiber length which showed significant difference. The cross VH-329×CRS-2 showed maximum significant heterosis (80.05%) and heterobeltiosis (65.18%) for seed cotton yield with positive heterosis in bolls per plant (45.68%), seed volume (22.58%), fiber length (9.20%) and negative heterosis in node number of first fruiting branch (-23.64%), number of monopodial branches (-0.73%) and fiber fineness (-15.74%) followed by the cross VH-329×CIM-595 which showed 41.06% heterosis and 15.72% heterobeltiosis with positive heterosis in sympodial branches (23.76%), bolls per plant (56.83%), seeds per boll (7.76%), lint index (12.56%), lint percentage (13.39%) and negative heterosis in node number for first fruiting branch (-23.64%), monopodial branches (-20.0%) and fiber fineness (-19.07%). The cross combinations i.e., VH-329×CRS-2 and VH-329×CIM-595 may be used for commercial exploitation of heterosis in cotton.