Combining ability analysis in Indian mustard [Brassica juncea (L.) czern and coss.]

Combining ability analysis was obtained from diallel mating design (excluding reciprocals) by using 21 F-1 hybrid and their parents. The parents used namely, Varuna, Rohni, Ashirwad, Pusa Bold, Maya, Kranti and Basanti. Observations were recorded for nine quantitative traits viz., days to flowering, days to maturity, plant height (cm), length of main raceme (cm), number of siliqua per plant, number of secondary branches per plant, oil content (%), 1000 seed weight (g) and seed yield per plant (g). The results indicates that both additive and non-additive type of gene action were responsible for all the nine characters. On the basis of gca performance, parents Varuna, Kranti, Rohini and Basanti for dwarfness; Varuna and Pusa bold for earliness Kranti for length of main raceme and number of siliqua per plant, Maya for seed yield per plant, Varuna for test weight and Basanti for oil content were most desirable in F-1 generation. Varuna, Kranti, Maya and Basanti appeared to be good general combiners for number of other characters. Out of 2l crosses only ten crosses namely Varuna x Maya, Varuna x Kranti, Varuna x Rohini, Rohini x Maya, Pusa bold x Maya, Rohini x Kranti, Rohani x Basanti, Maya x Kranti, Ashirwad x Maya and Rohini x Pusa bold had highly significant and desirable specific combining ability and thus may be utilized by the breeders.