Heterosis and combining ability analysis in sweet corn (Zea mays L. var saccharata) hybrids for various traits

Abstract

The present study was conducted to estimate heterosis and combining ability effects in sweet corn (Zea mays L. var saccharata) hybrids and to screen out hybrids having high green cob and fodder yield and high TSS content. About 66 genotypes comprising 45 sweet corn hybrids, 18 parental lines, and 3 standard checks (Priya, Madhuri, and Sugar-75) were evaluated in three different environments (E1 at Instructional Farm, RCA, Udaipur during Kharif 2019, E2 at ARS, Banswara during Kharif 2019 and E3 at Instructional Farm, RCA, Udaipur during Rabi 2019–20) in randomized block design with three replications for twenty diverse traits. Maximum and positively significant heterosis over the best check were shown by the sweet corn hybrid L7 × T1 (73.7%) for green cob weight/plant. The highest and positively perceptible economic heterosis for green fodder yield (kg/ ha) and total soluble sugar (TSS) content of green grain was observed for the sweet corn hybrids L4 × T2 (86.2%) and L11 × T1 (17.9%) respectively. On the basis of specific combining ability effects, among the selected best five hybrids, sweet corn hybrids L5 × T2 and L6 × T3 were best for green cob yield, green fodder yield, and green cob weight/plant while the hybrid L10 × T1 was best for green cob yield, green cob weight/plant and TSS content of green grain. Combining ability analysis for green cob yield and green cob weight/plant revealed that lines L2, L3, L7, L8, L11, L12, and L13 were good general combiners over the three environments. Sweet corn hybrid L5 × T2 was identified to exhibit the highest and positively significant specific combining ability effect for green cob yield (4090.1) over the three environments.