Heterosis in bread wheat [Triticum aestivum (L.) Em. TheiL]

Abstract

Twelve diverse lines of bread wheat [Triticum aestivum (L.) Em. TheiL] including checks viz., Raj 3777, Raj 3077, Raj 3765, HI 977 (late sown), WH 542, HD 2329, K 9708, C 306, Raj 1482, Kalyansona, GW 190 and DWR 195 were mated with four diverse testers viz., HD 2189, Ajantha, PBN 51 and Kailash (timely sown) in line x tester fashion to obtain 48 single cross hybrids to estimate the heterosis of the yield and heat tolerance traits. These single cross hybrids along with their parents were sown in three different dates viz., 21 November (Normal sown), 11 December (late sown) and 1 January (very late sown). All these 64 genotypes were grown in single row of 4 m length with spacing 22.5 x 10 cm in a randomized block design with two replications. Observations were recorded on five randomly selected plants in each replication in all the three environments for the grain yield per plant (g).