Heterosis and Combining Analysis in Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius Linn.)

Top cross analysis consisted of crosses between GMS line AKSMS 1 as a tester (female) and twenty one male lines. Significant heterosis was observed for all the ten quantitative traits except number of capitula per plant and oil content. The magnitude of heterosis and useful heterosis was low and differed for different characters. The highest magnitude of useful heterosis was observed in respect of number of seeds per capitulum (53.78 %), seed yield per plant (27.23 %), 100 seed weight (2.58 %) and days to maturity (-2.87 %). Only one cross, AKSMS 1 X JLSF 228, recorded significant useful heterosis over check variety, Bhima for seed yield per plant (27.23 %). AKSMS 1 X JLSF 228 showed significant highest useful heterosis for number of seeds per capitulum (53.78 %). The estimates of general combining ability indicated that JLSF 288 recorded highest significant general combining ability effect for seed yield per plant (26.27**), plant height (10.41 **) and number of seeds per capitulum (9.87**). A 1 showed significant general combining ability effect for seed yield per plant (15.91**). Bhima was good general combiner for seed yield per plant (13.39**), plant height (6.16**), number of primary branches per plant (1.74**) and 100 seed weight (0.96**).