Combining ability analysis in bitter gourd

Abstract

Bitter gourd or balsam pear (Momordica charantia L.) is one of the most important cucurbitaceous vegetable crops grown throughout the country. Bitter gourd is a rich source of nutrients (Xiang et al., 7) and ranks first among cucurbits for its nutritive value (Miniraj et al., 5). Traditionally, plant extract of bitter gourd have been used in the treatment of diabetes (Grover et al., 4). In spite of wide range of diversity very little work has been undertaken to exploit this naturally endowed diversity to breed hybrid varieties. Heterosis breeding offers a unique opportunity to develop more productive varieties with early production. To make the heterosis breeding a successful endeavour identification of good combiners with substantial diversity is the prerequisite. In this study an effort was made to identify productive parents with early fruitfulness.