Combining ability studies in Line x Tester set for quality traits in bottle gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.]

Present investigation was carried out during rainy 2023 and spring-summer 2024 at the College of Agriculture, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar for combining ability studies for quality traits in bottle gourd with fifteen parental lines, three testers and their forty-five F1 hybrids of bottle gourd by using Line x Tester mating fashion. Experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications having each experimental unit with row to row and plant to plant spacing of 2.5 × 0.6 m, respectively. Significant variances in both seasons were found for general as well as specific combining ability for all the traits studied during both seasons which suggested that both additive and non-additive gene action were most important in the expression of all quality traits. Combining ability analysis revealed that parents viz., parents GH-75 followed by GH-76, GH-71 and IC-92465 were found superior general combiner among fifteen parental lines and tester Pusa Summer Prolific Long for rind thickness, dry matter content and 100 seed weight and HBG-36 for total soluble solids and fruit firmness were found superior specific combiner as they showed desirable effects of general combining ability (gca) and crosses GH-73 x Pusa Sandesh for rind thickness and dry matter content, GH-76 x Pusa Summer Prolific Long for total soluble solids content and HBG-34 x Pusa Summer Prolific Long for 100 seed weight showed significant specific combing ability (sca) effect in bottle gourd. Therefore, these genotypes could be used broadly in hybrid breeding programme to enhance quality of bottle gourd. For varietal improvement, these crosses could be utilized for exploiting promising recombinant for quality traits after multi position testing.