​Studies on Heterotic Trends in Blackgram [Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper] for Yield and Earliness

Background: As blackgram cultivation is majorly spread in rain fed areas, breeding short duration and high yielding blackgram varieties is of profound importance to tackle terminal moisture stress and reap impressive yields by breaking the yield plateau. Hence, the present study was aimed to identify highly heterotic cross combinations for yield and earliness. Methods: Six parents along with 15 F1s were evaluated (rabi, 2019) for seed yield and its component traits along with earliness to estimate the magnitude of heterosis. Result: The cross LBG-752 × TBG-104 exhibited heterosis estimates in desirable direction for yield and earliness. The next best crosses were LBG-752 × PU-31, TU-40 × TBG-104, LBG-752 × TU-40 and IPU-2-43 × TBG-104. Because of its autogamous genetic architecture and biological constraints in large scale economic hybrid seed production, heterosis could be exploited only by isolating the early maturing and high yielding segregants followed by bi-parental or recurrent selection in early segregating generations and single plant selection in subsequent generations that would result in short duration and high yielding blackgram variety that fits well into different ecological niches.