Performance of three way crosses in groundnut

Abstract

A set of 3-way crosses made in groundnut (Arachis hypogaea Linn.) to a line x tester design using 6 single crosses as female and 10 diverse genotypes as male parents were evaluated for early-stage characters and yield components. The variance of general combining ability was higher than that of specific combining ability for yield components while the reverse was true for early-stage characters. Of the 52 3-way crosses, 8 failed to set seed and 8 were heterotic for pod and seed yield or test weight or shelling percentage. Plants transgressing the better parent for yield components up to 370% on the average were recovered in the F₁ generation. Crosses that produced F₂ selections having more pods than 'Robert 33-1', a national check, were often found to be heterotic in the F₁. The general combining ability of parents based on early-stage characters was as good as that based on all the characters. Desired parents could hence be chosen on the basis of an evaluation of 3-way or multiple crosses of higher order in the same season.