Abstract

Combining ability studies in sunflower revealed that additive gene action was predominant for all the characters except 100 seed weight and oil content. Among the female parents, EC 85820 and EC 69874 were the best general combiners for earliness, K 74 for seed yield and EC 93617 for oil content. The tester parents K 1 and Co 1 were the best general combiners for seed yield and oil content respectively. The best cross combinations for seed yield were EC 75272 x K 2 and Kanpur Selection x Co 1, while for oil content it was EC 93617 x Co 1. In general there was no correspondence between mean performance and sca effects of the crosses.

Keywords: Sunflower, Combining ability.