An experiment was conducted in randomized block design with three replications (kharif, 2023) to study the magnitude of heterosis and to assess the parents and crosses in the expression of fruit yield and its components for twelve characters in ridge gourd [Luffa acutangula (L.) Roxb.]. The material for the present study involved seven diverse parents and their twenty-one resultant hybrids derived from half diallel mating and one standard check (GJRGH 1), which were grown and evaluated at Horticultural Instructional Farm, Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar. The objective of this study were to investigate the per se performance and magnitude of heterosis (standard heterosis and heterobeltiosis) for different characters under study. The observations were recorded for days to first male flower, days to first female flower, primary branches per plant, node number of first male flower, node number of first female flower, days to first picking, main vine length (m), fruit weight (g), fruit length (cm), fruit girth (cm), fruits per plant and fruit yield per plant (kg). The mean of five plants was used for statistical analysis of all characters except for days to first male flower, days to first female flower, days to first picking. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the genotypes, parents and hybrids for all the characters excluding primary branches per plant, node number of first male flower, fruits per plant and fruit yield per plant. With respect to per se performance, among parent JDNRG-10, GRG-2 and JDNRG-32 was top ranking for fruit yield per plant. Mean values of cross combinations for various traits revealed that hybrids GRG-2 × JDNRG-19, GRG-2 × IC-523892 and JDNRG-19 × JDNRG-32 recorded highest fruit yield per plant. A critical analysis of parents and hybrids per se performance revealed that the hybrids involving GRG-2 as one of the parents recorded higher fruit yield per plant. The best heterotic cross for fruit yield per plant was GRG-2 × JDNRG-19. High magnitude of heterosis observed in this hybrid for fruit yield can be attributed to significant standard heterosis and heterobeltiosis in desirable direction for yield attributing traits viz., node number of first female flower and fruits per plant. This cross also exhibited significant standard heterosis for days to first male flower, days to first female flower and days to first picking. The second best hybrid GRG-2 × IC-523892 for fruit yield per plant also showed significant standard heterosis in desirable direction for node number of first female flower, fruit length, days to first picking and fruits per plant. These best performing crosses can be utilized in heterosis breeding programme for improvement of ridge gourd

Ridge gourd, analysis of variance (ANOVA), heterosis, heterobeltiosis, standard heterosis, per se performance

In the present investigation of analysis of variance, it was observed that the differences due to various genotypes were highly significant for all the characters under study except for the primary branches per plant and fruit yield per plant. Highly significant differences were observed among parents for all the characters except primary branches per plant, node number of first male flower, fruit girth, fruits per plant and fruit yield per plant. This indicated the existence of considerable variability in experimental material. The study of mean values indicated that the parent JDNRG-10 exhibited the highest fruit yield per plant followed by GRG-2 and were also superior for yield contributing traits. Considering per se performance of hybrids, the superior cross combinations for fruit yield per plant were GRG-2 × JDNRG-19, GRG-2 × IC-523892 and JDNRG-19 × JDNRG-32. These cross combinations also had high per se performance for one or more yield contributing traits. The mean performance of the hybrids was found to be directly proportional to the standard heterosis observed for that hybrid. The best performing hybrids have at least one parent which showed higher per se performance among them top three hybrids for fruit yield per plant were GRG-2 × JDNRG-19, GRG-2 × IC-523892 and JDNRG-19 × JDNRG-32. The best heterotic cross for fruit yield per plant was GRG-2 × JDNRG-19. High magnitude of heterosis observed in this hybrid for fruit yield can be attributed to significant standard heterosis and heterobeltiosis in desirable direction for yield attributing traits viz., days to first male flower, node number of first female flower, main vine length, fruit weight and fruits per plant. Second-best hybrid GRG-2 × IC-523892 for fruit yield per plant also showed significant heterosis in desirable direction for days to first male flower, node number of first female flower, days to first picking, fruit length and fruits per plant

H.H. Maru, P.J. Patel, Surabhi S. Chauhan and Manish Sharma (2025). Heterosis Analysis in Ridge Gourd [Luffa acutangula (L.) Roxb.]. Biological Forum, 17(8): 01-08