Analysis of combining ability in Blackgram (Vigna mungo L.Hepper)

Seven genetically diverse varieties of blackgram namely TAU-1, AKU-9904, NUL-7, LBG-402, BDU-1, Pant U-31 and Mesh-1008 were selected from germplasm maintained at Pulses Improvement Project, MPKV, Rahuri and Oil seeds Research Station, Jalgaon for making diallel cross to study combining ability during 2009-10. 21 F1s and their 7 parents were studied in RBD with three replications. Results indicating that the parents, LBG-402, BDU 1 and AKU-9904 were proved to be good general combiners with good per se performance for most of the traits studied, suggesting scope for their use in breeding programme. The crosses, LBG-402 x BDU-1, BDU-1 x Pant-U 31, AKU-9904 x Pant-U 31 and AKU-9904 x NUL-7 evinced high SCA effects for most of the traits, those can be further exploited for isolating superior genotypes.