COMBINING ABILITY ANALYSIS OF SOME CHARACTERS OF INTRODUCED AND LOCALPAPAYA CULTIVARS

Three papaya cultivars were combined in a diallel cross series to obta in information on combining ability by Griffings Method 1 Model 1. The fourteen characters considered in this investigation were days to flo wering, position of the first flower on the stem, circumference around the trunk when the first flower was borne, position of the first frui t, number of nodes from the soil up to the first fruit, number of frui ts per crop per plant, fruit weight, fruit length, fruit width, percen t of fruit cavity, flesh thickness, flesh firmness, percent total solu ble solids and number of seeds per fruit. General combining ability wa s measured for all characters studied. Significant specific combining ability was found for all characters except the number of fruits per c rop per plant and the number of seeds per fruit. Significant differenc e between reciprocal crosses were found which indicated the maternal e ffect in fruit weight. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.