Abstract
The dearth of research on development of high quality cabbage hybrids in public sector by utilizing combining ability estimates, gene action and heterosis persuaded us to undertake this study. We made 30 F1 hybrids between 15 cytoplasmic male -sterile lines and 2 testers during the summer of 2019 as per the line x tester design. The seedlings of all the parents and 30 F1 hybrids along with two standard checks were transplanted during the Rabi season of 2019-2020 and evaluated using a randomized block design. Experimental results revealed that the parental lines II -105 -CMS, III -M -CMS and SC 2008-09 were found to be good general combiners for most of the traits studied. Based on the mean performance, specific combining ability effects and heterosis three cross combinations viz., II -S -CMS x SC 2008-09, II -105 -CMS x SC 2008-09 and II -105 -CMS x E-1-3-1&2 were most outstanding. The proportional contribution of lines (5.77 - 62.12%) were found to be higher than the testers (0.04-11.93%) for all the traits studied. Further, the contribution of line x tester interactions (33.76 - 93.83%) was found to be higher than the individual contribution of lines and testers. This showed that interactions played a significant role in the expression of different characters in various cross -combinations. The dominance variances (sigma 2D) were of higher magnitude for majority of the traits, indicating that non -additive gene effects were more important than additive effects. Hence, strong heterosis could be better displayed in yield and quality of cabbage heads.