Heritability, Heterosis and Correlations of Fruit Characters and Yield in Thai Slicing Melon (Cucumis melo L. var. conomon Makino)

Abstract

Two inbred lines (RM1 and LM2) of slicing melon (C. melo L. var. conomon markino) and their related progenies were determined for their quantitative inheritance and heterosis of fruit width, length, shape index, weight, fruit number per plant and yield and correlations among these traits. The results indicated that heritability based on fruit width, fruit length, fruit shape index, and fruit weight were relatively high at 0.60, 0.68, 0.55, and 0.71 respectively. The heritability as considered from fruit number per plant and yield were also high at 0.60 and 0.61. Heterobeltiosis was recorded to be 12.71% for fruit number per plant while total yield per plant showed 8.20% heterosis. The performance of fruit characters of F1 hybrid was not exceeding over that of the better parent or equal to the mid-parent values. The width of marketable immature fruit showed negative correlation to fruit length and fruit shape. Fruit shape and size were not related to fruit number per plant and yield while fruit number per plant had highly positive correlation to yield per plant.