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Hybrid Vigor and Combining Ability in a High-Low Yielding, Eight-Parent Diallel Cross of Soft Red Winter Wheat¹

A high-low, eight-parent diallel cross of soft red winter wheats (Triticum aestivum L. em. Thell.) was grown in hills to study hybrid vigor and combining ability for three components of grain yield and grain yield, using moderately diverse parents which varied in yielding ability. Diversity was based on plant type and parentages of the eight cultivars and lines. All were adapted for production in Indiana. Four parents were low in yield and four were high. This design provided 6 hybrids from low x low crosses, 16 from low x high, and 6 from high x high.

Hybrids with grain yields which were significantly above that of the higher parent occurred infrequently, but such hybrids did occur in each crossing group. Heterosis above the midparental value was about 30% for low x low crosses, 25% for low x high crosses, and 19% for high x high crosses. Hybrid vigor for yield in low x high crosses was not significantly different from that in like by like crossing groups.

The preponderance of the variability for yield components and grain yield was attributed to general combining ability. Successful hybrid wheats will most often come from high x high crosses because of the preponderance of general combining ability effects in wheat.

Key Words: Triticum aestivum L. • Heterosis • Hybrid wheat

² Former graduate instructor (now extension professor of agronomy, Univ. of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546); Lynn distinguished professor, and professor, Dep. of Agronomy, respectively.

Received for publication October 1, 1981.