APTITUD COMBINATORIA Y HETEROSIS EN UN CRUZAMIENTO DIALÉLICO EN JAMAICA (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.)

Abstract

A diallel cross among three jamaica genotypes (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) was carried out to estimate combining ability and heterosis. The evaluation was conducted during the fall growing season 2004 in Xalisco, Nayarit; 13 traits were evaluated. The analyses for general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) showed that both additive and non-additive effects were important. The most important additive effects were days to flowering, plant height, number of branches per plant, calyx diameter, calyx length, fresh fruit weight, fresh calyx weight, total anthocyanin content, total soluble solids and acidity. The most important non additive effects were number of fruits per plant, number of fruits on main branch and dry calyx weight. For GCA effects, the parent Reina expressed the largest values for calyx length, number of fruits per plant, number of fruits on main branch, fresh fruit weight, fresh calyx weight and dry calyx weight, whereas the cultivar China exhibited the best effects for calyx diameter, fresh fruit weight, fresh calyx weight, dry calyx weight and total anthocyanin content. Finally, the parent Huajicori had important effect on days to flowering, plant height, number of branches per plant and total soluble solids. The crosses Huajicori x Reina and Huajicori x China showed strong effects of SCA for plant height, number of fruits per plant, number of fruits on main branch, fresh fruit weight, fresh calyx weight and dry calyx weight. High percentages of heterosis relative to the best progenitor were exhibited by the cross Huajicori x Reina for number of branches per plant (27 %), number of fruits per plant (96 %), number of fruits on main branch (46 %), fresh fruit weight (15 %), fresh calyx weight (14 %) and dry calyx weight (36 %).