COMBINING ABILITY ESTIMATES FOR EARLY MATURITY AND AGRONOMIC TRAITS IN PEANUT (ARACHIS-HYPOGAEA L)

To develop early maturing and large seeded cultivars of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) virginia type cultivars (No. 334, Banki and NC-9) were crossed with four early spanish type lines (ICGSE-4, ICGSE-130, ICGSE-147 and 'Chico') in a factorial mating design. F-1 and F-2 generations were evaluated in the field to determine the combining ability of the parents for maturity and other agronomic traits. General combining ability (GCA) estimates were highly significant for all traits except maturity index in the F-1. Specific combining ability (SCA) estimates were nonsignificant for all traits except 100 seed weight in the F-2 generation. The magnitude of GCA was much greater than SCA for all the traits in both generations indicating that additive genetic variance was more important than nonadditive genetic variance. Among male parents, ICGSE-130 gave highest GCA for yield per plant, maturity, and 100 seed weight, whereas ICGSE-147 gave highest GCA for 20 pod length and seed number per 50 pods. Among adapted female parents, NC 9 gave the best GCA for yield per plant, 20 pod length, seed weight, and shelling percentage.