Abstract

Cotton is known as the king of fiber crops and belongs to the family Malvaceae. In the world, it is cultivated as the most significant natural fiber and cash crop. A line x tester analysis was designed pointing towards the identification of best heterotic crosses for yield, fibre quality and economically important traits in upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.). The current research was conducted at Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, six parents and nine crosses of cotton under RCBD Design with three replications. Data were collected on the plant's height, first fruiting branch, first effective boll-bearing branch's node number, monopodial and sympodial branches, no of fruiting nodes on each plant, weight and no of bolls, internodal distance, the yield of seed cotton per plant, the seed index, the lint index, the length and strength of the fiber, the uniformity ratio and micronaire value. Analysis of variance shown significant difference among all the studied traits. According to our findings for mean performance cross Kehkshan X CIM-602 best combiner for plant height, number of fruiting branches and fiber length, MNH-998 X CIM-602 best combiner for number of boll per plant, FH-215 X MNH-998 best combiner for GOT% while for better parent heterosis Kehkshan X CIM-602 shown maximum se performance and positive significantly associated with plant height, number of sympodial branches and seed index, MNH-998 X Kehkshan shown highest mid parent heterosis and significantly associated with number of bolls per plant and cross FH-215 X Kehkshan shown maximum se performance for mid parent heterosis which is significantly associated with lint index, micronaire value and seed index, While better parent heterosis FH-215 X Kehkshan shown maximum heterobeltiosis and positively significant associated with plant height, number of monopodial branches, sympodial branches and seed index. Therefore, CIM-622 X CIM-602 shown maximum heterobeltiosis and significant associated with seed cotton yield per plant. The best performer crosses could be utilized in future cotton breeding programme for development of new variety to boost up cotton industry.