Evaluation of F1 Crosses of Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) Landraces for Fruit Yield, Quality and Tolerance to Bacterial Wilt

Field experiment was carried out at All India Coordinated Research Project on Vegetable Crops, OUAT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India in order to identify the superior F1 crosses for marketable fruit yield quality and resistance to bacterial wilt. All total 21 F1 crosses evolved from seven distinctly diverse local landraces of brinjal along with a hybrid check, Mahy Green were evaluated by adopting Randomized Block Design and replicated twice in rabi 2021-2022. Results revealed significant variations among various fruit quality attributes (TSS: 4.32 oBrix to 6.00 oBrix and ascorbic acid content of fruit: 5.10 mg100g-1 to 7.10 mg100g-1), incidence of bacterial wilt (30 DAT: 0.00% to 4.17%, 60 DAT: 0.00% to 12.50% and 90 DAT: 0.00% to 20.83%). Out of 21 crosses, nine cross showed immune reaction to bacterial wilt at 90 DAT. The marketable fruit yield plant-1 varied significantly from 1.00 kg to 1.99 kg. The F1 cross viz. BBSR-08-2 × Selection from BBSR-145-1(1.99 kg) recorded significantly highest fruit yield plant-1 followed by BBSR-08-2 × BBSR-10-25(1.87 kg) and BBSR-08-2 × BBSR-10-26 (1.81 kg). Thus, it may be concluded that, F1 crosses obtained from local landraces of brinjal viz., BBSR-08-2 × Selection from BBSR-145-1, BBSR-08-2 × BBSR-10-25 and BBSR-08-2 × BBSR-10-26 may be recommended for higher marketable fruit yield, fruit quality and over all resistance to bacterial wilt for higher profit. These local landraces may also be used for future brinjal improvement programme towards development varieties with higher fruit yield quality and resistance to bacterial wilt.