A study on investigation of performance of some F1 hybrid confectionary pumpkin (cucurbita pepo L) genotypes

This study was conducted in 2018 in Bosna village, located in the central district of Edirne, and in Ahmetbey town, in the Lüleburgaz district of Kırklareli, to determine the performance of several F1 hybrid confectionary pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo L.) genotypes. The main objective of the research was to identify superior F1 hybrid genotypes adapted to the regional conditions in terms of yield and quality traits, including vine length, number of fruits per plant, number of seeds per fruit, thousandseed weight, seed length, seed width, and grain yield. The study utilized 20 F1 candidate hybrid genotypes and 3 standard cultivars (Mertbey, Senahanım, and Çağlayan). The evaluated traits were vine length, number of fruits per plant, number of seeds per fruit, thousand-seed weight (the weight in grams of 1000 seeds), seed length (mm), seed width (mm), and grain yield (kg/da). According to the results of the variance analysis, statistically significant differences were found among the genotypes for all the traits examined. The highest vine length in the Edirne location was obtained from the TGK-5 x TGK-10 F1 hybrid genotype. As an average of the two locations, the TGK-13 x TGK-14 F1 hybrid genotype yielded the highest number of fruits per plant with an average of 2.92. It was followed by the TGK-11 x TGK-12 (2.70 fruits/plant) and TGK-14 x TGK-9 (2.68 fruits/plant) F1 hybrid genotypes. The variance analysis revealed significant differences among genotypes for the number of seeds per fruit. Based on the two-location average, the K7-36 x TGK-17 F1 hybrid genotype provided the highest number of seeds per fruit with 459.1 seeds, followed by the TGK-11 x TGK-9 F1 hybrid genotype with 450.8 seeds. Regarding vii thousand-seed weight, the TGK-12 x TGK-17 F1 hybrid genotype reached the highest value (257.4 g), followed by the K7-36 x TGK-17 F1 hybrid genotype (251.8 g). According to the two-location average, the TGK-17 x TGK-9 F1 hybrid genotype had the longest seeds (24.05 mm), while the widest seeds (11.33 mm) were measured in the Senahanım cultivar. Statistically significant differences were found among the genotypes for grain yield. Based on the two-location average, the highest grain yields were obtained from the K7-36 x K7-37 (245.5 kg/da), TGK-12 x TGK-9 (243.3 kg/da), and TGK-13 X TGK-14 (241.0 kg/da) genotypes, as well as the control cultivar Senahanım (239.3 kg/da). In conclusion, the study identified F1 hybrid genotypes that demonstrated superior performance in terms of quality and yield compared to the existing standard cultivars. It was concluded that the registration and release of these genotypes to farmers would be beneficial.