A half diallel set of crosses among six inbred lines of sweet corn was evaluated to study heterosis and combining ability among plant height, ear height, ear diameter, number of rows per ear and ear yield per plant. The study was carried out at the a
gricultural research center in, GCSAR, Lattakia, Snoubar Jableh, during the 2010, 2011 seasons.
Result showed that almost all crosses expressed a significant positive heterosis effect for ear yield per plant relative to mid parents and better parents; whereas, the highest positive significant percentage of heterosis for ear yield per plant were expressed by the crosses (L4xL6) which gave (198.70%, 176.81%) and (L4xL6) which gave (196.94%, 168.56%), over mid parents and better parents, respectively.
The ratio (σ2GCA/σ2SCA) which was less than (1) showed that the non-additive gene action was more important than the additive gene action in all traits except plant height and ear height. The inbred lines L3 (17.061) and L4 (12.011) seemed to be the best general combiners for ear yield. Also, based on SCA effects, many of single crosses were identified as superior for ear yield, and the best hybrid was L3xL5(50.173).
