Estimates of Heritabilities and Variance Components for Low-temperature Germination Ability in Cucumber

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Abstract
Variance components for low-temperature germination ability in cucumber (Cucumus sativus) were estimated for 3 germination variables (actual days to germination, days to 50% germination, and percentage of germination) at 17°C using a North Carolina Design I analysis. The estimates were made using the North Carolina Medium Base Pickle (NCMBP) population, which was developed by intercrossing adapted pickling cucumber cultivars with diverse lines for 3 cycles without selection. Estimates of additive and dominance variance for the percentage of germination and days to 50% germination were equal, but additive variance was predominant for actual days to germination. Heritabilities based on half-sib families tested in 2 replications ranged from 0.44 to 0.61 for the 3 germination variables. There were large significant genetic correlations among the 3 germination variables, ranging from 0.61 to 1.03 in absolute value. Selection for either the percentage of germination or for actual days to germination at 17° should result in significant progress in improving low-temperature germination ability of cucumbers in the NCMBP population.

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