The present investigation was carried out with aims to assess the heterosis involving 7 parents namely, Narendra Agrim (P1), Narendra Amrit (P2), Narendra Upkar (P3), NDPK76-1 (P4), NDPK-724 (P5) and NDPK-39-2 (P6) and NDPK-12-10 (P7) of pumpkin and their 21 F1 hybrids produced in diallel mating design excluding reciprocals at MES, Vegetable Science, NDUA.&T, Kumarganj, Faizabad (.) India in Zaid, 2016. The experiments were laid out in RBD with three replications having each experimental unit of single row with spacing of m (R×R) × m (P×P). The observations were recorded on parents and F1’s for twenty quantitative traits including six quality traits viz., node number to first male flower appearance, node number to first female flower appearance, days to first male flower anthesis, days to first female flower anthesis, days to first fruit harvest, vine length (m), internodal length (cm), number of primary branches per plant, fruit weight (kg), number of fruits per plant, equatorial circumference of fruit (cm), polar circumference of fruit (cm), flesh thickness (cm), fruit yield per plant (kg), and six quality/biochemical traits namely ascorbic acid, reducing sugars (%) non-reducing sugars (%), total sugars (%), dry matter content and total soluble solids. Significant better as well as standard heterosis was estimated for all the traits. Out of twenty one crosses, nine crosses over better parent and nineteen crosses over standard parents showed significant heterosis for fruit yield. The extent of standard heterosis of six best crosses ( to %) for fruit yield per plant revealed that there was a great scope of realizing higher yield in pumpkin through heterosis breeding. | Estimation of heterosis for growth, yield and quality traits in pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch. ex. Poir)
