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Cooking banana (ABB) are important group of banana and plantain and are considered as a major economic source for income and grown especially in many part of Tamilnadu and other part of India. Although serious attempt has not been made to study the breeding potential of cooking banana for crop improvement. Hence, in this study assessed the male and female fertility of ten cooking banana genotypes. For evaluation of female fertility crosses were made in female flowers with the certain potential male parents while male fertility was evaluated in the laboratory condition. A total of 816 crosses were made in 26 cross combinations, out of which 3 combination resulted in 55 viable seeds, however 4 seeds alone germinated and two seedlings survived. Among the cooking banana genotypes (ABB) the Alshy, Chakkiya and Gouria were non pathenocarpic (female fertile) while rest of them were found to be pathenocarpic. All the ten cooking banana exhibited the male fertility. Among them male fertile genotype, Bagner exhibited the highest pollen output (17500), pollen stainability (64.60 %) and pollen germination (11.33 %).
Keywords: Crop improvement, fertility, crossing, germination, seedlings, pathenocarpic