Heterosis for yield and yield contributing characters in safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.)

High heterosis over better parents was recorded in 32 hybrids pooled over three environments for yield and its components in safflower. The hybrids exhibited the maximum heterosis for seed yield/plant followed by seeds/capitulum on secondary branch, secondary branches /plant and seeds/capitulum on primary branch. Highest value of heterosis over better parent (92.3%) was recorded for seed yield /plant in the hybrid MS-1 x NS-1016. In general, hybrids derived from genic male sterile lines gave better performance for seed yield and other characters.