Shamima Sultana , Hi, Please do that. That is how you create a lot of variability from which you can start selecting. However, I suggest testing all these hybrids once or twice in your trials, collect information about diversity etc, please make notes in the field as to how each genotype behaves (early/late, fruit characters etc) and then go for paired crosses. The f1s can again be crossed to get multiple crosses or an inverted pyramid of crosses. There will be a lot of variability generated. But, if there is a possibility, you can mix the pollen of desired genotypes and then pollinate the selected hybrids. This way you can account for pollen competition and also save some time in the breeding program. Good luck.

Not all varieties in the market are varieties that have desirable traits and most sellers do not know their genetic characteristics , Therefore, I find it wrong to conduct a random mating between them ... with appreciation

Yes you can.. But you have to be sure that those hybrids should belongs to different organizations/companies. because if you select 2 or more hybrids from same company, you may not be able to get maximum variations because there are chances of one common parent (Male or Female) in these hybrids which will reduce their Genetic base (Narrow Genetic base). Therefor you can randomly cross hybrids of different origin to get maximum variations and then make your selections from the progeny. Shamima Sultana

It rather depends upon what you want to study; the F1 hybrids are likely to grow more quickly than either parent but may carry a limited number of traits. I don't like using random traits because you will have difficulty in determining their viability.

Muhammad Irfan Yousaf , The hybrids in the market will be good mostly, as only then they would have reached there. Consumer preferences will be taken care of. And by hybridising two such hybrids (assuming they are hybrids !!) variability can be created. And, if the objective is to look out for particular traits only, the job of extracting such lines (putative parents for new hybrids) becomes easier.

Rajesh S Patil and Hugo Gabriel Peres

Fortunately the cucubitaceae family is very diverse and there is high variability existing in nature. Even open pollinated varieties are very good. So given a choice from collection of hybrids from market and doing reverse breeding or putting some efforts in exploring from your area especially fields, I will opt for later and then start population improvement. The logic is I can get newer allelic recombinations for desired traits and stabilty, I will be ready with my own base population or germplasm with which long term breeding program can be initiated with good chances of developing even better lines for hybrids or OPVs . I understand quality parameters are easy to score and phenotyping is not a big issue or even if it is you must take a chance to learn and progress. Even reverse breeding can be tried but remember after 5 or 10 years you will end up with development of hybrids of similar potential and same

issues of negative combinations especially for stabilty and disease susceptibility while the progressive companies will develop better and competetive hybrids by that time.

Thank you Professor Alex Ignatov for recommending the answer.

Hello Dr. Alex Ignatov Thanks for your inputs. Just to add to my earlier inputs, I did the same in Cotton 12 years back and am reaping the benefits now. My varieties are doing well in the National trials and hopefully I would see a release sooner than later. I did double crosses of private companies hybrids and extracted lines from them. Some are good as stand alone varieties and some are being used as parents. Cotton is a one-year-per-generation crop and hence it takes us so long to get a concrete product. In the case of vegetables, the progress will certainly be fast. If you have male-sterility in your crop, that opens up another window of opportunity. As many have suggested, take a lot of care to choose the parents critically. On this, depends your success to a great extent. Good luck again.

Thanks to all of you for your valuable advice and positive response. It will help me a lot. Best wishes to all of you. Rajesh S Patil Naresh Kumar Bainsla Alex Ignatov Hugo Gabriel Peres

Shamima Sultana , All the best. Keep putting up your progress here. There will a lot of learning all around !!