Variability of main traits of confectionery sunflower seeds in generations of interlinear hybrids

The purpose of the research was to evaluate the variability of the main sunflower seed traits (thousand-seed weight, huskness, seed length) in F1 and F2 hybrids obtained by crossing two confec-tionery fertility restorer lines with differences in branching, huskness and thousand-seed weight. One of the parental lines was branched, so the task was to select branched confectionery lines with an optimum huskness level of 25–35%. In the first generation of hybrids, positive heterosis (overdominance) was ob-served for thousand-seed weight. Huskness and seed length were intermediately inherited. Inheritance of huskness, thousand-seed weight and seed length in F2 is polygenic. Single-branching forms in F2 showed positive transgression in thousand-seed weight and seed length compared to branching progeny and pa-rental forms. In the confectionery branching plants of F2, no plants with a thousand-seed weight higher than the original branching line I6 13033 were found. The proportion of branching plants in the second hybrid generation with huskness of 25–35% and thousand-seed weight more than 50 g was 2.7% of the total number of plants.