Recovery from Shoot Fly Attack in a Sorghum Diallel1

A diallel test of crosses between sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) varieties having high, intermediate, and low levels of “recovery resistance” (tolerance) to the sorghum shoot fly, Atherlgona varia Meigen, showed that the inheritance of this character is complex. Additive gene action contributed most to the variation among entries in percentage of recovered plants, but specific and epistatic effects were also significant. The average heterosis was 11% for the single cross mean over the mean of the parents, and the correlation between yield and percentage recovered plants was very high. Cultivars ‘Namatare’ and ‘Serena’ proved valuable in the short‐term breeding work, and populations (including derivatives of these cultivars) are being established for the longer term recurrent selection program. They should be effective in view of the largely additive genetic variance in recovery resistance.