Heterosis for yield and its contributing traits in tomato

Abstract

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.), is one of the most remunerative cash crop of mid hills of Himachal Pradesh as off-season vegetable for fresh market supply to plains. The hybrid cultivars have generated interest among the breeders for the possibility of combining a complex of valuable attributes in a genotype. However, in public sector, there is still a dearth of tomato hybrids. Realizing the economic potential of this crop, there is an urgent need to isolate the genotypes with desirable horticultural traits. Hence, the present investigations were undertaken for development of hybrids having better quality, earliness, uniformity and resistance to diseases.