Performance evaluation and character association studies in arid region greenhouse tomato hybrids

Abstract

Alike in other areas, greenhouse cultivation is getting special impetus in arid regions owing to providing favourable micro-climate, besides protecting crops from various external crop limiting factors which causes considerable losses to productivity. Cultivar selection is among the most critical aspect for successful greenhouse cultivation. In order to select appropriate cultivar for peculiar arid conditions, the performance of twenty indeterminate tomato hybrids were evaluated under greenhouse condition at Jodhpur during September to April, 2016-17. The performance of hybrids was assessed for their growth, yield and quality characteristics. Results obtained from the study reveal that the performance of tomato hybrids differ significantly for different growth and yield parameters among them. Shoot (leaf + stem) biomass production showed wide variation among the hybrids, ranging from 162g (IA05) to 225.7g (Avtar) per plant. Fruit yield also varied widely (2.36 kg to 4.94 kg plant-1). Hybrid Myla (4.94 kg) was found superior in per plant fruit yield, followed by TR4343 (4.71kg) and TR4266 (4.65kg). Significant differences were also observed for fruit quality attributes such as pericarp thickness, total soluble solids, pH and EC in different hybrids. The character association analyses show that the yield per plant had significant positive correlation with average fruit weight (0.72), fruit diameter (0.50) and pericarp thickness (0.45). The highest fruit number was found in TR4266 (68.4), which had statistically similar per plant fruit yield with Myla. Whereas, the highest average fruit weight (166.8g), though lowest fruit number (40.3) was recorded in TR4293. The high mean values of the yield associated parameters in high-yielding hybrids Myla, TR4343, TR4266, TR4293 corroborates their production potential under greenhouse in arid regions.