Abstract
Field experiments were conducted at the National Horticultural Research Institute, Bagauda in the Sudan Savannah and Institute for Agricultural Research, Samaru in the Northern Guinea Savanna ecological zones of Nigeria between July-October, 2014 rainy season to estimates heterosis for fruit yield and heat tolerance traits of tomato under field conditions. The experiment comprised two heat tolerant (Icrixina and Rio Grande) and four heat susceptible tomato (Tima, Tropimech, Petomech and Roma Savana) which were crossed using half diallel mating design in the screen house. The resultant 15 hybrids, their parental lines along with four checks were laid out in partially balanced lattice design with three replications. Analysis of variance revealed significant variation among the genotypes for all traits except fruit diameter and cell membrane thermostability, indicating sufficient variability existed among the genotypes. The cross combinations Icrixina × Rio Grande, Icrixina × Tima, Icrixina × Roma Savana and Icrixina × Petomech were found heterotic over better parent for fruit yield and heat tolerance traits (Number of branches per plant, number of clusters per plant, number of flowers per cluster, number of fruits per cluster, number of fruits per plant, percentage fruit set and chlorophyll content) among the hybrids. These hybrids were superior over better parent have the potentiality to be exploited for developing commercial heat tolerant tomato hybrid under field conditions.
Highlights
Tomato (Lycopersicon lycopersicum) belongs to the family Solanaceae, genus Lycopersicon, subfamily Solanoideae and tribe Solaneae (Taylor, 1986)
Gaikwad and Cheema (2009) carried out studies on heterosis for quality traits in a 12×12 half diallel using twelve heat tolerant lines. They revealed that heterosis over better parent and the two standard checks were observed for all the traits and concluded that, for heat tolerant tomato, heterosis breeding may be the most prominent approach for quality improvement as most of the traits are governed by non-additive gene action
Data were recorded for plant height, days to 50% flowering, number of branches per plant, number of clusters per plant, number of flowers per cluster, number of flowers per plant, number of fruits per cluster, number of fruits per plant, average fruit weight, fruit length, fruit diameter, fruit shape index, fruit yield per plant, percentage fruit set and, leaf chlorophyll content, canopy temperature depression and cell membrane thermostability
Summary
Tomato (Lycopersicon lycopersicum) belongs to the family Solanaceae, genus Lycopersicon, subfamily Solanoideae and tribe Solaneae (Taylor, 1986). Gaikwad and Cheema (2009) carried out studies on heterosis for quality traits in a 12×12 half diallel using twelve heat tolerant lines They revealed that heterosis over better parent and the two standard checks were observed for all the traits and concluded that, for heat tolerant tomato, heterosis breeding may be the most prominent approach for quality improvement as most of the traits are governed by non-additive gene action. . Patwary et al (2013) estimated heterosis of heat tolerant tomato in an 8×8 half diallel mating They observed significant heterosis for plant height, days to 50% flowering, number of branches per plant, number of flowers per cluster, number of fruits per cluster, number of fruits per plant, fruit length, fruit diameter, percent fruit set, fruit weight and fruit yield per plant over the better parent. The present investigation was conducted to identify best hybrid(s) for fruit yield and heat tolerance traits under field conditions
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