Exploring genetic variability in tomato for yield and quality traits

The present investigation entitled “Exploring genetic variability in tomato for yield and quality traits” was carried out at College of Horticulture, Bengaluru campus, University of Horticultural Sciences, Bagalkot in 2019-20 to evaluate 260 tomato genotypes along with four checks for 19 characters using augmented RBD design. Highly significant differences were found between 260 genotypes for each of the nineteen characteristics that were the subjected to analysis of variance. Prominent role was played by the environment for the expression of characters studied, as evidenced by the fact that estimates of Phenotypic Coefficient of Variation (PCV) were higher than that of the Genotypic Coefficient of Variation (GCV) for majority of the characters studied. The estimates of GCV and PCV were of the highest magnitude for the characters average fruit weight (49.63, 50.29) followed by fruit firmness (46.76, 47.11), lycopene content (47.85, 48.14), number of fruit cluster per plant (32.78, 33.50), fruit diameter (32.83, 33.38), pericarp thickness (32.40, 32.97), ascorbic acid content (33.72, 34.76), number of seeds per fruit (30.54, 30.81) and yield per plant (29.84, 30.42). High heritability was found for all the characters except days to harvest (53.98%). The highest heritability was recorded for the character number of fruits per cluster (99.45%) followed by lycopene content (98.78%) and fruit firmness (98.51). Genetic advance as percentage of mean was found highest in combination with high heritability for the characters average fruit weight (100.88%) followed by lycopene content (97.97%) and fruit firmness (95.60%). These traits were under the influence of additive gene effects and that they are more reliable for efficient selection.