Effect of genotype and packaging methods on the marketing characteristics of cherry tomatoes in retail markets.

This study was carried out at Agricultural Research Station, Department of Horticulture and Landscaping, Agriculture College, Diyala University, Iraq, the experiment was done during 2021–2022 seasons. The fruits of studied Genotypes harvested at maturity stage. The main aim of this experiment was to find out the suitability of these Genotypes to the market conditions, and which one was cope with consuming criteria, market conditions, and its capability to maintain marketing characteristics. The experiment included six genotypes obtained by crossing of cherry tomatoes lines. Three types of packaging fruits: 1 kg paper bags, 1 kg plastic containers, and packing under rarefied pressure in 1 kg containers, it was offered in the market under the temperature 25°C ± 2 and relative humidity approximately 30%. Measurements were taken four days after it was put on the market. Factorial experiment was carried out using the complete randomized design (CRD) with two factors and three replicates, and the averages were compared with multiple Duncan’s range test at a probability level of 0.05. The most important results of the study showed that there were significant differences for all the studied traits between the genotypes and the method of packaging, as some genotype were significantly superior, the genotype T9-H7 was superior as it gave less damage to fruits and less weight loss while the T14-2706 genotype was significantly superior in terms of fruit hardness and lycopene content. As for the genotypeT12-A3381 significantly superior to TSS as for the method of packing process with vacuum pressure bags gave the best method of packing for most of the studied traits.