HETEROSIS IN DIFFERENT CROSS COMBINATIONS OF TOMATO FOR YIELD AND YIELD TRAITS

Heterotic performance of 30 tomato cross combinations involving 13 parents has been estimated using line × tester mating design. Analysis of variance indicated highly significant differences for all the characters suggesting the presence of genetic variability among them (Table 6). Highly significant heterosis of positive nature was found for plant height (17.52 and 17.44%), number of primary branches (54.87 and 50.19%), number of fruit per plant (34.13 and 31.17%), average fruit weight (25.24 and 24.24%) and total yield per plant (57.63 and 62.32%) over the better parents both years, respectively. Day to 50% flowering was found highly significant and negative (34.55 and 32.46%) which are desirable for early maturity. The best cross combination obtained highest heterosis for yield attributing traits were DT-2 × Azad T-5, CO-3 × Floradade, H-86 × Floradade and H-86 × Azad T-5. Out of 30 crosses 28 were highly significant for total yield/plant and 2 for number of fruit/plant over better parent.