Effect of elevated temperature on the yield and quality of tomato

Abstract

The global climate models predict high temperature which is anticipated to be the one of the limiting factors for cultivation of tomato and other plants in the future. In this present study, 20 tomato genotypes were exposed to the elevated temperature at 38±1oC from vegetative to flowering stage and their yield and quality were assessed. High temperature during reproductive development have been reported to limit the flower bud initiation with significant increment in flower drop and significant decrease in fruit set leading to a sharp decrease in tomato fruit yield. The percentage reduction of fruits per plant under elevated temperature over ambient temperature was least in IIVR – L (29.3%) followed by LE – 1 (31.5%). Therefore the fruit set percent in IIVR – L was 97.27 % and 69.91% and it was 96.55 % and 49.88 % in LE- 3 and 95.00 % and 67.75% in LE – 1 under ambient and elevated temperature condition respectively. Hence, fruit yield was higher in IIVR-L and the yield was zero for IIHR-709 and IIHR-2388 at elevated temperature condition. This explicitly states the genetic variation in the different genotypes to elevated temperature where the genotypes like IIVR-L, LE-1 and LE-3 had the capacity to overcome heat stress even in the post flowering stages.