Genetic variability studies in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) under protected cultivation

Abstract

A study on “Genetic variability in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) for protected cultivation” was carried out during rabi season of 2022-23 under naturally ventilated polyhouse of Department of Vegetable Science, College of Horticulture, Bagalkot, Karnataka. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with two replications to investigate genetic variability for twenty-four genotypes. The analysis of variance revealed highly significant variation among the genotypes. Wide variation was observed for all the growth, earliness, yield and quality traits among genotypes under protected cultivation. The experimental results were indicated based on per se performance of genotypes and among these, AVTO1920, AVTO1464 and AVTO1706 were highly suitable for protected cultivation. Analysis of coefficient of variation revealed that the magnitude of phenotypic coefficient of variation (pcv) was almost similar to the genotypic coefficient of variation (gcv) for all the studied traits. Further, high estimates of heritability (h2bs) and genetic advance as percent mean over mean (GAM) were recorded for number of clusters per plant, number of fruits per cluster, number of fruits per plant, fruit polar diameter, plant height (cm) and number of branches. Thereby, suggesting that straight selection for these traits may bring worthwhile improvement in identifying the superior genotypes in tomato.