Estimation of heterosis in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) for yield attributes and yield

The present investigation “Estimation of heterosis in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L).” for yield attributing traits and yield was carried out during rabi 2010-11 and kharif 2011 at Vegetable Research Station, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad. Ten parents (EC-165749, EC-157568, EC-164838, LE-56, LE-62, LE-64, LE-65, LE-66, LE-67 and LE-68) were crossed in diallele mating design (without reciprocals). The resultant 45 F1’s were evaluated along with their parents and two standard checks (Siri and US-618) for six characters viz., plant height (cm), number of primary branches per plant, days to 50% flowering, number of fruits per cluster, average fruit weight (g) and fruit yield per plant (kg). Studies on heterosis revealed that majority of the hybrids exhibited relative heterosis, heterobeltiosis and standard heterosis in desirable direction. The potential crosses viz., LE-64 A— LE-66, LE-56 x LE-68, EC-157568 x LE-68 and EC-164838 x LE-66, exhibited high standard heterosis and high per se performance for fruit yield per plant, which offers scope for commercial exploitation through heterosis breeding