Heterosis studies for yield and its attributing traits in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

Heterosis breeding is used to improve yield quantity and quality of tomato because traditional methods cannot be used to achieve this goal. A half diallel design was used to estimate the magnitude of heterosis for yield and its yield attributing traits in tomato. Twenty one F1 hybrids were generated by using seven local and exotic lines. These 21 F1 hybrids along with 7 parents and one standard check ‘Abhinav’ were evaluated at Regional Horticultural Research Station, NAU, Navsari (Gujarat) in randomized block design with three replications. The analysis of variance showed significant differences among the genotypes for all the traits except days to last picking and plant height in parents and hybrids, respectively. The maximum heterosis over standard check was exhibited by the hybrids AVTO-2 x AT-4 followed by AVTO-3 x AVTO-4 for fruit yield and its one or more important yield attributing traits. Hence, these hybrids exhibited commercial potential to replace the check after further testing.