Abstract:
Field experiment was conducted at Department of Crop Science Teaching and Research Farm, University of Nigeria, Nsukka to evaluate selected Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) tri-hybrid genotypes obtained from the of Crop Science Research and Teaching Farm. The field experiment was set using randomized complete block design (RCBD) with two replications. Twenty two (22) tomato genotypes of which twenty one (21) were tri hybrid and one (1) ISREALI variety were used for the experiment. Data were collected on growth and yield parameters including plant height, number of leaves, days to 50 percent flowering, days to fruit maturity, stem girth, number of truss/plant, number of flowers/ truss, number of fruits/ truss, number of fruits/ plant, number of branches, fruit yield(t/ha), average weight of fruits/ plant. The results revealed that P X W X TIMA4 was significantly (p≤0.05) higher in number of fruits per plant (83.0), fruit yield tons/ha (16.60), and lower in days to 50% flowering (33.5days) and days to fruit maturity (83days). The ISREALI genotype was significantly higher in the average fruit weight per plant in gram (31.02). The genotype P X W X TIMA8 was significantly higher in the plant height (172.7cm). The genotype W X G X TIMA35 was significantly (p≤0.05) higher in number of fruits per truss (8.0) and in the number of flowers per truss (9.75). Furthermore, the genotype W X G X TIMA15 had non-significantly (p>0.05) higher number of branches (14.5). The results obtained showed that tri hybrid genotypes P X W X TIMA4 and W X G X TIMA35 were the best as they gave significantly higher fruit yield of 16.6 and 13.56 tons/ha, respectively.
