Genetic variation and character interrelationship studies for identification of selection parameters in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum)

Forty nine genotypes of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) collected from different sources and maintained in the Division of Vegetable Science and Floriculture, FOA, Chatha, SKUAST-Jammu, India, were evaluated for various quantitative and quality traits. The material showed wide range of variability for gross yield (116.67 - 5049.06 g/plant), marketable yield (41.67 - 4388.59 g/plant), average fruit weight (12.23 - 82.21g), number of marketable fruits/plant (1.67 - 177.00), pericarp thickness (0.15 - 1.05 cm) and total soluble solids (3.40 - 6.05%). The character association analysis indicated that total numbers of fruits/plant were significantly and positively correlated with gross yield (g/plant), marketable yield (g/plant), number of marketable fruits/plant, plant height (cm) and total soluble solids (%), whereas plant height was negatively and significantly correlated with fruit shape index. Fruit shape index was negatively and significantly correlated with number of locules/fruit. Gross yield (g/plant) was significantly and positively correlated with total number of fruits/plant, number of marketable fruits/plant and marketable yield (g/plant). Gross yield (g/plant) was significantly and positively correlated with total number of fruits/plant, number of marketable fruits/plant and marketable yield (g/plant). The estimates of direct and indirect effects showed that marketable yield (g/plant) gave highest positive direct effect on gross yield (0.904), followed by number of marketable fruits/plant (0.845) and total number of fruits/plant (0.796). Maximum indirect contribution towards gross yield (g/plant) was through marketable yield (0.819) via total number of fruits. The present studies revealed considerable scope for improvement in tomato as total number of fruits/plant, average fruit weight (g), number of marketable fruits and plant height (cm) showed a wide range of variability. The phenotypic coefficients of variability (PCV) were higher with smaller magnitude than genotypic coefficients of variability (GCV), indicating the apparent variation is not only due to genotypes but also due to influence of environmental factors. The characters like total number of fruits, gross yield (g/plant) and number of marketable fruits showed high genetic advance coupled with high heritability and genotypic coefficient of variability, indicating thereby that selections based on phenotypic performance could be effective for improvement of these characters.