Yield and Yield Contributing Performance of 75 Tomato Germplasm in Bangladesh ()
1. Introduction
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is one of the most important vegetables of Bangladesh and the world wide, too. It is the second most important world consumable vegetable after potato, ranks first among the processing crops [1] and belongs to Solanaceae family [2]. It is rich in a plethora of natural antioxidants and bioactive compounds. The regular ingestion of an adequate amount of fresh tomatoes or processed tomato products has been inversely correlated with the development of widespread human diseases [3] [4] [5] and with an increase in plasma lipid peroxidation levels [6] [7]. This protective effect has been mainly attributed to the carotenoid constituents of the fruits, particularly lycopene and β-carotene which act as antioxidants in detoxifying free radicals [4] [8] [9] [10]. [11] reported that both fresh and processing tomatoes constitute significant amounts within produced vegetable crops. In addition to the large production values, the tomato is an important source of antioxidant intake. The essential phytonutrients found in the tomato fruit are lycopene, β-carotene, α-tocopherol, polyphenols and ascorbic acid, and antioxidant activity depends on cultivar, environmental parameters, method of production and processing. The ripe tomatoes have important outside quality characteristics: uniform size, red colour and good aroma and texture but these external qualities are not reflecting perfectly the nutritional content.
However, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) has released 21 open-pollinated (OP) and 11 hybrid tomato varieties so far. Several leading seed companies are also supplying some more tomato varieties and seeds which are being imported from different countries. Though the BARI released varieties are higher yielder, some varieties are prone to several pests and diseases. Beside this growers’ demand is good quality summer hybrid varieties. So, growers are interested to get good quality pest and diseases resistant winter and summer tomato varieties having good shelf life. In this context, BARI needs to develop quality tomato varieties having good keeping quality along with higher yield. In 2020, The World Vegetable Centre has supplied 43 tomato advanced lines in two installments. Therefore, an experiment was under taken for assessing horticultural traits and yield potentiality along with local germplasm and varieties in Bangladesh condition to select suitable tomato lines for developing good quality pest and diseases resistant winter and summer tomato varieties having good shelf life.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Experimental Site
The experiment was conducted at the Olericulture Division of Horticulture Research Centre, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) during 2020-21. The experimental field was at 23.9920˚N Latitude and 90.4125˚E Longitudes having an elevation of 8.2 m from sea level under agro-ecological zone (AEZ) 28. The average minimum and maximum temperature were 18.0˚C and 29.0˚C and the average relative humidity was 58.2%. The soil of the experimental field was sandy clay loam in texture having a pH range around 6.0.
Air temperatures and relative humidity of the experimental area
Average monthly minimum air temperatures, maximum air temperatures and average relative humidity during the season are shown in Table 1.
2.2. Plant Materials
Seventy-five tomato germplasm/varieties (WorldVeg Center: 41 nos., BARI varieties: 10 nos., local germplasm 17 nos., exotic germplasm 7 nos.) were included in the study (Table 2). The seeds were sown on the seedbed on 01 October 2020. Thirty-two days old seedlings were transplanted in the main field on 01 November, 2020.
2.3. Experimental Design and Layout
The experiment was laid out in a RCB design with three replications. The plot
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Table 1. Average monthly minimum temperature (˚C), maximum temperature (˚C) and relative humidity (%) recorded during winter season.
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Table 2. Seventy-five tomato germplasm/varieties.
size was 5.0 × 1.0 m where 20 plants were planted with space of 60 × 50 cm in two rows.
2.4. Land Fertilization
The experimental area was enriched with organic fertilizer, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sulphur, Zinc and Boron @ 3,000, 250, 90, 125, 20, 3 and 2 kg/ha, correspondingly. One third of the organic fertilizer, 50% of Phosphorus and full of Sulphur, Zinc and Boron were incorporated for the period of last land-dwelling preparation. Rest of organic fertilizer and Phosphorus and 1/3 of Potassium were applied as basal in pit. Entire quantity of Nitrogen and rest of Potassium were applied in four equal portions beginning from 20 days after transplanting. Rest three portions were fertilized at 20, 40 and 60 days after transplanting.
2.5. Data Recorded
Data on yield and yield attributing parameters with qualitative traits were recorded from 20 inner plants of each plot escaping border plants following WorldVeg guideline. Tomato fruits were started harvesting at breaker stage from 20 inner plant of each treatment. Four to six harvesting was done according to the different germplasm characters and data on days to first harvest, number of flower cluster per plant, number of fruit per cluster, number of fruit per plant, single fruit weight (g), fruit yield per plant (kg), fruit yield (t/ha), fruit length (cm), fruit diameter (cm), pericarp thickness (cm), TSS (%), shelf life, number of locule, number of leaflet, number of compound leaflet, leaf length (cm), leaf diameter (cm), plant height (cm), branches/plant, fruit size, fruit shape, plant growth nature, cluster nature of fruit, type of fruit.
2.6. Statistical Analysis
The recorded quantitative data were analyzed statistically and treatments means were compared by Least Significant Difference (LSD) test following R Software 3.1.2 [12].
3. Results and Discussion
The tomato germplasm/varieties differed significantly in all parameters studied and the results have been shown in Table 3 and Table 4. The findings of different parameters revealed that days to first harvest was varied from 106 to 116 days which indicated the variation among the 75 tomato lines in the harvest days. Twelve lines viz., AVTO 1010, AVTO 1315, AVTO 1409, AVTO 1711, AVTO 1712, AVTO 1713, AVTO 1907, AVTO 1911, AVTO 1915, AVTO 1921, AVTO 1954, SLA 025-7 harvested within 106 - 108 days that indicated earliness of the lines. It may be due to the genetic variations among the lines. Number of flower clusters per plant was significantly varied from 11 - 21, while number of fruits per cluster counted 3.5 - 9.0. In respect of number of fruits per plant varied
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Table 3. The harvest, flower and fruit characters of 75 tomato lines.
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Table 4. Leaf, plant height, branches, TSS and shelf life characters of 75 tomato lines.
from 11.7 to 71.3, while the highest number of fruit (71.3) was counted from the lines SLA 013 followed by SLA 011 (57.7), SLA 005 (55.0), BARI Tomato-11 (52.7), SLA 012 (52.3), SLA 004 (49.3), SLA 006 (48.3), BARI Tomato 20 (46.0). This high number of fruit bearing is due to smaller sized of fruits. In case of single fruit weight, the range was 16.4 - 186.6 g, while the largest fruit was harvested from the line AVTO 1702 (186.6 g) followed by BARI Tomato-17(158.0 g), SLA 010 (126.7 g), AVTO 1429 (105.0 g), AVTO 1464 (102.0 g), AVTO 1919 (98.4 g), AVTO 1288 (96.6 g), AVTO 1910 (95.4g), AVTO 1711 (93.7 g), AVTO 1715 (93.0 g), where the line SLA 013 produced the lowest average fruit weight having 16.4 g. The fruit yield per plant also indicated statistically significant difference which was varied from 0.47 to 4.56 kg, while the line AVTO 1702 exhibited the highest per plant yield (4.56 kg) followed by AVTO 1702 (4.56 kg), AVTO 1409 (3.83 kg), AVTO 1010 (3.65 kg), AVTO 1712 (3.37 kg). It was observed that the lines having larger fruit contained were higher yield. Fruit yield per hectare was also varied significantly from 15.7 - 150.4 t/ha. The highest fruit yield per hectare was obtained from the lines AVTO 1702 (150.40 t/ha), followed by AVTO 1409 (126.54 t/ha), AVTO 1010 (120.60 t/ha), AVTO 1712 (111.33 t/ha), AVTO 1711 (107.23 t/ha), while the lowest yield (15.74 t/ha) was obtained from the line SLA 008. The low yield was due to less number of fruits as well smaller sizes of fruit.
The fruit length and fruit diameter of different lines varied significantly. The range of fruit length was observed 2.07 to 6.8cm, while highest fruit length was produced from the line SLA 015-2 (6.8 cm), followed by AVTO 1713 (6.7 cm), AVTO 1288 (6.2 cm), AVTO 1619 (6.0 cm), AVTO 1909 (5.9 cm) and the lowest was produced from SLA 012 (2.07 cm). The range of fruit diameter was 1.9 to 7.4 cm, while highest fruit diameter was produced from the line BARI Tomato-17 (7.4 cm), followed by AVTO 1429 (6.8 cm), AVTO 1711 (6.7 cm), AVTO 1719 (6.6 cm), AVTO 1715 (6.5 cm), AVTO 1911 (6.5 cm), AVTO 1921 (6.5 cm), AVTO 1720 (6.4 cm), AVTO 1717 (6.3 cm), and the lowest diameter was produced from BARI Tomato-11 (1.9 cm). The pericarp thickness is another important criterion for selecting a good variety. The range of pericarp thickness was 0.14 to 0.8 cm, while the range of number of locule was 2.0 to 8.2.
Different characters of leaf were studied and observed significant variation among those characters viz., number of leaflets, number of compound leaflet, leaf length, leaf diameter. The range of number of leaflets and number of compound leaflet were counted 3.01 to 13.5 and 2.51 to 10.0, respectively, while leaf length and leaf diameter were 7.31 to 33.4 cm and 4.41 to 31.4 cm, respectively. The range of plant height at last harvest significantly varied and it was ranged from 67 to 407 cm. It indicated the variability of growth among the lines, while the range of branches per plant varied from 5.2 to 17.6. Sometime higher TSS (%) is preferred by some consumers, so it should be categories in different TSS level. The range of TSS level was 2.0% - 8.2%. The tomato lines were kept under ambient condition (Temp. 26˚C - 27˚C), and the shelf life of the tomato lines was recorded 5.2 to 10.3 days.
4. Conclusions
The days to first harvest were varied from 106 to 116 days while twelve lines were harvested within 106 - 108 days. The number of fruits per plant varied from 11.7 to 71.3, while the range of single fruit weight was 16.4 - 186.6 g. Fruit yield per hectare was 15.7 - 150.4 t/ha where the highest fruit yield per hectare was obtained from the lines AVTO 1702 (150.40 t/ha), followed by AVTO 1409 (126.54 t/ha), AVTO 1010 (120.60 t/ha), AVTO 1712 (111.33 t/ha), AVTO 1711 (107.23 t/ha). The range of fruit length was observed 2.07 to 6.8 cm, while the fruit diameter was 1.9 to 7.4 cm. The range of pericarp thickness was 0.14 to 0.8 cm, while the range of number of locule was 2.0 to 8.2. The range of TSS level was 2.0% - 8.2%, while the shelf life of the tomato lines was recorded 5.2 to 10.3 days.
Considering earliness, quantitative and qualitative characters, eleven WorldVeg Center tomato lines AVTO 1010, AVTO 1315, AVTO 1409, AVTO 1711, AVTO 1712, AVTO 1713, AVTO 1717, AVTO 1907, AVTO 1911, AVTO 1915 and AVTO 1921 were found promising. So, these eleven lines can be selected for further confirmation.
Acknowledgements
This study was completed with the financial support of AFACI under the project of “Development of Vegetable Varieties in Asia Region”.