Studies on heterosis for different fruit quality parameters in tomato

Throughout the last century, tomato (Solanum lycopersicon) breeding has been based on various standard methods, which has ultimately resulted in the development of improved tomato cultivars and hybrids having high quality and yield attributes. In the present study, a total of 25 entries consisting of 13 diversified genotypes of tomato along with their 12F₁ hybrids were evaluated during two consecutive rabi seasons. Data on fruit quality characters were recorded and per cent mid-parent heterosis and better-parent heterosis were determined. Pronounced heterosis over better- parent was observed for number of locules per fruit, fruit length etc. Heterosis over mid parent and better parent, however, for most of the characters were in negative direction. Some of the parents having good potentiality for generating high cross combination for most of the quality traits under study have been identified. Selection of crosses on the basis of performance per se seems to be reliable than selection based on the manifestation of heterosis alone.