Evaluation of genotypes of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) under mid hill conditions of Solan district of Himachal Pradesh

Nature has endowed India with many precious gifts, wherein lies its immense potential for vegetable sector. Mid hills of Himachal Pradesh has emerged as the leading supplier of high quality fresh vegetables to the plains during summer and rainy season, thus, bringing lucrative returns to the growers. there is a strong need to develop hybrids with high yield and desirable horticultural traits from public sector. An experiment was conducted at the Experimental Farm of the Department of Vegetable Science, Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, (HP) during Kharif season of 2018. Altogether thirty four genotypes of tomato were evaluated in RCBD with three replications. All these genotypes showed significant variation in the characters, viz., Days to 50 percent flowering, Days to marketable maturity, Number of fruits per cluster, Number of fruits per plant, Average fruit weight, Fruit yield per plant, Fruit colour, Fruit shape index Fruit firmness, Shelf life, Number of locules per fruit, Pericarp thickness, Plant height, Harvest duration, total soluble solids and Ascorbic acid. the results concluded that the genotype Bt-Best performed better over all the genotypes including check variety, Solan Lalima with respect to yield and contributing horticultural traits. the genotype, EC-620396 maintained its superiority for fruit firmness, pericarp thickness, shelf life and number of locules per fruit among all the genotypes under study. Genotypes, viz., EC-174913, EC-620396, Bt-10-12, EC-14078, EC-16465 and EC-620424 also performed good in terms of yield and other horticultural traits.