PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF TOMATO CULTIVARS AT HIGH ALTITUDE

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the comparative performance of 11 tomato cultivars in the Northern Areas of Pakistan during 2003. It was found that days to first picking, plant height, number of branches per plant, number and weight of fruits per plant, harvesting period, fresh and dry fruit yield showed significant differences among the various cultivars under the trial. Maximum days to first picking (96.40) were recorded in cultivar Local round followed by Shalkot (95.25 days) while Rio grande gave the earliest fruit maturity (82.40 days). Cultivar Local round also showed maximum plant height (110.50 cm), number of branches per plant (10.77) and fruits per plant (98.30) followed by Shalkot, Nagina and Peto-mech-II with 58.47, 51.33 and 46.15 fruits per plant, respectively. The lowest number of fruits per plant (29.47) was found in Nemadina. Cultivar Shalkot attained maximum fruit weight per plant (3.03 kg), fresh fruit yield (68.36 t ha -1 ) and dry fruit yield (4.49 t ha -1 ) while cultivar Local round gave the lowest fruit weight per plant (0.83 kg), fresh fruit yield (20.30 t ha -1 ) and dry fruit yield (1.01 t ha -1 ). Cultivars Peto-mech-II and Rio grande stood second and third in term of fresh and dry fruit yield, respectively. Longest harvesting period was recorded in Local round (137.67 days) while the cultivar Gala gave the shortest harvesting period (107.23 days). Considering the overall performance it was found that tomato cultivars Shalkot, Peto-mech-II, Rio grande, Red blast and Roma were promising with stable performance, for yield and other characters. However, potential of these cultivars is needed to be further tested under the climatic conditions of the Northern Areas of Pakistan to elicit substantial conclusions.