PERFORMANCE, HERITABILITY AND CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS FOR SOME IMPORTANT TRAITS IN TOMATO UNDER NORTH SINAI CONDITION

Authors

1 Dept. Plant Prod., Fac. Environ. Agric. Sci., Arish Univ., Egypt.

2 Dept. Hort., Fac. Agric., Kafr-ElSheikh Univ., Egypt.

Abstract

Six diverse lines of tomato were crossed with six testers in line x tester mating fashion to study some plant and fruit characteristics. The experiment was conducted at the Exp. Farm, Fac. of Environ. Agric. Sci., El Arish, Suez Canal Univ., Egypt, during the period from 2012 to 2014. The test of significance and performance revealed that the genotypes, parents and crosses mean squares were highly significant for all studied traits, except number of branches/ plant. The overall mean of F1's surpassed their parents in all traits, except fruit firmnessandtotal soluble solids percentage (T.S.S.%). The mean of F1's exceeded the check hybrid in some traits; viz., plant height, number of branches per plant, total number of fruits/plant, yield/plant and total soluble solids percentage (T.S.S.%). In the remaining traits the overall mean of F1's was lower than that of parents and the check hybrid. However, this did not imply the absence of superior hybrids than mid-parents or the check hybrid. Heritability estimates in broad sense were high for all traits, except it was low for total yield/plant, Heritability in narrow sense was low for all studied traits. The percentage of G.C.V/P.C.V. was high for all studied characters, except it was moderate for total yield/plant.Significant or highly significant positive correlations were found between: Plant height with number of branches per plant and vitamin C content. Also, total number of fruits/plant with yield/plant. yield/plant with average fruit weight and Fruit firmness. Significant or highly significant negative correlations were found between: total number of fruits/plant with average fruit weight and fruit firmness.

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