Naveen Garg

Development of high-yielding cultivars with better shelf life and consistent performance across seasons is one of the important objectives of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Miller) breeding programs. Heterozygous individuals, i.e., F₁ hybrids, are reported to be more stable to environmental variation than homozygous ones due to their ability to perform better under stress conditions. The present study was conducted to identify F₁ hybrids heterozygous at rin, nor, or alc loci having wider adaptability across main and late planting conditions, besides possessing higher yield and better shelf life than check hybrids. The variation among environments was linear. All hybrids showed genotype×environment interactions for all traits. Shelf life of different hybrids significantly fluctuated from their respective linear response to environments and was non-predictable, while yield attributes (total yield/plant and number of fruits/plant) did not fluctuate and were predictable. Most of the tomato hybrids heterozygous at rin, nor, or alc loci showed above average stability for shelf life and yield attributes. However, 19 hybrids showed below average stability for total yield/plant and were suitable for main season planting only. The most stable hybrid was Spectrum × alc-IIHR-2050 having high-mean yield (1.25 kg/plant), nearing unity regression coefficient (0.91) and nonsignificant deviation from regression (-0.11). It possessed higher yield and better shelf life index (9.31) than check hybrids viz., TH-1 (0.92 kg/ plant, 5.49) and Naveen (0.84 kg/plant, 6.01) and is recommended for multilocation trials across the state for cultivation in main and late planting conditions.