Evaluation of Tomato (Lycopersicon Esculentum Mill.) Varieties for Seed Yield and Quality Under Jimma Condition, South Western Ethiopia

Abstract

Tomato is one of the important and widely grown vegetable crops in Ethiopia. However, quality and seed supply is one of the currently gap in the production system. A study was initiated to evaluate nine selected nationally released tomato varieties and one local cultivar for seed yield and seed quality under Jimma condition, Southern Western Ethiopia. The experiment was conducted in Jimma University College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine experimental site during 2013/2014 under irrigation condition using a randomized complete block design with three replications. The results indicated significant (p< 0.01) variation among the varieties compared with regard to plant height and seedling vigour index, initiation of flowering, Germination percentage, Field emergence percentage, Seedling dry weight (mg). Significantly the highest fruit weight per plant (1.45 kg) and fruit yield per hectare (47.55 tonne) was recorded by Miya while, the minimum marketable yield per hectare (14.88tonne) was recorded from Fetan variety. Bishola recorded significantly the highest seed weight per plant, seed weight per hectare, number of seeds per fruit, give seed weight per fruit, thousand seed weight and fruit girth (5.31 g, 177.26 kg 231, 0.75 g, 3.13 g and 6.25 cm, respectively). The lowest seed yield per hectare was obtained from Fetan (58.1kg). Melkasalsa showed that recorded maximum germination percentage (96%) and field emergence percentage (76%) and lowest seed moisture content (5.5%). Seed weight per plant was significantly and positively correlated with seed weight per hectare (r=0.95), seed moisture content (r=0.47), germination percentage (r=0.27), fruit yield per hectare(r=0.40) and fruit weight per plant(r=0.40). However, it was significantly and negatively correlated with seedling dry weight (r=0.41). Fruit weight per plant was highly significantly and positively correlated with seed weight per hectare (r=0.47) and fruit yield per hectare (r=.99). The results indicated that the farmers in the study area can use Bishola variety for high and quality seed yield of tomato although other nationally released and tested variety also gave fairly good see