Heterosis and Inbreeding Depression for Yield and Quality Traits in Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.)

Ten parental lines of tomato (Lycopersicon esculantum Mill.) were crossed in 10 x 10 diallel mating plan barring reciprocals. The 45 F1 hybrids along with their parents and one standard check (Pusa Ruby) were evaluated in a randomized block design with three replications. This study relevant that heterosis over the better parent, mid-parent, standard check and inbreeding depression was observed for all the traits under study. Highly significant heterosis was observed for Days to first flowering (-18.35, -14.42 and -3.30%), Days to 50% fruiting (-13.41, -12.30 and -6.71%), Fruit diameter (41.20, 46.07 and 35.57%), fruits length (49.20, 63.23 and 5.98%), Average fruit weight (59.26, 66.89 and 26.72%), Number of fruits per plant (135.19, 159.63 and 80.67%),  Number of fruits per cluster (54.55, 54.55 and 80.02%) and total yield per plant (123.71, 146.41 and 99.13%) over the better, mid and standard parents, respectively along with considerable inbreeding depression. The most promising cross EC-165700 × EC-164563 appeared intensely noteworthy positive heterosis over way better parent for total yield per plant. These Heterotic hybrids found superior over better parents and one standard check have the potential to be exploited commercially.