S02 - Session P5 - Evaluation of tomato landraces for yield and fruit-related traits

Authors: Daniela Ganeva *, Stanislava Grozeva, Ivanka Tringovska, Veneta Stoeva, Dimitrina Kostova

In the past years, there has been an increase in demand for growing landraces or local accessions with unique taste and flavour and adapted to specific environmental conditions. Bulgaria's local tomato gene pool has not been sufficiently studied in terms of agronomic and fruit quality traits. This study was undertaken to unravel the potential of local tomato accessions as valuable breeding material for variety improvement. Twenty genotypes originating from different regions of Bulgaria were simultaneously phenotyped under the greenhouse and open-field conditions. All accessions were indeterminate and big-fruited. The fruit's colour was divided into two groups, i.e. pink (10 accessions) and red (10 accessions). Significant differences among accessions were found for fruit size, shape, number of fruits and yield per plant. Average fruit weight varied from 205 g to 490 g in the group of red-fruited genotypes and from 180 g to 480 g in the group of pink-fruited ones. Fruit shape was slightly flat, round and oxheart. Most of the accessions were multilocular with pericarp thickness between 0,5 and 0,9 cm. Fruits were fleshy, dense, cellulose free. Environmental conditions (greenhouse or open-field) influenced mainly the number of fruits per plant, while the average fruit weight remained constant. Several accessions were selected, which kept a high yield under both conditions. The description and evaluation of germplasm are essential for identifying new important traits and their success in breeding programs.