ABSTRACT
The growth of the tomato market for industrial processing arouses the interest of national institutions and multinational companies of vegetable seeds in the development of new hybrids. The objective of the study was evaluate the performance and genetic divergence of tomato genotypes, with respect to fruit firmness, fruit maturation concentration, jointless, plant vigor, leaf cover of the fruit, plant healthiness, average yield per plant and soluble solids (°Brix). First, we evaluated 53 hybrids, three of them being controls and one of the controls being H9553, the most sown hybrid in Brazil. Only 12 genotypes and the commercial hybrid H9553 presented the necessary criteria for processing tomatoes, based on characteristics fruit firmness, concentration of fruit maturation and lack of peduncle retention index. Genotypes 1, 18 and 48 stood out for soluble solids, concentration of fruit maturation and fruit firmness, respectively. The genetic divergence and groupings reveals that genotypes 1 and 18 present dissimilarity from the other genotypes. While the first showed a higher average plant vigor, leaf cover of the fruit, plant sanity and °Brix, the second revealed a lower average fruit firmness, concentration of fruit maturation and °Brix. Hybrid 3, 6, 8, 14, 24, 37 and 48 showed genetic similarity with the commercial hybrid H9553, which characterizes them as potential for generating new hybrids with high productivity and quality and, consequently, with acceptability of the industrial tomato production chain. Additionally, due to their favorable characteristics, they can be used for further crosses with genotypes of other groups which also present favorable characteristics.
Keywords:
Solanum lycopersicum; genotype; fruit firmness; concentration of maturation; Brix.
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