Screening of Tomato Genotypes for Tolerance of Reduced Irrigation

Screening and selection of tomato accessions under conditions of 50% reduced irrigation was performed in the current study. The experiment was conducted at the Maritsa Vegetable Crops Research Institute with 10 determinate tomato accessions (five large-fruited and five for processing) in two consecutive years (2016-2017). The productivity per plant, number and average fruit weight was recorded for two harvest periods – in the end of July and mid of August. The data indicated that reduced irrigation during growing season influenced more strong productivity per plant especially in the second harvest period. The decrease of the yield in two studied tomato groups was 59.3% and 54.2% respectively. In the first harvest period the reduction of yield was 46.3% and 27.2%. Moreover the applied stress had the weaker negative effect on average fruit weight. In both studied tomato groups, the reduction of fruit weight below 30% was observed. The studied large-fruited tomato accessions showed low drought tolerance compared to the tomato accessions for processing. Three-way analysis of variance showed that watering regime influenced mainly the productivity per plant and fruit set while the average fruit was affected by genotype. Based on the present study tomato accessions BG 985 and BG Solaris suitable for breeding of drought stress were selected.