Variation among five accessions of tomato for crossability

One of the strategies to bring about genetic improvement in a crop is to create genetic variability through hybridization. The present study assessed the level of crossability among five accessions of tomato using the reciprocal crossing technique. The accessions were grown in plastic pots in the screen house and at maturity; hybridizations were manually performed between 7.00 and 10.00 am on crossing days. Significant differences were observed among the crosses for traits such as the number of flowers crossed, number of successful crosses, percentage of successful crosses, average fruit weight per cross, and average fruit yield. Generally, 139 successful fruits were generated from a total of 336 crosses amounting to a 41.37% success rate which implies a less-than-average level of crosscompatibility among the accessions. The number of flowers had a high positive correlation with the number of successful crosses (0.82) and fruit yield per cross (0.76). The number of successful crosses was highly positively correlated with the percentage of successful crosses (0.58) and the fruit yield per cross (0.94). Also, the percentage of successful crosses was highly positively correlated with fruit yield per cross (0.59) while the average fruit weight per cross was highly positively correlated with both fruit yield per cross (0.59) and pericarp thickness of fruits (0.51). The results indicated that genotypes having a higher capacity for flowering are more desirable for hybridization due to their propensity for producing a higher success rate of crosses as well as a higher yield among crosses.