Performance of some tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) varieties under heat period in Northern Nigeria

Abstract

An experiment to evaluate the performance of five different varieties of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) under heat period was carried out at Maiduguri, Nigeria. The 5 varieties used were, Dan-Syria, Roma VFN, UTC, Dan-Baga and Tandino which were arranged in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD), with three replications. The varieties varied in their yield characteristics. The varieties Roma VFN and Tandino started flowering 40 Days After Transplanting (DAT) earlier than the other varieties used. The Roma VFN, generally, produced significantly (p≤0.05) greater number of fruits/plant and fresh weight of fruits/plant than the other varieties used. Consequently, the Roma VFN, produced the highest fresh fruit yield of 6.1 mt ha-1. The variety Dan-Baga produced the lowest fruit yield ha-1, which was 2.6 mt ha-1. The results of the study suggest that among the varieties used in the experiment, Roma VFN was more tolerant to heat followed by Tandino which surpassed the rest. © 2009 Asian Network for Scientific Information.