Effects of canopy management and fruit thinning on seed quality of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) variety Thilina

Abstract

Tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a commonly grown vegetable in Sri Lanka. Lack of good quality seeds is a major constraint in tomato cultivation as there is a deficiency in technologies to obtain high quality seeds under Sri Lankan farming conditions. Therefore, the present study was conducted to find a suitable method of canopy management and fruit thinning for high seed quality. Tomato variety Thilina was used for the experiment and plants were established in a replicated field trial. Three levels of fruit thinning and canopy management namely; no pruning and fruit thinning, pruning with thinning up to 2 fruits/cluster and 5 fruit clusters per plant, pruning with thinning up to 5 fruits/cluster and 5 fruit clusters per plant were employed. Treatments were evaluated in terms of fruit yield, seed purity, 1000 seed weight, seed germination, seed viability and seedling vigour. Fruit thinning up to 2 fruits/cluster and 5 fruit clusters per plant yielded larger fruits compared to the fruits produced by the other plants. Pruning along with fruit thinning has increased the seed weight compared to the control treatment. The cluster pruning had no advantage on seed germination, however, the seedling vigour was greatly benefited. The highest shoot length was observed in pruning with thinning up to 2 fruits/cluster and 5 fruit clusters per plant. The results revealed that the canopy management and fruit thinning can be employed to enhance the seedling vigour of tomato seeds.