Abstract:
High temperature is a major constraint in any vegetable cultivation, particularly to tomato
production in the tropics and subtropics of the world. The day and night temperatures of more
than 32°C and 21°C are known to limit fruit set of tomato due to impairment of complex
physiological process involved during flowering and fruit developmental stages. Hence, the study
was conducted to know the genetics of heat tolerance of tomato. The results revealed that the
characters viz., yield per plant, single fruit weight, number of fruits per plant, number of fruiting
clusters per plant, short styled flowers per plant an fruit setting percentage exhibited high
heritability coupled with high genetic advance as per cent of mean and possibly controlled by
additive genes. These traits, namely, short styled flowers per plant, fruit setting percentage,
number of fruits per plant, single fruit weight, auxins, gibberallins, proline content, pollen
viability and pollen germination were significantly and positively correlated with yield per plant.