RESPONSE OF VARIETIES AND TRANSPLANTING DATES ON SEED YIELD AND

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) is one of the major commercial fruit vegetables of north India. Due to lack of adequate knowledge of seed production practices, the growers are unable to produce quality seed of newly developed varieties. In tomato, pollination and fruit set are highly affected by temperature, thus at low and high temperatures the fruit and seed yields are reduced. It indicates that transplanting date directly affects the seed yield and quality. Hence, the present study was undertaken to identify the optimum planting date for seed production of newly developed tomato varieties. The present trial was carried out during 2006-2007 at the research farm of IIVR, Varanasi. The seeds were sown in nursery three weeks before transplanting. The seedlings were transplanted at 60 x 45 cm spacing in plots of 2.40 x 2.25m size. There were twenty plants in each plot of a treatment replicated thrice. Three newly released varieties viz., Kashi Vishesh (V1), Kashi Anupam (V2), Kashi Amrit (V3) and one already established variety Hisar Arun (V4) were transplanted at six dates from 25 August to 8 November at 15 days interval viz. 25th Aug (T1),