CHARACTERISTICS AND PHENOTYPICAL VARIABILITY OF TOMATO INITIAL BREEDING MATERIAL ACCORDING TO THE MAIN ECONOMICALLY VALUABLE TRAITS AND PROPERTIES

The market of Moldova has a large assortment of seed of foreign selection, such as large-fruited tomatoes, cherry and cocktail tomato. Therefore, it is necessary to launch the breeding program for hybrid development of local origin tomato typed, such as ‘Cherry’ and ‘Cocktail’ with a different form, mass and fruit color. Initially, 15 parental forms of tomato were studied for the main economically valuable traits in the open field condition. Phenotypic variation in tomato varieties and breeding accession was identified depending on the terms of cultivation. Such varieties and lines of tomato as ‘Trapesa’, ‘Rosovaya Kapelka’, ‘Seniyorita’, ‘Ocharovaniye’, ‘L. 46/06’, ‘L. 49/09’, ‘L 295/09,’ ‘L. 336/11’, ‘L. 354/11’, ‘L. 357/11’, ‘L. 388/09 (nor)’, ‘L.498 (released by TARI), ‘Tigris’, ‘Vishnya Zheltaya’ (released by OOO ‘Gavrish’), ‘Denezhnoye Derevo’ (national breeding program) were used as the initial breeding material. Totally, 15 breeding accessions were used for the study, where all of them differed in the type of bush (determinate and indeterminate); a vegetation period (ultra-early, early, middle, late); a form (roundish, oval); a fruit color (red, pink, black, orange, tiger and with a NOR gene); a fruit weight (from 10 g and above); a structure of brush (dense, loose). Lines and varieties of tomato of different terms of ripening characterized by the shortened internode, high fruit setting on the bush, high content of biologically active substances, and complex resistance to diseases were used to breed tomato hybrids of ‘cherry’ and ‘cocktail’ types with different fruit form and color