ORANGE VARIETY OF RUFIN AND PROSPECTS OF ITS UTILIZATION IN SELECTION PROGRAMS FOR THE CREATION OF NEW FORMS OF TOMATOES FOR PROTECTED SOIL

Priority directions in tomato breeding for protected ground remain stable productivity ness and quality of fruit, early ripeness, resistant to the most harmful diseases. Creating such varieties is a required component of ecological agriculture. Recently, the demand of appropriate species increases and hybrids of tomato with different colouring of the fruit, which is determined by the contents of xanthophylls and various carotenoids (lycopene, β-carotene, lutein, etc.) with antioxidant properties. According to the state program of research for 2000-2010, the staff of the laboratory of gamete and molecular methods of selection of Federal Scientific Vegetable Center created orange early crop variety Rufina for greenhouses. The article describes the brief history of its creation and characterization on major valuable features. Tomato cultivar Rufina is a source of economically useful traits: early ripeness, resistant to abiotic and biotic stresses, yield, palatability and nutritional value of fruits. Therefore, at present it is used when creating new forms of tomato, adapted to the conditions of various modern technologies protected ground - low-volume cultivation and multi-level narrow column hydroponics (MUG). A perspective starting material was received. These are five productive selection forms for the low-volume technology, haracterized by early ripeness (the beginning of harvesting on the 50-70 day of sowing), the weight of the fruit from 90 to 130 g, resistance to apical rot. For a MUG - two low forms with orange fruits weighing more than 30 grams, created as a result of hybridization with determinants of dwarfish redplant varieties Natasha