CHARACTER PERFORMANCE OF TEN LOCAL BENGKULU TOMATO ACCESSIONS

Tomato production in Indonesia is low and fluctuatif. In 2011, tomato production in Bengkulu province was 33.744 ton, and only 33.351 ton in 2012. Low production may be due to unsuitable varieties and inefficient technology practiced by farmers. Most of superior varieties are adapted to highland area. The use of high yielding varieties but only adapted to highland has neglected local adapted varieties that might importance for future varieties improvement for wider adaptation. Character variability occurring in local varieties is important to plant breeders as they might be useful for improving varieties. We studied 10 local accessions of tomato found in Bengkulu for characterizing and grouping them that can be used for future tomato breeding. The 10 accessions namely K-1,K- 2,C-1, C-2, RL-1,RL-2, RL-3,SB, S, and NB were grown in poly bags in October 2013 – January 2014, replicated four times. Observations were done weekly to record qualitative and quantitative characters such as colors of hypocotyl, leaves color, young fruits color, and ripened fruits color, growth type, plant height, flowering and harvesting ages, fruit size (diameter, horizontal cross-section of fruit), fruit hardness, fruit numbers per bunch, number of fruit bunches per plant, fruit numbers per plant, fruit weight of each, and fruit weight per plant. Based on the afore mentioned characters we found six accessions: K-1, K-2, C1, RL 1, RL-2, and NB might be valued for future breeding program on tomato