Efeito da posição do fruto na planta sobre a produção e a qualidade de sementes de tomate (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill)

Abstract

The tomato growers when take off the seeds from the fruits, in order to make the next season, in commercial planting, besides picking up the best plants, usually they reserve the biggest fruits. So, the fruits from the first brinches have this destination. Because of few knowledge about this subject, it was studied through laboratory analysis, the variation of seed quality from fruits picked from various positions in the plant. From the results it can be concluded that the tomato yield of fruits and seeds concentrated in the first four and five bunches for the varieties with six and eight bunches respectively. The seeds from the first bunches showed in general, higher weight, ocurring a progressive decreasing to the last ones, the same occured for dry matter weight of seedlings. The seeds from different bunches showed few differences in quality, so it can be used seeds from the terminal bunchs which usually have low commercial value. The yields of seeds in kg/ha, in the first cultivation were 260, 193 and 202, for the varieties Iguaçu, Angela 5100 e Angela Hiper respectively. These yields would be enough to plant a commercial area above 1000 ha.