The effects of shrub pruning and fruit thinning on seed germination and seedling of tomato in the next generation lycopersicon esculentum mill

Abstract

Seed is the main principle of agricultural products and it has a key role as first consumable input to transfer genetic Characters. In this investigation the effects of cultivar, shrub pruning and fruit thinning on qualitative and quantitative characteristics of tomato (seed and seedling) have been evaluated. Experiment was performed by factorial analysis (3×2×3) with 5 replications in completely randomized design (CRD). First treatment was three cultivars of tomato, second treatment was two styles of shrub pruning, in which all of subsidiary branches are removed (Type 1) and one cluster and leaf on subsidiary branches are remained and then extras removed (Type 2) and Third treatment was fruit thinning. Each tomato cultivar was fruit thinned to three different levels (4, 5 and 6 fruit for each plant). The results showed that all treatments had significant influence on weight of 1000 seeds for the next generation. The effects of cultivar and fruit thinning were significant on germination percentage. But shrub pruning did not affect the germination percentage of seeds. Also effects of cultivar and fruit thinning were considerable on fresh and dry weight of seedling root and stem. The effect of fruit thinning and cultivar were significant on height and the number of seedling leaflet. Totally fruit thinning and shrub pruning had a vital role in increasing qualitative and quantitative characteristics of seed and seedling.