INTRODUCTION Cherry tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum var. Cerasiforme) is a botanical variety of the cultivated tomato. It is thought to be the ancestor of all the cultivated tomatoes. It is marketed at a premium price compared to the regular tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes are widely cultivated in Central America and are distributed in California, Korea, Germany, Mexico and Florida. It is a warm-season crop, reasonably tolerant to heat and drought, and grows under a wide range of soil and climatic conditions (Anon, 2009a). Cherry tomato is grown for its edible fruits which are ideal for making processed products like sauce, soup, ketchup, puree, curry, paste, powder, rasam and sandwich. These also have good nutritional and antioxidant properties. The size of cherry tomatoes ranges from thumb-tip to the size of a golf ball, and, can range from being spherical to slightly oblong in shape (Anon, 2009b). Hybrid vigour in cherry tomato has not been exploited fully. Little attention has been paid by plant researchers on the performance for yield and yield- components in the hybrids of cherry tomato. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to evaluate the best- performing parents and their F 1 hybrids in cherry tomato. J. Hortl. Sci. Vol. 10(1):79-82, 2015 Evaluation of F 1 hybrids and their parents for growth, yield and quality in cherry tomato (Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme) Renuka Muttappanavar 1 , A.T. Sadashiva, T.H. Singh* and K.M. Indiresh 2 Division of Vegetable Crops ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research Hesaraghatta Lake Post, Bengaluru - 560 089, India *E-mail: thsingh@iihr.ernet.in ABSTRACT The present study was carried out to estimate the performance of F 1 hybrids and their parents for various yield and yield-attributing traits in cherry tomato, at Division of Vegetable Crops, Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bengaluru, during the year 2010-11. Among the seven parents used, three parents, namely, IIHR-2866 (yielding 3.03kg/plant), IIHR-2864 (2.87kg/plant) and IIHR-2865 (2.73kg/plant) were found to be high-yielding. Among the 21 F 1 hybrids evaluated, three hybrids, namely, IIHR-2754 x IIHR-2860 (4.27kg/plant), followed by IIHR- 2754 x IIHR-2865 (3.97kg/plant) and IIHR-2864 x IIHR-2865 (3.40kg/plant) recorded higher yield than the Check varieties, whereas, three hybrids, viz, IIHR-2754 x IIHR-2865 (54.38t/ha), succeeded by IIHR-2863 x IIHR-2866 (46.46t/ha) and IIHR-2858 x IIHR-2866 (44.79t/ha), recorded higher estimated yield per hectare than the Check varieties. Hybrid IIHR-2754 x IIHR-2860 was found promising for most of the traits studied. The best performing parents can be used for breeding further while, the hybrids can be exploited commercially. Key words: Cherry tomato, high yield, hybrids, parents, breeding MATERIAL AND METHODS The present study was undertaken at Division of Vegetable Crops, ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Hesarghatta, Bengaluru. The experimental field is located at an altitude of 890 meters above MSL, at 13 0 38 ’ N latitude and 78 0 E longitude. The parents and the hybrids were evaluated during July 2011 - May 2012. The experimental material consisted of seven parents, viz, IIHR-2754 (P 1 ), IIHR-2858 (P 2 ), IIHR-2860 (P 3 ), IIHR-2863 (P 4 ), IIHR-2864 (P 5 ), IIHR-2865 (P 6 ) and IIHR-2866 (P 7 ), three Check varieties, viz, IIHR-2871 (C 1 ), IIHR-2876 (C 2 ) and Arka Ashish (C 3 ), and 21 F 1 hybrids developed through half-diallele mating design, during Kharif 2011. Spacing between plants was 60cm, while, between rows it was 45cm. All the twenty one hybrids, along with their corresponding parents, were evaluated in Randomized Block Design in three replications, during the summer of 2012. Observations on five randomly-selected plants were recorded for various yield-attributing traits to estimate performance of the parents and hybrids. 1 M.Sc. student, University of Horticultural Sciences, Bagalkot, GKVK, Campus, Bengaluru, India; 2 Dean, College of Horticulture, Tandavapura, Nanjangud Taluk, Mysuru -571302, India CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Journal of Horticultural Sciences