Abstract
The present study was conducted at the Horticulture Research Centre of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Joydebpur, Gazipur during 2005-2008 in order to investigate the effect of plant spacing, stem pruning and doses of boron on yield and quality of hybrid tomato seeds with an aim to generate a package of technology for tomato hybrid seed production in Bangladesh. Two parental inbred lines, viz., GT-016 (recently released as BARI Tomato 14) and GT-017 represented the seed parent and pollen parent respectively. Among the different levels of plant spacing, stem pruning and dose of boron, the combination of 60cm x 50cm plant spacing, 4 stems per plant and with 2 kg B/ha performed the best in respect of yield (417.34 kg/ha) and quality of seed under Joydebpur condition. The quality attributes recorded under the same treatment combination, seed germination (97.33%) and seed vigor index (24.34) were the highest. The same treatment combination also exhibited the best results in Thakurgaon in respect of seed yield (448.91kg/ha), seed germination (96.33%) and seed vigor index (24.77). The experiment allowing different number of fruits per plant demonstrated that retention of 35 fruits per plant gave the highest seed yield (338.79 kg/ha). The fruits retained in 2nd to 7th cluster contributed to higher seed yield and quality. The tomato fruits harvested at pink and full ripen stage, and after- ripened for 4 and 6 days, respectively, resulted in high quality seeds. The medium size fruits (151-199g and 100-150g) produced higher yield of seeds per kg fruit with higher percentage of germination. In respect of availability quality pollen, 15 October sowing of male parent maintaining 4 stems per plant appeared to be the best. The highest pollen viability (95.44%) and the maximum pollen germination (89.89%) were obtained from 15 October sowing and 4 stems per plant. In respect of economic return, the combination of 60cm x 50cm spacing with 4 stems per plant and 2 kg/ha boron application to the soil appeared to be the best, demonstrating a net return of Tk 84, 30,900/- per hectare with the BCR of 5.21.