Evaluation of Tomato Accessions (Solanum lycopersicum L.) for Soil Salinity Tolerance

Abstract

Tomato is a fruit vegetable that is consumed globally and its production is greatly affected by soil salinity. An experiment was carried out at the Shelter House, Biological Garden of the Department of Biosciences and Biotechnology, University of Medical Sciences, Ondo City, Nigeria, to screen 12 tomato accessions for salt tolerance. The experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomized Design with eight replicates for three consecutive seasons. Data were collected on the plant length (cm), number of leaves per plant, Stem girth (cm), fresh root weight (g), days to 50% flowering, number of flowers per plant, number of fruits per plant, and fruit weight per plant (kg) and analyzed using IRRI STAR software. Means were separated by the Duncan Multiple Range Test (P<0.05). The results reveal that all the traits studied were significantly different (P<0.05). The mean values for the studied traits decrease as the salinity level increases.  Gboko (2.54 kg) recorded the highest mean value for fruit weight per plant, followed by Sapele (2.31 kg) and Jalingo (2.04 kg) at 8.0 dS/m, while Gboko (2.21 kg) had the highest mean value at 12.00 dS/m, followed by Sapele (1.81 kg) and Jalingo (1.67 kg). Moreover, Gboko (22.18 %) recorded the least mean value percentage decrease from0.00 to 12.00 dS/m, followed by Sapele (31.43 %) and Jalingo (34.25 %). This study identified and recommended Gboko, Sapele and Jalingo as salt-tolerant accessions to be adopted by farmers in high-saline areas and used as parent materials in a breeding programme to improve salt-tolerant cultivars.