Abstract:
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.), a solanaceous self pollinated vegetable crop. It occupies the largest area
among the vegetable crops in the world after potato. This study was conducted on pollen viability, stigma receptivity
and effect of fruit picking on seed yield and quality, using the parents of hybrid Maheshi, at the experiment field of
Horticulture crops Research and Development Institute (HORDI), Gannoruwa, Peradeniya. Three experiments were
conducted and Randomized Complete Block Design with 3 replicates was used for all experiments. To identify the
effective period for pollen viability, pollen stored for seven days under room temperature(25-27 °C),refrigerated
condition(9-100 C), and deep freeze condition^4 - 5 °C) to obtain high fruit set and seed set. For all temperature
conditions, the highest values for pollen viability, fruit set%, average fruit weight and seed number per fruit were
observed for one day storage period. Emasculated female flowers remained fully receptive until fourth day of
emasculation with higher fruit set. Except the second and third pickings there were no significant difference in total
fruit yield, seed yield, seed weight and seed number per fruit until seventh picking. The viability of seeds extracted
after sixth picking gave significantly lower viability percentage. Therefore, seeds from late pickings should not be
recommended in tomato seed production.
