ADDITIVE VARIANCE, HERITABILITY AND CORRELATIONS IN THE M1-Fitotecnia VARIETY OF HUSK TOMATO (Physalis ixocarpa Brot)

Abstract

Husk tomato (Physalis ixocarpa Brot.) ranks fifth in planted land surface among the vegetable crops in México. However, research in this species is still scarce, particularly on plant breeding, which is a rapid and inexpensive way for increasing crop productivity. The objective of this work was to estimate the genetic parameters of the M1- Fitotecnia variety of husk tomato. Two hundred maternal half-sib families were evaluated in two environments, in a randomized complete block experimental design with three replications, and 16 plants per experimental unit. The narrow sense heritability for the seven studied traits varied from 35.3 to 66.4 %. For total yield it was 50.9 %. The genetic additive variation coefficient presented values from 9.3 to 46.1 % with a mean of 26.7 % for total yield. The number of fruits, yield of the first harvest, yield in the second harvest and fruit weight were the most important yield components. The additive genetic correlations of total yield with number of fruits (0.27), yield in the first harvest (0.78), yield in the second harvest (0.82) and the fruit weight (0.35), were the highest in absolute values.