Univariate and multivariate procedures for agronomic evaluation of organically grown tomato cultivars

Abstract

ABSTRACT Tomato is one of the most important crops, the worldwide production in 2012 reached 161.8 million tons. Considering the lack of agronomic information on already available cultivars as well as on the varieties under development by breeding programs for organic systems, the objectives of this work were determine the yield components of 14 tomato cultivars in the organic system, through univariate and multivariate analysis. The experimental design was randomized blocks with six replications and five plants per plot. Evaluations consisted of total, marketable and non-marketable yield and number of marketable fruits per plant, in 2010. We carried out analysis of variance, using test F 5%. The effect of cultivar was fixed and the block effect was random. Then, means were ranked according to Scott-Knott 5%. Differences among cultivars were significant for total yield, number of marketable fruits per plant and marketable yield. The mean for total yield among cultivars was 51 t/ha and for marketable yield was 41 t/ha. Cultivars IAC 1 and Santa Clara were the least dissimilar (0.38). On the other hand, cultivars HTV 0601 and IAC 3 were the most dissimilar (10.63). The score dispersion graph showed two distinct groups. The second group contained cultivars HTV 0601, Granadero, Bari and Netuno, which stood out in the evaluation for the organic production system, presenting the highest total yield, marketable yield and number of marketable fruits per plant. Multivariate analysis was effective in identifying clusters of cultivars.