STUDIES ON GROWTH, YIELD AND NUTRITIONAL COMPOSITION OF DIFFERENT TOMATO CULTIVARS IN BATTAL VALLEY OF DISTRICT MANSEHRA, KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA, PAKISTAN

An experiment was conducted in Battal Valley of District Mansehra, Pakistan during 2003-04, to study growth, yield and nutritional composition of six exotic cultivars of tomatoes. Data on days to flowering and maturity, yield, TSS, ascorbic acid and titratable acidity was subjected to statistical analysis. Cultivar ‘Roma’ took minimum days to flowering (37.7 days) followed by ‘Rio Fuegd’ (39.0 days). Cultivar ‘Lyreka’ matured in 65.0 days followed by ‘Roma’ which took 67.7 days whereas cultivar ‘Yaqui’ took 85.0 days. Cultivar ‘Yaqui’ out-yielded other cultivars with 11.22 followed by ‘Avinash’ (9.52 tons ha^-1). ‘Roma’ and ‘Rio Grand’ yielded lowest with 6.46 and 7.96 tons ha^-1, respectively. Maximum TSS was observed in cultivar ‘Avinash’ (5.5) followed by Yaqui (5.4%) whereas it was found minimum in Roma (4.9 %) cultivar. ‘Lyreka’ have the most abundant ascorbic acid of 16.03 mg/100gm followed by ‘Rio Grand’ (15.86 mg/100 gm). The highest titratable acidity was found in ‘Yaqui’ (0.389%) while ‘Rio Grand’ was the lowest (0.313 %) in this respect.