Qualitative and quantitative characteristics of Serbian tomato varieties grown in conditions of Slovak republic

The aim of submitted article was to estimate qualitative and quantitative characteristic of Serbian tomato varieties grown in conditions of Slovak republic and to compare the results with control tomato variety and evaluate their potential for the Slovak market. There were included 6 Serbian tomato varieties: ´Fantom VFCTm F1´, ´Marathon ASVF F1´, ´Honey Heart VF F1´, ´Uragan SVF F1´, ´Kazanova F1 VF´, ´Dinka F1´ and ´Tornado F1´ in control variant, which is wide spread in Slovak tomato production. As qualitative characteristic for every variety total yields (in kg) per every plant, total number of harvested fruits (in pieces for each plant) and average weight of one fruit in kg were evaluated. In Department of vegetable growing laboratory qualitative characteristics in case of all chosen tomato varieties were estimated (included firmness of fruits, total carotenoids estimation, ascorbic acid estimation). Serbian varieties reached lower total yields per plant. From the ´fruit weight´ point of view they created more or less homogenous group of bigger and heavier fruits in comparison with ´Tornado F1´ and statistically significant homogenous group when focusing on total number of fruits per plant in comparison with ´Tornado F1´ variety. Differences between control variant and chosen Serbian varieties were even more considerable in case of qualitative characteristics, where ´Tornado F1´ reached the lowest values in case of all observed characteristics - firmness of fruits, total carotenoids and ascorbic acid content. According to increasing importance of antioxidants in human diet, all tested Serbian varieties appeared to be very interesting for Slovak consumers from following both qualitative and quantitative characteristics