Physiological and Morphological Changes Over the Past 50 Years in Yield Components in Tomato

Summary

Greenhouse tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) yield in The Netherlands has increased tremendously over the past 50 years. The effects of breeding during this period were investigated. Eight Dutch cultivars and one typical current Japanese cultivar that were released over the past 50 years were compared in a short-term experiment conducted from summer to fall in The Netherlands. Fresh fruit yield of the Dutch cultivars significantly increased ≈0.9% per year with the year of release from 1950 to 2000. Dry weight fruit yield of the Dutch cultivars also increased with the year of release, whereas the fruit dry matter content was not correlated with the year of release. Total dry matter production of plants increased with the year of release, and the dry matter partitioning to fruit was not correlat