Salad tomato varieties selection for the conditions of the Republic of Kalmykia

Salad tomato varieties of domestic selection that provide the highest productivity and have high taste and technological qualities are studied and offered to the production. Differences in the stages of development of tomato plants were revealed between the studied varieties. The beginning of fruit ripening in varieties Novy-1, Vostorzheny and Malinoviy gigant was noted on average 3–8 days earlier than other varieties. By the beginning of fruit ripening, all six studied varieties formed a powerful vegetative mass, al-most completely covering the inter-row spacing. The height of the plants ranged from 0.79 m (Podarochny) to 1.34 m (Bychie Serdtce). Varietal peculiarities manifested themselves during the formation of the leaf surface in tomato plants. By the flowering phase, the variety Kalmytckiy zharostoikiy (heat-resistant) showed the greatest mass of leaves per one plant – 687.8 g and the leaf surface area – 46.62 thousand m2/ha; these indicators, respectively, were lower for the variety Bychie Serdtce by 25.4 g. and by 1.72 thousand m2/ha and significantly less – by 46.4–122.4 g and 3.15–8.30 thousand m2/ha for other salad varieties. The Vostorezhenny variety obtained the highest total yield – 60 t/ha,, while it was lower by 2–3 t/ha for the varieties Podarochniy and Novy-1.The tomato fruits contained from 5.64 % (Bychie Serdtce variety) to 5.92 % (Vostorezhenny variety) of dry matter. The maximum amount of sugars was noted in the Kalmytckiy zharostoikiy variety – 3.16 %. All studied salad varieties contained from 9.63 mg% (Podarochniy variety) to 11.20 mg% (Kalmytckiy zharostoikiy variety) of ascorbic acid. The high sugar-acid coefficient has the following varieties: Kalmytckiy zharostoikiy (13.8), Bychie Serdtce (11.7), Vostorzheny (10.9).