The fruiting habit and quantitative yield potential of tomato plants (cultivar C-38-D Novo), propagated from shoot tip cuttings and their mother plants was evaluated in field, in Embrapa Amazonia Oriental, Belém, Brazil, from July to December ,1999. The Grassland Cropping Technique were employed. The adult tissue of tomato plants like shoot tip, developed less side branches and occupied less space, allowing a greater number of plants per planting area and consequently higher yield. The shoot tip cuttings showed slower and constant flowering and fruiting speed with an average fruit weight above 60 g, during 70 days of harvest, while the mother plant had an earlier and concentrated flowering and fruiting pattern in short periods, unable to keep the average fruit weight of 60 g, standard for local market, from upon 30 days of harvest. Yield of plants propagated vegetatively was similar to those propagated from botanical seeds (71.7 kg versus. 72.6 kg/6,28 m²). Although the present results are preliminary data, vegetative propagation of shoot tip cuttings showed to be an important method for commercial tomato cropping as well as to shorten the time necessary to explore the desirable traits in a segregating population of tomato plants and could become a commercial commodity.
Lycopersicon esculentum; tomato cropping; stem tip cutting
