Genotype by environment interaction of tomato blossom-end scar size

Large blossom-end scar is a disorder in tomato fruit which reduces its marketability. The disorder is affected by genotype and by several environmental factors and therefore the genotype by environment interaction was studied by stability analysis. Blossom-end scar size was recorded for 4 tomato cultivars grown in 6 fields. The blossom-end scar size (BSC) was affected by the genotype, the field and their interaction. Stability analysis revealed that most of the interaction resulted from different stability of the cultivars. Heterogeneity of the slopes was significant (P<0.0013). The stability slopes were 0.29, 0.74, 1.11 and 1.85 for BR-214, FA-38, Hayslip and Suncoast, respectively. The stability slopes seemed to associate with the means of the cultivars over all environments, which were 1.57, 2.92, 3.84 and 5.43, respectively. Analysis of a blossom-end scar index (BSI), which also takes fruit size into account, revealed stability similar to BSC. It was concluded, that selection for small BSC under most conditions would yield cultivars with small and stable BSC under most growing environments, however differences between genotypes in non-inducing environments are expected to be small.