Bita, a new long eggplant variety, suitable for cultivation in warm and warm temperate regions of Iran

Introduction: Given the very good performance and also the special characteristics of the fruit in the promising line D1, the introduction of this line as a new variety of eggplant could be very well justified and will definitely be associated with a much higher economic income for the growers. In addition, since the private companies involved in importing vegetable and summer seeds have already begun to import and evaluate foreign green eggplant variety, the new Bita eggplant variety is a very serious domestic competitor for foreign varieties, which is in agreement with the goals of resistance economy and is definitely a step towards preventing the outflow of currency from the country as well as helping domestic employment (Peyvast, 2003). Therefore, the promising line D1 was introduced in 2018 as a new variety of eggplant named Bita.
Materials and Methods: In the project "Selection of Lines from Five Indigenous Masses of Eggplant in Iran", 5 indigenous masses of eggplant in the country were collected and subjected to a pure line selection/correction program (Bagheri, 2010(. Selected lines along with Varamin Ghalami as a check were compared for one year in three regions of Karaj, Varamin and Dezful under the project "Investigation of selected lines of native eggplants in advanced experiments" in a completely randomized block design with 3 replications (Bagheri et al., 2015).
The stability performance of the genotypes was evaluated using the relative superiority coefficient method. The selected lines of the advanced performance experiments in five regions of Karaj, Jiroft, Urmia, Dezful and Mazandaran were studied for two years. The experimental treatments included 4 advanced lines of sweet and semi-sweet eggplant and three checks (local Borazjan, Qasri Dezful and Black Beauty). Finally, an experiment was carried out on farmers' field in Dusari city, located in the south of Kerman province, using the promising lines BJ30, D7, D1 and non-hybrid eggplants.
Results and Discussion: The Bita eggplant (D1 line) was selected, evaluated and introduced during 2006-2007 by selecting a pure line from the native eggplant of Dezful Qasri Mass. This line was always selected as one of the top lines during all yield comparison tests. In advanced yield comparison tests (2010) in Karaj, Varamin and Dezful regions, line D1 with a yield of 38.7 tons per hectare and with appropriate quality characteristics was selected as one of the top lines and entered into yield comparison tests. Based on the results of the combined analysis of compatibility and stability tests in Karaj, Dezful, Urmia, Jiroft and Sari regions, line D1 with an average yield of 33.7 tons per hectare was ranked second among all the studied lines. In the analysis of stability by AMMI method and relative superiority coefficient, this line had the highest yield stability. Consequently, line D1 was introduced as Bita variety due to high yield, the highest yield stability in the study areas and very good fruit quality. Comparing the promising eggplant lines with the cultivar cultivated in Jiroft region under farmers, cultivar BJ30 with of 67 tons per hectare had the highest yield, cultivar D1 with 58 tons per hectare in the second place, Canyon and D7 cultivars with 56 and 53 tons per hectare, respectively, were in the next ranks. The foreign control cultivar is a commercial and dominant cultivar in the region and due to its quantitative and qualitative characteristics, it has been able to have the first place among several foreign and local cultivars in the Jiroft region. Line D1 competed with this cultivar in performance and was higher in quality.
Conclusion: The new Bita eggplant (D1 line) was selected, evaluated and introduced by the method of pure line selection (single plant selection) during the years 2006-2018 from Qasri Dezful eggplant landrace. This line has always been selected as one of the top lines under the all experimental designs and conditions such as augment, preliminary, advanced and compatibility and stability.
Keywords: Bita, Compatibility, Fruit quality, Yield stability.