Professor Dr Abul Faiz Md Jamal Uddin of the Department of Horticulture at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU) in Dhaka has developed a new tomato variety. He succeeded after seven years of crossing, breeding and rearing the Japanese zebra tomato, and named it "SAU Red Ruby".

"We crossed it with various local tomato varieties for several years and bred it, then grew it until there was no more variation and selected the variety," he said. Red Ruby yields a little more than other Bangladeshi varieties: a plant gives about 4.5 to 5 kg, and each tomato weighs about 90 to 100 grams.

The tomato is attractive, slightly elongated and striped in the middle, fully fleshy and sweet. Other local tomatoes have more water and seeds and thicker skin, but Red Ruby has only about 15 seeds, very thin skin and becomes firm and fleshy when ripe, so it keeps longer. That is why it was named after the hard precious stone.

Red Ruby does best in winter but can be grown under poly sheds in the rainy season. It is an indeterminate type. Seed is sown in September-October, seedlings are ready in 21-22 days and are planted 60 cm between rows and 40 cm between plants in well-prepared land with organic and chemical fertiliser. Plants grow 125-150 cm tall, fruit sets 60-65 days after planting and harvest begins at 75-80 days.

It has not yet been marketed on a large scale but has drawn a strong response on Facebook. The professor, who works mainly on rooftop gardening, produces seed every year for rooftop gardeners and now plans to spread it among farmers, with more seed this year, farmer cultivation next year and demonstration plots at SAU. With no sourness and low water content, he expects demand from the food industry and for salads.

Per 100 grams, tomato contains 93.1 g water, 1.9 g protein, 3.6 g carbohydrate, 31 mg vitamin C and other nutrients, and it is valued as a digestive and appetiser.

Source: Jagonews24 (reported by Tasnim Ahmed Tanim). First published in Bengali on The Agro News.