In order to produce bulbs or seeds, onion plants depend on genotype X environment interaction. Thus, breeders shall select the genotypes based on the climatic conditions of each producing region. This study aimed to evaluate 17 experimental onion hybrids and two commercial genotypes (‘Bella Dura’ and ‘Buccaneer’), based on agronomic, physicochemical attributes of the bulbs and resistance to early flowering under subtropical conditions. Joint analysis of variance and phenotypic divergence estimated through principal component analysis (PCA) and Ward’s hierarchical clustering were performed. We observed that the time of transplantation affected the agronomic traits more than the physicochemical traits, not affecting the percentage of early flowering of the genotypes. The first transplant season provided higher bulb productivity, whereas the second season reduced the cycle and productivity. Hybrids H1, H17 and ‘Buccaneer’ showed flowering rate lower than 3%. Among the experimental hybrids, H2 showed higher productivity when comparing with commercial cultivars, and H1, H12 and H14 were equivalent to them. However, H12 showed the highest early flowering rate (43%). Thus, considering the experimental genotypes evaluated under subtropical conditions, H1, H2, and H14, showed potential for commercial use or as potential parents in advancing the breeding program, as they stood out for presenting good yield, bulb quality and low percentage of early flowering.

Heirloom tomatoes are open-pollinated varieties bearing a wide diversity of colors and shapes that may be used by breeders aiming to improve physical and biochemical fruit traits. Hence, in this work heirloom tomato accessions were characterized, gathering information to genetic breeding programs focusing on human food. For that, 67 heirloom tomato accessions were evaluated for fruit size, fruit mass, fruit volume, color, vitamin C, titratable acidity, soluble solids content, phenolic compounds content, total flavonoid content, and antioxidant activity. The experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three repetitions. Linear mixed model, Pearson's correlation and hierarchical clustering were applied to data. Five groups were formed by Ward's clustering method. The accession UEL 300 constituted group A, which had the greatest mass and volume fruit. Eight accessions formed group B and showed mostly yellow fruits. Group C was comprised of 13 accessions, which had the highest levels of carotenoids, vitamin C, and antioxidant activity. Thirty-three accessions that constituted group D did not stand out for any of the attributes, while 12 accessions into group E had the highest content of phenolic compounds and flavonoids, along with the highest ratio of soluble solids and acidity. Five accessions in this collection (UEL 296, UEL 146, UEL 238, UEL 231, and UEL 217) stood out for their biochemical traits. The wide diversity for physical and biochemical fruit traits can be explored in tomato breeding programs, seeking to develop new cultivars, and strengthening family farming.

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