Pusa Ruby
Open-pollinated, so a farmer can save true-to-type seed from a good plant — the trade-off is carrying no disease resistance into a bad whitefly year.
Quick facts
- Crop
- Tomato
- Type
- Open-pollinated
- Season
- All seasons
- Maturity period
- 60–70 days from transplanting
- Expected yield
- 200–250 q/ha
- Suitable soil
- Loam
- Release
- Released 1973 · ICAR-IARI, New Delhi · selection from cross Sioux × Improved Meeruti
About this variety
Pusa Ruby is an indeterminate, early-maturing tomato variety released in 1973 by ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, as a selection from the cross Sioux × Improved Meeruti. Its medium-sized, round, slightly lobed and ribbed fruits suit both the fresh market and processing. Because it responds unusually well to genetic transformation and has decades of documented characterisation behind it, Pusa Ruby has also become one of India’s standard reference genotypes for tomato biotechnology research.
Key characteristics
Yield & maturity
Maturity period
60–70 days from transplanting
Expected yield
200–250 q/ha
Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.
Pest & disease considerations
Advantages & considerations
Why farmers may choose it
- One of India’s oldest and most widely adapted tomato varieties, still grown decades after release
- Fruits suit both the fresh table market and processing, giving growers flexibility on where to sell
Things to consider
- Indeterminate growth habit needs staking and ongoing pruning attention, unlike a compact determinate variety
- Bred before most modern disease-resistance work — it carries no built-in resistance, so protection depends entirely on the grower’s own spray schedule
Suitable regions
States this variety is recommended for — check locally, since a state can have more than one recommended zone.
- Uttar Pradesh
- Bihar
- Madhya Pradesh
Frequently asked questions
Why is Pusa Ruby used so often in tomato research studies?
It responds unusually well to Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation and tissue-culture regeneration, and decades of research have built up a large base of phenotypic and genomic reference data on it — that makes it a convenient standard genotype for lab studies, not necessarily the highest-yielding field choice today.
Sourced from: Reference Guided De Novo Genome Assembly of Transformation Pliable Solanum lycopersicum cv. Pusa Ruby — PMC. editorial policy.