Growing tomatoes under saline field conditions and the role of fertilizers (original) (raw)
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Journal of Plant Nutrition, 2014
2 Growing tomatoes using saline water and in soils with poor nutrient contents is challenging. The objectives of this work were to: (i) examine the yield and quality of tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) irrigated with different saline water [electrical conductivity (ECi) = 3, 6 and 9 dS m −1 ]; and (ii) study the effect of fertilizer: inorganic, organic, and a mixed of both on tomatoes grown under saline conditions. Fruit weight and quality attributes including size, color, soluble solids, acidity, EC, and pH were measured. Growing tomatoes under 3 and 6 dS m −1 produced the highest yield, whereas irrigating with 9 dS m −1 reduced yield. The mixed fertilizer slightly ameliorated the yield reduction caused by salinity. Using organic fertilizer alone produced the lowest fruit yield. Fruit quality was more affected by salinity than fertilizer. The best growing conditions for tomatoes were in plots irrigated with 6 dS m −1 water under mixed fertilizer treatment.
A Saline Irrigation Regime for Improving Tomato Fruit Quality Without Reducing Yield
Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill ‘FC111’) plants were dripirrigated with two different concentrations of diluted seawater (3 or 6 dS·m−1) applied at appearance of the first true leaf (early) or at first breaker fruit (late) stages of plant development. In general, salinity improved flavor and increased percent total soluble solids and sugar concentration. It also reduced color flaws, thus improving the overall quality of fruit. Shelf life was not affected by saline treatments, whereas the yield and fruit size were generally lower than those of fruit from the control treatment. The most important findings were that the overall yield of plants irrigated with the low concentration of saline water at the late stage of development was not significantly different from that of control plants; export quality yield was the same, while fruit quality was still significantly better than that of the control. The use of saline water for quality improvement of tomato fruit grown on sand dunes ...
Yield and fruit quality of industrial tomato under saline irrigation
Scientia Agricola, 2006
Industrial tomato is the most important vegetable crop of the Brazilian agribusiness. Few researches have evaluated the tolerance of this crop to saline stress. In this study, the effects of five levels of salinity of the irrigation water (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 dS m-1) and two equivalent proportions of Na:Ca:Mg (1:1:0.5 and 7:1:0.5) were tested on yield and quality of fruits of industrial tomato, cultivar IPA 6. Seedlings were transplanted in rhizotrons and grown under plastic covering until fruit ripening. Volume of water for daily irrigations was determined by the difference between the applied and drained volume in the previous irrigation. Unitary increase of water salinity above 1 dS m-1 reduced the commercial and total yield by 11.9 and 11.0%, respectively, and increased the concentration of soluble solids and the titratable acidity of the fruits by 13.9 and 9.4%, respectively. The increase of the proportion of sodium reduced the total and marketable yield, the number of marketable...
Tomato Fruit Yields and Quality under Water Deficit and Salinity
Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
Effects of deficit irrigation and irrigation with saline drainage water on processing tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill, cv. UC82B) yields, fruit quality, and fruit tissue constituents were investigated in two field experiments. Deficit irrigation reduced fruit water accumulation and fresh fruit yield, but increased fruit soluble solids levels and' led to higher concentrations of hexoses, citric acid, and potassium. Irrigation with saline water had no effect on total fresh fruit yield or hexose concentration, but slightly reduced fruit water content, which contributed to increased inorganic ion concentrations. Fruit set and marketable soluble solids (marketable red fruit yield × percent soluble solids) were generally unaffected by either irrigation practice. Water deficit and salinity increased starch concentration during early fruit development, but, at maturity, concentrations were reduced to < 1%, regardless of treatment. Higher fruit acid concentrations resulted from w...
Influence of salinity and water regime on tomato for processing
Italian Journal of Agronomy, 2012
The effects of salinity and watering regime on tomato crop are reported. The trials have been carried out over two years in southern Italy on a deep loam soil. Three saline levels of irrigation water (with electrical conductivity of 0.5, 5 and 10 dS m-1), three watering regimes (at 20%, 40% and 60% of available water depletion), and two cultivars (HLY19 and Perfectpeel) were compared. The overall results related to the salinity tolerance are in agreement with those from the literature indicating that water salinity reduced marketable yield by 55% in respect to the control treatments. The irrigation regimes that provided higher total and marketable yield were at 40% and 60% of available water depletion (on average, 90.5 and 58.1 Mg ha-1 against 85.3 and 55.5 Mg ha-1 of the 20% available water depletion). Saline and irrigation treatments did not affect sunburned fruits, while affected incidence of fruits with blossom-end rot. The former disease appeared more dramatically in saline treatments (+28% in respect to the control), and occurred mainly in HLY19. The disease incidence was by 52% lower in W2 respect to the W1 and W3. Fruit firmness was higher in S0, whereas it was not affected by irrigation regimes. Total soluble solids and dry matter content of tomato fruits were increased by salinity, whereas it was not affected by irrigation regimes and cultivars. The pH and the titratable acidity remained unchanged between the years, the cultivar and the saline and irrigation treatments. Similarly to the last parameters, the fruit ascorbic acid content remained unchanged in relation to the treatments, but it was higher in HLY19. The recommended thresholds of easily available water to preserve total and marketable yield were at 40% and 60%, respectively. Watering more frequently, instead, on the soil type of the trial, probably caused water-logging and root hypoxia affecting negatively yield.
The present study was carried out during two successive seasons, 2011/2012 and 2012/2013, at the Agricultural Research Station; El-Otouria, Sheehaniya, Doha, Qatar; to investigate the response of two tomato cultivars (Isabella and Milas) to biofertilizers and amino acids. Two biofertilizer treatments, rizobacterien at a rate of 2 and 4 liter per feddan and one of amino acid (Delfan) at a rate of 200 ppm, were used. Chicken manure, at a rate of 10 tons/ feddan, was the control treatment. Results showed the superiority of Isabella compared to Milas in terms of vegetative growth and fruit yield. Using Rizobacterien at a rate of 4 liter/feddan plus Delfan (amino acids) at a rate of 200 ppm increased growth and fruit chemical characters, earliness and total yield. The average fruit weight per plant was significantly high under Rizobacteria at a rate of 4 liter/feddan plus Delfan (amino acids) at a rate of 200 ppm. The lowest vegetative growth, fruit and yield characters were obtained from Rizobacteria at a rate of 2 liter/feddan. The water productivity results showed that all treatments led to the increase of fruit yield. Isabella cultivar had higher water productivity than Milas cultivar. Using of Rizobacterien at a rate of four liter/feddan also increased the water productivity. The same trend was obtained by using Delfan at a rate of 200 ppm. Concerning water productivity, Isabella cultivar had higher water productivity 16.7 and 17.2 kg of tomato fruits per cubic meter of irrigation water (m 3 )compared with Milas cultivar which produced15.9 and 16.5 kg tomato fruits per cubic meter of irrigation water for first and second seasons, respectively. Isabella cultivar plus amino acid (Delfan) gave the highest water productivity 19.1 and 19.7 kg of tomato fruits per m3 water for first and second seasons, respectively compared the other treatments
Productive Performance of Tomatoes under Fertigation Management
Tomato is an important global commodity, with high socioeconomic expression in Brazil, due to consumer preference and wide availability of varieties. This work aimed to evaluate the use of solution extractors in the management of fertigation and monitoring of soil salinity, in the production of table tomato cultivars, under a protected environment. The experimental design used was in randomized blocks in a factorial scheme, with four fertigation management in the plots, and two table tomato cultivars in the subplots, repeating five times. Fruit length, fruit diameter, average fruit mass, productivity and water use efficiency were evaluated. The management of fertigation based on the replacement of the electrical conductivity of the soil solution, at levels of 10% and 25% provides tomato fruits with qualitative and quantitative characteristics similar to the conventional production system, with reduction in the consumption of fertilizers, having to cultivate nugget superior agronomic performance.
Acta Horticulturae, 2009
Two experiments were conducted in the spring-summer season of two consecutive years (2005 and 2006) to investigate the possible effect of different fertigation strategies on the water and nutrient (nitrogen) use efficiency of tomato plants grown in closed-loop substrate (rockwool) culture using irrigation water with a NaCl concentration of approx. 9.5 mmol L -1 : A) crop water uptake was compensated with fresh nutrient solution (EC = 2.5 dS m -1 ) and recirculating nutrient solution (RNS) was flushed out whenever EC surpassed 4.5 dS m -1 ; B) EC was maintained at about 3.0 dS m -1 and RNS was flushed out whenever Na concentration exceeded 20 mmol L -1 and the concentration of nitrogen (N) was lower than 1.0 mmol L -1 ; C) as strategy A, but when EC RNS reached 4.5 dS m -1 , crop water consumption was compensated with fresh water only in order to take out N from RNS before discharge. An open system (strategy D) was included in order to verify the possible influence of Na accumulation and (in case of strategies B and C) nutrient depletion on crop performance. In 2005 the plants were grown between early May to late July (85 days in total since planting), whereas in the following year the plants were cultivated for nearly five months, between April and September. In both years, neither crop water uptake nor fruit yield were affected by the method to manage fertigation; however, strategies B and C were more environment-friendly than the others on account of lower N leaching and water use, at least for strategy C. A third experiment was carried out in 2007 (for 117 days between April and July) with tomato plants grown in semi-closed rockwool system using irrigation water of different salinity levels (10 and 20 mmol L -1 NaCl) and following the strategy C previously described with two different degree of oscillation for EC RNS . An EC variation up to 5.0 dS m -1 (with a maximum EC of the recycling water as high as more than 9.0 dS m -1 ) did not produce important effects on both crop yield and fruit quality, which were more affected by the average salinity level in the root zone.
The Effect of Salinity on Fruit Quality and Yield of Cherry Tomatoes
Horticulturae
Hydroponic cultivation of vegetables avoids problems with soil-borne plant pathogens and may allow higher yield. In arid climates and particularly on islands, high concentrations of sodium chloride can be present in the groundwater. For instance, in many sites of Malta, the groundwater contains more than 10 mM sodium chloride. Here we investigated the effects of sodium chloride at levels typically found in Malta on yield, physiology and fruit quality of tomato, the economically most important vegetable. We selected cherry tomatoes since their production is attractive due to their high marketing value. While the yield declined at higher salinity levels tested (17 and 34 mM), the quality increased significantly as indicated by higher total soluble solids and fructose and glucose levels. The type of substrate—coco peat, perlite or Rockwool—had only minor effects. Although the concentration of citric acid and malic acid remained unaffected, the pH dropped by approximately 0.1 unit and t...