Yield and fruit quality of several wild and domestic tomato cultivars grown in an environmentally controlled agricultural facility (plant factory)

The advantages of a closed-type agricultural facility (plant factory) utilizing artificial lighting in a highly controlled environment are stable plant productivity, year-round continuous production, and pesticide-free harvest.
We conducted this study to find a tomato with a desirable phenotype for yield and fruit in a plant factory controlled under low light intensity.
Fruit yield and quality, such as content of vitamin C, soluble solids, lycopene, and β-carotene, were determined using wild tomato and domesticated tomato cultivars.
The following species were used: wild tomato species Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium accession LS1115 (fruits typical red color; small cherries 1-1.5 cm in diameter; large internodes; stems growing horizontally); monogenic mutant bu (bushy L. esculentum, internodes shortened, with excessive production of side branches introduced by bu gene); domesticated tomato (L. esculentum) cultivars for fresh use, Tiny Tim Red and Rezina (self-topping or -pruning (sp) type; plant habit determinate; cherries 2-3 cm in diameter); and domesticated tomato cultivars Lycoball and Natsunoshun, which contain the introduced Og^c and hp genes for increased carotenoids and are used for processing, especially for juice.
All species were grown under fluorescent lamps with a 16 or 24 h photoperiod and a light intensity of 180 μmol m^-2 s^-1. Under a 16 h photoperiod, fruit yield and the number and size of fruit in all species were equivalent to those of field-grown plants.
Under a 24 h photoperiod, the content of vitamin C and soluble solids (Brix%) in the fruits of LS1115 and bu were higher than other species.
LS1115 and bu tomato will thus be useful germplasm resources for cultivation in plant factories.

International Symposium on New Technologies and Management for Greenhouses – GreenSys2015

K. Ohashi-Kaneko, W. Imai, T. Tabuchi, T. Kobayashi, H. Watanabe

artificial light, β-carotene, germplasm resources, lycopene, soluble solids contents (Brix%), vitamin C

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2017.1170.127