Articles
Two seasons of deficit irrigation of processing tomato in Hungary
Article number
1335_83
Pages
657 – 664
Language
English
Abstract
Successful processing tomato production is possible only under irrigated conditions on its production area.
Water savings can be achieved if we apply smart irrigation strategies such as deficit irrigation.
We cannot reach the potential maximum yields this way, but soluble solids (SS) content will rise and provide better fruit quality.
The goal is to reach adequate SS yields and save irrigation water.
Open field experiments on clay-loam soil were conducted with UG812J F1 in 2017 and 2018 under different water supply levels.
Irrigation water amounts were calculated by AquaCrop. 50% (I50) and 100% (I100) of crop evapotranspiration (ETc) were compared to unirrigated control (C) in both years and 75% of ETc (I75) was added to the experiment in 2018. We measured the above-ground biomass, fruit yield, SS content, SS yield and water use efficiency (WUE) of tomato.
The highest biomass (139.3 t ha‑1) and marketable fruit yield (94.3 t ha‑1) were reached in 2018 in the I100 treatment.
The highest SS content (6.1 °Brix) was reached in the control in both years.
Significant differences were found between treatments in marketable fruit yield, SS content and SS yield in 2017 but not in WUE. Differences were not significant in several cases in 2018. Water supply affected the biomass, marketable fruit yield, SS content and SS yield significantly according to the results of the two years.
The highest coefficient of determination was found between the SS yield and water supply (R2=0.83). There was weaker relationship between SS content and water supply (R2=0.73) caused by the low SS content in the I100 in the two years.
There was no significant difference between the SS yield of the I75 and I100 treatments in 2018. Thus, the same level of SS yield was reached while 25% of irrigation water was saved.
Water savings can be achieved if we apply smart irrigation strategies such as deficit irrigation.
We cannot reach the potential maximum yields this way, but soluble solids (SS) content will rise and provide better fruit quality.
The goal is to reach adequate SS yields and save irrigation water.
Open field experiments on clay-loam soil were conducted with UG812J F1 in 2017 and 2018 under different water supply levels.
Irrigation water amounts were calculated by AquaCrop. 50% (I50) and 100% (I100) of crop evapotranspiration (ETc) were compared to unirrigated control (C) in both years and 75% of ETc (I75) was added to the experiment in 2018. We measured the above-ground biomass, fruit yield, SS content, SS yield and water use efficiency (WUE) of tomato.
The highest biomass (139.3 t ha‑1) and marketable fruit yield (94.3 t ha‑1) were reached in 2018 in the I100 treatment.
The highest SS content (6.1 °Brix) was reached in the control in both years.
Significant differences were found between treatments in marketable fruit yield, SS content and SS yield in 2017 but not in WUE. Differences were not significant in several cases in 2018. Water supply affected the biomass, marketable fruit yield, SS content and SS yield significantly according to the results of the two years.
The highest coefficient of determination was found between the SS yield and water supply (R2=0.83). There was weaker relationship between SS content and water supply (R2=0.73) caused by the low SS content in the I100 in the two years.
There was no significant difference between the SS yield of the I75 and I100 treatments in 2018. Thus, the same level of SS yield was reached while 25% of irrigation water was saved.
Authors
S. Takács, T. Bíró
Keywords
soluble solids, water saving, smart irrigation, fruit quality
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