GROWING PROCESSING TOMATOES WITH LESS TILLAGE IN CALIFORNIA

California’s Central Valley (CV) produces upwards of 90% of the processing tomatoes grown in the United States (California Agricultural Resource Directory 1999). From 1996 through 1998, CV production, which includes both the San Joaquin (SJV) and Sacramento valleys, averaged 9,603,028 tons on about 284,333 acres annually (California Agricultural Resource Directory 1999). The productive capacity of this region is achieved by long, warm, and dry growing seasons, vast and efficient irrigation systems, and well-developed integrated pest management systems (UCIPM 1998). In the SJV, tomatoes are typically grown in rotations with cotton, garlic, onions, melons, and wheat, while in the Sacramento Valley, corn, safflower, wheat, and edible dry beans are commonly in rotation with tomatoes.

Tillage is an integral aspect of current processing tomato systems in California.
A series of soil conditioning operations are typically used before and during a tomato season for seedbed and soil profile preparation, weed management, and to facilitate irrigation (Table 1). An average of 9 to 11 tillage-related passes are routinely performed during the fall–spring period to prepare the soil for summer cropping.
These operations require considerable energy, equipment, and labor, and typically account for 18–24% of overall production costs in processing tomato systems.

VII International Symposium on the Processing Tomato

J.P. Mitchell, W.T. Lanini, E.M. Miyao, P.N. Brostrom, E.V. Herrero, J. Jackson, E. Roncoroni, S.R. Temple

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2001.542.45