2RESUMO -Realizou-se um experimento para avaliar o crescimento e partição de assimilados de plantas de tomate cultivadas sob cobertura ou não do solo com polipropileno preto. O delineamento experimental foi em blocos casualizados completos, com parcelas subdivididas e quatro repetições. Nas parcelas, os tratamentos se constituíram de dois sistemas de cultivo (com e sem cobertura do solo polipropileno preto, TNT) e nas subparcelas, as épocas de amostragem das plantas: 14; 28; 42; 56; 70; 84; 98 e 112 dias após o transplantio, DAT. Foram avaliados: acúmulo de massa seca nas folhas (MSF), ramos (MSR), inflorescências (MSI), frutos (MSFR) e total (MST), área foliar (AF), razão de área foliar (RAF), taxa assimilatória líquida (TAL), taxa de crescimento absoluto (TCA) e taxa de crescimento relativo (TCR ABSTRACT -An experiment was carried out to evaluate the growth and division of treated tomato plants grown in soil covered or not with black polypropylene. The experimental design was of randomised complete blocks, in split plots and four replications. In the plots, the treatments consisted of two systems (with and without a black polypropylene TNT covering) and in the subplots, plant-sampling times of 14, 28, 42, 56, 70, 84, 98 and 112 days after transplanting (DAT). The following were evaluated: dry matter accumulation in the leaves (DML), the branches (DMB), the inflorescences (DMI), the fruits (DMFR) total dry mass (TDM), the leaf area (LA), leaf area ratio (LAR), net assimilation rate (NAR), absolute growth rate (AGR) and relative growth rate (RGR). The ground cover did not influence the DML, DMB, DMI DMFR or TDM as well as LA, LAR, NAR, AGR or RGR. The fruits behaved as preferential drain for the plant, reaching the end of the cycle with 47.77% of the total dry mass accumulation. respectively, while the RGR and NAR decreased throughout the evaluation period.