Plant Growth, Yields and Fruit Quality of Processing Tomato (Solanum lycopersicon L.) as Affected by the Combination of Biodegradable Mulching and Digestate

Abstract

In order to improve environmental sustainability of tomato cultivation and the quality of the harvested fruits, we tested (a) the digestate from anaerobic fermentation of buffalo slurries as partial replacing of NP fertilizers and (b) the biodegradable mulching to improve the nutrients and water availability for crop and to control weeds. In 2017–2018, a private farm of Campania region hosted a trial with four treatments deriving from the combination of two experimental factors: (1) fertilization strategy (standard farm NPK fertilization vs. digestate combined with reduced rates of NP fertilizers); (2) soil mulching (biodegradable mulching vs. no mulching). We measured fresh and dry aboveground biomass (fruits and stem + leaves), yields, fruits quality. Results pointed out: (1) combination of digestate with reduced rates of NP fertilizers did not decrease yields compared to complete mineral fertilization; (2) yields were improved in 2017 by synergic effects of soil mulching and combination of digestate and reduced rates of NP fertilizers; (3) in both the years, digestate combined with reduced rates of NP fertilizers and soil mulching determined the significant improving of fruits quality parameters interesting the processing industry, namely, fruit color, and firmness, total soluble solids, titratable acidity while antioxidant activity, contents of ascorbic acid, polyphenols, flavonoids, and lycopene showed responses variable with year or cultivar.

Biodegradable Mulching Film vs. Traditional Polyethylene: Effects on Yield and Quality of San Marzano Tomato Fruits

“…As regards the total soluble solids of tomato fruits, mulching elicited almost a 10% increase compared to bare soil; our data are consistent with those of Morra and colleagues [28] who recorded a significant increase in TSS of fruits of plants grown on biodegradable mulching film compared to bare soil (about +5.0% and 9.0% in two experimental years). Contrarily, Mendoca et al [21], who compared six different colored plastic mulching films, a rice straw biodegradable film, and soil not covered, did not record a difference in TSS.…”

Agro-Environmental Sustainability of Anaerobic Digestate Fractions in Intensive Cropping Systems: Insights Regarding the Nitrogen Use Efficiency and Crop Performance

“…Liquid and solid digestate fractions led to crop performances (e.g., dry biomass, plant height, LAI) that were consistently comparable to those of mineral fertilizers. On the one hand, this confirms the good potentialities of by-products as digestate for N delivering and maintaining crop performances [2,20,21,[36][37][38]. On the other hand, this may suggest that the adoption of different N rates is more suitable compared with adopting an equal rate when different fertilizers (e.g., organic and mineral) are involved, in order to homogenize crop performances and evaluate the cropping system agro-environmental sustainability in a holistic way.…”

Postharvest Quality and Storability of Organically versus Conventionally Grown Tomatoes: A Comparative Approach

“…At day zero, the OTRef (53.55 N) showed the highest value of firmness compared to other samples; however, the decrement was seen gradually over the period of storage at both ambient and refrigerated conditions. Additionally, loss of firmness was observed more in the case of Morra et al [22] reported implementation of organic soil amendments such as buffalo slurry resulted in increased firmness of the tomato fruit.…”