Yield, quality and drought sensitivity of tomato to water deficit during different growth stages

Abstract

In areas where the supply of water for irrigation is limited, tomato production is often subject to drought stress. In order to investigate the drought sensitivity of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) yield and quality during different growth stages, field and pot experiments were conducted in a high tunnel in southern China during the 2013 and 2016 growing seasons. The experiments consisted of four treatments. Crops were drip-irrigated to 100 % of field capacity at all growth stages divided into treatment T1 (control) and the treatment group T2, T3 and T4 receiving half the amount of irrigation as T1 when the soil water content reached 70 % of field capacity, the vegetative phase (stage I) T2, the flowering and fruit development phase (stage II) T3, and the fruit ripening phase (stage III) T4. Compared to the control treatment, drought stress at stages II and III caused a decrease in yield of 13 % and 26 %, respectively. Fruit firmness and color index were positively affected by drought stress, while fruit water content and shape index did not show any differences between treatments. Taste and nutritional quality parameters, such as total soluble solids, soluble sugar, organic acids and vitamin C improved in response to limited water supply (p ≤ 0.05). Despite having a negative effect on fruit yield, drought stress applied at stage III tended to enhance fruit quality traits. This study found that applying drought stress at stage I can be a positive management approach as it saves water and has fewer negative effects compared to applying drought stress at the other critical growth stages, thereby minimizing the adverse effects of drought stress.

Sustainable Transfer of Tomato Landraces to Modern Cropping Systems: The Effects of Environmental Conditions and Management Practices on Long-Shelf-Life Tomatoes

“…In our work, water use efficiency ranged from 1.8 to 37.8 kg/m 3 (average: 13.7 kg/m 3 ), values that fall in the range of values reported in the literature (e.g., 35-50 [65,66], 9-16 [67], 13-33 [68], or 25-50 kg/m 3 [12]). These results show that farmers can improve the WUE of long shelf life tomato cropping systems.…”

“…Low-input management practices maximize WUE, and significant progress towards optimal yield/WUE relationships can be achieved by breeding genotypes adapted to these environments. In these farming systems, various authors have shown that controlled water deficit strategies can substantially improve WUE in exchange for a slight decrease yield, which is however accompanied by an increase in fruit quality parameters [65,[69][70][71]. On the other hand, under "conventional" commercial conditions, it is crucial to adjust irrigation and fertilization doses to the requirements of the crop to attain good WUE.…”

Study on the Suitable Irrigation Amount of Microporous Membrane Water-Fertilizer Integration of Tomato in Spring in Plastic Greenhouse

“…In addition, Microporous membrane irrigation was beneficial to the accumulation of N, P and K in tomato plants in this research. Previous studies have found that the accumulation of nutrient elements in plants was often positively correlated with the growth of plants (Cui et al, 2020;Jiang et al, 2019). This indicated that the treatment of microporous membrane irrigation could improve the soil moisture content, increase the nutrient absorption of tomato plants and then promote the growth of tomato.…”

Physiological and Agronomic Responses of Processing Tomatoes to Deficit Irrigation at Critical Stages in a Semi-Arid Environment

“…Close positive relationships between the leaf transpiration and stomatal conductance measured at early flowering vs. the number of flowers produced indicated how the plant water status at flowering greatly affected its reproductive behavior (the higher the leaf transpiration and stomatal conductance, the greater the number of flowers produced). Indeed, flowering has been reported as the most sensitive stage of tomatoes to water stress [25,26]. Torrecillas et al [27] noticed that, differently than what happened in wild types, plants of domesticated tomatoes promptly reacted to temporary rewatering after suffering a prolonged period of water stress through a fast stomata reopening.…”