Influence of watering on the yield and cracking of cherry, fresh-market and processing tomatoes

Abstract

This two-year study (1994–95) analyses the effects of different irrigation treatments (using a drip irrigation system and furrow irrigation) and the subsequent varying degrees of soil water tension on both the productive response of tomato and the appearance of fruit cracking. Three cultivars were tested in these experiments: Evita 52®, a cherry tomato, Aguilas®, a fresh-market tomato and Guay®, a processing tomato. The fresh-market cultivar and that of the cherry type were grown in greenhouses using a drip irrigation system. The processing cultivar was grown under a floating cover with furrow irrigation. The irrigation treatments for both years were based on crop evapotranspiration (ETc) and their values were 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 ETc for the first year, and 0.4, 0.8 and 1.2 ETc for the second year for the cultivars tested in greenhouses with the drip irrigation system. The cultivar grown outdoors received furrow irrigation with the values 0.5 and 1.0 ETc for the first year and 0.4 and 0.8 ETc for the second year. Soil water was measured with tensiometers during the entire treatment period. Higher rates of irrigation increased yields in two of the three cultivars. Longitudinal cracking was the type most frequently observed in these experiments. In both years of the furrow irrigation experiments, the incidence of cracking was high when large fluctuations of the soil matric potential were induced after having maintained high negative values of this parameter during several previous days. In the experiments using drip irrigation, cracking was limited, but increased when high fluctuations in the soil matric potential were induced after having maintained high negative values of matric potential for several previous days, as was the case with furrow irrigation. Differences in cultivar susceptibility to fruit cracking were detected in the experiments. More cracking occurred during periods of higher temperatures.