Alternate partial root-zone drying irrigation improves fruit quality in tomatoes

Y. Sun, Peter Engelund Holm, Fulai Liu*

*Corresponding author for this work
20 Citations (Scopus)
1643 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Alternate partial root-zone drying (PRD) irrigation and deficit irrigation (DI) are water-saving irrigation strategies. Here, comparative effects of PRD and DI on fruit quality of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) were investigated. The results showed that the irrigation treatments had no effect on tomato yield but significantly affected several organic and mineral quality attributes of the fruits. Compared to DI, PRD significantly increased the fruit concentrations of Ca and Mg, and fruit juice concentrations of total soluble solid, glucose, fructose, citric and malic acid, P, K and Mg. It is concluded that PRD is better than DI in terms of improving fruit quality, and could be a promising management strategy for simultaneous increase of water use efficiency and fruit quality in tomatoes.

Original languageEnglish
JournalHorticultural Science
Volume41
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)185-191
Number of pages7
ISSN0862-867X
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Keywords

  • Minerals
  • Organic acids
  • Sugars
  • Water deficit

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