Hort. Environ. Biotechnol. 53(2):102-107. 2012. DOI 10.1007/s13580-012-0103-6
ISSN (p rint) : 2211-3452 ISSN (online) : 2211-3460
Research Report
Yield and Fruit Quality of Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) Cultivars Established at Different Planting Bed Size and Growing Substrates Binod Prasad Luitel, Prakash Babu Adhikari, Cheol Soo Yoon, and Won Hee Kang
*
Department of Horticulture, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 200-701, Korea *Corresponding author:
[email protected]
Received November 13, 2011 / Revised February 1, 2012 / Accepted February 28, 2012 GKorean Society for Horticultural Science and Springer 2012
Abstract. This study was carried out to investigate the yield and fruit quality of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) cultivars using different plant bed width and growing substrates in Hwacheon Farm, 2011. Transplants of tomato cultivars ‘Campari’, ‘Temptation’, ‘Annamay’, and ‘Adoration’ were planted at 20 cm, 40 cm, 60 cm, and 80 cm bed width and same cultivars were grown at cocopeat, rockwool and masato in early July, 2011 in a greenhouse. Planting bed size significantly affected the fruit number, marketable fruit number (%) and weight (g), and total yield (g) per plant. Plants grown at 60 cm bed width yielded the highest fruit number (22.4), marketable fruit number (56.0%), marketable fruit weight (356.8 g) and total yield (564.5 g) per plant. Bed width had no significant effect on fruit size and quality characters. Plants grown in cocopeat produced the highest marketable fruit number (56.2%) per plant and yielded the greatest (445.6 g) marketable yield per plant. Plants grown in cocopeat substrate produced higher fruit number (5.2%) and total yield (0.7%) than that of rockwool substrate. Fruit size and fruit quality characters showed no significant differences within growing substrates. Hence, planting the tomato cultivars in single row at 60 cm bed width is better approach to optimize the production space in greenhouse and cocopeat is recommended as potential growing substrates for tomato cultivation to increase its yield and fruit quality characters. Additional key words: cocopeat, growing substrates, masato, rockwool, transplants
Introduction Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is an economically important vegetable crop in the world. In Korea, tomato has been widely grown popular income generating crop and Korea is also the largest supplier of fresh tomato in Japanese market. The estimated tomato production area was 6,144 ha with the total production of 408,170 ton (MFAFF, 2008). Tomato production has been increased in recent years and Korea is focused on fresh tomato production in greenhouse to encourage the export market. Hence, it is necessary to explore the production technology in tomato as well as to establish its cultivation as a profitable enterprise for tomato growers. Yield of tomato is a complex character which depends on many factors. Planting bed size and spacing are the most fundamental cultural factors that can influence the morphological development of tomato cultivars, fruit yield and quality characters. The number of rows in planting bed and bed width also depend on the production purpose, soil fertility,
and plant structure (Awas et al., 2010). Many studies have been undertaken on plant spacing (Awas et al., 2010; Mantur and Patil, 2008), bed height and width in tomato (Kovach et al., 1983) and pepper (Luitel et al., 2010) cultivars but there has been little published concerning the bed width effect on the yield of tomato cultivars. Tomato cultivation in proper bed width/spacing using locally available masato may be one of the possible approaches to increase the tomato production in peri-urban areas of Korea. Tomato is commercially grown either in single row in open field or double row in greenhouse in Hwacheon but studies on single row management of tomato cultivars using different bed width using masato under the greenhouse cultivation have not undertaken yet. In Korea, a wide range of soilless culture techniques have been developed and commercially introduced for intensive tomato production particularly in greenhouse. Commercial growers use either cocopeat or rockwool as growing substrate in greenhouse for tomato production. The properties of growing substrates exhibit direct and indirect effect on plant
Hort. Environ. Biotechnol. 53(2):102-107. 2012.
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Table 1. Some physical properties of the different growing substrates before planting the tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.). Substrates
BD (gᨿcm-3)
pH
EC (dsᨿm-1)
Porosity (%)
WHC (%)
Cocopeat
0.16
6.6
2.7
58.0
90.5
Rockwool
0.08
7.1
2.0
92.0
52.5
Masato
1.4
6.8
2.4
38.0
31.0
BD, bulk density; EC, electrical conductivity; WHC, water holding capacity.
physiology and production (Cantliffe et al., 2001). The physical properties of growing substrates concern with aeration, drainage and water retention capacity (Blanc, 1987; Cabrera, 2003; Lemaire et al., 1989). Several studies have been dealt with different growing substrates (Fandi et al., 2008; Ghehsareh et al., 2011; Mahamud and Manisah, 2007; Sirin and Sevgican, 1999) on tomato production but most of the growing media are mixture of peat moss, pine bark or a mixture of peat moss and pine bark with perlite and vermiculite (Bragg, 1990). Rockwool is not biodegradable, inorganic and non-renewable resource (Allaire et al., 2005). In contrast, cocopeat is an organic and renewable resource (Mahamud and Manisah, 2007). Masato is a locally available inorganic, simple and cheap growing substrate. The physical properties of these growing substrates may influence the yield potential of tomato cultivars. In this context, it is imperative to examine the effectiveness of different growing substrate with the production potential of tomato cultivars. In Korea, ‘Campari’, ‘Temptation’, ‘Annamay’, and ‘Adoration’ are commercially grown popular F1 hybrid cultivars and these are introduced from Europe. All cultivars are indeterminate in growth habit and cocktail type, and truss of all varieties are uniform shape. Furthermore, vegetative growth, fruit shape, size and quality are varied among the cultivars. Cultural practices may affect the production potential of tomato cultivars and therefore, this study was investigated to determine how different bed size and growing substrates affect the yield and fruit quality of the tomato cultivars.
Materials and Methods 3ODQW 0DWHULDO This study was conducted in Hwacheon (38º 6ƍ N and 127º 31ƍ E) Research Farm, South Korea and the seeds of tomato cultivars ‘Campari’, ‘Temptation’, ‘Annamay’, and ‘Adoration’ were received from Mifko Co. Ltd., Korea. Seeds were sown in plug trays filled with horticultural mix soil (Seoul Bio. Co. Ltd.) in the last week of April, 2011. For the transplants production, cuttings (§ 20 cm in height with an average of 5 mm stem diameter) were taken from all the cultivars and rooted in plastic tray filled with masato soil, and transplants were received daily irrigation until the development of good
root system. *UHHQKRXVH ([SHULPHQW Two sets of experiments were conducted simultaneously under the same climate-controlled greenhouse. For the first experiment, planting beds were arranged parallelly in northsouth direction and bed width of 20 cm, 40 cm, 60 cm, and 80 cm were constructed by laying the wooden plank at both sides of the bed. Masato was filled at each bed and finally, black polythene was mulched over it. The bed height and bed to bed distance were maintained at 8 cm and 70 cm, respectively. For the second experiment, three different substrates were evaluated; (1) Cocopeat slab (95 cm × 15 cm × 8 cm), (2) Rockwool slab (97 cm × 15 cm × 8 cm) and (3) Masato. Cocopeat and rockwool slabs were placed over Styrofoam slab (177 cm × 25 cm × 5 cm) and masato at 60 cm bed width were arranged in the same place and direction. In the first experiment, well rooted transplants that were § 30 cm in height with an average of 5 mm stem diameter were set by hand in single rows at the spacing’s of 60 cm between the plants. For the second experiment, both slabs were prewetted 48 h before planting. The rockwool cubes (10 cm × 9.5 cm × 6.5 cm) were put on the top of the substrate and transplants were fixed in cubes. Planting was carried out on July 7 for both experiments. For both experiments, fifteen plants were planted at each treatment in randomized complete block design with three replications. Drip irrigation was supplied with a standard nutrient solution to the plants and recommended cultural practices for tomato were followed throughout these studies. Bulk density (BD), porosity and water holding of substrates were measured according to the methods described by Verdonck and Gabriels (1992). The pH was measured using electronic pH meter and electrical conductivity (EC) by a conductive meter. The physical properties of growing substrate were analyzed at the beginning of the study and are presented in Table 1. 2EVHUYDWLRQ DQG 6WDWLVWLFDO $QDO\VHV For both experiments, plant height measured at 80 days after planting in the field. Fruits were harvested twice when they turned into light red to red stage at 80 and 90 days after the plant establishment in the field. Marketable characteristics
104
Binod Prasad Luitel, Prakash Babu Adhikari, Cheol Soo Yoon, and Won Hee Kang
for tomato were defined as; uniform color, good shape, good health state and weight greater than 35 g whereas misshapen, rotten, cracked fruits and weight lesser than 35 g were categorized into non-marketable. Observations on fruit characters were taken randomly on five fruits. Fruit weight (g) was determined by weighing in digital electrical balance. Total soluble content (ºBrix) was measured by a hand-held refractometer (Atago, Japan) and fruit length (mm), fruit width (mm) and pericarp thickness (mm) were measured by vernier caliper. The data from both experiments were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SAS program (SAS Institute, Cary, NC) and significant mean separations were performed using Duncan’s Multiple Range Test (DMRT). Pearson correlation analysis was done using SAS software (SAS Institute, Cary, NC) in yield and fruit quality characters in tomato cultivars established at different substrates.
Results and Discussion (IIHFW RI %HG 6L]H:LGWK RQ )UXLW
