Effect of deficit irrigation on the productivity and characteristics of tomato

Abstract

In order to assess the effect of water irrigation deficit during season on yield and mechanical damage of processing tomato, an open field experiment was carried out in two seasons 2010/2011-2011/2012. Four irrigation treatments were studied: (ET1: 1 time potential crop evapotranspiration (ET c), ET2: 0.9 ETc, ET3: 0.8 ET c and 0.7 ETc, ET4). The study investigated the yield and mechanical damage in packing cage under four levels of water requirements. Numerous mechanical impacts on fruit occurred with resulting mechanical damages of 15.9, 9.9, 7.1, and 9.5% for treatments ET1, ET2, ET3, and ET4, respectively. Total productions of tomato were 72.93, 70.43, 68.84, and 61.76 ton/ha, but marketable productions of tomato were 61.33, 63.46, 63.95, and 55.89 ton/ha for treatments ET1, ET2, ET3 and ET4, respectively. The bruised productions of tomatoes were 11.6, 6.97, 4.89, and 5.87 ton/ha for treatments ET1, ET2, ET3 and ET4, respectively. The net profit values for treatments ET 1, ET2, ET3 and ET4 were 27395.6, 27519.0, 27387.0, and 24201.4 $/ha, respectively. The amounts of water saved from ET2 and ET3 were 163.5 and 327 mm, respectively. The amount of water saved can be used to provide other areas to increase the production and thereby increase the water use efficiency.