Effect of reduced irrigation on flowering, fruit set and yield of indeterminate tomato

Abstract

Drought stress has become an important limiting factor for tomato growth and yield. To evaluate the effect of water stress on the productivity nine tomato genotypes were grown in a field at the Maritsa Vegetable Crops Research Institute under two watering regimes-optimum and 50% reduced. Flower number, fruit number, fruit weight and flower abortion rate were measured. The studied tomato genotypes showed different behavior in response to drought stress. A decrease of flower number, fruit number and fruit weight from 2nd to 5th trusses was observed in scarcity. Water stress reduced the flower number by 25% and fruit number by 58% compared to the control plants. The highest reduction of the fruit weight of 76.1% and 78.3% respectively was registered in the 4th and 5th trusses.