An optimum irrigation schedule with aeration for greenhouse tomato cultivations based on entropy evaluation method

Abstract

To balance multiple objectives of high yield by farmers, high quality by customers, and high irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) for sustainable development of agriculture, a two-growing-season study was performed to test the effect of aeration at three irrigation levels (60%, 80%, and 100% of full irrigation) on crop growth, nutrient uptake, yield, IWUE, and fruit quality of tomato. The results showed that compared to the control, aeration significantly increased total dry weight at harvest, total N and K accumulation, which increased tomato yield by 23% and IWUE by 23% (p < 0.05). Yield and IWUE were significantly affected by irrigation with the increasing rate of 20.5% and 14.3% for yield, and with the decreasing rate of 27.7% and 8.6% for IWUE under 100% of full irrigation than that under 60% and 80% of full irrigation, respectively. Aeration positively impacted fruit quality while irrigation had a negative impact (p > 0.05). Based on these indicators, full irrigation with aeration could be an appropriate schedule for greenhouse tomato cultivations by the entropy evaluation method with the comprehensive score of 0.879 and 0.77 for the spring-summer and autumn-winter season, respectively. The result is of great significance to the farmers' or researchers' management of aerated irrigation in greenhouse tomatoes.