A Saline Irrigation Regime for Improving Tomato Fruit Quality Without Reducing Yield

Abstract

Tomato ( Lycopersicon esculentum Mill ‘FC111’) plants were dripirrigated with two different concentrations of diluted seawater (3 or 6 dS·m −1 ) applied at appearance of the first true leaf (early) or at first breaker fruit (late) stages of plant development. In general, salinity improved flavor and increased percent total soluble solids and sugar concentration. It also reduced color flaws, thus improving the overall quality of fruit. Shelf life was not affected by saline treatments, whereas the yield and fruit size were generally lower than those of fruit from the control treatment. The most important findings were that the overall yield of plants irrigated with the low concentration of saline water at the late stage of development was not significantly different from that of control plants; export quality yield was the same, while fruit quality was still significantly better than that of the control. The use of saline water for quality improvement of tomato fruit grown on sand dunes under glasshouse conditions is thus feasible.