Effect of a Saline Nutritional Regime on Tomato Fruit Yield and on Enhancement of Fruit Quality

Abstract

The effect of a saline nutritional regime on tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) fruit yield and fruit quality enhancement for five cultivars (CLN 425, Pearson, Napoli, Hymar, and Sierra) was studied. The saline nutrient treatment consisted of (i) a control. Hoagland's solution (EC=2.5 mScm -1), (ii) Hoagland's solution + 50 mM NaCl (EC=7.46 mScm-1), (iii) Hoagland's solution + 50 mM NaCl + 4 mM K2SO4 + 2 mM H3PO4 (EC=8.31mScm-1), (iv) same as in (iii)3 but applied when plants were at 50% flowering, then the plants were irrigated with Hoagland’s solution as in the control, and (v) same as in (iii) until the plans were at 5096 flowering, thereafter NaCl concentration was reduced to 25mM (EC=5.87 mscm-1). Plans were seven weeks old at the start of the saline treatments. Each plant was in PVC cylindrical pots (15 cm diameter and 27 cm height) containing washed quartz sand. Fruits were harvested once weekly for ten weeks at incipient red. The control gave a higher fruit  yield than the saline treatments. However, the tomato fruits from thesaline treatments had higher titratable acidity, higher total soluble solids, and higher total solid indicating better quality of the fruits than those from the control. Of the five cultivars studied, Hymar had the highest fruit yield followed by Pearson. Hymar’s quality was also highest, followed by CLN 425. Napoli was the most susceptible to salinity and Sierra had the lowest quality.