Tomato fruit yield and evapotranspiration in the conditions of South Serbia

N. Deletic, M. Aksic, N. Gudzic, S. Gudzic, S. Stojkovic

Abstract: Water is a limited agricultural resource, so this study has been related to rational use of water in the intensive tomato growing technology. The two-year investigation was carried out by a biological procedure – through field trials in the conditions with irrigation of tomato hybrid Amati F1, on alluvium soil type, in the river valley of Southern Morava, near Nish. The experiments were set in random complete block design with four replications, where three irrigation variants were involved (SWP of 20 kPa, 30 kPa, 40 kPa) together with the unirrigated control. Observing both investigation years, the highest fruit yield was reached at the variant with SWP of 30 kPa, while in variants with higher (SWP of 20 kPa) and lower (SWP of 40 kPa) soil moisture fruit yield decreased. The greatest tomato fruit yield was observed when the average water consumption for ETP amounted 584 mm, so this value could be regarded as tomato’s demand for water in south Serbia. The highest values of WUE and IWUE for tomato were reached in the variant with SWP of 30 kPa, meaning rational water consumption was enabled at this SWP value. The study results have shown that, using tensiometer, tomato irrigation regime can be successfully kept at SWP of 30 kPa, on alluvium soil type in south Serbia.

Keywords: evapotranspiration; fruit yield; soil water potential; tomato

Date published: 2019-10-03