CONTAINER SIZE EFFECT ON THE PLANT PRODUCTION AND PRECOCITY IN TOMATO (SOLANUM LYCOPERSICUM L.)

C. A. Bouzo, J. C. Favaro

Abstract: This work compares the growth and yield of tomato crop from the study of different plant development stages and container sizes. Two experiments were conducted in order to examine the effects of container size during spring-summer of the years 2012 and 2013. In the first experiment was conducted in a greenhouse to measure the effect on the initial yield. A second experiment was performed outdoors to incorporate the effect of plant age on the development and yield. Commercial hybrid tomato seeds (Solanum lycopersicum L.) of the cv. ‘Tauro’ were dry sown in containers of different volumes (20, 40, 70 and
350 mL) and with variable transplant times (14, 21, 28 and 35 days). We found that an increase in the container size results in plants of higher size, precocity and yield. The physical restriction of root by the use of containers with low volumes (20 mL) severely limited the plant growth beyond the 14 first days after sowing, being worse with increasing plant age. From an age of 28 days, in all the treatments except for a volume of 250 mL, the fruit yield diminished from the values found without container size restrictions.

Keywords: maturity; root restriction; rooting volume; seedling age; yield

Date published: 2017-09-12