Fruit Quality and Yield of Tomato as Influenced by Rain Shelters and Deficit Irrigation

This study was conducted to determine the effects of the combined use of rain shelters (RS) and deficit irrigation (DI) on tomato yield and quality characteristics. Two experiments with different treatments were conducted in the southern China during the growing season in ۲۰۱۱ and ۲۰۱۲. The crops were irrigated to field capacity once average soil water content at the ۰-۶۰ cm layer in the treatment decreased to ۸۰% of field capacity under open-field (T۱, the control) and RS (T۲), and ۳۰, ۴۰, and ۵۰% decreased water of T۲ as treatments T۳, T۴, and T۵, respectively. The results showed that T۲ increased the yield and irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) by ۱۳ and ۱۱.۵% in the two years, and improved fruit firmness (FF), total soluble solids (TSS), soluble sugar (SS), and vitamin C (VC) compared to T۱. Under RS conditions, DI reduced the yield, but increased IWUE of tomato relative to T۲ from ۲۵ to ۵۲% in ۲۰۱۱, and from ۲۶ to ۴۱% in ۲۰۱۲. The effects of DI on fruit quality were generally the inverse of those on fruit yield. FF, TSS, SS, VC, organic acid, and color index were positively affected by DI. With regard to the rank of comprehensive quality index (CQI) calculated by the analysis hierarchy process and modified technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution, it exhibited good fitness to the rank of single quality attributes. The highest CQI was obtained in treatment T۴ in ۲۰۱۱, and T۳ in ۲۰۱۲.

کلیدواژه ها:

Deficit irrigation ، Quality characteristics ، Rain shelters ، Tomato ، Yield