FLOWERING AND FRUITING COURSES AND YIELD OF EGGPLANT (SOLANUM MELONGENA L.) PLANTS GROWN IN LYSIMETERS WITH RELATION TO DIFFERENT WATER REGIMENS

To obtain detailed understanding of the response of plants to different water regimens an experiment was carried out to obtain data on the behaviour of eggplant Solanum melongena L., grown in percolation lysimeters, with different soil moisture treatments.

Four plants were transplanted in each of 21 percolation lysimeters previously irrigated to field capacity. Seven soil moisture treatments, replicated three times, were obtained by watering the tanks whenever 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 and 120 mm of evaporation from an "A" Class Pan was reached. There was an unirrigated control. Every day, from the onset of flowering, the four plants in each tank were examined and the number of flowers open, wilted and abscissed counted; the number of fruits which developed, and abscissed was also recorded. Fruits were harvested at maturity and some quality traits measured. During the plant cycle, the water potential of the soil in the tanks was monitored by tensiometers and, indirectly, by gravimetric water content measurements.

The maximum number of flowers per plant occurred with the 40 mm treatment. The percentage of flowers that failed to set was high in all the treatments but a particularly high percentage flowers drop was noted in the high soil water potential treatments. Yields were linearly related to ETa as was the average weight of fruits. A slight reduction in the number of fruits per plant was noted at the highest water potential treatment.

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