ISHS Acta Horticulturae 260: International Symposium on Growth and Yield Control in Vegetable Production
DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH OF A COMMERCIALLY GROWN TOMATO CROP. |
| Author: | A.N.M. de Koning |
| Abstract:
Weekly measurements of 6 plants of a commercially grown tomato crop (cv.'Calypso') gave an overview of crop development, growth and total performance during an entire cropping season (January to November). 30.5 Trusses were achieved before stopping the plants. Mean flowering rate and mean harvest rate were 0.92 and 0.96 trusses per week, respectively. Total "above-ground" growth was 24.5 kg fresh weight per plant. Fruit yield was 20.6 kg/plant (46.8 kg/m2), 84 % of the total growth. Per plant 280 fruits were harvested. Cumulative fruit yield plotted versus cumulative photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) above the crop canopy, showed a light-utilization efficiency of 41.5 g fresh weight/MJ PAR, which is in good agreement with data published by others. To be able to calculate weekly growth, plant weight was measured with a weigh-clock. Maximum plant weight of 4.3 kg was reached in June. Above-ground growth varied from 50 to 160 g fresh weight/plant.day, and was highly correlated with the PAR received by the crop. A linear function passing through the origin in a plot with growth versus PAR, representing a 1% increase of growth for 1% more light, had a slope of 43.9 g above ground fresh weight/MJ PAR. A better fit was achieved by the rectangular hyperbola; Growth = 600 * (PAR - 0.515) / (6.73 + PAR) g fresh weight/m2.day, with PAR in MJ/m2.day. | |
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