ISHS Acta Horticulturae 533: VIII International Symposium on Timing Field Production in Vegetable Crops
TIMING OF NITROGEN APPLICATION INFLUENCES TOMATO (LYCOPERSICON ESCULENTUM MILL.) SEEDLING NITROGEN CONTENT, GROWTH RATES AND BIOMASS PARTITIONING, AND FIELD FRUIT EARLINESS |
| Authors: | S. Nicola, L. Basoccu |
| Keywords: | transplants, pre-plant conditioning, stand establishment, plant nitrogen content |
| Abstract:
Pretransplanting conditioning of seedlings may affect transplant stand establishment. Transplants grown in greenhouse during late-winter and early-spring in Northern Regions develop with suboptimal photoperiod and light intensity conditions. Nitrogen (N) management should be implemented according to seedling growth phase and light conditions. A research was conducted to determine the relationship between N application and timing of N application on the seedling N content, growth rates and biomass partitioning of tomato seedlings and on the field fruit production. ‘Camone’ tomato seedlings were raised in 40-cell trays in greenhouse under two phases of N application (from 0 to 15th day, Phase 1, and from 16th to 31st day, Phase 2) with 2, 4, 8 and 15 mmol l-1 N, in factorial combination with Phase I and Phase 2 of the applications. Although increasing N supply enhanced dry biomass, greater N applications affected more the shoot dry mass when supplied during Phase 1 than Phase 2, and more the root dry mass when supplied during Phase 2 than Phase 1. Total field production was not affected by greenhouse treatments. However, fruit earliness was linearly enhanced by increased N supply during greenhouse transplant growth. The reported research indicated that N fertilization should be limited during the first phase of transplant growth and increased during the second phase, to optimize N utilization by the seedlings. The recommendation would produce seedlings with greater dry biomass, improving transplant stand establishment, without detriment field production. In addition, increasing N supply during transplant production would enhance fruit earliness, regardless of N timing of application. | |
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