NUTRITIONAL STUDIES WITH PROCESSING TOMATO GROWN IN AEROPONICS

Authors:	P.R. Johnstone, M.A. Nichols, K.J. Fisher, J. Reid
Keywords:	Fertigation, aeroponics, nutrient uptake, dry matter accumulation, dry matter partitioning, yield, quality, Lycopersicon esculentum
Abstract: Sustainable nutrient management strategies of any commercial crop need to be based on reliable indictors of mineral nutrient uptake and dry weight partitioning throughout the growth and development. Therefore there is merit in determining optimum mineral nutrient uptake using techniques that offer more effective manipulation of nutrient levels at the root surface. This study used aeroponics to investigate nutrient uptake and subsequent growth responses in processing tomato. The differences in nutritional regimes used (L = 0.7ms·cm^-1; H = 2.0ms·cm^-1) were insufficient to cause significant variation in fresh fruit weight and fruit number. High mineral nutrition (H = 2.0ms·cm^-1) did however significantly increase vegetative growth (LDW and SDW) from 50 days (P<0.05). There was evidence to suggest that these fruit were of higher quality (% solids and K content) to those grown under low nutrition (L = 0.7ms·cm^-1). It was suggested that yield was sink limited. Results from this study are currently being field-tested to develop a more sustainable approach to drip fertigation in production of this important processing crop.
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