ISHS Acta Horticulturae 807: International Symposium on Strategies Towards Sustainability of Protected Cultivation in Mild Winter Climate
NUTRIENT UPTAKE OF TOMATO GROWN UNDER PROTECTED CULTIVATION |
| Authors: | C. Leonardi, D. Scuderi, E. Caturano, F. Giuffrida |
| Keywords: | plant nutrition, Lycopersicum esculentum Mill., cultivar, intensive ecosystem |
| Abstract:
Protected cultivations are characterised by a high input of production means (chemical, plastic, fertilisers, etc.). As far as fertilisers is concerned, a great variability in terms of inputs have been recently pointed out in one of the most representative greenhouse area of Italy; this testifies the scarce importance that is devoted at farm level to the optimisation of plant nutrition and to the reduction of pollution due to fertilisation excess. On the other hand the information available in the literature is out of date because concerning growing conditions different from those typical of mild winter climate greenhouse cultivation and dealing with genotypes not used anymore. In relation to the above we carried out a research aimed at quantifying nutrient uptake of different tomato cultivars grown under commercial conditions during out of season greenhouse cultivation in Sicily region. The results of the research showed that nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium uptake followed dry matter accumulation; as expected, at the end of growing cycle great differences (>100%) were observed among the considered cultivars in terms of crop nutrient uptake (197 - 398 kg ha-1 for N, 89 - 196 kg ha-1 for P2O5, 346 - 731 kg ha-1 K2O). Referring the uptakes to yield (kg t-1) the variability was narrower. The mean value of the considered conditions was 3.7 kg t-1 for N, 1.9 kg t-1 for P2O5, 7.1 kg t-1 K2O. The variability observed among crops was linearly correlated with the harvest index, being the higher values of uptake related to the lower harvest index. | |
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