Production of tomato cultivated in different nutritive solutions

Abstract

The objective this paper is determine the highest performance of fresh mass and number of fruits in tomato crops using different nutrient solution. An absolute hybrid with a semi-determined growth was used. It was grown in a protected environment using a fertigated substrate inside plastic bags containing ten liters of solution. The experiment was completely randomized with four levels of fertilization and five replications. Two experiments were carried out in two cultivation cycles (spring 2018 and autumn 2019) by performing an analysis of variance and Scott & Knott test and estimating the parameters of nonlinear logistic model and its critical points for both variables in each treatment. The mean fruit mass per plant was 3.70 kg for the spring experiment and 3.80 kg for the autumn experiment. The mean number of fruits per plant was 10.50 and 10.70 fruits for spring and autumn, respectively. There are significant differences between the treatments KO46, KO45 and KO56 compared to KO69 for fruit mass in the autumn experiment. For the other variables and cultivation cycles, the treatments did not show statistical differences. The logistic growth model fitted the weight and number of tomato fruits according to days after transplanting the seedlings and evidenced production cycle data, highlighting the main differences between the nutrient solutions. The nutritional solutions KO46, KO45 and KO56 are recommended for growing Gaúcho tomatoes in substrate. The nutrient solution KO56 has the best performance because it has a higher K availability, meets the balance of loads and antagonism between nutrients, provides equal response of means mass and number of fruits, and has a lower N:K ratio and balance of K over Ca and Mg, thus favoring fruit production, precocity, and development.