EFFECTS OF CUTTING MANAGEMENT ON SOILLESS TOMATO (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) YIELDS

Abstract

SUMMARY In order of contribute to the generation of a tomato vegetative propagation method, the growth and yield of plants cv Daniela using as treatments cuttings of different source (lateral or terminal buds), size (10 and 15 cm), with or without pruning in the basal leaf be- fore rooting and without or with partial pruning of largest leaf (removing 1/2 or 1/3 of the leaf) were evaluated. The experiment was carried out in Cuautlalpan, Estado de Mexico, Mexico under glasshouse conditions and in a soilless system, using a completly ran- dom design, arranged in subdivided plots, corresponding the source factor to plots, the size of cuttings to subplots and the combina- tion of type of pruning in the basal leaf and partial pruning in the largest leaf to subsubplots. The experimental unit after trasplant consisted of five cuttings with three replications. The plants were trimmed (pruning of terminal bud) to leave just one truss per plant and were growing at a density of 25 plants⋅m -2 . The evaluated traits were: plant height and stem diameter 45 days after trasplant, fruit yield, fruit number and mean fruit weight. There were significant differences of the studied factors for plant height and stem dia- meter, bud only pruning of the basal leaf negatively affected the fruit yield (0.8 kg⋅m -2 more fruit yield was obtained when the basal leaf was not removed).