Impact of nutrient solutions under inorganic substrate soilless cultivation on plant growth, fruit yield and quality of tomato

Abstract

Soilless cultivation has been widely used in tomato (<italic>Solanum lycopersicum</italic>) production. The objectives of this research are to evaluate the impacts of five nutrient solutions under soilless cultivation on plant growth, fruit yield and fruit quality in tomatoes. Four experiments were conducted with six treatments (five nutrient solutions plus one control) in six-cherry tomato cultivars and two big fruited tomato cultivars and 12 traits were observed and evaluated. The results showed that each of the five solutions increased plant growth and fruit yield, and improved the fruit quality. Compared to the control, the nutrient solution treatments increased 91.3% for number of fruits on base fruit cluster, 12.1% for height, and 26.3% for stem diameter in the 2017-experiment; 17.1% for vitamin C, 13.8% for soluble solids, and 20.8% for total soluble sugar content in 2018-experiment one; 28.1% for number of fruit cluster, 25.8% for fruit yield, 9.4% for number of fruit per cluster, and 13.3% for single fruit weight in 2018-experiment two; and 27.7% for vitamin C, 14.0% for soluble solids, 18.1% for total soluble sugar content, and 14.6% for fruit yield in the 2019-experiment. The solution decreased the chemical nitrate content 16.2% in the 2018-experiment and 43.7% in the 2019-experiment, and decreased the fruit cracking rate by 87%. Treatment 2 with higher nutrient component content showed the best results of the five treatments. The significant high positive correlation among the beneficial traits, fruit yield, soluble solids, total soluble sugar content, and vitamin C, and high negative correlation between each of the four traits and nitrate content were observed, indicating that soilless cultivation can increase tomato yield with higher nutritional components and decreased nitrate content. This research provides useful information for utilizing nutrient solutions supplied to tomato soilless cultivation.