Moderating water stress in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) plants by application of specific nitrogen doses

Abstract

SummaryThe effect of different doses of nitrogen on water stress in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. ‘Royesta’) plants grown in a sandy soil and exposed, or not, to long-term water stress was studied. Nitrogen dose treatments consisted of Hoagland’s solution (N1 treatment), Hoagland’s solution + 40 mM NO3– (N2 treatment), or Hoagland’s solution + 80 mM NO3– (N3 treatment) applied every 3 d, for a total of seven applications following plant establishment. Subsequently, daily application of 80% (stressed) or 100% (unstressed) of the water evapotranspired by control plants the previous day was combined, factorially, with the three nitrogen treatments, for a period of 2 weeks. The leaf fresh weight (FW) at full turgor:leaf dry weight (DW) ratio was high in plants under the N1 and N3 stress treatments, with no significant difference between them soon after the start and at the end of the water stress treatment. However, the N2 treatment produced a significant increase in the ratio in well-watered plants, but not in water-stressed plants at the end of the stress period. The surface area per leaf was greater in stressed than in control plants, except for N2. Leaf water potential was greatly reduced in stressed N2 and N3 plants, but was unaltered in their well-watered counterparts. The significant increases in relative water content at the turgor loss point (around 3%) and in cell membrane rigidity (an increase of more than 125% in the bulk modulus of elasticity) clearly indicate an osmotic adjustment in stressed N2 plants, confirming that this N dose moderated the effects of the water stress imposed on N2 plants.