Abstract
Tomato plants under glasshouse culture frequently suffer from over-luxuriant vegetative growth, resulting in malformed fruits and delayed maturity. By imposing a mild water stress on the plants, a balance between vegetative and reproductive growths can be restored in favor of better fruit growth. To achieve this balance, an irrigation trial was conducted comparing method based on plant water status with that based on soil water status. Irrigated soil depth was 40 cm in both methods.Vegetative growth was much poorer when plants were irrigated on leaf water potential (ΨL) than on soil moisture potential (ΨS) of pF 2.0. However, marketable yield and soluble solids contents of the fruits were significantly higher when ΨL rather than ΨS was used to time the irrigation.From these results, it is concluded that soil water management based on ΨL, is preferable to that based on ΨS in the forcing cultivation of tomato in greenhouses. ΨL of -0.1MPa in the early growing stage (from planting to flowering on the third cluster) and -0.5 MPa thereafter are recommended as indicators for irrigation; a soil depth of 40 cm is recommended.
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