SUBSTRATES IN THE ORGANIC PRODUCTION OF GREENHOUSE CHERRY TOMATO

Abstract

Organic production of food is an alternative for consumers that prefer food free from pesticides and synthetic fertilizers and with high nutritional value. In Mexico, organic cherry tomato reaches a price 3.31 times higher than the conventional one; producing this type of tomato in the greenhouse would increase yield and, consequently, the economic benefit for the producer; however, organic certification requires a transitional period of three to five years without the application of any synthetic product to the soil. Utilization of an organic substrate would considerably reduce the transition period or would avoid it. The substrate, aside from anchoring the plants, should provide considerable amounts of nutritive elements satisfying the crop’s demands. One alternative is to mix compost with inert media. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to evaluate cherry tomato var. 647 under different compost mixtures with different combinations of sand or perlite under greenhouse conditions. The experiment was carried out in Matamoros, Coahuila, Mexico, at La Laguna Experiment Station of INIFAP. Main results indicated that the best four mixtures were: vermi-compost at 50 % with sand and vermi-compost with perlite at 25, 37 and 50 %, with an average of 48.507 t·ha-1; that is, we obtained better yields from those resulting from cherry tomato organic production in the field, without affecting fruit quality.