The relationship between tomato fruit growth, incidence of blossom‐end rot and phytohormone content as affected by sink/source ratio

Abstract

AbstractBlossom‐end rot is generally considered a calcium‐related physiological disorder. The results of the previous studies show that several factors such as plant conditions can be effective on the blossom‐end rot incidence. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to investigate the effect of the sink/source ratio on the incidence of the blossom‐end rot of two greenhouse tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) cultivars: ‘Grandella’ and ‘Isabella’. To this end, four treatments were applied: saving one fruit per truss (1F), two fruits per truss (2F), three fruits per truss (3F), and no fruit pruning (control). The results showed that the tomato cultivar ‘Isabella’ was more susceptible to the blossom‐end rot than ‘Grandella’. Decreasing the sink/source ratio increased the incidence of the blossom‐end rot and the relative fruit growth rate. The correlation between the blossom‐end rot incidence and the relative fruit growth rate showed that the fruit growth rate could be regarded as an important factor in the incidence of this disorder. Endogenous auxin and cytokinin concentrations acted as the regulators of the fruit growth rate and influenced it. Slowing down the relative growth rate by keeping proper sink/source ratio based on tomato cultivar is, therefore, an effective, cheap and healthy way to control the incidence of the blossom‐end rot, especially in organic farming.