Use of silicon in the production of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) grape type in nutritive solution cultivation

Abstract

The objective of the research was to evaluate the effect of silicon concentration and application method on growth and yield of grape tomato plants. An experiment was established under shade net conditions in solution culture. The factors evaluated were silicon concentration (0, 4, 6, 6, 8 and 10 g.L-1 ) and application methods (to the nutrient solution and foliar). Nutrition was applied by irrigation of the universal nutrient solution (Steiner, 1984), at a concentration of 75%. The total number of treatments was 10. The design was completely randomized with four replications per treatment and based on the treatments, the following variables: plant height, root length, stem diameter, number of leaves, leaf area, fresh and dry weight of aerial and root biomass, number of fruits per plant, total yield and fruit diameter, length and weight. For the variables evaluated, it was identified that the concentration of 8 g.L-1 of SiO2 applied to the root was the one that obtained the best value to favor vegetative growth and to obtain a greater fruit development for grape tomato plants of the Primarino variety.