Growth, Yield and Quality of Heat Tolerant Tomato as Influenced by Different Watering Regimes

Abstract

The need for regular production of high quality tomatoes in times of drought to meet the ever increasing demand of consumers has become critical as a means to reduce the importation of both fresh and processed tomatoes. Two experiments were conducted with a heat tolerant tomato (CLN2001A (Renamed Nkansah Heat Tolerant)) variety and a popularly grown variety (Pectomech) as a control. The design used was the Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications. Watering stress treatments used were 250 ml, 500 ml, 750 ml, 1,000 ml and 1,250 ml. Each treatment had 36 plants. The effects of induced drought /irrigation on growth parameters; Relative Growth Rate (RGR), Net Assimilation Rate (NAR), Specific Leaf Area (SLA), Leaf Weight Ratio (LWR), relative water content, plant stem diameter, plant height, number of leaves and chlorophyll content were studied. Yield parameters studied included number of fruits and fruit weight per plant whilst fruit quality parameters determined included fruit sugar content (brix) and pH at the University of Ghana farm. The result indicated that, among the treatments, the 500 ml and the 750 ml produced the highest fruit yield and quality. The low and higher treatments of 250 ml and 1,250 ml recorded the least performance in terms of growth and yield for the CLN2001A cultivar. In terms of weight, however, the 1,000 ml treatment performed better than all the treatments. The heat tolerant variety performed better at 500 ml and 750 ml in terms of yield compared with the non-heat tolerant variety that performed better at 1,000 ml and 1,250 ml.