The influence of mineral nutrition and fruit position on yield, seed quality and progeny performance in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) cv. 'Moneymaker'.

Abstract

The influence of mineral nutrition and fruit position on yield, seed quality and progeny performance in tomato cv. 'Moneymaker' were investigated in pots filled with a peat compost under glass. Two experiments were made to study the effects of mineral nutrition on the fruit yield, seed yield and seed quality. The first experiment tested three levels of N (N1 200, N2 500, N3 800 kg N/ha) and P (P1 22, P2 218, P3 415 kg P/ha) with a uniform K (830 kg K/ha) treatment. The fruit and seed yields were lower than expected due to NH4 toxicity as the N source was (NH4)2SO4. The highest fruit and seed yield, percentage of fruit setting and hundred-seed weight were obtained from plants supplied with 800 kg N, 218 or 415 kg P and 830 kg K/ha. NH4NO3 + KNO3 mixture can be used instead of (NH4)2SO4 to prevent NH4 toxicity in peat composts. A second experiment was conducted to understand the true capacity of the treatments used in the first experiment and also to study the effect of a higher level of K. The nutrients level were: N (N1 500, N2 1000 kg N/ha), P (P1 218, P2 436 kg P/ha) and K (K1 830, K2 1660 kg K/ha) The most favourable combination for a high fruit and seed yield, percentage of fruit setting and a higher seed weight was N2P2K2. Two further experiments were made to study the effects of mineral nutrition on progeny performance. In the first experiment, the seeds were derived from plants supplied with a factorial arrangement of two levels of N (N1 516,N2 572 kg N/ha), P1 264, P2 288 kg P/ha) and a uniform K (766 kg K/ha) treatment (Varis, 1976). The nutrition of the mother plants had no effect on the fruit and seed yields of progeny but plants from N1P1 seeds produced the earliest fruit yield. In the second experiment, the third truss seeds from the second nutrition experiment which was presented earlier in this summary, were used. The nutrition of the mother plants, contrary to the first experiment had a significant effect on the fruit and seed yields of progeny. N2P2K2 seeds gave the earliest fruit yield but the highest fruit and seed yields were obtained from sowings of N1P2K2 seeds. The seeds were derived from the five separate trusses of one plant to study the influence of fruit position on progeny performance. It was found that under greenhouse conditions there were no marked effects of the fruit positions on the growth, development and yield of progeny.

Date of Award	1979
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath