Opportunities of Reduced Nitrogen Supply for Productivity, Taste, Valuable Compounds and Storage Life of Cocktail Tomato

Abstract

Vegetable production requires high nutrient input for ensuring high quality and high yield. As this is ecologically disadvantageous, it is necessary to determine if nitrogen (N) fertilization can be reduced without negative effects on productivity. For quality reasons, the effects of reduced N supply on taste, valuable compounds and storage life must be elucidated in parallel. This study examines whether reducing the N supply of cocktail tomatoes by 50% to recommendations affects the yield and quality of tomato fruits. Three varieties with different skin colors, yellow-orange (‘Apresa’), red (‘Delioso’) and brown (‘Bombonera’), were grown in soil in a greenhouse and harvested at the red-ripen stage. Quality parameters were assessed at harvest and after eight-day storage. Total yield decreased exclusively with ‘Bombonera’ due to reduced fruit weight. Firmness of the fruit pulp, concentrations of minerals, soluble solid contents, total acidity, total phenolics and liposoluble pigments of fruits were not influenced. However, storage affected chemical compositions positively, as shown by increased antioxidants. Descriptive sensory analyses revealed no impact of reduced N supply. From the perspective of the yield, quality and shelf life of fruits, reducing the N supply by 50% offers opportunities for the three cocktail tomato varieties in soil cultivation.

Tomato leaves under stress: a comparison of stress response to mild abiotic stress between a cultivated and a wild tomato species

“… 2009 ; Duan et al. 2019 ; Schmidt and Zinkernagel 2021 ). Nevertheless, reduction of nitrogen supply to 15–35% of optimal conditions may result in up to 30% lower yields due to lower fruit weight (Wang et al.…”

Tomato leaves under stress: A comparison of stress response to mild abiotic stress between a cultivated and a wild tomato species

“…On the other hand, insufficient nitrogen supply when applied during the vegetative state was shown to not affect the plant height and thereby the plant growth and yield of tomato in general (Han et al, 2014). Furthermore, only little effects are described for insufficient nitrogen supply (50 % reduction) applied during onset of fruit ripening, which were line-specific, and only slightly reducing the absolute amounts of fruits but increasing the relative amounts of marketable fruits, while chemical content, concentration of secondary metabolites, flavour and taste were not affected (Hartz and Bottoms, 2009; Zotarelli et al, 2009; Duan et al, 2019; Schmidt and Zinkernagel, 2021). Nevertheless, reduction of nitrogen supply to 15-35 % of optimal conditions may result in up to 30 % lower yields due to lower fruit weight (Wang et al, 2015; Qu et al, 2020).…”

Managing the Product Quality of Vegetable Crops under Abiotic Stress

“…The majority of the contributions deal with pre-harvest conditions and investigate whether cultivation practices can modulate the yield and nutritional value of vegetable crops and herbs under abiotic stresses. Among these publications, several deal with nutrient supply [2][3][4][5], salinity [6,7], water supply [2,3,8] or lighting conditions [6]. Two manuscripts describe either the effects of applying chemical substances such as gibberellic acid [9] or seaweed extract [10] on the yield and quality of vegetable crops.…”

“…In general, a large quantity of the contributions in this Special Issue present data on fruit vegetables such as watermelons, bitter gourd and tomatoes [2][3][4]9,11], with the latter being the focus of three publications. These crops were mostly grown in greenhouses [2][3][4], but some were grown in an open field [9] or under rain-out shelters [8].…”

“…In general, a large quantity of the contributions in this Special Issue present data on fruit vegetables such as watermelons, bitter gourd and tomatoes [2][3][4]9,11], with the latter being the focus of three publications. These crops were mostly grown in greenhouses [2][3][4], but some were grown in an open field [9] or under rain-out shelters [8]. Leafy vegetables and herbs-such as arugula [5], purslane [6] and basil [7]-were used in three experiments and were cultivated in growth cabinets [5,6] or in greenhouses [7].…”