Recovery of Tomato Plants from Ozone Injury

Abstract

<jats:p>Field experiments in open-top chambers were conducted to study the recovery of tomato <jats:italic>(Lycopersicon esculentum</jats:italic> Mill. <jats:sc>cv</jats:sc>. New Yorker) plants from ozone (O<jats:sub>3</jats:sub>) injury. Plants were pot-cultured and exposed for 7 hours per day for 4 days at a vegetative or flowering stage to charcoal-filtered air, 0.06, 0.09, 0.12, 0.18, or 0.24 μl O<jats:sub>3</jats:sub>/liter. Half of the plants were harvested 2 or 3 days after the O<jats:sub>3</jats:sub> exposure; the remaining plants were held in open-top field chambers in filtered air and harvested after the appearance `of the first red fruit. Ozone exposure at either growth stage resulted in visible foliar injury and decreased leaf area of plants harvested 2 or 3 days after exposure. In spite of extensive foliar injury after O<jats:sub>3</jats:sub> exposure at the vegetative stage, there was no significant decrease in fruit yield or change in fruit quality at the final harvest. In contrast, exposure of plants to O<jats:sub>3</jats:sub> at flowering progressively reduced fresh weight of fruit and, to a lesser degree, its concentration of titratable acidity.</jats:p>

Postharvest Performance Evaluation of Plum (Prunus salicina Lindel., `Casselman') Fruit Grown under Three Ozone Concentrations

“…Following the 1991 growing season, flesh firmness and SSC (Table l), and the percent surface that was red, pH, and TA (data not shown) were not affected significantly by any of the O 3 treatment levels. A lack of O 3 effect on fruit SSC and TA has been reported for tomatoes (Temple, 1990;Tenga et al, 1990) and oranges (Olszyk et al, 1990) grown under high-O 3 concentrations.…”

Ozone Impacts on Competition between Tomato and Yellow Nutsedge: Above‐ and Below‐Ground Effects

“…This applied to the usually healthy source leaves in the mid‐canopy as well as to the commonly senescing lower leaves. Foliar O 3 injury in tomato typically involves generalized chlorosis and stippling of mature leaves with few symptoms on the youngest leaves (insertion levels 1 and 2) (Tenga et al, 1989, 1990; Tuomainen et al, 1997). These results are typical of O 3 impacts on leaf pigmentation in plants (Glater et al, 1962; Ting and Dugger, 1971).…”

“…Ozone affects tomatoes through direct oxidant damage to physiological processes such as carbon assimilation in leaves and subsequently through altered biomass allocation (Clayberg, 1971; Gimeno et al, 1995; Tenga et al, 1990) and reduced root formation and colonization by mycorrhizae (McCool and Menge, 1983; Oshima et al, 1977).…”

Effects of ozone on wild plants

“…This example might well explain some of the variation in relative resistance reported in the literature and it suggests caution in making comparisons between species with different growth characteristics. Furthermore, as plants change in response to ozone with age and development (Blum & Heck, 1980 ;Richards, Mulchi & Hall, 1980 ;Cooley & Manning, 1987 ;Tenga, Marie & Ormrod, 1990 ;Reiling & Davison, 1992 b ;Lyons & Barnes, 1998), the choice of growth stage might bias the estimate of resistance.…”