Responses of Five Cultivars of Fresh Market Tomato to Ozone: A Contrast of Cultivar Screening with Foliar Injury and Yield1

Abstract

Foliar ozone sensitivity evaluations of 5 fresh market tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) cultivars from fumigation experiments were contrasted with field trial yields at Riverside, California, a high ambient dose location (3798 pphm-hour > 10 pphm). Foliar injury was not an accurate indicator of yield response as a correlation of foliar susceptibility and yield rankings was insignificant. Cultivar production characteristics at the South Coast Field Station (222 pphm-hour > 10 pphm) and at Riverside were identical with standardized field plots of ‘6718 VF’ from a concurrent experiment. Reduced fruit size and depressed early season production, previously correlated with ozone dose, were characteristic of all cultivars planted at Riverside. Comparisons of cultivar production rankings revealed that ‘H-ll’ and ‘6718 VF’ yielded significantly more, in terms of weight and number of fruit harvested than ‘Ace’, ‘Polepak’, or ‘Earlypak 7’. All cultivars except ‘Ace’ produced equivalent yields in terms of weight at South Coast Field Station.

Quality of Tomatoes Harvested from Plants Receiving Chronic Exposures to Sulfur Dioxide1

“…Tomato plants have exhibited significant reductions in yield in response to the air pol lutant ozone (10,14,15,16). Quality of the fruit harvested from plants exposed to ozone may also be altered.…”

Foliar Injury and Growth of Tomato Cultivars as Influenced by Ozone Dose and Plant Age1

“…Differences in cultivar sensitivity to ozone (0 3) and other pollutants have been reported for many plant species (11). Although foliar sensitivity of many tomato cultivars has been compared (3,4,6,9,10), few have compared foliar injury and plant growth in the same study (9). Sensitivity of plants at different ages and 0 3 dose (concentration x exposure duration) is also not well described.…”