The influence of plant spacing on light interception and use in greenhouse tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.): A review

Sasaki

J. Japan. Soc. Hort. Sci.

et al. 2010

We compared the effects of quantitative control in closed system versus electrical conductivity (EC)-based control in open system of nutrients on the growth and yield of tomatoes in rockwool cultivation. Quantitative control supplied all nutrients once a day based on criteria for three application rates (1.0 ×, 1.25 ×, and 1.5 × the standard). These criteria were previously developed in the deep flow technique (DFT) to estimate their nutrient requirements, which used the three-day average amount of water absorbed by tomato plants. We compared the quantitative control in a closed system with two EC treatments in an open system, in which we supplied nutrient solution at high and low EC ranges. The 1.0 × quantity standard reduced the nutrient supply to 30-37% of the levels used in the low-EC treatment. N, P, and K concentrations in the 1.0 × substrate solution remained low and stable for two months after transplanting. The 1.0 × treatment had 27% lower total leaf dry weight and 23% higher total fruit yield than the low-EC treatment. However, greatly reduced growth and nitrogen content of upper leaf and slightly lower soluble solids content in the fruits suggest that the 1.0 × standard might provide insufficient nutrients during late growth stages. Excessive nutrient supplies, which were much lower than the low-EC treatment, increased substrate salinity owing to the accumulation of nutrients during the latter half of the growth period in the 1.25 × and 1.5 × treatments. The stable EC and nutrient concentrations in the 1.0 × substrate solution over time suggest that the three-day adjustment interval would be short enough. The quantity criteria developed for the DFT system could generally be applied to long-term rockwool culture, but the optimum range of nutrient supply was found to be from 1.0 × to 1.25 × the DFT standard in the later growth stages.

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Growth and Yield of Tomato Plants as Influenced by Nutrient Application Rates with Quantitative Control in Closed Rockwool Cultivation

Sasaki

J. Japan. Soc. Hort. Sci.

et al. 2010

“…Light reaching the deeper part of the crop increased with path width and resulted in 30% light reaching soil level in our "big path" treatment. In accordance Papadopoulos and Pararajasingham (1997) reported that light penetration increased and therefore light interception decreased with the increase of plant spacing in a crop. Similar effects have also been reported in other crops such as corn (Stewart et al, 2003).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 54%

“…Extinction coefficient was set to 0.65 as reported by Papadopoulos and Pararajasingham (1997) and confirmed by our own measurements (data not shown).…”

Section: Lambert-beermentioning

confidence: 70%

Towards a 3d Structural Tomato Model for Calculating Light Interception

Sarlikioti¹,

Marcelis²,

Visser³

2011

Acta Hortic.

A number of physiological tomato models have been proposed the last decades, their main challenge being the correct simulation of fruit yield. For this, an accurate simulation of light interception, and thus photosynthesis, is of primary importance. Light interception is highly dependent of the canopy structure which is affected amongst others by distance between plant rows, distance of plants within the row, leaf pruning and crop variety. In order to simulate these processes, a functional structural tomato model for the simulation of light interception on an individual leaf basis is proposed. The 3D model was constructed using L-systems formalism. For the architectural part of the model, manual measurements of leaf length, width, angle of the leaf main stem to plant stem and leaf orientation were conducted. The diurnal pattern of leaf orientation was also tested. The architectural model was coupled with a nested radiosity model for light calculation. Area per individual leaflet served as input of the light module for calculation of reflection, absorption and transmission of light. The model was used to test different crop planting scenarios on their effect on light interception. Results were then compared with light simulation for a totally homogeneous canopy. INTRODUCTIONA number of tomato models have been proposed over the years (e.g., Gary et al., 1995;Marcelis et al., 1998Marcelis et al., , 2009 Heuvelink, 1999; Boote and Scholberg, 2006). These models offer an accurate description of plant growth and its interactions with the environment providing a useful tool in our understanding of plant functioning. Although they make a distinction between different plant organs, they do not consider the plant structure in space. Especially functions like light interception, environmental plant adaptation, competition within and between species for light or nutrients, and assimilate allocations cannot be easily explained if plant structure in space is not taken into account.Functional-structural plant models (FSPM) or virtual plant models (Hanan, 1997;Sievänen et al., 2000; Godin and Sinoquet, 2005;Vos et al., 2007) are terms used to refer to models explicitly describing the development in time of the 3D architecture or structure of plants as driven by physiological processes. These physiological processes are the result of environmental factors. Functional-structural plant models were proposed the last decade as a means to investigate the function of plant structure in plant development combining traditional plant modeling with a 3D structure (Vos et al., 2007). For light extinction in particular the knowledge of how the plant develops in space is essential. So the use of such a model for light calculations would probably improve our knowledge of light distribution inside the crop canopy.Light extinction inside a plant canopy can reach up to 60% while for a crop canopy the light extinction can be up to 90% (Valladares, 2003). This variation in incident light availability inside the crop canopy induces extensi...

“…Under higher plant density, plant growth rate is decreased due to reduced light interception per plant (Heuvelink, 1995). In close spacing because of an inadequate supply of photosynthesis due to shading, detrimental effect on fruit set were observed (Papadopoulos and Pararajasingham, 1997). It has also been reported that at lower plant density in tomato, fruit weight, fruit size and yield per plant decreased, whereas total yield increased (Silva et al, 1992).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant Spacing and Cultivar Affects Yield Components, Qualitative Traits and Early Ripening of Tomato (<i>Lycopersicon esculentum</i>)

Mamnoie

Dolatkhahi

2013

Not Sci Biol

Two-year field trial was set up on sandy clay soil in the Jiroft and Kahnouj Agricultural Research Center with the objective to determine the effect of plant spacing and different cultivars on the yield and qualitative characteristics of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum). This experiment was performed as split plot based on complete randomized block design with 3 replications. The main plots were in -row spacing in 4 levels include 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6 m and the subplots were cultivars naming 'Shef ' , 'Peto Early CH' and 'FDT 202' . The results showed that, fruit length to diameter ratio, total acidity, fruit number per plant, mean fruit weight, yield per plant, total yield and first harvest to total harvests ratio were significantly affected by plant spacing. In addition, cultivars showed significant effect on all traits evaluated (p<0.01). In this experiment, fruit length to diameter ratio and total acidity increased as plant spacing increased, however it had no effect on total soluble solids. In this study, total fruit yield is being increased while the yield per plant, number of fruit per plant and fruit weight is being reduced by increased number of plants per unit area. Although among tomato cultivar, 'Peto Early CH' had a higher yield over other cultivars, but cultivar 'Shef ' showed higher yield in the first harvest. Generally it seems according to the results collected that plant spacing 0.3 m and 'Shef ' cultivar owing to better adaptation and higher commercial yield for production in Jiroft city is suggested.