Validation of Vegetative and Reproductive Growth
Status for Greenhouse Tomato Plant Production
Paula Costa, PhD
Student, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
In tomato greenhouse production systems,
tomato plants often cycle between an overly vegetative and an overly
reproductive growth status. In long crop cycles it is important to
maintain plants under balance in order to maximize productivity.
Therefore, knowledge regarding plant growth status in response to
environmental conditions is important to predict near-future yield as well
as potential near-future losses. The hypothesis being investigated
is that, by manipulating the environmental factors, which affect
transpiration, both at the canopy level (potential transpiration, ET0),
and at the root level (electrical conductivity, EC), it is possible to
change photoassimilate distribution between source and sink during the
fruiting cycle of the crop as well as ‘steer’ the plant towards more
vegetative or more reproductive growth, as well as maintain a balance
between these two developmental trends.
The initial goal of this
study is to quantify the individual and combined effect of canopy and root
environments on certain plant morphological characteristics, used as
indicators of plant growth status, and establish a correlation between
these characteristics and productivity. The final objective of the
study is to validate the empirically based concepts ‘vegetative’ and
‘reproductive’ plant status with respect to the ultimate implication on
biomass partitioning throughout the life cycle of the crop.
This
study will provide useful information regarding greenhouse climate control
strategies for greenhouse tomato production in arid regions. Furthermore,
once the relationship between plant growth status and yield is
established, the grower will benefit from a powerful ‘crop-climate’
decision support system, which allows for environmental adjustments before
yield losses occur.
Cooperators: Dr Gene Giacomelli, ABE, Dr.
Chieri Kubota, PLS, Dr. Merle Jensen, PLS
Technical support: Mr.
Stephen Kania, ABE
In Progress 2002 -
2005 |
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