Bunches number and economic sustainability of tomato under semi- controlled conditions

Abstract

Studies related to tomato productivity regarding the relationship between the elimination of flower clusters and their economic sustainability are scarce. The present study was conducted in order to evaluate the effect of the number of bunches on the yield, quality and profitability of the Torrano® hybrid tomato crop under semi controlled conditions in greenhouses of 12m x 40m (480 m2) for a total area of 960 m2. This was carried out in the Tesorito farm, property of the University of Caldas, Manizales under a design of complete blocks at random with four cut: 6; 8 and 10 bunches / plant and without cut with indeterminate growth, each treatment had six repetitions and the experimental unit was five plants. The quality of the fruit and the yield per plant and per hectare were evaluated. The plants without pruning with indeterminate growth showed the highest values in the different qualities of the fruit like first, second, third and the total yield with values of 2236, 1666, 750 and 6883 g / plant respectively. Equally, genre higher net income with $ 27,241 has / cycle, however in percentage terms quality increases as the number of bunches per plant is reduced. Therefore, it is concluded that clusters should not be pruned in Torrano® hybrid tomato under semicontrolled conditions in the study area.

Keywords

• pruning
• quality of the fruit
• cost of production