Evapotranspiration - plant growthrelationship for greenhouse tomato cultivated under drip fertigation

Galina Patamanska, Ivanka Mitova, Antoaneta Gigova

Abstract: Тhe present study aimed at deriving relationship between the evapotranspiration of greenhouse tomato and the growth parameters in the period of vegetative development. An experiment was conducted with tomato variety Big Beef F1, planted in Haplic Chromic Luvisol in a tunnel-type greenhouse, grown under drip irrigation with mulching and fertigation in 2019. Tomatoes were grown under conditions of full (100% ETc) and deficit irrigation (60% ETc) at varios fertilization rates (0, 80% NPK, 100% NPK, 120% NPK). Daily evapotranspiration of tomato was estimated by the FAO-Penman-Montit method with single crop coefficient. The growth and development of tomato plants was monitored. In the key phase – 6-8th inflorescence, experimental data were obtained for some biometric parameters: plant height, number of leaves, number of inflorescences, number of fruits per plant. Regression analysis was used to obtain empirical relationships between evapotranspiration and tomato growth parameters. The results of the regression analysis showed that there was a linear relationship between evapotranspiration and height, number of leaves and number of inflorescences of tomato plants. The relationship between evapotranspiration and the number of fruits per plant was quadratic. The regression equations derived were statistically significant at 5% significance level.

Keywords: biometric indicators; drip irrigation; evapotranspiration; fertigation; greenhouse; tomato

Date published: 2021-06-30