Sme. Satti et al., FRUIT-QUALITY AND PARTITIONING OF MINERAL ELEMENTS IN PROCESSING TOMATO IN RESPONSE TO SALINE NUTRIENTS, Journal of plant nutrition, 19(5), 1996, pp. 705-715
A sand culture experiment was conducted to study the effect of saline
water on the growth and fruit quality of processing tomato (Lycopersic
on esculentum Mill.) Seedlings of five tomato cultivars were transplan
ted in quartz-sand pots in a greenhouse at the Agricultural Experiment
Station of Sultan Qaboos University. There were four saline nutrient
solutions and a control consisting of half-strength Hoagland solution.
Salinity treatments were: 50 mM NaCl + 3 mM K2SO4 (EC 6.75), 50 mM Na
Cl + 1.5 mM orthophosphoric acid (EC = 7.18), 50 mM NaCl + 1.5 mM orth
ophosphoric acid + 3 mM K2SO4 (EC 7.29), and 50 mM NaCL (EC = 5.6). Tr
eatments were applied daily commencing two weeks after transplanting.
Data were collected on growth, and fruit yield and quality. Partitioni
ng of mineral elements was determined in the vegetative tissue. The re
sults obtained clearly show that concentrations of total soluble solid
s were increased in fruits treated with saline nutrients. Dry matter c
ontent of fruits exposed to salinity were higher than those from the c
ontrol plants. Fruit acidity was increased with salinity, possibly due
to a lower water content and increased organic acid accumulation. In
the saline treatments, sodium (Na) content was decreased when potassiu
m (K) was applied with NaCL but Na was higher in stems followed by roo
t and leaf tissues. The partitioning of K followed a trend opposite to
that for Na but with higher content in leaves. A similar situation wa
s observed for calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg). Accumulation of phosph
orus (P) was the lowest among all the ions. These results indicated th
at survival under saline conditions was accompanied by high ion accumu
lation. The study confirmed that saline nutrients are important for im
proving fruit quality of processing tomatoes.