Effect of electrical conductivity on tomato fruit yield and quality (Lycopersicon esculentum L.)

Lycopersicon sculentum, tomato, is an important commercial crop for its fru its and for seed production in the central valley of Chile. In the field sa lt stress is one of the main problems for deciding fertilization and irriga tion policies. In greenhouse, we used Steiner solution plus NaCl to obtain electrical conductivities of: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14 mmhos.cm(-1), in order to relate the effect of salinity to fruit yield and quality. The results s how that: when salinity increases fruit production decreases and blotchy an d cracking appears.