Abstract:
This study was conducted to determine the effects o
f the combined use of rain shelters
(RS) and deficit irrigation (DI) on tomato yield an
d quality characteristics. Two
experiments with different treatments were conducte
d in the southern China during the
growing season in 2011 and 2012. The crops were irr
igated to field capacity once average
soil water content at the 0-60 cm layer in the trea
tment decreased to 80% of field capacity
under open-field (T1, the control) and RS (T2), and
30, 40, and 50% decreased water of
T2 as treatments T3, T4, and T5, respectively. The
results showed that T2 increased the
yield and irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) by
13 and 11.5% in the two years, and
improved fruit firmness (FF), total soluble solids
(TSS), soluble sugar (SS), and vitamin C
(VC) compared to T1. Under RS conditions, DI reduce
d the yield, but increased IWUE of
tomato relative to T2 from 25 to 52% in 2011, and f
rom 26 to 41% in 2012. The effects of
DI on fruit quality were generally the inverse of t
hose on fruit yield. FF, TSS, SS, VC,
organic acid, and color index were positively affec
ted by DI. With regard to the rank of
comprehensive quality index (CQI) calculated by the
analysis hierarchy process and
modified technique for order preference by similari
ty to an ideal solution, it exhibited
good fitness to the rank of single quality attribut
es. The highest CQI was obtained in
treatment T4 in 2011, and T3 in 2012.
Keywords:
Deficit irrigation, Quality characteristics, Rain
shelters, Tomato, Yield.
