QUALITY AND STRUCTURE OF SINGLE HARVEST TOMATO FRUIT YIELD

Abstract

Tomato fruit, constituting raw material for processing industry, can be harvested manually or mechanically, with the use of a harvester. Such features of new cultivars, as almost simultaneous fruit setting, high fruit durability and slow overripening of fruit, make it possible to give up the traditional, multiple harvesting. Limiting the number of harvests and introducing mechanical harvest, express aiming at decreasing the harvest costs. During studies conducted in the years 2009–2010 the quantity and structure of fruit yield in several tomato cultivars recommended for processing industry. Fruit came from single harvest, conducted in the second half of September. The highest fruit yield and the best fruit yield were these of Dyno F₁ and Benito F₁ cultivars. The cultivars Asterix F₁ and Tenorio F₁ yielded at a similar level and the unfavourable feature in their yield structures was high share of small fruits (of the diameter from 4.0 to 3.5 cm) and very small ones
(below 3.5 cm). The yield of tomato fruit in the subsequent years was significantly differentiated and depended upon weather conditions. It was demonstrated that in the case of cultivars with longer vegetation periods, including cultivars recommended for processing industry, the harvest of the whole yield is not always possible. In the first study year ripe fruits constituted 94.9%, in the second year – 80.7%. A large number of unripe fruits significantly hinders conducting mechanical tomato harvest.