Tomato growth and fruit quality in soilless culture

Over the past two decades the tomato as a crop has increased in popularity, As a result, research has been aimed at improving the economic viability of tomato production and post-harvest stability. Environmental stress such as high salt concentration, is one of the main parameters limiting crop production. The cultivar Edkawy is potentially salt-tolerant as it grows in the El-Bosaily area, North Egypt, where the soils are saline sands. The preliminary screening of Edkawy for salt tolerance was carried out using a hydroponic drip irrigation system, allowing precise control of the nutrient conditions within the root zone. After measuring growth analysis parameters at weekly harvests no significant difference was observed between RGR and NAK when comparing salt treated and control plants. Concurrent to the screening studies, Pyrolysis Mass Spectrometric techniques have been used to analyse fruit ripening and assess quality. The technique enabled the separation of tomatoes in relation to ripening method. It is the aim of this project to combine these to methodologies to study the effect of salinity and post-harvest conditions on fruit quality.