Mechanical conditioning of tomato seedlings (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.)

The experiment was carried out at Sao Paulo University, in Piracicaba (Brazil), and consisted of applications of mechanical conditioning on Angela Gigante I 5100 tomato seedlings during 25 days: fanning, shaking and brushing. The parameters evaluated were seedling height, stem diameter leaf number, total, root and shoot dry matter weight, heigh/diameter ratio, and shoot dry matter weight/root dry matter weight ratio. Conditioning affected seedling height, but not root dry matter. Seedling height was reduced and stem diameter increased with brushing conditioning. All treatments had no negative effect on tomato seedling growth.