YIELD AND QUALITY OF MYCORRHIZED PROCESSING TOMATO UNDER WATER SCARCITY

An open field trial was established to evaluate production, carotenoids, ascorbic acid, and soluble solids of processing tomato inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi either at sowing, and re-inoculated at transplanting compared to non-treated plants under different soil moisture conditions. Depending on plant water requirement, all treatments induced to three levels of water supply: Full water supply, half water supply, dosage, plants under no water supply conditions faced severe stress and showed no enhancement in growth, yield, and water use efficiency. Mycorrhizal re-inoculation significantly increased the marketable fruit yield, the total biomass, the water use efficiency, and leaf water potential under water shortage conditions in half water supply compared to at sowing inoculated mycorrhizal plants, and non-treated plants as well, suggesting that field mycorrhizal re-inoculation enhances colonized plant water stress avoidance. A strong negative correlation was observed between yield and soluble solid content. Concisely, mycorrhizal re-inoculation was more effective than inoculation at sowing.