Effect of substrate culture on growth, yield and fruit quality of the greenhouse tomato

Soilless media have been shown to have several advantages over soil culture for commercial greenhouse vegetables. Soil disease problems have forced growers to adopt new high yielding cultivars and modern growing systems to improve plant productivity. In order to evaluate the effect of four substrates on growth, yield and fruit quality of tomato plants, a experiment was conducted in two plastic greenhouse compartments measuring 220 m(2) peach at Instituto Tecnologico Agropecuario de Oaxaca (16degrees 06'N, 95degrees94'W), Mexico. Roma type tomato seeds (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. ev 'SXT7705') were sown in 200-cell plug trays filled with peatmoss, transplanted into rockwool blocks, and planted at a plant density of 3 plants/m(2) in four substrates: 15 L rockwool slabs and 24 L bags of sand, zeolite and a mix substrate (sand and leaf mould, 50:50 v/v). Plant growth, total fruit yield, marketable fruits and number of fruits per m(2) were significantly affected by treatments. Nevertheless, fruit quality parameters were unaffected by the substrates irrespective of the sampled date.