The Influence of Weather Conditions During Vegetation Period on Yielding of Twelve Determinate Tomato Cultivars

Abstract

Tomato yield and biomass growth are closely linked to climatic conditions during vegetation period. Low temperatures and high precipitation in summer constitute the main cause of the large variability of field tomato yielding contributing to worsen the quality of the yield. The aim of the investigation was determining the influence of meteorological basic components in the growing season of the tomato to total and marketable yield of twelve determinate cultivars. Experiment took place in the open field in the Vegetable Experimental Station of Agricultural University of Mydlniki near Cracow in the years 2008 - 2010. A different sensitivity of examined tomato cultivars to the course of weather conditions was stated. ‘Ondraszek’ cultivar get the highest marketable yield in all years of investigation what indicate the most adaptation to variable weather conditions and cultivars ‘Hetman’, ‘Hubal’ and ‘Babinicz’ were the least adaptated and they gave the lowest yield. Analysis of the influence of weather condition on total and marketable yield of twelve determine tomato cultivars showed, that the sum and distribution of precipitation were decisive. High precipitations decreased total and marketable yield, whereas frequent and lower precipitations influenced favorable. Since from the third stage, i.e., the beginning of fruits setting to the beginning of ripening, a larger impact of meteorological factors on marketable than total yield had been observed. In the fruits ripening stage a marketable yield depended only on sum of temperatures.