Response of three salad tomato varieties to staking and pruning
| MSI00P3385 | |
| Rughoo, M. Govinden, N. | |
| Response of three salad tomato varieties to staking and pruning | |
| Periodical article | |
| 1999 | |
| Revue agric. sucr. Ile Maurice | |
| 78 (2): 26-34 | |
| Published 2000 | |
| Fr | |
| En Fr | |
| The usual practice in salad tomato production in Mauritius is to prune the plants to one main stem and to tie them to a stake. Pruning and staking require labour leading to increased production cost by up to 23 percent. Six field trials were established during the summer and winter seasons of 1995 in different localities in order to examine the cost-effectiveness of staking and pruning of salad tomato. Three varieties were used : Caraibo - a widely-grown detrminate variety, Caracoli- an indeterminate vaariety, and a semi determinate line from Asian Vegetable Research and Development Centre (AVRDC). Across sites, pruning had no effect on the yield of the indeterminate variety Caracoli and on that of the semi determinate variety AVRDC, but it reduced that of the determinate variety Caraibo significantly. Staking increased yield significantly in Caracoli and AVRDC but not in Caraibo. It also reduced the proportion of rotten fruits in all varieties. In Caraibo, highest yields were obtained when the plants were not pruned, irrespective of staking. In Caracoli and ARDC, yields were highest when the plants were staked, irrespective of pruning. With Caraibo, profitability was highest when the plants were neither staked nor pruned, whereas with Caracoli and AVRDC, it was highest when the plants were staked but not pruned. Staking can only be recommended with indeterminate and semi-determinate varieties. However, since labour for staking is scarce and expensive it may still be preferable to grow salad tomato as a trailing crop, using a variety with a determinate growth habit such as Caraibo. | |
| Tomatoes Salad tomato Staking Pruning Yields Profitability Variety Caraibo Variety Caracoli | |
| Tomatoes | |
| Cultural operations | |
| 2000-05-22 | |
| En | |
| MSIRI | |
| CAT | |
| PB |