THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT IRRIGATION APPLICATIONS ON THE BLOSSOM-END ROT IN TREATED WASTEWATER-IRRIGATED TOMATOES (LYCOPERSICON ESCULENTUM)

Abstract

The study investigates the effect of water deficit conditions on blossom-end rot (BER) in tomato. Drip irrigation was used in irrigation. Therefore, experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design (three replicates), in a 2 x 5 factorial arrangement, corresponding to two different water resources {[}treated wastewater (TWW) and freshwater (FW)] and five different irrigation practices. The irrigation strategies comprised full irrigation (100\%), deficit irrigation, which involves the use of 75\% and 50\% of the water used in full irrigation, and partial root drying (PRD). According to the study results, in the full irrigation applications, blossom-end rot according to the fruit number values were 10.85\% in fresh water irrigation while it was the lowest with 8.57\% for treated wastewater. Also, in full irrigation applications, blossom-end rot values according to fruit weight were found to be lower compared to those in other applications. It was determined that there was a negative relation between blossom-end rot and Ca value. The lowest blossom-end rot incidence was observed in the full irrigation applications, while it was lower in the PRD applications than in the D applications. In the production of marketable tomato, the PRD applications can be more advantageous than the D applications under water shortage conditions.