Influence of Stage and Intensity of Truss Pruning on Fruit Yield and Quality of Tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum L.) at Melkassa

摘要

The influence of stage and intensity of truss pruning on yield and quality of tomato (Solanumlycopersicum L.) was investigated in the open field at Melkassa Agricultural Research Center. Three stages ofpruning (bud, anthesis, fruit set) and four levels of pruning (control, one-truss, two-truss and three-truss) werearranged in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The result showed increasingpruning intensity increased the total leaf area; fruit set percentage, average fruit fresh weight, pericarpthickness, fruit diameter, pH and total soluble solids content. However, number of fruit per plant, marketablefruit yield and total fruit yield decreased with increasing intensity of pruning. In general the present studyshowed that pruning did not significantly improve tomato fruit yield. Nevertheless, truss pruning found to beeffective in improving tomato fruit quality such as average fruit weight, fruit size (fruit diameter), pericarpthickness and total soluble solids. It is also essential that further study should be conducted on other improvedtomato varieties in different location to determine the effect of pruning and to give concrete recommendationat what intensity pruning should be effective to improve fruit yield and quality.