Organic and conventional production of tomato fruit and seed

Resumen

Objective: To evaluate the effect of two organic and one conventional management practices on the production and quality of fruit and seed from two native and one commercial tomato varieties.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The evaluated treatments included three substrate mixtures: vermicompost + tezontle (3 mm) at a 70:30 v/v ratio (S1), vermicompost + tezontle (5 mm) at a 50:50 v/v ratio (S2), and 100% tezontle (5 mm) (S3). Treatments S1 and S2 were completely organic (fertilized with bat guano and hydrolyzed fish), while S3 was fertilized with the Steiner solution. The following tomato varieties were used: Moneymaker (V1), Campeche 40 (V2), and Riñón (V3). The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse for 120 days.

Results: indicated that the highest fruit yield was obtained with the S3 × V1 combination (2.7 kg plant^-1). However, the S2 substrate produced fruits of superior quality, with a firmness of 7.74 N, a titratable acidity of 0.83%, and total soluble solids of 6.87 °Brix, similar to S1. Vitamin C content did not significantly differ between substrates. V3 recorded higher values in titratable acidity (0.94%), vitamin C content (4.1 mg/100 g), and total soluble solids (6.91 °Brix) than the other varieties. Regarding seed quality, S2 and S3 yielded superior physical and physiological characteristics, including 92 and 95% germination percentages, respectively. Likewise, they had an emergence speed of 2.9 and 3.3 radicles/d^-1 in aged seeds, respectively.

Findings/Conclusions: These findings suggest that the S2 mixture could be recommended for the commercial organic production of tomatoes.