EMPIRICAL MODELS FOR PLANT GROWTH AND YIELD OF TOMATO PRUNED TO THREE CLUSTERS

Abstract

In order to obtain simple empirical models for simulating tomato biomass accumulation and fruit yield in plants pruned to three clusters and grown under green house conditions, different plant densities (1.7, 3.8, 6.8, 15.4 y 66.6 plants/m²) were evaluated. The growth analysis technique was used to measure biomass of leaves, fruits and aerial part (total) during the growing season. The Gauss equation with its parameters replaced by functions considering plant density, produced models that fitted best (R² 0.96) to simulate plant behaviour in the three variables for any density from 1.7 to 15.4 plants/m².