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Abstract
Plastic mulches have been extensively used In tomato fields around the world; Its use has been growing In Brazil, especially in semi-arid regions. However, whether plastic mulches are beneficial to tomato grown in the Brazilian semi-arid and should replace other traditionally used practices is little known. Two on-farm experiments were carried out aiming at assessing the yield response of 'Trucker' hybrid tomato to plastic mulching in interaction with other practices, viz, irrigation, earthing up, and plant population. The first experiment consisted of a randomized block design with six treatments arranged in a 3 × 2 factorial and replicated four times: three crop practices (earthing up, plastic mulching and bare soil) combined with two plant populations (12,500 and 10,416 plants ha-1). The second experiment was a randomized complete block design with four replications, in a splitplot arrangement. Irrigation levels (305, 440, 495, 610 and 725 mm cycle-1) were assigned to plots, and mulching and earthing up to subplots. Fruit diameter, fruit weight and crop yield were evaluated. Plastic mulching had no effect on crop yields and water-use efficiency at both experiments. Overall, the results suggest planting 'Trucker' tomato at 12,500 plants ha-1, 580-630 mm cycle-1 of irrigation, and without plastic mulching.
Keywords: Cropping systems, water productivity, plant population, earthing up, crop yield
Introduction
Tomato plays a relevant socio-economical role as a major cash crop (Carvalho et al., 2014; Gatahi, 2020); however, tomato cultivation demands high-input crop systems to prevent losses associated with soil fertility, water, pests, and diseases (Monte et al., 2013). The success of a crop system depends on soil and climate conditions, growers' purchasing power, and cultivar (Schwarz et al., 2014). Therefore, decision-making should be backed with site-specific knowledge, either empirical or based on experimental research.
Most tomato growers in the Brazilian semi-arid region have traditionally earthed up (or hilled up) tomato plants. This practice consists of moving fertilizer-enriched soil from inter-rows to the base of the plant. Earthing up may stimulate the production of adventitious roots, which are formed from tissues other than roots, such as stem and leaves (Geiss et al., 2009; Steffens & Rasmussen, 2016). A greater root volume resulted from the formation of adventitious roots leads to increased water and nutrient...