Yield and post-harvest quality of tomato hybrids under agricultural ambience and salt stress

ABSTRACT The agricultural environment can mitigate salt stress in plants. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the yield and post-harvest quality of tomato hybrids brackish water irrigated in different growing environments. The study was conducted in Aratuba, Ceará, Brazil. The design was a randomized complete block design, in split-split plots, with the plots having two environments (E1 = agricultural greenhouse and E2 = full sun), the subplots having five levels of irrigation water electrical conductivity (ECw) (1.0, 1.7, 2.4, 3.1, and 3.8 dS m-1), and the sub-subplots having two tomato hybrids (Itaipava and BS DI0014), with five replicates and two plants per plot. The following variables were evaluated: total number of fruits, average total fruit mass, marketable fruit yield, non-marketable fruit yield, and total fruit yield; soluble solids content, hydrogen potential, fruit length and diameter, and pulp thickness. The Itaipava hybrid grown in an agricultural greenhouse was superior to the BS DI0014 hybrid in terms of production and post-harvest performance. Salinity favors an increase in soluble solids content, but with greater intensity in the agricultural greenhouse. The agricultural greenhouse environment partially mitigated the effects of salinity up to 1.86 dS m-1 on production variables, resulting in a lower percentage of non-marketable fruits and higher total fruit yield compared to full-sun cultivation. The agricultural greenhouse promotes greater production performance and fruit quality for tomato plants under irrigation with water of both lower and higher salinity compared to the full-sun environment.