Abstract
The eects of water fogging and reducing plant fruit load were studied in a tomato crop grown in a glasshouse under Mediterranean summer conditions. The objective of these treatments was to reduce competition between leaves and fruits for carbohydrates and water. Flower pruning increased plant leaf area and increased fruit, stem, lamina and petiole dry mass (DM). This indicates that leaf area growth was limited during the summer due to competition between fruits and leaves for assimilates. In contrast, reducing the air vapour pressure decit (VPD) by water fogging had no eect on plant leaf area or aerial plant DM. Interestingly, there was a signicant interaction between plant fruit load and VPD: the higher the leaf : fruit ratio the greater the responses to a reduction in VPD (increase in fruit DM, fruit diameter, fruit and leaf expansion rate). The data suggest that under high fruit loads, water and carbohydrates limit growth under Mediterranean summer conditions. However, reducing VPD was not always sucient to enhance fruit and leaf growth. This might be due to the lower leaf area under high fruit load. In contrast, reducing VPD under low fruit load triggered higher rates of leaf and fruit expansion; this is probably linked to a greater availability of water and carbohydrates.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record, shown for indexing and research. Copyright remains with the authors or the publisher. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 7
Claim · model-written summary
Flower pruning increased tomato leaf area.
- Taxon
- tomato
Solanum lycopersicumt0 - Treatment
- Flower pruninge0
- Outcome
- plant leaf areae0
- Direction
- increasede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Flower pruning increased plant leaf area”
t0“Tomato”
Claim · model-written summary
Flower pruning increased tomato fruit, stem, lamina and petiole dry mass.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- Flower pruninge0
- Outcome
- fruit, stem, lamina and petiole dry masse0
- Direction
- increasede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Flower pruning increased plant leaf area and increased fruit, stem, lamina and petiole dry mass (DM).”
t0“Tomato”
Claim · model-written summary
Competition for assimilates limited summer tomato leaf area growth.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Outcome
- leaf area growthe0
- Qualifier
- competition between fruits and leaves for assimilatese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“leaf area growth was limited during the summer due to competition between fruits and leaves for assimilates.”
t0“Tomato”
Claim · model-written summary
Water fogging had no effect on tomato leaf area or aerial dry mass.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- water fogginge0
- Outcome
- plant leaf area or aerial plant DMe0
- Direction
- no eecte0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“reducing the air vapour pressure decit (VPD) by water fogging had no eect on plant leaf area or aerial plant DM.”
t0“Tomato”
Claim · model-written summary
The response to reduced VPD was greater at higher leaf to fruit ratios.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- reduction in VPDe0
- Outcome
- responses to a reduction in VPDe0
- Direction
- greatere0
- Qualifier
- the higher the leaf : fruit ratioe0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“the higher the leaf : fruit ratio the greater the responses to a reduction in VPD (increase in fruit DM, fruit diameter, fruit and leaf expansion rate).”
t0“Tomato”
Claim · model-written summary
At low fruit load, reduced VPD increased leaf and fruit expansion rates.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- reducing VPD under low fruit loade0
- Outcome
- rates of leaf and fruit expansione0
- Direction
- highere0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“reducing VPD under low fruit load triggered higher rates of leaf and fruit expansion”
t0“Tomato”
Claim · model-written summary
At high fruit load, water and carbohydrates appear to limit tomato growth.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Outcome
- growthe0
- Qualifier
- water and carbohydrates limit growth under Mediterranean summer conditionse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“under high fruit loads, water and carbohydrates limit growth under Mediterranean summer conditions.”
t0“Tomato”
The same questions in other papers
pruning · growth · Solanum lycopersicum (tomato)Results differ
29 papers in the same direction as this paper · 14 in the opposite direction
- no effect
- negative
- no effect
40 papers more in this group
See all 44 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.