Abstract
Defoliation (leaf removal or pruning) is a common practice in tomato production that makes crops more manageable, prevents conditions conducive to fungal attack and increases the exposure of the fruit to light, especially in winter conditions. The intensity and frequency of leaf removal on commercial farms often vary according to workforce availability criteria, which makes it difficult to determine their effect on tomato crop yields. It would be reasonable to think that a reduction in leaf area influences radiation interception and, therefore, the production of assimilates and biomass. However, in intensive production systems with a high leaf area index (LAI), leaf pruning can increase radiation interception, either by reducing competition between productive and vegetative organs or by increasing radiation use efficiency. This study was therefore designed to assess the effect of different intensities and frequencies of basal leaf removal on dry matter production and partitioning between the different organs of the plant, and thus on tomato crop productivity. A series of trials were conducted over three consecutive seasons, with a trial conducted per season: (a) Trial 1: leaf removal control—LRC (with leaves removed from the base to two leaves below the truss close to harvest, T0) was compared with LR1 (leaf removal from the base to two leaves below the truss above T0, i.e., T1) and LR2 (two trusses above T0 (T2)); (b) Trial 2: LRC compared with LR2 and LR4 (four trusses above T0 (T4)), carried out at two frequencies; and (c) Trial 3: LRC compared with an intense leaf removal treatment (LRI) whereby between 10 and 12 leaves were left on each stem. LAI saturation values under our conditions were found to be around 2.0. No significant differences in yield were found between the control and treatments LR1, LR2 and LR4, with a reduction in the number of leaves of up to 35% and LAI values during harvest above 2.0. The intense leaf removal treatment (LRI), which reduced the number of leaves by 47% and the LAI value from 2.8 to 1.5 compared to the control, resulted in a 15% reduction in dry biomass and a 17% decrease in fruit yield.
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Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
No significant yield differences were found between the leaf-removal control and treatments LR1, LR2 and LR4 in tomato.
- Taxon
- Tomato
Solanum lycopersicumt0 - Treatment
- treatments LR1, LR2 and LR4e0
- Outcome
- yielde0
- Direction
- No significant differencese0
- Comparator
- the controle0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“No significant differences in yield were found between the control and treatments LR1, LR2 and LR4, with a reduction in the number of leaves of up to 35% and LAI values during harvest above 2.0”
t0“Tomato Development and Yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Treatments LR1, LR2 and LR4 reduced the number of leaves by up to 35% relative to the control.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- treatments LR1, LR2 and LR4e0
- Outcome
- number of leavese0
- Direction
- reductione0
- Value
- up to 35%e0
- Comparator
- the controle0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“No significant differences in yield were found between the control and treatments LR1, LR2 and LR4, with a reduction in the number of leaves of up to 35% and LAI values during harvest above 2.0”
t0“Tomato Development and Yield”
Claim · model-written summary
With treatments LR1, LR2 and LR4, LAI values during harvest remained above 2.0.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- treatments LR1, LR2 and LR4e0
- Outcome
- LAI values during harveste0
- Direction
- abovee0
- Value
- 2.0e0
- Comparator
- the controle0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“No significant differences in yield were found between the control and treatments LR1, LR2 and LR4, with a reduction in the number of leaves of up to 35% and LAI values during harvest above 2.0”
t0“Tomato Development and Yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Intense leaf removal (LRI) reduced the number of leaves by 47% compared with the control.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- intense leaf removal treatment (LRI)e0
- Outcome
- number of leavese0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Value
- 47%e0
- Comparator
- the controle0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The intense leaf removal treatment (LRI), which reduced the number of leaves by 47% and the LAI value from 2.8 to 1.5 compared to the control”
t0“Tomato Development and Yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Intense leaf removal (LRI) reduced the LAI value from 2.8 to 1.5 compared with the control.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- intense leaf removal treatment (LRI)e0
- Outcome
- LAI valuee0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Value
- from 2.8 to 1.5e0
- Comparator
- the controle0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The intense leaf removal treatment (LRI), which reduced the number of leaves by 47% and the LAI value from 2.8 to 1.5 compared to the control”
t0“Tomato Development and Yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Intense leaf removal (LRI) resulted in a 15% reduction in dry biomass compared with the control.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- intense leaf removal treatment (LRI)e0
- Outcome
- dry biomasse0
- Direction
- reductione0
- Value
- 15%e0
- Comparator
- the controle0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The intense leaf removal treatment (LRI), which reduced the number of leaves by 47% and the LAI value from 2.8 to 1.5 compared to the control, resulted in a 15% reduction in dry biomass and a 17% decrease in fruit yield”
t0“Tomato Development and Yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Intense leaf removal (LRI) resulted in a 17% decrease in fruit yield compared with the control.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- intense leaf removal treatment (LRI)e0
- Outcome
- fruit yielde0
- Direction
- decreasee0
- Value
- 17%e0
- Comparator
- the controle0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The intense leaf removal treatment (LRI), which reduced the number of leaves by 47% and the LAI value from 2.8 to 1.5 compared to the control, resulted in a 15% reduction in dry biomass and a 17% decrease in fruit yield”
t0“Tomato Development and Yield”
Claim · model-written summary
LAI saturation values under the study conditions were around 2.0.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Outcome
- LAI saturation valuese0
- Value
- around 2.0e0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“LAI saturation values under our conditions were found to be around 2.0”
t0“Tomato Development and Yield”
The same questions in other papers
pruning · growth · Solanum lycopersicum (tomato)Results differ
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- positive
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See all 72 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.