Assessing Tomato Yield and Water Saving under Deficit Irrigation in Jordan Valley

An open-field tomato crop experiment was conducted in 2007 in Jordan Valley to assess the impact of regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) practice on tomato yield and quality, and crop evapotranspiration. The experiment included three treatments, in which the first treatment received 100% of the crop water requirement during the entire season (T1) which was 125 days. The second and third treatments (T2 and T3) received similar irrigation amounts to that of T1 for the first 55 days of the growing season starting from transplanting until the end of the flowering stage, after which T2 and T3 received 80% and 60% of T1, respectively, until the end of the growing season. The root zone depletion analyses for T3 showed that tomato was under water stress after 75 days of planting, while water stress took place after 85 days for T2, and there was no significant water stress on T1. Total yield of tomato was 88.4, 85.6 and 74.3 ton ha-1 for T1, T2 and T3, respectively. There were no significant differences (p ? 0.05) between T1 and T2 treatments in yield quantities but T3 was significantly lower than T1. Regarding fruit quality, there was small difference among treatments in fruit size and weight and dry matter among treatments. Fruit total soluble solids were significantly different among treatments and was highest for T3. From these results, it can be concluded that T2 with 80% RDI is a good practice because it will save water while sustaining yield and quality.