تاثير محلول پاشي سولفات آهن و اسيدسيتريك بر خواص كمي و كيفي گوجه فرنگي رقم اوربانا

Effect of FeSO4 and citric acid spray on fruit characteristics of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) cv. Urbana

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is one of the leading vegetables grown extensively both in controlled environment and open field. Iron chlorosis is one of the limiting factors in tomato production in calcareous soils. This experiment was therefore conducted in the field of the experiment station of college of agriculture Shiraz University to study the effect of FeSO4 and citric acid on Urbana cultivar. The design of the experiment was a 4x4 factorial in a complete randomized block design with 3 replications. Treatments include: 4 levels of Fe (0, 100, 200 and 300) mg/I and citric acid (0, 500, 1000 and1500) mg/I, sprayed twice (25 and 50 days) after transplanting. Yield, acidity, TSS, vitamin C, chlorophyll, and pH and leaf area were measured and analyzed statistically. Yield, mean weight of fruit, TSS and acidity of the juice were not affected by the treatments. FeSO4 and citric acid treatments increased chlorophyll content of leaf and leaf area, and the highest chlorophyll and leaf area were observed with 300mg/l Fe. FeSO4 spray did not reduce the pH of the leaf extract, whereas the citric acid did reduce it. Lowest pH obtained with 300mg/l Fe plus 1500 mg/I citric acid. It can be concluded that citric acid spray may increase leaf chlorophyll, via activation of Fe present in the leaf.