Effect of the Age and Planting Area of Tomato (Solanum licopersicum L.) Seedlings for Late Field Production on the Physiological Behavior of Plants

N. SHOPOVA and D. CHOLAKOV
Agricultural University, BG - 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Abstract

SHOPOVA, N. and D. CHOLAKOV, 2014. Effect of the age and planting area of tomato (Solanum licopersicum L.) seedlings for late field production on the physiological behavior of plants. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 20: 173-177

 

In a field experiments were tested variants of seedlings with different age - 20-25-, 30-35- and 40-45-day old, grown in 40-, 66- and 104-cell containers providing a planting area for one seedling of 44, 28 and 17 cm² respectively. It was established that the use of biologically younger seedlings was a precondition for a greater physiological potential of the transplants during the vegetative stage. The parameters of the leaf gas exchange, biological yield and the economic photosynthetic productivity reached their highest values for the 20-25-day old seedlings grown in 66-cell containers with 28 cm² planting area per transplant.

Key words: tomatoes, seedlings, biological yield, net photosynthetic productivity, leaf gas exchange, plastid pigments
Abbreviations: A - photosynthetic rate, E - transpiration intensity, GS - stomatal conductance, PP - Photosynthetic potential, NPP - Net photosynthetic productivity, CPP - Economic photosynthetic productivity, CEE - Coefficient of economic efficiency, CBE - Coefficient of biomass efficiency

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