Horticultural performance of five open-pollinated tomato varieties under organic management

Abstract

A large proportion of commercially grown tomato cultivars were developed and adapted to high input conventional agriculture systems, which employ synthetic chemicals in their production systems. There is a need to develop cultivars that are adapted to local conditions and to the challenges of a low-input or organic production system. Based on information gathered from organic farmers and consumers surveys collected prior to the experiment, we set objectives for a tomato variety trial under organic management in Mediterranean conditions. Few of the issues that hamper the production and trade expansion of organic tomato are the lack of cultivars specifically adapted to organic conditions, the shelf life differences between organic and conventional tomato and the susceptibility of the crop to pests and pathogens. The aim of the trial was to assess the horticultural performance of five varieties under organic management, three of which were locally bred lines and two are commercially sold for organic production. The trial consisted of a randomized complete block design with 12 plants per row, 5 rows per block and 3 blocks (reps) and was set in a certified organic farm in Mount Lebanon. We monitored the yield and productivity of each variety, its susceptibility to pests and physiological disorders, its phenological characteristics, and the quality of its production at harvest and its quality after storage. Sensory evaluation was also performed on a group of semi-trained consumers and a culinary chef to determine consumer appreciation of each variety. Overall, lines AUB1 and AUB3 were better than the commercially sold varieties in terms of yield, producing 55.44 t-ha and 53.62 t-ha respectively while AUB2 produced better than Indigo, producing 20.06 t-ha. As for susceptibility, AUB2 did better than the commercially imported varieties in terms of being the least susceptible to pea leafminer with 14.9percent and fruit zippering with 0.133 while AUB3 was similar to Indigo for susceptibility to physiological disorders.