Rendimento e qualidade de sementes de frutos de tomate em diferentes estádios de maturação produzidos nos sistemas hidropônico e convencional

Abstract

The NFT - Nutriente Film Technique - has contributed to the dissemination of the commercial hydroponics cultivation all over the world and in Brazil as well. In order to evaluate the efficience of this technique in the production of tomato seeds (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.), an experiment was conducted at a school-farm of FAZU, in Uberaba, it had been harvested fruits in four periods of maturation: breaker; pink; pale red and red. Two forms of cultivation of opened pollination, such as Dorsing from the cherry group and Gaúcho from the salad group, was used in a factorial scheme 2 x 4, randomly delineated in blocks, with four replications. The parts were formed by fruits classified in the four periods of maturation, harvest in two adjacent lines to each cultivation, with double spaces of 1,10 x 0,85 x 0,50m, containing 16 plants each part, 12 being useful. The nutritional solution proposed by Moraes (1997) was used, with electric conductivity adjusted to a zone of 2,0 to 2,5 Msiemens/cm. As a comparison, another field cultivation was conducted simultaneously, the same experimental delineation was adopted, increasing just the number of plants each part to 26, 22 of which useful. It was made the harvest of the five firsts bunches. At that time it was estimated the fruit middle weight, the number of seeds per fruit, mass of seed per fruit ton, kilo per hectare seeds, mass of a thousand seeds, germination and vigour throught the first counting and germination speed. Analysis of the productiveness and quality of the produced were achieved, and although the field system had reached superior rates to hydroponics related to the average weight of the fruits and of seeds per fruit, it did not reflect in a greater crop of seeds per area, being possible to produce tomato seeds with the NFT with output and physiological quality comparable to the field system. The fruits harvest in breaker periods were the least productive compared with the other periods, but they expressed the same physiologic potential.