Tomato varieties and hybrids during drip irrigation in open ground Republic of Crimea

Relevance. Purpose – to study of high-yielding tomato varieties and hybrids during drip irrigation in open ground conditions. Methods. The research was conducted in the Belogorsk region of Crimea. The experimental plots were maintained under an irrigation regime of 80% of the lowest moisture capacity in a calculated layer of 0.4 m. Results. To obtain early production varieties and hybrids with a short period from planting seedlings to the first harvest are needed. Of the tomatoes studied, these were Rosie Heath F1 and Cherfield F1. Higher rates of plants linear growth were observed in the Babai variety. In the Volgogradskiy 5/95 tomatoes, these values were 3.6-9.2% lower in all measurements. The best leaf surface area indicators were noted in the Pink Plum F1, Cherfield F1 hybrids – 16.5, 15.8 and 16.1 thousand m2/ha, than in the later Babai and Volgogradskiy 5/95 varieties – 14.7 and 14.5 thousand m2/ha, respectively. Higher biological yield was obtained from mid-season tomatoes Babai (135.0 t/ha), Volgogradsky 5/95 (130.2 t/ha). Analysis of experimental data allowed us to establish the relationship between the yield value and the duration of the harvesting period and the leaf surface area with high approximation coefficients. The values of total water consumption by variants differed by only 1-1.5%. Other characteristics of water consumption had regular interrelations: for example, "average daily water consumption - duration of vegetation" with a high approximation coefficient. A close relationship was also established between the coefficients of water consumption and water capacity with the yield value. Conclusions. The conducted studies made it possible to identify the varieties (Babai and Volgogradsky 5/95) and hybrids (Pink Plum F1, Cherfield F1) that were most responsive to drip irrigation, which had higher rates of linear growth, leaf surface area and plant weight, which allowed them to form a higher yield.