MARCELLA MICHELA GIULIANI

The gradual reduction of water reserves for irrigation has become a worldwide concern. To improve the irrigation of processing tomato, we conducted a study to evaluate a system that monitors both plant water status and soil moisture levels (PlaSoMan) compared to an evapotraspirometric method (IrriMan) and an empirical farmer’s management (FarMan) in a two-year field trial. The results showed that PlaSoMan saved around 30% and 7.5% of water, with a yield loss of only 10% and 2.5% compared to FarMan and IrriMan, respectively. Thus, PlaSoMan showed satisfactory irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) over the two years. Moreover, IrriMan and PlaSoMan had lower blue water requirement (BWR) values than FarMan. Finally, PlaSoMan reached the highest value of the yield quality indicator, which combined total yield and brix degree. Thus, the new system, which assesses both plant water status and soil moisture levels, appears to be associated with high-quality and water-friendly tomato production representing an efficient solution for areas with limited water resources.