EVALUATION OF SELECTED TOMATO CULTIVARS IN SOILLESS CULTURE IN KUWAIT

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the productivity of six tomato cultivars using gravel system under Kuwait environment. Experiment was conducted in acrylic covered greenhouses with evaporative cooling system with ambient temperatures ranging from 24 to 32 ºC throughout experimentation period of 243 days. A total of 12 concrete troughs (21.85m L x 0.68m W x 0.4m D) filled with gravels and fertigation was delivered through perforated polyethylene tubes along experimental troughs. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete design replicated 4 times with 35 plants per cvr. per replicate (6 cvs. x 4 reps x 35 plants/rep) with a planting density of 4.7 plants/m². Fruit yield for Rengo, Cappello, Bangal, Amazon, Incase and Saria cultivars were 23.7, 23.0, 21.4, 21.1, 15.3 and 13.4 kg.m², respectively. The first four cvrs are not significantly different from each other at LSD_0.05. Capello cvr was superior in terms of mean weight per fruit (165 g/fruit), followed by Amazon (140) and Bangal (130), Rengo (120), Saria (100) and Incase (91). Rate of water consumption for cooling the greenhouses was 15 L.m^-2.day. Water use efficiency (WUE) for Rengo, Cappello, Bangal, Amazon, Incase and Saria cvrs were 14.4, 14.0, 13.0, 12.8, 9.3 and 8.2 g.L of irrigation water, respectively. It is therefore recommended that the cvs. Bangal, Amazon and Rengo are promising tomato cultivars to be used in a gravel culture in Kuwait in addition to Cappello.