Morphological and physico-biochemical characterization of various tomato cultivars in a simplified soilless media

This study aimed to investigate nine commercial cultivars of tomato, in order to identify the most suitable cultivar in terms of morphological (plant height, fruit size, fruit weight and total yield) and physico-biochemical (color, firmness, total soluble solid, titratable acidity, ascorbic acid, total sugar, reducing and non-reducing sugar, β-carotene and lycopene) attributes. Plants were cultured hydroponically in the greenhouse. Results revealed that the morphological attributes of Beefsteak Group (BG) of tomatoes was significantly better than that of Cherry Group (CG). In addition, CG has higher concentration of biochemical attributes, mainly β-carotene, sugars, total soluble solids (TSS) and ascorbic acid contents. Within CG, cv. Aria was found to be the best for higher sugar contents, β-carotene and ascorbic acid contents; while, TSS was higher in the cv. Claree. Similarly in BG, cv. Sahel had the highest value of lycopene, β-carotene, TSS; whereas, lowest sugar contents were found in cv. Dirk. As far as firmness is concerned, cv. Naram (BG) was found to be more firm, than cv. Aria (CG). The highest total yield was recorded for cv. Vernal; in BG and in cv. Claree for CG, depicting that BG had significantly higher total yield, compared with CG

Optimizing planting geometry for barley-Egyptian clover intercropping system in semi-arid sub-tropical climate.

Intercropping legumes with cereals has been a common cropping system in short-season rainfed environments due to its increased productivity and sustainability. Intercropping barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) with Egyptian clover (Trifolium alexandrinum L.) could increase the grain yield of barley and improve resource use efficiency of the intercropping system. However, non-optimum planting geometry has been a hurdle in the adaptation of barley-based cropping systems. This study was aimed at optimizing the planting geometry, and assess the productivity and profitability of barley-Egyptian clover intercropping system. Ten different planting geometries, differing in number of rows of barley, width and number of irrigation furrows and planting method were tested. Intercropping barley with Egyptian clover improved 56-68% grain yield of barley compared with mono-cropped barley. Barley remained dominant crop in terms of aggressiveness, relative crowding coefficient and competitive ratio. The amount of water used was linearly increased with increasing size of barley strip from 3 to 8 rows. The highest water use efficiency (4.83 kg/cf3) was recorded for 8-row barley strip system with 120 cm irrigation furrows compared to rest of the planting geometries. In conclusion, 8-rows of barley planted on beds with Egyptian clover in 120 cm irrigation furrows had the highest net income and cost benefit ratio. Therefore, it is recommended that this planting geometry can be used for better economic returns of barley-Egyptian clover intercropping system. However, barley strips with >8 rows were not included in this study, which is limitation of the current study. Therefore, future studies with >8 barley rows in strip should be conducted to infer the economic feasibility and profitability of wider barley strips