Performance of Precooled Tomato Transplants

Ghate, Suhas R.; Risse, Lawrence A.; Kretchman, Dale W.; Jaworski, Casimir A.

Performance of Precooled Tomato Transplants

1988

Ghate, Suhas R. | Risse, Lawrence A. | Kretchman, Dale W. | Jaworski, Casimir A.

Field grown bare root tomato transplants packed in commercial shipping crates were precooled in a batch type precooler by forced air cooled with liquid carbon dioxide (L-C02). The precooled transplants were shipped via commercial truck from Tifton, GA to Fremont, OH. Some of the precooled and nonprecooled transplants were immediately planted in the field upon reaching destination and some were planted after 5 days of storage either at ambient or at 7°C temperatures. The technique of precooling using L-C02 was successful but there was nonuniform cooling between crates. The precooled transplants went through a heating and cooling cycle in transit because of the heat load of nonprecooled transplants. The survival and fruit yield data indicated that the performance of precooled and nonprecooled transplants was similar when they were not stored. The performance of stored transplants was worse than unstored transplants and the performance of precooled-stored transplants was worse than nonprecooled-stored transplants. Successive heating and cooling of precooled tomato transplants caused damage.

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