Mûrissement des tomates en fin de culture: l'éthylène à la rescousse! | Tomato ripening at the end of the culture: ethylene to the rescue!
2014
Gilli, C. | Camps, C. | Stalder, J., Station de recherche Agroscope Changins-Waedenswil ACW, Conthey (Switzerland)
At the end of tomato crop, several kg/m2 of tomatoes are still to be harvested. Accelerating last tomatoes maturation in greenhouses at the end of the culture enables energy saving and avoids having to throw away tomatoes that are not quite ready for consumption. It is currently possible to accelerate the ripening of tomatoes by applying ethephon. An alternative is the injection of ethylene, a naturally produced hormone, directly in the greenhouse. In collaboration with the company Carbagas, Agroscope tested the effect of an ethylene injection in the greenhouse on ripening tomatoes. In average over the two years, the injection of ethylene enabled to harvest 1.5 truss/m2 or 0.75 kg/m2 more compared to the control compartment (1.5 % of the total yield). The addition of ethylene only slightly influenced the analytical quality of tomatoes at harvest (acidity, firmness and total soluble substances). Such an application seems to be economically profitable, but the agreement for ethylene injection in greenhouses must still be obtained.
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