University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest Faculty of Horticulture International Student Symposium “Hortus Academicus” March 29, 2019, Bucharest, Romania EFFECT OF FOLIAR SPRAYING WITH ARGININE, CYSTEINE AND THE NUMBER OF STEMS ON THE GROWTH AND YIELD OF CHERRY TOMATOES CULTIVATED IN GREENHOUSE Author name: Rotaru Paul Cristian Coordinator Professor: Prof.dr. Hoza Gheorghita International Student Symposium "Hortus Academicus“ March 29, 2019 - Bucharest, Romania

Introduction Foliar spray fertilizer is a good way to supplement the nutritional needs of the plants and what makes foliar spraying so special and an excellent way to address any type of nutrient deficiency is that spraying is much faster compared to applying nutrients to the soil via irrigation. Pruning levels influence plant developmental characteristics, yield, and fruit quality of the indeterminate growth tomatoes. Fig.1 – Ema de Buzau variety International Student Symposium "Hortus Academicus“ March 29 , 2019 - Bucharest, Romania

Materials and Methods This experiment was conducted at the experimental field of Faculty of Horticulture, Bucharest, in the summer of 2018, in a greenhouse. The biological material used was the Romanian variety of cherry tomatoes “Ema de Buzau”. Two amino acids were used, cysteine and arginine, in two rates, 200 and 400 ppm, applied by spraying on plants, once per week for a period of four weeks, and the plants were conducted with 1 and 2 stems. Fig.2 – Aspect of the establishment of the culture International Student Symposium "Hortus Academicus“ March 29 , 2019 - Bucharest, Romania

Distance between root collar and the first cluster Measurements -average number of flowers in cluster -distance between clusters -average number of fruits in cluster -percentage of fruits set in cluster -average fruit weight -total number of fruits per plant h Distance between root collar and the first cluster Total yield International Student Symposium "Hortus Academicus“ March 29, 2019 - Bucharest, Romania

The planting scheme Randomized block design (factorial) consisted of 3 randomised blocks with 6 treatments, with a distance of 80 cm between lines and 40 cm between plants Fig.3 – Distance between plants International Student Symposium "Hortus Academicus“ March 29, 2019 - Bucharest, Romania

Treatments of cultivar Ema de Buzau Experimental scheme Treatments of cultivar Ema de Buzau Control Single stem Double stems Arginine 200 ppm Arginine 400 ppm Cysteine 200 ppm Cysteine 400 ppm

Results and discussions The effect of the number of stems applications clearly showed that the single stem plants average height (208.4cm) was bigger, compering with double stem plants (184.7cm), but didn’t effect significantly the stem diameter, chlorophyll content and photosynthesis. Treatments Plant height (cm) Chlorophyll content mg/m2 Photosynthesis µmol CO2 m-2 s-1 Control Single stem 208.4 d 19.07 d 15.29 b Double stems 184.7 e 18.12 d 15.74 b Arginine 200ppm 251.2 ab 26 ab 19.18 a 242.5 b 20.45 cd 19.91 a Arginine 400ppm 252.5 a 28.25 a 20.53 a 230.5 c 21.43 cd 19.68 a Cysteine 200ppm 231.2 c 29.35 a 20.26 a 213.1 d 23.04 bc 16.47 b Cysteine 400ppm 27.08 ab 19.62 a 235.7 b 23.93 b 16.48 b International Student Symposium "Hortus Academicus“ March 29, 2019 - Bucharest, Romania

Some parameters of the production Treatments Fruit set (%) Average of Fruit weight/plant (g) Yield /plant (g) Control Single stem 55.68 c 4,92 d 710.73 f Double stem 54.31 c 4,83 d 1653.44 d Arginine 200 ppm 68.64 a 5,45 c 726.43 f 69.32 a 5,36 c 1915.36 c Arginine 400 ppm 61.32 b 6,70 a 990.33 e 58.88 b 6,69 a 3258.30 a Cysteine 200 ppm 60.05 5,71 b 803.19 f 65.78 b 5,53 bc 1631.88 d Cysteine 400 ppm 65.87 a 6,71 a 1090.49 e 67.49 a 6,63 a 2037.44 b

Fig.4 and 5 – The size of the fruits for arginine treated plants International Student Symposium "Hortus Academicus“ March 29, 2019 - Bucharest, Romania

Conclusions and recommendations Statistically significant changes were observed in all growth and yield parameters for double stem plants over the single stem ones. All parameters were highly influenced by cysteine and arginine, especially when used at higher rates. Thus, under similar growing conditions, it may be recommended that cherry tomatoes to be lend with 2 stems and to be applied foliar amino acid spraying for a higher yield and better quality fruits. International Student Symposium "Hortus Academicus“ March 29, 2019 - Bucharest, Romania

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