Three tomato varieties on trial
As part of the INVITE project, the CTIFL centre in Carquefou (France) carried out experiments on three tomato varieties grown on substrate in heated greenhouses. The current, and probably lasting, situation is forcing growers to maintain a positive economic balance, while the cost of all inputs is rising. The aim is to identify, among commercial varieties, those that show the best level of resilience to the reduction in inputs, to identify physiological markers associated with this resilience, and to compare these results with molecular analyses carried out by our partner INRAE. The inputs selected for the experiments are liquid carbon dioxide, mineral fertilisers and heating energy.
The decline in liquid carbon dioxide production is leading to a sharp rise in prices and a shortage of supply. In the Pays de la Loire region, few growers are equipped for CO2 recovery from flue gases produced by cogeneration engines. The reduction of this input is becoming essential, even though its use directly increases production while improving the plant's photosynthetic capacity - see the article l'article Variétés de tomate et résilience face à la diminution du taux de CO2 - Pilotage des serres et injection de CO2 published in INFOS CTIFL No. 388.