What are the causes of "hollow fruit" in tomato planting and how to prevent it?

Hollow fruit is one of the common phenomena in tomato production. Once the tomato fruit appears hollow, not only the edible value is greatly reduced, but also the commodity value is basically lost. So what caused the hollowness of tomatoes? How to avoid it in the production process? Next, let's understand the cause and effect of the phenomenon of tomato hollow fruit.

First, the causes of tomato hollow fruit

The root cause of tomato hollow fruit is that the gum of peel and pulp is not harmonious during the growth and development. Peel and pulp grow separately, and their growth rate mainly depends on the absorption rate of nutrients. When the absorption speed of the two is quite different, the hollow fruit of tomato is formed.

Because the pulp inside is less affected by the outside world, its nutrient absorption rate mainly depends on the concentration of synthetic organic matter in leaves, the concentration of water absorbed by roots and nutrient supply, while the peel is not only affected by these two aspects, but also by external factors, such as temperature and hormones. The factors that affect the balanced development of the two mainly include the following aspects:

1, hollow fruit caused by varieties.

There are congenital defects in the coordinated development of peel and pulp of some tomato varieties, such as the phenomenon of hollow fruit in varieties with few ventricles. Generally speaking, early-maturing varieties have fewer ventricles, while late-maturing varieties have more ventricles.

2. Hollow fruit caused by temperature factors

In the pollen formation period, if it is exposed to high temperature of 35℃ for a long time, it will lead to poor pollination and fertilization. At the same time, because the peel is more obviously influenced by the external environment than the pulp, the peel grows faster, which leads to the inconsistency between the pulp and the peel and the hollow phenomenon.

3. Hollow fruit caused by improper use of hormones

During flowering, fruit farmers have the habit of dipping flowers to promote pollination, and even some vegetable farmers will use some swelling agents to promote fruit expansion. If the concentration is too high, the flowers are dipped repeatedly, or the buds are small when dipped, empty fruit will appear. In addition, the use of fillers is particularly easy to cause hollowing, because the main component of fillers is clofenuron, and the internal absorption of clofenuron is weak, where it is used, it will grow faster. Therefore, if too much leavening agent is used, the peel will grow faster, but the pulp will still expand at the original speed, which is easy to form hollow fruit.

4. Light-induced hollow fruit.

In the fruit expansion period, if it is cloudy and the light is insufficient, it will affect the photosynthesis of tomato leaves, which will lead to the decrease of photosynthetic products and the insufficient supply of nutrients delivered to the fruit, which will lead to the uncoordinated growth of pulp and peel and the phenomenon of hollow fruit.

5. Insufficient nutrition supply

In the full fruit stage and late growth stage, if the water and fertilizer supply can't keep up, the fruit nutrition supply is insufficient, and the carbohydrate accumulation is relatively small, hollowing will also occur. In the same inflorescence, the order of flowering will also affect the supply of nutrients. The fruits formed by early flowering are more abundant than those formed by late flowering, so the fruits formed by late flowering are easy to form empty fruits.

Second, the control measures of tomato hollow fruit

After understanding the causes of the formation of tomato hollow fruit, we can easily put forward the methods to solve the symptoms.

1, select suitable varieties for cultivation.

Under the premise of combining consumption habits, market prices and other factors, try to choose varieties with middle and late maturity and more ventricles for planting.

2. Rational use of hormones

Use expansion agent as little as possible; When two-thirds of the flowers in each inflorescence are open, spray a regulator; When used, the content of anti-falling agent is 15~25㎎/L, or 25~40㎎/L of flowers dipped with tomato essence. Repeated dipping in flowers should be avoided, and the concentration should be reduced accordingly before use in high temperature season.

3. Strengthen water and fertilizer management

In tomato cultivation, with the help of agricultural technicians, formula fertilization should be carried out as far as possible to ensure the rational distribution of nutrients, adjust the root-shoot ratio of plants, avoid excessive competition between branches and fruits for nutrients, and ensure adequate nutrient supply for plant nutritional growth and reproductive growth.

In the full fruit period, we should pay attention to the supply of water and fertilizer to meet the demand of tomato plant growth and development for nutrients; Organic matter nutrition can be applied at the full fruit stage to improve the nutrient supply concentration of root system, which will promote the growth rate of pulp, narrow the gap with pericarp as much as possible, and the hollow phenomenon will disappear. Glucose is strongly recommended here, which can effectively reduce the empty fruit rate of tomatoes for 4-7 days in general. If premature aging occurs, root system maintenance and foliar fertilization should be carried out in time.

4, do a good job of lighting and temperature adjustment.

Do a good job in temperature and light management to create good environmental conditions for fruit growth and development. The temperature at seedling stage and fruiting stage should not be too high. In the process of tomato growth and development, the daytime temperature is generally controlled at around 26℃, and the upper and lower deviation should not exceed 4℃. The temperature at night is controlled at about 65438 06℃. Especially in the seedling stage, it is necessary to prevent the temperature from being too high and the light from being insufficient at night. Avoid encountering high temperature above 35℃ at flowering stage to avoid adverse effects on pollination.

5. Choose strong seedlings for planting.

When planting, avoid planting seedlings. Seedlings have developed roots and strong absorption, and too much nitrogen nutrition is easy to form hollow fruits. Seize the opportunity to pick the heart, especially to avoid the shortage of nutrition supply caused by premature picking the heart.

The above are the answers to the causes and preventive measures of tomato hollow fruit phenomenon. In addition to varieties and preventing empty fruit, vegetable farmers should pay more attention to field management. If the field management is done well, the empty fruit rate of tomatoes will naturally decrease.