New study: Tapered Deficit Irrigation Strategies in Processing Tomato

Back in 2019, a processing tomato grower told us that he was slowly reducing water used or ‘tapering’ irrigation across the season with processing tomatoes as a type of deficit irrigation strategy. Over the following years, our research and extension team partnered with the California Tomato Research Institute, California Department of Food and Agriculture, and a working processing farm to evaluate tapered deficit irrigation strategies for three field seasons as part of Dr. Logan Ebert’s dissertation. We found that tapered deficit irrigation strategies improved water use efficiency without harming yield or fruit quality. Check out the article in Callifornia Agriculture here!