Relationships of photosynthetic photon flux density, air temperature and humidity with tomato leaf diffusive conductance and temperature

The objective was to study the leaf temperature (LT) and leaf diffusive vapor conductance (gs) responses to temperature, humidity and incident flux density of photosynthetically active photons (PPFD) of tomato plants grown without water restriction in a plastic greenhouse in Santa Maria, RS, Brazil. The plants were grown in substrate and irrigated daily. The gs was measured using a steady-state null-balance porometer on the abaxial face of the leaves during the daytime. Both leaf surfaces were measured in one day. The PPFD and LT were measured using the porometer. Leaf temperature was determined using an infrared thermometer, and air temperature and humidity were measured using a thermohygrograph. The leaves on the upper layer of the plants had higher gs than the lower layer. The relationship between the gs and PPFD was different for the two layers in the plants. A consistent relationship between the gs and atmospheric water demand was observed only in the lower layer. The LT tended to be lower than the air temperature. The mean value for the gs was 2.88 times higher on the abaxial than adaxial leaf surface.

Transpiração do tomateiro cultivado fora do solo em estufa plástica e sua relação com os elementos meteorológicos / Transpiration of tomato plants grown outside soil in plastic greenhouse and its relationship with meteorological elements

Neste trabalho, foram determinadas as relações da transpiração das plantas do tomateiro (Lycopersicon esculentum M.) cultivado em estufa plástica com os elementos meteorológicos. Realizaram-se três experimentos, no Campo Experimental do Departamento de Fitotecnia da Universidade Federal de Santa Maria - UFSM (RS): no outono-inverno de 1997 e nas primaveras de 1997 e de 1998. Cada planta foi cultivada num volume de aproximadamente oito litros de substrato colocado em sacola plástica. Para a determinação da transpiração diária, foi utilizado um sistema de lisímetros de drenagem, obtendo-se a transpiração pela diferença entre o volume de água irrigado e drenado. A transpiração das plantas foi correlacionada com os elementos meteorológicos radiação solar global diária e média diária da temperatura, umidade relativa e déficit de saturação do ar. Os modelos de regressão obtidos indicaram que é possível estimar a transpiração com razoável acuracidade apenas na primavera. As melhores estimativas foram obtidas com o déficit de saturação do ar em regressão simples (R² = 0,814) e em regressão múltipla com o déficit de saturação do ar e a temperatura do ar (R² = 0,881).

The objective of this research was to establish the relationship between transpiration of the tomato plant (Lycopersycon esculentum M.) grown outside soil in a plastic greenhouse with meteorological elements. The experiment was conducted at the Plant Science Department of the Federal University at Santa Maria and included three experiments: autun-winter 1997, and both spring of 1997 and 1998. The tomato plants were placed in plastic bags with approximately eight liters of fertirrigated susbstrate. In order to measure the daily transpiration, a system of lisymeters was used from were transpiration was measured by substracting irrigated applyed from drained water. Transpiration was correlated with the meteorological elements daily global solar radiation, mean daily temperature, daily mean air humidity and vapor pressure deficit inside the greenhouse. The calculated regression models indicated that is possible to estimate transpiration with reazonable accuracy only during spring season. The best estimates were obtained using vapor pressure deficit with simple regression (R² = 0.814) and temperature and vapor pressure deficit with multiple regression (R² = 0.881).