The effect of pot size and growing media on growth of tomato in soilless culture

This research was aimed at investigating the effect of different pot sizes and growing media on the growth of tomato plants, was carried out in the autumn and spring seasons in a greenhouse. In the autumn, the tomato cv. "Sagit 146"; and in the spring the tomato cvs. "Sagit 146" and "Amfora F1" were used as plant material. In both seasons 10 pots with one tomato plant in each pot were used in each plots. In the trials, peat, perlite and 1:1 peat-perlite mix were used as substrates, and 2 pot sizes; 8 1 (25x23 cm) and 16 1 (32x28 cm) were used. The nutrient solution recommended by Maas and Adamson (1980) was used as the feeding material. The growing media, pot sizes and interactions between them had no effect on total yield, but growing media affected the total number of fruits and the highest total number of fruits was obtained from the plants raised in perlite in autumn. In spring, pot sizes affected the total yield significantly and the best results were obtained from the plants raised in 16 1 pots. Also, using 2 pot sizes and 3 substrates had no significant effect an the vegetative growth of plants. So, using the 8 1 pot size will prevent over use of substrates providing economical advantages in container cultivation.