Tomato
Genetics
and Breeding Program
Tomato
Genetics
and Breeding Program
| Our mission | Personnel | Current Research | Courses | Outreach | Home |
Managing Color Disorders
| Project Objectives | Presentations | Color Disorders vs. Soil | Preliminary Results | "Hartz" Ratio Calculator | Related Links | Participants |
Fruit ripening disorders affect both the appearance and nutritional quality of tomatoes, reducing efficiency and return on investment for growers and the processing industry. Universities, growers and processors are working to develop an integrated management system to improve quality and nutritional value while reducing color disorders of tomato.
Other important objectives of this long term project include testing equations based on soil nutrients as a predictor for ripening disorders; evaluating the economic feasibility of methods for preventing color disorders by agronomic means; and using gene expression profiling to determine whether there is a single disorder or multiple disorders with unique causes.
Research in University test plots and growers fields shows that soil test data can help us predict if a field may be at risk for producing tomatoes with yellow shoulder disorder. The most important indicators of risk are the ratio of potassium to the square root of magnesium (the “Hartz” ratio), potassium levels, organic matter, and soils pH. The buttons below will provide you more information on each.
Click on the picture below to know more about color disorders of tomato.
Tomato Quality Starts with the Soil [Click here to get a PDF file]
Presentation from the 2003 Ohio Fruit and Vegetable Growers Congress: Managing processing tomatoes for quality [Click here to get a PDF file]
* PDF files require Adobe Acrobat Reader. Download Acrobat Reader 5.0 for free.*
Click on the picture to know more about color disorders X soils.
Click on the button above to estimate the "Hartz" ratio for your soil.
University of California - Davis
http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/7228.pdf
Processing tomato production in California.
Vegetable Research and Information Center
http://vric.ucdavis.edu/selectnewcrop.tomato.htm
The Ohio State University
2003 Ohio Vegetable Production Guide Bulletin 672-03
http://ohioline.osu.edu/b672/
The Ohio Soil Database
http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~pedology/Soildatabase.html
Ohio Agronomy Guide: Bulletin 472
http://ohioline.osu.edu/b472/front.html
Homepage of The Ohio State University Extension Vegetable Crops
http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~vegnet/
California Tomato Commission
http://www.tomato.org/
The latest news and information about California field-fresh tomatoes and the California fresh tomato industry.
Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture - Purdue
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/rhodcv/hort410/tomat/tomat.htm
This site offers a complete list of tomato links.
David Francis francis.77@osu.edu
Assistant Professor
The Ohio State University
Thomas Sporleder
Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics
The Ohio State University
Stephen A. Garrison
Extension Specialist, Vegetable Crops
Rutgers Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Chris Gunter
Horticulture Specialist
Southwest Purdue Agricultural Program
Avtar K Handa
Professor of Molecular and Postharvest Biology
Purdue University
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/hort/people/faculty/handa.html
Tim Hartz
University of California, Davis
http://veghome.ucdavis.edu/Faculty/Hartz/tkhprofile.htm
Majid Foolad
Associate Professor of Plant Genetics
The Pennsylvania State University
