Dry-farmed tomatoes are grown by small-scale organic farmers in coastal California and the Willamette Valley of Oregon. However, drought stress can exacerbate physiological disorders like blossom-end rot, which can result in crop failure.
Understanding the physiological traits that underpin dry-farmed tomato success will allow breeders and farmers to develop tomato varieties that can tolerate drought and produce high-quality fruit. This is especially important as climate change will result in hotter and drier summers in the western US.
The project team will: (a) conduct and compare physiological measurements along with yield and fruit quality measurements using dry-farmed and irrigated tomatoes to determine how they differ, (b) evaluate relationships between physiological traits and yield and blossom-end rot for dry-farmed tomato grown under different conditions, (c) conduct on-farm trials for high-performing varieties, allowing farmers to assess their quality, and (d) share project findings with dry-farmed vegetable growers in California and Oregon.
Some physiological traits may be associated with increased marketable yields and reduced losses to physiological disorders, allowing farmers and breeders to better understand which traits to target when breeding tomatoes for dry farming.
Access to irrigation remains a major concern for agriculture in the western US. By better understanding the physiology of dry-farmed crops, both dry-farmed tomato growers and the California processed tomato industry will be better equipped to breed varieties that resist drought stress.
Center for Agroecology/UCSC participants: Darryl Wong, Jarmilla Pitterman
Funding: