Fertigation Strategies to Alleviate Fertilizer Contamination Generated by Tomato Crops under Plastic Greenhouses

Summary

The rapid development of greenhouse horticulture has brought about a dramatic increase in the nitrate pollution of aquifers. The optimization of nitrogen application is an important tool to minimize nitrogen losses. The objective of this research was to assess the effect of different fertigation strategies, based on the reduction of the nitrogen applied and the use of a percentage of NH4+ as a nitrogen source, on the decrease in the environmental impact caused by the traditional system, as well as to evaluate if this is compatible with a high fruit yield (considering quantity and quality). Lycopersicum esculentum Mill cv. Forteza plants were grown in a polyethylene greenhouse. Tomato yield and quality were evaluated, along with leachates, which were collected by means of rigid plastic lysi