• Horticultural Science & Technology
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.146-152
• /
• 2013

The photosynthetic rates according to leaf positions in tomato plants were investigated in relation to leaf age and flowering rate. In the experiment investigating the diurnal change of photosynthetic rates, three leaves below the 4th cluster was checked every hour from 2 hours before sunrise and 3 hours after sunset. It was checked twice with the replication of 3 plants. The photosynthetic rate increased sharply for 1 hour right after sunrise and remained steady until 2 hours before sunset. This trend can be applied to determine the irrigation schedule. In the experiment investigating the photosynthetic rates according to leaf positions, it three leaves below each clusters from 1st to 4th cluster were checked. Flowering rate was also investigated. The photosynthetic rates showed a decreasing tendency steadily after flowers bloomed fully, regardless of the leaf position. It seems to be because the leaves below the cluster with fully-bloom flowers lost their activities. This result suggests the flowering rate or the position of flower has deep relation with the photosynthetic rates of the concerned leaves. From the results the leaves under flowering cluster may be the good part to investigate the photosynthetic rate to evaluate the crop's activity, even the photosynthetic rates are different according to the position of clusters.