• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.167-173
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• 2014

This research was conducted to establish appropriate methods to prune tomato side stems during summer. Cherry tomatoes "Unicorn" (Monsanto Korea, Korea) were grown in the coir based growing medium, and irrigation was controlled time based system. There were three pruning treatments: 1) removing all side stems (ACUT), 2) remaining two leaves on the side stems right below any cluster (PCUT), and 3) remaining two leaves on all side stems (LEFT). Experimental results showed that the occurrence of swollen stems, a symptom of nutrient excess, was influenced by side stem pruning due to blocking of consumption of photosynthetic products. The photosynthetic rate was not different between leaves on main stem and those on side shoots. Therefore the differences in the total amounts of photosynthetic products seemed to come out from the differences in leaf areas on each treatments, influencing on fruit yield difference. The yields and harvesting rates were better in ACUT treatment when tomato plants were harvested until $5^{th}$ cluster, however tomato yield was higher in LEFT treatment when more then $5^{th}$ clusters were harvested.