This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.
Open AccessArticle
Mitigating Salt Stress with Biochar: Effects on Yield and Quality of Dwarf Tomato Irrigated with Brackish Water
1
Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, 80055 Portici, Italy
2
Department of Environmental, Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Via Vivaldi 43, 81100 Caserta, Italy
3
Institute of BioEconomy—Biology, Agriculture and Food Sciences Department, National Research Council of Italy, Via Caproni 8, 50144 Firenze, Italy
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Plants 2024, 13(19), 2801; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13192801 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 9 September 2024
/
Revised: 27 September 2024
/
Accepted: 1 October 2024
/
Published: 6 October 2024
Abstract
The increase in the frequency and magnitude of environmental stresses poses a significant risk to the stability of food supplies. In coastal areas of the Mediterranean, brackish water has long been considered a limitation on horticultural production. In this scenario, the use of biochar in agriculture could be considered a valuable tool to cope with the deleterious effects of salt stress. This work aimed to investigate, in a protected environment, the effects of different concentrations of biochar (0, 1, and 2% v/v) obtained from poplar (Populus L.) biomass on the yield and quality of dwarf San Marzano ecotype tomatoes irrigated with saline water at different concentrations of NaCl (0, 40 and 80 mM). The increase in salt concentration from 0 to 80 mM NaCl reduced the total yield (−63%) and the number of fruits (−25%), but improved the main quality parameters such as dry matter (+75%), total soluble solids (+56%), and polyphenol content (+43%). Compared to control conditions, biochar supplementation improved the total yield (+23%) and number of fruits (+26%) without altering the functional and organoleptic characteristics of the fruits. The promising results underscore the potential of biochar as a sustainable solution to amend soils in order to improve tomato production under unfavorable conditions such as high salinity. However, there is a need to clarify which adaptation mechanisms triggered by biochar amending improve production responses even and especially under suboptimal growing conditions.
Share and Cite
MDPI and ACS Style
Lentini, M.; Ciriello, M.; Rouphael, Y.; Carillo, P.; Fusco, G.M.; Pagliaro, L.; Vaccari, F.P.; De Pascale, S.
Mitigating Salt Stress with Biochar: Effects on Yield and Quality of Dwarf Tomato Irrigated with Brackish Water. Plants 2024, 13, 2801.
https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13192801
AMA Style
Lentini M, Ciriello M, Rouphael Y, Carillo P, Fusco GM, Pagliaro L, Vaccari FP, De Pascale S.
Mitigating Salt Stress with Biochar: Effects on Yield and Quality of Dwarf Tomato Irrigated with Brackish Water. Plants. 2024; 13(19):2801.
https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13192801
Chicago/Turabian Style
Lentini, Matteo, Michele Ciriello, Youssef Rouphael, Petronia Carillo, Giovanna Marta Fusco, Letizia Pagliaro, Francesco Primo Vaccari, and Stefania De Pascale.
2024. "Mitigating Salt Stress with Biochar: Effects on Yield and Quality of Dwarf Tomato Irrigated with Brackish Water" Plants 13, no. 19: 2801.
https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13192801
Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details
here.
Article Metrics
Article metric data becomes available approximately 24 hours after publication online.