Deficit irrigation scheduling of greenhouse tomato based on quality principle component analysis

In order to find optimal deficit irrigation scheduling for better fruit quality and higher benefit of greenhouse tomato, an experiment was conducted and the principle component analysis method was used to evaluate tomato comprehensive quality in each harvest under different deficit irrigation regimes. Combined with the actual market yield, the concept of average quality comprehensive principle component was put forward to indicate the tomato comprehensive quality performance under different irrigation treatments. The results showed that comprehensive quality principle component obeyed normal distribution significantly, and included 88.41% primordial quality attribute variation information with better representation and objectivity, and thus could be used as the overall tomato quality evaluation index. When applying 1/3 irrigation amount of the control treatment in flowering and fruit developing stage, normal irrigation in other growth stages, the highest comprehensive quality index and an acceptable yield were achieved, and also 56 mm irrigation water was saved. That is to say that the irrigation scheduling with 12 times and 196 mm water amount during the total growth period should be recommended as the optimal irrigation pattern for the greenhouse winter-spring tomato scientific cultivation.