The objective of this research was to establish the relationship between transpiration of the tomato plant (Lycopersycon esculentum M.) grown outside soil in a plastic greenhouse with meteorological elements. The experiment was conducted at the Plant Science Department of the Federal University at Santa Maria and included three experiments: autun-winter 1997, and both spring of 1997 and 1998. The tomato plants were placed in plastic bags with approximately eight liters of fertirrigated susbstrate. In order to measure the daily transpiration, a system of lisymeters was used from were transpiration was measured by substracting irrigated applyed from drained water. Transpiration was correlated with the meteorological elements daily global solar radiation, mean daily temperature, daily mean air humidity and vapor pressure deficit inside the greenhouse. The calculated regression models indicated that is possible to estimate transpiration with reazonable accuracy only during spring season. The best estimates were obtained using vapor pressure deficit with simple regression (R² = 0.814) and temperature and vapor pressure deficit with multiple regression (R² = 0.881).
Lycopersicon esculentum; solar radiation; temperature; vapor pressure deficit
