The tomato crop corresponds to an expressive activity in Brazil, being a quite demanding crop in water and under greenhouse conditions the irrigation should be used for the total water supply. The appropriate irrigation management is not only an important factor to supply plant's water needs, but also to minimize problems with diseases, nutrient leaching as well as unnecessary expenses with water and energy. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the effect of different soil water tensions on the productive behavior of the tomato hybrid Raísa N, crop with indeterminate growth under greenhouse in the region of Lavras, MG. The experiment was installed in a greenhouse in a randomized block design with four replications. Treatments were constituted of six soil water tensions as indicative of the watering moment. Preset tensions were 15, 30, 50, 70, 120 and 170 kPa. Results allowed to conclude that to obtain higher total and commercial productivity and smaller incidence of black spot, the irrigations should be done when the water tension at 0.10 m soil depth is around 80 kPa. It was also possible to observe that the efficiency of water use presented positive linear correlation with the water tension in the soil.
Lycopersicon esculentum; drip irrigation; irrigation scheduling; water stress
