Temperature
integration where high day temperatures are compensated by lower night
temperatures is one strategy that can be used to reduce energy consumption in
greenhouses. Crop tolerance to temperature variation is a prerequisite for
using such a strategy. Greenhouse experiments were conducted on tomatoes cvs, Capricia, Mecano and
Cederico in order to investigate the effect of different day/night temperature
regimes (24/17, 27/14 and 30/11℃) where the same mean temperature was
maintained for the production and germination of pollen. In addition, fruit
quality as determined by fruit firmness, dry matter content, soluble solids,
titratable acids, and pH was examined at harvest and after seven and 14 days of
storage. The 30/11℃ treatment significantly increased pollen production and
germination compared to the 24/17℃ treatment, while the 27/14℃ treatment was
generally in between the other two treatments. Fruits grown at the 27/14℃ treatment were significantly firmer, while fruits grown at 24/17℃ had higher
dry matter content, soluble solids, and titratable acids compared to the other
treatments. There were significant differences between cultivars with respect
to firmness, dry matter, titratable acidity, and pH. The quality of the fruits
changed during storage, but the storability of the tomatoes was not
affected by preharvest temperature treatments. The overall conclusion was that the 27/14℃ treatment was superior to the
other two temperature treatments with respect to the studied parameters.