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Effect of vibration frequency on artificial pollination efficiency and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) yield under high tunnel cultivation
Abstract
Tomatoes are known for their quality and nutritional value all over the world. It provides approximately 40% of the daily-required vitamin C and vitamin A to support human health. This vegetable is usually grown in high tunnels, but in these structures, the natural pollinators (insects, birds, wind, and mammals, etc.) are not available, which badly affects the yield. To avoid this issue, an artificial pollinator handheld vibration device was used to mechanically transfer pollen by simulating the natural vibration to evaluate its performance at three different frequency levels (70, 85, and 100 Hz) for the Sahel hybrid cultivar. The proposed research performed a comparative analysis between natural and artificial pollination to explore the perspective of practical application. Considering the specific floral morphology and physiological characteristics of plant flowers during the pollination phase, the research scrutinizes the impact of artificial pollination. Results indicated that artificial pollination significantly improved crop performance over natural pollination in terms of fruit number by 40%, average fruit weight by 9.82 %, total fruit count by 34.5%, and yield up to 37.04%, respectively. Among the studied frequencies, the 85Hz frequency produced the highest yield (37kg). Average fruit weight of four treatments plants was close to each other, and remained relatively consistent (≈115 ± 8 g) across treatments. A one-way ANOVA analysis demonstrated a significant impact of artificial pollination on the number of fruits, yield, and fruit conversion (p<0.01). The suggested pollination frequency (85Hz) increased the fruit set of the crop. These findings contribute to a theoretical framework for artificial pollination methodology and demonstrate that artificial pollination, particularly at 85 Hz, effectively enhances fruit set and yield. The present study support the use of artificial pollination devices and their potential as an effective alternative for mimicking natural pollination.
