A field experiment was carried out at Embrapa Hortaliças under soil and climate conditions of Central Brazil "cerrado" region, aiming to evaluate the response of drip-irrigated processing tomatoes to different drip line placement depths (0; 20 and 40 cm). A control treatment was irrigated by sprinkle system. Larger plant vegetative growth was observed for the sprinkle and surface drip treatments, while smaller growth occurred for the 40 cm-depth drip treatment. Marketable yield of the surface drip irrigated treatment (124 t.ha-1) was 32% larger than the 40 cm-depth drip treatment, 15% larger than the sprinkle treatment, but did not differ (p>0,05) from the 20 cm-depth drip treatment. Yield increments were basically due to a larger number of fruits per plant, since final stand and mean fruit mass were not affected by treatments. Rotten fruit rate for the sprinkle treatment was 112 and 453% larger than for the treatments irrigated by surface and subsurface drip, respectively.
Lycopersicon esculentum; trickle; irrigation system; subsurface drip
