The application of high doses of fertilizers could increase the tolerance of crops to salts by reducing the nutritional imbalance caused by salinity. In order to test this hypothesis, a study was conducted to evaluate the production and quality of tomato fruits, hybrid Facundo, irrigated with saline water, under different doses of N and K. The work was conducted in a greenhouse and the treatments were composed of the combination of three levels of N (7.5, 15.0 and 22.5 g per plant of N) and three levels of K (8, 16 and 24 g per plant of K2O) applied through drip fertigation, in the 3 x 3 factorial design, with five replications. Also the salts sodium chloride and calcium chloride were also added to irrigation water for obtaining an electrical conductivity of the irrigation water of 9.5 dS m-1. Effects of the treatments were not verified on the production components (yield, size and mean weight of fruits) nor on some parameters of the quality of the fruits (concentration of nutrients, soluble solids and titratable acidity), the concentration of K increased and the ratio Na/K reduced in the fruits with increasing dose of K. It was concluded that the application of high doses of N and K did not contribute to the increase the tolerance of tomato to salinity.
Lycopersicon esculentum; fertigation; plant nutrition
