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The diversity preserved within the European long shelf life tomato landraces (LSL) is a unique source to design high quality tomato products better adapted to changing environmental conditions and, thereby, to reduce food losses. The adaptation of LSL to water deficit (WD) management practices and their postharvest keeping ability can be used as tools to concomitantly enhance fruit quality and sustainable production. In this study, we investigated the effect of WD conditions and the plant growing environment (open field vs. tunnel) on quality traits of two genotypes of the Penjar LSL variety (modern hybrid (MV) and landrace (LR)). Changes in ripening-related quality traits (fruit ethylene production, respiration rate, firmness, color, soluble solids content, titratable acidity and the content of antioxidants, as well as specific sugars and acids) in response to the different preharvest factors were evaluated at the time of harvest and after a short period of storage (30 days), following actual commercial practices. Significant differences among genotypes were encountered for most quality traits at the time of harvest and higher intra- and inter-environment heterogeneity was observed in the LR than in the MV genotype. In general, Penjar tomatoes exhibit a low physiological activity (ethylene production, 0.56–1.33 µL kg−1 h−1, respiration rate: 0.015–0.026 mg CO2 kg−1 h−1) at harvest. In both genotypes, WD increased to a different extent the fruit external color (redness, lightness) as well as the sensory (SSC) and nutritional (antioxidant capacity) fruit profiles. By contrast, the growing environment had little impact on most fruit quality traits. Postharvest storage only led to a slight reduction in the fruit respiration and ethylene production, lower sugars and acids content, enhanced color and no firmness changes. Overall, the results from this study demonstrate that selecting the appropriate genotypes is the most important step towards the design of high-quality LSL tomatoes, while WD and short-term storage can be used by farmers as a strategy to differentiate the product quality in specific market niches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The individual effects of biotic and abiotic factors on tomatoes have been widely reported. However, under commercial conditions, multiple interactions between factors occur, masking or even changing the direction of their effects in some cases. Here we report a comprehensive analysis of preharvest factors affecting yield, quality (soluble solids content, fruit color, and firmness), and shelf-life of long-shelf-life Mediterranean varieties of tomatoes. We studied five long-shelf-life genotypes under 16 growing environments, including tunnel and open-air systems and suboptimal to excessive fertigation (22–142% crop evapotranspiration). The results enabled us to classify traits into three groups according to the importance of the contributions of different types of factors: mainly genotype (ripening earliness and firmness), genotype plus environment (yield, fruit weight, water-use efficiency (WUE)), or genotype plus environment plus the interaction between genotype and environment (cracking, soluble solids content, and shelf-life). Under similar management practices, open-air conditions optimized yields, and high fertigation doses improved yield and marketability (firmness), but reduced quality (redness and soluble solids content). WUE was maximized under low-input cropping systems (comparable to traditional agrosystems), and the balance between WUE and yield was optimized when fertigation was adjusted to the requirements of the crop. Shelf-life was negatively correlated with high-yielding environments, and day–night amplitude in relative humidity was strongly correlated with the incidence of fruit cracking. The present study sheds light on the contributions of environment and management practices on tomato yield and quality, and provides a basis on which to select better management practices for the novel commercial group of European long-shelf-life tomato landraces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]