Uniformity trials size for estimating cherry tomato plot size

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine how the size of the uniformity trial influences the estimation of cherry tomato plot size. The size of plot required to evaluate the mean length of fruit per plant, mean fruit width per plant, mean fruit weight per plant, number of bunches per plant, number of fruits per bunch, number of fruits per plant and total weight of fruits per plant was estimated in uniformity trials in two greenhouses: large (250 m²) and small (200 m²). In each greenhouse and row, and for each variable, 3000 plot size estimates were obtained by resampling and used to determine of 97.5 and 2.5% percentiles. Each row needs to be treated as a specific uniformity trial because of significant row variability. It is recommended that uniformity trials are carried out on 35 plants in the large greenhouse and 23 plants in the small greenhouse in order to estimate cherry tomato production variables at a confidence interval of 30% of the mean.