Mechanized pruning as a recovery strategy for industrial tomato plants damaged by hail at different times of the vegetative cycle

Abstract

San Juan is positioned as the main processing tomato producing province in the country, with 36% of thenational production. However, during the crop cycle, the occurrence of rains accompanied by hail cancause damage of varying intensity. Reports published by the Association "Tomato 2000", for the period2009–2018, indicate that hail damage in tomato affected between 20 and 30% of the implanted surface.Given this problem, the producer needs to have tools that allow them to make crop managementdecisions according to the time and intensity with which it manifests during the crop cycle. In its juvenilestage, the tomato plant has a high capacity to regrow before the loss of part of its vegetative mass, thisquality could lead to a recovery strategy based on performing a mechanized pruning immediately afterhail damage so as to cause a net cut in the stems and consequently, an accelerated speed of regrowth.