Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Hydrogen Fertilization Improves Yield and Quality of Cherry Tomatoes Compared to the Conventional Fertilizers

Min Li
,
Guanjie Zhu
,
Ziyu Liu
,
Longna Li
ORCID logo ,
Shu Wang
,
Yuhao Liu
,
Wei Lu
ORCID logo ,
Yan Zeng
ORCID logo ,
Xu Cheng
,
Wenbiao Shen
* ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 12 December 2023 / Approved: 12 December 2023 / Online: 12 December 2023 (08:20:05 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Li, M.; Zhu, G.; Liu, Z.; Li, L.; Wang, S.; Liu, Y.; Lu, W.; Zeng, Y.; Cheng, X.; Shen, W. Hydrogen Fertilization with Hydrogen Nanobubble Water Improves Yield and Quality of Cherry Tomatoes Compared to the Conventional Fertilizers. Plants 2024, 13, 443. Li, M.; Zhu, G.; Liu, Z.; Li, L.; Wang, S.; Liu, Y.; Lu, W.; Zeng, Y.; Cheng, X.; Shen, W. Hydrogen Fertilization with Hydrogen Nanobubble Water Improves Yield and Quality of Cherry Tomatoes Compared to the Conventional Fertilizers. Plants 2024, 13, 443.

Abstract

Although hydrogen gas (H2) treated soil improves crop biomass, this approach appears difficult for the field application due to the flammability of H2 gas. In this report, we investigated whether and how H2 applied in hydrogen nanobubble water (HNW) improves the yield and quality of cherry tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum var. cerasiforme) with/without fertilizers. Two-year field trials showed that compared to corresponding controls, HNW without/with fertilizers improved cherry tomato yield per plant by 39.7% and 26.5% in 2021 (Shanghai), and 39.4% and 28.2% in 2023 (Nanjing). Compared to surface water (SW), HNW increased soil available nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) consumption regardless of fertilizer application, which may be attributed to the increased NPK transport related genes in roots (LeAMT2, LePT2, LePT5, and SlHKT1,1). Also, HNW-irrigated cherry tomato displayed higher sugar-acid ratio (8.6%) and lycopene content (22.3%) than SW-irrigated plants without fertilizers. Importantly, the beneficial effects of HNW without fertilizers on yield per plant (9.1%), sugar-acid ratio (31.1%), volatiles (20.0%) and lycopene contents (54.3%) were stronger than those achieved by fertilizers alone. In short, this study clearly indicated that HNW-supplied H2 not only exhibited fertilization effect on enhancing tomato yield, but also improved fruit quality with a lower carbon footprint.

Keywords

cherry tomato; fertilizer; hydrogen; hydrogen nanobubble water; quality; yield

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Agricultural Science and Agronomy

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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