Field management of Phelipanche ramosa on tomatoes by plowing depth or resistance strategies

Two separate independent experiments were carried out on agronomic approaches for controlling infestation by Phelipanche ramosa: the evaluation of two soil plowing depths (30 and 50 cm) and determining the resistance of two tomato cultivars (SV5197 and SV8840) to this parasitic plant. The experiments were performed in 2014 and 2018 seasons in naturally heavily infested fields in the province of Foggia (Apulia Region, south-eastern Italy). Based on our results, the 50 cm moldboard plowing depth reduced parasite infestation by 41.2% compared to that of 30 cm depth, commonly adopted by local farmers. Higher attachments to the host plants were observed in SV5197 than in SV8840, which could be correlated with the different level of resistance of the host plant. In both experiments, the highest Phelipanche infestation reduced the tomato yield but did not affect the fruit quality.