JOHNSON AND ORTH: TOMATOES 313

were used, the coefficient was 0.994 as compared 2. Huggart, R. L. and F. W. Wenzel. 1955. Color
differences of citrus juices and concentrates using the
to 0.993 obtained by using the Hunter Color Dif Hunter Color Difference Meter. Food Technol. 9: 27-29.
3. Huggart, R. L., F. W. Wenzel and R. W. Barron.
ference Meter values. The corresponding coeffi 1965. A nomograph relating subjective and objective
cients of determination (R2) were 0.988 and methods for measuring color of Florida orange juices. Proc.
Florida State Hort. Soc. 78: 219-222.
0.986 which indicate that over 98% of all varia 4. Huggart, R. L., R. W. Barron and F. W. Wenzel.
1966. Evaluation of Hunter citrus colorimeter for measuring
tions in the visual color scores can be explained the color of orange juices. Food Technol. 20: 109-111.
by variations in the redness and yellowness of 5. Hunter, Richard S. 1967. Development of the citrus
colorimeter. Food Technol. 21: 100-105.
the reconstituted juices. 6. Kramer, Amihud and Bernard A. Twigg. 1966.
Fundamentals of quality control for the food industry.
Second Edition, The Avi Publishing Company, Inc., Westport,
Connecticut. 541 p.
Acknowledgments 7. USD A. 1950. U. S. Standards for grades of canned
orange juice. Agr. Marketing Service, Washington, D. C.
Thanks are expressed to all of the companies 8. USDA. 1955. U. S. Standards for grades of frozen
concentrated orange juice. Agr. Marketing Service, Wash
in Florida who furnished samples of frozen con ington, D. C.
9. USDA. 1963. Scoring color of orange juice products
centrated orange juice used to obtain the data with the USDA 1963 orange juice color standards. Agr.
presented in this report. Marketing Service, Washington, D.C.
10. USDA. 1964. U. S. Standards for grades of frozen
The assistance of Ben Wood in the summa concentrated orange juice. Agr. Marketing Service, Wash
ington, D. C.
tion of data and calculations necessary for this 11. Wenzel, F. W. and R. L. Huggart. 1962. Relation
study was appreciated. between Hunter color-difference meter values and visual color
of commercial frozen concentrated orange juice. Proc.
Florida State Hort. Soc. 75: 331-336.
LITERATURE CITED

1. Huggart, R. L. and F. W. Wenzel. 1954. Measure

ment and control of color of orange concentrate. Proc. Flor
ida State Hort. Soc. 67: 210-216.

TOTAL AND NITRATE NITROGEN AND SOLIDS CONTENT OF

PROCESSED TOAAATOES AS AFFECTED BY FERTILITY
AND VARIETY

John Hal Johnson levels. However, TR increased in N03-N with

increased K at the lower level of N but decreased
Department of Food Science
in NO3-N with increased K at the higher level
University of Florida
of N. TR NO3-N was not affected by the higher
Gainesville
level of P. Mean NO3~N values of 43.0 and 29.3
AND
ppm were obtained for H24 and TR, respectively.
Paul G. Orth The NO3N values were reduced by two-thirds
and extensive internal tinplate corrosion devel
Sub-Tropical Experiment Station
oped during seven months storage of the pro
Homestead
cessed fruit.
Increased N fertilization caused an increase
Abstract in total N with both varieties. With few excep
tions, however, increased fertilization resulted
Two varieties of tomatoes Homestead 24
(H24) and Tropi-Red (TR), were grown under
in lower solids. Mean values for total N and
solids were 113 and 149 mg N/100 gm and 4.80
eight fertilization treatments at Homestead,
Florida. Two levels each of nitrogen (N), phos
and 5.49 percent for H24 and TR, respectively.

phorous (P), and potassium (K) were applied.

The total N/N03-N ratio decreased with in
creased fertilization of H24 but not with TR.
The fruit was composited according to treat
ment, processed, and analyzed for nitrate-
Mean ratio values of 118 and 233 were obtained
for H24 and TR, respectively.
nitrogen (NO3-N), total N, and solids. NO3-N
in H24 increased with increased N, P, and K Introduction
High fertilization levels are variously utilized
Florida Agricultural Experiment Stations Journal Series
No. 2784. by plants. Nitrate nitrogen may be reduced to
314 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 1967

amino nitrogen or accumulated intact in plant N but not with P or K fertilization. This agreed
tissue. Nitrates in canned vegetables cause ex with Hester's (3) previous work.
tensive detinning and therefore are undesirable. The recent National Canners Association co
Tomatoes containing nitrates are especially cor operative study (2) indicated that nitrate pickup
rosive toward tinplate because of the inherent in tomatoes is not too common. Tomatoes grown
acidity present. A recent review by Wright and at Homestead, Florida accumulated more nitrate
Davidson (7) discussed the nitrate accumula than fruit from three other states included in
tion of various crops with fertilization practices. their study. No information is available to show
Brown and Smith (1) found no significant in the effect of soil nutrients other than N on nitrate
crease in nitrate accumulation with P and K pickup in tomatoes. The aim of the present re
fertilization of white radish, kale, turnip, carrot, search was to determine the NO3- and total-N,
beet or mustard. Nitrogen fertilization signifi and solids response of two varieties of tomato
cantly increased NO3~N only with red radish, fruit grown at Homestead to different fertiliza
kale, turnips, and mustard. Nowakowski (5) tion treatments.
found that N fertilization of orchard grass
caused initial high levels of NO3~, soluble-, and Methods
total -N; all of which decreased with time. The
same N fertilization caused a drop in the f ructo- Homestead 24 and Tropi-Red varieties were
san fraction of the total soluble carbohydrates grown at Homestead, Florida with eight fertili
but the fructosans later increased with the de zation treatments (Table 1) on randomized plots.
pletion of N. Saravacos et al. (6) found a sig Mature green fruit was picked twice before a
nificant increase in yield of tomatoes with N and harvest of ripe fruit was made and the replica
with P and a significant increase in total N with tions combined according to treatment. Soil sam-

Table 1. Fertilizer treatments for tomato plots.

Applied Present
Treatment lbs/A lbs/A Soil pH

N P K N P K

1 100 100 200 4.5 62 1467 7.3

2 100 200 200 3.6 208 1316 7.3

3 100 100 400 10.4 58 2482 7.4

4 100 200 400 5.4 300 1791 7.3

5 200 100 200 8.1 32 1316 7.5

6 200 200 200 6.3 116 1316 7.3

7 200 100 400 7.2 63 1964 7.4

8 200 200 400 7.7 92 1467 7.4

Soil analyses performed by Soil Testing Lab? University of Florida on

soil sample composite; reported as N, P, and K,
 JOHNSON AND ORTH: TOMATOES 315

pies were taken at the time of harvest. The fruit treatments was not obtained for statistical an
was transported to Gainesville and processed as alysis.
whole tomatoes in #303 tinplate containers. Internal corrosion color was measured on a
Three samples from each treatment were placed Photovolt 610 as previously reported (4) and
in enamel cans and frozen immediately after was obtained from duplicate samples stored seven
processing. These samples were analyzed for months at ambient temperature.
nitrates within two weeks by the modified meta-
xylenol method (2). Results
The canned whole tomatoes were blended and
strained through two layers of cheese cloth to From the data on Table 2 it is evident that
obtain a liquid like tomato juice. Solids were increasing the level of fertility increased the
obtained from a two-ml volumetric aliquot of NO3-N content of the H24 fruit. The ability of
this liquid. The aliquot, in a tared vial, was H24 variety to convert nitrates to other nitro
dried in vacuo over concentrated sulfuric acid. gen compounds (total N) is low as shown by
After the weight of solids was obtained, total N high NO3-N and low total N. TR tomatoes did
was analyzed on the same sample by means of not show a consistent increase in NO3~N with
the F and M Model 185 C-H-N Analyzer. increased fertilization. With TR fruit, increas
Since N03~N was reported as NO3 this value ing the level of P had no effect but the higher
was converted to N before dividing into total N levels of N and K gave a sharp decrease in
to obtain the ratio value. The ratio was cal NO3-N. Total N was consistently much higher
culated to show the ability of the plant to convert in TR than in H24. The ratio of total N/N03~N
NO3-N into amino N. The NO3~ and total N-, was also much higher with TR and in no case
and solids values reported are the mean of the does it drop to the highest ratio value of the
analyses of three separate cans of tomatoes. It H24 variety. A consistent decrease in ratio value
should be noted that the fruit from the replicate at the higher level of P fertilization is observed
fertilizer treatments were combined before pro in both varieties except for TR treatment 8.
cessing, therefore a randomized sample from the A better fertilizer response by TR is evident

Table 2. Effect of N, P, and K on nitrate, total nitrogen, and solids of processed whole

Homestead 24 and Tropi-Red tomatoes.

Nitrate fas N03) Total N (as N) Ratio Solids

Treatment ppm mgN/lOOgm total N:N03-N per 1cent

lbs/A X 10" H24 TR H24 TR H24 TR H24 TR

N P 2K 30 20 103 131 151 291 4.98 5.51

N 2P 2K 39 21 108 131 122 278 5.16 5.39

N P 4K 35 30 100 156 127 229 4.50 5.51

N 2P 4K 42 32 99 129 104 179 4.70 5.76

2N P 2K 45 38 124 175 122 203 4.91 5.92

2N 2P 2K 48 38 116 163 107 190 4.73 5.34

2N P 4K 49 27 123 146 111 239 4.63 5.52

2N 2P 4K 58 28 130 162 99 257 4.76 5.00

Mean 43 29 113 149 118 233 4.80 5.49

"Note: All values are means from three separate cans.

316 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 1967

with solids content. With H24 variety, additional present. The TR fruit with lower initial NO3~N
fertilization somewhat decreased the solids, but caused less corrosion darkening than did H24.
TR generally maintained a high solids level. All The corrosion which developed did not appear
solids values ranged within ±0.5% but most to be extensive enough to make the product un
were within ±0.2% solids. salable. Further corrosion would develop during
After seven months storage the mean N03~N longer storage since the cans still have some
content of the fruit canned in tinplate containers NO3~N present. There is an apparent varietal
dropped to one-third of the original value while difference in nitrate accumulation in the fruit.
considerable corrosion developed (Table 3). How This appears to be related to the ability of the
ever, darkening of the internal tinplate to indi plants to convert nitrates to other nitrogen com
cate complete tin removal was not evident. pounds.
The method of testing solids would more
nearly approximate total solids than soluble
Discussion
solids. The material strained out by the cheese
A NO3—N content of approximately 20 ppm cloth was large particles.
is sufficient to detin up to one-third of the tin- The lower total solids found with higher N,
plate within 3 months (2). All of the tomatoes P, and K fertilization of H24 agrees well with
of this report had at least this much nitrate the work of Nowakowski (4). H24 seems to

Table 3. Nitrate and internal corrosion color mean values of Homestead

24 and Tropi-Red canned tomatoes from fertilizer treatments

after 7 months storage.

Fertilizer Nitrates (as N0Q) Corrosion color

o
treatment n value
PPm
lbs/A X 10
H24 TR H24 TR

N P 2K 13.7 9.7 66 64

N 2P 2K 11.6 9.8 62 67

N P 4K 18.4 17.1 49 69

N 2P 4K 16.2 12.8 56 56

2N P 2K 14.9 10.7 51 57

2N 2P 2K 17.2 10.2 45 60

2N P 4K 16.7 5.2 54 60

2N 2P 4K 15.0 4.4 45 59

Mean 15,5 10.0 54 62

tfean of two cans.

 JOHNSON AND ORTH: TOMATOES 317

accumulate nitrates in greater quantity than LITERATURE CITED

TR. Although the fertilization levels of the 1. Brown, J. R. and G. E. Smith. 1966. Soil fertiliza
tion and nitrate accumulation in vegetables. Agron. J. 58:
present study are generally higher than reported 209-212.
by Saravacos et al. (5), the total N content is 2. Farrow, R. P. 1966. Progress Report, The Steel
Producers—CMI-NCA Research Program an Internal Can
also generally higher in H24 and always higher Corrosion, National Canners Association Research Founda
tion, Washington, D. C.
in TR than they found. The differences would 3. Hester, J. B. 1951. Fundamental factors influencing
be due to variety, soil, and fertilization differ the composition of tomato puree. Agron. J. 43:400-402.
4. Johnson, J. H. 1966. Internal can corrosion due to
ences. high nitrate content of canned vegetables. Proc. Fla. State
Hort. Soc. 79:239.
The reduction in the ratio value with the 5. Nowakowski, T. Z. 1962. Effects of nitrogen ferti
higher level of P with both varieties may suggest lizers on total nitrogen, soluble nitrogen, and soluble carbo
hydrate contents of grass. J. Agri. Sci. 59:387-392.
some correlation between NO3~N metabolism and 6. Saravacos, G., B. S. Luh and S. J. Leonard. 1958.
Effect of fertilizer on quality and composition of tomato
phosphorous fertilization. Further study is indi juice. Food Res. 23:648-55.
cated. 7. Wright, M. J. and K. L. Davidson. 1964. Nitrate
accumulation in crops and nitrate poisoning in animals. Adv.
Agron. 16:197-247.