Abstract: Effect of synchronous leaf pruning on optimal distribution of dry matter in greenhouse tomato cultivar‘Capita’was investigated. The results indicated thatwith six fruits per truss, on one hand, the vegetative sink strength was decreased by synchronous leaf pruning, which resulted in a significant reduction in leaf area index (LAI) and total plant dry mass; on the other hand, the distribution of drymatter allocated to the fruitswas favored, which resulted in a significant increment in the cumulative fraction of drymatter allocated to the fruits and compensated for the reduction in fruit drymass resulted from that in total plant dry mass. With reasonably increased plant density, LAI and total plant dry mass per square meter were significantly increased, therefore fruit dry mass per square meterwas significantly imp roved by synchronous leaf pruning.

Key words: Tomato, Pruning, Distribution of dry matter