## 3 Results and Discussion
### Tomato Fruit Color  
The effect of salinity levels on color difference values was statistically significant the for the Ghandowra-F1 variety (Pr \(<\) 0.0118), highly significant for the Forester-F1 variety (Pr \(<\) 0.00001), and not significant for the Feisty-Red variety (Pr \(<\) 0.1844). Moreover, the mean values of color change for the Ghandowra-F1 and Forester-F1 varieties recorded at medium salinity (S-2: 6.0 dS m\({}^{-1}\)) were significantly higher than those recorded at low (S-1: 2.5 dS m\({}^{-1}\)) and high (S-3: 9.5 dS m\({}^{-1}\)) salinities (Table 3). However, no significant differences were observed on the color change between salinity levels for the Feisty-Red variety. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Tomato Varieties**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Salinity Levels**} \\ \cline{2-4}  & **S-1 (2.5 dS m\({}^{-1}\))** & **S-2 (6.0 dS m\({}^{-1}\))** & **S-3 (9.5 dS m\({}^{-1}\))** \\ \hline Ghandowra-F1 & 1.92 \({}^{\circ}\),* & 2.51 \({}^{\circ}\) & 2.31 \({}^{\circ}\) \\ Forester- F1 & 2.62 \({}^{\circ}\) & 2.69 \({}^{\circ}\) & 1.36 \({}^{\circ}\) \\ Feisty-Red & 1.27 \({}^{\circ}\) & 1.42 \({}^{\circ}\) & 1.54 \({}^{\circ}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} \({}^{*}\)Means with different letters indicate statistically significant differences at the 0.05 significance level (LSD\({}_{0.05}\)).  
\end{table} 
Table 3: The effect of salinity levels on the color values for the three tomato varieties. Figure 2: Effect of the interaction between salinity levels and storage conditions on the TSS of tomato fruits for all varieties: (**A**) Ghandowra\(-\)F1; (**B**) Forester\(-\)F1; and (**C**) Feisty\(-\)Red. Columns with different letters showed significant differences (LSD\({}_{0.05}\)). On the other hand, the color values of all tomato varieties were significantly (Pr < 0.0001) affected by storage conditions compared to the control treatment (fresh fruits), as shown in Table 4. However, the color difference values of all varieties showed an increasing trend starting from the initial storage (the control treatment) and reached the highest values on the 12 th storage day at 22 \({}^{\circ}\)C, then the decline in color difference values began and continued until the last storage day (day 24 at 12 \({}^{\circ}\)C). This was attributed to the fact that the color index is sensitive and rapidly changing during storage periods [43]. However, storing tomato fruits at cold temperatures may lead to a decrease in lycopene content, which is responsible for the degree of color, during storage stages [44]. Hence, the increase in color indices indicates the development of a dark red color because of the accumulation of lycopene, which is associated with the endomembrane system [45]. In contrast, high storage temperature increases lycopene content and accumulation [27,46]. In general, [PERSON] et al. [47] reported that the appropriate temperature to optimize the lycopene content of tomato ranges between 18 \({}^{\circ}\)C and 26 \({}^{\circ}\)C. The TSS and color difference values were increased at 16 and 18 days after storage. This was attributed to the fact that the high content of sugar in the maturity stage might lead to browning the color of tomato fruits [39]. Figure 3 shows the color results of tomato fruits for different combinations of salinity levels (S-1, S-2, and S-3) and storage treatments (ST-0 to ST-9) for all varieties. The highest mean value of color difference (3.05) was recorded for Ghandowra-F1 for the combination of S-2/ST-6, with no significant difference from that (3.00) recorded for the combination of S-2/ST-9, while for Forester-F1, the highest mean color value (3.26) was associated with the combination S-1/ST-6, with no significant difference from both color values (3.18) and (3.13) obtained with the combinations S-2/ST-6 and S-2/ST-9, respectively. However, for Feisty-Red, the highest mean color value (1.86) was associated with the combination of S-3/ST-6, with no significant differences from that (1.84) obtained for the combinations of S-3/ST-9.