## 3 Results and Discussion
### Deficit Irrigation Effect on Titratable Acidity, Total Soluble Solids, Sugars, and Organic Acid  
RDI fruits were characterized by higher TSS values mainly due to a greater accumulation of both fructose and glucose and lower content of citric acid (Table 3). As expected, a significant positive correlation was observed among TSS and contents of fructose (\(R^{2}\) = 0.89, \(p\) < 0.001), and glucose (\(R^{2}\) = 0.78, \(p\) < 0.001) (Figure 2). It is important to highlight that sugars are the most abundant solute, representing approximately 50% of \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & **Weight** & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Size (mm)**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Color**} \\  & **(g)** & **Length** & **Width** & \(L\) * & \(a\) * & \(b\) * & \(C\) & **_Hue_** \\ \hline  & & & & & & & \\  & & & & & & & \\
**1** & * & NS & * & * & ** & NS & ** & ** \\
2 & ** & ** & ** & * & NS & ** & ** & ** \\
3 & NS & * & NS & * & NS & * & NS & * & * \\
4 & NS & NS & NS & * & NS & NS & NS & NS \\
5 & NS & * & NS & NS & NS & NS & NS & NS \\
6 & NS & NS & NS & NS & * & NS & NS & NS \\  & & & & & & & & \\
**Week 1** & & & & & & & & \\ _Control_ & 17.8 b & 39.5 & 27.4 b & 37.0 b & 14.0 b & 24.0 & 28.0 b & 59.8 a \\ _RDI_ & 18.7 a & 40.0 & 28.6 a & 37.6 a & 16.0 a & 24.4 & 29.3 a & 57.0 b \\
**Week 2** & & & & & & & & \\ _Control_ & 17.6 b & 38.7 b & 27.7 b & 37.5 b & 16.9 & 26.0 a & 31.3 a & 56.4 a \\ _RDI_ & 19.9 a & 42.1 a & 28.6 a & 38.6 a & 16.2 & 23.0 b & 28.1 b & 55.2 b \\
**Week 3** & & & & & & & & \\ _Control_ & 16.5 & 36.4 b & 27.7 & 38.0 b & 15.1 b & 24.1 & 28.6 b & 57.8 a \\ _RDI_ & 16.7 & 37.5 a & 27.1 & 39.1 a & 16.1 a & 24.1 & 29.1 a & 56.4 b \\ _Week 4_ & & & & & & & & \\ _Control_ & 14.1 & 34.2 & 26.2 & 37.5 a & 19.7 & 22.3 & 29.8 & 48.6 \\ _RDI_ & 14.6 & 34.6 & 26.3 & 36.7 b & 20.1 & 22.3 & 30.0 & 48.0 \\
**Week 5** & & & & & & & & \\ _Control_ & 11.9 & 32.3 a & 24.8 & 37.8 & 21.0 & 22.7 & 31.0 & 47.3 \\ _RDI_ & 10.9 & 31.2 b & 23.9 & 38.1 & 20.7 & 22.2 & 30.4 & 46.9 \\
**Week 6** & & & & & & & & \\ _Control_ & 8.53 & 25.9 & 21.5 & 37.5 & 22.5 & 25.7 & 34.2 & 48.8 \\ _RDI_ & 8.17 & 26.0 & 20.9 & 37.0 & 23.5 & 26.1 & 35.1 & 48.1 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* NS = not significant at \(p<0.05\); **,**, and *** significant at \(p<0.05\), 0.01, and 0.001, respectively.
* The values (mean of 40 replications) followed by the same letter within the same column do not present statistically significant differences (\(p<0.05\)) according to the Tukey Multiple Range Test. RDI, Regulated deficit irrigation.  
\end{table} 
Table 2: Morphology and color coordinates of cherry tomatoes as affected by irrigation treatment and time. their dry matter content. Moreover, cultivated tomato (_Lycopersicon esculentum_) contains mainly glucose and fructose, and only traces of sucrose; while _Lycopersicon chmielewskii_, the wild tomato species, is more abundant in sucrose [7; 9; 32]. This statement was affirmed by the present study in which the main sugars were glucose with values of 30 and 32 g kg\({}^{-1}\) for control and RDI, respectively; fructose with values of 35 and 36 g kg\({}^{-1}\); while sucrose was only found in traces for both treatments. Regarding the titratable acidity, this was not significantly affected by the RDI, even though differences were found for the organic acids. According to the literature, organic acids accounts for about 13% of fruit dry weight and citric, tartaric, malic were the main organic acids [9; 32]. This was confirmed by the present study in which citric (9.1 g kg\({}^{-1}\)), tartaric (2.0 g kg\({}^{-1}\)), ascorbic (0.9 g kg\({}^{-1}\)) and only traces of oxalic acids were found. The only organic acid affected by the water stress was citric acid which decreased 0.4 g kg\({}^{-1}\) with RDI.