Optimization of vermicompost and water management for greenhouse tomato in Northeast China based on the CRITIC- VIKOR model

Greenhouse agriculture is the main way of supplying vegetables in winter, but year-round continuous cropping in greenhouses can cause soil deterioration and lead to a decline in the quality of vegetable yields, and these conditions are not conducive to the development of greenhouse agriculture. How to improve the environmental conditions in greenhouses to ensure high yield and good quality of crops grown inside, while also achieving sustainable development in facility agriculture, is an important issue that remains to be addressed. Thus, we used a common horticultural crop-tomato, as a study subject and used \(\:{ET}_{gage}\) evaporator dish for controlled irrigation accompanied by application of different amounts of vermicompost for experimental study. The experimental design was a two-factor randomized block design with three levels of vermicompost application: 150 t•ha ^− 1 (V ₁ ), 300 t•ha ^− 1 (V ₂ ), 450 t•ha ^− 1 (V ₃ ), and three levels of irrigation: 0.6\(\:{ET}_{gage}\) (W ₁ ), 0.8\(\:{ET}_{gage}\) (W ₂ ), and 1.0\(\:{ET}_{gage}\) (W ₃ ). The results of the experiment showed that the application of vermicompost could significantly reduce soil bulk density and enhance the water holding capacity of the field, as well as promote the growth of the plant and finally realize the improvement of yield, quality and water productivity. In terms of irrigation impacts, appropriate reductions in irrigation can improve yield, quality, and water productivity of tomatoes, but can reduce the photosynthetic capacity of tomato leaves.The results of CRITIC-VIKOR evaluation model showed that V ₃ W ₁ was the best treatment in terms of overall benefits for greenhouse tomato, with maximum values of soluble sugars (SS), total soluble solids (TSS), sugar-acid ratio (SAR) and WP, as well as better yields and organic acids (OA) under this treatment. Compared to V ₃ W ₃ , the greenhouse management method using V ₃ W ₁ can save 40% of the irrigation amount, with a yield reduction of less than 12%, but the quality is greatly improved, and the economic benefit can also be increased by 0.8–1.4 RMB per kilogram. In addition, comparisons between models indicate that the CRITIC-VIKOR model exhibits better stability and universality compared to EWTOPSIS (Entropy Weight Method and TOPSIS). This study demonstrates that in the cold regions, using greenhouse cultivation of crops, applying 450 t•ha ^− 1 vermicompost and irrigating with 60% \(\:{ET}_{gage}\) of water can effectively improve the quality of continuous cropping soil and achieve sustainable development in facility agriculture.