Disease Incidence, Severity, Soil Amendment and Growth of Rio-Grande Tomato (<i>Solanum l</i><i>ycopersicum</i> L.) Variety

Abstract

Disease incidence, severity and effect of selected organic amendments on soil and growth of Rio-Grande tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) was evaluated at the Nursery Unit and the Crop Production Laboratory of the Department of Crop production, Faculty of Agriculture, Prince Abubakar Audu University, Anyigba, Kogi State, Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to evaluate the effect of selected organic amendments on the growth of tomato and to identify fungal diseases, incidence and severity on Rio-Grande tomato plant. Three rates of cow dung, wood ash and poultry manure (10 g, 20 g, 30g) each were severally applied. This research was laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) and replicated four times. In this experiment, 20 g cow dung gave the best growth of Rio-Grande tomato. At 8 Weeks after planting, soil amended with cow dung (20 g) gave the highest number of tomato leaves (143) while soil amended with wood ash (30 g) gave the least number of tomato leaves (55). At 8 Weeks after planting, soil amended with cow dung (20 g) gave the tallest tomato plant (67.50 cm) while soil amended with poultry manure (30 g) gave the shortest tomato plant (24.80 cm). At 8 Weeks after planting, , soil amended with cow dung (10 g) gave the biggest stem girth of tomato plant (2.33 cm) while soil amended with cow dung (30 g) gave the smallest stem girth of tomato plant (1.60 cm). At 6 weeks after planting soil amended with wood ash (10g) gave the highest average number of tomato fruits (5.67). The fungi isolated from the leaves of Rio-Grande tomato included: Aspergillus niger, Phomopsis sp., Fusarium oxysporum fsp. lycopersici, Septoria lycopersici. Alternaria linariae and Rhizoctonia solani.