Effect of Different Level of Nitrogen Fertilizer on Growth, Yield and Yield Component of Tomato (&amp;lt;i&amp;gt;Lycopersicon Esculentum Mill&amp;lt;/i&amp;gt;.) at West Showa Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia

Nemomsa Beyene,Tilahun Mulu

doi:10.11648/j.aff.20190805.12

Abstract

The field experiment was conducted in West showa zone, Toke kutaye district of Ormia region, Ethiopia with the objective to determine the optimum nitrogen fertilizer rate on different growth parameters, yield and yield component of tomato crop. To attain the objective, four level of nitrogen fertilizer Viz., 0, 50, 100, and 150 kg/ha were used as treatments. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Data on plant height, number of primary branches per plant, number of leaves per plants, number of cluster per plant, number of fruits per cluster and fruit yield were collected from five plants of the middle rows of each plot and subjected to statistical analysis software (SAS) version 9.3 and LSD at 5% was used for mean comparison. The statistical analysis showed that, there was the significant (P<0.05) difference among treatments for all parameters except for number of fruit per cluster. For growth variables, 150 kg/ha revealed the highest value but there was no significant (P<0.05) difference between 100 and 150 kg/ha of nitrogen except for the height of the plant. The treatment 150 kg/ha nitrogen fertilizer provided 22.41, 35.57 and 25.40% over the control treatment in height, number of leaves and number of primary branch, respectively. The treatment 150 kg/ha nitrogen fertilizer increased the number of cluster per plant and yield of tomato fruit per hectare by 34.50 and 70.79% over the control treatment, respectively. However, there was no significant difference in both number of cluster per plant and yield per hectare between 150 and 100 kg N/ha.

Highlights

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum mill) belongs to the family Solanacea, genus Lycopersicon, sub family Solanoideae and tribe Solaneae
This study in line with the study conducted by Najafvand et al [17] who reported that as the amount of nitrogen fertilizer increased the height of tomato increased
Application of 100 kg N/ha increased plant height by 14.25% compared to the control treatment which was in line with the study conducted by Gezu et al [18] who revealed 13.6% in plant height increment compared to the control by application of 99 kg N/ha

Summary

Introduction

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum mill) belongs to the family Solanacea, genus Lycopersicon, sub family Solanoideae and tribe Solaneae. It is widely cultivated in tropical, subtropical and temperate climates and ranks third next to potato and sweet potato in terms of world vegetable production [1] with estimated annual area coverage and total production of 164 metric million tones which was harvested from 4.73 million hectares [2]. Tomato plays an important role in human nutrition by providing essential amino acids, vitamins, minerals, sugars and dietary fibers [3]. Tomato is almost always used as an essential ingredient in the diet of the people and in almost every household and usually used for preparing foods like soups, sauces, stews, salads and others, in cooked or processed form in large quantities as compared to other vegetables [4]

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Methods

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Discussion

Conclusion