Effect of Foliar Application with Sitofex and Salicylic Acid on Tomato Growth, Yield and Chemical Attributes

Abstract

Two open field experiments were conducted during summer seasons of 2016 and 2017, in a private farm at Sedi Salem city, Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate, Egypt to investigate the effect of foliar application with sitofex CPPU, salicylic acid and their combinations on tomato growth, yield and chemical attributes. The ''Super Strain B F1 hybrid'' tomato cultivar, plants were treated with four concentrations of the synthetic cytokinin sitofex (0.00, 0.04, 0.08, and 0.12 mM) and four concentrations of SA (0.00, 1.00, 2.00 and 3.00 mM) were foliar applied separately and in combinations. Control plants were sprayed with tap water. Tomato plants were sprayed with the allocated or assigned treatments twice during the growing seasons, the first one at 10 days after transplanting and the second application was 35 days after the first one. The obtained results declare, in general, that foliar application treatments of cytokinin as sitofex and salicylic acid (SA) alone or in combination to tomato plants gave, significantly, the highest average values of vegetative growth, yield and chemical attributes compare to untreated plants. The combination between 0.12 mM CPPU plus 3.00 mM SA might be considered as an optimal treatment for the production of high yield and good quality of tomato fruits under the environmental conditions of Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate and other similar regions.