Abstract
Tomato is beneficial to human health because it contains valuable vitamins such as vitamins A, C and several minerals. However, to meet up with the demands of the ever increasing population, there is need to improve tomato production. This research, thus, investigated the impact of rice-husk biochar on the agronomic performances of tomato plant and microbial biomass of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in different tomato growth stages. The rice husk biochar pyrolyzed at 350 °C was amended with soil at four different application rates: 0, 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 t/ha. Physicochemical property of soil was conducted using Mid Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy method. Impact of biochar on Microbial Biomass Carbon, Microbial Biomass Nitrogen and Microbial Biomass Phosphorous was conducted using fumigation extraction method and monitored at three functional stages. Biochar application appreciably increase the soil physicochemical properties such as pH, Ca, Na, H+, S, P, B, C, Zn and cation exchangeable capacity in comparison with the control. Biochar amended soil significantly enhanced tomato height, stem girth, leaf area, flowers, fruit yields and weight. Although, B3 recorded the lowest leaf area, it possessed the highest number of fruits and fruit weight of 3 and 40%, respectively. The ratio of Microbial biomass C:N:P for biochar amended soil at 7.5 t/ha (B3) was 302.30:18.81:11.75 µg/g, compared to control, which was 242.12:18.30:11.49 µg/g. This study revealed that biochar amendments significantly (p < 0.05) increased the yields and microbial biomass of tomato plants. Conclusively, the application of rice-husk biochar (7.5 t/ha) to soil is considered as a suitable approach to improve tomato growth and yield.
Highlights
Tomato is beneficial to human health because it contains valuable vitamins such as vitamins A, C and several minerals
Seeds were obtained from the National centre for Genetic Resource and Biotechnology (NACGRAB) Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria
The values of Ca, Mg, K, E.cationic exchange capacity (CEC) and P increased appreciably while slight increase was observed in the values of B, Zn and Si
Summary
Tomato is beneficial to human health because it contains valuable vitamins such as vitamins A, C and several minerals. The application of rice-husk biochar (7.5 t/ha) to soil is considered as a suitable approach to improve tomato growth and yield. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a famous vegetable commonly grown in home gardens as larger yield is gotten using a little space It contains vitamins A, C and important minerals Ca, Mn and K1 and according to Rawat et al.[2], tomato promotes gastric secretion, act as blood purifier and keep intestines in good condition. Due to continuous cropping over a long time and excessive application of chemical fertilizers, soil fertility reduces gradually because of erosion and instability of organic matter This affects the soil and plant quality which in turn brought about lower yield of agricultural crops g lobally[3]. The conversion of feedstocks into biochar has the potential to solve the issue of greenhouse gas emissions[4]
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