Nutrients Uptake and Fruit Yield of Tomato (Lycopersicon Esculentum Mill.) Produced Using Home Sorted and Municipal Organic Materials as Nutrient Sources.

Abstract

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is one of the most popular crops with a unique role in human diets especially in Nigeria. Nutritional quality of fruit is a reflection of uptake by the plant. The study investigated the uptake of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium and Magnesium uptake by tomato with incorporation of home and municipal sorted solid waste. Screenhouse experiment was carried out at the College of Plant Science and Crop Production, while field experiment was conducted at the Directorate of University Farms, Federal University of Agriculture (Latitudes 7°13ʹN and 7°20ʹN and Longitudes 3°20ʹE and 3°28ʹE) during the early and late seasons of 2019. Roma VF and Ibadan-local varieties as test crop. The screenhouse experiment was factorial in Completely Randomized Design. The treatments were: composted municipal solid waste; composted home sorted waste; pyrolyzed municipal solid waste and pyrolyzed home sorted waste at the rate of 0, 5, 10 and 20 tha-1 each. The field experiment was set up in a randomized complete block design with incorporation of waste treatments at 10 t ha-1, all in three replicates. The treatments mentioned above for screenhouse were also used for field experiment. Data collected were subjected to Analysis of Variance and the means were separated using Duncan’s Multiple Range Test (p<0.05). The study was carried out in the wet and dry seasons. Nutrients (N, P, K, Ca and Mg) uptakes by plants were determined after laboratory analysis using nutrient concentration x dry matter (kg ha-1). Treatments had significant effects on the fruit yield of tomato. Composted home sorted waste at 5 t ha-1 resulted in highest uptake of nitrogen (5.32 mg kg-1), phosphorus (2.87 mg kg-1), potassium (26.10 mg kg-1) and magnesium (9.74 mg kg-1) in screenhouse compared with control and other treatments. Pyrolyzed wastes enhanced the fruit yield and nutrient uptake by plant relative to composted wastes in both seasons on the field. Pyrolyzed home sorted waste (PHSW) enhanced nitrogen uptake at early (186 kg ha-1) and late (108 kg ha-1) seasons. Pyrolyzed wastes (PHSW and PMSW) increased phosphorus uptake of 573 kg ha-1 and 507 kg ha-1 respectively in the early season while the highest phosphorus uptake of 339.6 kg ha-1 was observed with PHSW in the late season. Pyrolyzed municipal solid waste (PMSW) increased potassium uptake in both early (22.21 kg ha-1) and late (12.55 kg ha-1) seasons compared to control and other treatments applied. It was concluded that composted and pyrolyzed home sorted wastes improved the fruit yield and nutrient uptake in organic tomato production, and thus recommended for optimal production of tomato.