Optimal management of plant nutrition in tomato (Lycopersicon esculent Mill) by using biologic, organic and inorganic fertilizers

Abstract

Optimal plant nutrition is one of the accurate solutions to meet the demands of population growth and food in the future. In order to study the effect of different fertilizers on the responses of tomato plant, a greenhouse experiment was conducted as a factorial arrangement based on a completely randomized design with three replications. The applied treatments were inorganic fertilizers [control (F0), custom application (F1), optimal application based on soil test (F2), commercial fertilizer Rutter AA (F3), and F2 + application of nitrogen, phosphorus, zinc, and silicon at the double amount of optimal recommendation (F4)], organic and biologic treatments [control (BF0), a mixture of two types of PGPR (BF1), the mixture of three mycorrhizal fungi (BF2), vermicompost (BF3) and the biologic package including vermicompost, PGPR, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (BF4)]. The results showed that the maximum increase in shoot and root dry weight was recorded in the interaction effect between F4, BF4, and BF3. The highest significant increase in the concentration of zinc and silicon in shoots was observed in F4, BF4, and BF3 treatments compared to the control. The use of F2-BF3 and F2-BF4 resulted in a significant increase in the soil microbial population. Also, the application of F2, BF3, and BF4 significantly increased the soil microbial respiration rate compared to the control. In general, it is concluded that BF4 and BF3 treatments have high efficiency in improving plant growth and nutritional status when they were used separately and simultaneously with the studied fertilizers.