Organic Husk Tomato (Physalis peruviana,L.)Production for Exportation.

Abstract

Two field experiments were conducted at El-Baramoun Farm, Mansoura Horticulture Research Station,Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt during two successive fall seasons of 2013 and 2014 to study the influence of soil amendmentwith sulfur and three levels of combinations between compost manure and mineral NPK fertilizers as well as their interaction on growth, chemical composition,yield and fruit quality of husk tomato plant cv. Balady. The experimental design was split plot design with three replicates. The vegetative growth traits of husk tomato, chemical composition, total chlorophyll content, yield and its component and fruit quality had high significant values by soil amendment with sulfur, except for numberof branches and carotenoid content in both seasons and number of leaves in first season, since the increase was not significant at 5%. Supplementation of organic manure (compost)at 6.5 ton/fed with 50% from mineralNPK fertilizers improved plant growth and induced significant increases in yield and fruit quality. The application of sulfur with a mixture of 50% mineral NPK,50% compostand 200kg mineral sulfur had synergetic effect on increasing yield by18.51 and 19.00%in both seasons, respectively and enhancing fruit quality compared with conventional agricultural practice.It can be concluded that the treatment of the mixture of 50% mineral NPK and 50% compost with sulfur amendment was the best treatment for plant growth, yield and fruit quality as well as for reducing 50% of organic and inorganic fertilizers. The economic performance of husk tomato under this study showed that although organic treatment with 200kg sulfur gave the lowest yield, it gains the highest net return and benefit cost ratio(16745 and 2.190, respectively) comparing with conventional practice, thus this treatment i. e., 100%compost, that equal the same content of 100% mineral NPK recommendation, with sulfur amendmentproved to be the economical for organic husk tomato production under the conditions of Nile Delta lands.