Influence of plant spacing on the growth and yield of tomato (<i>Lycopersicon esculentum</i> Mill.) varieties

Abstract

Field studies on the effect of plant spacing on three varieties of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) was carried out at the Experimental Farm of the Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, Benin City. Three varieties of tomato and three spacing regimes were used. The experiments were laid out in 3x3 factorial combination in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) in three replications. The treatments had three varieties of tomato (Roma savanna, UC 82, and Roma VF) and three plant spacing regimes (75 cm x 40 cm, 75 cm x 50 cm, and 75 cm x 60 cm). The results obtained showed that the effect of variety on the vegetative characters was significant (p ≤ 0.05) but did not follow a particular order. The narrowest spacing of 75 cm x 40 cm showed superiority in plant height and leaf area compared with the wider plant spacing of 75 cm x 50 cm and 75 cm x 60 cm. Roma savanna attained 50% flowering earlier and had the highest number of fruits per plant (10.01) and fruit yield (10.87 t/ha) compared with UC 82 (6.73 and 8.73 t/ha) and Roma VF varieties (7.66 and 8.28 t/ha). Significant yield differences were recorded in tomato plants spaced at 75 cm x 40 cm and 75 cm x 50 cm which produced statistically similar fruit yield of (10.41 t/ha) and (9.76 t/ha) respectively above the yield of (7.72 t/ha) obtained from plants spaced at 75 cm x 60 cm.

Varietal response of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) to time of fertilizer application

“…The low fertility status of the soil could be due to intense precipitation with its associated erosion and leaching of soil nutrients in the environment. The positive response in some of the vegetative and in all of the reproductive character observed in Roman savannah variety compared with UC82 supports the findings of Falodun and Emede (2019) who in their work reported the superiority of Roman savannah especially in yield attributes when compared with UC82 and Roman VF varieties and this may be attributed to genetic make-up of the varieties tested. Isah et al (2014) attributed the growth and yield differences of crop varieties to physiological process which is controlled by interplay of both genetic make-up and the environment.…”

​Optimization of Sowing Density for Improving Fruit Yield of Tomatoes Grown in Open-field Crop

“…In the context of increasingly limited arable land for other activities and farming conditions approaching optimal productivity, increase in sowing density is considered one of the effective solutions to increase crop yield (Amare and Gebremedhin, 2020;Wahab and Hasan, 2019). Numerous studies on finding solutions to OFY have indicated an increase in fruit yield of tomatoes when sowing density was increased (Amare and Gebremedhin, 2020;Mulatu et al, 2019), however other studies reported that high fruit yield of tomatoes is also dependent on cultivar selection, cultivation method and crop sowing periods (Falodun and Emede, 2019). According to Falodun and Emede (2019), most plants appear to increase yield per unit area as sowing density increases, however, it only ends up to a certain sowing density, if sowing density exceeds the allowable limit yield per unit area will decrease (Hachmann et al, 2014;Chernet et al, 2017).…”

“…Numerous studies on finding solutions to OFY have indicated an increase in fruit yield of tomatoes when sowing density was increased (Amare and Gebremedhin, 2020;Mulatu et al, 2019), however other studies reported that high fruit yield of tomatoes is also dependent on cultivar selection, cultivation method and crop sowing periods (Falodun and Emede, 2019). According to Falodun and Emede (2019), most plants appear to increase yield per unit area as sowing density increases, however, it only ends up to a certain sowing density, if sowing density exceeds the allowable limit yield per unit area will decrease (Hachmann et al, 2014;Chernet et al, 2017). A study on the relationship between sowing densities and fruit yield of tomatoes conducted by Falodun and Emede (2019) reported that total marketable yield, tomato fruit quality, fruit size and harvesting periods are certainly affected by sowing density.…”

“…According to Falodun and Emede (2019), most plants appear to increase yield per unit area as sowing density increases, however, it only ends up to a certain sowing density, if sowing density exceeds the allowable limit yield per unit area will decrease (Hachmann et al, 2014;Chernet et al, 2017). A study on the relationship between sowing densities and fruit yield of tomatoes conducted by Falodun and Emede (2019) reported that total marketable yield, tomato fruit quality, fruit size and harvesting periods are certainly affected by sowing density. Sowing density plays, therefore, an important role to contribute the OFY (Dinh and Dang, 2022b;Hachmann et al, 2014).…”

“…They reported that a treatment of D2 (two plants per dripper) increased total fruit yield by 122-168% compared to a treatment of D1 (single plant per dripper). In Nigeria, Falodun and Emede (2019) studied the effect of sowing densities on tomato yield for an experimental farm at the University of Benin. They conducted an experiment on three tomato varieties (Roma savanna, UC 82 and Roma VF) and three sowing densities (0.30 m 2 , 0.375 m 2 and 0.3375 m 2 ).…”