Use of alternative substrates in production of tomato seedlings

Abstract

Tomato is one of the most produced vegetables in the whole Brazilian territory, also presenting great income to the family producer. The use of organic or alternative substrates has grown, since its acquisition by the producer is easy. Aiming at these factors, the objective of this work was to evaluate the production of three cultivars, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz Kada Gigante and Santa Adélia tomatoes in seven types of substrates formulated with humus and added bovine manure, chicken manure and carbonized rice husk, thus forming a randomized block design in factorial scheme 7×3. The seeds were sown in styrofoam trays and placed in a greenhouse at Emater-GO experimental station, in the city of Anápolis. Some analyses were carried out to verify the quality of seedlings. The analysis of variance was not significant for the cultivar × substrate interaction, so the analyses proceeded in isolation. The cultivars Santa Clara and Santa Cruz Kada Gigante were superior to cultivating Santa Adélia in all tests. The substrates that contained chicken manure composition were the ones that presented the best results in all analyses.