Yield performances of tomatoes (<i>Lycopersicum esculentum</i>) on organic manure buffered lateritic soils

Abstract

Lateritic soils are found in many farms even though they have not been known to be encouragingly productive to farmers because of their non-supportive of agricultural products. This experiment was to help farmers whose lands are lateritic to produce more crops/ha when buffered with organic manure. There were six treatments namely: laterite soil, laterite soil buffered with organic manure, laterite soil buffered with NPK 15-15-15, sandy loam soil, sandy loam soil buffered with organic manure (OM) and sandy loam soil buffered with NPK 15-15-15. There were three replicates for each treatments, the arrangement was 2 × 6 × 3 factorial design of 36 pots, parameters measured during the experiment were days to emergency, days to flowering, days to fruiting, number of branches, number of fruits per plant, nodes and internodes, stem girth length, leaf length of plant, plant height (from the surface of the soil to the apex (tip) of the plant) at twice a week and number of leaves per plant counted and recorded each week. The whole arrangements were subjected to the same environmental and climatic conditions. Chemical and physical characteristics of the soil in different treatments were done in the laboratory before and after. The data collected were subjected to two-way ANOVA. The results revealed that seed germination percentage was higher in sandy-loam buffered soil, 92.5%, followed by lateritic buffered soil 87.5%. Statistical analysis showed statistical differences among the yield and yield parameters for types of soil. However, the growth parameters taken as height, number of leaves, fresh and dry weight were found to be higher in sandy-loam soil followed by laterite soil and finally alluvium soil. Statistical analysis of these also showed significant differences between the types of soil used. Laterite buffered soil could yield as high as sandy loam soil in the production of tomatoes.

Metal Concentrations in Sediments of the Alinsaog River, Santa Cruz, Zambales, Central Luzon, Philippines

“…Laterite is a highly weathered soil that contains a high amount of Fe oxide and is derived from the weathering of rocks under strongly oxidizing and leaching conditions. 31 Since the open pit method being employed in the extraction of minerals entails the removal of forest vegetation, this could exacerbate erosion and runoff. Moreover, about 8% of the total land area of Zambales is devoted to agricultural production, 60% of which is allotted to rice farming.…”

Influence of Manuring on Growth and Yield of Tomato Varieties in Akure, a Rain Forest Zone of South West Nigeria

“…Tomato accounts for about 18% of the average daily consumption of vegetables in Nigeria [2]. The consumption is believed to have health/medicinal value because it contains lycopene [2, 3,4]. Tomato production is almost restricted to the derived savanna and savanna insert-ecological zones due to the favourable environmental conditions [5].…”