Effect of Different Level of Nitrogen Fertilizer on Growth, Yield and Yield Component of Tomato (<i>Lycopersicon Esculentum Mill</i>.) at West Showa Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

The field experiment was conducted in West showa zone, Toke kutaye district of Ormia region, Ethiopia with the objective to determine the optimum nitrogen fertilizer rate on different growth parameters, yield and yield component of tomato crop. To attain the objective, four level of nitrogen fertilizer Viz., 0, 50, 100, and 150 kg/ha were used as treatments. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Data on plant height, number of primary branches per plant, number of leaves per plants, number of cluster per plant, number of fruits per cluster and fruit yield were collected from five plants of the middle rows of each plot and subjected to statistical analysis software (SAS) version 9.3 and LSD at 5% was used for mean comparison. The statistical analysis showed that, there was the significant (P<0.05) difference among treatments for all parameters except for number of fruit per cluster. For growth variables, 150 kg/ha revealed the highest value but there was no significant (P<0.05) difference between 100 and 150 kg/ha of nitrogen except for the height of the plant. The treatment 150 kg/ha nitrogen fertilizer provided 22.41, 35.57 and 25.40% over the control treatment in height, number of leaves and number of primary branch, respectively. The treatment 150 kg/ha nitrogen fertilizer increased the number of cluster per plant and yield of tomato fruit per hectare by 34.50 and 70.79% over the control treatment, respectively. However, there was no significant difference in both number of cluster per plant and yield per hectare between 150 and 100 kg N/ha.

Effects of Cover Methods and Nitrogen Levels on the Growth and Yield of Tomato

“…Both the deficit and excess of N sources have negative impacts on plants: fruit production decreases, susceptibility to insect pests increases, and the nutritional quality of harvested products is reduced (Torres -Olivar et al, 2014). Previous studies have shown that increasing the N addition rate positively affects tomato growth and yield, and maximum fruit yield was reached under the higher N application rate from 100 to 160 kg N ha -1 (Aman & Rab, 2013;Etissa et al, 2013;Rashid et al, 2016;Beyene & Mulu, 2019). However, the studies of Parisi et al (2006) and Elia et al (2007) indicated that a greater fruit yield and yield attributes were recorded by adding 200 kg N ha -1 , and further increases of N rates did not affect tomato yield.…”

“…On the other hand, tomato yields are highly responsive to the addition of N (Warner et al, 2004). Beyene & Mulu (2019) reported that N promotes vegetative growth and fruit yield, favours fruit development, and the application of the proper N level has a dramatic effect on tomato growth and development. Both the deficit and excess of N sources have negative impacts on plants: fruit production decreases, susceptibility to insect pests increases, and the nutritional quality of harvested products is reduced (Torres -Olivar et al, 2014).…”

Tomato yield, and water use efficiency as affected by nitrogen rate and irrigation regime in the central low lands of Ethiopia

“…In Ethiopia, fertilizer rates, especially N and P were determined for tomatoes in some parts of Ethiopia. But the rate, for instance, the fertilizer recommendation for N ranged between 56 and 230 kg ha −1 and for P ranged from 48 to 137 kg ha −1 13 – 15 . The probable reason for this attributed to soil and agro-ecological variability.…”