Optimizing Yield and Nutrients Content in Tomato by Vermicompost Application under Greenhouse Conditions

Abstract

Optimizing yield and nutrients content in crop production is the high time demand of arable farming. Vermicompost furnishes one of the most promising alternatives to costly chemical fertilizer. Therefore, a greenhouse experiment was conducted at NARC, Islamabad, to investigate the effect of different levels of vermicompost [having C/N=15/1 and 14 Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR)] on growth, yield and nutrients content in hybrid tomato (National Tunnel Tomato-04-08) under greenhouse conditions during Rabi 2015. The data revealed that different rates (0.5 t•ha −1 , 1 t•ha −1 , 1.5 t•ha −1 and 2 t•ha −1) of vermicompost produced varied and significant (P < 0.05) effect on the vegetative growth parameters (shoot length, root length, dry shoot weight and dry root weight), yield parameters (number of fruits per treatment and total yield) recorded at physiological maturity. Tomato fruit yield was the maximum (4.383 t•ha −1) at the application of 2.0 t vermicompost ha −1 followed by 3.226 t•ha −1 where vermicompost was applied @ 1.5 t•ha −1. N, P and K content in tomato fruit and plant increased significantly with the application of increasing levels of vermicompost. The highest content of N (3.7%), P (0.67%), K (5.17%) in tomato fruit and N (3.4%), P (0.32%), K (3.2%) in tomato plant respectively were registered with soil application of vermicompost @ 2.0 t•ha −1. This study confirms that the vermicompost has a tremendous potential of plant nutrients supply for sustainable crop production.

Influence of Vegetable and Fruit Wastes Vermicompost on the Growth and Yield of Black Gram (Vigna mungo L.)

“…A Similar work was done by Hyder et al (2015) who confirmed highest number of fruit (97) and diameter of the fruit (6.75 cm) in tomato plant due to the application of vermicompost (2 t/ha). The results are in conformity with Joshi et al (2016), that application of T 2 -RDF (20-40-0 NPK kg ha -1 ) recorded significantly higher number of pods plant -1 (79.60) and number of seeds pod -1 (13.45) in cowpea.…”

The Effects of Vermicompost and Phosphorus on the Development of Soybean Plant

“…The amount of dry matter produced also gave results parallel to the increase in wet weight. Several researchers have also reported that [11,12,13].vermicompot and phosphorus applications reported that the increase in plant yield. Leaf N and grain N concentrations increased as plant growth increased the amount of N (exploited nitrogen) removed from the soil.…”