Response of Local Tomato Varieties to Application of Poultry Manure, Cow dung and Inorganic fertilizer

Abstract

Continuous application of inorganic fertilizer causes problems such as deterioration of soil structure, environmental and ground water pollution. A trial was conducted on the field to investigate the effect of poultry manure, cow dung and inorganic fertilizer on growth and yield performance of tomato. There were two (2) factors consisting of fertilizers (10t ha^-1 poultry manure, 10t ha^-1 cow dung and 100kg Nha^-1 N.P.K fertilizer and control)  as well as  local tomato varieties (Hausa oval, Hausa round and Beske). The treatments were laid out using Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) in split plot replicated four times. Growth and yield data taken are plant height (cm), stem girth (cm) number of branches, fruit weight (kg), fruit diameter (cm) and fruit t ha^-1 as well as the dry matter accumulation.Results showed that growth and yield components were significantly affected by treatments. Hausa oval variety performed better in terms of growth and yield parameters which made it the most desirable variety among the varieties used across the sampling period.  At the first trial, application of N.P.K fertilizer was better than  any other treatments but the growth and  yield parameters were significantly comparable with those obtained with poultry manure at 10t ha^-1. However, increase in growth and yield parameters were observed with application of poultry manure at the second trial, this was followed by cow dung while the least was produced by unfertilized plants. The study showed that organic manure had better residual effects on performance of tomato with the application of poultry manure and cow dung at 10t ha^-1 respectively.

Keywords: Cow dung, Inorganic fertilizer, Poultry manure, tomato varieties