Influence of Nutritional Treatments on the Mineral of Dwarfgem Tomato Variety (Solanum Lycopersicum Var Dwarfgem L)

Abstract

It is known that in Nigeria, the rainy season is the planting season/period. But the rains are not friendly to all the desired crops. The search for a tomato variety that will be high yielding and of good quality when planted during the rainy season is still the problem of many farmers. Dwarfgem variety is high yielding but possesses poor quality, although it can survive damping-off. This work is therefore designed to ascertain physiological manipulations that will improve the mineral constituents of the dwarfgem tomato variety through nutritional treatments. The study was carried out at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. Seeds of dwarfgem were obtained from Agricultural Development Program (ADP) Awka. Seeds were raised in the nursery. Twenty pieces of 40cm plastic buckets was used to prepare two groups of media according to the treatments which comprised of 14 buckets each filled with mixture of organic manure and soil at the standard rate of 640g/60kg (32g/hectare) while the remaining six buckets was filled with only soil. Organic manure was goat pellets while inorganic manure was NPK (15:15:15). Salinity, (NaCl), and Bicarbonate (H3C03) were supplied at 2mM concentration in the irrigation water. The buckets were arranged according to treatments in a Randomized Completely Block Design (RCBD). Mineral was determined by standard method. Data were statistically analyzed using ANOVA and means were separated using computer modulated Duncan Multiple Range Test (Duncan, 1955). subjected to statistical analysis using Duncan T – test to separate the Means. The tomato plants treated with organic and inorganic fertilizers in combination with NaCl and BICA produced fruits with high levels of Na (600.41±0.015ppm), K (291.90±0.010ppm), Mg (148.50 ±0.010ppm) and Fe (3.46±0.010ppm) while the least was recorded in the control. The plants treated with organic and Nitrogen fertilizers in combination with NaCl and BICA also increased the tomato Cu content whereas the least was produced by fruits from the control. This has shown that the treatment of dwarfgem tomato variety with organic and inorganic fertilizer in combination with salinity and bicarbonate fully improved the fruit quality of the plant fruit mineral.