Influence of Nutritional treatments on the Growth of Dwarf Gem Tomato Variety (Solanum lycopersicum var dwarfgem L.)
Eze Hope Nkiruka and Izundu Alexander Ikechukwu
Department of Botany, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria.
*Corresponding author: E-mail: hn.eze@unizik.edu.ng
ABSTRACT
In Nigeria, crops are usually cultivated during the rainy season when there is high incidence of diseases such as damping-off. The tomato varieties that are high yielding with quality fruits are affected by this damping-off during the rains. To promote increased fruit supply, dwarfgem which has rare good quality of being resistant to damping-off serves as good alternative to ascertain the best nutritional treatment that will improve the growth qualities of dwarfgem tomato for maximum yield. 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 were 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). 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). Three plants were randomly selected and tagged. The parameters measured Weekly are height, stem girth, leaf area and number of branch es. Plant height was determined using meter rule, stem girth was measured using Venier caliper. Data were 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 showed the highest height increase of (125.31±0.01cm), highest leave area and significantly highest tomato branching. This has shown that the treatment of dwarfgem tomato variety with organic and inorganic fertilizer in combination with salinity and bicarbonate fully improved the plant growth..
Keywords: Tomato, dwarfgem, vitamins, lycopene, bicabornate, organic manure, inorganic fertilizer
CITE AS: Eze Hope Nkiruka and Izundu Alexander Ikechukwu (2025). Influence of Nutritional treatments on the Growth of Dwarf Gem Tomato Variety (Solanum lycopersicum var dwarfgem L.). NEWPORT INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL AND APPLIED SCIENCES, 6(3):45-54 https://doi.org/10.59298/NIJBAS/2025/6.3.45540000