EFFECT OF NPSB FERTILIZER AND VARIETIES ON GROWTH AND YIELD PERFORMANCE OF TOMATO (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) IN MINI GREEN HOUSE

Abstract

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) is a seasonal plant and one of economically important and widely grown vegetable crop as annual both in the rainy and dry seasons for their fruits by smallholder farmers and commercial state farms in Ethiopia. The productivity of tomato in Ethiopia is much lower than other countries due to many problems including lack of well adapted and productive varieties at farmer’s hand and poor agronomic practices/recommendation for sustainable production and productivity of those high value crops. Therefore, this field experiment was conducted with the objectives to investigate the response of tomato varieties to chemical (NPSB) fertilizer for growth and yield performance. The treatment consists of 3 tomato varieties (Flindndo, Melka shola and Melka Salsa) and 4 level of NPSB (0, 50,100,150 kg NPS/ha) triplicated in, completely randomized design. Data on growth and yield performance were collected and main effects of varieties and fertilizer had showed significant differences for the data recorded except fruit length for NPSB rates. Interaction between fertilizer and variety had also significantly influenced the data collected and based on the current result, it can be concluded that Melka Salsa responded more for the fertilizer treatment yielding 200gm and 156.7gm at 50 and 100 kg NPSB-1 (that equivalent to 0.24g and 0.48gm applied to single plant per pot) and this variety can potentially selected for further investigation and recommendation for the farming community.