Optimal management of plant nutrition in tomato (Lycopersicon esculent Mill) by using biologic, organic and inorganic fertilizers

Abstract

Optimal plant nutrition is one of the accurate solutions to meet the demands of population growth and food in the future. In order to study the effect of different fertilizers on the responses of tomato plant, a greenhouse experiment was conducted as a factorial arrangement based on a completely randomized design with three replications. The applied treatments were inorganic fertilizers [control (F0), custom application (F1), optimal application based on soil test (F2), commercial fertilizer Rutter AA (F3), and F2 + application of nitrogen, phosphorus, zinc, and silicon at the double amount of optimal recommendation (F4)], organic and biologic treatments [control (BF0), a mixture of two types of PGPR (BF1), the mixture of three mycorrhizal fungi (BF2), vermicompost (BF3) and the biologic package including vermicompost, PGPR, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (BF4)]. The results showed that the maximum increase in shoot and root dry weight was recorded in the interaction effect between F4, BF4, and BF3. The highest significant increase in the concentration of zinc and silicon in shoots was observed in F4, BF4, and BF3 treatments compared to the control. The use of F2-BF3 and F2-BF4 resulted in a significant increase in the soil microbial population. Also, the application of F2, BF3, and BF4 significantly increased the soil microbial respiration rate compared to the control. In general, it is concluded that BF4 and BF3 treatments have high efficiency in improving plant growth and nutritional status when they were used separately and simultaneously with the studied fertilizers.

Keywords:

• arbuscular mycorrhiza
• PGPR
• plant nutrition management
• tomato
• vermicompost

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to express their sincere thanks to Department of Soil Science Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran for providing research facilities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Compliance with ethical standards

Not applicable.

Consent to participate

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Conflict of data and material

Authors declare no conflict of interest.

Consent for publication

In accordance with the copyright transfer or open access rules.

Research involving human participants and/or animals

Not applicable.

Data availability statement

Excel data for the nutritional and yield measurements is available.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by College of Agriculture Natural Resources, University of Tehran.