Sodium-potassium interaction on growth, yield and quality of tomato in ultisol

Figures & data

Table I Sources and concentration of nutrient elements in the greenhouse study.

Element	Sources	Wt. of salts gkg^−1 of soil	Conc. of element (ppm)	kg ha.^−1 of soil
N	NH4NO3	0.286	100	224
P	CaHPO4.2H2O	0.230	43	96.89
Mg	MgSO4	0.230	15	34.46
Zn	ZnSO4	0.040	11	24.70
B	H3BO3	0.012	0.003	1.07

Table II Characteristics of soils used for the soil culture studies prior to experimentation.

Soil properties	(0–15 cm)
Sand (g kg^−1)	720
Silt (g kg^−1)	120
Clay (g kg^−1)	160
Texture	Loamy sand
pH	6.14
Organic carbon (gkg^−1)	1.64
Total N (mgkg^−1)	1.9
Available P (mgkg^−1)	12.75
Exchangeable Ca (mgkg^−1 soil)	400.00
Exchangeable K (mgkg^−1 soil)	141.01
Exchangeable Mg (mgkg^−1 soil)	251.79
Exchangeable Na (mgkg^−1 soil)	53.68
Total K (mgkg^−1 soil)	1912.24
Total Na (mgkg^−1 soil)	1705.10
Exchangeable Na:K ratio	1: 2.6
Total Na:K ratio	1: 1.1

Table III Effects of Na and K interactions on nutrient composition of shoots of the tomato plant in soil culture.

Treatments
Na	K	N	P	K	Ca	Mg	Na
(mg kg^−1)		(mgg^−1)
0	0	0.96	4.16	9.40	13.30	3.41	1.10
0	32	0.81*	5.42*	10.80*	10.30*	0.60*	1.10
0	64	0.81*	6.01*	11.90*	14.80	0.80*	0.90*
0	128	1.03	5.29*	11.10	14.60	0.60*	1.10
2	0	1.01	4.32	9.10	12.10	0.70*	0.90*
2	32	1.14*	4.11	10.80*	12.20	0.60*	1.10
2	64	1.11*	5.94*	12.10*	14.30	3.54	1.20
2	128	1.18*	6.29*	10.10*	12.80	0.50*	1.10
4	0	1.18*	3.34	11.10*	16.10*	0.70*	0.90*
4	32	1.03	4.06	10.10*	28.10*	0.80*	1.20
4	64	1.03	4.45	11.30*	15.10*	3.63	1.40*
4	128	1.11*	4.52	11.30*	14.50	0.60*	0.90*
8	0	1.01	4.02	11.30*	15.20*	0.70*	1.10
8	32	0.62*	4.14	9.80*	11.20*	0.70*	1.40*
8	64	0.81*	5.27*	10.10*	14.10	3.82	1.40*
8	128	0.76*	4.62	11.80*	14.40	8.90*	1.10
16	0	0.72*	5.59*	11.10*	15.50*	9.10*	1.10
16	32	0.66*	5.47*	10.10*	10.80	5.80*	1.10
16	64	0.81*	6.68*	9.80*	11.10*	6.70*	1.40*
16	128	0.65*	5.52*	10.60*	11.10*	6.90*	1.10
32	0	0.71*	5.78*	8.80	13.20*	8.90*	0.50*
32	32	0.65*	6.01*	8.80*	10.50*	5.30*	1.10
32	64	0.66*	3.11*	6.30*	3.10*	1.80*	1.30*
32	128	0.63*	5.69*	10.10*	12.70	3.36	1.10
Mean		0.86	4.99	10.24	13.38	3.26	1.01
SE±0.05		0.04	0.20	0.27	0.84	2.37	0.06
CV%		21.97	19.24	12.71	30.82	75.46	26.39
*Mean within column significantly different from the control treatment at p < 0.05.

Figure 1.  Effects of different levels of Na and K on (a) number of flowers and (b) number of fruits of tomato in soil culture.

Figure 2.  Effects of different levels of Na and K on (a) weight of fruits and (b) citric acid content of fruit juice of tomato in soil culture.