Effect of Different Organic Fertilizer Application Rates on Yield and Yield Attributes of Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum)| Chapter 03 | New Perspectives in Agriculture and Crop Science Vol. 1
A field experiment was conducted at the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN) to investigate the effects of organic fertilizer on growth and yield tomato from October 2014 to March 2015. The experiment was laid out in a randomised complete block design (RCBD) with four treatments being varying levels of organic fertilizer; 0 kg m-2, 5 kg m-2, 7.5 kg m-2 and 10 kg m-2 each replicated three times. The yield attributes measured were plant height, stem thickness, canopy diameter, number of leaves, fruits and fruit weight. Organic fertilizer application rates of 7.5 and 10 kg m−2 revealed significantly (p<0.05) taller plants compared to other treatments. A highly significant difference in plant canopy was observed across the four fertilizer application rates. Higher fertilizer application rate of 10 kg m-2outperformed the rest of the treatments. A highly significant treatment effect was observed on leaf number of plants in the 10 kg m-2 application rate. The ...