ISHS Acta Horticulturae 218: XII African Symposium on Horticultural Crops
EFFECT OF IN-ROW PLANT SPACING AND LEVELS OF NITROGEN FERTILIZER ON THE YIELD AND QUALITY OF DIRECT-SEEDED TOMATOES |
| Authors: | Seif F. Mohamed, Zeineb E. Ali |
| Abstract:
Tomato cv. Strain B2 was direct-seeded in the field at New Halfa for two seasons to study the effects of in-row spacing at 20, 40 and 60 cm and levels of nitrogen at 43, 86 and 129 N kg ha-1 as urea, on yield and some quality attributes of tomato. Direct-seeded tomatoes did not respond to nitrogen application but significantly responded to in-row spacing. Reducing the in-row plant spacing from 60 to 40 cm resulted in a total yield increase of 24% in the first season and 38% in the second season. Further reduction in spacing from 60 to 20 cm resulted in a total yield increase of 43% in the first season and 75% in the second season. Closer spacing of 20 cm also reduced the numbers of sun-scalded fruits compared to 60 cm spacing. Other fruit quality aspects such as TSS and cracked fruits were not significantly affected by either the in-row plant spacing or nitrogen fertilizer. | |
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