| dc.description.abstract | In Uganda there has been decreasing yields due to over exploitation of nutrients from the soil without replenishing them. This has affected drastically crop productivity as lack of nutrients in plants predisposes them to biotic and abiotic (environmental and edaphic) stresses. These stresses affect different processes in plants such as photosynthesis, respiration, absorption, transpiration, translocation, and reproduction. However, artificial/mineral and organic fertilizers/ substances have been developed to supply nutrients and overcome all plant stresses. Field trails were conducted under Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) to assess the effect of these artificial substances on the morphological and yield performance of tomatoes. The main objective of the study was to improve productivity of horticultural crops by increasing nutrient availability and specific objectives of the study were to determine the efficacy of selected fertilizer formulations on yields of tomato, and to determine the effect of selected fertilizer formulations on growth of tomato. It was hypothesized that all the selected fertilizer formulations have equal efficacy on yield of tomato and that all the selected fertilizer formulations have equal increased growth of tomato. 6 treatments of different products of artificial substances were applied to the tomato plants at different growth stages according to recommendations. 3 replicates per product were put in place. Data was collected on number of leaves, number of fresh fruits harvested and weight of fresh fruits harvested. The results showed that there was a significant difference (P <0.05) in the number of leaves following application of treatments and this varied with time with control plot maintaining higher number of leaves across the growth period. This was followed by Apex 10, Biopower and least number of leaves realized from Green crop. There was significant difference (P<0.05) in the mean number of fruits harvested from different fertilizer treatments at significance level of 5% after analysis. The Green Crop plot had the highest number of fruits harvested. This was followed by Green crop, Apex 10, Control, Biowish Crop, Biopower, Starter and least number of fruits were harvested from NPK. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in mean yield of fertilizer treatments at a significance level of 5% after analysis. Numerically, Biowish Crop had the highest tomato yield followed by Control then Starter, Green Crop, Biopower, Apex 10 and least NPK. | en_US |
