Effect of black soldier fly waste on the growth characteristics and yield performance of MT 56 tomato variety

Abstract

The field experiment entitled Effect of black soldier fly waste on the growth characteristics and yield performance of MT 56 tomato variety was carried out at Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute. The experiment was carried out from March to June 2020 with the aim to evaluate growth and yield response of MT 56 tomato to four levels of nitrogen which are 0, 20, 40 and 60 Kg N/ha being supplied from NPK and black soldier fly waste. The experiment was laid in Random Complete Block Design with three replications. The maximum mean plant height was 57.06 and was recorded for plots that received 60 kg N/ha BSF waste and was significantly different from the control whose plant height was 47.89 though the plant height was not significantly different (P>0.05) for the different rates of nitrogen in both NPK and BSF waste. Leaf area was significantly different for plots that received NPK and BSF compared to the control. With increased amount of nitrogen, the leaf area increased for plots that received NPK up to 40 kg N/ha after which it became constant while for BSF, the leaf area increased only up to 20 kg N/ha after which it became constant. For NPK, number of flower trusses were significantly different from the control and increased with increase in amount of nitrogen up to 40 kg N/ha after which further increase in nitrogen decreased the number of flower trusses while for BSF waste, the number of flower trusses were significantly different from the control but increased with increase in nitrogen only up to 20 kg N/ha after which further increase in nitrogen had no significant (P>0.05) increase in number of flower trusses. The number of flowers were significantly different (P<0.05) for plots that received NPK and BSF waste compared to the control but for both treatments, the number of flowers increased only up to when nitrogen was supplied at a rate of 20kg N/ha after which further increase in the quantities of nitrogen didn’t have a significant (P>0.05) increase in number of flowers. The highest number of fruits for plots that received NPK were obtained at an application rate 40 kg N/ha and was 6.122 which was significantly different (P<0.05) from the control (4.478) but further increase in nitrogen to 60 kg N/ha decreased the number of fruits to 5.789 which was not significantly different (P>0.05) from the control. The number of fruits harvested were significantly different (P<0.05) for both NPK and BSF. For NPK, the number of fruits harvested increased with increase in nitrogen levels and the highest number was 16.05 recorded when the nitrogen application rate was 60kg N/ha. For BSF, number of fruits harvested increased with increase in nitrogen levels and the highest was 13.66 at application rate 40kg N/ha after which the number of fruits harvested declined to 12.16 at 60 kg N /ha. The fruit weight was significantly different for plots that received both NPK and BSF compared to the control but the difference in the fruit weight for the different levels of nitrogen wasn’t significantly different for both NPK and BSF.