Tomato yield response to nitrogen and potassium rates in Bulambuli District

Abstract

Bulambuli is an agrarian district of Uganda located close to the border of Uganda and Kenya just by the foothills of Mountain Elgon. Its strategic location enables it to exploit lucrative market both in Kenya and Ugandan towns like Mbale, Soroti, Lira, etc. Bulambuli is one of the major tomato producing districts in Uganda however the tomato productivity is still very low and farmers open up more and more pieces of land to increase production despite the pressure on land from other land uses. Since it is not sustainable to open up more land for production, this study was set up to determine the tomato yield response to nitrogen and potassium in Bulambuli district of Uganda. The yield parameters investigated were fruit weight, fruit girth and number of fruits per plant. The experiment was set up on two soil types, a clayey (Black in colour) and sandy (Grey in colour) one and it was set up as a 5x5 factorial experiment. The design was RCBD in split plot treatment arrangement with N varying across the main plots at rates of 0, 20, 40, 80 and 120 kg N per ha and K varying across the sub plots at rates of 0, 40, 80, 160, 240 kg K per ha. There were 3 replications at each site. The mean weight of tomatoes at the clayey site was 62.69g while that at the sandy site was 37.7g. Yield and yield parameters were significantly affected by site whereas number of tomatoes, girth of tomatoes and yield were significantly affected by N and the interaction between N and K. K on the other hand had no significant effect on any of the variables