Efficacy of Foliar Application Rates of Liquid Poultry Manure Fertilizer on Tomato Performance and Soil Fertility Improvement in Southern Guinea Savanna

Abstract

Nutrition is an essential need of all plants. It is a common belief that if nutrient is in a liquid form it will be easily absorbed by plants. Therefore, field experiment was carried out at the Teaching and Research Farm of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai (Latitude 09 02 N and 06 34 E), Niger State, Nigeria during 2017 and 2018 raining seasons (May to November) to examine the effects of different foliar application rates of liquid poultry manure fertilizer on growth and yield of two tomato varieties. The experiment was a 5 × 2 factorial arrangement in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) and replicated three times. The two factors were five application rates; 10000, 20000, 30000, 40000 l/ ha, and control (0.00 litre/ ha) and two varieties of tomato (Roma VF and UC82B). Data were collected on growth (plant height, number of leaves per plant, leaf area) and yield (days to first flowering, days to 50% flowering, number of fruits per plant, fruit length (cm), fruit circumference (cm),fresh weight of fruits per plant (kg) and cumulative fruit weight/ha) parameters. All data collected were subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Means of significant treatments were separated using the least significant method. The results revealed that application of liquid poultry manure fertilizer had significant (P<0.05) effects on vegetative growth and yield performance of tomato varieties in the two cropping seasons. The application of 20,000 l /ha significantly produced highest tomato plant growth (vine length/plant, number of leaves/plant and number of branches/plant)and yield number of fruit/plant, fruit diameter/plant, fruit weight/plant, fruit weight/plot and cumulative yield/ha (tonnes). Also, UC82B variety of tomato significantly supported better growth and yield when compared with Roma VF variety.