Effects of Composted and Vermicomposted Sugarcane Industry Wastes and Farm Manure on Tomato Quality and Yield

Rahmatullah Shah; Muhammad Abid; Muhammad Farooq Qayyum

doi:10.22581/muet1982.2002.14

Rahmatullah Shah Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan.
Muhammad Abid Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan.
Muhammad Farooq Qayyum Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22581/muet1982.2002.14

Abstract

A field study was conducted to signify the use of sugarcane industrial and dairy farm wastes through composting and vermi-composting and application to tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum L) crop to evaluate any effects on growth, yield and fruit quality. Composts and vermi-composts of FM (Farm Manure), SB (Sugarcane Bagasse), SP (Sugarcane Pressmud), mixture of SB×SP×SE [sugarcane effluent (1:1:1)] @ 10 t ha1, respectively were applied before transplanting of nursery. The fertilizers NPK @ 81-76-76 kg ha-1 were also applied in all plots. Overall, there were significant (p≤0.05) impacts of treatments on agronomic and fruit quality traits. Plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves, number of fruits and yield were increased by 37, 67, 62, 59 and 24% with FMVC (Farm Manure Vermi-Compost) treatment over control. There was 6% increase in soluble solids of tomato fruit in FMVC plots compared with control treatment. However, maximum titrable acidity (0.0081mg citric acid/100g) in fruit juice was found in MVC plots. TN (Total Nitrogen) concentration of tomato fruit juice was increased by 1.74% in with FMVC over control treatments. Maximum lycopene contents (22.19 mg kg-1) were observed in FMVC plots as compared to all other treatments. It could be concluded that all treatments improved growth, yield and quality of fruit compared with control; whereas FMVC treatment performed better.