Faculty of Agriculture and Animal Sciences

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Browsing Faculty of Agriculture and Animal Sciences by Author "Aanyu, Sarah Asilo"

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    Effect of enhanced biochar on growth and yield of padma F1 tomatoes.
    (Busitema University, 2024) Aanyu, Sarah Asilo
    Current tomato production, productivity and quality have stagnated due to several biotic and abiotic factors. Among the abiotic factors, climate change has caused a lot of changes in the rainfall pattern, temperature, and other climatic conditions with variation in the soil moisture and fertility as the most the devastating conditions. This study therefore sought to determine the effect of enhanced Biochar on growth and yield of Padma F1 tomatoes. An experiment was conducted for two seasons at Arapai campus in a randomized complete block design. The materials used during the experiments were seeds of tomatoes Padma F1, Biochar plain, quenched urine Biochar, beejam, and jeevam, solid and liquid native microbes. The results of the study revealed that on tomato plant height, Treatment T1(quenched animal urine biochar mixed with both solid and liquid native microbes)resulted in the highest average plant height of 58.22 cm, closely followed by Treatment T2(quenched animal urine biochar mixed with jeevam and beejam) at 58cm, Treatment T1(quenched animal urine biochar mixed with both solid and native microbes) resulted in the highest average leaf area of 181.6 cm², followed by Treatment T2(quenched animal urine biochar mixed with beejam and jeevam) with 167.4cm2 .Treatment T1(quenched animal urine biochar mixed with both solid and native microbes) resulted in the highest average number of leaves at 33.33, closely followed by Treatment T2(quenched animal urine biochar mixed with beejam and jeevam) at 32.44 leaves. Treatment T1 (quenched animal urine biochar mixed with solid and native microbes) resulted in the highest average number of branches at 12.94, followed by Treatment T2 (quenched animal urine biochar mixed with beejam and beejam) with an average of 12.11 branches.Analysis on the data of fruit length, fruit diameter, average fruit weight per plant data, yield data showed a significant yield differences (<0.001) were observed across all the treatments in the experiments in all the seasons. The results indicate that the mixture of urine Biochar with native microbes and solid microbes (T1) produced the highest yield and best fruit quality, significantly outperforming all other treatments. T1 achieved the greatest number of fruits per plant, the largest fruit size, and the highest yield (45,977 kg/ha), Urine Biochar mixed with Beejam and Jeevam (T2) also yielded positive results but was slightly lower in productivity compared to T1. Urine Biochar alone (T3) had moderate results, while the control (T4) and plain Biochar (T5) treatments showed the lowest yields and fruit quality. In conclusion, enhanced biochar quenched with animal urine, solid and native microbes positively affects the growth and yield of tomatoes Padma F1.