Developmental and Quality Traits of Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum mill.) Cultivars as Affected by Albit^br Bio-stimulant

Changes in the climate of the world coupled with the indiscriminate application of chemical fertilizers are causing great challenges in agricultural production systems. However, such problems could be tackled by using bio-stimulants leading to the advancement of sustainable production. Thus, the current study was conducted with the purpose of improving quality traits and fruiting potential of tomato plants using albit^br bio-stimulant.

The study involved seven doses of the albit^br bio-stimulant (0.1 L ha^-1, 0.5 L ha^-1, 1 L ha^-1, 2.5 L ha^-1, 5 L ha^-1, 10 L ha^-1 and 50 L ha^-1) applied on four tomato cultivars (Malets, Revansh, Talisman and Fonaric) to be compared against the control (lone water). The field was designed in a randomized block design and each treatment was replicated three times. Two plants were randomly selected from each plot for data collection.

Results indicated that Fonaric cultivar produced the highest significant values of carotenoid pigments, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll. In addition to this, the highest significant values of number of fruiting trusses per plant and number of fruits per truss were obtained from Malets cultivar. Albit^br bio-stimulant application resulted into significant differences on most of the parameters. Albit^br applied at 5 L ha^-1 produced the highest significant values of total chlorophyll (1.966 mg g^-1), chlorophyll b (0.759 mg g^-1), number of fruits per truss (3.812) beta carotene (2.509 mg 100 g^-1) whereas the highest levels of chlorophyll a (1.263 mg g^-1) and lycopene (15.45 mg 100 g^-1) were obtained from 2.5 L ha^-1 and 10 L ha^-1 respectively.