Testing the Effect of EM Biofertilizer on Yield and Quality of Tomato of Tomato (Lycopersicon esxulentum Mill)

Abstract

The trail on the effect of EM biofertilizer on yield and quality of tomato was conducted in Pichit Horticultural Ressearch Center from September 1994 to March 1995. The main objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of EM on yield and quality of tomato. The experiment was arranged in RCB with 10 replicates and consisted of seven treatments as follows, 1) EM solution 2) EM and manure decomposed 3) Molass and manure 4) EM, molass and manure decomposed 5) Mamure 6) Fertilizer grade 15-15-15 at rate 80 kg./rai and manure 7) Control with no material added. The results was found that the addition of fertilizer 15-15-15 with manure can significantly increase vegetative parts (ie. Plant height, bush width and stem width) from the crop establishment stage to harvest. Every treatment combined with EM has the same effect as the manure treatment on these three growth indices. However, all decomposed EM trended to perform better growth than those applied with EM. There was on effect on quality of tomato in term of fruit weight and number fruits per plant in all treatments evaluated. It was observed that the addition of 1) composed EM incombination with manure and molass, 2) composed EM and manure and 3) fertilizer 15-15-15 and manure increased fruit weight compared with the control treatment by 26.2%, 25% and 18.9% respectively and fruit number (22.9%, 20.5% and 20.5% respectively).