Effects of Different Soilless Media and Fertigation Schedules on the Yield and Quality of Greenhouse Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum)

Abstract

Soilless media are developed to address challenges like lack of fertile soil, controlling soil-borne diseases, and soil salinity. The use of drip fertigation and substrates in protected tomato cropping (Lycopersicon esculentum) has increased plant health and fruit quality, particularly in sustainable production methods. On the other hand, it is still unclear about tomato plants in terms of the relationship between fertigation frequency and substrate volume. This study evaluated the effects of drip fertigation frequencies and different soilless media on the fruit yield and quality of tomato plants grown in a greenhouse. The experiment utilized a split-plot design with fertigation frequency as the main plot and soilless media as the sub-plot. The fertigation which was a combination of the estimated crop water requirement and the calculated fertilizer rates were as follows: three times daily fertigation (40% deficit fertigation), four times daily fertigation (20% deficit fertigation) and full fertigation (100% fertigation) were applied to four soilless media: 100% cocopeat, 60% cocopeat + 40% Rice husk, 60% cocopeat + 40% Biochar, and 40% cocopeat + 40% Sawdust + 20% Sorghum haulm Biochar. The result of the study demonstrated that the interaction effect of the Five times daily fertigation (100% fertigation) with 60% Cocopeat + 40% Rice husk biochar exhibited superior yield performance in both wet (119.96 t/ha) and dry seasons (119.83 t/ha). Fruit yield increased with increasing irrigation frequency. On the average, 60% Cocopeat + 40% Rice husk biochar media was not significantly different from 100% cocopeat. The highest crop water productivity in both wet (16.51 t/mm) and the dry season (15.66 t/mm) was observed in 60% Cocopeat + 40% Rice husk biochar media. 100% cocopeat and cocopeat–rice husk mixtures consistently produced fruits with higher Total soluble solids and redness in both seasons. Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) analysis revealed that 60% Cocopeat + 40% Rice-husk Biochar ranked first followed by 100% Cocopeat.