Tomato Production through Vine Cutting Technology in Hydroponics System

Abstract

Tomato is an important vegetable in Nigeria, but the cost of purchasing the seeds for planting is high. This has necessitated the search of production alternatives through the vine cutting technology to complement the use of seeds in tomato production. Seeds of three exotic tomato varieties (Red Cherry Large-RCL, Roma and San Marzano-SM) and one local variety (Ibadan local) were purchased from the Soilles Farmlab, Abeokuta and Bodija market, Ibadan respectively. The seeds were sown directly in hydroponics troughs containing cocopeat, watered and fertigated with liquefied poultry manure (1 mg/ml concentration) and thinned to one per partition after three weeks. Vines were cut from the growing tomato plants at 1, 2 and 3 months of growth from the varieties and sown in another hydroponics trough in three replicates. Data were taken on the percentage survival of cut vines, days to the formation of new shoot (DTNSF), Number of new shoots (NNS) at 2, 3 and 4 weeks respectively, days to 50 % flowering, number of fruits and fruit weight at harvest. Data collected were analyzed using ANOVA and differences in the treatment means were separated using Least Significant Differences (LSD) at 5 % level of significance.Results obtainedshowed that Cherry Red Large-CRL tomato had the highest vine survival (81.25%) and number of fruits produced (5.83±0.41), while the local variety had the highest fruit weight (23.98±1.09). Also, the cut vines at 1-month old had the highest vine survival (93.75±5.02) and the fruit weight (20.01±0.94). However, the cut vines at 2-month old produced the highest number of fruit (5.81±0.36).