Effect of Organic Mulch and Mycorrhizal Inoculation on Growth and Yield of Tomato Plants

Abstract

Net greenhouse experiment was conducted through the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 seasons at Dokki protected cultivation experimental site, Central Laboratory for Agricultural Climate (CLAC), Agricultural Research Center (ARC), Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation to investigate applied two factors organic mulch i.e., (bagasse, compost, palm fibers, mushroom spent, sawdust and control), mycorrhizal inoculation (with and without) and their interaction on growth and productivity of tomato plants. The seedlings of tomato cv. Super strain B was transplanted on the 15th October 2019 and 2020. The experimental design was split plot with three replicates. Results indicated that applied compost mulch treatment, without mycorrhizal inoculation and their interaction enhanced all vegetative growth characteristics i.e., (plant height, number of leaves, number of shoots, stem diameter, fresh and dry weights of plant). Whereas, applied compost mulch treatment, with mycorrhizal inoculation and their interaction improved chemical content of (N, P and K) in leaves and increased average fruit weight and total yield/m2.