Acta Scientiarum Polonorum

Scientific paper founded in 2001 year by Polish agricultural universities

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Hortorum Cultus
(Ogrodnictwo) 14 (1) 2015
Title
Foliar application of potassium improves fruit quality and yield of tomato plants
Autor
Irfan Afzal, Bilal Hussain, Shahzad Maqsood Ahmed Basra, Sultan Habib Ullah, Qamar Shakeel, Muhammad Kamran
Keywords
Lycopersicon esculentum, exogenous application, potassium nutrition, fruit quality
Abstract
Tomato is well known regarding its quality and nutritional value in all over the world but imbalances of fertilizer nutrients severely affect the quality of tomato. To investigate the specific contribution of potassium to yield and quality of tomato, a field experiment was conducted on two tomato cultivars, Nagina and Roma. Foliar application with varying levels (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9 and 1.0%) of potassium solutions was applied to the plants and compared with control (without K). Exogenous application of 0.6% K significantly improved plant height, lycopene content, potassium, fruit weight and diameter. Exogenous application of 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7% K maximally improved ascorbic acid contents of both tomato cultivars whereas 0.4 and 0.8% did not improve ascorbic acid contents. Due to positive correlation between K nutrition and fruit quality attributes, exogenous application of an appropriate K level can contribute to higher yield and better quality of tomato fruits. Among all potassium levels, 0.5–0.7% K maximally improved performance of tomato plants of both cultivars.
Pages
3-13
Cite
Afzal, I., Hussain, B., Basra, S., Ullah, S., Shakeel, Q., Kamran, M. (2015). Foliar application of potassium improves fruit quality and yield of tomato plants. Acta Sci. Pol. Hortorum Cultus, 14(1), 3-13.
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