Effects of NPK Fertilizers on the Growth, Yield and Chemical Content of Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L. Mill)

This paper investigates the effect of NPK fertilizers with different content of nitrogen on growth, yield and chemical content of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L. Mill). NPK fertilizers were used based on polyvinyl alcohol (P) blended with three different contents of urea (U) (PU35, N: 8.45%; PU50, N: 34.1%, and PU65, 44.04%) and K3PO4. NPK35, NPK50 and NPK65 fertilizers were prepared by mixing 90% PU with 10% K3PO4. All treatments were applied at the rate of 500 ml (1% w/v) of NPK directly to the soil. The first treatment was given at 15-day-old seedlings. Thereafter, the treatments with 5 replications were given at intervals of 15 days (6 s) each until 90 days. Final harvest was at 112 days. Data was analyzed using variance analysis (ANOVA) and compared using control without fertilizer. The results indicate that the NPK fertilizers cause improvement in the vegetative growth, yield as well as chemical content of tomato plants. Meanwhile, the application of NPK fertilizer (NPK50) with nitrogen content 31.7% increased the above parameters more than NPK35, NPK65 and control.