The Effect of Application Method and Biofertilizer Type on Some Morphophysiological, Biochemical and Yield Components Traits of Tomato Plant (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

Due to the increasing demand for organic products, the use of growth-promoting bacteria, which play an important role in the sustainability of agricultural ecosystems, has been considered for the last two decades, and there are limited studies to determine the best efficiency of their consumption method. Accordingly, this study was conducted to investigate the most effective method of application biofertilizers on morph physiological, biochemical and yield traits of Tomato plants in greenhouse conditions.

In order to investigate the effect of consumption method and type of biofertilizers on morphophysiological, biochemical and yield traits of Tomato, a factorial experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design in the Research Greenhouse Khorasan Razavi Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education center in 2020. The first factor was three methods of application (seed inoculation with foliar feeding, foliar feeding and soil consumpation and the second factor was types of biofertilizer (control, nitroxin, biophosphate, fertile potassium and a mixture of nitroxin and biophosphorus (rate 1:1).

Analysis of some physical and chemical properties of soil at the beginning and end of the experiment showed that the application of biofertilizers without the use of any chemical fertilizers improved soil fertility and high availability of macronutrient, which showed an improvement in soil health indices. The soil texture remained constant at the end of the experiment but the soil saturation percentage was increased which indicated an increase in the volume of water in the soil compared to the volume of pores during the test period. Almost all properties were better condition at the end of the experiment than at the beginning, including electrical conductivity and soil acidity, which decreased by about 0.5 and 0.3 units, respectively. The results showed that the maximum plant height (176 cm) was obtained by using a mixture of nitroxin and biophosphorus from soil application. The lowest dry plant weight (23.7 g) was recorded from non-use of biofertilizers and the use of a mixture of nitroxin and biophosphorus produced about 52% more dry weight of the plant in compare of control. The application of biofertilizers had a significant effect on increase dry weight of root, so that the root dry weight was increased about 53% in compare of control by using mixture of nitroxin and biophosphorus. In the soil application method with the application of all biofertilizers, the number of fruits per plant was more than 137, the highest of it (145) was obtained from a mixture of nitroxin and biophosphorus. The highest fruit weight per plant (449 g plant-1) was obtained from the application of a mixture of nitroxin and biophosphorus in soil application. The highest amount of photosynthesis (18.2 μmol CO2 m-2s-1) and stomatal conductance (20.0 mmol CO2 m-2s-1) were obtained from the effect of combined nitroxin and biophosphorus fertilizer on seed inoculation and foliar feeding. The highest amount of lycopene (7.69 mg 100-1g FW) and the amount of vitamin C (57.7 mg 100-1g FW) were obtained from the soil consumption of nitroxin biofertilizer.

Increasing diversity in soil microorganisms leads to increased soil fertility. In soil application method, the metabolic activities of bacteria are improved due to the availability of suitable temperature, oxidation and reduction conditions, minerals, organic carbon as a source of energy and water, which leads to the release of nutrients from organic materials. The results showed that due to the high growth of bacteria in the presence of different substrates in the soil and the high surface-to-volume ratio in them, the use of biological fertilizers as soil application was increase morphological and physiological characteristics, yield traits of Tomato plant.