Study the Effect of Some Plants Extracts on Growth of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicom L.) in ex-Vitro and in-Vitro Conditions

Today, due to the destructive environmental effects of fertilizers and chemical toxins, the application of plant extracts to improve plant growth and controlling pests and diseases is of particular importance. For assaying the effect of some plant extract on tomato growth behavior, the present study was conducted both as ex-vitro and in-vitro experiments.

The aim of experiment was to investigate the effect of extract of some plants including Taraxacum officinale, Concharpus erectus, Allium jesdianum, Rheum ribes, Dorema aucheri and Juniperus sabina. Ex-vitro experiment was performed as a completely randomized design with six treatments in three concentrations of 1000, 5000 and 8000 ppm and three replications. In in-vitro study, the experiment was performed with two concentrations of 50 and 100 ppm of plant extracts. The experiment was done at Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources in 2021-2022.

Results showed that in greenhouse and in most treatments, foliar application of tomato plnts by phytoextracts increased stem length (15 %), internode distance (20 %) and stem diameter. In contrast to that, in some treatments the number of branches (15 %), chlorophyll content and number of flowers (40 %) decreased compared to the control. Under in vitro conditions, germination rate (100 %), seedling growth (37 %), the callus formation (≥ 100 %) and callus weight increased as treated with the plant extracts. The analysis of used plant extracts indicates that they are rich sources of phenolic, flavonoid and antioxidant compounds. High antioxidant activity could be the main reason of observed results. Antioxidant compounds improve cell growth and even improve seed germination via the reducing the stress conditions. However, the role of these compounds in modifying the ratio of endogenous hormones in cultured tissue is not ignorable.

According to the approaches of using plant extracts for nutrition and pest and disease control, the results of the present study in Tomato cultivation is considerable.