Effect of organic fertilizers used in sandy soil on the growth of tomatoes

doi:10.4236/as.2013.45B006

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Vol.4, No.5B, 31-34 (2013) Agricultural Sciences

doi:10.4236/as.2013.45B006

Effect of organic fertilizers used in sandy soil on the

growth of tomatoes

Yongxia Hou1, Xiaojun Hu1*, Wenting Yan2, Shuhong Zhang2, Libin Niu3

1Shenyang University, Key Laboratory of Regional Environment and Eco-Remediation, Ministry of Education, Shenyang, China;

[email protected], *Corresponding Author: [email protected]

2College of Horticulture, Shenyang Agricultural University , Shenyang, China; [email protected], [email protected]

3The Affiliated Hospital of Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shenyang, China; [email protected]

Received 2013

ABSTRACT

In order to reveal the regulating capacity of or-

ganic fertilizers on sandy soil, pots experiments

were carried out. The growth of tomatoes planted

on sandy soil amended by organic fertilizers

was measured. Organic fertilizers can be help-

ful to improve the plant height, stem diameter,

the aerial parts fresh weight, root fresh weight,

leaf photosynthetic rates and photosynthesis,

and lay a good foundation for the growth of

tomatoes. The effect of organic fertilizer is the

most significant. Among all the treatments of

adding 2.5%, 5%, 10% organic fertilizers, adding

10% organic fertilizers are the best. It can sig-

nificantly enhance the growth and photosynthe-

sis of tomatoes, and it is among the best of

these three soil treatm ents for sandy soil.

Keywords: Sandy Soil; Organic Fertilizers;

Photosynthetic Rate; Tomato

1. INTRODUCTION

Sandification is an environmental problem for the world.

China is one of the countries suffered desertification

seriously. In 2011, the State Forestry Administration (SFA)

has announced the results of forth national monitoring of

desertification and sandification. The results show that,

by the end of 2009, the area of national sandy lands,

18.03% of national lands, is 1, 731, 100 hm2. In these

areas, 310,000 hm2 became sandy soil obviously. Some

are still expanding. Sandy soil is a poor soil which has

low contents of organic matters and nutrition. Owing to

the loose texture and the gap between particles, the

capacity of saving water and nutrients is poor. Not only

was development soil productivity had constrained, but

also the environmental deterioration and economic losses

were getting worse and worse. Soil amendments have

been reported to change sandy soil texture in order to

increase water holding capacity [1]. Adding organic

fertilizers in sandy soil, the growth of the plant growth was

affected [2,3]. and in some cases neutralize soil acidity [3]

and enhance soil catalase activity [4]. Horticultural

production has an especially reliant relationship with soil.

The overspread of cultivated lands is limited, but the

amendable capacity is unlimited [5]. Soil amendments can

not only change the characters of sandy soil, but enhance

yield, quality [6] and stress resistance [7], promote the

growth of horticultural plants. As the foundations of

tomato growth, development and yield, photosynthesis is

an important indicator in the fields of breeding, cultivation

and environmental stress. The experiments reported here

evaluated the use of organic fertilizers to improve the

plant height, stem diameter, the aerial parts fresh weight,

root fresh weight, leaf photosynthetic rates and photo-

synthesis by two kinds of sandy soil, for revealing the

regulating capacity of organic fertilizers on sandy soil.

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS

2.1. Materials and Experimental Design

Experiments were conducted at the greenhouse of

Shenyang University. The soil is sandy soil. Strong

sandy soil was taken from Dong Liujiazi located in 42°

20′ 43N, 122° 43′ 19E. Weak sandy soil were taken from

Xiu Shuihe in Faku located in 42° 21′ 26N, 123° 00′ 21E.

Organic fertilizer was purchased from flower market.

The variety of tomato for experiment is Fuyou Dafen.

These were pots experiments. These soil amendments

of organic fertilizers were respectively added to two

kinds of sandy soil at the mass ratios of 2.5%, 5% and

10%. There were 20 treatments. Each one had 5 repeti-

tions. The experimental treatments are showed as follows

(Table 1).

Tomatoes were seeded on February 22, 2012 and

planted in pots on March 28. Except the amounts of soil

amendments and sandy soil, each one was used by one

routine management.

Y. X. Hou et al. / Agricultural Sciences 4 (2013) 31-34

Table 1. Treatments.

Treatments Organic fertilizer

( g·kg-1 )

Strong sandy

soil(g·kg-1 )

Weak sandy

soil (g·kg-1 )

Mass rotio

(%)

CK(A) 0 1000 0 0

A1 25 975 0 2.5

A2 50 950 0 5

A3 100 900 0 10

CK(B) 0 1000 0 0

B1 25 0 975 2.5

B2 50 0 950 5

B3 100 0 900 10

2.2. Experimental Methods

The parameters of plant height, stem diameter, the aerial

parts fresh weight, root fresh weight were investigated by

conventional techniques. By using Lc Pro+ photosynthesis

system, the light responses of photosynthesis in leaves of

60 days after planted tomatoes were studied under 2 dif-

ferent soil water conditions: drought (Relative Soil Water

Content (RSWC) is 60%) and saturated-water (RSWC is

100%). The measure time was during 10:00 - 12:00 on

sunny days. The third healthy functional leaves were

chosen from the top as samples, every treatment took 5

samples. The average values were as the final measured

results. Artificial light source were used to control Pho-

tosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD). The PPFD were

600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1400, and 1600 μmol· (m2·s)-1.

Determined time was 60 s under each PPFD.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1. Effect of Adding Organic Fertilizers on

the Growth of Tomato

Adding 2.5%, 5%, 10% organic fertilizers in strong

sandy soil obviously improved the parameters of the

plant height, stem diameter, the aerial parts fresh weight,

root fresh weight of tomato leaves (Ta bl e 2). And it had

the same trend in weak sandy soil. The parameters of the

plant height, stem diameter, the aerial parts fresh weight,

root fresh weight improve with the increasing of organic

fertilizers.

3.2. Effect of Adding 2.5% Organic

Fertilizers on Photosynthetic

Rate of Tomato

Adding 2.5% organic fertilizers in strong sandy soil

obviously improved photosynthetic rates of tomato leaves

(Figure 1). Photosynthetic rates of plants treated by or-

ganic fertilizers increased rapidly with the raising of

PPFD. With raising trends of the rates got slowly later.

The results showed that when the RSWC was 60%, the

photosynthetic rate of adding organic fertifizer increased

apparently to the max value of 7.13 μmol· (m2·s) -1 under

1600 μmol· (m2·s)-1 PPFD. The increased tendency of

tomato photosynthetic rates of every treatments under

100% RSWC was the same as that in drought condition

(RSWC is 60%). The max was 8.74 μmol· (m2·s) -1 from

organic fertifizer used treatment. By comparing the

treatment of A1 and B1, 2.5% soil amendments made a

better influence in weak sandy soil than that in strong

sandy soil.

3.3. Effect of Adding 2.5% Organic

Fertilizers on Photosynthetic

Rate of Tomato

According to Figure 2, after adding 5% organic fertil-

izers in strong sandy soil, the photosynthetic rate of to-

matoes got an obvious enhancement. With the PPFD

Table 2. The effect of organic fertilizers on the growth of tomato

in flowering stage.

Treatments plant height

(mm)

stem diameter

(mm)

the aerial parts

fresh weight (g)

root fresh

weight (g)

CK(A) 201.08 2.84 3.15 0.51

A1 207.45 2.9 3.24 0.58

A2 257.3 3.0 3.35 0.75

A3 286.54 3.1 4.11 0.85

CK(B) 204.92 2.85 3.54 0.65

B1 214.38 2.96 4.03 0.69

B2 223.19 3.14 5.09 0.71

B3 294.9 3.38 5.53 0.82

6008001000 12001400 1600

Photosynthetic photon flux density

( μmol· ( m

· s )

-1

)

Photosynthetic rate ( μ

mol· ( m

· s )

-1

)

A1 B1 CK

600800100012001400 1600

Photosynthetic photon flux density

( μmol· ( m

· s )

-1

)

Photosynthetic rate ( μ

mol· ( m

· s )

-1

)

A1 B1 CK

(a) (b)

Figure 1. Photosynthetic rate-light response curves of tomato

under adding 2.5% soil amendments in strong sandy soil and

weak sandy soil: (a) Drought condition (RSWC is 60%); (b)

Saturated-water con-dition ( RSWC is 100% ).

Y. X. Hou et al. / Agricultural Sciences 4 (2013) 31-34 33

raising, the photosynthetic rates of the treatments in-

creased rapidly. It was an evident improvement of tomato

photosynthetic rate on sandy soil amended by organic

fertilizers under 60% RSWC, while the PPFD was 1600

μmol· (m2·s) -1 , to the max 7.69 μmol· (m2·s) -1. After

rewatering, the tomato photosynthetic rates tendency of

every treatments was simillar to that in drought condition

(RSWC is 60%) . The max was 9.62 μmol· (m2·s) -1 from

organic fertilizers used treatment. After applying 5% soil

amendments on weak sandy soil, it showed that the to-

mato photosynthetic rate of each treatment in drought

condition was higher than that in saturated-water condi-

tion by analyzing the effects of different relative soil water

contents. The amending effect of adding 5% amendments

on weak sandy soil was better than that on the strong one.

3.4. Effect of Adding 10% Soil Amendments

on Photosynthetic Rate of Tomato

The tomato photosynthetic rate under 10% organic

fertilizers used was increasing with photosynthetic pho-

ton flux density (Figure 3). All got the top value when

the PPFD was 1600 μmol· (m2·s)-1. The effect of the treat-

ment of adding 10% organic fertilizers was better than

that of ck in drought condition, the max 7.41 μmol·( m 2·s)-1.

When RSWC was 100%, the max values of organic fer-

tilizers was 9.21 μmol· (m2·s)-1.10% organic fertilizers

60080010001200 1400 1600

Photosynthetic photon flux density

( μmol· ( m

· s )

-1

)

Photosynthetic rate ( μ

mol· ( m

· s )

-1

)

A2 B2 CK

6008001000 1200 1400 1600

Photosynthetic photon flux density

( μmol· ( m

· s )

-1

)

Photosythetic rate ( μmol·

( m

· s )

-1

)

A2 B2 CK

(a) (b)

Figure 2. Photosynthetic rate-light response curves of tomato

under adding 5% soil amendments in strong sandy soil and

weak sandy soil.

60080010001200 14001600

Photosynthetic photon flux density

( μmol· ( m

· s )

-1

)

Photosynthetic rate ( μ

mol· ( m

· s )

-1

)

A3 B3 CK

6008001000 1200 1400 1600

Photosynthetic photon flux density

( μmol· ( m

· s )

-1

)

Photosynthetic rate ( μ

mol· ( m

· s )

-1

)

A3 B3 CK

(a) (b)

Figure 3. Photosynthetic rate-light response curves of tomato

under adding 10% soil amendments in strong sandy soil and

weak sandy soil: (a) Drought condition (RSWC is 60%); (b)

Saturated-water condition (RSWC is 100%).

made a better influence in weak sandy soil than that in

strong sandy soil. The effects of all the treatments on

enhancing tomato photosynthetic rate were better than

that of control sample.

4. Conclusions

This study showed that after adding two kinds of sandy

soil by adding 2.5%, 5% and 10% organic fertilizers un-

der different relative soil water contents, the growth of

the plant height, stem diameter, the aerial parts fresh

weight, root fresh weight and the photosynthetic rates of

tomato affected by organic fertilizer were all enhanced.

the effect of using organic fertilizers was obvious. It showed

that organic fertilizers could enhance crop physiological

activity effectively, improve photosynthsis, and promote

the growth of tomato. In addition, they could also en-

hance the accumulation of photosynthetic production,

and establish the foundation of yield and quality. It is

probably that organic fertilizers have multi-nutrients for

the crop growth, and the ability of improving soil texture

and nutritional status. Under the same organic fertilizers

used, the effect in saturated-water condition was better

than that in drought condition. It showed that the photo-

synthsis of tomato rebounded after rewatering. The rea-

son is probable that organic fertilizers could enhance the

soil water-nutrition holding capacity, and amend the

weakness of sandy soil. By comparing the effects on dif-

ferent sandy soil, the photosynthetic rates on weak soil

all higher than that on strong soil. The general analysis

showed that adding 10% organic fertilizers was the best

way to improve photosynthetic rate and growth of to-

mato.

5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work has been supported by National Natural Science Founda-

tion of China (21277093), Liaoning BaiQianWan Talents Program

(2010921004), Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province of

China (201102156) and Program for Liaoning Excellent Talents in

University (LR2011034) and the National Science and Technology

Supporting Project (2011BAJ06B02).

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