Management and use of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and earth worm humus in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) under protected system

Abstract

The production of tomato under greenhouse system in Cuba is subjected to a high use of mineral fertilizers that resulted to high yield but it affects the nutritional quality of tomato fruits and this has brought great concern at a national level to obtain productions with a high ecological quality. In line with this, two experiments were carried out at the ¨Los 3 Picos¨ farm, in Managua Cuba, on a Feralitic Yellow Glay soil, under a protected cultivating system, with the objective to determine the effects of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) of Cubense strain and earth worm´s humus, used individually or combined, as substitute to the mineral fertilizers at different dosages in tomato crop hybrid (HA 3108 Hazera). The beneficial effects of the AMF applied in the commercial biofertilizer Ecomic®, produced by the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences (INCA) and the earth worm´s humus were evaluated in the plant, using the variables: height, dry matter content of leaves, final yield and internal fruit quality of fruits. The results shown that the application of AMF, was more efficient than the earth worm´s humus at a 25 % dose of the mineral fertilizer and without any relevant effects when applied in combination with earth worm´s humus but with no significant influences on its biological parameters. Nevertheless, when increasing the mineral fertilizer by 50 %, could appreciate a synergy effects between the two products, being most efficient when applied in combination than applied separately, obtaining a higher production to that brought by the dosage of the mineral fertilizer considered to be optimum. The combination of the AMF and earth worm´s humus improves the internal quality of tomato fruits with respect to the parameters of soluble total solids and vitamin C.