Effect of different soil amendments on growth performance and levels of copper and zinc in lycopersicon esculentum

© 2018 Technoscience Publications. All rights reserved. Organic and inorganic amendments are added to soil with the aim of improving the crop yield. The present study investigated the effect of three types of soil amendments; organic (cow dung, chicken droppings) and inorganic (NPK-fertilizer) on trace metals (Cu and Zn) uptake and growth rate performance of greenhouse cultivated Lycopersicon esculentum. Thirty-two pot-plants were used for the study, each containing mixture of soil and weighed different amendments for the cultivation of L. esculentum. The fruits were harvested at maturity and later analysed for trace metal concentrations using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). The study revealed significant differences in heights, stem girths and canopy sizes, as well as the concentrations of Zn. The growth performance and yield results were in the order of NPK fertilizer > chicken droppings manure > cow dung manure > control. The mean concentrations of trace metals indicated that the highest concentrations for trace elements were recorded for both Cu and Zn in Lycopersicon eculentum cultivated in cow dung amended soil. There was no significant difference in the concentrations of Cu in tomato fruits across the amendments. However, there was a significant difference in the concentrations of Zn recorded for the L. esculentum across the group (p<0.05). The transfer factor of metals for this study showed that tomato fruits did not bioaccumulate the trace metals, and therefore the study revealed that these types of manures and fertilizer are safe to be used as soil amendments without increasing the trace metals elevated levels of phytotoxicity.