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Purpose: Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a kitchen table vegetable in Sri Lanka and it can be grown by using different types of organic fertilizers like compost, coco peat, cow manure, goat manure and poultry manure.This study aimed to evaluate the growth and yield of tomatoes grown under five different treatments to identify the most ideal organic fertilizer for better plant growth and yield of tomatoes.Research Method: A black polybag experiment with five treatments and ten replicates for each treatment, in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) was conducted in home gardening, Polgahawela, Sri Lanka.The treatments were cow manure (T1), poultry manure (T2), compost (T3) and coco peat (T4) along with control (T0).The data were collected on the growth and yield parameters including plant height (cm), number of branches on main stem per plant, diameter of main stem (cm), number of flowers per plant, number of fruits per plant and weight of fruits per plant (g).Obtained data have been analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 29. Findings:The highest significant differences in mean values of all parameters were given between control and compost.Next to the compost, poultry manure was depicted a significant difference between control.However, results were illustrated the positive effect of all organic fertilizers on growth and yield parameters of tomatoes than control treatment but coco peat treatment was not good as other fertilizer treatments.Therefore, efficiency of treatments according to decreasing order for both growth and yield parameters of tomatoes is as follows: compost > poultry manure > cow manure > coco peat > control. Research Limitations:The research was limited to the integrated pattern of tomato, home gardening and tested organic fertilizers.Furthermore, complexity of interactions between organic fertilizers and soil microorganisms, caused to made it challenging to isolate the specific effects of the organic fertilizer alone.Value: Considering study findings, compost could be recommended for the cultivation of tomatoes to improve both growth and yield and that is eco-friendly for promoting sustainable agriculture.
Rathnayake et al. (Sat,) studied this question.