Mineral Content of Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) and Four Competing Weed Species

Tomatoes ( Lycopersicon esculentum ‘Roma VF’) and weeds were seeded at two locations in 1973 and 1974. In separate plots, jimsonweed ( Datura stramonium L.), tall morningglory [ Ipomoea purpurea (L.) Roth.], and common cocklebur ( Xanthium pensylvanicum Wallr.) seedlings were thinned to densities ranging from 2.7 to 86 plants/m 2 . Densities of large crabgrass [ Digitaria sanguinalis (L.) Scop.] ranged from 11 to 430 plants/m 2 . There were a few instances of difference in nutrient concentrations in tomato and weed leaf tissue, but no clear relationship was evident between concentration of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and S and weed density. Considerably more fruit weight was produced per kilogram of total assimilated N, P, and K in the weed-free than in the weed-infested tomato plots.