Art29 Journal of Applied Botany and Food Quality 82, 179 - 182 (2009) 1 Vegetable Research Department, National Research Center, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt 2 Botany Department, National Research Center, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt 3 Institute for Horticultural Sciences, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany Hormonal changes, growth and yield of tomato plants in response to chemical and bio-fertilization application in sandy soils W.A. El-Tohamy1, H.M. El-Abagy1, N.H.M. El-Greadly2, N. Gruda3 (Received May 4, 2008) Summary The response of tomato plants to chemical and bio-fertilization under sandy soil conditions was investigated. The experiments were conducted in Nubaria region, Egypt. Tomato plants were treated with Microbein or a mixture of Phosphorine and Biogein as bio-fertilizers under different rates of the recommended nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization (100% of N and P, 75% of N and P and 50% of N and P). In addition, plants of three treatments received only the rates of chemical fertilizers and were not treated with the bio-fertilizers. Vegetative growth measurements, yield, hormonal changes in leaves, and N, P and K contents of leaves were recorded to study the effects of these treatments. The results showed that bio-fertilization sig- nificantly increased the vegetative growth of tomato plants (including plant height, number of branches, number of leaves and the fresh weight of plants) and yield compared to non-treated plants. Growth and yield of tomato plants was negatively affected by the low chemical fertilization treatments especially at 50% of N and P while bio- fertilization enhanced growth and productivity under such conditions. Tomato plants which were treated with a mixture of Phosphorine and Biogein had higher growth and yield than plants treated with Microbein. Bio-fertilization resulted in higher N, P and K contents of leaves and higher indole acetic acid (IAA), Gibberellins (GA3) and Cytokinins. The possible effects of the treatments are discussed. Introduction Tomato is one of the most important vegetables grown in Egypt. The production of vegetables with minimum chemical residues and avoiding environmental pollution requires minimizing the use of chemicals during the production process including minimizing the use of chemical fertilizers. However, new-reclaimed lands in the desert in Egypt are characterized with poor soil fertility that requires the addition of high levels of chemical fertilizers. Using bio-fertilizers may help reducing the amounts of chemical fertilizers added to the soil and improve tomato production under sandy soil conditions (AMER et al., 2003). Bio-fertilizers application resulted in improve- ment of growth and yield of different vegetable crops, as for instance, pepper (ABDALLA et al., 2001), garlic (ALI et al., 2001) and cucumber (EL-SANAFAWI, 2006). The positive effects of bio-fertilizers on growth and productivity of plants could be attributed to the effect of different strain groups of microorganisms such as nitrogen fixers, nutrients mobilizing group which improve the availability of metals and increase the levels of extractable N, P, K, Fe, Zn and Mn as stated by EL-KARAMANY et al. (2000). This may help minimizing the amounts of chemical fertilizers and improve their application efficiency and subsequently avoiding environmental pollution by the access of these chemicals. The present study was designed to explore the various responses of tomato plants to different applications of bio-fertilizers under different levels of chemical fertilizers and to study these effects under sandy soil condition in the new-reclaimed lands. Material and methods The experiments were carried out under sandy soil conditions at the experimental station of the National Research Center in Nubaria region (Egypt) during two successive seasons of 2006 and 2007. Physical and chemical properties of the soil are presented in Tab. 1. Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) seedlings ‘Super strain B’ were transplanted on the 10th of April. Seedlings were transplanted on ridges of 70 cm width with a spacing of 30 cm in the row. Soil preparations before transplanting were followed according to the recommendations of the Ministry of Agriculture, Egypt. The treat- ments included three levels of chemical fertilizers: 100, 75 and 50% of the recommended dose of both nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers (100% of both N and P were calculated as 0.1 kg m-2 of ammonium sulfate and of superphosphate respectively). Potassium was kept at 100% of the recommended dose for all treatments. The bio-fertilization treatments included: - Microbein at a rate of 1 g 2.5 g-1 seeds. Microbein functions as biodenitrogen fixer, nutrient mobilizer and growth promoter and it is composed of a selected group of micro-organisms (YAKOUT and GREISH, 2001), such as Bacillus sp., Azospirillum sp. and Pseudomonas sp. - A mixture of Phosphorine (a set of P-dissolving bacteria including Bacillus sp.) and Biogein (contains N-fixing bacteria including Azotobacter sp.) at a rate of 1g 2.5 g-1 seeds of each. All bio-fertilizers used in this study are produced under super- vision of the Ministry of Agriculture in Egypt. Tab. 1: Physical and chemical properties of the experimental soil. Physical properties Sand (%) Clay (%) Silt (%) Texture Field capacity % Wilting point % 90.08 9.26 0.66 Sandy 16.57 5.25 Chemical analysis pH Ca Mg Na K HCO3 Cl mequivalent/L 8.2 7.02 0.527 0.982 0.31 1.3 0.566 180 W.A. El-Tohamy, H.M. El-Abagy, N.H.M. El-Greadly, N. Gruda Both chemical and bio-fertilization treatments were applied as follows. 1- 100% of N and P + Microbein 2- 75% of N and P + Microbein 3- 50% of N and P + Microbein 4- 100% of N and P + Phosphorine+Biogein 5- 75% of N and P + Phosphorine+Biogein 6- 50% of N and P + Phosphorine+Biogein 7- 100% of N and P (without bio-fertilization). 8- 75% of N and P (without bio-fertilization). 9- 50% of N and P (without bio-fertilization). The following measurements were recorded: Plant parameters and yield: (plant height, number of leaves, number of branches and plant fresh weight) were recorded 60 days after transplanting. The total number of fruits and the total yield were recorded at the end of the experiment. Chemical measurements: Nitrogen and potassium contents of plant leaves were recorded according to FAO (1980), and phosphorus content according to TROUG and MEYER (1939). Endogenous phytohormones: Samples for determination of endo- genous hormones including indole acetic acid (IAA), gibberellins (GA3) and total cytokinins were taken in fresh shoots. Identification and determination of acidic hormones (IAA and GA3) were carried out by gas liquid chromatography (GLC). Samples were extracted according to the method adopted by BADR et al. (1971). Cytokinins fractions were extracted as previously mentioned for the acidic hormones and were detected by HPLC. Statistical analysis Nine treatments were arranged as a completely randomized block design of two factors (chemical fertilization and bio-fertilization) with four replicates. Analysis of variance was calculated according to SNEDECOR and COCHRAN (1967). Least Significant Difference (L.S.D.) at 5% was used to compare between means. Results and discussion Effects of chemical and bio-fertilization treatments on vegetative growth and yield of tomato plants The results showed that chemical and bio-fertilization treatments significantly increased vegetative growth including plant height, number of branches, number of leaves and fresh weight of plants in both seasons (Tab. 2). However, the interaction between chemical Tab. 2: Effects of chemical and bio-fertilization treatments on vegetative growth and yield of tomato plants. Analysis of variance refers to 1st or 2nd season. Least Significant Difference (L.S.D.) at 5% was used to compare means within each column. Treatments Plant height Number of Number of Number of Plant fresh Total yield (cm) branches leaves fruits/plant weight (g) (kg m-2) 1st season 100% NP Microbein 47.3 4.25 45.3 44.0 101.0 9.44 Biogein+Phosphorine 47.8 5.00 57.25 50.2 108.4 12.25 Without biofertilizers 47.0 3.25 34.5 33.3 81.72 6.70 75% NP Microbein 42.3 4.00 35.25 37.8 79.8 8.31 Biogein+Phosphorine 42.8 4.3 44.75 43.5 91.9 8.66 Without biofertilizers 38.7 2.25 31.5 36.0 68.7 6.01 50% NP Microbein 39.5 3.25 32.2 31.7 75.15 6.63 Biogein+Phosphorine 39.8 3.29 36.25 39.5 79.52 7.22 Without biofertilizers 34.0 2.24 30.0 22.00 61.17 4.60 L.S.D. at 5% (Biofertilization) 1.71 0.34 2.45 0.6 4.37 0.16 (Chemical fertilization) 1.71 0.34 2.45 0.6 4.37 0.16 (Interaction) N.S. N.S. 4.25 0.9 N.S. 0.28 2nd season 100% NP Microbein 45.2 4.6 43.4 40.2 92.3 8.68 Biogein+Phosphorine 45.6 4.08 52.2 48.2 104.7 11.76 Without biofertilizers 44.2 3.08 32.7 31.2 77.9 6.41 75% NP Microbein 39.1 3.72 32.1 35.1 74.2 7.73 Biogein+Phosphorine 39.3 3.95 41.6 40.4 85.5 8.05 Without biofertilizers 37.6 2.18 30.5 29.1 66.6 5.83 50% NP Microbein 37.5 3.05 31.1 29.8 70.6 6.23 Biogein+Phosphorine 38.4 3.15 33.8 38.3 77.1 7.01 Without biofertilizers 32.8 2.16 28.8 21.1 58.7 4.41 L.S.D. at 5% (Biofertilization) 1.63 0.32 2.32 0.53 4.11 0.16 (Chemical fertilization) 1.63 0.32 2.32 0.53 4.11 0.16 (Interaction) N.S. N.S. 4.01 0.91 N.S. 0.27 Hormonal changes, growth and yield of tomato plants 181 and bio-fertilization was not significant for plant height, number of branches and fresh weight of plants. The combination of Biogein and Phosphorine had the best results on tomato growth and yield under all chemical fertilization levels. The combinations of chemical and bio-fertilization resulted in the highest plant growth and pro- ductivity in contrast to chemical fertilization alone. These results are in agreement with the results found by AMER et al. (2003) who indicated that the bio-fertilization improved tomato productivity under sandy soil conditions. The mixture between Biogein and Phosphorine gave higher effects. This may be due to the fact that it contains different beneficial microbial strains, which can help fixing nitrogen and make the nutrients available to the plants. As indicated by EL-KARAMANY et al. (2000), the positive effects of bio-fertilizers on growth and productivity of plants could be attributed to the effect of different strain groups of microorganisms including nitrogen fixers, nutrients mobilizing group which improve the availability of metals and increase the levels of extractable N, P, K, Fe, Zn and Mn. The results indicated that bio-fertilization can compensate some of the chemical fertilizers added to the soil which positively improved tomato growth and productivity. Effects of chemical and bio-fertilization treatments on chemical composition of leaves Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content of leaves were sig- nificantly increased by all chemical and bio-fertilization treatments. However, a combination of chemical and bio-fertilization treatments had higher results than the chemical fertilization alone (Tab. 3). The interactions were also significant between chemical and bio- fertilization except for the phosphorus content in the first season. Decreasing the level of chemical fertilization resulted in lower N, P and K contents of leaves while combining bio-fertilization enhanced N, P and K contents compared to plants received only chemical fertilizers without bio-fertilization. Higher N and P fertilization combined with bio-fertilization of Biogein and Phosphorine mixture had the best effect on increasing N, P and K contents of leaves. Bio-fertilization markedly increased the N, P and K contents of leaves which can be attributed to the fact that bio-fertilizers application such as Microbein and the mixture of Biogein and Phosphorine resulted in nitrogen fixation and increased availability of other mineral nutrients. EL-KARAMANY et al. (2000) indicated that the positive effects of bio-fertilizers on growth and productivity of plants could be attributed to the effect of different strain groups of microorganisms such as nitrogen fixers, nutrients mobilizing group which improve the availability of metals and increase the levels of extractable N, P, K, Fe, Zn and Mn. Effects of chemical and bio-fertilization treatments on hormonal changes The high growth and yield of tomato plants in response to bio- fertilization application cannot be explained by only compensating some of the plant nutritional requirements. The measurements of hormonal contents of tomato plants in this study help exploring the possible roles of bio-fertilizations on promoting plant growth and productivity. The effect of chemical and bio-fertilization on hormonal changes of tomato plants is illustrated in Tab. 4. Bio-fertilization treatments had positive effects on the hormonal changes of tomato plants compared to non-inoculated plants. The contents of gibberel- lins (GA3), indole acetic acid (IAA) and Cytokinins increased in response to bio-fertilization treatments especially at the treatment of Biogein and Phosphorine mixture, indicating that bio-fertilization had pronounced effects on the hormonal changes of tomato plants. The inoculation by some microorganisms encouraged the production of some activating hormones, which play an important role for plant growth and development. As shown in Tab. 4, bio-fertilization increased contents of IAA, Cytokinins and GA3. FORLANI et al. (1995) and EL-KHAWAS (1995) reported that several bacterial strains isolated from the rhizosphere of various crops were able to produce auxins. On the other hand, CACCIARI et al. (1989) indicated that phytohormones can be produced from different microorganisms such as Azospirillum brailense and Arthrobacter giacomelloi in single and mixed batch culture and resulted in higher productivity of gibberellins, cytokinins and auxins. On tomato plants, BANERJEE and CHANDRA (1978) observed high amounts of IAA produced by N- fixing bacteria. Moreover, RODELAS et al. (1997) stated that the main mechanism by which some bacteria such as Azotobachter and Azospirillium can benefit plant development and yield may not be fully understood unless bacterial production of biologically active substances such as phytohormones, amino acids and water soluble vitamins are related to growth promoting ability of bacterial strains. The present study demonstrated that bio-fertilization had a pro- nounced effect on increasing contents of stimulating hormones. In addition to the effects of bio-fertilizers on compensating some of the nutrients required by plants, these hormones promoted plant growth and productivity. Tab. 3: Effects of chemical and bio-fertilization treatments on chemical com- position of leaves. Analysis of variance refers to 1st or 2nd season. Least Significant Difference (L.S.D.) at 5% was used to compare means within each column. Treatments N% P% K% 1st season 100% NP Microbein 4.13 0.72 3.74 Biogein+Phosphorine 5.16 0.94 4.31 Without biofertilizers 3.42 0.64 3.06 75% NP Microbein 4.25 0.68 3.69 Biogein+Phosphorine 4.98 0.92 4.25 Without biofertilizers 3.32 0.62 3.04 50% NP Microbein 4.04 0.65 3.63 Biogein+Phosphorine 4.71 0.85 4.27 Without biofertilizers 3.32 0.56 3.01 L.S.D. at 5% (Biofertilization) 0.07 0.01 0.02 (Chemical fertilization) 0.07 0.01 0.02 (Interaction) 0.12 N.S. 0.04 2nd season 100% NP Microbein 3.68 0.62 3.31 Biogein+Phosphorine 4.88 0.9 4.08 Without biofertilizers 3.25 0.57 2.77 75% NP Microbein 3.95 0.63 3.43 Biogein+Phosphorine 4.63 0.85 3.95 Without biofertilizers 3.22 0.6 2.95 50% NP Microbein 3.8 0.61 3.41 Biogein+Phosphorine 4.57 0.82 4.41 Without biofertilizers 3.19 0.54 2.89 L.S.D. at 5% (Biofertilization) 0.06 0.01 0.02 (Chemical fertilization) 0.06 0.01 0.02 (Interaction) 0.10 0.02 0.04 182 W.A. El-Tohamy, H.M. El-Abagy, N.H.M. El-Greadly, N. Gruda Tab. 4: Effects of chemical and bio-fertilization treatments on Gibberellins (GA3), Indole acetic acid (IAA) and Cytokinins contents of tomato leaves. Least Significant Difference (L.S.D.) at 5% was used to compare means within each column. Treatments GA3 IAA Cytokinins ng/g fresh weight 100% NP Microbein 46.28 36.78 29.05 Biogein+Phosphorine 67.55 47.78 35.53 Without biofertilizers 32.33 25.78 24.30 75% NP Microbein 42.55 34.03 27.05 Biogein+Phosphorine 63.80 42.55 38.29 Without biofertilizers 27.28 25.05 22.83 50% NP Microbein 39.58 31.55 25.04 Biogein+Phosphorine 60.31 45.80 37.55 Without biofertilizers 26.81 24.05 20.03 L.S.D. at 5% (Biofertilization) 0.67 0.65 0.59 (Chemical fertilization) 0.67 0.65 0.59 (Interaction) 1.16 1.12 1.02 In conclusion, the present study showed that under sandy soil conditions, the application of bio-fertilizers had stimulating effects on the promoting hormones in plants, helped reducing the use of chemical and improved tomato growth and productivity. The use of mixture of some bio-fertilizers had the best effects in this respect. References ABDALLA, A.M., RISK, F.A., ADAM, S.M., 2001: The productivity of pepper plants as influenced by some fertilizers under plastic house conditions. 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Press, Ames, Iowa, USA. TROUG, E., MEYER, A.A., 1939: Improvement in denigess, calorimetric method for phosphorus and arsenic. Indian Engineering Annual., 136-139. YAKOUT, G.M., GREISH, M.H., 2001: Responce of faba bean crop to phos- phatic, foliar and bio-fertilization under new reclaimed sandy soil conditions. In: Horst, W.J., Schenk, M.K., Bürkert, A., Claassen, N., Flessa, H., Frommer, W.B., Goldbach, H., Olfs, H.-W., Römheld, V., Sattelmacher, B., Schmidhalter, U., Schubert, S., v. Wirén, N., Witten- mayer, L. (eds.), Plant Nutrition – Food security and sustainability of agro-ecosystems through basic and applied research, 850-851. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht. Address of the authors: El-Tohamy, W.A. (Ph.D.) and H.M. El-Abagy (Ph.D.) Vegetable Research Department, National Research Center, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt. N.H.M. El- Greadly (Ph.D.), Botany Department, National Research Center, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt. E-mail: wael_eltohamy@hotmail.com Dr. habil. N. Gruda Humboldt University of Berlin, Institute for Horticultural Sciences, Lentzeallee 55/57 14195 Berlin, Germany << /ASCII85EncodePages false /AllowTransparency false /AutoPositionEPSFiles true /AutoRotatePages /All /Binding /Left /CalGrayProfile (Dot Gain 20%) /CalRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CalCMYKProfile (U.S. Web Coated \050SWOP\051 v2) /sRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CannotEmbedFontPolicy /Warning /CompatibilityLevel 1.4 /CompressObjects /Tags /CompressPages true /ConvertImagesToIndexed true /PassThroughJPEGImages true /CreateJDFFile false /CreateJobTicket false /DefaultRenderingIntent /Default /DetectBlends true /ColorConversionStrategy /LeaveColorUnchanged /DoThumbnails false /EmbedAllFonts true /EmbedJobOptions true /DSCReportingLevel 0 /EmitDSCWarnings false /EndPage -1 /ImageMemory 1048576 /LockDistillerParams false /MaxSubsetPct 100 /Optimize true /OPM 1 /ParseDSCComments true /ParseDSCCommentsForDocInfo true /PreserveCopyPage true /PreserveEPSInfo true /PreserveHalftoneInfo false /PreserveOPIComments false /PreserveOverprintSettings true /StartPage 1 /SubsetFonts true /TransferFunctionInfo /Apply /UCRandBGInfo /Preserve /UsePrologue false /ColorSettingsFile () /AlwaysEmbed [ true ] /NeverEmbed [ true ] /AntiAliasColorImages false /DownsampleColorImages true /ColorImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /ColorImageResolution 300 /ColorImageDepth -1 /ColorImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeColorImages true /ColorImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterColorImages true /ColorImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /ColorACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /ColorImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /JPEG2000ColorACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /JPEG2000ColorImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /AntiAliasGrayImages false /DownsampleGrayImages true /GrayImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /GrayImageResolution 300 /GrayImageDepth -1 /GrayImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeGrayImages true /GrayImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterGrayImages true /GrayImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /GrayACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /GrayImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /JPEG2000GrayACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /JPEG2000GrayImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /AntiAliasMonoImages false /DownsampleMonoImages true /MonoImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /MonoImageResolution 1200 /MonoImageDepth -1 /MonoImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeMonoImages true /MonoImageFilter /CCITTFaxEncode /MonoImageDict << /K -1 >> /AllowPSXObjects false /PDFX1aCheck false /PDFX3Check false /PDFXCompliantPDFOnly false /PDFXNoTrimBoxError true /PDFXTrimBoxToMediaBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXSetBleedBoxToMediaBox true /PDFXBleedBoxToTrimBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfile () /PDFXOutputCondition () /PDFXRegistryName (http://www.color.org) /PDFXTrapped /Unknown /Description << /FRA /ENU (Use these settings to create PDF documents with higher image resolution for improved printing quality. 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