The effects of live mulches on tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) yield under tropical conditions

The use of mulches in vegetable production is undergoing a radical change away from high input, nonrenewable resources, such as plastic, to the use of high-residue organic mulches from cover crops. The purpose of this study was to compare the yield of three tomato varieties when grown under different live mulches. In 2001 and 2002, three tomato varieties (CLN 14665, Roma and T337) were evaluated for yield at the Research Farm of the National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT), Ibadan, Nigeria, in a split-plot experiment laid out in a randomized complete block design. Tomatoes were grown on plots with cucumber, melon, pumpkin (as live mulches), herbicide, hand weeding and no weeding (control). Results indicated that the highest significant yield of 20.06 t ha(-1) and 27.6 t ha(-1), in 2001 and 2002, respectively, were obtained from T337, while CLN 14665 gave the lowest (17.3 t ha(-1) and 19.9 t ha(-1)) yield for the same period. Among the live mulches, the cucumber treatment produced the highest number of tomato fruits plant(-1) in 2001, and this yield was significantly greater than the yield produced from herbicide treated plots in 2002. The hand weeded treatment gave a significantly higher number of fruits plant(-1) and yield than the cucumber/tomato mixture in both years of the study. The pumpkin live mulch treatment was a poor treatment combination as it had a deleterious effect on tomato yield, but it controlled weeds more effectively than other live mulch crops used in this study. These results suggest that cucumber will provide a good combination with tomatoes, especially with T 337 in a live mulch production system.