Foliar iron application on growth and yield of tomato

Fertilizers provides important nutrients for plants growth and production. One of micronutrient needed is Iron (Fe) which plays an important role in various enzymatic activities. Research on Fe fertilization in tomato is rarely done due to the low Fe requirement. This study was conducted to investigate the application of Fe on tomatoes' growth and production. The experiment used tomato 'Permata' variety, and was designed as completely randomized design with 2 factors. The fist factor was frequency of ferrous sulphate (FeSO4) spraying (1 and 2 times spraying after transplanting). The second factor was FeSO4 concentration: 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1% with six replications. The observation covered plant height, number of leaves, chlorophyll content, amount and weight of fruit per plant in the third harvest. Plant height and number of leaves at 54 days were not different in all treatments with an average height of 123155 cm and 27-39 strands of leaves. The chlorophyll content ranged between 0.89-1.24 mg g(-1) of fresh weight. Application of FeSO4 influenced number and weight of fruit. Application of 1% FeSO4 spraying twice at 15 and 30 days after transplanting produced the highest number and weight of fruit until the third harvest.